Freedom of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Excellent experience from start to finish

All the crew made you feel special. The entertainment was top notch.We were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary & the dining room crew made it a very special occasion for us.

The ports of call were wonderful. WE highly recommend cruzing with Royal Carribbean Cruize Lines.

Your bartenders are awful. They were very slow at every bar I went to. It would take at least five to ten minutes for a bartender to ask what we wanted, they would make other drinks before getting me my beer, and they were rude. Everyone other staff member I encountered was very upbeat, nice, and helpful but your bartenders were the complete opposite. I would assume they would be the nicest on the cruise since you gain most of your profits from the bar. It wasn't a very good experience.

It was great! The ship and crew were the best...only outdone by the food. We had two formal dinners a costume party on Halloween and lots of shipboard activates. The Ice Show was amazing as were the Cruise Director and his assistant.

Entertainment was excellent and food in dining hall was very good!  Service was excellent with everyone so helpful and willing to go the extra mile.

Love this ship. Did find that other than the specialty restaurants the food is not as good as in the past. Had a wonderful time and great service in Vintages. Found the entertainment lacking, however Halloween night they pulled it out Big time! Kudos to Richard and his staff!

The total experience was great, the ships's crew treated us like royalty, the excersions were top notch, and the accomodations were first rate... we had the time of our lives......

Travel agent Gardner Singhaus was knowledgeable about all aspects of the cruise, he accomodated our specific needs, he was creative in planning our trip and  he is a credit to your company......

I cannot believe how Royal Caribbean has changed,  charging the passengers for everything onboard....including water!

The soda packages were very exoensive, while only having 7 machines onboard to service 4,200 passengers! The bars can't provide the soda selection that is at the machines.  Most of the time the machines were not working and still recording your attempt to get a drink by computer chip, so when you tried another machine, you were told to come back in 15 minutes. How dare Royal Caribbean monitor how fast I drink a soda when it is unlimited soda...one price! Also having to walk almost half the ship just for a soda. You need additional machines on all decks!

I think better control of the children is needed!!! Running around the ship until all hours of the night uncontrolled by adult supervision is not acceptable.

The food selection was not as good as other ships I have been on (Holland America  and Norwegian, to name just a few). This was my 18th cruise, my 4th with Royal Caribbean. Far too much on the menu was repeated every day.

Royal Caribbean needs to review the shore excursions. Some of the vehicles were very run down and in need of repair. In a hot climate, over booking on a bus is not fun when it seats 20 and the driver puts 22 on the bus. Speakers don't work properly either.

No one seems to monitor the chaise lounges around the pool when people leave towels on them ( to reserve them) from 8 in the morning till late afternoon.

I will think twice befor using Royal Caribbean again.

This was our fifth cruise.  The first two were on Royal Caribbean, the third was a Carnival cruise, followed by a Disney cruise.  When we cruised Carnival we thought it was definitely a "step down" from what we had experienced on Royal.  When we went on our Disney cruise, the second sailing of the Fantasy -- we were "wowed" -- Disney, as usual, spared no minute detail.  When it came time to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary we decided to go back to Royal -- as our experience was superior to Carnival, and we weren't traveling with our Grandson, so no need to be on a Disney cruise.....  We couldn't have been more wrong.....  The little "nice-ities" that we were looking for on Royal were gone -- no toiletries, no bathrobes in our balcony cabin and they seemed to "nickel and dime" us to death --- even charging extra for fresh-squeezed orange juice!  A watered down version of "Tang" was available free of charge.  The ship, of course, was beautiful and the waiters, bartenders, and cabin stewards were wonderful --- as was our cruise director and activities director, Richard and Katy ---- they were amazing and really saved our cruise from being very hum-drum!!!!  I'm not sure who we will cruise with next time, but it will probably not be Royal, I'm sorry to say......

Absolutely wonderful cruise..from begining to end..love it..love it..love it..I have been on 30+ cruises..I have to say this is my favorite ship..hands down..service..food..entertainment..cleanliness..the food..the elegance of the ship..the layout is large but simplistic..absolutely fabulous!!!

Great cruise but there aren't enough soda machines. Crew members were very friendly and always helpful!! Would cruise with them again and plan to in the future!!

The staff was great, helpful, very informative .  Enjoy our time.  There was so much to do.  Lots of varieties in food.  Our stateroom was nice.  The only problem was you couldn't get out of the bed on the one side there was no place to get out.   Other then that everything was great.   Thanks

We did not receive the service on Freedom that we received on Navigator.  Our stateroom was always clean but we had very little interaction with our girl, Avilon.  During that week I spoke or saw her maybe 4 times.  Our dinner at night was so long and very slow getting to us.  We always had to ask for more tea or rolls, etc.  Need more excursions.  The CoCoCay Island was beautiful.  St. Maarten was gorgeous.  St. Thomas was dirty.  

Over all the cruise was a good experience.  We were disappointed in the late delivery of the luggage, in fact I had to go to a staging area to retrieve my luggage.  There was no shower head for two days in one of the changing room showers. Highlite of our vacation was the dinner hour.  Our head waiter, waiter and asst waiter were very good.  The ship windows were not as clean an as I remembered from previous cruises. I noticed this in the Windjammer, elevator and the glass on my balcony. Also the water drain on my balcony was not clean, there was hair in it from previous guest. Not good.

Very nice. Helpful Crew Personal  .The BEST of the BEST  Waiters in Galileos dinning room,Erwin & Kevin. Thanks to you two.     Also Mr. SPACEY IS A REALLY GREAT CRUISE DIRECTER.

As former travel agency owners, we have sailed on just about every cruise line available. This was our 3rd cruise on the Freedom, in the last 2 years.  Overall general expereince was acceptable.  However, we were seriously disappointed in specific areas of add-on tours and speciality services:

1) From past experience we ignored the line's recommended boarding time of 1:30 pm, and boarded as early as possible to avoid waiting in line for 2 - 3 hours in the hot 95 degree FL sunshine.  We arrived at 10:45 am and boarded the ship in less than 20 minutes; enjoyed the buffet on Deck 11, and then went to the jr suite at 1pm when cabins opened.

2) Our Bon Voyage package was NOT waiting as preordered, more than 2 months previously.  The almost $50 pkg of wine, fruit, crackers and cheese FINALLY arrived AFTER 5:30 pm.  More than 1 hour AFTER departure and 15 minutes before dinner, and ONLY because a half dozen phone calls were made.  We ended up brigning the wine home with us because we had already purchased a wine pkg for dinner.

2) The $49 pp + gratuity on-board, "Mystery Dinner Theater" is the biggest over charge of money, rip-off, and time waster we have ever experienced in the 13 years we have been cruising!  DO NOT bother!!!  Passengers are crammed into the specialty Portofino restaurant - which we have eaten in before and thorougly enjoyed -  where you will be bored to tears with amaturish acting, and crammed into the small intimate restaurant beyond capacity.  Tables are set up in long rows, where you squeeze into the chairs jammed in together, like an over attended church pot luck special!  The tables were so crammed together in long aisles, so much so, that the server could not fit in between the passengers to serve them, without hitting them in the back of their head with her ample hips.  Normal cost is $20 pp.  This is seriosly NOT WORTH the money and experience.  Save your money for something else. Also, the food was not Italiian.

3) The Tequilla Tasting Tour, in MX, was NOT worth the money and there is NO TIME to enjoy the water park.  The tour should have been free, like a wine tasting, because the entire point of the tour is for the "tour guide" to sell the expensive $150 per bottle Tequilla at the end of the demonstration.

4) The 4 hour kayak white water rafting tour in Jamaica, is not only not a real kayak experience, there is less than 20 minutes actually spent on the water.  The remaining 3 hours and 40 minutes is spent driving around the area in a van, stopping at trinkets shops the tour guide probably gets a cut on.

5) Crusies.com promised a free meal at the Johnny Rockets speciality restaurant.  Royal Caribbean would not honor this free meal.  The couple we traveled with was allowed to use their free meal certificate; but, Royal Carib would not honor ours.  Also, FYI ... there is a $4.95 per person service fee + gratutity, on the so-called FREE meal, if it is honored.

6)Overall expereince, discounting the extras, was typically enjoyable, on Freedom of the Seas.  Ship is clean and well maintianed.  Fewer activities. Shows were the same.  Food was wonderful and dining room service was exceptional.  We were able to reaquaint with staffers we've met on previous cruises. Below is a photo taken from our balcony, leaving Mexico.

As a platium member on both Carnival and RCL. Both of them have good points .

RCL Sraff was great on trying to provide a sugarfree desert , were Carnival made the melting cake sugar free. The behind the scenes tour on Carnival far excides RCL. The ice skating show was awesome on Freedom of the seas.  The the cruise director and Captain on the freedom of the seas were two of the best friendliest people in their positions.

Seven great days on Frredom of the Seas. Not a drop of rain or single sway of the ship. Absolutely perfect weather. Ports stops in CocoCay , St. Thomas and St. Maarten were pleasurable and enjoyed the beaches there. Evening dinners were well prepared and just about anything you wanted. Almost everyone dressed appropriately for dinner with only a couple of plaid shirt/baseball caps were evident.

Nightly entertainment was really well done.

Only drawback was the repainting and resurfacing of 1/2 of the main deck (11) which took all week and caused cramped conditions when ship was at sea. All in all a great cruise.

Boarding process was as expected, a little slow to get through the security screening. Once we got to the check in desk the process took 5 minutes and we were on our way. This was my first trip on the Freedom class of ship and didn't know what to expect as far as service and comfort since we would be joined by 4200 guests. I was plesently surprised, it never felt over crowded and facilities were always easily accessible. The Windjammer Jade buffet area was clean and had excellent service, the food was good but nothing special. The dining area was laid out and decorated with a traditional formal atmosphere, not a Chucky Cheese look. The food had it's good but also some bad. One night I had a seafood mash dinner and the breaded fish and scallopes were institutional grade Long John Silver quality. To be fair there were bright spots with the lamb chops, steak and the lobster was the best I've ever had on a cruise. When it was time to deboard and return to reality the whole experience was the fastest I ever had, it took 15 minutes. The entire staff on the ship went out of there way to make you feel special, if I could I would give them 6 stars. The best way to show how our experience was is 3 days later I booked another trip on the same ship except we will be taking the western carribean cruise. If you need down time and relaxing cruise take the 7 day eastern carribean trip, my blood pressure dropped 45 points.

I have been on 5 Royal Carribean cruises and Freedom of the Seas is the best looking ship I have been on. I cannot show you a photo or explain how beautiful the ship is, you have to see it for yourself. The other 4 were beautiful as well. Rhaspsody of the Seas is one of my favorite ships which I will be on on July 18, 2014.

this was our second time on this cruise and we loved it even more this time. if it was possible our time in the dining room was made a pure joy by the service of our 2 waiters - Henry and Guilherme.  After a really bad experience with the hostess outfront on several accasions, they absolutely turned things around and gave my whole family a wonderful dining experience and just changed the whole atmosphere of what could have been disastrous to our cruise. We love the ship and the pots of call. Each time we cruised we have experienced something new. The staff of the ship for the most part, we have found to always be excellent. But on this cruise the wait staff went above and beyond and set even my grandaughter at ease and made her laugh...and that's not easy. We enjoy this cruise and cruiseline so much we are definetly going on another one and it will probably be the same one again.