DonTreadOnMe

Yep you have to call. Like ibjen said, unless you are grabbing a family room (which are now suites on some ships) with 2 bathrooms, you might as well do two rooms.

We just were in 1804 (family room) last month on Liberty. It is by far my favorite room we have ever booked. View is amazing. Like others said, you do feel the movement and shaking a bit more, but nothing drastic. Also the walking outside can be annoying with wind for women who just did their hair...blah blah blah.

We would book one again for sure.

We have not done the Oasis class yet, but the new splash pad, and water slides keep my kids entertained for hours and hours on Liberty.

We got toppers no problem upon request on Liberty in Jan 2017, but were told they were not an option on Liberty Feb 2018 due to "health regulations".

Great thread!!! Thanks so much for the local info Roger, what an asset to have a local on the forum who is will to provide such good info.

Lots of great ideas in here, but haven't seen anything regarding renting bikes/ebikes. Do you have any experience with any companies locally? Would a trip on bikes be worth it from the port to the cathedral/downtown? How about the other direction...riding the bikes to IIletas beach?

Any insight on the bike/ebike idea you could provide would be greatly appreciated. We are coming in on Symphony of the Seas in Late June if that matters at all.

We love Liberty. We did miss our flights 3 weeks ago due to fog coming back. We would just plan an extra day coming back if we do Galveston again. We stayed in the new Panoramic Ocean view rooms, and will have a hard time staying in anything else going forward.

Last years cruise director was far better than this year...he was a bit of a dud. You will find quite a few kids onboard due to the slides/splashpad...and also due to price/kids sail free. Considering we had 16 and 8 of them were kids...we didn't mind.

We would definitely do Liberty again for sure. In fact I am looking for something in 2019/20 and considering the price gap we may just end up on Liberty.

I don't mind the new layout or reduction in choices at all. It makes sense and as others have mentioned, if you can't find something to eat...the problem may be you. We found many of the things left off were the terrible ones that shouldn't have been there to begin with (not all of course).

My biggest complaint is eating the exact same food 1 year later. I realize that changing menus is no small feat, but many cruise at least once a year, often on the same boat. With reduced choices, you will be eating the same things every year for a few years running.

Food was hot, good, and service matched it. We had 8 kids with 8 adults and wait staff didn't miss a beat with kids ordering off both menus at times. The food is def not what it was 10 years ago...but then the prices to get on the boat are the same or cheaper after how many 100% inflation... :D

New menu didn't have escargot every night and I didn't ask for it, my wife asked about a cake from the previous night which was a no go so I didn't push.

New Menus on Liberty did 3 weeks ago.

Just carry bags off to make sure...you should be fine.

We will be on as well. My wife pointed out to me that this will be the best Valetines day of my life as I don't have to waste time or money celebrating such a dumb holiday. ;-) Not a valentines day fan...in case you couldn't tell.

We were given the option if we "felt we needed it". But they were not just given out automatically. Kids were lumped together and were ages 6,8. This was last year.

If I were you I would stay in a hotel in Galveston by the pier, they are much nicer and safer.

Hard to beat Drury at $100 or less a night with free dinner and breakfast.

Can't say from experience since we haven't been on Harmony, but from all pics and videos we ended up going with 11729 since the slide is furthest away from the balcony at that point. Here is some pics that show what I mean. Bottom row of Balconies is deck 8. Who knows if that will make a big difference, but we already were going above our budget to get a balcony so we decided we would try it out.

We are in 11729 in June. We chose it for 4 reasons. 1) It was the cheapest ocean view balcony available (yes I know technically it is not an ocean view balcony. 2) Ability to watch the aqua show from our balcony. 3) The shore is going to be on the port side of the ship for most of the cruise so being on the starboard side will maximize our view of the shore. 4) You tube videos showed more in your face obstruction by the Abyss slide on decks 9,10,12 (can't remember what 8 looked like) chk for pics on and videos of the harmony rooms and you will see what I mean.

Bernard on St Marteen. Self guided tour to St John, and take a taxi to the most photographed beach in the Caribbean (for good reason), and spend the day at Trunk bay at St Thomas.

Go the night after the MDR serves Lobster...someone I, uh know, may have eaten 6 lobster tails once.

I would be happy with any class of ship during the Mexican run during the winter!

Amen!!!

We usually leave our passports in the safe in our room and take photocopies of the passports in case we're ever asked for ID getting back on. So far we've never been asked at any port.

This!

Definitely do the online check-in before.

AC is great works as you set it.

Trip adviserror is your friend... we almost always book stuff in advance, but not through the cruise line. I do highly recommend a st John on your own tour combined with a taxi to trunk Bay however through the cruise ship. Cheapest way to do trunk bay.

We booked symphony originally out of Barcelona on 7/1/18, but when they announced that interpreting would happen out of Time we switched. Saved us $500 to boot. Same cabin class 10 days earlier. 3 days before or after would have been $200 cheaper.

I don't understand why you are not interested in the shared shuttle for $25 apiece? We are staying at the Drury Inn and Cruise Connection is picking us up there at 9:15 on embarkation day. No need to go back to the airport. Wait a minute. Are you flying into Houston Bush International airport? I am talking about hotels and transportation from Houston Hobby airport. It is MUCH closer to Galveston than International.

$25 each way? Cheapest we have found is $40 RT PP.

We'll take it :-) Wish they'd send us a ship again.

Amen to that. We get sick of flying across the country to cruise. Any ship to Mexico again from the west coast would be nice.

I'm one of those that will never sail out of Galveston again and booked our next cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. I address a few of your questions in my review. Loved the cruise, didn't like the cruise port so much.

 

We used Galveston Limousine Shuttle. It was the cheapest transportation available if booked online and that part went well.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2459529

Interestingly I would equate it to going out of Ft Lauderdale, minus the distance to the airport. The flow of traffic in and out is very similar. Terminal was fine. We were on the ship in @ 15 mins.

We didn't experience any fog thank goodness which I am sure would totally change my answer, but our experience was one of the better we have had. Liberty in general (including getting on and off) was so great we are doing Liberty again with all of our extended family next Feb.

As for transport we used Super Shuttle, but are likely going to use Galveston Express with our larger group upcoming.

My only complaint is that the food is the same every 3rd day basically. Some more variety would be nice. That said we thought the food was very good on Liberty 2 months ago. The French fries were amazing. And diner at the WJ was far better than I had expected.

Just hit the WJ, food is just as good during dinner in most cases.