Liberty of the Seas 3 Night Review

[smost]

We just got off a very short cruise and wanted to share our experiences with both the ship and the port.

 

We flew Southwest the night before (Thursday) and stayed at the Best Western about 10ish minutes from the airport (FLL). The room was about $120 after taxes and fees with an additional $25 deposit. The hotel offered a free shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the cruise port for $15 per person. We opted for rideshares instead of the shuttle because reviews had said that they waited a while for the airport shuttle at night. The rideshare was around $15.

 

The room was pretty much what I expected for $120. It was clean. The decor is a little outdated and the lobby could use a bit of a makeover but that’s me being nitpicky. If you are sensitive to noise or light, this hotel would probably not be good for you. We could hear and feel every door open and close all night. The doors slam close every time. Our room faced the shopping center right next to the hotel which had a McDonalds in it. It would have been fine if the thick curtains closed all the way but they didn’t. Only the thin curtains closed all the way and they let a lot of light in. The hotel has a pool and a complimentary breakfast. We did not use the pool but my travel companion said it looked nice. We did eat the breakfast which was your standard hotel breakfast. A small selection of hot items, juices, coffee, pastries and bagels. It was good and kept us full until lunch.

 

We took another rideshare around 10am to get to the port. We had an 11:30am check in time because that was the earliest I saw after checking the app a few times after the initial check in period. I was fine waiting in the port until 11:30 but I wanted to get there and be ready to board.

 

A first for us was having to show our passports to simply get into the port area. At other ports, we’ve just driven right to the terminal. The signs for the ships were a bit confusing. Liberty was listed at both terminals 18 & 19 but was actually docked at 18. The porter at terminal 18 was very rude to the Lyft driver, yelling at him to pull all the way up and how they wished rideshares would be illegal. It was around 10:15am and there was only one other car in the area for drop offs. I’m not sure if this is normal or this porter was simply having a bad morning. We checked our bags and proceeded inside the terminal. No one asked us for a check in time. We breezed through check in and when we went upstairs, they were seating you in order of when you came in not by your check in time. Boarding started around 11am and was very orderly. They came to your row and told you when they were ready for you to go. They weren’t allowing anyone to skip ahead or go before their row. The terminal wasn’t very full when they started boarding. Maybe 10 rows of seating were full. We were on ship with drinks in hand by 11:15am.

 

Our staterooms were ready by 1pm. We had an interior. We checked 3 bags. 1 showed up around 1pm but the other two didn’t show up til closer til 4pm. We did not see or interact with our stateroom attendant the entire time on ship. That was another first and very odd to me. We had requested one bed instead of separate beds. They did not put a single big mattress pad over the bed but instead used the twin ones so the bed had a big split in it where the two bed were pushed together. I was worried that the beds would be pushed apart or the seam would be a divot that would make sleeping uncomfortable. It did not so we chose not to say anything about it. The last night, instead of a fitted sheet over the mattress, there was only a flat sheet. So every time we moved, we pulled the sheet and mattress pads. I move a lot in my sleep so when I woke up, I was laying on the bare mattress pad tangled in the flat sheet that was acting as a fitted one. If it hadn’t have been the morning we disembarked, I would have said something to guest services about it.

 

For meals, we ate breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer and dinner in the Main Dining Room. The Windjammer food was good for buffet food. And while it was crowded, it didn’t feel overcrowded. We always found seats. In the MDR we had My Time Dining with a 7pm reservation each night. On boarding day, I went and requested a table next to a window if possible. We ended up loving our table and were told if we wanted the same table to show up at 6:45pm each night instead of 7. We had Frank as our head waiter and Kudakwaishe as the assistant waiter. They were amazing. The first night, Frank heard us talking about how we wished we would have ordered the fried chicken to split and he brought us a plate with our meal. Whenever we ordered multiple of anything, they were always brought at the same time. Frank would also bring us something extra at each course.

 

Our ports of call were Nassau and Perfect Day. We did the base dolphin encounter at Blue Lagoon at Nassau. Before you board the ferry, which looked much newer than the last one we were on, you have to sign a sheet with your name and stateroom number in case anything happens. Once on board, the rows have numbers and someone comes around and notes which seat you’re in and you have to show your excursion ticket again. They do give the same talk about which celebrities are in each house. Upon arrival, they tell you what time your ferry is going to leave. I do wish that you were able to catch any ferry back instead of having to wait for your specific one. With the animal encounters booked through Royal Caribbean, lunch is not included. It’s $35 per person for the buffet lunch. Our ferry left around 9am and we boarded the return ferry at 1:30pm. We opted not to pay for anything extra and brought water and snacks for the lagoon.

 

This was our first trip to Perfect Day and we had reserved Hideaway Bay because the tickets went down to $20/person which we thought was reasonable. Both Allure of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas were docked that day. Allure was there first and while we weren’t in a hurry to get off the ship, we did get off around 8:45ish to get good chairs at Hideaway. It was maybe about a 5 minute walk to Hideaway from the ship but we’re fast walkers. They did have trams running every 2-3 minutes. We did get front row chairs close to the bathrooms, bar and food and far enough away from the DJ to still hear the music but not be overwhelmed by it. The ocean water was a little cold. I think someone said around 60 degrees. The pool was heated and it felt like lukewarm bathwater to me so I did not spend a lot of time in it. Even in the pool, the music  wasn’t super loud. The bars get overwhelmed very fast, especially the swim up bar, so be prepared to wait. The pizza looked similar to Sorrentos so we opted for a fish sandwich and chicken sandwich to split. Overall, I was happy we only paid $20/person and wouldn’t pay more than $25.

Disembarking was easy. We did self-assist and were off in under 10 minutes around 8am. We were in line for airport security by 8:30am. I would definitely sail out of Fort Lauderdale again.

TL;DR- Food was good. Ports were good. Stateroom was okay. Hideaway was okay. Disembarking was fast and smooth.

[Matt]

Thanks for sharing your review

[ScottD]

Thanks for that! We did Blue lagoon back it October, but just did the beach break which DID include lunch which was actually pretty good. Lucky you brought your own water, as I bought 2 bottles from the bar and it was like 12 bucks or something like that.  We are sailing Liberty for the first time in a few months, so I appreciate the little review of the ship, as well.