Our second excursion, tubing and ziplining in Belize, would have been grand, except that the ziplining portion was so overcrowded that we not only spent most of our time waiting on line, but the sour-faced, overtaxed ziplining staff literally pushed us off the platforms before the previous zipper had arrived at the next platform! Amazingly and fortunately, no one was hurt, but several came close to being hurt, including my husband, and frankly, that's nuts. And all because it was overcrowded and rushed. The tubing portion was fun, although quite tame, with eveyone herded like sheep. I would do it again, but not thru the cruise line; I'd want a private tour that guaranteed no crazy crowds.

Belize City

Our final excursion, also booked through RCCL, to go snorkeling and to Stingray City in Grand Cayman was an RCCL-caused fiasco from the beginning, owing to an hour-plus delay by the tenders, as the first one had left the ship half-filled, leaving us sitting in a half-filled tender for an hour. When we finally got to the pier we were ordered by the tour personnel to “run after the man in the yellow hat” as our tour was leaving without us! Our group did just that, only to be told to run back to the man who’d told us to run in the first place. Then we were herded onto a bus that didn’t have enough seating for everyone in our group, and were ordered to “move over and make room” for a family of 5 people, which was impossible. Some of our group were then put onto another bus, and by the time we got on the road for our 10am departure tour, it was after 12 noon. Due to RCCL’s mismanagement, our snorkeling wound up being 15 ghastly minutes in water so stupefyingly overcrowded with tourists that all we did was bump into other snorkelers. Unlike on other such snorkeling excursions, we had no guide, no food to help draw in the fish, no nothing. I saw literally nothing, and spent my 15 minutes constantly bumping into other snorkelers, for a truly miserable experience. Having looked forward to snorkeling in Grand Cayman for two years we were deeply disappointed. The boat was filled to capacity with VERY sour-faced cruisers- not one smile among any of them. We were then taken to Stingray City, which wound up being the highlight of our trip, and it was extremely enjoyable, marred only by being ridiculously overcrowded, with people constantly bumping into each other. We paid $30 for the CD of photos taken of us with the stingrays, and when we got back to the ship we met other cruisers who had been on another RCCL Stingray City excursion and had been asked for $50 for the CD and thus didn’t buy it; they were quite upset. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Grand Cayman (Georgetown)

Our excellent first tour to Mayan ruins in Costa Maya, Mexico was great, with an excellent and knowledgable guide. 
Unfortunately the day was spoiled by "Rita", the RCCL Excursion Manager, and other members of the RCCL staff, who stood by the ship clapping and yelling at our group to "hurry up" as we were walking back to board the ship. Rita also made sure we knew, the second we got off the tour bus, that we couldn't stop to buy anything, but had to "run" back to the ship as fast as possible; it was like being on a 5th grade class trip, but a cruise is not a 5th grade class trip, nor is it a military exercise. If we want to be herded like cattle, bossed around like sheep, and reprimanded like unruly children, we don't need to spend many thousands of dollars for the privilege and plan for it all year long. (To add to the insult, there were trolleys available- we saw them sitting by the ship, with drivers!- that could have taken us from the tour bus right to the ship, had RCCL really needed us back in such a hurry. To top it off, after boarding, we got to listen to repeated pagings for guests who were still not aboard, making it clear that the patronizing clapping and rushing of our group was not necessary).

I booked our third excursion, to the Playa Mia resort in Cozumel for the "Mexican Cuisine Workshop and Tasting", specifically because this was the only excursion available in any of the ports that offered the opportunity to JetSki. The class was fun, and we did learn a lot (my husband is a chef, and we have an historic Inn in WV), and the lunch we made was tasty. The "wine tasting" turned out to be a low-brow "all you can drink" experience, however, which was a bit of a disapointment, as we had hoped to sample some Mexican wines. The biggest disappointment, however, was that after the class we were told by the Playa Mia staff that the JetSkis were no longer available, and that they were "surprised" that RCCL still had it listed on their website. As we saw JetSkis in ports we visited, and one was even on display on the Liberty, but we weren't able to do it anywhere, we were very disappointed.
We wound up going Parasailing, which was fun.

Our final excursion, to go snorkeling and to Stingray City in Grand Cayman was an RCCL-caused fiasco from the beginning, owing to an hour-plus delay by the tenders, as RCCL allowed the first one to leave the ship half-filled, leaving us sitting in a half-filled tender for an hour. When we finally got to the pier we were ordered by the tour personnel to "run after the man in the yellow hat" as our tour was leaving without us! Our group did just that, only to be told to run back to the man who'd told us to run in the first place. Then we were herded onto a bus that didn't have enough seating for everyone in our group, and were ordered to "move over and make room" for a family of 5 people, which was impossible. Some of our group were then put onto another bus, and by the time we got on the road for our 10am departure tour, it was after 12 noon. Due to RCCL's mismanagement, our snorkeling wound up being 15 ghastly minutes in water so stupefyingly overcrowded with tourists that all we did was bump into other snorkelers. Unlike on other such snorkeling excursions, we had no guide, no food to help draw in the fish, no nothing. I saw literally nothing, and spent my 15 minutes constantly bumping into other snorkelers, for a truly miserable experience. Having looked forward to snorkeling in Grand Cayman for two years we were deeply disappointed. The boat was filled to capacity with VERY sour-faced cruisers- not one smile among any of them. We were then taken to Stingray City, which wound up being the highlight of our trip, and it was extremely enjoyable, marred only by being ridiculously overcrowded, with people constantly bumping into each other. We paid $30 for the CD of photos taken of us with the stingrays, and when we got back to the ship we met other cruisers who had been on another RCCL Stingray City excursion and had been asked for $50 for the CD and thus didn't buy it; they were quite upset. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Our final excursion, to go snorkeling and to Stingray City in Grand Cayman was an RCCL-caused fiasco from the beginning, owing to an hour-plus delay by the tenders, as RCCL allowed the first one to leave the ship half-filled, leaving us sitting in a half-filled tender for an hour. Due to RCCL's mismanagement, our snorkeling wound up being 15 ghastly minutes in water so stupefyingly overcrowded with tourists that all we did was bump into other snorkelers. Stingray City was the highlight of our trip, and it was extremely enjoyable, marred only by being ridiculously overcrowded, with people constantly bumping into each other. We paid $30 for the CD of photos taken of us with the stingrays, and when we got back to the ship we met other cruisers who had been on another RCCL Stingray City excursion and had been asked for $50 for the CD and thus didn't buy it; they were quite upset. This is absolutely unacceptable.

(On our cruise last year the casino was open all night and was a lot of fun; on this one it was never open all night, and evidently nothing else was either, for late at night the ship felt sad and empty, silent and devoid of people).Our final excursion, to go snorkeling and to Stingray City in Grand Cayman was an RCCL-caused fiasco from the beginning, owing to an hour-plus delay by the tenders, as RCCL allowed the first one to leave the ship half-filled, leaving us sitting in a half-filled tender for an hour.

Liberty of the Seas Review

RCCL Liberty Nightmare: BAD service, major disappointment

Rating by category

Additional details

Cabin Review

Interior Stateroom

Find a Liberty of the Seas Cruise from $243