BethV114

Thanks so much for your review. We sail Liberty /1 (the Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica itinerary), and have not been on her since her inaugural sailing, so I'm enjoying reading up on your thoughts on the ship.

Hi for those of you who are type 2 diabetics what kind of cocktails or alcoholic drinks do you have on a cruise.

 

I have been recently diagnosed so not sure what is the best drink for me.

 

My go to drinks before were Miami vice and Mudslides which are out of the question now.

 

Thanks for your replies

I would definitely check with your physician and/or dietician for guidance. Clearly, you would need to stay away from frozen drinks, as those have a ton of sugar. I would also recommend avoiding juice-based or mix-based drinks. I tend to go for vodka with seltzer, lime and a splash of cranberry. I'm not diabetic, but the sugary drinks tend to make me ill. Diet soda and rum, vodka, what-have-you, might also be good options. However, you still need to keep in mind that alcohol in any form has carbs, which can affect your blood sugar.

I survived a Costa Mediterranean cruise. I know rude crew and horrible food. Nothing can be as bad as Costa except maybe MSC.

We took a cruise on MSC last spring, and it was honestly one of our best. The price for a balcony cabin with beverage package made it one of the most economical we have ever taken. The Divina was a beautiful ship, we didn't meet a single staff member who was not ready and eager to assist, our cabin was a nice size and kept spotlessly clean (not an easy feat with our group!), and the food was among the best we have had at sea. I guess we each have our own unique experiences, and that is why I tend not to put much stock in reviews!

As a parent myself, I understand why the OP's family were upset. But my two cents is that clearly the child is fine, so perhaps it is time to move on. Honestly, if they were that concerned about the pill and what effects it might have on the child, why didn't they seek medical attention in Cozumel? Or at the very least bring the pill to a pharmacy there to see if they could identify it? We are now a week out from when the child took the pill and clearly it had no significant impact.

The OP stated that the child didn't feel himself after taking the pill and being treated. That could have been the pill, the charcoal, traveling, dehydration, something he ate, some germ he picked up, the list goes on and on. Sadly, post reads to me as though the family is more concerned about being compensated than they are about the child, who clearly has not suffered any long lasting ill effects.

We have not had the luxury of taking a vacation without DD because we simply don’t have anyone to leave her with. Grandmas are not interested! But, when DD was younger (less than a year through about 5) I traveled a few times a year for work, about a week or two at a time. As DD got older, she noticed my absences more, and I would end up having a quick chat with her and DH in the morning before work/school, then a FaceTime in the evening where I’d “read” her bedtime stories to her. I think others have given great advice, and that you should take each day as they come, and see what your kids want/need. That is what has worked best for us over the years.

Did you book through a TA? In our experience, it sometimes takes the TA a bit to get around to forwarding the docs.

It's also $22 for my Allure cruise in November. I thought $19 was ridiculous. Chops is now $49 on that cruise, which I think is absolutely insane. I guess if they keep raising prices people will buy the multi day packages because they think they're getting a good deal.

You might not be far off. I saw the 3 day package for $75 per person in my cruise planner and almost jumped on it. Still haven't completely shaken the idea of cancelling our FDNR purchase and going for this, instead. We have a free dinner in a specialty restaurant from our TA, so that would bring us up to four nights. My only real hesitation is that DH was kind of hoping that we'd get some good table mates in the MDR.

We have the deluxe package (and refreshment package for DH) and still went ahead and booked the Bottomless Galley Brunch today for our upcoming cruise. We read about it in a recent review of Liberty and thought it would be something fun to do as a family on a sea day. We tend to watch a lot of cooking shows at home and think this would be interesting!

We were going to book on board, but I decided to go ahead and grab it when I got the email from Royal about the current sale and saw it listed.

I believe that the reservation is a courtesy reservation, and you are not bound by it. You can change to a different restaurant based upon availability at the time you would like to dine.

If you booked your cruise before 2018 and add prepaid gratuities prior to setting sail, you will be grandfathered in at the old rate.

 

 

Right, with "PREPAID" being the operative word.....however, if you had not prepaid, you needed to pay before Jan. 2 and the old rate would be honored, otherwise, the new rate would apply regardless of when you booked.

 

That is not what the email says. It says:

 

We'd like to extend the opportunity to pre-pay your gratuities before your sale date at the current rate. If you'd like to pay onboard, you gratuity charge will be at the new rate.

 

I tend to read things on their face, and this clearly says to me that if I pay before my sailing, then I will get charged the old rate. If I pay onboard, I will get charged the new rate. This makes complete sense, it gives people the opportunity to pay the rate that was in effect at the time that they booked my cruise.

Sailed out of Galveston twice in January previous years. Both times the afternoon of the first sea day was very nice but the afternoon of the last sea day it started to cool down. I went to the hot tubs both embarkation days. In April I would think by mid morning of 1st sea day the weather should be good. Sailed mid May last year and it warmed up nicely an hour or two after sunrise on the 1st and cooled off around the same time before sunset on the last sea day. Enjoy.

Thanks for the info! We will have our 8 year old daughter with us, so are glad that we can likely look forward to decent temps for most of the cruise. There seems to be a good amount of activities on board, so I think we'll be able to entertain her until it warms enough for the pools/water slides.

We booked in October 2017 for our April 2018 sailing. The email I received from Royal states in pertinent part:

We'd like to extend the opportunity to pre-pay your gratuities before your sail date at the current rate. If you'd like to pay onboard, your gratuity charge applied will be at the new rate.

We plan to call our TA and pre-pay our gratuities when funding permits. Not so much so that we can save a few dollars, but more so that we have one less expense to worry about once onboard. I do appreciate that Royal is giving us the opportunity to do so at the rate that was applicable at the time we booked. However, we usually tip our servers, cabin attendant, bar staff, etc. above and beyond what is prepaid, and will certainly do so again on this trip to ensure that they are more fairly compensated and do not lose out because we chose to prepay.

First off, I agree with many of the previous posts. I would not consider cancelling the cruise for fear of not having enough floor space. There are plenty of ways to spend time outside of your cabin, and you most likely will be taking advantage of them since you have kids. Second, depending on which ship you are on, it might be worthwhile to keep checking to see not only whether any JS's open up, but also whether any different cabins in your category open up. Recently, I noticed two large aft D1s open up while I was checking for price drops, and was able to have our cabin changed to one of them as we had originally booked our family of three in a D1. Now we will have as much space as if we were in a JS, but at the D1 price.

Either way, a cruise (or any vacation) is what you make of it. If you go into it with a good attitude and think of it as an adventure, I'm sure you and your family will have a great time. To me, any time I don't have to walk the dogs, cook the meals, make the beds, etc. is a great time! :D

We are sailing 4/1/18. Galveston is not our first choice of port, but we decided to fly in to San Antonio to visit family first, then drive down to Houston/Galveston Saturday evening so we can board on Sunday. Any comments on what we might expect in terms of weather? I understand we might not be able to make use of the pool on embarkation day, but hopefully can at least hit the hot tubs, and enjoy some mini-golf and the rock wall, followed by the pools and slides for the first sea day.

Thanks for your review! We are excited to be sailing Liberty again on 4/1. We have not been on Liberty since her inaugural sailing and are looking forward to seeing what our 8 year old daughter thinks of the ship.

Welcome to Cruise Critic Hop77! I hope you enjoy your first Royal Caribbean cruise. Our first was on the Liberty of the Seas Inaugural sailing and we've been hooked since. We are booked to return to Royal after a several year hiatus (from Royal, not from cruising) and are looking forward to introducing our daughter to Liberty of the Seas in April. She is used to Celebrity, so I think this is going to be a bit of a treat for her!

disagree a champagne or mimosa or bloody mary is perfect way to start the day

When on vacation, this is a must! If you have a breakfast cocktail or two in the morning, a few drinks by the pool, a pre-dinner cocktail, wine with dinner, post-dinner cocktail(s), you will break even on your package. If you spread them out and throughout the day and be sure to drink water, as well, you will be fine. Have fun!

My husband and I will be in GC in April with our 8 year old daughter. She desperately wants to parasail. Is either one, RP or CJ a better bet for finding and operator?

Dan - Thanks so much for the info about the galley tour. That is something we’ve never done and sounds quite interesting. We’ll definitely keep a look out for it and ask our wait staff about it.

Great review. We are sailing Liberty 4/1 and looking forward to it!

Can you tell me a bit more about the galley tour? How much was it? When was it offered? Do you need to book that in advance of sailing?

Thank you!

We have always been told that the ship is at full capacity when we check in, but that we could check with guest services later in case of a no-show.

No, it's just like an airline schedule, the arrival time is based on the local time at the arrival location.

Perfect. Thanks! And again, sorry for being so slow this morning!

Once on the ship, times are in ship time, which can vary cruise to cruise based on the Captain's decision to change the ship clock. However, when publishing an itinerary long before the cruise, the company says that the itinerary schedule is in local time at the time of the cruise.

Just so I'm clear (and I apologize for being a bit slow here!), the itinerary lists arrival time as 7:00am. So that means the ship is scheduled to arrive at 7:00am Galveston time (CST)? And thanks for the info. Very helpful!

Personally, I wouldn't do it. For us, $2,000 would go a long way toward another vacation! There is no guarantee that you'll get beyond a JS, and the minimal perks with that cabin, plus the loss of your privacy and second bathroom just don't seem worth it to me.

We are sailing on Liberty over spring break and I have kept checking for price drops to see whether the JS drops to a price I could justify for my family, but it hasn't. However, with my continual checking, I was able to find and move us into another cabin of the same category we were already booked into (D1) that is a corner aft, meaning it has a larger interior and balcony, and is essentially the same size as a JS.

If you are on the fence about things, which it sounds like you are since you are asking for advice, I would say don't do it. Save the money, but just keep checking back. You never know what might become available from one day to the next.

We have used Know Jamaica a few times. Once, many years ago, to go to Dunns River Falls and then I believe river tubing. Most recently last spring just to Dunns River Falls. Both times they were excellent. Marva is very responsive to email, and they were quite easy to find once we got off the ship. I can't speak to what you might ask them to do besides what you already have planned, but I would not hesitate to recommend booking with them. I'm sure that Marva can assist with suggestions.