Liberty of the Seas 12/8/12 5 night sailing review

Just got back this morning from this nice 5 night cruise. Enjoyed the ship and itinerary and would do it again in a heartbeat. As always, there were areas where RCI excelled and areas that called for improvement. I will try to capture our experiences, both positive and negative, and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

Pre-Cruise

My wife and I originally were going to fly into FLL, but decided to fly into Ft Myers and rent a car to come over to the cruise port. This way we were able to visit our friends and have a nice night out with them. We used Alamo, as Alamo & National have a free rental car shuttle to the cruise port. Dropping off the car was super quick, and the shuttle bus left almost immediately. The drive to the port was quite lengthy though. The first reason was because of construction at the port, which requires a detour. The second reason was the number of ships in port. On Saturday, there were six ships in port (3 RCI, 2 Princess, & 1 Holland). Luck would have it that we were stop #5. Most of the stops were not bad, until we got to Independence's terminal (the dreaded one, 29 is it?). It literally took over 20 minutes just to get to the area where passengers could be dropped off. And, even with traffic cops out, it seemed like it was just mass chaos. I heard from friends who were on Independence that boarding took hours.

One hour after getting on the shuttle bus, we arrived at the terminal. The porters were quick and didn't openly solicit for money. Once we dropped our bags off, we went into the building. There was a separate security line for Suites & C&A members. The same was true for check-in. The only thing that didn't seem to make sense, was after check in, was a general line to get on the ship, which took a good 20 mins (This was around 12 noon). It kind of negated the priority check in and security. Two other small things of note, they allowed you to bypass the welcome picture (nice) and the skybridge to the ship is very steep.

Have to do some first day back errands, will try to post more later tonight.

great start

So, onto the cabin... We decided to splurge and chose a Junior Suite. Part of the reason why we chose this is because of the benefits available when you book with an American Express Platinum card. For the suite category, we were given a $300 OBC, a bottle of champagne (Moet), and cover for two for specialty dining. We also received additional OBC from our TA. The only caveat with using the American Express Platinum program is that you cannot use C&A Balcony discount, C&A coupons, or BOB OBC. And the cruise must be at least 5 nights. Because RCI gives much more BOB OBC or balcony discounts for 6+ night cruises, we found 5 nights to be the sweet spot. With all of the OBC that we had, our spending total billed to our CC was only $25. It was kind of nice to walk off the ship and basically owe nothing.

So, by the time we got onto the ship, it was basically 1pm, so we went right to our cabin. This was basically our 1st junior suite. We had one years ago, but were literally in the room for about 15 mins, before they called us and said that we had to change rooms due to maintenance and upgraded us to a full suite. We were very impressed with the size. The upkeep of the room seemed nicer than on other ships (we normally notice small dents and dings on the furniture). The balcony was great with two loungers and two chairs and a small table. One thing that we did note that would not be great for those with kids or people on different sleeping schedules is that the room divider curtain only goes about 2 feet across (not room length), so no real divide. I enjoyed the chair and ottoman a lot, very comfortable. And my wife liked being able to brew fresh coffee in the morning. The bathroom is pretty similar, except a bathtub instead of shower. The tub was actually of decent size. Room & hallway noise was never an issue, and cigarette smoke was never an issue on our balcony. The only physical issue we had with our room was the hot water. On our first day, we had to call maintenance twice, as the only water that came out was scalding hot. They were able to fix it the second time.

Our stateroom attendant Cahaya was excellent. We only saw her twice the entire cruise (actually my wife only saw her once). I saw her the first day, and basically said that we were pretty easy, only request was an ice bucket and for the wine bucket with the champagne. The second time we saw her was on the third day, and we gave her a WOW card, because she always managed to sneak in and clean our room without us noticing.

Since it kind of goes with the room, I will mention our room service experience. We ordered breakfast twice, once with the card and once on the TV. I would recommend ordering via TV, as this is the second cruise where our card order and actual order varied greatly. We also ordered a artichoke dip on one of the sea days via TV. Room service called as soon as we ordered it to confirm, and said they would be down in 5 mins. We waited about 30-40 mins. We didn't have an issue with waiting that long, but they shouldn't have given the expectation of 5 mins.

Thank you for doing this review!

Thanks for the review!

Interested to hear more! We will be on the ship in February and also have a junior suite. Tell me about the WOW cards. I tried getting one for someone while i was on the Allure and guest services told me they didn't have any that you have to get them at the terminal when you check in???? :confused: Thanks for posting.

Food onboard:

So, like everyone else, our first experience was with the Windjammer. We only did lunch there the first day, but had breakfast there at least 3 days. The dining area is either very large, or we dined at off hours, as we never have seating issues there. The food was nice, my only suggestion would be to add some more variety day to day. The one thing of note was that we were never offered beverages from the waiters. It wasn't a big deal grabbing our own drinks, but it was definitely different from our last cruises.

The main dining room was great. Amir & George were our wait staff on the 3rd floor of the MDR (Late Seating). This was our first cruise in years with a traditional seating, and we really liked it. In the past, we chose MTD because the traditional seatings seemed to run super late, waiters seemed overworked, and because we didn't like the early or late time. On Liberty, we were always served in a timely manner (just as quick as MTD), our waiters were always around, and were some of the best waiters that we have had. Liberty does have the new menu, which I like equally compared to the old menu. One thing of note for Indian food lovers, they still have Indian food available every night, you just have to ask for it. The only question was vegetarian or not and hot or mild. The meat choice changed nightly. The MDR seemed about 70%ish full for the week for the late seating. Dress was slightly more casual than the seven night cruises, but I didn't notice a lot of vastly underdressing.

We did do one night of Specialty dining at Portofino. I found the food to be okay, but honestly, I thought it was very similar to the MDR. One other thing is that I think I always enjoy the MDR more, since the waiters there already know our preferences. It did seem very empty on the night that we were there (maybe 30-40%).

We enjoyed the cheaper pay venues (Cupcake Cupboard & B&J's) and stopped in once or twice during the week. We also got pizza a few times as well. We did not use Chops, the Cafe, or Johnny Rockets.

The WOW cards are typically given at check in, and you normally receive 1 per C&A member. Once a crew member gets a certain amount of cards they can trade them in for a prize, extra leave, or some other benefit. The check in agents DID remember to give them to us in FLL, which was not true for our last two cruises out of Orlando and New Orleans. Getting cards on board can be difficult because of inventory issues (they don't want someone to get extra cards, kind of like the surveys).

So, I am exhausted tonight, but I will continue tomorrow night.

I will be looking forward to the rest of your review...sailing in march and can't wait!!!

Back from my first day back at work, and I am definitely tired...

So, onto ports of call... In both ports, we decided to do independent excursions, as this is our normal travel style when we aren't cruising. We also like having some time to ourselves, and not having to wait for a large group, etc.

Our first stop was Belize, and this is one of the big areas where RCI got an "F". It had to do specifically with the tendering operation. Now, I have been on a few Grand Cayman cruises, so I am familiar with how tendering works. And while there has been some wait for tendering in Grand Cayman, I felt that the communication was suffice. For Liberty, Tender tickets are not required, and the compass and captain both said tendering operations would start at 9:30. Note, they didn't say something like for RCI Excursions, tendering will begin at 9:30; for all others tendering will start at 10:30, or something similar to this. If they would have made a simple statement like this, or if the staff would have told the waiting passengers this, I would have been fine. But, instead, we waited an hour with zero line movement. The line went around the atrium of deck 3, up the stairs, around the atrium of deck 4 and into the casino. Many other passengers made the same statement about simple communication would have been key. I would have much rather sat around the pool or anywhere else versus waiting for a tender for just over an hour (50+ mins of the wait in the same spot). Also, to get onto the tender, you walked onto one tender, and then stepped up and over to another tender. Not the safest thing to do. As you can tell, I did feel strongly about the whole poor tendering here, and did send a separate e-mail to RCI, which is my first complaint e-mail ever to them.

Now, onto "funner" things... Once we got off the tender, we walked quickly through the tourist village to the taxis. The tourist area is very small compared to other ports. We took a taxi to the downtown/municipal airport (10 min ride, $10). We decided to fly over to San Pedro, Ambergris Cay for the day. There are multiple flights per hour on two different carriers, and the flight is only about 15 mins. The cost is approx $75 per person round trip. The terminal was nice, air conditioned, with coffee/tea, bottled water, wi-fi, etc. The flight is on a 8-10 seater with air conditioning, and the flight was smooth. Once in San Pedro, we hired a taxi (very few, mostly golf carts for transport on the island) to take us to a beach. He first showed us the public beach, but we ended up at a resort called Grand Caribe. The hotel did not charge us for entrance, they just asked that we purchase food and drink, which we did. The taxi was $20 each way. The resort was incredible with three separate pools (the large pool in the middle was about three separate pools on its own), two hot tubs, a beach, and a large swimming/fishing/boat pier. There were maybe 10 people at the entire resort when we were there. Food and drink was typical resort pricy, with beers $7, mixed drinks $10, burgers $10-15, and entrees $20-25. After a few hours, we went back to town to catch our flight back. After picking up our boarding passes, we went across the street to a local bar for some drinks and a snack. Non-resort food and drink is cheap. 2 beers, a Coke, and a giant plate of rice & beans with steak was $11. The flight back was uneventful, as was the taxi ride. We arrived back at the port early enough to have a couple of drinks at the bar, and then caught the last or second to last tender back (around 5:20ish). One thing of note, the vendors outside the port were pretty aggressive. We have no problems saying no, just annoying.

For Cozumel, our last two trips we did AI beaches. They were nice, but we thought a little $$ for what you got (bottom shelf liquor & semi harassed for pics or to buy stuff). My wife and I decided we wanted some authentic food so we wanted to find a good Taqueria. One of the bartenders in the pub is from Playa del Carmen, so he was quite familiar with Cozumel. I asked him for recommendations and told him what I was looking for, especially the cuts of meat that you don't get in touristy restaurants. He sent me to the local market (Mercado Municipal), and it was right up our alley. I would heavily recommend anyone who is interested in good authentic food to go there. Our meal for two was $10. We both got tacos of different varieties, but the ceviche looked incredible, and it was made fresh in front of us. There's always next time. We walked back to the main drag to catch a taxi, and it was like going into a different area. I think downtown Cozumel falls into my least favorite cruise port. Never seen so many stores filled with the same (manure), and such aggressive shop keepers. Yeah, we high tailed it back to the ship after that.

I have some errands to run, but will try to post more later tonight.

We were also on this cruise, had the same experience boarding. Our tablemates told us it took them 2 hours to get on board, I think they arrived around 2pm. However, it took 2 hours once we got in line to disembark (we were group 15), horrible experience especially since we have 2 little kids.

We also had the same experience in Windjammer with the drinks about half the time. After day 2 I just had to stop the waiters and ask because that was the only way to get chocolate milk for my daughter. I can count on one hand the number of times someone actually approached our table to offer to bring us drinks. Definitely different than last time we cruised (which was 7 years ago!)

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to post it

Nice review. Looking forward to the rest, as I'm going on the Liberty in Jan!

I do have a couple questions though. Was there a comedy show? and was there a "Quest" show as well? We did the Oasis over the summer, and we really enjoyed the comedy and Quest shows, so I'm just wondering if they also do these types of shows on the 5 day Liberty of the Seas cruises. Thanks.

Dgadale- It sounds like we were lucky with disembarking. We got in line at about 8am. They were on #3 or 4 maybe, but very backed up then. From cabin door to airport door was 1 hour exactly. Not horrible, but still pretty long.

Chi-made- there was definitely an adult comedy shop and quest. The majority of the nights we said we were going to go out, came back to the room to change... And then crashed hard. We did attend quest and it was about the most lightly attended that I have seen. It was also fairly tame. I think the reason for the attendance is two fold. First, a lot of families. I wouldn't believe it, but was told about 1300 kids on board. There was also a large foreign population on board. Neither was an issue for us.

Since I am talking about entertainment, might as well mention what we saw. I will say I was most impressed with Saturday Night Fever. I think the sets were a lot more detailed than on Oasis. The choreography was also very good. The plot seemed a little thin. One weird thing, no matinee was offered, and reservations weren't really needed. The ice skating show was pretty good as well. I liked the second half (more action) versus the first half (more artsy).

We didn't do any of the theater shows, but did see the Love & Marriage show on tv. They do need to change some of the questions to get rid of the ringers. We thoroughly enjoyed the trivia sessions. The C&A one was crazy difficult. We got about 5 right, whereas two teams got all 20 right. The 80s music trivia was a blast with sing a long. I don't think the entertainment staff what she got into. We did have one cheat during one trivia session. He was using his iPad and Soundhound or Shazam to find out the music, pretty apparent when he was on his iPad the entire time up to answer time and got every song and artist right, including one that no one got right let alone heard of. Kinda sad someone is that desperate to win. The trivia prizes varied, but the nicest I thought was an umbrella, travel wallet, and magnet.

We were also impressed with the musicians on board. We listened mostly to the singer in the pub and the band at Olive or Twist. My other chief complaint for this cruise was smoke in public areas. Seemed much worse and more smoking areas than my past few cruises. Boleros, the pub, casino (obviously), and Schooner (people say it was non smoking, but I passed people smoking in the middle of there quite a few times, ashtray on table, including at trivia sessions). Basically left Olive as the only non smoking live music venue. You could tell there were more smoking venues on board, as when we were on Freedom, the outdoor area on deck 4 was full of smokers. Here, relatively empty. I really believe that they need better filtering or enclosures for smoking bars. While I am somewhat tolerant of smoking, it seems like a large percentage of the bars were for the use of 20-30% of the population. Sorry- off soapbox.

As for the bartenders in the bars, they were all good. We primarily used the bartenders in the pub. Bar service at the pool (and announcements) didn't seem as bad as in the past. The one place bar service was severely lacking was the MDR. Literally saw the bartender once all week, selling after dinner shots on night 2 or 3. While normally not this bad, this has been a trend of slow or non existent bar service in the MDR on the past few cruises.

Casino was fun when we stopped by. No non smoking formal night, which was weird. We walked away slightly up, only due to a mini jackpot on a penny machine. The casino manager who added the cumulative winnings board by the entrance is a genius. I stayed away from coin sliders for once and my wallet thanked me.

We didn't do much of the main pool activities and the last day was kind of a rain out, so missed that. I do miss the pool BBQ that some cruises have on a sea day. Chair finding didn't seem to be an issue, although chair hogs were out. To the gentleman with the aviation newspaper in a ziplock bag, you're lucky I didn't take it, which also lends te question, who puts newspaper in a ziplock bag? Between that and the trivia cheat, I sould have taken pics to put up here.

That's it for tonight. Have work early again.

Great review! Your day in Belize sounds so nice!

Enjoying your review, looking forward to the rest.

I have a question, my brother has never cruised and is afraid to do a 7 night cruise, he thinks that is too long. (he just doesn't know :) so, I thought the Liberty 5 night cruise would be good for a start, what do you or anyone else think?

I have a question, my brother has never cruised and is afraid to do a 7 night cruise, he thinks that is too long. (he just doesn't know :) so, I thought the Liberty 5 night cruise would be good for a start, what do you or anyone else think?

I think it's a great idea. We did the same thing. Until you are sure you really enjoy cruising, a short cruise is the way to go.

Back from my first day back at work, and I am definitely tired...

 

So, onto ports of call... In both ports, we decided to do independent excursions, as this is our normal travel style when we aren't cruising. We also like having some time to ourselves, and not having to wait for a large group, etc.

 

Our first stop was Belize, and this is one of the big areas where RCI got an "F". It had to do specifically with the tendering operation. Now, I have been on a few Grand Cayman cruises, so I am familiar with how tendering works. And while there has been some wait for tendering in Grand Cayman, I felt that the communication was suffice. For Liberty, Tender tickets are not required, and the compass and captain both said tendering operations would start at 9:30. Note, they didn't say something like for RCI Excursions, tendering will begin at 9:30; for all others tendering will start at 10:30, or something similar to this. If they would have made a simple statement like this, or if the staff would have told the waiting passengers this, I would have been fine. But, instead, we waited an hour with zero line movement. The line went around the atrium of deck 3, up the stairs, around the atrium of deck 4 and into the casino. Many other passengers made the same statement about simple communication would have been key. I would have much rather sat around the pool or anywhere else versus waiting for a tender for just over an hour (50+ mins of the wait in the same spot). Also, to get onto the tender, you walked onto one tender, and then stepped up and over to another tender. Not the safest thing to do. As you can tell, I did feel strongly about the whole poor tendering here, and did send a separate e-mail to RCI, which is my first complaint e-mail ever to them.

 

Now, onto "funner" things... Once we got off the tender, we walked quickly through the tourist village to the taxis. The tourist area is very small compared to other ports. We took a taxi to the downtown/municipal airport (10 min ride, $10). We decided to fly over to San Pedro, Ambergris Cay for the day. There are multiple flights per hour on two different carriers, and the flight is only about 15 mins. The cost is approx $75 per person round trip. The terminal was nice, air conditioned, with coffee/tea, bottled water, wi-fi, etc. The flight is on a 8-10 seater with air conditioning, and the flight was smooth. Once in San Pedro, we hired a taxi (very few, mostly golf carts for transport on the island) to take us to a beach. He first showed us the public beach, but we ended up at a resort called Grand Caribe. The hotel did not charge us for entrance, they just asked that we purchase food and drink, which we did. The taxi was $20 each way. The resort was incredible with three separate pools (the large pool in the middle was about three separate pools on its own), two hot tubs, a beach, and a large swimming/fishing/boat pier. There were maybe 10 people at the entire resort when we were there. Food and drink was typical resort pricy, with beers $7, mixed drinks $10, burgers $10-15, and entrees $20-25. After a few hours, we went back to town to catch our flight back. After picking up our boarding passes, we went across the street to a local bar for some drinks and a snack. Non-resort food and drink is cheap. 2 beers, a Coke, and a giant plate of rice & beans with steak was $11. The flight back was uneventful, as was the taxi ride. We arrived back at the port early enough to have a couple of drinks at the bar, and then caught the last or second to last tender back (around 5:20ish). One thing of note, the vendors outside the port were pretty aggressive. We have no problems saying no, just annoying.

 

For Cozumel, our last two trips we did AI beaches. They were nice, but we thought a little $$ for what you got (bottom shelf liquor & semi harassed for pics or to buy stuff). My wife and I decided we wanted some authentic food so we wanted to find a good Taqueria. One of the bartenders in the pub is from Playa del Carmen, so he was quite familiar with Cozumel. I asked him for recommendations and told him what I was looking for, especially the cuts of meat that you don't get in touristy restaurants. He sent me to the local market (Mercado Municipal), and it was right up our alley. I would heavily recommend anyone who is interested in good authentic food to go there. Our meal for two was $10. We both got tacos of different varieties, but the ceviche looked incredible, and it was made fresh in front of us. There's always next time. We walked back to the main drag to catch a taxi, and it was like going into a different area. I think downtown Cozumel falls into my least favorite cruise port. Never seen so many stores filled with the same (manure), and such aggressive shop keepers. Yeah, we high tailed it back to the ship after that.

 

I have some errands to run, but will try to post more later tonight.

Were you in Cozumel on Tues the 11th. If so you were docked at the Independence Pier which is 5 mile from downtown. Because I was there on Tues on Jewel and was docked downtown and loved it.The other pier is terrible.

Hollon- we started on a 4 night, and I do think that or a 5 nighter is a god way to evaluate. The three nighters seem to have not as nice ports, and really only two true days.

Tigger- we were down at the further pier. To clarify, the reason I don't like downtown Cozumel is bc of all of the tourist shops.

A couple of random thoughts, will continue full review tomorrow.

Still don't care for the parades during fixed time dining. Part of the reason I prefer MTD.

I don't know how ships incentives differ, but crew on board seemed happier than on Freedom.

Had no issue using my C&A Internet coupons for loose minutes. Was told this wasn't allowed on Freedom. By and large, guest services was easy to use and super nice -talk about a tough job.

Did hear a lot of 'do you know who I am' concerning boarding delays and other small issues. Funny how some people don't get the whole sugar vs. vinegar concept.

Also saw a lot of people wearing their pins 24/7, a lot more than normal. Maybe it's just me, but I like being incognito and feel that the pins are a little gaudy.

The C&A reception was pretty lightly attended compared to others. Drinks were pretty generous, but not a lot of new info. A little surprised that capt and cruise director both skipped it. The whole award ceremony for the 900+ cruise pax is a little old too.

I should also mention my secondhand reviews. My wife did get her nails done at the spa, and with the coupon it was about $20, similar to at home, with no upselling/product sell. She also did the cupcake class. It was $21 or 22, and included decorating two cupcakes and an apron. She really enjoyed the class, but thought it was slightly overpriced (remember, we ad a ton of OBC). She also thought it was funny that someone wanted to decorate cupcakes for no fee after the class. Her excuse was, 'well there is all this leftover'. I'll have to try that approach with drinks next time...

I will try to add finishing touches to this review tomorrow.

Most of the stops were not bad, until we got to Independence's terminal (the dreaded one, 29 is it?). It literally took over 20 minutes just to get to the area where passengers could be dropped off. And, even with traffic cops out, it seemed like it was just mass chaos. I heard from friends who were on Independence that boarding took hours.

This really worries me, I keep hearing it's a mess. I wish they would fix this.

Makes me want to switch ships.

In regards to the tendering at Belize, if you are on an RCI excursion, you get off first? Is this standard for all cruises?