Freedom review, vs Carnival, Voom and excursions

[serene56]

We sailed Freedom on Valentine's Day. Found RCI skimpy on staff; 2 servers in MDR versus 3 servers on Carnival Sunshine (June 2015); towel animals 3 nights out of 7 and 7 nights out of 7 on Carnival; not enough staff picking up dirty dishes from tables in buffet, Sorrento's, and Cafe Promenade; one night no entertainment; lack of food available outside by the pool (except ice cream) - Carnival has pizza, Mexican Blue Iguana, and Guy's burgers on pool deck. Meals were good but not memorable. Linen carts and vacuum left in hallway throughout the cruise. I thought RCI was upscale from Carnival -- not in my book. Sailed 4 times on Carnival & always satisfied; we're going back to The Fun Ships of Carnival.

 

Just off Freedom on Sunday. Did a different route then you. Its our 2nd Royal cruise-- we are carnival junkies. I just had to look at your activities sheet to see if yours was different-- it didn't vary a lot. and if people will look at it you call can see that there is very limited activites.

 

With carnival we always had to pick and choice leaving stuff out. Not so with the freedom. Dinner was early. Trivia at 7:30 night show at 8:30 game show at 9:30 - that's all.

 

We found we had to buy a soda card on Sunday because there was nothing to drink except water at 9pm. Yes I checked the café and the place at starbucks. Water. no lemonade, no ice tea. Windjamer was closed. We felt that there was a lot of activities if you were willing to pay for it.

 

If someone can read the activity sheet and tell me what to do between 8am and noon- maybe I am missing something.

 

I know we sailed with a LOT OF KIDS our week but there was no reason to have so many stations at the buffet serving hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch all week. Thank God we found the Bistro.

 

The Bistro is located in the dining room - deck 3 Having lunch there on sea ddays was very nice-- more relaxing.

 

Ok there was only like 3 stations set for hamburgers and hotdogs but if you ventured to the back the was "real" food back there.

 

Yes -that was the only free food there is. the finger food on deck 5 is so small its not meant for a meal. same with the slices of pizza- very small slices.

 

now if you wanted Mexican its a cost item. Real burgers- is a cost item want to drink after 9 there is a cost.

Never have I felt so nickled to death on a cruise.

 

I look forward to reading your activity pages

 

Does any one know if this cruise director is a "part time" one and is only the relief CD while the real one is on vacation???

[Moonlighting]

port 10-6

I was super excited about this stop - my first all-inclusive, yeah I get to drink as much as I want and I booked a snorkel trip. I paid deposits on line for both of these, only $20 so I had stashed $160 for cabs and tips. We were in line to leave the ship and went to stand in line for a cab. I yelled out to the group if anyone wanted to share a cab, one couple said they were going but their friends went outside the gate to see if it was cheaper. When it came our turn I asked if we can share but they put us in a car and off we went. $17, gave him $20.

 

This was my third time to Cozumel - first two on Carnival. I think Carnival's port is nicer.

 

It was about a 15 minute drive. Mr. Sanchos is very pretty, they have a small market at the entrance. We stopped and paid for the all-inclusive part - my daughter is 16 so she didn't get the drinking arm band, but I was told I could have paid the adult price and she could drink with no problem.

 

They have nice changing rooms by the bathrooms.

 

We got there early (there were 5 ships in port) and had no problem getting chairs right at the water. Our waiter came immediately and took our drink order and gave us a menu. If you want to jump on the water blow ups, you pay a guy right in front of them $12 I think. I asked our waiter about my snorkel trip that was booked for 1:00, he said he would get someone to talk to me. The man came up and I told him I had booked two snorkels but wanted just one and a rider. My daughter was still scared from stingray city, he said he would have to check with his boss and be back in 15 minutes. We proceeded to hang out at the bar attached to the pool in these swings. They were so awesome. They keep the drinks coming, but they arent fantastic. They are in these thin plastic cups so they water down quickly. They use good tequila but the mixes aren't very good. The beer gets warm soo fast, but they have another sitting there when you are half way, so I got very buzzy quickly!! WE ordered from the menu and everything was good. I did check out the buffet but I feel the menu food was better. ... I kept seeing the snorkel guy for over 2 hours and he would say I'll get my boss, be back in 15 minutes.

 

Finally 3 hours later he tells me I can pay $50 instead of $60 and they are ready to go. I told him I wasn't sure I could snorkel now, I had drank alot!!! and he said how many fingers am I holding up and i got it right so off we went, lol.

 

It was us and two others ladies on a small boat, the water was rough and he helped us get in, but yelled sit down and off we go. He took us to a spot and didn't anchor, we had to just jump in. the boat was rocking and if it wouldn't have been for my daughter I'm not sure how I would have gotten off the boat. She was like " mom, you don't have to do this, and I'm like, yes I do - this is what I came to do". Hitting the water straighten me right up and my first pic made it so worth it. We saw sooo many fish. I really have no idea how long we stayed at the spot, but he had us climb back and go to another spot. I didn't fair as well this time getting back in the water and face planted and got water up my nose and in my eyes. We didn't stay at the spot very long because the water was very rough. As we snorkeled the other guy drive around with my DD sunning on the front. She said she had fun.

 

I think the entire trip was less than an hour. We came and told our new friends we were still alive. No one was in the pool when we got back and found out someone had pooped in it so it was closed. This was a bummer. There was another pool but we decided to go to the water blow ups. DD did this for maybe 30 minutes and we decided to head back and shop in port.

 

We checked out the market and DD bought a chair hammock for $20 - cheap yes, but I knew carrying one more thing wasn't going to be fun. We shared a cap back with a very drunk couple, $17 for all four, so got back to port for $10

 

Once back on the ship wind jammer was of course closed so I headed to sprinkles (ice cream) by the pool and it was also closed. I waited till now to say they would clean it and close it at peak time the entire cruise - Carnival has two stations and I don't ever remember not being able to get ice cream.

 

I really felt sick from all that drinking, car ride, snorkeling, mexican food and just needed some carbs!!! I waited for wind jammer to open and had bread, milk and mashed potatoes. I learned a lesson - I don't like all-inclusive - I felt like crap the rest of the day and swore no more drinking.

 

Since I had eaten we skipped the dining room and saw the comedy show. he was pretty good.

day 6 Compass.pdf

day 6 Compass 1.pdf

[mccannme]

Did the ship change to Island time in ports or stay on Florida time the whole time?

[birdylady]

Howdy Neighbor. We did Freedom a few years back and enjoyed it. As you can see by my signature, we've only done Royal so it's nice to hear some of the comparisons.

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Erika

[Moonlighting]

Did the ship change to Island time in ports or stay on Florida time the whole time?

 

The ship always stays on ship time (Florida). My iPhone stayed on ship time in port. My daughters didn't so that made me crazy especially when I was drinking lol.

[Moonlighting]

Very windy - I guess because we are hauling a** to get back, found a chair easy which is really the best part of the ship. DD slept in since I had been dragging her around for the past 4 days. Went ice skating (I wasn't getting off the ship without doing this) went around twice, the Canadians were zipping around the rink, but I had a better tan, lol.

 

Went to dining to say goodbye to our new friends. The one couple at our table was on their 30+ cruise with RC and would only do that. They had done this itinerary so many times they don't get off the ship, which I can't even imagine. it all seemed ho hum to them and all they could talk about was the Allure.

 

My take away is I like port days and will continue to pick cruises with places I want to visit. If the cruise didn't have many stops, I would make sure the pool area has food!! I have no idea if this is across the board on all RC ships.

 

We carried our luggage off and were in line at 6:45am - line got very long by 7:15 - we had way too much luggage (and a hammick) and my DD kept dropping her suitcase as we moved down all those ramps. people were probably pissed at us. the line moved very fast - we were through customs and off to look for my car.

 

so I thought I knew where we had parked but I totally fogged out and had to leave DD in an area and set my alarm off looking for my car. wasted about 15 minutes so my advise is to take a picture and write is down. once I found my car it all came back to me :0,

 

I'm so glad I spent the extra money on the covered parking garage because we were off to SC by 7:45am

 

I was thankful there were no emergencies that I was aware of the entire week and no announcements into our cabin like on weeks previous. The Cruise Director said we had the best weather they had experienced in weeks.

 

Traffic was easy on 95 - spoke to someone when I got home and they said the weekend before it took 14 hours to go home because of all the spring breakers. took us 8-1/2 with 3 stops. That would have stunk, so I will keep that in mind for next year.

 

I will be happy to answer any questions about my excursions - I did get my CC bill and didn't have an extra charge for using it in Cayman, so glad about that.

day 7 Compass.pdf

day 7 Compass 1.pdf

[wsyrob]

Thanks for the review.

 

I sailed that same itinerary on Freedom last year and it was my first cruise. My wife and I are booked on Majesty for a shorter 4 day cruise in July. I was also under the impression that RCI offered a cruise experience a step above Carnival. That appears to not be the case. Sometimes you don't know what you might be missing by staying loyal to one cruise line.

 

May need to give them a shot next time. I doubt I will ever get much benefit out of Crown and Anchor anyway.

[Jadu4ever9]

Hi All!

 

I'll be sailing on FOS in about 18 days (western caribbean route) and i'm just wondering, if there was something on the Cruise Compass you wish you had done and/or if you did something that was a waste of time?

[missholly24]

I agree - my dd was where is the chocolate on the pillow and the towel animals. We got 2 animals.

 

No more chocolate for Carnival either, but I do love the towel animals every day! Thank you for the review.