Liberty of the Seas Full Review
The Liberty of the Seas is a Freedom-Class vessel sailing for Royal Caribbean- a pretty large ship at 154,407 gross tonnes. I was excited to sail on her out of Galveston, Texas for a seven-night cruise to Honduras and Mexico for some diving with my dad. Let’s check out how the cruise transpired, with the good and the bad!
Booking
I lucked out in booking this cruise, because my dad and I only paid for our taxes and upgrade to an oceanview room. How? Casino offers. Royal Caribbean’s Club Royale program offers free cruises to avid gamblers, and while I’m no high roller, I played enough to take advantage of a free cruise offer sent to me shortly after my May 2022 cruise. All in, we paid just under $200 in taxes and fees per person. Not bad for a full week cruise!
Check In
We checked in a month out via the app, uploading our photos, passports, and Covid cards, snagging an 11:30 AM arrival time at the port. The night before the cruise, we drove down to Galveston and stayed at the Hilton Galveston Island Resort. You can check out a full tour and review below, but overall, I was happy with our one-night stay which included a week’s worth of parking and a free shuttle to the port.
Arrival
We arrived at the Port of Galveston right around 11:30 AM, with boarding already having commenced. If you’re reading this, and taking a Royal Caribbean cruise out of Galveston in 2022, you’ll be going out of their new terminal building, which wasn’t quite open on our sail date. After clearing security, and multiple checks of our boarding pass, we were on board within 30 minutes of our arrival time at the port! Not too shabby!
Liberty of the Seas Positives
This was my first time on a “Freedom Class” ship, after having sailed on a Voyager Class ship in May 2022. I haven’t yet sailed on anything larger from Royal Caribbean (but soon will!), and was happy with the size of the ship. The design was very similar to the Navigator of the Seas, just stretched in either direction. Our voyage was nearly sold out, and I didn’t really feel a huge pinch of people during our trip. The ship is very, very well designed.
I also loved the main dining room food- we ate here four out of the seven nights and felt the quality and service were great. I think many will agree that speed of service could be faster in the main dining room, but that’s not the fault of the servers by any means. We were happy with a relaxed meal throughout our trip after a busy day of diving.
We opted in on the drinks package, and felt that the quality of drinks on board were also of high quality. One weird quirk of sailing out of Texas is the booze laws during your departure day (see my video at the top for explanation), but unlike Carnival, drinks packages are usable as soon as you get on board.
Our room was very spacious and our cabin steward Thiru was amazing! The service throughout the ship should be commended.
One minor thing that was cool to me, was that unlike other ships at sea, the steam room and saunas were complimentary!
Liberty of the Seas Negatives
Largely, there weren’t too many negatives with our voyage. One thing I will point out about Liberty is it’s showing its age- it definitely needs a drydock to fix some minor issues like the pool screen being broken, half the Flowrider not working, and some TLC in the public areas. Comparing it to the “Amplified” Navigator, which is a smaller ship, I’d pick the Navigator based on looks, feel, and on-board amenities. It makes a difference.
Overall
I wouldn’t hesitate booking the Liberty of the Seas for your next vacation. She’ll be sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale for the foreseeable future, so hop on board for a quick 3- and 4-night voyage!
