RCCL official owns Liberty now!

[Dave]

The cruise was fine - great in fact. The disappointment came from nothing special being done for the inaugural by the cruise line until late in the cruise when we got a generic certificate with no names on it. And then the RCI president showed up on one of the last nights at the show to thank everyone - the feeling was this was a bit of damage control that was hastily arranged. Many complaints had apparently been lodged about it being treated like "just another cruise". This was confirmed on the last day when the CD and the Captain told us they blew it and should have done more.

[tncruiseman]

It really is hard to imagine a company spending the amount of money they did to build Freedom of the Seas and not making that first revenue cruise a spectacular memory, not just for the passengers and crew, but the company image as well. The publicity generated would have been free no-doubt. Some heads in marketing should roll for not being creative enough for a company to laud its latest innovation at every possible time!

[Dave]

Actually, before we departed Miami there were TV news trucks setting up across the channel on the causeway. I assume they were expecting "something" to happen too as we pulled away from the pier.

Oh, we were mooned by a guy in a speedboat that buzzed us several times.

[carlg]

The mooning must have been part of the official ceremony!

[Dave]

I thought it might be a tribute to Jackie Gleason...you know, he did his show from "the sun and fun capital of the world Miami Beach" and The Honeymooners used a moon in the opening credits.