Liberty review - Western, Feb. 7 - with photos

My wife and I sailed on the Liberty of the Seas out of Miami on the Western itinerary that included stops at Costa Maya, Belize City, Cozumel, and Grand Cayman. Instead of doing a day-by-day review, I will share some thoughts and observations on some specific topics, such as...

The Ship

Our Cabin

Food

My Time Dining

Entertainment/Activities

A couple of specific complaints

Contraband

The ports

Smoke/Smokers

And a few other topics as I think of them

If you would like to look at some photos without being subjected to my ramblings, you are welcome to view a gallery that I posted HERE.

Let me just start by paying a tribute to this couple...

At dinner on the first evening my wife and I were offering some tips and info to another couple who were on their first cruise. After all, we were experienced having been on three previous cruises, right? Well the quiet couple in the photo, we soon discovered, were on cruise number NINETY. I immediately refrained from acting like I know anything about cruising.

Some remarkable things I learned about these two...

They've been married for 64 years.

They've been on 90 cruises, 26 with RCCI, including a cruise on the original Song of Norway.

But I quickly dismissed all of that when I learned that this man served in the US Army in World War II, at the Battle of the Bulge, which was the biggest and deadliest battle any American was in during that war.

I felt like I was dining with royalty when I learned that. This was the first evening of the cruise, and I would have eagerly traded the rest of my cruise for a series of candid chats with this gentleman. I consider people like this to be national treasures and I was very honored to be seated at the same table.

This was our first experience with Liberty of the Seas, and with this class of ship, so I was eager to take a look around. All three of our previous cruises were on the Mariner of the Seas, so I was familiar with only one other ship.

My initial impression after boarding was that it was very similar to the Mariner. In fact, everything appeared to be in the same locations. For instance, if you know how to get to the Windjammer on one ship, you'll have no problem finding it on the other. The same was true for nearly all major areas. The only difference I would have noticed visually between the two ships, apart from some decor, was that the promenade is obviously longer and has some added features.

I was a bit surprised, and mildly disappointed, that much of the decor and general "look" was VERY similar to the Mariner. Although it has been four years since I've seen the Mariner, if you were to blindfold me and put me in the Windjammer on either ship, I don't think I could tell you which ship I was on. The same would be true for several other areas of the ship. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the furniture and fixtures of many areas are interchangeable between some ships.

Some obvious differences are the addition of the Flowrider, Sorrento's, a boxing ring (?), the "shave" joint that nobody uses, etc.

Speaking of the boxing ring... I don't get it. Either boxing is much more trendy than I've noticed, or this is just a strange addition to a cruise ship. I'd much rather have a whirlpool in that spot. Although I can see how a boxing ring is much easier/cheaper to maintain and might even bring in the occasional dollar of revenue, where the whirlpool will not.

I enjoyed checking out the art on the ship, and appreciate the obvious effort and expense that RCCL has gone to in order to install all of it. I saw every piece displayed in the stairways, and many pieces in the corridors, but I never did have the time to do a thorough deck-by-deck viewing of every piece.

Studio B, which is also the ice rink, was used as a nice viewing area for the Superbowl, with a small buffet set up...

We had a balcony "hump" cabin on deck 6, which is a very convenient location at meal time. Although it is about as close as you can get to the elevators, we never heard any noise from that area all week. The only noise issues we had were the occasional slam of a nearby door and a few times we heard what sounded like a buffalo or two running down the corridor.

We have become balcony snobs and have decided that we'd rather postpone a cruise until we can afford a balcony, if that's what it takes. It's just a much nicer experience than an inside, or promenade view. If memory serves, the balcony on this room is a good bit larger than the ones we had on the Mariner. It doesn't appear any wider, but certainly "deeper" because we were able to sit in our chairs with our feet up on the little table with plenty of room.

The bed was firm and comfortable. Although we didn't request one, there was a foam "egg crate" pad on top of the regular mattress. I always sleep very well on a ship, but I'm not sure the bed should get credit. I would probably sleep well on a tile floor as long as I'm on a cruise.

One mistake I made with regard to the cabin is that I assured my wife there would be "good" shampoo and conditioner supplied in the shower, when there was actually just one dispenser with "conditioning shampoo." Oops.

The flat TV on the articulating bracket is a nice feature, but one complaint I have about the TV is the unnecessarily loud noises it makes every time you turn it on or off. I was watching one of the documentaries on a dry-dock while my wife was sleeping. I had the volume way down so she wouldn't wake up. Then when I turned off the TV, it emitted this BEEDLE-DE-beetee-BOOOP!! that is impossible to sleep through. If I wake during the night, I like to turn on the "map" channel to see where we are, what the wind and stuff is doing, etc., but I just can't do that with a TV this obnoxious.

These cabins amaze me with their storage space. We overpacked, as usual, but after we stored everything away, we STILL had several empty drawers we could have used. To be such small cabins, they are very efficient uses of space. All of our luggage stowed easily under the bed and the place didn't begin to look cluttered until later in the week when the couch became the place to drop everything when we returned, exhausted, from doing something fun.

There is a slight shortage of power outlets considering the gadgets that many people travel with these days. I took my belkin power strip that has USB ports on it, and that was enough to get juice to all of my stuff, including two phones, three different battery rechargers, iPod dock, computer, etc.

My only real complaint about the cabin is the little fridge. It's generally understood that they don't cool unless the cabinet door is left open. We tried to do that, but quickly gave up because when it's open, that door blocks passage around the bed. It just seems silly to have 1500 or more of these things on the ship if they're going to be this useless. You just have to take a cooler and keep it full of ice if you want to have cold drinks in your room.

Our stateroom attendant was "Charles" and he did a fine job. We only saw him a couple of times, but our room never lacked for anything. It occurred to me on the first day that My Time Dining must make things difficult for these guys. They never know when you'll be going to dinner. On a couple of nights when we had made reservations early in the day, I put a note on the door with our dinner time, in hopes that it'd make things easier for him. All other times, we tried our best to remember to put the little "make up our room" sign in the door when we left.

Great review so far and beautiful pics! I'll be on Liberty with the same itinerary 3/21. You don't by any chance have copies of the Compasses and menus, do you? Our Roll Call has been trying to find copies!

I also couldn't agree more about the gentleman that you sat with at your table. Definitely royalty in my book and I love just sitting and talking if they're willing to divulge.

I have to run out for a while, and will return to continue more of this review, but I wanted to share a quick thought before I go:

It's not the buffet that causes you to gain weight, it's the elevators.

Before this cruise, I decided to use the stairs as often as I could. I'm proud to say that my wife and I took only two elevator rides all week. One on the first day, and one on the last, and that was because we were hauling luggage.

We climbed stairs many times a day, as you can imagine. We were a little sore from all the climbing, but it was nice not having to deal with elevators and their related issues (crowds, rude people, button-happy kids, etc.). The biggest benefit, though, has to be that we didn't gain an ounce during the trip, although we ate like pigs.

For anyone who is physically able, I highly recommend swearing off of elevators for the week. It was mildly rewarding just to realize we could stick to it for seven days.

(Before someone else points it out: Yes, I realize it's easier to do this when your room is on deck 6 and not deck 2, but I'm still claiming a small victory with this because we climbed our butts off this cruise and have never done that before. If you can do it from deck 2, I bow before your superior stamina)

Great review so far, and Awesome pictures!:)

We had MANY excellent meals during our trip, beginning with our pre-cruise stay in Palm Beach Gardens. Based on a referral from from this board, we went to The Yard House for dinner, and it was very good.

The food aboard the ship ranged from so-so to very good, with a few exceptional dishes and only a couple of disappointments.

I had read on this board that the Windjammer has the same food every day, but that was not the case on our cruise. There WERE many dishes that were available every day, but there were also many options that were different each day. There was no reason for anyone to have the same meal twice, unless they just wanted to.

One thing I learned about the Windjammer during this cruise is that looks can be deceiving. I avoided a baked fish because I thought it looked nasty. My wife, while agreeing that it looked nasty, got it anyway and it was delicious. I had to go back and get my own after sampling from her plate. Meanwhile there was a "minute steak" that looked good, but we both agreed that it was called that because it takes a full "minute" to chew each bite.

Overall, we were very pleased with the Windjammer in quality and selection. And the crew was there several times during each meal to offer drinks, take away dishes, etc.

The main dining room was very good as well. I enjoyed every meal except for one. It was on the last night and I can't remember what it's called. It was a shrimp/fish combo that was battered and fried. It wasn't "bad" but it certainly wasn't good.

Service was great in the MDR, the atmosphere is beautiful, I always enjoy dinner in there. The only thing negative I can say about the MDR is that it seems the menu isn't as attractive as it once was. I think I previously had trouble deciding between some great entree's and apps. Now there seems to be only a single item in each list that appeals to me. The one night we went to Portofino was chosen because of the weak options on the MDR menu.

We ate in the MDR 5 nights, Portofino one night, and one night we were so tired and pummeled from an excursion (stay tuned for details) we just grabbed some sandwiches and pizza from the promenade.

Here are some of my favorites from the ship...

Windjammer:

mashed potatoes

salad

the "Trainman Special" breakfast sandwich (see photo)

burgers (nothing special but there's lots of fun toppings)

dessert selection

baked fish

honey stung chicken

MDR:

pork medalions

scallop risotto

lobster

vidalia onion tart

flourless chocolate cake

breads (I didn't really like the "savory bites")

conversation with cool people

Portofino:

Every bite of everything was awesome!

I had a marinated steak with a shrimp appetizer

My wife had a big fish filet on a pile of risotto - she ate the fish, I ate all the risotto

She got the dessert sampler and I got the flourless chocolate cake

I love Portofino!

Johnny Rockets:

Onion rings

choc shake

I learned this from Trainman, in his excellent live review from the Oasis. I think I had some variation of this on 6 mornings. This is pure genius on a plate. Thanks Trainman!

If you missed it in Trainmans review, this is a toasted English muffin, cream cheese, blackberry jam, and pork sausage. uber-yummo

Great info, Badlands99, please keep it coming, I'm hooked!

I forgot to label that last photo, but it's Paul and Marie, who we enjoyed chatting with at dinner one night. Very nice people.

So, My Time Dining is not for us. We liked the idea of it, but the execution turned out to be less than ideal, for us at least.

We enjoy dining with others, as noted above, but we also would like at least a couple of nights with just the two of us at a small table, so MTD seemed perfect for us. It was made clear on the first night that it is difficult to get a table for two and that prior reservations would be required. No problem, I knew the drill when I signed up for it. So for the first formal dinner I called (in the morning) and asked "what would be a good time for us if we want a table for two?" and I was told they could seat us at 8:45. When we arrived at 8:40, we had to wait in a long line. I clarified with staff that we had reservations for 8:45, but was assured that we were to wait in this line.

Let me preface this by admitting that I'm constantly amazed that the staff can feed this many people all day, every day. I have no idea how they achieve what they do. BUT, if I make a reservation in advance, I don't think I should have to ALSO wait in a long line for 20 minutes, sweating in my suit while trying to stay out of the photographers way.

In addition to the difficult logistics of MTD, I just prefer to have the same waiter and assistant waiter every night. I missed having that familiarity. They always seem to know our names and preferences by the second night, and by the last night I'm genuinely sad to be leaving them. That is not the case with MTD.

So next time, we'll be going back to traditional dining.

This is me and the missus. We just stepped off the FlowRider...

While I'm in complaining gear, I'll tell the story of how the Liberty of the Seas spa and fitness center treats people like fools.

My wife is always interested in spa services, so as soon as we boarded and had lunch we went to check out the spa. They have a nice tour that you can take. They said to come back at 2pm for a tour and that those who take a tour will be entered into a "raffle for $500 in spa services." How exciting (for the wife)!

So we come back at 2 and have a nice guided tour of the spa and all the services. Afterward we're given a small form to fill out with our names and cabin number, for the raffle. Printed right on the form is something like "raffle for $500 in spa services." We are told to go to the fitness center at 5:30 for the drawing.

So later on at 5:30 we go to the fitness center for the drawing, but instead we are treated to a demonstration in the wrong way to treat cruise passengers. The manager of the fitness center announces that "in order to avoid calling the names of people who might not be present" everyone must fill out a new form and give it to this lady.

Now this lady is quickly surrounded by a hundred people and has one stack of forms and two pens. Imagine what that looks like and imagine trying to get one of those forms and one of those pens.

This went from "take a tour of the spa and you're eligible for this raffle" to "anyone who happens to be nearby and who happens to be aggressive" is eligible for this raffle. We took the tour, but we are not aggressive, so we no longer qualified for the raffle at this point.

I really hate it for my wife, but even she agreed: we don't spend money in places that treat people like that. It was ridiculous. As a bonus, we missed sail-away for this insulting circus.

By the way, the "$500 in spa services" prize, was actually given out in the form of coupons for a percentage off some spa services. I think they gave out ten, and I think they were 30% off. The discounts did not apply to some services.

It's their ship and they can run it how they want, but I won't spend my money on a spa/fitness center that does things like that.

The spa itself seemed nice. Here's some pics from our tour...

Yes, that's me in the water massage bed, and yes, it feels really good.

OK, back to the good stuff...

As a music fan, I really appreciate that RCCL has LIVE musicians on board. Clearly they've made cost cutting moves in many areas, and I'd like to thank them for retaining this feature. I'm sure some pencil pusher somewhere has proposed saving money by using recorded music all over the ship, and I'd like to shake the hand of the person who vetoed that measure.

There is live music in several lounges, the pool deck, the promenade, and probably other places I haven't noticed (Is there an orchestra hidden in a pit in the theater? I couldn't tell.).

I'd say all the shows are probably worth seeing, although we didn't see every one of them. We saw the ice show, which is not to be missed. If you can only make one show, make it the ice show.

We also saw one of the production shows. It was called "On Air." We enjoyed it and even if you're not into the singing/dancing/gymnastics type entertainment, they only last about 45 minutes and if nothing else these shows are guaranteed to have a high HCQ (Hot Chick Quotient).

After a resounding defeat at the dice one evening I went to see the "adult comedy" performance. I'm ashamed that I don't remember the mans name, but he was pretty good. Not George Carlin or Jim Gaffigan good, but he was good and he did some cool impressions. I was a bit surprised at some of the language used. It was billed as "adult comedy" and the intro included a warning that children should not be present, so no harm no foul, but it was still a bit of a surprise to hear this guy talk about his body parts and use the F word, etc. Please don't take that to mean I was offended. I learned that kind of language from my grandfather and personally enjoyed the show. It just changed my perception of what the cruise line will allow. I previously viewed all the entertainment as "corporate vanilla" and I've since recalibrated that view.

OH, before I wrap up the topic I have to mention something that hurt my feelings and my wife's too (just a tad, we weren't in tears or anything). The ice show included musical tributes to many different genre's and era's and styles of music and culture. Every one was respectable and genuinely appeared to honor the origins. And then it happened. They made fun of Elvis. An Elvis song started up and a dude came skating out wearing a very exaggerated "fat Elvis" suit. It was clearly a humorous take on the song, but it was the ONLY humorous version of any of the songs. They didn't make fun of Mick Jagger during a Stones song, or Elton John during his song. Why you gotta pick on The King?

I shot this because these musicians looked miserable. They sounded great, but looked like they could all use a nap. Or some cocaine.

You don't by any chance have copies of the Compasses and menus, do you? Our Roll Call has been trying to find copies!

I do have all the Compasses. I haven't photographed them, though. Maybe this weekend I will have time to photograph and post them.

Thanks for the review. We will be on the Liberty, doing this same itinerary in April. I can't wait to see the compasses, (if you have time) :D

Oh Jeez, where do I begin?

There's so much going on that it's frustrating at times to have to choose which activity to attend. I never did make it to a trivia game, although I enjoy such things and I'm the Jeopardy champion of the household. The Cruise Compass is just packed every day with things to do.

Casino gaming & lessons

Spa demonstrations

Food demonstrations

Trivia/music/lyric games

Shopping talks & Q/A's

Fitness classes of all kinds

Bingo

"specials" in the shops on board

A HUGE video arcade

I haven't even mentioned the sports deck...

The FlowRider

The climbing wall

miniature golf

Golf simulator

volleyball

soccer

dodgeball

ping pong

shuffleboard

rollerblade track

scuba lessons

I'm leaving out lots of things, but suffice it to say that there is no shortage of things to do. The problem is finding time to do all the things you want. I've decided that in order to do all the things I'd like to do, I'd have to book a cruise and not step off the ship for seven days. Or sleep.

Do you enjoy watching people fall down in a comical fashion, potentially injuring themselves in the process? Then the FlowRider is your friend!

wonderful review. thank you for taking the time to write this. I was so touched by your tribute to the world war II veteran. I am looking foward to hearing about your ports of call as we are sailing the same route in april.

OK smugglers, listen up.

Here's the booty we packed in our suitcase...

One box of wine and one travel iron.

No problems at all.

However, when we were boarding, my wife had to forfeit a small pair of scissors from her carry on bag. Thank God. Who knows what kind of mayhem was avoided with that wise security measure?

My wife was glad to have the wine in our room, but one point against bringing an iron: we never used it. We bagged our "hang-up" clothes in plastic bags, then hung them in the bathroom as we showered each day for a little steamy action. We never once needed an iron. (I only used it to see if I could start a fire on the sofa. I'm KIDDING! I used the carpet instead.)

Let me just start by paying a tribute to this couple...

 

 

 

At dinner on the first evening my wife and I were offering some tips and info to another couple who were on their first cruise. After all, we were experienced having been on three previous cruises, right? Well the quiet couple in the photo, we soon discovered, were on cruise number NINETY. I immediately refrained from acting like I know anything about cruising.

 

Some remarkable things I learned about these two...

They've been married for 64 years.

They've been on 90 cruises, 26 with RCCI, including a cruise on the original Song of Norway.

 

But I quickly dismissed all of that when I learned that this man served in the US Army in World War II, at the Battle of the Bulge, which was the biggest and deadliest battle any American was in during that war.

 

I felt like I was dining with royalty when I learned that. This was the first evening of the cruise, and I would have eagerly traded the rest of my cruise for a series of candid chats with this gentleman. I consider people like this to be national treasures and I was very honored to be seated at the same table.

Thanks for the excellent review. The wife and I are going to be on the LOS for the first time in May, Western itinerary.

I would like to join you in saying thanks to the veteran and his wife at your table.

Being a fellow photography buff (I can tell you are!), just want to say great photos! What camera/lenses do you use? I can't wait to just wander Liberty and take photos of her.

This is the only port where we didn't really have plans to do anything. We took a taxi into "town" (I'm not going to try to spell it) and walked around a bit.

I feel like a light weight admitting this in this crowd, but it makes me uncomfortable to be badgered by local vendors. I didn't like it in Jamaica, and I didn't like it in Costa Maya. I only know a couple of different ways to say "No thank you." If I'm approached and solicited by a vendor and I smile, greet, and say "thank you, but no" then I quickly lose patience with whatever is next.

There is a very wide walkway with vendors on each side. We were walking right down the middle of it and the vendors would not only come over to us with a solicitation, they would continue to walk with us and would continue soliciting long after my polite "no thank you." Several times, as they gave up and turned away, they muttered something not so nice, such as "you're not a good tourist" etc.

The frustrating part is that we would have liked to look in some of the shops and probably would have purchased some souvenirs to take with us. But it's just not worth the hassle and discomfort. Maybe I'll get used to it one day, but until then I'll just overpay at a port store before I'll linger in such an atmosphere.

Now Costa Maya is one of the places on my list to "have a guided excursion booked before arrival."

Beautiful pictures!!

I won't sugar coat it: Belize is not pretty unless you're on or near the water. We enjoyed our day there, though.

We took a guided tour of the city. We were in a van with about 8 or so other people. The guide was very knowledgeable, friendly, and pleasant. We rode around the town and learned about Belize. The economy, the crime, the exports, the culture, etc. It was interesting. I would not want to live there.

All of the nice houses were fenced in with barred windows and guard dogs. And the not so nice houses were stunning in that I would have never guessed that people lived there, but our guide insisted that these were actual dwellings.

We stopped at "Old Belize" for a while and had a nice lunch and poked around before returning to the port.

This is the first port where we shopped for prescription drugs. I don't think we purchased anything from here. We did purchase something in Cozumel, though.

This is the "store" where people in this neighborhood shop for staple items. Our guide called it "Belize WalMart for the poor."

There was a birthday party taking place at this restaurant in Old Belize.

A nice couple we met on this excursion. I forget names as soon as I hear them. Sorry, nice couple!

Did you go into 100% Agave? We're planning on stopping there for some food/drinks after our excursion.

Things are looking up at Cozumel. I booked Nochi Cocum for the day and we really enjoyed it.

Out of all three of our previous cruises, and possibly the rest of her life, my wife's favorite thing to do is lounge on a mat at Labadee. Since this cruise didn't take us there, I tried to find a suitable replacement and I think I nailed it with Nochi Cocum. It's pretty, kind of quiet, the food is fantastic, and "Carlos" brought us all the drinks we could stand.

$5 for all the kayaking I could stand, which I learned was about one hours worth.

It was FUN finding real nice sea shells. Our experience with sea shells is limited to the small and broken, so it was a real treat to find some large and beautiful ones. We were only allowed to bring back one shell each. A rule I think is pretty reasonable.