Liberty 4/30 GS review, bad start and finish but good cruise

[George C]

We normally cruise once or twice a year an for last few years have booked a GS ( have done my share of inside room etc) . Start was not good we were fling in a day before a booked a nice hotel in Galveston Moody Gardens and dinner at there steak house. AA canceled our flight then gave us a new flight which was then canceled ( weather?) . We were able to get on 1st flight Sunday that would land at 10am , got a text as soon as we landed that ship was delayed because of wind ( never heard that before) but we went to pier and ship was there when we got there about 11am. We got thru security ( really did not even check the bottles we had in luggage) and got our sea pass card and waited till 2pm before they let Suite and pinnacles enter 1st. Got another text while waiting telling everyone do not show up there till 1:30 and everyone would have a 20 dollar credit for delay.

Food: We bought 5 night specialty package and had dinner in MDR other 2 nights

Chops: had dinner here 3 nights , service was terrible 1st night had to wait 10 or 15 mins for table had a 8:03 reservation then another 10/15 minutes for waiter. Lucky we had our own wine and opened it our self ( never go any where without cork screw) Dinner was good but not great , other 2 visits service was fine since it was only half full

Giovanni's : we have eaten at Giovanni's over a dozen times in last few years, ( Including 6 times on last cruise) this was a disappointment , my favorite dish was always the antipasto , on these visit it was about 1/3 the size it was on all other visits with 1 small piece of prosciutto and a sliver of parmesan cheese , menu also seemed to change again from last year.

MDR: really surprised me food was good had a nice table for 2 next to a window and service was super fast ( we always order 2 glasses of wine with dinner and sometimes lunch, better service that\n specialty restaurants.

 

Entertainment: disliked the normal piano player who seems to always be on the Galveston cruises( Phil Anderson) , but others seem to love it since it is always packed, also pub guitar player was nothing like the great Derek Lewis who was there last year. Good news is rest of it was excellent, always love the Ice show, comedians were very funny really good classical guitar player and a group called Motown Diva's which were also very entertaining . We had a bonus show , there were a couple hundred 1st responders ( Police/fire/emt) on board and they had hired a former American Idol and suite people were also invited, really great show.

 

Casino was not kind to me most of the week but won some at end playing Texas holdem.

 

 

Suite stuff: There were a few changes from last year Breakfast and Lunch was in Giovanni's instead of chops, Chops did a better job also miss table that had pasties and fruit for breakfast and a salad bar for lunch since this was not in Giovanni's. Like last year they had a suite lounge , service was just ok, last year they poured better drinks. The one big improvement was suite seating by pool which was on top of deck 12 was moved to tiered section by main pools ) which is really good since I have arthritis had had trouble with stairs .Suite attendant was just great as normal , always had plenty of towels and Ice in bucket

 

Suite disembarkation : this was a small disaster . normally love this perks last few years we were thru customs and waiting for ride before 9am, we are supposed to leave ship right after people that carry there bags and for some reason they let a few hundred people go ahead of us ( group2 and 3) concierge kept telling us 5 more mins, then about 9am he said 1 or 2 more mins then disappeared for 15 mins so we got out at 10am rather than 8:45.

 

We also did book our 1st Oasis cruise while on board , the GS was exactly 1k more per person than if we booked Liberty again, but really want to try all those perks

[easyboy]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

 

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[urple]

Like last year they had a suite lounge , service was just ok, last year they poured better drinks.

 

I would disagree - I thought the service was great in the lounge, they were definitely being run in multiple directions but took care of us.

 

Suite disembarkation : this was a small disaster . normally love this perks last few years we were thru customs and waiting for ride before 9am, we are supposed to leave ship right after people that carry there bags and for some reason they let a few hundred people go ahead of us ( group2 and 3) concierge kept telling us 5 more mins, then about 9am he said 1 or 2 more mins then disappeared for 15 mins so we got out at 10am rather than 8:45.

 

Yes it was frustrating with what I thought was a perk being negated. We also requested a porter multiple times and they kept getting sniped before we were able to grab one. Jorge had to personally walk one to us to keep people from snagging them. Customs was a big pain this time because of Belize and Honduras.

 

My biggest gripe: they had us (a group of 5, all in a family suite) sitting at a table for four, in the aft starboard corner of the dining room. We couldn't even get to our seats and then there was only 4 chairs. Luckily the head waiter remembered us from before and got us a bigger table but a worse spot. Food was ok, seems as though the MDR is cutting back - again.

Edited May 9, 2017 by urple
addition

[wolfganghowell]

Thanks for the info. I am thrilled about the pool deck seating - hope it stays this way! I agree with you about Giovanni's. Last fall the menu had changed and not for the better. I miss their filet since we're just not that into Chops. Did you happen to notice for breakfast if they still put all the Pinnacles in the back room and the suite people in the front? They did on our sailing and it was quite intentional. I miss Derek Lewis too - what a dumb entertainment decision. I like Phil - our sailing last fall had a fill in and he was awful. Schooner Bar was empty every night. They need an inclusive high energy person to get people having some fun - you know, like they are on VACATION! :)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2280176

I humbly direct you to my Oasis review. I covered a lot of info regarding GS in particular and the suite perks on Oasis class. It's a very different experience but we enjoyed it. Maybe my suite info will help you out.

[Milwaukee Eight]

We stay in GS. We had a disappointing disembarkation off of Enchantment last September. The Concierge never showed so we did a self walk off as we had our luggage. The Suite tags were not in our room either for luggage so we just carried off.

 

In November and January (17), we had a wonderful walkout and tags. We were the first off.

[George C]

I did not like Giovanni's menu but they did have the 9 oz filet on it which I did order on one of our visits, as for Phil I much rather listen to Henry Munoz play his baby grand at 3 forks restaurant in Dallas , he plays every Friday and Saturday with 3 piece jazz group. I did write a e-mail about disembarkation and RCCL is now reviewing it, perk is still there. Jorge couldn't tell me what went wrong. will update after RCCL gets back to me.

[wolfganghowell]

Funny you mention 3 Forks - we hang out at Dale's (3 Forks founder) restaurant Texas.

[George C]

Just heard back from RCCL, who assured me that perk for getting off after self carry is still there, they claim all the people ahead of us were part of RCCL flight package with early flights and because of clearing customs late caused our delays, pointed out it would have been nice if concierge told us the truth about delays. they did keep apologizing in the call.

[slg1979]

George,

We were assigned a number 2. We were able to begin disembarking at 8:45. We had booked a shuttle back to the airport through RCCL. We were told last bus would leave at 9:45. We decided to show up and be there at 8 am. Not one of the staff would commit to an exact time we would be able to start disembarking. The touch screens were right on the money for us. The bus driver got us through the backups on the interstate using side roads and we were checked into hotel at 11:45. I think the early disembarking perk is a sham.. anyone can go down to guest services and say I have an early flight and get an early numbered tag. Btw in line off the ship I saw a few guests with higher numbers on their luggage tags right with us (2 and 3). So, in the future I would just say eff it and get off when I wanted! All the bugs were there and ready to go. We carried our own bags to the bus as we weren't going to do the porter as there was a line and people grabbing porters off the floor..

 

 

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