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Liberty review - August 28 2016 sailing

ukintheus

By ukintheus,
in Royal Caribbean International

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ukintheus

ukintheus

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My take on RCI as a couple with no kids, kind of vs. DCL but not really because they are so different

 

Cabin - we LOVED our bigger cabin and veranda - hands down a winner for us. It was clean, in good condition and the AC worked well (better than DCL I thought). The closet was awesome – it gave us plenty of room to put all our stuff and keep the clutter out of the room. The only strange thing was that our bed didn’t have a mattress cover, just the (thin) sheet over the mattress. I even pulled the sheet partly off one day to double check. Seemed strange and if it had bothered me enough I would have asked for one but I didn’t. The bathroom probably didn’t have as much storage as the split bath does on DCL but there were lots of other places to put stuff that didn’t necessarily need to be in the bathroom. They didn’t put the toilet paper into little points though – LOL – Oh, the humanity!!

 

Overall condition of the ship – Very good, you couldn’t fault anything in terms of the condition and cleanliness and IMO it was in better shape than the Disney Magic was after its dry dock. The various areas were easy to find and we didn’t have any issues at all with navigating our way around.

 

Elevators – we didn’t use them much but they just never seemed to be full even though there were only two banks of elevators whereas DCL has three. On DCL there are many times that you can't get in, or not everyone in your party can get in. They also seemed to be bigger than the elevators on the Fantasy and Dream. We didn’t even have any problems with our luggage when disembarking.

 

Casino – non issue for us – we didn’t use it, but I will say the one time we walked through it, that it was much smaller than I thought it was going to be.

 

Smoking – 95% non issue for us. The smoking section of deck 11 by the pool was probably a bit busier than DCL. Maybe on RCI they all actually use the smoking section though and don’t use their balconies ;). The day the wind was blowing toward the solarium from the smoking section was the only day we noticed the smell in a non-smoking area.

 

Pool towels – this was something I had heard was a big pain vs DCL where you don't have to – we didn’t find it a problem at all. We never waited in line to get a towel, or replace one. They had a check in and check out when you got on and off the ship at the gangway for excursions and it all worked smoothly.

 

Beverage package – I can’t say that we came out ahead from what we spent on the package but it was nice to be able to get anything we wanted and it was nice to have it paid for well in advance of the trip. You can’t say we didn’t try to get our monies worth! Ha ha.

 

Entertainment – We only did one show but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Different, and nice to have an adult theme. The theater was beautiful and I liked the fact that the bar was inside it! LOL There was adult trivia offered several times during the cruise and we usually go on DCL. It seemed to always be held in the Schooner Bar though, which was right next to the Casino and was too smoky for us so we didn’t participate in anything there. I felt that the rest of the entertainment offerings, aside from the pools/water slides etc., were on the weak side. The daily compass had tons of stuff listed but a lot of it we weren't interested in and a lot of it seemed to be based around goings on in the Casino or sales in the retail shops.

 

Internet – worked about the same as DCL and wasn't super speedy but it worked for what we used it for. In future I would probably buy the data package if it is offered at a discount, which it was on this cruise, at $9.95/day.

 

Food & Dining Service – We found the drink server service at the pool to be slow, almost non-existent some days. The service in the other bars was good, about the same as DCL. Service in the MDR was good the two nights we were in there and the service in Chops was excellent. Giovanni’s and Sabor weren’t as good, and not as good as the MDR on DCL, but you can always get a not-so-great server, and so I’m leaving that one open really, we've had fantastic and not so great on DCL too.

 

Stateroom host – awesome – just as good as any of the best we have had on DCL. Friendly, helpful, and like a ninja - loved him.

 

Other crew we interacted with – cleaners and maintenance people were very friendly and often said hello and asked how your day was going, even the painter guys (who typically on DCL have that panic look when they see you – LOL). One thing that I didn’t like was that the name tags for the crew had their full name and half of the tag was taken up with the RCI logo, so you couldn’t read their names – I like being able to see the name of the person as I’m not great at remembering names. The name tags on DCL are much better. IMO

 

Food:

Windjammer - the buffet was definitely not our favorite and we tried it for breakfast and lunch but we did not try it for dinner. I don’t think it compares to any of the DCL buffets at all in terms of quality or choice but that curry right at the end gave it bonus points! :D

 

MDR - Our limited experience was that it appeared to be hit or miss and overall probably 1 step below DCL for quality and a couple of steps below in terms of an interesting menu.

 

Specialty restaurants. We had a hit with Chops, and miss with Sabor, and Giovanni’s was somewhere in between. Johnny Rockets was not worth the upcharge to me. I would rate their burger and fries about on par with the burger available at no extra charge on the pool deck on DCL.

 

Things that were awesome on RCI - The ship was beautiful, and much nicer than I had been expecting. The Promenade and the pool decks were fantastic especially with all the activities on the pool deck if you chose to do them. Being able to pre-purchase our booze was a HUGE deal for us. Loved that.

 

Things we missed/preferred on DCL - It was a surprise to me that we missed the soda station on DCL (which is included in the cruise price) as it is something I didn’t really think we used, having freestyle soda machines would have solved that issue though. We also really missed the quick dining options on the pool deck on DCL. It was inconvenient to have to go down to deck 5 (not 4 as I've been misleading you all into thinking! LOL) to get a sandwich or a slice of pizza, or to go into the always busy Windjammer to grab something when we were out at the pool. We only ordered room service for breakfast but the menu was limited compared to DCL and nothing stood out that we wanted to order.

 

Pre-purchase options – We had a lot of discounted options available for pre-purchase on our cruise vs onboard pricing. Our beverage package was discounted 20% and our specialty dining package was 4 nights for $80.00 per person. We also could have purchased discounted internet and a photograph package. Big thumbs up in my book that we could book ahead of time and get a discount.

 

Embarkation – This was really easy for us because we had suite privileges. It was the fastest we have ever got onto a ship at Galveston – about 30 mins total from when we arrived at the port to when we were onboard.

 

Debarkation – Self-assist different and slower than I thought it would be, but we haven’t ever done walk off on DCL – so can’t really fairly compare. I hadn't ever noticed immigration being so slow in Galveston, but this ship had more passengers than DCL does in Galveston so that has to be taken into consideration.

 

AND FINALLY - - the questions that other DCL cruisers always ask about RCI.

 

1. Was it cheaper than DCL overall? Yes. Our room was cheaper than a regular verandah on DCL. Overall the total we spent was about the same as we would have on a 7 night on DCL, BUT, that's because we chose to spend more money on nice bottles of wine than we normally do on DCL because we knew that we weren't going to have a catastrophic bill on that last morning. :D If you take that out of the mix, then, yes, it was cheaper and we were in a much larger room.

 

2. Would you book RCI or DCL for your next cruise? Both for different reasons. If it's just us two and we are looking for a reasonably priced get away we would definitely book RCI again. If it is a sailing with family then we would book DCL just because I think the activities offered on DCL appeal to our family more than RCI.

 

Thanks to everyone that followed along and for all your kind comments and putting up with my ramblings. :D

Edited by ukintheus
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ukintheus

ukintheus

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Just a mention...you kept referring to stopping on the promenade on Deck 4 for snacks or drinks. Café Promenade, Hoof and Claw and Sorrentos are on Deck 5, and those stairs in the middle do indeed go straight into the casino. Deck 4 is the casino, the photo area, Schooner Bar, Boleros and Sabor, as well as the Theater.

 

I'm too lazy to go back and change this in all of my posts but thank you for pointing it out. :D I thought I was doing so well remembering everything! LOL ;)

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Yorkiegirl3

Yorkiegirl3

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I think they may not offer the dining packages until the cruise date gets closer. At least that's what I'm hoping. We did get the 20% discount on our beverage package so that was nice. And by the time the cruise gets here I'm hoping I'll have forgotten how expensive the beverage packages were, lol.

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ukintheus

ukintheus

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I think they may not offer the dining packages until the cruise date gets closer. At least that's what I'm hoping. We did get the 20% discount on our beverage package so that was nice. And by the time the cruise gets here I'm hoping I'll have forgotten how expensive the beverage packages were, lol.

 

I think the discounted dining, internet and photo packages did come a bit closer to our sailing dates, fingers crossed for you. We gave up trying to keep up with the cost of our drinks vs the cost of the drink package, I decided it was less stressful to just forget about it. ;)

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CruzieSue

CruzieSue

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Really enjoyed your review and all the photos, but I seriously thought my darling hubby and I were the king and queen of lazy!!! :D I think that's what we enjoy the most about cruising - you can be as active or as lazy as you want to ;) and we absolutely will not cruise without a balcony !! We will be on Liberty next May and cannot wait. :)

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slg1979

slg1979

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Really liked your review! We will be back on her for our third anniversary. We were married on her ❤️. We have purchased a dining package 5 nights for 105pp. We also love Chops. Although we never ate there on Liberty. The burger they served you in Jonny Rockets looks like it was assembled from the buffet... The onion rings look fab! I was especially interested in your review of Sabor. We are considering it but now maybe not so much.. Did you happen to notice if the food was heavy with cilantro in Sabor?

 

Thanks again for the review!

 

 

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MLevin

MLevin

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Thanks to everyone for following along! I'll do my best to keep up at a decent pace and I promise I won't leave you all hanging and not finish. :) If only work would realize I need time to get this done! Ha ha.

 

LOVE this review. We sail in 100 days. This will be our second cruise. Our first was on Oais two years ago. We are clueless about cruising and this ship ....so tho sis VERY helpful. We are trying to figure out the must see/do things on the ship.

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Cel_cruise

Cel_cruise

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Loved your review! Great job!

 

Your Restaurant reviews were very helpful. We LOVED Sabor when we dined on Navigator but our meal choices were all different than yours. We will make sure to stick with something else or at least be prepared to send things back! The amount of time it took to get your drinks is COMPLETELY unacceptable! I might have asked for drink package credit after that!

 

Our kids really enjoyed the MDR on our last cruise so I think we will do Sabor for lunch and Giovanni's for dinner one night but probably MDR the rest just because they loved getting to know their wait staff...but those dining package discounts are really tempting!

 

 

 

 

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ukintheus

ukintheus

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Thanks to everyone for the very kind comments. I can't answer either of the questions about whether Johnny Rockets was open for breakfast or about whether Sabor was open for lunch a la carte. Sorry! :confused: Sabor didn't gave an over abundant use of cilantro, and we would definitely give it another try because those margaritas were fantastic. We'd give Givanni's another try too, I'm a firm believer that sometimes there can be an off night.

Edited by ukintheus
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