Just the Two of Us -- Liberty Sept 9, 2018

We had 2 sea days out of Galveston then Roatan, Costa Maya and Cozumel followed by one more sea day.

 

I’ll have extensive reviews of out our port excursions coming up!

 

 

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Looking forward to reading about them, I will be visiting Roatan and Costa Maya for the very first time aboard Harmony next December :)

(Btw, I have that

This will help my PCD/PCD (Post Cruise Depression/Pre Cruise Desperation) quite nicely. Beautiful pics. We love Liberty. We're with you on formal night. With friends, we'll do one night. When it's just us, we're over it now. The great thing about Texas based cruises is that no one really gets bent out of shape over it. I see more people complaining about it on Florida departures.

The Drink Package Manifesto

The “value” of purchasing a drink package is constantly debated and analyzed. In the end it will always come down to a personal preference. We purchased the drink package at the last minute. We were going to go without it, but several factors combined to change our minds.

First the hassle of purchasing water, wine and Coke Zero pre-boarding. We flew in on sailing day and our flight got in at 10am. You cannot buy wine in Texas before noon on a Sunday and then only at a grocery store. We were taking an Uber to Galveston and were going to need to time it so that we got to the Kroger on the Seawall after noon, which meant sitting around the airport waiting for a while after we landed. Second, RCCL changed their official beverage policy the week before we sailed. Now they “officially” allow you to bring soda and water onboard. Unofficially they have been allowing this forever. But the change was that you can no longer check the water and soda with your baggage. You must carry it onboard with you and lug it around until your room is ready. Third, they are now specifying how much water and soda you can bring onboard and it was not enough for us to last the entire cruise. With the logistical issues of an Uber stop at the store and the fact we already had 4 pieces of luggage to maneuver we just gave in and purchased the Deluxe Package at a total cost of $743.40 for the two of us. That’s $53.10/day with gratuities. Keep in mind different ships have different price points on the packages.

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What can I drink on the Liberty in Texas?

One reason I initially didn’t want to purchase a package was that I had read that when you are in Texas and up to 12 nautical miles away from Texas all you can drink is beer and wine because of all the crazy state liquor laws. Well, that’s not true. It is true that there is a limited selection of drinks available on day one, but it is not limited to beer and wine. There are numerous cocktails available and they have a printed bar menu for Texas day. There was plenty to choose from.

Another issue is that on Liberty there are no Coke Freestyle machines. So, you cannot get all the different kinds of flavors and combinations that are available on other ships. The good news is that because there are no Freestyle machines…they aren’t broken down all the time forcing you to walk all over the ship, cup in hand, searching for soda. They did have my soda of choice, Coke Zero, but not on the pour from the soda machine, only in cans. You get about half a can in a typical soda with ice from the bar. They will not give you the can. And sometimes they run out of Zero at various bar locations. If you are paying for soda by the drink this would get expensive at $3.84 a glass (nearly $8 for a can of Coke Zero!). At the very least a soda drinker needs to purchase the soda beverage package.

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Thinkin’ ‘Bout Drinkin’

Despite the list that’s coming up, we really aren’t big drinkers. In fact, I have never been drunk in my life. A few years ago, I actually had a New Year’s Resolution to drink MORE alcoholic drinks! I don’t drink much when we are at home and I never drink beer. On this trip we decided to try a lot of different drinks. I have a pretty extensive list of drinks available on RCCL so we went through it and picked out drinks we wanted to try. I can honestly say I only had a couple of drinks that I didn’t really like and basically wasted. All the others were good, and I’d order them again.

Yes, of course we drank way more than we would have without the package. Because shelling out over $14 a cocktail would have deterred me from having very many of them. I just would have spent the whole cruise drinking soda on the soda package. I would never have ordered fresh OJ at breakfast and I wouldn’t have experimented with trying new drinks. My wife would have probably got a soda package too and she would have purchased coffee drinks and wine with dinner. And she drinks lots of bottled water. In the end the package is super convenient and flexible. You just get whatever you want whenever you want it. You don’t have to run back to your room to get a soda or a glass of wine. When you are walking off the ship on port days you grab some water. We only cruise about once a year so it’s just becoming part of the cost of a cruise for us.

We probably would have had a few more drinks but there were a couple of other factors that limited us, and especially my wife, on some of the days. She had a migraine on day one and she got a bit sick (not really from drinking) on the last sea day and spent most of the afternoon in the cabin. That evening she bounced back but was in no mood to drink. We also had a different style of excursion set up for this cruise. Typically, we do very active things in port. Excursion one on this trip was zip lines, so no drinking there! But the next two port days involved drinks and relaxation more than activity. We drank on excursions, so we didn’t drink as much when we returned to the ship.

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Rocket Fail

One HUGE gripe about the Liberty and Johnny Rockets. The Deluxe package now includes milkshakes from JRs. I have seen other reviews from Harmony (following Harmony reviews because that is our next cruise) that clearly say you can walk into JRs and order a shake on your beverage package and walk out with a shake – no additional charges, just like ordering any other drink with your beverage package. You CANNOT do this on Liberty! We were told twice that in order to use our package for a shake we had to pay the JRs cover charge of $11+ and order food. Then, if we paid for the food the shake was covered under our beverage package. I was not happy about this and I don’t understand why there are different policies on this within the fleet.

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The Last Straw

A quick word about straws. Every bar has a little sign that says they are not giving out straws with drinks. I actually brought my own set of stainless-steel straws to use because I couldn’t understand how we were supposed to drink a frozen cocktail without a straw. The way it played out was that all frozen drinks were given straws. Other drinks like say a rum and coke were not given straws. As the week went on it seemed that more straws were provided, especially in drinks that needed to be mixed a bit. One time the bartender mixed the drink with a spoon but most of the time they would grab a small stir straw and then they just left it in the drink. Sodas never got straws, even when we got grenadine added which means that we had to try and mix that up ourselves or all the cherry would be at the bottom of the glass. You can always request a straw with any drink.

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The Final Count

When I ran the numbers after our cruise the grand total was $806.24. That’s $62.84 more than our package cost. Also, if we did purchase every drink we had without a drink package we would have paid $11.31 more in gratuities. Again, we would not have purchased that many drinks paying per drink. But we would have purchased at least the soda package and we would have wanted to have some cocktails, lattes and wine. As I said, its personal preference and the value you put on convenience.

Here’s the list!

Day 1 Texas

Mudslide

Frozen Mojito

Guava Rita 2

Bahama Papa

Texas Iced Tea

Zacapa Rum & Coke (Ron Zacapa Guatemalan Rum, Very Good)

Coke Zero 3

Water 4

Day 2 Sea Day

Latte

OJ

Water 3

Coke Zero 6

Pina Colada w/ Baileys

Kraken Colada 2

Corona

Zacapa Rum & Coke

Tropical Old Fashioned

Spiced Daiquiri

Zacapa Dream

Starbucks Americano

Amaretto Sour

Day 3 Sea Day

OJ

Latte

Coke Zero 3

Kraken Colada

Moscato 2

Water 2

Zacapa Rum & Coke

Brandy Alexander

Tropical Old Fashioned

Amaretto Sour

Day 4 Roatan

OJ

Water

Coke Zero 6

Pina Colada w/Bailey’s 2

Kraken Colada

B52

Pimms British Cup

Kahlua & Cream

Day 5 Costa Maya (All inclusive beach day with lots of fresh fruit drinks)

Latte

Coke Zero 4

Pimms British cup

Moscato 2

American Dream

Day 6 Cozumel (Bar Hop excursion)

OJ

Latte

Water

Coke Zero 4

Kraken Colada

Miami Vice

Moscato

Zacapa Rum & Coke

Kahlua & Cream

White Russian

Day 7 Sea Day

OJ

Coke Zero 2

Water 3

Latte 2

Blue Hawaii

Starboard Madras 2

Kraken Colada 2

Pomegranate Gin Fizz

Tropical Old Fashioned

Day 8 Texas Disembark

Latte

Coke Zero

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Doing Different Dining

 

With the groups we typically go to the MDR for dinner. In fact, we had only eaten at WJ once for dinner in our previous 4 cruises. We like the MDR for our groups because we all sit in the same area and we switch up tables every night. We have had no real complaints about the MDR food in the past.

 

This time we wanted to do it a bit different since it was, just the two of us. We wound up in the MDR only 3 times on this cruise. We did notice the menu seemed to be different and some of the things we liked from previous sailings seemed to be missing. Escargot wasn’t an every night option. There seemed to be fewer choices. We found things to satisfy us, but we weren’t committed to MDR every night so when the menu didn’t appeal to us we went to the Jammer.

 

We never knew ahead of time what the “dinner theme” in the Jammer would be and that’s too bad. I wish that computer display the menu boards included the WJ but they didn’t. We hit on Cajun night, and Mexican night which we enjoyed. I can’t remember the theme of the our other WJ meals, but we always found something we liked.

 

We did eat at Chops as part of the First Night Done Right promotion. When I booked it, the choices were supposed to be between Chops and Giovanni’s. However, when we got on board the choice was Chops or Sabor. Giovanni’s had some kind of dinner mystery event going on and wasn’t an option. We chose Chops. It was our 3rd dinner at Chops dating back to our first Allure cruise in 2013. Lot’s of things have changed about Chops in 5 short years. The menu is much smaller in scope and choice. The portions that were once ridiculously huge are now almost too small. The red velvet cake was gone from the menu. We had plenty to eat, nobody can starve on a cruise ship after all. The steak was fine but not outstanding in any way. My DW had the lamb and it was ok but not quite done enough for her tastes. The tater tots were good, but we had very few of them. The crab cake was again, smaller than it used to be and not really anything I’d rave about. And when I asked about the Red Velvet I got a rambling half understandable answer that said in part, we can’t get the right ingredients to make the cake and no baker in the port can make them to our standards, so we don’t have it on the menu. The best things we had at Chops were the bacon appetizer and my DW loved her goat cheese salad. I could eat a whole meal of just the bacon! We only paid $20 each for Chops on the special first night deal so that’s fine. If I had paid full price I think I would feel I paid too much for this meal.

 

We did breakfasts in both MDR and Jammer and they were fine. We ate some Sorrento’s pizza which is always a good snack. Wish they had more than just cheese and peperoni. Missed the Boardwalk Hotdogs from the Oasis class.

 

I finally did it. After 4 cruises of always adhering to the “suggested” dress code I punted and wore some dress shorts in the MDR. I don’t think I ruined anyone else’s dinner or made their cruise any less enjoyable, but I appreciated not having to wear long pants in tropical heat. And then the second formal night came around, we skipped formal night number 1. At the last minute I packed a long-sleeved dress shirt and tie. So, I put it on and was waiting for DW to get ready. Even just sitting in the cabin I was hot. I finally said I can’t do it. I am not going to be hot all evening. I put on a nice island style shirt and ditched the long sleeves and tie. There were people in shorts on formal night, not too many but a few. I really thought at this time of year with a large contingent of non-family cruisers that it might be a bit more formal, but it really wasn’t. I am so over formal night.

The tropical heat must have been blasting in the air conditioned dining room. Next for me is jammies on formal night!

I'm really enjoying reading your review and beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing! :D

What's a kraken colada? And oh man a pinacolada with bailey's sounds dangerously yummy. You missed a great frozen one though - Bushwhacker.

What's a kraken colada? And oh man a pinacolada with bailey's sounds dangerously yummy. You missed a great frozen one though - Bushwhacker.

Bailey’s pina colada is very good. But the Kraken...soooo good.

It is pina colada, grenadine and Kraken spiced rum.

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What's a kraken colada? And oh man a pinacolada with bailey's sounds dangerously yummy. You missed a great frozen one though - Bushwhacker.

Lol! Randy! Was this not the first question I asked you when you first posted this on your FB? :'):')

Wolfgang, it sounds like something I want to try!

Wow! Your math and writing skills are amazing! I never would have been able to figure out what we spent versus what we would have spent and then calculating the gratuity difference. :D

I am so impressed with folks that can do complicated spreadsheets and keep track of these things. I am always in awe of your reviews and group coordination. :D:D

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We also did the family and friends cruise last Jan,good times. Our next Cruise will be Wife and myself, southern route out of San Juan on the Freedom. PS I like that KC CHIEFS uniform, GO CHIEFS.

South Shore Zipline – Roatan, Honduras

We booked this tour through Royal Caribbean because they offered a combo of Zuperman, Canopy Zips and Eco Walk that I did not see offered directly from South Shore.

Transportation to and from the site was comfortable. Because we were on a ship tour our whole group boarded the busses at once so there was no waiting around.

The facility is nice and was larger than I thought from looking at the pictures. The canopy zips are at the main building and the Eco tour is there as well. Just up the hill is the Zuperman area. There are lockers for $2 and they can hold quite a bit of stuff if necessary. Every leg of the tour came back to the main building, so we could access our lockers between the different phases of the tour. After each portion of the tour there was a short ride in a truck transport back to the main area.

Our group started with the Zuperman which are side by side zips where you lay flat in a superman position. This is great for couples because they start you off at the same time. I was able to get a couple of good shots of my wife with the camera as we zipped. There are 2 zips on this course and both provide great above the canopy views.

Next up is the main canopy tour which I believe had 13 zips. The course is well constructed with adequate walkways and platforms. Be aware you will need to jump up a bit to clip in and out sometimes and there is some walking and climbing stairs. Also, this is a glove break course, so you will be given heavy gloves to help you slow down. Some of the zips had breaking blocks but not all of them. It is a zipline course after all so some physical abilities are needed. The course is fun and cuts right through the forest at many different heights crisscrossing itself several times. It is a very pretty area for zipping. We also got to do an upside-down zip in tandem with one of the guides. That something we had never been able to do before on zips we have done in the US.

The pace is very fast. Much faster than any tour I’ve done in the states. Typically, the tours we have done have a max of 3 guides per group of 10 or so zippers. This tour had 5 guides for our group. The only issue I had was that sometimes the pace was too fast, and the line wasn’t totally cleared before the next zipper was on line. That is an issue. For example, I did a short zip and while on the exit platform my carabiner got jammed somehow and was not coming unclipped. I was stuck on the platform and the guide was struggling to get me clear. Meanwhile another zipper was on the line and coming in fast. Luckily that guy was good a controlling his speed and braked hard enough to avoid a collision with me on the platform. At this point we had 2 people on the platform still on line and they sent a third zipper. I finally got unclipped and so did the next guy before the third zipper arrived on the platform. That would be unacceptable in the zips I’ve done stateside. We always cleared the line completely before the next person was allowed to zip. Yes, it takes a bit longer to do it that way, but it is the safest way. I didn’t feel that this was an unsafe course at all, but the pace was right at the edge of my comfort level a couple of times. They did always wait until the zipper was at the platform before sending the next person but really, they should wait until they are unclipped and the exit platform signals to the launch platform the all clear. Collisions on a zipline can be deadly or at the very least they will hurt like heck.

After the zips were done we got a drink and regrouped for the Eco Tour portion. We had a different guide for this section and she walked us along a well-constructed path below all the ziplines. There were several suspended bridges to walk and they were bouncy but safe. We did see some wildlife and lots of flora etc. We had a mostly overcast day, but this could get pretty hot if the sun was out at full strength.

One other thing to be prepared for is tips. No one on the tour was inappropriate or pushy about tips. I want to state that very clearly. But the number of people to tip on this excursion was well beyond what I had prepared for with the cash I brought. We had a driver and guide to and from the port, 5 zipline guides, an eco walk guide and 3 drivers (not sure how many different people this was but at least 2) on the various trips between legs of the tour. That’s 10 or 11 people if you are scoring at home! I always tip guides but really this place needs to have a pooled tip system of some kind. I wasn’t 100% sure who all our zip guides were once we got back to the facility. Apparently they do have a tip box but it was never mentioned and I never saw it.

It was a very good tour and a ton of fun. I’d recommend it My only advice is to slow it down just a bit for safety.

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The reason I don't have many pictures is because I was busy filming! Here's a short video of the Zuperman zips and a few of the canopy zips.

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Costa Maya – Maya Chan

Every aspect of our experience a Maya Chan was first rate. They have an informative website and answer promptly for pre-visit information. They provided an email with extensive information about seagrass in the Caribbean well in advance of our visit. This kind of communication is hard to come by and much appreciated by people like me who plan vacation activities months if not years in advance.

When we arrived, the resort had experienced some very heavy weather, causing serious erosion to their beach and forcing them to close for a couple of days. We were the first group back post storm. When we got to the pick-up site we were given information about the conditions of the beach and the presence of seagrass. We were shown pictures of the beach and the water clarity and given the option of a refund if we wanted to forgo the day at the resort. We decided to stick with the plan and head to Maya Chan.

The trip to the resort was a bit bumpy but I grew up driving on gravel roads, so it wasn’t a big deal. We passed lots of areas where the seagrass was piled high on the beach and smelled pretty bad. I was a bit concerned that our day would not be that great as we drove farther down the beach.

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We arrived and were greeted by the owner and welcomed. We toured the area which was very well kept and clean. We were shown to our reserved chairs and given drinks and food. I was amazed at all the obvious hard work that had been done to get ready for tourists to return. Yes, the water was not crystal blue and yes, there was some seagrass around but not much. We also appreciated the wifi that had a good signal most of the time. Don’t miss going up in the crow’s nest and having a look over the whole resort.

It was such a nice day on the beach. No pushy vendors, no constant traffic of people walking by, no real worries about having your stuff messed with while you weren’t looking. We relaxed and enjoyed the view, the food and drinks.

The food was outstanding. It was freshly prepared on site and you could smell it cooking. It was the best meal we had on the whole vacation. Visit the website for a complete description of the menu.

The drinks were very good, not your Island Oasis mixed drinks. I don’t think there was much alcohol content to a lot of the drinks because I had seven that day and felt no real effects. I prefer it that way, so it was perfect for me. Others might want to go directly to the bar and order up drinks where you could request some additional rum etc. And there is an Oreo Cookie drink that is not on the menu. Ask for it!

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There are plenty of activities to do if you choose. Kayaks and paddle boards are plentiful, and the staff will assist you and help you get going. We enjoyed just relaxing and talking to the owner, the staff and some of the other guests. There is a box for a group tip which is also very nice since so many different staff helped us that day.

We usually travel with a group, but this visit was, just the two of us. You can bet that when we return to Costa Maya with a crew, we will be coming back to Maya Chan. They know exactly the kinds of things that tourists want: good communication and directions, English speaking staff, private and not overcrowded beach, wifi, great food and drinks, attentive but never pushy staff, seamless transportation to and from the port and a very reasonable price. I really don’t know how you could beat this combination.

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We booked a cruise just to specifically to go back to maya chan.

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The Goat Cheese was a huge hit with Amy. Really the salad and the bacon were the best things at Chops. And if you think about it, that is kinda sad...

I say this about restaurants all the time...if I leave a steakhouse or BBQ place raving about the sides, that's a problem. I feel the same about Chops. We love the bacon, the salad is great, and the ice cream sundae. The steak is just a steak. Very sad.

Cozumel Bar Hop

Normally the tag line of, “We Drive You To Drink” wouldn’t be of great interest to me. Nor would the name of the tour itself attract my attention, “Cozumel Bar Hop.” I very easily might have passed it by in my research for our cruise stop in Cozumel but something caught my eye on Trip Advisor and I had a look. I’m glad I did.

The Bar Hop was a great day full of fun, beautiful scenery, and nice people. The point isn’t some out of control party bus so much as it is a guided tour of the “other side” of Cozumel. You know, the side without electricity that’s almost totally undeveloped. Yeah, that side.

We met downtown so if you get off your ship early you can have time to roam around and see the touristy stuff. Or you could buy an $8K Breitling watch or some expensive gold and silver. But at 10:30 the Bar Hop bus rolls so you want to be on it! And by the way, first rate transportation very clean and comfortable.

DW saw a price tag on this watch that had $910. She asked the salesman if that was the price of the watch? “No, that is the price for the watch band.”

We headed out to on the road that bisects the island going to the East side. Along the way our guide Colleen told us all kinds of things about the tour, the island, her personal connection to Cozumel and what we would be doing at each stop. She was funny and informative. At each stop she made it a point to touch base with each group of hoppers to ensure everything was going well.

We made our way to the wild side of the island and let me just say it is like another world over there. Far from the craziness of the port and downtown areas. Peaceful and beautiful are words that come to mind.

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Each stop was unique and interesting. PUNTA MORENA was almost a complete resort – without the hotel. Lots of area to roam around and some shops as well. You could easily spend the day right here. The drink was a Mayan Sacrifice and it was excellent, I screwed up by not ordering one of these and got something else instead. My bad, I’ll know better next time.

Be sure and set on the swings at the bar!

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