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Review: 7-Night Western Cruise on Liberty of the Seas (with 150+ Pictures!)


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Liberty of the Seas Review

 

Itinerary: 7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise (Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica)

Sail Date: January 21, 2018

Departure Port: Galveston, Texas

Stateroom: 1282

 

Last March, I wrote my first Cruise Critic review on our 5-Night Empress of the Seas cruise. I had an absolute blast reliving the cruise and interacting with y'all on this site, so I just got'ta write another one! I'm going to TRIPLE the pictures from the last review. That's right, same cost to you, the reader, for THREE TIMES the value. You're welcome. (Unless you dislike the pictures... in that case, I'm sorry.)

 

Background

My wife and I are in our early 30's and were Emerald C&A members. (It's official, we're Diamond now with this cruise completed!) This is my first cruise in the month of January - an idea from my better half to cruise over my birthday. Normally I'd scoff at the idea of celebrating my birthday, but this was different - we were going on a cruise!

 

From the Beginning...

We left our cold and dreary home in southeast Michigan the day before. Although DTW is a Delta hub, we strangely had a layover in Atlanta. :confused: For you Family Guy fans out there, I'm reminded of

 

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Gazing down the McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport

 

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I'm not a professional photographer, but I believe this is "good lighting"

 

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The beautiful Mrs. UMDelt and me… oh, and some stranger too in the background

 

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That darn layover *&@#$!!!

 

 

COMING UP NEXT:

Santa Claus during the off-season (yes, you read that correctly)

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Liberty of the Seas Review - Continued

 

Santa Sighting!

Have you ever asked yourself where Kris Kringle travels during the off-season? Well, I haven’t. Which is why I didn’t bother to ask Santa about his layover in Atlanta.

 

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Hmm, I’m thinking a golf trip of some sort…?

 

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Interesting ceiling art within the connecting tunnels

 

My DW was in the mood for some sushi. Normally I don’t think "P. F. Chang’s” when picking top sushi joints, but hey… when in Rome… umm, I mean Atlanta International Airport…

 

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I didn’t want my picture taken

 

 

COMING UP NEXT:

Day 2: Leaving for Liberty of the Seas!

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Liberty of the Seas Review - Continued

 

Driving to Galveston from Houston Hobby reminded me of the cruises I’ve taken out of Port Canaveral from Orlando/MCO. Slightly shorter distance, but you still had to board a bus for a long ride. Okay, 45 minutes or so isn’t a “long ride,” but I was anxious to get on that ship! :)

 

Traffic was light getting to the port (around noon), so certainly no complaints there. In fairness, I swear our bus driver took a shortcut in downtown Galveston to avoid a long left turn lane into the terminal. I’d like to think that’s what happened :D

 

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Just off the bus

 

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Love the Texas flag on the bridge wing!

 

Curb-to-ship was about 30 minutes for us. The security line long was rather long, but we were able to bypass most of the wait as suite guests.

 

Almost immediately after checking-in, we were asked about drink packages, internet, and speciality dining. This was right in the terminal too. I’ve read here on CC that Royal has stepped up their “hard sell” game, and that theory holds true here! Chops Grille staffers were really, really pressing the speciality dinning packages on us… even after I said we had already purchased one! Not a big deal, but that did stand out a bit.

 

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I love this moment… the last few steps before you’re on the ship!

 

The Texas pride - from both the passengers and crew - was absolutely fantastic. Even the captain sported a Texas bow-tie as part of his uniform on formal nights. (Sorry, no picture.)

 

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COMING UP NEXT:

Our stateroom!

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Liberty of the Seas Review - Continued

 

Our rooms were ready around 1:30PM. We booked Grand Suite #1282, located on the starboard side of the ship between the forward and aft elevators. (View Deck Plan)

 

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I wrote earlier that I’m not big on celebrating my birthday. My wife knows this, so naturally she conspired with my own mother against me. For the record, the Royal-purchased decorations were their idea, and not mine. Although I do have to admit, I did bring a big smile to my face. (But don’t tell them… I got’ta play the tough guy on this one.)

 

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COMING UP NEXT:

More stateroom pictures

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Liberty of the Seas Review - Continued

 

More surprises for us…

 

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Birthday cake (in case a caption was needed)

 

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I honestly have no idea where the strawberries came from… there was no note. But loved them!

 

The birthday surprise even came with fruit. Nah, kidding. It’s not birthday fruit. It’s just juicy, “suite” fruit. (I can hear the boo’s already from that joke.)

 

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COMING UP NEXT:

We depart Galveston… in dense fog…

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Liberty of the Seas Review - Continued

 

The muster drill and departure overall was uneventful. We watched the sail away from the best view in the house: our balcony.

 

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Pulling away from the pier

 

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U.S. Coast Guard

 

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Overlooking Galveston, TX

 

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The Carnival Breeze is only an arm’s reach away, but yet partially hidden by fog

 

Fog really started to thicken as we set out into the Gulf. Liberty was blowing her horn every few minutes all throughout the evening.

 

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Looking forward - the bridge wing is even somewhat hard to see

 

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Looking aft - can’t see the extended Windjammer windows

 

 

COMING UP NEXT:

Dinner in the MDR on the first evening

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We're boarding Liberty next week. Not in a suite, a balcony, but following your review will add to my excitement.

 

Awesome! Although I just got off Liberty, I'm still jealous of you ;p She's a great ship and the crew was AMAZING.

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We were on this cruise too, in a balcony on starboard side. Interested to see how your review compares to our experience. Thanks for all the photos.

 

Awesome! Likewise, curious about your experiences too - keep chiming in with your experiences throughout the review :D

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Liberty of the Seas Review - Continued

 

The Return of Pepper Ginder

I thought the pepper grinders were a cost savings measure onboard Royal ships? Not only are they back (on Liberty, at least) but each waiter had a little “holster” for his/her pepper grinder. Pepper quick draw! :D

 

I just had to have some fresh ground pepper with my appetizer and entrée.

 

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French onion soup

 

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Prime rib, with the largest helping of horseradish I’ve ever had

 

DW and I were very satisfied with our MDR meal the first evening. We both ordered the same thing, so I can only speak to the Prime Rib and French Onion Soup :D

 

 

COMING UP NEXT:

Day 2: Our first sea day

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I'm following along and enjoying your review. We enjoy pampered in the "suite" life and have cruised in GS and OS on different ships.

 

The last time we were on the LOS, we used our card to go into the DL but our card was not needed to get into the Suite Lounge.

 

Did you have to use your sea pass card to get into the Suite Lounge?

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Did you have to use your sea pass card to get into the Suite Lounge?

 

Yep :)

 

We went into the Suite Lounge only a few times. There was one occasion where we entered and had the concierge greet us by name. I suspect he was able to use his computer to see who had just "badged in" to lounge. Otherwise, I would have no idea how he'd know our names.

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Liberty of the Seas Review - Continued

 

Day two. Sea day. These are my favorite days and I love to take full advantage by doing a lot of NOTHING. More accurately, doing “very little,” starting with an early visit to my favorite bar and a Royal Caribbean classic… The Schooner Bar.

 

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Schooner Bar drink menu

 

While the bar’s menus are technically for drinks, they’re also little history books. They showcase interesting photos from classic Royal Caribbean ships.

 

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Check out the old Royal Caribbean logo, plus ships like Song of Norway, Song of America, Sun Viking, etc.

 

I’m typically a bourbon and/or beer drinker, but I'll try new drinks every now and then. The menu was featuring various twists on the "Old Fashioned." Being a Caribbean cruise, I went for the a “Tropical Old Fashioned." Let’s just say it was very “eh.” Just boring more than anything else, but at least the drink was very photogenic:

 

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Tropical Old Fashioned, along with my DW’s champaign

 

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Cheers, y’all!

 

COMING UP NEXT:

Enjoying laps and scenic vistas around the promenade deck

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Beautiful photos.:)

 

These are great photos.

 

How are those photos being attached. I give up all the time as I am told my photos are too big, and I am not going to resize them all. So I just checked one of these on this thread, and they exceed the size requirement as well. How are they being posted... I am doing something wrong.

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Since it wasn't a direct flight I'm not surprised you went thru ATL. ATL is a major Delta hub, but it's also where they have their headquarters.

 

True, but Detroit (DTW) is also a major Delta hub :)

 

I actually did a little digging since I posted this last night. Turns out, Delta does have non-stop flights to Houston from Detroit. But they're exclusive to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and not Houston Hobby. I recall checking out flights into IAH, but perhaps I was striking out for my preferred time/day.

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These are great photos.

 

How are those photos being attached. I give up all the time as I am told my photos are too big, and I am not going to resize them all. So I just checked one of these on this thread, and they exceed the size requirement as well. How are they being posted... I am doing something wrong.

 

There are a handful of third-party photo hosting sites. I've been using Flickr for these images. It's easy-to-use and even provides the "code" for pasting into boards like this.

 

As an example, take one of my Schooner Bar photos from my earlier post. Here's the page on Flickr to view its details: IMG_2981

 

It'll also show you cool meta data about the photo too. For example, the camera and settings that were used:

 

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In short, Flickr is easy-to-use, convenient, and free. Hope this helps.

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