Review of Liberty of the Seas - Western Med Cruise 29th of July 2013
Right, this is going to be lengthy as I want to try and give as much relevant information as I can.
Please note that as Liberty is a Freedom class ship, she is pretty much identical to Independence, which sails out of Southampton.
I chose this itinerary as of all the Med embarkation ports, Barcelona is the easiest to get from the airport to the cruiseport.
Getting there:
A cab each way came to 40 euros, but this is higher than normal as both days were Sundays.
The drive was about 30 minutes, and once we got to the cruiseport, the beautiful behemoth came in to view.
As part of the online check-in process, you get bag tags to print out and attach to your large luggage, as it gets loaded on to the ship by the portside staff.
It is advisable to put any crucial things in to you carry-on before you drop your large bags off, as it isn't guaranteed that you will get your large luggage shortly after boarding, the latest you could get them is 8pm. They are dropped off at your stateroom.
We dropped these off, and made our way in to the port terminal to join the largish queue to get fully checked in. There were loads of counters, so it didn't take too long for us to get through the queue. It also helped that there was free ice water and lemonade available, as well as some steel drum interpretations of pop songs.
We showed our documentation and were set up with our Seapass cards.
Seapass cards are how you pay for things onboard (all Royal Caribbean ships use them), and each guest is assigned one. You can view the balance on each card at any time using the interactive tv in your stateroom. I chose to link my debit card to our Seapass cards, which meant I didn't need to queue up at the end of the cruise to pay my balance (some guests prefer to do this as they pay by cash or across multiple cards), the bill would just come off my card automatically at the end.
As we boarded after 1pm, we were able to go and check out our stateroom right away. If you rock up earlier, you can explore the ship, go have lunch, or just chill.
Stateroom info (or cabins to you peasants
)
We were on Deck 9 near the rear lifts/stairs. This meant we only had to talk up 2 sets of stairs to get to the pool area and Windjammer (buffet dining area), rather than having to wait for lifts.
Bog standard interior room, with shower room, mini-bar fridge, etc.
Got this as it was a super cheap employee deal, but having looked in some other rooms, balconies certainly seem the nuts!
I took this over the side, showing other people on their balconies
Beds and bedding were all very comfy, and they were together to from a queen size, but you can also opt for 2 singles.
Mini-bar comes stocked with various drinks and some snacks, not priced too badly, but I only used it to get a 1 litre bottle of water.
Pro Tip:
Free ice water is available at all outside bars, so just carry a bottle around with you and top-up when needed.
Loads of wardrobe space, good safe, general stuff you would expect. No tea or coffee facilities, as kettles and irons are not allowed in staterooms for fire hazard reasons, not that I care. 3 US sockets by the desk area.
En suite is small, but does what is needed. Toilet does the awesome super-suction thing like you get on planes. Shower only really for 1 person at a time, but the pressure and heat were perfect the entire cruise. Pressure of the sink tap was a bit on the low side though.
There is a 32" Samsung TV with a number of interactive options like checking you Seapass balance and ordering room service. There were a number of European channels, and of the English ones there were a bunch of US news channels, BBC international, Polish Cartoon Network that had all the shows in English (by far my fav channel), and 3 film channels, one playing all the Dreamworks films on loop, another showing more recent films that have been licenced for general show, and some Turner Classic Movie channel. There are also pay-per view options for other films and even porn (A Wet Dream on Elm Street, lulz!).
You have the option to sign-up for in-room wifi (or just use the internet cafe onboard), but connection is slow, prices are high, and charges are time-based rather than data. I'd avoid bothering to get online completely.
Every few staterooms is assigned a single stateroom attendant, who will tend to the room twice a day, cleaning, replacing towels as needed, and every now and then making a cool animal in towel-origami.
Ours was Marc from Nicaragua, and he was ACE! He did a fantastic job the whole trip, even managing to sort me out with same day ironing service (it was formal night) when I was 2 hours after the cut-off time.
Even though we had prepaid our gratuities (tips), he got a decent cash tip at the end as well for being so good.
Tips Pro Tip:
As you know, tipping culture is very different in the US than here, and as such they have the option to prepay all your tips before you even board the ship. This covers tips to your stateroom attendant, dining staff, and general housekeeping. You are only required to use this if you wish to partake in My Time Dining (will be explained later).
Every day, your attendant will leave a Cruise Compass newsletter in your room. It will give you various details about the next day, arrival and leaving times, opening hours for everything onboard, and a full list of onboard activities, their times and locations.
Lower Decks:
We took a wander around the ship naturally, our first stop being the Royal Promenade, a long interior shopping-mall like area of the ship.
There 2 sets of lifts at the rear and front of the ship.
Pro Tip:
As all the dining areas are at the rear of the ship, it is often quicker to walk to the rear if you need to use the lifts to go way up or way down.
The Promenade houses a number of shops, bars and places to eat.
Cafe Promenade is open 24 hours, and offers free nibbles, from cake slices and cookies, to ham and cheese croissants. You can also have free tea, house coffee, and ice water here. They also do Starbucks coffee, but that is chargeable.
Ben & Jerrys is open from the afternoon til late, all chargeable.
Sorrentos does pizza, paninis, salads and antipasta, all for FREE! Afternoon til late.
Hoof & Claw pub is, well, a pub. Plenty of booze and live music every night.
There are also 2 bars at each end of the promenade, one of which is a smoking area, a wine bar with a huge selection.
There is a general store for bottles of booze to take home (you only get them when you leave) at amazing prices (£30 for a litre of Grey Goose!), cartons of smokes, and other sundries like suncream and tampons. Also you will find a merchandise store, perfume store, jewellery and watch store, and even a clothing store.
There will also be various flash sales in the middle of the promenade, sometimes with pretty sweet deals, and will be detailed in your Cruise Compass. Oh, and you are likely to run into a number of Dreamworks characters at various times as well.
Under the promenade deck, you have the likes of the art gallery, photo shop, casino and theatre, and below that the karaoke bar and ice-rink.
There is also a split-level club called the Catacombs.
Upper Exterior Decks:
We'll start with the pool areas.
There are 3 pool areas, the H2O Zone, main pool, and Solarium.
The H2O Zone is intended for young kids, with colourful fountains, 2 small whirlpools and shallow normal pools for them to go mad in.
Semi-pro tip: on the right of the below image, you can make out the bar where I found it easier to fill up my bottle with ice-water
The main pool area is for all ages, has large whirlpools, a big screen and bars on 2 levels.
The Solarium is an adult-only area where you can escape the screams of toe-rags and just chill. It has it's own bar, and it right by the gym and day spa. There are also 2 adult-only cantilevered whirlpools that jut out over the sea from the side of the ship.
There are towel stations on both sides by the entrances to the Solarium. There is no need to bring your own beach towels unless you want to use them off the ship on a beach or something.
Each day you go to the station and scan your Seapass, and get a towel or 2. When you are done, just return the towels and have them scan your Seapass again. Do not forget to do this, if you return a towel but don't get your card scanned, or just lose a towel, you get charged $25 per towel.
There is no real need to try and reserve sunbeds, as most people go shoreside when in port. Reserving sunbeds is also actively discouraged, with staff removing towels or items if no-one has been around for more than 30 minutes. If it is a day at sea, everyone is onboard, and everywhere gets really busy, so either get up early and do shifts with your companions (we each ate lunch alone to secure our sunbeds, lol), or accept that you will not always get a place where you want.
There are always fresh towels, so when we went to lunch we would drop ours off, scan, and come back after to pick up fresh new ones, easy-peasy.
You scream, I scream, we all scream for Pro Tips:
To the side of the H20 Zone, there is a delightful little booth called Spirnkles.
Why is it delightful?
BECAUSE FREE MOTHER****ING FROZEN YOGHURT!
Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, all NOMNOMNOM. Better than normal soft-serve for sure!
The deck above the pool areas has loads more sunbeds and a running track.
By the Solarium, you can go up another deck to St Tropez, and awesome tanning area at the front of the ship, and where I spent pretty much most of my days. It has easy access to toilets on the spa level, you can use the Solarium bar for booze and water, and it is far enough from the hustle and bustle of the main pool areas.
At the rear of the ship you have the sports area.
Free mini-golf, free table tennis, free basketball court, free rock-climbing wall, free Flowrider surf simulator, and bizarrely a chargeable indoor golf simulator.
Wall and basketball court
This is also where the arcade games are ($1.45 for a jam on Guitar Hero, not bad, and they have air hockey too), and the various kids clubs and nursery.
Food & Drink:
I'll start with drinks.
Ice water is free and everywhere.
The Windjammer buffet dining area also has free orange juice (from concentrate), squash and apple juice available for breakfast, as well as house tea and coffee.
At lunch and dinner, it is free iced tea, lemonade, and sugar-free lemonade. The lemonade is lovely.
You can also buy pump soda from all drinks stations at a price, or get the unlimited soda fountain drinks package, which lives up to it's name, and giving you a thermos thingy to store it in. I didn't bother as I am a water drinker, but my gf did get it and had coke and sprite most days. It cost $57 (£39) for the 7 days we cruised.
There are also packages for bottled water, bottled juices, wine, standard alcohol and premium alcohol.
Alcoholic drinks are the same price anywhere on the ship, with 16oz beers being around $4-5 and cocktails from $6+. I has a great frozen mojito for $7. All drinks have 15% added charge for gratuities.
The food. OMG the food!
So aside from the places I mentioned on the promenade, there are 2 main choices for food. The Windjammer buffet, or the main dining hall.
Breakfast and dinner can be had in both, but the main dining hall only does lunch on days at sea.
ALL FOOD IS FREE. You can opt for chargeable dishes in the main dining area, like premium steak or lobster, but you get a 3 course ala carte menu for free every day.
Main dining hall
Your Seapass card will tell you what time, level and table you will eat at every day if you choose main dining.
There is an early service at 18:30, main service at 20:30, or you can opt for My Time Dining and book each day whenever you want.
The food is good and the staff excellent. I don't have any food pictures though as I never took my camera to the main dining hall.
There is a dress code though, has to be smart casual for the dining hall, and there will also be a number of formal nights depending on the length of the cruise. Formal is formal, I'm talking ballgowns, tuxes, people go all out. It's not compulsory though, so you can go eat in casual clothes in the Windjammer if you don't want to take part.
Ah, the Windjammer. How I love thee! Loads of choice, great quality, unlimited and free. If you want to get your fat on, this is the place to do it.
Breakfast gives you a selection from fruit salads and cereals, to waffles, pancakes and crispy bacon. Fried eggs made to order, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, omelettes, sausages, streaky bacon, back bacon, etc. Oh how I gorged!
Lunch again with massive variety, as well as daily staples like surprisingly good burgers (so good in fact that I had one every day), hotdogs, pizza slices and the like. Also pasta, salads, thai food, soups, and more. Each day had a different selection of desserts too.
Dinners, yet more. Staples are still there, but there is also fish and chips, salmon fillets, thai food, curries, roasts, chicken breasts, minute steaks, pork chops, it was silly the variety, all at quality well above any UK fast food places.
There are also 3 other chargeable places you can eat.
Johnny Rockets, which is 50s Diner theme with burgers, dogs, cheese-fries and the like for a $5 charge.
Portifino, italian cooking at $30 per head.
Chops Grille, steak house at $40 per head.
To be honest, the free food was so good, I didn't even bother with these, lol.
Entertainment/Activities:
Plenty to do in the evenings, not quite so much during the day, but then you should be shoreside or by the pool when the sun is out any way.
A few trivia events during the day, seminars, and poolside activities like line dancing, sexiest man competition, battle of the sexes, etc. plus all the free stuff like the climbing wall and Flowrider.
Evenings saw the casino open, there was $300 bingo every day (I was one number away in one of them, grrrr!), art auctions, parades down the promenade, karaoke competitions and loads of other things.
Of the primary entertainment, we saw:
In The Air - Cirque du Soleil style trapeze act that was very good, they even played some trance, haha.
Encore Ice Spectacular - Ice show that was also very good, with the guest skater being AMAZING.
Saturday Night Fever - Brilliant! Full on proper stage show, I completely forgot that I was on a ship floating in the Med!
There was also some Rat Pack tribute dude and a balancing act on other nights, but that seemed more for the oldies.
The Catacombs night-club started from 11pm usually, and there was a massive night-time poolside party as well.
Ports of call:
As we were looking for a cheap relaxation holiday, we didn't ever leave the ship (plus we had been to Rome in May anyhoo). Most of the ports where just that, ports, commercial and not much in the way of scenery. Apart from Villefranche (Nice), where we were tethered in the middle of the big bay in the South of France that was just epic in terms of views.
Demographics:
This is anecdotal, in order of amount:
Americans, Spanish, British, French, Italian, small amounts of other Europeans.
Mainly it was young families, older families with teens, young couples, and very few proper OAPs.
Check-out:
Normally you have to be out by 08:30, but you can opt for a late departure at a cost of $35 per person. You still needed to be out your room by 9am, but you could stay onboard and use the facilities until 3pm. We had a late flight, and didn't need to leave until 1pm, so it was well worth it as we got some more tanning done (showers in gym are free to use) and got free lunch in the Windjammer again, lol.
All in all it was great, ignoring the fact that we got it on the cheap. Even at normal prices I think it is great vfm money. Yes, it isn't cheap, but at the same time it is quality.
Hope you enjoyed my review, if you have any questions, I'll happily try to answer them.
TL : DR
**** you, I put a lot of effort in to this, go back and read it
Right, this is going to be lengthy as I want to try and give as much relevant information as I can.
Please note that as Liberty is a Freedom class ship, she is pretty much identical to Independence, which sails out of Southampton.
I chose this itinerary as of all the Med embarkation ports, Barcelona is the easiest to get from the airport to the cruiseport.
Getting there:
A cab each way came to 40 euros, but this is higher than normal as both days were Sundays.
The drive was about 30 minutes, and once we got to the cruiseport, the beautiful behemoth came in to view.
As part of the online check-in process, you get bag tags to print out and attach to your large luggage, as it gets loaded on to the ship by the portside staff.
It is advisable to put any crucial things in to you carry-on before you drop your large bags off, as it isn't guaranteed that you will get your large luggage shortly after boarding, the latest you could get them is 8pm. They are dropped off at your stateroom.
We dropped these off, and made our way in to the port terminal to join the largish queue to get fully checked in. There were loads of counters, so it didn't take too long for us to get through the queue. It also helped that there was free ice water and lemonade available, as well as some steel drum interpretations of pop songs.
We showed our documentation and were set up with our Seapass cards.
Seapass cards are how you pay for things onboard (all Royal Caribbean ships use them), and each guest is assigned one. You can view the balance on each card at any time using the interactive tv in your stateroom. I chose to link my debit card to our Seapass cards, which meant I didn't need to queue up at the end of the cruise to pay my balance (some guests prefer to do this as they pay by cash or across multiple cards), the bill would just come off my card automatically at the end.
As we boarded after 1pm, we were able to go and check out our stateroom right away. If you rock up earlier, you can explore the ship, go have lunch, or just chill.
Stateroom info (or cabins to you peasants
)
We were on Deck 9 near the rear lifts/stairs. This meant we only had to talk up 2 sets of stairs to get to the pool area and Windjammer (buffet dining area), rather than having to wait for lifts.
Bog standard interior room, with shower room, mini-bar fridge, etc.
Got this as it was a super cheap employee deal, but having looked in some other rooms, balconies certainly seem the nuts!
I took this over the side, showing other people on their balconies
Beds and bedding were all very comfy, and they were together to from a queen size, but you can also opt for 2 singles.
Mini-bar comes stocked with various drinks and some snacks, not priced too badly, but I only used it to get a 1 litre bottle of water.
Pro Tip:
Free ice water is available at all outside bars, so just carry a bottle around with you and top-up when needed.
Loads of wardrobe space, good safe, general stuff you would expect. No tea or coffee facilities, as kettles and irons are not allowed in staterooms for fire hazard reasons, not that I care. 3 US sockets by the desk area.
En suite is small, but does what is needed. Toilet does the awesome super-suction thing like you get on planes. Shower only really for 1 person at a time, but the pressure and heat were perfect the entire cruise. Pressure of the sink tap was a bit on the low side though.
There is a 32" Samsung TV with a number of interactive options like checking you Seapass balance and ordering room service. There were a number of European channels, and of the English ones there were a bunch of US news channels, BBC international, Polish Cartoon Network that had all the shows in English (by far my fav channel), and 3 film channels, one playing all the Dreamworks films on loop, another showing more recent films that have been licenced for general show, and some Turner Classic Movie channel. There are also pay-per view options for other films and even porn (A Wet Dream on Elm Street, lulz!).
You have the option to sign-up for in-room wifi (or just use the internet cafe onboard), but connection is slow, prices are high, and charges are time-based rather than data. I'd avoid bothering to get online completely.
Every few staterooms is assigned a single stateroom attendant, who will tend to the room twice a day, cleaning, replacing towels as needed, and every now and then making a cool animal in towel-origami.
Ours was Marc from Nicaragua, and he was ACE! He did a fantastic job the whole trip, even managing to sort me out with same day ironing service (it was formal night) when I was 2 hours after the cut-off time.
Even though we had prepaid our gratuities (tips), he got a decent cash tip at the end as well for being so good.
Tips Pro Tip:
As you know, tipping culture is very different in the US than here, and as such they have the option to prepay all your tips before you even board the ship. This covers tips to your stateroom attendant, dining staff, and general housekeeping. You are only required to use this if you wish to partake in My Time Dining (will be explained later).
Every day, your attendant will leave a Cruise Compass newsletter in your room. It will give you various details about the next day, arrival and leaving times, opening hours for everything onboard, and a full list of onboard activities, their times and locations.
Lower Decks:
We took a wander around the ship naturally, our first stop being the Royal Promenade, a long interior shopping-mall like area of the ship.
There 2 sets of lifts at the rear and front of the ship.
Pro Tip:
As all the dining areas are at the rear of the ship, it is often quicker to walk to the rear if you need to use the lifts to go way up or way down.
The Promenade houses a number of shops, bars and places to eat.
Cafe Promenade is open 24 hours, and offers free nibbles, from cake slices and cookies, to ham and cheese croissants. You can also have free tea, house coffee, and ice water here. They also do Starbucks coffee, but that is chargeable.
Ben & Jerrys is open from the afternoon til late, all chargeable.
Sorrentos does pizza, paninis, salads and antipasta, all for FREE! Afternoon til late.
Hoof & Claw pub is, well, a pub. Plenty of booze and live music every night.
There are also 2 bars at each end of the promenade, one of which is a smoking area, a wine bar with a huge selection.
There is a general store for bottles of booze to take home (you only get them when you leave) at amazing prices (£30 for a litre of Grey Goose!), cartons of smokes, and other sundries like suncream and tampons. Also you will find a merchandise store, perfume store, jewellery and watch store, and even a clothing store.
There will also be various flash sales in the middle of the promenade, sometimes with pretty sweet deals, and will be detailed in your Cruise Compass. Oh, and you are likely to run into a number of Dreamworks characters at various times as well.
Under the promenade deck, you have the likes of the art gallery, photo shop, casino and theatre, and below that the karaoke bar and ice-rink.
There is also a split-level club called the Catacombs.
Upper Exterior Decks:
We'll start with the pool areas.
There are 3 pool areas, the H2O Zone, main pool, and Solarium.
The H2O Zone is intended for young kids, with colourful fountains, 2 small whirlpools and shallow normal pools for them to go mad in.
Semi-pro tip: on the right of the below image, you can make out the bar where I found it easier to fill up my bottle with ice-water
The main pool area is for all ages, has large whirlpools, a big screen and bars on 2 levels.
The Solarium is an adult-only area where you can escape the screams of toe-rags and just chill. It has it's own bar, and it right by the gym and day spa. There are also 2 adult-only cantilevered whirlpools that jut out over the sea from the side of the ship.
There are towel stations on both sides by the entrances to the Solarium. There is no need to bring your own beach towels unless you want to use them off the ship on a beach or something.
Each day you go to the station and scan your Seapass, and get a towel or 2. When you are done, just return the towels and have them scan your Seapass again. Do not forget to do this, if you return a towel but don't get your card scanned, or just lose a towel, you get charged $25 per towel.
There is no real need to try and reserve sunbeds, as most people go shoreside when in port. Reserving sunbeds is also actively discouraged, with staff removing towels or items if no-one has been around for more than 30 minutes. If it is a day at sea, everyone is onboard, and everywhere gets really busy, so either get up early and do shifts with your companions (we each ate lunch alone to secure our sunbeds, lol), or accept that you will not always get a place where you want.
There are always fresh towels, so when we went to lunch we would drop ours off, scan, and come back after to pick up fresh new ones, easy-peasy.
You scream, I scream, we all scream for Pro Tips:
To the side of the H20 Zone, there is a delightful little booth called Spirnkles.
Why is it delightful?
BECAUSE FREE MOTHER****ING FROZEN YOGHURT!
Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, all NOMNOMNOM. Better than normal soft-serve for sure!
The deck above the pool areas has loads more sunbeds and a running track.
By the Solarium, you can go up another deck to St Tropez, and awesome tanning area at the front of the ship, and where I spent pretty much most of my days. It has easy access to toilets on the spa level, you can use the Solarium bar for booze and water, and it is far enough from the hustle and bustle of the main pool areas.
At the rear of the ship you have the sports area.
Free mini-golf, free table tennis, free basketball court, free rock-climbing wall, free Flowrider surf simulator, and bizarrely a chargeable indoor golf simulator.
Wall and basketball court
This is also where the arcade games are ($1.45 for a jam on Guitar Hero, not bad, and they have air hockey too), and the various kids clubs and nursery.
Food & Drink:
I'll start with drinks.
Ice water is free and everywhere.
The Windjammer buffet dining area also has free orange juice (from concentrate), squash and apple juice available for breakfast, as well as house tea and coffee.
At lunch and dinner, it is free iced tea, lemonade, and sugar-free lemonade. The lemonade is lovely.
You can also buy pump soda from all drinks stations at a price, or get the unlimited soda fountain drinks package, which lives up to it's name, and giving you a thermos thingy to store it in. I didn't bother as I am a water drinker, but my gf did get it and had coke and sprite most days. It cost $57 (£39) for the 7 days we cruised.
There are also packages for bottled water, bottled juices, wine, standard alcohol and premium alcohol.
Alcoholic drinks are the same price anywhere on the ship, with 16oz beers being around $4-5 and cocktails from $6+. I has a great frozen mojito for $7. All drinks have 15% added charge for gratuities.
The food. OMG the food!
So aside from the places I mentioned on the promenade, there are 2 main choices for food. The Windjammer buffet, or the main dining hall.
Breakfast and dinner can be had in both, but the main dining hall only does lunch on days at sea.
ALL FOOD IS FREE. You can opt for chargeable dishes in the main dining area, like premium steak or lobster, but you get a 3 course ala carte menu for free every day.
Main dining hall
Your Seapass card will tell you what time, level and table you will eat at every day if you choose main dining.
There is an early service at 18:30, main service at 20:30, or you can opt for My Time Dining and book each day whenever you want.
The food is good and the staff excellent. I don't have any food pictures though as I never took my camera to the main dining hall.
There is a dress code though, has to be smart casual for the dining hall, and there will also be a number of formal nights depending on the length of the cruise. Formal is formal, I'm talking ballgowns, tuxes, people go all out. It's not compulsory though, so you can go eat in casual clothes in the Windjammer if you don't want to take part.
Ah, the Windjammer. How I love thee! Loads of choice, great quality, unlimited and free. If you want to get your fat on, this is the place to do it.
Breakfast gives you a selection from fruit salads and cereals, to waffles, pancakes and crispy bacon. Fried eggs made to order, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, omelettes, sausages, streaky bacon, back bacon, etc. Oh how I gorged!
Lunch again with massive variety, as well as daily staples like surprisingly good burgers (so good in fact that I had one every day), hotdogs, pizza slices and the like. Also pasta, salads, thai food, soups, and more. Each day had a different selection of desserts too.
Dinners, yet more. Staples are still there, but there is also fish and chips, salmon fillets, thai food, curries, roasts, chicken breasts, minute steaks, pork chops, it was silly the variety, all at quality well above any UK fast food places.
There are also 3 other chargeable places you can eat.
Johnny Rockets, which is 50s Diner theme with burgers, dogs, cheese-fries and the like for a $5 charge.
Portifino, italian cooking at $30 per head.
Chops Grille, steak house at $40 per head.
To be honest, the free food was so good, I didn't even bother with these, lol.
Entertainment/Activities:
Plenty to do in the evenings, not quite so much during the day, but then you should be shoreside or by the pool when the sun is out any way.
A few trivia events during the day, seminars, and poolside activities like line dancing, sexiest man competition, battle of the sexes, etc. plus all the free stuff like the climbing wall and Flowrider.
Evenings saw the casino open, there was $300 bingo every day (I was one number away in one of them, grrrr!), art auctions, parades down the promenade, karaoke competitions and loads of other things.
Of the primary entertainment, we saw:
In The Air - Cirque du Soleil style trapeze act that was very good, they even played some trance, haha.
Encore Ice Spectacular - Ice show that was also very good, with the guest skater being AMAZING.
Saturday Night Fever - Brilliant! Full on proper stage show, I completely forgot that I was on a ship floating in the Med!
There was also some Rat Pack tribute dude and a balancing act on other nights, but that seemed more for the oldies.
The Catacombs night-club started from 11pm usually, and there was a massive night-time poolside party as well.
Ports of call:
As we were looking for a cheap relaxation holiday, we didn't ever leave the ship (plus we had been to Rome in May anyhoo). Most of the ports where just that, ports, commercial and not much in the way of scenery. Apart from Villefranche (Nice), where we were tethered in the middle of the big bay in the South of France that was just epic in terms of views.
Demographics:
This is anecdotal, in order of amount:
Americans, Spanish, British, French, Italian, small amounts of other Europeans.
Mainly it was young families, older families with teens, young couples, and very few proper OAPs.
Check-out:
Normally you have to be out by 08:30, but you can opt for a late departure at a cost of $35 per person. You still needed to be out your room by 9am, but you could stay onboard and use the facilities until 3pm. We had a late flight, and didn't need to leave until 1pm, so it was well worth it as we got some more tanning done (showers in gym are free to use) and got free lunch in the Windjammer again, lol.
All in all it was great, ignoring the fact that we got it on the cheap. Even at normal prices I think it is great vfm money. Yes, it isn't cheap, but at the same time it is quality.
Hope you enjoyed my review, if you have any questions, I'll happily try to answer them.
TL : DR
**** you, I put a lot of effort in to this, go back and read it
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