Royal Caribbean Cruises, Liberty of the Seas

We just got home from our cruise on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas ship. The trip was absolutely fantastic! The staff on the boat were all amazing, they remembered my daughter everywhere we went. Our cabin steward made towel animals for her every night. The ship itself was huge and beautiful. It was very clean and I saw people touching up the smallest details to ensure that it stayed that way. Our staterooms were on deck 8. The view from the balcony was fantastic every day! My daughter and I were in 1 room, my brother and my son were next door to us, and our parents were a couple doors down. Because my room and my brother's were next to each other we were able to open the partition between our balconies to have one large balcony. It was pretty cool! There was truly something for everyone on this ship. My 3 year old had a blast, she even went to their child care service willingly! Her age group was called the Aquanauts. The employees even gave me a ship cell phone to carry with me while she was in their care so that if there was any issue I could be reached right away. My 13 year old had fun, the arcade and the pools took up most of his time. My brother is 25 so he had fun hitting the bars and nightclubs on board. I loved the shopping on the promenade, and my parents had a fantastic time just relaxing! We stopped in Labadee, Haiti and Falmouth, Jamaica. Labadee was absolutely beautiful. The beaches were nice white sand, and the water clear, blue and perfect. In Jamaica the guys went river rafting and had a blast. We girls booked an excursion to the Hilton for the day. Food and alcohol were included in the price, but honestly, I found the place to be over crowded and the beach area was not half as nice as the one in Haiti. I was surprised to find the Hilton's beach area to be dirty, there was lots of trash around. The islands themselves were beautiful and I would definitely want to go back to Haiti again. I would do Jamaica again too, though I would not go back to the Hilton. The staff there were all very nice, I just didn't feel like what they had to offer was worth the $139 we paid per person for about 4 hours on hotel grounds. My 3 year old was free though, so at least that was nice. Before I left, I had read mixed reviews on Cruise Critic, so I wasn't sure what to expect but I don't know what anyone was complaining about. Embarkation was easy they took our luggage right away and our rooms were ready when we boarded around noon. Considering they were cooking for 4,000 people every night, the food in the dining room was very good. The buffet in the Windjammer café was good, the fruit was fresh and the selection was vast. The staff all went out of their way to help and were all very friendly at al times. I never passed anyone who didn't greet us with a smile. Room service was free, we only took advantage of that one morning, but it was on time and I received a call about 5 minutes before delivery just to let me know it was on the way. The only complaint I would have would be my fellow cruisers. There were a lot of very rude people who seemed to have no idea how to act in public. It would have been nice to see Royal Caribbean enforce all of the rules and maybe point out some simple ideas of what polite behavior looks like. However I also understand that the employees don't want to offend anyone and I guess if these people haven't learned manners by now, 1 week on a cruise ship and admonishment by employees isn't going to change that. We chose to carry our own luggage off and disembarkation was a breeze. We went down to wait around 7am and were off the boat in less than 30 minutes! We had a 10:30 flight and we made it to the airport with hours to spare! On the way to Florida, we flew Southwest. The flights were a little rough and the planes not so nice. The fact that they don't assign seats is strange and if we hadn't paid the extra $12 per person for priority boarding I'm not sure we all would have gotten seats near each other. They did let us check bags for free though, so that was nice. On the way home we flew American Airlines and their planes were very nice. They seemed to be much more modern than the Southwest planes. The seats seemed larger and were definitely more comfortable. Given the choice, I would fly American over Southwest in the future for sure. While in Florida for a night, we stayed at the Courtyard Marriot. Our room had a view of the ocean that was breathtaking! However, our rooms weren't ready when we got there around 2pm. That was a little bothersome. The valets took our luggage though and stored it until the rooms were available. Their pool bar seemed to be open all the time, and they're connected to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, where we ate twice. The restaurant inside the hotel itself however had very limited hours. Breakfast was available there, but not dinner. I thought that was a little strange, and inconvenient. All in all it was a wonderful trip and I hope we'll get a chance to cruise with Royal Caribbean again soon. I'd love to do a longer trip, maybe one of their Mediterranean itineraries next time! I'm including some pics I took while on the trip, the last one is one of the towel animals our room attendant made for my daughter!