My first trip to Europe on Freedom of the Seas 9/3/17 with many pictures and video!

Here we are in the town of Amalfi. You get 1 hr or so here, which is plenty of time!

here are some steps we definitely weren't going to climb. I think it costs 3 euros or so to enter this church

You probably are thinking, "Wow, I can't believe she is so lazy"....well BELIEVE IT and this will be you too on your last port of call :')

And I included the above picture because I didn't want you to forget what I looked like...gradually getting worse with my appearance as the days went by lol...extra sleep always wins over putting makeup on!

Beach photos for ya - definitely not as nice as the caribbean, but the locals love it and it does have a certain different appeal! I'm sure that water was cold, I didn't test it out though!

Amalfi Coast :o

And here's my husband, the photographer :D

as you can see, kind of a grey day...but perfect to get away from the hot sun!

After the 1 hr was up, we went to the meeting point to get to the ferry that was going to take us to Pompeii, back to meet the bus

Once we got back to the bus and we got to Pompeii, we ate at this little restaurant outside of Pompeii, which was included. It was good, it was not the BEST food I've had the whole cruise but it was tasty. You got a salad appetizer, some sort of pasta, dessert, and wine...and bread of course

We ate with another couple from Texas ironically and the guy looked like Guy Fieri - fairly certain it's done on purpose...:confused: what do you guys think

Then we had about 1.5-2 hrs in Pompeii, where Manuela guided us to all the most famous parts of Pompeii. Pompeii is HUGE and you can't see it all in such a short amount of time, but seeing the highlights was good enough for a taste for sure!

A bit of advice...if you do this tour, use the headphones provided. My husband and I made the mistake of using our own, which made it almost impossible to listen to the tour ( the audio is set for CRAP headphones, so the volume is unbearably loud if you have any sort of decent headphones plugged in)

All in all, the tour was AMAZING, a perfect mix of scenic drive, walking around coastal villages, and a well known historic site. Also, having an AMAZING tour guide just really makes a tour 1,000x better! I can't wait for my husband to finish our cruise video because we have some clips of Manuela talking and then you will know exactly how much fun this tour was! Manuela told us she has been doing these tours for 20 years and her sister actually does them too! Really neat and definitely changed my jaded opinion of RCI tours.

Up next I will do a quick summary of what I thought of the Freedom in terms of food, entertainment, etc

My score of the Freedom

So, about 3 weeks after this trip, Casino Royale contacted me and offered me free cruise options for October. I ended up taking a 4 day cruise on the Majesty. It was definitely interested to compare and contrast two RCI ships, doing two different itineraries, in two different countries...especially in such a close time frame.

Food Quality on the Freedom

10/10! The food was amazing! Everything on the ship was so good. Even the breads which are normally stale in the buffet for breakfast (Croissants, jelly filled things) were soft and flakey instead of hard as a rock. On the Freedom, I just thought this was because RCI had upped their food quality standards. However, after the 4 days on the Majesty where the "hard as a rock" breads returned, I realized this was just an itinerary based change. Europeans must have such a higher bar for food, and ingredients, which resulted in MUCH better tasting food. I also learned that while doing that itinerary, the freedom stocks up on food in Rome, so they will have different brands for things, vs the brands they have for Miami sailings...which makes sense...but is also such a disappointment for me. :loudcry: I was really hoping the food had just improved overall, but this is not the case.

Entertainment

We had already seen Once Upon A Time on another ship, but we went to see it again because it was cute the first time...and it was cute the second time! We went to the ice skating show, which is always so good...I can't believe the things the ice skaters can do on such a small ice rink! We went to the Love and Marriage show, but really that is all I can remember us going to. Honestly, if you do this itinerary, you end up eating late because you are in port later than usual and by the time you are done eating, the shows are over OR you just don't want to go because you are tired.

Service

Amazing service, as usual. I don't really ever have a problem with service on cruises though, regardless of cruiseline...it amazes me people who complain, but maybe we are just easy to please? We sail mostly in insides and are just grateful to be on vacation, we just aren't fussy people in that regard!

Cabin

We booked the cheapest cabin available on Deck 2, since it was a port intensive cruise and because we prefer to sail insides (Because that means we can vacation more or spend more money on excursions) That being said, I have been disappointed with overall cabin appearance and cleanliness for the past 3 cruises on RCI and this cruise was no exception. Parts of our cabin just DIDN'T work, like the cabinetry for the doors for our mini fridge, one handle of something even FELL off. I know the Freedom is an older ship, but I just expect my furniture to work as it should and for my room to be decently clean and kept up. I didn't complain about it, but just noticed it, as a cruise critic reviewer would.

Embarkation/Disembarkation

As reviewed early, embarkation was a disaster, the worst I have experienced. I have no desire to ever repeat that again! Disembarkation was much smoother and customs was adequately explained to us. Now if that could have been the case for the airport, that would have been amazing! If you just take a carry on, you will get extra scrutiny in terms of security at the aiport (they will ask you some bizzare questions) but other than that, was pretty easy getting home.

Thanks for reading and I hope some people found the info I provided useful! I will hopefully be doing another trip abroad in Sept 2018, to visit some other countries I haven't been before. I feel like after doing this trip, I can plan anything and go anywhere!

Thank you for finishing!

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Great review, thanks for sharing! Pictures were awesome too! We had the same feelings on just about everything on our recent Jewel Med cruise. [emoji23]

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Great review, thanks for sharing! Pictures were awesome too! We had the same feelings on just about everything on our recent Jewel Med cruise. [emoji23]

 

 

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We are going on Jewel this August from Rome to Greece. Please share a review about your cruise. Of course, a new post.

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We are going on Jewel this August from Rome to Greece. Please share a review about your cruise. Of course, a new post.

 

 

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Will do! I’m still going through my photos... Over 12000! [emoji23]

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Will do! I’m still going through my photos... Over 12000! [emoji23]

 

 

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it takes such a long time to do a review like this doesn't it...we still haven't went throughly over our video footage...sometimes the whole week seems like a blur!

it takes such a long time to do a review like this doesn't it...we still haven't went throughly over our video footage...sometimes the whole week seems like a blur!

Great review, btw. We were on nearly same Cruise on Freedom September 17-24 on Presidents Cruise. Same Ports. We loved the food on Freedom. I suspect they were getting ready for the Presidents Cruise.

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Great review, btw. We were on nearly same Cruise on Freedom September 17-24 on Presidents Cruise. Same Ports. We loved the food on Freedom. I suspect they were getting ready for the Presidents Cruise.

 

 

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Had to be something, because on the Majesty I was heartbroken. TBH, I feel like RCI quality is just going down the drain in terms of the upkeep of rooms and the quality of food recently. Or maybe I'm just wowed at the quality of life Europeans have in terms of food and vacation days lol

Had to be something, because on the Majesty I was heartbroken. TBH, I feel like RCI quality is just going down the drain in terms of the upkeep of rooms and the quality of food recently. Or maybe I'm just wowed at the quality of life Europeans have in terms of food and vacation days lol

Hard to beat European food. Freshness, Taste. We loved just relaxing with some Tapas and wine/beer and people watching. We did 4 days pre cruise in Barcelona and it was not enough. This was a brutal cruise for our bodies. Walking, walking, walking. Not to mention uphill downhill steps.

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Hard to beat European food. Freshness, Taste. We loved just relaxing with some Tapas and wine/beer and people watching. We did 4 days pre cruise in Barcelona and it was not enough. This was a brutal cruise for our bodies. Walking, walking, walking. Not to mention uphill downhill steps.

 

 

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Yes lots of walking on this cruise, I hit 30k steps every day and I still gained weight, I just love croissants! :') and I am MOST happy to report that I hope to be going somewhere abroad this Sept again because I gave up my seat on a xmas flight and got a 500.00 voucher...one can hope it isn't a BEAR to redeem and I can go somewhere exotic for my labor day trip again!

Yes lots of walking on this cruise, I hit 30k steps every day and I still gained weight, I just love croissants! :') and I am MOST happy to report that I hope to be going somewhere abroad this Sept again because I gave up my seat on a xmas flight and got a 500.00 voucher...one can hope it isn't a BEAR to redeem and I can go somewhere exotic for my labor day trip again!

Exciting; I love doing that!

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Thanks for a great review. I know that doing this is a LOT of work. We did almost the same cruise in September, and I just finished going through the pictures. :D

Read this entire review today. It is awesome!! You sure have me wanting to book my first European and/or TA cruise.

Read this entire review today. It is awesome!! You sure have me wanting to book my first European and/or TA cruise.

Glad to hear you loved it! And wow, a European TA cruise would be AWESOME!!! You totally should do it, we can’t because of pesky work but it would be so nice!

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Thanks for a great review. I know that doing this is a LOT of work. We did almost the same cruise in September, and I just finished going through the pictures. :D

Yes I have a lot of photos I didn’t even post because it’s so much work to format them for forum sizes! But I hope I added enough of them for readers! I learned a lot from other reviewers for my cruise so definitely wanted to give back!

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Hi Aubreyc great review....we are also going on our first W med cruise out of Barcelona on the Symphony,, We are staying at the same hotel you stayed at. Our flight gets in about 10:00 am, were you able to leave your luggage somewhere secure before check in so we could go out and explore?

Thanks

Hi Aubreyc great review....we are also going on our first W med cruise out of Barcelona on the Symphony,, We are staying at the same hotel you stayed at. Our flight gets in about 10:00 am, were you able to leave your luggage somewhere secure before check in so we could go out and explore?

Thanks

Yes we had a similar situation, and the hotel puts them in the back under lock and key for you, no problem! They were great! Plus, remember that theres a coin operated cappuccino machine that is surprisingly good, I think .50cents in Euros or so! The cup will be hot, be sure to use a napkin when holding it haha! We grabbed one before going out to tour! I am so excited for you, this itinerary is so exciting!

Hi Aubrey,

Thanks for your amazing trip report! I'm glad that you and hubby had a blast and your information proved to be quite informative in planning for my future Mediterranean cruise :)

P.S. I like your glasses!

Hi Aubrey,

 

Thanks for your amazing trip report! I'm glad that you and hubby had a blast and your information proved to be quite informative in planning for my future Mediterranean cruise :)

 

P.S. I like your glasses!

Thanks! :D I am glad my info has helped you out and hope you have a great time on your trip!

Thanks so much Aubreyc for the great information. We are so excited to go. We have only ever done Caribbean cruises. We are going with another couple that has never done Europe either, so this should be loads of fun.

Thank you for taking the time to share your amazing adventure ! My sister and I are thinking of taking this cruise in 2019. But after reading your comments I have two major concerns. Can we do all the walking, we're in our 60s. And can this trip be done for no more than $4,000 a person?

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Thank you for taking the time to share your amazing adventure ! My sister and I are thinking of taking this cruise in 2019. But after reading your comments I have two major concerns. Can we do all the walking, we're in our 60s. And can this trip be done for no more than $4,000 a person?

 

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the amount of walking really depends on what excursion you want to do, plus you don't HAVE to walk, cabs are plentiful and are pretty cheap so you should be fine in that regard.

As for the finance part, if you book well in advance, it definitely can be done for under 4k per person. The first concern should be your flight. We booked our cruise (inside cabin) and airfare together...was 3k total for 2 people. the airfare portion was 760.00 pp from Dallas to Paris (And then 60.00 for both of us to fly to Paris to Barcelona)...the 760.00pp was a HUGE savings as Kayak told us 1k pp for flights so bundling with cruiselines can be a big savings. But Europe flights are all over the place, so cost in that respect can be iffy. my budget for each port for excursions was 150.00 per person, but you can definitely find things to do for much cheaper :) I hope that helps!