# Our first cruise without the mouse - Liberty of the Seas - August 28, 2016 - COMPLETED



## ukintheus

Welcome to anyone that might follow along.    This is our first RCI cruise after 14 DCL cruises and I enjoy doing trip reports (mainly as a reminder to myself of our vacation) and luckily enough the DIS has a Royal Board so here goes!

A little background on us - skip this if you already know us.   We are DINKS (double income no kids) and have precious few vacation days to use each year.  We typically cruise when kids are in school, and we typically don’t utilize many of the things available on the cruise other than our cabin, the pool, the dining rooms and the various bars.  We had been mulling around the thought of a RCI cruise out of Galveston and originally booked one in April 2017 but an offer came out for this sailing and so we booked it.  Liberty of the Seas is a Freedom Class ship on RCI and had gone through a fairly extensive dry dock at the beginning of 2016 adding several features, such as water slides and FlowRider as well as other things that I didn’t really pay attention to.  For $400 more than a typical 7 night for the two of us on DCL out of Galveston in a 5B verandah, we got a Junior Suite, all inclusive premium drink package (Ultimate Package which includes beer, wine, cocktails, bottled water (still and sparkling), specialty coffee and juices), and 4 nights of specialty dining.     Trip insurance was also included but that's a wash as we also do trip insurance on DCL.  A Jr. Suite doesn't have any real suite perks other than priority boarding and double points. There is no concierge included with it unlike all the other suites, but it was $1,000 cheaper than the concierge suites.  So, with background over, it's time to sail and here's a bonus picture of us so you know who you are looking at.    We are particularly happy in this photo because we had just got back onto the Wonder as part of our first back-to-back last year.  





I have to add some pre-cruise stuff in here as there were a few things that were different and I may as well get all the boring text over with.  One thing that I immediately loved was that I could pre-purchase a drink package and a dining package online, and have it paid for months before our cruise.  I also liked that the booking window was the same for everybody (at least it appeared that way to me) and I didn’t have that pressure of the “gotta check in and get my reservations” this time, which was nice.  The other difference pre-cruise is that you don’t get a nice little packet in the mail with RCI like you do with DCL.  You print your own luggage tags and your cruise packet is downloaded from the internet.  It was easy and not a big deal, but the fun of finding those luggage tags in your mail box is really nice.


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## ukintheus

Sunday - August 28th - Embarkation Day

We finished our packing and left home at about 8:30 am.  The skies weren’t looking promising, and there was an 80% chance of torrential rain today.  It was a bad enough forecast that I had lined our suitcases with trash bags just in case they got soaked while they were being loaded and it looked like that might pay off as we drove through Houston.





Traffic was really light going across Houston and we got down to Galveston easily.  As we turned to go to Lighthouse parking we got a good view of our new ride.





We were parked at about 10:15 am and the shuttle was already almost full so we loaded our luggage and were off straight away to Terminal 2.  There was a little delay with traffic waiting to pull into the terminals as Carnival also were in port at Terminal 1 and people were still disembarking from both ships, and so there was a lot of traffic in general.  Our shuttle just had passengers for our ship, which was different from our experience when we have sailed on DCL out of Galveston where they mix passengers.  This was nice because we didn’t have to go to the Carnival pier first and so we were soon pulling up at the terminal.  They offloaded our luggage from the shuttle and we gave it to a porter to take to the luggage place and we left to make our way inside.





There were a lot of people sitting waiting to be picked up and I was glad we didn’t have to fight the crowd with our suitcases. The port has opened a new Terminal 2 building since we last cruised in January and the area for security was much larger.  Basically the entire area that used to be security, check in and the waiting area is now just security.  It's this area (photo taken on a different cruise) but now with just the security screening.  





We had no wait all and got through security within minutes.  There is now a walkway into a new building where check in takes place.  There were lots of available desks for check in and after being directed to the line for Suites we had nobody ahead of us to check in.  It didn't take long for the agent to wave us forward and we signed the medical form, had our photos taken, and receive our Sea Pass cards that already had our beverage package sticker on them.  Before we left we managed to snap a quick photo of the new check in area.





We walked through to the new waiting area, which is much larger than the old one, but as we were suite guests we were directed straight onto the ship.  They had some back drops here to have photographs taken, and I assume that’s where Mickey and the Gang will be when DCL sail out of Galveston in the future.  We boarded on deck 4 and were aboard by 11 am. 

I had sworn to myself that I wasn't going to constantly compare DCL to RCI but it was really hard not to do at first.    The first big difference was that once we boarded we were immediately approached, just like you are on DCL, but this was to try and sell us the beverage package instead of trying to help you figure out what's open for lunch etc.   It wasn't over the top, just different.   We went up to Deck 5 and took a look at the Promenade area which was a hive of activity - again with quite a few sales pitches for upgraded dining and drink packages, but not so pushy that it was annoying. 





The Promenade was large and very impressive and it looked like it would be a great place to hang out in the evenings with both a pub and a wine bar.  They had these ship maps in several places to help find your way around.





These are interior promenade rooms that overlook this entire area. 





We decided to make our way up to the pool deck  to take a look around up there.  We went up in the forward elevators and were at the Solarium area.  This pretty mosaic is right as you walk out of the elevator area.





There were lots of comfy loungers and some two person swing seats here.





Solarium pool.









We saw Sky Bar sitting there looking very lonely so we headed up there and ordered our first drinks.  





Texas Tea for me and a Shiner Bock for Scott.  The crazy Texas liquor laws apply no matter what cruise line, so nothing different there and the Texas Tea was probably one of the better drinks that I’ve had. 





View of the main pool.





And the very plain smoke stacks.   





This reggae band were setting up and had started to play.





We wandered around and checked out everything.  This is their running track, which is up on the top deck so no shade while you are running....IF you are running...which wasn't a problem for me!  



 





Looking back this is the top of one of the cantilevered whirlpools at the Solarium below.





The first thing that struck me was that the pool area looked much better for kids compared to DCL.  The main pool was much larger and the splash zone was also very large. 









At the back of the ship were two water slides and the Tidal Wave slide.





There was also the Flowrider surfing ride which wasn't operating yet.



 








Although we didn’t get to the back today to see the rock climbing wall and the basketball court they were also back in this area and I've got pictures of all that coming up later in the trip.


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## ukintheus

Having had a good look around up top we headed to Windjammer which is the buffet on deck 11 aft for a bite of lunch.  Here's a look at the sea pass card.  The UP sticker is our drink package sticker.  One thing I liked was that they have the last 3 digits of your stateroom number on the bottom left hand corner, so you just add your deck number to the front - it made it nice and easy to remember!





A quick word here about our specialty dining plan (sorry, more boring text! ).  I had read that we would be assigned our restaurants and times and that we could change them once we got onboard.  This wasn’t the case for us though.  I asked about it when we boarded and was told that there weren’t any reservations and that we could make them for whenever we wanted.  Before we entered Windjammer for lunch, there were people from Chops and Giovanni’s outside and so we booked Chops for Monday and Giovanni's on Wednesday night.  I still needed to make the other two reservations (we had a 4 night package) but we decided to see what we felt like doing later in the week.  The Mexican restaurant, Sabor, was the third available option and we were going to double up for the fourth night once we figured out which one we liked the best. 

Windjammer was fairly crowded and we followed the lead from the rest of the crowd and went and got a table first and then went to get food.





The view was nice (if you like oil rigs - ha ha!) and given the no-so-sunny day it was nice to be inside although it did get a little warm when the sun finally showed its face.









The buffet offerings were just OK, there wasn’t anything that struck us as exciting, and it was definitely not on par with the offerings on DCL but we didn’t starve LOL.  This was mine...the bread was good, just like DCL   but the ground meat for the pasta was very greasy and the pasta sauce was just like a can of tomatoes. 





And this was Scott's...





We didn't bother with dessert as we had other alternatives in mind and we headed back to Sky Bar to grab another drink (loving the drink package at this point – LOL).    The bar tender up there was called Hugh and he was from Falmouth, Jamaica and so we chatted to him about our trip there last year. We ended up at the Solarium, which is the equivalent of Cove area, and found a couple of comfy loungers until the announcement was made that the staterooms were ready just before 12:30 pm.   We went off to find our home for the week, deck 9 forward.  9234 was our cabin number and we had stuff in our "not a fish extender" thingy already!  





So, this whole Jr. Suite thing...yeah...AWESOME!!  









Our soda package cups were waiting for us.









It comes with a coffee maker and a kettle, which I know now has my Mum and Sister twitching at the mere thought that they could make tea in the room.  




The closet was HUGE...walk in and tons of room.









Bathroom was nice and had a full size tub.









And finally, the verandah....ta da!    LOL  It was really large with two loungers, two chairs and a table.  It was one of the main reasons we booked this cabin and it didn’t disappoint us.  I could see us spending time here this week.  









Looking foward...





And looking back...





And below was a whole bunch of luggage!  





The cabin definitely exceeded my expectations of how large it was going to be and how clean it was.  Happy camper indeed. 

I put a few magnets on our door.  There was only one other door close to us that was decorated and that was with one of the Birthday packages available for purchase from the ship.  A lady walked by and asked if we were on our honeymoon as I was decorating our door.  Um, no, just decorating because it’s fun.


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## MomoMama

Following.    Can't wait to read more!


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## ukintheus

Having poked our noses into every nook and cranny in the room, we left and went for a walk around.  We went up to the top deck again and there were a couple of ladies up there that asked us to take their picture and they reciprocated.  





We found this huge area at the front with a crazy golf course.  (Is it called crazy golf in the USA?  Putt putt maybe?)  LOL  You know what I mean.





This looked like a lot of fun....although we never made it back up here!    Typical of us.   









I wanted to go down to the helicopter pad on deck 5 forward as I had heard so much about it.  We had grand plans to make it here many times during the cruise, especially for sail away, but this was the only time we were there. 





There was a great view and we sat for a while soaking up the sun, which had finally made an appearance, until we were too hot to stay there. 





If you want to have a Titanic moment you can get all the way to the front.  I'm not so keen on heights (hate them and hate is a strong word! ) so as you can see, this is as close as I got to take a photo.  





We continued our wander and found ourselves in the main dining room which has three levels.





I took this panoramic one but I'm not sure it really shows anything any better.









When headed back to our room.  The hallways seemed quite a bit wider than we are used to.





When we got back to our room our bags were outside.  We were quickly unpacked as everything fit into our closet between hanging and the shelves and there was room for an open suitcase on the floor, which we use to put our dirty laundry in as we go along.  The good news was that the trash bags hadn't been necessary and everything was nice and dry.  









Our stateroom host, Walid from Egypt, knocked and introduced himself.  Muster was at 3:30 pm and we were inside in Star Lounge.  It was the quietest muster we have ever been to.  LOL. People actually were quiet when they were asked to be.    The overall vibe of the ship was different though, of course, with the majority of passengers appearing to be couples, and probably older couples at that.  There were so few children that it seemed a little strange. 

We had planned on going to watch sail away from one of the upper decks, but while we were in muster the sky had opened and it was chucking it down   so we elected to watch from our verandah. 





They don't look too concerned up there.


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## ukintheus

MomoMama said:


> Following.    Can't wait to read more!



Thanks for following along.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

Following along great so far! Really enjoying it. Looking foreword to more.


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## ukintheus

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Following along great so far! Really enjoying it. Looking foreword to more.



Thanks for following along.  I'm trying to get day 1 done. LOL


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

ukintheus said:


> Thanks for following along.  I'm trying to get day 1 done. LOL



We have considered RCL but we adore DCL so interested in reading your valuable thoughts! We tried NCL no thanks.


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## Frozen2014

Great review so far.  I'm a Royal fan wrt cruises (but love Disney) and have recently been on Allure plus Voyager and Grandeur.  Liberty looks amazing and I noticed good prices end of summer (week before your cruise) and we almost jumped on it.
Looking forward to hearing more.


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## ukintheus

We pushed away from the pier and the water churned from the side thrusters much to the delight of the seagulls.  I don't know if you can make them out in this picture but they were all over the place.









The Carnival ship had their muster drill going on as we went by.





We sailed past Harbor House which is a favorite hotel for those wanting to see the ships come in and out.





If you've read any of my other trip reports you will know I always take a photo of the Del Monte containers and today the ship was there too!!  Bonus!!    Ha ha.





Line up of shrimp boats.





Scott got this good photo of the skies...too bad they weren't blue, but this is a pretty cool photo.





Getting close to the end of the island.





Looking back I could see that the Carnival ship was also heading out to sea.









The pilot boat came alongside as I was standing out there.





The pilot hopped off the ship like it was nothing at all....not something for the faint of heart.  





So, look what's up ahead!!  Blue skies!!    You can also see all the tankers that are lined up to get into the Houston ship channel.  It's a busy place out there!





And behind us it was still nasty and dark but we were leaving that behind and heading to the Caribbean so all was right with the world.  





Scott decided that he needed to take a power nap so I caught up with my trip report.  A little while into the peace and quiet some really loud music started playing in our cabin.      I know this is one of those times when you really needed to be there....but we must have looked really funny trying to figure out where this music was coming from.     I was looking to see if there was a radio alarm, then I tried my phone, then my ipad, Scott tried his phone, then his ipad, and we pushed every button that we could find without any success.  Finally Scott stuck his head out of our door and Walid was outside and he came in and said it was the speaker that you can turn on and off to hear the announcements and promptly tried to turn it off. 





Nope!     Nothing...no amount of pushing or twisting the button did anything.  Then he brought in a "white shirt" and she tried to turn it off.   Nope!    It was funny, trust me.   Anyway, they said they would have to do something somewhere else on the ship, and that there was one other cabin close to us that had the same problem. In a few minutes it went off and we never had the problem again.    It was actually nice to have the ability to turn that speaker on really quick during the cruise when you wanted to hear what they were saying.  

And here's the obligatory photo to show that you are sailing in the Gulf of Mexico.  A rig platform and a tanker.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

Wow that churning of the waters! Too cool. Don't you just love heading away from dark skies into the bright skies. No better feeling. That is so funny about the speaker in your suite. Lovely suite by the way! Do RCL do any kind of Conceirge service like DCL with the lounge etc? I have never sailed out of Texas must be something and real cool for you if it is closer for you guys. I must check your other trip reports! Too funny about the dole fruit containers. I got obsessed by the containers on a Hawaain cruise! My wife kept complaining look at the mountains...


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

one thing I find confusing with RCL when I came to look was all the different classes of ships and the dining options! It seemed quite complex. But maybe it was me finding their website a little frustrating. I must try again!


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## ukintheus

Tonight we had My Time dining which was something that had really appealed to me where we could go to dinner whenever we wanted to instead of at a set time every night.    That said, you could make reservations online ahead of time, and so I had made one at 6:45 pm.   You can't stop a planner from planning.   

All of the My Time Dining was in the Rembrandt Dining room on Deck 3 aft.  The traditional first and second seating dining was in the other two Dining rooms on Decks 4 and 5.  We eventually figured out where we were supposed to be, although our route took us through the casino, which was (as we had suspected it would be) very smoky and not our cup of tea, and it was the first and last time we went into it.

We checked in for our dining reservation and were seated within about 5 minutes and although I felt a bit shy about taking photos of our dinner (evidently it's not as common as it is on DCL!! Ha ha.) we did take photos of our food anyway.  

For our appetizers I had the shrimp cocktail and Scott had the spinach salad.









Then I had prime rib and Scott had horseradish crusted salmon.









We split carrot cake and blueberry & peach cobbler.









Overall the food didn’t wow us, although the desserts were good!  Our servers were also very good, and were nice and friendly.    Dinner took a little over an hour and then we decided to walk around a little more and do more exploring of the ship.  It was fun to see new and different things and we were having a great time checking everything out.  We passed through On Air bar and ended up at Studio B where we found the ice skating rink. 





There was an ice skating session in progress and we watched the various levels of expertise for a little while, with a couple of chuckles at some of those that weren’t very adept at skating – which is totally mean of me as I would be hopeless at it – but it was still fun to watch others in their misery – HA! 





It just struck me at this point that our friends that have sailed with us on DCL with their 11 and 9 year olds would just LOVE everything that there was to do on this ship.    It was getting a bit chilly sitting by the ice so we walked up to the Promenade and found our way into the Hoof and Claw pub where we enjoyed a cocktail (or three). 





We sat outside and did some people watching.













The servers in there were awesome and we spent a little while chatting with them.





To be fair on my cocktail count my drink below (on the right) got thrown away as I didn't like it very much.  It was an Old Fashioned made with Maker's Mark and was just way too strong to end the evening with.  





We grabbed a couple of waters from Hoof & Claw before leaving and then Scott got a couple more from Sorrentos which was the pizza place right at the end of the strip of shops and right before our elevators.  

We went back to the room and were in bed by 9:45 pm.  So much for trying the nightlife!    We watched a little TV before calling it a night.  The seas were very calm and there was very little movement.  It also struck me how quiet the cabin was compared to DCL.  There was no creaking, banging or any noise of any kind.   Maybe it’s because we mainly sail on the Classic ships that are a little older, but this cabin was the quietest we’ve ever been in.  So that's day 1 in the books.  

Coming up tomorrow is an at sea day.

Adding this in because I forgot it!!   The elevators all have the day of the week inserted into the carpet which can come in handy!  LOL


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## ukintheus

Frozen2014 said:


> Great review so far.  I'm a Royal fan wrt cruises (but love Disney) and have recently been on Allure plus Voyager and Grandeur.  Liberty looks amazing and I noticed good prices end of summer (week before your cruise) and we almost jumped on it.
> Looking forward to hearing more.



Thanks for following along.  There were several people doing a B2B from the week before as well as this one.  We had looked at the week before too, but it was nice to have the extra day with us getting back on a holiday weekend. 



Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Wow that churning of the waters! Too cool. Don't you just love heading away from dark skies into the bright skies. No better feeling. That is so funny about the speaker in your suite. Lovely suite by the way! Do RCL do any kind of Conceirge service like DCL with the lounge etc? I have never sailed out of Texas must be something and real cool for you if it is closer for you guys. I must check your other trip reports! Too funny about the dole fruit containers. I got obsessed by the containers on a Hawaain cruise! My wife kept complaining look at the mountains...



Yes, on this ship (which is the only one I did any research on) there were three categories of concierge suites that all had access to the concierge lounge.  We couldn't justify the extra $1,000 for a Grand Suite which was the cheapest.  We were really happy with our Jr. Suite.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

Oh lovely re Conceirge what no spare $1000 in your pocket that you didn't realise was there lol...


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## mandymouse

Great start Jenny   I'm really looking forward to reading your views on RCL

Loving all your photos too, and look forward to seeing your cocktail count 

Your room looks amazing too, and so big. I hope you had a fun week


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## tennesseemo

Always interesting to read these reports, so far the only thing that has my undivided attention is the kettle in the room ️️ seems like a really good idea to me


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## ukintheus

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Oh lovely re Conceirge what no spare $1000 in your pocket that you didn't realise was there lol...



Not that I could find!  LOL



mandymouse said:


> Great start Jenny   I'm really looking forward to reading your views on RCL
> 
> Loving all your photos too, and look forward to seeing your cocktail count
> 
> Your room looks amazing too, and so big. I hope you had a fun week



Thanks Mandy - the cocktail count was pretty impressive this trip with that all inclusive drink package!!  I won't let you down. 



tennesseemo said:


> Always interesting to read these reports, so far the only thing that has my undivided attention is the kettle in the room ️️ seems like a really good idea to me



I knew that would get your attention!!  Ha ha.


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## CesD

thanks for this!! 
Is the buffet quality equivalent to say Souplantation on land or a middle of the road Vegas buffet? 
What would the MDR quality be equal to-- like cheesecake factory, Chili's?


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## ukintheus

CesD said:


> thanks for this!!
> Is the buffet quality equivalent to say Souplantation on land or a middle of the road Vegas buffet?
> What would the MDR quality be equal to-- like cheesecake factory, Chili's?



We were very unimpressed with the buffet in general, so I'd put that about on par with a Golden Corral maybe?  MDR is a little harder to say because 1) we only ate there twice and 2) the food was better the second night than the first. I hate to rate it on our limited experience, but the menu wasn't as interesting to us.  On DCL we struggle to pick something because so much is good, or sounds good.  Our experience on RCI was that there was only really one or two things that even sounded good to us.  The food wasn't bad, it was just the entire experience was a lot different.  If I had to rate it, I would say the quality of the MDL food is one step below DCL.


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## CesD

ukintheus said:


> We were very unimpressed with the buffet in general, so I'd put that about on par with a Golden Corral maybe?  MDR is a little harder to say because 1) we only ate there twice and 2) the food was better the second night than the first. I hate to rate it on our limited experience, but the menu wasn't as interesting to us.  On DCL we struggle to pick something because so much is good, or sounds good.  Our experience on RCI was that there was only really one or two things that even sounded good to us.  The food wasn't bad, it was just the entire experience was a lot different.  If I had to rate it, I would say the quality of the MDL food is one step below DCL.



were u able to try the promanade cafe and pizza place?


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## ukintheus

CesD said:


> were u able to try the promanade cafe and pizza place?



Yes.  Promenade Cafe had sandwiches similar to Goofys which were good to grab a quick bite. They also had pastries in the morning and some dessert type things once the sandwiches came out.  We tried once slice of Pizza from Sorrentos and thought it was fine and again it hit the spot.  They also had salads and sandwiches in Sorrentos but we didn't try them.


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## wide awake

Is it easy to find soda any time of day?  We are used to DCL deck 9 and were sorely disappointed in a Holland America cruise we took three years ago.  Even though we had a soda package it was impossible to get a soda early in the morning.  We had to wait until the bars opened, or for room service.  Really annoying.  We've booked Allure for spring break and hoping for a better experience.
Also, are the ships kept up?  The HA ship was dirty...dirty windows, carpets scuffed and patched, just overall dingy and this was for an Alaska itinerary which is one of HA's signature cruises.  Loved the library on HA but would never cruise with them again unless a great deal and itinerary.


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## CesD

wide awake said:


> Also, are the ships kept up?  The HA ship was dirty...dirty windows, carpets scuffed and patched, just overall dingy


Liberty just came from a big facelift so it is probably (hopefully) in good shape


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

I enjoyed your last past. Interesting about my time dining. Is that something you can opt in and out of each night or do you have to make a choice for the whole cruise? For example if the next night you wanted to go to the early main dining can you do this? I was confused reading on their website it says my time dining I thought like NCL just turn up when you want but it appears you have to book. 

Wow I was beyond impressed with the ice rink! How cool ! Literally! 

The pub is nice touch I like the look of that part of the ship so that the shops and bars appear to be in a street. Reminds me of  those fabulous Vegas hotels like Ceasers. 

Dinner looks nice drooling at the desserts!


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## msjprincess

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> * I enjoyed your last past. Interesting about my time dining. Is that something you can opt in and out of each night or do you have to make a choice for the whole cruise? For example if the next night you wanted to go to the early main dining can you do this? I was confused reading on their website it says my time dining I thought like NCL just turn up when you want but it appears you have to book.
> *
> Wow I was beyond impressed with the ice rink! How cool ! Literally!
> 
> The pub is nice touch I like the look of that part of the ship so that the shops and bars appear to be in a street. Reminds me of  those fabulous Vegas hotels like Ceasers.
> 
> Dinner looks nice drooling at the desserts!



It's one or the other for the entire cruise you can't do it on a day by day basis.

You don't have to make a reservation with MTD. You can just show up and wait for the next available table. On our last cruise we had MTD and I didn't make any reservations. We were seated immediately most nights. The only time we had to wait was the second formal night. We walked up at peak dinner time and we're a party of 5 so there was a bit of a wait. For our next cruise I made a reservation online for formal night. The rest of the time I plan on winging it.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

msjprincess said:


> It's one or the other for the entire cruise you can't do it on a day by day basis.
> 
> You don't have to make a reservation with MTD. You can just show up and wait for the next available table. On our last cruise we had MTD and I didn't make any reservations. We were seated immediately most nights. The only time we had to wait was the second formal night. We walked up at peak dinner time and we're a party of 5 so there was a bit of a wait. For our next cruise I made a reservation online for formal night. The rest of the time I plan on winging it.



Thank you for that explanation! That is useful to know. So you go for Any time dining and you can't go into the main restaurants that do the first and second seating at all? But you select others instead?


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## msjprincess

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Thank you for that explanation! That is useful to know. *So you go for Any time dining and you can't go into the main restaurants that do the first and second seating at all? *But you select others instead?




My Time Dining is in the main dining room, but it's in a dedicated area. For example, the Main Dining Room on Freedom Class ships is 3 floors high. One floor is for My Time Dining and the other two are for traditional early and late dining times.

It's different than NCL's Freetime Dining. MTD is just a way of being able to eat in the MDR whenever you choose instead of having to eat at a set time every night.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

msjprincess said:


> My Time Dining is in the main dining room, but it's in a dedicated area. For example, the Main Dining Room on Freedom Class ships is 3 floors high. One floor is for My Time Dining and the other two are for traditional early and late dining times.
> 
> It's different than NCL's Freetime Dining. MTD is just a way of being able to eat in the MDR whenever you choose instead of having to eat at a set time every night.



Oh I get it now! What a great explanation! I like this idea. It can be annoying to have a set time. Thank you so much!


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## msjprincess

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Oh I get it now! What a great explanation! I like this idea. It can be annoying to have a set time. Thank you so much!


Glad I could help. It can get confusing and RCCL website leaves a lot to be desired.


----------



## Paula Sedley-Burke

msjprincess said:


> Glad I could help. It can get confusing and RCCL website leaves a lot to be desired.



Indeed. It really doesn't do them justice does! I am sure we would have cruised with them by now but the website left me so frustrated! It's a shame because they seem good.


----------



## CesD

for our upcoming cruise, i chose MTD. i made reservations online but i chose a later time for port days since i figured we would want time to rest. we'll see how this works


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## ukintheus

wide awake said:


> Is it easy to find soda any time of day?  We are used to DCL deck 9 and were sorely disappointed in a Holland America cruise we took three years ago.  Even though we had a soda package it was impossible to get a soda early in the morning.  We had to wait until the bars opened, or for room service.  Really annoying.  We've booked Allure for spring break and hoping for a better experience.
> Also, are the ships kept up?  The HA ship was dirty...dirty windows, carpets scuffed and patched, just overall dingy and this was for an Alaska itinerary which is one of HA's signature cruises.  Loved the library on HA but would never cruise with them again unless a great deal and itinerary.



You can get soda from the Promenade Cafe at any time as it is open 24 hours.  It is a pity they didn't install the Freestyle machines.  I did miss the soda station on DCL because I don't drink soda but I do like to put some of the Minute Maid Light into my water from time to time.  It wasn't a deal breaker though.  Next time I would just take some of those squeeze add-ins.  They ship was in great shape, as mentioned it went through a dry dock earlier this year.   I think LOS was in better shape than the Wonder was when we sailed on her earlier in the year and the staterooms were in better shape than the Magic even post-dry dock.


----------



## Canadian Disney Mom

I was on the same sailing!  I keep looking at your pictures to see if I can find myself in them.  My own version of "Where's Waldo"   I have sailed on the sister ships Freedom & Independence and love the Freedom class ships.  I really enjoyed all of the stuff they added since the latest drydock.  Hopefully they add them to the others next time they go to drydock.

I have been on 6 RCL cruises so far (3 on this class) and have 3 more booked (2 on this class).  We always do MTD as we love the flexibility.   One of our upcoming cruises is on the Anthem and I was disappointed to find out yesterday that they are doing away with Dynamic Dining on the Anthem 

Can't wait to see the rest of your report!!


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## ukintheus

Canadian Disney Mom said:


> I was on the same sailing!  I keep looking at your pictures to see if I can find myself in them.  My own version of "Where's Waldo"   I have sailed on the sister ships Freedom & Independence and love the Freedom class ships.  I really enjoyed all of the stuff they added since the latest drydock.  Hopefully they add them to the others next time they go to drydock.
> 
> I have been on 6 RCL cruises so far (3 on this class) and have 3 more booked (2 on this class).  We always do MTD as we love the flexibility.   One of our upcoming cruises is on the Anthem and I was disappointed to find out yesterday that they are doing away with Dynamic Dining on the Anthem
> 
> Can't wait to see the rest of your report!!



I recognize your name from CC!    Thanks for following along.  I saw several people with DCL lanyards on the ship, and met another family on an excursion that had previously sailed DCL and were trying RCI for the first time too.


----------



## ukintheus

Monday - August 29th – At sea day

We both woke up early as we had had an early night and we both slept really well.  The cabin was quiet and the bed was comfy.  The AC also appeared to be working really well, and the temperature of the room had been really nice.     The only strange thing (to us) was that they made announcements over the PA system in the hallways up until about 10:30 pm, giving info in various things going on around the ship.  At 7 am we decided to go and get some coffee from Promenade Café on deck 4.     





This Morgan is outside the wine bar, Vintages.  It was one of the places I was looking forward to going to when I was doing my research.  Spoiler alert - we never even walked through the door!    We didn't drink wine except with dinner this cruise, so we just never made it in there.   





After grabbing a couple of lattes from deck 4 we went to Windjammer to get some breakfast.  It was fairly quiet with a few people around but not at all busy. 

I've got both plates included in this photo.  We both got basically the same thing.  A fried egg from the omlette station, biscuit and gravy and a sausage.  Scott got mushrooms and I got grilled tomatoes.  The biscuits were better than DCL who basically take hockey pucks and throw them on the buffet I think.    Now that I am looking at the photo, I also got tater tots and they were really good!  





We wandered over to the Solarium and found a couple of comfy loungers to plonk onto for a while. 





We sat there until about 9:45 am and then decided to go back to our cabin.  We went and checked out a couple of pool towels along the way.  This was different to DCL in that you have to check towels in and out using your sea pass card. Supposedly there is a $25 per towel charge if you don’t check them back in.    So with $50 worth of towels in hand (ha ha) we decided a mimosa would be a good idea. We visited Hugh in Sky Bar for these two cuties.





Walid, our stateroom host, met us outside and we chatted to him for a little while.  It seemed that all the crew we spoke to were on 7 month contracts and got 2-3 months off depending on their preference as to how long to go without being paid. Most do 2 months.  We sat on the balcony and enjoyed the loungers and the extra space. 









The water had turned to the beautiful blue color that showed that we were heading south and the earlier clouds from the morning had pretty much gone. 





We sat reading and listened to the sound of the waves and watching little pieces of orange seaweed float by.  For this part of the trip our verandah had shade in the morning and it was a great place to chill and read and just relax in general.





Before long we had to get ready and leave for the Meet & Mingle organized through Cruise Critic.  It was in the Olive or Twist bar and started at 11 am.  There were good views from up there.  





The meet and mingle was very crowded, which surprised me.  It’s organized through RCI and they had someone there giving us a bit of insider information and we learned that the Tidal Wave was going to be closed after day 3, although I didn't think I would ride it as I hate drops of any kind.    The main reason I signed up to attend the Meet & Mingle is that someone had kindly offered to organize a cabin crawl and we got the information for the cabins that were going to be available.  The crawl was going to start at 2 pm so we wandered to the back of the ship with the intention of going to see the water slides and Flowrider.  As we got there the skies opened so we gave up on that and wandered down to deck 4 again to escape the weather.

For some reason everyone has a photo of the dog, so here's ours.  













Looking up from deck 4 elevators.





While we were down there we decided to get a couple of sandwiches at Promenade Cafe.  These hit the spot but they didn't seem as interesting as the ones offered at Goofys on DCL.  They were pretty plain Jane, and also the selection didn't change at all during the week.





After sitting there for about 30 minutes and doing some people watching we gave it another go up on deck and the sun was out.    FlowRider was busy and it looked like it would be really hard.  I thought Scott might be interested in trying it, but he wasn't bothered.





This kid did well considering he had about a bucket of water shot up his nose a couple of times.  









We wandered around the back of Flowrider and found a good place to watch people on the  Tidal Wave.









Not people we know and we never went on it - I knew I wouldn't. 













Walking further around you came to where the water slides dump out.









Also back in this area is the rock climbing wall and the basketball court.





After taking a good look around at the back of the ship and exploring some more we ended up back up at Oliver or Twist.





After all that activity it seemed only fair that we try Windjammer for some dessert.  It was absolutely packed and we had a really hard time finding a seat but eventually found one close to the entrance.     Bread pudding, which was good and some type of mousse dessert that had no flavor at all.  It reminded me of the desserts on the buffet on DCL - very pretty but not worth the calories!   





The buffet was fast becoming our least favorite place so far, between the crowds and the food just not being all that great.     We went back to the cabin as we had an hour to kill before the cabin crawl began and I took this photo of the Promenade area from the elevators at the front of the ship.





Here's another random photo for you.  The other thing that we found really different (<- read "strange") is some of the artwork around the ship.  We are not into art at all and so there was probably some real significance that we were missing, but here's an example of a picture on the wall on the staircase.


----------



## Canadian Disney Mom

ukintheus said:


> I recognize your name from CC!    Thanks for following along.  I saw several people with DCL lanyards on the ship, and met another family on an excursion that had previously sailed DCL and were trying RCI for the first time too.



I lucked out and was able to get the same name for both sites


----------



## Paula Sedley-Burke

Sounds like a nice day at sea! Cool the the Morgan. There is quite a waiting list for those babies new. I hear up to 7 years. 

How cool about a cabin crawl I love that idea I am beyond nosey!

Interesting about the taking a refundable fee for the towels. A lot of European hotels do this. 

Those water slides look interesting! 

The ship seems to have a lot of activities like the climbling wall etc. 

The meet and mingle sounds a nice idea.


----------



## Canadian Disney Mom

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Interesting about the taking a refundable fee for the towels. A lot of European hotels do this.



There is not actually a refundable fee for the towels. What the do is scan your seapass card when you take out a towel.  They can it again when you bring it back.  Supposedly if you do not bring a towel back at the end of the cruise, they will charge you $25. I have never seem it happen and do not know how they could do it logistically, especially if you have a cash account.

I always thought the scanners were to freak you out so you would THINK you would get charged


----------



## Paula Sedley-Burke

Canadian Disney Mom said:


> There is not actually a refundable fee for the towels. What the do is scan your seapass card when you take out a towel.  They can it again when you bring it back.  Supposedly if you do not bring a towel back at the end of the cruise, they will charge you $25. I have never seem it happen and do not know how they could do it logistically, especially if you have a cash account.
> 
> I always thought the scanners were to freak you out so you would THINK you would get charged



I see! Makes sense. Stops people just leaving towels around the ship on loungers and people wondering are those people coming back? No different I guess to if you loose an item from your stateroom on DCL like a wave phone. Those are expensive you don't want that on your credit card!


----------



## ukintheus

We had just arrived back in our cabin when maintenance arrived to fix something we didn't even know was broken .  We left just before 2 pm to begin the cabin crawl and met up with a couple who were looking for the same cabin as we were to begin.  They were very sweet and we ended up doing the whole tour along with them.  We saw a couple of different size balcony rooms, a promenade interior, a Jr suite and a grand suite.    

It was really interesting to see the different types of rooms and the balcony rooms were not that much smaller than a Disney balcony but the bathrooms were significantly smaller with no split bath, and no bath tub but a very small shower.   

This photo was taken from a mirror, so it's a weird image, but you can get the gist.  Its of the shower in the regular bathroom.  I'm not sure how we would get on with it, that's something I'm still pondering.  





The size of the bathroom would be the only reason we would think hard about a regular balcony room, as overall the room and verandah size were very comparable to DCL.  We were done at about 3:15 and we went to the Solarium bar and grabbed a couple of drinks before heading back to do a bit of sunbathing on our balcony. 





It was definitely a warm afternoon and although there was a tiny breeze it was hot hot hot!    We used the shower to cool off, which worked out pretty well, and it was a good way to make the most of our private loungers.   Scott did the run to get another cocktail. Sadly this one didn't hit the spot, it was a mango mojito and I didn't care for the mix of flavors so what you see here is what was thrown away.  I did like the fact that if I didn't like something I didn't feel like I'd just paid an arm and a leg for it.  Still loving the drink package.  





We finally gave in and went inside to cool off and shower and get ready for our dinner reservation in Chops at 6 pm.  We arrived just before 6 pm and were promptly seated.  First up was some really good bread and our server was nice and friendly and chatty.





We both started with a cocktail.  Scott's was a Maker's Mark Manhattan and mine was the Chops signature lemonade cocktail but I can't remember the fancy name for it.  It tasted like grapefruit though.    It was fine because I like grapefruit.  





Next up we both got the mushroom soup which was absolutely delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about it as I write this!  





When we ordered, we asked if it's typical to do all 3 courses, soup, appetizer and entree, and our server told us to just order whatever we wanted....so we did!   

I got the Beef Carpaccio and it was really good.





Scott got the crab cake - again really good.





We both ordered the 9 oz filet and had asparagus, mushrooms and garlic mashed potatoes although we forgot to take photos of the steaks!   Ugg!!    For dessert we split the cheesecake and mud pie.









All of the food was really good and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal.  We thought the service was about on par with Palo (not counting the fact that our friend Susana works in Palo on the Wonder and so we usually have an off-the-charts time when we are there ). Our server asked us if we wanted to come back, and that he could make a reservation for us, so we booked again for Friday.   So, while we were on our second appetizers, a really sweet gentleman was seated at the table next to us who was cruising on his own and was a Pinnacle member on RCI which meant he had more than 700 nights on RCI!!  He was an older man whose wife had passed away several years ago.  He had worked in the oil industry many years ago and so he and Scott talked oil business for a while and we enjoyed chatting with him for the evening. 

We decided to go to Hoof and Claw for a night cap.  Note the time stamp, 9:11 pm.  Not too early, not too late.  Yet.   



 

As you can see the place was fairly empty and we chatted a lot with the bartenders.





At 10:00 pm this singer from Argentina came along to entertain us all.





So our nightcap was turning into a major event.  There were several people in there that were having a lot of fun, and it would have been rude to not join in. 





There was a conga line at one point,  and the Argentinian singer came over and had a drink with us seeing as that whole side of the bar was so rowdy.  

This was last call....12:56 am!!  As you can see, I at least had some forethought to drink water as well.   





So our evening started on Monday and ended....





It was almost 2 am when we got back to our cabin, but it had been a fun night.   This little guy was waiting for us.





Needless to say, we went straight to bed.


----------



## Paula Sedley-Burke

Love that cabin crawl. What a shame about the shower and smaller bathrooms. Suites for you everytime then! I get an accessible stateroom I bet the bathrooms are bigger with the roll in shower. 

Dinner looked good at Chops. Wow re that nice Gentleman and over 700 nights. My Dad knows a lady that decided to live on a cruise ship rather than go in a retirement home! No it wasn't my Mum. She wishes..

Sounds like a great night. I do like the day written on the elevator carpet.


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## ukintheus

Tuesday, August 30th – At sea day

After a super late night we didn't get up very early and this day was very easy to keep up with on the trip report (i.e. we did nothing! LOL)   I was awake at 9 am but Scott enjoyed a nice lie in until 11 am.  At some point we were going past the coast of mainland Mexico.  This is fuzzy - camera troubles with humidity.  





We got ready and, having skipped breakfast, we decided to try lunch in the Rembrandt main dining room.  The menu looked pretty interesting and they also had a big salad station set up in the middle where they had servers put your salad together the way that you wanted it.





I decided to go with the tandoori lamb.





Scott got a hamburger. 





You probably won't be shocked to hear that we though the food was just OK.   The service was really slow though, so we didn't wait on dessert.  I also got a nice ice water shower over my right arm and leg, which was handy as it woke me up.   We went up to deck 4 and took a walk outside.  It was very overcast today and the temperature was really nice.  This reminds me of Deck 4 on DCL and lots of people were taking advantage of the nice quiet space.





On our way back I took a quick photo of these interactive guides that are by the elevators.  I used one once to find a restroom, they were handy!  





We decided to go and sit on our verandah and enjoy the breeze.    We spent a couple of hours out there and then took a quick nap in keeping with our extremely busy day!  At about 5 we went down and grabbed a bite to eat and a drink at Promenade Cafe.  I got an iced latte and it was VERY strong, I was scared to drink more than half of it  as I could just see me staying awake all night having had such a lazy day.  Ha ha.  





We got back to the room and I tried to find the information for Maya Chan, which is where we had booked to go in Costa Maya tomorrow, but couldn't find it, so I had to buy a 1 day internet package to send an email.  That was $19.99 that could have been avoided but I decided to make the most of it and text Mum and my sister.     We showered and got ready for dinner.  Tonight we were back in the main dining room and seeing as I had the My Time Dining reservation at 6:45 pm we decided to stick with that.  When we got down there the servers were all in the middle of some kind of dance.  I tried to get this photo but it didn’t come out very well.





Once we had been seated, they were trying to get everyone to get up and do the Macarena.  We declined but these two ladies were good sports and got up to join in.





Here is the menu for tonight.





We both had crab cakes, which were really filling.  I noticed afterwards that the people next to us only got served one each – Scott and I were both given two!  We must have looked hungry. 





I decided to try the pasta.





And Scott had the braised beef duo. 





Tonight everything was better than the meal we had had in there the first night, but neither of us were super hungry having just eaten a sandwich earlier. 

Scott had the rum baba for dessert, which he said was almost inedible, and I had orange sherbet which was good.









No big surprise that we decided to skip the night life tonight, and in keeping with our quiet and low key day we decided to go and find a movie on TV to watch.     We had another towel animal waiting for us.





We were in bed by 8:45 pm.  It was an extremely lazy day, and a perfect way to relax. I was surprised that RCI has all the Dreamworks movies that are no charge.  I had heard that there was basically no TV available, but we didn’t really find it to be a problem if you aren’t picky about what you watch – which evidently we aren’t!


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

Sounds like a fun day! I like the look of the interactive maps to find places on the ship. 

Dinner looks nice. What a lovely relaxing day at sea.


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## ukintheus

Wednesday, August 30th – Costa Maya, Mexico

 We had an alarm set this morning and had left a room service order on our door the night before for 7:30-8:00 am.  I woke up early and then couldn't go back to sleep which is not particularly surprising given the lazy day the day before.   You couldn't see the sunrise from our side of the ship but it looked like it was a pretty one.  





This morning we were docking in Costa Maya and had a day booked at Maya Chan beach resort which was a private excursion I had booked online after really good reviews on Trip Advisor.  It was $59 and included all you can eat and drink plus the use of all the water toys and transportation to and from the port.   We were supposed to be the only cruise ship in port, but this Carnival ship was in port and we found out it had been diverted due to  a storm system in the Gulf.  





We got a call at about 7:40 am and breakfast arrived right afterwards – he literally must have been just down the hallway!  We ordered cereal, fruit and pastries and some coffee. 





Just after the ship was cleared we headed down to deck 1 forwarded and got off the ship with no delay at all.  There were maybe 10 people getting off the ship and it was strange to not have crowded elevators and gangways.  





Our first close up views of the ship.









The port has grown quite a bit since we were last here in 2012.  More buildings have been put up.  The pier is still as long though!!  LOL









We walked through the port and after a brief discussion with each other (about who was right and who was wrong basically ha ha  ) about which way we were supposed to go, we figured out where the port exit was and followed the directions to find the representatives from Maya Chan.  Another excursion person was friendly and shouted across the street that we needed to keep going to find Maya Chan so it must be fairly obvious who you are looking for if you are walking that far!   We met their representative, signed a waiver and got a wrist band and after a brief wait we were shuttled in a large taxi van to Maya Chan.    They packed the van tight and Scott and I both squeezed into one seat at the end of the bench.  We were given the choice to get in or wait for the next shuttle but we manage it OK. It was about a 6 mile journey there and the last part was on an unpaved and very bumpy road which for some reason made me giggle and I was having a hard time to not look like a crazy person to the lady sitting next to me.     Scott took these photos along the way seeing as he was so nice and close to the window and all. 









Pulling in we were immediately met by the owner Steve who was waiting outside for us and he showed us around and we were taken to our shade cabana for the day. 





We were immediately served a welcome rum punch drink, chips, pico de gallo and guacamole.  All of it was very fresh and delicious and started the day there in great style. 





We settled in to do nothing for the day (imagine that) except float in the water a little and relax.  We decided to book a 30 minute massage each and scheduled it for noon for $25 each.  While I was arranging that Scott took a wander around.

This is one of the larger cabanas for a bigger party.





View from their tree-top covered chairs.





Restaurant area.





The service here was fantastic and we were waited on hand and foot all day, including them bringing us drinks in the water. 





They do a good job of making you very aware when you book that this isn't going to be a pristine beach and that the water here can be cloudy.  They have sea grass and the current in this area also brings in some trash from various parts of the world.  They say they have had trash from as far away as Japan.  We didn't find it to be bad at all just a few floating pieces here and there, and the sea grass wasn't bad at all.  They work very had to keep the beach clean and had at least 4 people constantly cleaning.









We could see the cruise ships in the distance.





Here you can see some of the sea grass, it's not really thick, at least not where we were.  There weren't really what I would call pretty fish, but these hung around quite a bit.  I'm sure their parent fish think they are just adorable.  









At one point, because I’d asked for water twice in a row, the server insisted she bring me a fresh mango margarita – who was I to deny her the pleasure? 



 

The massage lady came and got us at noon.  The massage was pretty basic but for $25 I wasn’t complaining and it just added to the relaxation of the day.  Right as we got done lunch was being served. 









There was beef, chicken, pork and sea bass along with fresh made tortillas, charro beans and all the stuff to put on your taco.  It was really good and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We met their cat, Stella, who was very interested in everyone that was willing to give her a tidbit to eat.  The afternoon went quickly seeing as we were doing nothing – this was one of those places you could just stay at forever.  More drinks happened.





It was so nice and relaxing.





Lots of people took advantage of the kayaks and paddle boards.  





Someone came around with a clip board and asked what time we wanted to be picked up to be taken back to the ship and we chose 2:30 pm.  The last taxi was leaving at 3:30 pm and they were obviously going to make sure that nobody was late getting back to the ship.  They came around and gave us a 20 minute reminder and at 2:30 pm the taxi took us and one other family back to the port.  Here's a couple of beachside photos on the way back.









The plan originally had been to try and do a little bit of shopping back at the port, but once we were walking through it there was nothing that was jumping out at us at all so we decided to just get back onboard.





There was no wait at all to board which was really nice.  We really loved our day at Maya Chan and would go back there again in a heartbeat.


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## ukintheus

We stopped at Hoof & Claw to grab a drink and were told there was going to be a Dreamworks parade at 5 pm and that their seats outside had a great view.  We went back to our cabin and got showered and changed and went back down at 4:30 pm to watch the Move It parade. 





It was funny to see the differences between a Disney parade and this one.  Some of the performers didn't look too thrilled to be participating! 





The other funny thing is that nobody in the parade was wearing the same shoes and their Nikes, or whatever footwear they chose to wear, kind of stood out against the costumes.   Scott noticed it too, so you know it kinda stood out!  

































We went back to our cabin and relaxed for a while.  While the parade was going on we had left Costa Maya.





Ahhh....such a hard life. 





The Carnival ship had left just before us but we caught up with it quickly.  





We sat out on the veranda for a long time as the sky was taunting us with the possibility of a sunset.









There was lightening show off in the distance.  It was so beautiful to see it snaking across the sky and we ooohed and ahhhed appropriately and Scott tried in vain to get a good photograph.  









Eventually we had to get ready for dinner.  Tonight we were in Giovanni's.  We got up there right at 8 pm and were seated promptly.  Yum!! 





Scott ordered mussels and I ordered the buffalo mozzarella.  Our appetizers were brought out at the same time as the antipasto platter which was a little strange as we didn't really want to eat all of them at the same time, so we barely touched the antipasto, which we usually really enjoy eating first. 





We both ordered the filet as we had been told it was better than the one in Chops, but for us it wasn't as good as the one we had in Chops earlier in the week.  It wasn't bad, just not as good of a cut of meat we thought.  Scott also didn't care for the texture of the mashed potatoes, but I think that's partly to do with the fact that he really thought there was cheese in there somewhere.  I kept telling him there wasn't, but his mind was telling him otherwise!  





The server also brought us out a pasta dish for us to try when he bought out the steaks.  It was very sweet of him, but again weird timing. 





And then was very kind to take our photo...all while our food was going cold.    I feel very ungrateful even putting this in here, but the whole evening was just "off" in terms of service. 





The server came to ask us if we would like to change our Friday reservation in Chops to Giovanni's as we could get lobster as part of our meal in Giovanni's whereas it wasn’t included at Chops.  It was a bit awkward, as neither of us really wanted to make the decision then and there, but we felt a bit pressured and so agreed and he changed our reservation for us.      My gut on the whole “pushiness” to change was because we bought a nice bottle of wine and he was getting the gratuity on that especially as a little while later he asked us if we wanted to pre-order the same wine and he would open it about 30 minutes before we were due to arrive.    The nice part of me says that he was doing it because it took about 30 minutes for the wine to open up enough where we could drink it (they didn’t have a decanter, which was kinda weird) and the other part of me says he just wanted the $$.  LOL

Scott got Cannoli to go for dessert and I got the Italian meringue. 





So all in all the food was good, but it wasn't as good as Chops (in our opinion) and the service had been a little strange, but we had enjoyed our meal.    We waddled out of there and went straight back to our cabin as it was going to be a very early start tomorrow in Roatan, Honduras.  Walid had left us another cutie to keep the bed warm and we watched a little TV before going to bed by 10:00 pm.


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## MomoMama

Great TR!  I am jealous of your relaxing vacation! 
Your detailed report gives me a really good idea of Liberty of the Seas.  The ship looks very nice, and the food looks fine too as long as you avoid the buffet.  

Since you mentioned you do not like the smoke in casino...could you tell me if the smoke bothered you outside of the casino and the pool deck?  

Looking forward to reading your day at Roatan.  We went there last year and loved it!


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## ukintheus

MomoMama said:


> Great TR!  I am jealous of your relaxing vacation!
> Your detailed report gives me a really good idea of Liberty of the Seas.  The ship looks very nice, and the food looks fine too as long as you avoid the buffet.
> 
> Since you mentioned you do not like the smoke in casino...could you tell me if the smoke bothered you outside of the casino and the pool deck?
> 
> Looking forward to reading your day at Roatan.  We went there last year and loved it!



The only other place and time that we noticed smoke was on our last at sea day.  It was a little windy and the smoke from the smoking section on deck 11 blew forward to the Solarium.  Other than that we didn't have any issues with people smoking.


----------



## MomoMama

ukintheus said:


> The only other place and time that we noticed smoke was on our last at sea day.  It was a little windy and the smoke from the smoking section on deck 11 blew forward to the Solarium.  Other than that we didn't have any issues with people smoking.



Thank you!  That is really good to know!
Now I am seriously considering trying out Liberty of the Seas


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## ukintheus

MomoMama said:


> Thank you!  That is really good to know!
> Now I am seriously considering trying out Liberty of the Seas



It was one of the things that I was cautious about going into this trip.  To be honest, we've been more bothered by smoke with people secretly smoking on their verandah's on DCL than we were on this ship.  Glad you are enjoying the TR, it's always fun to relive vacations by doing them.


----------



## ukintheus

Thursday, September 1st – Roatan, Honduras

I woke up really early at about 5:30 am and went outside to sit on the balcony.  We were barely moving and by 6:30 am the ship was getting ready to dock.  The island looked very sleepy in the early morning sun.









Maybe the other side of the bridge is really busy?  LOL





The port was getting ready for the early arrival.  This was a new port for us and we were scheduled to go to Little French Key, another private excursion found through Trip Adivsor.  





It looked like it was going to be another beautiful day.





Off in the distance the re-routed Carnival ship was making its way in.  Hopefully all those passengers were able to get other excursions booked to enjoy their new itinerary.  





We had room service scheduled again, this time for 7:00-7:30 am and it arrived at 7:29 am





We were cleared to get off the ship by 7:15 am but it was closer to 7:50 am by the time we were done with breakfast.  Again we got off the ship with little to no others disembarking.  The elevators were all empty too, so different from DCL!   We walked through the port and found our transportation and, lucky for us, we were the last two to squeeze on the bus (second day in a row!) and we were off.  I was in the middle jump seat, and they always makes me laugh because they are so horribly uncomfortable and you feel like it could just snap shut and fold you up like a taco at any moment. Ha ha.  It did put me in a good spot to take some photos along the way though. 





The roads were busy with everyone going to work or school.  It appeared most people hopped onto any truck that would slow down enough for them.  Now I'm curious if they know the people driving or if it's just a way to get around??  Even school children were doing it.





Some places were a closer call than others...





The power lines here had me thinking that a hurricane is never a good thing on these islands.





If you ever want to see the Hottest Sparrow, here's the turn!  





It took about 15-20 minutes to get to Frenchy's 44 which is the restaurant owned by the people who also own the island and where the shuttle boat took us across. 

This appeared to be their house....now THAT's a tough life.  





There was a brief wait in line to pay.  It was $98 per person for the day with the package that included a snorkeling trip, lunch, and 2 drink tickets.   The boat ride is extremely short, maybe 5 minutes totally including getting on and off and we got there at about 8:30 am ship time, 7:30 am local time.  This is where we were headed.





And this is where we left from.





We had someone waiting for us as we came into the dock.





This looked like a hangman's noose to me!  LOL





We were shown around the island and saw the rescue animals that have been saved by the family, who are American.  This lion used to be in a circus, I had read somewhere online before we left that he's a very old man.  





There were lots of places to sit in the shade.












And this was one of the bars which was next to one of the spots that would serve lunch.





After having the grand tour we decided to take a spot close to some mangroves that looked like it would be fairly shaded for most of the day.   Ahhhh....did I mention it's tough to be us??





We decided to get into the water.  It felt a little chilly when we first got in but it was a great temperature and felt perfect after that initial shock.   I'm a real wussy about cold water!  LOL.  









Scott went to see what time our snorkeling excursion left, and although there were several throughout the day, we decided to take the one that left in about 15 minutes.  We slathered up with sunscreen and headed off to the boat.  We took our own snorkel equipment and borrowed their fins.  We were taken out to a reef about 15 minutes from the island.  The guide gives you some instruction and then it's a JUMP....yes....you had to jump in so I pulled on my big girl panties (fortunately I had brought them with me), closed my eyes, held my nose and went for it.     Miracle of miracles I survived (yet again )   It's really not on my list of favorite things to do though!   Thankfully I was the first of 3 chickens, so I didn't look quite AS chicken as I could have.    It was all so worth it though and it was some of the better snorkeling that we have done. 





We saw a large school of "blue fish".  I told Scott I want to study up a bit before our next trip so I know more about what I'm looking at!  





There was a large drop off and I had to laugh at myself as I got a little nervous, like my fear of heights was kicking in but the opposite way around....this was deep!!!









The photos don't really do it justice.  It's really hard to take photographs underwater as you can't see a thing on the screen as to what you are taking so it's just a point and guess!  













Our guide had spotted a lobster and tried to coax it to move so we could all see it but it just scuttled further under the coral.





This is really hard to see but there was a yacht of some kind that sank about 10 years ago.  It got stripped of everything that was of value and now is sitting on the bottom. 





The boat picked us up again after about 45 minutes and we headed back to Little French Key.  Great snorkeling excursion and we loved every minute of it.


----------



## CesD

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Wow re that nice Gentleman and over 700 nights. My Dad knows a lady that decided to live on a cruise ship rather than go in a retirement home! No it wasn't my Mum. She wishes..


Ive heard that this is fairly common as they sometimes come out cheaper than staying at retirement homes. 
My dad who is close to retirement tells me this isnt a bad option at all considering you dont have to think about or pay for cleaning, maintenance, repairs, grocery, toiletries, entertainment costs, etc. that you would have on land.


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## msjprincess

We sailed with Super Mario last summer. He spends an average of 350 nights onboard a RCCL ship.   http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/tourism/fl-royal-caribbean-avid-cruiser-20160429-story.html


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## Canadian Disney Mom

msjprincess said:


> We sailed with Super Mario last summer. He spends an average of 350 nights onboard a RCCL ship.   http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/tourism/fl-royal-caribbean-avid-cruiser-20160429-story.html



Wow!  I have always heard of Super Mario but never knew the story!


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

Wow what a lovely excursion for you both! Great photos of the water and the fish. Also the yatch that sank. Sounds like a very interesting island. 

That lion sleeping in the sun. How nice they rescued the poor old boy! 

Some places have that hitch hiker culture. I did a French exchange at school and that is how the town I was staying in travelled. It was odd for me. Years of training don't go with strangers and that was how they expected us to get to school! I lived obvs.


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## ukintheus

We got back to the island and decided to trade in one of our drink tickets and swim a little more.  We both went with a local brew.









We loved hanging out in the water under this palapa.  It had a perfect view of the ocean and we could be in the shade.





Happy peeps - this is the shore with the bar area behind us.





And with the ocean behind us.   This was a man-made lagoon behind a breakwater that had been put in. There wasn't anything to see for snorkeling but the water was crystal clear and it was a mostly sandy bottom with the odd rock or two around.  





Lunch was being served at 10:30 am/11:30 am ship time and we had to leave at 12:30/1:30 to get back to the ship.  Lunch was chicken, beef, shrimp and lobster served with plantains, rice and beans, coleslaw and pico.  









It was all very good and we ate every bite of it.   We grabbed another couple of local beers and went to take a good look around the island. 

This was the other bar area on the opposite side of the lagoon.





Looking back to where we were sitting.  The palapa to the left at the back is where we were hanging out and our chairs were on the beach area to the right of that.  





They also had a horseback excursion where you could ride them in the water.  I usually avoid those at all costs because typically the horses in the Caribbean are not well cared for, but these were very well taken care of and they looked beautiful.  We don't have a photo of him but they had an intact piebald stallion that they were riding around as well.  I didn't see anyone actually do the excursion. 





They had several rescue animals plus some aviaries.  This guy was hanging out in an enclosure over close to another beach. 





This is another beach, not as shaded as the spot we chose though.





We were told that the last shuttle would leave at 12:30 pm/1:30 pm ship time and so the day was fairly short.   

Scott had to try a hammock although - he didn't look comfy and he didn't stay there long!  LOL





We saw some people packing up and decided that we would head back as well.  They used the boat to shuttle back and forth frequently it seemed as we didn't have to wait long at all and as soon as we got to the mainland they had a taxi van waiting to take us back to the ship.    We had one stop at Coxen Hole as there was one couple that were on the re-routed Carnival ship but we were back on board by about 1:45 pm.  

We had a nice time and really enjoyed the snorkeling and the food was really good.    For us it's probably a "been there, done that" place.  The only "dislike", if you can call it that, is that the two bars on either side of the lagoon had different music going on, and both at pretty loud volume, so we felt like we were caught between a battle of the DJ's    especially as one was playing country and the other reggae .   We are more of the peace and quiet type.  

When we got back to the room there was a note on our "not a fish extender" explaining that there had been a number of instances of intestinal/norvovirus and that extra precautions were going to be taken for the remainder of the cruise.   We were also left this little plate of goodies....imagine two more on there...we ate them before I remembered to take a photo!  





Scott took a nap as he hadn't slept well at all last night and had only just fallen asleep before I got up (at the before-crack of dawn if you remember).  We left Roatan at 4 pm and went out on the veranda to watch us sail away.   Beautiful blue water.









While we were on our verandah we met our neighbors who told us that they had been quarantined to their room with suspected norvovirus and hadn't been able to leave their cabin for 2 days.  They were a very sweet, older couple and as is typical in that Scott never meets a stranger, the man was an oil field fishing hand in Midland Texas and actually knew people that Scott knew.    I would say small world, but somehow that doesn't apply to my husband!   





The pilot boat came and picked him up....a bit different in size from the one in Galveston!





Some coastline pics.









And there goes the Carnival ship....we didn't see it again.





We had about 2 hours before dinner and tonight we were going to Sabor at 6:30 pm.  We watched the Love Marriage show on the TV that had been on in the theater the night before.     We had yet to make one single show in case you had missed that small point!     We have seen Match Your Mate on DCL before and have to say that the Disney version seemed funnier to us.     I would have thought that a less “family friendly” ship would be funnier, but the questions were about the same and it was the cruise director who was running it.  I don’t think he was as funny as the adult entertainment staff are on DCL but then, DCL has entertainment wrapped up in a bag, so I guess it shouldn’t really have been a surprise. 

We decided to go down to Promenade Cafe and grab some ice water.  I decided to get another iced coffee  seeing as it was included on our drink package, and Scott grabbed a cookie because they were staring him in the face. 

At 6:30 pm we went to Sabor for dinner.  One interesting thing we noted was that when we were down on Deck 4, all of the shops had someone outside them squirting hand sanitizer at anything that moved.  Outside Sabor there was one dispenser and you had to touch the handle of the restaurant after sanitizing your hands in order to get in.  

We got the set appetizer of chips, salsa, cucumber with chile, and guacamole.  They make the guacamole tableside and we asked for the guacamole medium hot and it had quite a kick to it.  Scott added raw jalepenos to his!





Avocado margarita....and, yes, it was delicious and, yes, it was included on our drink package.  





Jalepeno and cucumber margarita for Scott.  He said it was also very good. The drinks took a long time to come out though.  20 minutes from when we ordered...we were almost twitching!!  





Scott ordered tortilla soup and forgot about the cheese, so that turned into a bit of a fishing expedition to get it all out.  LOL.  He said it was very spicy, almost too spicy - and he likes spicy!





I got the chile calamari and it was very good.





I then got the mole beef short ribs and Scott got empanadas.  

My short ribs, which were not very good at all.  I would say there was maybe 3 bites of meat and the rest was just fat.  I know short ribs tend to be fatty, but this was fat with a touch of meat added.  





Scott said his empanadas were OK, nothing great, nothing bad.





The sides were beans and a corn, black bean and zuccini blend.  





The dessert platter was very large and we hardly put a dent in it, although I had a good try but most of them were very sweet.  





We ordered another drink, and although mine came out quickly, Scott’s took forever and eventually even the server suggested she put it in a to go cup once it arrived.  We were done by 7:40 pm and went back to our cabin.  So, this was another dud for us.  The food wasn't great and the service was a little slow at times.  They also did one other weird thing (IMO) which was to try and sell us the avocado slicer thingy that they use when they made the guacamole.   I told them that they may need something fancy on a moving cruise ship, but for those of us on dry land a knife works just fine!  

This guy was waiting for us, and I have to say it's probably my favorite towel animal of all time.  





We sat out on the balcony for a while and listened to the waves crashing on the front of the ship.  Both of us were pretty tired, and, sadly, neither of us drank the second margarita we had brought back to the room.    The stars were also bright tonight and it was a beautiful temperature outside.  

After chatting about it again, we decided to switch our reservation AGAIN for tomorrow night from Giovanni's back to Chops. LOL.     We really felt that we had had much better service at Chops and had enjoyed the food more.  By 8:20 pm we decided we weren't about to go back out to do anything - we were the epitome of lazy at this point!     After an early morning and a day out in the sun, sea and sand we were pretty tired.    We decided to read and watch TV and chill out for the rest of the evening and went to bed at about 10 pm.


----------



## cmph

Thanks for taking the time to write up this report! Galveston is the second easiest port for us to get to (after LA, but there is so little out of there), so I have been looking at the Liberty of the Seas for a few months. Your photos are great! And you're right about that pool area - looks very fun for kids. Did you happen to notice or hear about wait times for the things like slides, rock climbing wall, etc? 

Also - if you don't mind, can you clarify some of the specialty add-ons? Is it standard that you get the 4 days of dining and drinks package with the junior suite, or was that a special that you booked? It sounds like you got good use of the drinks package (and I don't blame you!!  ) but I'm wondering if you would have paid for the specialty dining if it wasn't included? It sounded hit or miss. I'm trying to get a sense of whether the specialty dining is almost necessary, if that makes sense.


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## ukintheus

cmph said:


> Thanks for taking the time to write up this report! Galveston is the second easiest port for us to get to (after LA, but there is so little out of there), so I have been looking at the Liberty of the Seas for a few months. Your photos are great! And you're right about that pool area - looks very fun for kids. Did you happen to notice or hear about wait times for the things like slides, rock climbing wall, etc?
> 
> Also - if you don't mind, can you clarify some of the specialty add-ons? Is it standard that you get the 4 days of dining and drinks package with the junior suite, or was that a special that you booked? It sounds like you got good use of the drinks package (and I don't blame you!!  ) but I'm wondering if you would have paid for the specialty dining if it wasn't included? It sounded hit or miss. I'm trying to get a sense of whether the specialty dining is almost necessary, if that makes sense.



Thanks for following along.  LOTS is a great ship, I don't think you would be disappointed.  We didn't see any wait times, sorry, but on the at sea days the lines were about half way down the stairs for the slides if that's any help?  LOL  My guess is about 25 minutes, but that's a total guess!  LOL  Because the kids were back in school when we sailed I would imagine the lines were quite a bit shorter than they are during peak season.

The Jr. Suite doesn't come with any perks other than priority boarding.  We added a 4 night specialty dining package as they had a pre-cruise purchase discount.  The 4 nights were $80 per person ($20/night) which was a good deal considering we went to Chops twice.  The drink package was about $400 per person with a 20% discount pre-cruise.   We still don't really know what we would do about specialty dining again - I think we would probably try the MDR a few more times and just do 2 nights in the Specialty.   The drink package is really hard to make a call on.  Some days we really got our money's worth and other days we definitely didn't.  I probably wouldn't get the Ultimate again as we only had specialty coffee 3 days and we never had fresh squeezed juice.  I think the add on for that was $10/day per person.


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## cmph

ukintheus said:


> Thanks for following along.  LOTS is a great ship, I don't think you would be disappointed.  We didn't see any wait times, sorry, but on the at sea days the lines were about half way down the stairs for the slides if that's any help?  LOL  My guess is about 25 minutes, but that's a total guess!  LOL  Because the kids were back in school when we sailed I would imagine the lines were quite a bit shorter than they are during peak season.
> 
> The Jr. Suite doesn't come with any perks other than priority boarding.  We added a 4 night specialty dining package as they had a pre-cruise purchase discount.  The 4 nights were $80 per person ($20/night) which was a good deal considering we went to Chops twice.  The drink package was about $400 per person with a 20% discount pre-cruise.   We still don't really know what we would do about specialty dining again - I think we would probably try the MDR a few more times and just do 2 nights in the Specialty.   The drink package is really hard to make a call on.  Some days we really got our money's worth and other days we definitely didn't.  I probably wouldn't get the Ultimate again as we only had specialty coffee 3 days and we never had fresh squeezed juice.  I think the add on for that was $10/day per person.


Thank you for clarifying the food/drink add-ons! It's really hard to get an idea of what the cruise will actually cost. Partially that's b/c the RCL web-site is just so awful, I'm sure. Just pricing out cabin categories to compare is infuriating, LOL! Especially with kids, b/c you don't enter the extra passengers right away, so the pricing changes as you're going through the selections. Anyway, clearly the thing to do is to pre-purchase all the packages if you want them, it seems. So you really have to know what you're going to do in advance! I like the idea of not worrying about it at all once you're on board, but $800 for two people, eek. Did it seem like the prices were really high for drinks, if you didn't have the package? 

Beyond the drinks and dining packages, did you have any other additional costs for the cruise, beyond the usual fare? (Not counting excursions or things like spa appointments, of course. Just things you would normally think of as being included.) I don't think RCL is as crazy with the extra costs as NCL, but I just wanted to check. As far as I can figure out, the RCL site won't let me see what the add-ons cost until I have a booking. Which isn't really helpful for planning!


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

I am really enjoying your trip report so far. I have been telling Jo my wife about it I hope you don't mind. The only problem with that is now she says if we try RCL she wants nothing less than a junior suite lol. A rod for my own back.. Not that I am complaining... We start our b2b cruise on The Dream on 23rd September Conceirge I can't wait! It has been 3 cruises cancelled due to be being in hospital on those 3 times. So we really deserve this one!

I love your balanced review of RCL how you like some things better than DCL and some things not as much. I would love to know all things considered put two ships side by side a DCL and RCL and you have a choice which one would you board?


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## ukintheus

cmph said:


> Thank you for clarifying the food/drink add-ons! It's really hard to get an idea of what the cruise will actually cost. Partially that's b/c the RCL web-site is just so awful, I'm sure. Just pricing out cabin categories to compare is infuriating, LOL! Especially with kids, b/c you don't enter the extra passengers right away, so the pricing changes as you're going through the selections. Anyway, clearly the thing to do is to pre-purchase all the packages if you want them, it seems. So you really have to know what you're going to do in advance! I like the idea of not worrying about it at all once you're on board, but $800 for two people, eek. Did it seem like the prices were really high for drinks, if you didn't have the package?
> 
> Beyond the drinks and dining packages, did you have any other additional costs for the cruise, beyond the usual fare? (Not counting excursions or things like spa appointments, of course. Just things you would normally think of as being included.) I don't think RCL is as crazy with the extra costs as NCL, but I just wanted to check. As far as I can figure out, the RCL site won't let me see what the add-ons cost until I have a booking. Which isn't really helpful for planning!



The breakdown on pricing for us was $3,100 cruise fare for the two of us including insurance and included a $100 OBC.  Our drink package was $404.74 each inc gratuity and our speciality dining was $85 inc gratuity.  I think cocktails typically ran between $10-12 and wine was about the same.  The drink package only allowed wine up to $12 a glass, and you paid the difference, plus gratuity.  So, if you had a $14.00 glass of wine you would pay $2.00 plus tip.  We did purchase wine with dinner and got 20% off the price of the wine because of the package.  Typically most of our extra $$ goes on booze.    Other than tips, the other things that you would have to pay for, if you wanted them, are purchases from the Cupcake shop, Ben & Jerry's and Johnny Rocket's.  Johnny Rocket's has a set upcharge though - I think it was about $7.00 per person.  If you aren't a big drinker then the alcohol packages definitely aren't worth it.  I would say the water and soda packages probably are if you have kids.

ETA:  I did see the price of a DOTD once at the bar and it was $12.50 plus gratuity.  The prices did seem higher than DCL to me for drinks.


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## ukintheus

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> I am really enjoying your trip report so far. I have been telling Jo my wife about it I hope you don't mind. The only problem with that is now she says if we try RCL she wants nothing less than a junior suite lol. A rod for my own back.. Not that I am complaining... We start our b2b cruise on The Dream on 23rd September Conceirge I can't wait! It has been 3 cruises cancelled due to be being in hospital on those 3 times. So we really deserve this one!
> 
> I love your balanced review of RCL how you like some things better than DCL and some things not as much. I would love to know all things considered put two ships side by side a DCL and RCL and you have a choice which one would you board?



Ha ha, you should never have mentioned the Jr. Suite!  LOL  I hope you have a great time on your Dream cruise.  We have never done Concierge on DCL - it prices us out every time!   I'm going to do a summary thingy at the end.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

ukintheus said:


> Ha ha, you should never have mentioned the Jr. Suite!  LOL  I hope you have a great time on your Dream cruise.  We have never done Concierge on DCL - it prices us out every time!   I'm going to do a summary thingy at the end.



It's not cheap but we had to use our cancelled cruise credits so we manged to get a week Conceirge! One of them cancelled was an expensive Christmas cruise.

Brilliant re summary! You know how to keep us in suspenders! He he ..


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## ukintheus

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> It's not cheap but we had to use our cancelled cruise credits so we manged to get a week Conceirge! One of them cancelled was an expensive Christmas cruise.
> 
> Brilliant re summary! You know how to keep us in suspenders! He he ..



Those holiday cruises are $$$$, but at least you are making the most of all the cancellations with the Concierge...problem is, you know what they say....once you've done one in Concierge you are hooked!  LOL   Although it sounds like I am all planned out for the summary, I'm actually just making notes as I go along to put in at the end - LOL    It's probably all pretty transparent from the rest anyway....spoiler alert - we didn't like the buffet food!  Ha ha!!


----------



## msjprincess

ukintheus said:


> Thanks for following along.  LOTS is a great ship, I don't think you would be disappointed.  We didn't see any wait times, sorry, but on the at sea days the lines were about half way down the stairs for the slides if that's any help?  LOL  My guess is about 25 minutes, but that's a total guess!  LOL  Because the kids were back in school when we sailed I would imagine the lines were quite a bit shorter than they are during peak season.
> 
> The Jr. Suite doesn't come with any perks other than priority boarding.  We added a 4 night specialty dining package as they had a pre-cruise purchase discount.  The 4 nights were $80 per person ($20/night) which was a good deal considering we went to Chops twice.  The drink package was about $400 per person with a 20% discount pre-cruise.   We still don't really know what we would do about specialty dining again - I think we would probably try the MDR a few more times and just do 2 nights in the Specialty.   The drink package is really hard to make a call on.  Some days we really got our money's worth and other days we definitely didn't.  *I probably wouldn't get the Ultimate again as we only had specialty coffee 3 days and we never had fresh squeezed juice.  I think the add on for that was $10/day per person.*




FYI- RCCL changed the drink packages last week. They now only have a package called Deluxe, which is the same  the old Ultimate package. The cost is $46 per day plus $18 gratuity.


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## cmph

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> The only problem with that is now she says if we try RCL she wants nothing less than a junior suite lol.


Same thought from me, LOL! It was the bathroom situation that made me think that! I sailed on 4 non-DCL lines when I was a teenager and my parents only got the cheapest inside cabins, but I have different standards now, I guess. Yup, I got uppity. 

@ukintheus Thanks for the cost breakdown, very very helpful!! I guess I'm thrown b/c the availability of the dining add-ons almost seems to imply that the included food is, well, not good. Sure, Palo is better than the MDRs, but the draw there is also partly being adults-only, and that's it on the classics anyway. You ate at 3 upcharge restaurants plus Johnny Rockets has an upcharge! That just seems like a lot of potential upcharging for a family of 4. I compared an RCL cruise to our upcoming Wonder cruise (over NYE) prior to booking, and for my family - it was about a $1k difference just base. I feel like I would have inadvertently greatly reduced any cost savings by talking ourselves into a lot of add-ons. Now, that was the case for those particular dates, but there are times in 2017 where it's more like $2k, $3k difference for the same time frame. Different story then!


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

Sorry about this but I am still confused about the deluxe drinks package lol.. It does not list wine and my wife likes wine. Do you have to pay extra for that? Also does it include soda? Thanks !


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## ukintheus

cmph said:


> Same thought from me, LOL! It was the bathroom situation that made me think that! I sailed on 4 non-DCL lines when I was a teenager and my parents only got the cheapest inside cabins, but I have different standards now, I guess. Yup, I got uppity.
> 
> @ukintheus Thanks for the cost breakdown, very very helpful!! I guess I'm thrown b/c the availability of the dining add-ons almost seems to imply that the included food is, well, not good. Sure, Palo is better than the MDRs, but the draw there is also partly being adults-only, and that's it on the classics anyway. You ate at 3 upcharge restaurants plus Johnny Rockets has an upcharge! That just seems like a lot of potential upcharging for a family of 4. I compared an RCL cruise to our upcoming Wonder cruise (over NYE) prior to booking, and for my family - it was about a $1k difference just base. I feel like I would have inadvertently greatly reduced any cost savings by talking ourselves into a lot of add-ons. Now, that was the case for those particular dates, but there are times in 2017 where it's more like $2k, $3k difference for the same time frame. Different story then!



I think it really depends on how you cruise, and why.  For us, it's just us two, and, as you can see - LOL - we eat and drink - A LOT!!  Ha ha!!  It's basically what we cruise for.  I want to be able to eat good food (not fantastic, just what we consider good) and drink good drinks and that's about all you need to do to make me happy.     As I said before, I don't know that we would do 4 nights specialty again - it probably wasn't worth it.    I think you are doing the right thing into looking into all the options and I think that going for a non-DCL cruise at a substantially cheaper fare will, in the end, make you feel better about trying a different line.


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## ukintheus

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Sorry about this but I am still confused about the deluxe drinks package lol.. It does not list wine and my wife likes wine. Do you have to pay extra for that? Also does it include soda? Thanks !



Yes, the package that we had included soda, fresh squeezed juices, bottled water, sparkling water, specialty coffee and tea, beer, wine (up to $12 a glass) and cocktails.  Basically anything that you could think of to drink.


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## msjprincess

Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Sorry about this but I am still confused about the deluxe drinks package lol.. It does not list wine and my wife likes wine. Do you have to pay extra for that? Also does it include soda? Thanks !




http://www.cruisingpoweruk.co.uk/uploads/news-product_19_256722736.pdf


*DELUXE BEVERAGE PACKAGE (Previously called: Ultimate Beverage Package) 
Guests can enjoy any individual beverage item up to $12 (retail value) available onboard, choosing from ALL cocktails, spirits, liqueurs, wines, beer, soda beverages, bottled water, fresh squeezed juices, mocktails, premium coffee and premium tea. 
PLUS a 40% discount from the menu price of bottles of wine under $100 and 20% off bottles over $100 and a Coca-cola souvenir cup. To find out more about the Deluxe Beverage Package, see the following pages*


----------



## Paula Sedley-Burke

Thank you for explanation of drinks package!


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## ukintheus

Friday, September 2nd – Cozumel, Mexico

So after another early (boring) night, I woke up early again.  We were due to dock in Cozumel at about 8 am and so went outside to see what I could see from the balcony. 





We were still quite a way from docking but Scott got up too and we watched our approach until we decided we definitely needed coffee. 





We went down to the Promenade Cafe to get our caffeine fix.  It was pretty quiet down there.   This photo is taken looking aft, toward Cafe Promenade.





This is taken looking forward with Sorrento's the last place on the right just past the walkway.  The staircase on the right hand corner leads down to the casino.  We never noticed any smoke smell from those stairs but maybe they didn't go directly into the casino.





As soon as we got our coffee we headed up to deck 11 to see what was going on and take a look around.  Another RCI ship, Freedom of the Seas was already docked and we pulled in next to her.  





I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me will know, but I believe this is a sister ship to Liberty.  They looked very similar except Freedom didn't have all the slides.





We were at International Pier which was a new pier for us and we were down a little way from town so we knew we would need to take a taxi if we wanted to go there.  We didn't have any plans for the day and were still mulling over what we might do, so we headed to Windjammer to grab a quick bite to eat and see what we thought sounded good to do for the day. 

Windjammer was about the same.    Here are my two fried eggs, an english muffin and some breakfast potatoes.  





Scott went with the same type of thing.





I gave up on the fried eggs, and I got muesli instead and it was good - very similar to the one I enjoy on DCL.





We wandered back along the deck and I found the Sprinkles ice cream cart.  It wasn't open but I assume it has the same self serve type machines that are pretty standard.  It looked a bit sad and lonely there all by itself and I wish I had tried it to compare but we never passed it when it was open.  





After about 30 seconds of debate...maybe 10  we decided to have another "at sea" day and stay on the ship seeing as it seemed to be so quiet.  I'm sure that's no huge shock to anyone seeing as it goes right in line with our constant ability to do nothing.   We went down to our cabin and said a quick hello to Walid who was trying to get his work done so that he could get off the ship and go and shop at the Mega supermarket.  We got changed into swimwear and went up to the Solarium and found a couple of loungers in the shade.   Ahhhhh.......perfect!  





After an hour we switched to some different chairs where we could see the shore and watch what was going on, which is perfect for me because I'm a nosey Rosey and there was nothing to see going on at the pool!  There was also a nice breeze through an opening right in front of us.  So, another thing to throw in here is that we noticed that the adult type area on RCI was breezier than on DCL.   They had the ability to slide windows open on the sides and it really made a nice difference.



 

I went to the pool bar and so now the day is absolutely perfect.  





We tried out the cantilevered hot tub which was right next to our loungers. 





There was lots going on around the port and it kept me busy.  Scott also had to buy another day of internet as he had finished his book and once again I took the opportunity to get in touch with my Mum and sister. 









Scott went and grabbed us some food from windjammer (I think I have a photo on my ipad I need to upload here) and while I started off by saying that there was way too much food, I ended up eating it all.  It was a burger and fries and a hot dog.  The burger tasted a little different to me but I ate it anyway and hoped it wouldn't come back to haunt me later.  (It didn't).  The food wasn't bad at all this time around.  We continued reading and enjoying the peace and quiet.  The drink service around the pool wasn't great, but we figured it was a port day so it was understandable.  I went and grabbed some cash from the room to tip the servers and that seemed to do the trick.   









They had a life boat drill going on so that was something else to keep us busy.  





The island had several big rain showers sweep across it but none of them made it to the ship.





Back with the life boat, they don't look too thrilled.  My guess is that they have to use their precious few hours off to complete it.





Mid afternoon as it began to get busier we migrated down to our balcony and watched the excursions coming back.  We also chatted briefly with our neighbor's before realizing that it was 5:20 pm and we had to be in Chops for 6:00 pm.  We hurried and showered and got ready and made it right at 6 pm. 

The have a plate like Palo does that magically gets whisked away never to be used.  





We started with a couple of yummy cocktails.  I ordered the lemonade again figuring I'd been brought the wrong thing the other night, but it was the same and still tasted like grapefruit to me 





We had the same server and he was friendly and we chatted with him a bit about his home and family.  We went with 4 courses again.  

I had Cesar salad and Scott had endive salad.









Scott had the scallops and said that they were really good.  They were on a bacon and caramelized onion base which he said was delicious.





I got the Berkshire pork, which was basically a piece of pork that had been fried and then caramelized in BBQ sauce - it was off the charts good.





Our server also brought us a shrimp cocktail to try.






We both ordered the filet again with mashed potato, asparagus and mushrooms.   It was really good again.





We got talking to the couple sitting next to us who were also sailing without kids.  They had been to Giovanni's and had had a fantastic experience and thought the service and the food was better there.  In fact, they sent their steaks back that night at Chops as they said they weren't good.  So, it just goes to show that everyone has different tastes and things that appeal to them to make things "better" than something else. 

We also got the same desserts as the other night, cheesecake and mud pie, although we were still talking to the couple at the table next to us and so I forgot to get a photo.     It was about 9 pm when we got finished and decided to go down to Hoof & Claw to see what was going on.  

The bar was busy but the tables and chairs were fairly empty when we got there.





We grabbed a seat and decided to see what the live entertainment was going to be like as they were due to start.  Literally within a few minutes of sitting down the crazy two couples from Monday night had found us again!  Ha ha.    They all decided to join us at our table although tonight we were all much more subdued.  Luckily I had my camera with me and so we could show them what they had got up to the other night!    We watched the singing duo for one of their sets and left there at about 11:30 pm.  I couldn't resist grabbing a couple of pieces of pizza as we went past Sorrentos.  I had read on the internet that it wasn't good, but we both thought it was decent enough.

We got back to our cabin and Walid had been in and we had another towel animal waiting for us.





There was a storm off in the distance and I went out to watch it.    After a few minutes I wondered where Scott was and went back inside to find him involved in unblocking our sink which was barely draining.    OK, so, remember those margaritas we didn't drink?    Well, I poured them down the sink and evidently there was some kind of screen that stopped various chunky bits    and so the sink had been floating cilantro and jalapeno whenever we ran a lot of water into it.     Scott is a whiz at fixing things, even when he is only armed with his pocket knife and cotton buds, and of course got it all sorted out despite me saying we could have called maintenance.    It was about midnight when we finally went to bed but we no longer had cilantro staring at us when we brushed our teeth.


----------



## Paula Sedley-Burke

Cozumel offers a nice view! We don't get off the ship much to us it's like a floating hotel with different vistas 

It sounds like a lovely day. Lol at them doing the drill. Not happy..

Lunch and dinner sound nice. I love my protein so I would be in that chops every night... Nice that they bring you an extra dish if you want.

The towel animals freak me out lol. My wife has to tell them not to do them. 

How great your DH Scot is good with his hands!


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## msjprincess

Liberty and Freedom are sister ships. It's funny what you said about the smoke smell not coming up from the staircase in the Promenade. I've never sailed on LOS but I have sailed on the sister ships FOS and IOS. On Freedom I never noticed a smoky smell but last year on Indy I smelled it when I passed the staircase.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

Excuse me for being a nosey lady but I noticed that your language Jenny seems British sometimes. Using Mum etc. But you live in Texas. I wondered did you grow up in the UK?


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## ukintheus

msjprincess said:


> Liberty and Freedom are sister ships. It's funny what you said about the smoke smell not coming up from the staircase in the Promenade. I've never sailed on LOS but I have sailed on the sister ships FOS and IOS. On Freedom I never noticed a smoky smell but last year on Indy I smelled it when I passed the staircase.



I was surprised we didn't notice it, but as we didn't actually go down the stairs I wasn't exactly sure where they came out down there.   



Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Excuse me for being a nosey lady but I noticed that your language Jenny seems British sometimes. Using Mum etc. But you live in Texas. I wondered did you grow up in the UK?



LOL - I'm nosey too, so no problem!  Yes, originally from the UK and now transplanted in Texas.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

ukintheus said:


> I was surprised we didn't notice it, but as we didn't actually go down the stairs I wasn't exactly sure where they came out down there.
> 
> 
> 
> LOL - I'm nosey too, so no problem!  Yes, originally from the UK and now transplanted in Texas.



How nice living in the US now.


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## ukintheus

Saturday, September 3rd – At sea day

We got up reasonably early at about 8 am.  The day didn't look too bad considering the weather forecast was for a rainyish day.  





Has anyone else ever wondered where the birds come from that show up randomly?    I'm never sure if they are hitching a ride or if they are on an epic journey.  (There's two white birds in this photo in case it isn't obvious.)





Seeing as it was the last day and we were at sea, we figured we'd better go to the Solarium pool to see what was available chair-wise.  





Here's a close up of those windows that open....nice. 






There were many hats, flip flops and magazines occupying chairs with hardly anyone in sight, so we decided to join the club.    We grabbed a couple of chairs, left our stuff on them, and then went down to get coffee from the Promenade Cafe.    While we were there we decided to skip Windjammers for breakfast and just got a couple of pastries and took everything back up to the pool and settled into another day of doing nothing but people watching and reading.  





A couple that we had met during the snorkeling at Little French Key in Roatan stopped and said hello.  It had been her first time and she was very nervous about it and wasn’t sure if she could convince herself to get into the water.  In the end she did, and after a while she said that she had really enjoyed it.  They came over to tell us about their excursion in Cozumel which was on the mainland and involved swimming through caves, which she also was scared to death about – LOL  Evidently this was a trip to push her boundaries.  Anyway, she had a good time again and we chatted with them about their day.  

Not long after it absolutely poured rain with thunder and lightning and everyone that had loungers around the pool had to scrambled to get their stuff out of the rain. 





There were some lone towels and flip flops that didn’t have the owners anywhere close by that were drowned out. 





We were glad we had picked the chairs we had as we were nice and dry and could just watch the flurry of activity and not have to move at all.  Ahh...when you are king and queen of lazy it all works out.    We decided to see what Windjammer was offering for lunch at 11:30 am.  It was a very pleasant surprise to find it not too busy and we also found some curries that we really enjoyed. 





We took a plate of desserts back to the loungers (need to pull the photos off my ipad - watch this space!) and spent another hour there.  After deciding that we had enough of the grey day and being at the pool, we grabbed a drink, took the towels and checked them back in and went back to our cabin. 





I was the one that took a nap this afternoon – LOL and Scott watched a movie.    We had to get packed so we decided to get that over with, which didn’t take an awful amount of time but it’s just sad that it comes around so quickly!   

Tonight was our last night and I was determined to see a show!!  We got ready and went to see Saturday Night Fever in the Platinum Theater.  The show started at 6:30 pm and we got there at 6 pm and there were still plenty of seats. 





Scott got us a glass of wine (they conveniently had a bar inside the theater ) while I went to get a seat.  This is where we ran into our one and only true seat hogger and I have to tell the story so bear with me.    There was one man in the front row and one lady in the third row of seats in the section to the side.  I sat in the first seat of the second row (which was empty) and was promptly told by the lady behind me that they were saving 29 seats for their group.   I smiled my nicest smile   and told her that 29 was a large group, but thankfully it was just the two of us, and continued to sit.    At this point she was a little agitated and stood up directly behind me telling me all about how they have this group there every night.  I was VERY interested in her group  and asked her all about their travel and if they were enjoying their cruise.  And I continued to sit.    Scott arrived with our drinks and after giving her such a hard time, we decided the one seat had a pillar partially in front of it, which I hadn’t paid attention to with my seat-saver situation, and so we decided to move.    LOL  She must have told at least 4 other people that she was saving seats and several very loudly commented on it.  It was a show before the show!!     By the time the show started about 15 people had trickled in of her group. 

We enjoyed the show and it was nice to see a more adult themed show for a change and we both thought it was good.   I snuck these photos in right at the end.





Catching one of them shooting the confetti...proud of myself for actually catching a photo of it!  









The guy in the gold suit was our cruise director.





Scott didn’t want to do the main dining room again, and I was happy to agree with him, so we decided to go to Johnny Rockets for dinner.  There is a per person charge of $6.95.  I took a few quick photos of the wet and dreary pool deck this evening.









We were seated quickly at Johnny Rockets, which is themed after a diner and was fairly empty when we got there.









We had fries and onions rings to start.  Hidden Mickey I think!





And they made a smilie face out of the ketchup.





I decided to have a root beer float, which was an additional charge but I don't remember how much.  The total bill including tip came to about $22. (which to be honest kind of surprised me - maybe we tipped on top of tip? ) 





The food came out fairly quickly and was fast and basically just a regular hamburger to me but I'm not familiar with the Johnny Rocket's franchise at all.



 

By the time we were finished it was really busy in there and several people had to wait a while to get a table so we didn't hang about.  We headed back to our cabin and stopped at the pool bar to grab a couple of bottles of water.





Walid was still in the corridor working and told us that they had a really busy morning ahead as they had to do a lot of extra stuff because of the Norvovirus.  I felt sorry for him, he was sweating away and obviously working really hard.  
So, it was a very low key evening and we were in bed by 9:30 pm but Scott watched movie until gone 10 pm (oooohhh late!!!  LOL) while I read my book.  

Coming up - disembarkation and my final thoughts.


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## ukintheus

I woke up early and could feel a small roll of the ship as it was coming into the ship channel.  It was the first time I'd felt any real movement at all.  I finally got out of bed at 6 am and took a look outside.  We were at the dock and were getting ready to moor up.  





We had decided to do self assist for the very first time and so we had all of our suitcases in our cabin.  I actually liked not having that feeling of having to get them all ready and out of the stateroom the night before, but of course you are left juggling all your luggage getting off the ship. 

Galveston was looking like it was shaping up to have a nice day.





I could make out the Pleasure Pier off on the seawall in the distance.





It was about 7 am when the immigration guys arrived and walked across the parking lot.  I figured that wasn't a good sign that we would be off particularly early.





We were supposed to be in the second self assist group, which was scheduled to meet on deck 4 in the Platinum Theater at 7:50-8:20 but I had read online they don't do anything to check, so we went down to deck 4 at about 7:20 am and there was a group already gathered in the Schooner bar that was overflowing by the elevators.  We just decided to hang out there as the doors to the Platinum Theater weren't open and there weren't any RCI employees there telling anyone what to do.  After about 15 minutes one of the other guests came around the corner and told us the doors to the theater were open on the opposite side and they were putting people in there.  We took our luggage and they stacked it at the back of the theater and we took a seat.  The ship wasn't cleared by customs and immigration until about 7:50 am and they let the other side of the theater go first, and then our group.  The walk off the ship was pretty easy, and the line continued to move most of the time although it was a longer walk with the new buildings being open.  We had a long wait in immigration because I don't have a US Passport.    Scott was about beside himself  (he has global entry and never has to wait) waiting with me but that's what patient, loving husbands do, right???  (Wrong - LOL - if we are flying he leaves me in immigration and goes through the US line! ha ha!!  )  Anyway, eventually they did let me back into the country and we were on the shuttle bus to Lighthouse Parking very quickly with no wait for them at all.  

At 8:53 am we pulled away from the pier heading to the parking lot.    Uggg....another vacation over just like  .


----------



## ukintheus

*My take on RCI as a couple with no kids, kind of vs. DCL but not really because they are so different *

*Cabin* - we LOVED our bigger cabin and veranda - hands down a winner for us.  It was clean, in good condition and the AC worked well (better than DCL I thought).  The closet was awesome – it gave us plenty of room to put all our stuff and keep the clutter out of the room.  The mini fridge does also serve as a mini bar with items for purchase stocked in it.  We didn’t ask to have them removed (I’d read that they no longer do that) but we had enough room to keep about 4 bottles of water at a time easily. The only strange thing was that our bed didn’t have a mattress cover, just the (thin) sheet over the mattress.  I even pulled the sheet partly off one day to double check.  Seemed strange and if it had bothered me enough I would have asked for one but I didn’t.  The bathroom probably didn’t have as much storage as the split bath does on DCL but there were lots of other places to put stuff that didn’t necessarily need to be in the bathroom.  They don’t put the toilet paper into little points – LOL – Oh, the humanity!! 

*Overall condition of the ship* – Very good, you couldn’t fault anything in terms of the condition and cleanliness and IMO it was almost in better shape than the Magic was after its dry dock.  The various areas were easy to find and we didn’t have any issues at all with navigating our way around.

*Elevators* – we didn’t use them much but they just never seemed to be full even though they were only front and midship (kind of).  On DCL there are many times that you can't get in, or not everyone in your party can get in.  They also seemed to be bigger than the elevators on the Fantasy and Dream.   We didn’t even have any problems with our luggage when disembarking.

*Sanitation* – I’m adding this in because of the Norovirus.  Overall the whole hand cleaning situation was never as good as DCL (even after they announced Noro). A fter the notice about Noro we saw no real difference in enforcement at the eating establishments and yet people standing outside the retail spaces with a tub of hand sanitizer to squirt which seemed silly.   However, the day we got off the ship, the crew were all having to do extra duty to sanitize the ship, so they obviously do take it seriously.  Only other comment is that the public bathrooms on the pool deck weren’t maintained quite as well as DCL, for example, I went in right after the attendant had been in cleaning and it was clean, but she hadn’t emptied the “sanitary bin” which had the lid open and it was full. 

*Casino* – non issue for us – we didn’t use it, but I will say the one time we walked through it, that it was much smaller than I thought it was going to be.

*Smoking* – 95% non issue for us.  The smoking section of deck 11 by the pool was probably a bit busier than DCL.  Maybe they all actually use the smoking section though and don’t use their balconies .  The day the wind was blowing toward the solarium from the smoking section was the only day we noticed the smell in a non-smoking area.

*Pool towels *– this was something I had heard was a big pain – we didn’t find it a problem at all.  We never waited in line to get a towel, or replace one.  They had a check in and check out when you got on and off the ship at the gangway for excursions and it all worked smoothly.

*Beverage package* – I can’t say that we came out ahead from what we spent on the package but it was nice to be able to get anything we wanted and it was nice to have it paid for well in advance of the trip.  You can’t say we didn’t try to get our monies worth!  Ha ha.  We would probably get it again, but maybe not the ultimate that includes coffee.

*Entertainment* – We only did one show but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Different, and nice to have an adult theme.  The theater was beautiful and I liked the fact that the bar was inside it!   There was adult trivia offered several times during the cruise and we usually go on DCL.  It seemed to always be held in the Schooner Bar though, which was right next to the Casino and was too smoky for us so we didn’t participate in anything there.  I felt that the rest of the entertainment offerings, aside from the pools/water slides etc., were on the weak side.  Their daily compass had tons of stuff listed but a lot of it was nothing we were interested in and a lot of it seemed to be based around goings on in the Casino or sales in the retail shops, so basically involving trying to get you to spend money.

*Internet* – worked about the same as DCL and wasn't super speedy but it worked for what we used it for.  In future I would probably buy the data package if it is offered at a discount, which it was on this cruise, at $9.95/day.

*Food & Dining Service* – We found the drink server service at the pool to be slow, almost non-existent some days.  The service in the other bars was good, about the same as DCL.  Service in the MDR was good the two nights we were in there and the service in Chops was excellent.  Giovanni’s and Sabor weren’t as good, and not as good as the MDR on DCL, but you can always get a not-so-great server, and so I’m leaving that one open really, we've had fantastic and not so great on DCL too.  

*Stateroom host* – awesome – just as good as any of the best we have had on DCL.  Friendly, helpful, and like a ninja - loved him.

*Other crew we interacted with* – cleaners and maintenance people were very friendly and often said hello and asked how your day was going, even the painter guys (who typically on DCL have that panic look when they see you – LOL).  One thing that I didn’t like was that the name tags for the crew had their full name and half of the tag was taken up with the RCI logo, so you couldn’t read their names – I like being able to see the name of the person as I’m not great at remembering names.  The name tags on DCL are much better.

*Passenger demographic* – this cruise had a lot of older couples so the vibe was totally different from DCL but we found them to be a courteous and friendly group on the whole. Lots of saying hello as people passed you by.  There was seat saving going on, but I had been prepared for that and we didn't encounter anything (apart from Ms. 29 and counting - LOL) that was ridiculously over the top.

*Food:   Windjammer* - no big shock if you’ve read through this that the food on the buffet was definitely not our favorite and we tried it for breakfast and lunch.  We did not try it for dinner.  I don’t think it compares to any of the DCL buffets at all in terms of quality or choice but that curry right at the end gave it bonus points!   *MDR *-  Our limited experience was that it appeared to be hit or miss and overall probably 1 step below DCL for quality and a couple of steps below in terms of an interesting menu.  *Specialty restaurants*.  We had a hit with Chops, and miss with Sabor, and Giovanni’s was somewhere in between.  Johnny Rockets was not worth the upcharge to me.  I would rate their burger and fries about on par with the burger on the pool deck on DCL.

*Overall* - *Things that were awesome on RCI - *The ship was beautiful, and much nicer than I had been expecting.  The Promenade and the pool decks were fantastic especially with all the activities on the pool deck if you chose to do them.  Being able to pre-purchase our booze was a HUGE deal for us.  Loved that. *  T**hings we missed/preferred on DCL* - It was a surprise to me that we missed the soda station on DCL as it is something I didn’t really think we used, having freestyle soda machines (which several RCI ships have) would have solved that issue.  We also really missed the quick dining options on the pool deck on DCL.  It was inconvenient to have to go down to deck 4 to get a sandwich or a slice of pizza, or to go into the always busy Windjammer to grab something when we were out at the pool.  We only ordered room service for breakfast but the menu was limited compared to DCL and nothing stood out that we wanted to order.

*Pre-purchase options* – We had a lot of discounted options available for pre-purchase on our cruise vs onboard pricing.  My understanding is that not every cruise offers this many.  Our beverage package was discounted 20% and our specialty dining package was 4 nights for $80.00 per person.  We also could have purchased discounted internet and a photograph package.  Big thumbs up in my book that we could book ahead of time and get a discount.

*Embarkation* – This was really easy for us because we had suite privileges.  It was the fastest we have ever got onto a ship at Galveston – about 30 mins total from when we arrived at the port to when we were onboard. 

*Debarkation* – Self-assist different and slower than I thought it would be, but we haven’t ever done walk off on DCL – so can’t really fairly compare.  I hadn't ever noticed immigration being so slow in Galveston, but this ship had more passengers so that has to be taken into consideration.

*AND FINALLY - * - the questions that everyone asks.

1.  Was it really cheaper?   Yes.  Our room was cheaper than a regular verandah on DCL.  Overall the total we spent was about the same as we would have on a 7 night on DCL, BUT, that's because we chose to spend more money on nice bottles of wine than we normally do on DCL because we knew that we weren't going to have a catastrophic bill on that last morning.  If you take that out of the mix, then, yes, it was cheaper and we were in a much larger room.

2.  Would you book RCI or DCL for your next cruise?  Both for different reasons.  If it's just us two and we are looking for a reasonably priced get away we would definitely book RCI again.  If it is a sailing with family then we would book DCL just because I think the activities offered on DCL appeal to our family more than RCI.

So, in the words of the famous Two Ronnies in the UK -  "It's goodnight from me and it's goodnight from him"   

Thanks to everyone that followed along and for all your kind comments and putting up with my ramblings.


----------



## cmph

Thanks again for all your photos and details! They are much appreciated! I have a feeling we'll give the Liberty a try some time in the next couple of years. We're not the types to repeat the same vacation again and again, so I think having a different cruise experience would be ideal, now that I've had time to ponder it. I still think the dining will be a hassle, mostly b/c I now envision DH having to explain his need for gluten-free (he has celiac) every single meal, but it's a fact of his life to do that (just not usually 3 times a day).

I am cracking up about the 29 seat saver!! Some people, whew, they have nerve I just do not have. And then half of them didn't even show up!! LOL


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## ukintheus

cmph said:


> Thanks again for all your photos and details! They are much appreciated! I have a feeling we'll give the Liberty a try some time in the next couple of years. We're not the types to repeat the same vacation again and again, so I think having a different cruise experience would be ideal, now that I've had time to ponder it. I still think the dining will be a hassle, mostly b/c I now envision DH having to explain his need for gluten-free (he has celiac) every single meal, but it's a fact of his life to do that (just not usually 3 times a day).
> 
> I am cracking up about the 29 seat saver!! Some people, whew, they have nerve I just do not have. And then half of them didn't even show up!! LOL



I seem to remember someone did a TR (not on LOS though) - JD99 maybe? - whose daughter has Celiacs.  It didn't sound like it was handled as smoothly as DCL, so I can see how you would be concerned about that.  To be honest, that may be something that would really steer you to being in the MDR every night and having the same servers as I would think that might be more consistent.

29 and counting was funny, and I truly mean that.  It doesn't take much to amuse me, and this lady trying desperately to wrangle all 29 seats still has me chuckling when I think about it.  LOL


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## cmph

ukintheus said:


> I seem to remember someone did a TR (not on LOS though) - JD99 maybe? - whose daughter has Celiacs.  It didn't sound like it was handled as smoothly as DCL, so I can see how you would be concerned about that.  To be honest, that may be something that would really steer you to being in the MDR every night and having the same servers as I would think that might be more consistent.
> 
> 29 and counting was funny, and I truly mean that.  It doesn't take much to amuse me, and this lady trying desperately to wrangle all 29 seats still has me chuckling when I think about it.  LOL


I think I know which one you're talking about. Mostly b/c there are so few that talk about it extensively, aside from DCL-specific stories! It's never good when you search for a topic and the 2nd or 3rd hits and beyond are more than a year old, haha! I think that's why I am so concerned that there are numerous upcharge options... if we feel stuck in the MDRs, I don't want it to be lackluster. 

Oh oh, I did have a question about the shows! I meant to ask before, and the seat saver reminded me! You just walked in to the show, right? You didn't have a show reservation? The whole show reservation thing bothers my mom, and as my parents will likely be traveling with us in the future again, I was curious how you felt dealing with that option for the first time. As far as I can tell, Liberty does have that for some shows (although that might be old info).


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## msjprincess

Great review!


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## ukintheus

cmph said:


> I think I know which one you're talking about. Mostly b/c there are so few that talk about it extensively, aside from DCL-specific stories! It's never good when you search for a topic and the 2nd or 3rd hits and beyond are more than a year old, haha! I think that's why I am so concerned that there are numerous upcharge options... if we feel stuck in the MDRs, I don't want it to be lackluster.
> 
> Oh oh, I did have a question about the shows! I meant to ask before, and the seat saver reminded me! You just walked in to the show, right? You didn't have a show reservation? The whole show reservation thing bothers my mom, and as my parents will likely be traveling with us in the future again, I was curious how you felt dealing with that option for the first time. As far as I can tell, Liberty does have that for some shows (although that might be old info).



No show reservations on Liberty - another good reason to sail her. LOL. Just like DCL you show up at whatever suits you best based on your dining schedule.   I wouldn't stress over the dining.  Talking to DH again tonight about it he also agrees we probably would give the MDR more of a shot next time vs the specialties.  I do think that we are very spoiled on DCL because they make dining such a "thing".  The menus are cute and themed, the food is themed, servers costumes are themed.   That just doesn't happen on other cruise lines.  The food in the MDR was OK, and I do wonder what the experience would be like if you stick to traditional dining vs My. time.  Another variable there that we didn't experience.


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## msjprincess

ukintheus said:


> *Entertainment* – We only did one show but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Different, and nice to have an adult theme.  The theater was beautiful and I liked the fact that the bar was inside it!   There was adult trivia offered several times during the cruise and we usually go on DCL.  It seemed to always be held in the Schooner Bar though, which was right next to the Casino and was too smoky for us so we didn’t participate in anything there.  I felt that the rest of the entertainment offerings, aside from the pools/water slides etc., were on the weak side.  Their daily compass had tons of stuff listed but a lot of it was nothing we were interested in and a lot of it seemed to be based around goings on in the Casino or sales in the retail shops, so basically involving trying to get you to spend money.




That's funny we had the opposite on IOS. We smelled smoke near the stairs in the promenade but we never smelled smoke in the Schooner bar. We went there almost every night for trivia and even commented how we were surprised we couldn't smell smoke. It's odd how it varies from ship to ship in the same class.


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## NOKA06

Thanks Jenny for the LOS trip report! We enjoyed it very much! We were unable to keep our LOS cruise the week after yours because of our son's wedding, so we just enjoyed doing one through your report! Loved it!! Karen


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## Canadian Disney Mom

Thanks for the great review!  It is always nice to see the same cruise through someone else's eyes!


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## CesD

Thank you. we are sailing soon and your review and comparison to DCL helped a lot.


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

I do like it when the last day is at sea! A nice relax before the dreading packing. 

I was pleased you went to Johnny Rockets I wanted to see what that was like. I love my burgers. 

Lol re that lady saving seats for 29 people. I would have been gutted to find this out on the last night. I would have been there every night the wind up merchant I am right bang in the middle with my wheelchair lol..

The show looks good! Like you I don't care for the shows much but it looked fun.

Thank you so much for the summary and conclusions. Very balanced TR. I really enjoyed it.

Oh no guess what. Jo has booked us on our first RCI cruise next August Southampton to Southampton ... France and Spain .. 6 nights. They were doing a deal.. buy one passenger second 50% off and a free deluxe drinks package each. Jo says its cocktails for her for breakfast lol. Oh such a shame Jenny...There was only one accessible cabin left...a junior suite lol. 

See what you have done lady! These TR are dangerous. It's Babies first RCI cruise!


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## Paula Sedley-Burke

One thing I forgot to ask. How does the dress code compare to DCL? I am not a dress up fancy person at all. I really like the dress code of DCL. That is about as smart as I can cope with. We do go to Palo and I guess I would just pass lol..


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## ukintheus

msjprincess said:


> That's funny we had the opposite on IOS. We smelled smoke near the stairs in the promenade but we never smelled smoke in the Schooner bar. We went there almost every night for trivia and even commented how we were surprised we couldn't smell smoke. It's odd how it varies from ship to ship in the same class.



It's funny that there's differences even between sister ships.  I think it really makes the point that you have to try it for yourself!  



NOKA06 said:


> Thanks Jenny for the LOS trip report! We enjoyed it very much! We were unable to keep our LOS cruise the week after yours because of our son's wedding, so we just enjoyed doing one through your report! Loved it!! Karen



I'm sorry you had to cancel, but it sounds like it was for a fun reason.  The good news is that she will still be here next year. 



Canadian Disney Mom said:


> Thanks for the great review!  It is always nice to see the same cruise through someone else's eyes!



It's only when I get towards the end that I realize how lazy we are!! LOL



CesD said:


> Thank you. we are sailing soon and your review and comparison to DCL helped a lot.



I hope you love your cruise, I'd love to hear what you think when you get back. Hint hint. LOl



Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> Oh no guess what. Jo has booked us on our first RCI cruise next August Southampton to Southampton ... France and Spain .. 6 nights. They were doing a deal.. buy one passenger second 50% off and a free deluxe drinks package each. Jo says its cocktails for her for breakfast lol. Oh such a shame Jenny...There was only one accessible cabin left...a junior suite lol.
> 
> See what you have done lady! These TR are dangerous. It's Babies first RCI cruise!



How fun!  You can definitely get some good deals on RCI,  I'd love to do one of the ones out of the UK and then Mum could come with us easily.  I'll have to give that more thought!  



Paula Sedley-Burke said:


> One thing I forgot to ask. How does the dress code compare to DCL? I am not a dress up fancy person at all. I really like the dress code of DCL. That is about as smart as I can cope with. We do go to Palo and I guess I would just pass lol..



The dress code was about the same.  One thing we liked about the specialties is that you don't have to dress up.  Cruise casual.   We missed both formal nights in the MDR and didn't have to take any real dress up clothes.


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## MomoMama

I must say I love how you dealt with Ms.29! 

We can only sail during school holidays, so I know any lines/ships we would try will be much busier than you were just on.  But I got a good feelings we would enjoy RCI, thanks to your report!


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## ukintheus

MomoMama said:


> I must say I love how you dealt with Ms.29!
> 
> We can only sail during school holidays, so I know any lines/ships we would try will be much busier than you were just on.  But I got a good feelings we would enjoy RCI, thanks to your report!



I was a bit sad to give up on the 29 and counting game so quickly, it would have been fun to play for a bit longer. Ha ha.   I really think RCI is worth a try, at least once.  I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to do.


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## disneyholic family

ukintheus said:


> * T**hings we missed/preferred on DCL* - It was a surprise to me that we missed the soda station on DCL as it is something I didn’t really think we used, having freestyle soda machines (which several RCI ships have) would have solved that issue.



did you order soft drinks from the bars?
we were on the allure of the seas and the radiance of the seas...
we had the ultimate non-alcoholic drink package - which means everything offered, other than alcohol..

we ordered lots and lots of diet coke from the bars...
pretty much every time we sat down in a bar for even one second, we ordered a soft drink...at least one...usually i drank several during the course of the trivia games etc...

i found i much preferred being able to order my diet coke in all the bars, rather than having to run up to the soft drink station on the disney ships...

.


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## ukintheus

disneyholic family said:


> did you order soft drinks from the bars?
> we were on the allure of the seas and the radiance of the seas...
> we had the ultimate non-alcoholic drink package - which means everything offered, other than alcohol..
> 
> we ordered lots and lots of diet coke from the bars...
> pretty much every time we sat down in a bar for even one second, we ordered a soft drink...at least one...usually i drank several during the course of the trivia games etc...
> 
> i found i much preferred being able to order my diet coke in all the bars, rather than having to run up to the soft drink station on the disney ships...
> 
> .



We don't drink soda.  We missed being able to make our own water/Minute Maid light combination.


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## gumbypee

thank you for the trip review.  I am booked for RCCL on Rhapsody of the seas out of tampa (because I live here) and it has the same itinerary i think you just were on!   I'm a little bummed that the entertainment is lacking but maybe if I don't expect much then it will surprise me


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## ukintheus

gumbypee said:


> thank you for the trip review.  I am booked for RCCL on Rhapsody of the seas out of tampa (because I live here) and it has the same itinerary i think you just were on!   I'm a little bummed that the entertainment is lacking but maybe if I don't expect much then it will surprise me



That's the attitude I had for this cruise and was very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it.  I hope you enjoy your cruise.


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## moericus

ukintheus said:


> At 8:53 am we pulled away from the pier heading to the parking lot.    Uggg....another vacation over just like  .



I just got a little sad for you.


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## ukintheus

moericus said:


> I just got a little sad for you.



Thanks - LOL - end of vacations are always a little sad.


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## CesD

is there a movie theater onboard and if so, what movies are currently playing.
thanks


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## ukintheus

CesD said:


> is there a movie theater onboard and if so, what movies are currently playing.
> thanks



No, no movie theater unfortunately.


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## jahber

Thanks for the awesome report!  I'm working on my review of Freedom (not so much a trip report because I have a baby and a toddler--i didn't actually DO much on this trip  )
With regards to the freestyle machines, my kids were really looking forward to them, but by the third night when I asked if they wanted another soda, they said they'd had enough soda! They are convenient if you like the flavored drinks, but there are only a few--so it's just as easy to go to a bar for a soda. And they'll add grenadine if you ask! We aren't big soda drinkers at all, so I think we will skip the soda package next time. And they've since changed the alcohol packages.  There are fewer options now. Oh well. My friend had the ultimate package and her liver needed a vacation after the cruise


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## ukintheus

jahber said:


> Thanks for the awesome report!  I'm working on my review of Freedom (not so much a trip report because I have a baby and a toddler--i didn't actually DO much on this trip  )
> With regards to the freestyle machines, my kids were really looking forward to them, but by the third night when I asked if they wanted another soda, they said they'd had enough soda! They are convenient if you like the flavored drinks, but there are only a few--so it's just as easy to go to a bar for a soda. And they'll add grenadine if you ask! We aren't big soda drinkers at all, so I think we will skip the soda package next time. And they've since changed the alcohol packages.  There are fewer options now. Oh well. My friend had the ultimate package and her liver needed a vacation after the cruise




I'll look forward to hearing your report, it sounds like you had a good time.  We started off strong on the ultimate package and then failed miserably at the end really, but it's fun trying to keep up with it.   Definitely on the fence as to whether we would do it again.


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## CesD

Hi, 
Does Johnny Rockets on Liberty offer breakfast and is there a surcharge?


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## ukintheus

CesD said:


> Hi,
> Does Johnny Rockets on Liberty offer breakfast and is there a surcharge?



I'm sorry, I had to find my cruise compass to get the answer.  No, it's not open for breakfast.


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## ronandannette

CesD said:


> is there a movie theater onboard and if so, what movies are currently playing.
> thanks


No theater but the Liberty does have a big screen on the pool deck where movies are shown nightly and they offer 3D Movies (complete with popcorn!) in the main showroom several times over the course of the week.  Maybe the OP would look at her Compasses and mention what was shown during her sailing?


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## CesD

ukintheus said:


> I'm sorry, I had to find my cruise compass to get the answer.  No, it's not open for breakfast.


thanks!! 
off hand do you remember if smoked salmon was available with bagels?


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## CesD

ronandannette said:


> No theater but the Liberty does have a big screen on the pool deck where movies are shown nightly and they offer 3D Movies (complete with popcorn!) in the main showroom several times over the course of the week.  Maybe the OP would look at her Compasses and mention what was shown during her sailing?


thank you.... popcorn for purchase or free?


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## ronandannette

CesD said:


> thank you.... popcorn for purchase or free?


Free - or as we like to say "complimentary included in your cruise fare"


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## JanBlessed

I sailed on this ship back in 2010. I believe that it was just a few years old.  I LOVED that cruise!  The kids pool/water areas were large & great even then! (Also, my son was only 3 at the time - but he enjoyed them So much).  I DO remember thinking that the Dream pool/water areas for kids were smaller than I had imagined - but then, it does have AquaDuck & Mickey Slide (again, before the Liberty was refurbished).  By your pictures, it seems even better now!!!  My teen brother was also with us, and he had the best time at the teen clubs and activities!  All of this was before I sailed with DCL.


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## ukintheus

ronandannette said:


> No theater but the Liberty does have a big screen on the pool deck where movies are shown nightly and they offer 3D Movies (complete with popcorn!) in the main showroom several times over the course of the week.  Maybe the OP would look at her Compasses and mention what was shown during her sailing?



There was one 3D movie in the Platinum Theater and it was Kung Fu Panda on Day 2.
Movies by the pool were Allegiant, Jungle Book, The Hundred Foot Journey, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Barbershop: The Next Cut and Dirty Dancing.




CesD said:


> thanks!!
> off hand do you remember if smoked salmon was available with bagels?



Sorry, no,  I don't remember because I can't stand the stuff so never look for it! LOL


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## msjprincess

CesD said:


> thanks!!
> off hand do you remember if smoked salmon was available with bagels?




I can't answer for Liberty but I know on IOS smoked salmon was kept in a fridge in the Windjammer. So if you don't see it on the buffet near the bagels ask the crew member working at that station and they may be able to get you some.


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## AnnaS

Thank you so much for sharing and taking us along.  Great pictures too.  Loved the comparison of the two lines.  I really enjoyed reading your report.


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## mandymouse

Great trip report Jenny  What a chilled and lazy cruise you had  Thanks for your comparisons with DCL, I will be doing something similar with my Carnival trip report (hopefully I'll get it started this week)  We're still thinking of sailing on the Oasis of the Seas next year, and hope to find a deal with a drinks or tips thrown in or discounted

So in the words of Sir Bruce Forsyth 'Nice to see you, to see you nice'


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## tennesseemo

Good TR Jen!  Looking forward to the next one!


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## ukintheus

tennesseemo said:


> Good TR Jen!  Looking forward to the next one!



Thanks, just one more and then you get to be in one.


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## In Luv with Disney

Amazing trip report, thank you so much for sharing!  My family and I are doing our very first RCCL cruise next year on Independence of the Seas...one of Liberty's sister ships!  We decided on a 14 night Med cruise starting in Southampton next July...I hope we like it, because we also booked the Allure of the Seas for February 2018!   We are no strangers to cruising, having cruised Celebrity (2x), Carnival (1x), NCL (12x) and DCL (8x).  I am not picky, just put me on a ship out on the ocean, I can always find something good about it.   Although DCL is our favorite, I have had GREAT experiences on other lines as well.  By cruising other lines I can afford to cruise more often.  Again, thank you so much for sharing!


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## Mouseketeers4

Thanks for sharing!  I have the same cruise booked for the end of January and your report has me even more excited.  If you sail RCI again, make sure to give the main dining room a try for breakfast.  The food is very good, a vast improvement over the Windjammer.  They're also open for lunch on sea days.


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## tarheelmjfan

Thanks for the review. I really enjoyed it.


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## agavegirl1

Thanks for the report.  You have answered many of my questions through your report on what DH and I might like.  We are doing our first cruise ever this spring on Freedom.


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## Steve BWV'99

Thank you for the detailed report. We are going on the LOS in February and got a lot of good info!


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