Review - Liberty of the Seas - March 13-19

[Travel Travel Travel]

Our family (DH, DS – 21, and DD – 15) spent two nights in Miami (Doubletree Ocean Point) before the cruise. We went to the Everglades, which was very cool but VERY crowded. We had to wait for about ½ hour just to get a parking spot. Once there, though, it was fun and we saw lots of alligators.

 

 

We used Red Limo from the airport to the hotel, and again from the hotel to the cruise port. They were great – polite, clean, safe drivers, very prompt.

 

 

Day 1 - We arrived at the port around 12:15 and were on board by 12:45. We had a tasty lunch at Sorrentos. (The Windjammer was packed.) We got into our room at 1:00.

 

 

We splurged for a Grand Suite and it was spectacular. The deck had 2 chairs and a nice sized table, plus two reclining deck chairs. The room was clean and had a lot of storage. The bathroom was beautiful. There was a fruit basket waiting for us. Our room attendant, Sophie, was fantastic the whole time. Since we were in a suite, there was a concierge lounge (staffed by the wonderful Mario). It was very nice and peaceful. Mario was a great concierge and knew all our names by the end of the first day. The free drinks at night were really nice.

 

 

 

We dined in the MDR with My Time Dining and had a fantastic table and wonderful waiters. The food was very good. We were told we could get the same table and waiters again, but that did not turn out to be accurate.

 

 

Day 2 was a ship day. DD abandon us early for the teen group. DS had a harder time. We were a bit too boring for him, and he never quite found his niche. It wasn’t bad, at all, he is just at a hard age. He enjoyed the basketball court, and spent a lot of evenings there. He also enjoyed a number of trivia games with us. He loved getting pizza at midnight!

My daughter and I had booked pedicures. This would have been nice, except the entire time they were trying to sell us things. It was not relaxing at all. The technician gave me a “free” facial – which I didn’t really want. She was just trying to sell me more products. In hindsight, I would not set foot in the spa. I was a little surprised at how many sales pitches there were throughout the ship every day. But once you learn to ignore it, it’s not a big deal.

 

 

We had lunch at Johnny Rockets. While the food was quite good, it wasn’t worth it. The service was outrageously slow. It took us about 80 minutes to get burgers and fries. My daughter’s malt that we ordered first thing came out as we were finishing our burgers. The waiter apologized, but didn’t seem to be working very hard at all. It made no sense. We would not return there.

 

 

In an effort to keep our great MDR table, we messed up our reservation all together ! It was completely our fault. Portofino was offering a “wine dinner” – pairing wines with each course. So we did that instead and it was fun and delicious. There were five pre-set courses. But when my son didn’t like one of them, they quickly made him something else. The service was excellent. It was a long dinner, however. It took 3 hours and we missed Up In The Air, a show we really wanted to see and it was never shown again. Bummer!

 

PORT DAYS:

FYI – for each of our ports, because of daylight savings, we were 2 hours later than local time. This was a little confusing for some of the tours. Cozumel observes daylight savings, but not until April, and this was March.

 

Day 3 – Belize We took a tour through cavetubing.bz. Eddie was our guide. He was funny, informative, patient, and extremely competent. We first went ziplining which was FANTASTIC. I was terrified. But once I saw all the safeties (you are connected in two places to each of two separate enormous cables) – I realized it would be tough to fall. It was an amazing experience. We also went cave tubing, which we enjoyed less. The water was low, so it was very slow. And it was very crowded. But still, Eddy made it interesting. We stopped at a company owned restaurant/market on the way back, where they fed us delicious rice & beans with chicken, soda, and rum punch. It was really wonderful. They had some items for sale as well. Belize City itself is very dirty and crowded, as is the port. Booking a tour here is an absolute must. Cavetubing.bz was great and if we return, we’ll use them again for a different tour.

 

 

Dinner in the main dining room was a little disappointing. Our table was right by a service station and there was a lot of hustle and bustle but our service was a little slow. Still, it was respectable and the food was pretty good. My tiger shrimp meal had an extremely small portion. But things were slow so I didn't ask for more.

 

 

We went to the comedy show after. But we were pretty tired from Belize, and the show was not great, so we left. A lot of people seemed to find the show to be excellent though.

 

 

 

Day 4 – Costa Maya – This was by far the nicest port area. It was clean and had a big swimming pool with a swim up bar, a beach area, and a swim with the dolphins area. We didn’t get to spend any time there, really, but would have liked to. We did the Mayan Experience with The Native Choice. It was fantastic. It was about a 50-minute ride to the Mayan ruins, during which our wonderful guide, Luisa, entertained us with stories of her country and her childhood, and of our upcoming adventure. At the ruins there was a small market where we purchased a few inexpensive things. Our guide through the ruins was Veronica who was positively overflowing with information. She was amazing and fascinating. We then went to a small Mayan village where Veronica lives. (She is a teacher). A group of women cooked us a magnificent lunch, and showed us (quickly) how to make tortillas. Everyone got a chance to make one. We were exhausted by the end of the day, but it was quite wonderful.

 

 

We had dinner at Chops, which was well worth the extra price. The table, service, and food were great. We got to order family style sides – various potatoes, veggies, etc and they were truly fantastic. The deserts were wonderful.

 

 

Day 5 – Cozumel – We spent the day at Chankanaab Park, which is a nice place. We snorkeled in the morning, renting gear for $10 per person. We are inexperienced, so to us, it was great snorkeling along a beautiful reef – we saw hundreds of fish. Some people who had more experience were not as pleased. The current was strong, and it was actually pretty hard work! In the afternoon we did the “Royal Swim” with the dolphins. Like so many others, we found the experience to be wonderful, except for the hard sell of the photos after. In fact, we ended up walking out of the “sales” room. They wanted us to sort through hundreds of photos to find the ones of our family. We didn’t even get to pick up our towels first. I’m sure there were some nice photos, but it just wasn’t worth it and we felt almost captive. We were really glad to leave. We got in a cab and went downtown to a Mexican restaurant called La Mission. It was complete with a Mariachi band. The food was excellent, the margaritas were better yet, and the prices were reasonable. It was a great way to end our day in Cozumel.

 

 

It was a formal night and even lobster night, but we had such a big lunch, we weren’t hungry for dinner at our 6:30 reserved time, and we couldn’t get a later time. So we hit the buffet a little after 8. Really, for buffet food, we thought it was quite good. Even the sushi was pretty good. They even honored our wine package and brought us a bottle of wine.

 

 

 

There was a piano bar with nice music playing, which we listened to for a bit. The Scooner (?) bar was really nice, and we met some great people. The bartender is awesome.

 

 

 

Day 6 – Ship day. We had our only breakfast in the MDR. (We did the buffet or room service the other days – both great.) The food was pretty good and the service was good. But they had a big Madagascar show going on and it was very, very loud. We read and swam and placed second in our progressive trivia game. : ) We did the Cruise Critic slot pull, but ended up losing $11 each. Oh well. The casino was very smoky. We actually would have booked another cruise on board, but the line was always so long, we didn’t want to waste much time on our last day.

We had reserved our last night at Portofino. It was by far the best meal we ate on this trip. (Which is saying something because we had a lot of good meals!) DD, DH and I had a lobster/scallop/salmon/shrimp skewer that was out of this world. DS had a bone-in rib eye. Cesar salads were made table-side. Our waiter was perfect. The desserts were just amazing. It was a wonderful way to end a fantastic week.

 

 

Overall thoughts:

 

My 15 year old DD had the time of her life on this cruise. I think she was the perfect age. The teen program and teen spaces are outstanding. DS also had a great time. I think a few more things aimed at the young-20’s would be nice, but DS had a great cruise. (Turns out DH and I weren't so boring after all. Ha, ha.) Really, the ports were the most important to us, and we were all together for those and unanimously loved each and every thing we did.

 

 

 

LOS is a spectacular ship with endless things to do. The positives far and away outweigh the few negatives. The staff is wonderful – friendly and helpful. They come from 44 different countries and we very much enjoyed talking to them about their lives and families. The food ranges from good to wonderful. The ship is clean, and all the staterooms we saw were nice. If I had the chance to do the exact same cruise again, I would do so in a heartbeat. It was the trip of a lifetime. There is so much more to say, but this is already super long!

 

 

 

I'm going to try to post the cruise compass in a little bit for those that are interested.

[Travel Travel Travel]

Okay, I hope this worked. This is day 1, 2, & 3 Cruise Compass.

Cruise_Compass_Day1.pdf

Cruise_Compass_Day2.pdf

Cruise_Compass_Day3.pdf

[Travel Travel Travel]

Days 4, 5, & 6

Cruise_Compass_Day4.pdf

Cruise_Compass_Day5.pdf

Cruise_Compass_Day6.pdf

[Palmetto Pilot]

Great review! I can't wait until sunday!

[SharkBruce]

Thank you so much for the PDF scans of the Cruise Compasses. Sounds like a fun week. We are off to do the same thing next week. Can't wait.

[Verfai]

This is probably a stupid question…

But where (and when) do you find out what the dress code is for every night at the MDR? I thought it would be found on the cruise compass, but unless I’m reading over it, it’s not there.

 

Dam I’m too new to cruising :)

 

Greets

[Shomari]

Sweet review! And thanks for the cruise compasses.

[alicam]

This is probably a stupid question…

But where (and when) do you find out what the dress code is for every night at the MDR? I thought it would be found on the cruise compass, but unless I’m reading over it, it’s not there.

 

Dam I’m too new to cruising :)

 

Greets

 

Hi...you're not missing it because it is not on the ones posted ...they only show what is going on...not the whole compass is there...it is generally 4 pages (there may be an insert as well) and the dress code suggestion will be on the 1st page in the "important things to know today" section...the files above were taken off page 4

[foxesden1]

thanks for the PDF!

 

and thanks for the review!!! :D

[foxesden1]

how long is the sail away party? we have early dinner - 6pm, is it over by 5:30? how long to walk/get to the main dining room?

 

Thanks!

[JKYChildes]

This is probably a stupid question…

But where (and when) do you find out what the dress code is for every night at the MDR? I thought it would be found on the cruise compass, but unless I’m reading over it, it’s not there.

 

Dam I’m too new to cruising :)

 

Greets

 

It is found on the first page of the cuise compass.... upper right hand side... it was just not scanned into the above PDF.

[Travel Travel Travel]

This is probably a stupid question…

But where (and when) do you find out what the dress code is for every night at the MDR? I thought it would be found on the cruise compass, but unless I’m reading over it, it’s not there.

 

Dam I’m too new to cruising :)

 

Greets

 

Not a stupid question at all! I guess that information must have been on the front page of the Compass. Shoot. I'll ask my husband to scan those (I don't have a scanner at home) and I'll try to post them tomorrow. Our formal nights were Nights 2 & 5.

 

We were new to cruising too. You'll have a great time!

[Travel Travel Travel]

how long is the sail away party? we have early dinner - 6pm, is it over by 5:30? how long to walk/get to the main dining room?

 

Thanks!

 

The sail away party was, maybe, 45 minutes? But people came and went the whole time. We only stayed for about 20 minutes. It will only take you a few minutes to walk to the dining room.

[will773]

Thanks for posting those compasses. I love to look at them! :D