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Just off Liberty OTS 4/2-4/9. Got questions?

jennellen
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jennellen

jennellen

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This is my tenth RC cruise. Enjoyable cruise with some positives and some less than positive.

 

I snapped a pic of the drinks menu for the first day out of Texas because of their alcohol laws. I'll post it went I get to my computer. It's only in effect until the ship gets 12 nautical miles from port.

 

The new room service menu was not in effect yet.

 

We enjoyed all the entertainment and thought that was an improvement since last RC cruise about five years ago.

 

Giovanni's and Chops were very good. They were offering the dining packages for the same price as was in the cruise planner. They were never packed. We made reservations each morning for whichever restaurant we wanted. Chops reservations hostess told us that dining package guests have priority when making reservations. We never had trouble with whatever time we wanted to go. And we went at many different times.

 

We had the drink package and there was only one drink that we got charged the difference over the allowable limit. It was in the Olive or Twist bar. We didn't drink any wine so I'm not sure if or what was over the limit on for wine.

 

We had a full ship and quite a few kids. However, the ship never felt crowded to me. I've sailed on the Freedom with a fully booked ship and it always seemed packed. But that was before they've added all the special kids pools and slides. So perhaps that just naturally kept the kids and families in areas we weren't.

 

Now for the less that positive observations. These are all just my opinion and impression.

 

Sabor was a real disappointment. It's just on the bland side. Yes, being from Texas we are used to TexMex. However, I've also enjoyed more authentic Mexican food and sabor is just missing the mark. Great service but the food was just meh.

 

There is a lot of "selling" of drinks and dining packages. A simple no or we already have them was all it took. I didn't really find it any more annoying than all the spa sales pitches of the past. And the Bingo girl is super loud on the overhead speakers. Little jarring at times.

 

The CD was not to my taste. His introduction of evening entertainment or even his "morning show" were lackluster and disorganized. He seldom previewed what was happening next day and when he did he downplayed it at end of evening entertainment. He just seemed to be going through the motions. Not sure if he's near end of contract but I've had better CDs in past.

 

We never received our meet and mingle info so we missed it, if there was one. We were signed up for it. Not sure what happened there.

 

We had a balcony and for 2.5 days our balcony was having the hand rail cleaned and new varnish applied and so we had limited access. Plus after the "cleaning" of the handrail the rest of balcony was little messy. Just a small disappointment.

 

Neutral things:

 

We did self assist off since we needed to be back home to picked up animals from boarding. From time we got in line until we were in car on the road was approximately 1.5 hours. It was a little disorganized and they didn't adhere to any group order as the info sheet said. Basically they let anyone who was self assist in line whenever. According to paper we should have been in the fourth group but when we went to go to our waiting area the line was already forming and when we inquired we were

told they weren't doing groups after all. One crew member said our disembarkation was actually going much faster than the last few. Who knows? We were glad to be on the road by 9AM. And be prepared because over half or more self assist off. It looked like they started letting checked luggage passengers off about 8:30-ish. Maybe a little earlier.

 

I've already rambled longer than anticipated. I'm sure I'll think of more. I'll also post the drinks menu for first day tomorrow. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.

 

 

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Cruzin-K

Cruzin-K

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I was going to start my own thread when I have time to breathe, but just wanted to comment on your observations, especially about the CD. I've never heard one so negative before. He sat there on the morning show and said that if you didn't have a tour in Belize, don't even bother going ashore. Really? Wow. He tended to repeat himself over and over as well. I didn't need to hear that there was nothing to do on Belize more than once, but he repeated it several times. He also went on and on and on about how Saturday Night Fever was not appropriate for kids. I saw the show and while I wouldn't take a small child just because they wouldn't appreciate it, I thought it was fine for pre-teen & up and was very entertaining.. They see worse on TV - I don't know what Jeff was talking about when he said it was inappropriate. Also, before Steve Azar's show, Jeff spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about how nobody knew who Steve Azar was and how difficult it was to promote the show. Sheesh! I thought that show/concert was awesome and came home and already downloaded two of his albums. Other than the evening shows and the morning show (and the Village People), I never saw the CD around. His staff were great though.

 

We also never received our M&M invite. We ran into roll call members the first night (who we'd met at sail away) and they told us when it was. They got the invite late, but we never got it. It was lightly attended, and they had lots of raffle prizes (but we didn't win, lol).

 

We had too much luggage for self assist :o We were supposed to be off between 9:00 & 9:15 (luggage tag 5), but didn't actually leave the ship until just before 10. It went pretty smoothly after that, with a short line for immigration. Considering that a week ago we were on the ship by about 11, I can't imagine the people sailing today were on that early. We didn't hit the road until around 10:45 though because of a traffic issue at the terminal. I had to go get the car and then come back for my friend and the luggage but a large truck had an issue trying to turn a corner and completely blocked the access road to Terminal 2. I sat there for around 20 minutes after getting the car :mad: Then it was quite a cluster with all the people arriving for the next cruise trying to drop off luggage at the exact spots that people were waiting to be picked up.

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KG1924

KG1924

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I agree with both of you.....that CD was literally awful. When talking about Steve Azar he pretty much said "well, if you've got nothing else to do...." And we were by the pool having drinks when the belly flop contest started....why on earth did he ramble on for 20 minutes about what a belly flop contest is? It was very awkward! I literally never remember any CD but this one was just the worst.

 

 

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ckfred

ckfred

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Two questions. First, I've read that the murder mystery dinner has returned to the Liberty and other RC ships. Has anyone done the dinner, and is it worth it?

 

Second, with checked luggage disembarkation, is a 1pm departure out of Intercontinental doable?

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KG1924

KG1924

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Two questions. First, I've read that the murder mystery dinner has returned to the Liberty and other RC ships. Has anyone done the dinner, and is it worth it?

 

Second, with checked luggage disembarkation, is a 1pm departure out of Intercontinental doable?

 

 

I don't recall seeing anything about the murder mystery dinner, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there-I'm sure someone else will know for sure.

 

As for the departure, I would say you are cutting it close. We had group 11 for our luggage. Our estimated time of departure was supposed to be 9:30 but something got delayed and we didn't physically get out of customs until a little after 12. After having to walk out of the port area to meet our reserved cab, we got to Hobby a bit before 1pm for our 2:30 flight. Keep in mind, Bush is 30-45 minutes further. The rest of our family were in the 30's for luggage and something happened on 45 that caused a traffic jam for 8 miles. They were running through the airport to make the 2:30 flight.

 

Obviously delays and traffic jams aren't everyday occurrences, but I personally wouldn't book anything before 3pm.

 

 

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melski

melski

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I was on Liberty 3/19-3/26. OP was spot on but I still liked the entertainment and guests they had on board.

 

Our formal night was nights 2 and 5.

 

The only thing I'd add was the MTD was crazy on the first night...unlike what we've done before on Liberty. I made 6:15 dinner reservations every night but the first night they told me that they wouldn't necessarily hold the reservation and it was first come, first serve. Get there by 6 (everyone who showed up at 6:15 in the reservation line was being turned away) to get in the first group of seating or you'll be given a pager and wait for 30 minutes. It seems that the first mass of seating was between 5:30 and 6:10 and then you had to wait until 6:45 or 7 for the tables to clear and they could do a second seating. By night 3, things calmed down enough and it wasn't a problem to eat at 6:15. It was just frustrating that they'd seat those without reservations first and not save a table for those with reservations even if you showed up on time.

 

It was still quite a bit of fun!

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jennellen

jennellen

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I was going to start my own thread when I have time to breathe, but just wanted to comment on your observations, especially about the CD. I've never heard one so negative before. He sat there on the morning show and said that if you didn't have a tour in Belize, don't even bother going ashore. Really? Wow. He tended to repeat himself over and over as well. I didn't need to hear that there was nothing to do on Belize more than once, but he repeated it several times. He also went on and on and on about how Saturday Night Fever was not appropriate for kids. I saw the show and while I wouldn't take a small child just because they wouldn't appreciate it, I thought it was fine for pre-teen & up and was very entertaining.. They see worse on TV - I don't know what Jeff was talking about when he said it was inappropriate. Also, before Steve Azar's show, Jeff spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about how nobody knew who Steve Azar was and how difficult it was to promote the show. Sheesh! I thought that show/concert was awesome and came home and already downloaded two of his albums. Other than the evening shows and the morning show (and the Village People), I never saw the CD around. His staff were great though.

 

We also never received our M&M invite. We ran into roll call members the first night (who we'd met at sail away) and they told us when it was. They got the invite late, but we never got it. It was lightly attended, and they had lots of raffle prizes (but we didn't win, lol).

 

We had too much luggage for self assist :o We were supposed to be off between 9:00 & 9:15 (luggage tag 5), but didn't actually leave the ship until just before 10. It went pretty smoothly after that, with a short line for immigration. Considering that a week ago we were on the ship by about 11, I can't imagine the people sailing today were on that early. We didn't hit the road until around 10:45 though because of a traffic issue at the terminal. I had to go get the car and then come back for my friend and the luggage but a large truck had an issue trying to turn a corner and completely blocked the access road to Terminal 2. I sat there for around 20 minutes after getting the car :mad: Then it was quite a cluster with all the people arriving for the next cruise trying to drop off luggage at the exact spots that people were waiting to be picked up.

 

Your description of the CD is perfect. His intro for Steve was embarassing. Steve was great! The morning shows were horrible and provided little useful info. I was shocked that as many people were at the Quest as there were since he barely mentioned it. (about 2/3 of Studio B was full. Smallest Quest crowd I've ever seen).

 

And I'm glad we decided on self-assist as our number was 26! We would have been off much too late to get home and get the animals from boarding and all.

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jennellen

jennellen

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Can you both tell me your preferred parking location? I have not sailed since Terminal 2 opened.

 

 

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I've used Galveston Park N Cruise the last two times. It's right across the street from the terminals and an easy walk after parking. We usually drop the luggage then go park and walk back over to board. This time when leaving we just pulled our luggage across with us and it was nice and easy. They have indoor and outdoor parking.

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jennellen

jennellen

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Two questions. First, I've read that the murder mystery dinner has returned to the Liberty and other RC ships. Has anyone done the dinner, and is it worth it?

 

Second, with checked luggage disembarkation, is a 1pm departure out of Intercontinental doable?

 

IIRC they did have the murder mystery dinner the first time last week. I'm pretty sure I saw it on the Compass. I've never done it, so I'm not sure if it's worth it.

 

I believe that airport transfers were the first group after self-assist to get to disembark. 1pm might be pushing it in case there are any delays or traffic. Plus Interncontinental is further than Hobby. It's on the north side of Houston.

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jennellen

jennellen

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Here is the bar menu of what's available until the ship gets 12 nautical miles from port. This is something unique to Galveston. (Hopefully I did it right.)

 

More thoughts:

 

Boarding was relatively easy. We did have to wait in the security line approximately 15-20 minutes. Once we cleared the security line, it was just a matter of walking to the check-in desk and getting our seapasses and then walking onboard. There was no lines after the check-in area. So once we were at the terminal, it was 30 minutes or less to board. We arrived around 1:00 pm approximately.

 

As someone else mentioned, Vintages seemed to be empty most times we went by it. The pub, sorrento's and cafe promenade tend to be the more hopping spots on the promenade. The Olive or Twist (Viking lounge) was always a nice, quiet place to hang out. Our usual waiter there said that it's busiest late at night when they have the disco/dance club there at 11pm. We never made it to that.

 

Every day in the cabin we were left info for art auctions and next cruise bookings. Just lots of wasted paper to me. Every single day there were papers left about this.

 

Tendering in Belize. I had read that there are sometimes issues so we booked our excursion through the ship. I'm glad we did. Tendering was delayed for about an hour and then it's a longer process than at Grand Cayman because they ships are anchored five miles from the tender docks. Plus the tenders are smaller than ones I've been on before at GC. Unlike at GC where you walk right onto the tender, first you had to walk onto another tender type thing that had stairs to go do to get onto the tender. We also left Belize late because we were waiting on 3 excursions to return. Our excursion was supposed to be 2.5 hours longer and ended up being 4 hours! So if you're thinking of doing something private outside the ship, just be aware you may need to allow more time to get off the ship and back to the ship.

 

We only did MTD one evening. We went to make the reservation and were told we could come whenever we wanted and if a table is available then we will be seated. If not, then we will wait. We kept asking which time would be best to show up and not have to wait and after a couple of exchanges we got a time. When we showed up we had to wait maybe 5 minutes before we were seated. They tell you to make reservations but then when you go to make them you're told to just show up and maybe have to wait. The MTD system still needs a little work. We've used it in the past, right after it started, and it seemed more organized then than it is now that more and more people are using it.

 

The R Bar also seems like a missed opportunity. There is not a real specialized menu with new, fun drinks or for them to introduce their own creations. And of all the bartenders I dealt with, then ones there were the least friendly. And it showed as the place wasn't really a busy spot, at least during times I saw it.

 

We were in Cozumel on Friday. There were 6 ships in port that day. We were docked next to the Allure. So the international pier was super busy! We had reservations for Mr. Sanchos. I'm glad we did as they were full. Nachi was full. Most of the beach clubs were full. So if you have a spot you're wanting to go to and there are a lot of ships in port, make your reservations early!

 

Overall still had a great trip. Any semi-negative things I've mentioned are just things I noticed but in no way ruined or took away from my cruise. It's still my favorite vacation to take!

LOTS-bar-menu-web.jpg.d313cb2cb7bfa3e0a93e6d9c6bbe697d.jpg

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Minorhawk

Minorhawk

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Does the Liberty still have the sauna and steam room in the men's locker room? I like to go down there to relax, shower and shave before dinner while my wife gets ready for dinner in the room. It was always complimentary...just wondering if that's the case.

 

Thanks in advance for the info.

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Clarea

Clarea

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Does the Liberty still have the sauna and steam room in the men's locker room? I like to go down there to relax, shower and shave before dinner while my wife gets ready for dinner in the room. It was always complimentary...just wondering if that's the case.

 

Thanks in advance for the info.

Same answer as in the other thread, still complimentary.

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poohtaz

poohtaz

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Question, if you prearrange to have champagne delivered to your room, i.e. purchase as a gift, will it be there when the cabin is ready for you to drink? Or does it not get delivered until after the 12 nautical mile thing?

 

Never mind..found my answer on another thread. No bubbly delivered until day 2.

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