No More RC for us: Liberty Review

[Lerin]

I keep a personal blog and wrote many pages about our recent Liberty cruise (May1-8). The following "review" is a cut/paste of some portions of it. A lot of it is in list format or may seem somewhat "choppy" as I have to cut out all personal details from my blog. Hopefully the main idea will come across.

 

Long story short, we were very dissatisfied with our LOtS cruise and will not be back to RC.

 

Very quick background:

Sailed with a group of 15 family and friends. 4 on their first cruise and half of us(including me) on our first RC cruise. 4 kids ages 1-9 and the next youngest person in their 30s with the age going up to above 70. Between the group we had sailed around 16 different lines on over 40 cruises.

When choosing this cruise we original were planning on a Carnival cruise which was over half price less, but for reasons that we now can't remember, we went with LotS.

[Paul65]

Curious to hear what was so bad about it. I cruised on Liberty of the Seas a few weeks before you and had a great time. Of course, if we had the option of a similar itinerary on Carnival for half the cost, we'd have probably taken that. But most times I've priced Royal vs. Carnival on similar trips, the difference has been pretty minimal.

[Lerin]

I'll start with The Good:

 

-Brought cake and sang to 1 person who had a birthday.

One family member had a birthday the second night and we had ordered a cake to be brought to the MDR. Though the cake looked nothing like the one pictured online, it was delicious and they even had candles and several staff and nearby cruisers sang. Since we'd ordered dessert, they wrapped up the cake and it was still delicious the next day.

 

-SNF show. Enough said. This show is great. 1 tip: they say it is not for children though I wish they would give it a rating. We are a conservative family and several in my party were embarrassed and even walked out torwards the end. If you are easily offended I suggest you look up the story synopsis and decide if it is something you wish to view.

 

-air show. Very well done Cirque de solei type acrobatic show.

 

-cafe and pizza place in promenade. Already forgotten the name, but it was one of the only places open late at night. The kids in our party had pizza and pies to their hearts content.

 

-Windjammer buffet. This is the first cruise ever where we preferred the buffet to the MDR. By night 3 this is where we had all dinners. We found the food to not only taste better but there were more options. The service was far superior as well. Much faster and always with a smile. Each night they would walk table to table with some sort of "extra" (chocolate covered bananas on one night)

 

-The parade: all adults and children in our party loved this

 

-I had a massage and facial in the spa which was quite good. Other women in my group had massages, pedicures, and hair done. Everyone seemed satisfied with their appointments.

[Yorkvillain]

Curious to hear what was so bad about it.

 

Same here. :(

[negc]

I'll start with The Good:

 

-Brought cake and sang to 1 person who had a birthday.

One family member had a birthday the second night and we had ordered a cake to be brought to the MDR. Though the cake looked nothing like the one pictured online, it was delicious and they even had candles and several staff and nearby cruisers sang. Since we'd ordered dessert, they wrapped up the cake and it was still delicious the next day.

 

-SNF show. Enough said. This show is great. 1 tip: they say it is not for children though I wish they would give it a rating. We are a conservative family and several in my party were embarrassed and even walked out torwards the end. If you are easily offended I suggest you look up the story synopsis and decide if it is something you wish to view.

 

-air show. Very well done Cirque de solei type acrobatic show.

 

-cafe and pizza place in promenade. Already forgotten the name, but it was one of the only places open late at night. The kids in our party had pizza and pies to their hearts content.

 

-Windjammer buffet. This is the first cruise ever where we preferred the buffet to the MDR. By night 3 this is where we had all dinners. We found the food to not only taste better but there were more options. The service was far superior as well. Much faster and always with a smile. Each night they would walk table to table with some sort of "extra" (chocolate covered bananas on one night)

 

-The parade: all adults and children in our party loved this

 

-I had a massage and facial in the spa which was quite good. Other women in my group had massages, pedicures, and hair done. Everyone seemed satisfied with their appointments.

We've seen the Saturday Night Fever show and also thought it was pretty much on par with many other shows we have seen on cruise ships though not the best one we have seen.

With so many relatively positive comments, I can't wait to read the "Bad"points. They must have been horrific to make you swear off RCI after one cruise.

Edited May 19, 2016 by negc

[mkam2821]

Anxious to hear as we did both LOTS and FOS and then went back to Carnival because of a great price at a good time for us to travel and though we had a good time (because we insist on having a good time, heck we're on vacation and attitude is the difference between adventure and ordeal) Carnival has lost us due to MDR food that was barely edible (returned entrees on 3 different nights), pair of left behind panties in the closet upon our arrival in our stateroom, and very amateurish "talent" and we are now booked on Allure.

[jm485]

We took Liberty to BMA last year and it was not for us. It wasn't all bad -- we also enjoyed the entertainment in particular -- but there were enough negatives to make DH not interested in sailing them again. I'm planning to give RCI another go. I have a booking on HotS in Feb with my MIL, who wants to cruise on one of the ships with Central Park. She's a HAL regular, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks. DH and I are trying NCL this year.

 

 

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[JaniceB]

Thanks for posting the good points. Waiting to hear more.

[golfpccc]

We were on this same cruise and had a great time - anxious to hear what was so bad!!!

 

Carla

[jagsfan]

I'm interested too, in what turned you off. I've cruised on most lines and though I have my favorites, given the right itinerary or price, I'd cruise on any of them again.

 

 

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[Hotel CA]

Following -- I am also curious about the 'Bad'

[AtlantaCruiser72]

I did the Mariner many years ago (which is very similar to Liberty) and did not enjoy the physical layout/design of the ship - too inward focused. Also the food and service were just "meh" - not great but not horrible either. I have done many RCCL cruises since on Radiance/Vision class ships and have enjoyed them much more. MDR food on RCCL has always been their weak link for me, but there have been enough positives that outweigh that to keep me coming back.

 

I have had inconsistent food/service on all mainstream lines over the years and accept that as a fact of cruising. I choose more on ship layout/amenities than anything else and know that the more inward focus of the Voyager/Freedom class ships from RCCL are not for me. That was also part of why the NCL Escape was not one of my favourite cruises - not enough public areas and very inward focused. The food, service and entertainment were good enough for me to book another NCL cruise immediately after.

 

Thankfully we have choices :D

[Lerin]

Sorry, in the middle of making lunch and stuff. Hope to have all this posted by tomorrow. I thought I'd be quick since it's copied from my blog, but it's taking awhile to edit out personal details and stuff.

 

*This section is mainly for people traveling with kids*

 

Another plus was the children's Adventure Ocean.

The kids in our group (as well as a few we met on board) LOVED the kid areas. While we had planned to use the child care only a little, the kids pretty much lived there. They begged to go and cried when it was time to leave.

 

They told us there were about 300 people on board under age 18 and "normally" there were over 1000! Due to this they merged the 6-8 year olds with the 9-11.

The first day we ran into a mother who wanted her 5 year old in with the 6-8s. The teacher explained she would spend the week with kids up to age 11 and was the mom ok with that. She was and to the best of my knowledge it worked out well for them.

In addition to the regular childcare, they also had a few family events. BINGO and a few science demonstrations. These weren't well attended, but were run very well.

Random musing: the 6-8 year old room is right below the basketball court. It was NOISY and annoying, but I guess 6-8 year olds don't care.

 

We also checked out a bag of toys from the nursery and used it twice.

The toys were clean and in good condition and the nursery was age appropriate, safe and the staff were all very professional.

[2Ccruisers]

Following along :)

[wolfganghowell]

My age is showing. I can't get over someone not being familiar with the plot of Saturday Night Fever.

 

I too am interested to see why an apparently experienced cruiser is so dissatisfied - most of the reviews have been good. Some of the bad ones in the review section have been sketchy.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

My age is showing. I can't get over someone not being familiar with the plot of Saturday Night Fever.

 

That was one of my thoughts about that. :D

 

The other was that if I was that conservative, I would probably avoid anything that said it wasn't appropriate for children.

[TC1957]

Apparently the "fun" starts tomorrow when people start telling Lerin she is wrong, that the things that were bad in her opinion are very minor or could not possible be accurate (since they didn't happen to them).

[OCruisers]

Following along. Wondering about the BAD?

[wolfganghowell]

Or maybe we are legitimately curious? Hey - Lerin started a review saying they would never sail Royal again. That makes most of us wonder how horrible it was!

 

yes I hate cliffhangers and season finales on tv too. :D :D

[slvrbllt]

I'm genuinely curious because I've not sailed Freedom class, only Voyager class. Since Galveston is so close, I'm likely to sail Liberty in the future :)

 

I promise not to bash anyone for their opinion, even if you say Florida Georgia Line is good music ;)

[wolfganghowell]

slvrbllt- Freedom class is really like Voyager class on steroids. A few more venues, a few larger places but basically the same layout.

 

I'm with you on FlaGaLine. :D We Richardson peeps must have good taste. Hope you have survived the storms here. Our house took a beating. :eek:

[Ocean Boy]

My age is showing. I can't get over someone not being familiar with the plot of Saturday Night Fever.

 

I too am interested to see why an apparently experienced cruiser is so dissatisfied - most of the reviews have been good. Some of the bad ones in the review section have been sketchy.

 

That was one of my thoughts about that. :D

 

The other was that if I was that conservative, I would probably avoid anything that said it wasn't appropriate for children.

 

I don't remember either. But since I never liked disco music I probably wouldn't have much interest in it.

[Paul65]

Apparently the "fun" starts tomorrow when people start telling Lerin she is wrong, that the things that were bad in her opinion are very minor or could not possible be accurate (since they didn't happen to them).

 

Are maybe it already started, with you harping on the people who might have a different opinion, before the opinions have even been shared. :rolleyes:

[Lerin]

Sorry, not trying to make a cliffhanger. In the middle of cleaning up lunch.

 

As mentioned earlier I'm copying from my blog. However, it contains a lot of personal information, pictures and stories that aren't relevant to CC so I'm going through and editing. It's taking longer than I'd anticipated.

 

I'm generally a positive person so I'm starting with the positives, but yes, things did go wrong. I'm not here to have a debate, just giving my opinion of our family vacation. It is fine if others don't agree.

 

 

 

Some other things of note:

 

-children’s water area

It's my understanding this area is fairly new? It is nice, the kids all enjoyed it. They do measure kids and give out wristbands for the slides which I feel is unnessary but all our kids were permitted on the slides they wished to go on. The "big" slide is for 48inches. I was a late bloomer and did not reach this height until 6th grade-like heck was I going to play in a splash park with 3-year olds then!

-They have a small section for children who are not potty trained, which is a bonus.

-There were lifeguards/attendants around this area at all times. I think they were monitoring heights and diapers-not sure they are actually lifeguards.

-Yes, they do provide lifejackets. Our kids didn't need them, but they looked to be quality and in almost new condition.

-Random tidbit: There are sections of the kids area where the water is only a few inches deep. On several occasions I saw adults lounging here. As long as there aren't too many kids, this is a great idea. Also the loungers weren't all taken up by 9am as they were by the other pools.

 

Waterslides:

Also new additions. We tried both and 1 is much better/ faster than the other. The green one? Forgot, sorry. It has colored lights on the inside too so you feel as if you are sliding through a time warp.

The first day there were some workers standing on the slide that is not in use. Not sure what is going on with that, but find it odd that an item so large and expensive would make it all they way to a ship and then not be safe to use.

 

Cabins

-Thanks to people posting here on CC we found out about the new panoramic ocean views on deck 12. We were in cabin 1802, very front of the ship with a view to die for! I think we had a better view than the captain!

Because the entire 12th deck of cabins is new and much of the rest of the ship is not, the difference is very obvious. The carpets and paint on deck 12 common areas showed a lot of wear while the area with the cabins were beautiful. I hope they are planning to re-do all the areas as the divide between old/ new was somewhat tacky.

random musing: whomever designed the doors on deck 12 cabins must have been quite tall. I'm average height and was unable to see out of the peephole. For a lot of women or children staying in a cabin away from their parents, this could pose an issue.

 

People in our group also stayed on decks 2, 3, and 9 in insides and ocean views. All the cabins were fine.

One person changed from a promenade stateroom to an ocean view and was VERY happy she did. The promenade can be quite noisy at all hours, and some of the karaoke is terrible(sorry singers).

 

One thing we did like was the variety of art all over the ship. One person stayed in a cabin in the "optical illusion" section. If you enjoy art, I highly suggest a self-led art tour of the decks.

 

In Cozumel we did the Playa Mia excursion.

We've been here several times, though this was only the second time we used the ship excursion(the other was on Carnival). Normally we go through an online site that has a large discount, but it wasn't offered this time. We find this place to be great for all ages, but were not happy with how the RC excursion was organized. When we go on our own, they arrange transportation whenever we need it. On Carnival there were several busses that left at various times. On RC there was 1 bus leaving at 1pm only. We did not have to be back at the ship until 3:30 and did not want to leave at 1. They said we could pay for a cab at a later time, but it was irritating to think we had already paid for an excursion with transportation and then would have to pay for more transportation. This was 1 of several things we did not like about RC.

 

Mystery dinner

On night 1 we did the mystery dinner theater. As expected this was "campy" but we did enjoy it. The food was from Giovannis and was one of the best meals all week. What we did not like however was how it was organized(this was the first of a weeklong trend).

Here's what went wrong

We had registered online for this meal/show a month or so before sailing and in our cruise planner it was clearly listed as being held on night 4. A few others in our group also decided to register about a week before sailing. When we boarded a family member mentioned hoping the luggage arrived on time so he would have something decent to wear to the mystery dinner that night. We corrected him and said it was night 4, to which he said his cruise planner said night 1. When he got to his cabin there was an invitation which clearly stated he was to be at the mystery dinner that evening. We had no such invitation in our room, were very confused and weren't sure whom to contact. We decided to go with him to the dinner to figure out if there were 2 dinners or what was going on. Turns out, there was only 1 dinner and it was that night! So thanks to a family member we did make it, but if he had not also registered, we never would've known!

 

-check in process

So I'm going backwards here but do want to note the check in process. We arrived very early and were through and on the ship in no time at all. Others in our party were not so lucky; 4 of the people said it took almost 2 hours!

For various reasons several of the children we traveled with were not staying in cabins with their immediate family(ie: grand daughter staying with grandma, niece staying with aunt...) When checking in several of us got a few raised eyebrows and confused looks when they child listed on our cabin wasn't there, or a child was there, but listed with different adults. However we all went through just fine. Until the last 2 people who showed up without any kids(their kids were already onboard and had been for several hours). They didn't want to let them on! They apparently had to be pulled aside and questioned by someone or another until it was determined all kids were in fact accounted for and with relatives onboard.

This isn't really a positive or negative, just a random situation. We all had a chuckle that evening. Ideally we would've checked in altotgether, but some of us arrived the night prior and others used RC transfers.

 

-gift cert to spa

Another random musing. The second night it was a birthday for my niece. A few days later she received a gift certificate to the spa. Very nice touch, but she is not even in grade school yet! One again, not really positive or negative. Just sort of...odd.

[setsail]

No more rci

 

No use in reading or commenting then, more drama