Liberty of the Seas - In depth review of our Mediterranean Cruise!!

[wantocruisemore]

Really enjoying your review. We'll be in western med next summer, but on the Mariner.

 

What did you like most about Barcelona? We'll be there on my DD's birthday for a port stop. She will be 20. We will be in port late, til 11 pm. Any suggestions on fun things to do? Also thought some kind of flamenco dance dinner might be fun to go to.

[co2stay]

Thank you Pam so much for doing this review. We are on the Liberty out of Barcelona next September and it seems like such a long time away. Loving the detail and the pics!

[stephanie1]

I love your pictures. I was on the Liberty last November and are again going. You were on the 3rd floor. How did you like it? That is where my cabin in.

Did you have a category G?

 

Looking forward to hearing about and seeing the rest of your trip,

[chasinraynbowz]

Really enjoying your review. We'll be in western med next summer, but on the Mariner.

 

What did you like most about Barcelona? We'll be there on my DD's birthday for a port stop. She will be 20. We will be in port late, til 11 pm. Any suggestions on fun things to do? Also thought some kind of flamenco dance dinner might be fun to go to.

 

 

Thanks!!! We really enjoyed Barcelona. It is a very clean city and everyone seemed very nice. If you want to do a flamenco dance and dinner, I would suggest you book early (if you are doing it on your own and not on a ships excursion). Some friends went to one and it was pretty late in the evening.

Edited October 26, 2011 by chasinraynbowz

[chasinraynbowz]

Thank you Pam so much for doing this review. We are on the Liberty out of Barcelona next September and it seems like such a long time away. Loving the detail and the pics!

 

I love your pictures. I was on the Liberty last November and are again going. You were on the 3rd floor. How did you like it? That is where my cabin in.

Did you have a category G?

 

Looking forward to hearing about and seeing the rest of your trip,

 

 

Glad you are enjoying it, thanks!!

 

Stephanie, we loved being on deck 3. We were close to the dining rooms, our meeting place for excursions, etc. It was a great spot. (We were in 3318, kind of mid to back of the ship).

[seadog67]

Awesome job so far and thank you for making all the effort that it takes to do such a detailed review!

[sidari]

Hi Pam .... Good to hear you enjoyed the cruise and visited some of the places we told you about, along with Venice.. Barcelona is one of our favourite cities having been about 4 times now. I see you got a picture of Christopher Columbus at the bottom of Las ramblas pointing out to sea, there is an elevator inside so that you can go up to the top.

 

Dave and Kerry.

[regnig]

Marvelous job Pam! :D

 

Barb

[chasinraynbowz]

Hi Pam .... Good to hear you enjoyed the cruise and visited some of the places we told you about, along with Venice.. Barcelona is one of our favourite cities having been about 4 times now. I see you got a picture of Christopher Columbus at the bottom of Las ramblas pointing out to sea, there is an elevator inside so that you can go up to the top.

 

Dave and Kerry.

 

 

Greg and I both loved Barcelona. I knew about the elevator in the Christopher Columbus monument, but we just ran out of time. We are already talking about doing a land based vacation in a year or so... so maybe we can do it then! :D

[chasinraynbowz]

Seadog and Barb... thanks so much!!!!

 

I worked on more pictures last night and this morning, so I should be able to post quite a bit more tonight!!

Edited October 26, 2011 by chasinraynbowz

[stephanie1]

Glad you are enjoying it, thanks!!

 

Stephanie, we loved being on deck 3. We were close to the dining rooms, our meeting place for excursions, etc. It was a great spot. (We were in 3318, kind of mid to back of the ship).

 

I just looked on the deck 3 map. You were midship in a very good location.

I am in 3638 on the portside down by the elevators. I liked the idea of the cabin location as I have no one on 1 side of my cabin. I see that your cabin, as mine, has 2 upper berths as well as the 2 lower. Was it a large cabin?

They told me that because it is can accomodate up to 4 that there is

additional closet space and 15% more room space. Did you notice that its larger?

[chasinraynbowz]

I just looked on the deck 3 map. You were midship in a very good location.

I am in 3638 on the portside down by the elevators. I liked the idea of the cabin location as I have no one on 1 side of my cabin. I see that your cabin, as mine, has 2 upper berths as well as the 2 lower. Was it a large cabin?

They told me that because it is can accomodate up to 4 that there is

additional closet space and 15% more room space. Did you notice that its larger?

 

 

Stephanie, I would not put 4 people in that cabin... lol. Since ours was an adjoining cabin, we had a chair, not a sofa. Had we had a sofa, there would have been no way to get around the bed I am afraid. The cabin was small, but it was quite fine for my hubby and me.

 

The closet, well since I wasn't in anyone elses cabins, I can just tell you that it held our clothes just fine and we could have probably put more in. The drawer space was fine also. The 2 upper berths come down from the ceiling, so they don't take up any room unless the are down... which is good.

 

This was our first RCCL cruise, so I really can't compare it with other RCCL ships.

[beancounterbeth]

Thank you so much for the pictures and cruise review. We will be on the W.Med cruise on Liberty next September.

 

Where would you suggest we book a hotel? I keep reading about this or that quarter or area but since I've never been to Barcelona it doesn't really clue me in. We are a couple in our mid 30's who will be in Barcelona for probably one night and would like to get a quick feel of the city. Not sure yet what sights we will want to see since looking at the Gaudi architecture doesn't really appeal to me and I doubt it will appeal to my DH either.

 

Looking forward to reading more of your cruise review. :)

[chasinraynbowz]

Thank you so much for the pictures and cruise review. We will be on the W.Med cruise on Liberty next September.

 

Where would you suggest we book a hotel? I keep reading about this or that quarter or area but since I've never been to Barcelona it doesn't really clue me in. We are a couple in our mid 30's who will be in Barcelona for probably one night and would like to get a quick feel of the city. Not sure yet what sights we will want to see since looking at the Gaudi architecture doesn't really appeal to me and I doubt it will appeal to my DH either.

 

Looking forward to reading more of your cruise review. :)

 

 

Beth, there are so many places you can stay. Just depends on what you want to pay. You can see about the W at the port (pretty expensive) or stay near Las Ramblas. We stayed away from city center and took the HOHO bus. We only got off the bus in 4 spots and rode around the rest of the time. I might suggest going to tripadvisor.com and reading reviews on various hotels. That's how we decided on ours.

 

I would suggest staying a full day before boarding your ship, if possible. I didn't think I would like Barcelona as much as I did. :D It was a very nice surprise!!

 

I will be posting more of my review as soon as I get in from grocery shopping this evening!!

[cinnamon]

Been enjoying this, whetting my appetite as we sail on the TA on Saturday. Flying in on the day as we have visited Barca quite a lot in the past. Thanks

[Jen_Jon_2007]

Thank you so much for the pictures and cruise review. We will be on the W.Med cruise on Liberty next September.

 

Where would you suggest we book a hotel? I keep reading about this or that quarter or area but since I've never been to Barcelona it doesn't really clue me in. We are a couple in our mid 30's who will be in Barcelona for probably one night and would like to get a quick feel of the city. Not sure yet what sights we will want to see since looking at the Gaudi architecture doesn't really appeal to me and I doubt it will appeal to my DH either.

 

Looking forward to reading more of your cruise review. :)

 

We love Barcelona too an hoping to do liberty western med next sept. we visited Barcelona last sept and would love to recomend hotel emilia to anyone thinking of a visit http://www.hotelvillaemilia.com it's in a lovely location yet handy for the metro and tour bus.

[rdsqrl]

Pam, I'm really enjoying your review, and the photos, so far. Can't wait to see more!

[chasinraynbowz]

10/16/11 – Toulon, France

 

Wake up call at 6am. Room service at 630am. They call before they come, which is great! Another thing which is great is we were able to get a warm breakfast (eggs, sausage and hashbrowns) rather than a cold, continental breakfast like other ships.

 

Met my mom and aunt in Studio B at 730ish for our tour to Marseille. After a 40 minute, uncomfortable bus ride (the lady in front of me had her seat laid back as far as it would go so she could sleep) we arrived at the Palais Longchamp. This water tower was built on Longchamp Plateau to commerate the building of the Durance Canal in Marseilles. The monument is joined together by a colonnade with the two wings of the Palace housing the Natural History and Fine Arts Museums. There used to be a zoo there too, now it’s just a park.

 

After the tour, Mom hurried and got on the bus and sat the seat upright in front of me. We didn’t have another problem… lol. NOTE: Make sure you are not inconveniencing your bus mates by laying down in their laps.

 

 

 

The port of Toulon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2011 by chasinraynbowz

[chasinraynbowz]

Palais Longchamp

 

 

 

 

 

[chasinraynbowz]

After everyone was on board, we headed to the Old Port of Marseille for some shopping. They had some great booths set up where we bought some soap, lavender sachets and most importantly cookies!! YUM!!

 

Once everyone got back on the bus and had to wait for the stragglers (please people, remember.. if you are told to be back at a certain time, please come at that time… sheesh!) we drove up to Notre Dame de la Garde. RCCL says this excursion is “moderate”. I say this excursion is STRENUOUS… lol. To get up to the basilica, you must walk uphill and then upstairs. Then you can either keep going upstairs or go to the front of the building and get in an old elevator. We chose the elevator. Whew!

 

It was SO worth going up! The views from the top were remarkable. The cathedral inside was beautiful. The church itself sits at the highest point in Marseille, so once up at the top, Greg and I walked around the entire building and took pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A World War 1 Memorial

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2011 by chasinraynbowz

[chasinraynbowz]

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back down to the bus and back to the ship. This was a short, 5 hour tour. We met up with my mother and aunt at the WJ for lunch and then headed back to our cabin to rest. I guess we were still suffering from jet lag…. We slept for 3 hours.. haha!!

 

Tonight was the first of 2 elegant nights. We dressed and headed to dinner. I don’t remember what we ate but it was ok. Greg and I headed to the casino for a little while and then went to see “In the Air”. It was ok.

 

Here is my first real complaint – reserved seats. These people sit there waving signs saying “RESERVED” with a smile on their face. So, DH and I realized if we wanted to see any other shows, we would need to get there extra early so we could sit together. Seriously. Well, we lucked out. We headed upstairs in time for them to open up the reserved seating for diamond members and we got great seats! So, to the woman who was waving her reserved sign at me…. Neener neener neener!! I got better seats than you!! LOL

 

After the show, we got a snack at Café Promenade and then headed to bed.

Edited October 27, 2011 by chasinraynbowz

[chasinraynbowz]

10/17/11 – Villefranche (Monaco)

 

We decided on a ½ day tour to the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo. This was an afternoon tour, so we were able to sleep in a bit. We met my mom and aunt in the WJ for breakfast at around 8am and then headed out on a tender around 10am (no line at all!) to visit the port city and shop!! What a wonderful little city Villefranche is! The booths at the port were great and there were shops up the hill a bit. We bought lots of stuff and spent lots of money…. LOL!!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2011 by chasinraynbowz

[chasinraynbowz]

 

 

Edited October 27, 2011 by chasinraynbowz

[chasinraynbowz]

Our tour was at 1, so Aunt Linda and I took all of our purchases back to the ship while Greg and mom stayed on shore. After we got back to the shore, we got in line to get on the bus for our tour.

 

First stop, the Palace. We parked in a garage, took an escalator up, then an elevator and then another escalator before walking about ½ mile to the palace. It was a great walk and our guide showed us Princess Caroline’s home and pointed out where Princess Stephanie used to live. When we reached the palace we had about 30 minutes to take pictures and shop. After our free time, we headed back to the bus for our trip to the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2011 by chasinraynbowz

[chasinraynbowz]