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Lovers of Liberty - Liberty of the Seas 4/22 Review


wsbond
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Just got off the lovely Liberty of the Seas yesterday. Here is my recap.

About the group: I’m Whitney, 34 and on my 5th cruise with Royal. I traveled with my mom who has a funky cast on a broken arm. She is in her late 60’s, moves slow but still a heck of a good travel buddy. Josh and Chrystal- Friends of mine from high school who I got addicted to cruising.

About me: I am sassy, not afraid to tell you my opinion and get upset with people who complain about things on cruises such as food and the overall lack of blessings of our 1st world problems. I try to get the best deal on a vacation, choose an interior room because I like sleeping in a cave and love the bargain that cruising is.

Embarkation: Left Austin around 7am to pick up friends in Houston. Was on the ship having lunch in the Windjammer by 12:30. Really smooth process, the new terminal looks great. Traffic leading in to luggage drop-off was more than I remember. Galveston Park n’ Cruise is the only way to go. How on earth does Galveston continue to get away with such a shoddy port? Will it ever get better? How can we ever accommodate bigger ships and more people with no transportation and one way in and one way out?

Room- Interior, 8355. AMAZING LOCATION. Was a little nervous as on the map this is the first room on the hall with a blank space next to it. Was very curious to what the blank space was. Well it was an island of quiet and no noise. Would recommend this room to anybody. The location is just perfect if you are an midship to back of the ship person.

Room Steward- Nothing impressive to write home about. His service was great but nothing exceptional. He was able to accommodate my mom’s many needs due to that broken arm so I will give him props for that.

Bed-Way to firm for this precious angel baby bear. Room steward provided me with a comforter to put down after night one and it was perfect.

Dining/Table- We had the late dining at 8pm. When booking asked for a table of 8. Sent in my email to dining services ensuring our table was with adults and to confirm it was a table of 8! Went to go check out the dining room on day one and we had a table for 4. Went to the maitre d’ and had it switched to a table of ten. We then thought about it and thought that table was too big so went back and got switched to a table of 6. This was the biggest blessing of all as we loved our table mates John and Debbie. Carlos and Thomas were our waiters and they were beyond wonderful.

Food- I thought the food was great. Yes, escargot is only on the menu for 5 nights which made me sad. However, all I had to do was ask the waiter for them on the nights they were off the menu and I had escargot. The escargot was better on the nights it was not offered on the menu than the nights when it was there to order. Crab Cake- was sad it wasn’t there the first few nights, told the head waiter and we had several crab cakes delivered to the table each night, whether it was on or off the menu. Now I paid well under 1k for this cruise and to me the food was perfect for my value. As said before I am a value cruiser. My prime rib was huge both nights I had it, the lobster tails were better than the ones I had in a restaurant in Roatan. Variety was there and I chose to have pasta almost every night! The starers were amazing an were the hardest to choose from. The French Onion soup was amazing as well. The chocolate cookie kicks any warm chocolate cake to the curb and is legit my new favorite dessert on the ship.

We did lunch in the dining room for the amazing tutti salad bar. We noticed the goat cheese and smoked salmon wasn’t on the salad bar any more. We were upset but asked the head waiter about it that night at dinner. He custom ordered it for us to have the next day at lunch for the 4 of us. Midway through our lunch after speaking to our waiter we got no less than 2 lbs of smoked salmon and tons of goat cheese for lunch that day. We repeated the order for the last sea day and were pleased with the results.

Breakfast every morning in the dining room which was stellar as well. The pancakes and french toast were the only things we didn’t like and the challah bread passed by the waiters is super delicious.

Snacks were the only meal we had in the WJ besides our embarkation lunch. My first bite of food on every cruise is their french fries as they are my favorite. Snacks daily of scones, bread pudding and the amazing sweet rolls.

We had milkshakes several times in Johnny Rockets and then sat up there and played cards. It was just lovely.

Sorrentos isn’t the worlds greatest pizza but it fits in a pinch! Had a few sandwiches in the Cafe Promenade which were fine. We would still like more late night food options.

If there is something there that you don’t see or want, please ask before complaining. Everything I could have ever wanted food wise to make my vacation complete was done at the drop of a hat, all I had to do was ask. Two mornings in a row I asked for cartons of chocolate milk. The waiter went up to the windjammer to get it for me, same with a donut. The staff is happy to serve you if you are kind, gracious, provide a smile and are nice in your ask.

Drinks; I had plenty of ship credit and had always planned on buying a drink card which they offered on day 4. I realized I didn’t need that much to drink and had some casual virgin pina coladas ($4.72) and on the last night I ordered my favorite bees knees from the pub. I drank my weight in lemonade at dinner each night.

Entertainment: Went to several shows but skipped out on several. This is the first time on this vacation I told myself and actually listened that I didn’t have to go to every show or do everything. Napping counted as a show for me! The comedian was pretty decent, in the air is not to be missed, Saturday Night Fever was great for what it was but was missing a lot and really didn’t leave you satisfied with seeing a musical. I thought the cruise director was a little loose but learned this was only his second week on the ship and he was there as a fill in for an emergency. I can only imagine being thrown into that position for two weeks so I get where some of his challenges were.

Did the green water slide. Definitely meant for those littler people as I really felt like i was on a lazy river slide and not a fast fun slide. Still cool as all get out that there is a waterslide on the ship!

Did the hotter once and never set foot in the pool at all.

Ports: Roatan- did a spa day at Spa Baan Suerte. DO IT. This was my second time there and it has changed immensely in the 3 years I have been there and the changes are for the amazing. I got a, salt scrub massage, a facial (not an American facial, more like a nice face wash and a mask) all on a palapa over the water including transportation for under $200. Did I mention the massage was 90 minutes and amazing. Please for the love of your life go here. The lady who runs it now is very responsive, polite an knows her hospitality. Jesse was my technician and I would recommend her any day. My 90 minute massage was one of the best of my life and I get a massage once a month, so I have had A LOT of massages. After your amazing spa treatment walk out to the beach and take a left and go two doors down and have an amazing lobster lunch at the Blue Bahai. I got two lobster tails and fries for $13. It was on special that day but it was yummy.

Costa Maya- Maya Chan. We had palapa 4 an didn’t want to leave. It was beyond relaxing, the weather was perfect. We didn’t love how a lot of the drinks came with cinnamon on them but they kindly made new ones for us. I tried several drinks and really was impressed with all of them except for the pina colada. Something about their mix did not taste good to me. Lunch was authentic and amazing. I’m still thinking about those fish tacos and the homemade tortillas. You will not regret going there.

Cozumel- Naachi Cocum. Another great day there. I did notice they started letting in more people but we got a nice shady spot and service was wonderful. Their miami vices are to die for and the food was great. You can have it delivered to your area or have it in the main palapa more like a restaurant. That is what we did and we loved it.

Debarkation: Smooth as all get out. We did self assist, Our call time was supposed to be between 8:20 and 8:40. We were called all before 8 and were in our cars by 8:45. It went perfect.

Another great cruise and I am already looking/thinking/planning on the next one.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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We also did Maya Chan Beach, and Nachi Cocum during our January cruise. Wonderful all-inclusive’s.

 

Our waiter and assistant waiter we’re also fantastic in the main dining room, our best so far. We thought that the service overall was a step above the norm. Glad you had such a great cruise and enjoyed all of it!

 

Dan

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Thank you for the review. Hardly anybody talks about this ship on CC. It will be our first RC cruise. Sounds like we will have a great time.

We are used to Galveston from our sailings on Carnival Freedom. I love Park and Cruise. Not really that much more $ for covered secure parking.

 

Sent from my FRD-L04 using Forums mobile app

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Nice review. We enjoy the Liberty of the Seas and have another cruise booked for December over Christmas week.

 

I have one question. You said "Did the hotter once and never set foot in the pool at all."

What is a hotter?

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City of Galveston is making every effort to move parking decisions to their lots and away from the private enterprise lots. They increased taxes, altered the exit flow....more concerned with income than passenger convenience. We will never book the city's lots, always use EZCruise.

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Thanks for the great review. Our cruise comes in just a couple of weeks and we wanted to know about someone who had gone on the ship recently. We have gone on the Liberty before and have liked her just not recently. We are taking our kids and g-kids on this trip as a Christmas trip, should be fun. :cool:

 

I am glad you enjoyed your time onboard, hope your Mom did as well.

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