Liberty of the Seas was one of the first ships profiled on Beyondships. The ship had just come out of the shipyards and Royal Caribbean had brought her to the Cape Liberty Cruise Terminal on the Jersey side of New York harbor to show her off and for some pre-inaugural activities. In May 2007, she was the world’s largest cruise ship - a title she shared with her sister Freedom of the Seas - - and her size was impressive. In addition, her décor was somewhat more subtle than her sister and thus more relaxing at least to my eye. Captain Herman Zini who was in the process of bringing out the ship spoke with pride about Liberty during our interview.
Earlier this year, Liberty went through a major refit during which a number of enhancements and improvements were made. Accordingly, it seemed like an appropriate time to travel to Miami and revisit her. Moreover, during the time since I was last on her, the Beyondships’ profiles had become much more comprehensive and it would enable me to get the material I needed to do a profile of Liberty that was as comprehensive as those for the other ships on the site.
One of the first things I noticed about Liberty was that she no longer felt very big. After sailing on Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, which are about a third again larger than Liberty, she no longer felt vast. Rather, it seemed a comfortable size.
Another question in my mind was how the service would be on Liberty. All of the ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet had contributed crew members for Oasis and Allure. Had all the good people been cherry-picked away for the line’s two new flagships? I was relieved to find that they had not. The service was quite good, friendly and professional.
The new enhancements blended well into the existing ship. The Cupcake Cupboard looked like it had always been part of the Royal Promenade and no one seemed to notice that the barber shop was missing. The outdoor movie screen in the pool area provides a focal point and is colorful at night. While its placement is not ideal for viewing, its location is about as good as it could be given where the pools and the hot tubs are located.
An addition to the programming onboard is the Dreamworks Experience. This entails having the characters from Dreamworks animated movies participate in various onboard activities such as parades and children’s breakfasts. The ship has also been equipped with 3-D technology so that the movies can be shown in the main theater. The children onboard seemed to enjoy the Dreamworks programming and it does not intrude into the adult world except that one may occasionally encounter Shrek when walking through the public rooms.
In any event, you can see for yourself what Liberty of the Seas is all about - - the new Liberty profile with copies of daily programs, menus and other information is at http://www.beyondships.com/RCI-LOS-Profile.html The comprehensive photo tour and commentary begins at http://www.beyondships.com/RCI-LOS-tour-1.html
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