Dear Royal Caribbean/Liberty of the Seas

It has been a week since we returned from our 7 day cruise in the eastern Caribbean, stopping in St. Martin, San Juan, and Royal Caribbean’s private resort in Labadee, Haiti. There were four people in our party and this was all our first cruising experience as adults. The ship, crew, and service providers were stellar.

I’ve had some time to adjust back to real life and these are the suggestions, finger-wags and praises I would like to share with the corporation in order to help them improve their cruising experience.

Dear Royal Caribbean/Liberty of the Seas,

• Johnny Rockets has the best onion rings. Ever.

• Did you know the Bicardi Distillery tour is free?

• Curtis, the bartender at Olive or Twist, is the man. In fact, Olive or Twist was our favorite bar on the ship.

• The Hoof and Claw was our second favorite bar.

• The drinks were expensive, but strong. Thanks for getting that right.

• Our head waiter, Tearecea, and assistant waiter, Hector, are two very special people. They made dining on our first cruise amazing. This cannot be said enough.

• Thank you, Captain, for dodging raindrops that first day at sea. Kudos on the zig-zagging. Additionally, thank you for passing Haiti on ship’s port side the afternoon we left the island. We had a beautiful view from our dinner table.

• I apologize for all the self-entitled assholes that you have to deal with every day.

• Of all the towel animals, I loved the monkey the best.

• The soups are consistently the yummiest thing on the menu.

• Come down on your prices (for excursions, spa services, etc.) by 1/3 and everyone would buy in.

• I felt very rushed on port-of-call days. It would be nice to have 7am-5pm in every port.

• Please have movie times for both main and second seating dining.

• Not everyone at the Guest Services desk is helpful or friendly. That was surprising.

• Both production shows we saw, Ever After and Up in the Air, were incredible. Awesome talent. Especially the guy with the broken foot!

• Unfortunately, we did not see the Welcome or Farewell production shows because they have only one showing. Can these two shows be earlier or later or have two showings to accommodate both main and second seating dining?

• Open a 24 hours kiosk in The Promenade that sells items like sunscreen, condoms, razors, aloe, bandaids, etc. These items could even be sold from a vending machine.

• Place a pen and pad of paper in each state room. An alarm clock as well.

• Boo! Charging for yoga, indoor cycling, and wifi.

• Yay! Recycling.

• Love the Vitality options at dining. Great idea.

• The coffee in the Windjammer is awful. The coffee in the main dining room is very good. The coffee in Chops is freaking awesome.

• Two words – Digital Photographs. Get rid of prints. They are such a waste of paper. Here’s an idea – tie the photos into the RC TV Menu as something guests can access from their staterooms and charge to their SeaPass account. Then, they can set a time to pick up the prints. If Walgreens can do this, you can too.

• The art in the aft starboard stairwells levels 2-5 is odd.

• Was what up with the wet bar fees charged to our account then reversed? And not even for a sum that makes mathematical sense. This happened to both rooms in our party.

• Thank you for express checkout; however, there was no announcement like was mentioned in the farewell video.

• Switch to pump hand soap in the stateroom toilets. Also, please supply each stateroom toilet with spray air freshener.

• Bingo was fun – even if we didn’t win. The South African guy that ran it was a riot!

• The Walk for Wishes fund raiser is super cool. I like that you give back. Kudos to the crew members that walked in uniform in the heat.

• More shade, please.

• For a small fee, provide 2 two-way radios to each stateroom so that we may keep up with everyone in our party. Or, let guests use the ship-based cellular system (I know you have one. I saw crew and service providers using it.). Or, better yet, free wifi so that we can use our phones to text.

• Water should be free and easily accessible. Everywhere. Always.

• The amount of food on board is overwhelming. The logistics required to keep something as large and involved as feeding 3 thousand people constantly for 7 days blows my mind.

• Cruise Compass – great idea. Lack of clocks – bad idea.

• Mike, the cruise director, was everywhere all the time. When does he sleep?

• The free backstage tour of the theater was killer. The sound engineers that gave the tour were very knowledgeable about not just what they did, but other aspects of the ships also. I would be interested in backstage tours of the rest of the ship – kitchen, bridge, laundry, cargo, engine room. I would even be willing to pay a small fee for these tours.

• I really dug the diversity of the crew. It kept conversations interesting.

Thank you for a great vacation. We will be back.

Sincerely,
Dana Bethea

State Room 2306
30 may – 5 June, 2010