Freedom of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Freedom of the Seas, was exactly that! Free to enjoy our vacation any way we wanted! The staff made every effort to insure that we had a great time. Loved the Shows, my wife especially loved the Ice Skating! She won $25.00 with the BINGO scratch off. Then lost it all in the Casino! Great fun! Thank you all! Looking forward to another cruise next year! 

Royal Caribbean is an AMAZING cruise line and I would book with them again and again! The food is excellent the cabins are clean and comfy and there is SO MUCH to do!! THANK YOU!!! 

The ship is beautiful! The only thing I saw wrong with ship was that it leaked in several places. They put towels on the floors and signs up to warn people of wet floors. I'm sure that they will fix that problem. The pools were nice, but too much smoking around pools for me. We would try to sit outside and watch the movies by the pool, and it was hard with all the smoke. Also, the kids club my child was in didn't really have a lot to do. They would have several hours each day with nothing planned, or would just cancel what was scheduled. The flow rider was nice except for the middle divider came loose when my son was doing it, and it knocked him down and slammed him into the bottom and he got his knew bruised and scraped. All in all it was nice cruise, but will not go on this ship again unless we get a super deal! The service of waiters and room attendants was very good. The shop attendants on the other hand was not the best. Some were nice, but several were very rude. I tried not to take it personal, because I know these people work very long hours and it must be very stressful! 

Excellent time. Ship was beautiful! Service was great, especially in dining room. Food was excellent! Dining room food was superb and in Windjammer! We bought the drink package and had lots of premium liquors to choose from. Pool deck was great and always clean and we loved the outdoor movies.

This was my first time on a cruise (that was not on a Navy Ship).  I will say that overall it was very nice.  The Ship was clean, the crew very attentive and for the most part it was relaxing and enjoyable.  We ended up spending four days at sea and I will be honest, I found that hard.  I did feel trapped and very eager to get off the ship.  I loved St. Thomas and St. Johns, what a beautiful area.  Once I got away from the diamonds and watches it was one of my favorite places I have been, and will warrantee a trip to spend time on this island.

I found that the casino was not a place I could enjoy due to the smoking and I felt the entire lower level smelled of smoke which keep it off limits to me. 

The food was good over all, we ate at Chops and the Mexican restaurant and they were very good (worth the extra money).  With that said go to the Mexican restaurant for lunch.....amazing.  

The ship is starting to feel its age, and needs a little bit of work to bring her back to her former glory.  Dirty windows, lots of broken gym equipment, lots more broken arcade games maybe a deep carpet cleaning to get rid of the smell of smoke and damp.

  The Pools are amazing, and hot tubs clean and relaxing (what 4 days at sea I spent a lot of time here.)  Comfortable beds, nice cabin (small). I understand now why people love this type of vacation, next time (if there is one) I will need something that stops more and lets me explore more places. 

We enjoyed our cruise immensely!  The staff were all very helpful & polite.  The weather was wonderful as well.  We were only disappointed by the fact there weren't more seafood. We thought there was going to be a midnight seafood buffet, & people we asked didn't know anything about it.  I would suggest some type of buffet for the seafood lovers & I don't mean just fish.

We took this cruise as our honeymoon and loved it. The Bahamas were recovering from a hurricane so we could not dock in Coco Cay, but the staff handled it well. There were multiple things to do onboard that made up for it. The dining staff, wow! They were incredible as were the room staff. The entertainment was great. We thoroughly enjoyed our vacation. 

This was our 55th cruise with RC, we have always sailed with them because of their attention to details and great service. Additionally this was our 3rd trip on the Freedom. 

Pros:

-The Shows were the best we have ever seen....from the dancers and singers to the ices show they were all well produced and preformed. 

-The ship was spotless clean and a pleasant environment.

-This is the first trip that we have seen the captain and other officers on a regular basis. Their presence was noticed by everyone.

-The room was very comfortable and for the first time in several trips the ice-box in the room actually worked.

-Lunch in the dinning room was a wonderful experience. The salads were fantastic.

-The food at dinner was very nicely presented and flavorful.

-The internet speed has greatly improved.

-Leaving the ship to visit ports and returning was fast and easy.

-Departing the ship on the last day with the fastest ever experienced.

CONS:

-Our waiters at dinner were very nice but the slowest and unorganized that we have experienced in many years. We consistently had to ask for drink refills. The famous RC attention to detail was no where to be found. (Example: one evening two of us at the table were presented the menu from the night before.) Our dinner sitting was at 5:30 with a show at 7:00, we had to remind the waiters each night that we had a show to attend and must leave the dinning room by 6:45. Two different nights we had to leave without desert in order to make it to the show.

-The menu selection was not as good as we had seen back in June on the Allure...there were many repeats each night.

-I had steak two different nights and in both occasions the meat was tough and tasteless.

-I always look forward to the prime rib dinner....on this ship I didn't eat half of it because it had no flavor at all and what parts I did eat was tough. The waiter offered to get another but we knew that there was no time for that based on their speed of service.

-I know the marketing theory behind what RC is doing for Gold card members but they are creating a segregation / class separation on the ship. We noticed this on other ships but this one was really bad. There was special seating for the shows, several lounges, and special meal sections for these people. It reminded me of the movie Titanic where the lower class were put in one section and the rich another. 

-I was spoken to very harshly by two different ladies working the Starbuck counter.

-One evening I asked for two tubes of hand cream for my wife. I was told, "I'll do my best to get it but hand cream is only offered for Suite and Gold card members." Wow he sure made us feel special. It's unfortunate that RC has adopted a policy of segregation. 

-RC has greatly reduced the number of ports visited. When we first started sailing we always made 4 to 5 ports...but each trip the stops get less and less. On this trip we were supposed to visit 3 places but the day we arrived at the island they announced that the water was too rough. That was NOT true. I could have skied on the ocean that day, there was no wind, no waves crashing on the shore, and no storm clouds.....there was no reason as all not to stop at the island. So we spent another day wandering around the ship. One of the reasons we travel is to see new places and people....it would seem that we may need to find another source of travel since RC doesn't want to allow us different stops.

-On the return trip we just floated out in the ocean because the ship got back too early. For the time we spent just floating RC could have allow us longer stays in the two ports we visited and added two more stops. 

Over all we had a nice trip. But over the past three years the quality and service on the RC ships has slowly diminished. I can only hope that they will see the writing on the wall and steer their way back to the top. RC is a great company if I didn't think so I'd not keep sailing with them. They just need to adjust their focus and center on service and quality.

We have been on better cruises, This ship,was not as nice as it was one time.The service personnel were great, however,didn't have a sandwich shop, no help for the handicap, not in wheelchairs. May not use RC again.

very good time. will do again, couldn't do it all in one trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The service provided by Reymil and Ismael in the dining room was wonderful. Both gentlemen were personable, attentive and friendly, very hardworking. We also received wonderful service in the Windjammer Café as well as at breakfast in the dining room from various servers. However, I must say that the quality of the food at times left something to be desired. Not that the meals were poor, I just expected a higher quality. The sushi was inedible in my opinion. Our housekeeper Arif (I hope I'm spelling this correctly) was also attentive to details and always left our cabin super clean. However, when we entered the cabin on the first day, it had a strange, musty smell, quite unpleasant. I truly enjoyed the illusionist and Now You See It. Those were my favorite evening entertainment shows. Thank you for your attention.

I have been on several cruises including royal carribean and it seems royal carribean is trying to save money now or trying to be greedy. The entertainment was low cost and the food in windjammer and main dining(isaac) was cheap. It all use to be very great and something you would tell family and friends but not anymore.believe it or not, i found carnival last year to be a whole lot better.

we enjoyed our cruise  with our two teenage grandkids.  it was rather crowded in the room but we adjusted and all had a great time.  The ship and crew was very attentive and made cruise a worth while experience.  Our grandkids will remember this for along time.

The one problem we had was with our shore excursion in St Martin.   The excursion was not part of R/C sponsored one so we were on our own to get to the excursion on our own.  The people at the dock we asked for help directed us to a taxi who took us downtown and let us out with no help on where we were to go.  After asking around, we had to take another taxi back to close to the ship to arrive at the proper place.  The excursion was great and we enjoyed it.   However, we realize that this experience was our fault and will plan on booking through R/C in the future.   

Poor handling of paperwork on embarkation agent failed to issue a proper boarding pass had to sit in waiting area for 1 1/2 hrs before being issued a pass upon my request.

We had a great time.  However we will probably stick with a newer Carnival Boat or Disney from now on.  This ship was catered more to retired folks. My hubby and I felt bored and didn't have many evening options that interest us.  The kids camp was awesome for our kids.

Royal Caribbean charges fees for everything - they get you on the ship and then nickel and dime you until you have nothing left. Their drink packages are not even close to reasonable ($22/person/day for just fountain drinks; $67/person/day for alcohol). There is NO "wow factor" on this cruise.  While the ship was very clean and well maintained, and the crew friendly, they were pretty clueless about a lot of things - they seemed overworked and burnt out.  Its not hard to see why.  Cruises Only was great, so stick with them, but I guess I would recommend checking out other packages before picking this one.

We last cruised 8 years ago, while we had gorgeous weather and seas that looked like glass no waves at all. Cruising has changed dramatically. I was shocked with the outsourcing of all services, the food was ok at best never really hot drink package I purchased was 44.00 a day only found I drink worth gettingcoconut mojito. Drinks watered down I believe.  Staff nice but overworked. Shows were all very good. I will not cruise again going to stick to adult only all inclusive. 

over all good experience.wish there is more variety of entertainment.hope next time I can visit my country friend on their crew quarter.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was a very memorable experience.  This ship was huge and beautiful, plenty of things to do.  The shows very excellent as well as the activities, which had us laughing our butts off every night.  The food in the main dining room was excellent, and it was pretty good in the buffet.  We got the small interior cabin, even though there wasn't much to it, it was very clean and quiet at night with no vibrations. We stayed on deck 9. The ports were beautiful, excursions fun, the only thing that we were not too happy with is the people in Jamaica and Mexico pressuring you to buy their things.  Overall this was a beautiful, relaxing and fun trip.  

We enjoyed the ship, staff and ports. Would recommend. Clean ship, excellent food, great staff. The ports were a lot of fun. Would recommend doing shore excursions as you can experience a lot more in the time you have. The main dining room and windjammer are where we ate all of our meals. Fantastic! The pizza shop was great for snacks. They had a variety of pizzas and Italian styled sandwiches. We hope to sail again!