Liberty of the Seas review

[charliegirlac]

DH and I (both 29) recently returned from our cruise aboard Liberty of the Seas Sept 19th sailing. We have cruised twice before (Serenade to Alaska, Voyager in the Mediterranean) and this was our first time to the Caribbean and on a Freedom class ship. We had a great time chatting to people on here before the cruise started and would check CC every day for snippets of information. I LOVE picture reviews and thought I would give one a go. I'm not the most etch savy person out there but I will give it a go!

We made our way to Miami from Melbourne Australia, stopping in LA for 2 days, 3 nights before arriving at the Hilton Downtown Miami. The hotel was very nice and we got an excellent price including breakfast on Hotwire. The hotel had a good happy hour from 5pm and we found the food from the bar section very reasonably priced. They also had free wifi in the bar/lobby area. The pool area looked very nice as well. The room was lovely and had floor to ceiling windows over looking the cruise terminal.

Forgive the mess in the room!

Pool at the Hilton

 

[charliegirlac]

I woke early (3am – thanks jetlag and terrible pillows!) and watched Liberty make her way in to the port. Watching the sun come up and the magnificent view made it all the more real!!

Awesome view to the left -

The awesome view to the right

After a nice breakfast (that the hotel couldnt believe we had included in the cheap rate we paid (thanks hotwire!!) we took a cab to the port a little earlier than we had expected - left the hotel around 10:00 - we just couldnt wait any longer! We just wanted to be close to her!

We arrived within 10 minutes and we were greeter by the porters. We found him to be a little pushy and we felt obliged to tip him (tipping is confusing for us - we have NO tipping in Australia and we try our best when in the USA but it is very confusing!)

We walked through the terminal and got in line for security which was not open yet. They handed out forms to fill in asking if you had been ill or had swine flu recently and they eventually opened up security (only after my back pack strap got caught in the scanner and they almost had to cut the strap to get it free :eek:)

We got through to the check in desks and the lady almost gave us a heart attack as she went and called immigration as we didnt print out a copy of our ESTA. We explained that is says on the web page 'Do not print this information!' but she was concerned as we didnt have the green immigration slip – they dont staple them in any more. After consulting with immigration she said it was ok and we could still sail! Phew! We waited in the terminal while they cleared the ship and around 11:30 they started boarding. Yippeeeee!!!:D

[charliegirlac]

We looked around the ship and went to the windjammer for lunch. It was a bit of a mad house but the food was good. I had the 'famous' honey stung chicken. Probably wouldnt have it again. By then the cabins were open and so we dropped off our carry on and met our cabin attendant who was lovely. We had cabin

2367, an inside on deck 2. I LOVE inside cabins. I have trouble sleeping if there is light and so for me these cabins are just wonderful!! We have luggage restrictions coming from Australia so we never have any trouble with lack of storage. We are also not people to spend a whole lot of time in the room either so the compact size doesnt really bother us. Believe it or not our hotel in Barcelona a couple of years ago was MUCH smaller!

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We flicked on the TV and noticed the flow rider was on and so went to have a look. There was such a small line DH decided to have a go. We waited for his turn and then he wiped out in a couple of seconds. In his next go he did really well and I got some great photos. I recommend you have a go on this first day as DH and a few others pretty much had the flow rider to themselves. As the week went on the lines grew longer and longer.

DH on the flow rider for the first time (notice the lack of crowds!)

As the crowd grows the pros took over:

[charliegirlac]

More to come...

[charliegirlac]

We watched the flow rider while DH dried off and then went for muster drill at 4 – so much nicer without the life jacekts. We grabbed a slice of pizza from Sorrentos and checked back at our cabin and our bags were there. We unpacked and then felt the shop move so went up to the pool deck and enjoyed sailaway.

Me leaving Miami (a little windy!)

We went for a walk, visited the shops once they opened at 5:30 and then went for dinner in the windjammer at 6:30. We are not fancy eaters and I have Crohns Disease so am a picky eater and the windjammer is a great fit for us. We can visually see what we are going to eat before we choose it and can take portions that suit us. We only got to the dining room once on this cruise (which was once more than the last cruise!)

 

We went to the welcome aboard show at 7:45 and it was great – our cruise director Kirk Detweiler was very funny and a good singer. He introduced Zack the activities director from South Africa and then we had a singer, an acrobat and the comedian. He was very funny with some great Carnival jokes. We went to the casino and invested in RC a little and grabbed a cookie on the promenade and then returned to the room for a bit before going down to the Socia-licious parade. It was bright, colourful and entertaining.

 

A great start to our cruise!

[charliegirlac]

Not sure why the font size keeps changing to such a small font - I'll try and make it bigger!

Day 2 - At sea

We had the best nights sleep of the holiday and ended up setting a wake up call for 9am. After a yummy windjammer breakfast we went straight to the meet and mingle in the olive or twist lounge. It had a great view. I met all the members of CC and they did a raffle and we all got a lanyard with note pad attached.

One of our CC members had organised a slot pull and we went down the casino. We handed in our $6 and found our machine. We all got 2 pulls. We were not doing too well until one member pulled and he won us $500 odd dollars. After playing until every one had their turn we all got $12 back and then we had $30 remaining so we put it in the machine but we lost it. It was a lot of fun!

After a quick but delicious lunch we lined up for the Encore Ice Skating show. It was awesome with the skaters doing some crazy things. I loved the 2 performers from The Great Moscow Circus who did skating and juggling. As the cruise we one we saw them all the time - they ate in the Windjammer every night at the same time we did and they got off at Labadee with us!

 

After the ice show we went for a drink, went to the casino, watched the flow rider and then we went to sit in the promenade and watch all the people ready for formal night.

We had decided not to do formal night and had chosen My Time Dining for the first time. We went for tea in the windjammer and then went to the captains welcome speech at the flying bridge.

We went to the production show “Gallery of Dreams' It was meant to be about a man who falls in love with a painting and follows the lady in to it. It made sense at the start and the end but the middle, while interesting and entertaining, was off topic and confused the meaning. The theatre is beautiful and we always sat up the top and had a great view and never any trouble getting a seat.

After the show we went to have a look at the battle of the sexes in the Sphinx lounge. It was hilarious! They had some great games – and the cruise directors staff was fantastic at keeping every thing moving. Straight after that they had adult karaoke. There were some brilliant performers who kept us entertained for well over an hour.

I'm not sure when we went to bed but it was late! ;)

[charliegirlac]

We woke up at 10:30 and headed to breakfast in the windjammer. We finished breakfast and we wondered around the ship for a while DH did the rock wall and made it to the top! Unfortunetaly I didnt get a photo of it as it was so humid our camera was fogged up!

We struggled with our camera fogging up for most of the trip - once it got used to the humidity it was ok but you would have to plan your photos around when you last left air conditioning!

Some photos of our wondering around:

Solarium pool

[charliegirlac]

We had lunch and then went to the Schooner bar for the cabin crawl. One of our CC members had organised the cabin crawl which started in our room. We visited an inside promenade, a hump, an aft, a junior suite and a grand suite. It was brilliant to see all the different cabins and even though the cabins were nice I learnt that I wouldnt trade my inside cabin for any thing other than a balcony or more. I love the quiet and darkness of the inside cabins! We have plenty of room with plenty of left over storage space. We spent the rest of the day with CC members having a great time. Because there is no photos of us having a great time (mostly spent at Boleros! :D) here is an earlier photo of DH pretending to know how to play basketball!

And one of the whirlpools (LOVED these!!)

We got dressed and went to the welcome back party – the captain is not the most personable - more of a facts and figures kind of guy. We got some rum punch and then a photo with the captain.

After that we went to the dining room for the first time on the cruise and asked for a table for 2. There was a lot of discussion about My Time Dining and about turning up or making appointments. Just before we left our CC friends for the captains welcome back party one of our members asked the concerige in the Diamond lounge if they could get in for my time dining – they said the next slot was 8:30. We walked up around 7:30 and got a table for 2 right away.

We had chicken and cabbage dumplings for appitizer and I had lasagne for mains and DH had steak. We decided to skip dessert. It was nice but way too rich for me and we pretty much decided then that we liked the windjammer better. That way we can look at what food before choosing it and decide if it is some thing we would like to eat, take a small portion and not waste food. The selection they had was fantastic and the service in the Windjammer was the best we have had so far on a cruise.

We went to the '70's dance party(and left the camera in the room :rolleyes:) and went to the theatre for the late night comedian. He was funny and a little dirty. He finished up around 12:30am. We missed the 'in the air' production tonight. Too many things clashed with it which was disappointing as I heard great things about it! Oh well will just have to cruise again to try and catch it!

Day 4 still to come...

[charliegirlac]

When the alarm went off this morning at 8am it was a shock! We got ready and had some breakfast. We went down to deck 1 and got off at St Martin. It was warm outside – around 31c. We met up with a group of about 15 from CC and found Bernbard's tours. We boarded our private Bernard's Tour with our guide Junior. We had designed our tour so we spent most of our time at Maho as we wanted to see as many planes as we could. We first went to a look out and took some pictures. We we got back on the board we were given a shot of rum punch (more rum than punch!) and then beer, softdrink or water. So at 10:30am we had drunk beer and shots! We went to Maho/Sunset beach. We watched the planes land and take off. It was amazing!

The water at the beach was lovely and warm but with Hurricaine Igor passing through the water was very choppy and there was a large under tow.

There were some silly people standing in the jet blasts getting sand blasted – it was funny watching them land in the water fully clothed!!

We had a hamburger at the bar. The burgers were $9 each and very nice. There was a small gift shop and bathrooms at the bar. After Maho we re-boarded the bus and went to the French side of the island and stopped at Marigoit. It was like a flea market – we didnt buy any thing but some people on our tour got some nice sarongs.

We got back on the bus and toured around to Orient beach. We saw the naked side and the clothed side. We paid 'John' there and then Junior took us around the rest of the island and back to the dutch side. Junior was a great guide - he provided us with cool drinks throughout the day and lots of good information.

[charliegirlac]

Junior dropped DH and I off at front street and we looked around the shops while most of the others got taken back to the ship. We got some magnets but nothing else took my eye so I started the walk back to the ship while DH continued to shop. We chose to walk rather than take the $3pp taxi or water taxi. The walk was nice and I got to see the nice beach right near the ship. It was lovely and calm and the water looked really inviting. When you get back to the cruise port you have to pass through a little secuirty booth before entering the port itself (where all the shops are) I arrived at the booth before my husband (who had stayed to look at some of the shops in the main street). Luckily I realised I had both sea pass cards and waited for DH to arrive! We loved St.Martin and would love to come back again some time!

We returned to the ship and the benefit of a deck 2 cabin was revealed! While there were heaps of people waiting for the evelators we walked past them all, up 1 flight of stairs and we were at our room! We showered and went to deck 4 to watch sail away and then to the windjammer to have dinner.

We chatted with some CC members who were quite sunburnt after today! We then went to the sphinx and watched '10 questions to fame and glory' with cruise director Kirk which was like millionaire. We then chatted with the loyalty ambassorter and booked in to see him on Labadee day.

We went to the name that movie tune trivia in the schooner bar and walked to the sports deck and looked at night rock climbing. We went to RC online where you can access the RC site for free and checked the website for prices on future cruises. We went to the theatre to watch the love and marriage show – very funny but the older couple probably needed to be screened a bit better because it took 15 minutes to get an answer from the older gentleman and while at first funny it was wearing a little thin! Anther great day on board!

[charliegirlac]

San Juan

We arrived this morning in San Juan Puerto Rico. We were both pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. We had no real plans - we were going to look at the forts and then return to the ship. We got off the ship around 8:30am and walked off on to the pier. We were approached by a man and asked to go on a tour of the city. He was from San Juan Happy Tours. We were a little worried but there was heaps of tour guys from the company and they were all accredited and it was only $10pp so we decided to give it a go. How bad could it be for $10?

We went with a guide named Martin and he was from NY. He was nice and very informative. We toured around the new city and stopped for a photo tour at a look out/beach – it was very rough and choppy thanks to the Hurricaine. We could also shop and use the bathroom at a souvenir shop. We drove through the new city and in to the old city and saw the forts and the walls surrounding the city. We also went to the Parliament building and saw the gorgeous murals on the ceilings. We finished the tour near the fort San Christol and we were very happy with the tour.

We walked up a steep hill to the fort entrance and paid our $3 each to get in. We walked around the forts and it was really interesting to see how they collected water and how the fort was made – it took over 200 years to complete the fort.

It was a warm, humid day but there were a few showers around as well.

There were some very uneven paths and some very steep hills.

We walked around and took some photos and we finished the fort tour by watching a brief movie that explained the history. We walked around some of the shops in old San Juan and then headed back to the ship.

We decided to go to Johnny Rockets for lunch and had some onion rings, strawberry shakes, hamburgers, chicken club sandwich, apple pie and oreo sundae for lunch. We were so full!! It is nice for a $4.95 cover charge but not some thing I would do often. We returned to the room and ended up sleeping for around 2.5 hours – we have been watching the re-building/dry dock of the Sovereign of the Seas on the TV and we wanted to watch the episode we had missed but we fell asleep.

We got up and went to the name that classic TV tune trivia challenge – we didnt do too bad considering we have never even heard of some of those TV shows! We then went to the shops and got some magnets, t-shirts, a post card and a couple of stubby holders before the rush towards the end of the cruise. We then headed to dinner at the Windjammer and then to the schooner bar for the Michael Jackson Name that Tune Trivia. DH did all of our answers and he did really well – only missed 3 I think.

We headed to the headliner show for tonight which was Mario and Daniel – Two Funny Guys. They were quite funny and had those strings and balls that you spin and bang. They were funny and we had a good time. We went to the Sphinx lounge and watched the Finish that Lyric game show and then stayed for Karaoke.

When we returned to our room that night had a message on our phone saying that our snorkel tour in Labadee had been cancelled tomorrow due to poor weather and visibility from Hurricane Igor. We were disappointed but would rather they cancel than go and be disappointed with the tour. After midnight we went to the pool party in the solarium and it looked fantastic with great lighting and the dj on the pool deck. Another late night but great day!!

The rest will have to wait until tomorrow - sleep calls!!! Hope you are enjoying it!!

[weary traveler]

very well done. i look forward to the rest.

 

I have friends who live in Melbourne and have tried to entice me with the "circular" sailing around Australia by RCCL but i have heard they dont open the casinos at all on those trips..:mad: my wife as well suffers from Chrohn's (sp) but has handled almost all of the dining offered aboard with little or no problem.

[LilMermaid]

What a wonderful review! And your pictures are great too. I can tell you had a terrific cruise.

[gabbygrrl]

Excellent review!! Love the pics....can't wait for the rest :)

[Sundiego]

Awesome review! Can't wait for the rest. Thanks!

[Norwegianlatvian]

Thank you for this review. Good to read something brand fresh, since I am going on Liberty on this sunday!

[Spoiledliz]

Great review! Thank you for taking the time to write and post pictures!

 

I can't wait to get on the Liberty in January!!

[lynninsc]

Great review!

[jmhn72]

Great review Carly and Andrew. Pictures are very nice also. We enjoyed meeting you and the others from from our CC Board. Liberty was our first RCCL cruise, and we both thoroughly loved it. Had a fun time and will be back. Hope to see you again in the future. Best to you both.

Jim and Helen

[GarrenS]

We had lunch and then went to the Schooner bar for the cabin crawl. One of our CC members had organised the cabin crawl which started in our room. We visited an inside promenade, a hump, an aft, a junior suite and a grand suite. It was brilliant to see all the different cabins and even though the cabins were nice I learnt that I wouldnt trade my inside cabin for any thing other than a balcony or more. I love the quiet and darkness of the inside cabins! We have plenty of room with plenty of left over storage space. We spent the rest of the day with CC members having a great time. Because there is no photos of us having a great time (mostly spent at Boleros! :D) here is an earlier photo of DH pretending to know how to play basketball!

 

HI Carly!!!

Yes, the time in Boleros was super fun - had any caiparoskas recently???? :D I love reading reviews of cruises I was on, especially when I know the reviewer. Looks like you had a good time at Maho as well!

 

Garren

[Puffinater]

Great review with great pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[sjcruiser]

Great review and pics. Can't wait to get onboard on 67 days.

[tahoemc]

Fab review and pics - thanks for sharing with us. We sail on Liberty next October, so looking forward to the rest of your comments.

[storm1of4]

Thank you so very much for the review. We will be on LOS in December.

[cruising to paradise]

GReat review. Loved looking at the pictures too. We will be on her in 67 days,can't wait! Looking forward to the rest of your review.