It was a good cruise but I would avoid this cruise again in January... not hot enough and it was way to windy this time of the year to really enjoy cruising and the beach stops. We will look into Southern Caribbean cruise in the winter.. going down to Aruba/Curacao area... where it is guaranteed to be warmer. Maybe that's why it was so cheap :)
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Embarkation was a lot faster I expected. We arrived in Uber, at port 29, at 12:30 pm and it was less than an hour from exiting the car to in the room. The longest wait was the security and the metal detector but even that was a breeze. Platinum check-in line was definitely shorter than the regular line and once we got through, it was no wait, just straight on through to the room.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
So the dinner seating in the main dining room is now just 1 1/2 hours per seating. So our 5:30pm dining needed to be done before 7 so that 7 pm seating can be served. This made our waiter literally run around the table. Honestly, I found this to be annoying. I know they are cutting back on costs but we didn't have time for coffee with dessert as we felt bad and wanted to vacate the table for the waiter and assistant waiter. They work so hard, I didn't want to linger. They suggested that 2nd seating will be more relaxed.. so maybe next time. The food is also uninspired. Presentations were very sloppy. Few nights the food was okay but the rest of the cruise, the food was delicious. Again, I can see how they are rushing things at Dinner... even in the kitchen...
The soft serve Ice cream, Sprinkles, is a big disappointment. Long line almost all the time and there is only 1 and it's only open from 10 to 8??? Need at least one more and be open longer.. later..
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Typical RCCL cruise with flowrider, mini golf, rock climing, table tennis, and ice skating ring.. movies.. video games.. we didn't do them all but are all standard stuff.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The production show was good. The leade female singer had a terrific voice. The magicial Justino Zoppe was good but little too melodramatic with his story telling. My 10 yr old loved it. Got a pic with him and he singed my son's seapass card. Movie was 3D version Captain Underpants.. would have loved it except we've already seen it 30 times or more at home.. :)
Children's Programs
My kids hate Children's program.. 6 cruises under their belt... never been to one.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our wait staff were a good team that worked well. I think we got the Asst. Waiter in trouble few times with all the chit chatting. As usual, I love having traditional seating with waiters.. they had fruit cups ready for our kids as soon as we sat down and knew how we liked things by the 2nd night. Fantastic people.
Our stateroom attendant was Debbie and she was not very talkative but she was very on the ball and got everything taken care of.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
First time in a Freedom class ship and it was big and everything was clean and functioning. Although there was a break out of norovirus on our cruise, no one from our family got sick.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Standard balcony room.. I learned that Freedom class ships have balcony dividers that slide, rather than open like a door. (Had a problem in previous ship that the door could not be opened without blocking a door to one cabin, when we were traveling with family in two rooms next to each other) The bad part was the hard mattress... seriously.. we had hard time sleeping. I went to the sofa bad one night which ended up being so much better she slept there the rest of the cruise.
Ship tip
Don't get your room in the very front of the ship where I was.. lot of banging and clanking noises throughout the night.
Wind canceled our excursion.. 2nd visit in a row... So we went to a beach.. not as nice as you would imagine... the beach is only about 10 feet wide and a steep drop off.. shelly bottom... not returning to Grand Cayman anytime soon.
Visited the Mayan ruins... it was okay but there is nothing here outside the little built up port area.. better than Falmouth, Jamaica (which is horrendous) but stilll nothing else around.
This is not normal weather for the Caribbean. Everywhere is having a winter problems this year. I have cruised many times during the winter in every part of the Caribbean and it has always been,sunny and warm with calm seas. Out of all the cruises I have taken on the Caribbean I think I have had a total of 2 days of rain. Winter is wonderful in,the Caribbean but it is a very weird winter this year. We have even had snow in northern Florida!!!
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