Just off Liberty

[harry0]

We were on the Liberty of the Seas 12/1 sailing. My wife and I took 4 grandchildren (7-15). We are Diamond plus but we have not been on Royal for a couple years. Here are some plus and minuses I saw-Not sure if the minuses are ship specific issue or fleet wide but they definitely influenced our cruise. However we had a memory filled awesome cruise.

 

+++   pluses

 

The passengers (lots from Texas) were some of the friendliest people I ever met.

 

The crew were accommodating and  professional.

 

Food was good not great-MDR and Windjammer.

 

- - - minuses 

 

MDR waitstaff seemed rushed and resulted in poor service-slow drink service-courses not synced -very inconsistent. From what I saw -this was due to the fact the assistant waiters are no longer teamed with 1 waiter-they float between several tables.

 

Johnny Rockets-charge of $12 per person surprised me and caught me off guard-looks like no more JRs for us.

 

Debarkation in Galveston was very strange-seems to me Royal wanted everyone to self assist. I had a 1 pm flight from Hobby and was told to self assist to assure we arrived on time. We never self assist because we like to relax our travel day-especially with 4 kids. We went to our assigned area deck 4 dining room-it was chaotic and disorganized. Though I never do self assist it seemed like there was alot of people self assisting-It took us an hour in line. So they must not have started calling luggage tags till 9-9:30. -IMO Royal was pushing the self assist to save on their labor-I had 1 pm flights before in other ports and was never advised to take my own luggage off. Is this the norm now?

 

Jamaica-Not a fan as a cruise stop-I feel like we are tolerated not welcomed by the locals because we are their source of income. Nothing against them they are a great people and are blessed with a beautiful island.

[spookwife]

twelve bucks for Johnny Rockets?!   holee spudge.  then again I won't eat there at land based restaurants...

 

a LOT of the  Liberty folks drive in to port so thats why  Self assist is so popular.  and with basically one way off the island, traffic gets  overwhelmed easily.  

 

just out of curiosity, was it a foggy day?  that also wreaks havoc with disembarkation.  

[harry0]

Not foggy-and I did notice that cruise parking is a big business there-makes sense-glad to hear that Royal is probably not pushing the self assist fleet wide

[Tulsacoker]

JR's is $12 total ($9.99 +18% gratuities )

[harry0]

Thanks for clarification on JRs I should have looked at my receipt. Still a lot of money for fast food-maybe if I was a teen it would be a great deal.😊

[Tulsacoker]

11 minutes ago, harry0 said:

Thanks for clarification on JRs I should have looked at my receipt. Still a lot of money for fast food-maybe if I was a teen it would be a great deal.😊

yep a teen having two burger with fries with soda definitely make it more of a value.  

[HicksRA]

I’ve decided that if you want a good burger, it would be better to order as many Wagyu burgers as you want from room service for $7.95 (or free if in a suite) than wasting money at JR’s. 
We were on Liberty 11/17 and ate there.  It will be my last time. 

[harry0]

Am I wrong or were the sundaes at Johnny Rockets much better too? The other day we got a poor excuse of a Sundae 

Whats a Wagyu burger ?

Edited December 9, 2019 by harry0

[Tulsacoker]

Yes I thought the sundays we very good at JR's 

[c-leg5]

Not sure if this was your first cruise from Galveston? 
 

Self-debarkation has always been an issue out of Galveston and only gets worse as bigger ships are brought in. As stated above it is caused by the large number of locals from Texas and surrounding states that drive to the port.
 

We are local, self-drive but rarely do self-assist and know how long it can take to get through immigration.  Embarkation and dis-embarkation are the most chaotic of almost any other port we have cruised from and we just “accept it”  due to the convenience of not having to fly. I would never sail from Galveston if I had to fly. However dis-embarkation has improved, in general, since the renovation of the terminal. 
 

We were also on your cruise and are enjoying the sun as we begin our second week! We were back on board at a reasonable time so overall  procedure must have been completed fairly efficiently this week but I don’t doubt you stood a long time in the immigration area.

 

Agree with your comments on dining room. We haven’t gone to JR for years due to charges. We sail mainly for the ports and just relax on board the ship but Falmouth is not a favorite.

[harry0]

Yes this is my first cruise out of Galveston we did it with my nephew from outside Dallas. Galveston is a 

great town and nice people but we will probably cruise from Florida next time

[HicksRA]

2 hours ago, harry0 said:

Am I wrong or were the sundaes at Johnny Rockets much better too? The other day we got a poor excuse of a Sundae 

Whats a Wagyu burger ?

Wagyu beef. 

Wagyu beef is popular around the world because of its superior eating quality compared with other breeds of cattle. Not only does wagyu beef have higher levels of intra-muscular fat or marbling but the meat texture is finer, resulting in a more flavoursome eating experience.

 

[Paulette3028]

8 hours ago, harry0 said:

We were on the Liberty of the Seas 12/1 sailing. My wife and I took 4 grandchildren (7-15). We are Diamond plus but we have not been on Royal for a couple years. Here are some plus and minuses I saw-Not sure if the minuses are ship specific issue or fleet wide but they definitely influenced our cruise. However we had a memory filled awesome cruise.

 

+++   pluses

 

The passengers (lots from Texas) were some of the friendliest people I ever met.

 

The crew were accommodating and  professional.

 

Food was good not great-MDR and Windjammer.

 

- - - minuses 

 

MDR waitstaff seemed rushed and resulted in poor service-slow drink service-courses not synced -very inconsistent. From what I saw -this was due to the fact the assistant waiters are no longer teamed with 1 waiter-they float between several tables.

 

Johnny Rockets-charge of $12 per person surprised me and caught me off guard-looks like no more JRs for us.

 

Debarkation in Galveston was very strange-seems to me Royal wanted everyone to self assist. I had a 1 pm flight from Hobby and was told to self assist to assure we arrived on time. We never self assist because we like to relax our travel day-especially with 4 kids. We went to our assigned area deck 4 dining room-it was chaotic and disorganized. Though I never do self assist it seemed like there was alot of people self assisting-It took us an hour in line. So they must not have started calling luggage tags till 9-9:30. -IMO Royal was pushing the self assist to save on their labor-I had 1 pm flights before in other ports and was never advised to take my own luggage off. Is this the norm now?

 

Jamaica-Not a fan as a cruise stop-I feel like we are tolerated not welcomed by the locals because we are their source of income. Nothing against them they are a great people and are blessed with a beautiful island.

Do you remember who your Activity Manager was on your sailing?  Often times the Activity Manager does the Morning Show with the CD.

[c-leg5]

31 minutes ago, Paulette3028 said:

Do you remember who your Activity Manager was on your sailing?  Often times the Activity Manager does the Morning Show with the CD.

cruise compass says “Alex”

 

Cruise director is Brian Leavitt.

[fdthird]

Have done 2 B2Bs on Liberty in the last year and could not disagree more!  Great crew, great ship.  The cruise is what you make it. Very tired of folks who always look for a half empty Glass!  

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, HicksRA said:

Wagyu beef. 

Wagyu beef is popular around the world because of its superior eating quality compared with other breeds of cattle. Not only does wagyu beef have higher levels of intra-muscular fat or marbling but the meat texture is finer, resulting in a more flavoursome eating experience.

 

 

Hopefully they don't use the description Wagyu like they do crab or VOOM🤣🤣

[harry0]

15 hours ago, fdthird said:

Have done 2 B2Bs on Liberty in the last year and could not disagree more!  Great crew, great ship.  The cruise is what you make it. Very tired of folks who always look for a half empty Glass!  

Fd third this is Cruise Critic so I figure this is the place to be critical. We had a great cruise and I just finished my survey and it was almost all 10s

We are neighbors I live in Upper Twp.

[The Fun Researcher]

I thinks it's overdue time that RCCL rethinks Johnny Rockets.  Never really understood the appeal of the place, especially for such a steep up charge for diner food.  So many better venues could occupy that space.

 

I do like what they did on the Navigator and made it ala carte pricing and moved it right next to the pool deck. 

Dan

[harry0]

Ala carte is a great move