Anyone been on Liberty of Seas - Western Caribbean?

[first1]

We are taking our first cruise the end of August. Any suggestions for traveling this ship and this itinerary?

[karena1]

Just enjoy. The ship was fabulous. We went in April 08. If you get lucky and they have the Abbacadabbra show, don't miss it. By far the best yet. Food was great, service was excellent, everything was just great. Even though the Western is not our favorite itinerary, we went for the ship. Still got off on every island, and had a wonderful time the entire week.

 

Have fun

[FMZ]

I remember my first cruise like it was yesterday, seems so long ago...

 

There is plenty to do on Western Route, Cozumel is awesome! Dont forget Carlos and Charlies to end the day right! Grand Cayman has great snorkeling just right off the boat that costs nothing.. and there's a Margarittaville that ROCKS! Labadee is heaven, lots of choices or just chill and try a Labadoozie, gosh I sound like a lush!! :)

 

Ship clues: Dont forget there are tasty treats through room service, bring your highlighter so you can tag what you want to do, and most of all... HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME!! It's what you make of it!

[nellydean]

We are taking our first cruise the end of August. Any suggestions for traveling this ship and this itinerary?

 

We did this cruise last summer and had a great time, the ship was still very new, although we cruised not long after a spate of noro (didn't affect us, but there were a few outbreaks). Loved sailing out of Miami, with cars hooting their horns at us, and South Beach looking fantastic.

 

1. Labadee. A beautiful private section of Haiti, cordoned off from the rest of the island and completely safe. Tender boats take you there (for the moment, as a new cruise ship jetty is being built) and there is plenty of beach space to choose from, wherever you park yourselves. Most stop at the first beach but we went to the furthest, and quietest (and the most beautiful I think) at Hideaway Beach - just turn left and go as far as you can, about 10 mins max. The locals were there waiting and we paid a few dollars for them to put some loungers under an umbrella. Note: RCI say you don't need any cash here, as the BBQ lunch is free, and you pay for any activities in advance, but we took money and were glad we did, as we would have felt awkward not giving anything to the Haitian employees, who are very poor. I had a long and interesting conversation with one of them (I had gone ashore ahead of the rest of my family to seek out an umbrella for my pale European skin :)), and he told me all about the autocratic government, the poverty and the crime, and the efforts to attract more tourists to help the economy.

 

A word of warning - we paid $30 for three water mats which was a complete waste of money, one would have sufficed.

 

The lunch was lovely and plentiful and of a very good quality.

 

It was very hot when we were there and so we didn't have the energy to do much other than sit and swim and snorkel (not much, a baby fish, its mother and a starfish!) look at the wonderful views and the ship, but there were plenty of activities around, including the Zipline (very expensive), water park, markets and walking (do go to the tip of the island at Dragons's Breath, where the waves make the sound of hissing breath and makes for a nice, short, walk). Overall impression of Labadee - Fantastic.

 

2. Jamaica - Montego Bay. Sadly, we listened to all the doom merchants and instead of getting off in port and walking around MoBay, we took an excursion over to Negril. The journey was pleasant but long - 90 mins, and although the beach was lovely, it seemed a long way to go to sit on a (admittedly beautiful) beach and eat jerk chicken, plus, we had very little time (10 mins) at the shops and then had to return. If we did this itinerary again we'd just go into town to sample the atmosphere - if anyone offers you anything illegal just say no thank you and walk away, yar mon, arreet, no problem!

 

3. Grand Cayman - we did the stingray excursion, which was a great experience, even though our son was scratched by a stingray's tail, which hurt him a lot and made him panic so we had to take him out of the water. These animal are huge so can be intimidating, but an experience none the less - unless you are a very confident and strong swimmer, make sure you choose stingray city sandbar, as there's another excursion to stingray city that anchors in 12 ft of water, as opposed to waist-high water

 

4. Cozumel - probably our favourite port of call, bustling and colourful and totally different to the rest of the Caribbean. We docked a few miles out of town, so took a cab in, which was easy and not expensive. We found a restaurant/shop,where we had traditional nachos and quacamole (spelling?) and songs by a Mexican waiter who plonked giant sombreros on our heads, along with other tourists. It was contrived, but who cares, we all enjoyed it. After that, we walked along the main drag, and I called into a tequileria and sampled some of their finest and bought a few bottles (both of ours still unopened as yet, but my son and daughter inform me that it's very strong stuff!), before returning to the shop for souvenir hunting (including good quality ceramics). After that, it was too hot to continue with our son, so we made our way back to ship and bought a couple of wood carvings which now adorn our lounge.

 

This was fine for us, but there are a lot of excursions available, so check them out for something different.

 

All in all, we had a wonderful cruise, so hope you will too

 

ps. food was fine in the dining room and windjammer and the shows were good (although we didn't go to a single show on our subsequent cruise on the Navigator this year, because there was so much else to do, including teens club, bars and casino

 

have fun :)

[WishIwerethere]

First1, we are sailing on FOS 8/31 Our second RCI cruise.

 

Can't wait. Check out the all things Freedom of the Seas thread some good pics there.

[MrsCruise2007]

I just got back a couple weeks ago from the western caribbean itinerary on Liberty...Here is my review - it was AMAZING! Hope you have a great time!

 

Background: My husband and I were celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary with my parents who were celebrating their 34th anniversary and my parents closest friends who were celebrating their 35th. We have all traveled with RCCL before numerous times and definitely consider ourselves to be VERY LOYAL TO ROYAL! We love everything about it and have been on all the levels of ships from the smallest to now the biggest in the world - a.k.a. Liberty!

 

Day Before: We flew into Ft. Lauderdale the day before and stayed at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Miami, Fl. The hotel was fabulous - beautiful, clean, free full cooked-to-order breakfast as well as a manager's reception with free drinks from 5-7 all included with your stay. I would highly recommend this hotel because all of the rooms are suites with a living area and a bedroom, a wet bar and a huge bathroom! We used Miamibeach411.com to book our transportation arrangements, which also worked out great. They picked us up at the airport, brought us to the hotel, brought us from the hotel to the pier on Saturday and from the pier to the airport the following Saturday. They were a little expensive in my opinion but a private shuttle picks up your group only and all the taxes, tips, tolls etc. are included - so I really can't complain!

 

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the pier around 11:30 AM and thought that we might have to wait since we got there so early. We used the Platinum check-in and were in line to board the ship in about 15 minutes. There were some passengers from the previous cruise that were still getting off the ship so we waited about 30 minutes for the ship to clear and then were on board by about 12:15 - it was fabulous! The ship is truly unbelievable from the moment you step on board and you will be in awe of the size and awesomeness of it!

 

 

Food: We loved everything - the Windjammer, Johnny Rockets, Sorrento's for pizza at all hours of the day and night, Cafe Promenade, the Dining Room and everything in between! We have never had a problem with the food on an RCCL ship and maybe that is because we are just happy with not having to cook and having better food than what we probably would have eaten at home! We had second seating at table 461 in the Deck 4 dining room and had Lorinda as our waitress and Rohan as our assistant waiter - both were amazing and we miss them to pieces! Our food was well prepared each night and we typically ordered multiples of at least one portion of the meal and no one ever blinked an eye - it was fabulous! We didn't eat at Chops or Portofino's because we love the atmosphere of the dining room and didn't feel the need to spend an additional 20 or 25 dollars a person to eat.

 

 

Bars: We love all the bars on board and I am fairly certain we had at least one drink at every one of them! We loved Olive or Twist at night, the Schooner Bar before dinner, the Pool Bar and Sky Bar when we were out and about during the day, the Hoof and Claw Pub at night for a wild good time...you really have so many choices to choose from! We aren't huge drinkers, but we all indulged in a couple of drinks a day and were happy with everything we ordered - I love anything frozen and tropical and my husband tends to have beer or mixed drinks and said everything was great! We had Melbourne as our bar waiter at dinner and he was hysterical and tons of fun to see every night - certainly we will miss him and hope to see him again!

 

 

Cabin: We were on deck 7 in cabin 7665 and had Rolando as our room attendant and he was amazing! He knew our names, brought us anything we needed, left us tons of adorable towel animals and overall was a true delight in our day. Our room was an inside cabin (parents had a balcony, category E just down the hall from us on the hump 7642 and they loved it as well!) but we had plenty of space for all of our clothes, dress clothes, shoes and our luggage. I have stayed in both inside cabins, ocean view cabins and balconies and while I absolutely love having a balcony - the cost of the interior cabin won out in this particular case because of cost, but we loved it anyway. Having Rolando as our room attendant made it totally worth it because he was such a joy to see everyday!!

 

 

Entertainment/Activities: The ship is absolutely amazing in every aspect. The Royal Promenade is something I have become addicted to and we loved going ice skating, using the rock wall, the mini golf course and watching the Flow Rider even though we didn't use it. The shows were spectacular, especially the In The Air show put on by the RCCL singers and dancers - they are so talented. And the ice show - probably one of the best I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot of ice shows) especially considering that they were on a moving ship on a rink a 1/4 of the size they would normally work on. James Andrews from Australia was our cruise director and I loved him - he was fun, energetic and just an overall great person for the job. Phil (Who's Your Daddy Phil from anyone who was on the ship - you will know what I am talking about!) was the Activities Manager and he was great as well, I suspect in no time at all he will be a cruise director himself and it will be well-deserved!! So definitely don't miss the In The Air and Ice Skating Show, "Encore" they are marvelous, as are all of the RCCL shows. Also, there was a parade on the first day at sea that was great and there was also a 70's disco with several of the activities staff that was great fun as well! (we are always up for a good time, and this ship definitely offered it at all hours of the day and night!!)

 

 

Ports: We didn't get off the ship very much because I had been to all of the ports before and we really went on this cruise for the ship. We did however get off in Labadee, which I consider to be absolutely amazing and one of the best beaches around. We spent the day eating, drinking, laying in the lounge chairs and watching the people go down the zip line screaming like crazy! We didn't do any shore excursions because we didn't want the commitment in case we didn't want to get off the ship - but we were totally fine with that. Grand Cayman is beautiful and we got off for about an hour but we decided not to walk around too much beyond the local shops. Some people love Mexico and Jamaica - we personally do not love just walking around those areas so we opted not to get off... but some people do love them and that works out great for them. If you go to Labadee though - definitely get off, you will not be disappointed if you like any sort of beach or natural beauty!!

 

 

Crowds: I always thought it was crazy when people would say that they never felt like the ship was crowded - how could it not with 4500 people on board? Well, it definitely did not feel crowded after all - the first day at lunch at the Windjammer felt a bit crowded with everyone getting on board within a short period of time, but other than that we could always find a pool chair, a table to sit at and a quiet place to go to avoid the crowds if need be!

 

 

Casino: The casino was quite large and had tons of tables and slot machines to choose from. We didn't win anything on the slots beyond a few quarters here and there but my husband won 210 dollars on a late night game of Roulette at one of the tables. So we were happy with that - turned his chips in and headed on out of the casino! It was a great place that was definitely very busy later in the evening and everyone who went there seemed to be having a great time!

 

 

Services: We didn't use the spa this time, but we gave my mother a Swedish massage at the spa for her birthday and she said it was the best one she had ever had. She loved every minute of and will probably go back many times over in her future cruises! We always had amazing waiters/waitresses/bar servers/room attendants and every person that we encountered in between at the shops/pursers desk/online area etc. These people, for the most part, seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs and love what they do - particularly the Activities Staff, which were awesome! They were so energetic and lively and kept everyone on board having a great time all throughout the day and night!

 

 

Overall: I would consider this to be my favorite cruise thus far that I have gone and for that reason I will continue to be LOYAL TO ROYAL. Even when we met the Captain at our Welcome Back event he was funny and pleasant to speak to and answered everyone's questions about all sorts of topics. My parents friends were also asked to eat dinner at the Captain's Table on formal night and they agreed he was wonderful all the way around! We also were able to meet the Executive Chef for Liberty - Johan from Austria and he was great too - he signed my new RCCL cookbook and was fun to talk to and take pictures with.

 

 

Yes there were a lot of kids/teens on board (1200 kids actually) but it rarely felt that way. Yes, there were times were they did seem as though they were taking over certain parts of the ship - but that was the H20 zone and other kid-friendly places (like the Flow Rider) which really were areas made for them. They stayed out of the adult pool area, usually were out of the Royal Promenade didn't go into the casino and were fairly well behaved for the most part in small groups! The ship is amazing, the staff was amazing and I would highly recommend this cruise - not so much for the ports (besides Labadee of course) but definitely for the ship - it's one of kind and we will ABSOLUTELY be back on it again as soon as we can afford to do so!

[first1]

We are taking our first cruise the end of August. Any suggestions for traveling this ship and this itinerary?

 

This will be a fun but bittersweet cruise as my mother, who's cancer has recently progressed to her brain, will be there for the last visit with her grandkids. :( I'm hoping to do an excursion or two, but my guess is I'll be on the ship most of the time with her and my husband and kids will go off to explore. However, it sounds like there is LOTS to do on the ship as well.

[CatNJ]

My mother took the whole family on a cruise when she was terminal. It was a wonderful experience. We all enjoyed it and carry wonderful memories of her and the vacation.

[chazg]

We are taking our first cruise the end of August. Any suggestions for traveling this ship and this itinerary?

 

Are you sailing the 23rd?

 

If so jion our Roll Call http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=608896