My wife and I sailed on the Liberty of the Seas on December 3, 2012 for a five night cruise stopping at Labadee Haiti and Falmouth Jamaica. We are three points short of diamond status and had sailed on the Liberty six months ago. We had some issues with our last cruise on the Liberty but made the mistake of thinking it may have improved while it had actually gotten worse.

The first major issue for anyone that is not in perfect health is the gangway boarding the ship. The gangway is over a 30 degree incline with a length of over 100 feet. The building codes for ramps are around 10 degrees but the codes do not apply to gangways attached to vessels at this time. My wife has had both knees replaced and has back issues. She had requested wheelchair assistance for boarding but there were over twenty people waiting for wheelchairs and after not seeing any for twenty minutes I asked someone how many they had and where they were. He went to inquire and I never saw him again. My wife made the mistake of deciding to use her cane to board the ship because the chairs were full and waiting was making things worse. She had to pull herself up the gangway hand over hand and was in tears at the top of the ramp. No one at the top of the ramp seemed concerned or offered to help. She spent the next day and a half recovering in bed from boarding the ship.

The terminal in Ft. Lauderdale would be a perfect size for a ship half the size but is an absolute mess with very long lines both boarding and disembarking the ship due to the large number of passengers. Read more