Very Dissapointed

We just recently returned from a Western Caribbean cruise on the Freedom of the Sea. This was the fifth cruise we have taken on a Royal Caribbean voyager ship. These ships are huge with over 4,200 passengers & 1,500 crew members. My wife & I love the Promenade Mall located on deck five, that runs through the center of the ship. We love to sit, enjoy a coffee or tea and people watch everyone passing by all day & night.

We have pro’s & con’s on cruising this Royal Caribbean ship.

On the brighter side, we thought our dining experience on [deck four] was outstanding. Our waiter along with the assistant waiter gave us the best service we ever had on any of our 10 total cruises. They were very friendly & informing us of dining venues for the next day also. I mean as far as drink refills, before our drinks were half completed, we had another one in front of us. In addition, the menu choices were good along with the fine deserts.

I must admit, this time around, we had issues also. First of all, since the first day we got on board we had trouble with the TV in our stateroom. It took two days to get a new remote and that didn’t solve the issue, but at least were able to change TV channels. We had messages on our TV which we could not view. We complained to our stateroom attendant almost every day, but no fix. I called maintenance almost every day to rectify issues with viewing the interactive TV. I felt like we were getting the run around. To be honest, we never did get to view any our messages and I got tired of asking how to retrieve them.

We were shocked also on this cruise those two nights our towels were left on the bathroom floor when we got back in our cabin after dinner or replaced with new ones. One night I called housekeeping at 10:30 PM and they told me to look under the bed for clean towels. I almost thought he was joking, but he was serious.

Another issue was with our cruise reservation. Clearly stated on our reservation with AAA North Penn travel center was we were to receive a bottle of champagne upon arrival. After a couple days passed, I went to the guest relations desk and they told me that our room number was not listed for that promotion and all it showed was $50 on board credit. How could this be??

As far as the guest relations desk, I stood in line for 30 minutes to get one of my questions answered. There were five people at the desk when I first arrived, but then after waiting, it dwindled down to just one person. I have no idea where everyone went. Many people in line were getting very impatient. Management really needs to look over the amount of people left to help and oversee how many people go on break at the same time. I wasted 30 minutes of my time standing in line that I could have been enjoying on the ship.

Dining in the Windjammer [buffet] on this ship was horrible. The food selections were far below par from everyone one of our past Royal Caribbean Cruises. The chicken selections for lunch & dinner [mostly dark meat] were terrible. We did enjoy the carved turkey station, which we saw only one day. The carved beef was dry & very tough, not a good cut of meat. My wife & I tried to avoid this buffet area whenever we could. The dining room for lunch is only open for lunch when at sea. We feel management needs to reconsider and allow the lunch dining room stay opened every day, even if it’s just the great salad choices that are offered by chefs upon entering dining room.

As far as the entertainment, we were very disappointed. There were only two production shows with the Royal Caribbean singers & dancers which were outstanding.  Then three nights they had two comedians & an illusionist. But, one night they had a rock bank in which did not fit in with the age group of the ship, [if I were to guess 50 years of age]. I mean as the Rock band started to perform, rows of people were leaving during the performance every couple minutes. It was quite obvious that show did not fit in with the age group on board. We were very disappointed in Royal Caribbean for scheduling them to perform on this ship; it was a wasted night of entertainment. We never saw that many people leaving any show ever. I’m sure the band felt insulted by the number of people walking out during their performance.

My wife & I always thought Royal Caribbean Cruise lines were a step above other cruise lines till this cruise.