Liberty of the Seas - Not a wow.

Thanks for the review.

Unfortunately, it really confirms some of the things I wrote about my last Explorer cruise on what was my favorite ship of any line.:(

You may get some static but the fact is that I am seeing more and more reviews that decry the cost cutting and expressing disappointment that the experience that once set RCI above the rest is no longer evident.

That said, I have a cruise in May on Adventure and I have convinced 6 cabins worth of friends to join us so I am hardly "done" with Royal. Still, we now consider NCL and Princess much more than we ever did when planning a cruise.

Hope your (and my) next one comes back to the full "Royal" treatment.

I agree 100% and then some. Like you I still love RCI in general but will not go on Liberty again. We were on the 5 day from 1-6 Dec.

The only excellent point was Oona, one of the best, most efficient Dia concierges. We never spoke to the Suite Concierge as he was always at his computer.

We disembarked Celebrity Equinox and walked thru a parking lot to the Liberty arriving 10.30am. From the very start the process was unsupervised and chaotic. 2 hours later we boarded and the feeling remained through out the cruise. The vibe was not good. There was a general feeling of cheap hotel shabbiness.

We had a drinks package and found the bar staff surly and slow.

The Quest was run on the last night, when most people were going to bed before travel. Studio B was Less than half full and it was done in a huge hurry.

Our waiters were good but very very busy.

Our cabin steward was the worst. Several times she handed in clean towels and did not return for evening the turndown. She never vacuumed in 5 days.

None of the above spoiled our cruise but we did not expect it from RCI. Maybe they all had a bad week.

 

I do have a quick question.... did anyone notice Raisin Bran, prune juice and almond milk available? (Again, for mom, not me )

 

Yes for 2 of the 3... my mom got raisin bran and prune juice in the dining room for breakfast! I think there was raisin bran in windjammer too in the morning.

We had a similar experience. We were on the Liberty 11/8 just upon its return from Europe. We were told that embarkation would be late due to customs and immigration, and we arrived at our appropriate time for C&A access. There were already hundreds if not thousands of people waiting and no porters to help. We found the C&A line but security would not let us in the emerald line without proof of our status. All he read on our Set & Sail pass was Deck 8 and tried to shuffle us off to another line. As others were trying to jump the rope of the suite line, we were able to pass and get in our correct line. From there, embarkation went smoothly.

The crew seemed tired and disorganized. The disappointments that stood out for us were the My Time Dining - slow service but then once you get your food, they rush you out. Every night a part of the order was wrong. The top tier event service was horrible. We were ignored and had to get our own drinks. The Windjammer was very limited compared to other ships and rarely were both sides open, so very long lines. Bars do not want to fill Coke cups, so we were ignored.

We enjoyed the ports and other parts of the ship, the shopping and casino. We will still cruise Royal Caribbean but hope this is not the service of the future.

We sailed on Liberty of the Seas many years ago and were not impressed by it.

Wow, that's really odd. I sailed the Liberty the week before Thanksgiving and felt it to be the best, most organized one we'd been on in a while. Onboard and in the windjammer by 11:30 - no lines for check-in, never waited more than 2 - 3 minutes for My Time dining and never had reservations. Great bartenders in the Schooner and the Champagne bar - so-so in Boleros and the casino. Oona was fantastic and the young lady with her was awesome. I missed the Quest but since they normally do it on the last night I wasn't too upset as I knew I needed to call it an early night. For us it was a 9.5 out of 10 and the little bits that made it less than perfect really were to be expected.

We sailed on the Liberty a few years ago. While we didn’t experience the problems the OP had on that cruise, we’ve noticed a downhill direction in RCIs customer service overall. We have one more cruise planned that is on the verge of being canceled if RCI can’t straighten out their mistakes and lack of service.

I like RCI, I think they are a good value but they are beginning to act like they are the only cruise line around and it’s a gubmint mandate that we vacation with them.