Freedom of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We were looking forward to watching movies by the pool under the stars. The movie selections were horrible. Toy story 3 ran at least 3 times and I felt like I was on a Disney cruise. They also played The Blind Side, a good movie but how old???????????  Also, they have a way too large area for smoking which you have to pass through to get to the adult pool and hot tub. They had smoking on both sides of the pool so you could not avoid it. As usual, I was very happy with Bunny Zinkerman and Cruises only and will continue to use them.

Service was great.  Everything was clean and beautiful.  Food on buffet was great and we had a memorable meal at Chops - excellent in every way.  Main dining room service was excellent and food was very good.  Most of the production shows and comedians were good.  We could have done with a LOT less of the "reality-tv" type shows.  We also had a medical emergency aboard ship.  Instead of a air lifting the person off, the ship was diverted to port to drop the person off.  This schedule change made it impossible for us to keep itinerary and we lost one of our 3 day stops to a few evening hours in San Juan.  We certainly wanted best for ill person, but this whole situation was not well communicated to the passengers and made for lots of confusion.  I still wonder why if it was emergency, they did not air lift the person.  It was a very nice cruise but we have seen better entertainment on other lines.  We went to two activities listed on the daily schedule and they had been cancelled.  Good vacation and we would probably go Royal Caribbean in the future but we will consider other lines for our next cruise.

This trip out of Port Canaveral  definitely not worth it. This is the second time we have been disappointed with Royal Carribean and also first time with Cruise.com  so far. This trip had too much sea time to start with then Royal Carribean claimed they had to drop off a sick passenger in Nassau and that put them 7 hours behind schedule. Baloney Coco Cay is a hop skip and jump from Nassau which we had to pass close to anyway as w e traveled toward our next destination.  So they dropped our stop in St. Thomas which was the best part of the trip. Instead we wound up in San Juan P.R. For 4 hours. So they slowed the ship down to a crawl to justify the change of schedule. They could have easily made it to St. Thomas and there was no way we were 7 hours behind. The worst part is we took this particular trip with RCL because on the web site and all the info from Cruise.com said our granddaughter 16 months old would have a Kiddie Pool area to swim and play in. Once we got on ship the very next day they told us that because she wore swim diapers she could only go in one little 8x8 area. Try and explain that to a little girl watching other children play where she wanted to be. Many families had the same problem which tells me neither RCL nor Cruise.com is doing anything to make sure people know the whole Kiddie Pool area is not for very small children. One woman complained enough RCL gave her a $200 credit on her CC. We hope to address this with RCL and Cruise.com. It is a shame because Coco Cay is a nice Island and the one thing that was good on this trip was the staff. From the dinner servers to the room attendant the workers are the best part of RCL. It was not that way on our last RCL trip in Europe. It's not that the trip didn't have some nice times, but too much went wrong all RCL's and Cruise.com fault to make it worth the money.  If you don't like spending all your time at sea don't take this trip,any little excuse by RCL and your at sea 90% of the time. Now that we know the truth about the Kiddie Pool area don't take this trip just for the baby cause you'll be disappointed. RCL used to be our favorite line but the last two trips are pushing us back to Carnival or Norwegian. This is also the first time we used cruise.com instead of our regular travel agent we will wait to see how they and RCL handle our complaints to decide whether it's worth giving them another shot.

The ship is very clean and well kept. In general the staff is super. The food was very good. We used the advanced purchase soda option, we do not drink alcohol. There could be more soda machines on board for such a monster ship we only located (4) machines. You can refill at any bar, but the machines are better. The bartenders also were not very friendly about refills. There is also an annoying refill time limit between refills, the machines read the cup when you fill your cup and then you have to wait until you can refill.The Windjammer is terrific for breakfast and lunch.

Overall it was a great experience!

My wife is handicapped so we needed a special cabin for her wheel chair and scooter. The room was large enough for everything. Our room steward was very helpful when we needed anything. Our dinner table was in a perfect spot for us to get to. 

We met lovely people that shared our dinner meal . Our waiter and busboy were outstanding. The meals were very good with a good slection  on the menu.

As for the ports we have been to them all before so we didn't do much but walk around  a little then back to the ship.

Getting on and off the ship was a breeze. We had help from the crew getting checked in then help getting to our cabin.

Getting off the ship was even better. A crew person helped with our wheelchair and luggage.

All in all it was a very nice cruise. We love Royal Caribbean Line as the best for everything. We have been on many cruises and different ships but we always recommend Royal Caribbean as our very favorite cruise line.

Thanks for a very nice cruise.  

Spent this week in room 8354. Standard balcony room which has a great location from our point of view. Good access to the stairs / elevators. Our room steward "Speedy" did a fine job for us. We carried on two bottles of wine which he chilled for us when we wanted them to be cold.

We used my time dining for the first time. We had six people in our group and did not try to pick dining times prior to the cruise. We were faced with a choice of 6pm or 8:30pm. Nothing else. We went with 6pm for every night. Had the same table every night. Service was decent. We finished in time to go to the 8pm games in On Air which were always done in time to go to the 9PM shows. The cruise staff were very good hosts at all the events we went to. The cruise director was very much to my taste. Not over the top but very still entertaining.

My over all score for entertainment during this cruise was about a 6 out of 10. Others in our group rated it as high as an 8. The magician show was just so so. The production numbers were ok. We'd seen them before and they were so so then also. The ice show remains superior even though there were new skaters in their first week of work on the ship.

We ate at Chops and I personally found a couple of their changes not to my liking. Both my wife and I really were disappointed that they replaced Mississippi Mud Pie with a mousse style cake which was ok but nowhere near as good. They had the nerve to call it by the same name to add insult to injury. Secondly, I did not like how they changed the mushroom side dish from what they had previously served. My wife was ok with the change. They used three types of sliced mushrooms instead of the single type of whole mushrooms used before. The differences could be enough to keep me away next time.

We had very good island excursions at every port. On Jamaica we did the Martha Brae bamboo raft float. Relaxing and perfect weather. No bugs there may be normal based on what the guide said. It certainly made the trip more enjoyable. Grand Cayman was a catamaran trip to stingray city and snorkeling. First time for us at stingray city. It was fun. Snorkeling was so so. If we did this stop again we'd forego the snorkeling for time on 7 mile beach and we would not need to see stingray city again. It was worth doing once though. At Cozumel we did a jeep tour which was the best excursion of the week. We used cosumelcruiseexcursions.com. Very nice time and very good value.

Royal Caribbean just wants more money for everything, looks like if you paid the price to get on the ship, they would supply more benefits free. I had a hard time just finding iced tea, if the buffet was closed. Carnival has a place where you can get Tea and Lemonade 24-7..

I will tell you only things that  were not  as GREAT as before on RC Cruises.

As diamond members  the gifts were none except for a small bag of cookies and 2 bottles of water plus  a tray with 3 cookies on it one night. The extra drinks were great. No pen or paper in the Stateroom

Did not think the quality & selection of the dinner food was as great as in the pass.

Service was excellent everywhere as was the cleanliness.

We should of had a $25.00 on board credit which we did not receive.

The cruise ship was big, clean, well appointed.  The staterooms and service were excellent.  The food in the buffet was good but lacked some flavor.  The casino was full of smoke, extremely difficult to enjoy because of the heavy smoking everywhere.  It made me nauseaus and gave me a headache.  The overall experience was enjoyable.

Last year, we went on our first cruise on the Oasis.  For the (less expensive) price, the Freedom is a great cruise to be on.  The Freedom doesn't have a few additional activities, such as the water diving show and the zip line.  They are not worth the extra money, in my opinion.  

Family interior stateroom on deck 2 is very spacious for 2 adults and 3 kids.  It even has a walk-in closet!

The food, on the other hand, was a bit toooo salty for us, in the main dining room or the Windjammer.  For example, with the 5 lobster dishes we ordered, only one was not salty.  The other 4 were salty to the point that they were almost uneatable.  We ate them all, since we didn't want to waste any food we ordered.   

In summary, if you are debating between the Oasis and the Freedom, go with the Freedom and save yourself some dough.  

underway on time.  ship clean and in good shape at all times.  crew very friendly and helpful at all times.  food very good in all the places we ate.  spent another day at sea day 2 due to t.storm. got a refund for the port charges with not asking. 

only problem at the desk with my bill.  bought some jewelry onboard went on sea pass.  told desk the next day I was paying for the purchase with a credit card I gave them the card but they changed my sea pass account to that card and messed me up.  it took me three days to correct the issue and next cruise I understand to have my use her credit card on her sea pass card.  live and learn.

otherwise great cruise and romeo barongan did another great job as my agent last year and this year and all ready booked a cruise with him for 2015.  please give him a at a boy for his great job he does for cruises only.

Aside from a power outage that made the Embark tedious and uncomfortable.,  the inflated

cost of a glass of wine or coke. and the deletion of Coco Kay as A Port of c  It was A better then average

Cruise.

1st time on a cruise and I absolutely loved every minute of it.  The ship was exceptionally clean.  Food was great. All of the staff that I met were wonderful.  Love each and every one of them.  They are so personal and they go out of their way to make sure that you are satisfied.   I preferred the Main Dining Room instead of the Windjammer Café.  Stateroom attendant was wonderful....over love Ms. Sharon.  The ports were nice...did not care for Labdee, Haiti due to the vendors being so aggressive. Other ports visited- Falmouth, Jamaica; Grand Cayman, Bahamas and Cozumel, Mexico.  There was always something going on onboard the ship...never a dull moment. I can go on and on about what I loved but try it for yourself.    All in all a great trip.  I already have my next cruise booked with RCC and I am looking forward to another great experience.

It was really a good experience and I think one more time my expectations was fullfill with Royal Caribean.I do not know if I would do it a second time but I strongly recommend it to many friends at work.

And It is different from the Europe one made 2 years ago with Liberty of the Seas, but I enjoyed it .

The main Dining room service at Galileo was outstanding everyday.

Allan did his work with profesionalism and always with a smile.

The state room attendant Mattis were like a spy in order to have the room spic and span allday.

My teens loved the freedom they had on the ship. My younger child loved the Waterpark and pools. Everything was very well organized and service staff was great. The food was edible. This was my first cruise, I prefer to spend more time in one place.

Best time of my life. Cruised on Freedom a few years back and had a great time, but they have upgraded the ship exceeding all expectations! From the service, to the staff, to the cleanliness of the ship everything was absolutely amazing. Even the captain was entertaining! Definitely had a wonderful time, would and will do it again, and recommend it to anyone, including children.

Even though we have cruised to the Western Caribbean previously, this experience topped any trips we've made previously.  One of the reasons we definitely had a wonderful cruise was because of the excellent service received from the cruise staff.  Our Cabin Attendant, the dining room Waiters and all the staff on board Freedom of the Seas were extremely courteous and helpful and did all they could to meet our special needs.  We were very pleased with the top notch entertainment also. The ports had some wonderful shore excursions, and we took advantage of them with great results.  It just seemed like everyone was there to make you feel right at home and give you the best service possible.  We truly believe that RCCL is doing a great job in providing excellent choices for these excursions as well as making the on-board time well-worth the trip.  We really felt like we were treated royally because they definitely made us feel like special guests and, as they stated, from the Captain on down, they were there to do all that they could to provide their guests with a wonderful cruise vacation.

Outstanding

This was our second trip on Freedom & it was what we expected. We had Edgar as our waiter 2 years ago on our honeymoon cruise and he was our waiter this time also. He and his team was AWESOME!!!

WHERE WAS THE ICE CARVINGS & THE FRUIT SCULPTURES?

I cannot say enough good things about this cruise and this ship!  The ship is beautiful and immaculately clean.  The staff was friendly, helpful and FUN, FUN, FUN!  Dinners exceeded our high expectations for delicious food on RC cruises.  Our waiters, Franco and Nelson were wonderful and added some fun little touches to dinner such as a couple of magic tricks that made dinner even more enjoyable.  The Royal Promenade area of the ship was AMAZING!  It was so nice to have a nice "sit down" area for pizza, sandwiches and drinks that had the atmosphere of a nice restaurant rather than the "cafeteria line" style pizza set ups we have seen on past cruises.  I LOVED the pool area on this boat....enough room that it wasn't too crowded for all to enjoy.  We have cruised numerous times and spent more time at the pool this trip than all the other trips combined.  The entertainment staff kept things going and loved the big screen videos, movies and shows that played poolside.  The evening shows were out of this world.  Great variety of acts and the added bonus of the ice skating shows were just even more than we had hoped for.  The Quest Adult Scavenger Hunt was awesome as usual....so much fun and a "not to be missed" part of the cruise.  The parade down the promenade the last night was over the top wonderful!  As far as the ports go, we loved Labadee, Haiti...best private island experience to date.  Do not go without having the signature drink there called a Labadoozee....it is delicious and refreshing!  We were not crazy about Falmouth, Jamaica.  The port area at Falmouth, Jamaica was one of the nicest I have seen but once you leave the port area, the area is very much a slum type area and I was not comfortable just walking about as we typically do in port towns.  We went back to the port area and purchased a trolley ride ticket and thoroughly enjoyed the ride and information given by the guide.  If I went back to this area, I would definitely book a cruise ship excursion instead of just venturing out to explore the town.  I wouldn't let a stop at this port stop me from taking a future trip if it were on the itinerary but I would definitely plan differently for how to spend the day.  Cozumel, Mexico and Georgetown, Grand Cayman are always good stops that we enjoy so loved both of those!  I would definitely recommend this ship and this itinerary to anyone wanting a dream vacation....it was amazing! 

We had a wonderful time. With the mall atmosphere on the promenade, you don't even know you're at sea. There are plenty of things to do on board during the days at sea.  I loved the orchestra and the production shows. The staff was very friendly and accommodating.  If we needed anything they got it for us.  The chef even made Philly cheese steak sandwiches for us!  The ports of call were great.  Nice beaches and plenty of things to do.  In St Maarten we sailed on the America's cup yachts.  Wow! that was the best excursion I was ever on!   The worst (and most expensive) was the Dolphin encounter from St Thomas.  What a waste of time! Took 6 hrs., We stood in the hot sun filling out paper work for an hour after walking almost a mile to the meeting place.  Took a rough boat ride for another hour with people getting sick ugh!  30 min encounter was good, but the pictures they took of us could not be viewed.  They ripped off a scrap of paper and wrote an email and some numbers for contact when we got home. It got lost (of course).  Very unprofessional!  Except for that we had a wonderful time and I would take this cruise again.