Sailing on the Liberty of the Seas

Liberty of the Seas Review

The Liberty of the Seas launched in 2007 as a Freedom-Class ship. This was before the mega ships of the Oasis class, and definitely before the Icon class. I just went on the Disney Magic a month before this ship, so it was fun to see the difference between a 20-year-old Disney ship, and a 20-year-old Royal Caribbean ship.

                                                                Embarkation

We went on a weekend cruise out of Lauderdale in late November. The port was inarguably the worst port experiences that I have ever had with heavy traffic, lack of signage, and limited parking spots. This was the first port where we had to take a shuttle from the parking garage to the cruise terminal. It was also the first port where I had to roll down every window, every person had to show their IDs, and we were asked if there were any weapons in the car. A truly magical way to start our vacation. The muster station was once again a breeze as you come to expect from Royal. Disney has been the only outdoor muster drill I have had in half a decade.

Food

The food was better than the Disney Magic food that I had just gotten off of the month prior. With that being said, it wasn’t amazing by any means. I had a few items at dinner that I enjoyed, and it further solidified Royal as one of my favorite cruise lines for an all-around experience. I loved the escargots, the New York Strip steak was decent, and a few desserts were solid. Nothing incredible, but as an all-inclusive, the food quality was better than most. The food in the adult-only section of the beach wasn’t bad either. I enjoyed the mozzarella sticks, and the funnel cakes. I ate so much that I had a huge stomach ache, and went into a sugar coma for an hour or two on the beach.

Ports of Call

The typical Royal Caribbean weekend cruise ports of call. Nassau Bahamas, and Coco Kay. We never got off in Nassau and used it to enjoy the ship’s amenities. This port day in Nassau actually had most of the ship get off to enjoy the island. I haven’t been on a cruise where the ship was empty in Nassau in a long time. Coco Kay has never disappointed me. It has been my favorite cruise line private island for years now, and nothing about this experience has swayed me. The pool in the adult-only section was a bit nasty as most of our members in our party had some type of sickness after this day. They were in that pool for eight hours, and not many got out the entire time… The pool was always busy, and I could only imagine how much pee and germs there were in that pool. I spent most of my time outside of the pool, enjoying the ocean/beach and I was one of the few that never got sick. One drunk guy tripped over me and could barely stand up straight… Overall, it was a great island, but maybe stay away from that pool.

Room

We had a promenade view interior that was a typical interior sized room with a view on the promenade deck. The loud music from this deck was only a problem during the dance parties, but I was at most of the dance parties, so the noise wasn’t too big of a problem. The bed was a little hard, but I slept soundly every night due to how tired I always was. The room showed its age with how dark it was, and the hallways elevated that age even more as the pink and the carpets looked like they were from 2007. Overall, it was a fine room, but I think I would rather enjoy an interior room over a promenade interior. I used the window one time to wave to my girlfriend at the dance party as I tested to see how loud it was, but other than that the window and curtains were drawn. Curtains straight from 2007 I might add, along with the chairs in the room. I have now been on two cruises in a row with the mystery stains on the chairs of the room.

Entertainment

The entertainment was a bottle of beer for this cruise. We are so used to the Utopia shows with their tremendous diving show, and ice show that when we went to the ice show we had high expectations. It turned out to be on the worst shows I have seen on a cruise ship and ended up walking out to karaoke. It was a very low energy show, which I found odd to the booze cruise we were on. The Utopia ice show is high energy, filled with effects, filled with fun costumes, and songs you know. The Liberty ice show was the complete opposite of that. Karaoke was handled in larger venues which I appreciated, on the Utopia it is tiny and hard to get a chair in there. Plenty of karaoke to go around as well. We popped into multiple venues for a few songs. We slept through the final show of the evening, which was just bad circumstances. We did however, get to the Love and Marriage gameshow, the Perfect Couple, the comedy show, the Crazy Quest, the Battle of the Sexes and the Belly Flop Competition. These audience participation game shows are always a good time and these mostly were a good time. The Crazy Quest and Love and Marriage show were the nightly highlights on this trip with both of them being hilarious.

It was a great cruise overall. I couldn’t help but want to be on the Utopia when I saw them in Coco Kay, and Nassau. The entertainment wasn’t quite as good, the ship was a little worn, and Fort Lauderdale was a mess. This cruise is probably last on my list of cruises this year but still much better than being on land.