shady

Thank you!

@Lovetocruise2002. My mom and I are on the next 9 night Canada and New England sailing on Liberty on September 7, so I've been following your live blog. One of my must dos for the cruise is getting a lobster roll in Portland. I hadn't even thought of getting one at Quincy Market. Thanks for the tip!

Please add: September 7 - Liberty of the Seas

@NoobCruise Thank you so much for posting this! I haven't watched the whole video but I will. Although I am sailing on a different ship this fall, I have both gluten-free & lactose-free dietary restrictions (actually I am on a Low FODMAP diet, which includes, among other restrictions, gluten free and lactose free). I keep seeing people talk about dining gluten free onboard, never gluten free AND lactose free. So I'm very interested in your travel party's experience.

Thanks, @WesKinetic and @Ampurp85, for the info. I was expecting the fees to be high but that is crazy! I will definitely be bringing cash and hopefully won't need to use the ATM or the casino.

Sorry if this has already been asked and answered. I was wondering if Royal Caribbean's onboard ATMs are affiliated with a particular bank. Last time I cruised, the ATMs happened to be from my bank so that was convenient for me. Hoping for the same for my upcoming Liberty of the Seas cruise! TIA!

@Kansas Cruiser, I was on the same sailing. I am really looking forward to reading about the rest of your thoughts about the cruise.

We flew in a day before Liberty's extended cruise because there weren't any flights on embarkation day that would've given us enough time to get to Galveston to board the ship. We saw a couple at PHL who may have missed their cruise that afternoon. I'm not sure if they missed their flight and cruise or not. Honestly, it doesn't matter. But their stressful situation was enough to convince me always to fly in a day before.

Is Tropical Depression 9 the one that became Tropical Storm Harvey? I lost track of the names. I still have to listen to that podcast. Maybe while I finish packing. Although we're on the same sailing, I'm not worried about it yet. Newbie mistake? Maybe. Instead, I am going to try to make the best of whatever happens and am bringing basically a pharmacy's worth of scopalamine to ensure I can do that. @Kansas Cruiser, I hope to meet you on board!

It definitely sounds less than pleasant, but I'm glad you were satisfied with the outcome and that your TA was able to help you. I wholeheartedly agree about using a TA! I will never take a cruise without using a TA because mine has been so great (she's from MEI Travel, btw). She possibly saved my cruise already. That's the most notable of a number of wonderful things she's done for me. I noticed a few months ago that Royal had my birthdate wrong. It was just one day off, so probably someone was typing fast and didn't notice the error. My TA got it fixed very quickly. If she hadn't gotten it fixed, I was worried that Royal might have been able to deny my entrance onto the ship because my (correct) birthdate on my passport wouldn't have matched their records. Maybe I could've fixed it later during online check-in or they could've fixed it at the port. But I'll never know because my TA understood my concern and handled it right away.

I agree that would be unfortunate and something to avoid. Luckily, we booked our excursions and beverage packages months ago during Cruise Planner sales and even applied our onboard credit to one of those purchases (Thanks to the blog, I knew about all of those things I just mentioned as a first time cruiser!) The photo package is the only remaining thing. I really want to book ahead of time too, but we haven't decided for sure that we're going to get a photo package. That's why I asked about the Cruise Planner deadline. I need to give us our own deadline so we'll make a decision. Knowing what @DocLC said about RC's system, that time will be earlier than the 4 days the Cruise Planner requires. If we are going to book before we go, it will be for the reason you gave: I don't want to wait in line when I could be having fun!

Thanks, @DocLC. That's a great point about Royal's systems. I hope they got it worked out in your favor. I definitely won't wait until the last minute to book if we decide to prebook.

Thanks for the quick response, @rjac! You're absolutely right; it will not matter if we book before or onboard. As for having fun, I'm sure we will! I can't wait!

Hello everyone! I'm now just 1 week away from my first cruise on Liberty! We haven't decided whether we're going to get a photo package. Thanks to @Matt and several others for your insights on the value of the packages during yesterday's Facebook Live broadcast. This morning, I tried to log into the Cruise Planner to find out when the booking deadline is. I couldn't remember whether the deadline is 2 or 3 days in advance of the sailing. Of course, the RC website is down. I called the number on the placeholder page to which I was redirected. The gentleman with whom I spoke said I should wait until noon EDT today to try the site again. RC expects the site to be back up by then. Ok fine, I can wait a few hours... or log onto these boards to ask. So here I am! Does anyone know what the deadline might be? TIA! Katie

Thank you, @sandjb, for this review. You gave a lot of great information about Liberty. Thanks especially for the tips about embarkation day, the Royal Promenade, and the elevators. I'll keep them in mind later this month!

With our Liberty cruise coming up in two weeks, I certainly feel @Hutcherl's pain on airfare, pre-cruise hotel, and ground transportation. (My mom and I are coming from PA too but the other side; we're an hour north of Philly). We got what I think is a pretty good deal on airfare with Southwest (plus hopefully no bag fees!). Our flights home are weirdly timed but we can deal with that. Coincidentally, we are staying at the Inn at the Waterpark. They had availability for one night during the summer season whereas almost none of the other hotels in Galveston did. @jce2, I am a little concerned because I read the mixed reviews too. For one night, we can suck it up. After getting up before sunrise, driving to Philly, 2 flights, a layover in Dallas, and a shuttle, we'll need some place to crash. We booked Galveston Limo's shuttle service at a relatively reasonable rate. We'll be using Uber or a cab to get to the port. Without ever having cruised but knowing what we ended up spending, I think I'd still book Liberty -- for a very specific and personal reason. Mom and I booked Liberty for the itinerary, not really for the amenities. Mom is celebrating her retirement from teaching Spanish, so we wanted to visit only Spanish-speaking countries. We wanted to cruise, but this time, it had to be special in that way. I doubt another ship could offer her that memorable experience and that experience is why we're cruising. (I joked a few weeks ago about switching to Oasis for the Total Eclipse cruise because we cruise on Liberty the same week. She didn't know what to say).

I think these are the ones my mom and I bought from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D4B6YKM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=royalcacom-20&linkId=4a0f9f1d664e83558951549d2b4b78c9

My mom and I ordered ours from Amazon a few weeks ago. (I'll post the links later.) We haven't used them on a cruise yet; they seem fine though.

That is really cool -- both technically and that your dad created the backup. Thank you for sharing that article!

Your description of Space Center Houston is really making this space geek regret not going there before or after our upcoming August cruise! Because "Apollo 13" is my favorite movie and 13 my favorite mission (yes, I have a favorite mission), Space Center Houston would've been a great stop for me. My mom would've tolerated it. We opted not to go because we couldn't extend our trip as long as I would need to properly tour there. That just means I have to plan another trip! Looking forward to reading about the rest of your cruise!

Liberty of the Seas - August 20, 2017

This popped up in my Google feed yesterday: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/05/sponsor-content-royal-caribbean-gives-thrill-seekers-a-shot-at-winning-the-world/. @Matt shared information about the contest on the blog in March: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/03/27/royal-caribbean-holding-contest-find-world-trekking-instagram-stars. I didn't know about this contest until yesterday (I must have missed that post!) But if you knew about it and checked #AdventureSquad on social media, you probably saw contest entries from many thrill seekers who shared their adventures. Royal Caribbean recently announced the finalists in the contest's five categories. The finalists will compete next week on Harmony of the Seas. They will participate in more heart-pounding, white knuckle activities onboard and in port. They will also be posting to Royal Caribbean's social media channels during the cruise. The winners will receive more cruises to have more adventures. What a great prize! Best of luck to the finalists!

Thanks, @JLMoran, for the warm welcome and kind words about my mom's teaching career! I will be sure to pass them along.

Thanks for the warm welcome, @WAAAYTOOO, @tiny260, and @Matt!

Hi everyone! My name is Katie. I live near Allentown (about an hour north of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania. My mom and I will be cruising for the very first time August 20th on Liberty of the Seas! We'll be celebrating her retirement after 35 years of teaching of Spanish and other culture and language classes! As usual, I've been doing most of the planning for our trip and periodically forwarding Mom relevant royalcaribbbeanblog.com posts. I decided early on in our planning that, as part of the celebration, we should look at cruises that would take us to Spanish speaking countries; Liberty of the Seas is scheduled to stop in Honduras and Mexico. We'll be cruising while Mom's soon-to-be former colleagues and students are beginning the school year. This is the first year Mom can travel in late August and we are taking advantage of it, lol. Hopefully this will be the first of many cruises for us. But I have to be realistic. Since it is a celebration, it may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Mom and me. I want to savor the whole experience. One of my relatives told me recently that there will be so many activities that we probably won't get to do everything onboard. She was right. Over the next 99 days and even on the cruise itself, we will be choosing certain activities to suit us. I wouldn't want to do it all. I can't wait to find out what we'll get to do, though!