First time RC cruise- Liberty + ?s

This will be my first cruise on RC, thinking of going with just me, DH, DD12 and my parents.

My parents have done RC many times but plan nothing in advance, and with loving dis cruises and the planning ahead of time myself I'm pretty much a fish out of water.

Im looking at an Oct- 9 day cruise to Canada. Biggest questions right now are can you plan with RC excursions and other things like you can with disney ahead of time?

My parents like the cheapest room available, this is where I do like to splurge is on vaca and after having Disney family balcony rooms I really dont think I could handle a 160sq ft room on RC.

So could I technically book my DD12 in my parents room and get a suite for me and DH, then put her in my room? Either way if I cant we have to have a bigger room, what would anyone recommend? What floor/location not to book?

Will my DD12 be completely spoiled from dis kids clubs? or are RC kids activities comparable?

Ive never used a travel agent before but always watch prices at vacationstogo.com, If I booked through them to get on board credits (which isn't much) can I still log into my cruise to add excursions or whatever packages myself on RC?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated, and I will be cruising the forums for answers in the mean time.

Are you sure you're looking at Liberty? Answers to room stuff depends on that.

OK figured that out. As a West Coaster, I think "Canada" and think "Vancouver and Alaska cruise". Silly me.


Liberty is Freedom class, and 1400 and 1700 are super-neat rooms on Freedom. They are huge corner aft rooms. BUT I think they are only bookable for a family of 3...

Booking Junior Suites gets you double loyalty points while not costing as much as the expensive suites (but it doesn't get you all the suite benefits).

12 year olds will be in the level of kid clubs that we haven't yet dealt with, though I've heard that they still clump together in same-age ranges. The 17 year olds won't be hanging out with the 12 year olds. DS hasn't been to Edge on Disney, so I can't even compare that. Sigh. All I know is that DS likes Royal's 6-11 group over Dream's Oceaneer Club/Lab, because of the more personal attention.

I generally book Royal through www.costcotravel.com and I can book a variety of things on my own. So I assume it's the same with vtg. BUT! If we think Disney's IT is bad, Royal's IT is beyond bad. The ability to do things will vary from one day to the next, one user to the next. It can be VERY frustrating.

Thanks so much, I always forget about looking at Costco. We haven't had to deal with the edge yet either just twice on the Oceaneer club which she loved.

When making a reservation and it says "GTY (forward)" Does that mean the type or room is guaranteed or would the forward be guaranteed also?

You can and should plan all of your excursions ahead of time. They have tons of choices!!

sbtrfly74 said:

When making a reservation and it says "GTY (forward)" Does that mean the type or room is guaranteed or would the forward be guaranteed also?

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The type of room is guaranteed but it could be that type of room anywhere. But you could also be upgraded and then that's really just about anywhere.

Be sure the gty rate is less or the same as booking that type of room directly. I've seen people book a Jr Suite gty (hoping for an upgrade) for more than just booking the Jr Suite. Good gamble if you get the upgrade but that's not likely.

One thing to be aware of about booking excursions ahead of time is that, unlike disney, with royal you have to pay for the excursion at the time you book it. disney lets you wait until you're on-board; royal does not. it is refundable, though, i think until 2 or 3 days before the excursion. same with specialty dining.

If you just want more space and don't care about perks, i'd go for a junior suite. If you want perks (concierge lounge, etc), the grand suites are next in size, followed by owners suites. basically, junior suites are 1.5 times the width of a regular stateroom, grand suites are double the width of regular, and owners suites are triple the width. One downside to the suites is that they are all on the 10th floor, right under the pool deck; however, if you're happy with a junior suite, there are some of those on other decks. That said, we stayed in an owner's suite on deck 10 once (can't remember the number - it was right under Squeeze, the juice bar, if you look at deck plan, and next to an accessible junior suite), and only heard chair noise the first night. Junior suites get priority embarkation, as well as a bigger bathroom and a walk-in closet, and double crown-and-anchor points (the loyalty club, like castaway club). Regular suites also get priority embarkation and double points, as well as on-board perks like a concierge lounge with food and drinks at certain times, concierge to make your reservations, and reserved seating in the theaters.

Other rooms people tend to like are on the "hump" - if you look at the deck plans, the ship curves out just aft of the middle, so the balcony rooms there get great views. The hallway also curves out, so the rooms are the same size as other balcony rooms, just with more of a view.

I'm not sure about switching your daughter's room at check-in. You can always get an extra key card, so she could get into and out of your room, but in that case her muster station etc would still be with your parents, and if you got a suite she would not get the perks.

Another option is to look at getting two adjacent connecting rooms for you, your DH, and your DD. you'd have to pay a single supplement, but it might still be cheaper than a suite. Also, the balcony dividers open, so you'd have a double-wide balcony.

We don't have kids so can't really comment on that, except to say that some of our friends' kids prefer disney and some prefer royal. I suspect 12 is a good age to enjoy royal, with all of its activities like the flow rider, rock climbing wall, etc.

If you like to plan, check out the cruise critic message boards. Lot of planning going on there. Also, you can join the "meet and mingle" for your cruise, which is like the meet-up boards here, only royal actually sponsors a get-together with snack and drinks on-board for people who sign up. There is no FE on royal, but people do other activities, like cabin crawls (visit each others' cabins in a group to see what they're like), slot pulls (everyone puts a set amount of money into one slot machine and once everyone's money is entered everyone takes turns spinning), pub crawls, etc.

On this class of ship, I would look at connecting promenade view cabins (decks 6,7, and 8), or if you want the balcony, there are a few balcony cabins on deck nine that connect to interior rooms (two all the way forward and two all the way aft). Probably the best balcony cabins onboard are 1700, 1702 and 1400, 1402. Those comfortably sleep three or four, and since they are on the back of the ship they have huge balconies. We try to book 1702 every chance we get, just for the balcony. Our kids took their two (15 and 8) on Liberty this spring and had two adjoining PV cabins, and they loved them. If you DD is 12 prior to sail date, she will be in the 12-14 age group. Our oldest GS was 12 when we took him on Freedom (Liberty's sister ship), and he had a blast all week. They always seemed to have something going on and we rarely even saw him except for dinner and when he dragged himself back to the cabin in the evening.

Thanks everyone, very helpful.

We so far are looking at a junior suite (balcony is not much less -$150) and we just want the room to move around comfortably. Being use to the 300sqft+ Family suites on Disney sleeping 5, I just cant see squeezing into a 160sq ft room. The larger 190sq ft could be an option but on decks 2-4. We don't really need the balcony, its going to be cold in October going up to Maine and Canada but is always nice to have. Main thing I think Im worried about now is my dd is 12 and she would be in the tween catagory where looking at some of the activities listed doesn't look at par with Disney which she really loved. I think Im just Dis spoiled.

We got a junior suite last year on Carnival and it was almost the same as Dis family less the extra bathroom. Im starting to think Dis is actually much cheaper considering all the free perks unless we downgrade to an interior room. Then we'd save a ton of money. I dont mind splurging on vacations but saving $600 for putting DD12 in my parents room seems reasonable.

Oh I should add, my mother doesn't like big ships, and I dont like long drives so we've opted to go on the Grandeur of the Sea out of Baltimore. I would be ok with a 4 hour drive if I had to, but Baltimore is so convenient but sell out fast. So no promenade rooms left.

You can cancel your excursions even when you are on this ship. They will just give you an OBC for the amount you paid. We have done this. Our kids LOVED the kids club at that age.
We are going on Liberty in 3 weeks. We were on Granduer in 2010. It's a great smaller ship.
I wouldn't book my child in my parents room if they were not going to stay in the parents room. What if something happened and they were at a different muster station than you. It might be worrisome. But that could just be me. Dinner time might be a problem also if you do traditional time.

The junior suite I was looking at is gone, we are looking at just booking interior staterooms close but not not connecting. Costco has great prices, but Ive also been talking with VTG agent who's been helpful with the exception of calling me at 10:30pm lol. VTG has $5 more on board credit and same price for the cabin but Im hoping some larger family oceanview come available the closer it gets to full payment being due and rooms possibly get cancelled. The agent might be helpful if I want to change my room category. So there isnt a need now to book my daughter in my parents room, I just know its been done on DIS when booking concierge rooms. We're hoping to get the same dining time/table, thinking booking the rooms at the same time might be helpful in doing that.

Right now our biggest problem is my parents dog.... I usually babysit a few times a year when they go on vacation and my older dd22 can babysit. I havent vacationed with my parents in 15 years and its becoming a chore, we'll see if we actually book a vacation lol.