LuCruise

Coffee Card There have been some posts recently about the coffee card so thought I'd mention how it works on Liberty. This was a 4 day cruise so we pre-purchased one card for DH and I. This allowed 15 punches. When we entered our stateroom, the card itself wasn't there but there was a note to go to Cafe Promenade to pick it up. When we got there, the barista had a list to verify our names and gave us the card. We asked how it worked and he explained, 1 punch for a small, 2 punches for anything else. Things like the Frappuccino types or Iced Coffee can only be put in a grande cup. We didn't try and fight this but simply planned accordingly. Cafe Promenade on Liberty serves Starbucks coffee and all of their specialty drinks. Nice! So every morning before heading to our breakfast, we'd stop and grab a small Cafe Latte. This left one other day when we could get something else in a bigger size (e.g. I had a Frappaccino and DH had a larger cofee) plus one other day with one small and one large. This worked fine for us and was honestly fine. Our next cruise is a week cruise on Oasis with our kids and thus, we will purchase 2 cards. The nice thing with the cards too is that it is sharable, unlike the drink packages. P.S. - If the Deluxe drink package wasn't ridiculous with this cruise, then we would have purchased it. Mind you, we didn't really need it anyways with the Ben and Jerry Sweet.

Main Dining Room I missed sharing this picture of the main dining room in my earlier post. Royal's dining rooms (with the exception of Anthem) are just beautiful. I was able to capture the room on boarding day with no one in it. Just beautiful!

Food & Service Windjammer The Windjammer usually has very good selection and is a busy happening place. Unlike other ships, the one on Liberty doesn't have any sinks for washing your hands. Instead, but they have a cheery guy in a cowboy hat that gave everyone sanitizer as you walked in. He always gave us a smile. We were on Anthem in March when it was still under covid restrictions. Back then, they had switched to the crew serving everything. It was much cleaner but a bit of a pain as it slowed things down, plus if you just wanted a small taste of something or a small amount of syrup you were out of luck. You would get a gob of whatever, and a pool of syrup, etc. It still seemed cleaner though with them serving so I didn't mind it. On Liberty, the buffet is back to normal with self serve. So I always sanitized again after getting food prior to tasting anything. Lunch Like most others, we went to the Windjammer on boarding day. The entrance was so nice as they had a large gingerbread town (more than one house) and an American flag in cup cakes. Pretty cool! Not sure if anyone took any of those cupcakes but this is a photo at the start of the cruise. As for my thoughts, I'm a sandwich or salad girl for lunch so I never love going here for lunch. They do have a good variety of things though and I would say that the food was just ok. Some good, some not so good but it was fine. We went here again for lunch on our Nassau day. DH ate from the Windjammer buffet, but I stopped beforehand at Sorentos and picked up veggie pizza and a mini tuna sandwich instead, and just brought it to the buffet. Since it's all Royal food, that's not an issue. Breakfast I usually really enjoy breakfast at the Windjammer. Not sure if I was just getting bored of it, or if the food was off, but it didn't seem as good. DH felt the same. The food was either bland, dry or not warm enough (and this is coming from someone who typically isn't overly critical of food). My favorite things were the grapefruit and cheese slices, and I regretted not getting cereal...so basically things that Royal didn't make. Just our personal opinions though. And honestly, what is a Royal cruise without going to the Windjammer?

So awesome to hear you're having such a good time. Oh no...sorry to hear about the heat and water issues. Glad you are ok. Oh, our bathrooms have always been tiny too...lol...it's just a different layout. We always manage so not a big deal.

Food & Service Main Dining Room - Breakfast Our kids don't love breakfast in the MDR so when it's just DH and I, we try and go. We went on the CoCo Cay morning as we weren't in any major rush to get off. For the dining room, before covid, they had a buffet plus you could order off the menu, but it seems like now it's just the menu option, which is too bad. It's not like we were lacking food, the it was nice being able to grab a few sides ourselves. I'll say that we were a bit disappointed with the MDR at breakfast. DH ordered an omelet of some kind and I ordered the eggs benedict but spinach instead of bacon (I don't eat meat). DH said his was ok. Mine was bland, whereas in the past it's always been great. Service was slow too but it was fine. Main Dining Room - Lunch Similarly, we wanted to try the MDR at lunch time. Since we only had one sea day, it was only open on our last day. Like breakfast, they no longer have the Tutti Fruiti salad bar at lunch, which is too bad as this was sooo good. The menu was limited for me, but only because I don't eat meat, I love salmon but it's a "dinner item" for me, and I don't like Lentil soup. So, I was stuck with appetizers. But this worked out as I was able to get the Caesar salad (which is usually my dinner appetizer - so it meant I could order something else for dinner ...lol) . I also ordered the mozzarella sticks off the appetizer section. It was very tasty but very salty. DH ordered the Lentil soup and said ti was good. Service was good..not too fast, not too slow, and we still made it in time for the 1pm Belly Flop contest.

Really enjoying following along. Looks like you're having a great cruise. Interesting photo of the bathroom as it doesn't seem like a typical Royal bathroom (aside from the waste bin). Maybe that's a Vision class thing. My first cruise was Grandeur but don't remember the layout.

Food & Service Food is subjective, and I am not overly critical, but will give some opinions from DH and I on our experience. We stuck to the included venues so can’t comment on any specialty restaurants. We had traditional dining, early time. Main Dining Room - Dinner Shortly after boarding, we noticed that our assigned dinner table was listed in the app so we headed to the Main Dining Room to check it out. We were surprised to be on Deck 3, as this is typically My Time. Perhaps there was an overflow of traditional bookings? We did notice that My Time was listed as not starting until 7:15pm, so maybe that is how they manage both. We walked around until we found our table and was very happy with our location. Perfect! With this table, one thing that stood out of an advantage of early dining vs late dining is that we could see out when we sat down for dinner. Then maybe 30 – 45 minutes later, it was dark. So for late dining, you wouldn’t see outside at all. Food for thought. Will start with our servers at dinner. They were excellent. Since we came in with our own drinks from the Suite Lounge, we made it easy for the one who is in charge of the drinks. Guess we were pretty boring for her. Our main server too was great, and he even said hello to us by our names when we saw him in the MDR later on in the cruise at lunch time. Now that's impressive. For the food, it was mostly good. Guess this will be our last cruise where it includes the classic items, which is too bad as things like the Caesar salad, escargots, salmon, apple pie are some of the regular items that we choose. Plus French Onion Soup as this is our DD's nightly appetizer so she'll be upset when we come on our next cruise in March. Food was mostly great. DH did order the escargot and said it was bland, which is unusual. I tried it on the last night (night 4) and it was just as good as always so must have been an off night. Will attach a few photos from the nights. The salmon (this is always my backup selection so too bad it won't be available going forward) Battered Fish and Seafood Apple Pie. Another classic going away. I'm not even a pie person but always get this as it's sooo good. Seafood Alfredo. It was ok...a bit bland (until our waiter brought out the parmesan shavings to add) Stuffed Portobello Mushroom One nice touch they had on the last night was champaign for everyone (adults). So DH and I had a drink for each hand...lol. Every night aside from the first night was totall full, with the exception of just one table. I was surprised as usually many tables are empty due to others selecting specialty dining or Windjammer. Overall, our experience was very good with few complaints.

As far as I know, it's just Freedom, Liberty and Independence for the Ben & Jerry Room (due to the location of the room vs the cows over the shop). No other themed room that I have heard of.

Yes good point to mention...it is a connecting room. We had zero issues with noise but of course that's the luck of the draw on who your neighbor.

The Ben & Jerry's Sweet (Promenade Room 6305) Cruise Critic helped us way back and told us about this secret room, so I wanted to share with others in case anyone else wants to take advantage of this great deal. But on Liberty, it really is a secret as you just had to know about the privileges of this room. They didn’t tell us. For those that haven’t heard about this room, it is Promenade Room 6305 (so good price). What is different about this room is that it is situated right above the Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop with two big cow buts obstructing your view. Our door was already decorated (handy for finding your room without having to look at the numbers down the long hallway) Once inside the room, this is your view And it is decorated cutely with cows We have stayed in this room once before on Independence (it's only on Liberty, Independence and Freedom). So what's the big deal? In place of having your view blocked, you get: free Ben & Jerry ice cream each day access to the Suite Lounge On Independence, we also got: a tray of sweets in our room each day a Gold Card which gave us other privileges such as reserved theatre seats (I prefer front row though so we never used them), breakfast seating in Chops and a few other things I don't remember On Independence, there was a letter in our room explaining all. On Liberty, there were vouchers for free daily ice cream, but there was no letter explaining anything else. So you had to be in the know and ask about it . Even then, we went to Guest Services and the person had to call 3 other people to see if this was true as she didn't know what we were talking about. She did however, eventually get in touch with the concierge of the Suite Lounge who said yes, we get access to the room and to come and meet her when it opened at 4:30pm and she would give us a card. Phew...We know this was a bonus but we would have brought wine on board if they took away this access. We didn't get anything else that we got Independence, but it was the Suite Lounge that was the Sweet deal! Now comparing to Independence, one thing amazing now on Liberty is that in the Suite Lounge, you can get any drink. (I'm guessing this isn't a specific thing for Liberty as others explained on here about this before we left...but a change to Suite Lounges in general.) When on Independence, it was a very specific list of alcohol. The wine wasn't very good and this meant it was just simple drink mixtures. But now, you can get any mixed drinks, so we got things like Mojitos, Lava Flow, Old Fashioned (for DH), wine of our choice, and chocolate martinis. We would typically got to the Lounge when it opened, got a drink. Each day happened to be sail away by about 30 minutes in so that was lovely with the big windows. Then we would grab another drink and take it for dinner. Great! A photo of the Lounge. It has big windows and lots of seating. So moral of this story...if anyone books this room, be sure to go to Guest Services to get access. If they don't know, the Suite Concierge can help you. They were wonderful!

Pre-Cruise Quick comment about pre-cruise hotel/area in Fort Lauderdale since it's always tough trying to decide where to stay. We booked Hyatt Place Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port near Harbor Shops. Fort Lauderdale is an easy port for cruising. It's not the most exciting, but both the airport and this area of hotels are only a 10 minutes drive from the airport so very convenient. We have stayed in Four Points and Holiday Inn Express before. Both fine, but we really liked the room at Hyatt as it is very spacious. It also has a divider, which I assume is there as well if you book for a family of four. The area is great as it's near a Publix (we always make a very important purchase and bring back special cereal to Canada that we can't get there). They also have Total Wine, which an impressive place. it's huge with tons of selection. We didn't need wine this time due to our room (details coming), but it was still fun to look around, plus we got some samples! Whenever we come to this area, we go to Duffy's Sports Grill for dinner. It was really busy that night due to the soccer game, but we got a table no issue. Food is really good and they have 2 for 1 drinks if you get the same drink. I love mojitos and they had one with gummy bears so even better. Sounds weird (or an oxymoron with kids candy with alcohol) but it was yummy.

It's a great ship. You will love it. Great. I'll go over entertainment, shows, room, etc, but let me know if any specific questions.

Originally l had no plan on writing a review on our Liberty cruise as I tend to only do this after family cruises with our kids. This one was just DH and me. However, there aren’t many reviews on Liberty, plus I wanted to share our Ben and Jerry sweet room experience so thought, I'd write a short one. It won’t be a “day by day” as it would be very boring of something like “we ate, we then went for a walk, then read, then ate, then did trivia, then ate, then read” I’m bored already just writing it…lol (even though it was a great holiday). The Cruise DH and I went on a 4 night Bahamas cruise on Liberty from Mon Dec 19 – Fri Dec 23 Sun – Fly in to Fort Lauderdale. Stayed at Hyatt Place (near cruise port and Harbor Shops) Mon – Meet our home for the next 4 nights Tues – Nassau, Bahamas Wed – CoCo Cay, Bahamas Thurs – Sea Day Fri – Fort Lauderdale. Manage to get home even though flight cancelled due to storms. A couple photos to start. The first one was taken at Nassau. This is typically a good port to get off for the purpose of getting a great ship photo (DH will say it's also a good stop to look at watches, but I only see the former reason). There is lots of construction there now though so I couldn't get the right angle. This one was taken at CoCo Cay. Liberty is a medium size ship when compared to all Royal ships, but it looks pretty big next to Serenade of the Seas.

From a Google search, she looks like the second one.

Correction. Liberty is Katie, but I don't know a last name.

It still had a negative tone to it, and pretty much was the same thing.

I was annoyed when I saw a post yesterday all about "tell me the bad things about Royal". Why would someone start such a negative post? (just found the title...it was "Top 5 Overrated Things". I mean, really?) Anyways, on CC, people like to complain so take things with a grain of salt. We went on Anthem for the first time in March and loved it. Wonderful ship. The 270 has amazing views. We didn't spend time in it as we came with our kids but the Solarium looks really nice. We Will Rock You is the best show of the fleet, North Star is really neat and different. The 270 cafe has pretty good selection. Windjammer is nicely spaced out. We also really like the MDR...food and service is great. I would say though on Anthem, you don't get that wow dining room since it's not built like the others of one big room that is multi layered (blame their attempt at dynamic dining). The Robot bar is fun to watch (I forget the name offhand). Lots of activities going on in the Music Hall. Our kids loved the SeaPlex and iFly. And Anthem has indoor pool and areas in case of bad weather (plus start and end of your trip out of NJ). So much for everyone. And...the redo of CoCo Cay is amazing. If you like the beach, that is still there (and with additional options too for a fee). If coming with kids, the waterpark is amazing. They also have this beautiful huge pool (it does get busy though). So ignore all the negative comments. Guess that's the second C in cruise critic. You'll have an amazing cruise. Enjoy!

Loving your review and hearing about your wonderful cruise with your brother. We were on Adventure December before the shut down. Quite enjoyed the ship.

Grease. Excellent production when we saw it a few years ago.

Thanks so much for reporting back about Liberty. So happy to hear that you can order mixed drinks...and no issue walking out with one.

For both of my cruises next year the waterpark was 50% off during Black Friday. We weren't paying full price as the regular cost has gone way up as per this post, but at 50% off, it made it more reasonable and we booked it.

Also note that if you booked a guarantee, then once they assign your stateroom, you can call and have them switch to any other available one in the exact same category if you don't like the location. We've never done a straight inside, but have booked a promenade (not Mariner), and even for four of us. It can be tight but honestly wasn't an issue for the amount of time we spent in it. And there was enough storage space.

I've heard about the double punches, but thanks for the head's up about an iced coffee. It's something I would pick up with our coffee card on our upcoming cruise but didn't' realize it only comes in a larger size. Wonder if it's the same with the frappuccinos?

We've stayed in one stateroom with 4 of us (and even have one booked in the future and that's with 2 teens). It's do-able. A response of "get a suite" isn't that simple as it's much more and it's not in everyone's budget or not where everyone wants to spend their money. You've gotten great tips here about how to make it work with hooks and closet hangers. great suggestions. Most likely you'll just use your room to sleep, shower and change and it's doable. Have a wonderful cruise. Also, you asked about dining on a budget. We always just stick to the MDR as we really enjoy it. Do you have traditional or My Time booked? With traditional, you will have the same waiters and table each night which is nice as you get to know them (and can just walk to your table when you arrive).

Oohh...nice idea! OP here. Yes, in our case I was asking specifically about Liberty. Guess my title was generic as didn't realize that it varied among the ships. Appreciate the responses.