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Extensive Review - Liberty of the Seas (2/14 to 2/21)

decker12

By decker12,
in Royal Caribbean International

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ARCruisinNana

ARCruisinNana

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The two times we went up to the Diamond Plus lounge on the 14th floor it was in disarray. It was strange to walk into the exclusive area just to find dishes and empty cans and bottles everywhere, and no attendant on duty. It was weird that the most exclusive part of the ship was the least clean.

 

Are you talking about the Diamond Club or the Suites Lounge? Both are on Deck 14.

 

 

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decker12

decker12

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Are you talking about the Diamond Club or the Suites Lounge? Both are on Deck 14.

 

 

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The Diamond Club. Granted, one of those times was a port day, and we weren't up there during the 3:30 Happy Hour, it was earlier in the day. But we were there for a couple hours playing cards and not once did a staff member appear to clean up or restock the coffee machine (which was out of beans). The entire back wall where the buffet area sits was filled with dirty plates, coffee mugs, and soda cans that looked like they were there since the morning.

 

It wasn't a huge deal because we could play cards anywhere on the nearly empty ship, it was just unusual to see the Diamond Club in such rough shape.

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decker12

decker12

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Thanks for your detailed review!

It is very helpful for planning purposes and what not to miss . We are all vegetarians , i hope they have good options.

Do you have any cruise compasses/Teen activities planner?

 

I saved all my Compasses but haven't scanned them in yet. I'll update this post with a photo album link when I get around to it in the next couple of days.

 

As far as vegetarian choices, the main dining room has a set menu (available every night) and then a rotating menu (usually themed, like Seafood or Italian). There is always a vegetarian option in the set menu and the rotating menu. However the non-vegetarian options are more extensive, so a meat eater will have 5+ things to choose from each night where a vegetarian would only have around 3. The buffet has many options and the specialty restaurants also have at least a few vegetarian choices.

 

Heard about how uncomfortable the mattresses are, is this because the brands have now been changed? I sailed the Freedom last year, and liked the mattress. Just trying to decide if i should request the mattress toppers?

 

I do think the mattresses are different and less comfortable than my last RC cruise in 2014. The 2014 cruise I slept incredibly well, but this 2016 cruise I did not. My wife (a side sleeper) complained that her hip hurt after a couple of days so we got the mattress topper which improved things but still wasn't exactly luxurious. Unlike the 2014 cruise, not once did we sleep in the entire time (we were always up and awake by 7:30AM), partly because we were going to bed before midnight, and partly because the bed just wasn't comfortable enough for us to want to lounge in it all morning. I slept like the dead in my own bed a few nights after getting back from the cruise.

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WendysMom

WendysMom

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Thanks so much for your detailed report. Last Spring, we sailed on the Magic out of Galveston and experienced the same issues with debarkation. We were called to leave the ship at 9 a.m. and it was well after noon before we left the dock area. Just getting an elevator was a challenge. We weren't surprised, it was only fitting after what had been one horrific cruise. We're disabled and while I went to find our luggage with my scooter, my husband tried to locate a porter with his. The people in the dock area were almost surly and when he went to the head of the line to ask for a Porter, he was told to "just wait in line like everyone else." This was more than a bit unusual - and we've never experienced it before. They told us that it's faster to get those who need assistance out of the way first. It was 11:30 before he got to the front of the line, only to get there and hear "why didn't you come here in the first place," again in a surly tone of voice by yet another Carnival lackey. The porter was great, and we tipped him generously. He apologized and said that every week, departure is a mess. As we were loading our bags into the car, I noticed that the bottom of his large piece of luggage had a huge crack in it, and from nothing that the porter did. DH didn't want me to say anything because we'd already waited so long and it was noon, but I rolled it back to the warehouse and showed the folks there what had happened. They sold me I was SOL and I should have noticed it and brought it to their attention before the porter moved it. My spine's lowest four vertebrae are fused, and I've been told not to pick up anything more than a sack of sugar, so there was no way I could have done it. That was our final cruise on Carnival (and especially on the Magic!) We're looking forward to sailing on RCCL again - and next time my daughter sails on Carnival, she'll have a broken suitcase to report...Fair is Fair!

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decker12

decker12

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Correct, the $60 for the 10 drink punch card deal showed up on Friday's Compass. I did not take advantage of the deal as I already had the Premium package, so I'm not sure what you have to go through to sign up for that deal, or if any bartender could do it or if you had to go to Guest Services.

 

Seemed like a great deal to help round out your partying the last couple of nights. From the way it was worded it sounded like it was good for everything, including specialty coffees and wine up to $12 (you pay the difference if you want a more expensive glass of wine). Of course using this for coffee or Perrier isn't a great use of the deal, but I could see people taking advantage of that the last day on the ship if you have extra uses left. I doubt you can use buy one get ones with it, or use it to get the 20% savings on bottles of wine.

 

I also don't know if it's somehow tied to a Seapass or if it's a physical card (which means you could potentially lose it), nor do I know if it's a physical punch on the card or if it's just in their POS system. Besides the savings, this shareable card would be a great way to buy a glass of champagne for the whole table at dinner without everyone having to screw with their own Seapass cards.

 

Shame they didn't offer this when we got onboard. I was the only "big" drinker in our group, which is why I got the Premium Package, but that being said my parents or my wife would have enjoyed a couple of fruity cocktails if they knew they could share the punch card and it'd only cost $6 instead of $10.

 

For further clarification, drinks always add a 18% tip to them, which means a beer runs $7 and a Bacardi and coke runs $9.50. Wine by the glass is roughly $12. Fruity pool drinks (Mai Tais, daiquiris, etc) and mudslides run $10.50. IIRC whiskey and scotch are also $9.50. Specialty cocktails like Cosmopolitans also run $10.50 with that 18% tip factored in.

 

One weird anomaly that I did not take advantage of in the Pub: Their drinks menu is different from the rest of the ship because of all the beer it includes, and it lists all the cocktails they have, with a little * ("not included in the premium beverage package") for a handful of items like blue label Chimay. However, this exact same booze list also included Johnny Walker Blue label, but with out the *. Meaning it's possible that you could drink $180/bottle Blue all night with your $50/day drink package, but again I didn't try it so I'm not entirely sure.

 

Also, something funny - the Schooner Bar has a drinks menu that includes graphics and pictures from RC cruises in the 70's and 80's. They confusingly list these "old drink menus" right along with the current drink menus. When I sat down and picked up the menu before realizing the graphic look/feel they were going for, I was amazed to see a Strawberry Daiquiri listed for $3 and a Manhattan listed for $5. Needless to say, those are just pictures of sample menus from 30+ years ago, not the actual prices you will pay for those drinks today.

Edited by decker12
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vonnietx

vonnietx

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Great review! Thank you! Sorry to hear about your daughter's water glass and subsequent cut. :(. Did your daughter ever participate in the kids clubs? Having an almost 9 year old daughter I was wondering if she enjoyed them. Also, I read somewhere that there is a 50 kid limit. Did you see any issues with the limit? 50 doesn't seem like a lot of kids in the kids club with how many people are on the ship at one time. Thanks!!
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CruiseDad-NYC

CruiseDad-NYC

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Great review! I was on the same cruise (and posted my own review) and I really agree with every thing you said, particularly your tips about hiring a porter to help with disembarkation (we did walk-off this time, but had used that in the past when we had kids with strollers. I tipped the guy $20), the MDR service/food, the hard bed, and Windjammer.

Thanks!
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decker12

decker12

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[quote name='vonnietx']Great review! Thank you! Sorry to hear about your daughter's water glass and subsequent cut. :(. Did your daughter ever participate in the kids clubs? Having an almost 9 year old daughter I was wondering if she enjoyed them. Also, I read somewhere that there is a 50 kid limit. Did you see any issues with the limit? 50 doesn't seem like a lot of kids in the kids club with how many people are on the ship at one time. Thanks!![/quote]

She did not participate in the Kids Club. We walked past it several times and didn't exactly see throngs of kids milling about. Come to think of it I don't really remember seeing any groups of kids surrounding a chaperon, maybe they only stay inside the Kids Club when you drop them off instead of going to places on the ship?

She pretty much did everything we did, including eating at 8PM at the MDR instead of the My Time dining, and she went to almost all the shows with us. The Liberty also had a surprisingly decent video game arcade, with most games costing $0.50 or so. Great, well maintained air hockey tables.

She wasn't interested in the Dreamworks parade stuff or getting pictures with the characters, there were several opportunities for that but I dunno, I think she's just too old to be fascinated by that stuff now.

The only issue we ran into was during Sea Days when my kid wanted to be in the pool all day long, but we had literally no where to sit that gave us line of sight to her.
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wolfganghowell

wolfganghowell

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Thanks for the details. I agree - Island Marketing is a really good excursion company. We have used it many times.

Egads - DJ Tony needs to get with the program and come up with a better playlist. I better get some Uptown Funk! :D So....the guy in the Schooner Bar sounds weird. Please everyone give feedback on these issues so we can get some good night time entertainment going. Although we will definitely be Superstars getting some Adult Daycare at Night - it's been too long!

Sabor - I am betting the service will improve as the waitstaff and kitchen get into a groove. Since it's brand new and has only been onboard for 3 sailings now, they are probably still finding their footing.

Thanks for all the info. OH! How is the Pool Band?
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decker12

decker12

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The thing with DJ Tony is that he actually played a great mix but that was the last night on the ship, so we know he had the music in his library. I just don't have any idea why he waited until the last night to play it. It was really aggravating the other nights to hear the exact same damn music in the same order. "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger isn't exactly a get all the ladies to the dance floor kind of song, but yet he'd play it along with a series of other questionable choices regardless of who was on the dance floor, or how quickly it emptied out when he played something goofy.

The first night we heard his playlist my wife and I thought it was pretty tired, but maybe it'll be better the next night. Instead it was the same thing, and by the third night, we got off the elevator at the 14th floor, heard that same song, and got right back on the elevator without spending a dime at the bar. There was also a "love song" night which was especially painful, all the songs were treacly slow dance numbers that went on for like 90 minutes and I remember maybe 3 people on the dance floor the entire time, yet DJ Tony trudged along.

[quote name='wolfganghowell']
Thanks for all the info. OH! How is the Pool Band?[/quote]

The pool band was fine, but the most I remember about them was how loud they were. They play on the adult side of the pool deck, under the big screen.

I'm usually not sensitive to loud music but for some reason the pool band bugged me, maybe it was the steel drums or something. The same band played in the Promenade throughout the week.

I ended up hanging out and chatting at the Solarium bar instead of the main pool bar because you couldn't have a conversation with the person next to you when they were playing. Edited by decker12
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wolfganghowell

wolfganghowell

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Wow - usually on that class of ship you can hear the band AND still talk. The Pool Bar is our general "perch" on sea days. Did you notice if the tiered levels on either side are still reserved for suites?

Do you happen to know if they did Silent Disco one night?

Thanks for answering all the questions. :D The price you pay for such a fabulous and detailed review!
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decker12

decker12

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[quote name='wolfganghowell']Wow - usually on that class of ship you can hear the band AND still talk. The Pool Bar is our general "perch" on sea days. Did you notice if the tiered levels on either side are still reserved for suites?

Do you happen to know if they did Silent Disco one night?

Thanks for answering all the questions. :D The price you pay for such a fabulous and detailed review![/quote]

They did not do Silent Disco and it was missed, because we had a ton of fun with that last cruise in 2014. Although I guess if DJ Tony was DJin'g Silent Disco it wouldn't have been anything special. :(

The only special access sunbathing areas I saw was the It was the roof of the Sky Bar. That was reserved for Suites with Gold cards but Diamond Plus people could use it as well. There was someone checking cards before you could go up there and there wasn't any shade, plus it was very windy and only accessible via a staircase.

On another note, I found that our Diamond Plus cards would get us into the same areas reserved for Gold cards (except for the Suites lounge). This included the special sunbathing area, the reserved seating for the shows, etc.
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decker12

decker12

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Hey everyone, thanks for the kind words about my review of the Liberty of the Seas.

As requested, [URL="http://**********/a/SHRPH"]here's a link[/URL] to the Cruise Compasses (not sure what happened to my Day 7, but it's pretty similar to Day 2 if I remember).

[URL="http://**********/a/bDBDk"]Here are some other pictures[/URL] I took of the ship's decks, the Animal Sanctuary, and the Iguana Farm. Note that the volleyball game in the pool was only for an hour or so on the last sea day, I did not see it any other time. The goal of this album is not to bore you with my vacation pics but instead give you some visuals to go with my review :)

Those are Imgur links, so you have to manually replace the *'s with the correct URL to see the albums. Not sure why they're being censored. Edited by decker12
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