No Love For Liberty/Europe?

[Biscuit1970]

Hi all, long term lurker on this forum and my first post :) as I just got off the Liberty last Sunday 26th May.

 

The Captain read out the passenger numbers on the second night and out of 3900 passengers (I think..) the highest country represented on board at 1000 were Americans with us Brits the second highest at 500. From what I could tell the rest of the passengers came from all corners of the globe. The mixture made for a really good atmosphere on board.

 

We absolutely loved the Liberty and staff, it was a fabulous week. I cannot speak highly enough about the staff they were exceptional. Strangely enough the only place I didn't get on with was the Hoof and Claw 'English' pub which was the one place I thought I would be drawn to coming from this side of the pond.

 

Having a young son we ate mostly in the Windjammer and it wasn't the bun fight we were lead to believe it could be. If you chose your time right we found it very pleasant at times. Again we found the staff attentive and the service good.

 

If anyone has children the Dreamwork breakfast and Cup Cake making were a real hit. The chef who ran the cup cake making was brilliant with the little one and a pleasure to watch.

 

We all also really liked the Cruise Director Rich Edwards and he was always about the ship along with the other Officers checking on things. Its only a small thing but it was good to see him on the gangway on the morning of the first port at Toulon.

 

Overall a fabulous holiday, I think I have this cruise addiction that I've read so much about :)

 

An earlier poster mentions the Spanish VAT that is added on board, from looking at my old slips this seemed to be 10% on drinks and 20% on shop purchases for the duration of the cruise.

 

If anybody wants any further information just ask.

 

Can you clam the VAT back when you leave Spain? - also do you remember the beer and wine prices on the med cruise please

[Mines]

Can you clam the VAT back when you leave Spain? - also do you remember the beer and wine prices on the med cruise please

You can claim VAT back from purchases in Europe if you are a non-European citizen. You need to have the original receipt of purchase and the physical goods that you are taking out of the EEC. You must present these items at the airport with your boarding pass before leaving.

 

You cannot recover VAT on items you consumed within the EEC, such as food and drink at the bar.

[Pushka]

Wonderful ship and the Med Cruise was fabulous.

[2BACRUISER]

Really pleased to see these reports we are trying to decide whether to go on NCL's Epic or RCI's LOS in September, there seems to be two options to get on board either in Barc or Toulon, it is considerably cheaper to get on in Toulon, anybody have any idea why the two options and which is best, flights to Toulon are cheaper than barca ex MCR - Jet2.

M:)

[crafty sue]

Hi We also got of Liberty on May 26th - I thought about doing a review but have been really busy doing washing and ironing !

 

I too really liked Rich the Cruise Director he was a lot of fun. We did all the shows, and loved them all they were all really pro. There were quite a few small children at Saturday night fever show, and I don't think it upset them, nothing really obviously adult, think it went over their heads.

 

Agree on too port intensive everyone just worn out trying to see everything, could do with a sea day in the middle and miss out one of the ports.

 

Enjoy the ship she is beautiful, and i will do a full review but I don't know how to add photo's so if anyone has any tips I would appreciate it.

 

Happy Cruising

[davenew]

I have been a member here for a long time and never really noticed the lack of European cruise reviews/thoughts (until I decided to book one myself!).

 

So with that said, has anyone been on the Liberty this season? Does anyone notice a difference in service? Also, what is the make up of passengers like?

 

Any input would be appreciated ;)

When we did the Liberty, the approximate make up was (using common CC terms) 80% Foreigners, 20% Americans.

In reality, 20% Brits, 20% US, 50% Other Europeans and 10% others countries :D

[Frankmac]

We are doing Liberty from Naples in two weeks. Intend doing Rome but everywhere else it will be off the ship for a couple of hours and back on. Will do Pompeii during our 3 days in Sorrento at the end of the cruise.

 

I take my cruises as relaxing holidays not endurance tests.

 

Plus I need time to get value from my drinks package ;)

[Pushka]

Really pleased to see these reports we are trying to decide whether to go on NCL's Epic or RCI's LOS in September, there seems to be two options to get on board either in Barc or Toulon, it is considerably cheaper to get on in Toulon, anybody have any idea why the two options and which is best, flights to Toulon are cheaper than barca ex MCR - Jet2.

M:)

 

That's strange. It was more expensive to board Toulon last year.

 

We saw the Epic in Rome and at the time were glad we were on the Liberty. Just a "look" issue for us.

 

Most embark in Barc. We arrived at 11.30 and there were no crowds. Two hours later and huge queues. We saw people embark and disembark in Toulon maybe around 30 groups so much quieter. But goodness they paid so much attention to screening their bags in Toulon. Security was always a bit surly on Liberty. It does mean a nice easy Muster though. This was very crowded in Barcelona.

 

We found most were European. And USA people. Not too many kids (21st July) but the sailing after ours had many children (we did late disembark) so the newbies started boarding while we were still onboard.

[Frank1959]

We were on the Eastern Mediterranean, last fall. 7 nights round trip from Venice to Greece. The ports were great, but too short. Usually only a half day. My wife is german and I am american. We have traveled with Princess and Royal Caribbean. We love RCL. The service is exceptional and we recommend them all the time. We emphasize the "american" way of service. That said, we did have a complaint, on our last cruise on the Splendour of the Seas. Here is a copy of what we wrote. We did receive a "response" but I dont thinkl they took it seriously. We are still taking our next cruises with RCL. I hope it is a one time instance.

 

The reason I am writing is to make an observation / complaint from my last cruise. My wife and I had taken an 7 night Eastern Mediterranian Cruise on the 8th of September 2012.

When I returned, I was asked to take a survey, relating to my cruise, and I completed the online form. I have not heard any reply as to the status of my observations / complaint.

My complaint / Observation were as follows.

1. I had taken a cruise on the Freedom of the Seas (13 Sept 2009). We were a party of 9 people. The party were family. 5 members of the party were from Germany.

2. We experienced excellent service in the main dining room and the Windjammer.

a. The European members were amazed at the service we received on board.

3. When my wife and I booked our trip on the Splendour of the Seas, last fall, we expected to have the same or better service on board. Since the Splendour is a smaller ship..

a. I booked RCL because of the enjoyable experience we had onboard the Freedom.

4. Onboard the Splendour of the Seas, the main dining experience was the same standards as of the Freedom. We enjoyed the dining experience and related that in the survey.

5. What we did not enjoy, was the dining experience in the Windjammer.

a. We were only recognized, asked if we would like a drink, or purchase a drink, when we left our table. When we tried to get the attention of a waiter/waitress, we and others were ignored. There were some exceptions.

b. When I addressed the issue with the Head waiter, he said that it was because we were in a “european environment”. He said that he would like to change the way the waiters work, but it is a european mentality.

c. I do not believe that. I haved lived in the European community for over 30 years. I am an American and proud of our ways

d. I own 2 businesses and my motto is the American way of “the customer is king”.

e. I have bragged about your services offered on the Freedom, but I was really disappointed in the services I received in the Windjammer.

 

This is the first time I, ever, complained about something. I think that your company should realize that many customers like to book your cruise line because of the American services offered.

[mais318]

I did Liberty out of Barcelona back in Jul 2011, and we had an awesome time. The passenger make up was diverse like everyone said with a lot of people not speaking english but I really liked that actually. It was interesting to see everyone from different cultures interact on one ship. The food and crew were top notch and never had a problem with anything service related. We stopped at Toulon, Nice, Livorno, Civitavecchia, and Naples. It was a busy cruise but it was a ton of fun. You will have a great time!

[mais318]

Really pleased to see these reports we are trying to decide whether to go on NCL's Epic or RCI's LOS in September, there seems to be two options to get on board either in Barc or Toulon, it is considerably cheaper to get on in Toulon, anybody have any idea why the two options and which is best, flights to Toulon are cheaper than barca ex MCR - Jet2.

M:)

 

Toulon is a small port and very quiet. It would be really easy, I'm sure to get on in Toulon. We did Barcelona because we had not been to Barcelona and wanted to spend a few days in the city before we started the cruise. We were also very happy to be on the Liberty, but a year after our cruise we had some friends do Epic in the Haven and had an awesome time. It is really down to personal preference because the ships are both great.

[luvtosing]

2BAcruiser, you had asked about the difference between starting the cruise in different ports. I was told that they don't like to book suites out of any place except Barcelona. Not sure if this is for every sail date, but if you are interested in a suite I would check that out.

[tocanada]

I was on Liberty April 30 and May 19. Both were amazing cruises.

Gunter Steib was the hotel director (Darren was on vacation) and was very visible and did an excellent job.

Sports supervisor Clinton and his team were outstanding. Future Cruise Manager Renato Reis was very helpful.

Liberty is a fantastic ship for a Med cruise. The ship was docking at La Spezia. We expected to tender.

Andrew

[bertrande]

We just got off the ship yesterday. Beautiful ship in great condition, and we really enjoyed the food in the MDR. The menu change was for the better and to our mind bridged the gap between Celebrity and RCCL food wise. We saw no need to dine at Chops (which was our original plan) as we were quite happy with the meats on offer at the MDR. We were scheduled for the 2nd seating at the time of booking because first seating and MTD was full but we managed to change to MTD with a 6.15pm reservation every night, which we were VERY grateful for because with a 9-month old infant, there was no way we would have made the 9pm dinner time! Windjammer food was touch and go but nothing to complain about. Had milk shakes twice from Johnny Rockets and ate there once...liked the food very much.

 

Guest relations weren't exactly the friendliest but they were kept very busy so I guess we should cut them some slack. Our stateroom attendant was ok, but we got the feeling the SAs were overworked and underpaid. My husband walked the aisle quite a few times putting the baby to sleep and heard them arguing behind closed doors fairly regularly.

 

One thing I didn't like was the cancellation of the shore excursion to Florence without prior notice. The ship had changed port, that I knew, but I thought the same excursion would be ported over and since I received no notification, I assumed we were set to go. Imagine my surprise when one day before I left, I happened to check my credit card statement and saw a refund from RCCL on my account! A couple of frantic calls to RCCL later I was told the excursion had for some reason been mass-cancelled and they couldn't tell me why, just said to check onboard when we embarked. I was able to rebook the excursion at a higher price on board but was really worried for a bit because the excursion I was looking at was the "Exclusive" edition limited to 25 persons. All worked out well in the end so that was good.

 

As mentioned above, we also travelled with my 9-month old and were very pleased with RCCL's Fisher-Price toy lending program. That kept my infant happy and entertained. We did go to the FP theme playgroup one evening but we were the only ones who showed up that day so it was a little quiet. We didn't go the next few days because LO then fell sick and a lot of our plans re her activities were scuppered.

 

Really enjoyed the ice show. We felt Saturday Night Fever was so so; it was cancelled halfway due to the rockiness of the ship and we didn't go for the repeat performance.

 

We also used the spa during one of the port days and there wasn't too much hard sell, so it was quite a comfortable experience.

 

All in all, we had a good cruise experience and would sail with RCCL again. We had a great experience onboard Radiance for our honeymoon, but a not-so-good experience on Legend in Asia (more to do with the passenger demographics than with the ship itself) so we were glad this cruise turned out so well! We've already booked Celebrity over Radiance for Alaska next year but might do the Mariner in Asia...who knows?

[onlyonetrevorfrancis]

Can you clam the VAT back when you leave Spain? - also do you remember the beer and wine prices on the med cruise please

 

Hi

 

Just going through some receipts, a bottle of Michelob worked out at $6.57 with the gratuity and tax. Vodka and tonic was $7.82 and a glass of wine I think around $10 - 11.

[nlcentralchmps03]

Thanks to everyone that has posted. Also glad to hear that Rich Edwards does a nice job as CD, however I think the CD will play less of a role with such a port intensive itinerary.

[Pushka]

This cruise is an active one, few sea days and usually quite hot. By the time we returned from long excursions, changed for dinner, we didn't bother with any shows. So I don't even know who the CD was on our trip.

[juicy1]

We were on Liberty of the Seas last year and have a wonderful holiday. I was pregnant and we brought our toddler. There were lots of fun family activities organised but it can be very port intensive. Last year we went for the ship experience rather than the ports and found the staff excellent especially with our toddler, he got so much attention. We have booked again to go early July this year and we can't wait. Freedom class ships are my favourite so far and looking forward to Oasis class ships over here too...........

 

We noticed a good mix of nationalilities on each Med cruise.