We (there were 5 of us from 69-54 in age) had booked this particular cruise for a couple of reasons. One was for the ports that were visited and the other was for the ship itself. A couple of us had been on the Liberty of the Seas a couple of years after its maiden voyage. I have to say there is no comparison to how it was and how it is, except to say that it is still a beautiful ship and the staff is still friendly. Let's start from the beginning. First we flew from Nashville to the Newark airport the night before and we stayed at the Country Inn & Suites in Elizabeth, NJ. The hotel has a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and they have a free breakfast. It was reasonably priced and the accommodations were excellent. The employees at the hotel were great.

Before we left on vacation, I had made arrangements for all of our transfers with Carmel Limo Service and I had booked all of our shore excursions from the internet instead of the cruise ship. So the next morning our Carmel driver showed up on time at our hotel in a very nice SUV and took us to the port. Getting on the ship was a breeze. We got there about 11:00 and were on board by 11:30. We went upstairs to have a bite to eat at the Windjammer, which was fine. About 1:30 we went to our cabin on the 6th floor. Our cabin steward was Karen Porter and she was excellent. She kept our room stocked with ice and was very friendly. We had an inside cabin with a Promenade window view. Nice room, nothing special except the window and extra couch. Since we are only gold members, we didn't have too many luxuries like bath robes, etc.

We never have had a bad cruise and this one wasn't bad either. However, there are some things that I was disappointed about such as the shows. The only Broadway style show was Saturday Night Fever, which was excellent. The ice show was also excellent. Other than those 2 shows, they didn't have much entertainment. They had a ventriloquist, Brad Cummings, which was good but all the other entertainment was either so so or not good at all. Even the Love and Marriage game wasn't all that funny. It was a real disappointment. I was also disappointed in the casino, not because I didn't win, because I never do, but the smoke was terrible. Read more