ainrun.com Cruise Reviews for Liberty of the Seas from Princess Cruises CruiseMates Cruise Reviews for Liberty of the Seas Cruise Reviewer: Mike of Ohio The ship, as I was able to view her from a ferry trip while on the island of Corsica, had everything and more I expected of a mega-luxury liner. Having been aboard numerous ships across the globe, her design is very much in the same league as RCI's "R" class ships. The interior rooms are the very definition of plush. While we did not spend the money on a suite, the design and furnishings rival even some in the category. Our stateroom was lovely, as was the others I saw in the other categories of staterooms. For the price, the cruise line offers a veritable travel package and no expense was spared. We saw an impressive array of artisans demonstrating their crafts in many locations and enjoyed many performances. The staff was very attentive, very friendly, and always ready to extend a helping hand. Of note is the crew's friendliness and cooperation with the service animals that the guests are allowed. There was a good balance of fun and funky, in that regard. The main problem, or so it seemed, was in the food and the service... In our three dining venues, we encountered the same problem in each venue: poor food preparation and serving. This was a major disappointment. In addition to the poor meals, many of the wait staff did not possess any personality and did not appear to care to perform well. They moved around with the speed of an assembly line worker. The entertainment was not to be believed. One of the singers, a young Asian man, was dreadful in his singing and his dancing. His performance was truly a nightmare. We were so embarrassed that we did not even leave the room after one performance. In the entertainment department we had the feeling of being in a hotel. The only entertainers that we enjoyed were the bartenders and the dancers. The casino had one or two live entertainment offerings during the ship's overnight stops. Both our ports in Spain were filled with young boys and girls who roamed around the ships hoping to see the ship's "rich" people, and their presence on the ships was truly an embarassment to the ship, in my view. However, I can see how that would be good business for the cruise line. Overall, we found the ship to be an empty vessel that appeared to be run by robots. It was a very unhappy ship to cruise on. The ship offers as much or more than RCI's Celebrity and Azamara. The prices at even the higher grades of service and facilities, do not compare to what we experienced on Celebrity. They have to reduce their room rates to be competitive with what Princess offers for an economy cruise. I saw in the dining areas, that we were served in the buffet, that is was very difficult to find a clean meal (no doubt because there was no one to assist the wait staff to serve). The coffee stations were clean, but in order to get coffee you had to pay for it. For a couple of our excursions (Tangier and Monaco), I saw very little in the way of activities by Princess. We had to pay an additional 100 Euros to take our young grand daughter on her first cruise. This turned out to be a well worth investment. We had a good time and had no worries. Princess has done an excellent job in bringing aboard what appears to be a beautiful group of people on board the ship. It appears that the Princess staff are mostly people whose skills are more in hospitality than in cooking. I never saw a single line staff member that was anything but friendly and helpful. We were in port and disembarked at three different ports (St Thomas, Barbados and Barcelona). My wife and I, our young grand daughter, and our grandson were in our "family suite", so the ship was very private. The ship itself is just not that pretty, it looks more like an old ocean liner from the early 1900's. I would not want to cruise on her again. There were other options for cruise lines that offered a much better experience for far less money. Less Cabin review: Alhambra Port and Shore Excursions from Liberty of the Seas This was a lovely two night trip. The boat was a bit small for a ship the size of the Liberty, but it was an enjoyable experience. I enjoyed the tour as well as learning about the Moroccan culture. I had not expected to find it so very warm, but we managed to escape the heat. My only regret was the number of people on the boat -- it was at capacity. I expected a tour group, not so many families. I was disappointed because I enjoyed seeing the boat, the people, and the culture. Less Cabin review: Liberty We had a lovely time in Venice. The walk across the city to the train station was rather pleasant but rather long, the line was about two blocks long. Fortunately we were carrying a small backpack and had no problem finding another water taxi to take us to St. Mark's, which was a lovely part of Venice that we did not see on our previous cruise in May. There was an easy connection to the Piazza San Marco, so that it was very easy to navigate the labyrinth of back streets and canals. They were doing some work on the Ponte della Tarsia -- the replacement was scheduled to be completed in June, a few days before our next cruise. We were disappointed that they had closed the bridge but was relieved to know that we could avoid the long line that the bridge would have created. The service in the Piazza was phenomenal. The water taxis provided a good sense of how the locals got around, they were frequent and fast. I had made a couple of phone calls in the morning, including one to a restaurant (a very difficult call as the phone did not understand Italian or English) to have a table for dinner at the restaurant recommended to me. The owner came to us at 4 and was able to confirm that we would be at his restaurant for 9 pm, so we walked to the hotel to drop off the bags and I was on my way to the restaurant by 7:30 pm. It is difficult for us to get to Venice on time, but after getting the directions and navigating our way through the narrow streets, it was no problem. We enjoyed our dinner. I found myself enjoying the evening more than we did in May. Less Cabin review: Crystal Palace The first thing that I have to say is that you are given a small suitcase. This means you have to get this all over the ship, and it is really not easy. The ship was really crowded, so you really have to be careful to make your way through the crowds. Dining on board was mostly very nice, although the food was not too special. I did get a bit tired of what appeared to be the sameness of the main dishes, particularly at dinner. There were a lot of tables that seemed to be empty and this was hard to figure out. Sometimes I got seats, but sometimes not. There were several tables where there were not any other passengers. A few tables had passengers but at tables that were too small for them. I found this quite odd, because there was plenty of room on this ship. We often would have to wait for a table, and the time we were supposed to leave the ship was quite late. The ship was always well-staffed but I did wonder how long it would take for the ship to sail after we left the ship. I tried to learn my way around the ship, but I felt quite isolated and a bit lost at times. I saw many small groups of children but it seemed that few parents were with them. This is not unusual, but there seemed to be a large number of children that were not being watched. I thought this was a bit unusual. I felt this ship really did not have the same standards as other ships that we have cruised on. This may be an American ship that has been designed and designed for US tastes rather than those of other nationalities. All of the entertainment that we saw was very much a repeat of what you see in Las Vegas. When I went to the show, I was very disappointed that it was simply live music from Vegas. At times I felt like I had fallen into the wrong theatre. I did think the food was very good, however. The staff that I encountered were quite pleasant, although I did not see a lot of them. On this ship, many of the staff were from Eastern Europe, and I was somewhat surprised that most of the staff did not speak any English or could speak only a little English. There was a huge amount of waste to be taken off of the buffet, which would have made the cruise more bearable for me. I understand that this was very difficult because of language barriers, but many of these people should have known better. The food was just average in my opinion, and we were able to find good meals at many of the places we went. Our biggest problem was the lack of privacy. As we had been on a number of voyages on this boat, I can say that the experience of walking up and down the long hallway was not one that I expected. We were able to avoid this by bringing my two daughters to their friends' rooms to avoid the crowds at the pool. The staff that we encountered were very