Back from Liberty - 11/29/09

[Nessa1dc]

Whew...finally a moment from my "over the cruise blues"....well we had a great time. I'll do my best to be as detailed as possible, or until I simply get tired of typing. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

 

There was 6 of us. Me, my H, my girlfriend and her H, my brother and another girlfriend. My H and I had connecting rooms with my brother and a girlfriend, 8660 and 8662. Our other friends were in 9322. We had a balcony room on the Liberty of the Seas.

 

Saturday, November 28, 2009

We flew to Ft. Lauderdale via Airtran Airways...everything went smooth. We stayed at the Marriott Biscayne Bay...it is a beautiful property, but a very good walk to the shops near the port. We normally stay at the Hyatt. I think the Marriott is a better property and we would stay there again. We shopped and had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp.

 

Sunday, November 29, 2009

We arrived at the Port about 12:15pm....everything went smoothly. We got on the ship no later than 12:45pm. The rooms weren't ready, but we just walked around the ship...IT IS BEAUTIFUL....nothing different from any other Freedom class, but very nice. I'm not going day by day, but I'll do general information....

 

Ship

The ship is laid out just like all the other Freedom class ships....Cafe, Sorrentos, Promenade...etc. It is a beauty. If I had one complaint, it would be the elevators...they took forever. I didn't do the pools or hot tubs...but others seemed to enjoy them greatly. The casino is large and they had a number of slot machine choices and amounts. The table games were blackjack, 3 card, Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride, roulette and craps. The had a computerized Texas Holdem table too. There was a smoking and non-smoking pit.

 

Dining

This trip was one of the few that we ate in the Dining room every night. We always love our dining experience and find that our waiter and assistant waiter are always our favorite crew...not particularly this time though. They were good, just not as excellent as usual. Our Head waiter "Sony"...was fantastic though. I think the Waiter and Asst. Waiter were new, or maybe not as detail oriented, either way...they tried and we still enjoyed all of our meals.

 

Room

We had 8680....The room was very nice and our Room Attendant "Joel"....GREAT!!!! We loved him to pieces. The room is laid out well and we had the connecting doors in the room and on the balconies opened.

 

Ports

Costa Maya - Be careful of the shops here....they will high ball you. When we asked about purchasing something, they said $60. Then we bargained them down to $40, only to find the exact same thing 2 buildings down for $25. They are slick. Its very small and I didn't like that you could get suckered easily.

 

Belize - The sold out on the excursion we wanted. I didn't like that we had to tender almost 15 minutes from the port. Nice place, but I'm not into water sports and without the excursion...it was just ok.

 

Conzumel - Still enjoy it and the shopping there. There could be more, but no complaints.

 

Staff

The Cruise Director and his staff were pretty good. They all seemed very young and while I've had better, they did a pretty good job. I enjoyed all the trivia games and the 70s night was great. The bingo is crazy. I can't believe how much they are charging and then wondered why noone played. I would make all the bingo sessions, but not anymore...its way too expensive for me. As usual, most of the staff we ran into always said hello and had a smile. I didn't see the captain much and rarely understood any of his announcements, but he seemed nice.

 

Well all-in-all we had a great time. We made reservations for our next cruise next year to: St. Maarten, St. Croix, St. Lucas, Antigua and Barbados out of San Juan. I'll be hitting many of you up for hotel information and best airlines for that.

 

We loved the Liberty and look forward to our cruise on the Adventurer out of San Juan. We will have to wait awhile for the Oasis because they are so pricey right now.

 

I'm still a loyal and huge RCCL fan and will remain so. Liberty was our 5th cruise...we are now Platinum. YYYYYAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

[Yurita]

Thank you for your review. We can't wait to sail on the Liberty! any advice/secrets for future cruisers who have never been on a Freedom class before (like me:D)?

[39august]

Was the daily paper called "Compass" or something like "Why Not Today"? On Liberty in late Sept. they were trying out a new format and I found it difficult to find information. I much preferred the old Compass format.

[Nessa1dc]

No secrets.....just remember to use any and all coupons...they really come in handy. Also, when they give a time...they mean it...don't come 5 minutes later.

 

It was still a Compass....nothing new other than the helpful way of tearing and folding it and not having to take the whole thing along with you during the day.

 

I find it helpful that when you receive your compass the night before, take a few minutes (and a drink) on the balcony and circle all the things you may be interested in the next day...its relaxing and you have your day planned.

 

I hope you guys have a great time...I think you'll enjoy the ship.

[amybeth4]

Are you SURE it said CRUISE COMPASS on top? Cuz on the 11/1-8 sailing, while it looked like a Compass, it DID, in fact, say WHY NOT TODAY? on top. (Stupid name...)

[ncb106]

No secrets.....just remember to use any and all coupons...they really come in handy. Also, when they give a time...they mean it...don't come 5 minutes later.

 

It was still a Compass....nothing new other than the helpful way of tearing and folding it and not having to take the whole thing along with you during the day.

 

I find it helpful that when you receive your compass the night before, take a few minutes (and a drink) on the balcony and circle all the things you may be interested in the next day...its relaxing and you have your day planned.

 

I hope you guys have a great time...I think you'll enjoy the ship.

 

Hi could you tell me who is the activites manager and who was the cruise director

[Nessa1dc]

I honestly don't know what the title of the it was....it came with 2 or 3 pages....the last page being the compass. It contained all the information on specials, some coupons, information concerning departure, etc. It could have been named something else. It will forever be a "compass" for me.

 

The Cruise Director was Abe Hughes....I'm pretty sure that's it....you can easily get him confused with the Activities Director.....whose name I can't remember (so sorry)....I just called him the "Bingo Dingo"....

 

Abe and the Bingo Dingo were great...especially Abe....the rest of the staff...eh, ok.

[02143]

It was called "Why Not Today" on this cruise.