No More RC for us: Liberty Review

[molsonschooner]

Epic used to have a temporary outdoor rink. I saw it on Undercover Boss, the CEO got rid of it after that episode.

 

I saw that episode also. It was not real ice. They used to put it down for skating then pick it up and use the area for something else. The boss realized it was not being utilized much so they got rid of it

[Big_G]

I saw that episode also. It was not real ice. They used to put it down for skating then pick it up and use the area for something else. The boss realized it was not being utilized much so they got rid of it

 

I've seen that stuff but never skated on it. I was kind of wondering how they could put it down on an open deck. No wonder the OP's friends didn't like it.

[Lerin]

I am also mid 40's and, after reading this, have apparently forgotten some details also. Note to self: don't take the kids. What age do you think is okay?

It's more the content than language or costumes. I don't want to spoil anything for people reading who aren't familiar with the plot but I suggest you just Google it-read the plot on Wikipedia and decide if your kids can handle that content.

We actually took our youngest kids because they love the dancing and theatrics and are too young to undertand the story. I personally wouldn't take a child between ages 8-12, but that is just me because at those ages I'm not yet ready to have that sort of conversation.

[IsanTom]

Everything thing seems normal to me!

[Lerin]

We ate in the MDR and thought the food was fine, I loved the Ceviche! But I agree, the Chicken Cordon Bleu was pretty bad. My waiter made sure that I received something else. And RC, please don't add so much salt to steamed veggies.

 

Oh, didn't even see that on the menu. Oh well

[Lerin]

I've seen that stuff but never skated on it. I was kind of wondering how they could put it down on an open deck. No wonder the OP's friends didn't like it.

Weird, he didn't mention those details.

note to self: find out more about NCL ice skating

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

I am also mid 40's and, after reading this, have apparently forgotten some details also. Note to self: don't take the kids. What age do you think is okay?

 

The original movie was rated R. It's been a while since I've seen it...but given what I see in the theaters now I'm guessing if it were released today it would be PG-13, maybe a strong PG-13. It's definitely not something I'd consider going to if I were super conservative.

[Paul65]

I was thinking the same thing.

 

They are probably going back, scouring through all the OP's pasts posts looking for evidence which will cause doubt on credibility.

 

Also, if the OP started the posts with all the negative things.

 

Everyone would be hammering her because she didn't say anything positive to say.

 

Can't win...

 

 

 

 

I really think your type posts are some of the worst on the board - trying to exaggerate and egg-on problems, especially when there haven't even been any so far. Give it a rest.

[widallas]

I was expecting a rant but thanks for sharing your balanced opinions on your cruise...I can see why you would not want to go back, especially if you have found another line/ship you like better. We are doing LOTS in November...hope things get better and not worse!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Paul65]

The day we were in Grand Cayman the Compass read that the evening was to be the second formal night. I've been on enough cruises to know there is no way they were going to have formal night when people are rushing back from the beach.

At 7am I went to guest services to confirm this was printed wrong and they said they didn't know and would call my room with the information. I suggested they make an announcement as people may rush back early from the beach in order to get changed. The woman ant guest services laughed at this. Not in a lol you're silly way, but in a rude but didn't want to roll her eyes way.

They did call my cabin and said that it was "changed" and formal night would be the next sea day.

That evening 1 person in our party said they heard an announcement that "formal night was changed". No one else in our party heard this announcement. Judging from the numbers of people I saw quite dressed up, I'm thinking it was made when many were off the ship.

I understand that some ships don't want to make too many announcements, but sometimes they do have a purpose. And if they didn't want to announce, they could've hung a sign in the elevators, by where people were disembarking or told the crew to casually mention it.

 

On our Liberty cruise, the 2nd formal night was, indeed, on a port day. I think you may have helped contribute to this confusion, but Guest Services should have been able to tell you that the Compass was correct.

[Paul65]

Other confusions/ misinformation

 

-No onboard credit. We originally were to have onboard credit but changed cabins. When I called to change cabins I was NOT told that the credit would be lost, this should be standard company policy as I would not have moved cabins had I known ahead of time.

 

Yes, I know I should've read the fine print. When we've changed cabins on other lines they have always told us if we are going to lose credit And once on Carnival they even let us keep ours even though the policy is to lose it.

 

When you say "changed cabins," was it to a different cabin category with a different price? Just curious, because simply changing cabins within the same category should not result in any changes to the fare or promotions like OBC, but if you change categories, it will be at whatever the prevailing rates and promotions are at that time.

[Crash1965]

Its too bad you had a bad cruise I was on Liberty 8 to 15 May it was our second year in a row on Liberty for our anniversary we had a great time. I am a chef and found the food in MDR great and they went way out of the norm to satisfy us each night.

[awestover89]

A lot of valid points, and I won't lie I'm a bit surprised. A lot of the time when I see posts about "last time ever" the criticisms are cringe-worthy. Things like a 1 star review for a restaurant on Yelp because there was a 45 minute wait on a Saturday night, or at a steakhouse that didn't have any vegetarian entrees. But this was well written and very good points, very understanding why you would choose to return to cruising with other lines.

 

The only thing that really made me do a double take with your review was the confusion around the excursion. If the excursion said the bus left at 8:30 there's NO way I would be on the ship still at 8:25. I'd be at the disembarking deck at least 30 minutes before our excursion, waiting in line rather impatiently if they weren't letting people off yet.

 

As for the announcements, there is a volume nob in the cabins, if you turn it down you may not hear any announcements.

[matj2000]

I really think your type posts are some of the worst on the board - trying to exaggerate and egg-on problems, especially when there haven't even been any so far. Give it a rest.

 

Nothing is really exaggerated or egging on.

 

I have seen it quite a few times where people try to discredit someone if they criticize RC to harshly by going into past posts to find inconsistencies.

 

I know you have seen it also.

 

By calling them out ahead of time, it may possibly be a deterrent.

 

I believe the OP has some legitimate complains and would like to read her entire blog before without others chasing her off before finishing......:):)

 

[kmorg1234]

I think Lerin did a very fair and well written, fair review of RC. It is what it is- a mid-level cruise line that does a ton of things beautifully, but cannot, nor does not, want to compete with the Seabourns and SeaDreams of the industry- unless, of course, you sail in the new Star Class. But that is not what she was reviewing. So, I applaud her candid review, noting the good and the bad, and would be interested in her reviews whenever she does sail again.

[dcgrumpy]

On our Liberty cruise, the 2nd formal night was, indeed, on a port day. I think you may have helped contribute to this confusion, but Guest Services should have been able to tell you that the Compass was correct.

 

 

I was going to say I think our 2nd formal night on FOS years ago was a port day. But the I just confused myself.

[slvrbllt]

wolfganghowell, we've managed to miss all the damage from the storms *KNOCKS ON WOOD* Sorry to hear you've not been as lucky.

 

Lerin, I'm sorry your cruise was a bit "off". We've had those vacations, too. Normally, we'd just have one part that wasn't up to par, but other things would make up for it, so it was more tolerable, but I think I'd be a bit miffed too at all the little things that just kept happening. It almost becomes comical after a while like you said...what happens next?!?!?

 

We've had our formal nights be on port days, and it is rough, and we'll have both on port days on our upcoming cruise, so it does happen.

 

I think our first cruise (on Carnival Ecstasy) was like that for us. It was fine, but we just didn't feel like it was "worth" the money we paid.

 

Happy future cruising to you and your family :)

[JamesEM]

I agree 100% about the Windjammer being better option than the MDR, on our last cruise after the first night in MDR we ate rest our meals in the Windjammer.

[Geeocacher]

Speaking of small, on 1 day we watched the ice show. It was very well done but we found ourselves cringing for the skaters. The rink is really not big enough for them to get enough speed to do jumps and tricks. Considering the space, they were lucky to have only about 3 falls. But it did take away from the show.

 

Reminds me of the video of the RC ship coming across the Atlantic before her first cruise (I want to say Freedom but that doesn't seem right) and they were behind schedule so they had the stabilizers off to increase the speed. The performers had to rehearse on the transition over to Florida with the ship pitching up and down in fairly rough seas. The skaters were very bruised up by the time they got to Florida.

[broberts]

...We prepaid gratuities as we almost always do when we sail.

On about day 4 we checked our bill and saw that they had added gratuities to it. I went to guest services not once, not twice but FOUR times to get this taken care of. The final time just so happned to be on Saturday where I was rudely informed that there was nothing they could do because their office in Miami was closed.

As I'm speaking with them about the gratuities I overhear people in line mocking me because, "I was removing my tips."

If those people happen to be here on CC I'll have you know, no I was not removing my tips, RC charged me TWICE for tips. I was removing their added tips.

 

Since returning home, I've had to call twice and write once to RC main office about these additional charges. We still have not received confirmation from the credit card company that the additional tips have been rightfully returned.

 

....

 

I have been given the excuse that it's the weekend and there is no one in the office. It is total BS. This is a multi-billion $ company. Of course there are people working on the week-end. It is just an excuse guest services routinely uses to get rid of people.

 

You will likely end up having to get your credit card company involved. Check with them now as there may be restrictions on how long one has to contest a charge.

Edited May 20, 2016 by broberts

[robandana]

Thanks for your review, I find that lately RC have been hiring sub par staff and that seems to contribute to errors in the compass, wrong information at guest services, poor service in the MDR etc.

 

We took a 1 year break from RC after 4 B2B cruises on the Liberty (very poor service)....We decided to sail with Princess for that year and I am happy we did because we are now only a few cruises away from being Elite.

 

Oh and we now only do cash account with RC....no more surprises on our CC when we get home.....

Edited May 20, 2016 by robandana

[Geeocacher]

I know you have all been waiting for me to weigh in on this. Wait, who the heck is this Geocacher guy? No idea. I think his posts number in the single digits. lol. Anyway, Lerin, you clearly had a sub-par cruise. I'm not going to try to minimize that fact. Where I have an issue is the blanket statement "No more RC for us." I am no cruising guru, I will be doing only my third cruise in September. However, based on my two cruises with RC and also on numerous reviews by other users, I know that is not the norm for RC. And I would bet a large sum that you could find someone from a cruise on every singe cruise line that had the stars align in such a way that this kind of accumulation of problems occurred. Would I be very disappointed if I had a cruise like that? Of course I would. Would I ever throw out a blanket "never again" based on that one cruise? Of course not. Now, if I had a history of cruises like this with RC (and being pretty new here I have no idea what your past history is with RC Lerin) or in addition to my bad cruise read story after story on a site like this claiming similar bad cruises, then maybe I could do that, but not based on one cruise. I liken this to someone saying something like "I will never eat at McDonalds because I used to work there and I know the terrible things they do there." guess what, there is someone from every fast food chain out there that will say the exact same thing. Ok, I'm done now lol. Lerin, wherever you cruise I hope your next one is amazing. </soapbox>

[Geeocacher]

I think his posts number in the single digits.

 

Ha! I'm up to double digits now! lol

[dwhe]

... In a perfect world I'd just link to my blog. It is much easier to follow and includes tons of photos. However, it contains tons of personal info so I'm having to edit and re-type here...

 

Thanks for the review, bit confused as to why you have a blog but don't want anyone to read it though?

[Paul65]

Nothing is really exaggerated or egging on.

 

I have seen it quite a few times where people try to discredit someone if they criticize RC to harshly by going into past posts to find inconsistencies.

 

I know you have seen it also.

 

By calling them out ahead of time, it may possibly be a deterrent.

 

I believe the OP has some legitimate complains and would like to read her entire blog before without others chasing her off before finishing......:):)

 

 

Totally exaggerated and definitely egging on, even if that wasn't your intent. THAT is what I've seen more often than not on this board. Someone will question an OP about something, and the amateur moderator patrol will jump in telling them they shouldn't question, and it ends up with bickering between the two. And it's all based on a myth perpetuated that you can't say anything negative about Royal Caribbean. There are reasonable criticisms brought up all the time on this forum, and people don't get "blasted" for that.

 

Now, carrying on . . . It does seem like the OP had some legitimate issues, and perhaps some misunderstanding (like assuming that formal night on a port day must be a mistake), but had some good things to say, as well. A balanced review like that rarely draws significant criticism, even if it does start with a title that implies it will just be a rant.