Freedom Transatlantic Review (10-22-17 to 11-5-17)

About Us

We are fromPennsylvania and speak English only. Iam 51, and my husband is 49. We havecruised many times (all with RCCL), but this was our first transatlantic and our first visit to Europe. We are Diamond with RCCL. This was our first time on Freedom, though wehave previously been on Liberty.

Thursday, 10-19-17

We drove to Pittsburgh and used CharlieBrown’s park-and-fly service. Ourflights were through Delta/Air France. Wepaid $100 to check one extra bag. We hada 1:20 p.m. flight from Pittsburgh to Atlanta (arrive 3:05 p.m.) and a 5:50p.m. flight from Atlanta to Barcelona (arrive 8:45 a.m.). Both flights were on time. We used an ATM at the Atlanta airport towithdraw euros.

The plane from ATL to BCN was a hugeAirbus A330. We were in coach, hadchosen a great seating location, and we were provided complimentary dinner,breakfast and drinks (including alcohol). The plane had interactive screens at each seatwith movies, TV shows, games, music, and flight information. We each were provided with a pillow, blanket,sleep mask and headphones. Our flightsfrom PIT to BCN were booked through RCCL Air to Sea, which had the best prices byfar that we could find for one-way flights.

Friday, 10-20-17

We landed at BCN around 8:45 a.m. We took a taxi from BCN to H10 Montcado for25€. It is a very pretty boutique hotelwhich has free wifi. Our room wasn’tready yet, so we checked our luggage with the hotel front desk and walked ashort distance to book a hop-on/hop-off bus tour with Barcelona City Tours for29€ per person for an all-day pass. Eachcustomer gets a pair of headphones which plug into jacks that allow you tochoose your language for the tour. Thiswas a great way to see, and learn about, the city without walking much becausewe were exhausted from flying all night. We had lunch at Nou Sanllehy, which thankfullyhad one English menu for us to use.

Our room was ready at 2:00 p.m. We were given a free welcome beverage at thefront desk (choice of champagne, wine or water) and were also given coupons forfour free bar drinks (2 in the lobby bar, 2 in the rooftop bar). There were robes and slippers in our room,and our luggage was already in our room. Our room had no ice bucket, and we wondered if hotel ice buckets are anAmerican thing. We enjoyed drinks on therooftop bar, which has great views, comfortable seating and a hot tub.

We ate dinner at Costa Pacifico in thegothic section and then walked around the many shops and beautifulbakeries.

Saturday, 10-21-17

Through Viator on 9-25-17 we had bookedthe “Montserrat Monastery and Natural Park Hiking Tour” with We Barcelona asthe tour operator. The cost was $75/person. We took a 10-to-15-minute cab from ourhotel to the meeting spot in central Barcelona, which was just an address onthe street, not a building. At 8:30 a.m.we boarded a 19-person air-conditioned bus and had a 45-minute ride to Montserrat. We had two tour guides, Unai and Luis, who wereboth multilingual, friendly and very informative.

When we arrived, the large group wasbroken into three smaller groups. Onegroup went on a pre-booked horse-back excursion. There were three people in our group (the twoof us and a French woman) for a lighter hike, and the remainder went on a morestrenuous hike. We were given a choice beforeexiting the bus of which type of hike we preferred to take.

The weather was absolutely perfect. We visited the beautiful church. The boys’ choir wasn’t singing today, as theyonly perform Monday through Friday. Werode the Sant Joan funicular and took a 1.5 hour hike. For the hike, sneakers or hiking boots aredefinitely needed. We saw many peopleusing walking sticks. Unai was our tourguide, who was wonderfully informative and friendly. The scenery was amazing, and we snapped manypictures.

After the hike, we were given an hourbreak to have lunch and shop on our own. Food choices at Montserrat are a cafeteria(which is what we chose), a buffet and a snack place. By the time we met back up with everyone fromour original group, Montserrat was very crowded with vehicles coming and going,so our tour guides had us ride the Aeri de Montserrat (cable car) back to theparking lot where the bus was waiting as opposed to their driving the bus backup through all of the people and traffic to pick us up. This ride was a nice surprise, as it was notto be included in our tour and we did not have to pay more to ride it.

We rode the bus back to centralBarcelona where we had been picked up, and we took a cab back to ourhotel. We then walked Las Ramblas andshopped. We had drinks at Cappuccino CK,had a very good dinner in the square at Marisc Co, watched some streetperformers, wandered through an outdoor craft market, passed through a (thankfully)peaceful Catalonia referendum demonstration and then walked back to our hotelfor drinks on the rooftop.

Sunday, October 22, 2017 (Cruise Day1)

DH walked to Cappuccino CK and broughtchurros, hot chocolate and coffee to our hotel room as we packed up for thecruise. We scheduled a 10:30 a.m. cabpickup through the hotel the evening before. The cab driver was on time, and it was a ten-minute ride to the cruise portfor 29€. It was exciting to see Freedomwaiting for us! There was not much of await at the pier check-in. DH had pre-purchasedan unlimited drink package with Voom. There was a drink package designation (DX) on his seapass card, and thewifi password was provided to him at check-in.

There is a duty-free shop after you gothrough security, and there was no further security after that duty-freeshop. I’m not sure if people were ableto carry wine and alcohol onto the ship or if it was held by the shop and deliveredto the ship and then distributed the last night of the cruise.

We were having lunch in the Windjammerby 11:00 a.m. We checked out our diningroom table, which was table 352 on deck three (Leonardo’s), a two-person tableas we had previously requested, and had confirmed, via email. We explored the ship a little until the stateroomswere ready.

We were in stateroom 6338, which is acenter-hump E2 balcony. Staterooms wereready at 1:00 p.m., and two of our bags were already in the room at thattime. Our two other bags were deliveredduring muster (BTW, our muster station was outside). In our room were a bottle of water, a can ofDiet Coke and a bag of cookies. Ourrefrigerator was empty (which we prefer and I believe is now the norm on RCCL). There was a note in our room that diamondmembers would be using the Star Lounge for complimentary cocktails and horsd’oeuvres but that we could still use the Diamond Lounge for daily continentalbreakfast. As well, the note advisedthat there would be one specialty coffee voucher loaded per day on our seapasscards for use in the main dining room to avoid wait times in the DiamondLounge.

We met our room steward, Eldridge, andasked him for robes and for two ice buckets daily (regular ice bucket and awine ice bucket). He told us it was“iffy” whether we would get robes because of how many Crown & Anchormembers were on this sailing, but there were two robes waiting for us when wereturned from dinner. Eldridge did awonderful job throughout our cruise, and we received six towel animalsthroughout the two weeks.

We had 5:30 p.m. traditional dining (aswe had requested), and our waiters were Chester and Ijero. This is our first RCCL cruise where therewere no bar servers in the dining room. Ijero, our assistant waiter, handled all bar orders, including bottlesof wine (which we purchased nearly every night as DH’s drink package gave 40percent off of bottles of wine). As wewere eating dinner tonight in the MDR, we noticed that our ship turnedaround. We later learned that wereturned a sick passenger.

After dinner, we relaxed in the hot tub. We did not attend the welcome aboard show,which included Peter & Ildiko.

The captain was Espen Been. The cruise director was Mercedes Lafuente.

Monday, October 23, 2017 (Cruise Day2)

Sea day. We slept in. The Diamond Loungehad too long of a line to wait for espresso. Today was the meet and mingle, which we did not attend. We had lunch in the MDR and enjoyed the tuttisalad and pasta station. We forgot topick up ice show tickets today in the royal promenade between 8:30 a.m. and10:30 a.m., but we were able to get tickets later in the day at guestservices.

We had pre-booked a three-night specialtydining package. Tonight we had dinner atGiovanni’s, and it was not a good experience. We were offered a free lunch or dinner to make up for the issue.

This was a formal night and the night ofthe captain’s welcome-aboard address. TheStar Lounge was super crowded, as it was every night of this cruise. We hit the casino tonight (a daily/nightlyritual). We did not attend tonight’sshow, which was Nick Page.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017 (Cruise Day3)

We woke up to Cadiz outside of ourbalcony. We had lunch in the PromenadeCafé. We walked through the Catedral deCadiz (entry fee of 5€/person). We had outdoorlunch and drinks at El Sardinero. Wewalked through Central Market, which was fabulous and offered lots of freshmeats, seafoods, vegetables, flowers and other wares. We took a long walk along the sea wall. There was a duty-free shop after goingthrough security but before boarding. Webought vodka and walked onto the ship with it, as the scanners were not turnedon when we were re-boarding the ship.

We had dinner in the MDR. All aboard was 6:30 p.m., but we didn’t setsail until 7:30 p.m. because of how long it took to load supplies onto theship. The show tonight was Hector isMagic, and it was very good. We had toturn our clocks back one hour tonight.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017 (CruiseDay 4)

Sea day. We had lunch in the Windjammer. We sent some laundry out using laundry bag special ($24.99 with ourDiamond discount). While DH hadunlimited wifi, I used our first free 24-hour wifi (diamond perk). We relaxed on the pool deck and played tabletennis. We had dinner in the MDR, visitedthe Star Lounge, went to the casino and then hit the hot tub. We did not attend tonight’s show, which wasMarquee.

Thursday, October 26, 2017 (CruiseDay 5)

We were in Tenerife from 11:00 a.m. to8:00 p.m. We had room service breakfast(continental breakfast is still free). It was a very long walk to the end of the pier. There were supposed to be free shuttle buses,but we never saw them. We took a cab toPlaya de la Teresitas beach, which was 15€ each way. At the beach we were charged 5€ for twoloungers that we placed under a palm tree for shade. There were umbrellas available as well forpeople choosing to be closer to the water. There were paddle boats (with attached sliding boards) and kayaksavailable for rent.

We bought lunch at a food truck that hada small seating area. There were also acouple of food kiosks, although some were not open. We had arranged with the cab driver to bepicked up at the beach at 3:00 p.m. Notonly did he pick us up, but he returned us directly to the ship so we ended upnot having to walk the long pier back to the ship.

We had dinner tonight at Chops. Our meals were delicious, as were the desserts! Tonight we watched King Arthur outside on thepool deck.

Friday, October 27, 2017 (Cruise Day6)

Las Palmas. The ship arrived about 7:45 a.m. We slept in, and we exited the ship at 11:15a.m. and walked to the Playa de las Canteras beach, which is very rocky andbeautiful. We had an outdoor lunch atBar Vigo and had the biggest shrimp I’ve ever been served. We stopped at Molinet Santa Catalina forsangria. This is a very niceair-conditioned bar/restaurant with clean restrooms. We walked around some more, stopped for gelatoand then walked through the mall (which has free wifi) next to the pier beforegetting back onboard.

We received our laundry back today. We hit the casino and the hot tub. Tonight’s show was Laura Broad, which we didnot attend.

Saturday, October 28, 2017 (CruiseDay 7)

La Palma. We had early (8:15 a.m.) a la carte breakfastin MDR deck five and were off the ship by 9:00 a.m. There are free air-conditioned buses to takeyou between the ship and the end of the pier. We walked to the most beautiful black-sand beach. It was gorgeous! We walked around some more and had an outdoorlunch and great sangria at el Cuarto de Tula. This restaurant had free wifi and a great view of the ship. We rode the bus back to the ship, whichrequired everyone to exit the bus partway back, go through an indoor securityscreening and then get back on the bus to go to the ship.

When we got back to our cabin, wereceived a delivery of sweets (chocolate-covered strawberries, Rice Krispiestreats and candy). Today was a CruiseCritic luncheon, which we did not attend. All aboard was at 3:30 p.m. Therewere two people who were late. Thecaptain announced that we would leave as soon as the people arrived or as soonas their stateroom was packed up and their luggage was placed outside on thepier, whichever came first. We (and mosteveryone else) were watching from our balcony as the first pieces of luggagewere placed out on the pier, and we saw a police car rapidly approaching theship (presumably skipping the security we had to go through halfway back to theship). The couple exited the car with abunch of shopping bags in hand and were met with both cheers and jeers fromwatching passengers, and, luckily for them, the couple was permitted to board.

We attended the top-tier event (forplatinum and above) at 4:45 p.m. in Studio B. It was a wonderful ice skating performance different from the main iceshow. We had dinner in the MDR. We played ‘80s trivia in the Schooner Bar(tied with many teams at 29 out of 30). We attended tonight’s show, which was hypnotist David Knight. DH was one of the guests who went onstage tobe hypnotized. Tonight we had to turnour clocks back one hour.

Sunday, October 29, 2017 (Day 8)

Sea day. We had a small room-service breakfast on our balcony, along with mimosas(we had brought on a bottle of champagne as one of our two permitted wine bottlesand had ordered orange juice from room service). We lounged around a lot. The internet connection today wasterrible. We ate a late lunch in theWindjammer. We had dinner in the MDR,and it was Caribbean night. We attendedthe 7:00 p.m. Freedom Ice show in Studio B, and it was wonderful. We hit the casino. We had to turn our clocks back an hourtonight.

Monday, October 30, 2017 (Day 9)

Sea day. We had pre-booked the Sabor guacamole class and lunch. Although we arrived at 11:00 a.m., which wason our receipt as the start time, the restaurant told us it was actually scheduledfor 11:30 a.m. So we tried to getespresso in the diamond lounge but were met with typical long lines again. Our Sabor class was fun, and lunch wasdelicious, as were our homemade guacamole, the margaritas and the dessertsampler. Although the description ofthis class stated that each person would receive an avocado cutting tool, thiswas not accurate and we ended up buying the tool for $15.

DH got a book in the library, and welounged on the pool deck. This was aformal night. We visited the Star Loungebefore having dinner at 6:00 p.m. in Chops. It was uncomfortably warm in Chops. Our service started out good but then got very, very slow anddisappointing. I partook of the lobster(normally $21, on sale for $16.80), and it was very good.

It was a very windy night. We played mini golf, stopped by the arcadeand then the casino. We did not attendthe Master Sea Chef. Tonight’s show wasBrooks Aehron, which we did not attend.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017 (Cruise Day10)

Sea day. The promenade was decorated fabulously for Halloween. We heard there was rain this morning, but ithad cleared up by the time we were up and about. We had lunch in the dining room. The crepes with Gran Marnier weredelicious. DH took fourth place in theblackjack tournament ($25 entry fee). My ticket was drawn in a raffle to play in a slot tournament, but Ididn’t do well. We visited the photogallery and chose our two free photos (diamond offer). We walked to the heli pad and all around deckfour. We had dinner in the MDR and thenhit the casino. Tonight was theHalloween parade on the promenade, and there were some great costumes! Tonight’s movie on the pool deck was the new Ghostbusters. Tonight’s show was Cruising with theClassics, which we did not attend. Tonight we turned the clocks back an hour.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017 (CruiseDay 11)

Sea day. Went to the buffet breakfast in the MDR deck three and had quite a waitfor a two-top table. They were makingwaffles at the buffet. We observed around of progressive trivia in the Star Lounge. We had snacks in Sorrento’s and Promenade Café, and I finally got thepina colada in a pineapple on the pool deck that I had been craving.

DH signed up for today’s pokertournament and blackjack tournament, but there weren’t enough people signed upfor either. Today was a cloudy day thatwe spent in the casino and relaxing in our stateroom. We had dinner in the MDR. We went to tonight’s show, which was OnceUpon a Time and was very good. We wentto bed early and did not go to Quest. Tonight we turned the clocks back an hour.

Thursday, November 2, 2017 (CruiseDay 12)

We had breakfast in the Windjammer at10:50 a.m., which was a great time to go. There was no line to get eggs to order. DH played in the blackjack tournament and in the poker tournament. We received notifications that we each earned$100 off of a future cruise (400 casino points). We went to the Star Lounge for drinks before dinnerin the MDR. There was a Dreamworksparade today at 5:00 p.m. We played ‘70smusic trivia in the Schooner Bar and played some roulette in the casino. Tonight’s show was Analiza Ching, which wedid not attend.

Friday, November 3, 2017 (Cruise Day13)

Sea day. We had breakfast in the Windjammer at 10:30 a.m. I had a 90-minute hot-stone massage in thespa (half-price sale) and then used the sauna, steam room and shower. I used our second free 24-hour period ofwifi. DH won the winner-take-allblackjack tournament. We had snacks inCafé Promenade. We played TV theme songstrivia in the Schooner Bar. We visitedthe Star Lounge before having dinner in Giovanni’s. Dinner tonight was great. We visited the casino. We received luggagetags and customs declarations today. Tonight’s show was The Las Vegas Tenors, which we did not attend. Tonight we turned back the clocks an hour.

Saturday, November 4, 2017 (CruiseDay 14)

We attended a behind-the-scenes tour ofStudio B (for Diamond, Diamond Plus and Pinnacle) at 10:15 a.m., which was veryinteresting. We had lunch in theWindjammer. We made an unplanned stop inNassau around 1:00 p.m. for an emergency medical evacuation of an ill passengerand his wife. We had a 2:30 p.m.appointment with Next Cruise and booked Liberty for January 2019 out ofGalveston (our first grand suite!) and used our certificates we earned in thecasino. We were given misinformation bythe first Next Cruise rep but were able to work things out later in the eveningwith a different Next Cruise rep. At3:00 p.m. we went online to check in for our Southwest flight tomorrow.

We had dinner in the MDR. Tonight’s show was The Action Comedy andJuggling of Rick Novell, which we did not attend. We sadly packed and put our luggage out. Tonight we turned the clocks back an hour.

Saturday, November 5, 2017(Disembarkation)

We arrived very early in FortLauderdale. As our flight to Pittsburghwasn’t until 3:05 p.m., we had pre-booked the Everglades Airboat Ride throughRCCL. Our tags were Green 10, and we metin the Arcadia Theater at 7:15 a.m. and were shortly ushered off the ship. We claimed our baggage, went throughimmigration and were led to a large air-conditioned bus (which had arestroom). Our baggage was loaded intothe bottom of the bus. We boarded, waitedfor a few passengers, and then we were off to the Sawgrass RecreationPark. We took an approximately 30-minuteairboat ride with Captain Chuck and saw several huge alligators. There are a lot of exhibits with realwildlife and informative presentations, and there is an air-conditioned giftshop. We ate lunch at the Gator Grill, whichis their food truck. Yes, they servegator meat. We got back on theair-conditioned bus and were taken to the FLL airport to await our Southwestflight back to Pittsburgh. Our flightswere free with Southwest points, and we did not have any baggage fees on thisreturn flight as Southwest permits two checked bags per passenger. We landed on time in Pittsburgh, were pickedup promptly by Charlie Brown’s and had a safe drive home.

Comments

We had a wonderful time, and our weatherwas absolutely perfect and sometimes very, very hot. Spain was beautiful, and the sea days wereextremely relaxing. Once in Europe, weused euros or our Chase Visa card (no foreign transaction fees) for allpurchases. In port, the majority ofpeople in the service industry that we encountered spoke English.

Due to the huge number of diamond,diamond plus and pinnacle passengers, we never got to meet Junior Allen, thediamond concierge. The Star Lounge (substituting as the Diamond Lounge) wasalways mobbed during the cocktail hours. We experienced an absurd amount of line jumping and entitlement not onlyin the Star Lounge but all over the ship. It was also shocking (and sickening) to repeatedly see passengersgrabbing food with their fingers instead of using the utensils, eating foodwith their hands in buffet lines, and licking their fingers. We witnessed this in the Star Lounge and inthe multiple dining venues all over the ship.

I will note that there were very fewchildren on the ship, a lot of seniors and a lot of motorized wheelchairs.

Thank you for your review.

great review - what did your husband win for winning the "winner take all tournament?"

I'm so sorry about all of the spacing issues that make this harder to read. I had typed the review in Word, and then cut and pasted it here, and it took out many of my spaces. I tried to edit it, but I wasn't permitted because it was beyond the 30-minute correction window by the time I was done.

great review - what did your husband win for winning the "winner take all tournament?"

Everything that was in the pot from that game, so I think it was like $175 or something like that. I think they did it this way because it wasn't a full table.

Enjoyed reading your review.

Keith

Nice review.

Enjoyed reading your review.