We cruised on the Liberty of the Seas Jan 20-27. We are from Virginia Beach, VA and met our extended family from AZ to spend a week together on the cruise. My DH, 39 and I, 34, are Emerald level with RCI, and we had our 12 yr old son with us this time.
We flew in Friday evening due to the crazy snow heading for our connecting city of Chicago, so we changed our flights from Saturday to Friday - kudos to Southwest for allowing us to change our flights for no cost due to the impeding storm - which ended up cancelling our original flights.
We landed Friday night in Houston, and made our way to Galveston Saturday morning. It was freezing cold and very windy on Jan 19. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott and Town Place Suites on the sea wall the night before our cruise. Our Courtyard room was an ocean front suite with a large balcony. The weather was cold and windy all day. Temps in the 30s and 40s. Not much for walking on the beach weather... The outdoor pool was heated, but it was way too cold and windy to use, plus one of the two pool heaters was broken. The wind was crazy - gusting to 50 mph wind chills in the high 20s..... Not a great introduction to Galveston.
Sunday morning we drove to Lighthouse covered parking and parked with no issues. Super friendly and would recommend them, they shuttled all 8 of us to the port . We arrived at the terminal around 1015 am. We checked in vey quickly as we went in the Emerald check-in line.
Our extended family are new cruisers and they were checked in within 25 minutes of us. We were so excited and ready to board the ship and hurried upstairs to wait..... and wait.... and wait.
What we were told would be ~15-20 minutes before we could board turned into 90 minutes. We were seated in the Emerald/Diamond seating and that filled very quickly and soon the entire holding area was filled with thousands of people. Twice a employee took to the PA to address the crowd - requesting everyone to be seated and that she had no idea of what the delay was.
Finally just after noon they began boarding - suites first, then the Key, then by loyalty tier. We were in the Jr. Suite and were allowed to board with the first group.
We went to the Windjammer - found a table for 8 and waited for our extended family. They boarded almost an hour later - and were annoyed at the entire process - they have 3 young kids and the excitement was dwindling quickly.
This was the worst embarkation we've ever had on our 8 RCI cruises. Again - not a great introduction to Galveston.
Weather was terribly cold- highs in the 40s and still incredibly windy. We ate, changed and jumped in the hot tub to get a head start on our vacation. Getting out was painful -due to the chilly weather - we did have the hot tubs all to ourselves and stayed in the Solarium - which is still open to the elements.
Our room was Jr Suite 9580, Deck 9, Port side. This was the best Jr. Suite we've ever had. The room was large, had a full tub, tile vanity, huge walk-in closet - again the largest closet we've ever had. The balcony was wonderful - two chairs- one table and two loungers. Very roomy, very nice. Totally recommend this room. Quiet, convenient, and roomy. Our son slept on the sofa bed and it was kept out all week, and there was plenty of room with the bed out.
Our room steward was Jackson - very nice, got us ice and robes and kept the room looking lovely - he left us towel animals throughout the week too.
We toured the ship with our family to try to get them a layout of things and went to the muster drill. It was freezing - windy and cold, and we were out on Deck four for 30 minutes. Felt kinda bad for a few people just out of the hot tub/pool, and were dripping wet for an extended time.
We left the port extremely late - over 90 minutes late.... not sure why - but we left well into our 5:30 dinner seating.
Dinner in the dining room, on deck 5, was good. Our waiter, Don, was outstanding. Very personable and passionate and good at what he does. My DH and I noticed some changes to the quality of food and well as number of choices had decreased. Food was okay; a B- overall. Service was great every night - including cutting the steak/chicken nightly for our young cruisers.
First day at sea = cold and windy and the boat was rocking and rolling all week. Long pants and windbreaker jackets were common and still not enough for some. The hot tubs in the Solarium were overflowing due to the weather, while the ones completely outside were barren. The kids splash park wasn't open due to the cold weather. The slides were closed due to wind - overall a wash of a day for those looking to enjoy the pools and waterslides.
Second day at sea - more of the same. A little warmer; still windy, and still rocking and rolling. The water slides were open, and the splash park was open. The flowrider was open, and we tried everything - but hurried to get our towels because it was so cold. Our son enjoyed the basketball court - but said even there, at the stern of the ship, it was incredibly windy.
Formal night - we were dressed up, ate dinner, danced, met the captain, and went to the show. We had an awesome time together. Our son was a little disappointed with the teen program - as he loved the Adventure Ocean program from previous cruises, but the lack of other kids his age, and the lack of 'things to do' for the teens was disheartening to us. He said there was one other kid his age - but never saw him again after the teen open house. He had a good time - hanging out with us and his cousins.
One thing that was outstanding on this cruise was the entertainment - we went to 3 different comedians' shows, the ice show, the air show (Cirqu O le style show), and the Edge effect show - and all were great. This was an improvement over the last three or four cruises we've been on.
Roatan - enjoyed a warm, sunny, empty ship kinda day. We did the water slides, again and again, had the Flowrider all to ourselves for 40 minutes - kudos to the flowrider instruction staff - they made each of us feel safe, and helped each of us - DH, myself, and our 12 yr old- to achieve near mastery at the Flowrider - it was awesome. The pools and hot tubs were empty and we enjoyed no lines for anything all morning and most of the afternoon. And it was sunny and warm! Hurray!
Costa Maya- again - enjoyed the empty ship, and the warmish, cloudy weather. We ice skated, did the water slides and flowrider agan and again and had free run of the ship. I took a multi hour nap in the hammock on our balcony - that was so nice. We enjoyed a movie in the hot tub - but getting out was awful due to the chilly weather.
Cozumel - We booked Playa Mia through their website. This was our 3rd time there- probably our last. There were 10 ships in port that day, and even though we were early - arriving at Playa Mia before 9am - the place was mobbed, and continued to get more and more crowded during the day. It was extremely windy - yellow flags flying at the beach front and cloudy and not very warm. DH and our son took a sailboat out on their own (the reason we keep going back to PlayaMia) and they had great wind and were out for a few hours, while I kept the drinks in my hand on the shore. The waterslides were fun, food was mediocre, drinks -watered down, but plentiful. I couldn't believe how more and more and more people kept coming. All the water toys had lines of people waiting. We did the aqua park - fell down the back slide of a slide onto some smaller people, due to the crowding at the top of the waterslide. Due to the black clouds and winds picking up -we decided to head back to the ship around 1:30. The rain came just as we got out of the taxi and came down in buckets. We boarded the ship drenched - but still smiling- and hung out on our dry balcony in the continued downpour. We were parked next to the Oasis of the Seas and had a few conversations with a few cruisers on their balconies.
Last sea day - broken record - cold, windy, rainy and rough seas. We were the only ones in the hot tubs before 8 and had them to ourselves through 10. Very cold, the slides were open for a short time and the flowrider was busy even though it was cold. We ice skated again and this time it was very crowded, but still fun.
Back to Galveston - we chose self debarkation- had our bags ready to go and at 845 were in the "C" group ready to get off the ship. Everything was going well, until we got into the port building, where the lines stopped. We waited in the narrow hallway line for 45 minutes with out moving. We finally got through with our porter to the Lighthouse parking waiting area at 1030.... Again - not a great reintroduction to Galveston.
Overall this cruise was fun - we had a great time with the people we were with. We've been to all these ports multiple times and enjoyed the near empty ship during two port stops. The food quality has decreased- I believe to push more and more specialty restaurants, and the selection has gone down. I particularly missed the chilled fruit soups. The coffee card - purchased before the cruise for $30 was worth it. I used all 15 punches on the card and enjoyed the cappuccinos and mochas and iced coffees. The ship was about average in terms of looks - starting to show age, especially the carpet in public areas and the décor in the stateroom was dated, but she was always being cleaned by the crew anytime we looked around. I've given the cruise a 4 out of 5. I don't think we'll go out of Galveston again, especially in the winter, and the Freedom class ships are just the right size for us. The weather was tough, and the seas were rough - no fault of RCI, but made it a little harder to enjoy ourselves outside.
We're booked for next year on the Allure transitioning cruise, and looking forward to that.
Read Less