Freedom of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

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.

We had 25 people cruising and the crew did everything they could to ensure a great vacation!! We all had so much fun and there was always something to do for everyone! Great great time! They even changed our dinner tables around once on board to make it more intimate 

EXCELLENT SERVICE, GREAT FOOD,VINE PRICES SOMEWHAT OVERPRICED,READY TO GO

BACK IN A MINUTE. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. BEST FILE  MIGNON I EVER ATE. MY FAVORITE

RESTAURANT PORTO FINO REALLY AMAZING.

This cruise was just my husband and myself this time.  It was our first time on Royal.  Previously have done three cruises on Celebrity, which we really enjoyed.  The Freedom is very different from those ships and it was nice to try something new. Our cabin was actually a JS on deck 9.  Cabin 9564. We upgraded a week before sailing.  The crew was outstanding. The ship was very clean. There is a lot going on to keep busy if you like. There were many families with kids aboard and they had plenty to occupy them as well.  We ate in the MDR all but the two formal nights.  Our servers were terrific.  The food was good. A few misses but mostly good.  We also ate at Chops and Portofino.  Both were excellent meals. 

The Freedom Ice show was great.  Amazing what they could do on a ship.  We also thought the Once Upon a Time show was excellent. We only wished for more live music in the evening. 

The Promenade was really nice and never very crowded except during parade time. 

Tried the cafe there a few times and it was very good. Never tried Sorrentos pizza but it seemed pretty popular. We liked the champagne bar a lot as well as the Viking Crown for the amazing views. 

Overall, we had a wonderful, relaxing week. We would definitely sail on the Freedom again.

My husband and I have cruised several times over the years.  This cruise experience was "on top of the world".  Everyone working on this ship was extremely pleasant and very helpful.  We even received a phone call from guest relations on the next to the last day of our journey, to find out if we were able to visit a hotel in Montego Bay.  Royal Caribbean had been instrumental in helping us contact Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay, so that we could visit our honeymoon hotel of 45 years ago!  We are grateful to RCL for enabling us to have such a meaningful experience!

Another highlight of our trip was the day that I decided to run through the children's water park on the ship!  I managed to make a hair appointment in the salon to restore my appearance! 

The promenade was a wonderful experience - we mingled with guests over coffee and pastries, met up with a wonderful entertainment group, who were serenading over the bridge, and delighted in the ambiance of the moment!

I totally recommend RCL to anyone, including those with young families.  The Freedom is simply spectacular.  Oh, I forgot to mention the fabulous ice show, the fun and games with other games.  I can go on and on - do not miss this experience!

 This was our 7th cruise and our 6th with RCCL on the beautiful Freedom of the Seas. From the day we boarded to the day we disembarked we were pampered. We had cruised on Carnival and found it not to our liking , Royal has the best food, staff, and staterooms. Ernesto was our fabulous waiter. He was kind, attentive and very professional. Valenti and Ma were the most wonderful beverage people . They helped us above and beyond their duties. The children loved talking to them and they made us all feel like they had known us forever. As for the ports of call on the Western Caribbean , since this was not my first trip to them , they did not impress me . Labadee was hot ,of course it would be in August, very nice but the beach has so much coral in the water if you did not have sand shoes it would cut your feet . The vendors were very pushy, but you have to remember , these are very poor people who rely on tourist for their living. If you want to buy something I would buy there just to help the people. Jamaica was pretty but if you are not into water sports you may find it boring. Grand Cayman has the dolphin swim which my family absolutely loved. I would say this was the highlight of the cruise. Cozumel , well this is where i had two pandora charms stolen from me, 125.00 down the drain! Senor Frog seems to be a very popular place and it is close to the dock. However, it is a seedy place where dangerous things can happen. 

The ship is gorgeous, rooms are very nice, shows are top notch, the food is delicious. There is so much to do that if you are not fond of the ports you really do not have to leave the ship. Everyone is so accommodating ,that I feel you will have the time of your life. I will always cruise RCCL. and i believe the Freedom is my favorite ship so far. Bon Voyage to you!

The service on this cruise was amazing. The staff provided excellent service, the food was great and the rooms were immaculate. The wait staff in the dining room were incredible 

We have sailed many times with R.C and rarely do we not have good things to say about them.  This cruise was no exception.  Service was always outstanding.  Food at dinner was great. Food at lunch and breakfast better than average.  Entertainment was good, but not outstanding.  Cruise director did a very nice job.  Really enjoyed the skating show and the activities on deck.  The Promenade was outstanding with many shops and things to do.  They have a very nice parade for the little ones also.  We never get tired of going to St. Thomas or St. Maartin. I recommend this cruise and cruise line.

Where to begin?  Overall we had a great time!  A few minor glitches here and there which kept this from being a 5 star review, but we were able to adapt and overcome.

I will start with the positive:

The accomodations were actually bigger than we though they would be.  We stayed in a Cabin 9318, a D1 balcony at the center of the ship.  Our stateroom attendant was excellent and the room was immaculate!  The ship itself is beautiful and well maintained and the facilities are outstanding!  The staff is very attentive and friendly!  The various activities throughout the ship are numerous and fun!  Our kids really enjoyed the H2O zone and pools.  The arcade is big, but could use a little upkeep and maintenance on some of the games.  We had a blast on our shore excursions!  Two snorkeling trips and a dolphin swim!  Wave Jet tour on Labadee was outstanding!  

Now for the negatives:

The cruise line advertises themselves as "autism friendly".  This is true to a point.  What they do not tell you is that you have to arrange special accomodations through Autism on the Seas, a separate organization.  The Adventure Ocean program is okay at best.  You shove your kids into little rooms in large groups with a 25:1 ratio.  When we expressed our concerns about our autistic son we were told we had to speak to a manager who was not there.  This is not indicative to me of a trained "autism friendly" staff.  We were told the manager would call us, but it never happened...we had to go find her the next day.  When we we spoke to her we thought it would be great.  What they did was stick our son in front of a video game for more than 2 hours. I can do that in the stateroom.  Needless to say that was the first and only visit to the Adventure Ocean program.  

Our other big gripe is their attention to special diet needs.  We called over a month in advance to inform the cruise line of our son's autism and his and my wife's special diet needs (gfcf and tree nut allergy).  Maybe we were spoiled by the service at Disney, but that was a waste of time.  We had dinner seatings at 8 every night, but it took 2 days for them to fully get it right.  Even then the first few days their food came out way late after everyone else was done eating.  It is not like we changed anything day to day.  Our waiter and assistant waiter were awesome and the food was otherwise excellent!!!  The headwaiter was another matter.  He seemed almost put out and condescending when we expressed our concerns and complained about the wait.  Then he began avoiding our table so he would not have to deal with us.

You would think if our reservation was flagged with these things they could have been prepared...

As I said overall we had a great time!  Some minor customer service issues to be resolved, but otherwise excellent!

I really loved this cruise!! Plenty of things to do and the the crew and porters are always very hospitable and friendly! Royal Caribbean always exceeds expectations when it comes to service and food quality.  Royal Caribbean seems to have smaller rooms with better food while carnival has bigger rooms and lower quality food. In my opinion the room isn't a big deal because you are busy doing other activities throughout the day. I would recommend it to anyone!

after all of the many cruise i have taken with my husband, this has been the best.

all personnel operated above and beyond their capability to service us and all of the others on the freedom. 

will see you again on sept. 7, 2014

Everything was excellent...... very enjoyable...food was very good....service was excellent...each stop had a fun excursion....the ship's island was excellent....the whole trip was a success....the trip was for our 16 yr old granddaughter...she had a great time....she loved the teen club and Johnny Rockets

The staff of Freedom is amazing! Great ice show and the comedians were a riot. The ship was very clean and there is a lot to do on board. The islands were absolutely gorgeous. I recommend booking any excursion for your day in st. Thomas. A little bit hectic when you get to that port. St Maarten was a breeze and taxi service there was very readily available. Just a wonderful trip. I would love to do it again.

I have been on this ship before, they have changed Chops restaurant and not for the better!  The food was not that good this time around.  We didn't like the deserts, some of the best were the cookies.  The music in the disco is old and outdated.  The shows are the same as the ones I seen a few years ago.  If this is your first cruise, you will still enjoy it.  Royal Caribbean is still better than Carnival!

This was my first cruise with Royal Carribean, and I was very impressed. I have been on many different cruises with many different cruise lines, and this is one of the best. One of the best things about the ship is the staff; they are very professional, knowledgeable, and friendly. The food in the main dining room is very good, and the service is as good as any that you would get at a four or five-star restaurant. The pricing for specialty items like Starbucks coffee, bar drinks, and store items are reasonable. Another great thing about the ship is it's special features like a wave simulator, mini golf, rock walls, and an iceskating rink. Everyone in my party always found something they wanted to do on the schedule. There is also some really great live entertainment. Some highlights were the ice skating show, The Quest, Battle of the Sexes, and the classic on every cruise ship, The Newlywed Show. If you are a fan of musical theatre, you will appreciate the calliber of talent in the musical productions, even though the shows themselves are a bit chessy. The port of calls are ok; there are some great excursions that the ship offers, but most of the things you see and do are not any different than things that you can do in any beach town in America. Some things worth doing: check out Airplane Beach and try the Guavaberry Rum in Sint Maarten and swim with sea turtles in St. Thomas. I will definetly be going on another cruise with Royal Carribean soon!

This was an EXCELLENT cruise. I've never been on a vacation where I, the mom, didn't have to lift a finger.  It was such a relaxing trip for the mom!  No cooking, no cleaning, lots of relaxing, eating, sunning and napping with no responsibilities.  Our 16 year old son and 18 year old daughter really enjoyed it as well.  They had lots of things on the ship to do for the teens, they enjoyed the shows, the wonderful family meals at dinner, snorkeling together, etc.  We paid $4000 for an inside cabin on the 7th floor that included 2 rooms.  Be sure to plan on spending about $175/day per person to be able to maximize your shore excursions and you'll have a lot of fun.  Our favorite excursion was on a specific day was on ly $45/ person and we swam with the stingrays and was brought to a great place to snorkel.  We book that through a company direcly and not through the crusie line.  I hold back from giving a 5 star for 2 reasons:  in my personal opinion, I didn't like the competition of having my kids pulled iwth the desire to hang out with other kids their age as opposed to spending time with us a fmaily.  A cruise isn't the ideal vacation if you want to get away as a family and spend a lot of time togehter.  The other reason is many of the shows were quite prevocative.  The women were dressed in slutty attire that were very immodest and many of the dance moves were quite sensual.  It's disappointing to have "family entertainment" contribute to the moral decay that our world strongly faces.  They even had worlds most Sexiest Man/Woman contests in the middle of the day at the family pool where competitors were immodestly dressed deomonstrating sexual moves.  In all, we had a good time but know what to expect with the entertainment.

This was our first RCCL cruise.  After years of listening to everyone RAVE about RCCL, we decided to pay the extra money and go for it - after all this was to be our first BIG family blow out cruise.  What can I say?

The Freedom was a very pretty boat - laid out very well and clean. 

Embarkation at Port Canaveral was the worst I have had on any other cruise.  (Disney, Princess, Celebrity, Carnival totaling 8)

Now, maybe this was because of the 300+ unaccompanied teenagers from Argentina, But the process was very slow and chaotic.  We were told that RCCL is building a new terminal in Port Canaveral to alleviate the "chaos", as one employee told us. 

Once we were on the boat, it was beautiful and for a sold out ship, it never really seemed crowded. 

Here were our issues:

MY TIME DINING - Don't do it!  To me, this means "eat when your ready".  We didn't want to have to cut our activities short to rush off for dinner.  We thought....... When your ready to eat, you goto the dining room - like a restaurant.  NOPE!  You have to call and make a reservation by 4:30 pm.  If you didn't, it was a hour and a half to THREE hour wait time!  ????  My children were hungry, so we were always told we could goto the Windjammer buffet - which we did most nights.  Here is my problem.....  We had to PREPAY gratuities.  So we paid for dining room servers that we didn't use.  I was the server for my children - breakfast, lunch and dinner.  On night #6, I finally called guest services and complained that we had started calling for a reservation at 4:30 that day, with no answer.  I sent my daughter at 5:15 to put our name on the list for 7:15 - nope...... sorry, no openings until 8:30.  When I finally called the dining room concierge to explain we had Ice show reservations at this time (and mentioned the tipping concern) after a lot of convincing, he finally "worked us in" at 7:00.  When we got to the dining room - it was EMPTY.  We counted 8 tables that were occupied.  The servers were lack luster, never smiled and questioned us as to who we were because they had never seen us all week and heard we were "worked in for dinner". 

We prepaid gratuities and our room steward - although he was nice, never seemed to go above or beyond.  One towel animal all week.  Two days we didn't get service because our timing was off schedule.  Now...... again, we were on the floor with dozens of non English speaking teenagers who DESTROYED their rooms every day!  We would walk by the rooms while the doors were open to be cleaned and it was HORRIBLE!  We felt bad for the employees! 

My 9 and 13 year old daughters didn't want to goto the kids center because they didn't like the counselors - they said they "weren't fun". 

My daughters wanted to ride the Flow Rider, but when I asked and employee they said it was $60 an hour.......... Uhhhhh????  So they didn't ride because after spending A LOT of money to get on the cruise - I couldn't afford $120 just to have them ride for an hour.  Well, I guess that $60 was for "private lessons".  No one ever explained that the Flow Rider was FREE.  Staff must have been trying to sell services and made it seem like you had to pay to ride.   Same thing with the rock climbing wall - a staff member told us it was $15 per climb??  Apparently that is free too?  (I found this out after I got home and other RCCL cruisers told me it is all free on Allure and Oasis?)

Disembarkation - most slow and painful yet.  Staff was knocking on our door at 06:30 - our disembarkation time was 08:30 - we sat in the lobby tired and exhausted until almost 10:15. 

There were a lot of really good things about our cruise - mostly Labadee and excursions.  The cruise was just "average" for us.  We will give RCCL another try - maybe we just had bad luck???  The service staff just all seemed uninterested and "flat". 

Oh, on a good note - my husband bought an unlimited alcohol package and he was treated like a king by bar staff!  Rajiv is awesome, and Avon and the "Squeeze" bar staff made AWESOME drinks!  Pool service was great. 

Had a great time on Freedom of the Seas! The ship was so clean and everywhere we went whether it be dinner or going on excursions or going to shows, the use of hand sanitizer was highly recommended! The staff were so helpful and would go beyond to make us satisfied. First time on Royal Carribbean and I absolutely loved it!

In general, very good. The library and computer room were disappointing. Dining staff and cabin steward were outstanding. The buffet style dining facility was overcrowded and the staff there were less than friendly. All in all, a good experience that we would do again. 

Freedom of the Seas is an amazing ship!  It is huge and very impressive!  The staff was very friendly & accomodating!  We had a blast & would go again!