Long, Long Liberty Review - First Fall Caribbean Sailing Nov. 8 - 13, 2014

[Coralc]

We don't like the promenade either.

 

But your post brought up an interesting point. Thank you for bringing up the topic. Two of our least favorite cruises were ones that immediately followed the ships' transatlantic crossing. We were just talking about it.

 

It seems that there might need to be a transition for the whole staff and ship from what they have been doing for prior months in Europe or other places and the adjustments they need to make for US or Caribbean sailings. And they don't seem to have quite gotten into the change on the first sailing.

 

We were just counting...and our next cruise will be 3 weeks after the return. Hopefully they will have developed a better routine by then.

 

Thanks for your review. :)

[itching2cruiseagain]

We will also be on the Liberty Dec. 15th and are hoping Quest will be back. This will be our 5th trip on Liberty and even after a few tries, were disappointed in Chops, but Portofinos was always very good. We are planning on eating at Portofinos at least once this cruise. Also looking forward to seeing In the Air again. I'm just looking forward to being on a cruise ship period. :D

[23pebbles]

Thanks so much for your detailed review. I will be on this ship sailing the 6th December and am looking forward to my first ever cruise.

I have also booked the ziplining and cavetubing with cavetubing.bz. Thanks for your tripadvisor review too.

[Coralc]

Thanks so much for your detailed review. I will be on this ship sailing the 6th December and am looking forward to my first ever cruise.

I have also booked the ziplining and cavetubing with cavetubing.bz. Thanks for your tripadvisor review too.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic! :D Have a great time on your cruise. :)

[tomko2]

Excellent review -- thank you for taking the time to write and share it.

 

We are big fans of the LOS. Sadly she is moving away from FL. after this spring. Before she goes we are sailing 3 more times which will bring us to 12 cruises on the Liberty.

 

I miss the smoking on the balcony as well and changed from aft D1s to mid-ship D1s so I would be close to the elevators to get to the smoking areas.

 

So agree with your comments on Portofino -- even with the dumbing down of the menu over the years, it is still a big step above Giovanni's. We gave up on Chops several years ago after consistently inconsistent meals. The MDR generally does not disappoint and quite frequently we have found ourselves enjoy a quiet dinner in the Windjammer (the carving station is excellent), the food piping hot, cold salads and antipasti selection excellent, staff wonderful.

We dress for dinner regardless of where we are eating and have ending up in full formal wear at the Windjammer for dinner. :) Senior Staff are present and make you feel special.

 

Surprised about the pool chair issue -- we have watched the "towel patrol" in action on the LOS and usually they do a great job of managing the situation.

 

Personally I like the Royal Promenade, even just window shopping is something to do so we enjoy going to the sales and strolling from shop to shop. Our favorite activity on LOS (next to gambling) is playing mini-putt but that only takes an hour or less so going to the Royal Promenade for a coffee or whatever is an nice diversion.

 

Totally agree with your comments about the staff -- excellent. Also the bathrooms do need more scrubbing~!

 

We stay on the ship in Belize and Falmouth (been to both lots and prefer to stay on the ship). Love to go to beaches but not up for long treks to get there. Cozumel is great - 15 minutes and you are on the beach and Labadee is the BEST.

 

 

Happy Sailing

Kathy:)

We board LOS on Dec. 1st

Edited November 16, 2014 by tomko2

[tomko2]

Thanks so much for your detailed review. I will be on this ship sailing the 6th December and am looking forward to my first ever cruise.

I have also booked the ziplining and cavetubing with cavetubing.bz. Thanks for your tripadvisor review too.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic. You picked a lovely ship for your first cruise.

Do join Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society (Loyalty Program) while you are on board, you would start getting benefits on your next cruise.:)

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

[ronandannette]

Thanks so much for your detailed review. I will be on this ship sailing the 6th December and am looking forward to my first ever cruise.

I have also booked the ziplining and cavetubing with cavetubing.bz. Thanks for your tripadvisor review too.

 

You can't go wrong with cavetubing.bz. What an excellent operation they run! But do BEWARE of the excruciating tender process off the Liberty. My DH went to get our tender tickets and was in line at 9:10 (they opened at 9:00). We ended up with tender #33 - #1 left at 8:20. You will possibly spend a few anxious hours waiting to get off. It was the only time during the whole cruise that we felt tensions rise amongst the passengers and it was not pleasant. Maybe drop Vitalino an e-mail just reminding him of your situation so he can confirm that they will wait for you. Have a great trip!!

 

Excellent review -- thank you for taking the time to write and share it.

 

We are big fans of the LOS. Sadly she is moving away from FL. after this spring. Before she goes we are sailing 3 more times which will bring us to 12 cruises on the Liberty.

 

I miss the smoking on the balcony as well and changed from aft D1s to mid-ship D1s so I would be close to the elevators to get to the smoking areas.

 

So agree with your comments on Portofino -- even with the dumbing down of the menu over the years, it is still a big step above Giovanni's. We gave up on Chops several years ago after consistently inconsistent meals. The MDR generally does not disappoint and quite frequently we have found ourselves enjoy a quiet dinner in the Windjammer (the carving station is excellent), the food piping hot, cold salads and antipasti selection excellent, staff wonderful.

We dress for dinner regardless of where we are eating and have ending up in full formal wear at the Windjammer for dinner. :) Senior Staff are present and make you feel special.

 

Surprised about the pool chair issue -- we have watched the "towel patrol" in action on the LOS and usually they do a great job of managing the situation.

 

Personally I like the Royal Promenade, even just window shopping is something to do so we enjoy going to the sales and strolling from shop to shop. Our favorite activity on LOS (next to gambling) is playing mini-putt but that only takes an hour or less so going to the Royal Promenade for a coffee or whatever is an nice diversion.

 

Totally agree with your comments about the staff -- excellent. Also the bathrooms do need more scrubbing~!

 

We stay on the ship in Belize and Falmouth (been to both lots and prefer to stay on the ship). Love to go to beaches but not up for long treks to get there. Cozumel is great - 15 minutes and you are on the beach and Labadee is the BEST.

 

 

Happy Sailing

Kathy:)

We board LOS on Dec. 1st

 

LOL - you have more experience on LOS than some of the staff! You should consider setting up a little information stand on board (Questions Answered $0.05)! :D

 

Apologies in advance to the haters, but we would surely have enjoyed our leisure time more if we could have smoked on our balcony. We were happy about the extensive area on Deck 4 though. The Deck 11 smoking area on the pool deck was way to zoo-ey for our liking. We also made use of the Cigar Club a couple of times; it was a very nicely decorated space but always deserted. Is the bar in there ever staffed?

 

As for the WJ, the breakfast food was so lousy in there that we wouldn't even consider "wasting" a dinner trying it. Maybe it was better in the evening but we also didn't find the hours very convenient. And the lack of self-serve beverages was a big peeve for me. I'm truly sorry we wasted the time and money on Chops. I actually got "suckered" into booking it by the fact that the Cruise Planner on the website still displays the old menu :mad:. All of the warnings I'd read about how woeful the experience has become were true. I hope RCCL realizes they have "jumped the shark" on this one and starts putting things back the way they belong both in price and quality.

[23pebbles]

Thanks Coralc and tomko2 for the welcome!

 

You can't go wrong with cavetubing.bz. What an excellent operation they run! But do BEWARE of the excruciating tender process off the Liberty. My DH went to get our tender tickets and was in line at 9:10 (they opened at 9:00). We ended up with tender #33 - #1 left at 8:20. You will possibly spend a few anxious hours waiting to get off. It was the only time during the whole cruise that we felt tensions rise amongst the passengers and it was not pleasant. Maybe drop Vitalino an e-mail just reminding him of your situation so he can confirm that they will wait for you. Have a great trip!!

 

I will email Vitalino and will be hoping the tender process won't be too long. My DH hates waiting around..lol.

[rua642]

We were on Liberty in October. I agree with much of what the OP said. The ship is beautiful and the shows we saw were spectacular -- especially the ice show, which was above and beyond anything we have ever seen on a cruise. However, the cruise line needs to do something about the food. The Windjammer lunches were mediocre at best. Everything tasted bland and seemed to be warmed over. The dining room was extremely hit and miss, as another poster said. The steak was inedible and lobster was not served on this particular sailing. It was outrageous that on what should have been lobster night, some guests opted to pay $30. for a lobster dinner. The importance of food should not be minimized, as many of us do not eat out much (often, to save money for a cruise) and look forward to our meals on the ship.

[hoffman1]

We were on the same sailing. It was our first cruise on Royal Caribbean. I think it will probably be our last. Your review was spot on. The service I was expecting was just not there. Our server in the main dining room was very nice but the assistant could best be described as surly. We saw our room attendant three times. We asked for extra towels once and were told he would have to ask his supervisor. We ordered room service twice and it never came either time. We never felt like anything was very clean. We saw a few things that were in need of repair. We did not like the food or lack of service in the Windjammer. We always drank water because we soon learned that everything else would be warm. I had bought the Royal Replenish package (soda, bottled water, fresh squeezed juice, etc) but it was a hassle to use. I spent $109 for the package and got 2 sodas, 3 bottles of water, and two coffees. After reading about the Quest online, I was really disappointed it was not offered on our cruise.

We did have a fabulous time in the ports but we booked private excursions. The tendering process on Liberty was ridiculous. When I have tendered before the process was much quicker and smoother.

[Peeker28]

We are looking to book a cruise on LOS in March 2015, now maybe I should re-consider after reading several bad reviews. I have been on the Oasis and loved it.