Brief Freedom Eastern Review plus compasses, menus, etc.

Was thinking about when get on board renting a cabana $250 in Labadee?

There 12 of us and figured we all wont be there at once.

Thought it would be a safe place to unload some of are stuff.

No sure if its worth it???

Western Caribbean cruise

Oct 11-18

Would like to read a compass if anyone would have copies?

We recently did the Freedom Eastern cruise from June 14-21. I had planned to do a full day by day novel of a review, but that's probably not going to happen now. Too busy at work. I'll instead do a brief review and post all of the cruise compasses, menus, and other assorted things that I "scanned" with my phone.

 

Overall grade...B+. We all felt much better after day 7 than we did after the first couple of days (maybe it took a few days to relax?). I was definitely in the "what happened to the Wow" mode after day 1. More on that coming up.

 

A little background before I get into the details. We are a family of 4 and were in adjoining balcony cabins. DW and I were in 8280, and DD20/DD17 were in 8278. No connecting door but our steward opened the balcony partition. This is our 4th Royal cruise and 5th overall. First Royal cruise was amazing on Liberty (western). Second Royal cruise on Allure (also western) was even better. We were hooked. Third Royal cruise was a 5 day Explorer Bermuda cruise out of Cape Liberty that was a little disappointing because seas were very rough first day out and last day back. That wasn't Royal's fault though and we very much enjoyed both Bermuda and the ship. We had high hopes for Freedom based on so many people saying that it's their favorite ship, and based on fond memories of our Liberty cruise.

 

Details on specific elements of the cruise (dining, entertainment, ship condition, etc.) and a few pics to follow. I'll also post links to everything once I get it all uploaded.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Time to close out this review (unless there are more questions) with a picture and a video. Thanks to all who followed.

 

Day 7 Sunset

 

-lLjPzYexb8

Day 7 Wake

Great review, thanks for the ride! Glad it all worked out.

Sean

Was thinking about when get on board renting a cabana $250 in Labadee?

There 12 of us and figured we all wont be there at once.

Thought it would be a safe place to unload some of are stuff.

No sure if its worth it???

Just so you know, they'll only give you six wristbands for the cabana, so pick your five favorite relatives/friends if you decide to do this. ;)

So I guess this review isn't turning out to be so brief. Might have made more sense to organize it better instead of just randomly jumping between topics. Too late to start now, so let's talk about alcohol.

 

As I said earlier, DW and I bought the Premium Drink package. Total cost per person was a little more than $400 for the week. We do a fair amount of drinking when we cruise and usually spend almost this much. With the recent drink price increases, we decided that the "all inclusive" approach would be worth it. It helped that we had $400 OBC so it felt like one package was free. We were very satisfied with the wines that were available, although our waiter at Giovanni's Table didn't believe that a $12 glass of wine was included in the package (a Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc for those interested) and we had to practically force him to go check with someone.

 

We spent most of our pool time in the Solarium and never had to wait behind more than a couple of people to be served. We often were served immediately. Winston was an occasional bartender in the Solarium. I remembered Winston from the Explorer when it cruised out of Cape Liberty, as he does a great job. Reports of the death of the wandering waiter proved to be greatly exaggerated:

 

 

Same is true for the death of drink menus, at least in a few places:

 

 

Drink menu at the bar in the Windjammer

 

Drink menu at the Bull and Bear Pub

 

The Bull and Bear Pub usually only had 1 or 2 options on tap. There was Beck's available early in the cruise, and Stella available almost the entire cruise. I think they were out of Stella on the last day (not that I was in there every day). They had many bottle choices.

 

I also want to recognize one of the bartenders on Coco Cay (who also works the Sky Bar ;)). I won't call him out by name because I don't want to get him in trouble, in case he did something that he wasn't supposed to. It was about 2:00 and we were sitting at a picnic table after finishing eating. He was carrying a tray of Coco Locos. I asked if they were included in the drink package. He said that they were in the souvenir cups, which weren't included, and that he would need to charge us for the cup. We have several of the cups from Labadee so I said never mind. He then said, no problem...he'd give them to my wife and I at no extra charge. He then went on to give virgin versions, also in the souvenir cups to my daughters, at no charge. He might have only been getting rid of his inventory late in the day but he definitely made us feel special. Nice tip and a Wow card for him.

Winston is the BEST bartender in the employ of RCI!

Was trying to start a new thread to see who would be on the Sept 6th cruise. This is my first time cruising and I was trying to get to know ppl to do fun activities

Was trying to start a new thread to see who would be on the Sept 6th cruise. This is my first time cruising and I was trying to get to know ppl to do fun activities

Did you join your roll call ?

Was trying to start a new thread to see who would be on the Sept 6th cruise. This is my first time cruising and I was trying to get to know ppl to do fun activities

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

Here is your roll call:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1991138

thanks I did post on the roll call :)

had a question about the Internet Cafe mentioned on the Cruise Compass. Is this free with just a few computers in there and is it open 24 hrs?

had a question about the Internet Cafe mentioned on the Cruise Compass. Is this free with just a few computers in there and is it open 24 hrs?

You said is it FREE! :sly: but seriously, yeah no it's not free, yes there are computers in there, and not sure about the hours.

What a great review. We are platinum on Carnival and Princess, sailed a bit on HAL, Once on Celebrity, 3 times on NCL But NEVER of Royal Caribbean.

We were debating taking a cruise for our 44th anniversary this fall, and the Freedom is close to our home. Still.........did they play Trivia? Were the shows good? What did people do all day?

AND People apparently have a wonderful time all day long on RCI due to all of the stuff going on.

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

...did they play Trivia? ...

A typical day would normally have 3-4 trivias, one of which would be musical.

These are brilliant! So much going on all the time!

Late to the party but love your review and pics. Heading out in a week!!

A typical day would normally have 3-4 trivias, one of which would be musical.

As of today..........April 10 2016.........God Willing, My dear Husband and I will be sailing away on the Freedom of the Seas this September. I paid the cruise off a little early, and after seeing your wonderful review again...............I am so glad I did.

LOVELY Review. Thank you for taking the time to post those Compasses. And they were large, easy to read and just a delight! Now I know all of the good stuff we can look forward to doing!

Still worried about the Size of the ship...just a little. Getting lost and such.

Bob, I just found this review, and I am really glad I did! The menus and compasses will be extremely helpful, so thank you for posting them. I wasn't originally planning any excursions on our cruise, but that is totally not me! We are now considering parasailing on Coco Cay, Coral World, and Bernard's Tours, so I guess great minds think alike! I am looking forward to showing my DH your pictures because I know he will enjoy them as much as I did. Thank you very much for sharing your cruise with us!