Recent Liberty of the Seas Sailings

[umpisoccer]

Has anyone been on the recent 3 Day Liberty of the Seas Sailings out of Fort Lauderdale?   Any reviews and/or Daily Compass schedules would be greatly appreciated. 

[bowlinmoe]

Good posting!  My wife and I will be on the Liberty of the Seas cruise departing 11/24. 

[Trailcon]

DW and I were on L of S from 10/31 to 11/10.  the trip was fine although the MDT food was inconsistant.  Ice show best entertainment. 

[Ashland]

We were just on Liberty Oct 5-14. Ship is in great condition...a very good crew.

WJ food was ok...room service was good. Ice show was good. Trivia was always packed and no more prizes...bring your own pencil.

[RedJessi]

I'm boarding Liberty this Friday - we just found out the other family we were going to be traveling with is canceling their trip and I know my kiddo will be broken hearted to not have her best friend on board to celebrate their birthdays. I would love to get any recommendations and will come back to report after our trip.

[umpisoccer]

Looking forward to hearing how your cruise goes.  Please post your daily compass schedules.

[umpisoccer]

On 11/16/2023 at 10:48 AM, RedJessi said:

I'm boarding Liberty this Friday - we just found out the other family we were going to be traveling with is canceling their trip and I know my kiddo will be broken hearted to not have her best friend on board to celebrate their birthdays. I would love to get any recommendations and will come back to report after our trip.

Hi RedJessi.   How did your Liberty of the Seas cruise go this past weekend?  Can you post the Daily Compass schedules.  I hope you had a great cruise.

[RedJessi]

3 hours ago, umpisoccer said:

Hi RedJessi.   How did your Liberty of the Seas cruise go this past weekend?  Can you post the Daily Compass schedules.  I hope you had a great cruise.

 

 

The compass is now only digital - and it's a LOT of screen shots to show you a day - like over 2 dozen per day. I'll upload a few but I am not sure I can commit to all of it.

 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by RedJessi
clarity

[RedJessi]

[RedJessi]

[RedJessi]

[RedJessi]

So, Above you have all the Compass for day 1 - embarkation day.

For Port Everglades - have picture ID or birth certifications for everyone in the car available on the car - you will have to show it to get to the parking lot. Luckily enough, I had all this info easily at hand and had realized what was going on while we were in line, but I can see people having a stressful experience off the bat, trying to get documents that are maybe in the trunk. Overall, I did not find embarkation to be very well organized. I had done everything on the App, but was still directed to go to the check in desk, where we waited for about 40 minutes in line, only to have the desk person not know while we were sent there, because everything was done. 🤷‍♀️

We went straight to the Windjammer - lots of friendly crew and happy, welcoming faces and we enjoyed a quick lunch. We then explored the ship a bit. We found the kids club and we had low expectations, but RCL didn't quite rise to them. Now, caveat, we've been spoiled by the Disney Kids club - so it's a totally unfair comparison. But, our kiddo (girl age 11) had zero interest in going back. Which was fine, because there was plenty to do onboard. Our room was in a great location, but was otherwise unremarkable. It was our first time back in an inside cabin since 2016! Definitely prefer a balcony, but we weren't;t planning on spending much time there - and we really didn't - so it was fine. Like I said, a great location, which made up for a lot. 
 

[RedJessi]

[RedJessi]

[RedJessi]

Above you have all of the compass info from day 2. I don't think I will be posting more compass images - essentially, the activities are largely the same for day 3 - add the ice show at about 7pm and 9pm. The rest will just be my thoughts on our first experience back with Royal after 7 years with other cruise lines. 

FOOD - OVERALL
First night, we ate in the MDR with a "my time dining" reservation at 6:45. This was not a great experience. We arrived to the line at 6:40 were sat at about 7:25 in a nice location and ordered our drinks. My husband and daughter got theirs in about 10 minutes....my glass of wine took a bit longer to show up - perhaps an extra 10 minutes. We placed our meal order, and waited about 25 minutes for the appetizers to show up - my husband and daughter both ordered spinach and artichoke dip, which they each only took a couple bites of before pushing it aside. I ordered the escargot and crispy crab cake. The escargot was well cooked and seasoned - honestly, some of the best cruise ship escargot I've ever had. The crab cake never arrived. And we waited another 45 minutes for our main entrees. Which felt like an excessive amount of time. My husband got the prime rib, which he said was very good - but was served on a plate with a teaspoon sized portion of veg. Weird. My daughter has the stuffed portobello mushroom, which she enjoyed. I had the spaghetti bolognese, which I feel fairly confident was canned ragu sauce mixed with diced, unseasoned ground beef. Edible but bland. Deserts were Cheesecake and Boston creme pie - both were good. But given that the meal took 2 hours, we decided we were not interested in repeat performances and opted to eat in the windjammer for our remaining dinners. This is something I have never done as I've generally enjoyed the MDR experience, but after truly awful experiences on our last Princess cruise and with this being such a short, casual cruise, I decided to shrug it off and just hit the buffet. Which was fine. I feel like RCLs food quality post-covid has fallen to what Carnival Cruise was pre-covid. I haven't been on a Carnival ship in 6 years, so I can't speak to what it's currently like - if it's called as well, I cannot say. I can say that Disney remains the highest quality food I've had at sea with not big changes pre/post covid, while Princess was the worst food I even had on any cruise.

This is not to say the windjammer was horrible - we had plenty to eat (though lines for hamburgers got too long for my husband to be willing to stand in) and it was certainly better than cooking it myself! I did notice there was a lack of staff compared to what we previously experienced on RCL and what we most recently experienced with other cruise lines. When plates were put on the edge of the table, they were not collected until we vacated the table. I don't know if this is new policy or if their buffet is just short staffed. Also, no bar staff were wandering about to take drink orders - if you wanted an adult beverage, you had to walk to the bar at the entrance to the windjammer. 

Overall, It was good - not spectacular but also in no way awful. If I were to do it again, I would try traditional dining at 5:15. If it took longer than 90 minutes, I would go back to the windjammer and not feel like I was missing out on anything other than white tablecloths. 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by RedJessi
Additional info

[RedJessi]

Day 2 - NASSAU

We opted to stay on board and enjoy the ship with fewer crowds. We climbed the rock wall, played dodgeball (RCL even gave out "gold medals" to the winning team, so we came home with a net souvenir!), swam in the pools, ate many cones of ice cream and watched some of the Little Mermaid. We definitely enjoyed this day and it was proof that often with cruising, the ship is the best destination. At 1:00 my husband and I took the All- Access tour, which we thoroughly enjoyed! Engineering and the Bridge were super cool, but the seeing the kitchens and laundry was also a cool look at all the hard work that goes into making our experience memorable. Liberty may be an older ship, with some dated decor and chipped or worn surfaces, but she still knows how to deliver a good time and seems to have a dedicated crew. We wrapped up the day with some Karaoke and called it a night. 

Day 3 - COCO CAY

We were not interested in the exorbitant cost of the "thrill park" -full disclosure, we are Floridians and when you can hit a big Disney, Sea World or Universal water park for less than half the cost of Coco Cay's much smaller offering, it was a hard pass for us. So we found a nice spot on the beach, under umbrellas, about 50 feet from a snack shack and about a minute long walk to the giant oasis pool and had a great time! No complaints at all - food was easy to get, never a line, finally found the Strawberry Kiwi drink I've loved on past RCL cruises (Liberty only offered water, unsweet tea and lemonade as the complimentary options), and stayed from about 10am to 2pm. We opted to get back on the ship a bit early to experience the Flow rider with shorter wait times. Then it was back to the windjammer for dinner before seeing the Ice show. Definitely catch this! I was amazed at the tricks they were able to do on such a small patch of ice - my daughter was on the edge of her seat, gasping and covering her eyes at some moments. Definitely a talented cast!

Day 4 - Disembarking

Hands down, easiest disembarkation ever. Literally woke up at 6:45am, rolled out of bed, got dressed, zipped up the bags and walked out the door. We were back at our car by 7:20. 10 our to 10 for self-assist.


Let me know if you have any questions - I'll answer whatever I can. In the meantime - enjoy your cruise - we did! 

[Scottdalfonso]

For future cruises- you can scan the QR code on the tv or around the ship to download an actual cruise compass PDF each day, which is easier to save, and share if you wanted to. It's a PDF of the actual, printed Cruise compass. 

[RedJessi]

12 minutes ago, Scottdalfonso said:

For future cruises- you can scan the QR code on the tv or around the ship to download an actual cruise compass PDF each day, which is easier to save, and share if you wanted to. It's a PDF of the actual, printed Cruise compass. 

 

I will try to keep that in mind for future cruises! Thanks 🙂

[The Fun Researcher]

41 minutes ago, Scottdalfonso said:

For future cruises- you can scan the QR code on the tv or around the ship to download an actual cruise compass PDF each day, which is easier to save, and share if you wanted to. It's a PDF of the actual, printed Cruise compass. 

 

28 minutes ago, RedJessi said:

 

I will try to keep that in mind for future cruises! Thanks 🙂

I request a paper copy from the room steward at the beginning of our cruise. I like the paper copies and they have been happy to oblige throughout the cruise.

[PhillyFan33579]

4 hours ago, RedJessi said:

 

I will try to keep that in mind for future cruises! Thanks 🙂

Just an FYI, you can find the daily schedule for your cruise on the app usually a week (although it can be shorter or longer) before your cruise. For example, I am cruising on Liberty November 27 and the app already has the daily schedule for every day of the cruise. Based on requests for schedules earlier in this thread, I assume quite a few people don’t realize this information is available in the app prior to the cruise. 

[PhillyFan33579]

4 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

 

I request a paper copy from the room steward at the beginning of our cruise. I like the paper copies and they have been happy to oblige throughout the cruise.

For what it’s worth, when I was on Freedom a few weeks ago, several cabin stewards told passengers they were no longer providing hard copies of the Cruise Compass. I don’t know if this was an isolated occurrence or a new policy. 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I don’t know if this was an isolated occurrence or a new policy. 

That (steward saying no Compass) has been reported on most ships for the past year.

[umpisoccer]

Thank you for posting!!

[umpisoccer]

Do you need to sign up for the production shows when you get on the ship?

[Biker19]

45 minutes ago, umpisoccer said:

Do you need to sign up for the production shows when you get on the ship?

None of the shows on Freedom class can be reserved- just show up.