Liberty cruise report | 032016-032716 | Falmouth, George Town, Cozumel

This will be my first, though probably not last, cruise report. My wife and I decided in January 2016 to head out of Galveston on a cruise. I watched pricing for two weeks and finally booked a D2 Superior balcony for $924 (C&A) and $999 for the two of us. Our room was 9356. We booked the week after most school children in Oklahoma and Texas have spring break. There were some college students on board with family, but not a lot.

We left Saturday morning from Broken Arrow, OK and headed South towards Galveston. The weather was beautiful, in the upper 50's. We arrived in Spring, TX just after 4:00 PM. I had booked a 'newly renovated' Motel 6 room just off I-45. It was anything but renovated! The conditions were quite run-down, with many rooms boarded up and/or padlocked. Management made us sign a 'TV release' form and return it within 30 minutes of arrival. The form stated that the TV and remote worked and we would be billed the full price of the TV if anything happened to either. That was a first in a motel!

We got settled in and then headed to a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant called Arco's. We met friends who live nearby to have dinner and catch up. The restaurant was quaint and the food very good!

Dinner with our friends; Matt and Han.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed to Waffle House for breakfast. We had a great breakfast and then headed South on I-45 a little before 9:00 AM. A little after 10:00 AM we were approaching the piers.

I booked parking online the previous week at Lighthouse Parking. They offer reasonably priced uncovered and covered parking. They also offer both park and ride, and park and walk. They are about two blocks South of the pier on 29th St. We chosed covered and the park and ride option. I booked online and was able to use a $10 off coupon.

We boarded the shuttle and took the three minute ride past pier 1 to the RCCL pier 2.

I found a porter, and dropped off all our luggage, except for our carry-ons. He was cordial and dressed nice in khakis and a loud Hawaiian shirt. We then entered the terminal.

At 10:15 AM, there was no line to check-in, with 30+ RCCL reservation agents available. Check-in took five minutes and we were off to the 'wait' tent. As we walked to the tent, there was chaos at immigration for non-US nationals. More on that later...

Within the tent, we were seated according to our C&A tier (for us, Platinum). We were given our Boarding Day Cruise Compass.

Boarding began once all previous weeks' passengers disembarked, about 11:05 AM. Pinnacle and Suites boarded first, followed by Diamond +, Diamond and Emerald. We headed up the gangway about 11:20 AM. Let the festivities begin!

Compass_Boarding_Day_Edition.pdf

I love the way you are doing the documents both as inline photos and PDF attachments. Great idea that should satisfy everyone.:)

I love the way you are doing the documents both as inline photos and PDF attachments. Great idea that should satisfy everyone.:)

Thanks Bob! I figure, why not kill two birds with one stone? I know a lot of newer cruisers like to download everything and peruse with family, while others simply like to see the docs inline. The only limitation I see is a few of the larger PDFs are over 1MB (even after optimizing their size), so I'll simply provide a Google Drive link to download them.

Thanks Bob! I figure, why not kill two birds with one stone? I know a lot of newer cruisers like to download everything and peruse with family, while others simply like to see the docs inline. The only limitation I see is a few of the larger PDFs are over 1MB (even after optimizing their size), so I'll simply provide a Google Drive link to download them.

The google drive thing will work fine. I've also seen the documents scanned into 1 page per PDF file.

I don't think people realize what a huge amount of tedious work the scanning is. Thanks!

While not new to cruising, this was my first RCCL cruise in ten years. My past cruises were on Vision class ships out of Galveston and Explorer out of Miami. Obviously, a lot has changed - both in regards to the ships and the demographics.

Once through the ship security, we were immediately, within two meters onto deck 5, greeted by the beverage sales hosts. I purchased the Premium beverage package for about $58/day and my wife chose the basic soda package for about $11/day.

We headed up to deck 11 and began to explore its layout. My first impress was WOW! A lot has changed on RCCL from the 2001-2006 period! We found a table and seat in the familiar solarium. I went and grabbed a Heineken and my wife headed to the Windjammer as I watched our bags.

She returned a bit later with a laden plate of tantalizing food.

I was a day late and dollar short getting a good picture of Lisa's plate:

I then crossed through the pools to the back of the ship and the Windjammer. Outside the Windjammer, tables were set up for beverage packages and the three specialty restaurants. As we entered, everyone received a squirt of hand sanitizer. Oh how i wish Liberty, had traditional wash stations instead!

The first impression entering the Windjammer was the large bar. Perfect, bloody Mary's only meters away from breakfast! :D

I'm never had issues with the Windjammer food, as my expectations were of a moderately priced restaurant serving food to the masses. What I didn't expect was specialty themed foods before entering the backside. We had both Italian and Mexican food available. I perused through, and filled my plate with ribs, pasta, meatloaf and veggies. The food was good, and the temperature was warm, or cold, as appropriate. I was definitely not going to lose weight over the next week! LOL

After lunch, my wife wen to go get a diet Coke. Unfortunately, the cordail bartenders require a SeaPass card for transactions.

SeaPass: 1

Wife: 0

It took a whole hour for my better half to lose her SeaPass card. She double-tracked and we were never able to locate it. So, off we headed to deck 5 and Guest Relations. The line was about 20 deep, not too bad. Almost immediately we were approached by RCCL personnel to see if they could assist us while in line. This I appreciated, as many will stand in line for a simple question or request. In our case, we had to make it to the desk to obtain a new SeaPass card. Once at the desk, it took two minutes to have a new card issued and the old card deactivated. I also requested info on any room upgrades, if available. I was put on a list, but informed the ship was at capacity.

We then headed back up deck 9, as it was 1:00 PM. The fire doors were open and we proceeded to 9356. I had requested a mattress topper and it was indeed in place:

Mar 14

to me

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us with this information. We have gone ahead and made the appropriate notations in the reservation. We will place a mattress topper on embarkation day.

Best regards,

Access Staff

Tracy

The request to special_needs@rccl.com was responded to in four days.

We unloaded our carry-on luggage and placed our garment bag clothing in the closet. Our cabin attendant dropped by and introduced herself. There was a lot of noise outside our cabin. The forklifts were doing the hurry-up dance, with hundreds of pallets.

I tried to hoist a pallet of Heineken up to our balcony, buy my 10lb fishing line was no match. LOL

The luggage never seemed to end! Folks, this a 7 night cruise, not a 90 nights Viking world cruise!

On our bed was the ship's version of daily mail, our Cruise Compass! Just like a USPS mailbox, the Compass continues to grow in size with 'junk' inserts.

One must not miss the 'daily offers', limited time only, while supplies last!

Day 1 Compass download:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9DWThq8FEXDX25WbVFOOFB3UUE

The 'weekly' planner is good to hang onto. It gives you daily highlights and room to add to it.

I always like to peruse through the Officer's and Crew sheet:

There was also a Zika notice:

Great review so far, Thank-you

Great start - can't wait to hear about your week. Thanks for the amazing details.

 

I tried to hoist a pallet of Heineken up to our balcony, buy my 10lb fishing line was not strong enough

Thanks for the laugh!

After looking through the Compass, we headed out to explore the ship. We first headed back down to deck 5 and the Royal Promenade.

There, bigger than Texas itself, was a Texas flag. Every cruise I've ever taken out of Galveston has had a large Texas flag flying somewhere.

The 'feel' of the ship was new. After all, Liberty just left dry dock earlier this year. The ship didn't feel its age. Kudos to RCCL for 'freshen up' and added amenities. After being tempted by cupcakes and pizza, we headed outside on deck 5.

Our ship was taking on fuel before departure:

Thank you for the detailed review. We are going on the Christmas cruise and can hardly wait.

Back on decks 11 and 12, we took in all the outdoor activities. One big change over the past decade, in terms of cruising demographics, is the emphasis on kids' activities. Having multiple locales for newborns, toddlers, tweens, teenagers, and adults is beneficial for all.

Baby Splash Zone:

Splashaway Bay:

Sport Pool:

Whirlpools & Main Pool:

Great review so far, Thank-you

You're welcome. Let me know if you have any questions about Liberty.

You're welcome. Let me know if you have any questions about Liberty.

Thanks! We board next Sunday, can't wait. For some reason I can't see your pictures, the last one I can see is of the luggage :confused:

Laurie

Great review so far! I am having a hiccup seeing the photos though. ??? Any ideas I am able to view the scanned documents with no problem.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you for the detailed review. We are going on the Christmas cruise and can hardly wait.

You're welcome, let me know if you have questions about Liberty. I'll do my best to try to answer them for you.

Thanks! We board next Sunday, can't wait. For some reason I can't see your pictures, the last one I can see is of the luggage :confused:

 

 

 

Laurie

I am having the same issue.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Great review so far! I am having a hiccup seeing the photos though. ??? Any ideas I am able to view the scanned documents with no problem.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi, they are all hosted by Google Drive so if you can see some you should be able to see them all. I'm able to see them all in three separate browsers. Can you hit the refresh button in your browser and see if that loads them for you?

I am not able to see any photos. I am on my iPad using Tapatalk. I am going to switch to regular web and see if that works.

Darn, still not seeing them.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi, they are all hosted by Google Drive so if you can see some you should be able to see them all. I'm able to see them all in three separate browsers. Can you hit the refresh button in your browser and see if that loads them for you?

Maybe I need to be logged into Google drive? Funny that I can see up until the luggage ones....

One of the dry dock additions is a new miniature golf course at the front of the ship, on deck 12 IIRC. It was moved from the back of the ship and is now larger in size. However, it is windy up front!

The back of the ship has a basketball court, rock climbing wall, dual slides and the ever popular FlowRider.

Note: I have a lot more pictures of FlowRider, along with several videos that I'll post in later updates.

There's this albatross, too...I mean the Tidal Wave! RCCL lists it as opening June, 2017 on the Liberty main page. We'll see...

Thanks! We board next Sunday, can't wait. For some reason I can't see your pictures, the last one I can see is of the luggage :confused:

 

Laurie

That's not good! Are you able to hit the refresh button on your browser and see if the page re-loads correctly? I've been getting a few 'page not available' notices today from the forum website. It looks like it is a bit sluggish, maybe due to high traffic?

Maybe I need to be logged into Google drive? Funny that I can see up until the luggage ones....

That shouldn't affect it, I'm able to see all posts in two different browsers where I'm not logged into Google nor Cruise Critic. Weird...