Liberty of the Seas Western Caribbean 4/7-4/12 review with PICS

I was going to write a full day by day review with lots of pictures however looking at my pictures I realized I didn't take nearly as many as I should have and we did not do every single thing on the ship. Normally I plan like a maniac and drag everybody around which creates high stress situations so my DH said no more. So this vacation we just went with the flow. With the exception of one planned excursion in Jamaica everybody did what they pleased.

It was my Mom (65) , my DH(33) , my DD (2.5) and me (37). My Mom is visiting from Europe and she's been helping us with the little one a lot so we wanted to do something special for her mostly by booking this cruise pretty much the last minute. It was my Mom's first cruise ever, second for DD and third for DH and I. We've cruised Celebrity and Disney before so there might be some comparisons I will make from time to time, but I try to just share our experience on this cruise.

Embarkation: Due to my trip to the ER on the day of the cruise (thread here) we were very late getting to the port. Good thing about that - no lines embarkation was a breeze. Bad thing about that - since it was right around muster drill time all restaurants were closed we couldn't even get water and i was dying of thirst the whole time through the muster.

The muster was unlike any other I've seen. On other cruise lines they've always lined us up outside and somebody is checking you off a list - pain in my bum . This muster was a breeze - we went down to our station, which was in a part of the dining room, and sat on a chair until the captain dismissed us - all in all 15 min. DH approved!

Room: We had two rooms - an inside 6697 (L category) and a deluxe ocean view 6692 (forgot the category). Both rooms were wonderful. Since we booked in the last minute we could not find adjoining rooms but these were close by. DH, DD and I stayed in the Ocean view and my mom in the inside. Let me tell you - this was the largest ocean view I've ever stayed in. We sailed Aqua class on Celebrity and had a very nice ocean view , on Disney we were a VGY and got a normal sized ocean view , but I was very much impressed with the size of the room we got on RCCL. Bathroom was smaller than Disney, but functional.

Piece of advice - take a moment to explore where all storage is located. Up until the third day I didn't realize that in the bathroom mirror the left opens and there is shelving and also the vanity mirror in the room opens and you can put toiletries and makeup etc. This was welcomed because with a 2.5 yr old trying to grab everything in sight it was nice to have everything tucked away.

We also had a full size stroller with us which fit nicely under the bed and was a breeze going through the hallways in the ship - Disney hallways were tiny. The suitcases fit in the closet as well as all of our clothes and I also used the drawers in the room for stuff that does not need to be on a hanger.

We also had a pack n play in our room and still we had plenty of room to move around. For the Pack n Play I brought my own sheet and had Grace (our room attendant) to stuff blankets inside the fitted sheet so that was some padding. Otherwise the p&p does not have a mattress.

The bed was closer to the window in 6692 which was nice to watch the ocean while laying down.

Both cabins were super quiet. There was no noise whatsoever from anywhere. It's like our neighbours did not exist , but we did see them on the balcony couple of times.

Actually I really enjoyed being on deck six ... closer to the promenade ,dining room and entertaining venues :) . No noise from high traffic areas and even though we were right above Botticelli dining room we never heard a peep.

Ship: OH yes. No doubt the Liberty if beautiful with so much to do. We thoroughly enjoyed the promenade and all the venues . We would get coffee every morning from the Cafe , pizza for DD from the Sorento. Every day there was something new to see on the ship and some new area to explore

Solarium

H2O area for potty trained kids.

Main Pool . I guess there was an aqua class going on

Mini Golf. DD enjoyed

Irish pub in the promenade

Food: Umm ... the food was good , but to be honest I've had better on a ship. The variety is great , but the quality for me was lacking. We did not try any specialty restaurants even though we were considering Chops, so I cannot comment on the specialty - I am assuming they are saving the real good food for those.

We mainly ate at the Windjammer and the MDR. I would have loved to eat at the MDR breakfast, lunch and dinner , but with a small child who refuses to sit still or eat anything the easiest way was the Windjammer. I would normally run upstairs and get some breakfast for her. She was a bit sick on the ship for the first two days- had fever and some cough but NO vomiting or diarrhea so she was refusing to eat. All she wanted to do is to sleep mostly so one of us was always in the cabin with her. On the third day she felt better and we ventured out of the room together exploring.

The menus at MDR were nice , but again as I said the quality was lacking for me. I used to work in the restaurant business and maybe i have high expectations? The only memorable dish for me was the beef tenderloin on the second night. Third and fourth night i missed the MDR all together and stayed with DD, my mom and DH went and said they enjoyed their food. The final night at MDR they served Lobster and Crab dishes. I decided to try the crab salad - quite underwhelming. My DH had prime rib , which was nothing like a prime rib you would get in a high class restaurant. The older couple next to us sent theirs back. The lobster tail was probably the way to go that night .

One thing i didn't know is that every day for lunch the MDR has an awesome salad bar for a healthy option. I eat salads at home every day so on my vacation i stuck to the unhealthy options , but this was something i thought was nice.

Pork - first night at MDR

Shrimp - first night at MDR

Drinks: Apparently each bar has different prices on the ship. I didn't know that. The most we paid was at the Olive or Twist (about $12 a drink) and the least we paid was at Boleros (about $6 a drink), but I did not like the drinks at Boleros with the exception of the pineapple mojito. I really enjoyed the drinks at the Solarium pool and at the outdoor bars mostly.

Ports: We had two port stops - Labadee Haiti and Falmouth Jamaica.

I am absolutely in love with Labadee. I liked how that area of Haiti is still kinda wild and untouched , but at the same time I did enjoy the infrastructure and amenities on the port. To me there is nothing better than enjoying a caribbean beach with high hill tops covered with greenery and not buildings (because some Eastern Caribbean ports have just too many houses covering the hills). There is also so much to do from parasailing to zip lining (we really wanted to do that but maybe next time) to excursions , just wandering around the island is nice enough.

In Lebadee we disembarked early and walked over to Barefoot beach (not barefoot club) which is on the north side of the island right under the zip lines. That was not a good beach for us. It is super rocky and if you do not have wet shoes you are in trouble. Good thing i read that somewhere so we all had wet shoes, but still it was not pleasant so I decided to go look for another beach ..... And I found it! The best beach hands down I've ever been to- Nellie's beach. I asked the attendant to set up so chairs and cabanas for us - and they were free !! I tipped him well because he put us close to the water we had all the view to ourselves :D. DD had a blast there she was so happy, my mom enjoyed it as well. DH and I got some fruity frozen drinks with lots of rum and ahhhh life was amazing. I totally unwinded on that beach ... I miss it now so much

The hills of Haiti

Water sports parading around the ship

Security talking to the locals

The ferry waiting to take people across the bay to the nice beaches and the water park. We should have taken it

DD and I on the Barefoot beach (below zip lines). You can't tell from the pic , but the bottom is all rocks .. aqua shoes came in handy

Nellie’s Beach <3

Front line beach chairs and cabana for us :D

Locals

Bye Bye Labadee

The next day we were in Falmouth Jamaica. I read quite a bit about this port because I had never heard about it and didn't know what's there to do and a lot of people were saying that it is not safe and how could RCCL build a port there. I can appreciate RCCL investing money in these countries and helping the local economy but I can see this being very profitable port for RCCL as well. Because all the buzz of the area not being safe people are mostly opting out for shore excursions and only through the cruise line. The port area is lovely with nice new shops it is all fenced in and there are police standing outside. DH and I booked a River Rafting Adventure at 11:30 so we had some time to kill in the morning. DH stayed with DD on the ship and my Mom and I went to check out the port. I did not want to go outside because of all I read, but my mom insisted we go and see the local architecture (lol) and what it's like. We went outside and I did not feel unsafe at all. People were super nice and friendly. They did offer to sell us stuff but no pressure at all. We chatted up with some locals and walked briefly around the streets closer to the port and took some pics. I guess if you go further deep into the town alone it might be scary, but there were plenty of people from the cruise walking around (Celebrity Silhouette was also in port).

At around 10:30 we went back to the ship and I picked up DH for our excursion. Promptly at 10:45 we were picked up by the driver and got on this small bus which I thought will leave us stranded somewhere while climbing the hills on first gear. Our driver Percy was funny he taught us jamaican .. irie! The drive was about 20 min and took us up to a river where we met our guides , geared up and walked to the boats. Our guide was Minroy , there was also a Leeroy and a Kenroy … I guess it’s a Jamaican thing. Minroy was very friendly , tried to tell us some about the area , but I was too excited about the rapids, because I had never done anything like this , to listen. After a short walk we got to the boats and everybody got in , we were probably about 4 boats altogether , but found the previous group down the river. There were plenty of tubers and people just body rafting down the river. There were five people in our boat where we were in the front two seats which I think is the best.

The river and the tropical jungle are beautiful. The water was very clear and almost blue something I’ve never seen in a river. The rapids … they were very mellow and not exciting at all. All we did is splash the other boats with water and Minroy would steer the boat in such way that we would bump into rocks and the edge of the river which made it a bit more exciting.

Further down the river there was a deeper spot in the water where the locals were singing off a rope and dropping in the river. We parked the boats and got up the tree to swing in the river. The locals were probably cracking up laughing because we were wearing helmets and vests dropping in the water. That was the most extreme part of the whole trip - i have the bruises to show lol. It was fun. Then we jumped back in the river and continued down to the end where we met all the rest of the boats. Then we got tied to a motor boat and towed to a very nice private beach where we had food and the strongest rum punch - i was tipsy after two small glasses. About 45 min later we headed back.

I would say this excursion was a success and very relaxing. It was not as extreme as I was hoping , but probably for the best. We still had a lot of fun and we got t see a little bit of Jamaica. I must say everybody we ran across was super nice, funny and accommodating.

Good morning Jamaica. Celebrity Silhouette is already in port

View from Historical Falmouth from our balcony

Me swinging off the rope lol on our River Rapids adventure

OMG Minroy we gonna hit a rock

And we did

Bidding goodbye to Jamaica … colors were amazing

Entertainment:

We saw the ice show , The Dreamworks parade in the promenade, Saturday Night Fever, the Love and Marriage show and accidentally we stumbled onto the Quest.

Let me tell you - The Love and Marriage show and the Quest were a lot of fun - I have not laughed so hard in many many years. I think I peed a little but I don't think anybody cared.

For these two shows and mainly the Quest RCCL is probably taking the cake in my book, but for the rest of the shows (the Broadway like productions) I have to give it to Disney. Celebrity entertainment sucked (sorry for the language) .. maybe they've gotten better dunno.

We probably would have never seen the Quest and Love and Marriage show had my mom not stayed with DD since both were relatively late (especially Quest).

Night life on the ship is a bit lame … sorry but we were looking forward to checking out late night at the Catacombs and it was booty music as I call it .. we are house people :). We did not go the white party but somebody told us it wasn’t that great

Service: I was very pleasantly surprised. All around the boards people are buzzing how Disney and Celebrity service is top notch and indeed the service on these two were impeccable so I did not expect the same level on RCCL, but The service was amazing. Not only is it prompt and accurate it is also friendly and personable. Yes the servers were stressed out around dinner time in the MDR , but if you have to feed 1000+ at a time it does get hectic. Some staff did seem a bit tired I think they were looking forward for the transatlantic for some peace and quiet :). We did reward above and beyond what was expected, but I do like to tip a lot because I used to be in the biz and I know how hard it is to try and please everybody.

Disembarkation:UGh … this was not pleasant. Maybe it was my own fault , because I didn't keep our suitcases or try to get a priority disembarkation somehow , but I just did not expect such mayhem. We were luggage tags number 30. Number 30 was not even on the screens in the morning the last number was 29 and disembark for 29 was after 11:45 am. We had breakfast , we walked around , we sat in the Sphinx lounge waiting and finally DD had a melt down. I think the attendant there felt sorry for us so he just told us to join the next group , wait for his assistant by the elevators and they will take us down. Indeed shortly after they called group 10 or something (and it was already 10am) so we joined them , then met the person by the elevator and we got one of those do not stop to collect go straight down to the 1st floor type of deal - nice! But then the line for the immigration - OMG . Even though it was moving relatively fast. It was very hard to keep DD calm and proceed, collect our luggage and exit. Took us about a hour. We’ve never experienced anything like this. Not with Disney not with Celebrity … maybe because they were much smaller ships and maybe this is how it is with the bigger ships , but I am afraid to think what happens when Allure or the Oasis disembarks yaikes!

Despite the little unpleasant things , we cannot wait to sail our next RCCL cruise. We are hooked. DH was not much of a cruise person , he did enjoy our previous cruises , but this one hooked him for life I think - he enjoyed everything.

Thank you for reading! if you have any questions please let me know I try to answer as best I can.

Thank you for posting your review and pics! Glad you were able to go on the cruise despite your trip to the ER. Now that the Liberty is coming to NJ, we may sail her and apprecaite your pics and insight.

Thanks for your review! We cruise Liberty this Monday.

Great review! We were on the Liberty in Nov and loved it. Thanks for the info on Labadee and Jamaica.

There don't seem to be a lot of Liberty reviews in this forum (compared to the other ships) - so thanks for posting! We are sailing this same itinerary on Monday - I can't wait! Labadee looks amazing. A question about the ferry there - which beaches did it go to? Do you think it would be quicker to take the ferry to Barefoot or Columbus Cove?

The disembarking has me nervous....our flight is at 11:45. To be safe, I guess we'll do the self-disembark and make sure we can carry off our own luggage!

Great review and pictures, thanks!! Your little girl is adorable!!!

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Thank you all for the comments

momofmab - i noticed that too! i was trying desperately to find reviews of LOS and there were very few and no pics!! Granted LOS looks a lot like the Indy ( and there are quite a few reviews of the indy) bit still there are differences

The ferry would def be quicker to get to Columbus Cove than walking or the tram

I would def self disembark , they still had set times even for people who did self disembark but it was very early. If your flight is at 11 you have plenty of time .. airport is two min away

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Great review and pics!!!!!

Just to clarify, isn't the beach under the zip line called adrenaline beach. BTW thoses aren't cabanas, those are the free cabanettes (clam shells), the real cabanas are on Nellie and the Barefoot beach for suite guests only.

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yes true they are not the real cabanas .. i thought adrenaline beach was towards the end, but yes probably we were closer to adrenaline beach

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Thx for the review and pictures!

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Great review and lovely pictures!

jayblue RCCL cruiser

Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. It's very helpful. I'm also on the Monday sailing in two days and need to make an 11:45 flight. I guess I'll have to advise our group we had better plan to self-carry our stuff off.

I didn't know about the ferry to Nellie's/Columbus Cove. I don't recall seeing it when I was in Labadee last December. Thanks to your post, however, I will certainly be looking for it on this trip.

Thank you again.

Thank you all for the comments

 

momofmab - i noticed that too! i was trying desperately to find reviews of LOS and there were very few and no pics!! Granted LOS looks a lot like the Indy ( and there are quite a few reviews of the indy) bit still there are differences

 

The ferry would def be quicker to get to Columbus Cove than walking or the tram

 

I would def self disembark , they still had set times even for people who did self disembark but it was very early. If your flight is at 11 you have plenty of time .. airport is two min away

 

 

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Thanks! :)