Freedom of the Seas

Item: Freedom of the Seas
Rating: 4
Author: TravelwithTwins

Freedom of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

TravelwithTwins

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 14

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Verified Review

8 Night Eastern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 18, 2017

Ship: Freedom of the Seas

Cabin number: 1860

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

This was our third cruise on Royal Caribbean and we had a wonderful time. This was our first time cruising with young children and were very impressed with the Adventure Club and activities for children onboard.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

The food was good but I recall a better selection of items in the dining room from previous cruises. The only negative comment I have was that our server was trying to upsell us every single night to purchase a better quality steak or lobster tail which in the past has been included on both formal nights. On the second formal night the lobster tail was included. If we wanted to spend money on the meal, we would have booked through their speciality restaurants. The sales pressure each night to either purchase finer dining, wine tasting packages or ship tours became annoying.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Wonderful cabin and loved the panoramic view.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

5 out of 5

Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)

5 out of 5

San Juan, Puerto Rico

3 out of 5

Need a longer time in port because it was difficult to book any excursions.

Thumbs Up 2

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

5 out of 5

Basseterre, St. Kitts

5 out of 5

1 Comment

JohnsonL 7 years ago

Upselling beyond providing information for your cruising enjoyment seems to be a recurring issue. We have not had that to the point of annoyance, but, we have followed the same practice as with any service provider on land for service issues on cruises. Being direct and polite when letting them know they are not helpful, then escalating if it is unresolved seems to solve these issues quickly. If crew are pushing that that boundary based on ship's practices, I would assume this if the behaviour did not stop after escalation, I would make sure to point that out on the post cruise review and forums like Cruiseline.com.

As a habit, we always capture names and deeds, mostly for outstanding service, but on occasion we have made sure the cruise line/ship knows about their shortcomings. We have only used names for positive feedback with respect for the financial stress of the crew, and with the thought that if it got that bad, we would address it in realtime with the ship's management.

I have also read about poor response at the Service desk and this would definitely be included in both a cruise line/ship review and with some escalation during the cruise.

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