Liberty of the Seas 4/18/10 Review with Pics

[bravescots53]

This was our 7th cruise, our 6th on Royal Caribbean. My wife and I were traveling with my brother and his wife. It was their 1st cruise.

 

We flew from Philadelphia to Miami the day prior to sailing. We stayed at the La Quinta Inn Airport. We all shared a room and it was about $100.00 for the night. The hotel was nice, it had a pool, continental breakfast and a free shuttle from the airport and to the cruise terminal.

 

We were given a shuttle time of 12:00 which worked out perfectly. We arrived at the pier at about 12:30. Check it went quickly as there was almost no line and we were on the ship a little before 1:00. We had two rooms on deck 9. We had a balcony and my brother had an inside. Our rooms were ready so we dropped off our carry-ons and put some things away and then made our way to the Windjammer for lunch. It was about 2:00 until we got to the Windjammer and finding a table was easy as most of the crowd had already finished eating.

 

After lunch we explored the ship a little, my wife bought the soda package for $48.30 and then we got some drinks in the Schooner Bar. We then went back to the room to wait for the Muster Drill and found 1 our of suitcases had arrived already. The other one came shortly after that. Muster Drill was fairly quick and no lifejacket was required.

[bravescots53]

We then went on Deck 4 for sail away. It was rainy in the morning, but cleared up by sail away. Dinner was supposed to be at 6:00, but they moved it to 6:15 that night which worked out so we could watch the sail away. We then went to dinner which we all thought was excellent. We had very good waiters all week and enjoyed the food. I was very impressed by our head waiter who took the time to talk with us every night and be sure that all our needs were met. After dinner we would go to the 8:00 trivia and then back to our room to relax on the balcony. It became our ritual every night to get a pasty snack at the Café Promenade to take back to enjoy on the balcony. My brother and his wife went to the casino a few times and enjoyed the Viking Crown Lounge at night.

 

 

[bravescots53]

Sea Day

 

The sea day was very relaxing. We had great weather. We did a little ice skating in the morning, played some trivia and relaxed by the pool for the rest of the day. It was crowded near the pools, but we were able to find 4 loungers together in the Solarium Pool. There were seats being saved by books and towels, we had some chairs next to us with stuff on and we never did see the people. Dinner that night was formal. I think I had roast duck that night which was very good.

 

 

Day 3 Costa Maya

 

The four of us did a tour of the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins through Native Choice. I would highly recommend them. We met them at the pier and boarded a bus to the site. Our guide was Ivan who grew up at the site and was very informative. The group was small enough that we could always hear him and we had a little time to explore the site. The tour cost $50.00 a person. It was very hot that day, but he made sure to keep us in the shade when he talked and they provided bottled water. We even spotted some spider monkeys.

 

 

[bravescots53]

Day 4 Belize

 

The tender ride to Belize takes about 25 minutes and people lined up early to get on the tenders. When we arrived at the dock it was a mass of people looking for their tour groups. We did the Jungle River Tubing and Mayan Ruins through Royal Caribbean. This was the only ship tour that we did.

 

We left Belize City on an old school bus for a 90 minute ride during which time our guide gave an interesting talk all about Belize. When we arrived at the site they took us on a cart pulled by a tractor down to the river. I think this could have been a lot more fun except the water level was very low in the river so at times we had to walk with our tubes. Most times we all hooked together while some young boys pulled us along the river because there was just no current. They were very helpful to us. We tubed for about an hour and arrived at the Mayan site of Hubelna. There is not much to see of the ruins at all as it is still very overgrown. We then walked through an orange grove to a pavilion where they served us a somewhat sparse lunch of chicken and rice and beans. The bus ride back most people fell asleep. We liked Belize, but I think it is a port where you need to have an excursion planned to really enjoy it. There is not much around the port area to see and the local vendors were very aggressive.

 

 

 

[bravescots53]

Day 5 Cozumel

 

We booked Nachi Cocom all inclusive Beach Resort for the day. We waited a while before getting off the ship to let some of the crowd go. We walked to the taxi area and were able to get a taxi immediately. He took the 4 of us to Nachi Cocom for $15.00. We arrived before it was open (Mexico is an hour behind us). I actually had to get out and hold the gate open for him to drive in. There was one guy working who was very nice and said we could hang out on the beach, just the bar wasn’t open yet so we claimed our chairs for the day and relaxed. Slowly more people began to arrive but it never got crowded. The beach is very clean and the water was beautiful. They also have a pool with a swim up bar. Our waiter would keep us supplied with drinks on the beach. Lunch is provided which was very excellent. For an additional cost they do have snorkeling and mats you can rent and stuff, but we didn’t do any of this.

 

We had to be back on board by 3:30. They had taken everything on the dock apart except one gangplank and a bunch of people in uniforms were standing around it. They began paging 4 people around this time. We were sitting on deck 4 facing the dock and at about 4:00 2 people came running down the dock and got on. They still paged 2 people, but shortly after 4:00 we left so I don’t know if someone missed the ship or not.

 

This was the 2nd formal night and after dinner was the only show we attended. It was a group called Mosaic. They are 5 guys that only use their voices to make musical instrument sounds and sing and they were very entertaining.

 

 

 

Granduer of the Seas was docked next to us. The 1st Royal Caribbean Ship we sailed on.

 

 

 

[HB Cruiser]

HaHaHaHa

 

Reading as you post! Pretty cool!

 

Keep um comming!

 

Tim

[bravescots53]

Day 6 Grand Cayman

 

This is a tender port and if you were not on a ships tour tender tickets were required this time. The tickets were to be handed out at 9:00 am and we had heard that people line up early, so we got there at 8:30 and there was quite a line forming by then but we were able to get on the first tender.

 

We had booked a Stingray City tour with Stingray Sailing for $45.00 a person. This was the highlight of our trip. We had a great time. Chip from Stingray Sailing met us right at the dock. He had a list of everyone’s name and told us that he would start the tour once everyone arrived. There were

some people on the tour with us from the Carnival ship also docked there. We did start the tour a little early. He took us in a van to his catamaran, The Far Tortuga. They only take about 25 people so there was plenty of space on board to relax. Our first stop was Stingray City after about a 40 minute ride.

 

It was nice having such a small group. They explained how to touch the stingrays and feed and hold them and made sure everyone got a chance to do this. They also take you picture with them if you want and you can view it on their laptop and buy the CD (for $20) if you want, but they do not push you do this. After the stingrays they take you to a reef for snorkeling. Only my brother snorkeled, my wife and I just relaxed on the catamaran with a couple other people who didn’t snorkel. They do provide water and some fruit to get the salt water taste out of your month. Beer and soda are extra. After seeing some boats just jammed with people I was very glad we chose them. We had a great experience and never felt rushed. After the tour they will drop you at 7 mile beach, which a couple people chose to do, or take you back to the dock.

 

 

 

[bravescots53]

 

 

 

Liberty of the Seas as seen from the tender

[bravescots53]

Day 7 Sea Day

This day we just really relaxed. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets which is always very good. When we went there they told us there would be a 30 minute wait and they gave us a pager, but it really only took maybe 10 minutes. After lunch I took a nice long nap on the balcony until dinner.

 

 

Forgot to mention we watched the Pirate Parade one day.

 

[bravescots53]

Debarkation

 

We were up early to watch our arrival back into Miami from the balcony

 

Our flight was scheduled to leave Miami at 2:00 so we had a debarkation time of 10:30 to 11:00. We had a leisurely breakfast in the main dining room after which we took our time and headed to the Platinum Theatre to wait to be called. It was close to 11:00 when they called us and we used the Royal Caribbean Transfer to go the airport. Our flight was delayed about 45 minutes due to bad weather in Philly and once we landed they announced some connecting flights were cancelled so the airport was a zoo. Luckily this was our final destination. Welcome back to reality.

 

People doing express departure went off very early.

 

Just some final thoughts:

 

We sailed on the sister ship Independence of the Seas from Southampton to Ireland and to us that ship felt really crowded, so I was a little leery about sailing on the Freedom Class again. That sailing we did have rainy cold weather so everyone was inside which maybe added to the crowded feeling. I remember having a hard time finding a table in the Windjammer for breakfast and lunch and the elevators always seemed more crowded.

We didn’t seem to have this problem on the Liberty of the Seas. We had great weather all week long and we also heard that some people coming from Europe missed the cruise due to the flight cancellations from the volcano so possibly this ship was not full. We had a wonderful time on this ship, the crew was great, but I still prefer the smaller Voyager Class of ships.

[pollux]

Thank you for the review and the great photos.

Wish I was so PC smart would love to make great photos and post them.

[Kaboochi]

Great info. We are planning a cruise on Liberty 2/11. Were there any convience or grocery stores near the La Quinta? We always pick up waters and sodas prior to boarding. Since you were at an airport location I think there were no store but wanted to find out because the rate is good. Thank you

[LTyler]

great pictures!! :)

[bravescots53]

Thanks for reading my review everyone.

 

The La Quinta Inn didn't have any stores near it. They only thing close enough to walk to was a Bennigans Restaurant which is right in their parking lot.

[bionicman97]

Enjoyed the pictures :) Looks like you had an active cruise.

[michael-g-rice]

Great review, I love leaving from Miami

[granddutchess]

Great review. We will be sailing on LOS out of Miami on 7/4/10. Cannot wait. Pictures of your excursions were fabulous.

[CleoPat]

Thanks for posting your review! I'll be sailing her on 5/23. I'll be doing the ship's excursion for stingrays. Did you use a underwater camera to take those shots or did you buy them? I'm thinking of getting a throw away underwater camera just for that excursion. Also, did you actually have roast duck for dinner one night? I don't think I've ever seen that on a RC menu.

[alicam]

Thanks for your review and your great photos...we'll be on Liberty next March and hopefully some of our friends will be along as well so they can enjoy this ship too

[bravescots53]

CleoPat:

 

I used a disposable waterproof camera for the stingrays. For the underwater pictures I just held the camera underwater in the direction of the stingrays and clicked and got lucky with that picture.

 

And yes, they definitely had roast duck on the menu. Enjoy your trip, you'll have a great time!