Freedom of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was my first and probably my last cruise. This was a learning experience for me. The ports were amazing, the cabin boy, server and assistant server were fantastic. The ship beautiful, the main dining room food was great and the entire week was full of fantastic weather.

The down side for me was too many people, I know it is a large ship, but the population of the town I live in was on that ship. I go on vacation to get away from everything.  I definitely did not have enough time in the ports to explore. There is so much to do and see, but with only 8 hours, you are extremely limited. The formal night, I didn't take a dress, as I am on vacation. I was told that I would no be allowed in the dining room in shorts and a cocktail dress was recommended, really, I paid just as those who chose to dress up but now am being told what to wear not only 1 night but 2. I was allowed to where capris, and suffered through the first night.

The costs that were not explained prior to the cruise could turn into an astronomical expense - additional tips, fees for towels if not checked back in, the additional seating charge for the Chops House and Sabor.

The boat, staff and ports made this trip nice and earned the 4 stars. I am thankful for the experience and to have visited the beautiful places I visited, but will not do another cruise and will go directly to the destination. For the money, I could have had a very nice land Caribbean vacation. I learned that although some love going on a cruise, this type of vacation was not for me.

We were well entertained, great cabin, (6636) starboard side, food was ok, over two hours debarkation time. (4700 passengers).  Crew made you feel welcome but sometimes hard to understand. Almost $400 drink pkg a little steep but probably in tune with other companies.  All in all, 90% reting 

I went on the Independence three years ago and it was amazing. They had more parades and better shows. The following year we went on the Allure. They had much better everything. We had preferred Independence to Allure as the ship was smaller. So, we tried that class again. It appears that they have taken their best performers to the larger/newer ships.

The food - Typically the food on RCL is not close to many ships including Carnival. This had many less selections if you wanted to stay in the main dining area. They are trying to get people to go to their specialty restaurants. Therefore, very little Italian choices and steak choices. Our wait staff was horrible. Our cabin steward was great.

For me the piano bar is a highlight. This player was fair and didn't play the standards. Many songs were very slow and I didn't stay. The guitar guy in the pub was great.

Should I take another cruise on RCL, I will go with the newest ship they will have at that time.

the entertainment was great ! the windjammer was hectic ! very hard finding a table for 6 ,the dining room waiter and assisting waiter didn't have time to chat with us , unlike all our other cruises .our room attendant never introduced herself , she was very good at making up our room,

The different bands on the ship were great as was most of the nightly shows.. To much pushing of high priced meals while food in main dinning rom was ho hum. Almost missed my flight because they put us on the wrong bus, one going to Miami. We have been on over 50 cruise ships and this is the second ship I ever viewed as so-so. I would not recommend Royal Carib. to any one. We were on a Royal ship 10 years ago and it was great that is why I wanted to try it again but won't make that mistake again.   

The Royal Caribbean employees are all terrific.  The shows are creative well performed and extremely enjoyable.  There are activities going on at all times.

If you are going to take shore excursions I recommend that you take the Royal tours.  We had difficult with the tours especially the one in St. Kits, the guide was poor at best, not staying with the group when we made stops to explain the highlights and gave the tourists a hard time when they requested he stop at beautiful overlooks.  This was Annie's tour.   The Puerto tour  guide was terrific, but could not take us into the El Moro Fort because "it was not on the tour", that is the symbol of Puerto Rico. The snorkel swim trip on St Martins was the best , great crew, great snorkeling with an in water guide, free drinks and a very personable crew.

We found the Freedom of the Seas a bit large for our taste.  The Windjammer and Promenade were often chaotic and loud with so many people vying for the same space.  The entertainment was very good, however, the musicians in the bars, the ice show, and the performances at the theater were very enjoyable.  The food was good but our particular waiter was not of the caliber to which we have grown accustomed.  Our steward was the best ever, though.  The weather could have been better, but we can't hold Royal Caribbean responsible for that!

Food and service excellent. My wife broke a bone in her foot while walking on her way to a tour bus in San Juan. Ship's medical people handled situation well, but we were unable to do our last 2 tours because she was in a wheelchair. There were also several days of very rough seas and we couldn't even stop at Labadee because of the rough seas. This is out third and last cruise....every one of them has been a disaster.

My favorite part of the cruise was the balcony and the beaches!

The entertainment was enjoyable.

The food was somewhat disappointing however the wait staff was great! We choose open dining so we had a few different waiters but they were all friendly, efficient and fun!

Our room steward (Werner) was very friendly and helpful.

The ports of call were wonderful.  We sailed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Marengo and St. Kitts.  It was extremely easy getting on and off the ship at each port.  The shows each evening were pretty darned god from the acappella group to the male singer to the ice skating shows.  Special note....make sure to see the ice skating show.  It was amazing.

  Dinners in the main dining rom ranged from good to very good.  We ate in two specialty dining rooms, Chops and Giovanni's.  Chops was so good we ate there three of the eight nights.  Giovanni's was not good.  We ate there at 6:00p.m. One night and three of our four dinners were cold to lukewarm.  There was no excuse for this as the restaurant only had about eight people eating that early.  Also, the food was tasteless.  C'mon Royal Caribbean, you can do better than this.

We love cruising and really appreciate the work Royal does in making our trips a real vacation. Staff and crew were excellent. Itinerary was perfect. Boat was great, and the food and entertainment were great.

Royal C. provided late boarding to accommodate the Ft Lauderdale airport tragedy on Jan 6th which was a big sigh of relief. I spent 24 hours trying to get reunited with my luggage and to my cruise port which would have normally been 4 hours but I'm thankful for being safe.

We also encountered stormy weather which prevented us from stopping in Haiti. 

Royal did a great job of making the vacation fun and I'm glad I was able to enjoy it. 

ship was clean and well maintained,except for the excursion desk staff was excellent. completely satisfied with the ship and staff. the only problem was the cancellation of "all" end of cruise excursions ,but "1" and thought they were trying to funnel passengers to it. we had already been on the excursion before. couldn't help with anything else. this caused a problem as to what to do after disembarking(how to kill 8 hours before flight home). 

For the money, this cruise should have been 5 stars all across the board. I was greatly disappointed. Having done 2 Carnival cruises for less than half the cost each compared to this RC cruise, I can confidently say that I will not likely by considering another RC cruise. The bar staff was rude and even explained to me that he "has problems". The service was slow as well almost across the board (except for the dining room). The food was just lousy. Buffet was the worst. Greasy, made from dehydrated anything. Also, on the last two days, the fruit that was served was about rancid. 

Unless you get an RC cruise for free, might want to stay away...

We thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment and all the wonderful people we met during our cruise. New Year's Eve on the Promenade was $$$, and while it was crowded, there are places on the ship (computer rooms) with chairs overlooking the Promenade and 20 people or so joined there to watch the balloons fall and wish each other Happy New Year.  We did enjoy a brief visit to the Solarium and it certainly was more quiet than the public pool area.

As Diamond members, we enjoyed the Lounge nightly and met more wonderful servers, (Ariel) and guests.  Looking forward to our next cruise.

We love the activities on board (although it was not as many as our previous Monarch of the Seas cruise), the cruise director was funny and very entertaining. The crews were friendly and helpful as well. Our room was well cleaned, our state room attendant was very attentive to us, we can easily requested anything and will be provided in short time (we did not requested weird things, just extra pillows).

The port of calls were not all very interesting, like Costa Maya where we were docked at a tourist ports where souvenirs were sold 5 times more expensive than the one sold at Mahahual (which also a tourists area for locals and cruises' passengers anyway). Grand Cayman was the best port of calls according to us. While in Cozumel, we did not get any chances to enjoy the city (which lead this comment to other review regarding shore excursion), we decided to book a shore excursion to Cichen Itza (took a 45 minutes ferry rides times 2 because we need to get back with the same ferry to the port, then a very long road trips to get there almost 2 hrs to get there plus 2 hrs to get back, plus the traffic), we paid about $260 for two persons and we only had 35 minutes to enjoy the huge place, yes we were in a "sprint" tour. It was the worst money spent here. Then we rushed back to the port to get the ferry back to the ship. We learned one thing that it is better to get a shore excursion at the ports that from the ship (more cheaper and more options).

Overall, we still had so much fun on-board and off-shore, so we think it's still fair enough to give 4 out of 5 for overalls experience with our recent Freedom of the Seas cruise.

the service in the ONLY non pay restaurants was AWFUL. The server had no help and too many tables. The food was the same every day.  The drink service on deck was hard to find.  The shows were good. 

We were satisfied with every aspect except the Costa Maya.   We chose a beach day as it was our first port and our teens wanted to see a Caribbean beach.  

It was the worst shore excursion I have seen.  Dirty, poor facilities and tacky.

We understand being in a different country but this was a cheap side show.

i am sure it is a convenient location for visiting Mayan historical sites.  However;

for those not choosing that option, it below standard.

We enjoyed our cruise very much and have sailed Royal several times.  My husband and I had a balcony room on the 8th deck.  It was very nice and our statesman did an outstanding job.  My adult children (19 and 23) had an room on the same deck overlooking the promenade.  Unfortunately, their beds were extremely hard and they did not get much sleep.  We enjoyed our dining experience, but would recommend going to the dining room (not Windjammer) for sit down Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.  Our service in the dining room was outstanding.  Windjammer was extremely crowded, loud, and the food was adequate.

I would highly recommend Giovanni (upscale Italian dining) the service was tremendous and the food was delicious, well worth it.  We also did Chop's (upscale steakhouse) but I was less impressed.  If you go to Chop's stick to steak, I ordered sea bass and it was poorly prepared. 

We went to a show every night and I was very impressed with the talent!  Music, Singers, Ice Skating (a must), Magician, it was very nice!  The entire family enjoyed the shows.

Finally, I will say the onboarding experience at the Fort Lauderdale Port was very chaotic.  It took almost 3 hours to get through parking, security, check-in etc.  The Parking was over a mile away from terminal 29, the check-in area was not well ventilated nor air conditioned, and the security equipment stopped working several times. 

All in all, I would give the trip a 7.  I am sure I will sail again with RCCL, but I will only do balcony rooms and will likely not go to the Fort Lauderdale port again. 

We were very appreciative of the hard work that the RCCL staff put into making sure our honeymoon was a fantastic one. Everything from the food available at the buffets to the activities both on, and off, the ship were lots of fun. 

Thanks for a great trip!!!