This was our first cruise experience and we chose this ship and cruise line based on reviews and pricing. Stayed in a deluxe ocean view cabin with balcony on the 8th floor. Our adult children were across the hall in a room that overlooked the promenade. While I have no form of reference for other cruise cabins, I have stayed in many hotels over the years and found our cabin to be superior in cleanliness, styling, and housekeeping services. The balcony was wonderful. My kids enjoyed watching parades and nightlife from their bay window overlooking the promenade where all the shops were located. There is a lack of privacy with this room in that rooms across the promenade can look directly into your room if the curtain is left open. The one dampener on the cabin experience was a pervasive "sewer" odor that came and went on a daily basis in the hallway outside the rooms. We spoke to housekeeping staff about it on the first day and were informed that maintenance was aware of the problem and the source of the smell still had not been determined. We got the impression this problem was not exclusive to our cruise but had been occurring on the Liberty. On the last night of the cruise, however, the smell had spread to our cabin. It had started to come through the vents. It got so bad we could not sleep, resorted to leaving our balcony door open all night and putting a scented oil under our nose to try and block out the smell. We called guest relations to complain as well as make them aware the odor problem had escalated to being inside the cabin. If this had occurred on our first night, I would not have been able to manage subsequent nights in the room. In speaking to a housekeeping supervisor the next morning, we found out the problem was also occurring on the opposite side of the 8th floor as well and other passengers had complained.

Following our poor night of sleep,we had a very abysmal customer service response when we went down to speak in person with a guest relations rep that unfortunately left a very sour note on what had otherwise been a pleasurable experience with staff service on board. Other key points:

The cruise staff were very diligent in sanitizing the boat rails and handles every morning and ensuring passengers used hand sanitizer prior to dining. Read more