Our family of four (kids aged 11 and 13) sailed on the Liberty of the Seas in March 2009. We flew down a day early to avoid any stress on the day of sailing and stayed at The National Hotel in South Beach. The location was fantastic (on the beach and close to Lincoln Road pedestrian mall) and the pool and beach bar area were beautiful. The hotel itself is an old Art Deco building that has been refurbished. The rooms were small but fine. We walked all over the area for the day and night we were in South Beach.

We arrived at the port at about 11:30am and had a relatively easy embarkation. While waiting for our stateroom to be ready, we explored as much of the ship as we could - it is huge!! We had packed bathing suits in our carry-on luggage so were able to try the Flowrider surfing machine before the lines got too long. We also had our first experience with the Windjammer Cafe all-you-can-eat buffet for lunch. From start to finish, we can't say enough about how friendly and helpful all of the crew were - without exception. They were always greeting us with a smile and seemed to genuinely want to help any way they could. The food was plentiful and quite good (not gourmet, but not fast food either).

We had two interior staterooms with an adjoining door, with windows overlooking the interior Promenade (sort of like an enclosed shopping mall). They were small, but perfectly functional and the windows were nice even though interior only. We were on Deck 8, near the forward stairs and elevators. We loved being on Deck 8 - between the pool and Windjammer on Deck 11 and the Promenade, theatre and dining rooms on Decks 3-5. We could walk everywhere easily (my wife managed to avoid using the elevators at all until one single time disembarking with our luggage at the end). Our stateroom attendant team was great - very perceptive and friendly. We didn't have any towel animals the first night, but they produced some great ones each other night. The only change we would have made would be to locate ourselves closer to the aft stairs as we found ourselves doing activities at the aft end of the ship more than the forward end. Read more