BugsyCruiser

The new menu is what I had on Liberty 3 weeks ago. The filet was good but I was disappointed to see the baked jumbo shrimp was gone from the menu

I would say you can't go wrong either way. Norway for the incredible scenery and Serenade has had some nice upgrades. Caribbean on Harmony would be fantasticas well... the newest and biggest ship with all the new bells and whistles. You will not be disappointed with either choice IMHO

Final thoughts: Loved my first ever cruise on Freedom Class, definitely won't be my last. I am also excited to try out my first Radiance Class(Serenade) cruise next November. The voom issue needs to be addressed on Liberty as I find it inexcusable to market it and sell it as voom and then discover the service on this ship is worst than dial up. Would I sail Liberty again? More than likely yes. Hope everyone enjoyed this little review/ Any questions feel free to ask and I will try to answer. Thanks everyone! :)

Good morning. Bars and entertainment: Love the R Bar! Melvin, Raj, and Anna best bartenders on board. The martini and mixology class is a must do... informative, fun, and interactive. Other good bar service was found at the Pool and Solarium Bar. Entertainment was top notch. The 70's disco party was fun and love and marriage is always funny. The comedian was good but very r rated, definitely not for kids. I didn't care for Saturday Night Fever, it was just too "dark" for me. Just my opinion. Final thoughts coming up :)

Pool deck and waterslides: This area was great on Liberty. I found them to be not crowded at all most times during the cruise. The solarium is beautiful although I went right by it on embarkation day not realizing it was an open area. Chalk that up to being used to the one on Oasis and Quantum class. Bar service was exceptional, especially at the Solarium Bar. The pool in the Solarium was almost a perfect temperature.... not the "ice cube" effect that you feel at some pools when you first step in. Watersldies were fun! The green one was definitely the faster of the two, maybe just a bit too fast! I did not try the tidal wave.... just seeing it made feel a little intimidated trying it. Staff in this area were very sociable and helpful. Next up: Bars and entertainment

Review of Dining aboard Liberty: Truth be told I was a little concerned due to the fact that Liberty has nowhere near the options for dining as Oasis and Quantum Class do. I was not disappointed. Once again the specialty venues excelled and I am kicking myself for not buying the dining package considering that I ate at Sabor four times alone. Giovannis and Chops were excellent, superior quality and very professional service. I even ate once at the Windjammer while we were anchored in Belize, which says a lot as I am typically not a buffet person. Only thing is and maybe Matt or someone else can answer this: where was the Izumi Express? I could never find it on Liberty. Sabor is in a class by itself. I can see why Matt and so many others love this place. I like the flat cover charge version better than the ala carte version on Oasis class. Service was excellent, Red Snapper is to die for! And of course the guac, which was freshly prepared tableside each time it was ordered. Kudos to the staff for being able to accommodate extra people one day for lunch when my original reservation for 3 grew to 7 at the last minute. Best drink? The cucumber jalapeno martini hands down! I did not visit the main dining room on this cruise and that was by choice. I find myself going there less and less on each cruise. Next up: pool deck and waterslides! Yes I did them and it was fun

Balcony cabin review: 7710, E1 aft balcony I can see why aft balconies are addicting! Loved the wake views from my balcony. Cabin was nice sized and the walk did not bother me. I hardly saw my cabin steward but when I did he was friendly and did his job well. Word of caution, I would avoid booking the aft balconies on deck 6.... the views are not good and worse, people in the balconies above can look right down into those balconies. If you value privacy, do not book this location. Next up, dining review including my new addiction, SABOR ;)

I find that it makes the topic more enjoyable and interactive by doing it this way than trying to cram it all in one post. A looooong post will make me lose interest in a hurry

First impressions boarding the ship: Royal Promenade is beautiful on Freedom Class. Not as wide as Oasis Class but still very classy looking. Crew seemed genuinely happy and were very welcoming to cruisers boarding. Not as many options open for lunch on embarkation day but Sorrento's was fine for me. I tend to avoid the Windjammer as I am not a big buffet person and also on embarkation day everyone seems to head there for lunch. Cabins were ready at 1 pm and luggage had already arrived at a lot of the cabins(good job by the porters). Alcohol options are limited due to Texas alcohol regulations. You can still get mixed drinks but it won't be with a lot of the premium liquors till the ship is 12 miles out from port. While in Texas they must use alcohol bottled in the state or with a TX alcohol board stamp of approval on it. This didn't bother me at all but it may bother some who prefer liquors such as Grey Goose, Hendricks, etc Pool area is beautiful. The Solarium location threw me off as it is open and not at the very front of the ship. Chalk that up to being used to the one on Oasis Class and Quantum. Next up, my first ever aft balcony. Let's just say it won't be my last... :)

Tomorrow I will post my first impressions of the ship after boarding her for the first time :)

First up thoughts on Galveston and cruising from there: Galveston is a great city to spend a few days in. Many thanks to Galveston Steve for his informative All Things Galveston thread. It is was because of this thread that I changed the pre cruise dinner location from Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to the Ocean Grille and Beach Bar. The restaurant was great and dining outdoors by the Gulf was a plus. My pre cruise hotel was the Doubletree, also right across from the Gulf with fantastic views from the balconies. I also had the honor of meeting Steve and his wife along with another Facebook friend Friday night for dinner and drinks right at the Hotel's pool bar and grill, Longboard. Steve and his wife are class acts and wonderful people. The Galveston Pleasure Pier was nice to see for the first time ever but it definitely is overrated. Next time I am there I will head for The Strand Downtown. One thing for certain is there is definitely a very friendly vibe in Galveston. Cruising from the port can be a real pain. I do not fault Royal Caribbean for this but I will fault the Port of Galveston. Security was a nightmare. When they let people start going through the scanners before heading up to check in, they closed off 4 lanes and pushed everyone into 2. It was chaos. At 3:30 pm people were still boarding the ship. It also didn't help that at check in they could not take your picture due to their camera system being down but RCL handled that rather well. Coming back today was a madhouse with Liberty and Carnival Breeze both in port plus the annual bike week in Galveston taking place. The Port definitely needs more porters, but at least there seemed to be plenty of customs agents. I think the port employees seem hard pressed to handle two big ships at one time. Again, this is just my opinion.

Hello everyone! I am currently 40 minutes from landing at Chicago Midway so I thought I would start my review of my Liberty cruise! I will break this down into sections as to not try and cram everything in one post, and I will even include my thoughts on being Galveston and sailing from there for the first time ever. Overall I enjoyed Liberty very much. There are a few minor complaints that I will get to but they didn't even come close to impacting my enjoyment of the cruise. The voom issue is a very sore subject with me.... more on that later. And before anyone asks, I ate at Sabor four times. That pretty much says it all, but I will include a full review of the restaurant :) I will try to start up the first part of the review later this evening or tomorrow for sure. The first part will be Galveston and sailing from there. Stay tuned.... :D

First drink this time will be a Lava Flow(Since Matt keeps insisting everybody has to try one :) )Favorite first meal... no brainer, Sabor! First stop will be a bar(big shock I know) Favorite embarkation day activity will be sail away at the Sky Bar(yep another bar)

I would be shocked if the bungalows are charging for each person in the bungalow. While it doesn't show anywhere that the pricing is per bungalow not per person like it does for the cabanas, I would call Royal Caribbean for clarification. I am thinking the price will be 250 for up to 8 people, not 250 per person. Otherwise they would sit empty as no one would be willing to pay upwards of 2 grand for them

I will probably YOLO-book it! while on Liberty ☺

Been on Oasis twice and Allure twice. Cruised wuth quite a few people from previous cruises on them too and will be doing that again on Harmony next April. By the way Matt always seems to get the blame. Well what the heck I might as well blame him for me falling in love with Sabor! ;)

I agree about Chops being great. Jamie's Italian is a must try as well in my humble opinion

I can certainly understand the opposition and glad I took your suggestion. Everyone likes my new choice of Ocean Grille and Beach Bar. I will definitely scope from there that Saturday evening! :)

Steve thanks for this thread and also for telling me on your Liberty scope today not to go to Bubba Gump. I am waiting to hear back from the others that signed up for the pre cruise dinner about my wanting to change it to the Ocean Grille and Beach Bar. :)

You know you're addicted to cruising when... you're getting off the ship and already posting on Facebook the next cruise countdown

And you know Murphy's Law Matt... it went down in price AFTER I bought it ;)

I have a Panasonic Lumix G7 which easily paired with my smartphone... I love the wireless transfer and makes it so I can quickly post photos to any site such as Facebook, here, etc... The 4k photo feature is fantastic as it allows me to capture action that I would never be able to snap fast enough on my own

I will be on Liberty October 30th and am already taking the approach that I will only be able to scope pre cruise, embarkation day, and from the ports thanks to having global travel pass with Verizon. I did call crown and anchor about it and even told them what Ken Jarvis was told about Voom on board last week. If I'm not able to scope while at sea, so be it, just stop advertising it and selling it as Voom. :)

Navigator is a great ship and has Oasis class upgrades which makes it even better. It's Matt's favorite ship and I can see why. I think you will enjoy her very much. Enjoy your first ever cruise! There will always be negative reviews and the naysayers... I've seen some reviews of my favorite class of ship, Oasis, which made me wonder if they sailed on the same ship I did?

Not sure if it's happened before but on Wednesday, November 16th something very cool will take place in St. Maarten: 3 Royal Caribbean ships will be docked there and 3 different classes. The new Harmony of the Seas, joined by: Anthem of the Seas and Freedom of the Seas. I think it'll be very cool to see Oasis class, Quantum class, and Freedom class all at the same port on the same day! And who knows, maybe I will be reporting "live" from one of them ;) :)