Our family (including 3 children) went on a cruise of the Western Caribbean on The Liberty of the Seas, which is a large well-maintained ship. The amenities are as advertised, and the food on the whole was excellent. The best part of the onboard experience, however, was the crew. Not only were they extremely conscientious, but they were from all over the world, and talking to them was quite interesting. Our steward, Clement, was from Jamaica, and not only did he he keep our (surprisingly spacious) cabin spotless, in the evening he would do "towel origami", so we'd come back and find towel dogs, elephants, rabbits, etc. One of our regular waitresses in the buffet and main dining room, Luidmila Karganian, was from Odessa, Ukraine, and provided fascinating conversation along with perfect service. This was typical of the crew.

Of our ports of call, Roatan was beautiful; Costa Maya was a pleasant surprise - the port is a hideous tourist trap, but the village 5 km away had lots of restaurants, activities, and perfect, uncrowded white sand beaches; Cozumel, on the other hand, was underwhelming.

The one negative involved settling a cash account with onboard Customer Service. On Friday (the was to return to Galveston Sunday) I was informed that I had $.29 amount owed on one account and $4.66 due me on another. I went down that evening and settled the accounts and left with $4.37. Sunday morning I was notified that I had the same balances, which had to be settled before I could leave the ship. Now there was a horrendous line with people disputing charges, discounts, and many other things. Here there was a major management failure. Unlike any other retail store, there was no express line for people who simply wanted to pay a balance and leave. Instead, I and others who just wanted to hand over some money had to wait in a long, very slow line significantly delaying our departure. When I finally got to the desk, it appeared that the "system" had failed to record the prior settlement of my account. So, despite my protestations, I was handed another $4.33 by the service rep, who told me he had to give what the "system" showed. I understand that computer system are sometimes balky, but what was inexcusable was the failure to have an express line for those who just wanted to pay. This is an elementary management issue, and I was surprised that something this basic happened in an otherwise well managed operation.