Liberty of the Seas: Final days

The final two days of the cruise were sea days as we steamed across the Caribbean from Falmouth back to Galveston.  As with most ship days they were busy.  I continued my intense exercise program until collecting a minor injury on the last full day of the voyage playing basketball with Samuel.

Samuel was enjoying the kids club even more in the last days of the trip as he made some friends. Somehow his art skills have improved as we discovered when he checked out of the club one night.

The last formal night saw Elise bring out another dress she picked up in Houston - hopefully both her dresses will survive in our luggage until our next cruise in Singapore.  The dinner that night was excellent.  The previous day I had eaten a great lamb shank and our waiter, on hearing I couldn't eat a lobster tail for dinner (my shellfish allergy) managed to rustle up a second one for the next evening even though lamb wasn't on the menu.  After dinner the wait staff even put on a brief Bollywood style show on the grand staircase in the formal dining room.

The food continued to be a highlight.  Apparently it was Royal Caribbean's 50th birthday which seemed to be a good reason for lots of cake and other treats.

Alas soon it was all over.  Early in the morning the gigantic liner returned to Galveston.  I arose for my usual early morning walk to be greeted by the very un-Caribbean sight of Galveston port full of buildings and industry and other civilization type things.  We finished packing, had one last breakfast in the Windjammer Café then endured a slow and painful disembarkation.  For most it was welcome home to the good old US of A, but for us the long journey continued the next day with a flight to California.  Perhaps we were finally feeling a bit of endless holiday fatigue.

Cruising -  a few thoughts and stories

First we really enjoyed our trip.  Yeah a few things about the port stopovers weren't A1, but mostly everything else was.  Thoughts that we (especially Eric) wouldn't enjoy being cooped up in a boat for a week were unfounded.  The food, the people, the service and the on board activity and entertainment were all first class.  We still had our FCC (future cruise credit) from our abortive Trans Atlantic crossing to use so we were very happy to sit down with a Cruise Consultant on the last day and book a South Pacific Cruise out of Sydney with Royal Caribbean in January 2021.

Now for some cruise humour.  One thing our travels have showed us that the stereotypes of dumb tourists that we often hear are generally inaccurate.  The vast majority of people we have met during our nearly year away, whether from the USA or Europe or places elsewhere have been quite worldly.  However while onboard, we heard a few tales from Royal Caribbean staff in discussion and in an onboard presentation that were absolute gold...

There are no stupid questions on Liberty of the Seas but these come close...

Which floor is Deck 11 on?
What time is the three o'clock parade?
Why isn't the microwave working in my room?  (it's a safe)
I booked an oceanview room, why am I seeing the land?
Is it ok to get off the ship in port?
Do the crew live onboard?
Do these stairs go up or down?

So this woman wanted to book the 3 day cruise to Sydney and didn't understand why she couldn't embark in Southampton.

Guest "Where do the crew sleep?"
Customer services Rep "On level 1"
Guest "Is it dull down there"
Rep "Oh no, you see the bottom of the boat is glass so we can see all the fish and ocean and all that"
Guest "Wow, I'd like to see that"

So the tourist went on to book a spot on the ships "Behind the scenes tour" and, after complaining that the tour didn't take in the glass hull and the fish and all that, the Rep had to give the Tourist formal apology to keep their job.