Very Relaxing Vacation
Liberty of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Third Mate
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 82
7 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 13, 2019
Ship: Liberty of the Seas
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 9270
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
This was a wonderful experience for us and we had such a relaxing vacation. I saw a number of bad reviews on the ship regarding the dining and staff as well as their knowledge of the Key program and was a little anxious how it would go. We didn't to have any of these issues. The staff of this ship was awesome and what few lines we had were seemingly short lived. The food was great and we had a great time.Embarkation
Our embarkation experience was pretty nice. About the only thing I disliked about the port services was the mad house at the entry way for offloading. We arrived around 10 in the morning and there was a mess with people pulling up to depart and people pull in too off load their luggage. There were security people everywhere which fortunately made the chaos manageable. Other then that we had the Key Package for this cruise which made the rest painless. We were ushered right to the Suite line for security cutting some time. They had a priority line for us to get our cards and we then taken right to the gangway for boarding. On board we were sent up to the deck 5 dining room where they took our carry-on's for us and fed us.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We decided on this cruise to get the unlimited dining package and the deluxe drink package. Chops's Grille and Giovanni's were really nice experiences but we loved Sabor's the best, at least where specialty restaurants were concerned. We did do Johnny Rockets as well for dinner one day and it was also good. We ended up doing the Windjammer buffet for breakfast most days and lunch once as well. We liked the food but noticed that it didn't seem to rotate very much. There was so much food however, that you could change out a little every day. We also did the main dining room for dinner once on the second formal night and will say that at least for that night, the food and service was excellent. As far as drinks go I never had to wait very long for a waiter to come by to get me hooked up, especially out on deck 11 and at the entertainment venues.
Onboard Activities
We took this particular cruise to mainly kick back and relax so we didn't do a lot of crazy stuff on the ship all though there seemed to be a lot to do
Entertainment
We went to see Thom Wall the juggler, 2 different comedians and an A Capella group called MO5AIC. We also went to see the ice show and Saturday Night Fever. All of the shows were great and with the "Key" we had no problem getting great seats.
Children's Programs
No kids with us.
Service and Staff
The staff on the Liberty of The Sea's were pretty much awesome. We like to interact with the crew throughout the cruise and they seemed to always be cheerful and interested in making sure we were having a great time. The staff at the Windjammer were always making sure we had what we needed and never ran low on drinks. One day we managed to get there at peak density in the morning and one of the staff saw us looking for an empty place to sit. He pulled us aside and radioed for help and directed us right away to a spot. All of the staff on the promenade were awesome as well, even when they managed to get swamped every once and a while. Special thanks to guest services as well. Unlike Carnival, there almost never seemed to be a line and when we got there once with a small line they had a line attendant who asked us what we were there for. We just had a question and he was able to answer us and send us on our way. Our stateroom was always well maintained. We had a problem with our safe the first day and they responded in under five minutes to get it fixed. The Voom internet package we received with the Key program was awesome. Between the two of us, we only had drop off in service once each while we were aboard. It was pretty quick and when we went to download some of our cruise pictures we purchased on Saturday, they seemed to move at a decent clip.
Ship Quality
It didn't seem like we could walk though the ship without seeing some one cleaning something. The staff kept the tables on the Promenade clean as well as the lounge on deck 11. I like the fact that the ship had central service elevators, so that unlike when we were on the Carnival Dream, all of the passenger elevators seemed available on embarkation and debarkation. It is a 12 year old ship but never really seemed like it for us.
Cabin / Stateroom
Our room was well kept and we had plenty of room for us to move about and store things. The steward was really helpful in getting us a cooler for our meds, which we forgot to ask for and even taped down the extension cord they gave us for my CPAP machine. The only real issues we had with the cabin was the safe which would not work on the first day and the tub was slow to drain. We had maintenance people respond in less than 5 minutes on embarkation day about the safe, and we told the steward about the drain in the morning as we went up for breakfast and by the time I used the shower that night I noticed it was fixed.
Ship tip
Use the "Key" program. The crew on this ship has that program well put together. and the internet package that comes with it works excellent on this ship.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We got in late the night before and just relaxed, so didn't really do anything here. The rating is really just for the port. It seems like they could do something to smooth out the flow between embarking and debarking passengers. The baggage stowage area and security processing was easy and I love how the porters were right at the exit to the gangway, queued up for the next passenger who needed service.
Just did the port shops at this port. Unlike our visit last year the shop keepers seemed overly pushy. We found a nice quiet shop that had really helpful people and then went back on board.
This is a tender port and was very easy to get on and off, especially with the "Key" We did some shopping right at the port and just across the street from it.
Disembarkation
With the "Key" they gave us luggage tags the night before and they were all in their own area so that was very easy. They also gave us a time frame in the morning where we could go down into the deck 5 dining room and had breakfast. Once we finished, they took us right down to the deck 4 exit point and disembarked. It was all very stress free.