Liberty 21 July trip report

[Petroplex]

Howdy, folks:

 

We just got off the Liberty in Galveston. 10 of us sailed in the 4 bedroom Villa Suite, and another 7 folks were in different scattered cabins. I am going to do a trip report in installments over the next few days, and I will post pictures to my personal blog and provide links to them where appropriate. I also have a PDF of all of the MDR and specialty menus, and I have PDFs of quite a few bar menus. For now, though, here is what stood out to me:

 

The Good

• The concierge, Mangesh, worked particularly hard to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. I appreciated him very much.
• We paid for an embarkation lunch at Chops. If you are going to do one lunch at Chops, this is an excellent time to do it.
• I hit a $2000 jackpot on the last day of the cruise!
• I enjoyed the buffet more than in 2017. They seemed to have more curries available, and that is an item which keeps well on a buffet.
• We all enjoyed our dinners in the MDR.
• In Cayman, leave the pier area and turn left on the first street. Walk past the beach to the restaurant where some dudes are chopping fresh fish out front. Order the oxtail. You are welcome.
• Janet Crick and the Falmouth Culinary Tour were amazing. We booked that independently rather than through the cruise line.

 

The Bad

• Embarkation Day alcohol has gone to the dogs. Royal elected to only pay taxes on very cheap stuff like McCormack's. Ugh. Pay the taxes on at least a couple of decent bottles. It is a flat $3.50 per bottle regardless of whether it is McCormack's or Four Roses Single Barrel.
• The weight limit for the slides is 300 pounds. I weighed 219.8 on the day I left, although I trust that went up a bit. On Wednesday, after riding all week, the same attendant who let me on all week demanded that I step on the scale in public to prove I was below the weight limit. I am deeply upset about the way they elected to handle that and a grossly inconsistent application of their own policy.
• The blackjack rules still stink at most tables.
• For the love of all that is good and holy, quit interrupting my dinner to take photos, sell me specialty dining, sell me onboard experiences, etc.

 

Surprises

• Our balcony was 800+ square feet, and we didn't actually use it all that much. I suspect the leftover wine in the fridge and the alcohol we had delivered to the room as gifts made an excellent addition to the Room Steward Party Fund.
• I consistently kicked my kid's arse when we raced down the water slides. Dad still has it, kiddo. Now go clean your room.

 

More later. It was, on balance, an excellent cruise. I'll do my best to answer questions as they come up.

[bighairtexan]

Thanks for the review.  I second Mangesh (MJ) as being great AND for SURE Janet Crick and the food tour in Falmouth.  And yeah on the Texas stamped and taxed booze. It is what it is but... I wish it weren't! LOL  I even agree that last time on the Liberty, I was pleasantly surprised at the MDR esp since normally I'm on Celebrity in Luminae.  

 

Weird about making you weigh IN PUBLIC especially after you'd been doing the slides already.  I'll be sure to check out your blog.   

[rede2go6464]

Congratulations on your $2000 Jackpot! Looking forward to your review. Did you do My Time Dining?

 

[CruiseMomTX]

The 4 of us just got off today too!  We actually get back on in a week, minus one that went this time and add in 2 others.

[HicksRA]

Glad to hear MJ is still SL Concierge. Looking forward to seeing him again in November. 

[Petroplex]

4 hours ago, rede2go6464 said:

Congratulations on your $2000 Jackpot! Looking forward to your review. Did you do My Time Dining?

 

We had set dining at 5:30. There were a lot of kids in the group, so that worked better.
 

I spent a lot of time trying to make PDF copies of various menus. To start, I got the menu for most of the bars on the ship. I hope that will be helpful. In my judgment, the drink package is absolutely worth it. It covered everything except some of the nicer wines. I am a cocktail drinker, so I got my value from it in a hurry.

[Marine7]

Petroplex,  looking forward to the rest of your Liberty of the Seas review.

How was your lunch during embarkation at Chops? We will be this ship in Oct. and did not know Chops would be open during embarkation. We have unlimited dining.

Thank you!

[Tulsacoker]

looks like MJ is going on vacation when we board at the end o f August. ..... too bad 😓

[2Ccruisers]

I'll be tagging along, I've already chuckled a few times reading the first post  I love Lady Liberty, we have sailed on her twice and will be on her again in October.

[George C]

 Congratulations on 2k hit, agree on chops is a good deal on embarkation day for lunch,  on one of our cruises a couple of years ago chops was free for lunch if you were in full suite . Also agree on booze on embarkation , really bottom of the barrel stuff until about six. 

[Petroplex]

46 minutes ago, Marine7 said:

Petroplex,  looking forward to the rest of your Liberty of the Seas review.

How was your lunch during embarkation at Chops? We will be this ship in Oct. and did not know Chops would be open during embarkation. We have unlimited dining.

Thank you!

We loved having embarkation lunch there, and I will make that a tradition. I am on my phone now and can't post the link, but Google "Chops Grille lunch menu on the Liberty of the Seas." I wrote about their lunch two years ago, and it is exactly the same. Doing it on embarkation day avoids the hectic crowds in the Windjammer. 

[HBE4]

17 hours ago, Petroplex said:

The weight limit for the slides is 300 pounds. I weighed 219.8 on the day I left, although I trust that went up a bit. On Wednesday, after riding all week, the same attendant who let me on all week demanded that I step on the scale in public to prove I was below the weight limit. I am deeply upset about the way they elected to handle that and a grossly inconsistent application of their own policy.

 

I had the same attendant weight me twice on the same day, within an hour.  I guess I'm not very memorable.

 

On the Tidal Wave, I also got weighed on consecutive runs but that's because they take the weight of both riders. The first time was with adult DD, the second with DW.

 

In your case, I'm guessing the attendant was told by his supervisor to be more diligent in weighing people.  Or perhaps the attendant received grief from the people behind you when they had to be weighed and pointed out you were not.

[Julia429]

Where do we find a link to your blog? I'd love to see the mdr menus and here more about your cruise.

[mcgore83]

Looking forward to this!  Thanks in advance for sharing your vacation experience with us.

[JessyCruises]

Thanks for posting your review.  I am on a B2B at the end of the month

 

[rede2go6464]

15 hours ago, Petroplex said:

It covered everything except some of the nicer wines. I am a cocktail drinker, so I got my value from it in a hurry.

 

I plan to get the beverage package since I like the cocktail too. Thank you so much for the drink menu! Super helpful!

[djh]

7 hours ago, Marine7 said:

Petroplex,  looking forward to the rest of your Liberty of the Seas review.

How was your lunch during embarkation at Chops? We will be this ship in Oct. and did not know Chops would be open during embarkation. We have unlimited dining.

Thank you!

 I would be curious about the embarkation lunch in Chops too. We also have unlimited dining but I thought Chops was only available for those that bought the "Key" package. Is it open to everyone?

[George C]

21 minutes ago, djh said:

 I would be curious about the embarkation lunch in Chops too. We also have unlimited dining but I thought Chops was only available for those that bought the "Key" package. Is it open to everyone?

You can book it thru cruise planner 

[Petroplex]

5 hours ago, Julia429 said:

Where do we find a link to your blog? I'd love to see the mdr menus and here more about your cruise.

Look here. However, it will take me a few weeks to get everything uploaded there. I will try to get MDR menus up by Wednesday. The whole pesky day job keeps getting in the way. I will try to post highlights here as I finish getting unpacked. Thanks for reading along!

Edited July 29, 2019 by Petroplex

[Marine7]

43 minutes ago, George C said:

You can book it thru cruise planner 

But can you book Chops Lunch rather than dinner on the cruise planner for embarkation day? 

[George C]

Interesting I did book chops on navigator on first day for lunch on navigator a couple of years ago.

[Petroplex]

15 minutes ago, Marine7 said:

But can you book Chops Lunch rather than dinner on the cruise planner for embarkation day? 

Yes you can. That is just what we did.

[HBE4]

51 minutes ago, Petroplex said:

Look here. However, it will take me a few weeks to get everything uploaded there. I will try to get MDR menus up by Wednesday. The whole pesky day job keeps getting in the way. I will try to post highlights here as I finish getting unpacked. Thanks for reading along!

 

Looking forward to your review. I've sailed Liberty 4 times (twice out of Florida, once out of New Jersey and lastly, Nov 2018 from Galveston). I never get tired of reading or talking about her. She was my first cruise ship so there is a certain fondness there .

[Marine7]

16 hours ago, Petroplex said:

Yes you can. That is just what we did.

Would you happen to know if Sabor is also open for lunch on embarkation day?

[Petroplex]

3 hours ago, Marine7 said:

Would you happen to know if Sabor is also open for lunch on embarkation day?

It was not on my sailing. In Chops, we were the only table there for most of the time. A second table also got there as we were finishing entrees.

 

I am working on uploading MDR menus. Generally speaking, though, I very much enjoyed what I ate on this cruise.

 

One note as I am collecting random thoughts: We had Voom Surf and Stream. It was awful, and the awfulness was consistent regardless of where on the ship we were. Sometimes it was painfully slow, and sometimes we couldn't connect at all. I couldn't get any picture to upload anywhere, and I certainly couldn't do anything like construct a blog post.