Liberty of The Seas Review for 10/2-10/9

[scubaslayer]

It has taken a week to get around to writing my review since I was back to work by Wednesday. This was our 2^nd time on Liberty on the same western itinerary (Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica) but the last time was a few years ago on a Christmas cruise, pre-covid. We traveled as a family with 2 adults and 2 teens (13 &15) on our first vacation since summer 2019. We drove to the port and had connecting balcony rooms on deck 8. Overall, it was a great cruise, and we were sad to see it end. One kid asked what would happen if we just didn’t leave.

 

Overview – This trip was great. 3/4^th of the family is introverted, and we like to keep to ourselves. The other 1/4^th isn’t that interested in adventuring out to make new friends and is ok with staying with the rest of us. Since we hadn’t had a vacation in 3 years and both adults have high stress jobs, we really needed a laid back, relaxing trip and this was perfect for that. The ship is showing her age and could use a dry dock to replace carpeting and repaint, but it is still a beautiful ship and most of what we saw was cosmetic though our balcony door needed to be repaired but it still worked. The slides are kind of meh and need more waterflow to get rid of the slow spots but they are still fun.

 

            Rooms – We had standard balcony rooms that were connecting. They aren’t anything fancy but having 2 bathrooms was great. If one person was taking too long there was another bathroom available. There was plenty of space for our things and empty luggage it nicely under the bed. The couches were not pull outs, but we did not need them to be. There was signal interference or something so the shows on the TV were sometimes shaky. The kid channels seemed to be Nickelodeon and had Avatar and Legend of Kora and mostly older shows. The movies we saw were Jurassic World Dominion, Minions: Rise of Gru, Greatest Showman, and Thor: Love and Thunder. We do not do the internet package so what was downloaded on phones, tablets, and the Tv was all we had. We have T-mobile with a plan that includes Mexico and the Caribbean and had data and texting on port days. The kids acted like we were trying to kill them but with others reporting bad connectivity it didn’t seem worth the cost. Our stateroom attendant was phenomenal. By the 2^nd day he knew our names and recognized us. It seems like he did this for all his rooms, and he made it a point to say hello and talk to us. The beds in the kids’ room were separated by the time we got back from dinner on night 1. The connecting door was a small door near the beds in the rooms. It was not able to be locked but it could be closed. Having the balcony was nice but the kids rarely used theirs. Next time we may get a promenade facing room/balcony for them across the hall. Kid room complaint was the beds are too close together. Next time we will bring a curtain to hang between the 2 beds if they are still like this.

 

Dining – We had main dining room early seating and did not go to any specialty dining or JRs. This is what we wanted. We did not want to deal with making reservations for my time and just wanted to go to the same spot everyday for dinner. Our servers were great but the pressure they are under is ridiculous. The food was decent, but the portion size has decreased from our last cruise and the quality was a bit less but still on par with a somewhat fancy chain restaurant. It isn’t 5-star food but if that was the expectation, we would cruise a higher-end line. We still had plenty to eat every night and it was no problem if we wanted seconds or 2 different things. Honestly the smaller portions probably reduce food waste and stopped us from eating way more than we needed. Our table was a couple over from a window and we had a nice ocean view for dinner every evening. My biggest complaint for dinner was for some reason they decided the servers need to do song and dance stuff and perform more for us. From the clapping from some guests, I guess they enjoy this, but it was off putting for my family. My kid with sensory issues had to leave the table for about 20 minutes in the middle of their meal to escape. The reason we always do main dining for dinner is for a nice calm environment. The theatrics seem like what I would expect from a cheap restaurant and not a nicer restaurant with a 3-course meal service. Unlike dinner, breakfast and lunch in the main dining room was disappointing. Next time we will probably skip over the dining room, except for dinner. The Windjammer was pretty good when we did go for breakfast, 2^nd breakfast, elevenese, lunch, and second supper. It is buffet food so our expectations aren’t that high, but it is a buffet with a lot of choices, and we could always find things we liked and new foods to try. The desserts are always plentiful as well. Café Promenade had a nice small selection of sandwiches and snacks including fruit and gluten free options, but we mainly went there for Starbucks. Sorrento’s was ok and the last thing to close at night at 3am. Sprinkles had soft serve whenever the pool was open, and the kids had more than enough.

       

 

Drinks – All 4 of us had the refreshment package. Neither adult is a big drinker, and that package is not a good value for us. We had no issue getting whatever non-alcoholic drink we wanted. This package includes Starbucks, fresh squeezed juices, soda, bottled water, milkshakes from Johnny Rockets, and all the virgin drinks you can concoct including virgin bloody Mary which was not just tomato juice. Daquiris that were readily available included strawberry, peach, and mango. The mocktails were all pretty good and now I am forced to have the ingredients for a Shirley ginger available at home. We did have to take each seapass card up to the bar and ask for our refillable cups but there is no freestyle soda machines on Liberty so we picked up the cups and packed them to bring home.

[scubaslayer]

Pre-trip for us was the drive on Saturday, the day before the cruise. We chose to cruise from a port we could drive to since 4 flights would have greatly reduced our spending ability. Unfortunately, there are only 2/3 ports that fit this and both are approximately 12 hours away. The best options for the week of fall break for the kids was Galveston. We had the car mostly loaded and ready to go Friday night after I got home from work, and we left Saturday morning at about 5am. First stop was 5 minutes later at Dutch Bros and then we hopped onto I-10 to get the drive done. I hate driving on I-10 across the state. It is a long and very boring drive with no stops for long periods of time. 2nd stop was at about the 2-hour mark for bathroom and to clean the windows to reduce the glare of the sun. We topped off the gas tank and had to stop at McDonalds because of course by 7am people wanted greasy food. We skipped lunch and just had gas station snacks because the kids started seeing Buc-EEs signs and wanted to stop there. We got to Houston and stopped for dinner at a Longhorn Steakhouse at 5 (4 on our home time zone) and proceeded to our hotel. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn Hobby International airport. It was right off I-45 south of Houston. It was cheap, had breakfast, free parking, free wi-fi, and we just needed a place to sleep. Unfortunately, the beds are rock hard, and it needs to be updated but it was cheap. Breakfast was typical edible but not great. The 4th floor was surprisingly quiet considering our view of the interstate and the proximity to the airport.

 

Day 1- We left the hotel to head to Galveston around 10 when my oldest asked to stop to buy a hairbrush because hers broke. Thankfully there are 3 or 4 Walmarts along I-45 headed toward Galveston. We stopped and bought a couple of hairbrushes (why buy 1, when you can get 2?), some hair accessories, and a Monster that remained unopened to carry on to the ship. Also decided to go ahead and grab cash for taxis and tips while in port. Finally in Galveston at 11am and headed over to The Spot for lunch by kid request and sat with a view of Pleasure Pier and the beach. After lunch we headed to the port a little early to drop checked bags and to park at Port of Galveston Lot B. We had reserved in advance and parking was quick and simple. Waiting for the shuttle was about 15 minutes. Our check-in time was at 1pm but they went ahead and let us through at 12:30. The security line took a good 20 minutes to get to the front but the rest of the check-in, pictures, and heading up the gangway took less than 10 minutes. We were onboard right about 1 and headed to check in with the lifeboats and headed to the rooms. By 1:30 we were in our rooms. By 3 we met our stateroom attendant and asked for the beds to be separated in the kids’ room, but the teens asked we leave the balcony divider closed. We pretty much hung out in the rooms until time for dinner except a walk to the pool deck for drinks and some desserts from Windjammer. While getting ready for Sail away we got to see a pod of dolphins playing in the waves created by the ship. We went to dinner, walked around the ship, and went back to the room to unpack our bags which had arrived right before dinner.

 

Day 2 – Seaday and we took advantage of a relaxing nothing planned day. Started the day at Café Promenade for Starbucks and a donut for 1 kid. Then adults and other kids headed to breakfast in the main dining room. Later we went up to the crowded pool deck but were able to grab some chairs near the splash zone. Kids enjoyed ice cream but wished it was still self-serve and there was only chocolate, vanilla or swirl, but no strawberry. Spent the day hanging by the pool, lunch in main dining room, took a nap, and the teens went to hang out and explore without us but didn’t want to join teen activities. They did go to a late night showing of Jurassic World Dominion and got back to the room close to midnight.

 

Day 3 – Cozumel is one of my favorite places but post covid infection my desire to go for a couple of dives was a no go. Instead, we booked a food tour through Cozumel Chef. Gerardo (Gerry) our guide was fantastic. His family was in town for a reunion and joined us. We stopped for tacos, quesadillas, a soup, went to tour a local market, went for fish, then final stop was a bakery. I really wish we could have taken baked goods onto the ship, but we managed to eat them all before boarding. On board we got ready for dinner and after that I believe we all passed out from too much food and the rocking of the ship.

 

Day 4 – Grand Cayman is a nice port but between the need to tender and no one wanting to snorkel we decided to stay on the ship. My oldest had all the slides to herself, chairs at the main pool were plentiful, and the pool never had more than a few people in it. We napped, read, and had a relaxing fun day. It was a perfect vacation day.

 

Day 5 – Jamaica we had booked an excursion with Chukka for tubing, rum tasting, and Good Hope. Unfortunately, after this was booked 3 months earlier, 2 days before we were informed our trip was canceled since we were on a cruise ship, and we would be required to book through them. Of course, no tours were available by this point, so we opted to do a beach day instead. The excursion desk was unhelpful in telling me about the different options, so we decided to get information once we were off the ship and go on our own.  We took a taxi to Blue Waters, rented a cabana, bought the buffet lunch, and spent the day playing at the beach before going back to port for some shopping. Jamaica is a place I would love to go for a week or two. It never feels like enough time on the ship.

 

Day 6 & 7 – More time at sea and more time relaxing, napping, reading, and eating. Husband and I went to a couple of the trivia things and the kids mostly hung out together eating and at the pool or chilling in their room.

 

Day 8 – Disembarkation was smooth. I messed up the information and ended up with us carrying our luggage. This worked out in our favor as we were off the ship, through customs, and had the car loaded by 7:30. We headed for home, making one last stop at a Buc-EEs. It was a bit sad realizing it was back to reality but hey the pets were happy we came home.

[Kellie in Texas]

" ... The Windjammer was pretty good when we did go for breakfast, 2^nd breakfast, elevenese, lunch, and second supper...."  This line made me laugh. After our first cruise many years ago, my husband would tell people "It's like being a baby.  Two-hour feedings."  🙂