You can save some money on Royal Caribbean by sailing in an inside room. However, a Liberty of the Seas balcony stateroom, especially the right balcony room, can make your sailing even better. While it may not have the perks that a suite can get you, being able to sit outside in the evening and watch the water go by can really add to your cruise experience.
What was the room like?
My wife and I booked room 6514 on the Liberty of the Seas sailing out of Galveston July 21. My parents had the room next door. While sailing next to your parents may not sound like a lot of fun, knowing the people in the next room really matters for these balcony rooms, as the door between the balconies can be opened, making the balcony much bigger. This may seem like a minor point, but the breeze flowed better with the door open. The open feeling provided by this was a nice perk of this room. Also, as room 6514 is the first balcony room on deck 6, there is a large, Plexiglas bubble facing forward that allows you to see straight ahead of the ship, a nice surprise that I did not know when I booked it.
The rest of the room is relatively standard. There are 2 beds that can be pushed together into 1 queen, a sitting area, bathroom, and ample storage for 2 people. Moreover, this room could easily accommodate an extra passenger or two.
The bathroom was more than adequate for our needs, with your traditional cruise line shower setup. I was a little disappointed that our room steward did not check the soap dispenser in the shower regularly. We had to make a call to get it refilled, but that is a minor issue.
Were there any problems?
Now, while I enjoyed this room, there were a few drawbacks. One was the distance from our room to the elevators. It was not excessive, but it was much further than I preferred. Also, being on deck 6, you have easy access to the internal promenade areas. Getting to the outer decks can be a chore as the elevators are always busy in this part of the ship. All in all though, this was an excellent room on a very nice ship.
