dropped the ball not Royal Caribbean

Freedom of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 10

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Verified Review
Freedom of the Seas

8 Night Eastern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 01, 2017

Ship: Freedom of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 6294

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

The ship was great, the ship service was great.  However we were given wrong information by that cost us 130 dollars.  We were told chef's table would be comped but our voucher indicated otherwise.  I reached out to our rep (three times) that gave us the information and never received a phone call, email, or anything with less than 2 days left before our cruise.  Also, Royal Caribbean initiated a 7.95 surcharge for all room service before our trip and although might not have known about this implementation they have had time now to find out about the surcharge change.  The ship detail information on all royal Caribbean ships needs to be updated.  Long story short, double check all information given to you by , which is annoying in itself so perhaps you should just deal with the cruise line directly and avoid the "convenience" of . ( I must have called  about at least 6 times for different reasons, many of those times getting different answers from some individuals who had no idea of what their policies were and gave me wrong answers.  Meanwhile I sensed that each of these people had no clue so I would call back again and get some one who finally would be able to help with the correct answers)

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

Pizza on the promenade was disgusting. However the chicken roti at the sandwich shop was amazing. The drinks at each bar by the pool was watered down and cost at least 1-2 dollars more than the other bars around the ship. Nadia and Rudolf were amazing! (asst waiter and waiter in the dinning room)

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

2 out of 5

Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)

1 out of 5

San Juan, Puerto Rico

3 out of 5

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

3 out of 5

Basseterre, St. Kitts

3 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 10

8 Comments

brougdam    7 years ago

JohnsonL    7 years ago

In this case it really sounds like the travel agent and not Royal should get the negative revIew.  We've had very good experiences with a ta and then potentially bad from the same ta when the individual was not as skilled as a different agent in the same office. Ta's offer benefits but verifying is still an investment we MUST make to protect precious time with family even if money is not the concern.

We complete our cruise reservations with the cruise lines on our own and then choose whether to let our preferred TA, AAA, takeover the booking, transfers, flights, etc. That way we know our cruise cost details and then TA can look for a lower price and add their perks, of course, in writing. We have rebooked and paid a slightly higher Cruise fare to pick up on board credit for example. On one we paid less than $50 per person extra Cruise fare but picked up $100 per person of onboard credit.

On past vacations with international travel AAA has done a good job and then stepped up where there was a mistake so that our cost was completely covered. On one occasion, we had trouble finding a meeting place for a group tour of the Colosseum in Rome. AAA called us to give us directions from the tour guide to get us to the meeting place. We were VERY impressed and will continue to use ta in the future with caveat emptor etc.

WaveRunnr70    7 years ago

mga    7 years ago

AAA is giving each room for our group a bottle of champagne. Hope it works out.

ghiagal    7 years ago

I will say I don't think Freedom deserves two star review because your Travel agency's screw up. People see the ships they choose off reviews and many won't read that the issues were caused by a travel agent and not the ship

ghiagal    7 years ago

I'm guessing since it's a voucher it was a travel agent - and they should know and it should have stated in your paperwork up to a certain $ amount. Our paper work from our ta has always stated up to $40 per person and excludes certain dates/restaurant options.

twangster    7 years ago

Sounds like your issue is with a travel agency. I'm dealing with one now that is waffling on the two specialty dinners they offered. I expect we will get one. If that happens I won't blame RC but the agency and they will lose my business. Fingers crossed. Emails saved. We'll see.

Windjam064    7 years ago

sorry about the experience. Did you work with RCI or a travel agent?

Other reviews of this sailing