Freedom of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We spent the last week on the Freedom of the Seas in the eastern caribbean. We loved the ship but were VERY disappointed with the food on board. Also, due to rough seas, we were not able to stop at Coco Cay which is not the fault of RCCL but we do think they could have substituted another port like San Juan. This was a 7 day cruise which now left only St Thomas and St Martin on the itinerary. 4 days at sea in my opinion is too many.

My favorite part of the cruise was being back on the ocean again.  

This was our forth cruise on the Freedom from Port Canaveral, FL. It was a bit sad to see the ship in such poor condition. Most of the carpeting, furniture and bedding are in need of replacement.  The cigarette smoke was throughout the ship. Nightclubs have turned into specialty resturants.  There is little you can do on the ship that won't cost you extra money.  The food quality was severly below par for Royal Caribbean.  Plus, services are more limited as they have reduced staff.  

We would recommend this cruise and most importantly this ship.  It has been the best ship with the friendliest crew we have ever taken and we will take it again.  

My favorite part is about the hospitality of the crews especially 

at the Squeeze bar with Aldwin Cedo and Benjie Miranda. 

Also awesome service from Karen Coleen Hall and Lawry D'Cruz. 

At the Windjammer Yang Xiao Lin was very polite and was always smiling .. 

I'm a Diamond now and this is my 1st time on the Freedom of the Seas. 

I have already booked another sailing in October 2017 on the Harmony.. 

im so very excited.. 

The servers in the dining room went over and above.  They were the best!!!  This ship is the perfect size. We would highly recommend sailing on the Freedom!   

Despite the rough waters the first couple of days, my husband and I had the greatest time ever.  It was the first time we were able to truly escape reality and be able to relax and unwind.  The staff was wonderful and very friendly.  Freedom of the sea is just the perfect size to allow people to be as involved in activities as they want or to just relax and do nothing.  For us we were somewhere in the middle, a lot of relaxation and still involved in many activities.  I even checked off by bucket list by climbing on the rock wall.  Now that may not seem like a great accomplishment, but believe me it was tough…  Our dinner experience in the main dining was outstanding.  Our waiter was Livingston and I missed him on our first day home.  He made the experience even more wonderful and entertaining.   

What should have been a marvelous cruise by a Diamond member ended being much less ...From wrong room assignments...Lack of acknowledgement of Diamond status (had to go to the service desk to get our benefits loaded onto our cards (Gavron, I think)...To shuttle transfers not being found on the manifest but I was able to produce proof of purchase/same thing happened heading back... The worse was " a dried lump of poop" being found stuck on a fresh towel...YUCK!! This was reported to the service desk with many apologies received from the young lady

The saving graces were our Dining Room staff members...O'Neill and Princess (the name fits) went out of their way to make our evening meals memorable ones (great personalities) and they were loaded with information about our ports of call...Kadeem Matthews in the Windjammer is also another person worth noting for his quiet, accomodating and caring demeanor.

I enjoyed the food, drinks and hospitality.  Everyone was very attentive.  There was a good selection of activities to choose from on the ship.  I also liked visiting the islands.  I would have liked to stop at another island as a substitute for Coco Bay, since we were not able to visit there.  The only negative experience was the handling of the ship photos.  The delay of delivery of the computer disks was unacceptable.  I know that some people are still waiting for their disks.

We enjoyed the specialty restaurant dining at Chops Grill. Thank you for that perk!

My time dining worked very well for us. We were able to have the same excellent servers for dinner every night and  a permanent table for 2. The dining room food was delicious.

We also took the galley tour. Very enjoyable followed by a lovely served lunch in the dining room. Food preparation areas and sanitary measures were impressive!

The ship was beautiful and very nicely maintained. It would be nice if Royal Caribbean had an app to view dining/activities etc. although the wall mounted version was user friendly.  It would be nice too if guests could text each other onboard or communicate in some capacity with each other while out & about on the ship. I missed their ice carvings & midnight buffets that Royal Caribbean featured a number of years ago.

We enjoyed this cruise very much! Most of our trip was very positive. The service was good, ship was beautifully decorated. The food was excellent. The ports were good choices. We enjoyed our excursion. The only complaints we would add are as follows: We would like a few more meat choices in the buffet dining area such as chicken tenders, ham, roast beef. Asparagus and brussel sprouts would be good as well, and macaroni and cheese. We were disappointed that we did not have free access to an iron for our clothes. We were not expecting to have to pay to have our clothes ironed. We were disappointed in a couple of the shows. One of the comedians was a disappointment (Max _______)...We would love to see more good family comedy like Alfred and Seymore. They were the best ever! And Drew Thomas was fantastic, too!  We would like to have had more dance parties around the pool in the evenings. And we missed not having a luau or nighttime buffet/party out side.

was great in helping me establish a relationship with Royal Car. Since it was my first booking. The overall experience was delightful! I Plan on using in the near future for my next booking! The production such as the Marquee show was disappointing. I was quite surprised in the lack of diversity with show and cast. Royal has a Global appeal. The approach to its customers, crew and team was lackluster. It would have been nice to refrain from a "White Wash" approach and appeal to other cultures

This was our third time on the Freedom of the Seas and were so excited to be able to go due to hurricane Matthew passing Florida instead of landing there.

The personnel aboard could have not been nicer and accommodating.  However,  we had the unfortunate treatment by bartenders as they were more than willing to help the males and ignore females and their wanting to place an order. We were really disappointed with the lack of perks we were use to getting aboard Royal Caribbean ships. In addition, the food was really disappointing (except for the main dining room). Soups were watered down. Instead of serving orange juice or mango juice it was yellow water to look like orange juice and mango water in the Windjammer Cafe. 

We as stockholders were very disappointed. Hope this helps. 

I've been on many cruises, mostly on Carnival.  While the entertainment on Freedom was excellent (excellent shows with highly talented people) as were the people and the service, the food was unbelievably terrible.  We were stunned by the lazy preparation, the lack of flavor and taste, the freshness (pretty sure some of it was frozen and heated up) both in the restaurant and at the buffet.  I think the strategy is just throw a lot of cheap, low grade food at people and they'll be happy.  Everything is geared towards upselling you to the specialty restaurants at $30-$35 per person. The food on Carnival was Infinitely better!

Sorrento's is there pizza place.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that frozen pizza tastes better.  They have a Chinese buffet each night called "Jade".  It's awful.  It makes Panda Express look like gourmet Chinese food.

Everything on the boat is about trying to upsell you.  If food is important to you, take Carnival.  Royal Caribbean is very over rated.

The ports, the entertainment, and the fun. We experienced foods from around the globe. Entertainment of Broadway level. Our 11 yr old loved the Voyagers Club. The sheer beauty of just the sun hitting the ocean on calm seas(we skirted Matthew with not even a wave!)

We went with my husbands classmate and her husband and had a fun time. We are diamond and at check in Royal Caribbean issued my husband a card that had no status so that when he went to get a drink his first night the bartender told him that he did not show up as Diamond. We went to customer relations and they told us we would have to wait until the following day and go to the Crown and Anchor desk to get it corrected. At Crown and Anchor we waited about an hour to see the rep because she was the only one working and she printed a Diamond level sticker to put on his card and updated the computer. His card would still not work even on the last day of the cruise to enter the Diamond lounge. We have cruised many times with RC and enjoy them but they do have some issues.

We have been on 15+ cruises and this was one of the best.  Everything was great the food, service, entertainment, cruise director and the array of things to do on the ship.  Would definitely sail with Royal Caribbean again!

Due to hurricane Matthew the itinerary was altered slightly. Instead of coco cay we went to Puerto Rico which was fantastic. This was much better then sitting out at sea waiting to arrive at next port. The staff on this cruise were awesome along with Captain Toni as he kept us fully informed of what the storm was doing at all times. Plenty of activities to keep you busy and the food was great since there was a variety to choose from. We look forward to another cruise on this ship.

The boat is huge!  There are so many things going on every day that you are never bored.  Nightly entertainment was fantastic except for the ice show.  I'd skip that next time.  Free Starbucks was great, and the food was pretty good.  We ate in the Italian specialty restaurant one night and was disappointed in the service and ambiance of the venue, but the food was great.  Our biggest surprise was with the dress code, or lack thereof, in the main dining room.  Even though RC states that shorts and t-shirts are not permitted, people were dressed in cargo short, flip flops, and football (US and EU) every night.  Even on the 2 formal nights people were in jeans and untucked polo shirts.  I thought RC had higher standards.  Other than this issue, the cruise was fantastic.  We will cruise with RC again.

This was my 4th cruise with Royal Caribbean, food was great, ship was clean, staff and crew were exceptionally friendly. Crew on board really seemed to love there jobs, and it showed. I am not impressed easily, but I was with this staff and crew.