Excellent Mediterranean cruise.

Freedom of the Seas Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

rburns1

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 11

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

7 Night Western Mediterranean (Barcelona Roundtrip)

Sail date: July 02, 2017

Ship: Freedom of the Seas

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 8947

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Overall a great experience for a first time cruising, will definitely be doing one again. The staff were brilliant always greeting you by name and with a smile. The food was great with something to suit everyone also the drinks were all top name brands again with everything you could want.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Great, bags taken off you at the port and delivered to your room.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Buffets and main dining room food was great. The waiters and all staff could not do enough for you.We had the drinks package and it was well worth it as the average price for a drink/cocktail was $9 .

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Children's Programs

4 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Ports of call

Barcelona, Spain

4 out of 5

Marseille (Provence), France

5 out of 5

Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France

5 out of 5

La Spezia, Italy

5 out of 5

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

4 out of 5

Naples, Italy

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

3 out of 5

5 Comments

JOHIOSTATE 7 years ago

JohnsonL, thank you for the follow-up comments. Very insightful and helpful.

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JohnsonL 7 years ago

JOHIOSTATE: We did the 9 day Greek Isles Mediterranean tour from Rome/Port Civitavecchia in October of 2016. That was on Jewel of the Seas. We wanted to precede the cruise with a week in Rome, one of our bucket list vacations, so JOS and embarkation from Civitavecchia were convenient. In summary, we loved the ports and the ship and reviewed it so on cruiseline :-) and of course, we can't wait to get back to Rome. Some icing on the cake was that round trip airfare from Toronto to Rome was under $700 a person, not much more than our airfare from Ohio to Fort Lauderdale. The Greek Isle itinerary missed the French and Spanish ports but did a good job on the Italian and Greek ports along with one stop in Turkey. Our prior Mediterranean cruise 16 years ago started from Istanbul and ended in Barcelona but that was a two-week Cruise. And we don't know if cruises are still starting from Istanbul these days although Istanbul and Kusadasi, the Turkish port near Ephesus, are wonderful for religious, historical, and cultural experiences and for their wonderful people who really appreciate visitors. By the way there are cruises that include ports on the Southern shore of the Mediterranean along with many different Mediterranean Islands. I think people often look at Mediterranean cruising and focus on ports near or on the northern coast of the Mediterranean. Granted the North coast area of the Med has usually been a less volatile area, for most of the last few decades, but there are more great places to visit on all Mediterranean coasts than a large number of cruises could ever cover.

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EpicH0823 7 years ago

Wow!! It seems like your overall experience was not good. I'm taking that cruise in 2018 and I am so looking forward to it. I've been on 4 cruises so far... 1 on the Carnival Imagination, 3 on Royal Caribbean: Allure of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, and Navigator of the Seas. I've had a great overall experience on every ship. Unfortunately, everything isn't gonna go perfect on these ships. The only bad experiences that I've had is the disembarkation. On the Navigator, the computers went down so it took us an extra hour and a half to get off the ship. As far as entertainment, dining, excursions, flowriders, food, and overall service!! I give Royal Caribbean 8 out of 10 stars. That's why I continue to sail with them.

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JOHIOSTATE 7 years ago

How did you like your itinerary? I have always wanted to do a Mediterranean cruise.

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JOHIOSTATE 7 years ago

Glad to hear that you had such a great time! Freedom of the Seas is a fantastic ship and was an excellent choice on your part. For your next cruise you should consider an Oasis class ship, a Freedom class ship on steroids ð.

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