Freedom of The Seas- The Good, The Bad and The Annoying

[Appgrad]

We just returned from the Freedom. I am not going to write a day by day review of my cruise, but I thought I would share some of my thoughts from my cruise.

 

The Good

*Quite possibly the friendliest ship I have ever been on. The crew is beyond nice. You can't walk anywhere without running into a crew member and they all smile and say hello.

*The Captain- I have never sailed on a ship where the Captain was so visible and so funny. Captain Rob (or was it Ron?) was hysterical. His updates always made me laugh. I ran into him in the hall and he was just a nice and funny in person.

*Graham Seymore- Great cruise director. The leadership on this cruise is top notch. I think that really shows and is the reason it was the friendliest ship ever.

*Labadee- The updates to Labadee are magnificant. We had a fabulous day. The beaches are clean and beautiful. They remind me of St. John. I don't remember the beaches being so beautiful the last time I was there.

*The ship- The ship was drop dead beautiful. I saw people cleaning and fixing the public places every day. Everything was shiny, clean and perfect.

*Dreamworks Interaction- I have a 4 year old and she loved the breakfast and the parade. There was a good level of dreamworks things to do and none of them were in your face. I think they have reached a good compromise.

*Kid's Club- My child begged to go every chance she got! I felt very comfortable leaving her there and she enjoyed it. What more can you ask for?

 

The Bad

*Room was small. Much smaller than I am used to on a cruise ship. I felt like the space was not well designed, which made the room feel even smaller. Yes, I booked an inside. I knew it was going to be small, but it was really uncomfortable.

*Food- "Bad" is probably an over-statement, but it definately was not good. There were a few things that were excellent- escargot, key lime pie, lobster. However, I felt like the overall selection and preparation was not great. It was definately better than what I cook at home, but I expect more when I am on vacation. The best dessert I had all week was the apple pie at Johnny Rockets. The cuts of meat were fatty and there was not the variety of foods I was used to in the past.

 

The Annoying

*We purchased the soda plan. I loved the self service kiosks on the pool deck. However, these were turned off at night. It was not the same time every night. Sometimes, they were turned off at 9, other nights it was 11. I would go up to fill my glass before bed every night and was only able to use the kiosks every night and they would only be available 1/2 of the time. When they were closed, I would backtrack to the pool bar to get the bartender to fill it. I don't understand why they have the kiosks open only part of the time! They also have a timer on the kiosks so you can only fill it every 15 minutes. If you fill it and the carbonation is off, you can't refill it at the kiosk. However, (once again) you can go to the bartender to get it filled anytime you want. If I were the bartender on the pool deck, this would drive me nuts!

*Towels- There is a $25 charge if you do not return towels. We returned all of our towels on the last night after swimming. On the last morning, we had a $25 charge on our bill for a towel. I went to dispute the charge and there were several people in line who all had the same problem. They went through the line and took everyone that had a towel issue to another line. They had someone at the desk who spent the whole morning taking off towel charges. I wonder how many people did not look at their bill before they left and missed this charge.

*Meet and Mingle- We did not receive our invitation. I could not remember when the meeting was, so I missed out on the opportunity to meet up with my group. I was disappointed.

 

 

Overall, we had a good time. I am really torn about what we will do for our next cruise. I really enjoy RCCL but the cost of the cruise may prohibit me going forward. I can cruise another line in a balcony for the same cost as an inside on RCCL. I am not sure that the cost is justified.

 

Thanks for reading!

[ryano]

Thanks for your review :) I will be on the Freedom next April and am finally going to get to see if "bigger is better" compared to what I have done so far.

 

i am confused though :confused: you have a ticker that says 11 months 3 days until our Freedom cruise, yet you state Royal Caribbean is too expensive and you dont know if you will sail with them again :confused:

 

Are you going on the Carnival Freedom?

[printingchick]

Thanks for your review :) I will be on the Freedom next April and am finally going to get to see if "bigger is better" compared to what I have done so far.

 

i am confused though :confused: you have a ticker that says 11 months 3 days until our Freedom cruise, yet you state Royal Caribbean is too expensive and you dont know if you will sail with them again :confused:

 

Are you going on the Carnival Freedom?

 

OP doesn't say Freedom of the Seas. The reference is probably to Carnival Freedom.

[ocolus8109]

Do you have any pictures you could share?

[Appgrad]

Thanks for your review :) I will be on the Freedom next April and am finally going to get to see if "bigger is better" compared to what I have done so far.

 

i am confused though :confused: you have a ticker that says 11 months 3 days until our Freedom cruise, yet you state Royal Caribbean is too expensive and you dont know if you will sail with them again :confused:

 

Are you going on the Carnival Freedom?

 

Sorry! My ticker is for my cruise last week. Not sure why it looks like it is in the future.

 

I don't have anything booked at this time.

[Puffinater]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. I agree the apple pie in JR's is great. I used to be a huge fan of the Hot Fudge Oreo Sundae but last cruise I tried the apple pie and now that is what I will be ordering.

[dohertm1]

We loved everything about Freedom of the Seas with one burning exception -- Royal should ban all smoking on or around the jogging track!!!

[Caleo]

The Annoying

*Towels- There is a $25 charge if you do not return towels. We returned all of our towels on the last night after swimming. On the last morning, we had a $25 charge on our bill for a towel. I went to dispute the charge and there were several people in line who all had the same problem. They went through the line and took everyone that had a towel issue to another line. They had someone at the desk who spent the whole morning taking off towel charges. I wonder how many people did not look at their bill before they left and missed this charge.

*Meet and Mingle- We did not receive our invitation. I could not remember when the meeting was, so I missed out on the opportunity to meet up with my group. I was disappointed.

 

Had the same thing happen on our September cruise - we never got our M&M invitation (and no one at Guest Services knew what we were talking about)...so we missed it as well.

 

There were a lot of people on the last day that were pissed about the towel charges - what happened on our cruise is that people didn't realize that an attendant has to be there to swipe out your card and you can't just leave the towel on the desk...

[lrn2cruise]

I will quote my MIL "I would eat dirt, if i dont have to cook it".

[will773]

Thank you for your comments.

[time4u2go]

What a pain about the towels. And from what you said, it doesn't sound like just an isolated incident. Why can't they figure out a better way to do the towels?

[birdylady]

*Meet and Mingle- We did not receive our invitation. I could not remember when the meeting was, so I missed out on the opportunity to meet up with my group. I was disappointed.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Sorry you didn't get the invite. We had 117 people officially registered for the M&M. About 30-40 people were there. The cabin crawl was fun and we were amazed that the JS was so big. Much bigger than we expected it would be. And of course the OS was amazing.

 

Thanks for your review :) I will be on the Freedom next April and am finally going to get to see if "bigger is better" compared to what I have done so far.

 

i am confused though :confused: you have a ticker that says 11 months 3 days until our Freedom cruise, yet you state Royal Caribbean is too expensive and you dont know if you will sail with them again :confused:

 

Are you going on the Carnival Freedom?

OP was on Freedom of the Seas, Western route, as were we.

 

As soon as I have a chance, I hope to be able to write a review too. Real life comes fast and furious after a vacation.

 

Erika

[Kimmie36]

I did enjoy the FOS but, the food was lacking in variety in the MDR especially at lunch it was the same menu day after day, thank God for the Tutti Salad. The flavor of the food and the quality in the MDR was definitely lacking. The first night I ordered the sea bass and to tell you the truth I don’t know what it was, but no problems I just ordered the Prime Rib and it was good. I never went hungry but it changed my future plans. I had another cruise that I had booked on FOS and I have recently canceled just don’t know if I could take 7 days of Freedom’s Food, so what I have decided is that I will look out for some last minute deals ,that way the cost can offset the not so great food. The extra money that I save can allow me to eat in the specialty restaurants and still enjoy my vacation!

PS I see you’re from Georgia and you know us southerner’s know good food!

[leerobbs]

Regarding the towels...I checked out two towels every day and I checked them back in at the end of the day. The towel attendants scanned my card when I checked them out and again when I returned them. I did not have a problem. I did hear the attendant tell a person in front of me one day that he/she had two towels that had not been turned in and the person replied that they were aware of that. I think if you take them back each day you will be able to stay on top it. You can address the issue then instead of at the end of the cruise. Just a thought.

[sailingawaysoon]

Thanks for your review. The Freedom has been our favorite ship to date and we can't wait to go back and see the new changes in August. I've always found the food to be good to our liking, but different strokes for different folks...

[ctcruising]

We loved everything about Freedom of the Seas with one burning exception -- Royal should ban all smoking on or around the jogging track!!!

 

I had to smile at this one as my wife and I just returned from this cruise and commented on the same thing. We are smokers and this was our first cruise where smoking was banned everywhere inside except one corner of the casino. So where can you smoke? In our case on our JS balcony, if you didn't have a balcony then the only other options are starboard on deck 4 or starboard on the sports deck (12)! Still had a great time though. We found everything to be top notch, as well as the food. God gave us millions of taste buds and no two mouth's have them arranged the same.

[birdylady]

I had to smile at this one as my wife and I just returned from this cruise and commented on the same thing. We are smokers and this was our first cruise where smoking was banned everywhere inside except one corner of the casino. ...

I had to laugh at that. I noticed the ashtray near the change machine that said it was out of order. That is where all the smokers congregated. But oddly enough, the next bank of machines had a sign that said 'No Smoking'. And that was probably not 5 feet from the ashtray. Not really well thought out.

 

Erika

[timnreba]

I wish I would add to the good comments about Freedom but I can't. I was dissapointed at the level of food and service on FOS. Food was just "ok" in MDR. I could get better in most restaurants. Service in Vintages (I like good wines), Bull and Bear, and Ben and Jerry's was attrocious. The bartenders in Vintages and B&B were horrible. They acted like waiting on people was a problem. And I am not talking about crowded times. We had late dinner seating so a few of us would go down to vintages or B&B for a wine or cocktail before dinner. We got service with an attitude. The guy at Ben and Jerrys actually told us that he hated working that ship and could not wait until he could get off. We ended up going to Schooners for remainder of trip. Not even a smile on Vintages (multiple tries), B&B, or Ben and Jerry's.

 

Now the topper.... We were cruising as a family. This trip was a combination cruise of a spring break trip for my daughter (senior in HS), a birthday present for my daughter (turned 18 on 3/19), and a family cruise that included my wife, my sister and her husband, and my mom and dad. 3 canins in total. First time we have all taken a vacation like that together. My parents are in their mid-70's and didnt do too many excursions. The one that they did do was the tequila teasting seminar in Coz. They ended up buying 2 bottles of tequila that you can't find in the US. Both of these selections were due to the "pretty bottles". They turned them in when they reboarded the ship. Guess what? RCCL lost them!!! Now, people make mistakes. I get that. But the process they made my parents go through at Guest Relation was horrible. They made them stand there for 45 minutes while they are supposed to be disembarking so they could figure out what to do. No communication whatsoever. At first they were supposed to be trying to locate the bottles. After some period of time - maybe 20 minutes - they came back and asked my parents to fill out some form so they could reimburse them. They then go away for the remainder of the 45 minutes without any communications. No sorry or anything. My mom was almost in tears at the lack of communication and service. They did get their money refunded for the cost of the tequila but they could have handled it much better. So - either some crew member got some expensive tequila bottles or someone else had some tequila bottles delivered to their stateroom by accident.

 

Then my parents get to baggage claim and guess who's bag isnt there? My mom's.... Got every bag but hers. Again - no service. Again had to fill out paperwork without any lack of communication. My parents didnt know whether to wait, go ahead and leave, etc. Terrible service. Turns out that RCCL had put the bag on the wrong turnstile. My parents were able to retrive my mom's bag after another 45 minute wait. My mom then broke down into tears.

 

Unfortunately the last day left a negative impression on the entire cruise. Some of you will say thats not fair but put yourself in that position. They will always remember that cruise for the lost souvenirs, bad service, and lack of communications.

 

This just isnt the level of service that I expect from RCCL. Why should any of us cruise on RCCL again? Collectively we probably spent $15,000+ on that vacation when you take into account the cabins, flights, rooom charges, excursions, etc. Thats a lot of money to us.

 

Very dissapointed. Its not the mistakes that were made - its the lack of service, understanding, communications, etc that made it bad.

[Eng23]

I wish I would add to the good comments about Freedom but I can't. I was dissapointed at the level of food and service on FOS. Food was just "ok" in MDR. I could get better in most restaurants. Service in Vintages (I like good wines), Bull and Bear, and Ben and Jerry's was attrocious. The bartenders in Vintages and B&B were horrible. They acted like waiting on people was a problem. And I am not talking about crowded times. We had late dinner seating so a few of us would go down to vintages or B&B for a wine or cocktail before dinner. We got service with an attitude. The guy at Ben and Jerrys actually told us that he hated working that ship and could not wait until he could get off. We ended up going to Schooners for remainder of trip. Not even a smile on Vintages (multiple tries), B&B, or Ben and Jerry's.

 

Now the topper.... We were cruising as a family. This trip was a combination cruise of a spring break trip for my daughter (senior in HS), a birthday present for my daughter (turned 18 on 3/19), and a family cruise that included my wife, my sister and her husband, and my mom and dad. 3 canins in total. First time we have all taken a vacation like that together. My parents are in their mid-70's and didnt do too many excursions. The one that they did do was the tequila teasting seminar in Coz. They ended up buying 2 bottles of tequila that you can't find in the US. Both of these selections were due to the "pretty bottles". They turned them in when they reboarded the ship. Guess what? RCCL lost them!!! Now, people make mistakes. I get that. But the process they made my parents go through at Guest Relation was horrible. They made them stand there for 45 minutes while they are supposed to be disembarking so they could figure out what to do. No communication whatsoever. At first they were supposed to be trying to locate the bottles. After some period of time - maybe 20 minutes - they came back and asked my parents to fill out some form so they could reimburse them. They then go away for the remainder of the 45 minutes without any communications. No sorry or anything. My mom was almost in tears at the lack of communication and service. They did get their money refunded for the cost of the tequila but they could have handled it much better. So - either some crew member got some expensive tequila bottles or someone else had some tequila bottles delivered to their stateroom by accident.

 

Then my parents get to baggage claim and guess who's bag isnt there? My mom's.... Got every bag but hers. Again - no service. Again had to fill out paperwork without any lack of communication. My parents didnt know whether to wait, go ahead and leave, etc. Terrible service. Turns out that RCCL had put the bag on the wrong turnstile. My parents were able to retrive my mom's bag after another 45 minute wait. My mom then broke down into tears.

 

Unfortunately the last day left a negative impression on the entire cruise. Some of you will say thats not fair but put yourself in that position. They will always remember that cruise for the lost souvenirs, bad service, and lack of communications.

 

This just isnt the level of service that I expect from RCCL. Why should any of us cruise on RCCL again? Collectively we probably spent $15,000+ on that vacation when you take into account the cabins, flights, rooom charges, excursions, etc. Thats a lot of money to us.

 

Very dissapointed. Its not the mistakes that were made - its the lack of service, understanding, communications, etc that made it bad.

Having had to deal with those issues I hope that you make the head honchos at Royal Caribbean aware of your experience by sending a letter or an email. I had no problems on the Freedom myself but if I had your kind of experience I would have been sending email everyday and also a letter by mail. I am sorry that your cruise did not meet your expectations. :(

[EBFURR]

Boy, that really was a bad experience. We have not been on Freedom (yet) but will be in about 74 days. We have been on many other RCCL ships going back many years. We have very rarely experienced poor service at the bars, but have experienced really bad attitudes & service at Ben & Jerry's and the like. Maybe it is because these guys don't make the tips that bartenders do. That is not an excuse for bad service, but maybe it is a reason.

 

With regards to Guest Relations desk: We have seen a wide range in the level of service & competency at the GR desk, especially in the past 5-6 years. The RCCL level of service in that area used to be top notch - comparable to a 5 star hotel. Lately, it seems to be hit & miss. Some of those folks act like it is their first day on the job and that they had no training at all. Others couldn't be more helpful and efficient. My opinion is this: A company's guest relations desk is the face of the company, hence the name. People who go there need something or have a problem, else they would not be there. Yes, the world is full of ***holes and CR is a tough job. On the other hand, this is relatively a very small group of people in a large organization. It should not be that difficult for RCCL to find the "best of the best" for the CR desk. Quite frankly, there is no excuse for poor perfomance in this area, especially if the guest needing the assistance is being calm & sincere. RCCL could make some needed improvements here. Again, not all of the GR people are under qualified, but a number (too many) of them are.

[AF-1]

I wish I would add to the good comments about Freedom but I can't. I was dissapointed at the level of food and service on FOS. Food was just "ok" in MDR. I could get better in most restaurants. Service in Vintages (I like good wines), Bull and Bear, and Ben and Jerry's was attrocious. The bartenders in Vintages and B&B were horrible. They acted like waiting on people was a problem. And I am not talking about crowded times. We had late dinner seating so a few of us would go down to vintages or B&B for a wine or cocktail before dinner. We got service with an attitude. The guy at Ben and Jerrys actually told us that he hated working that ship and could not wait until he could get off. We ended up going to Schooners for remainder of trip. Not even a smile on Vintages (multiple tries), B&B, or Ben and Jerry's.

 

Now the topper.... We were cruising as a family. This trip was a combination cruise of a spring break trip for my daughter (senior in HS), a birthday present for my daughter (turned 18 on 3/19), and a family cruise that included my wife, my sister and her husband, and my mom and dad. 3 canins in total. First time we have all taken a vacation like that together. My parents are in their mid-70's and didnt do too many excursions. The one that they did do was the tequila teasting seminar in Coz. They ended up buying 2 bottles of tequila that you can't find in the US. Both of these selections were due to the "pretty bottles". They turned them in when they reboarded the ship. Guess what? RCCL lost them!!! Now, people make mistakes. I get that. But the process they made my parents go through at Guest Relation was horrible. They made them stand there for 45 minutes while they are supposed to be disembarking so they could figure out what to do. No communication whatsoever. At first they were supposed to be trying to locate the bottles. After some period of time - maybe 20 minutes - they came back and asked my parents to fill out some form so they could reimburse them. They then go away for the remainder of the 45 minutes without any communications. No sorry or anything. My mom was almost in tears at the lack of communication and service. They did get their money refunded for the cost of the tequila but they could have handled it much better. So - either some crew member got some expensive tequila bottles or someone else had some tequila bottles delivered to their stateroom by accident.

 

Then my parents get to baggage claim and guess who's bag isnt there? My mom's.... Got every bag but hers. Again - no service. Again had to fill out paperwork without any lack of communication. My parents didnt know whether to wait, go ahead and leave, etc. Terrible service. Turns out that RCCL had put the bag on the wrong turnstile. My parents were able to retrive my mom's bag after another 45 minute wait. My mom then broke down into tears.

 

Unfortunately the last day left a negative impression on the entire cruise. Some of you will say thats not fair but put yourself in that position. They will always remember that cruise for the lost souvenirs, bad service, and lack of communications.

 

This just isnt the level of service that I expect from RCCL. Why should any of us cruise on RCCL again? Collectively we probably spent $15,000+ on that vacation when you take into account the cabins, flights, rooom charges, excursions, etc. Thats a lot of money to us.

 

Very dissapointed. Its not the mistakes that were made - its the lack of service, understanding, communications, etc that made it bad.

Boy, u were shortchanged a little. I hope u filled out the feedback cards and mentioned the attitudes in the bars; I know if won't help you, but the next cruisers should not have to go thru that. Royal does read these cards, and will make adjustments; sorry about that. I have a family of ten going in Dec. I too, have put out a lot of money for a family vacation. We will see what happens. Take care.

[timnreba]

Wouldnt you know that all the "customer service" things happened at the very end - after the comment cards were turned in. I did mention the poor service in Vintages, B&B, and B&J's on ours. We will write RCI a letter but not sure what that will do other than hopefully change things for others in the future. Unfortunately for us it won't change what happened to my parents. Nor do I expect them do do anything to change our minds on cruising with them again. Honectly I would be floored if they even respond at this point.

 

The pain is starting to dull for my parents but the memories of that vacation are indeed tarnished. Just a shame really. You only get a few times like these in life.

[ncsteeler]

Sorry some of you had bad experiences lessen the overall enjoyment of your vacations. I can't wait to get on FOS and hope ours is better.

 

I often hear complaints on the level of food quality, but my wife and I have never felt it was bad. I wonder if we should start a system here where we could post our specific restaurant habits. I typically eat out at change restaurants and small mom and pop places, this tempers my level of expectation. My BIL eats regularly at Mortons and Ruth Chris, I'm sure our opinions of MDR food wold be greatly different.

 

 

One tip on the towels, when we cruise we try and turn our wet ones in and collect dry ones (a swap, ie not requiring any card scanning)to take back to the room with us, and then on the last day before dinner I return the last ones and ask the attendant to check our account to make sure it's clear. If it's not this gives me plenty of time to go get it straight before the next mornings mad rush at Guest Services.

 

I think the more times you have them scan towels in and out on your card the more likely they will screw it up. So I basically scan out all I need on day one and just exchange them the rest of the way. SO far so good.

[griffy116]

Your experience with your parents is absolutely horrible and needs to be reported to RCCL. This must have seemed like a horrible vacation for them and I'm truly sorry. We just got off the Monarch last week and we are going to be on the FOS in July..and we are counting the days (87) until we leave for FOS!!! Here's what happened to us on the Monarch last week: My daughter got erroneously charged $100 for towels not returned!!! She was freaking out, since they had only gotten 2, and they had been returned. There were others that just didn't return theirs and I guess they thought it wouldn't really be noticed because they were standing in line with lots of towels hanging over their shoulders. It only took a couple of minutes to get it removed, but panic sets in when you see a bill like this. My daughter has the cheapest husband on earth, so she went into a meltdown. THEN, she ordered a nice bottle of rum to take to her husband, only to find that they don't send the liquor to the cabin on the last night. You had to line up at 7 a.m. at the liquor store with your receipt and they would give you the liquor as you departed. What a hassle...A very elderly woman was screaming at the top of her lungs, over and over again, "GIMME MY BOOZE NOW!" This lightened the mood and quieted the rest of the line who offered to let her bypass them in the line, which she graciously accepted (LOL). We thought my piece of luggage was missing when it finally made it's way onto the carousel. I got home, only to find that my luggage that appeared fine on the outside had gotten the frame bent into a V in one corner...and since I didn't know it was damaged until we got home (we drove, so it didn't happen with the airline), we didn't have RCCL inspect it at the pier, so there's nothing they can do. Maybe it's just us, but we've never had a vacation that was flawless, with the exception of several of the cruises on RCCL. This cruise was far from perfect. It's also unfortunate, but more errors and problems seem to occur on cruises during Spring Break. We had an OV room which was the tiniest cabin I've ever seen on a ship, towel problem, liquor problem and busted luggage..but we are so excited we can't stand it for the next cruise on FOS. We have a balcony cabin, we love the Freedom class ships and we can't wait to see the improvements after the drydock...and anything I don't have to cook or clean up after the meal is gooooooood!!! Sometimes crappy things just happen and it makes it twice as hard if it's an elderly parent and they get upset. I hope your next cruise goes more smoothly for your family.