Just off Liberty of Seas (3/17 - 3/22)

[Bead Pirate]

Our first trip on LOS and we had heard a lot about her and the staff so thought we would give a 5 night (Belize and Cozumel) a try for our anniversary.

 

Stayed in a JR. Suite on 9, the room was great (loved the extra space on the balcony). Our room steward (call me Dio) was great as well, I noticed that he had a huge Royal Carribean gold signet ring (I am sure this must be an award of some type, perhaps longevity). Room was quiet - no complaints!

 

One thing we had heard was that the staff on LOS tend to be longer term folks (met many who had been there a number of years) and that the staff has a great attitude - Correct on all counts based on what we saw (as well as a lot more of those gold signet rings).

 

Ate in Chops and Portifino (as always food and service was wonderful) and did miss not having any additional choices in dining (I blame that attitude on the Allure, that ship will just spoil you!)

 

The food in WJ was .... well like the food in WJ. Nothing wrong with it, just not that exciting but it serves the purpose :).

 

We had high winds the last two full days (45-50 MPH on deck) which kept the boat rocking in that way that is slightly different than high waves and more than a few folks were a bit green around the gills the last two nights). Just that time of year...

 

I will say the pools were absoultley frigid each and evry day. Most folks would start to come in and quickly change thier minds!

 

It was still Spring Break time and we all know that makes for a few additional challenges. Mostly it was just pet peeve stuff for us. I have never seen Chops allow people in with T-Shirts and Swim Trunks but they did on night one.

 

I also saw many (maybe a dozen) of young gentlemen (ages 17-25) running around with no shirt in the WJ and the Promenade. Again, just a pet peeve, as sailing is far from elegant these days but some social skills would be appreciated when it comes to wearing at least a shirt while in dining areas....

 

We have apparently evolved into late night cruisers on this trip (I usually find that is influenced more by the staff at a specific bar than our nocturnal habits). The Catcombs bar crew had us laughing all night long so we would find ourselves at Sorrentos around 3AM for an amazing variety of late night goodies (according to our CSI work the following morning in the room).

 

We would begin the nights at either the Champange Bar or Vintages, with a stop at the hoof and claw for a liitle sing along and then off to The Catacombs at 11.

 

As always, a great cruise with RCL, gambling losses were minimal (We are just not one of the lucky types), food was ok (WJ) to really good, great staff, good entertainment and yes we would sail her again.

 

Disembarkation at Terminal 25 is legendary for the issues. Today was no exception, we asked for a late number (got 29) and thought if we were one of the last ones off it might speed the waiting process up. It probably did cut 30 minutes of line time off of the process but there was still plenty of standing in line before getting out of the Terminal.

 

By the way, the port of FL hit a record for number of cruisers on 3/17 and that may explain the unusal "pain" associated with the embarkation a process that usually goes smoothly...

 

Also had one thing occur that has never happened before on any of our cruises. At check in when the young man went to get our key cards he came back with not two cards, but four cards!!! RCL had actually made keys for us (2 cruisers) and 2 other cruisers whose name I did not recognize (all with our room number on it). We of course insisted that the other two cards were destroyed before we moved on.

 

I will check back if you have any specific questions that we can answer but until then enjoy your cruising and remember to let the little things roll of your shoulders... you are very fortunate to be on a boat!

 

We are going to try and catch a last minute cruise in May and get out there again!

 

BTW, I have started a spreadsheet to analyze the price flucations recently, it appears that a lot of folks feel that the better prices are coming in the last 4-6 weeks... and I am starting to think they are correct. I used to beleive that booking early got you a pretty fair price but it appears something is changing. I am going to track a handfull of ships for 6 months and see what it looks like on a spreadsheet.

[maxxedout2]

Nice report.

 

Our favorite ship, so far.

 

The shows are great.

 

Thanks.

 

:cool::D