The Fun Researcher

The Tidal Wave slide on Liberty of the Seas has a max per passenger weight of 250 pounds, and a combined raft weight of 450 pounds. Guests need to be at least 100 pounds and 52 inches tall to ride. The Perfect Storm water slides require guests to be 48 inches tall to ride.

*Credit Royalcaribbeanblog

Freedom class (Liberty is Freedom Class) and Voyager class are still our favorite ship classes to date.

Liberty is not officially amped, but has been updated.  It doesn't have Playmakers sports bar, or all the bright new furniture and look on the pool deck, etc...

Having said that, it's a large beautiful ship.  The waterslides were the latest new addition and they are nice.  Be aware that the Solarium is not covered.  It is open air, so if the weather is cold, there is no indoor pool.

We prefer Labadee to Coco Cay.  Labadee is more of a classical tropical paradise, whereas Coco Cay feels like an amusement park.  I do like the food choices on Coco Cay though.  We love resting in the loungers at Columbus Cove on Labadee, with the ship in the background.

The things that we love about the Liberty are:

• Large Royal Promenade.   A wonderful central location on the ship that makes navigation super easy
• A wonderful "connection to the sea" with the deck 4 walking/lounging track, access to the front helipad(especially at night looking at the stars), and the wonderful pool deck
• Large beautiful main dining room
• Great Shows and entertainment
• Large ship with plenty of venues to keep you busy on even the longer voyages
• Pools are freshwater
• Beautiful indoor Viking crown lounge overlooking the pool area
• etc...

12 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

 

Black Friday sales typically start on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  That'll be the 23rd. 

Yeah, I pulled the 18th date from a different website but looks like you are much closer to being accurate based on last year (and other years).  So maybe the 21st-23rd we'll see some info.

Hopefully I can reprice our 2023 cruises, and I typically wait for our soda packages until Black Friday as well.

Dan

1 hour ago, Welly9 said:

Good Post Researcher, 

Q - I cant remember exactly how many days before the cruise they stop add ons to purchase for your cruise? I kind of remember its 2 days? 

At least for the beverage packages it's 72 hours, per RCCL's website

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/beverage-package-cancellation-policy

4 hours ago, Thisguylikestocruise said:

Hope it’s not closed. I have a forward cabin, and plan on spending a lot of time in the solarium. 

Exactly.  We have a forward cabin for our Alaska cruise in July and plan to use the Bistro for breakfast and coffee in the morning.  Would be a shame if it were closed for some reason.

Could regular guests at least get coffee in the morning at the Solarium Bistro when it's been closed for special events or groups?

Some more info re. last years timing

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/black-friday-and-cyber-monday-cruise-deals

I think the Black Friday sales are supposed to start November 18

Dan

2 hours ago, dad son team said:

How about sending your wife solo.  What a lovely surprise that would be for her

I would love to but her schedule is not flexible and doesn’t allow her to sail when the fairs are cheaper, she is a kindergarten teacher, bless her heart.
 

In the end we have decided to go a different route. My wife and son’s spring break do not line up with our daughters spring break in March.  We have decided to do a seven day cruise on the Anthem the week after our daughters are home from college for spring break. So there will be my wife, son and I on the cruise and we will get connecting interior or balcony cabins.  One of us will be in a room solo and get double points.  That will get my wife or Myself 14 point and get us to 82 total, just past Diamond.

Dan

51 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Actually, adJOINING means connected.  You are probably thinking of adjacent, which mean lying next to each other.

Yeah, sorry about that, thanks for the clarification.  You’re right.

However, if the OP wants to have an interior connecting door between rooms they need to choose a connecting room.

That’s what I was trying to say but didn’t do it accurately.

Dan

Just be aware adjoining rooms are rooms next to each other, but not necessary connecting.  If you want that door inside between rooms they need to be connecting 

Dan

Two full bathrooms for a family of five is awfully nice. We also have a family of five and have always had connecting rooms on our cruises. It works out great.

having that open doorway between the two cabins makes the whole space seem larger

Dan

15 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Except that the whole reason they're trying to make Diamond is so they don't have to pay for drinks, so my guess is royal isn't making much profit on this couple for those extra items, which is totally fine, just saying that it wouldn't benefit Royal to help them get double points AND sail on this cruise together.
 

Plus, once you've been to an island 50 times or however many times you have to go to the same place to get  Diamond, are you really gonna keep taking excursions? Probably not.
 

The loyalty gets extra bodies on the ship, helps pay the cruise fare and the port fees, which is an important part of their business structure and I get it, but the additional expenditures are probably inversely proportional to the number of times one cruises (on average - I know there are outliers who pay for dining and drink packages even after they've hit Diamond, but based on reading cruise critic, that doesn't seem to be the norm).

Your points are valid.  I also think it all depends on any given couple, or family.

Drinks are expensive on RCCL's ships, and we take that cost into account when budgeting for our cruises.  Once we have Diamond, a line item of our cruise budget goes way down.  Knowing that, we will transition some of that spending.  We will be more willing to spend some of the saved money on things we normally do not do, like specialty dining, tours, entertainment, etc...

So I don't think our total spend will change drastically, but now our cruise experience is heightened because we can use the money saved on drinks for other splurges that we haven't done in the past.  ...and RCCL maintains their margin on us fairly close to before.  Plus, we are now even more Loyal to Royal due to the perks, so they get more of our money more often

That's just us though. Everyone is different

Dan

In general I find the strip steak a good fallback option on RCCL if I can't find anything to my liking on the menu.  There always seems to be that one day every sailing when I need to revert to the strip steak. 🙂 If it's a true strip steak it's normally solidly good, but sometimes they try to swap it out for a sirloin, which just isn't the same.  I like the flavor of sirloin but they are lean.  The tenderness and flavor of the true strip steak tops it.  I order mine medium rare for what it's worth.  It's worth asking the waiter if it's truly strip steak that's being served or a different cut.

Dan

7 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Dont wait too long. As I said I got there in sept but had to pay for dec b2b allure. Ourusualbeach who is a ta posted I couldnt apply the dp340 once I made final payment. I didnt know about that rule. 

 

That's why I pushed to get it sooner for next year. 

Can you clarify this for me?

We do have an Alaskan Cruise booked for July 2023, so final payment is in April.  Are you saying that making Diamond needs to occur before our final payment is due in April?  This seems silly. (not shooting the messenger, just sayin 🙂 )  For instance if I achieved Diamond in May I wouldn't be Diamond on our Alaskan cruise, a full two months later?

2 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

Single supplements are just discounts if you are traveling solo correct? They don’t impact the number of C&A points given if you are traveling solo right?

Quoting myself only to clarify that I meant fee, not discount LOL.  Got my wires crossed.  My last two brain cells are hungover I guess:D

Dan

Even at $13 per drink, 4 drinks per day,  on a single 7 night cruise for my wife and I that alone saves $728.  

We don’t drink much more than four drinks any given day so this perk is perfect for us.

We’ve slogged through our cruises to the 68 points that we have now. We don’t cruise to get points, we cruise to have a great vacation with friends and/or family.  However, now that we are so close it would be nice to have this perk in hand for the many future cruises we hope to complete, God willing.  -Dan

19 minutes ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

Most people here know of RCI's inept IT department. How have your daughters earned their points? DId any of them come from their parents? Have you cruised without them since they turned 18 and has their total gone up after your cruise? I know a family (wink, wink) whose children continued to earn their parents' points after the children turned 18. The children should be only platinum on their own but they have become Diamond after they turned 18 because they continued to earn their parents' points.

 

Tell your daughters to cross their fingers, they may get lucky.

The points I listed in my original post are the actual earned point for them and us.  My daughters are both platinum and my son just got Emerald through us after our June cruise since he’s still 15.

Here’s hoping for an IT issue in our favor 🙂

Dan

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

While you say only the 4 drinks matter the other perks dont hurt.

 

You and your wife get one free day of wifi. You can do one and then the other, many couples do it and spread out the 2 free days.

 

If you contact a ta and get a group price, there is a discount that I get on group prices, doesnt seem to work booking direct. $200 or $225 off the total for balcony discount doesnt hurt. 

 

And I also go to the diamond lounge in the morning for a cup of specialty coffee, worth something to me.

 

I'm not much of a drinker, but love the wifi perk. What a boring world if we were all the same.

You are right, I should not be so quick to state that it is only about the drinks. I didn’t even know about the Wi-Fi but that is a very nice perk as is the specialty coffee.  Thank you for those tips!

1 hour ago, billslowsky said:

Our September cruise had no single supplement so we booked 2 interior rooms, both got double points.  

 

HOWEVER linking the two room accounts was a nightmare (thanks, Royal) and created some small headaches.

Single supplements are just discounts if you are traveling solo correct? They don’t impact the number of C&A points given if you are traveling solo right?

Got me thinking.  Is solo in an interior or balcony 2 points per night?  Thx, Dan

If so, I could find a cheap 6 night but I don't think I'd want to be away that long.

1 minute ago, Mum2Mercury said:

With the single penalty, it wouldn't cost much more to bring your wife along.  

They're young adults with a lot more freedom than their brother.  If they chaffe at his "status", remind them of that.  

Yes, I'd like to get to Diamond for just that reason.  

Good stuff.  🙂

Regarding my wife along, would love to but we would each only get 8 points then and not reach 80 total.  Suites get 2 points per night normally with double or more occupancy.  Solo in a suite gets 3 points per night, which is what I need on a 4 night to get the 12 total we need.

Kindly, Dan

I don't care about status.  I do care about the 4 drinks per day, as we will use them all.  Drink prices have gone nuts on RCCL in my opinion.  It would nice to have that perk nailed down for cruises going forward.  We have one cruise booked already, and probably another, for summer next year. 

Beyond Diamond (D+, P...), I don't really care as we will already have the main perk we've looked forward to.

It's not work to jump on a 4 night cruise to get us to Diamond before our more substantial upcoming cruises.  There are some options for just over $1,100 total for a single occupancy JS.  I get to enjoy some time off, and my wife and son benefit as well going forward.

Dan

14 minutes ago, kruzerci said:

It literally makes me SMH the things people do to “status up”. Just enjoy your cruises and it’ll happen eventually. It’s not really logical to overspend or book special trips just to make Diamond earlier. The premium between a balcony and a JS plus single supplement just to get 4 free drinks a day is really something. Diamond isn’t even what it used to be. 

You do you and I’ll do me.  Thanks.  🙂

Dan

Thanks for the replies.  Yeah, I would book a Jr. Suite for sure.  Just need a short 4 night sailing for my needs too.

Now just how to figure out how to keep my daughters from getting jealous of their brother's Diamond status 😅

Dan

All points are actual:

Myself: 68 points

Wife: 68 points

Daughter 21 yrs old: 46 points

Daughter 18 yrs old: 46 points

Son 15 yrs old: 46 points

If I sail solo on a 4 night in a suite, that will get me 12 more points and hit Diamond (80 points) correct?

1. I can then link my son who's under 18, and my wife since she is my spouse to get them to Diamond?
2. What about my daughters that also still live in our household?  Are they not eligible to be Diamond since they are 18 and older and must get their points on their own, or can they get diamond status since they still live with us?
3. How long does it take for the status to transfer?

Thanks,
Dan