Liberty of seas not up to RCCL standards

[timbom]

Recently took the Liberty of the seas and was very disappointed in the product. If not a Diamond who has had many great experiences with RCCL I might never cruise them again when cruising. Most of the problems I attribute to the staff. Below is my review

in a sense of fairness I will go thru best and worst of cruise.

 

Good:

1) Location- I was on ship and off within two hours of leaving my house

2) Beautiful weather on the week of 22 Jan. Other than last day every day was a pool day

3) Room around the pool was more than adequate and the ship appeared to be in good shape.

4) Piano bar was lots of fun as most nights it ended up as jam session with musicians from a western swing band on board.

5) Cabaret shows were excellent as they were the last performance of many of the people in the cast of the Broadway show.

 

Bad

1) Cruise director was just mailing it in almost never saw him or heard from him. Really suspect a lot of the problems were his with entertainment on the ship.

2) Entertainment - all of the specialty shows were terrible. As one of the guests told me what is the matter with a Texas based ship featuring a cruise director from Boston, two comedians from New York City, production show about New Jersey, a rock act featuring a Osmond and a funk band for a audience who averaged over fifty and nighty five percent from the south.

3) Food was just so so. I guess I have traveled them too much lately. It is time to retire the herb menu and come up with a new one.

4) Diamond lounge was a real mess. it was too small and with over two hundred on ship it flowed over into the main lounge where the bar was not set up for them requiring long waits in line and no clearing of tables. Further the lounge manager would just sit there on the computer not cleaning up the lounge or cleaning up the area.

5) Ships crew - Never saw the officers around the ship or the Diamond lounge. I guess I have been spoiled but ever since I turned Diamond I have become used to seeing all of them in the lounge socializing with RCCL best clients.

6) They did not have any enrichment activities unless scrap booking is one

7) Bar staff - was not very responsive and were very short of personnel. Felt like I was imposing on them asking for a drink. Prices if not on some sort of package were absurd in that the average drink price is now more than ten dollars when you add in tip.

 

I recently returned from the NCL Escape and found their product far better than RCCL as the entertainment and food was far superior.

[BecciBoo]

I agree with one thing...diamond lounge is much more crowded in the last couple years, of which Liberty has been the only ship here. But now you can go to any bar at that time and get your drinks. I prefer it now, to go to Rbar for ours.

 

But in 21 cruises on RCCL, over 1/3 of them as Diamond, I've never seen officers in the Diamond Lounge and that includes Rhapsody, Splendor, Navigator, Voyager, Mariner and Liberty out of Texas, and Radiance, also Allure, Majesty, Legend and Freedom in Florida. I've seen a couple bar managers and the hotel manager in there at times, but not the officers.

 

Sorry they weren't up to snuff on your cruise, but we've done Liberty 4 times soon to repeat in April, I have nothing negative to say pertaining to the ship, itself. My complaints deal mostly with the changing policies of the line over time. Nothing stays the same, roll with the waves.:cool:

[blackshirt]

I personally did not experience any of your "bad" when we sailed Liberty this past June. We have no hesitation in sailing Libery again.

[TBone2K]

Only been out of Galveston once, but I did notice they replace the house cover band with a country band (Bubba Feathers). I'll bet the rest of the personnel are a bit harder to change for one port where I'll bet the majority of the cruisers are still not from the local area.

 

As for the reggae/funk/band by the pool, I don't know where it is more out of place. In Texas, or in Alaska? Because they were there is Alaska. For that matter don't they normally have that style of music on every cruise?

 

Who was the cruise director? I have found a good CD can make things more entertaining, but when they aren't that good I never notice them.

[George C]

One of the main reason diamond lounge is so crowded is there is no concierge lounge just a very large and nice suite lounge which forces diamond plus to us diamond lounge. As for NCL vs RCCL, I will take RCCL any day.

[Grandma Dazzles]

I agree with one thing...diamond lounge is much more crowded in the last couple years, of which Liberty has been the only ship here. But now you can go to any bar at that time and get your drinks. I prefer it now, to go to Rbar for ours.

 

But in 21 cruises on RCCL, over 1/3 of them as Diamond, I've never seen officers in the Diamond Lounge and that includes Rhapsody, Splendor, Navigator, Voyager, Mariner and Liberty out of Texas, and Radiance, also Allure, Majesty, Legend and Freedom in Florida. I've seen a couple bar managers and the hotel manager in there at times, but not the officers.

 

Sorry they weren't up to snuff on your cruise, but we've done Liberty 4 times soon to repeat in April, I have nothing negative to say pertaining to the ship, itself. My complaints deal mostly with the changing policies of the line over time. Nothing stays the same, roll with the waves.:cool:

 

Agree. Over 30 cruises on just about every ship and have never seen officers in the lounge unless they were there for a working reason. They definitely don't come and socialize - actually on a couple of cruises never even seen the loyalty ambassador.

[Don Pedro]

Agree. Over 30 cruises on just about every ship and have never seen officers in the lounge unless they were there for a working reason. They definitely don't come and socialize - actually on a couple of cruises never even seen the loyalty ambassador.

 

Every ship staff is a bit different but it certainly is not uncommon for the Hotel Director and Food & Beverage Manager to visit the Suite/Pinnacle Lounge on the Liberty.

[DonTreadOnMe]

My family and I were on LOS the week previous, and can say from a Family perspective...this was the best cruise we have ever done.

 

The cruise director certainly was an acquired taste, but without seeking him out I ended up seeing him and or talking to him in person 2 or 3 times throughout the week.

 

Features on the boat (slides, pools, flow rider, mini golf, etc) were all superb and in perfect working order.

 

We only did 2 of the shows since our kids are young, but really enjoyed Sat Night Fever, and Nathan Osmond.

 

We don't drink, so can't comment on bars.

 

Ship was in very good shape.

 

Galveston was very easy. Much quicker than I had expected in and out.

 

All menus should be re-done every year IMHO. Kind of boring to eat the same thing a year or even 2 later when you cruise often.

 

YMMV

Edited January 30, 2017 by DonTreadOnMe

[matj2000]

Totally agree with the OP.

 

After my Liberty cruise recently I came home and cancelled to future RC bookings.

 

Switched to MSC.

 

You will never see me on the Liberty again....

[MrSnarkyPants]

Just off the same cruise as you. Some observations:

 

1. I don't mind that we didn't see much of the cruise director. Announcements were a merciful minimum. I cruise to go places, not play games.

 

2. There was a Texas Country band on board doing a group cruise for their fans. Perhaps you saw all of their red and blue shirts. They played at the pool one afternoon and took over the Schooner a couple of times, otherwise they did a lot of private shows for their fans in the Star Lounge. So that's going to change the entertainment lineup a bit for everyone else.

 

3. Bar staff definitely depended upon the bar. I found in conversation that the two working the R Bar most often were down to the final two weeks of their contract and they were counting down the days before they came home. So if you walked in there and was a total jerk (which, honestly, was how most of the passengers treated both of them when I was sitting there drinking) they were more apt to politely disengage as opposed to turn on a fake smile and take the abuse acting like they enjoyed it. Passengers with status seemed to be bigger offenders than those without, but honestly I watched a lot of people be total (insert derogatory term here) towards those bartenders. If you went to R Bar with a bad attitude, the lady and gentleman behind the bar held up a mirror and fed it right back to you. It would be hard to fake being friendly to a lot of their patrons, and they were clearly worn down from that grind.

 

4. I liked the music. But I'm probably younger than you. The DJs were not skilled, but the musicians were top notch. The bone they threw to the over 50 crowd was a couple of nights in the Star Lounge where some of the Saturday Night Fever cast sang standards and show tunes. They were quite talented! But overall, they're aiming this cruise to someone in their 40's with a couple of kids and the programming matched that audience. So most of the entertainment was just about right for my wife and I. (And working in the entertainment business, I can tell you: if you're outside of the target, they don't have the time or the money to fret over making you happy.) If you scheduled a day filled with lectures and "enrichment" we would never attend. We didn't go to the shopping or infomercial talks, either. With all of the water activities on board, the action was outside on 11 and above once it was warm enough. My wife thought about doing the scrapbooking thing (she loves that) but decided that a nap and a good book were more important.

 

5. Did I mention that the DJs were terrible? I wanted to go teach one of them how to mix. He was lost trying to use Serato and really knew how to clear the dance floor.

[John&LaLa]

Every ship staff is a bit different but it certainly is not uncommon for the Hotel Director and Food & Beverage Manager to visit the Suite/Pinnacle Lounge on the Liberty.

Yep, we also found that on Freedom

 

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[Grandma Dazzles]

Every ship staff is a bit different but it certainly is not uncommon for the Hotel Director and Food & Beverage Manager to visit the Suite/Pinnacle Lounge on the Liberty.

 

I was not including the hotel director or food and beverage manager when making the comment. I consider their presence to be "working reason." I have seen the hotel director and food and beverage manager in the Windjammer, for example, walking around checking to see how things were.

 

My comment was relative to the original post indicating officers being present and mingling and visiting on an evening in the diamond/concierge lounge. Just have not seen this.

[timbom]

Sorry forgot to add that ice show was great and forgot how terrible the DJ was spent some time trying to listen to this garbage he mixed before leaving.

 

In retrospect I guess it is unfair to compare a 10 year old ship to the New NCL escape but I still stand with the statement I made that the NCL ship was a far better cruise than the RCL one. As I said if this was the best RCCL could do I would never cruise with them again.

 

In regard to officers in Lounge what I was referring to was the future cruise people food and beverage directors. I have also cruised several time with Carnival out of Houston and they tailor their cruise to Texas with free tex-mex food.

 

If seems up surd to this writer to charge extra for tex-mex on a cruise out of Texas. Everyone knows in the food business that the ingredients in this type of food are far cheaper than any other type.

[matj2000]

How were the DJ's?

[Desert Cruizers]

We will be on the Liberty in July so hopefully we will have a good experience. Our first sailing on the Liberty was in 2011 during our Barcelona TA.

[brewcrew4]

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise. We were on the same sailing and had an amazing time. I wouldn't hesitate to book another cruise on the Liberty.

[ramja96]

The bone they threw to the over 50 crowd was a couple of nights in the Star Lounge where some of the Saturday Night Fever cast sang standards and show tunes.

 

I take exception to this! :mad: I'm 55 yrs old and if they start playing "standards and show tunes", I'm heading for the door. :p

[rsdroid]

I'll chime in since I was on the same sailing. I'm a member of the western swing band that was on board playing for our group. This is our 7th year doing a cruise for our fans, 6 have been out of Galveston and one out of New Orleans. All on RC. As far as RC is concerned, the band members are guests along with everyone else, and other than playing, I probably have similar experiences to any other guest.

 

I agree with all the OP positives. As for the Cruise Director, I normally don't have much interaction with one, as we are obviously bringing our own entertainment and in the past, Cruise Directors tend to just mess with our group's schedule. This one, however, was the second year we've had him on the Liberty during our group cruise. I will say, I've never seen a Cruise Director on the pier before with the hand sanitizer bottle welcoming guests back on board like he was doing in Roatan. Also, he was in the terminal when we disembarked, just doing whatever he could to facilitate things, such as making sure wheelchair assistance folks got a porter, etc.

 

We were sure glad for his presence there when none of our band gear was unloaded off the ship into the baggage area like it was supposed to be. He was able to help get the process started of searching for the gear on the ship and tracking down the last crew who had moved it. He kept us updated as much as he could while we waited. We were the last ones through customs besides the back-to-backers, but they did find everything about 11:30 am after we had to go through customs and were waiting outside still. So, normally the cruise director position means very little to me, but he was everywhere, doing what he could from what I saw. I was impressed.

 

The food in the dining room was good to me, but I only cruise once a year. The lamb shank the last night was excellent. There was maybe one night my entree was just so-so, but I didn't ask for something else, so I can't complain.

 

I do think they don't always understand the kind of entertainment that a ship out of Galveston could benefit from, but they have made some improvements. They were going to end Phil's contract, the schooner bar piano man, and changed their minds evidently. He's probably the most popular of the ship's musicians for the Texans.

 

My biggest complaint is the pretty massive increase in drink prices over the last two years while at the same time cutting the amount of alcohol in them. After the first couple drinks on board, I chose not to buy anymore as I couldn't taste any alcohol. At $10-$12 for the most basic cocktail, it wasn't worth it. I definitely think RC has cut back too much in this area and it cost them money from me for sure. I let them know in my survey as well that they lost money they would have made.

 

Overall though, we had a great cruise with near perfect weather and already have two more booked on RC!

[BecciBoo]

 

In regard to officers in Lounge what I was referring to was the future cruise people food and beverage directors. I have also cruised several time with Carnival out of Houston and they tailor their cruise to Texas with free tex-mex food.

 

If seems up surd to this writer to charge extra for tex-mex on a cruise out of Texas. Everyone knows in the food business that the ingredients in this type of food are far cheaper than any other type.

 

If you're specifically speaking of Sabor's, that was never meant to be Tex Mex. That menu was designed to be a sort of fusion or upscale interior Mexican cuisine. There are free mexican type foods in Windjammer, i.e. make your own tacos, etc. And if you didn't try Sabor's...you missed something really good!

'

Edited January 31, 2017 by BecciBoo

[spookwife]

Every ship staff is a bit different but it certainly is not uncommon for the Hotel Director and Food & Beverage Manager to visit the Suite/Pinnacle Lounge on the Liberty.

 

 

Yup. Had several conversations with senior staff in the old Concierge lounge.

 

 

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[George C]

Yup. Had several conversations with senior staff in the old Concierge lounge.

 

 

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Same here last year in suite lounge

[stjohnrocks]

We were on the week prior. Does anyone else think the "fat Elvis" is tacky at the close of the ice show? Personally I thought it was! The ice show is old anyway and to close a non comedic show with that was not funny....

 

I liked the cruise director and I'm from TX. My DH didn't get his humor but by the end he was on board so to speak!;)