12/3 liberty ots nassau!

My husband and I together with our close NY friends and my sister and brother in law were on the Liberty 12/3 Nassau cruise.

I wanted to put down my thoughts before reality sets in.

Sorry, no pictures.

Due to fog we departed late, maybe 1am. We returned to Galveston approx. 11:30. We were off the ship by 2pm and in a cab by 2:20. Best debarkation of any previous cruise.

Before you flame me, please know these are my thoughts alone.

We had a Promenade cabin which was fine for us and always stocked with ice and fresh towels.

First the whining. The CROWDS, THE KIDS. OMG there were tons of kids, babies, strollers all over the ship. It was difficult to navigate through the Promenade. I'm also not a fan of those "sale" tables in the Promenade. I know, I know, others love it but I prefer a much more relaxing experience not having to push thru crowds flinging tshirts, cover ups all over the place.

Getting a seat at a scheduled event required us to show up at least 45 mins. before start time. We never were able to get a seat in the Schooner Bar so we just gave up. Couldn't get a seat for the Quest. Forgot when we showed up. Quite a few times we gave up getting a table in the Cafe Promenade when we were just 2.

Please, please nobody tell me to choose another cruise line. Be nice!!

Only 2 of us sat up by the pool and grabbed our chairs before 9:30, no problem. At 10-10:30 nothing seemed available on the pool deck.

Now the food in the MDR. Not to my liking. Thanks to TJ our wonderful head waiter (guy in the black suit) I was able to get my low sodium food every night.

For lunch on port days in the WJ I was able to get a plate of freshly prepared salmon with wonderful steamed veggies. Yum!

It was by chance that we experienced Giovanni's for the first time. My happy group and I were sitting in the R bar late one night when we were approached by a waiter from Giovanni's. He said we could eat there for $21 pp AND he would bring us every single appetizer listed on the menu. What? Was he serious? There had to be at least 8 appetizers listed! Is this usual for everyone? So of course we took him up on it and it was the best $21 we spent on board. True to his word the food kept coming out and this was before serving our entrees. Next cruise we will get the dining package. Thank you Vladamir!

Nassau was wonderful. Perfect weather. We shopped and meandered all over the Atlantis Resort. So beautiful.

Our good time was enhanced by cruising together with family and friends. We laughed and vowed to do it again next year but maybe not this time of year.

Happy cruising to all of you!

It's not unusual to have Giovanni's bring out every appetizer, all you have to do is ask.

Thanks for your review. I'm sorry about the low points, but glad you were able to enjoy yourselves despite them. We are from NY, flying to TX to visit family and then driving down to Galveston to fit a cruise in during our daughter's spring break. We have not sailed Royal in seven years, so I am reading as many reviews as I can to prepare.

Glad you had a nice time! Thanks for the feedback!

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I will skip leaving from galveston and liberty even though we live in Texas, tired of delays on boarding and disembarkation, also stupid Texas law on not getting a decent drink until you are 10 miles out, surprised at children we did navigator from Miami day after thanksgiving and very few children

Who was the Cruise Director?

I was on that cruise, and agree about the kids. Nearly 600, I heard somewhere. Also a total of 4,200 pax (stated capacity is 3,600), a lot of people to move around.

Not the best cruise I've been on, not the worst.

Nassau was kind of fun. Walked to Junkanoo Beach and had an okay time. Did a tour of New Providence Island that was very informative.

Liberty seemed understaffed, though we got professional service all around.

To me, it seemed RCI has been cutting corners all around, and it really showed on this trip.

I was disappointed by a couple of things, like shorts in the dining room on formal nights, and being promised a bottle of Clos du Bois wine but receiving cheapo dollar-store Tisdale, but really nothing major. Just enough to make me think I'll be looking for a different kind of vacation next time. Cruising sure has changed in the 22 years since I first sailed on Royal Caribbean. (And so have I, I know.)

I was on that cruise, and agree about the kids. Nearly 600, I heard somewhere. Also a total of 4,200 pax (stated capacity is 3,600), a lot of people to move around.

 

Liberty has two occupancy totals, one based on double occupancy per cabin and the other, is full occupancy. The double occupancy capacity is 3,798 and the total occupancy is 4,960.

https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/fact-sheet/10/liberty-of-the-seas/

Hi Bonnie, thanks for the review. Glad you had some fun. That is crazy about the kids - what an odd week to have a bunch of them. But then I've never understood people taking kids out of school in the first place. Just goes to show how it can change week to week - we easily had seats for Quest and got there maybe 10 minutes before it started (our team won hee hee). I agree with you on the Promenade - we try to avoid it until night time when all that junk is gone!

Who was the Cruise Director?

On the 11/26 LOS it was still Drew Devine.

Thank you for your report.

Keith

On the 11/26 LOS it was still Drew Devine.

Yep. It was Drew.

It's not unusual to have Giovanni's bring out every appetizer, all you have to do is ask.

I had no idea! And here I thought we were oh so special :o

Thanks for your review. I'm sorry about the low points, but glad you were able to enjoy yourselves despite them. We are from NY, flying to TX to visit family and then driving down to Galveston to fit a cruise in during our daughter's spring break. We have not sailed Royal in seven years, so I am reading as many reviews as I can to prepare.

Please, please do not let reviews form your opinion BEFORE you cruise. Everyone has a different perspective so go with a clear, positive mind and enjoy.

Hi Bonnie, thanks for the review. Glad you had some fun. That is crazy about the kids - what an odd week to have a bunch of them. But then I've never understood people taking kids out of school in the first place. Just goes to show how it can change week to week - we easily had seats for Quest and got there maybe 10 minutes before it started (our team won hee hee). I agree with you on the Promenade - we try to avoid it until night time when all that junk is gone!

I remember your review comment about Caribbean band music up on the pool deck. First sea day they played from 3:30-4:30. Seriously?

The pub could not have drawn crowds from the entertainment. I think folks just wanted a place to sit. It's sad and my opinion, but I thought the singer was a passenger belting out a tune off key.

Your dining duo was not on the ship. I asked!

MTD wait staff, different each evening, never got it right. A few mishaps that although didn't ruin dinner, if avoided, would have been more pleasant.

BTW, we were VERY HAPPY when we received our 50% credit for not cancelling the cruise in cash. It was more than we expected Nice!

So, after all my whining I'm about to check Liberty rates for November, 2018. :eek:

I'm surprised your ship didn't leave until 1am. I was on the Carnival Breeze at the same time and we set sail around 6:30p. (I think. It was still pretty early into our 6p dining time).

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We actually set sail out of Galveston at around 8:30 pm. We were at dinner (2nd seating) when we finally left. Now we didn't leave Nassau until 5:15 am Friday and we were supposed to leave Thursday evening around 11 pm

We were on this cruise too. Overall, we had a good time. There were lots of kids and it was annoying when they were in the Solarium on one sea day. I only saw them once, but no one was enforcing the rules.

We found the dining service to be very good, in fact it was the quickest we have ever seen on a ship. Dinner was never longer than an hour and usually was less. Our waiter was excellent.

It was a very unusual cruise with the 2 day repair project in Nassau. We enjoyed watching the cruise ships come and go over 2 days. It was especially interesting when the Carnival Magic was obviously waiting for late passengers for about 45 minutes. Finally, we saw a crew member hand passports to the port agent and the Magic cast off and left. 45 minutes after that, 3 people showed up hollering "where's my boat" and then running back down the dock toward land. The weird thing is it appeared the port agent took them over to the still docked Carnival Pride. I have heard that sometimes Carnival will allow people who missed the ship on to another Carnival ship, but the Pride sails to Baltimore and Magic to Canaveral, so I'm not sure why they would go to the Pride.

Since I'm local to Galveston, the delayed arrival was nice for us. We got to sleep late, eat a relaxing breakfast, and then relax in the sun on balcony prior to arrival. Not your typical end of cruise. Now self disembarkation was a zoo and took forever, but other than that it was a nice day.

Dave

I'm surprised your ship didn't leave until 1am. I was on the Carnival Breeze at the same time and we set sail around 6:30p. (I think. It was still pretty early into our 6p dining time).

 

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The ship left after midnight because it was there for repair work and could not sail until the ship was ready.

We were on the 12/3 LOS also. We are Diamond but it had been almost 5 years since we had sailed on Royal and had not been on that class of ship.

We had a veranda cabin & found the cabin, storage & balcony space to be more useable than others we have sailed. We thought the ship was beautiful and well maintained and I was always able to find a lounger near the pool and a seat at Cafe Prominade which we loved.

We are not ones to go to the shows but found ourselves going to almost every show, we really enjoyed the entertainment. Unlike the OP we never had trouble getting a seat, in fact we showed up at the Ice Show 15 minutes before it started and got excellent seats,

The R bar turned out to be our favorite- great service and wonderful bartenders. We had My Time dining with the same table & wait staff every night; they were great.

MDR food wasn’t good, everything was over salted and/or undercooked. There was no attempt to enforce anything resembling a dress code in the MDR. On formal nights athletic shorts, torn T-shirt baseball caps & rubber flip-fops.

The kids OMG running everywhere - one night 2 kids 9-11ish came into the R Bar in dripping bathing suits & towels wanting a coke:rolleyes:.

The ship felt crowded, congested and was very noisy.

But for us the deal breakers were 1) the smoking in the casino which impacts the Schooner, photo shop & into Bolero’s;

2) unsanitary things we saw such as wine corks being dropped on the floor, picked up & put in the bottle. The salad area in WJ where there are 2 rows of veggies each container having a pair of tongs. The tongs for the back row are placed with the handles in the food in the first row- pick up tongs get food put tongs back with handle in food.:p

We enjoyed much of the cruise but I doubt we will return to Royal anytime soon.

Fog delayed our departure in Galveston. Coast Guard closed the channel. We were having such a good time the first evening, I don't recall when we departed and truthfully I didn't care.

Captain made an announcement that we would arrive back in Galveston at 2:30pm. Much to our surprise we arrived at 11:30. We had a long drive home to Dallas but enjoyed the late arrival. So good not to be rushed out of our cabins early in the morning.

One more thing. Wait staff does not beg for a 10 rating anymore. Survey emailed after the cruise for feedback. Not sure how long this has been going on but it's about time.

 

the kids omg running everywhere

the ship felt crowded, congested and was very noisy.

 

.

yes, yes, and yes !!

 

Captain made an announcement that we would arrive back in Galveston at 2:30pm. Much to our surprise we arrived at 11:30. We had a long drive home to Dallas but enjoyed the late arrival. So good not to be rushed out of our cabins early in the morning.

 

 

Interesting that you were rushed from your cabin. We slept in, had a relaxing breakfast, and sat on our balcony until 11:30. We were told to be out by noon.

Interesting that you were rushed from your cabin. We slept in, had a relaxing breakfast, and sat on our balcony until 11:30. We were told to be out by noon.

My comment, So good not to be rushed out of our cabins early in the morning. meant we were NOT rushed on this cruise as we were on prior cruises. We vacated our cabin approx. 11am.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

""There had to be at least 8 appetizers listed! Is this usual for everyone? So of course we took him up on it and it was the best $21 we spent on board. True to his word the food kept coming out and this was before serving our entrees. Next cruise we will get the dining package. Thank you Vladamir!"" -

Wonder if this is the same Vladamir that served us this past January? If so, dude is just awesome! Be back on Feb 4, 18 - Hope Vlad is still on contract, will definitely seek him out!

""There had to be at least 8 appetizers listed! Is this usual for everyone? So of course we took him up on it and it was the best $21 we spent on board. True to his word the food kept coming out and this was before serving our entrees. Next cruise we will get the dining package. Thank you Vladamir!"" -

 

Wonder if this is the same Vladamir that served us this past January? If so, dude is just awesome! Be back on Feb 4, 18 - Hope Vlad is still on contract, will definitely seek him out!

Must be the same Vlad. And yes he's awesome. He probably won't remember us but please tell him the loud party of 6 on the Nassau cruise he met in the R bar sends regards.

At one point he even brought out doubles of an appetizer. We actually groaned when our entrees were brought out, we were so full.

Enjoy your cruise!