Review: Liberty OTS, June 18-25, 2017 (Galveston, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica)

Here's my review of the June 18-25, 2017, Liberty of the Seas cruise from Galveston to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Falmouth. Our fifth cruise, second on RCCL.

We drove to Galveston the day before and stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites on Seawall Blvd. Ate at Fish Tales restaurant across from the Pleasure Pier; excellent seafood platter! Room was very comfortable; free breakfast was good, except the arrangement of the food and drinks was kind of all over the room, instead of one long bar. I had pre-booked EZ Cruise parking, but noticed the hotel also had cruise parking and shuttle available. After dinner, we walked across the street to the (free) public beach; DS15 and DH spent about 30 minutes splashing around.

Sunday morning, we parked at EZ Cruise around 10:00 and arrived at the terminal around 10:15-ish. Checked luggage and got through first level of security in less than 10 minutes. We had a case of bottled water in a rolling suitcase but saw other people with cases of water in the open with tags on them; didn't seem like anybody was checking on the water, just sending it through. Waited in the big room full of chairs maybe 15 minutes and they started calling people to board. On board by 11-11:15. As usual, the room wasn't ready until 1:00. We ate lunch in the Windjammer; there were lots of staff helping people find tables, bringing tea and water, etc.

People have mentioned the heavy sales pushes for drink packages, specialty restaurants, etc. I didn't really notice anything too pushy; just said "no thanks" and kept walking. We never stopped to get our pictures taken either; just kept walking.

We had an inside cabin for three people, small but okay for us. Unpacked and got organized, then roamed around looking for our muster station; turns out it was in the dining room! So we were indoors in A/C while most everyone else was outside. Unfortunately, we'd already done an entire lap around deck 4 looking for it, so we were hot!

On first sea day, the port and shopping lady did a presentation in the theater billed as a "virtual tour" of the ship. She had a slide show, but the ship diagram was of the Freedom of the Seas ... okay, so the Liberty and the Freedom are sister ships, however, the three main dining rooms have different names! So when she should have been showing people where the Botticelli, Michaelangelo, and Rembrandt dining rooms were, the ship diagram on the screen said Leonardo, Isaac, and Galileo. Not exactly helpful when the purpose of the presentation is to show people how to get around on THIS ship. She also mispronounced the name of a store on the ship called Regalia. She pronounced it "Regalla." You would think that the shopping expert would know what the word Regalia means, especially when it's the name of a shop on her ship. :rolleyes: Later in the week, the cruise director mispronounced the bar named Bolero's; he called it Bolaro's. On a couple of days, I noticed the Compass had typos in it. (When you're pushing Sabor, you'd think the word "guacamole" would be correctly spelled!)

The elevators to the higher floors were confusing; there would be four elevators in a lobby, two each facing each other, but one side only went to 12 and the other side went to 13. On the next to last day, we figured that out.

The cruise director, John Blair, was not my cup of tea; too Vegas-y. I was not surprised to learn that the Neil Diamond tribute later in the week was his headliner show.

So, those were all my annoyances, haha! Next, the good stuff!

The shows were great for the most part. We dIdn't go to the two comedians. The welcome show on the first night was good; the main singers and dancers were excellent, as was the live band. The Elvis impersonator was okay for a couple of songs, was great on the grand piano when he was channeling Jerry Lee Lewis, but he spent too much time down in the first few rows of the audience. We were on the first row of the balcony and couldn't see him for about a third of the time. We had to explain to our 15-year-old son who Elvis was. :cool:

DO NOT MISS the In the Air show, the ice show and Sat. Night Fever. They were outstanding. In the Air was moved from Monday to Tuesday due to rocking seas on Monday. After seeing the show, I was so glad they were able to reschedule it to Tuesday; they ended up switching the two nights' performances. The main guy in SNF has performed in the West End in London; these are professionals! The sets were great; the way they did the red and yellow and orange dancefloor was pretty cool.

The Captain's Q&A session on the last sea day in the Star Lounge (what a beautiful room!) was very interesting; it was about 30 minutes, with the captain, chief engineer, hotel director, and the cruise director. The floor was open for questions, and two employees had microphones so people could be heard. Some questions were dumb ("look at the website, idjit"), others were interesting, like the explanation of how the ship is "anchored" in Grand Cayman, not by the anchor but by "dynamic positioning" with GPS and satellites.

We did three ship excursions: Tulum and beach break in Coz, Sting Ray City in GC, and Dunn's River Falls and Shaw Park Gardens in Jamaica.

If you want to see Tulum, I'd recommend doing a ship tour; there's no way I'd try to go that far on my own. All aboard that day was at 4:30, but it was 4:45 before we got back to the pier. First, you take the ferry from Cozumel over to the mainland, then you take a bus (air conditioned) to Tulum. It is described as 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to Tulum, and that's about what it took (one way). Also be aware that you have to walk a pretty good ways from the ferry pier to get to the bus for this tour, some of it over cobblestone streets. It is not a quick walk.

There was a store at the entrance to Tulum and we were able to use the restroom there. Our guide was with us from the ferry pier all the time on the bus and in Tulum. He was very informative and obviously proud of his culture and country. Tulum was hot, even on the cloudy day that we had, so take a hat. The tour guide also had a few umbrellas available if people wanted to use them (for shade from the sun). The tour of Tulum was very quick and you didn't have time to roam around on your own; if you feel like you need to see every nook and cranny, this probably isn't the tour for you. The tour provided headphones and an audio pack, so you could hear him easily during the tour, including on the bus.

After we reboarded the bus, we drove almost all the way back to Playa del Carmen for the lunch and beach break part of the day. I had tried to find out what beach we would go to, but didn't know until we got there. It was called La Playa Xpu Ha beach club; it's on TripAdvisor. We had wrist bands so we had lunch served to us as we went through the line; there were some sodas or bottled water included and I think you could buy beer or other drinks. Lunch was watermelon, ceviche, chips and salsa, rice and beans, and a taco with chicken or fish. I got chicken, but our son got fish and he said it was excellent. The chips and salsa were good too. You got your lunch and you could eat there inside the small building or go out onto the beach where there were tables and chairs, both in the shade and in the sun. And then you were free to hit the beach. It was a small place but the sand and water were very nice. We were there maybe an hour and a half. As we were driving back into town, it started raining pretty hard so we all got soaked on the long walk from the bus back to the ferry pier. It was a long day (we had to meet in the theater at 6:45 that morning), but we were interested in seeing Tulum.

In Grand Cayman, we did the ship excursion to Sting Ray City. I had researched several of these tour vendors and found Marineland Tours, which has a very unique boat called the Cayman Explorer. Instead of a ladder into the water, which I would have a hard time getting back up, they have a set of metal stairs, about 6-7 feet long, that lowers down into the water. So, you just walk down the stairs and back up. After I found this company, I looked at the RCCL excursions and discovered they are the ones who do the RCCL excursion, so that's what we booked.

In GC, you take the tender over to the pier, which took about 10 minutes, go through the gates and there are various colored tents set up with the vendors. Our excursion tickets said to meet at the white tent, where we got our wristbands and waited awhile. Our guide lined us up and walked out the gates and maybe 50 yards or so so their buses. Then it was maybe a 15-minute ride to the marina where the boat is kept, and 10-15 minutes on the boat to the sandbar. HINT: we were some of the last ones on the boat, so we had to take whatever seats were left; turns out, they were in the back of the boat, so when we got to the sandbar, we were the first ones off the boat and into the water because that's where the stairs were. :D

The water in GC is just amazing. Once we were all off the boat, they had us circle up in the water and explained a bit about sting rays and what we would be doing. The sting rays are wild, they aren't "fenced in", so they started swimming up randomly. Make sure you have a waterproof case for your camera or phone; the water was pretty rough that day and tended to bounce you around a bit, so there's no way (unless you were seven feet tall, maybe) that you could keep a camera out of the water. The tour guides do offer life vests for anyone not sure about being able to keep their feet; some younger children and older folks too were wearing them. The guides hold up sting rays and everyone gets a chance to pet them; one of the guides will take pictures with your camera. Then you get a chance to feed the sting rays. Our son did that; we had already gotten back on the boat. We were probably there in the water for at least an hour. It was really beautiful.

When we got back to the pier, there are some small shops there; we bought a Christmas ornament, Santa riding a sting ray. Our son got a freshly cut coconut with a straw to drink the coconut water. All abord was I believe at 3:30 that day and we were back early; DH and I had one of the cantilvered hot tubs to ourselves for 10-15 minutes before we got hot and had to get out.

In Falmouth, we did the RCCL excursion, Dunn's River Falls and Gardens. When you get off the ship in Falmouth, there's a very nice shopping area (for cruise passengers only) and then some numbered pavilions set up where the excursions meet. We waited about 30 minutes there before our guide lead us to the bus; this time, it was a 16-passenger van and I think we only had 11 in our group. It had started raining at that point. We were on the van maybe 45 minutes to DRF; our guide was telling us about the country and what we were seeing as we drove past. When we got to the Falls, we had to take all our belongings off the van; there are lockers for rent, but even though our driver stayed with the van, we had to take all our stuff. At this point, it was pouring rain! Luckily, it stopped after 15 minutes or so and the sun came out. Turned out, from our group only DH and DS were doing the climb; the rest of us stayed on the wooden boardwalk and steps next to the falls. This was great because I was able to get some good pics and videos of them climbing.

I know people have said that old and young alike can climb these falls, but there is no way I would have been able to do it. If you have bad knees or maybe aren't in the best shape, it would be very difficult. DH said that two or three people in their group had to bail out early because they couldn't manage it. Both DH and DS said they would do the climb again in a heartbeat. It took probably 45 minutes for them to do the climb. After that, you have to walk through the small vendor area to get back to the parking lot; our guide warned us not to stop there, that we didn't have time and the vendors could be pretty aggressive. The way to get through is to look down at the sidewalk and just keep walking. One vendor stepped out in front of DH and held out his hand as if to shake hands; DH, being a gentleman, stopped and put his hand out, but I was saying "We have to catch the bus. Let's go, let's go!"

Back on the van, we drove another 15-20 minutes into Ocho Rios and up the side of the hill to the Shaw Park Gardens. There used to be a fancy hotel here overlooking the town; now it's just the gardens. They are spectacular. Our guide there was one of the gardeners; he identified every plant and flower that we went past. There's a lovely waterfall there too and a huge 200-year-old banyan tree. The garden tour was about 45 minutes. LOTS OF STAIRS! I think this tour description says it is not suitable for persons in wheelchairs, and if you have trouble with stairs, it is difficult. Surprisingly, our 15-year-old son said he would do the Falls AND the gardens again (I thought he would be bored, but he loved it).

Now to food and drink: Having already paid for the "free" food and drinks on the ship, we don't spent any more money on specialty restaurants, coffee, etc. DH had one beer and we each had one mixed drink during the week. We found the coffee in the Windjammer, Cafe Promande, and Sorrento's to be very good and it was hot! We only ate in the main dining room one night; the coffee there was not as good.

The pizza at Sorrento's was excellent, and the desserts were some of the best on board (chocolate cappuccino, cranberry macaroons). We loved the Cafe Promenade for afternoon snacks, especially on the port days when we missed lunch. We'd grab a sandwich or two and a dessert (or two!), go to the early show, and then to dinner. We only went to the MDR on second formal night so DS could try the lobster and baked Alaska. Our waiter was a little aggressive in asking for good scores on the survey; he demanded to know why we hadn't eaten in the MDR before then. (Because it takes too long??? Because we had other things to do??? Because whatever???)

DS loved the teen club and spent hours there. DH and DS went on the green and orange slides the first day; both said the green one was best, but then DH slipped and hit the back of his head on the side of the exit from the slides. RCCL staff came over immediately to check on him, writing down cabin number, name, etc. He was fine though. DS continued a few more times but that was the end of that. They never tried the FlowRider or the big two-person slide; these were closed at various times, due in part to the wind since we were skirting the edge of what became Tropical Storm Cindy. They used the main pool once. Being summer and over 1,200 kids on board, the main pools were always crowded.

Our first RCCL cruise was on Serenade last year, which I really loved. We found the Liberty to be too big for our preference but it's very beautiful and the convenience of being able to drive three hours or so from our home to Galveston has a lot going for it. We thought Sorrento's and Cafe Promenade had excellent food, and the Windjammer was great too. I had chicken cordon bleu one night (after it was on the main dining room menu) and the last night, the WJ had leftover lobster tail and shrimp from the formal night the evening before.

Let me know if there's any questions I can answer.

Great, comprehensive review!

Do you recall seeing any drink cards for sale?

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us, I enjoyed the great details and helpful hints.

Thank you for your informative review!

We sail this same iten Sunday on LOS!

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Thank you for your review, we were last on the Liberty back in 2011. We leave this Friday for our first cruise out of Galveston and also will be leaving our car at the EZ had planning to arrive by 10:15 to 10:30 so enjoyed reading how easily you were able to board.

Kellie since you are on LOS right now, can you see if they have fruit smoothies near or at the spa area? I'm going on LOS next year and we love fruit or green smoothies. Thank you have a great time on your cruise.

Kellie since you are on LOS right now, can you see if they have fruit smoothies near or at the spa area? I'm going on LOS next year and we love fruit or green smoothies. Thank you have a great time on your cruise.

On Liberty, that would be at the Squeeze Juice Bar on the pool deck. Oasis class has the smoothies near the spa.

@cruisinggrandma57, we were on LOS last week; unfortunately, this week I've had to cook our own meals, make my own coffee, and go to work. :')

@clarea, we weren't doing any drink packages or cards, so that's not something I would have noticed. However, when I get home tonight, I can see if there was any mention of drink cards in the Compasses.

I let my roll call know that I had posted a review, so maybe some of them will chime in with some more info.

I noticed drink cards for sale, but since I don't drink didn't pay much attention to them. Seems they started popping up about day three at all the bars and food stops.

Thank you so much for your review! I appreciate the great information for our upcoming cruise!

Thanks for the awesome review! Sounds like you guys had a wonderful time. We've got our first cruise on Royal's Liberty of the Seas coming up in a few weeks.

Having done the Marineland trip to Stingray City on the Cayman Explorer before, I cannot recommend it enough. The steps that lower make getting in and out of the water so easy! Plus, the guides are extremely knowledgeable about stingrays. The seas always seem to be a bit rough at Stingray City, so everyone should be prepared for a little rocking and rolling while exploring the sandbar. We liked it so much last time that we're doing it again on this cruise!

Back to your cruise, a few questions:

• How was your cabin? What deck was your cabin on? Was the deck noisy?
  
• How early did you get to the shows in order to get seats?
  
• When you parked at EZ Parking, did you guys drop off luggage at the port first? Or did everyone just roll their suitcases over to the port after parking? We've got reservations at Park N Cruise, trying to decide if we should drop everyone & luggage off first, or just park & walk over.
  
• Did your son try out the kid's club? If so, what did he think? My son is 13 and is adamant that he won't like the kid's club.
  
• Did the ship feel super crowded? My biggest concern is that the ship will feel overly crowded.
  

Sorry for the questions, just trying to prep for our cruise! Thanks again for your great review, it's super helpful to noobs like me!

Nike4000, we leave this weekend for the Liberty sailing on the 2nd and we plan to take the shuttle over from the EZ Lot. It appears to be a good 2 blocks with just our carry on luggage is easy to do but with DH's bad knee we are better to take the shuttle over & back. I do have a question, I have two directions into the EZ lot off 45 S but wondered if we would be better to stay on Broadway/AveJ and make a left unto 26th then down and same going back or come in off Harborside. It doesn't appear to easy getting back unto Harborside Dr from the lot.

@Desert Cruizers, this is how we got to EZ Cruise parking: I-45 South across the causeway; street name changes to Avenue J and/or Broadway; turned left on 26th and left on Santa Fe Place. There will be a parking attendant to point you into the lot and another attendant to tell you what spot to park in. There are two orange tents in the middle of the parking lot where you carry your luggage and wait for the next shuttle. MAKE SURE YOU GO TO THE RIGHT ONE -- they shuttle to the Carnival Breeze (at terminal 1) and the Liberty (at terminal 2); the tents are marked with signs.

Yes, we also did the shuttle; it's hot and humid and it's not an easy two-block walk. There's a railroad track you have to cross, etc. Shuttle is well worth it. We tipped the driver and the guy who loaded our luggage onto the van a couple of bucks each.

@Nike4000, to answer your questions:

We had cabin 8469, which is on a weird interior hallway; you can look at a deck plan and see it. We couldn't find it at first and had to ask; we had to figure out which direction to go off the elevators and then it was fine. It was very quiet.

For In the Air and Saturday Night Fever, we were in the theater 30 minutes early; that being said, we don't care about sitting in the front few rows. Even 30 minutes before show time for SNF, the first several rows were filling up. We liked the first row on the balcony in the theater. We saw the very first performance of the ice show and got there 30 minutes early also, but at 15 minutes, there were still plenty of seats.

Our son loved the teen club and disappeared for hours at a time. They did separate the teens into age groups 12-14 and 15-17. I have a Compass for the 15-17 group; however, I think the regular Compass also showed a lot of the kids' activities. It wasn't all just "arts and crafts" or Duck-Duck-Goose. They got dedicated time on the slides and ice rink (bring socks and long pants if you're going to skate) and the FlowRider, plus soccer, basketball, and volleyball on the sport court.

Yes, it was crowded; over 1,200 kids on our cruise and all the adults that go with them. But there are lots of areas inside and out on the decks to hang out. We'd sit on loungers in the shade on deck 12 or 13 in the mornings for an hour or so, then we'd get hot so we'd go to the Promenade and get a snack at Cafe Promenade or Sorrento's and people-watch in the A/C for awhile.

Let me know if I didn't answer anything.

Kellie, thank you, that looked to be the best way to the lot and I figure to leave the same way to go back to Bush at the end of the cruise.

Gay

@Nike4000, to answer your questions:

First off, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Your answers are greatly appreciated. A few follow up thoughts:

We had cabin 8469, which is on a weird interior hallway; you can look at a deck plan and see it. We couldn't find it at first and had to ask; we had to figure out which direction to go off the elevators and then it was fine. It was very quiet.

Good to know! We're also on Deck 8 & looking at the plans I can see how that would be super confusing! Is everything else pretty well marked?

For In the Air and Saturday Night Fever, we were in the theater 30 minutes early; that being said, we don't care about sitting in the front few rows. Even 30 minutes before show time for SNF, the first several rows were filling up. We liked the first row on the balcony in the theater. We saw the very first performance of the ice show and got there 30 minutes early also, but at 15 minutes, there were still plenty of seats.

Yep, we don't care about front rows either, but I do like being on an aisle. So we'll probably arrive around 20 to 30 minutes before showtime. We're almost habitually early anyway, so we should be in good shape. Do they have concessions available for the shows? We've had a tradition of getting popcorn for the shows on past cruises and the kids have asked if that's a option.

Our son loved the teen club and disappeared for hours at a time. They did separate the teens into age groups 12-14 and 15-17. I have a Compass for the 15-17 group; however, I think the regular Compass also showed a lot of the kids' activities. It wasn't all just "arts and crafts" or Duck-Duck-Goose. They got dedicated time on the slides and ice rink (bring socks and long pants if you're going to skate) and the FlowRider, plus soccer, basketball, and volleyball on the sport court.

Shared this with the boy & he is still adamant that he will not participate. He got soured on the DCL version of kids clubs, where everyone had to participate in the activities, no matter what. So, if he was in the middle of a game or something, he had to stop and do whatever the counselors were doing. How does Royal handle that? Is it an all-or-nothing kind of thing? I understand if they're heading to the sport court or elsewhere, but what about when they're in the club. I'm hopeful that the club-only time on the FlowRider and ice skating will entice him to participate some. My daughter, who is 17, is very interested in trying the rock climbing wall and is already planning on getting the schedule of events so she knows when to participate. The boy is more "meh" about all of it.

Yes, it was crowded; over 1,200 kids on our cruise and all the adults that go with them. But there are lots of areas inside and out on the decks to hang out. We'd sit on loungers in the shade on deck 12 or 13 in the mornings for an hour or so, then we'd get hot so we'd go to the Promenade and get a snack at Cafe Promenade or Sorrento's and people-watch in the A/C for awhile.

YIKES! 1,200 kids - :eek: I'm kidding! I'm sure it will be fine. I don't do well with crowds, so I'll just have to make sure I pay close attention to the Compass and stay as far away from the big activities as I can. The muster drill on the small Disney ships just about does me in, so I can only imagine what it's like on a much larger ship like LoS. Did it ever feel super crowded? My wife was on a Carnival cruise with her sisters last spring and said that there were definitely times where it felt like every passenger was in the same place. On the flip side she's pretty sure she was one of only like 3 or 4 passengers who stayed on board when the ship docked in Cozumel, so that was fun.

Thanks again for the answers. We are getting very excited about our cruise!

Nike4000, we leave this weekend for the Liberty sailing on the 2nd and we plan to take the shuttle over from the EZ Lot. It appears to be a good 2 blocks with just our carry on luggage is easy to do but with DH's bad knee we are better to take the shuttle over & back. I do have a question, I have two directions into the EZ lot off 45 S but wondered if we would be better to stay on Broadway/AveJ and make a left unto 26th then down and same going back or come in off Harborside. It doesn't appear to easy getting back unto Harborside Dr from the lot.

I just looked it up and Park N Cruise, where we've got our reservation, doesn't have a shuttle. So, it looks like I'll be dropping the family off at the port with the luggage and then hiking over.

Thanks for all the info. Was the Solarium pool/area super jammed? I imagine so, but thought I would ask anyway.

Nikke4000 with all my researching for ours, the ParknCruise is right across the street and I did check them out among the other lots but friends who live in South Houston uses EZ Lot so went with them. Pricing was about the same.

Gay

Great, comprehensive review!

 

 

 

Do you recall seeing any drink cards for sale?

I was on the same sailing. They did not advertise the drink card in the Compass, unless I missed it.

I did see few small signs pop up, the last port day, which was Day 5, on the bars for a 10 drink card for $75 plus 18% Grats.

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I was on the same sailing. They did not advertise the drink card in the Compass, unless I missed it.

 

I did see few small signs pop up, the last port day, which was Day 5, on the bars for a 10 drink card for $75 plus 18% Grats.

Thank-you.:)

Back with more answers:

Drink cards - I glanced through the Compasses last night and didn't see the drink cards mentioned, so I think Bumbletigger's answer covers that.

Laundry -- Nobody asked about this, but I noticed the stuff-everything-in-the-bag laundry price was $34.99.

Solarium pool -- It wasn't super-jammed, meaning you could get in the water without stepping on somebody; however, it's a smaller pool than the main one, so everyone is closer together.

@Nike4000 - Yes, everything is well marked. By the elevators (and maybe other places), there are interactive Where Do You Want to Go boards, so you can figure out how to get from A to B. We also prefer being on the aisle in the venues, so I think your 20-to-30 minutes early for shows should be fine. Sat. Night Fever was the earliest arriving crowd, and we were 30 minutes early, but still had plenty of choices. I don't remember seeing popcorn anywhere on the ship; the theater didn't have food, although the bar service waiters were swarming around. I asked my son this morning about the teen club and whether his age group (15-17) was ever with the younger group (12-14). He said the groups were separate; when they'd have soccer on the sport court (or whatever), usually the 12-14 group was first (say, at noon), and the 15-17 group would be at 1:00. He was able to come and go anytime he wanted; the counselors just checked their sea passes (which are hole-punched in a certain way to identify them as teens). The really young children had wristbands. I would imagine the 12-14 group would also be able to come and go as they like. There are specific Compasses for the teen groups that cover the entire week; we found them on Deck 12 outside the kids' club area, but I think they also have them at Guest Services; there's a rack on the wall like a magazine rack that has various info.

Let me know if I missed anything.

@Kellie in Texas

Was sharing all of your wonderful information with the family last night and they had 3 more questions:

1. How does everyone carry their SeaPass cards? We're used to wearing lanyards on the Disney cruises. Should we bring some lanyards? Will the cards even fit?
   
2. Do they have Sweet'N Low available on board?
   
3. You mentioned your son being able to come and go, which is awesome, but my son is more concerned about being required to do whatever group activity is going on in the club at the time. For example, on a past cruise my son was playing chess in the kid's club with a friend he met on board. They were having a great time, just hanging out and having fun. Unfortunately it was time for some group activity, taking place in the club, and the counselors made them put the chess game away and join in with the rest of the group. He and his friend were out of the way, at the side of the room, not bothering anyone & the group activity wouldn't have come in contact with them. But, they were required to participate and couldn't finish their game. That's what he doesn't like - being required to participate in a group activity when he's engaged with a friend in an alternate activity. He completely understands if everyone is leaving to go to the basketball court and they're going to close the club. Does Royal require participation in the group activity, even if the kids don't want to participate?
   

Thanks again for all of your wonderful information! It is super helpful!

@Nike4000 -- Lots of people wear lanyards for the sea pass cards; our son has a zippered coin purse type thing on a lanyard, so he used that (inside his shirt). You, of course, can buy many types of lanyards on board! ;p

Pretty sure Sweet N Low is available; we don't use it, but I saw blue, pink, yellow etc. packets near the tea and coffee stations.

Also 98% sure that the kids were not required to stop what they were doing and go with the group activity. In the 15-17 teen room (which is called the Living Room), they had at least a couple of video games set up, some couches, I think some board games too. When it was time for soccer or basketball or whatever activity, whoever wanted to go could go, but you didn't have to. I do recall the Living Room being closed (they put a sign on the door) so I think that was at times when ALL the kids and counselors were gone. They also close from about 5:00-8:00 pm for dinner times.