CastAStone

Only some ships have Freestyle machines. On Liberty this past week probably 1 in 3 bars/restaurants were serving soda from 2 liter bottles rather than guns, even when a gun was physically present. The nice thing about having the cup was it saved me from having to show my card.

1 hour ago, The Fun Researcher said:

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

 

 

Perfect Storm also has a max weight of 300lb.

1 hour ago, OSUZorba said:

OT:

 

@CastAStone are you the same CastAStone from DBC?

You found me!

Just as a data point at Fort Lauderdale last week they didn't check anything for me. We checked in 45 minutes before our assigned time, at 10:45, and were held in a room briefly as they let The Key passengers board, then after The Key people were all the way on the boat, we were let on. I didn't check my watch but I'm sure we were all on the boat before 11:15 (vs. our check in window of 11:30-12). 

I didn't see any other Fort Lauderdale posts in the thread so I thought I'd share.

Just got off. It has some visible wear but its not to the point where it's like "oh my gosh how awful!". Just know it won't look like the Wonder. Its also stylistically just a couldn't-decide-mix of the old look of cruise ships with all the gold and wood and tan and the new ones with all the bright colors and white and silver.

As to size, Liberty is not small, its roughly as large as Norwegian's largest ships and is significantly larger than every Carnival ship pre-Mardi Gras (2021). Oasis class is just such a ridiculous size outlier in cruising. 

Food in MDR and WJ was hit (ribs!) and miss (the "buffalo wings" were breaded [nope] thighs [OMG no] with no spice at all [🤦‍♂️]).

Entertainment was hit and miss as well, but the mix of entertainers will change a lot by your travel dates. The disco thing they do in the Royal Promanade I'd say is must do.

The Splashaway Bay was a huge huge hit with my kids, who did 5 hours there on a 3 day cruise. I'd say ideal for 4-9 years old?

Liberty had a dry dock with AMPing planned in 2021 and Covid stalled it; it hasn't been put back on the calendar.

I think on a 9 day cruise I'd prefer something with more dining options but at the same time I can't help but say the Liberty gets my recommendation overall. 

We had great Starlink speeds on Liberty this past week but when it was slow, man, it just outright stopped. In other words, its still cruise ship internet. 

5 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

The problem with Bermuda "off season" is that it's not swimming weather and the seas go get there can be rough (take a look at the current sailing...barf bags are out).  I'm not surprised at the "less than 50 per cent" of capacity.

 

Thanks for your honesty.  I'm always tempted to upgrade (Joy 6/5 is our next) but the more I read, the less I'm interested.

We had barf bags out Saturday as well. It was very very rough. For us, I think The Haven is worth the late upgrade prices from a balcony room, but less so the full price you’d pay 6 months out.

As promised, the freestyle daily pages from the Joy 7 day Virginia Beach and Bermuda cruise. Day 2 is VB, days 4-6 are Bermuda, 3 and 7 are sea days.

On 5/3/2022 at 9:02 PM, ChiefMateJRK said:

Your posts make no sense.  Maybe you need to flow chart this for us.

 

Black Label and Bulleit are both fully covered.  What else could a man need if they are inclined to spend their vacation counting $10 worth of pennies?  Did you spend that crushing $10 on one shot?  Ten?  Fifty?  Wine?  Bailey's?  All of the above?  Here's a thought, maybe it was those dreaded port taxes.  Those usually hit me for well over $10 on a cruise.  The horror.

Do I have some bad news for you 

We were on the Joy for our cruise on May 1st, and I thought I'd share some stray thoughts I had. I'm going to skip over anything that just matches what everyone thinks, because that's boring.

The ship was half full at best. Nothing was crowded. We had Haven access to everything, it was of zero benefit except first day embarkation and last day disembarkation. There weren't lines anywhere. Every show had empty seats. Cagneys and Le Bistro always had dinner availability. Interestingly, the most crowded place on the ship was often the Haven Bar, because the Haven was completely full after they cleared everyone's upgrades. We had an excursion cancelled because of lack of interest, because the ship was so empty. If you like an empty cruise ship, go now!

The magicians on the Joy (Javi Cruz and Anahi) are really fun and pretty good! We were pleasantly surprised. 

The Haven Restaurant was made out to be the best restaurant on the ship. We thought it was just OK. The service is great. The menu options suggest it will be high end. But the food isn't prepared well. My steak wasn't seared. My burger was inedible. Nothing was remotely seasoned enough (a problem at every restaurant we tried except The Local and Food Republic). The best thing we had there was the risotto. The other upside was the fruit at breakfast was so much better in the Haven restaurant than anywhere else on the ship.

Food Republic is the best restaurant on the ship, and it's not particularly close. The food there was legitimately great. I can't recommend it enough.

Cagney's was the most disappointing restaurant on the ship. It was okay, but we'd expected a lot more. But again, the steak wasn't seasoned enough and wasn't really seared at all. You have to sear a ribeye! That's how its prepared! The risotto at Cagneys was actively bad. The rest of the things we had were fine.

I am a bourbon drinker and I was EXTREMELY disappointed with some recent changes they'd made to their booze selection. The online menus for the restaurants, as well as the online Premium Beverage Package list, list Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam, Bulleit, Jack Daniels, Jack Daniel's Rye, and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey as their American Whiskey/Bourbon options. I get there and Bulleit has been moved to Premium Plus and the Jack Daniel's products are apparently discontinued, so they have 1-2 bourbons per bar in the Premium package, just Beam and Buffalo Trace. Crown Royal has also been moved to Premium Plus on board, even though everything online still shows it as Premium. Not sure when this happened but it was a huge bummer to me. I wound up paying the $1.20 for the Bulleit upcharge repeatedly. 

Overall we thought the Haven was worth it for a special occasion, but not for an everyday vacation. 

I have the schedule page of each day's freestyle daily and I will try to post them later.

21 hours ago, kylenyc said:

The good: The bars ran out of mud slides and charge a premium to make anything with Bailey's. They no longer stock Captain Morgan spiced rum. Shocking I say. Shocking!

I was on the same cruise and they ran out of a ton of beers as well. They said they were struggling with sourcing. They also appear to be getting rid of Jack Daniels products, they had disappeared from all the menus (but were still at most of the bars).

On 4/29/2022 at 2:23 PM, calmpets said:

Hi! I'm hoping someone who was recently onboard can answer this. I would like to gift my husband a spa treatment, but there is no published pricing. Could anyone tell me the cost for an aroma stone therapy for 50 minutes? Thanks in advance for any help you can give. I just don't want to budget the wrong amount and end up shooting myself in the foot.

75 minutes is $269 but I didn't capture the 50 minute price. They offered 75 minutes for $179 as a one day only special on day 4 (2nd Bermuda port day) (plus 18.5% in both cases). 

On 5/7/2022 at 6:59 PM, calmpets said:

I'm sailing in two weeks and it still says booking available onboard, with no pricing listed. Are the spas even open? I can't seem to find any info at all.

The spa is open. We had a Swedish couples massage for 50 minutes last week for $299+18.5%, minus $100 in spa discounts via our Costco package.

As noted above, there is no Thermal Spa on the Joy. Treatments and then you're outta there. 

We got pretty close to 5 star service at Le Bistro, Cagneys, and Haven, but no where near 5 star food anywhere. Le Bistro was closest. Cagney's, at least on the Joy, was not serving well prepared food IMO.