Just off Liberty quick review

[Intent2smile]

We just got off of Liberty of the Seas yesterday (11/13/2016) for a 7 day cruise to Cozumel, Caymen Islands, and Jamaica. This was our first cruise and we absolutely enjoyed it.

Our cabin steward was Fidley and he was amazing!! After the first day he seemed to figure out our routine and magically our room seemed to get cleaned twice a day. We were not very needy but, when I asked him for an extra pillow he had it for me within 5 minutes. He even fixed our towel elephant after my husband dropped it and it fell apart. it was a little thing but it made my day for him to fix it without us even asking.

The main dining room we only ate in three times. We had an awesome table right next to the window. the waiter's assistant who I cannot remember his name was funny and made us smile all the time. Our waiter was okay but, nothing spectacular. I would have rather just had his assistant. We decided to do formal nights in Chops and Sabor.

The 9 oz filet in Chops was fabulous and made our decision for our 3rd choice (we had a 3 night speciality dining package) very easy. Although I don't know if anything could beat the 9 oz filet because it was so tender and juicy that it was a dessert almost by itself. Although on our second visit we both had the chocolate mud pie and even though I could not finish it, it really hit the spot for my chocolate craving..

On Day 4 we had dinner at Sabor. The guacamole that was made tableside was so good that my husband who does not like guacamole ate it and even went back for more than just a taste. Our waiter at Sabor was Oscar. He was the best waiter we had on board. He was so good that he made us feel like we were visiting with an old friend.

We went on three excursions, one in each port. In Cozumel we went on the off-road keep ride to the Mayan Ruins. My husband and another traveler had a blast driving through the jungle and bouncing the back seat passengers around. Gabriel and Oscar were the tour guides. They were very knowledable. The food they served at the beach was very tasty. The water was very active that day so we did not get to go into the water. But, the entire excursion was so much fun we did not mind just lying on the beach and relaxing. Gabriel and Oscar made us feel like family.

Our second excursion was the dolphin swim and stingray city. Although I was a little freaked out at first having the sting rays swim over my feet it was a memory I would not trade for anything. Swimming for dolphins was a great experience although this excursion felt rushed and very commercial. They wanted more for pictures of Stingray city and Dolphin swim than we paid for the excursion. This was rather disappointing so we decided we had memories from this excursion and it would not likely be something we would ever forget even without pictures.

Our last excursion was Margarittavile and Snorkeling in Jamaica. We took a catamaran out to the snorkeling spot. The crew on the catamaran was a lot of fun and felt like we were going to a party. The crew were very helpful when it came to snorkeling and did not make me feel stupid because I am not a great swimming. My husband and I went off to an area on our own since I was a little uneasy. I expected the crew to say something but, they were fine with it and made sure we were okay but, let us enjoy the area on our own. After snorkeling the crew provided several different types of alcohol on the house and let you have as much as you wanted. Needless to say the entire ship was a party with almost everyone up dancing before we got back to port. We did stop by and have lunch at Margarittaville. There was a lot of people seeking items on the private beach but, Margarittaville must prohibit them from bothering guests if they are lying in the lounge chairs because they only tried to sell you something if you walked by them. I was burnt by the time we hit Jaimaica even with using sunscreen and one of the people selling items gave me a massage with aloe vera plant that he had on the beach. I felt a little uneasy at first but it felt amazing!!

We did purchase a 10 punch card beverage package on the evening of day 5. The bartenders on deck 4 were awesome and remembered what we wanted as soon as we walked up, including extra cherries in my pina colada. We got drinks from a bar on deck 5 once. The bartender we had was not as good as the bartenders on deck 4. My mojito was missing something major at that bar and was kind of confusing because we were charged the same price at that bar for a regular size glass as we were for a tall mojito everywhere else.

We didn't go to Saturday Night Live, but did go to the Ice Show and Late Night Comedy and enjoyed both shows very much!

we had an amazing time on our vacation and are loooking at booking our next cruise already! We are hooked!

[George C]

Very nice review, glad you enjoyed the Liberty . Should have seen Saturday night fever, but Ice show is the better of the 2. 1st visit to string ray city is always great.

[kontraxed]

Nice review! Would you mind if I asked a few questions?

 

We are going on the Liberty in January and we also signed up for the three specialty dinner plan. Our first meal will be on day one. It is scheduled but I don't know at what restaurant. When do you find out? Also, when can you schedule the remaining two dinners? It would be nice if I could book them prior to the cruise.

 

How was the tendering at Grand Cayman?

 

I know this question gets beat to death but I am one of those deplorable people who do not want to dress up for the two formal meals. I dress neatly but no jacket or tie. Did you see many people in the main dining room or specialty restaurants not dressed up on formal nights?

 

Thanks for your review and your feedback!

[ssb]

Reservations are made in restaurants when you get on Ship ! We were on couple weeks ago.

[vettecruiser1]

Glad to hear the 10 drink cards are back. I'm on next week and with day 6 and 7 being a Sea day this will come in extra handy!!!!

[Intent2smile]

Nice review! Would you mind if I asked a few questions?

 

We are going on the Liberty in January and we also signed up for the three specialty dinner plan. Our first meal will be on day one. It is scheduled but I don't know at what restaurant. When do you find out? Also, when can you schedule the remaining two dinners? It would be nice if I could book them prior to the cruise.

 

How was the tendering at Grand Cayman?

 

I know this question gets beat to death but I am one of those deplorable people who do not want to dress up for the two formal meals. I dress neatly but no jacket or tie. Did you see many people in the main dining room or specialty restaurants not dressed up on formal nights?

 

Thanks for your review and your feedback!

 

Our speciality dining was first scheduled for Giovanis for night one. We didn't want to eat at Giovanis so we stopped by Chops and ask them to change the reservation to night 2 and to be at Chops. I think on day 2 we scheduled Sabor by calling them. For our third night we knew we wanted the last formal night but forgot to reserve it until that afternoon. We called Chops and had no problem making a reservation that night. I was worried before we got on because I could not make reservations for the last 2 nights on the dining package but it all worked really well. When we told them our room number it brought up that we had a dining package. You will be able to schedule them once you get on the ship. The number to call and make reservations is listed on the cruise compass or you can just stop by.

 

Dress on formal nights was very wide in range in both the MDR and speciality dining. We just dressed business casual and felt very comfortable in Chops. My husband wore dress slacks and a nice polo and I wore dress slacks and casual dress shirt. There were people in ball gowns then there were people in just business casual. I didn't see many jeans on formal nights but, I am sure there were some. We had decided before we left not to do formal nights and to do specialty dining on those nights so I didn't even pack a dress. My husband packed dress shirts but they never came off the hanger.

 

Tendering on Grand Caymen was pretty easy. Our excursion tickets had our tender time on them. We showed up in the theatre where everyone met to tender a little early but, they let us sit and wait there. The time on our tickets was pretty exact to the tender time. If you didn't have a RCI excursion booked but had a personal ecursion planned you went and reserved your tender time the night before. We had friends that was just shopping and they did get a later tender time. We got back to the port about one hour before time to get back on the ship. There was a line all around the square in Grand Caymen to get back on the ship but it went pretty fast. We probably only stood in line for 10 minutes.

[easyboy]

Thanks for the review.

[Clarea]

Appreciate the feedback.

[Cindy]

 

We did purchase a 10 punch card beverage package on the evening of day 5.

 

 

 

I wonder if that's going to be a permanent change...they didn't offer the cards on the October 23 cruise.

 

 

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[big_schots]

Just off the same cruise and wanted to offer up a few things. I checked my cruise planner regularly, and was able to get the BOGO for the specialty restaurants. Had to use them on nights one and two. Nothing was reserved for us, ahead of time. Went to Chops the first night, and Giovanni's the second night. Great experience in both, with no crowds. Chops was maybe 25% full, and Giovanni's was half full. Ate at Chops the second formal night, and the place was at 100% occupancy

 

10 drink package that I saw was $67 plus gratuity.

 

Tendering in Cayman Islands worked very well. Those who had RCCL shore excursions were told where to meet. Those with a "verified" independent excursion went to floor 5 of the dining room, starting at 8:30 A.M to get tender tickets. Those who wanted off early, going on their own, went to floor 4 of the dining room, starting at 8:30 A.M. They had a scare announcement, that if you didn't get a tender ticket ahead of time, you would not be tendering until after 1:00 P.M. We just wanted to spend time at Royal Palms, and I went to get tickets at 8:20, and they were already distributing them. We got #4. We were called at 10:40 A.M to board. Way ahead of time, then they initially stated.

 

Don't want to get into a rant, but the casualness in the MDR has gotten a bit out of hand. I would say anything goes, so no worries that you will feel underdressed. We were in the specialty restaurants both formal nights, and the majority were smartly dressed.

Edited November 15, 2016 by big_schots

[Bookster99]

Thanks for the feedback.

[Cindy]

 

 

 

Don't want to get into a rant, but the casualness in the MDR has gotten a bit out of hand. I would say anything goes, so no worries that you will feel underdressed. We were in the specialty restaurants both formal nights, and the majority were smartly dressed.

 

 

I would agree with that...I don't usually pay a lot of attention but on my cruise it was excessively casual. There were three men in my small section who regularly wore ball caps to dinner. One man's hat was worn backwards, and none appeared to have a legitimate (medical) reason for wearing the caps.

 

 

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[kontraxed]

Thanks for the information!

[riclop]

Thanks for the quickie.

[Annabanana1234]

Just off the same cruise and wanted to offer up a few things. I checked my cruise planner regularly, and was able to get the BOGO for the specialty restaurants. Had to use them on nights one and two. Nothing was reserved for us, ahead of time. Went to Chops the first night, and Giovanni's the second night. Great experience in both, with no crowds. Chops was maybe 25% full, and Giovanni's was half full. Ate at Chops the second formal night, and the place was at 100% occupancy

 

10 drink package that I saw was $67 plus gratuity.

 

Tendering in Cayman Islands worked very well. Those who had RCCL shore excursions were told where to meet. Those with a "verified" independent excursion went to floor 5 of the dining room, starting at 8:30 A.M to get tender tickets. Those who wanted off early, going on their own, went to floor 4 of the dining room, starting at 8:30 A.M. They had a scare announcement, that if you didn't get a tender ticket ahead of time, you would not be tendering until after 1:00 P.M. We just wanted to spend time at Royal Palms, and I went to get tickets at 8:20, and they were already distributing them. We got #4. We were called at 10:40 A.M to board. Way ahead of time, then they initially stated.

 

Don't want to get into a rant, but the casualness in the MDR has gotten a bit out of hand. I would say anything goes, so no worries that you will feel underdressed. We were in the specialty restaurants both formal nights, and the majority were smartly dressed.

 

Do you happen to remember the price for the BOGO free speciality dining?

[big_schots]

Do you happen to remember the price for the BOGO free speciality dining?

 

It was offered in our cruise planner for only a few days. The price was $30 per person. I was able to choose any specialty restaurant, regardless of price. We chose Chops ($35 pp) and Giovanni's ($30 pp). So, for $30 we got $65 of benefits. I had to prepay ahead of time. When the bill for each restaurant came, they both said $0 owed. At both, I left cash tips for the "excellent" servers. I also loved the fact that both restaurants were very slow, and we picked where we wanted to sit. I would do this deal in a heartbeat, again.

[OBone]

Did Liberty have a 70s night?

[vettecruiser1]

Yes ours was on thanksgiving. It started with 70's for about 20 minutes then went to songs of 80's,90's and 2000. Our party ended with a balloon drop.

 

 

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[OBone]

Yes ours was on thanksgiving. It started with 70's for about 20 minutes then went to songs of 80's,90's and 2000. Our party ended with a balloon drop.

 

 

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Thanks! Just wanted to know if I should pack my 70's outfit:)