Starting my Liberty research

[mets123]

39 minutes ago, BillOh said:

I will definitely take my camera on this cruise and try to capture the statue with my 400mm lens.  Catching Liberty from Liberty! 

You can get a good view while you are docked, but a zoom lens is a must. Sounds like you are covered. I'm doing two NE/Canada cruise next fall. Which one are you on?

[BillOh]

1 minute ago, mets123 said:

You can get a good view while you are docked, but a zoom lens is a must. Sounds like you are covered. I'm doing two NE/Canada cruise next fall. Which one are you on?

Would love to do that cruise.  We are going on a 9 day cruise to Bermuda/St Martin/ San Juan, and hopefully Labadee.

[mets123]

2 minutes ago, BillOh said:

Would love to do that cruise.  We are going on a 9 day cruise to Bermuda/St Martin/ San Juan, and hopefully Labadee.

We're doing a 9 day Bermuda/Caribbean next month that included Labadee. They substituted Turks/Caicos. I consider that a winning upgrade.

[BillOh]

1 minute ago, mets123 said:

We're doing a 9 day Bermuda/Caribbean next month that included Labadee. They substituted Turks/Caicos. I consider that a winning upgrade.

Thanks for that info,   Our one Carnival cruise we stopped there, didn't see much, but had a great beach day, I would love to go back. 

[NJ Gal]

We were just on the Liberty 2 weeks ago.  Because we live in NJ, the port is very convenient.  Using the garage is great, but at that time only for vehicles with handicapped stickers.  There also is a very large lot for parking.  Sometimes the garage is available for all as it does change depending on the number of ships going out around the same time.  Both Royal and Celebrity ships use the port.  

 

 

The Liberty is a great ship, but it is tired and does need to go into drydock.  The crew was wonderful and friendly--they work very hard and try to always please you.

 

Both the ice show and Saturday Night Fever shows were excellent.  Don't miss them.

 

I was not pleased with the selection of the dinner items in the main dining room.  That definitely needs some improvement. My family was a group of 10 and all enjoyed the buffet for breakfast and lunch. Lots of good choices to try and enjoy.  

[BillOh]

9 minutes ago, NJ Gal said:

 

 

 

The Liberty is a great ship, but it is tired and does need to go into drydock.  The crew was wonderful and friendly--they work very hard and try to always please you.

 

I heard it was supposed to into drydock this Feb, but that was delayed till 2026. (not confirmed)  Thanks for the info, I do have handicap tags, so I'll plan on using that garage.

[Another_Critic]

2 hours ago, BillOh said:

I will definitely take my camera on this cruise and try to capture the statue with my 400mm lens.  Catching Liberty from Liberty! 

 

Lady Liberty from Lady Liberty.  iPhone SE (2nd generation).

 

Edited July 20 by Another_Critic

[Another_Critic]

Taken from Liberty helipad.

 

 

[cargopilot]

We were on Liberty to Bermuda for 5 days in June. With the three ships using the port, the big question is how to get your car at the end with your bags after customs. There was a shuttle van being used across the bag delivery area that we luckily found, but saw many people dragging bags a long way to their cars. Not good for $30 per day.

[mets123]

2 hours ago, NJ Gal said:

 

 

I was not pleased with the selection of the dinner items in the main dining room.  That definitely needs some improvement. My family was a group of 10 and all enjoyed the buffet for breakfast and lunch. Lots of good choices to try and enjoy.  

Keep in mind that dinner menus are set by corporate. They are not ship dependent.

[BillOh]

19 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

Taken from Liberty helipad.

 

 

Which Bridge is this? How long after sailaway assuming this is close to Bayonne.

[mets123]

2 hours ago, BillOh said:

Which Bridge is this? How long after sailaway assuming this is close to Bayonne.

Verrazano Bridge. About 20-30 minutes after departure.

[Another_Critic]

2 hours ago, BillOh said:

Which Bridge is this? How long after sailaway assuming this is close to Bayonne.

Verrazzano-Narrows

 

I don't recall* the timing, but probably around 30 minutes.

 

* I've only sailed under it leaving port 12 times and returning to port 13 times.

[JaneStarr]

@BillOh We’ve sailed from Cape Liberty several times. 
In addition to photographing the NYC skyline with 1 NY Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty, also look for the Russian Teardrop Memorial to 911. It’s quite moving. Here are a couple of cell phone pics to give you an idea of what you can see.

 

[baileymouse]

Welcome to Bayonne.

Parking at the port is busier in the summer because there are three ships, as opposed to 1 ship in the winter months.  There's a website for the Cape Liberty port, cruise liberty dot com. run that all together. 

In the summer, the parking garage is usually for disabled patrons and everyone else parks in the overflow surface lots. It's safe - it's a Port Authority facility and the Port Authority Police are always on site.

Liberty is a good ship, not too big, not too small. I like it. It was my first cruise and I've been on her a few times. I'm going again this September. If you need any local Bayonne info, just ask.

[BillOh]

1 hour ago, baileymouse said:

Welcome to Bayonne.

Parking at the port is busier in the summer because there are three ships, as opposed to 1 ship in the winter months.  There's a website for the Cape Liberty port, cruise liberty dot com. run that all together. 
 

Found the site, thanks!  Off to check to see what ships are in port on May 1.

[Another_Critic]

45 minutes ago, BillOh said:

Found the site, thanks!  Off to check to see what ships are in port on May 1.

Only 1 ship will be in port on a particular day.

 

Odyssey departs for Rome on April 27

Symphony departs April 30 for 9 nights

Liberty departs May 1 for 9 nights

Edited July 21 by Another_Critic

[Kiki and The Noush]

We were on Liberty in June for a 4 day sailing to Halifax.  I will never go on this ship or one in this class of ships again.  The ship feels old and dingy.  Our cabin was dirty, even after multiple attempts to get things rectified with our cabin attendant, it was just gross.  The ship smells like an ashtray in most of the common areas.  We found it impossible to enjoy the Schooner bar because of the smoke and you could not walk along the promenade without getting a face full of cigarette smoke from the stairwells.  For us, never again.  

 

We love sailing out of Bayonne.  It is an easy 3 1/2 hour drive for us and I don't feel guilty for overpacking 🙂

[luckyinpa]

NJ is so much easier than NY for us.

 

you will hear lot of good things but ill say one thing i found super annoying. when we walked thru the casino through that bar in the back to the theater it was crazy narrow and a pain. the casino itself is a maze. (unsure why they need to do this as you are trapped at sea anyway) and when there's an event in that bar in the back there is maybe a 5 to 6 ft empty space for 1000 people to walk thru at the end of the show in the main theater.  i know you can wait and take those other elevators but that is an adventure in itself

 

MDR was just avg. the usual cramped seating. most private tables are next to the windows. nothing bad there but nothing wow either. I guess CK on oasis spoiled me. but i knew going in what id be doing. i actually did liberty out of FLL because the royal suite was cheaper from there vs a balcony from NYC to bermuda. welll worth the flight and hotel and this was my 1st flying to a cruise. it was that worth it.

[Biker19]

14 minutes ago, Kiki and The Noush said:

For us, never again

Don’t sail on anything older than Odyssey. 

[sadiwest]

Dh and I did this Liberty itinerary mid June. Our Labadee was replaced with Puerto Plata, and we were VERY pleasantly surprised.  I'll give our feedback on Liberty...not sure if you're asking for feedback on the ports, but lmk. 

 

For reference, we've been on Anthem a number of times and Oasis once. Naturally it's a smaller ship and shows a little wear and tear but not terrible wear.

 

What we didn't love:

Solarium isn't very adult only in that it's an outdoor space. It's the pool deck entry for a LOT of people so it's really only the tiny pool that is adults only. Not the space (and the two hot tubs). 

 

The Royal Promenade is way more narrow than it needs to be. With all the parades, sales, and parties, it gets crowded very quickly.  If you can perch yourself on one of the higher decks there are multiple places to view those gojngs on that are away ftom the crowds.

 

The buffet is weird.  There's some seating and food stations outside what I would call the main buffet area.  It didn't feel like there was a strategic place to land for buffet eating as it's quite spread out. That being said there was one night (Taste of I forget?????) When they had stir fry that was awesome.   Both chicken and beef.  We only went because we got back too late for our seating but glad we did. 

 

The shows (in our opinion of course) were ok. CD Mae is great but the shows were hit and miss. One comedian was not funny and frankly I forget his name. The others were good. We didn't like Saturday Night Fever, but enjoyed the ice show. 

 

The Schooner Bar is WAY too small for the trivia offerings.  If you are going be sure to go way early.  Otherwise you'll be standing. 

 

What we did like. Though this may be a small list, we had a great trip.  These are just ship observations.   Not port and not things outside RCCL control (like the insanely hot weather). Also we have only gone out of Cape Liberty which is typically a good experience.  

 

Without our dd with us, we really had no experience with the sports deck (Flowrider, slides, etc).  We watched a move outside at night which was our only non Solarium pool experience.  It was very nice.  

 

The staff, as always, were amazing.  We took the behind-the-scenes tour. Very much recommend it. I did learn some things.  The food was good in our opinion.  We are not fancy eaters. The only thing I did not like or finish was the fish and chips. Fish was too big to be cooked properly and was soggy. Literally everything else we had was good. 

 

Not sure anyone else cares, but their logo shop was pretty extensive for a small ship

 No harm no foul. We bought a lot. Lol

 

We did a b2b. First leg was Promenade view inside. We were VERY pleasantly surprised.  Quite sufficient for the 2 of us and not small feeling. The second leg was a partially obstructed ov and that bathroom was noticeably larger.  Both cabins were a pleasant surprise.   As small as Liberty is, the walk to the end of the hallway (aft port side) wasn't terrible.  

 

Please see the few pictures of the pool areas and Promenade. Added some of the inside cabin and it's view of the Promenade.   Let me know if you want information on those ports or anything else.  

[sadiwest]

Few more photos. 

[Another_Critic]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

Don’t sail on anything older than Odyssey. 

Next cruises are:

 

Symphony ❌

Odyssey ✔️

Vision ❌

Radiance ❌

Radiance ❌

 

Will enjoy every one.  🙂

[BillOh]

Does Sabor still offer an ala carte lunch?  We enjoyed that on Freedom in 2008, don't remember if it was offered in 2015.

[The Fun Researcher]

If you’ve done Freedom twice you know what to expect from the Liberty.  However it wasn’t fully amped like the Freedom.  They did add the water slides.   We just sailed on Liberty last month and had a great time. We love the freedom class ships. It did not feel rundown to us at all. It does not have playmakers, and the pool deck is decorated pretty much like the old style Freedom class, as are the staterooms.  It’s still a beautiful ship to sail on.