My wife and I just got off The Liberty of the Seas out of Fort Lauderdale, and we were very disappointed with the entire experience with Royal Carribbean. The check in process was very hectic and crowded and took nearly 1.5 hours. Our 5 previous cruises took 5-15 minutes on average. We thought that maybe this was an anomaly and the rest of the cruise would be fine. We were wrong.

We purchased the Premium Beverage Package (PBP) and found Service Staff was completely indifferent to you when you tried to get a beverage. Most bars had 1 bar tender and getting his or her attention was very difficult when standing 2 and 3 deep at the bars. The ship ran out of most frozen drinks on the last day. We rarely saw Service Staff around the pools and had to get up and get our own drinks 95% of the time. The most disappointing was the water. The PBP includes 16oz bottles of Avian Water. Yet EVERY time you wanted one the bar tender ran you through the same process: First they would try to sell you the large Avian Bottle that was not part of the PBP for $4.50. Then they would simply instruct you to move the end of the bar and get a glass of water from the cooler located on the bar. When you were finally able to ask for the small bottle of Avian Water they would shrug and say they will try to find one and then proceed to look through 2 or 3 refrigerators under the bar until they were able to find one, all the while making you feel like you have inconvenienced them to the point of anger. No kidding...This same process was repeated every time I ordered water. When you were able to get a Server at the pool, half the time they would come back with the small bottle of Avian Water and try to charge you $3.95 for it. When told that you have the PBP they would argue with you and say that they have to charge you for it. I got so tired of arguing with the Service Staff that I simply started paying for my already pre-paid water bottles to avoid the anger of dealing with it. The Fitness Center is quite nice, but again the Service Staff was indifferent. I walked in on the 4th day and found no towels anywhere. I then proceed to the front desk of the Fitness Center and advised the person manning the desk that there were no towels. His response was "I'm not the towel guy". He simply advised me to find the person walking around the Fitness Center refilling the towel racks. he never got up and never said another word. As luck would have it a Royal Caribbean employee walked in just then pushing a large bin of towels and I was able to bite my lip and move on before an ugly scene was about to play out.

We ate in the main dining room for the fist 2 nights and never went back. The food was average, the selection was poor, and again the Service Staff was miserable. The first night we finally got our appetizers after the immediate tables around us were well into dessert. My Steak Salad was overcooked and dry. Our Waitress disappeared for 35 minutes after taking our dinner order and we were never offered wine or drink. The second night we were offered wine, but the Wine Server is not the Drink Server and this is a fine distinction on Royal Caribbean. If you want a mixed beverage with dinner you have to order it from a Mixed Beverage Server who apparently never made it around to our table. The Wine Server refused to take a mixed beverage order from our table. He did say that he would send the Mixed Beverage Server to our table, but I guess we was to busy to make it over. Apparently, our Server was not able to get the Mixed Beverage Server to our table either. We ended up eating at the Pizza Restaurant and at Johnny Rockets and the food (pizza and hamburger) was much better than the main dining room. The Service Staff was great at both. Read more