This was my 15th cruise and 3rd with Royal Caribbean. In this case my second second trip aboard Liberty of the Seas, my last being in 2009. My wife and I chose a Promenade view stateroom for ourselves and an interior room for family we brought along. Although we had been to Cozumel before Roatan and Belize were new to us. I was excited to be on one of the first few cruises since the ships month long refit. Having previously found the Liberty of the Seas to be a fun filled beautiful ship and having never sailed form Galveston we opted for this trip.

We flew into the George Bush International airport and had transfers through Royal Caribbean to the ship. It turns out that it is an hour and twenty minute bus trip to the cruise terminal although somewhat scenic. Embarkation was smooth despite arriving at the same time as many of the would be passengers. There terminal is not air conditioned but overhead fans kept the air moving and the heat passable while waiting. The embarkation process took roughly 50 minutes from arrival to stepping aboard.

The ship was clean and looked fantastic! When docked in Cozumel the Freedom of the Seas docked at the same pier directly across from the Liberty. The difference was instantly obvious between the two. Besides the Liberty's newly added water slides the exterior paint was much brighter when compared to the Freedom. The Freedom looked rusty and even a bit dingy when docked next to the Liberty. It appeared that carpets had been recently replaced in places as well as wood steps to the upper decks (outside). The kids splash away bay looked like a lot of fun when compared to our previous sailing in 2009. Read more