Liberty Review 3/20-3/27

[melski]

Just a quick review of our Liberty spring break trip on March 20 (Falmouth, Cayman and Cozumel). There’s been some great reviews recently so I hope to cover a few different things.

 

We are a family with 4 kids (ages 16, 12, 9 and 4) and had 2 balcony adjoining staterooms. Our overall impression was Liberty is a great ship with great staff. Weather wasn’t in our favor (high apparent winds) and the first 2 days we spent in sweatshirts. Three of us were a bit seasick the first morning with the waves but I had meds to take and the following day was calm and no one needed medicine.

 

First, the much hyped waterslides were not as much fun as you’d think. First, they are slow for adults and painfully slow for a light weight child (my 9 year old). There is a timer for the racing slides but it’s not much of a race. It took me 25-30 seconds (there is a timer at the bottom) to come down but my 9 year old took 70-85 seconds as he had to push himself down. He wasn’t the only one...all smaller kids had trouble. The biggest problem is that they hold both slides until they are both clear, rather than running them independently, which creates a long lines. Although, the green slide was cool with the lights inside. I have no news on the slide that still isn’t working.

 

The kids splash park was awesome except for the height restrictions on those slides. Purple slide is 42” and yellow 45”. I really didn’t see why...they could easily be 38” and 42” (at 38” kids can ride Disney roller coasters). They are very strict and measure each child and give them a wrist band. My 4 year old could only do the purple slide and she was fine with that but I felt bad for the kids who looked 3 or 4 but couldn’t do either slide.

 

Ice skating show was in the evening on the second formal night (I think because of the waves). We chose to see the first seating and skip formal night (kids ate at the windjammer and we ate at Chops). They also had it on our last sea day in the afternoon.

 

They showed Kung Fu Panda 3 in the Platinum theater on the first sea day. It was packed most likely because of the chilly weather. Po was also there for a character meet and I saw his character meet at least one other time on the Promenade.

 

We did the Dreamworks Character breakfast. It is a good idea but they didn’t pull it off. Characters were Fiona, Puss in Boots and Gloria. Menu was the same as in the MDR with just different names but the kitchen seemed out of sync. Not terrible but not something I’d do again. It was really easy to see these characters during the day and I just wish they either had more or different characters during breakfast.

 

By the way, Puss in Boots visited Aquanauts the final afternoon. My 4 year old loves the “kitty” (although she doesn’t really know the character).

 

I booked a Blue Hole tour with Winston Gayle of TourJamicaToday. Winston is great. We were in a private van and he is a safe and cautious driver. He wasn’t pushy and willing to work with us.

 

Cayman we stayed on the ship and enjoyed a quiet, ship day. The weather was nice (which wasn’t the case on our sea days) so we could enjoy the Flowrider and pools. However, the slides were closed due to ash from the smoke stack turning the water black so they had to drain the slide and refill which is an all day task.

 

On Cozumel, we took a taxi to Playa Mia. I booked this on my own and we had done it previously. It isn’t the best but it has something for everyone in my family. My 4 year old did their slides about 25 times so she was happy. Snorkling, pools, water obstacles were all fun. Food wasn’t good and while we enjoy the activities, we may look at something else next year.

 

The 10 drink card showed up the afternoon of day 5 for $67 plus gratuity.

 

Overall, we still had a great time and made the most of it despite the weather. The weather gave us a chance to explore the ship more. Crew was fantastic and worked really hard. We already booked Liberty for next spring break.

[Clarea]

Nicely written, thank-you.:)

[Keith1010]

Glad that in spite of the weather you had a nice time. Thanks for your review/trip report.

 

Keith

[Cam Dizzle]

The kids splash park was awesome except for the height restrictions on those slides. Purple slide is 42” and yellow 45”. I really didn’t see why...they could easily be 38” and 42” (at 38” kids can ride Disney roller coasters).

 

Are you saying for the kids slides, they have to be at least 42" and 45" to ride the kid slides?

[Larry&Darla]

good review, thanks !

[matj2000]

We did the Liberty the week before you on the 13th - 20th.

The weather was the probably the best I have had on any cruise ever.

It was sunny everyday including day 1(which is almost always overcast on my trips).

It did get windy on the final day in the afternoon.

You are right about the slides, they are pretty lame.

On the orange on you actually hit all the seems and it slows you down.

Pretty much one & done.....

[melski]

Are you saying for the kids slides, they have to be at least 42" and 45" to ride the kid slides?

 

Yes. In the kids splash zone, there are 2 slides and they must be 42" for the purple one and 45" for the yellow. The bigger slides have a height restriction of 48".

[aclcruiser]

The slides get a lot faster if you lay flat, arch your back and only have your shoulders and ankles touch the slide. ;) We were flying with 15 second times... adults and kids (6 and 7).

[TnTWalter]

appreciate the review. we leave april 3!

[melski]

Actually I do have a teen compass but not sure how to post it. Anyone know how? Our week they separated the 12-14 and 15-17 year old activities.

[Clarea]

Actually I do have a teen compass but not sure how to post it. Anyone know how? Our week they separated the 12-14 and 15-17 year old activities.

You would have to use a scanner to scan the pages into PDF files. Once in PDF format, you could attach them to a post if they are small enough, or load them on some file sharing site, like Google Docs, and post a link here.

[TnTWalter]

Actually I do have a teen compass but not sure how to post it. Anyone know how? Our week they separated the 12-14 and 15-17 year old activities.

 

I hope they don't separate our week. I have a 13 15 and 17 year old.

 

Scanner works best. You could also try to take a picture of each page and upload them to google drive flickr etc.

 

Thanks.

[KsucAts]

The slides get a lot faster if you lay flat, arch your back and only have your shoulders and ankles touch the slide. ;) We were flying with 15 second times... adults and kids (6 and 7).

 

I agree. I was really booking the time I did it. I am not exactly sure of my time as there must have been a malfunction the time I went as it said something like 30 seconds. I beat my son by quite a bit and his usual time was right around 20.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report. Sounds like the kids had a good time.

[atnolan94]

We did the Liberty the week before you on the 13th - 20th.

The weather was the probably the best I have had on any cruise ever.

It was sunny everyday including day 1(which is almost always overcast on my trips).

It did get windy on the final day in the afternoon.

You are right about the slides, they are pretty lame.

On the orange on you actually hit all the seems and it slows you down.

Pretty much one & done.....

 

I was on this cruise as well. Great weather week. Only bad weather was the last night after it was dark so no issues there. Crew was awesome. Raj and Melvin at R Bar were my guys all week! My Grey Goose and Sprite Zero w/ lime was always ready for me before I even sat down!:cool::cool: The ship is beautiful, the Freedom class are the perfect mix between the "mega-ships" and the voyager/older class ships. Crazy that the freedom class is somewhat small compared to the newer ships...

[BLAMBKY]

Actually I do have a teen compass but not sure how to post it. Anyone know how? Our week they separated the 12-14 and 15-17 year old activities.

 

Yeah, doing a happy dance here! :p I am not sure why I am so excited, I can not believe much has changed in activities but I am so thankful that you thought to bring them back! I'm sorry you did not have better weather. We are going to the Blue Hole with Peat Taylor; What did you think about the actual "hole" itself? The path getting there?

Edited March 29, 2016 by BLAMBKY

[YadaYadaJodi]

I was on this cruise as well. Great weather week. Only bad weather was the last night after it was dark so no issues there. Crew was awesome. Raj and Melvin at R Bar were my guys all week! My Grey Goose and Sprite Zero w/ lime was always ready for me before I even sat down!:cool::cool: The ship is beautiful, the Freedom class are the perfect mix between the "mega-ships" and the voyager/older class ships. Crazy that the freedom class is somewhat small compared to the newer ships...

 

Going to have to add that to my drink list! Can't drink the sugary frozen stuff ALL week! :p Will be a good addition to my Rum & Diet Coke w/lime old standby.

 

Had a great time in the R Bar on the Navigator! Hoping to repeat those good times on the Liberty!

[melski]

Here is the google drive link. The file was too big to upload. I only had the 15-17 compass but the 12-14 was similar except for maybe different times/locations.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B26B0A0KPQIBOVZONUh3MVhYTFU/view?usp=sharing

[melski]

Blue Hole was nice but it is not a "secret" anymore. It was a bit of a crush but not as much as Dunn River Falls from what I understand. There were at least 4 ships in (2 in Falmouth, 2 in Ocho Rios). Path was good and the guides were really helpful. They'd literally pick up my little ones to get them through. We had a great time and glad we tried it.

[PompeySailor]

Here is the google drive link. The file was too big to upload. I only had the 15-17 compass but the 12-14 was similar except for maybe different times/locations.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B26B0A0KPQIBOVZONUh3MVhYTFU/view?usp=sharing

 

Thank you for posting the teen compasses, DD is reading them now, already planning what she will be doing when we sail on Liberty:)

 

Thanks again.

[George C]

We sail in a few weeks, was wondering status of RCCL cruise terminal in Galveston?

[tiap]

We were on the same cruise. Super chilly the 1st two days. Overcast the last day. Great trip besides the weather and a few hiccups. They wanted to separate my 2 kids ages 10 and 12. No option to move the 10 almost 11 year old up. And quite frankly the 9-11 year old activities are not really appropriate. Vey babyish at least for my kids so they ended up staying in the room at night. They don't tell you that Jamaica is an hour and a half ride almost 2 hours from the ship. We did Dunn's River Falls and Bamboo Beach Club. The falls were fun but BBC is not appropriate for kids. More of a booze cruise. Kids ate at 8am and no lunch served until 3 and it was chicken that was cold and inedible. But lots of rum punch. So much so that half our bus was wasted. Guy behind us puked all over my daughter and I. Another man jumped off the bus and passed out. We were late back to the ship without having eaten and ship was late leaving because of our trip. I wish I had investigated shore excursions better. We loved the Cayman Islands. But our catamaran snorkel was scheduled for 3.5 hours and literally an hour was snorkeling. The rest was them trying to sell alcohol from cash bar. Luckily it was pretty blue water. Can't remember if it was a sole option but 7 mile beach was gorgeous and wish we had just stayed there. We did Playa Mia which would have been so much cheaper if you purchased on your own. When we were leaving it said 30 us $ and only a quick 10 minute taxi from beach. We did my time dining and were in Rembrandt dining room. Our servers were Huney and Bing. And they made our trip. Super wonderful. Treated us like kings and queens.

 

 

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[TnTWalter]

Thanks for posting compass.

[melski]

We were on the same cruise. Super chilly the 1st two days. Overcast the last day. Great trip besides the weather and a few hiccups. They wanted to separate my 2 kids ages 10 and 12. No option to move the 10 almost 11 year old up. And quite frankly the 9-11 year old activities are not really appropriate. Vey babyish at least for my kids so they ended up staying in the room at night. They don't tell you that Jamaica is an hour and a half ride almost 2 hours from the ship. We did Dunn's River Falls and Bamboo Beach Club. The falls were fun but BBC is not appropriate for kids. More of a booze cruise. Kids ate at 8am and no lunch served until 3 and it was chicken that was cold and inedible. But lots of rum punch. So much so that half our bus was wasted. Guy behind us puked all over my daughter and I. Another man jumped off the bus and passed out. We were late back to the ship without having eaten and ship was late leaving because of our trip. I wish I had investigated shore excursions better. We loved the Cayman Islands. But our catamaran snorkel was scheduled for 3.5 hours and literally an hour was snorkeling. The rest was them trying to sell alcohol from cash bar. Luckily it was pretty blue water. Can't remember if it was a sole option but 7 mile beach was gorgeous and wish we had just stayed there. We did Playa Mia which would have been so much cheaper if you purchased on your own. When we were leaving it said 30 us $ and only a quick 10 minute taxi from beach. We did my time dining and were in Rembrandt dining room. Our servers were Huney and Bing. And they made our trip. Super wonderful. Treated us like kings and queens.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

 

I know they are very strict on ages when there are lots of kids on board. Last year spring break, my 11 year old was 1 week from his 12th birthday and they wouldn't let him move up to the teen club. If it was a less busy cruises, they gave me the impression they would have if close in ages (not sure in your case if they are only 10). To be fair, the 14 year olds don't want to hang out with a 10 year old. There is a pretty big maturity gap between them. I understand it is tough though when the kids span groups. I hope you returned your survey asking for more age appropriate activities for the 9-11 year olds.

 

I did my research on shore excursions between here and trip advisor. I booked playa mia on a website to guarantee that we could get in (you pay a deposit but they guarantee you can get your money back if you cancel). We don't need the open bar but the van taxi is $34 each way (I think we saved over $120 vs booking with RC). I've been hesitant on snorkeling/sailing excursions because we went on one before kids and thought it was more of a booze cruise.

[ikirumata]

We did the Liberty the week before you on the 13th - 20th.

The weather was the probably the best I have had on any cruise ever.

[/size]

 

Full moon on the week of March 20 2016.

http://www.calendar-12.com/moon_calendar/2016/march

 

My cruise mates and I have a theory that the weather is worst around full moons (at least in the Caribbean). I have no scientific data to back this up, but every time we have sailed on a full moon in the Caribbean, the seas have been rough. The OPs experience seems to corroborate this.

 

Does anyone else have any anecdotes about this?