Vangrizz

My Review of Liberty of the Seas
Quick background info. This is my 6th or 7th Cruise, all but 1 was with Royal. The other was with Norwegian. We live in Washington state and my whole family loves cruising and usually love most things about Royal.
Gonna hit a few of the details that I think would be useful to someone traveling with kids, if ya don't mind.
Ok so we picked this cruise because we were looking to spend a little less this time around. Airfare is a large portion of our cost so flying to a closer location brought this number down on airfare. That was the reasoning, but it didn't really work out that well. There is a much longer distance to travel from the airport to the cruise port so the money we saved on airfare we spend on ground transportation.  Getting a shuttle or other ground transport was similar to the price to rent a car for a week, so we opted for the convenience of a car rental. We have a young family and we needed 2 carseats, but didn't want to carry more junk on the plane so we just bought a new booster and booster with back from walmart(4 miles from houston airport). We had to drive a few miles without the proper seats for the kids but it only cost about $52 for the 2 carseats and the car rental company would have charged about $250. All said and done it ended up being a wash, but atleast the flight was a couple hours shorter which is nice especially when traveling with small children.
The other cost we thought about was the Cruise itself, which is cheaper to sail on a little older ship to the western caribbean out of Texas. The ship looked pretty good and we were very happy with the pool, kids waterplay area & waterslides. I did not feel like it was a ship in need of an amplification on the pool deck, although i'm very interested to see it's upcoming changes. The Galveston cruise terminal on the other hand could use some upgrades(yes I know they are coming). Embarkation was really easy, but we arrived at the cruise terminal by 9:30(yea that's super early). It looked like the design of the transportation drop off and porter set up was not ideal and had we shown up during peek time I bet it would be a madhouse. Disembarkation was slow and the ground transportation a mess.
MDR service was FANTASTIC as it usually is, and the Windjammer was a chaotic disaster as usual. After the first couple days we avoided the windjammer like the plague. I think the Windjammer food is usually decent, it is just so stressful to eat there. Although this time I thought it lacked a variety of edible food. Day 2 it seemed like everything in the entire buffet was cooked in Fish oil. Wasn't impressed all around. DISCLAIMER - a lot of this feeling comes from eating there with 3 small children, it isn't nearly as bad when it's just the Wife and i. 
The main thing Liberty should get in an amplification is food venues. If you miss the dining room hours for breakfast and lunch there is only the EVIL Windjammer or Sorrento's pizza. I thought the pizza was very good, but it's basically the only thing we ate if we missed the main dining room. No I didn't forget about the Promenade Cafe, they don't have food that anyone actually eats. Just a couple of doughnuts and a salmon bagel sandwhich for breakfast.
In general the customer service was very good on the Liberty, but Adventure Ocean staff this time around wasn't very good. Usually we love Adventure Ocean, but this particular staff just didn't seem as good. The kids didn't want to spend much time there as they usually do either. That brings me to the 2nd most important thing Liberty should get in dry dock... Adventure Ocean remodel.
Ice show was good, but it fell short after seeing the FANTASTICALLY AMAZING show on Mariner last year.
Singers and Dancers were not very good on this sailing. The comedian was the worst I've ever seen.
The comedian juggler was great and we Loved the Piano Lounge Singer in the Schooner Bar.
Cruise director Cory was decent and we enjoyed to trivia and games.
Casino was a casino. I gambled for a few hours on a few nights and ended up ahead $100.   Smoke drifted quite a ways, a better ventilation(or no more smoking) could definitely be nice. Also, I'm so over smoking on the pool deck. Sorry to all you smokers out there, but they should restrict smoking to an area far away from the crowds. On sea days a lot of time the only seats open were on the smoking side.
Post cruise we had time to kill so we took the kids to Pleasure Pier for a few hours. This is a small amusement park on a pier over the ocean, It was small but it was mighty. I thought it was gonna be like a parking lot carnival with sketchy rides, but I was really impressed at the quality of the rides.They are built in quality rides, not the tractor trailer death trap style. There isn't a lot of rides but it's a great way to kill a few hours. Best part is my 8 and 12 yr olds could go on every ride and they had 6 or 7 little kiddie rides as well that my 3 year old enjoyed.
I honestly wasn't that excited about the Western Caribbean itinerary(probably because of rumors) but we ended up really enjoying all 3 ports (cozumel, grand cayman, falmouth). 
Overall we had a great time, and anytime I'm on a cruise it's better than when I'm at home working. I did feel like the Liberty had the crappy leftovers as far as shows and performers go. It was interesting to see Texas and Galveston and I'm glad we sailed from this port once. I think once is enough though, we'll keep our Caribbean sailing out of Florida from now on.
We have Oasis OTS  scheduled for next Thanksgiving(this sailing is priced very reasonably!) I would have liked to do the Group cruise on Harmony that same week, but the price was just so much higher. Hopefully the wife and I can leave the kids behind and sneak off just the 2 of us to an Alaskan cruise between now and our Oasis cruise. I hope this is useful to someone. Happy cruising!
~J~

I was up at the crack of dawn, a.k.a. 8:30 (ok, you haters, that's EARLY for me! I'm still on night-shift time!) to get the rest of the house ready and to PACK!  We leave early tomorrow morning (yay!).  The dogs know something's up and the kiddo (#TheFezz) was heckin' clingy.  We had everything done, ready to go, bags by the door - Mr. SpeedNoodles was ready to head up to get some early shut eye, when halfway up the stairs he slowly turns, looks at me, and said "did I give you my underwear and socks?"  Ummmm, no? BWAHAHAHA - we NEARLY left without his underwear and socks !!!!!!! Good grief.
We'll be up at 0330 to get our butts to the airport.  Almost 19 Sun Country flights leave Mpls International Terminal between 6am-7:30am (and it's the small terminal).  Check in is usually a zoo so we need to give ourselves plenty of time.  

#TheFezz giving me the evil eye after I brought the bags up.
 

Many updates coming tonight!! For now, I will leave you with a little teaser of how the day went today!

Day 1 continued - Pre-Cruise 
After packing completed, off to Auckland International Airport. With Premium Check-in it’s a fast transit through into the departure area. A great flight of just on 3 hours. A 3 course meal for dinner and managed to watch a movie. (Menu attached) 
 
Once in Sydney took the train to Central (Sydney has an excellent Airport Line!) then transferred to the new Light Rail Line to the hotel close to Circular Quay (Cruise terminal) Good weather and about 28 degrees celcius. 

Day 2: perfect Day at Coco Cay 
Woke up this morning at 7:15 and we were already docked! I’m very excited for this day and I can tell you right now it was perfect. Up to the windjammer for breakfast - I love the made to order eggs! We brought all our stuff with us to breakfast and now off to start our perfect day. We were in port until 4 so great time for a beach day. First we wandered the island a bit and took a bunch of pictures then it was off to the oasis lagoon for the morning!  
 
forgot to mention empress was in port with us today. The size difference was crazy! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After a couple hours enjoying the pool and our loungers it was time to find lunch and the beach. By the way the water in the pool was cold like cold for a Canadian cold but I did get in and enjoyed. Lunch was at the shake shack I had the best mozzarella sticks - I was amazed they were fantastic! Then some giant jenga was played and some time was spent on the beach. Then back to oasis lagoon for some more swimming and lounging. At 3 we left and walked back to the ship past the market. Once on board the ship i went to Central Park and enjoyed some sangria while writing a blog entry. After this I headed to my cabin to shower and watch sail away from the balcony. Then I had a quick nap before dinner. 
 
french onion soup, short rib and creme brûlée was what I ate. Lobo the bar service waiter is amazing and always has my wine ready it’s fantastic! I love having the drink package it’s so good. 
 
next up was Greece good show I’ve seen it on land before but I love musicals so it was a must see for me! I can say it would not be the best choice for kids. After this it was time for karaoke the casino then bed. 
 
Almost forgot there was a lot of drama at karaoke tonight. I felt like I was watching one of those tv shows. 
 
more pics to come later of coco cay! 

Day 1 continued: 
Went the room and saw both our suitcases down the hall and grab them and unpack. Then off to the pool deck to swim and tan before muster - why have I never done this before it was great and not busy! Then quickly time to run and change before muster then sail away from deck 16 the sail away party was lame. Then time to sit on my balcony with a glass of wine before dinner. 
 
main dining room for dinner tonight second seating as we eat late in the city anyways. I had the French onion soup, the New York strop and cheesecake. It was all delicious! Next stop to the casino royal took my money way too fast then karaoke where lots of drama was present. Then pizza and water before bed. Tomorrow is perfect day at coco cay. I’m so excited!  
 
    
 
 
 
 
 
 

Round 4, Winner winner chicken dinner! Full disclosure, just about everyone was a winner this round. The poor host is new to the entertainment team, and was just given an iPad by her coworker and told her to go. The original objective was supposed to be name that TV tune. It turned into just “name that tune, with the most obvious answers ever” She played about 25 seconds of each tune, and played the chorus of each song that named the tune she was playing. Thankfully everyone was gracious and applauded her efforts, and a good time was had by all. While going over the answers, she played each song again and it turned into one big giant sing along. Prize is a RC keychain.
 

I would have gotten Ravi Shankar.  That's the only other one I recognized !  ...that's b/c I am very old.

You ever reach that point where you feel like youve researched all you can, youve set up all your excursions, youve filled out all there is to fill out.....and youre just WAITING. Its agony, and I just want my embarkation day to GET HERE. What do yall do to deal with the agony, the torture, the slow death of WAITING? 

I'm the same way. I have one cruise in May and another in December, and I am so absolutely antsy for my one in May. I want to book another for the summer because I love it so much and I just can't wait 7 months for my next. To pass the time I do look at other cruises (usually with a margarita in my hand and the Beach Boys playing in the background ?)

26 days and it's starting to get painful!   Anthem of the Seas 03/15/2020!    
186 days and well what can you do!       Independence of the Seas 08/22/2020
 
I feel your pain ?

That pretty much sums it up!

This is precisely how we became the cruise fiends that we are now !  We started out booking 1 cruise/year.  Then I realized there was no way I could wait an entire YEAR, so we ended up booking another cruise, before the one we had already booked...and then the mean-time-between-cruises (MTBC) became less and less and now...well....you know how that story ends....

The struggle is real

I use the down time to create my "what I might want to book at the Next Cruise office list". It's a whole new batch of stuff to put into a spreadsheet!

 

Round 3

the winning team had a younger kid with them. I didn’t stand a chance....
Research is in progress. I can say for the first round, the questions were HARD. The winning team got 4 correct.

Round two. List of musicians, name their instruments. The circled ones we got right.

First round of trivia.....not so good. At least the drinks are tasty.
 

Sea Day #2
I woke up this morning and made my way to the cafe promenade to repair my caffeine to blood ratio, and did a few laps around the outside of deck 4.
Here is our current location 

I can see land off in the distance.

We don’t have too many plans for the day other than some relaxing. My daughter did want to do the cupcake decorating class so we do have that. There will be more pool time. I’m going to try to get some time on the slides etc. There will be some trivia, which I will lose, some more beverages etc. 
some stray observations: As would be expected, the crew is very dedicated and friendly, but I feel are even more so than the crew we had on Navigator. They seem to be engaging us, and the kids (which I feel is more important) more enthusiasticly.
The ship is very clean. When on Navigator, the level of house keeping seemed to be lower. Every day the hallways were full of room service trays sitting outside stateroom doors for hours and hours. Here this is far less. The pool decks are also swept of empty glasses etc quickly it seems. 
 
Now I know these are subjective observations and can vary from sailing to sailing and experience to experience but it has stuck out in my mind.
I have not posted to many pictures of the ship. @twangster has a great blog when he was on Liberty with outstanding pictures. If anyone out there in the blogosphere wants something specific, let me know and I will seek it out.

Wow, I don't know how you live bloggers manage to keep up.  Its been a hectic two days.  Let me try to catch up with Day 1.
Cruise Day 1:  Embarkation from Port Canaveral:  I woke up early and drove to the port to watch Harmony come in before daybreak.  It was amazing how effortlessly she came into port, turned and slipped into the dock. 
Had a bit of panic set in, somehow my trunk popped open after returning to the hotel and before breakfast.  The front desk called to let me know my trunk was open; with most of my bags in the trunk I flew down four flights of stairs worried that my bags were gone.  Was relieved to find all was safe. Once my heart returned to a normal beat, we were off to eat the complimentary breakfast.  It was pretty much standard free hotel breakfast.  They had fixings to make a breakfast burrito, waffles, cereal, bagels and such. 
I dropped the bags off at the porters around 9:45 and went to return the rental car.  Entered the terminal at 10:10 and seated in “The Key” area at 10:20, no sooner had we sat down they started boarding.  The Key boarded right after B2B, Suites, and Diamond +.
Once onboard we stopped to make our specialty dinner reservations, then off to Bolero’s for WOW bands while the DW ordered our cruise starting Kracken Lava Flows.  With drinks in hand, we dropped the carryon bag at the MDR to be delivered to the room and set about exploring the ship a bit.
Lunch was the Chops Lunch in the MDR which is part of “The Key”.  Started with the shrimp cocktail, 6 oz. fillet mignon and we shared a warm chocolate cake.  Steak was tender and cooked to order, although I would have seasoned the meat.  Tried the peppercorn sauce, wasn’t my cup of tea, I generally cook my steaks at home with a little salt and pepper and that’s it.  It was a larger lunch than we normally have but it was a nice relaxing way to start the cruise. 
The rooms opened up before we finished lunch so we checked out our room.  My carryon bag was in the room and I spotted one of my suitcases down the hall.  After unpacking the carryon and hanging clothes suitcase; went back down the hall and my other two bags were there. 
Tonight’s supper was in the MDR, a dance or two in the Promenade and then to the showing of “Grease”.  Seating for Key guests was on deck 4 in the balcony, better seats were available 30 minutes before the show on deck 3 center.  We enjoyed the show and it definitely is not for children, yet many were in attendance.  The gestures were very explicit, much more than I remember in the movie.
After “Grease” we went back to our room to change shoes around 10:15pm, only to find out the doors on all of deck 6 were malfunctioning no one could get into their rooms.  After waiting a bit and talking to several ships’ crew members, Security came with the key and lets us in.  Doors were working again around 11:45 pm but we had decided to call it a night.

It’s ok. You get a pass for forgotten MDR dinners. If it was CK that would be another issue. ?

The kids with their Aunt Julie
Someone is living her best life