Amy's Ridiculously Long & Detailed LIBERTY 11/1-8 Review with Pictures

[libertylover]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing!

[LBumb]

thanks for the review. i really enjoyed it.

[molly361]

Great review. Glad you worries about Denise NOT liking the cruise were unfounded. Can you still smoke while sitting at the bar in Boleros??

[amybeth4]

Great review. Glad you worries about Denise NOT liking the cruise were unfounded. Can you still smoke while sitting at the bar in Boleros??

 

Yes. Bolero's is EXTREMELY small...again, one of those afterthought-looking places. You can smoke anywhere in Bolero's and the bartenders are GREAT. You can smoke in the Catacombs, in parts of Olive or Twist (I highly recommend going there at night...GORGEOUS), all of the Hoof & Claw, and none of the Schooner. I don't THINK you can smoke in Vintages and when I walked by the always-almost-empty Champagne Bar (much as I love Champagne...why didn't I go in??) I didn't see any ashtrays, which doesn't always mean you can't smoke. The bartenders don't tend to leave too many of them out.

[Rala]

Great review...loved reading it. We were on Liberty 9/26 doing the Eastern route. Other than ports, I pretty much agree with most everything you wrote. We are a bit older than you (our daughter is your age, lol) so we did not have all the late night fun, but we did enjoy the cruise. I love your sense of humor!!!!

[ncb106]

Tickets were NEVER needed for the ice show on this cruise. I've read on these boards that they used to be necessary but it's not at all anymore.

 

I said on one of the days (day 2 I think, at the bottom) that it was discovered that day that someone from the previous week had Legionnaires' Disease (apparently the water is tested pretty often) so from day 3 on, the hot tubs and H2O zone were closed. :(

 

I will like to know if there smokey allow at the bolaros bar and at the pool deck

[Rala]

I will like to know if there smokey allow at the bolaros bar and at the pool deck

 

I'm not sure why you keep asking this question as it has been answered several times on different threads. I will bite and answer it again since I am a recent cruiser on Liberty.....YES, smokING is allowed in both locations. If you read Amybeth's excellent review above, she also explains very nicely about the smoking policies.

[amybeth4]

I'm not sure why you keep asking this question as it has been answered several times on different threads. I will bite and answer it again since I am a recent cruiser on Liberty.....YES, smokING is allowed in both locations. If you read Amybeth's excellent review above, she also explains very nicely about the smoking policies.

 

lol, thanks Rala. Not only that, but I covered smokey in Bolero's two responses above the question! :)

[Gail and Ken]

Thanks for the wonderful and thorough review..I don't know where you got the time to do it all so fast.. I watched the cruise video this am and saw you at several of the different venues.. Now I have to get busy with my pic's and making copies of the cd for the kids.. Thanks again..

[MICHLEV1974]

I loved your review. I was lol'ing on almost every post.....

 

loved the litterbox reference...and the retardedness...hahahahahah

 

thanks so much for your time on this!

 

Sailing Freedom in less than 100 days!

[amybeth4]

Thanks for the wonderful and thorough review..I don't know where you got the time to do it all so fast.. I watched the cruise video this am and saw you at several of the different venues.. Now I have to get busy with my pic's and making copies of the cd for the kids.. Thanks again..

 

Gail, I actually brought a mini laptop so if you ever saw someone sitting at the pool typing away on a little red computer, that was me. I couldn't have put all those thoughts together on one night, that's for sure!

 

Feel free to send me a copy of the DVD, which I forgot to buy. Of course I'll pay you for postage. But if it's a pain, that's fine too! :)

 

I saw a bit of it at the farewell show and I only saw me dancing at the disco party next to James, and a quick shot of me at Quest. I'm definitely a ham and wish I was on it more! :)

 

I look forward to your pics and review, if you write one.

[martinchem]

Fun pics and looks like a pretty good time. Glad you enjoyed yourself and shared it with others.

[libertylover]

Yes. Bolero's is EXTREMELY small...again, one of those afterthought-looking places. You can smoke anywhere in Bolero's and the bartenders are GREAT. .

 

I HAVE to agree with that! I met a very special friend behind the bar at Bolaros -- of course, they had different bartenders when I was there.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Great review Amy! I love the story book read with pictures...its like we were there!

 

Also love your picture...its nice to put a face to a name!!

 

Hope Denise's toe is better! :)

 

***

[OrdieJ]

Excellant pictures. I love seeing reviews with pix. I am going through cruise withdrawels right now.

[scot1314]

Amy thank you for a wonderful review. I will be on the Liberty 3/14/10 and really looking forward to it and can't wait now after reading your review.

Thanks Andrew

[luckyprincess]

Great review Amy!! Love all of the pics! You looked wonderful and I'm glad you were able to really enjoy it:)

[Texas Teen]

Nice review!

[GOODIES]

Amy

thanks for the awsome review, pictures were great thanks for taking the time i will be on liberty 11/29/09 same cruise ports of call, did you ever make it to jade, i like mongolian bbq, again thanks alot.

Rick

[bluegirlum]

Wow! What a review! I feel like I was back on the ship. Too funny! Now I am so excited for our cruise in a few weeks.

 

I know exactly what you mean about Schooner Bar and Bolero's. Those have always been our favorites, but on Liberty they just don't have the same feel. We were disappointed by that. One sea day, we had to sit by the H20 zone and there were high seas, so it was closed. The water was overflowing so much that people's stuff was getting soaked if it was on the ground--it was annoying.

 

Otherwise, Liberty is my favorite ship. I'm glad you and Denise enjoyed your trip. I'm tired just thinking about all the stuff you did!!! Thanks for taking the time to do the review.

[amybeth4]

Great review Amy! I love the story book read with pictures...its like we were there!

 

Also love your picture...its nice to put a face to a name!!

 

Hope Denise's toe is better! :)

 

***

 

Thanks DCinAZ! :) Her toe's gonna take awhile to heal. It sucks that there's nothing you can do to fix it! And the Belize day was pretty rough on her and that was without doing the cave which she was crazy to attempt! :)

[amybeth4]

Amy

thanks for the awsome review, pictures were great thanks for taking the time i will be on liberty 11/29/09 same cruise ports of call, did you ever make it to jade, i like mongolian bbq, again thanks alot.

Rick

 

Goodies (that's really funny because i have one friend who's been calling me Goodie and Goodies for YEARS), Jade on this ship is the beginning of the Windjammer...you have no choice but to walk through it. I wouldn't exactly call it a restaurant. It's really just part of WJ with one small section of Asian-inspired food, which is also buffet-style. I didn't see anything about those hot rocks I've read about here and I CERTAINLY didn't see a Mongolian BBQ.

 

What I did was pick up a plate at quote/unquote Jade, grab whatever looked good, and continued onto WJ. It REALLY is just part of WJ.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Jenner9]

Fantastic review. Loved reading it. I am on Liberty 12/13/09 with the same itinerary. I was looking forward to a review from someone that had the same ports of call that I will have.

[cal516]

We too just returned from the Liberty's Nov 1 - Nov 8 cruise to the Western Caribbean. Realizing that much of every review is totally subjective, let me add these few thoughts to this thread & the OP's most detailed review. These were our opinions and, as they say, everyone has one. We found the cruise to be one of stark contrasts. The format here is stream of consciousness.

 

Embarkation/Disembarkation

 

They have this down to a science in Miami. Arriving, we left our hotel at 11am with a 10 min cab ride and we were sitting by the pool at 11:47am !!! Departing, we left our stateroom (with our bags) at 6:20am and were in a cab en route the airport at 6:37. The longest delay was waiting for the elevator! A+++

 

Food & Food Venues

 

Windjammer - Had 6 breakfasts and 3 lunches there. Breakfast offered varied options, enough to please just about anyone. At peak breakfast times (8:30-9:30), we found the venue impossibly crowded. At all times we found the breakfast & lunch food to be cool to cold and stale from sitting out too long. We thought lunch was high school cafeteria quality, no better. This was not the absolute worst Windjammer experience we've had with RCI but darned close. On the bright side, the service in the Windjammer (drinks, clearing tables, etc.) was better than I've experienced on other RCI ships.

 

Main Dining Room - Had 1 breakfast and 3 lunches there. Our breakfast service was spectacularly awful. Took over an hour to get juice, coffee, eggs, bacon, toast. It arrived cold and virtually unfit for consumption. We had the superb salad bar for all 3 lunches and it was simply excellent. Lunch service was fine. We ate 5 dinners in the MDR. The food was the absolute best we've experienced on a RCI ship and arrived steaming hot and fresh. Only one other RCI ship has ever come close to this level of quality for MDR dinners. Our service team was also great.

 

Chops/Portofino - Had 1 dinner in each. While Portofino takes first place the food and service in both venues was top notch, easily 4+ stars.

 

Entertainment

 

Singers & Dancers - we thought the choreography was way overdone and singing talent was keenly lacking. We walked out of all of these shows. It has been several years since we enjoyed a "Singers & Dancers" show.

 

Headliners - The Russian acrobat/balancer was excellent. The first comic was terrible; the second was a hoot. Missed the vocalist so can't comment.

 

Ice Show - Very entertaining and probably the best show afloat. Does not compare favorably to a real ice show on a real rink but still very well worth the time.

 

Quest - For all the hype on these boards, it was pretty lame - predictable and puerile. Our female team leader was so smashed she fell flat on her face. Not sure what is entertaining about that.

 

Bingo/Games - Did not avail ourselves so have no evaluation.

 

Lounges/Bars (inside) - Most venues were disappointing due to the lack of windows in many of them so unlike the great lounges on the Radiance-class ships. Olive & Twist (Viking Crown Deck) was closed for the sail away for a private party - a big disappointment. During peak time the lounges/bars were very crowded and it was hard to find a seat. Service varied from good to poor depending on location and time.

 

Lounges/Bars (poolside) - pretty darned good. Drinks in the Solarium bar were very well made & the bar tenders were prompt and efficient.

 

Cigar Bar - a beautiful facility which was almost completely empty the three times I used it. Don't be surprised if this venue goes away soon.

 

Cruise Director & CD's Staff - no real complaints but nothing particularly good to say either. Have had much better on other ships but they certainly did not hinder our experience.

 

Guest Relations Staff - only had one experience with them and it was handled quickly and satisfactorily. There was almost always a line to be seen but there were always 3-4 people on the desk so, this was the best they could reasonably do.

 

Aqua-Entertainment

 

As discussed by the OP, much of the water environment was shut down for most of our cruise due to an apparent health issue - although frankly, it is hard to see why the Jacuzzis and water-park could not be decontaminated at sea. I doubt the few hours in port between cruises offered a better opportunity. During the night & early morning hours just about every square inch of the ship was washed and wiped down with disinfectant. Even the shower nozzles and sink faucet aerators were removed and soaked in disinfectant (we happened to be in our room when the team came by to do it).

 

Design wise, the introduction of the Flow-Rider at the aft end of the ship displaces the water area for the kids found on the Voyager class. The solution was to move and expand the water area into a water park and put it on the pool deck. I didn't measure square feet but the result seems to be a much smaller pool and sunbathing area than on the Voyager class ships. Great for families, not so great for adults only cruisers. Like the Voyager class, the Solarium pool is uncovered - another mistake in my view.

 

While we did not try the Flow-Rider, we watched for about 45 min and found it to be thoroughly entertaining.

 

Stateroom

 

We had a Cat-H ocean-view room with a forward looking window on the extreme forward end of Deck-7. It was the largest and most comfortable room we've had on any RCI ship, including our several Balcony rooms on Voyager-class ships. This was a great buy for the money (about $600 p/p).

 

Elite Class Reserved Areas

 

I concur with the OPs evaluation of the large number of deck-chairs reserved for Executive and Suite guests. They almost always were 100% unused. There were also 2 rows of prime seats in the theatre similarly reserved and similarly almost 100% unused. Seems like a solution in search of a problem.

 

Technical Services

 

Photo Kiosks - never worked, not once.

 

WiFi/Internet Services /Internet Room - we had 15 min of free service from our coupon book and used it all in several unsuccessful attempts to connect to Yahoo or Verizon's web sites. I have yet to make this work on any RC ship (and no, I'm not computer illiterate).

 

Cell Tower - only tried text'ing via my Verizon services and it worked only intermittently. More reliable incoming than outgoing. And yes, I made all the pre-cruise arrangements necessary with Verizon.

 

Room Phone/Automatic Wake-Up Service - worked flawlessly.

 

Stores

 

In general, despite the "price guarantee" everything seemed exorbitantly expensive. One bottle of perfume we purchased on board for $48 was found at the first store at the end of the pier in Costa Maya for $40 (it is $52 at home). During the big tee-shirt sail, tee's were a reasonable $10 ea.

 

All-in-all, we enjoyed ourselves as we always do. Probably won't do a Freedom class ship again and have no desire to see Oasis. We'll keep those smaller ships filled!

 

... Cal

[amybeth4]

Great review Cal.

 

 

Windjammer - Had 6 breakfasts and 3 lunches there. Breakfast offered varied options, enough to please just about anyone. At peak breakfast times (8:30-9:30), we found the venue impossibly crowded.

 

Did you ever have someone find a table for you? We were always there around 9 and it wasn't TOO bad. I've seen it worse on the Majesty!

 

At all times we found the breakfast & lunch food to be cool to cold and stale from sitting out too long. We thought lunch was high school cafeteria quality, no better.

 

I sort of agree with this. I tried very hard to keep all of my breakfasts and lunches lower in calories so the huge majority of my lunches consisted of gigantic salads and some turkey. But I'd usually take like one forkful sized taste of one or two things. I found the daily fish offerings to be good but I really didn't go to town and taste most of the "hot" stuff. It's DEFINITELY not as good as it used to be, though.

 

On the bright side, the service in the Windjammer (drinks, clearing tables, etc.) was better than I've experienced on other RCI ships.

 

Definitely!

 

Singers & Dancers - we thought the choreography was way overdone and singing talent was keenly lacking. We walked out of all of these shows.

 

We thought the singers at the farewell show sounded quite good for the most part. But we probably would've walked out had I not wanted to stay to see what happened after they performed. I was still hoping for something good/funny from James and his staff but it didn't happen.

 

 

Headliners - The Russian acrobat/balancer was excellent. The first comic was terrible; the second was a hoot. Missed the vocalist so can't comment.

 

I thought it was just me. His first show wasn't that funny and his adult show was just slightly funnier. My friend thought he was very funny but I kept falling asleep. I wish SO BADLY I could remember the name of the comedian on the Maj in Feb. His adult show was QUITE R-rated (unlike this guy) and we gave him a standing O at the end.

 

 

Quest - For all the hype on these boards, it was pretty lame - predictable and puerile. Our female team leader was so smashed she fell flat on her face. Not sure what is entertaining about that.

 

Good Lord please don't tell me you were on team 2. I was a little drunk that night (that might have been my Diamond Lounge night, haha) but I definitely don't remember falling...

 

 

Cruise Director & CD's Staff - no real complaints but nothing particularly good to say either. Have had much better on other ships but they certainly did not hinder our experience.

 

Yeah, I thought they were fun but really I see no difference in any Cruise Director. If my guess is correct and the CDs have input as to the daily activities, then I wouldn't rate James that high. While we were often scrambling to get to an activity, there were MANY times on the Sea Days where we had nothing to do for hours because the Compass was filled with things like seminars. I've never seen so many seminars!

 

 

As discussed by the OP, much of the water environment was shut down for most of our cruise due to an apparent health issue - although frankly, it is hard to see why the Jacuzzis and water-park could not be decontaminated at sea. I doubt the few hours in port between cruises offered a better opportunity.

 

Well get THIS one. Someone on our roll call board said he saw them REFILLING the hot tubs when we got to Miami. *****?! And I see you agree with me that the main pool area seems way too small for what you'd imagine it would be on a ship of this size. I really felt I had much more room on the Majesty.

 

Thanks again for your comments, Cal.