Cruising to New England & Canada - The Ship

I have recently returned from a 9 night cruise on Royal Caribbean's  Liberty of the Seas. We left from Bayonne, NJ and sailed to Portland, ME, Bar Harbor, ME, Halifax, Nova Scotia and Boston, MA.

Today's post is about the ship. We had 3600 passengers on our cruise through the ship can hold more.

We had a balcony room and found the room to have a lot of space.
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The central area of the ship is called the Royal Promenade. It looks like a mall area and it does have shopping and food locations. It was also the central hub for many ship activities. We loved walking around that area or just sitting to people watch.

While our cruise was on the chilly side, I did take a walk around the upper deck to see all the pools and other activities.

There is a kids splash zone and family pool and an adult only section with its own pool. There is a rock climbing wall and mini golf as well as the Flowrider, which allows you to try your hand at surfing.

The fitness center had a full size boxing ring, space for classes and plenty of machines. There is also a jogging track on the top deck.
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There is a casino which is open when the ship is in International Waters. I spent most evenings playing some slots after dinner and even played a slots tournament which was fun.

I went to 8 of the 9 evening shows on board. There were several nights of different variety acts, like a juggler and magician. There was also an aerial show and Saturday Night Fever, which was the only Broadway style show of the cruise (it was my favorite of all the shows).
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The ship also has an ice skating rink on board (yes, you can rent skates and go ice skating) so they also do an ice show. You have an assigned time at some point during the cruise to see that show. I enjoyed that as well.

Several times the Royal Promenade becomes the center of an event. On the first night, there was the Move It, Move It parade. The whole center space is used while different characters from Shrek, Madgascar and Kung Fu Panda dance and get the whole crowd involved.

There was a 70s dance party there also one night.

There are some activities that do cost a small fee but are definitely worth it. I did a wine tasting on the last sea day that was very informative and had great wine.
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My favorite activity was cupcake decorating. Even if you have no experience, the chef is great at demonstrating and walking you through the process. By the end, we had all made a cute cupcake puppy! We got to take it back to our room to enjoy later.