Beware Liberty OTS Canada/New England Sailing

[Doug S]

I know AI am going off on a tangent, but my only experience with demographics was when I sailed the 14 day princess cruise to Hawaii in October of 2010 and it seemed like the wife and I were among the few without a scooter. At 50ish we were mere children on that sailing, with the average age near 70. It was so bizarre I wanted to organize scooter races around the pool deck. I'd have paid to see that.

 

The 'demographic' did create a few minor issues, but we just laughed it off. Easy to get a pool chair, but there was never any seating anyplace in the atrium. Older guests would plop down in a chair in the morning and sit there listening to music and snacking all day long. And you had to dodge numerous scooters in the walkways since most seemed to just leave them outside their cabins. Got run over a time or 2 in the elevator bays cuz scooter drivers would arrive last but expect to push thru the waiting passengers and drive right on. If those of us walking had yielded to all scooters, we'd have been forced to take the stairs all week. Dining was easy unless you wanted to eat at 5:30 cuz over half the ship turned in by 8:00.

 

I am not bashing the older set. I am getting there myself. This particular cruise was just so dominated by folks who rarely used or didn't really even need a scooter it was kinda surreal and funny. Most of the scooter passengers we talked to said they had never used one before, but just didn't want to get tired on vacation. One even said they thought they could get priority in lines if they used one.

 

Anyway, that is my only demographic story. Don't know that the Liberty to Canada could be near that bad.

[cruisenfever]

The guest service manager explained it to me that of the 3800 or so onboard about 60% are over the age of 65 and nearly half had some sort of special needs. All opinions are welcome but that's a decidedly different "activity level" than the cruising demographics of a Caribbean itinerary. It tends to gum up the works because of slower movement. That being said the officers were pretty candid that was a large root cause and EOS crews had the benefit of experience with this itinerary which this crew doesn't. The ship itself is great and all are having a good time it's just resulting in some unchartered territory onboard.

Should RCI designate one ship as geriatric only?:D We've been on most of the ships in the fleet, and have found this to be the case more often than not and itinerary has nothing to do with it.

 

IMHO, it's nice to see folks that are in their advanced years still able to cruise and enjoy life. Sure, we might have to step back, give them some extra time and show a little more patience, but just remember, that everyone will be in that age group soon or later.:)

[Clarea]

... everyone will be in that age group soon or later.:)

If we are fortunate.:)

[cruisenfever]

If we are fortunate.:)

I'm going to enter another decade next month, so yes, I can say I've made it!!:D

[Clarea]

I'm going to enter another decade next month, so yes, I can say I've made it!!:D

Happy Birthday, and many more.:)

[cruisenfever]

Happy Birthday, and many more.:)

Well thank you. Remember, when you see me, you will have to step back, give me a little more time and just be patient!!:D

[Baby let's cruise away]

Thanks for asking Tamara. I don't see what guest demographics or itinerary has to do with any of the problems you encountered.

 

We did a b2b on Liberty in June which included a 5 day Bermuda Itinerary and a 9 day Caribbean itinerary and we had no problems. The crew and staff were absolutely wonderful and Customer Service was not a problem.

 

The problems that you have described above will be evident on almost any ship you go on not just Liberty.

 

I did the 10 nighter in May, a 9 nighter in July & am returning on September 10, 2015. Both cruises were wonderful!

 

I am looking forward to sailing again next Thursday!

 

Joanne

[fdthird]

Perhaps the cup is half empty rather than half full.

[SnappyNappi]

Overcrowding on the elevators is only a problem if you CAN'T take the stairs... meaning that you are physically not able. I would absolutely never wait 45 minutes for an elevator unless I had to... in fact, I never wait even 5 minutes. God gave me 2 decent legs that work fine, even as I get older. I have rarely encountered any delay at all when using the stairs.

 

Now, if you can't use the stairs, I completely understand that this would be an issue, but if this is the case, no matter what cruise you are on, the elevators are probably a problem and will be a delay getting you where you are going.

 

As far as the dining venues turning people away - that seems strange. Specialty restruants do get booked to the point that they cannot take anyone else on any given night - I have seen that. However, with the main dining room on Liberty, everyone has either traditional time late or early dining or my time dining... I have never heard of anyone with my time dining ever being told that they can't eat in the main dining room. I have heard of long wait times or asking people to make a my-time dining reservation for a later dinner time. Seems strange that the main dining room would be turning anyone away. They are built to size for the passengers on the ship... and Liberty has a huge dining room.

 

Just confused by this post. I have a friend on the same cruise and they are having the time of their lives.

[jm485]

This is NOT Liberty's first Canada/New England sailing.

 

Did Liberty go to Canada in the spring? We were getting off as this cruise was boarding, and the crew commented on the upcoming change in itinerary, so I got the impression that this was its first NE/Canada sailing for the year ...

[LynnAB]

Ohhhhh...I guess.:confused:

 

 

Don't worry, Tamara. I'm cruising on Liberty for my 14th time in a few weeks...including the inaugural in 2007 and a B2B. The ship is beautiful. The crew is amazing. There are ALWAYS people who love to complain about everything. Seriously.

[rwisles72]

We'll we leaving next Thursday for a B2B on the Liberty. I don't expect any thing different on this ship then any other ship we have sailed on. All our cruises have been wonderful.

 

Hi Labchick!! We will also be doing a B2B starting next Thursday! Also expecting the usual, great, Liberty of the Seas cruise.. Just a little cooler:)

[Cruisegoer]

Currently writing from onboard Liberty sailing its first itinerary to Canada and New Englad. A few words of caution for cruisers booked on subsequent sailings - prepare for significant overcrowding and poor service onboard the ship. Food and beverage outlets are overtaxed at peak times especially on at sea days resulting in people being turned away from dining venues and or finding random alternate locations to eat. Entertainment and activity venues are poorly planned requiring you to show up at least an hour before the show to avoid not having seats. To get anywhere on the ship you need to leave your stateroom 45 minutes early because of elevator crowding. Significantly long delays occurred during disembarking for the tender operation at Bar Harbor. Crew appears overwhelmed by this itinerary and the special needs it requires. Had to contact RCI corporate second day out for resolution. Initial follow up from onboard staff was good but issues still exist. Just a few words of warning!

 

I did a West. Carib. cruise on the Liberty OTS in January. I'd like to think you just boarded and yes at first it seems overcrowded but it will dissipate. People will find their own nooks & crannies and the crowding your feeling should subside (until debarkation...brace yourself for long long long long long waits getting off to get thru customs).

[mwne2nks]

We are a younger couple than these scooter riders, so take that into consideration. We made a pledge on our first cruise and have followed it thus far. It is to always walk down and only ride up if its more than 5 floors.

We enjoy the exercise and save alot of time. Now if DW is in high heels that changes things a little.:D

[tlatrice]

Literally turned away. Being told that the dining room cannot except any more guests even though a good portion of time was left remaining for breakfast. The 45 minutes is to actually get an elevator going your direction which has space combined with wait times for events.

 

"a good portion of time"? Wow!

[LABCHICK]

Hi Labchick!! We will also be doing a B2B starting next Thursday! Also expecting the usual, great, Liberty of the Seas cruise.. Just a little cooler:)

 

Hope to meet up with you sometime on the cruise.

[Arzeena]

Currently writing from onboard Liberty sailing its first itinerary to Canada and New Englad. A few words of caution for cruisers booked on subsequent sailings - prepare for significant overcrowding and poor service onboard the ship. Food and beverage outlets are overtaxed at peak times especially on at sea days resulting in people being turned away from dining venues and or finding random alternate locations to eat. Entertainment and activity venues are poorly planned requiring you to show up at least an hour before the show to avoid not having seats. To get anywhere on the ship you need to leave your stateroom 45 minutes early because of elevator crowding. Significantly long delays occurred during disembarking for the tender operation at Bar Harbor. Crew appears overwhelmed by this itinerary and the special needs it requires. Had to contact RCI corporate second day out for resolution. Initial follow up from onboard staff was good but issues still exist. Just a few words of warning!

 

We had quite the opposite experience as yours! Too bad you are not able to enjoy the cruise!

[Arzeena]

The guest service manager explained it to me that of the 3800 or so onboard about 60% are over the age of 65 and nearly half had some sort of special needs. All opinions are welcome but that's a decidedly different "activity level" than the cruising demographics of a Caribbean itinerary. It tends to gum up the works because of slower movement. That being said the officers were pretty candid that was a large root cause and EOS crews had the benefit of experience with this itinerary which this crew doesn't. The ship itself is great and all are having a good time it's just resulting in some unchartered territory onboard.

 

Very discriminatory post! I am amazed, no put that as appalled, by your attitude towards this "demographc" group!

There are many seniors on caribbean itineraries too and we enjoy their company. I have never seen them "gum" up any movement on the ships.

[CVU]

I'm on Liberty right now eating my lunch in my cabin (because that's how I prefer it), and I don't find the food, the service, the crowds, the staff service, to be any different than any other Royal C cruise. My cabin mini-fridge should be called a 'cooler', LOL, because nothing is remotely cold in it. It was checked and deemed to be working fine My sink was plugged up and that got resolved toute suite! The steward must have said something, because I didn't.

 

There was a huge issue with gangways in Portland?, or was it Boston? There was only one to use to get back on to the ship. The line was horrendous and thank goodness I was already on the ship. It was the tide causing the problem so there wasn't much that the ship staff could do. There were 3 gangways in St. John, LOL. I noticed today, in Halifax, that the scooter and wheelchair folks are using a separate gangway. That makes things go a lot faster for the able-bodied.

 

What I like best of all is that being a Bell subscriber, my cellular iPad picks up Bell service here in the Canadian ports and I don't have to pay for Royal's expensive wifi service. Whoohoo!

 

I'm enjoying the cruise and finding everything to be acceptable. Certainly the staff is very pleasant and eager to make our cruise a good one. Lots of smiles and 'hellos' from them all. I've enjoyed my cruise and will be sad to leave, but upon arriving home, I'll have just 10 days to prepare to embark Jewel in Vancouver for the Panama Canal odyssey of cruises!!! Sorry for bragging

 

Sorry you're not enjoying your cruise as much as I am, hazlenjboy, but it is what one makes it to be. Enjoy what you can and make the most out of the rest.

 

 

:D

Hi, it was Boston Joyce. I sent you the photo on the media site of the line up.

Glad you are having a good cruise.

Well thank you. Remember, when you see me, you will have to step back, give me a little more time and just be patient!!

Happy Birthday Patti!!!:)

I had one too last Month, so we are one of THOSE now.....:D I think we are both lucky to be able to buzz/dash/walk about and not hold anyone up......yet!:eek:

Edited September 3, 2015 by CVU

[Russ Lomas]

The guest service manager explained it to me that of the 3800 or so onboard about 60% are over the age of 65 and nearly half had some sort of special needs. All opinions are welcome but that's a decidedly different "activity level" than the cruising demographics of a Caribbean itinerary. It tends to gum up the works because of slower movement. That being said the officers were pretty candid that was a large root cause and EOS crews had the benefit of experience with this itinerary which this crew doesn't. The ship itself is great and all are having a good time it's just resulting in some unchartered territory onboard.

It could be even worse next season when a bigger ship, the Anthem, takes over the route.

 

I wanted to go on the Liberty this week for the exact reason above. I thought I would have the flowrider to myself for the entire week. Has there been many people riding it if you have been by it? I am considering doing the Anthem on the itinerary next year for the flowriding and seeing some different ports at a great time of year to travel.

[Baron Barracuda]

We are just turned 60 veterans of a number of sailings from NY/NJ including a 9 day Canada on EOS a couple of Octobers ago and a CCL sailing several years earlier. I can tell you from those experiences that the demographics of Canadian cruises skew much older than Caribbean ones. Not even close. On EOS we were among the youngest folks on the ship, nary a child in sight. Our group on that sailing included our friends 90 year old parents, and they fit right in. Have never seen so many scooters, wheelchairs and walkers.

 

OP may have exaggerated certain points, however a cruise with primarily older passengers does feel very different.

 

Elevators - Seniors have difficulty with stairs, so they take elevators up or down even for one floor. They are of an era where one dressed nicely for dinner, which for women usually means heels. Nice for tradition, but bad for stairs. Scooters, and again there were many, take up a lot space in elevators causing them to fill quickly. The rear elevators were much worse than the front ones. Each night as we left the dl on deck 14 we had long elevator waits as the ones coming up from below were already full. People rode them up and then back down again. It was never a 45 minute wait, but around 6pm 20 minutes was not uncommon.

 

Dining room - The seniors in our group, and apparently many others don't care for buffets. They wanted to sit down, order off a menu and be served. So they ate all their meals in the mdr. With the cool northern weather there weren't many sun worshipers, so on sea days everyone was hungry for lunch at 12 noon and mdr quickly got very crowded. Since only one level of the dining room is open for breakfast and lunch I understand op's comments about overcrowding. Not sure why the early closure though.

 

Shows - On many cruises we go back to our room after dinner and change before the show, which was not always well attended. Not here. Every night all the seniors went right from dinner to the theater where they waited an hour or more for the show to begin. Maybe going straight to the theater was easier than waiting for an elevator. If we didn't follow right along we didn't get a good seat.

 

Going ashore - We didn't have to tender at our Canadian stops, but certainly appreciate the difficulties of tendering folks with limited mobility. I remember one of the Canadian ports (St John or Halifax) has a gangway that rises at a better than 30 degree incline. It took two crewman to roll each wheelchair up and even scooters had problems.

 

I am not attempting to ridicule seniors here, just to suggest possible causes of op's issues. Dw's 97 year old mom has sailed with us numerous times and loves it. For whatever reason though Canadian cruises seem to attract a disproportionate number of the very elderly, and when you fill an entire ship with them everything really slows down. You can't compare that onboard experience to a Caribbean cruise.

[Paulette3028]

I'm going to enter another decade next month, so yes, I can say I've made it!!:D

 

May you have many more years to enjoy cruising !!!

[ladysail2]

Hi, it was Boston Joyce. I sent you the photo on the media site of the line up.

Glad you are having a good cruise.

 

Happy Birthday Patti!!!:)

I had one too last Month, so we are one of THOSE now.....:D I think we are both lucky to be able to buzz/dash/walk about and not hold anyone up......yet!:eek:

 

Thanks Dayle. I thought it was Boston! I had a lot of fun watching the planes take off at Logan airport too. I don't often get to see the underside of a plane so close!

 

:D

[red devil]

Just remember if it where not for the elderly you would not be here.

[steveru621]

Currently writing from onboard Liberty sailing its first itinerary to Canada and New Englad. A few words of caution for cruisers booked on subsequent sailings - prepare for significant overcrowding and poor service onboard the ship. Food and beverage outlets are overtaxed at peak times especially on at sea days resulting in people being turned away from dining venues and or finding random alternate locations to eat. Entertainment and activity venues are poorly planned requiring you to show up at least an hour before the show to avoid not having seats. To get anywhere on the ship you need to leave your stateroom 45 minutes early because of elevator crowding. Significantly long delays occurred during disembarking for the tender operation at Bar Harbor. Crew appears overwhelmed by this itinerary and the special needs it requires. Had to contact RCI corporate second day out for resolution. Initial follow up from onboard staff was good but issues still exist. Just a few words of warning!

 

First posts in a long time that I have literally laughed out loud. Subsequent posts calling seniors slow and out of touch. :eek:

 

The officers told you what you wanted to hear.

 

Welcome to a typical sea day out of Bayonne. 45 minutes HAHaHa.

 

I hope your next cruise on another line generates the same hilarious review.