Liberty - Dec 13-17, 2012 Mini Review

[poncho1973]

The wife and I decided on a last minute trip on the Liberty of the Seas for a long weekend. The price was super cheap. We finally caved and visited Mexico, even if it was only a tourist trap island version.

 

Port Everglades - Pretty dumpy as far as ports go, but serviceable. It was our first time out of PE and I was a little shocked we boarded in what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. HOWEVER, it worked and the job was accomplished in a reasonable time. That ramp to Deck 4 cannot be ADA compliant. NO WAY. Some poor elderly gals almost needed me to push them up the ramp.

 

The ship - Excellent! It is the largest ship we have ever been on, but it didn't feel massive. It felt like Navigator & Mariner to us. We never felt lost or out of the way. Great ship. We like the decor on the N&M a bit better, but meh, ultimately who cares? It wasn't nasty or gaudy, so no harm done. Everything looked pretty clean and in good repair. We had no complaints with the ship itself.

 

Much like the N&M, though, that nasty hole in the Promenade floor from the casino lets up a ton of ciggie smoke. Gross. Sorry smokers, I hate the smell of ciggies and that will never change. I still feel for you for the abuse you take (even from me!) but since your bad habits force themselves upon me without asking... I hate it something severe. The photos we looked at stank of ciggie smoke. We sat in the Schooner one night until the smoke drove us out of there, too.

 

The staff - We do MTD and had a few different staff for dinner. We really enjoyed Mario from the Philippines, he was really cheerful and very attentive. He got a WOW card and a mention in our survey. We asked for him specifically on the last night. The rest of the staff was great from the door on the way in to the door on the way out. No problems getting seats without a reservation. NONE.

 

Our stateroom attendant was capable and kind. Nothing special, but nothing bad. He was attentive, cooperative, and did a solid job on the room. That's all you can ask. He called us by name and asked several times if we needed anything special.

 

The bar staff was good. We aren't super drinkers, but most of our tab is spa/bar, so we go enough. No problems. Super sweet server with braces in the Schooner. She was aces. Look for her, she will do a great job.

 

Misc Stuff - We sat in Vintages, drank wine, and people watched. I do voices for the people passing, my wife laughs and says I'm bad. Always entertaining, nothing vulgar or anything. I had a Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey cone. Delicious. We had snacks in Sorrento's & the Promenade Cafe. No cupcakes. Don't care for cupcakes.

 

Lots of smoking on the pool deck. However, the ship staff seemed on it. That didn't stop people from doing it, but it helped stop it. Twice we had people smoking on the elevator. 100% confirmed not E-cigs. Reported it. That is rude.

 

Watched my Bengals on the giant pool screen. Ran into some fellows fans, wished I had brought my jersey like they had. We had a great time watching the Eagles get beat up.

 

Port - Cozumel was nice. Lots of drunks got back on the ships (Jewel was next door) and an older gal almost walked off the pier. Scary, because it was really close. Saw a few angry drunks back on the ship, but not for long. They seemed to go to bed early.

 

CD - Richard was nice. I talked to him briefly. He didn't really make or break our cruise, like usual. He was great when he was around and not freaky or over-bearing.

 

Shows - We did "Encore" and "Saturday Night Fever" and they were ok for me. My wife enjoyed them both, especially "Encore" as an ice skating fan. We went to "Up in the Air" but bailed because the lady who sat down (excellent seats btw) next to us at the last minute was soaked in perfume and wheezing. It was too much to take and we bolted. We wanted to see it and should have found new seats, but just found something better to do instead.

 

Food - Solid. Nothing blew us away. Nothing was horrible. We had plenty and didn't stuff ourselves, although I did have milk and cookies. I was pleased. I think Disney does the poolside food much better, but RCI does the Solarium concept so much better... so that's a dead even in my book.

 

Staff Response - Kids in the Solarium a few times. They were run off by the staff. Teenagers being obnoxious in the Solarium hot tubs. They were asked to leave by the staff and complied. A dad brought his daughter in the Solarium and she was well-behaved. A woman complained and the staff asked him to have her leave. He complied.

 

Smoking where smokers shouldn't be smoking complaints were handled well. I am not shy about trying to run them off. As I said before, that won't stop some smokers, but it helps. One of the staff bluntly stated that she gets cussed out at least once a week over smokers smoking where they shouldn't. She said to put it on our survey and help her out.

 

The people down the hall were smoking in their cabin and set off the smoke detector. The stateroom attendant later said he called security, who took their stash and told them not to do it again.

 

People - For the most part, we met nice people. The crowd was mixed nicely on the color spectrum... from pale to dark and everything in between. We met some Germans, some Swedes, a bunch of Cubans, and a lot of people from the Midwest escaping the cold.

 

 

All said and done... TWO THUMBS UP! Great, relaxing cruise.

[steviek49]

Thank you for the review.

We are booked on our first RCI cruiseon Liberty of the Seas which will be departing on December 27.

This will be our 10th cruise. We have cruised with NCL, Carnival, Princess and HAL. We have enjoyed them all. We are also booked on Celebrity X-Pedition next summer.

Since this will be our first RCI cruise I was wondering if you answer some quick questions?

1) when does boarding begin in Fort Lauderdale?

2) Can we eat lunch after boarding in one of the dining rooms (like NCL) or must we go to the food court?

3) At the end of the cruise can we stay in our cabin until color is called (like NCL) or do we go to a lounge and wait?

Thank you for any assistance.

.

[poncho1973]

Thank you for the review.

We are booked on our first RCI cruiseon Liberty of the Seas which will be departing on December 27.

This will be our 10th cruise. We have cruised with NCL, Carnival, Princess and HAL. We have enjoyed them all. We are also booked on Celebrity X-Pedition next summer.

Since this will be our first RCI cruise I was wondering if you answer some quick questions?

1) when does boarding begin in Fort Lauderdale?

2) Can we eat lunch after boarding in one of the dining rooms (like NCL) or must we go to the food court?

3) At the end of the cruise can we stay in our cabin until color is called (like NCL) or do we go to a lounge and wait?

Thank you for any assistance.

.

 

1. The signage said 11:30am, but we did not arrive until a little after 12:30 and boarding was in full bloom. I do not know the earliest time other than what we saw posted. I do not know if they follow that or not.

 

2. To the best of my knowledge, the only places you can have lunch on Liberty during boarding are the WJ buffet OR on the Promenade @ Sorrento's or Cafe Promenade. I checked my Day 1 Compass and it does not list the MDR as a lunch option. On the other days, the MDR *IS* an option for both breakfast and lunch.

 

3. They give you a time to hit the lounge and wait, but our stateroom attendant did not push us out. We left our room at 9am voluntarily and our number was due to be called at 9:30am. We went to the lounge and have some continental breakfast. I have been on ships where they have basically pushed us out and we got none of that here.

[will773]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise! I would LOVE to sail the Liberty some day!

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review, glad you had a good time.

[RCLcruiser2012]

Thank you for the review! We are sailing in March on Liberty! We are from the Buckeye state as well!!!

[Zach1213]

I'm trying to figure out your stance on smoking. ;)

[dgadale]

We were on the cruise the week prior. Only Windjammer for lunch on the day you board. We got there at 11:45 and were on board in 45 minutes. The ramp really is steep.

The main dining room is only open for lunch on days when we were not at port, at least for our 5 day western caribbean cruise. We never ate there for lunch but I was wishing for variety by the 3rd day of our cruise. I liked Cafe Promenade and Sorrento's better than Windjammer. My husband didn't mind Windjammer, there was a large variety.

The morning of leaving we ate breakfast at Windjammer until 8:45, went back to our rooms and showered and left them at 9:30am. The attendants(we had 2 rooms, 2 different attendants were friendly and no problems). However it took us 2 hours to get of the ship (group 15). I heard that earlier groups got off much faster, it was a nightmare for us traveling with a 3 and 5 year old, although they were as well behaved as possibile, thanks to lots of fellow passengers that were so incredibly friendly with them.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for the review.

 

Keith

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review, sounds like you had a good time.

[poncho1973]

I'm trying to figure out your stance on smoking. ;)

 

I'm on the fence! ;) RIIIIIIGGGGHHHTT

[poncho1973]

Thank you for the review! We are sailing in March on Liberty! We are from the Buckeye state as well!!!

 

I saw a lot of Buckeye shirts/hats around the ship. I was wearing one myself one day!

 

 

***************

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone else for reading and those that have chimed in with additional info.

[poncho1973]

Small confessional apology addendum.

 

 

I was a bad cruiser and would like to publicly apologize to the guy sitting in front of me during The Quest. I got all fired up and snapped at him in the heat of the moment. I have felt bad about it since then. I will likely never see him again, but need to apologize for my poor behavior.

 

Richard went running up our aisle to hide during one of the quests. I watched him, so I could tell our group. He ran around and was directly across from us. I ran down and told our team leaders where he was. This guy starts screaming "HE IS UP BEHIND US! HE IS UP BEHIND US!" and I'm yelling "NO HE ISN'T, LISTEN TO WHAT I TOLD YOU!" and this guy starts screaming "NO! HE IS BEHIND US! I SAW HIM RUNNING UP THERE!"

 

The leaders go running up behind us. I stopped them and pointed Rich out across the way. They took off toward him and this guy starts yelling for them to turn around, because Rich is behind us.

 

I was rude. I snapped at him, telling him to stop being a dummy because Richard was right THERE. I was harsh, heated, and all amped up in the heat of the game. That's the dude in me. Full force. After, I did feel bad, though. The guy looked like I had beat him up and just slumped in his chair the rest of the game.

[CRUISINGCPA]

Thanks for the review. Sure is nice to hear a good review about Liberty for a change. I asked this on another thread but I'll try again here - did you notice if they actually had escargot in the MDR or was it only listed on the menu?

 

Virginia

[mysparky]

I asked this on another thread but I'll try again here - did you notice if they actually had escargot in the MDR or was it only listed on the menu?

 

Virginia

 

We were on the same sailing (12/13-17) and there was definitely NO escargot and it wasn't on the menu. No lobster on this short cruise either (although lobster bisque was on the menu). What I did notice, however, is that it seemed as though shrimp cocktail was on the menu just about every night.

[alfaeric]

Thanks for the review. Sure is nice to hear a good review about Liberty for a change. I asked this on another thread but I'll try again here - did you notice if they actually had escargot in the MDR or was it only listed on the menu?

 

Virginia

 

I didn't mention it in my reivew, but we were on Liberty from 11/29-12/8, and no escargot on either trip. Scallops were decent, but for me, it's the butter.... :D

 

(and FWIW, the 5 day we were on did have lobster- DW loves that)

 

Good review, BTW.

[alfaeric]

2. To the best of my knowledge, the only places you can have lunch on Liberty during boarding are the WJ buffet OR on the Promenade @ Sorrento's or Cafe Promenade. I checked my Day 1 Compass and it does not list the MDR as a lunch option. On the other days, the MDR *IS* an option for both breakfast and lunch.

 

On this- you may SEE people dining in Portifino's but they are B2B cruisers, and that's a lunch for them.... just FYI for future cruisers. (I didn't mention that tiny detail, either)

[fpcruiser]

Does anyone know how many Diamond and up cruisers were on this sailing?

[poncho1973]

Thank you.

 

 

No escargot. No lobster.

 

 

I can confirm shrimp cocktail was on the menu every night. I know because I had it as a 2nd appetizer every night. HEY! It is only 5 shrimp, don't judge me!

 

Hehehehehe

[CRUISINGCPA]

Thanks to all. I will break the sad news to her:(

 

Virginia