Officers, Gentlemen and Security
Gulf of Mexico
Saturday, June 23, 2018
It's hard to believe it is our last day on board this GORGEOUS ship!
This can only mean ONE thing... Time to make the most of our last day!
Morning
Good Morning!
I could seriously get used to this! Do you think they need a teacher or principal on a cruise ship?
We both woke up early and spent the majority of the early morning in the shade of the balcony. Finally, around 9:30AM we got up and ready for the day. We had a reservation for the Galley Tour and Brunch so we did not eat breakfast. We went to the pool bar and got a drink using our 10 drink card and then went to the Captain's Question and Answer session, as is a tradition of ours. We learned a lot about the Liberty of the Seas as well as life spent at sea. INSIDERS INFO- We learned the new ICON class coming out in 2022 and 2024 will have LNG engines. This was fascinating to us.
"Washy Washy"... We had never seen this until the NCL Pearl in March and now on LOTS!
This guy was GREAT!
A gorgeous cake in the Windjammer on the last day!
Just another WOW factor Royal has pulled off!
Bloody Mary anyone?
Well Hello there SHREK! You've got great moves!
Another very informative Captain's Q&A.
TIP- This is almost ALWAYS offered on the last sea day! Check your Cruise Compass!
We ran into Shrek after the Q&A session!
We noticed this on the LAST Day!
The Liberty of the Seas has RED carpet on the Starboard side and BLUE carpet on the port side. This helps when trying to find your room or another destination on the ship.
This guy was GREAT!
Just another WOW factor Royal has pulled off!
TIP- This is almost ALWAYS offered on the last sea day! Check your Cruise Compass!
The Liberty of the Seas has RED carpet on the Starboard side and BLUE carpet on the port side. This helps when trying to find your room or another destination on the ship.
Afterwards we made our way to the Michelangelo Dining Room on deck 4 to check in for the Bottomless Brunch and Galley Tour. TIP- The Galley Tour is a behind the scenes look at the ships Galley and offers an "all you can eat" brunch at the conclusion. It is $30 and only offered on the final sea day. It CAN be included as an option for 3, 4 or 5 night Dining Packages.
We originally were invited on this tour by the head chef on the Serenade in 2015. At that point, this was something Royal Caribbean was testing only on the Serenade. When we took this tour in 2015 it was only for about 30-40 people and the food included items such as filet mignon, lobster, oysters and even caviar. The food was buffet style and we literally could eat as much as we wanted. I think Chris had 4-5 lobster tails. HOWEVER, this Liberty of the Seas Galley tour was VERY different.
This tour, that I thought was small, turned out to be well over 200 people strong. We began on the port side of the dining room with mimosas and champagne where the head Maitre D spoke to us about food and food consumption. They took 20 guests to the deck 4 galley at a time. Our group got up and we were taken through the galley by the Head Chef, Ramone Allen, who was from Jamaica. This is a man who literally worked his way up from the DISH WASHING station to being a HEAD Chef on the 12th largest ship in the world. What an inspiration. This was very unique and special.
The HERD of guest headed to the Galley Tour... Yeah, this is going to be VERY different from our intimate Serenade experience.
Romanian Maitre D explaining a "Day in the life of Liberty of the Seas Culinary department" prior to the Galley Tour.
The Galley itself was a lot like the Serenade and Navigator galleys we have seen before but we enjoyed the tour guide and learned a lot about Royal Caribbean. INSIDERS INFO- Royal Caribbean recently switched their menus away from the "Mojo" and etc themes to just a nightly offering. This includes dessert on the main menu. They did this to try to speed up the overall dining process by entering the guests entire order at the beginning. While this didn't completely fix the problem, it really helped things. Chris and I noticed a lot less of a "lull" between the main course and dessert. We also learned that Royal WILL be bringing back some of the items they removed from the menu that were favorites. The head chef would not tell us which dishes these were but it was interesting to know Royal recognized the need to bring back the favorites. We sail on the Liberty of the Seas again in March 2019 so I am intrigued to see if we will see a change to these newer menus then. I will keep you posted.
Head Chef Ramone starting the tour with us.
Royal Caribbean really does know how to achieve the WOW factor.
Head Chef Ramone talking about the appetizer station.
This entire cake is SUGAR FREE and GLUTEN FREE!
Tip- Be sure to let Royal Caribbean know if you have any type of food allergy! They will accommodate you. In fact, we learned on this tour that they have a completely SEPARATE galley for all food allergies on deck 8.
More sights of the main entree section of the galley!
Head Chef Ramone discussing his climb to the top!
Small pastries ready for consumption.
Head Chef Ramone showing us where it all started (different RCI ship of course)... the dish washing corridor.
Thank you Head Chef Ramone!
Royal Caribbean really does know how to achieve the WOW factor.
This entire cake is SUGAR FREE and GLUTEN FREE!
Tip- Be sure to let Royal Caribbean know if you have any type of food allergy! They will accommodate you. In fact, we learned on this tour that they have a completely SEPARATE galley for all food allergies on deck 8.
Afternoon
After our tour in the Galley the Head Chef took us to our table on the starboard side of the dining room. Here we were served fresh guacamole from Sabor and anti-pasta from Giovanni's for our appetizer. In addition, we had unlimited mimosas and champagne. They also gave us a set menu of brunch offerings. This included filet mignon and bacon wrapped chicken plus a personally selected dessert made by the chef himself. TIP- The lunch and galley tour were fantastic but now that we have been 3 times, we will not book this again in March. Once you see it once, you are good. The food was OUTSTANDING but again at $30 a person we will not be doing this again in the near future.
The SET menu for this brunch.
The food was AWESOME and we LOVED it! It basically featured food from all of the Specialty Dining as well as some of the BEST food from the Main Dining Room.
The food was AWESOME and we LOVED it! It basically featured food from all of the Specialty Dining as well as some of the BEST food from the Main Dining Room.
After brunch we made a few purchases in the promenade before going back to our room. I wanted to sit on the balcony but in the middle of the day we were in DIRECT sunlight and there was not a cloud in the sky. Chris decided to take a nap so I ventured around the ship taking in all of the "last sea day" sights. The lido deck and main pools were PACKED as was the Solarium but there were still PLENTY of chairs available around the ship. Deck 12 in particular had rows and rows of chairs available; however, they were all in the sun.
Even on the LAST sea day, there was PLENTY of space throughout the decks. None in the shade but beggars can't be choosers.
The Women's Cannon Ball Competition was SO FUN to watch!
The Solarium Pool on the last sea day.
The Main Pool deck on the last sea day!
I spent some time in Olive and Twist on deck 14. This is the old Viking Crown lounge and is completely inclosed and perfect for afternoon relaxation. Chris woke up from his nap and joined me. We enjoying being able to see most of the ship and the beautiful smooth as glass waters. We enjoyed some afternoon cocktails with our drink cards and the bartender even gave us 2 drinks for free. He thanked us for being loyal to Royal (even though we cruise other lines, we are GOLD with Royal Caribbean so I guess that's why).
I love these random nooks and viewing areas around the ship. They offer great views of the ship and INSIDE for Air Conditioning. Check on decks 11-14 for the best options.
Olive or Twist bar inside the Viking Crown lounge on deck 14. A perfect place on a HOT day!
A view from the lounge.
We then went to the far forward of deck 4 to the helicopter pad. This is something unique to Royal Caribbean and is literally one of the neatest things we have ever done on a cruise ship. With the smooth waters, the wind was light and we were able to enjoy a lot of time watching the seas pass us by. TIP- This is open on most sea days, unless closed for weather, and is a great opportunity to see the very front of the ship and be the "King of the World" (think Titanic). We love it here!
A view of the bridge from the helicopter pad. I would love to one day stay in those forward facing ocean view rooms.
We love the helicopter pad!
Chris's KING OF THE WORLD pose! We loved the CALM seas!
It was a little windy!
Check out these weird balconies! A side view AND a forward view! How cool!
Evening
We then went to dinner since we lost track of the time. We were both in t-shirts but they let us in and we had a great dinner. The service was once again phenomenal and our regular waiters, Eduardo and Satish, were fantastic. In fact, they even brought me SAVORY BITES. I had asked every other MDR waiter for these delicious small bread appetizers and they all said they have stopped making them but Eduardo made it happen. Let me tell you... they did not disappoint! These bite size breads are so good. We were also able to talk to the Head Maitre D about our experience on board and he even cut my shrimp for me. It was a very neat experience.
THEY DO EXIST!
After dinner we went to the Promenade to enjoy people watching and cocktails from Hoof and Claw. We also made a stop at NextCruise to get some information about our upcoming Liberty of the Seas cruise in March 2019. The saleswoman told us about lots of great bargains and deals but unfortunately, we are both teachers and can only take off certain times of the year. This is too bad because she gave us some KILLER DEALS! I just need to retire... Someday, SOMEDAY!
We are almost home! I LOVE that Royal does this! ONLY out of Galveston!
The Izumi sushi cart on the Promenade. I prefer the actual restaurant on Navigator. We never tried it!
We went back to our balcony for the late sunset. We were able to see the Breeze trailing us but we were not able to see the full sunset since it was on the forward port side. We sat down and started talking and after 10 minutes or so we heard a really loud noise that sounded like a helicopter. We jumped up thinking something bad was happening. All of the sudden, there was a HUGE boom and a BUNCH of black smoke came out of the back of the ship. I took a few pictures and videos and we started talking to the neighbors. I went in to see where we were on the cruise map and Chris yelled at me that it was happening again. As the smoke settled Chris came inside and called guest services to let them know. The lady on the phone said "Sir that is the smoke stack getting rid of our fuel". Chris knew it was more than that but the lady must have thought we were dumb. Chris hung up and I thought that was it.
Hello there Beauty! We will see you in Galveston!
The Carnival Breeze trailing us back to The Lone Star State.
The gorgeous colors of the sunset with the crazy black smoke coming out of the tail of the ship!
The Carnival Breeze trailing us back to The Lone Star State.
So there I was packing and had all of my bras and panties all over the bed and bags everywhere. All of the sudden I hear knocks on our cabin door and "Open up. Security". I am about to pee my pants because I was not sure what was going on. There were 2 men at the door, a security officer and a "suit" officer. They came in and went to the balcony. The security officer and Chris talked about the issue and he said it was the backup generator starting up and when it does this happens. I found this interesting as we both thought the AC was not as powerful on this day and now I wondered if this was why. Another officer waited at the cabin door as Chris and the security guard continued to talk. They both had body cameras and the whole ordeal was surreal. They assured us all was well and we certainly made a memory! I appreciate them coming and checking it out!
Well hello there security officer! HAHA... Such great memories!
We then went to Cupcake Cupboard and got some cupcakes to go with our wine we brought on board. TIP- Passengers can bring 1 750 ml bottle of wine PER PERSON in the carry on bag. Don't forget your corkscrew! TIP- The cupcakes were $1.75 for mini cupcakes and while they were "OK" I would not purchase again. I got all the sweets we need at dinner. They did offer a Cupcake Decorating class on sea days. Check your Cruise Compass for days and time.
These cupcakes were good but not GREAT! We will pass next time!
We went to the Platinum Theater for the Saturday Night Fever musical. It was listed in the Cruise Compass that is was 82 minutes. This show was offered at 6PM and 8:45PM. We arrived about 20 minutes early and were lucky to find a seat. TIP- The show overall was entertaining but a little dark for a cruise and I personally thought 85 minutes was too long. I also missed the "goodbye" songs and performances from the Captain and other officers like the previous Royal Caribbean cruises.
The cast of Saturday Night Fever! WELL DONE!
We stayed for the Late Night Adult comedy in the theater and while this comedian was funny, he was a little vulgar for our tastes.
We then finished the night off with another trip to Sorrentos for late night pizza. This time we were joined by the stars of Saturday Night Fever. We talked to them for a while and learned this was their very first performance of the musical with that cast. The cast was brought on this cruise and only had a few rehearsals together. This made the overall performance even more impressive. The 2 male stars were in their early twenties and from Tennessee and Houston. I was so "Star Struck" I forgot to take a picture but it was really neat!
We went back to our room and packed our final items before calling it a night.
It was a great and relaxing last day on the Liberty of the Seas. We met the Captain, officers and even security. It was a day full of memories for sure.
Be sure to check back for our FAVORITE blog post... The FOOD BLOG! It's coming SOON!
Once again, thank you so much for following along!
Next up... Its OVER! Time to go home.
God is good… ALL the time!
Carnival Legend- ALASKA- 2016
Click on a link to see our past cruising adventures:
Carnival Legend- ALASKA- 2016
Thanks for sharing. I took the "Behind the Scenes" in 2016 and again in 2018. The most recent one dropped the tour behind the stage of the theater, the look at the liqueur storage and a shortened helm time. We were told that if an uncontrolled fire broke out in the booze storage compartment, the entire room could be jettisoned out to sea. Yikes.
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