Solid Southern Caribbean Cruise, with a few asterisks...
Freedom of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 67
7 Night Southern Caribbean (San Juan Roundtrip)
Sail date: August 04, 2019
Ship: Freedom of the Seas
Cabin type: Suite
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.Embarkation
Embarkation was extremely easy. We arrived to the terminal shortly after 11:00 a.m., and boarded within 10-minutes (which included a bathroom stop and muster bracelet for our six-year-old).
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The quality of the food was the biggest disappointment on this cruise (I am waffling between two and three stars because the drinks were generally good). Of note, we did not dine at any of the specialty restaurants (on board dining is not where we choose to spend additional money), so our dining was limited to the MDR (my-time), Windjammer and Promenade locations. While our six-year-old could not get enough of the pizza and soft-serve ice-cream (poolside), no single meal was memorable. We previously cruised with RCCL twice, and I found the food was better on both prior experiences. The preparation of the lobster on the second formal night was probably better than on our prior cruises, but that is my lone standout for this particular cruise.
Two things we learned about the food on the last day of the cruise: 1) Sorrento's will make gluten-free Pizza to order; and 2) the MDR has a vegan menu on request. Neither is advertised.
Onboard Activities
I worked out four of the seven mornings. The fitness center was clean, and only relatively crowded on one of the four days I used it (day two of the cruise). The equipment was in good order and clean.
The pools were clean, and also generally not overcrowded when we used them.
I took my six-year-old skating one of the two times the rink was open for skating (I actually found it a bit disappointing that there were only two free skate sessions). The line was long, but moved efficiently. After getting the skates and helmet, we only ended up with about 10-minutes of skating time. I understand it is difficult to coordinate the skating with its popularity, but I would like to see something to make the process more efficient so everyone can maximize their ice time.
The arcade is spotty, and debited our money without crediting the machine on at least two occasions. The ship said we would be refunded, but we never were (it's only a few dollars, but there is principle here).
We did not use the rock-wall or other ship-based activities.
Entertainment
The only show we saw was the ice-show, which we saw twice at the insistence of our six-year-old. The size of the rink obviously limits what the skaters can do, but with that limitation, they are still able to perform some aerials and other visual effects.
During our time poolside, we heard a few of the bands, which were good.
Children's Programs
Our six-year-old had been looking forward to Adventure Ocean for a while before the cruise. He was excited to have moved from the Aquanauts (3-5 year-olds) to the Explorers (6-8 year-olds). Registration occurs on night one, and after registering our son, we went to drop him off in Explorers and noticed quite a few older children in the room. When my wife inquired, she was informed that the ship would be combining the Explorers with the Voyagers (9 - 11 year-olds) for this cruise because there were not enough children to justify splitting the group up (note: there were at least 20 kids in the room when we were told this, and hundreds of kids on this cruise). What really upset us about this decision was the staff's lack of candor about their decision. We felt like the combining of groups should have been information provided to parents up front, and not in a manner that made it appear they were hiding something. While we have no problem with our son playing and interacting with older kids (he otherwise does summer programs with kids up to 12), the interaction left us very uncomfortable.
After this interaction occurred, we spoke with the head of the kids programming, who defended the decision. We thereafter received multiple calls in our stateroom from the department head offering to allow our child to attend Aquanauts (3-5 year-olds) if we felt more comfortable, to give us a walkie-talkie for direct contact to the room, and even offered our child a special surprise if he were to come.
Perhaps we were overly sensitive here, but the failure to be up-front was really bothersome, particularly on the heels of recent events on the ship. If the staff had been up front about combining the groups when we filled out the consent form, our son likely would have participated. As handled, ship personnel failed (notably, my son loved the program on our previous RCCL cruises, and we were extremely happy with the staff).
Service and Staff
Aside from the children's program staff, the service and staff on the ship was excellent. Our room steward kept our room clean and stocked with towels, and she remade a towel animal for my son on the last night of the cruise that he particularly enjoyed.
MDR wait staff was excellent. By night three, they knew what drinks my wife and I ordered to start our meal, and they were very interactive with our son (our head-waiter seemed to be an amateur magician, which our son really loved). The one somewhat annoying thing about the MDR staff was a constant attempt to upsell meal add-ons (surf-and-turf, etc.). Again, this is not where we choose to spend our extra money, and I am guessing there is a standing directive for the staff to do this.
Ship Quality
The layout of the ship is very good, and the ship was generally clean. We sailed one of Freedom's sister ships last-year (Adventure) and in some ways, Freedom is more intelligently designed. For example, on Freedom, next cruise is on the Promenade, whereas on Adventure, it was on deck 6 or 7 --- Promenade makes more sense to me. The specialty restaurants on Freedom also seemed to be more intelligently placed.
Overall, the ship is extremely easy to navigate, and we did not experience overcrowding in any particular area other than the first night of the ice-show, which was bedlam.
One odd thing on Freedom, there was no handwashing station at the entrance to Windjammer, only hand sanitizing stations. Adventure had both, which makes more sense.
Cabin / Stateroom
We had a junior suite on deck 9, near the aft elevator bank. Last year, on Adventure (a sister ship), we had a balcony stateroom. The difference between the two is noticeable, and the junior suite was far more practical and comfortable for my family of three (who are notorious overpackers). Having a walk-in closet and a bathroom with a full-size shower and enough space for more than one person to stand in was fantastic. The size of the stateroom and balcony were also large enough to allow us to comfortably spend time in the room when we did not feel like being around large groups.
Ship tip
Overall, Freedom is a solid ship with a great staff. If you are sailing with kids, ask the children's staff about their programming up-front, because they do not seem to offer information.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We arrived to San Juan the day before the cruise and stayed at La Concha. Nice hotel, but there is loud music that plays poolside until very late (past 11:00 p.m.). This may not be the best hotel to stay at with young children.
We did not do an excursion.
St. Maarteen was our least favorite port. We opted against an excursion because none of the excursions jumped out at us. While the island is very pretty, the shop owners are very aggressive to those just walking around.
Beautiful island, aggressive merchants (cabbies, shops) in the port area, but great once you leave. We did a catamaran excursion to Nevis for lunch and swimming. The excursion staff was great, and the beach we sailed to was serene. The excursion included a BBQ lunch which was basic but good.
In Antigua, we made a last minute decision to do an excursion to stingray city (based mostly on our experience in St. Maarten). The excursion was great. We got about 45-minutes in the water with the Stingrays, and the group that ran the tour was excellent. It started raining hard when we got back to the port area, so we only walked around for a few moments before returning to the ship.
St. Lucia was the most picturesque of our stops. We did an excursion on a replica pirate ship to the Pitons, the mud baths, and for a local lunch. The mud baths are an "interesting" experience --- very crowded, marginally sanitary, but otherwise fun.
In Barbados, we went on a jeep tour to the Green Monkey sanctuary. Great excursion, and the sanctuary is a really unique experience. Great with kids.
Disembarkation
We had an early flight from San Juan (10:30 a.m.) so we carried our own bags off. From port clearance to cab took roughly 15-minutes, and there were several hundred people ahead of us in line. Overall, San Juan has been the easiest port I have sailed in and out of (this was the sixth cruise I have been on in my life).