Brief Freedom Eastern Review plus compasses, menus, etc.

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.

Looking forward to the compasses we r sailing her in August on the eastern side

Can't wait to read more!

Leaving on Freedom Sept 6th Eastern & was just looking to see just this thing because we want to do Chops one night & don't want to miss lobster night!

Looking forward to more........

We are sailing our on our first RCL cruise in November and I am looking forward to seeing the menus and compasses from your cruise.

We are also traveling on FOS on November 1. We haven't been on this ship (or any other for that matter) since 2010 and are looking forward to the latest updates, etc.

I would love to see the Cruise Compass ahead of time so we can plan our days. I really wish these would be published prior to embarking! :)

We're sailing on her end of August for our 5th cruise on her. This time I'm bringing three additional teens so I'm anxious to hear what issues you had this time around.

Looking forward to the review! will be on FOS in April!:)

Sorry for the delay after teasing you with cruise compasses...real world problems got in the way. Let me start by getting some of the negative stuff out of the way so that I can focus on the positive, starting with the spa giveaways. My wife and daughters wanted a spa treatment during the cruise and were excited about filling out the slips of paper that we received that would be drawn for free spa stuff. The first catch, you must be present to win. Sailaway was scheduled for 4:30 and the drawing in the spa was at 4:00, so no problem. Or so I thought. The second catch...It was a glorified sales pitch as each member of the staff seemed to get time to stand up and explain what their treatments can do for you. It was taking forever. 4:30 came and went and the Carnival ships sailed past us:

Carnival Sunshine sailing past us from the Fitness Center window

I love sailaway. The music, the excitement, hopefully the perfect weather...what a great way to get the vacation started. Instead, I'm sitting in the spa listening to how a detoxifying wrap will change my world. My stress level is growing, not receding. Since I'm whining and complaining like a bored 6 year old, DW suggests that I go up to deck 12 without them. I'm not falling for that. My name gets drawn and I'm not there for her to take advantage of the free treatment?? Was I just married yesterday? (No)

Sailaway didn't actually happen at 4:30 and after the final drawing was made, we scrambled up to deck 12 only to find all of the rail space taken. As the ship started moving, we eventually found our way to the railing where I could take what is now a couple of traditional sailaway pictures for us:

There were quite a few announcements being made, all of which seemed to be focused on selling something. I don't remember this on other cruises. Time for the first drink from my drink package to calm myself down.

For some unknown reason, MTD was not available to book in advance between 5:30 and 7:30, so we booked 7:30 every night to have a reservation (we booked 2 days after it became available for booking). We figured we'd just go at our normal time of about 6:00 or 6:30 and worst case, wait a few minutes. For dinner the first night, we get to the MDR at 6:00 and are given a lecture on how we really should have reservations. The woman at the desk says that fortunately for us, there was a cancellation and she could squeeze us in. What's with the attitude? We should have waited until 7:30 as we had the worst wait staff experience we've ever had. No personality, mumbling talk, and long waits for water and bread (or any kind of recognition that we were even there).

After sitting the first night with the "bad" staff, they tried to seat us with them on future nights so that they would be with us the whole cruise. We gave them one more chance and then had to ask for different staff for future nights. We ended up with 4 different wait staffs throughout the week as they juggled to seat us each night. All of the others were much better than the first.

Bartenders, with a couple of exceptions, also had a very blah personality. They were mostly just there to serve drinks. Service was quick and the drinks were good, including several strong poors, so I can't really complain. It's just not what I had experienced in the past. A consequence of the drink package? Overworked? I don't know.

Between the sales pitch sailaway, the bad wait staff, and the indifferent bar staff from the first day, I definitely went to sleep wondering what happened to the "WOW".

OK...enough negativity. On to the good stuff.

I almost forgot. One more so-so part of the review first. Day 3 was my birthday. I'm not a big steak guy so we decided to celebrate at Giovanni's Table. It was a little disappointing. The veal was good, the filet was OK, and the chicken was dry. Appetizers were good and dessert was just OK. DW had arranged for them to sing happy birthday and they forgot, even though they mentioned my birthday when they seated us. DW had to get up and remind them. Two people came to the table and sang with a nice piece of cake, but did so after we were served dessert and were full.

Happy Birthday cake at Giovanni's Table

I do want to recognize the great waiter and assistant that we had for one night. Their names were difficult to pronounce so they told everyone at their tables to call them Batman and Robin. They were outstanding. I took a picture of their real names so that I could properly recognize them:

Definitely ask for Batman and Robin on the Freedom!

I know that some of you are here mostly for the Cruise Compasses. I finally got them all uploaded and won't keep you waiting any longer. I "scanned" these with my phone and used a free app to combine the individual pages into a .pdf file. Hopefully, it all worked. Click the links to open the files:

Day 1 - June 14, 2015

Day 2 - June 15, 2015 (Cocoa Cay)

Day 3 - June 16, 2015 (Sea Day)

Day 4 - June 17, 2015 (St. Thomas)

Day 5 - June 18, 2015 (St. Maarten)

Day 6 - June 19, 2015 (Sea Day)

Day 7 - June 20, 2015 (Sea Day)

Apologies in advance if this doesn't work. If so, I'll just post a bunch of pictures of individual pages.

Did you win anything in spa

Following are thoughts on a variety of things related to the cruise, sometimes with accompanying pictures.

Check In - Check in was a breeze. Easiest and fastest that I've ever experienced. We arrived at the terminal at around 10:45 and quickly went through security and up the escalator. We used the C&A line for Gold (and Platinum?) and only had to wait behind a couple of other parties. They started boarding and by the time we had completed check in, had announced that Golds could now board. We were on the ship by 11:00. We quickly went to the excursion desk to sign up for Cocoa Cay cabanettes and parasailing. We then bought our drink packages and went to Windjammer for lunch. No problem finding a table around 11:30.

CocoCay- First time at CocoCay for us and we really enjoyed it. I'd highly recommend the cabanettes, at a total billed amount of $53.75 for 2 people. This include 2 loungers, the cabana covering, fruit, and a cooler with ice and a couple of large bottles of water. It's all in a much less crowded area that felt quite a bit more relaxing (see item 26 on the map below). You need to take a shuttle to get there (although you could walk if you wanted) but we never had to wait long.

Barefoot Beach near cabanettes looking away from the main part of the island

Barefoot Beach near cabanettes looking back toward main part of the island

Did you win anything in spa

Nope. But I learned a valuable lesson for future reference. :D

Loving your posts! Are you far away from where they are serving lunch on Coco Cay if you get a cabanette?

Loving your posts! Are you far away from where they are serving lunch on Coco Cay if you get a cabanette?

Yes, it's a bit of a walk to lunch. However, they do provide a cart/tram service for transport if you prefer

THANKS! this is great! going eastern on freedom with the wife & 2 teenage sons in less than 2 weeks and this is helpful! gonna forward them the links to the compasses.

we did late dining (always do), batman & robin in certain area? I HATE bad dinner service.

Hope you enjoyed your trip!

Drink package worth it for that itinerary? I have enough onboard credits for it but am waiting til day 2 or 3 to get it if i do.

THANKS! this is great! going eastern on freedom with the wife & 2 teenage sons in less than 2 weeks and this is helpful! gonna forward them the links to the compasses.

we did late dining (always do), batman & robin in certain area? I HATE bad dinner service.

Hope you enjoyed your trip!

Drink package worth it for that itinerary? I have enough onboard credits for it but am waiting til day 2 or 3 to get it if i do.

Batman and Robin were deck 5, port side. Not sure if that stays the same from cruise to cruise but when we later asked to be seated in Batman and Robin's area, the woman at the desk knew who I was talking about. Try asking for them.

I'll talk more about the drink package coming up. It was worth it to us, but we had $400 of OBC to soften the blow.

Loving your posts! Are you far away from where they are serving lunch on Coco Cay if you get a cabanette?

As Bob said, we used the shuttle/tram (a tractor pulling a cart with 4-5 benches that each seat about 4 people...similar to the parking lot trams that you would find at a large amusement park). There was a woman coordinating things at the Cabanette area and she made announcements when the shuttle was getting ready to leave. It stops right near Blackbeard's grill...number 10 on the map. Easy to get there and back for lunch.

I'll also note that there are no restrooms immediately near the Cabanettes. It's a short walk up a path to the nearest restrooms.

Parasailing at Coco Cay as fun. Third time for us but always enjoyable. There were 12 of us on the boat, plus the captain and his assistant, and we went up 2 at a time. Each pair sailed for about 5 minutes, which was a nice amount of time.

Parasailing also offers a nice opportunity to take pictures of the ship at anchor:

It also gave me a chance to play with my GoPro. Here's a 6 minute video of the entire "sailing" experience:

[YOUTUBE]MubImuUqQ9k[/YOUTUBE]

As Bob said, we used the shuttle/tram (a tractor pulling a cart with 4-5 benches that each seat about 4 people...similar to the parking lot trams that you would find at a large amusement park). There was a woman coordinating things at the Cabanette area and she made announcements when the shuttle was getting ready to leave. It stops right near Blackbeard's grill...number 10 on the map. Easy to get there and back for lunch.

 

I'll also note that there are no restrooms immediately near the Cabanettes. It's a short walk up a path to the nearest restrooms.

The ocean is closer. :p

The ocean is closer. :p

I will agree with that statement.:D

A few more pictures of Coco Cay:

As the sign says, the Straw Market. Didn't go here and therefore can't comment on how aggressive the vendors are.

Snorkel Beach area

More Snorkel Beach

More Snorkel Beach