Less than ideal experience on Liberty of the Seas

[Coralc]

We always go out of Galveston now, simply because it is easy and my husband doesn't have to burn extra vacation to get there and come back. I have a lot more vacation time than him. Anyway, it usually rains when we depart, but our last cruise it did not. I was so excited because we could finally be out in the open. I expected a sail away party but all we got was NFL.....football. I could watch that at home in my living room. I wanted music and boat drinks and it did not happen.

 

Yes, they started pushing the dining too, but I only use the free dinners my travel agent gives us. If not for them I would not go to a specialty restaurant. I hate being pushed for something but find it only usually happens when I hang out on the promenade.

 

That was a really rotten football sail away on Liberty, wasn't it? Although I suppose there would have been a mutiny if they hadn't shown the game....whichever one it was. :D I would have much preferred music and entertainment.

 

And on a recent cruise, a person sitting near us asked me to look at her receipt, because she didn't have her reading glasses. She had ordered a strawberry daiquiri at the pool bar. I was kind of shocked that the price was $16 + gratuity!!! :o

[akcruz]

I initially sailed with RCCL.

I've been on Disney, NCL, HAL, and Princess.

All the lines, with the exception of Disney which is at least 50% more,

now offer many up-sells and less thats included.

 

What people fail to mention is that the base price of a cruse has basically not changed in 15 years.

Agree, what I used to pay for an oceanview is now more than we usually pay for a balcony. There are exceptions of course, newer ships etc, but overall cruise prices have remained very stable for a long time.

 

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[georgew4]

Hi All...

With all due respect, I have to really disagree with the original post. I'm not going to say that what he/she said was not true, but being on the same cruise and also eating at Sabor, Windjammer, and the other up-sale restaurants, we were NOT asked about purchasing an avocado slicer!! We enjoyed ALL of the restaurants, had GREAT service, excellent food and were NEVER asked about anything but the next course. We were part of a party of 6 and had a great selection of appetizers, and deserts...along with a delicious main course. Yes, staff were pushing the up-scale restaurants, jewelry, drink package, etc., but I wouldn't expect anything less of if that were my staff.

Basically, it was a great cruise...except for 3 medical emergencies, one of which the ship diverted to meet the Coast Guard helicopter and many had to cancel excursions on Cozumel...and another diverted to George Town on the way back to Galveston...but that was an late night/early morning diversion that not many know about.

RCCL is a wonderful company that has done much to keep customers satisfied while trying to sell a product.

CHILL AND ENJOY THE TRIP!!!

[riclop]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[kctwinmommy]

Thanks for sharing this info. We're going on our first RCI cruise this summer, after mainly Carnival. I'm not sure if this is common on all of their ships/cruises, but that would be annoying to me too. We mostly cruise to go see things, not so much for the fancy dinners or extras. We're fine with the main dining room food, buffets as needed, etc... We never pay extra for the foods either.

[JamesEM]

Your review was very close to my cruise experience, my clicker did not work so I wound up going to the concierge in the Diamond Lounge who called someone to got me a new one. I really hated being bother in the Windjammer, daily activities on sea days were lacking unless you liked trivia, and the food was not that great.

[Paulxyz2004]

I don't know why we would choose Royal Caribbean again over Carnival.

 

 

I don´t know either, have fun on your future carnival Cruises.

[nealstuber]

I initially sailed with RCCL.

I've been on Disney, NCL, HAL, and Princess.

All the lines, with the exception of Disney which is at least 50% more,

now offer many up-sells and less thats included.

 

What people fail to mention is that the base price of a cruse has basically not changed in 15 years.

 

 

I would be fine with cruise prices that kept pace with inflation. It would be better than paying the same for less of an experience (especially when you're paying more by the end of the vacation).

 

 

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[Numer3]

We were on the same cruise with you. Of our two rooms, one remote rarely worked, even after calling maintenance. We shared across the hall. Also had to share safe as ours quit working. Never called about it though.

 

Also agree about not enough day time activities for our group, who weren't interested in all the outdoor options. The last sea day really had us searching for something to do. BUT, we had an amazing time together...for us, these were minor inconveniences.

 

FOOD: Lunch first day in buffet was so bad we never returned. Breakfast in buffet on day two was so loud and chaotic that we decided dining room much better option for our group. Dinner in dining room not as good as I was hoping. Especially the last night. Strange choices. But the service was excellent. Lasagne one night was really good. Probably best meal I had. Lobster just fair. Salmon was always good.

 

I was never bothered by sales pitches. "No thank you" worked well for us. I didn't mind them trying.

 

But I was VERY happy that there was a memory foam topper on my bed. Our week was what we made of it. The shows were the best I've seen on the 4 cruise lines I've sailed. Really amazing. I'm in the car as I type headed to board in Galveston in two hours. This time with my husband & 5 kids. I'm hoping the comedians/entertainers will be different than my cruise with mom & sisters a week ago.

Lara

 

 

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[woneill63]

We sailed on the Liberty out of Galveston last spring break and had a very enjoyable experience. We didn't have any of the issues you encountered. I always purchase a drink package so I was not aware of the price per drink, but, 16 dollars for a mixed drink ? Yikes, that is way too much. I would be upset too.

[yuvraj]

No two sailings are the same but Liberty is one of my favourite ships and I have regularly sailed with Royal Caribbean as well as other brands (but not Carnival).

 

I didn't experience any pushy upselling when I ate in Sabor on Navigator last year. I would suggest the bad experience is down to the individual manager and staff on the day and not a brand wide issue. Having said that, I wasn't that impressed with the Sabor offering on Navigator. It is a different concept to the casual Mexican offering on Oasis and Allure.

 

Generally, I have not found Royal Caribbean particularly pushy in selling speciality dinning or anything else.

 

It is unfortunate if you find things like safe not working in cabin. All you can hope is that the maintenance staff do their best to fix.

 

Overall, I am a big fan of Royal Caribbean and I believe it compares well in terms of quality of service and overall experience with other brands I have sailed with.

[Numer3]

I didn't have the drink package. My vodka on the rocks was $7-9 depending on which brand I ordered. No complaints there[emoji4].

 

 

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[grapau27]

Hi all. I just wrote up our experience on the survey form from Royal Caribbean from our sailing last week on the Liberty of the Seas out of Galveston.

 

There were good parts to our cruise and bad parts, but overall the bad outweighed the good.

 

We felt like Royal Caribbean used every possible opportunity on the ship for an up-sell. During our lunch at Sabor, that we paid money for the upscale experience, we were pitched a class for making guacamole and margaritas, and insistently asked were we going to sign up. Then when we said we would think about it, they brought out an avocado cutting plastic tool and offered it to us for $16, then left it on the table so we could look at it all meal long while experiencing our upscale dining. A plastic kitchen tool. Very unclassy. We had planned to go to all 3 upscale restaurants, but after our first one, skipped the other two. Then, every announcement in our mailbox outside our door, on our phone, over the loudspeaker, or on our TV was an art sale or some other such up-sell. Every night at dinner, the waiter tried to sell us on a discount for the up-sell steak or lobster. It was ridiculously over the top.

 

We also felt like the opportunities for fun activities on the boat were very limited vs what we are used to on Carnival. There didn't seem to be as many events like games, scavenger hunts, stuff done by the cruise director and assistants as we are used to on Carnival. Also, many of the activities on the ship seemed to overlap with dining times and with shows. We missed many things we wanted to make because of poor scheduling. We felt like the cruise was very "buttoned up" compared to Carnival. We aren't huge partiers (we drink a little and gamble) but this cruise felt like it was catering to retirees.

 

The my time dining was a disaster. We didn't realize we needed reservations, as the RC website said just show up when you wanted and you might have a 10-15 minute wait for a table. We did this the first night and it was a 45 minute wait, not acceptable with children standing in the lobby in dressy clothes. We were assured that if we made reservations the wait would be quick. The second morning we decided to get smart and make reservations for that night, but were told they only had 8:00 and 8:30 left. We took the 8:00 and decided to get smart and make reservations for the 3rd day while leaving supper on the 2nd day. There was still an extremely limited set of options to choose from (like 5:30 or 8:00). My time dining is not my time, it is Royal Caribbean's time.

 

I put my wallet and phone in the safe the first day, and by the next day it was broken (error message 90 when you tried to open it). We called maintenance and they opened it and installed another battery. I put my wallet in it again, and the next day, same error message, no access to my cash for ports. I called maintenance again and they opened it again and they said it was fixed. I wasn't trusting it again. I decided to go to our adjoining kids room and use their safe, guess what, same message! "error 90"! couldn't use it either. Only one of our remotes for the two rooms worked. We had to share. We asked for the steward to fix it, she replaced the batteries. Now it worked but only to turn the TV on or off, changing channels or volume didn't work. We gave up and just shared a remote, knocking on the adjoining door for the rest of the cruise when we wanted to change a channel.

 

The casino had a holdem table (something we love to do on vacation) but the limits were $2/$5 which meant to sit with a standard stack of chips was a $500 buy-in. Too rich for our blood. The drinks averaged $12-$14 each. That is a ton of money for drinks.

 

Overall, the ship was nice (we enjoyed the promenade), but the experience was poor. I don't know why we would choose Royal Caribbean again over Carnival.

We sailed on Liberty in 2008 from new Jersey to the Carribean and back and had a great time.It is sad that they are constantly up selling now and if it is a good deal for a speciality restaurant like on vision in February we will take up offer but it sounded over the top for you and stress that you don't need on vacation.

 

love sailing with RCCL

[flirtyfloridacouple]

We sailed on Liberty in 2008 from new Jersey to the Carribean and back and had a great time.It is sad that they are constantly up selling now and if it is a good deal for a speciality restaurant like on vision in February we will take up offer but it sounded over the top for you and stress that you don't need on vacation.

 

love sailing with RCCL

I feel like I should order a shirt that says... "please don't solicit to me... I'm on vacation" lol

 

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[grapau27]

That would be fun if we all had the same T shirt

 

love sailing with RCCL

[NJporkroll]

Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

 

 

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