Liberty of the Seas 1/31 to 2/7/09 Review with pics

Okay, here goes. I wanted to make sure I did a review of the Liberty of the Seas, although there have been many, but everyone's opinions and experiences are different -- so here's mine:

We (myself, Tim, and my wife, Sally) booked this cruise shortly after we returned from our first cruise on RCL's Enchantment of the Seas in January of 2008. We had such a great experience on the first, we decided to go again -- without the kids this time.

Since we live in Michigan, we opted to fly in a couple days early -- you know that pesky snow is pretty unpredictable -- and to see the Keys. We stopped at Key West on our Enchantment cruise and really wanted to go back.

Thursday we landed in Miami an hour later than scheduled -- long line at the de-icing station in Detroit -- and got our rental car for the drive to the Keys. The temperature was 85 degrees, sunny and warm! A far cry from the mid teens we had when we left the north.

The drive to our hotel was beautiful. We booked a room for two nights at the Drop Anchor Resort in Islamorada, Florida, which is about half way between Miami and Key West.

Here's a couple pictures of the hotel:

The view from our room:

The pool looking at the ocean:

The hotel was nice, very "Old Florida." The room had a kitchenette, was very large, king-size bed, balcony, great view. The only downfall was the owner/management staff wasn't very "customer oriented." With only 18 units, you'd think that they would get to know everyone personally by name and be a little friendlier. Well, it was very clean, and I guess that's what really counts, though I don't know if I'd go back again or not.

Friday started out warm and sunny for our drive down to Key West. The drive was very interesting to say the least. That part of the country is certainly different than where we're from -- and I mean that in a good way.

Got to Key West, did a few of the usual things, ate, shopped, etc. We spent most of the day there and then headed on back to our hotel in anticipation of our cruise the next day.

On the way back to the hotel we got a call from our friends who were traveling with us on the cruise. They flew down to Miami on Friday and told us that it was pouring rain in Miami when they landed, around 4:00 p.m. Luckily it was still beautiful and warm where we were. We never did see any rain.

Next: Back to Miami and onto the Liberty of the Seas.

Don't make me wait to long. Also live in the area and heading to Miami on the 27th for cruise on Liberty.

Thank you!

Good so far! :) It's now time for Liberty OTS! :D I want photos!

Saturday morning started out kind of cool. A cold front had come through the night before and brought a lot of wind with it. We knew it wasn't going to get very warm that day, but it was sure better than being home!!!

Sally was talking to a friend of her's back home who was complaining that she was out brushing the snow off her car while she was talking to my wife, and so I took this picture and sent it to her so she could see we had to clean our car off, too:

Those darn flowering trees!!!

Made the drive back to Miami to drop the car off and got shuttled to the port to meet up with our friends and embark on our journey. Other than crazy Miami traffic, no problems.

That's the only picture I got inside the port terminal before a security guard yelled at me. I guess I'm just not devious enough to figure out why you can't take pictures in there.

Anyway, embarkation was a breeze! Everyone was super nice and helpful, got us checked in, got our SeaPasses and up the gangway of the largest cruise ship in the world.

By the way, coming up the expressway in the shuttle to the port and seeing that baby docked was amazing. There were three of other ships docked right behind her, Carnival Destiny, Norwegian Dawn, Carnival Liberty and maybe one other. Liberty of the Seas was leading the pack and certainly was the big girl on campus. It was really interesting to see!

Finally on the ship and now able to relax, we headed up to the Windjammer and had me some of that Honey Strung Chicken I've hear so much about. I loved it; wife, not so much. Go figure.

It was now around 1:00 and we were finally able to go to see our cabin.

More about the cabin in a few.

That's a lot of flowers on the car! LOL! I wonder what's wrong with taking photos in the terminal?

TFlo, I think the other ship was a Celebrity ship.

TFlo, I think the other ship was a Celebrity ship.

Shannon, I think you're right. I think it was the Celebrity Century.

Tim

Now that we were walking around the ship, we could see how amazing it really was! Here's a couple shots:

We booked the room 10 months in advance so that we could get a primo room. I had heard so much about aft cabins and their large balconies that I just had to see for myself. We had cabin # 7708 aft cabin, starboard side. Our friends had the cabin on the opposite side, cabin # 7408, port side.

More of the cabin:

I had been using my RCL Visa card for everything I could so I could get lots of points for this cruise. I used 15,000 points to get the grand romance package. I really was so worth the points or money!

With the package we got 2 robes. You can see them in the picture above, one in the package, one out. They're really nice, thick terry. Great quality.

We also had a beautiful bouquet of flowers that lasted the whole week.

Funny story: On about day three of our cruise we started smelling something not so nice when we came back to our cabin. It smelled like some kind of food. Every time we came back, it got worse. We ever went to Jimmy, our cabin steward, and told him about it. We asked if we were anywhere need a food prep area or something. I ever thought maybe Jimmy ate his lunch in our cabin while cleaning it. LOL! Finally, at some point I bent over to get something out of the vanity drawer and realized that the lily in front of that arrangement was the offender. Once I removed that, we were good to go. Went back and let Jimmy know that we found the culprit. Of course I didn't tell him about my lunch theory.

Along with the robes and the flowers we got a bottle of champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries before sail-away. We had our friends down, popped the cork on the champagne, toasted the beginning of our cruise and enjoyed the strawberries.

We also got a tray of canapes and a tray of desserts before each of the two formal dinners. We got breakfast in bed one morning (of our choice) with foods that don't come on the roomservice menu, including: Mimosas or Bloody Marys, scrambled eggs with salmon and caviar (really good) pastries, french toast, etc. delivered with a little vase of flowers.

Finally we got an 8 x 10 silver-plated picture frame and our choice of any 8 x 10 professionally-taken photo.

Really a great package.

Next: The balcony.

Here's the real piece de resistance:

The balcony was huge. We had 2 chairs, a small table and 2 chaise lounges with plenty of room to spare. We had great views all around. As you can see in the photos, we had a large 6-foot circular opening in the side for a great view and then in front of us.

I know that some folks have posted about the superstructure on the back obstructing the view, and I've never had an aft cabin in the back of a ship that didn't have the superstructure, but I hardly noticed it at all while I was out there. I mean, you can certainly see it, and in the pictures it looks really in-your-face, but when you're out there, you just see the ocean and the wake.

The beautiful wake:

This is our friends, Karen and Leah, on their balcony looking from our balcony:

What is Honey Strung Chicken?

Great review so far. I can't wait to hear more.

What is Honey Strung Chicken?

 

Great review so far. I can't wait to hear more.

Thanks.

Honey strung chicken is something that I had heard lots about on the boards here and it is something they only serve on embarkation day, so you have to try it when you first get on board, but it's fried boneless chicken breasts with some kind of breading. My wife didn't like it because the skin was on the chicken and that really turns her off. But if the skin is completely done and not rubbery, I like it, and this was really done right.

Tim

Thanks.

 

Honey strung chicken is something that I had heard lots about on the boards here and it is something they only serve on embarkation day, so you have to try it when you first get on board, but it's fried boneless chicken breasts with some kind of breading. My wife didn't like it because the skin was on the chicken and that really turns her off. But if the skin is completely done and not rubbery, I like it, and this was really done right.

 

Tim

hmmm...thanks. So it's like chicken strips? Is there a sauce because I'm wondering where the "honey" comes into play?

hmmm...thanks. So it's like chicken strips? Is there a sauce because I'm wondering where the "honey" comes into play?

Not that I saw, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. LOL. I was kind of wondering that myself, because I didn't taste any honey, and I don't know what the strung was, either, but it was good.

Tim

Here's a picture of the superstructure if you looked completely left from our balcony:

To our left, down on the deck 6 was the presidential suite. That is the only cabin on the ship that had a bigger balcony than ours. Of course they had a hot tub and a bar on their deck, but our view was much better:

We did some more exploring on the ship. By the way, this ship is really big and the elevator and stairs are really far away from our aft cabin, but it was great exercise going to and from. I had no complaints walking that distance all week, the only issue was if you forgot something in the cabin, it wasn't a quick walk back, it was a good 10 minutes to go to the cabin and back.

Next we went to the muster and then back to the room to get ready for dinner.

We chose to do the early seating for dinner. We had requested ahead of time to sit with our friends and requested a table for 4 either by a window or by the railing overlooking the main dining room. We got exactly what we asked for, a table for 4 next to the window with a great view.

The dining room:

Our waitstaff was excellent!! We really loved them! Rex, from Mumbai, India, was our waiter, and Diego from Columbia was our assistant waiter. They were both just excellent and were really attentive to us, made sure we were happy with the food, if not, brought us something else. One night my wife didn't find anything in the starters that she wanted so Rex brought her a dish of cut up fresh fruit. It wasn't on the menu. I thought that was really nice.

Our head waiter came to our table every day and tried to be nice to us, but he was kind of creepy. You know, he'd come over and ask the standard, "How is everything? How was your day?" type questions and we'd politely answer but then he would just stand there staring at us. He wasn't saying anything and it was really awkward. No biggie.

The food, in my opinion, was very good. We never had a problem finding something on menu. We enjoyed the main dining room so much better than the Windjammer. The food wasn't as good in the Windjammer, you know, the same old buffet food with a million people trying to find a place to sit. I'm not a huge fan of the buffet, anyway, what with everybody's hands touching everything.

I am definitely not a germophobe, but when you walked into the Windjammer, there was a woman handing out Purell hand wipes to everyone, or sometimes the container was sitting there for everyone to help themselves. One morning I was sitting at a table just behind the entrance and was watching everybody come in for their breakfast, and I was really surprised that 50% of the people walked right past the wipes without taking one. That's how viruses spread. People take 20 seconds and wipe your hands with antibacterial wipes before you use the utencils in the buffet. It not only protects you, but everyone else, too.

Okay. Here's us with Rex:

And here's Diego:

I know in this picture Diego looks kind of like Jack Nicholson from the Shining, but he really didn't have that look on his face the whole time. LOL.

Oh, and here's a picture of us leaving Miami and our first sunset of the cruise from our balcony:

After dinner we went up to the Viking Lounge, had a Drink of the Day, relaxed and looked at the view.

Oh, yeah, I didn't mention that today, Saturday, the high in Miami was around 65 degrees and windy all day so you know that up on the pool deck is was pretty chilly for sail-away.

Got back to our cabin, the bed had been turned down -- no chocolates -- at least in our rooms. I don't know if suites had them or not. We actually didn't miss the chocolates. We didn't even notice they weren't there until half way through we thought about it. In my opinion, though, that's one of the little touches that make cruising so nice and I can't imagine they save that much money not doing it.

Then it was off to sleep. Tomorrow: At sea.

Tim

Double post. Sorry.

Oh, and here's a picture of us leaving Miami and our first sunset of the cruise from our balcony:

Looks so calm & sereal off your balcony leaving Miami. I was almost blown off of mine! LOL (7640 hump) It sure was windy!!!

Yeah, from that angle you can't see my shirt up around my neck and me trying to steady the camera. LOL.

Tim

Yeah, from that angle you can't see my shirt up around my neck and me trying to steady the camera. LOL.

 

Tim

Shirt? Mine blew off once we passed the breakers . ha ha:D

Day 2: "You've got a friend at sea"

After a rather rocky night, and I'm not sure if there's more movement in the back of the ship or just because of the large seas we were experiencing, we were awakened by our room service call letting us know that our coffee was on the way.

We loved having some pastries and some fresh fruit out on the balcony along with our coffee in the morning. Nothing better.

We had a very active roll call group on the Cruise Critic boards with a really great bunch of people. It was started about 6 months before we sailed and we really got to know a lot about the folks we were going to meet.

Our Meet & Mingle was scheduled for 10:15 a.m. in the Olive or Twist Lounge on the 14th deck. There were, I think, 71 people signed up for the M&M and I think only about 40 actually showed up. I know that there are tons of things going on on the ship and it's easy to lose track of time so I'm sure many missed it accidentally.

Each attendee received a Royal Caribbean thingy that goes around your neck and holds your SeaPass, a name tag spot and had a notepad and pen. There was coffee and juices and some cookie-type treats and there were some things raffled off. They gave away three bags full of RC stuff. I personally thing they should have spread the stuff out a little bit, but congrats to those of you who won.

Many of the folks on the roll call were interested in a cabin crawl to see some of the other rooms. I thought this was a really nice treat to be able to see other cabins in other parts of the ship. We didn't get to see any really big suites, but we did see an oceanview family suite up front on deck 2 with two big windows, a queen-size bed and some bunk beds. It was very interesting. We then saw various balcony cabins, including the coveted hump balcony, and we got to see 2 D1 adjoining cabins with the balconies opened up. We then went to our cabin -- everyone loved the balcony, and then we ended with a cabin directly 3 decks up above ours, an aft corner on deck 10. It's the infamous cabin with the pole. The deck was smaller than ours, still nice, but the cabin itself was much bigger than ours and irregularly shaped. Lots of room in it and very nice.

Here's a picture of the ladies in that last cabin around "the pole." We gentlemen were all in the back watching:

It was really nice meeting all the folks from CC and putting faces with names. What a great bunch. And I especially liked running into people all over the ship the rest of the week. It really was like running into a friend and stopping and chatting a few minutes with them, finding out what they're doing, what they've seen that we should see, that sort of thing. To me, that was one of the best things on this trip. I didn't feel like I was on a ship with 3000 strangers, I had friends all over the ship!!

After getting together with all the folks from CC, we met

up with our friends and decided we were going to try to

go lay out by the pool. That was quite the joke. We went

up to the Solarium, which was beautiful, and tried to

relax, but the sun was so sporadic and the wind was so

bad that everybody ended up covering themselves in pool

towels. I wish I would have gotten a picture of

everybody laying around the pools like mummies. It

was quite comical.

The rest of that see day we just kind of explored the

ship and ate at various venues around the ship.

Day 3: Sun and San Juan:

The morning of day 3 we finally melt the warm Caribbean sun we'd been waiting for. It was just beautiful out and we decided to get some sun in the morning before the ship docked at our first port, San Juan.

Pulling into San Juan was just gorgeous. Seeing El Morrow for the first time was really something.

Here's a couple of shots:

Here's a panoramic view:

After we had docked, Sally and I had you get off the ship quickly to make our excursion, which was the Segway tour with Jose. I had done a lot of research on CC and had learned from many people that Jose gave a really great tour on Segways and I was assured that anybody would be able to do it.

Getting off the ship was quite easy and we walked to the

end of the pier where Jose met us on a Segway. There was

10 of us in our group and we followed him over to his office where he donned us with helmets and we signed our waivers. Jose started out by taking us individually and showing us how to get on and off of the Segway, how to go forward and backward and how to turn left and right. It only took a few minutes for each of us to learn and then we had to maneuver out the door into the courtyard where we did some more training. After about 20 minutes or so, we were all ready to go on our tour.

Here's some courtyard training:

A picture Jose took of us in front of a fountain:

The city was beautiful, the tour was very informative and Jose was a wonderful host. I've been thinking about taking a cruise leaving out of San Juan and now I know I'd love to go and spend a couple days there beforehand.

Here's a couple more shots on the tour:

LOVE the pictures in your posts, makes the review even better than it already is!

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