Liberty of the Seas semi-live review sailing May 14 2017

Day 1-Sunday

Three adults in a handicap accessible interior stateroom. We drive down Saturday from Oklahoma and stayed at Comfort Inn & Suites in Texas City for the night. It was a great room, friendly staff and a decent free continental breakfast!

Security went fast and easy. Putting everything we were carrying through the machine was the hardest part. After security we went to the holding area for loading with vending machines and lots of chairs. There was a computer glitch that made it take almost two hours for us to load and probably a lot longer for people at the end of the line (they took everyone's picture a second time when getting onto the ship, took a long time). Wine check

Was almost too easy! Yum yum. We were late debarking but not too late.

Priority services for handicap were lacking here for loading (and it's possible it was because of the big delay and computer glitch but it was awful). On carnival, we had an escort to help us get onto the boat and finding the area for handicap muster was easy because they found us. Here they had people pointing us into chaotic lines and not easy instructions on where to go. When the muster drill was held, no one was on our floor by the elevators to tel us where to go. We went down to floor 5 to go to guest services and someone stopped us and told us to go to deck 4 and we had to get the elevator again which was near impossible during muster time. Elevators are horrible to get. People walking right past our wheelchair and jumping in the elevators first, many times pushing us out. This has happened everyday so far.

Once we got into the room, we realized our room door didn't work. So we had to stay in the room till maintenance came and fixed it. The bathroom light had also went out before the repairman got to us but we had to put in a separate work order for it.

We had to ask for the rollaway bed that was not in our room but was on our reservation. We had to ask for extra towels since a third person was with us. I had to go to guest services to ask that the extra furniture in the room be removed because when I booked, the guy I talked to said it could be done to ask my steward on board. Guest services said it could not happen but they would send the main housekeeping person to come to my room and discuss it. So back to my room to wait again. When she showed up she said no problem but asked if we could keep it in the bathroom till morning which was fine. It was removed before noon. Many things just weren't perfect but were also just minor inconveniences that hasn't ruined our trip.

The rest of the first day was great. Our stewardess was amazing and very helpful. Kept ice filled and filled our other minor request so far. We tipped her at the beginning of the week. Internet is good enough to look things up on google, Facebook, Instagram and things like that. It has NOT been good enough to stream even gifs from Facebook without much buffering. In my opinion, selling a stream package at all on this ship is a ripoff. I bought mine early on a sale so I have the fastest available, still they should sell surf, not stream on the Liberty.

At night, we went to the mystery theater dinner. It was campy but so much fun. To me, the show was better than the food-a limited Giovanni's offering. I had a good time trying to decide who done it. Then we did open mic karaoke which is performed on an amazing light up stage! Great performers and some hilarious drunk with liquid courage acts, I wouldn't miss karaoke again!

Overall Liberty of the Seas seemed very wheelchair friendly as far as structure of ship goes. We did not get the extension cord we requested from special needs well before we booked so if that is a thing for you and your equipment be careful with it.

I can't put pictures on this post because the upload fails. I will try to do it at a port or for sure when I return home!

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Day 2-Monday sea day

Day two we mainly spent relaxing outdoors by the pool. Is was a beautiful day to be sailing!

We had room service for breakfast. No complaints about the eggs and bacon, everything else was decent and filled us up, but not worth the cover charge. The coffee was gross. Orange juice was sweet and good.

We watched the sexiest man alive contest-we had some fantastic contestants and a hilarious guy won. Many laughs were to be had! They even had a sexy contestant in a wheelchair! Yay for representation!

I decided I wanted to upgrade my drink package to deluxe from the refreshment package since drinks are pretty expensive and I wanted enough to make it worth it. So I went to the first bar I saw and had them upgrade it and paid the difference between the two packages for the week.

Our evening was spent watching the In the Air show which was fabulous!!! Then we hit the main dining room for first formal night. The line for my time dining LOOKED long but it ended up moving quiet nicely. I liked the food and ate plenty of it! The staff was very attentive. The only glitch here was that it was one of our birthdays and when I placed the reservation they had a birthday surprise scheduled for Monday night-but even her normal dessert didn't say happy birthday anywhere on it. She kept asking about it all day and then asked me to talk to the staff about it and tell them she was disappointed. If there is one thing o have learned from this trip, it is that none of the pre-booking requests would be honored.

Evening karaoke was the beginning of a competition for the week and wasn't as funny as the first night but still entertaining for sure.

The billing for the room is wonky when they don't request your card. Even though I, a female and main booking on the room, am in charge of most of our expenses, they have been charging the man with us-and the last on the booking-for everything like tips at our excursions. It's strange. They also sent tickets to him and all of the reservations have been for him and his party-I paid for them all and was main on all of them. It's weird that they do that to me and is going to take a trip to guest services soon to straighten out.

I requested an egg crate for the bed and it has been fairly comfy and easy to sleep on. The bedding is nice and I am having no problems sleeping way too late.

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Good review. If you have more issues, just call. You'll wear yourself out going back & forth to guest services

Enjoy the rest of your trip. I hope you have no more issues going forward. That is a shame that you tried to plan a few things ahead and still had to struggle to have them taken care of.

Sorry to hear you have experienced some minor frustrations.....hopefully that will soon be behind you! Appreciate your attitude, though, that you aren't going to let it ruin your trip!

Great review so far. Thanks for doing this!

Limited Giovanni's menu, can you elaborate. I found Giovanni's menu on Oasis & Allure to be extensive.

Limited Giovanni's menu, can you elaborate. I found Giovanni's menu on Oasis & Allure to be extensive.

The OP was talking about the menu in Giovanni's for the Mystery Dinner Theater, not the regular Giovanni's menu.

Nice review so far....hope you enjoy the rest of the trip! And nice to see someone who can be positive about being on vacation even when things aren't as they requested.... aggravating that so many requests weren't honored though. Hope it gets better!

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Love the review so far. I book our cruises and pay for quite a bit of it. My husband is always listed first ( by royal not me) they use his name, his phone number and my e-mail. Even though I book it and pay with my credit cards. Luckily for them I'm old fashion in that it does not bother me one bit. I just think it is funny that they do it that way.

Enjoying the review! Cruising vicariously through you! I love the Liberty!

We cruised on Liberty in January and are cruising again in 32 days. Who is the cruise director this time?

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The limited menu was for the mystery dinner. It was still very tasty but not the full offerings of Giovanni's. I had one more issue that we had to go to guest services for again (calling doesn't work for us as they don't always understand our complications) twice but hinge should be fixed from here on out I hope! I will do a review on that when I write today's review. This vacation cannot be ruined by glitches. When you live with a wheelchair, every day has glitches so this is a cake walk and I am having a blast. The cruise director name I cannot remember, I will find out and answer in my next post. Today was a Chops lunch and karaoke again. So fun and relaxing. Be back later for today's review. Tomorrow is Honduras and hopefully some pictures!

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Enjoying your review.

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Thanks everyone for the nice comments!!!

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Day 3

Sea day 2

Today we slept in till 11 because we were out late the night before with clubbing. There is an awesome dance/night club that the olive and twist transforms into late in the night.

We went straight to Chops where we ate lunch. I had reservations from online where I had paid them and they tried to charge me again saying they did not see my reservation. The host took care of it immediately when I brought it to their attention. We were approached about a behind the scenes tour excursion that took place later in the week during the end of our dinner. I thought that was strange since we paid for a nice lunch to be interrupted by a sales pitch. That said we had a lovely and delicious lunch there. My table mates had the filet and I had a burger (y'all, I am THAT classy haha) and all of it was delicious. The tater tot thingies there are so good. You should probably have all your sides be tots. No really. Tots. Anyway, the food was great, service was great. I really was happy with our choice.

After lunch I went to guest services to deal with a room service issue again. I showed the rep my email with he special needs saying we were allowed complimentary room service because of the difficulty in getting to the windjammer during all eating hours because of the wheelchair and issues with it. (We had booked before the fee change and after the cancellation date and this was a needed thing for our situation.). The guy couldn't get ahold of room service (I have had that problem, too, room service phone rings forever-and there are no drinks on the interactive menu for it that I can find) and told me he didn't want me to have to wait and he would talk to room service and get it worked out. Later we were in the room and got a phone call from room service saying they did not have the issue information from shore and they could not provide me service. So we went back down and had to show them the printed email from special needs to get it worked out. A bit of a hassle, but still ok because I was able to get a frozen mocha frappe and a rum runner drink on the way to the sun on deck 11 after guest services visit!!!

We sunned a bit (my phone says we sinned a bit-also probably true) and listened to a live band at the pool before heading to the ice skating show Encore. People who say RCI has great entertainment and productions are not kidding at all! It was very good and very crowded. Get there early for seats.

After that we had a bout with sea sickness and took a couple hours to sit in the room and recoup. We missed our main dining room reservations so when we got appetites back (and a couple of us napped) we went and had pizza at Sorrentos. It wasn't the best pizza I have had but it was good, thin crust, tasty pizza that filled our bellies.

After Sorrentos, it was off to a night of karaoke and dancing.

Not a hugely eventful day but very enjoyable! The ship really is nice. Internet has not gotten any better so still no pic yet. I am hoping I can post some tomorrow in HONDURAS!!!!

I am tired so if there are a lot of typos I am sorry-typing it out by phone when I am not even good at texting has been fun lol.

The captain is Captain James. Still haven't found out the name of the director (I pay little attention to the things he hosts).

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The OP was talking about the menu in Giovanni's for the Mystery Dinner Theater, not the regular Giovanni's menu.

Thanks Bob, was concerned.

Jeff Arpin is the cruise director. He is funny, a bit cruse but he's been alright in the things I have heard him in.

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We cruised on Liberty in January and are cruising again in 32 days. Who is the cruise director this time?

 

 

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Jeff the same one we had in January. He sort of grows on you. There was a part of the belly flop contest that you will have to see.

Meh. Not my favorite, but the cruise director doesn't make or break my vacation.

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Sorry so late. I will have to do pics at home, I just keep timing out here. A few days in a row coming up. More glitches but we are still having a blast!!!

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Day 4

Honduras shopping!!!

We didn't do much for Honduras, no excursions. We wanted to enjoy the ship this trip. So we woke up, had the room service breakfast and got ready for our day. We went to deck 1 and off the ship around 11:30. The ship keeps ship time rather than adjusting to local time. Debarking has a steep ramp for those in wheelchairs but they give assistance. Without upper body control, make sure someone is there to hold you or you have your chest strap-you have been warned.

Honduras was beautiful and HOT. We made it through the little shops on the strip that sell local stuff and we picked up some seed jewelry and chocolate and a cameo which was lovely. Honduras chocolate=Yum! The port bar was too busy to get a seat in the shade. After spending an hour and a half or so browsing shops and buying goods, we boarded the ship again went through a security checkpoint that was a bit annoying and added wait time for wheelchair. Then headed to the cafe to grab some sandwiches for late lunch. The we sat on deck 11 and sunbathed in the shade while we waited for sail away listening to music.

One of our party is a smoker and there is plenty of comfortable room to sit by the pool and smoke in comfort. In fact, our ship docked with the smoking side toward the island, so great views!

Sail away was around 4:30. I then left my party on the deck and went for a needed power nap. We skipped the ice show as we saw it yesterday. Dinner reservations with my time dining in the main dining room were at 6:30. During my nap, room service called and said they were sending up some strawberries for our troubles and that everything should be straightened out now. Whew hopefully no more trips except ones for awesome reasons to guest services. :D

The strawberries arrived right before we left for dining and we tried them-so good. It even came with a 'we're sorry' card on top of it. :) very nice of them. I was just happy everything was straightened out.

Dinner experience was great. My two roommates are doing the casino now and I am napping because I am a bit exhausted and I want to be ready for the next stop tomorrow! Went dancing at the olive &a twist night club after my nap and then we went to sleep finally around 1am. That night club is great!

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Day 5

Shopping in Costa Maya

Again we woke up around 10:30 and got ready for the day. We left the ship from deck 1 around 11:30 and debarking was easy. This time the ramp to leave was a bit less steep for the wheelchair so that was good.

I need to say something about getting on and off the ship here if you are in a wheelchair. They have a staff member help you on and off the ship no problem but you sometimes have to wait for that staff member, you don't really get priority on and off the ship like on the last cruise we did on carnival. You have to wait in the shade by still the heat for however long it takes to get the staff to come help while other people walk by you. Priority isn't a big deal to us but waiting in the heat (shaded heat) might be for some people so be warned on that. It may not be all the cases but it was ours. I will have more wheelchair information at the end of my review.

This place was hot but it had fun shops. A word to the wise: shop the outside ring shops first before getting pulled into the tiny 'local looking' shops. We saw the same dresses on the putter ring shops for $10 that a lady was trying to sell us for $30 each on the little shady looking shops. Also a guy tried to sell us pot here, that was funny. We were just standing in the air while my roommate smoked and they came up and offered us weed. We didn't take them up on it, but it was amusing and we poked fun at him the rest of the time there for looking like the shady weed buying type.

Went to the pharmacy here to try to find hairspray. Way too expensive for our blood so we ended up being frizzy for the next formal night. No big deal.

We bought some more chocolate and enjoyed the shopping. This was another really nice stop. Pink flamingoes in a small lagoon for photo ops. A giant pool bar open to anyone and it was really nice. There is sand in some of the walking paths but overall it's flat and you can easily get into most of the shops in a chair.

We did our shopping for a couple hours and had to get back to the ship. It was hot. When we got back to deck 11, we watched the workers refurbish the deck before our eyes. They sanded down the wooden surfaces, applied varnish and stuck 'warning wet varnish' signs around. By the next day, those surfaces that looked a bit sea worn were as shiny as new. Very cool to see they did it in a very quick, non-noticeable way. The ship was again docked where the smoking section has the best view.

We spent a lot of time on deck 11 pool deck this day. We went and saw

The early comedian impressionist show and it was really funny to me. I enjoyed it a lot! It was musical impressions and music is what we love so it worked out to be a great performance for us.

When we got back to the room, we had more strawberries waiting for us and another 'sorry' note from room service...ok? Maybe it was premonition....

Dinner was room service this night. Only-room service did not get one order right the entire time and they were still charging us wrongly for it. So we didn't get half our food but we just lived with what we got because we were tired of complaining about things we couldn't control. The funniest thing had to be the tea. We ordered two ice teas. The lady asked us if we wanted sweet or sugar on the side. We said sugar on the side and left it at that. When we got the tray? We had two waters with sugar on the side....yeah. But! Water is drinkable so we drank it and we're happy. Then we rested up an it and decided to skip the club for the night and go to Cozumel early the next day. So that's what we did...

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Day 6

Cozumel

We got up at 7am and we had room service ordered for between 7:30-8. It never showed up-like ever. So that was nice. So we decided we'd get something in Cozumel. We got off the ship around 8:30.

To be honest, this trip to Cozumel was a let down. Last time we went to Mr Sanchos for the day. This time we decided to stay in port and look at the offerings. This is definitely a commercial port. The little shops seemed to have all the same trinkets and gimmicky souvenirs and the trick was to find the cheapest, I guess.

I had people yelling at us to go to the flea market upstairs but we couldn't get there because it's just stairs. So, not sure what was up there. The ground shopping wasn't fun for me. I like handcrafted goods. These were all cheap, mass manufactured trinkets. Great for bringing home to people though. One shop had 7 for $20't-shirts and honestly everything in it was cheap and good for all that 'bring me something from your trip' crowd. The problem with shopping is that Oasis of the Seas was in port at the same time as us and t was crowded crowded crowded. We were done shopping in a couple of hours and sat down at the little snack shop to eat some food. The tacos there were pretty tasty and we were happy. After that one of the shops tried to sell us some fake RayBan sunglasses. I happen to love that brand and had a set on my head and one of my roommates also had a set on his head he borrowed from me after losing his during the trip. We ended up buying a pair of the cute pink knockoffs for cheap after I started arguing with him about them being fake and him needing to sell them cheaper. I showed him hinges and things on real ones and he gave us the fakes cheap with a look that told me he wanted me to leave and not hinder his business selling knockoffs. Haha. So that was fun.

Then we wandered through security. We didn't buy any liquor so it was fairly painless. However the wheelchair was checked not once but twice (once at the security stop where everyone was getting searched and once at the gate to the ship) it wasn't a big deal but it was another 10 minute extra wait to get on the ship that no one else had to take. The security girl that swabbed the chair at the ship seemed to argue with the main guy that it had already been done at the checkpoint and didn't need to be redone but she did it anyway. Just another hassle but an ok wait.

We went back to the room and took an it of a nap. Then we sat on deck a bit and then went to get ready for formal night #2. We had my time reservations that had been made a month ago for 6:30pm so we could hit up any late night shows. Tonight it was the comedian we really wanted to see. When we got there, they didn't have a seat for a wheelchair and gave us a buzzer. This actually made us angry. Throughout this vacation, there had been so many 'lost' reservations that were paid for, so much communication with special needs department that was 'lost' that I had printouts of thank goodness. So many little things just added up that when they said we had a 20 minute wait after we had made reservations-and it was because they didn't have room for the wheelchair specifically-the wheelchair that is mentioned on every reservation and all over our files-we for angry. It meant that we would miss our show. We complained once again to guest services but again, not much they can do by pass it along. They seated us about half an hour later at a great table with a great staff, but we did miss the show because of it and that cannot be seen any other time so we lost out on that experience because of no wheelchair seating. It was not a good thing and hurt some feelings since it is how we feel all the time with the chair, like a. Inconvenience and it is now being duplicated as a feeling on this great vacation that had all sorts of things pre-planned to make this not happen. This was a real disappointment.

Since we missed the show, we went and saw some big band dancing in the star lounge and tried to get in on the 79s party but it was too crowded and honestly dangerous for the wheelchair to try to maneuver through a crowd like that so we went and relaxed on pool deck an it before going to the night club. We met a friend there and went to Sorrentos at 1am in the morning, that was fun. We were in bed by 2:30am. Last sea day tomorrow!!!!

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Have the 10 drink Drink Cards appeared, and if so...what bar was selling?

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The cards showed up I think on Thursday. I know for sure on Friday. They are $75 and have been at all the bars I have been to. All the pool bars and even the coffee shop. Also the coffee cards have been available from the beginning of the cruise. I am not sure the cost but I think those were like $32 or $35 for 15 coffees. :) hope that helped!!

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