We've always sailed Princess but decided to try RCI when Princess left us. (She stopped sailing from Houston). We find it easier, not to mention cheaper, to drive across TX than fly to the east or west coast. The Galveston port is really easy to get to, & hotels have shuttles to port. I loved the Liberty of the Seas. She's the nicest ship I've sailed on as far as condition, floor plan & openness. The Royal Promenade is a great idea in my opinion. The touch screen boards near the elevators are nice for finding your way around the ship or seeing what is going on at that time. The staterooms are bigger than Princess, but the refrigerators are worthless. Ours was a constant 58 degrees, even after pre-requesting a good one to keep hubbys meds cold.

We had an excellent stateroom attendant, Denry, from Nicaragua, who was leaving at the end of his contract Sunday. There was a bartender, Joseph, in Schooners lounge, who made our time much more enjoyable. He was such a friendly, helpful, happy person to be around. We enjoyed many nights in that lounge with the piano guy, Phil Anderson. It often turned into a 'sing along' until he stopped playing for the night. We had a fairly new server, Qing Li, (lower than assistant waiter?) in the dining room who was so sweet & caring to be around, that it helped offset the main waiters lack of attention. We were a table of 4-6 & always got our appetizer after the table of 8 next to us got their main course. It was kind of frustrating, because there were times that they hadn't all arrived, (we were on time) & they still got their food before us. The food was mediocre at best, both in the dining room & Windjammers buffet. That said, I still didn't lose any weight during the cruise ;-)

From the time we got on the ship, I was told that 'Jade' near Windjammers, would have sushi at 6:00 pm. I was so disappointed to find that they only had it ONE night, & only two kinds. It's advertised as the 'Oriental' line of the food courts, but it mainly had Mexican food most of the time. The hours of the buffet really caught me off guard. On sea days, we like to sleep until around 10:00am, get around & go eat breakfast about 10:30-11:00 am. Nope, not happening here. The buffet CLOSES at 10:30 & reopens at noon. So you either get up earlier to get breakfast or sleep later & go to lunch. Of course pizza is available starting at 11:00 on the promenade deck. We had late dining, so if we didn't care for the dinner in the dining room, by the time we got out of there it was too late to peruse the buffet for something else. They slammed the gates shut at 9:00pm. Petty stuff, I know, but aren't cruises time for sleeping & eating? :-) Read more