This trip not worth the price

Freedom of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 13

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Verified Review
Freedom of the Seas

Eastern Caribbean

Sail date: September 21, 2014

Ship: Freedom of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9696

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 10 years ago

Review summary

This trip out of Port Canaveral  definitely not worth it. This is the second time we have been disappointed with Royal Carribean and also first time with Cruise.com  so far. This trip had too much sea time to start with then Royal Carribean claimed they had to drop off a sick passenger in Nassau and that put them 7 hours behind schedule. Baloney Coco Cay is a hop skip and jump from Nassau which we had to pass close to anyway as w e traveled toward our next destination.  So they dropped our stop in St. Thomas which was the best part of the trip. Instead we wound up in San Juan P.R. For 4 hours. So they slowed the ship down to a crawl to justify the change of schedule. They could have easily made it to St. Thomas and there was no way we were 7 hours behind. The worst part is we took this particular trip with RCL because on the web site and all the info from Cruise.com said our granddaughter 16 months old would have a Kiddie Pool area to swim and play in. Once we got on ship the very next day they told us that because she wore swim diapers she could only go in one little 8x8 area. Try and explain that to a little girl watching other children play where she wanted to be. Many families had the same problem which tells me neither RCL nor Cruise.com is doing anything to make sure people know the whole Kiddie Pool area is not for very small children. One woman complained enough RCL gave her a $200 credit on her CC. We hope to address this with RCL and Cruise.com. It is a shame because Coco Cay is a nice Island and the one thing that was good on this trip was the staff. From the dinner servers to the room attendant the workers are the best part of RCL. It was not that way on our last RCL trip in Europe. It's not that the trip didn't have some nice times, but too much went wrong all RCL's and Cruise.com fault to make it worth the money.  If you don't like spending all your time at sea don't take this trip,any little excuse by RCL and your at sea 90% of the time. Now that we know the truth about the Kiddie Pool area don't take this trip just for the baby cause you'll be disappointed. RCL used to be our favorite line but the last two trips are pushing us back to Carnival or Norwegian. This is also the first time we used cruise.com instead of our regular travel agent we will wait to see how they and RCL handle our complaints to decide whether it's worth giving them another shot.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
The dining room food was very good, but the Windjammer buffet and Portofino were just so so

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Activities were not particularly special except for entertainment

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Entertainment was mostly very good with small exceptions

Children's Programs

1 out of 5
RCL was not honest on web site about kiddie pool availability for toddlers

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Staff was wonderful. Especially our Dining room servers

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
Not in the best of shape. Starting to show its age.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

Take a different cruise line or take one of RCL's trips out of Miami, Ft. launder dale for less time at sea.

Ports of call

Port Canaveral, Florida

3 out of 5

Cococay (Cruise Line's Private Island)

5 out of 5

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5
Been there before but ship deviated never took us to St. Thomas

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

3 out of 5
Not my favorite place ok but not memorable
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