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

[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?

 

[ukintheus]

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.

 

[ukintheus]

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.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

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 ..

 

[ukintheus]

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]

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.

 

[cmph]

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!

 

[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 !

 

[ukintheus]

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.

 

[ukintheus]

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.

 

[msjprincess]

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!

 

[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!

 

[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.

 

[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?

 

[ukintheus]

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.

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.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

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.

 

[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.

 

[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 .