Liberty of the Seas June 11-18

[VMosier]

Day1

Hey guys! I'm going to try my hand at my first trip report here! I'm not a super experienced cruiser, my husband and I went on a three day out of LA for our honeymoon in 2003. We were on the Carnival Ecstasy and weren't super impressed. Last summer my husband's best friend talked him into another one, we took a couples trip on the Carnival Dream out of New Orleans. We had a blast and started talking about taking another cruise, this time with our 10 year old son!

 

We're in Vegas and I wasn't thrilled with any of the options out of California so we decided to try heading east. We debated between a Carnival cruise out of Florida (forget which one) and Liberty and decided on trying out Royal Carribbean for the first time! We flew into Hobby the evening before and just got a hotel close to the airport.

 

When I made arrangements for Galveston Express, they had told us to make our way back to the airport in the morning to grab the shuttle. While we were sitting at the hotel breakfast, I got a call from the shuttle driver saying he was running a little early and would be happy to pick us up at the hotel! Perfect! We were quickly on our way! Our driver was great, he even offered to stop at a store if anyone needed to grab anything. No one needed to stop so we kept trucking and were quickly at the port. It was still pretty early, I think around 10 but they let us in the building and we got through all the lines and to the waiting room with no waiting. We were in the first boarding group after all of the special suites and special people!

 

We were quickly aboard and I grabbed a drink- had to toast the trip with a mai tai! We got a snack at the sandwich shop and hung around on the Promenade for a while before heading up to Windjammer. I've seen some complaints here about Windjammer, I don't have any complaints! We're not fancy people and I love buffets (what, I'm from Vegas?? ;-) and it was on par with the places we go here. I also really liked that there was plenty of staff there to help find seating and to bring drinks. Service was much better than we had experienced on Carnival (for the record, I didn't really have any complaints there either). My son was thrilled with all of his favorites and ended up with a hamburger, hotdog, pizza, fries and a cupcake for his first meal. The child is super skinny, I have no idea where he puts it all!

 

We came prepared witih our bathing suits so we spent some time in the pools before our room was ready. Didn't realize the Solarium was adults only so we spent a few minutes there in the hot tub with our son until I saw a sign for it so we left before we were kicked out. :) Our room was soon ready so we headed down. We had a balcony room- 6376. It was slightly smaller than the room we had on the Dream last summer but we booked kind of late to get bigger.

 

Our shuttle driver told us that morning there was a 0% chance of rain. He was wrong, it poured as we rested in our room. We were thankful we had already gotten in some good pool time! We explored the ship some more, did the hot and miserable muster drill then rested a bit before dinner. I had requested a table just for the three of us via email and was pleasantly surprised that we not only got it but got a lovely table by the window.

 

That evening we had our first awesome dinner in the dining room. Our main waiter, Calvert, was wonderful. By the end of the trip he knew my picky child's preferences very well. His assistant was very sweet but new to the job and struggled a bit. We love the dining room options and didn't feel the need to buy any of the upcharge dining.

 

We had been scheduled to leave Galveston at 4:30 but they were working on the internet so we were still in port during dinner. That ended up being kind of awesome because our waiter pointed out some dolphins during dinner! I absolutely love dolphins and wanted to be a marine biologist growing up so that absolutely made my day! After dinner we went outside and watched the dolphins some more and played some shuffleboard. We had never played before but it soon became an after dinner tradition!

 

After a while we headed up to the minigolf course and played a game while the sunset and as the ship finally got underway! We're not generally late night people so we called it an evening after that. It was a great start to our trip!

[VMosier]

Day 2 At Sea

 

We started our day at Windjammer today! Again, no complaints from me and my son loved the piles and piles of bacon! Before the trip I had done a lot of research on the ship and made a mental list of all the things I wanted to do and see. Today was the day to check things off of the list! We ice skated in the morning. My son has never been and I'm pretty sure my husband and I hadn't been since we were dating 15+ years and many pounds ago. Needless to say, it did not go well, lol. My son couldn't stay on his feet and I barely managed to. My husband did much better than the two of us did!

 

The days kind of run together at this point (I knew I should have made notes on the ship!) but I know on that day we spent more time at the pool and checked out the water slides. My son is not the most adventurous kiddo so I had to test the slides first for him. After I rode the orange one and told him it was slow and had plenty of light, he happily went on it while I tested the green one. He was a little hesitant to do the green one so he decided to skip it for the day. Hubby and i wanted to do Tidal Wave. There was no one working down at the bottom so we grabbed a tube and headed up without being weighed. We're both a little fluffy and, after reading more here since we've been back, I'm thinking we were either close to the limit or over because we very nearly touched the top of the slide. I'm generally a thrill seeker but that freaked me out a little too much. I was shaking like a leaf after and we had to sit and rest for a few until I calmed down. Once was enough for me on that one!

 

That day we had lunch in the dining room. This was the only time I was really irritated by the upselling. We were approached by at least five people during our lunch. It was annoying but the lunch was great, especially the salad! That afternoon we brought one of our favorite games, Suspend, up to the pool deck and played while we watched the water go by. This game is kind of like Jenga where you're trying to build a structure without things falling. It's super fun and very challenging, especially when the boat is rocking (and you're drinking!). We ended up talking with a bunch of people because the game is kind of attention getting!

 

I'm pretty sure we took a nap and rested for a while before our formal dinner. My very fancy child ordered his usual- a cheeseburger which cracked me up. We had a lovely dinner then played more shuffleboard until it was time to go to Into the Air. Now I will say it is a remarkable show for being on a cruise ship. However, a few weeks ago my son and I had the opportunity to go backstage at and see the Cirque show Ka. So while Into the Air was awesome, it was hard not to draw comparisons and Ka is just an amazing show so there was no competition. Being the party animals we are, we headed back to the room after that! :)

[VMosier]

Day 3 At Sea

 

This morning started with more Windjammer then it was on to the next thing on my list- rock climbing! None of us had ever tried it before so I was curious to see how it would go. My son went first and he got the wall that went straight up, no bumps or crevices. I was called next and, well, it wasn't my finest moment. I'm not in the best shape and I just could not get over a place on the wall that stuck out. I made several attempts and just couldn't get up the dang well. Meanwhile my kid was Spiderman and made it up to the bell easily. My husband made it about half way before getting tired and dropping. I was super proud of my kid for not only trying something new but also rocking it. I was proud of myself for even trying, most moms just watched their kid.

 

We spent some more time in the pool and had lunch at Windjammer. At that point my husband wasn't feeling great and wanted to go back to the room and rest. I was determined to give him some good quiet time so my kid and I went back to the pool. This turned out to be a mistake because we did not sunscreen up properly in the morning and I ended up fried. I have very fair skin and absolutely know better. :(

 

We also went to try out the Flowrider this afternoon. Again, the kid was hesitant but I talked him into it by offering to go first. It was another thing neither of us had tried but I loved it, I thought it was a blast! Again, most moms sat on the side so I was proud of myself for giving it a try. When it was the kid's turn, he wiped out spectacularly, arms and legs flying everywhere. I was sure that was it, he would be done and refuse to go again. The instructor told him he could have a second try and he jumped back on. Wow, who is this kid? I was SO proud!

 

After swimming and Flowrider, we wanted to see the ice show. I didn't want to disturb my husband so we didn't go change clothes, we just spent some time drip drying on the deck. So we were still a bit damp when we made it to the ice show. We ended up sitting right by the ice and it was a bit chilly! We both enjoyed the show, my son joked that he was on the same level as a few of the skaters as a few of them had minor falls! It made him feel slightly better!

 

That evening was a repeat of the others- fabulous dinner in the dining room, shuffleboard, mini-golf and sunset watching. We turned in especially early so we would be ready for the next day- Roatan!

[VMosier]

Day 4- Roatan

 

We were up bright and early, ready for an adventure in Roatan! I had done my research here and discovered Daniel Johnson's Monkey and Sloth hang out. I LOVE sloths. They have been my favorite animal for years (I loved them before my became insanely popular, lol) and I had been looking forward to this excursion! I booked it through their facebook page and it sounded like a terrific deal- $45 per person for a tour of the island, monkey and sloth time and snorkeling. We had breakfast at Windjammer then were soon following the directions they sent me to find our guide.

 

Soon we were with Tex, our guide for the day! He has lived on Roatan his entire life and was an excellent guide! He started with a tour of the island, stopping for pictures in a few places. He drove us in his own truck and I felt perfectly safe the entire time. After about an hour of tour time, we made it to the sloth hang out! We were put in a group with about 10 other people and given a tour guide to introduce us to the animals. It is a rather small facility but I was very impressed. The animals are very well cared for and we had great interactions with them. We had about 15 minutes inside the monkey cage as they ran all around, including all over us. They loved being on my husband's head as he was, as the guide said, "the tallest tree!" After we met all of the other animals, it was finally sloth time! Our group got to meet Sid, we each got time to hold and cuddle him and get pictures. It was amazing. He was so soft and sweet. Completely a highlight of the trip, if not my life! My son was pretty excited about this too!

 

After sloth cuddle time, it was snorkeling time! The facility has their own boat and docking area right there. We were given some time to get ready and we were able to spend some time watching the animals while we waited to go. There were some other sloths in the trees right there by the water so I was able to watch and photograph them up close while we waited! Finally it was time to go, they split us into two groups- one with kids and one without. Again, this was new for my little guy and he stepped up like a champ. Our snorkeling guide was great, he made sure everyone was comfortable, taking special care to be sure my son was doing well. We saw a lot of awesome fish and some other critters like sea cucumbers and conch. Soon we were back on the boat and eating the snack they provided!

 

Back on land we met up with Tex. He took us up to a high point on the island where we could see the ocean on both sides of the island. At this point we were exhausted. The tour said that we would visit a resort to eat lunch in their restaurant (not included) but we just wanted to go back to the ship so Tex happily brought us back there. It was pretty late for lunch and we were starving so we headed up to Windjammer then back to the room where we all crashed.

 

We roused ourselves for dinner but got there and realized we had eaten lunch too late and we had really overdone it in the sun the past few days. We only ate about half our dinners then left before dessert. I believe we made it through one game of shuffleboard before calling it a night.

[widallas]

Following...great review and looking forward to the rest!

 

 

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[VMosier]

Day 5- Costa Maya

 

I was very happy I booked a more relaxing excursion for today! After breakfast in Windjammer, we headed down to meet our group for a beach day at a resort. I was impressed with how organized the excursion departure area was in Costa Maya, it was easy to figure out where to go. Soon we were on a bus and on our way! The resort (which I never got the name of) was only about 10 minutes away. Calling it a resort was a bit of a stretch, it was more of a beach club. We were quickly settled in comfy, shaded chairs and the waiter came quickly for drink orders! My husband and I enjoy drinking occasionally but had opted not to get the drink package on the ship. We're not as young as we used to be and I know we might have overdone things and made bad choices if we had gotten one. So we were looking forward to a few drinks here!

 

The beach here was beautiful but did have some rocky areas which made getting to the sandy parts a little tricky. I wish we had worn our water shoes that day! Kayaks were also available to borrow for free, we spent a few minutes in one but it was more work than we wanted to do! There was also a nice pool there with a swim up bar. This was also the sight of my camera disaster. I love taking pictures and had brought my waterproof camera on this trip. By this point I had taken hundreds of pictures. I was completely confident in my camera's waterproof abilities as it did awesome during the snorkeling trip. Yeah, it turns out it's only waterproof as long as it is entirely snapped shut. Which I apparently didn't do before I submerged it in the pool. It started acting funny then turned off altogether. I was in tears thinking we had lost all of the pictures from the trip so far, especially the sloth and snorkeling pics. My husband got me another drink and reminded me we still had phones to take pictures with back on the boat. It did put a damper on the rest of our time there. We spent a few hours swimming, drinking and relaxing before heading back to the ship. We had bracelets on that indicated that we could take a taxi back to the port without paying, it was easy and quick and we were soon back. We did a little shopping, I was very impressed with the shopping area around there, it was very nice! All morning we had been watching some dark clouds approach. As we got ready to go back to the ship, I was struck by the contrast between the dark, dark clouds and the beautiful blue water. It was gorgeous and it was absolutely killing me that I didn't have a working camera to take a picture of it. My husband noticed a family trying to get a selfie in front of the water and offered to take it for them then asked if they would take one of us then send it when they had cell service. They very sweetly agreed and got my cell number.

 

There was a shuttle type thingy pulled by a small vehicle that you can ride on to get back to the ship instead of walking the pier. We hopped on that and it began to POUR rain! Living in the desert all of my life, I love rain and this made me so happy! We ended up getting pretty wet getting back on the ship but I loved it! We headed up to Windjammer for lunch, agreeing to go easy on the food so we didn't make the same mistake as the day before, we wanted to be hungry for dinner in the dining room! We had a lovely dinner, played more shuffleboard and watched the sunset. There was probably also more pool and hot tub time in there at some point too, the days kind of blend together.... More later, gotta get dinner on the table!

[VMosier]

Day 6- Cozumel

 

Today would be another dream come true for me. We were going to Chaakanaab to swim with dolphins and manatees! After another Windjammer breakfast, we headed down to the port. There were more dark clouds overhead and we felt a few sprinkles as we left the ship. We were kind of early but found the person in charge of our excursion quickly. They gave us bracelets, showed us where we would be meeting and sent us off to go look around the shops. We did a little window shopping, not wanting to buy anything right before we left then met up with the group. We listened to our guide Diego at our meeting spot then walked to another area and listened to him explain the transportation. There were quite a few people in our group, it took a while to get everyone on taxis and get to Chaakanaab.

 

When we got there, we stopped adn listened to Diego talk again. Then walked to the the dolphin area and listened to him again. At this point the clouds had cleared and the sun was brutally hot. It was a lot of standing around in the heat and I was afraid that would be the way the rest of the day would go. Thankfully he finished up then and we put our things in a locker and got our life jackets. We had to wait a little bit more before he called our group. There were several different experiences people had signed up for, we had signed up for the Royal Dolphin swim. There were only two other people in our group, two teenagers whose parents watched from the pier.

 

I was thankful I had researched before the trip and knew already that we would not be able to take cameras into the dolphin experience. Our group had our own photographer who took pictures. We were soon in the water with our dolphins, Louis and Ramses. We each got to give the dolphins kisses and pose with them a couple of different ways for the photographer. We also went out to the middle of the pool, grab the dolphins fins and get a ride back. The coolest thing we did was the Superman trick. We laid on our belly in the water, locked our knees and the dolphins came and put their snout on our feet and pushed us. They were so strong they pushed us almost entirely out of the water, so we were standing. It was amazing. I was worried that my little guy would be scared but he had a blast! In all we were in the water about 45 minutes and I loved every single minute of it!

 

Next we were taken into an area that had three manatees. We got to pet them while the trainer fed them. I was kind of bummed that the photographer who was still right there did not take pictures of any of this. We only got about 10 minutes with the manatees.

 

After our time with the critters we went and checked out the photos. I knew they wouldn't be cheap but I wasn't expecting the prices! It was $35 per printed picture or you could get them digitally. But the tricky thing is the digital part was dependant on how many people there were. If I wanted pictures of only 1 of us, it would have been $100 for one print and the digitals, 2 people was $185 (I think) and 3 was $235. I wanted to cry, it was so much. We decided to have lunch and a drink and think on it.

 

A lunch buffet was included, it was not great but it got the job done. We also had included drinks which we took advantage of in the restaurant and at their swim up pool. We spent some time in the pool and at their beach area. After that my husband told me to just go ahead and get the pictures. I had just found out I was getting a bonus at work and there was no good reason not to get them except the fact that I am usually a pretty thrifty person. I was so happy! At this point we were tired and the sun was blazing so we found our tour guide and asked him to arrange a taxi back for us (also included) and we headed back and did a bit of shopping.

 

I forgot to mention one other thing in my report for the day before- that was the day that the drink cards went on sale. Before dinner I told my husband "we should get one so that we can each have a drink with dinner the next few nights and a few afternoon drinks." He agreed and went over to one of the bars before dinner to get one. At least, I thought he was getting one. He heard "we should get one" and thought I meant each. Which meant we had a lot of drinking to do in the next few days! When we got back on the ship we had a drink, a rest and probably more pool time! Again, the days run together. We had another great dinner in the dining room, more shuffleboard, mini-golf and sunset before bed!

[danzig1989]

I'm enjoying your review. We're doing that cruise in September, so it's nice to read you enjoyed the ship and experience. I also appreciate you writing a nice, easy to read review, versus trying to over do it with a bunch of clever attempts at humor.

 

Too many people think they are novelists, or budding screen writers, and it takes away from their review. At least IMHO.

 

 

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[VMosier]

Day 7- At Sea

 

Our last day. :( We made sure to get in the last things we wanted to do today- we did the waterslides again, this time my little guy agreed to doing the green one. We also did the Flowrider again, making sure to grab my husband this time so he could have a turn. I was excited to bring my phone this time so I could take pictures and video! I went first, had a great run, even managing to get to my knees this time. When I wiped out, I felt the current tug at my swim bottoms a bit. That had happened earlier in the week when I was wearing a pair of board shorts over my suit, the shorts went down but the suit stayed up. This time the shorts and suit were attached. Since things were fine earlier in the week, I didn't worry too much about it and went a second time. Later I watched the video my husband shot and, yeah, I gave everyone a show and mooned the whole ship. Oops. Note to self- next time pack a one piece. Or a wet suit.

 

I know this morning we did trivia (with drinks! had to use the drink cards up!) and later brought a card game up to the pool deck and played (with more drinks!). While we were playing we noticed a huge pod of dolphins. We watched them for a few minutes, they were jumping and playing, I loved it! At one point hubby went back to rest so the kid and I hung out. I tried to get him to go to Kids Club. We signed him up at the beginning of the week but we were so busy and he's kind of shy so he never went. He agreed to give it a try and we went up and it was closed. We decided to swim for a bit until it opened. It opened and we headed back up to check it out. He was willing to go but he was still damp from the pool so they wouldn't let him in. He lost enthusiasm after that so I didn't push it. We ended up having a little adventure after that, by our state room there was some fun artwork where you turned a little handle and the scene inside moved. We decided to check all the levels with staterooms and look for more! We found a few more but decided that ours were the most fun!

 

Soon it was time for dinner. As we were walking down the steps, my sandal started to slip off and I somehow ended up tripping and falling down two or three steps. I swear I wasn't drunk or even tipsy, I'm just naturally clumsy. I was fine, just a little sore and embarrassed. We made it to our table where I got a drink and recovered. Had one more lovely dinner then headed out for the last game of shuffleboard. After our game we were walking back by the dining room and we looked in and saw our waiter! He waved and came running after us, he hadn't had a chance to give us his give me good ratings on the survey speech before we left so he gave it then. We still had two more drinks to get so we headed up to Olive or Twist and grabbed a few whiskey sours. I believe we played one more game of mini-golf and watched the sunset one more time. Before heading back to the room we went to the other set of stairs to search for interactive artwork in the areas we hadn't already searched. We concluded that we definitely had the best ones close to our room! Finally, it was time to pack up and turn in. :(

[VMosier]

Day 8- Back to Galveston and reality :(

 

We woke up before our alarm and were sad to see we were already docked in Galveston. I missed the ocean already. :( We had a 10:00 shuttle scheduled to get us back to Hobby but when we were given our luggage tags we were in the group scheduled to leave the ship around 10:00. I asked at guest services if we could get in an earlier group and they told us just to self carry our luggage. So we went and had one last breakfast in Windjammer then retrieved our luggage and joined the lines of people leaving. It probably took about 45 minutes to an hour to get off the boat and through customs.

 

We were early getting to the shuttle but there was one getting ready to leave and it had room so they let us on it and we were soon at the airport. I left lots of wiggle room for our flight so we had plenty of time to eat lunch, charge our devices and make sure we all had books downloaded to read for the flight back. We were soon back home, tired and happy to see our dogs but missing Liberty already.

 

Overall it was a fantastic trip! I am now totally spoiled and I'm not sure I can cruise on any other cruise line now! I also fear I have gotten my son addicted to cruising, he already wants to know when we can go again!

[VMosier]

I'm enjoying your review. We're doing that cruise in September, so it's nice to read you enjoyed the ship and experience. I also appreciate you writing a nice, easy to read review, versus trying to over do it with a bunch of clever attempts at humor.

 

Too many people think they are novelists, or budding screen writers, and it takes away from their review. At least IMHO.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thanks! I enjoyed reliving my trip for you guys!

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[Cruise-y]

That was a very nice report. Thank you

[dplusd]

Sounds like you all had a great time. Thanks for sharing your week!

[cruisinggrandma57]

Thanks! I enjoyed reliving my trip for you guys!

 

 

Thank you for your trip review. I also live in Las Vegas and going on Liberty next April.

Annmarie

[CCC3]

Wonderful review! My family got on, as yours was getting off.

 

 

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[easyboy]

Thank you for your detailed report.

 

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[Clarea]

Excellent review.:)

[FPP777]

Was on the Liberty with you. Agree that it was a great time. Thanks for the review

[paremyd]

Nice review! Glad to hear all parties had a great time.

[wolfganghowell]

Glad you had such a great time. Bravo for being so adventurous. Sounds like you gave your son a vacation to remember and some wonderful life lessons about taking some fun risks. Don't worry about the moon - there've been a million of those on the flowriders. :D

[rajacks]

Nice review! Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences. :)

[ToddnMichelle]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. I know how it is after the kids have their first cruise. Took both of ours last October and they havent stopped asking about cruising again ever since. Little do they know i've got another family cruise planned for next year. ;)

[molsonschooner]

wow, it sounds like you had a great time. Liberty was our first Royal ship and we have been hooked ever since.

[DALSAL]

Not sure if I missed it, but just how little is your "little one"? Im taking my, 4 months shy of being 8, and she would love to do Flow Rider, but I don't think she's old enough. She's very adventurous, and a good swimmer. We took this cruise last July,and she was not old enough for the big slides, which she was very upset about! But, she can do them this year and she is so excited!

We too are doing Daniel Johnsons, and can't wait! We bought her a cute shirt yesterday that has two sloths on it, so she said she's wearing it to DJs!! We are also doing the Dolphin swim and ride in Cozumel, but not the one from Chank. I have to do it with her, which Im not looking forward to!! I really cannot do it because of back and neck issues, so Im hoping they will let me give my ride to her.

Thanks for your review! I enjoyed it since we are going next week!!! Dot