LuCruise

Hard one. I've been on all classes but radiance class (but vision class was so long ago). DH and I would like to go on something like Brilliance one day. I love them all but would only book Oasis, Quantum/Ultra, Freedom or Voyager with our kids. If I had to pick my favorite, I would pick Oasis class, with Symphony being my favorite ship. It was just wow in every way...activities, decor, shows, etc. I also really enjoyed Anthem and also love Freedom and Voyager class. Really haven't been on a ship that I didn't like. They are all similar in one sense with layout, activities going on, etc but each give their own appeal. By mid of 2025, I will have been on all Oasis ships but Harmony, all Freedom ships and all Voyager sihps but Explorer. it's fun to compare one to the other.

Our Stops For us, the cruise is about the ship but will briefly discuss our stops. Nassau Our first stop was Nassau. Our first time there we booked Blue Lagoon with our kids. It was a bit pricey but very nice. However, since then we either don't get off or just briefly. In my case, I like to get off as it's usually a good stop to get a full ship photo (depending on where the ship parks). In fact, one year on our Navigator cruise, I regretted not getting off since our next stop was cancelled and ended up with zero ship photos from the outside. DH likes watches so we walked to a specific indoor shop indoor watch store that he discovered on his last time. Along the way, a few people stopped us and we learned that DH has puffy eyes and I have bags (lol...lady was trying to sell us something). We found the watch store that DH likes but weren't too long and simply turned back around. It started spitting very slightly , but I don't think it ever fully turned to rain. CoCo Cay CoCo Cay is nice. We were there a couple times before the re-do, and although we had about 6 cruises booked with this stop since, we have only been once since they re-did it due to the shut down. This past March on Anthem, we went to the waterpark with our kids, but with just DH and I, we didn't have anything planned. Instead, we just found some loungers at one of the beaches. This was the first place someone suggested we go to. It's good if you have young kids but a but too calm for us. Instead we kept walking and ended up at Chill Island. A lot of people had snorkeling gear (I think you can rent it) and at this area, you could also rent paddleboards, a bit waterbike, kayaks, etc. We just mostly read, and I like to walk along the water and partly go in with the waves (but just to my thighs). Water was cold but you got used to it. For lunch, we went to the buffet. As mentioned earlier, we don't eat meat, but they had really good veggie paninis. Also a bit of advice....don't miss the brownies. So good! We walked the long way back to the ship and saw the fancy over the water bungalow things. Pretty cool, but I looked them up for our next cruise and they cost almost as much as the cruise. Uh no thanks! What is crazy, is that they are sold out. They look nice, but not for us. One up close We also walked by the pool. It's a pretty busy happening place. We hung out around the pool for a bit on our last cruise but not on this cruise. It's a pretty amazing pool though...huge! This is just one end of it for the younger kids with a beach entry. We got lucky with the weather too as it was just perfect. When walking back to the ship it looked like it was going to pour as the clouds were so dark, but it never did rain in the end. I do really like what they did with CoCo Cay. There is something for everyone.

Excited to see your review as they are always fun to follow along. Can totally relate to the above. Often we book a cruise and then it's like "oh, where is it going?". And also from Ontario, can also relate to getting out of the cold. I hope the airport mess has cleared up and you have an uneventful travel to FLL. Good you are flying out of Detroit and not Pearson. Safe travels.

Ship Photos We've been on a few Royal ships. They all have a similar layout with a Royal feel and way of doing things, but it's always fun to see how they differ. When booking a cruise, we will often select a ship that we haven't been on yet (this includes all of our upcoming bookings as well). Thought I'd post some miscellaneous photos that I took around Liberty. Schooner Bar (It's empty as I took this close to when we boarded) The Promenade deck. I love the bridge that they have on Freedom class ships. From above showing the tree. It's always fun too to see what car each ship has. The Solarium The main pool. Yes, that is the movie screen and it's covered as it's not working. We never actually sat at this pool (I just did lots of laps around) so it didn't bother us that it wasn't working. They always had music playing and such so it was still an upbeat happening area. The kids pool. Our kids are teenagers so even if they were with us, they wouldn't have used this pool/splash area but I do love how they have it for younger kids. So much fun for them. The regular waterslides The Tidal Wave slide. It's hard to capture the whole thing in one photo but it's a regular slide on a mat that ends with the part that sends you back (to the exit)

Too bad you couldn't get the room, but you'll still have a great time. We also had 11am boarding time. It was very easy. We arrived at the port at 10:30am and went through check in right away. They had one suite section and a regular section. (We sat in regular section). While waiting we did the first two steps of the muster i.e. watched the videos. It didn't take long for them to call us. Unlike other cruises, they didn't call you by status but just by the row where you are seating. So it doesn't hurt to come early to get a closer seat. I looked at my watched when walking on the ship and it was 10:58am so not bad. I can post a few photos of CoCo Cay. Like you, we didn't have any excursions so just went to one of the beaches (Chill Island side). It was a lovely day. The water was cool, but I'm a chicken that way. Once you got used to it, it was fine. I only went to my thighs but there were many swimming and snorkeling. Enjoy your cruise. It's coming up!

Thanks. I remember in the older deck plans, it would tell you pullman vs sofa bed. But now, it just shows "Stateroom occupancy up to 3 available" and "Stateroom occupancy up to 4 available" (and even though I'm searching on 3 guests, some of the 4 available rooms are offered.

Thanks for the note. Hope you enjoyed Liberty as well! Looks like you had a neat view with being right over the Christmas tree. We quite like these rooms and will also do connecting rooms when we come with our kids. Lol...thanks for the note about the cup cakes. Definitely would have lost the effect if the odd one was gone but can see them just handing them all out. 😁 If going again on one of these ships, the B&J room with the connecting would be a great option.

Thanks. Good to know. I like the sun (for a bit) but DH prefers the shade.

Thanks. The one I was looking at was on deck 8, corner balcony. Can still change our mind as long as it's available.

Thank you for the photos! It's the window door that made us go with just a regular balcony in the end. Mind you, didn't realize it also has a porthole . Is the balcony mostly in the sun? That was one of DH's concern.

Thank you. In the end, we went with a regular balcony room...and just went back to a standard one mid ship. I've tried to look at cruise deck plans to understand theh rooms. We had the option of one that holds 3 (Royal's map shows it with a triangle) or one that holds 4 (Royal's map shows it with a star).....and so we booked one with a star. It looks like this one has a sofa bed. Hopefully I'm right (although DD says she is ok with a pullman). Hmm...went with regular but can think about the spacious balcony. Doesn't seem like a huge difference but maybe it does once you compare the rooms.

Thank you. I'm looking as well at the regular balcony rooms that are aft, and some show as not obstructed. The only thing I need to make sure is that our daughter is ok with a pullman vs sofa bed. It also seems like it has a door with a window vs full glass sliding doors, which is a bit of a downside but not a show stopper. The balcony itself looks bigger and neat shaped. Or...there are regular balcony rooms too on the sides. Some show with a star so not sure if these mean sofa bed? Thanks for the feedback too on balcony vs spacious balcony as it doesn't seem like it's much difference. Good tip if we go with a JS to book on the hump.

Thanks so much for the feedback. Good to know that you had no issue on the corner aft on Liberty, which is the same class ship. The regular balcony rooms are actually attractive for this as we could book at the cheaper price but get a neat balcony (and not all show as obstructed). We have stayed even 4 of us in a single similar size room (this cruise is 3) so we can manage. It's just tempting to book a JS as it is still in our price range of what we would pay for a cruise. We would already made the level we want (assume our booked cruises are a go) so double points isn't a major factor at that point.

Looking at possibly booking a cruise for 3 of us (two adults and a teenager) on Freedom and debating between a Balcony, Spacious Balcony and Junior Suite. We typically don't book JS but it is in our budget this time. Having said that, the JS is $1000 more than the regular balcony and $800 more than Spacious Balcony. Is the spacious balcony actually that much bigger than a regular balcony room? It lists it as 207 sq ft vs 188 sq ft, but do you feel the difference or more storage? Is the JS worth the extra money? As a note, if our existing cruises go, we will already be at the next level so points always help in the long run, but not a doesn't do much at this point. If we go for a Junior Suite, we can select ones mid ship or right at the aft looking at the back of the ship. Anyone stayed in those aft rooms (e.g. 7712)? Is movement an issue? We often book aft section but not right at the end. Could be a long walk though. I know this is personal preference, but would love to hear feedback.

Entertainment The shows on cruise ships are one of my favorite things about cruising (that, and the food). Shows are subjective but my feedback is overall it was great on Liberty. Definitely things were back to normal covid-wise which was nice to see. In The Air (Royal's production show) There is no story but it's themed about in the air and in the water. At some points DH would look at me like "WTH is this?" mostly the water scenes. But personally I really enjoyed this show. The costumes were colourful and the dancing was amazing. There was this one couple that really stood out. Saturday Night Fever Same cast as In the Air, so again, dancing was amazing. I didn't love the story myself, but that's more a critic on the movie. Royal's production was amazing. The guy playing the lead role moved exactly like John Travolta. I was worried of getting a seat for this one as there were only 2 showings; 4:30pm and 9pm and so figured the 9pm would be packed. However, we went 1hr early and had no issue getting good seats. Don't miss this one. Ice Show Again, very good skaters but the show itself was a little boring compared to other cruises where they make it more fun (Mariner, Navigator and Symphony with the drones, etc). May also be a personal preference the first 75% of the music was older and slower vs something I knew. Headliner - Comedian Our cruise was the last cruise with this comedian but he was ok. Some good jokes, but I liked his personality and delivery of the comedy with how he laughs at his own jokes. He also did a second show late on the last night, definitely not for kids. The Quest Our cruise was the first one where The Quest returned since the pandemic. It was run really well and I liked how people didn't seem as prepared for this one. The last few that we've seen on other ships, people came prepared with potential items that will be included so it wasn't as much fun. Love and Marriage This show is always fun. They had a newlywed couple, the mid range couple (a guy named "Joe" who became a celebrity on the ship as he got well known), but not really the long married couple. It was a bit annoying as this one couple said they were married 50+ years but clearly they were barely even 50 years old. No one else volunteered though for that category so they were the couple. It was still a funny show. Belly Flop Another fun show and let's just say that Joe was the winner, which wasn't a surprise. Schooner Bar The piano player was excellent. You could tell that she loves what she does and she interacted with the audience which makes for a better performance. She even took requests and 90% of the time would be able to play the song (and if not, said she would learn it for the next night). Battle of the Sexes This one wasn't well hosted as the host didn't even explain the game. We've been to this before where it was better but I found this one silly and not well done. Trivia We joined a few of these. They are always fun, even if hard. I'm used to them being done in Schooner Bar but these were mostly in the Star Lounge, which actually worked well due to the space and layout of the room. 70s Show This one is also always fun. It was held on the Promenade on the last night. I think if we had been in our room it would have been quite noisy as our room was a bit behind the beam where they were standing. (There was another beam behind us with dancers). As an aside, we never even heard noise from our room on the Promenade.

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!