RockHoundTX

My kids had already done a dozen plus cruises by the time they were 10. Heading to get an ice-cream by themselves or pizza (i.e., 10-15 minutes unobserved) started at about 8. Full freedom (checking in and out of kids club, etc.) started at 10 but we had pre-defined meeting times about every 2 hours. Basically set a couple of hard and fast rules (no riding on elevators, no going into people's rooms, etc) that they knew they could not break if they wanted to keep their freedom. At 12 they just had to meet us for dinner and be back in the room by midnight. Both were mature for their age (son was already taking college classes when he was 10). If you see a bunch of kids at MDR breakfast or brunch, it is likely my kids at the head of the table (for what-ever reason, this just their "thing"). That being said, I have been on a few cruises where I saw 13-14 year olds that REALLY needed adult supervision (but then again, I have seen some 23-34 year olds that REALLY needed adult supervision as well 😉

Unfortunately, the only way to know is to go directly to the JR manager and ask directly once you get on board. Every ship is different it seams. To make matters worse, it may even change from week to week on the same ship. aauggh. I completely struck out on both of my sailings on the Adventure (but someone the week after me said they changed policy and they were able to use their 4 coupons for milkshakes at JR) but have been able to use them on Liberty of the Seas (but also heard someone say they were not able to). Typical Royal Carribean: consistently unconsistent.

Pre-covid, it was absolutely worth it. On Liberty, they usually had the Latin Dancers come out and do a show. To say that they were amazing was an understatement (over a 4-year period, they had 3 different couples I am aware of. All were incredible.). Unfortunately, they did not have the Latin Dancers on our last 2 trips but did have some of the singers come in and do a few songs. I would ask if their were going to be any performers at the C&A event. If so, then definitely go (the performance is likely better than what you will see in the stage show). If not, then no big loss in not going.

Been on her 8 or so times. Definitely showing her age. Don't be at all surprised if the TV in your room doesn't work (had that problem on the last trip) or problems with the shower (door, drain, etc.). As mentioned, the pool-side screen has been covered since lasy year (with no plans to fix) but hasn't actually worked correctly for at least 3-4 years (pixels out and blocks of "differnt" colors where they had previously tried to fix areas). If you look around, you will find rust, bad carpets, etc but nothing bad eneough to make it not worth the trip. The BIGGEST variable on Liberty is the staff. Liberty is a "trainer" ship for the bigger (Quantum/Oasis class) ships. My experience (and knowledge based on talking with many of the staff) is that you will see more "brand-new" staff on this ship (or class of ship) than just about any other. They do a staff rotation something like every 60 or 90 days. New staff start off in the Windjammer (so they can work on their speaking/interaction skills), then go to either room-service or side restaurants. As such, you can have great service in the Windjammer one week and it be terrible the next (since the trained staff have rolled to another area of the ship and been replaced by newbies). You would think that they would rotate folks gradually (i.e., a few each week) but that is not the case since they rotate in large blocks (i.e., 1/3 - 1/2 of the Windjammer wait-staff all at once). Becasue of this, don't be at all surprised to hear someone say "wow, service sucked" and then someone else say "what? I was on the week before and It was fantastic. You must be too picky".

For any tours out of Belize or Costa Maya, make sure to do the tours via Carnival. Why? #1 - My experience is that Carnival has been significantly reducing the time in port (usually by 1-3 hours) for the last 6 months on a lot of its trips (Alaska and East Carribean especially but had it on the Western Carribean as well). Some of the ruins can be a fairly long travel time so that 1-2 hours may make the difference of making it back to the ship or not. #2 - Since some of the ruins require bus and/or boat, anything can happen. I was on one trip to Belize where the speed-boat they use to go up the river broke down (I think they had to fly those folks to the next stop). On another cruise, there was a farmers strike outside of Costa Maya where the farmers barakaded the roads causing two bus-loads of cruisers to be stranded until the military (with additional busses) showed up. In that one, the cruise-ship just waited in port for another 3-4 hours until everyone got back. It was really interesting talking to the folks on that trip 😉

Based on my expereince on this ship/itenerary pre-Covid, you will embark in the afternoon with the "all aboard" and muster drill being required by about 4PM. Once you are on, they won't let you off since you actually go through US customs prior to getting on the ship (and thus you don't have to go through customs in Seattle when you get off). The late night departure is due to having to go under the bridge at low tide. Even at low tide, there isn't much space (something like 10 feet or so). I personally observed the Quantum coming into Vancouver a day early from their trans-Atlantic from Hawaii (again, due to tides and staffing at the port). They did not allow anyone off the ship until the following morning (likely due to Canadian customs).

The problem with RCL is that they are consistently inconsistent. Food may be fantastic on one ship but absolutely terrible on another. I have even had B2B where it was great the first week and very sub-par the second (we had a different head-chef the 2nd week and for what-ever reason it was evident in the quality). Things got way worse after Covid hit and supply-chain became a huge issue. So-far we have taken 5 cruises in the last 8 months: two had FANTASTIC food, 3 were "normal", 1 cruise the food was "very bad" and 1 was completely inedible. The trend with the level of Service had also been similar: all ships are under-staffed; some by a little (Service is not quite as good a pre-Covid but still passable), and some by a lot (venues are closed or have limited hours and staff are way over-worked and it visibly shows). A lot of time the Food Quality and Service are inter-related. Right now taking a cruise is kind of like rolling the dice: you just don't know the quality of the product until a day or two into the cruise. I have pretty much been recommending to my non-cruiser friends to "wait another year for the dust to settle" before booking their first (or second) cruise. For those that have taken a few cruises but none since Covid, I lay out the odds as being some like: 5% chance of Food/Service being better than your previous cruises 25% chance of it being about the same 40% chance of it being a little worse than previous cruises (but probably still acceptable) 25% chance of it being disappointing since Food/Service just not meeting the quality/cost ratio you expect 5% change you will swear off cruising all-together since it was so bad In my last 5 cruises, I have experienced all 5 of the above 😕