DW and I have 2 teenage boys ages 15 & 17. We decided to surprise our 14 year old who turned 15 on the trip with a surprise cruise. This rare itinerary for Liberty of the Seas was perfect because it left on an early release day for school and was followed by a school closed day. Our younger son's very interested in marine life so we told him we booked a hotel in Key Largo and we were going to snorkel there for 3 days (sneaky way to get him to pack his own bag!). We've cruised a few times before with our boys so we know they both adore cruising and he'd be elated at the surprise.

We live in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale so it's very convenient for us to get to the local ports. This Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas sailing was out of Miami. DW and my older son were holding our breath as we kept getting closer and closer to the ship wondering when our younger son would figure it out. Fortunately he was very preoccupied playing an iPhone game and we literally made it to the curb of the ship! It was a great surprise and we all had a lot of fun with it.

Embarkation was the slowest we've experienced in awhile. We did board a little later than we typically would, about 1:30. It took about half an hour to reach the check-in desk and the agent was the least enthusiastic agent we've had in recent memory. Usually they are quite chipper and excited for the cruisers. Customer service is always difficult to quantify but there must have been something going on that led me to believe this agent was having less than a stellar day. We were told we could have late seating when we booked, yet the check-in agent told us that we were assigned early seating and we should go to guest relations to have it changed. I was disappointed she couldn't help us there but I suppose she's not empowered to. Read more