My favorite part of the cruise was seeing so many amazing places! Our cruise departed from Barcelona, Spain and went to Marseille, France; Villefranche/Nice/Monte Carlo, France; Laspezia/Cinque Terre/Vernazza, Italy; Rome, Italy; Naples, Italy; Sorrento, Italy; then, back to Barcelona for another day and night. We had incredibly beautiful weather EVERY day!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Children's Programs
3 out of 5
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
I absolutely LOVE the Freedom of the Seas! However, I feel like it wasn't as sparkling clean as it was when I sailed on her in October 2016. I also noticed some very unfortunate cut-backs in Chops Steakhouse (Specialty Restaurant onboard).
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Excellent cabin steward!!! The room was in a great location on deck 10!
Ship tip
We thoroughly enjoyed dining in the Windjammer restaurant! Great selection and the service was outstanding! I would also recommend Chops Steakhouse and Sabor for Specialty Dining.
Don't miss the entertainment on this beautiful ship! The ice show is not to be missed!
We stayed at the H10 Metropolitan hotel pre-cruise and the Olivia Balmes hotel post-cruise. Both hotels were phenomenal! The service at both hotels was unmatched and exceptionally clean! The H10 Metropolitan hotel was a little more centrally located for us.
We also did the Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour of Barcelona. Great value and a lot of fun!
Take time to see Old Nice, Nice, and Monte Carlo. They are all so beautiful and we loved the interaction with the French people. They were very kind and eager to help.
Walk to the train and take it to Cinque Terre/Vernazza! It is breathtaking! We climbed up the hillside and took amazing photos! We also ate lunch there under the umbrellas by the water. They had homemade pesto! Loved it!
We were hoping to go to Capri, but the afternoon shuttle ferry was sold out. So, we opted for walking around the city of Naples for a bit and then taking a ferry shuttle to Sorrento. We had a blast in Sorrento and enjoyed lunch with an incredible view!
As far as Chops goes, the shrimp cocktail was about an inch long. Before that, they were huge! Also, the mud pie dessert was not the same quality. The price had also gone up to $38.
My deepest apologies...we were on a bus for a short ride to get out of the port and then we walked to the train station. I totally forgot about the short bus ride. I'm so sorry about that. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!
Great review! Thank you for the tips and details. Two follow-up questions for you.
The first is your walk from the port in Civitavecchia to the train station. We sailed on Jewel in October 2016 and the dock used for Jewel was very far from the opening to the port area. We were between two container ships. The embarkation area entrance was a portable tent in front of a smaller building. No complaints, it was fast and they had great accommodations but I think we were at least a couple of miles, on a freight service road, from the port's entrance.
The second question is about the cutbacks in Chops. We have enjoyed Chops on fos but would like to hear about the cutbacks before we go on it again. Thank you.
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