Liberty of the Seas - 11/5/17 Review....

[jlstwinmommy]

Well - here it is, the first day back to work and I thought I'd take a few moments to do a quick review of our cruise on Liberty last week. First, details about us:

 

This was a cruise with my parents, my family (hubby, me, b/g twins (14)), and my sister and her family (sister, hubby, twin girls (7)). My parents and us booked this trip a little over a year ago while on Adventurer. We booked it because the price for a RFS was too good to pass up, we hadn't been to 2 of the 3 ports, and we really wanted to try Liberty with the water slides for the kids. My sister decided about 6 months later to join us and ended up getting a good deal on an aft JS with the kids sail free promo. We were originally going to spend a night or 2 in Galveston, but the prices of the hotels were crazy (probably at least partly due to the bike rally that was there that weekend), so we all flew in on Saturday and stayed near our respective airports and got transportation down on Sunday morning.

 

One thing I learned while researching this trip on CC was getting to Galveston can be expensive. So I do want to start there as we all came up with slightly different transportation methods. My parents took the RCI transfer. They stayed at a Marriott attached to IAH and met the shuttle around 9:30. They ended up not getting to the port until after 11 as they had a longer drive and waited for all the transfer people on the bus for a while. My sister also flew into IAH, but she decided to rent a car for the day. I'm pretty sure she rented from Budget. Her husband dropped them at the port on Sunday morning and then returned the car to League City. It only cost them about $5-$10 extra to return the car there. He then took Uber back to the port for about $15. For the 4 of them, this was a much cheaper solution then either the RCI transfer or Uber from IAH to the port. They did the same on the way back (took an Uber to League City and picked up a car to return to IAH). My family flew SWA so we were at Hobby. We stayed at a hotel nearby with a free airport shuttle and then took Uber to the port from the hotel. It was about $45 from the hotel to the port and about $47 back to Hobby when we returned. This worked out to be the cheapest method getting to and from the airport for us.

 

Next up....the ship. :)

[jlstwinmommy]

As I mentioned, my parents and my family stayed in a Royal Family suite. We had stayed in one years ago on Adventurer and enjoyed the large balcony at the aft of the ship. We always check the prices of it, but our last few cruises it has been just too darn expensive. Our last cruise on Adventurer, my parents got a GS and we got a JS for me and hubby and a regular balcony for the kids. The 3 rooms combined were cheaper than what they wanted for the RFS on that trip, even with one being a GS. This trip, the price of the RFS was too good to pass up, so we decided to do that. My parents like the suite experience and the perks anyway, so it was just a bonus for us all to get the suite perks. Because of the ability to go to the suite lounge and the addition of the corkage fee, we decided not to bring wine on this trip. We just went upstairs to the suite lounge whenever we wanted wine. :D The suite lounge on this ship is nicer than the one on Adventurer. We really enjoyed either sitting by the huge windows or just outside on the deck behind the lounge and watching the water.

 

Pictures of RFS are attached. I have to say I like the layout of the RFS on Adventurer better. This one seemed to have a lot of wasted space in the hallway. There also wasn't much storage in the 2nd bedroom. Most of the storage for the entire suite was in the main living room which seems an odd place for someone to want to store their clothes. We ended up putting most of our clothes in the hall closet, but still a bit of a pain when getting ready in the morning.

Edited November 13, 2017 by jlstwinmommy
Added RFS details

[LonestarV]

subscribed!

[jlstwinmommy]

Overall, we enjoyed the ship. My kids loved the water slides. My sister's kids loved Splashaway Bay and the kids water activities. Attached are a few random pictures of the ship (mostly taken for a scavenger hunt that we did not win ;p)

[jlstwinmommy]

I will dedicate this post to our opinion of the food.

 

We did first night done right and ate the first night at Chops. That was the best meal of the entire week. My dad said he could eat there every night (well, not really as we would have all gained 30 pounds by the end of the cruise :') ).

 

We ate all other dinners in the main dining room. Let me start with the fact that my mother has a ton of allergies (not kidding - her allergy list fills a page). On Adventurer, she was well taken care of. The staff were amazing. They made her special meals for lunch in the Windjammer, every night she could order anything and they would do whatever they could to modify the meal so she could eat it without sacrificing the taste of the food. That cruise had the best food we have ever had on any cruise ship. High expectations were set which I told her she may never get again. My mom, sister, and I sailed Anthem in May and while the dining room staff did modify meals for her, she was kind of on her own everywhere else on the ship. It was fine though as Anthem has what we think is the best Windjammer. The food there was great and she could always find things she could eat.

 

Now onto Liberty. The staff was amazing (as always). We had great service and loved our waiter and assistant waiter. That said, the food was only ok in the dining room for those of us without allergies. For my mom, by the time they took off what she could not eat, she said it was pretty terrible. That was a bit of a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, we certainly didn't starve, but there were nights where we just had soup and salad or just salad as there was nothing appealing on the menu.

 

We had lunch in the dining room on the first 2 sea days. I love their salad bar and it did not disappoint on Liberty. My dad discovered that suite guests could eat lunch on Giovanni's so on the last sea day we decided to try it. It is a limited menu with only steak, chicken, salmon, and whatever their pasta of the day is. It was fantastic. The pasta was great, the steak was very tender and my husband enjoyed the salmon. They brought us out a sampling of desserts which were also very tasty. We wished we had discovered this earlier (though I still do love the salad bar at lunch).

 

For breakfast, we either ate in Giovanni's (which was great) or snacked in the suite lounge. My sister ate in the Windjammer and said it was only ok. The pancakes and french toast were fine, but the eggs were a bit runny and not appealing.

 

Over all, this was not our favorite cruise for dining. This cruise made my dad contemplate getting the dining package for the next cruise. My hubby likes to only eat what is included so I don't think we would go that route, but we may end up eating less (which could be a very good thing ;) ).

[jlstwinmommy]

On to the shows...

 

I think we ended up going to most of the headliner shows. We all really enjoyed In the Air. We got to the theater about 20 minutes before the show and got seats right in the middle of the middle section. That night, we were not sure where the reserved seating was for suite guests, but it did not matter as we had excellent seats.

 

The ice show was cancelled one night due to an injury to one of the skaters, but we did get to see it later on in the cruise. We got to that about 25 minutes early and it was PACKED. At that time, it was standing room only. This is one time we used the reserved area for the suites or we would not have gotten a seat. They keep the reserved seats until about 10 minutes before the show. After that, they allow anyone to sit in that section. The seats were good as they were just left of the center. They modified the show a little as the injured skater was still unable to perform, but the show was still great.

 

We also saw the comedian one night (not the adult comedy, but the 8:30 family show). I can't remember the name of the guy, but he was funny and we enjoyed that as well. My husband went to see Saturday Night Fever and said he enjoyed it. I was tired and decided to pack that night so I did not go.

[jlstwinmommy]

One of the big reasons we booked this cruise was the ports. I did a TON of research on CC beforehand and picked two private excursions I found on here and then one excursion through Royal.

 

Roatan - My family and my dad really wanted to go snorkeling. Based on reviews I read here and on other websites, we ended up booking a pontoon snorkel trip with Upachaya. This was our favorite excursion. The people were incredibly nice. There were only the 5 of us on the pontoon boat and another 6 people that were on our van but did a kayak and snorkel tour. We were taken to two different snorkel sites. There were tons of fish and the coral was amazing. At the 2nd site, we were near the kayakers, but we all had our own guide and took a different route to see the starfish and to the drop off. It was fantastic. After snorkeling, we went to a hut and had a great lunch with rice and beans, coleslaw, chips and salsa, and apple bananas grown on the property. The lunch was great and just the right amount after snorkeling for a couple of hours. They then took us back to the port where we looked around some of the shops and then got back on the ship. My sister booked a tour with Bananarama to go over to West Bay as her kids were too little to do our snorkel excursion. She said it was a little crowded, but they had a good time. Her girls mostly played on the beach as getting to where the reef and the fish were was a bit much for them. My mother is not a water person and spent the day in the spa on the ship. ;p

 

Costa Maya - I really was looking forward to this port as I wanted to see the Mayan ruins. We had gone years ago to Cozumel and seen the Mayan ruins on the island, but I wanted to see the bigger ruins. We didn't do it from Cozumel as it was a super long day and expensive. Based on reviews, we booked a tour with Native Choice. We decided to see the closer ruins due to the time constraints (Chacchoben). The tour guides were super knowledgeable. The bus was a very comfortable tour bus. The ride took about an hour. The guides then split our group into groups of 20 for touring the ruins. They provided tons of information about the Mayan culture and the ruins that were built there. It was very interesting. Our entire group went on the tour and all of us enjoyed it. We even got to see some spider monkeys in the tree next to the bigger of the ruins there.

 

Cozumel - I had been to Cozumel before and we had done an island tour. This time, we decided we wanted to do more snorkeling. This time, my sister's husband came with the other 5 of us (my sister's kids were again too young). We selected a tour through Royal a while back when it was on sale. We decided to do the Palancar Reef and Starfish Sanctuary tour. Honestly, they could have skipped the starfish sanctuary part. There were only a few starfish and they were only ok looking. Some looked like they were a little beat up, which is understandable given that our tour had 50-75 people with it and we were not the only boat out there. We saw more starfish with brighter colors with Upachaya. The reef was nice and there were a lot of fish, but it was too many people in one area and we felt like cattle being herded around. My husband said next time we need to find a private tour. I had looked into it a little bit, but it wasn't as clear what the best options were as it was in Roatan. It didn't help that there were 8 ships in port that day, including us and Allure, 2 bigger carnival ships, and Regal Princess. :eek: Clearly there is more research to be done before we go back to Cozumel.

 

My mom and my sister decided to take the girls and go shopping in town. After shopping in town, my mom had a bad experience in the shops by the port. One of my sister's girls accidentally knocked over a picture frame and broke it. The lady in the store told my mom she had to pay for it. No problem, my mom apologized for her granddaughter (Lily) and said she would pay for it with the other items she intended to buy. The lady got very angry and started yelling at my mom and Lily, making poor Lily cry. She wanted her to pay immediately before shopping for anything else. My mom decided not to buy anything else and just paid for the broken picture frame and moved on. Later in the afternoon, we saw almost exactly the same scene in another store by the port only no child was involved. It made us all wonder if they put those things on the shelves precariously on purpose hoping someone will break something to get an automatic sale. it kind of turned us off from any more shopping in Cozumel.

 

Attached are a picture of the resort at Upachaya and some pictures of ruins in Costa Maya. I don't have an underwater camera so no fish pictures, sorry. :)

[alliecat1970]

Thank you so much for this info we are flying to Houston hobby sat morning and for my first time going to use uber for transfer from airport to hotel galvez any problems/suggestions nervous about using uber . 2nd did I understand correctly uber picked you all up from cruise port? How long was it when you called from airport before they were there to pick you up? I appreciate your help. Thank You Janet Bruce

[jlstwinmommy]

We had no problems with Uber. It was our first time using it as well and it worked perfectly.

 

They did pick us up at the port. My sister got a driver within 5 minutes. Our driver got stuck at the carnival terminal traffic for a bit so even though app said 4 min, it was closer to 15 min. He did call us right away to verify where we were (we were at terminal 2, gave him the letter of the position we were standing at). He called a 2nd time to update us and apologize for the delay when it took longer than 10 min. It was no issue for us as our flight was not until 2:30.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[BethV114]

Do you recall what types of drinks were available on embarkation day? A Cruise Compass that I saw for Liberty indicated that drink selection is limited on embarkation due to Texas alcohol laws, so I'm trying to get an idea of what we can expect to be available the first day. We do not drink a ton, but we do enjoy a few cocktails by the pool and drinks with dinner.

 

Thank you!

[jlstwinmommy]

Do you recall what types of drinks were available on embarkation day? A Cruise Compass that I saw for Liberty indicated that drink selection is limited on embarkation due to Texas alcohol laws, so I'm trying to get an idea of what we can expect to be available the first day. We do not drink a ton, but we do enjoy a few cocktails by the pool and drinks with dinner.

 

Thank you!

 

I don't recall as we are not big drinkers either, mostly wine. We did have a note in our cabin as our TA usually sends a bottle of wine or champagne to our room the first night. The note said due to the TX liquor laws, they would deliver it the 2nd night instead. I think they actually forgot as we didn't get it then and had to ask the concierge about it. He was super nice and our wine was delivered on day 3. I did see them selling some kind of drink of the day when we got on, but I didn't notice what it was. Sorry.

[cruiselvr04]

We were on the same cruise. Some non texas brands are not available the first afternoon. Not a big deal...

They offered the 10 drink deal on the 4th day. I think it was $80.

[wolfganghowell]

Beth - most drinks are available. You just might not be able to get a certain call brand. Certain beers are not available. The entire bar opens up shortly after the ship leaves port.

 

Op - thanks for your review. We were on her the week before you.

[maggiecharlie]

Who was the Captain and Cruise Director?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[jlstwinmommy]

Who was the Captain and Cruise Director?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I can't remember the captain, but the Cruise Director was Drew. We didn't have much interaction with him (just saw him at the end of the shows), but the staff that run trivia, the scavenger hunts, and bingo were great. :)

[ace1zoe2]

Do you recall what types of drinks were available on embarkation day? A Cruise Compass that I saw for Liberty indicated that drink selection is limited on embarkation due to Texas alcohol laws, so I'm trying to get an idea of what we can expect to be available the first day. We do not drink a ton, but we do enjoy a few cocktails by the pool and drinks with dinner.

 

 

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

Here’s a list from September. Also no garnishes in drinks like fruits, olives, etc until out to sea.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wolfganghowell]

Just a note on the menu above - Royal did not renew their contract with Island Oasis so the mixes are different now. Plus regular blenders. Another cost cutting move I guess.

[3eaglesfam]

thanks for the review! I am also going to Upachaya in Feb when we cruise on Liberty!

[theotherchad]

We were on the same sailing, so I'm interested to read all the rest! Were you guys the largish family that sat out on the patio area of the Suite Lounge? I think we only saw you guys once or twice.

[jldev]

This is a fantastic review thanks. I'll be cruising on Voyager of the Seas with my family on a 14-night cruise in April. Currently we are booked into two balcony cabins but I'm slightly tempted to upgrade to a Royal Family Suite which are aft on the ship like on Liberty I believe. However my big concern is what appears to be the total lack of privacy on the RFS balcony. Did this bother you?

[maggiecharlie]

I can't remember the captain, but the Cruise Director was Drew. We didn't have much interaction with him (just saw him at the end of the shows), but the staff that run trivia, the scavenger hunts, and bingo were great. :)

 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[maggiecharlie]

Just a note on the menu above - Royal did not renew their contract with Island Oasis so the mixes are different now. Plus regular blenders. Another cost cutting move I guess.

 

 

 

No Island Oasis! I hope they still can make Coco Loco’s. Are the frozen drinks good? We sail on 11/26.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[wolfganghowell]

The frozen drinks are still good. We just noticed that the machines and cartons were different.

[fasmustang]

Thanks for the review! We sail 11/26. We've only sailed on the Liberty once before, in Feb., and we were less than satisfied with the staff. They all seemed very unhappy. We heard from many others that the Feb cruise was an anomaly as far as service, so we are trying them again. :)

[gigi65]

Just curious- was Chops assigned to you for First Night Done Right? Or did you change it once on board?