Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has an entire fleet of ships with varying features and sizes. Liberty of the Seas is a Freedom Class ship, which puts it in the middle range at a size that can appeal to many cruisers. There is a variety of fun activities from water slides to live entertainment, but the ship isn't too large so it still feels very manageable. The ship debuted in 2007 and updated in 2016 and has 15 decks with a capacity of just over 3,600 passengers. Since the ship didn't get "amplified" in 2020 due to the pandemic, it is also one of the more cost effective options to choose!
While the ship doesn't have some of the newest updates to come to Royal Caribbean, we never felt wanting for more and found the ship to still be in great shape and offered plenty to do for our 7 night sailing. We've sailed on Symphony previously shortly after her debut, so we did have experience with some of the larger and newer ship features before embarking on this sailing.
Let's start with the stateroom. We had an ocean view with balcony and found no flaws with the room. We had plenty of space, our room attendant was delightful, and nothing ever felt too far from our home base.
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| January was a beautiful time to cruise |
Next let's explore some of the public spaces. The ship has an impressive Promenade on Deck 5 that is home to guest services, shopping, dining and bars. Here you'll find the Promenade Café for sandwiches and snacks throughout the day and Sorrento's Pizza for pizza late into the night. If you need anything throughout your cruise Guest Services and Shore Excursions are both in this area as well. This is also where you will find specialty and cruise shops for great deals or that toothpaste you forgot to pack! At either end there is one level of the Main Dining Room and opposite is the Star Lounge.
We found ourselves hanging out here quite a bit as R Bar turned out to be our favorite spot for a pre or post dinner drink and I loved picking up sandwiches from the Cafe and popping over to Vintages for a glass of wine for a light lunch away from the crowds. Hoof and Claw Pub is also here and is a great stop for beer drinkers.
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| Wonderful cocktails at R Bar |
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| Sandwiches from Café Promenade |
Heading down the stairs from the Promenade brings you to Deck 4 and many other cruise staples. Here you will find the photo gallery, casino, more bars and restaurants, another level of the Main Dining Room and the Platinum Theater. The Schooner Bar is where many trivia and small events like that took place so we spent some time here as well. We had another wonderful specialty dining experience at Sabor, which you can read more about
here. Sabor is a less-common Royal Caribbean offering, so we liked having the uniqueness of this on our cruise.
The Main Dining Room is where most guests will eat most dinners while aboard and is included in the price of your cruise fare. It spans 3 decks and you can do traditional dining where you are at the same table and time every night, or My Time Dining which offers more flexibility throughout your cruise. We did traditional dining and were on Deck 3 but enjoyed breakfast here one morning as well for a different perspective.
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| Everyone loves "Lobster Night" |
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| Jerk Pork Chops |
As you enter the Windjammer, you'll also see the entrances to Giovanni's Table and Chops Grille, two popular specialty restaurants on the Royal Caribbean fleet. We dined at Giovanni's one night and had an amazing meal and wonderful service. Read more about our meal
here.
Heading up to Deck 12 from the pool deck you'll find an outdoor running track, the kids clubs, arcade and Johnny Rockets. Heading up even further to deck 13 you will find the rest of the outdoor activities such as Liberty Dunes mini golf, the Flowrider, water slides and the sports court and rock climbing wall.
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| Cyclone and Typhoon Water Slides |
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| Sports Court and Rock Climbing Wall |
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| Liberty Dunes |
Popping up one more level to Deck 14 is where we found a hidden gem, the Olive or Twist Lounge. While the other offerings on this deck are for suite and loyalty guests (which is a great perk for them as well having these wonderful views and space) but Olive or Twist is open to everyone and offered great martinis and gorgeous views. This spot was also home to some of the evening entertainment such as the Silent Disco.
Overall we had an amazing cruise aboard Liberty and found the ship to be the perfect size for us. There was plenty to do but everything still felt nearby. The two aspects we missed most from the larger/newer ships were Playmakers for a better sports-watching experience and the Central Park Neighborhood for some peaceful moments (but we found them elsewhere!) We felt like the value was well worth the money and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this ship to others, in fact a friend took her family on this ship and had similar thoughts!
Would you cruise on Liberty of the Seas? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Overall we had an amazing cruise aboard Liberty and found the ship to be the perfect size for us. There was plenty to do but everything still felt nearby. The two aspects we missed most from the larger/newer ships were Playmakers for a better sports-watching experience and the Central Park Neighborhood for some peaceful moments (but we found them elsewhere!) We felt like the value was well worth the money and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this ship to others, in fact a friend took her family on this ship and had similar thoughts! 
Maci Schau
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