Liberty of the Seas Review
4 Kids and Two Parents perspective for Family Cruise over Spring Break
Rating by category
Additional details
We sailed March 14-19, 2015 out of Port Everglades. Our kids are DD7, DS13, DS15, DS18 so I will try to include their perspectives for potential other families. I've (dad, 45 yrs old) sailed 3 different lines, and this was my third on Royal, biggest ship I've sailed yet. A couple of my kids have been on a cruise, but a couple were on their first cruise.
EMBARK: I managed their expectations towards 2 hours, based on what I've read here. We arrived a little before 11am by taxi and it was very congested traffic-wise. 10 minute wait in traffic, then dropped by entrance and walked into security screen where we waited only 5 minutes. Then to check in and that wait was only 5-10 minutes as well. Then sat in line for about 30 minutes and boarded. I'd say it was approximately 1 hour from arrival to being up on deck by the pool...much faster than expected! Kiddos were very happy about this.
FAMILY ACTIVITIES: We wanted to spend time as a family, not go multiple directions so the kid's clubs were not of interest to my kids as they would have been split up. This is an area I think Royal does a poor job. There were activities for one age group or another (dreamworks parade, Teen flowrider, etc) but nothing like a family scavenger hunt, or family shuffleboard tournament or family anything. So we made our own activities and had a couple hours family time each day, and then split into subgroups and had some "free time" each day and the kids seemed to enjoy that balance. I made up my own photo scavenger hunt for our family and that was a bunch of fun (email me Ted at psCultureMatters . com if you want a copy for your family).
Cabin Review
Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Balcony
STATEROOMS: 8556 and 8554, not adjoining but we had the balcony divider opened between the two rooms so in that regard we had a large balcony and could go back and forth to each room without slamming the hall way doors on people trying to nap. Very convenient to forward elevators which seemed almost never crowded compared to rear elevators. Most of what we wanted to do seem at the aft of the ship (windjammer, pools, flowrider, sports deck, Johnny Rockets, MDR, Ice Skating Studio B) so it made for a good bit of walking, but we'd just go to deck 5 promenade or deck 11 pool deck and stroll to the back of the ship for the stuff we wanted to do. The shows were in the theater forward of the ship so convenient to those. I've mostly stayed middle of the ship, and this stateroom did experience a bit more motion, however the entire cruise we must have had some rough seas as there was far more rocking and movement than I've ever experienced before on smaller ships so I'd probably not hesitate to book this cabin again based on motion of the ocean. We were just about 3 staterooms forward of the cantilevered Whirlpools in the Adult Pool Area. 3 decks walk down to Deck 5 for Cafe promenade and Ben and Jerrys (both back of the ship of course) and 3 decks walk up to pool deck 11 and windjammer so in that regard very convenient. Both staterooms had the pull down bed for our youngers. They were fun for the kids, but when they would move around at night to cover up or shift positions it was a bit noisy, but nothing intolerable.