Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas: a little guided tour

As we got near Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale (in a massive coach which was laid on for all – wait for it – seven of us), we caught our first glimpses of the ship, rising up between cranes and tall buildings.  It’s MASSIVE.  We couldn’t quite believe we were going to be on there.  And there were all sorts of worries too: will we be seasick… will we get enough peace and quiet.. will it be all old men in dinner jackets and old ladies smelling of mothballs…?  You know the sort of thing.  (Disclaimer: not that I’m saying that all old ladies smell of mothballs. I’m sure some of them smell of gin, or parma violets, or whatever).

The Nerdy Bit

The Liberty of the Seas is  a ‘Freedom class’ vessel, registered in Nassau, Bahamas, built in Finland in 2007 and renovated in 2011.  She (all ships are ‘she’ – apparently because a Portugese Prince once said that ”like a woman, they take much powder and paint to keep them looking good”) has 15 decks, is 185′ wide (that’s wider than the White House is long) and is taller (if upended, duh) than the Eiffel Tower.  The ship carries 3634 guests, plus 1360 crew and there can be as many as 58 different nationalities on board.

The Exciting Bit

The ship is packed to the gunnels (see what I did there?) with amazingly cool stuff.  If you have kids there are amazing (indeed, award winning) kids’ clubs called Adventure Ocean (more of this later) from babies right up to teenagers.  It also has (wait for it):

• a rock-climbing wall (look at the man in the purple shirt to get some perspective as to how tall it is)
• a nine hole miniature golf course
• a jogging path running around the whole of one deck
• a karaoke room
• a video games room
• an ice skating rink

The Wet Bit

If you fancy a bit of water action, there are loads of places to swim, bob, laze or whoosh.  Check out me whooshing on the FlowRider Surf Simulator right here (thanks to Erica, our Videographer in Chief for this vid).  I’ll have you know that it’s very hard to stand upright and both Karin, my FlowRider buddy, and I did very well.  Although yes, it does rather look like I face planted after four seconds (that water is whooshing at 34 gallons per minute, by the way):

If you fancy getting wet in different ways, there are also:

• three pools
• six whirlpools
• a pool bar
• an adults only pool
• adults only jacuzzis

The Leisurely Bit

Don’t fancy lazing by the pool?  No problem.  The Liberty of the Seas boasts a wonderful spa and fitness centre (where I had an amazing Elemis anti-aging facial and Laura was blow-dried to look like Crystal Carrington, but that’s another story).  There is a fabulous promenade boasting boutiques, shops, a pub and a cupcake shop (where we had a cupcake decorating lesson and made cupcake burgers), there’s also a library, an internet centre, an art and photo gallery (which has regular art auctions and seminars), a 1320 seat theatre (complete with circle) where we saw a fabulous performance of Saturday Night Fever and a wonderful modern dance/aerial ballet show, a florist, a massive casino,  an ice rink (the shows are spectacular), a conference centre, and even a wedding chapel (yes, you can get married on board).

The Greedy/boozy Bit

The ship boasts a main dining room which seats over 2000 people and is utterly beautiful. It reminded me a bit of the Titanic (oh. Can I say that?): the menu was very ‘fine dining’ with immaculate, service and a pretty incredible wine list.

There are also other, smaller, dining rooms, but if you didn’t fancy that, there was also Sorrento’s – a pizza place, a proper American burger joint called Johnny Rockets (where the waiters suddenly break out into a song and dance routine to 60s music), a self-service buffet called the Windjammer Café, and two amazing fine dining restaurants, Portofino and Chops Grille (you need to pay a small extra charge for these – I think it’s about $30 a head). More of all of this later.  There are also loads of other bars, cafés, a Starbucks, a wine bar called Vintages, a champagne bar, a cigar bar… a piano bar… a nightclub…  I stopped counting in the end.

So that’s it, you’re fully acquainted with the beautiful Liberty of the Seas. I’ve probably missed loads of bits out, but I think it’s a good indication of what’s available (basically EVERYTHING except pavement).  Oh, you do get lost a lot in the first day or so and find yourself at totally the wrong end of the ship occasionally (ahem), but the staff are amazingly friendly (we never saw one grumpy face. Not one.  The entire week), and it’s amazing how quickly you find your way around.

Next: dining, things to do for teens, shore leave (oh yes, there is horse riding in the sea) and much more, including when I fell over climbing Dunns River Falls and tried unsuccessfully to style it out.

All this, and not a whiff of mothballs.

If you want to see blog posts, tweets and photos from the rest of the Royal Mums, check out our hashtag, #royalmums on Twitter.

 

3 Responses to “Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas: a little guided tour”

1. Helen T says:

   March 5, 2013 at 8:40 pm

   Sounds incredible, although I’ve always been slightly wary of cruising due to the mothball risk you mention! This does have quite a lot of appeal, and we’ve not even got to the horse riding in the sea yet!
   • English Mum says:

     March 6, 2013 at 7:31 pm

     I think we all felt a bit like that, Helen, but were completely overwhelmed by what we found! Oh, just wait ’til I get to Jamaica!
2. Jennifer Howze says:

   March 7, 2013 at 5:21 pm

   LOVE the video. I’ve always wondered what those surf riding things are like. Is there always a guy in board shorts to help?