Just off 2/14 Liberty sailing...

[AustinCruise]

Tax Stamps are $3.75 for each liter of liquor. I have no idea about cigs.

 

 

This is an important point. It's per liter, not cost. It quickly changed the value proposition for cheap booze. Even the buy one get cheapo booze free sales.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

This is an important point. It's per liter, not cost. It quickly changed the value proposition for cheap booze. Even the buy one get cheapo booze free sales.

 

Actually there is one way that this can be beat. Buy your liquor on the discount day/night. For our sailing, it was on Monday and all purchases was discounted 10%. This discount saved enough money to basically cover the taxes.

 

On another note, I went to Spec's a large chain liquor store to price many different liquors. I simply typed the prices into my phone and then when on the ship, I compared prices. Even with the tax stamps, I saved 30%+.

[Tender Lady]

Thank you so much for the photos! We sailed on Liberty on Oct 8 2015 and it's pretty cool to see some of her new fixings since we were there.

[whitshel]

Its nice they did something with that big sun deck that no one used!

[Ribbiedog]

You mentioned earlier that the MTD was a nightmare the first night. Is there any reason not to just make a specialty dining reservation on night 1 to avoid the mass cavalcade? I wasn't sure if that causes issues somehow if you skip the first night in the MDR.

[ktex1968]

What a wonderful cruise. We had a blast and thought the changes/additions were really nice. The staff was eager to serve and always smiling. If you have any questions, ask away, I'll try to answer.

 

When sailing out of Galveston, The state of Texas wants their tax $ on all liquors/beer sold etc. As such, RCCL only elects to buy the lower end liquors which equals lower taxes paid. Here's a pic of what is served until the ship hits international waters of 12 miles out. In our case, it was approximately 7pm.

 

 

The first night, MTD was a flat out disaster. It appears that everyone made reservations to eat around 6 - 6:30pm. Two lines were formed, those with reservations and those without. The line w/ reservations was several hundred people deep. The line w/o was about 12 people. Needless to say, the wait was well over an hour long to be seated. Many just left. We changed our reservations to 7:30 for the rest of the week. We had no issues the remainder of the week.

 

 

There has been a lot of discussions of drink prices on the boards the past 18 months or so. Mostly complaining about the cost etc. On this sailing, the R Bar & Boleros offered some nice drinks for $10 each.

 

God, I so dislike the RCL Bloody Mary mix, it's terrible. Really wish they would use Zing Zang.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

The Planner... is an excellent tool to plan your evening activities and dinner times as well. Hope this helps those that are attempting to set your your dinner times!

[Goodtime Cruizin]

You mentioned earlier that the MTD was a nightmare the first night. Is there any reason not to just make a specialty dining reservation on night 1 to avoid the mass cavalcade? I wasn't sure if that causes issues somehow if you skip the first night in the MDR.

 

Actually this would have been an excellent idea. And no, it would not have had an effect on our dinner plans going forward. Keep in mind the the first night of our cruise was Valentines and I do know that Chops was sold out. I'm not sure about the other locations. I think the real fault lies within the ability to make a specific time for a reservation on-line and the inability of this software to stop accepting reservations when it maxes out a specific time. Consequently, many cruisers, like us, booked MTD w/ a 6:30 time slot and the reservation was accepted. When we all showed up, it simply was not possible to seat us.

[matj2000]

Thanks for the updates and photos.

 

Keep posting more if you can......

[EMBFlyer]

Do you happen to remember if the Captain was making daily announcements from the Bridge or is that still outlawed? I know the Liberty just changed Captains this week, so Captain MacDonald may have a different way of doing things. Thanks.

[createcolorfun]

I hope no one chatises me, but i have to ask.... My DH smokes, is the portside of the pool for smokers? Thanks... Please don't shoot the messenger lol

[Clarea]

I hope no one chatises me, but i have to ask.... My DH smokes, is the portside of the pool for smokers? Thanks... Please don't shoot the messenger lol

Not in the pool, but one side of the pool deck, side varies by ship.

[riclop]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Thanks for looking & I hope that this thread in some way can assist you & your cruise.

 

Next up.... Sabor.

 

I'm a huge fan of this place. The price is right, and the food is unbelievable. And the margaritas are simply the best margaritas served on the ship. By far. Having said this, ask yourself how long you would wait for a drink before it changed your mood. 10 mins? 15 mins? 20 mins? Try 33 mins! Yeppers, it took 33 minutes to serve me a margarita once the order was placed. I did everything I could to not allow this to effect my dinner and I think I succeeded. But wowza, it was easy. I never complained though. Eventually the manager must've heard about our situation as she stopped by profusely apologized and gave us free extra appetizers. Anyway, it was another great meal short of the delayed drink. Having said all this, I highly recommend Sabor. Here's their menus...a couple of the pics aren't the best, but I think you can make them out.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Goodtime Cruizin

[moopetguy]

We enjoyed a wonderful Cabin Crawl w/ about 9 or 10 different cabins being offered. Including the Ben & Jerry Sweet, the Royal Family Siute and the Owner's Suite. We offered up our JS but the one cabin we really would have enjoyed seeing was the new Panaramic View cabin on Deck 12.

 

Can you please explain the cabin crawl in more detail? I haven't heard of this before. It sounds like some guests offer up their cabins for an open tour. How does this work for people who want to tour -- sign up at Guest Services on Day 1?

 

I'd love to see some of the different types of suites on a tour. That is probably the only way I'll ever get to see the inside of them :o

[Goodtime Cruizin]

I hope no one chatises me, but i have to ask.... My DH smokes, is the portside of the pool for smokers? Thanks... Please don't shoot the messenger lol

 

Port side of Decks 4 & 11 (next to pool)

We also noticed that up on Deck 12 there were ashtray canisters. I did not see anyone smoking but thw wife did smell smoke so I ask a dech hand and he told me that yes smoking was allowed. Although we never did.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Do you happen to remember if the Captain was making daily announcements from the Bridge or is that still outlawed? I know the Liberty just changed Captains this week, so Captain MacDonald may have a different way of doing things. Thanks.

 

Nope, I don't remember. Hell I didn't even know it was outlawed!

Edited February 22, 2016 by Goodtime Cruizin

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Can you please explain the cabin crawl in more detail? I haven't heard of this before. It sounds like some guests offer up their cabins for an open tour. How does this work for people who want to tour -- sign up at Guest Services on Day 1?

 

I'd love to see some of the different types of suites on a tour. That is probably the only way I'll ever get to see the inside of them :o

 

Basically, within a Roll Call, someone steps up to organize this function. It is not sanctioned by Crown & Anchor, RCCL or the ship itself. Once someone volunteers to organize the event others volunteer to 'show' their cabin. The showing/viewing of a cabin lasts no more than a few minutes. In our cabin crawl, it was set up to start at the lowest deck and worked it's way to the top. We had three diffrenet groups, each leaving approx 5 mins from one another.

 

If you have the opportunity to join a cabin crawl, I would recommend it.

[moopetguy]

Basically, within a Roll Call, someone steps up to organize this function. It is not sanctioned by Crown & Anchor, RCCL or the ship itself. Once someone volunteers to organize the event others volunteer to 'show' their cabin. The showing/viewing of a cabin lasts no more than a few minutes. In our cabin crawl, it was set up to start at the lowest deck and worked it's way to the top. We had three diffrenet groups, each leaving approx 5 mins from one another.

 

If you have the opportunity to join a cabin crawl, I would recommend it.

 

Thanks for explaining! As of yet, nobody in my Liberty roll call has stepped up to organize a crawl, but we're still several months away from sailing :)

[CyberTag]

We were also on this cruise and good time cruzin is spot on re his comments.

 

The Diamond Lounge is on Deck 14 by the Olive n Twist (VikingBar). The staff in there is absolutely wonderful! We ate at Sabors the first night and were very glad we did since the MTD line was outrageous! They offered a 20% off special the first night. We did have to keep on them to credit our account so definitely stay on top of this. We didn't have the any problems getting our margaritas.

 

Sushi is served in the Windjammer during dinner and it's very good! We were surprised that the state of Texas charges a tax on alcohol and it would have been nice to be made aware of this beforehand.

 

We ate at Chops and it was also very good. Thursday was lobster night for those curious.

[createcolorfun]

tks for the update on where to smoke

[jc73]

Mini golf was re-located and renamed. It's now called Liberty Dunes and located forward on Deck 12. Of course it's very windy so they added clear plexiglass walls. It's a nice upgrade.

we just got off same Liberty ship and that's my daughter playing mini golf in the pink cover up. lol We had a great time.

[cwilson1985]

God, I so dislike the RCL Bloody Mary mix, it's terrible. Really wish they would use Zing Zang.

 

 

My fiancé said the same thing last time we were in a cruise. We might try to take a bottle with us this year.

 

 

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[jakethecruiser]

Thanks 4 sharing!!!! Sounds fun

 

 

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[badgerliketheanimal]

We enjoyed a wonderful Cabin Crawl w/ about 9 or 10 different cabins being offered. Including the Ben & Jerry Sweet, the Royal Family Siute and the Owner's Suite. We offered up our JS but the one cabin we really would have enjoyed seeing was the new Panaramic View cabin on Deck 12. I did take this pic from the heliport. They are located in this pic in the top row of windows. Just above them is Liberty Dunes.

 

 

Thank you for your review - I'm a sucker for details. :-)

This is our first sailing in a junior suite and both myself & husband along with our 2 young boys are beyond excited. Any thoughts on your junior suite (pros/cons)? And I know this is a silly question, but any chance they provided bath robes?

 

Thanks!

 

Kelly