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!