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Just off the Freedom review


ladybugpug
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I traveled with my husband, adult son and his girlfriend, and two late teen daughters. It was our first cruise on the Freedom and second RC cruise. We enjoyed the cruise and ship very much. The holiday decorations were very pretty.

We had 3 outside balcony rooms.

 

We ate in the MDR every night for the second seating. The food was always tasty and hot (with the exception of lobster night).

 

Lobster night was embarrassing. We were warned by our server that no extra entrees could be ordered on lobster night but he did sneak us some lobster tails ( which were small, tasteless, and rubbery. But RC seems to really take their lobster very seriously lol. He actually looked fearful of “getting caught”. I can’t remember what the other entrees were but they weren’t good either that night.

 

We ate breakfast in the MDR every morning except one morning we had room service due to an excursion. MDR breakfast was very good. Room service as on the Oasis was lousy. But now we got to pay a room service fee for an order that barely resembled what we actually ordered and did not come with silverware. When we got silverware the food was cold.

 

Grabbed a chicken burger at the WJ twice for lunch. The second one was completely raw mush in the center. I’m not a WJ fan.

 

Our bed was horrible. Like a sheet over a board. I never managed to sleep past 7 am which sucks for a vacation. This is my biggest complaint of the ship. Pillows sucked too.

 

Our cabin attendant was excellent. Always friendly and kept our rooms spotless.

 

We all loved Matt Yee’s diva show in the schooner lounge. We went 3 nights in a row, he was that good.

 

Ice show was pretty good.

Variety show was good.

Musical show was just ok. None of us were impressed.

 

Enjoyed the solarium. Never had to wait very long to get loungers together.

 

We really liked the cruise director Abe Hughes. A vast improvement over the guy and girl on the oasis last year who got on my last nerve.

 

Did 3 tours outside of RC. Moby Dick stingray city (amazing), maya chan (enjoyable), and mr Sanchos ( good food but crowded and I dont think there was a drop of alcohol in their drinks).

 

We ended up buying two drink cards which were handy.

 

All in all we had an amazing trip. Lots of great memories. The vast majority of crew and fellow passengers were a joy to be around.

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Interesting lobster night experience, I've never had them tell us that we were limited to one entree in the MDR.

It was the worst lobster presentation I've ever seen (and the smallest) - maybe they didn't want people to see any more of them.

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“We were warned by our server that no extra entrees could be ordered on lobster night”—Hmm, this is disappointing. My oldest daughter has never had lobster, and I was hoping that on our upcoming cruise, we could order something new and a “backup” at some meals. With four of us, ordering 5 total entrees for the group doesn’t seem too out there. We wouldn’t let anything go to waste—the extra food would get passed around. Surely,this is not out of the realm of normal.

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“We were warned by our server that no extra entrees could be ordered on lobster night”—Hmm, this is disappointing. My oldest daughter has never had lobster, and I was hoping that on our upcoming cruise, we could order something new and a “backup” at some meals. With four of us, ordering 5 total entrees for the group doesn’t seem too out there. We wouldn’t let anything go to waste—the extra food would get passed around. Surely,this is not out of the realm of normal.

 

We did that on my first cruise as teens, my brother and I would pick a meal we'd like and then one extra that was "weird" to try. Great way to see if you like lobster, escargot, etc.

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With four of us, ordering 5 total entrees for the group doesn’t seem too out there. We wouldn’t let anything go to waste—the extra food would get passed around. Surely,this is not out of the realm of normal.

What the OP described is quite rare (and may have been caused by a temporary shortage of ingredients) - ordering (and receiving) extra entrees (or appetizers) is normal in the MDR.

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I traveled with my husband, adult son and his girlfriend, and two late teen daughters. It was our first cruise on the Freedom and second RC cruise. We enjoyed the cruise and ship very much. The holiday decorations were very pretty.

We had 3 outside balcony rooms.

 

We ate in the MDR every night for the second seating. The food was always tasty and hot (with the exception of lobster night).

 

Lobster night was embarrassing. We were warned by our server that no extra entrees could be ordered on lobster night but he did sneak us some lobster tails ( which were small, tasteless, and rubbery. But RC seems to really take their lobster very seriously lol. He actually looked fearful of “getting caught”. I can’t remember what the other entrees were but they weren’t good either that night.

 

We ate breakfast in the MDR every morning except one morning we had room service due to an excursion. MDR breakfast was very good. Room service as on the Oasis was lousy. But now we got to pay a room service fee for an order that barely resembled what we actually ordered and did not come with silverware. When we got silverware the food was cold.

 

Grabbed a chicken burger at the WJ twice for lunch. The second one was completely raw mush in the center. I’m not a WJ fan.

 

Our bed was horrible. Like a sheet over a board. I never managed to sleep past 7 am which sucks for a vacation. This is my biggest complaint of the ship. Pillows sucked too.

 

Our cabin attendant was excellent. Always friendly and kept our rooms spotless.

 

We all loved Matt Yee’s diva show in the schooner lounge. We went 3 nights in a row, he was that good.

 

Ice show was pretty good.

Variety show was good.

Musical show was just ok. None of us were impressed.

 

Enjoyed the solarium. Never had to wait very long to get loungers together.

 

We really liked the cruise director Abe Hughes. A vast improvement over the guy and girl on the oasis last year who got on my last nerve.

 

Did 3 tours outside of RC. Moby Dick stingray city (amazing), maya chan (enjoyable), and mr Sanchos ( good food but crowded and I dont think there was a drop of alcohol in their drinks).

 

We ended up buying two drink cards which were handy.

 

All in all we had an amazing trip. Lots of great memories. The vast majority of crew and fellow passengers were a joy to be around.

 

 

Just saw your review and agree with you on the size of the Lobster. I think your server was playing the Im not allowed to bring extra lobster but I will sneak them for you. Remember my extra tip later. WE were on the Freedom the last week in Nov and the first week in December. We had my time on Both and had different servers each night. The first formal we had the minature lobster also. He brought out a plate with 4 more on it for the two of us right after serving his tables. On the Second formal I got Prime Rib and he bought a lobter and said surf & Turf. My wife got two lobster on her first plate. Also on last night in windjammer they offered lobsters served on buffet over where burgers are normally served on both cruises. I experienced the windjammer lobster the last night on Oasis in Oct and that was the first time I had ever seen this.

Will be back on Freedom Feb.25th and April 8th so will advise on food and service.

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Hello. Will you please tell me more about these drink cards? How many drinks do they cover? Is there a limit on the price of drink you can order? Thanks

 

10 drinks per card. Same value limit as the Deluxe beverage package, Can be shared.

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I was on this same cruise...didn’t go to lobster night. I reviewed the food in a separate post. As far as the drink card, I was told you were limited to $12 drinks and could not pay the difference. You can’t get anything over $12 and that was that.

 

 

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I was on the same cruise and my daughter ordered the lobster as well as the pasta dish (just in case) and it’s a good thing she did, my husband tasted it and told our waiter it was the worst he’s ever tasted. We got the drink card for my husband and he was ordering $14.00 martinis and never had an issue using it. Matt Yee was our nightly stop and our nightly laugh!!

 

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10 drinks per card. Same value limit as the Deluxe beverage package, Can be shared.
Thank you. One more question on drink cards. In an earlier post it was mentioned that they are offered on day 3. Are they offered only on that day? Or are they offered each day after day 3?

 

In other words is it a 1 day offer?

 

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Thank you. One more question on drink cards. In an earlier post it was mentioned that they are offered on day 3. Are they offered only on that day? Or are they offered each day after day 3?

 

In other words is it a 1 day offer?

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Forums mobile app

When the cards are offered can vary from ship to ship and sailing to sailing. There is no guarantee that they will be offered at all on any particular sailing.

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