Here is what I think of the Liberty of the Seas

[nrdsb4]

Nah no flaming here. We are being objective here. I see so many fights on these forums and the reason they happen is because the person doing the review includes too many personal negative comments and doesn't really offer any positives.

 

If Royal's food is like this across the board here then you would be correct in your assessment. I have sailed several lines and won't mention any one specifically as this is a review for the Liberty of the Seas, but I have had much better meals on other cruiselines. Thanks for your suggestion. You are a class act.

 

 

Not to be picky, but no cruise reviews are objective. As there are a lot of opinions (likes and dislikes, personal preferences with regard to food, decor, entertainment, perceptions of crew attitudes, etc.) these reviews are extremely subjective.

 

That said, I enjoyed your review. You were careful to include the good with the bad, you obviously tried very hard to be fair, and you gave a lot of good details to explain the reasoning for your ratings. Thanks for posting! I always appreciate hearing honest opinions, even if they are critical. Especially when they are stated calmly and in an organized fashion.:)

[kelbabykel]

We were on the Liberty 8/1/09. We spent ALOT of time in the casino, the staff was so much fun. (We're not serious gamblers though) I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience :( I haven't cruised since 2004, so the food didn't bother me. It did bother my Father in Law though, so we ended up in Chops & Portafino two nights ( AMAZING !)

We had a great time on the Liberty.

 

I really enjoyed you review. If I hadn't been on the cruise yet, it wouldn't scare me away!

Well done!

[Yo Eleven]

Not to be picky, but no cruise reviews are objective. As there are a lot of opinions (likes and dislikes, personal preferences with regard to food, decor, entertainment, perceptions of crew attitudes, etc.) these reviews are extremely subjective.

 

That said, I enjoyed your review. You were careful to include the good with the bad, you obviously tried very hard to be fair, and you gave a lot of good details to explain the reasoning for your ratings. Thanks for posting! I always appreciate hearing honest opinions, even if they are critical. Especially when they are stated calmly and in an organized fashion.:)

You are correct Mr. Picky! or is it Ms.? :D:p

[nrdsb4]

You are correct Mr. Picky! :D:p

 

That' Mrs. Picky!!!:D:D

[Yo Eleven]

Just a comment about the shows.... we have heard and discussed the show "In The Air Flying Show" with many people... so many people do not understand/like this show... we cruise Saturday and can't wait to see this show.... for the 4th time, we love it! Especially the music! Guess that is one good thing... there are a variety of venues and shows. We were so afraid it would be gone before we got to see/listen "one more time" :D Don't know if the OP liked or disliked... just a comment :) Oh... yes, we love the "Cirque" shows also :cool:

The shows were very good to excellent. No problems with the shows on this ship. Attend as many as possible, especially the 12:15 am adults only show. LOL!

[Yo Eleven]

That' Mrs. Picky!!!:D:D

Haha I did an edit right before you posted it thinking the exact same thing. LOL! Check out the time stamp on the edit and your posting. HAHA!

[amybeth4]

One comment about the size of the ship mattering/not mattering and everything being the luck of the draw.

 

(BTW I'm loving this thread and glad it's still going strong.)

 

I've learned that it's completely the CD and what he plans (if, in fact, he/she does all the planning of activities), along with his staff (my dream job).

 

My first cruise was in '92 on the Regent Spirit. The ship held about 450 pax and there were only 250 onboard (you can see why Regency's out of business). We had an AMAZING time because I was with three friends and we're very outgoing and we "ruled the school." All the pax and crew knew us. We even made a video of the cruise and opened the video with a montage of the week set to the theme from The Love Boat, and we got all the pertinent staff to hold a sign up and wave to the camera...a bartender, the doctor, the CD and even the CAPTAIN.

 

SS Norway. Huge, old ship, great CD, great cruise.

 

The Grandeur - this was the best cruise I've taken (eight in total). There were SOOOO many activities going on that we were running from event to event and had to miss things because the days were jam-packed.

 

Sea Princess - Prettiest ship I've ever sailed and fun, but not nearly as fun as the Grandeur.

 

The rest were just average, mainly because there weren't enough activities.

 

So I'm hoping, with FOUR days at sea on the 11/1 Liberty that they have a LOT of crap for us to do esp. since I'm taking someone who's never cruised and never WANTED to cruise. If this is a bust, she's gonna kill me!

[cruzincurt]

Our experience is just the opposite. I can't remember the single name of a CD. I do remember with disdain that some worked the PA system constantly. So it's good there is something that appeals to everyone.

 

The cruise is time for me and my sweetie to spend time together and we just enjoy being on the ship, sharing meals at a table for two, nice and quiet on our balcony reading a book, playing cards or dominoes in quiet places around the ship, some putt-putt golf on port days or in the casino for the evening.

 

For us, the bigger the ship, the more places to find a quiet spot.

[amybeth4]

Curt, I can't remember a single name either. It wasn't until I started coming to CC that I realized that people actually remember their CD's names. The only one I remember was from Feb on the Majesty. He was Brett...Something. :)

[cruzincurt]

From reading CC, it appears some people book their cruise based on who the CD or concierge will be. The only standout is Captain Johnny from the Mariner.

 

We do stop in the back of the shows to sample the doin's and some CD's should find another job. Sounds like if you went on a HAL ship, you'd die of boredom; we don't sail them anymore because we like to at least see some people milling around after 10:00 pm.:)

 

Having been on each of the RCCL classes of ships including the Liberty, and some Princess, your upcoming Liberty of the Seas will be a whole new experience for you based on your list of past cruises. We were on the last cruise of the Norway when she blew up.

[Yo Eleven]

We were on the last cruise of the Norway when she blew up.

What do you mean blew up? :confused:

[beachlovergirl]

What do you mean blew up? :confused:

 

On May 25, 2003, there was a boiler room explosion while docked in Miami and 9 crew members were killed and many more injured. No cruiseship passengers were hurt. The ship never resumed cruising.

[HB Cruiser]

On May 25, 2003, there was a boiler room explosion while docked in Miami and 9 crew members were killed and many more injured. No cruiseship passengers were hurt. The ship never resumed cruising.

 

We sailed out of Miami the first week of June '03 and the Norway was still docked there just after the explosion. I had a very uneasy when passing the ship knowing crew were killed on her.

 

I remember reading a lot about that explosion here on CC. You could probably search this and read several posts..

 

Once we got back from our cruise the Norway was gone.

 

Tim

[cruzincurt]

We were in a top deck penthouse suite on the rear of the ship. At about 6:30 that morning, after having just docked back in Miami, there was a loud bang and the ship shuddered. I looked out the balcony and saw a police boat and police cars racing down the dock to the ship. I told my DW to get up and get dressed. Then we were called to muster stations.

 

We were at muster for about two hours with no power or AC. I counted 15 fire trucks arriving from Miami. After those two hours, they told us to go down and get off the ship as soon as possible and we were herded into a large warehouse. After a couple of hours standing around they just told everyone to leave. Our luggage was shipped to us two weeks later. She was a lovely ship and never carried passengers again. Finally she was towed to India and broken apart for scrap. She was one of the last steam powered cruise ships.

[miamiyogi]

Hi Yo and others.

 

Thanks for your frank review, I have enjoyed reading this thread.

 

Just a comment, Yo. As a rule I never play craps on ships. I don't know why-- I never seem to get ahead at all on ships with the dice. If you are a regular player, and based on your comments here I can safely bet (pun intended) that you are; I can fully understand that you already have to deal with the house edge, why give them an extra percentage up front by paying cashing fees?

 

I think you could have explored the wire transfer option. Do they accept an ACH? ACH at most banks are free. The wire transfer at my bank is $25. Although I would be hesitant about allowing a casino to hold my cash in their account. But in larger amounts 5,000 to 10,000 I find the fee acceptable.

 

Lastly Yo, I have been in Vegas Casinos where the crap dealers were new, and would not correctly pay out odds in the field and often forgot to move the Come bet correctly, then not pay it off when it hit on the field. This happened at Excalibur (ugh), Hard Rock, and NY. On all occasions I called the pit boss who QUICKLY straightened it out. And on the last occasion that boss asked for the 'eye in the sky' to review. They made sure to apologize and comp different things for my troubles.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is that at times you may have to play with inexperienced dealers (they gotta learn somehow). But I would ALWAYS expect to be treated with the utmost courtesy by the management which obviously didn't happen in your case.

 

Credit in a casino differs a bit from regular credit (FICO scores and all that) casinos focus on liquidity of an a account (how much you average in you money market lets say). So I can understand why Royal would want you to have that established at a land casino before applying with them since Royal isn't completely in the gambling business.

[dbowe5]

Hi all

We sailed the LOS in July 08 and the CD was James Andrews - I thought he was great in that he wasn't in your face 24/7 and let his staff get on and do what they are good at. On the IOS this March B2B Carribean, we had Graham Seymour who was hilarious but it seemed to be all about him - so his staff were definately in the background.

We also had a great CD on Costa Magica - his name was Max but the only one who was poor was a Canadian guy called Steve on Carnival Destiny - I don't know how he managed it but anything he said/did was irritating!!

We had a fantastic time on the Liberty, Mark B was in the pub and he was amazing - is he still on the ship now? I'm hoping he's on the Oasis when we sail in January.

Good review BTW - as I'm not a big gambler the casino didn't bother me too much and I thought Portofino was excellent - can't understand why they don't have this on the Oasis??

[maggieworkman]

Did you post your cruise compasses anywhere? I believe you were on the Eastern Itinerary, correct?

 

Maggie

[camofwilliamsburg]

To each his own as they say./ We will not eat in JR since the food is so bad. Burgers are dripping with grease and are tasteless. The blt is paper thin as is the tuna sandwich. The chicken fillet is ok but again, mostly bread. The entertainment when we did LOS was horrible. The production shows were a big snooze. The only great thing was the ice show. The comedian was embarrassing to have to sit through. All he did was throw out curse words thinking that spiced it up. No one was laughing and we all wanted to leave but we were in the middle of the theater...did not want to disturb the others although they probably would have welcomed the disturbance since I think they were sleeping.

The 80's party all get very old. Same thing on all the Voyager/freedom class ships. After sailing on RCI a few times they all are the same. Same jokes that the CD does. The list of 10 stupidest things asked by passengers have been told for the last 10 years. The decor on Freedom ships are not the nicest at all. I think as they get larger they get uglier.

[bcorrigan]

What do you mean blew up? :confused:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6194Dce804

 

this is what they mean

[cruzincurt]

Thanks for the video link. We were on the rear top deck balcony. I never saw this video of what actually happened, just saw and felt the soot raining down on our balcony.:(