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On our first night of cruise, hubby and I went into the lounge and drank two glasses on wine within 2 hours. My husband has hearing issues from the military and is loud. He accused him of being drunk and cut him off for 24 hours. My husband is 6'2" 220 pounds. 2 glasses of wine in 2 hours will not even get him a buzz. Needless to say, I found out shortly thereafter that they cut me off as well since I was married to him. When we filed a complaint and the officers agreed he was not intoxicated it is impossible to get it lifted. We were not happy! Rahul never apologized to us so we kind of avoided him and hung up at the diamond lounge.

Oh wow - I've been in the lounge before with loud obnoxious people and have never seen anyone cut off - not saying you were, just an observation.

I would have demanded an apology - Im not a difficult person but if you mess with my vacation, we may have a problem.

We were in a GS in August. Not impressed with Rahul personally! Felt he catered to passengers he already knew than assisting suite guests. Never felt welcome in Concierge Lounge! Will not pay the money for a GS again! Loved the suite but not worth the additional money over a JS! Will book a JS in August this year!

Interesting - we had a GS on IOS last January and loved Raj - he was the reason we booked a GS again.......lets hope Rahul was just having a bad week ;)

thanks

All the recent reviews of the Freedom of the Seas sound bad. I hope we didn't make a mistake booking this cruise in January. We sailed the Independence last January and other than the no so great food the rest of the trip was great. Any comments to relieve my worries would be great. (Pertaining mainly to not so friendly service and dirty chairs to sit on is my main concern.)

I have not seen any bad reviews, I've seen some nice ones......

I think as long as your travel friends are nice people and share their cabana with you; you'll have a great time :p

Everyone's reviews are subjective. We were in the Freedom in September and had a great time. Our only negative was Rahul in CL. That was our only downfall! Enjoy and have fun!

May I ask about Rahul - now I am worried......we are in a GS and expect great customer service

We have been in a GS and have another booked for just a few weeks; we never make reservations ahead of time. For shows there are sectioned areas for gold card holders, ten minutes before the show starts they open them up for anyone.....

The concierge is there to assist you with anything that you need -

You will love your GS!

The cabanas for suite guests at barefoot over the water are 395.00 - I can confirm it as we have one reserved for our upcoming cruise next month, per Rahul our concierge

Glad you are enjoying!

 

The port area is decent size but mainly diamond shops and a few gift stores and a craft market

 

 

You can see an overview of the port here

 

 

Heres as good as I got of the pool due to the downpour. Ill post the dinning room shortly, we did my time and specialty mostly this week.

 

 

 

Thanks for checking in and have a blast on your trip !

 

 

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Thanks for the information - I'll be traveling along with you the rest of the week :D

Loving the live review - we are sailing FOS in January, this is helping me pass the time

we are thinking of doing the same thing in Jamaica - just get off walk about and stop at MVille for a few...how was MVille, was the pool area large? what about the port - is it large, will it take us a bit to walk around. I am hoping to spend some time on the ship and enjoy the quiet ;)

I assume you did anytime dining - do you have any photos of the dining room for the assigned dining?

Thanks again for doing a live review - Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots of people play it by ear and have great success

The downfalls are if you don't research what the Island has to offer, you may miss some best parts of a port - you have limited time in each port.

The other downfall may be if there is something that you really want to do and its a popular excursion, it may sell out.......

Personally, I enjoy the planning prior to the trip - but that's just me, it keeps me busy ;)

Enjoy your cruise - and Congrats on the wedding

Could you be remembering a cruise on Freedom?

Haven't sailed Freedom yet - we go the cup ......but now that I think of it, we went to the bar for beverages - we don't drink a lot of soda (unless there is rum with it) so I cant be certain

Correct me if this is wrong, but I've read that Independence doesn't have the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines that Freedom has.

Why do I remember using those with our beverage package.......maybe they added them?

Sabor is Mexican food.

 

Menu:

 

https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/royal/media/royal/shared_assets/pdf/menu/sabor.pdf

Thanks - sounds looks delicious

On Freedom now, and staying in GS. The concierge Rahul is great. We ate at Sabor on first night and is was fantastic! We will be eating at Chops and Giovanni's later this week.

 

One interesting tidbit, the Dreamworks characters also put in an appearance at the kids club. Shrek and Fiona stopped by yesterday during the afternoon session, and Po will be stopping by tonight for Kung Fu Academy. I am not sure if this is done on every cruise, or just for this Thanksgiving cruise as we are loaded with kids (including ours). I have never seen this mentioned before, so thought I would mention it.

 

If Indy does not have Sabor, does that mean that it still has the nightclub?

Thanks - great info

Yes Indy has the nightclub, enjoyed it when we were on her in January

Can I ask a silly question, what type of food is Sabor - we may try that

Indy is two years newer, but Freedom has been more recently refurbished. The ships used to be almost identical, but Freedom now has more staterooms and more specialty restaurants. Freedom also has Dreamworks characters.

Thanks - What specialty restaurants, we normally do one night in the steakhouse and enjoy breakfast in one of the restaurants (on the IOS, it was in the steakhouse)

Is there a charge for DreamWorks - what is it exactly?

Sorry lots of questions

We cruised the Independence of the Seas in January; we enjoyed the ship so much that we decided to book the Freedom of the Seas......we booked the same cabin (Grand Suite) so I think the cabins will be very similar.

Which ship is newer?

I am wondering is how different are the ships; is there anything on the FOS that was not on IOS?

Anything we should take advantage of?

Thanks for your help

The point I was making is that it is Haiti, not RCI, who made this exemption. As a sovereign nation, Haiti determines who may enter the country and under what conditions. Leasing land in a foreign country gives you no say whatsoever on matters of entry to the country. In this case, RCI was able to make the economic case for the benefits of such an arrangement and the Haitian government agreed and made the necessary entry exemption.

With the current economic status in Haiti, I'm sure it was pretty easy to get the stipulation.....

After discussing this with the rep at C&A we went ahead and booked the kids on the trip - I also sent an email to RCI asking for clarification, we also took out insurance ;)

All in all, I think we will be ok - thanks for everyone for their help......will let you know what the email states

The fact that RCI might lease Labadee has absolutely no bearing on passengers' admissibility. Haiti still sets the entry requirements, not RCI.

It appears that RCI does have a bearing on the passenger entry; as they have the stipulation to the Haiti requirements; I am sure part of the purchase/lease agreement with Labadee had this as part of the initial stipulation.....

As most have said it shouldn't be a problem. I have never heard of anyone being denied boarding because they can't go to Labadee. Labadee is different. It is in Haiti, but it's considered for all practical purposes a private island. If he has his Green Card and a Passport he should be fine. Royal Caribbean caters to passengers all over the world. I can't imagine he would be the first citizen of the Philippines to cruise to Labadee.

Just for info, we did a Greek Isle cruise in Sep. We had a stop in Turkey. Turkey requires a Visa. However for cruise passengers the Visa requirement is waived (just don't miss the ship). However we had friends who needed a Visa for a South American cruise (I think it was going to Brazil). The cruise line didn't make that clear, so they couldn't board. The cruise line helped them expedite the Visa, and provided transportation to the first port stop the next day. Not applicable to this situation, but I thought it was an interesting story.

Wow - interesting story.....I would panic

Best 3 out of 5.:D:eek::D

Ken - I like the way you think :)

The young man this morning on the phone did not sound very informed, I am on the phone with CA person who is much more educated and read the information clearly which stated that Labadee is an exception to the Haiti requirements.

I would suggest you email customer service at Royal. Then, if the answer is that his green card is good enough you have a response from corporate in writing you can take with you when boarding.

Great idea - I am on the phone with a CA representative and he read the rules and states that Labadee is an exception to needing passport. I am trying to see if he can send me something via email to say the same....

I like your idea as well -

I'm sure the OP meant "non-US citizen" meaning that he does not (and cannot get) a US passport.

Correct - thank you for clarifying; Im just a bundle of nerves; we really want to take them on the trip, but not being allowed to board would not be a pleasant thing considering the amount of money we are spending for them to come and not to mention the cost we are spending for our cabin.

Its frustrating getting information from Royal - or the website, which does not state any restrictions

I have been to Labadee a few times with RCCL. I have a British Passport, and as of yet, rightly or wrongly, I haven't been denied boarding. Unless you plan to find a way of getting past the boundary, you should be ok.

That's the catch you have a passport, this young man does not - he has his Resident card - green card.

Even in the worse case, he would stay on the ship - but I don't want him to be denied boarding at Port Canaveral

Our last trip to Labadee was in 2008 but we are heading there again in 3 weeks. I expect no difference in boarding back then and now.

 

They only scanned her green card. She had her German passport in her hand but they did not ask for it.

Thanks - I appreciate the response; I think I will call the CA line and see if I can get an experienced supervisor.

Your post is confusing, the titles reads non US resident, but the posts states he has a permanent residence card. Also why are you only concerned about Haiti, what about the other stops on the cruise.

 

As a former LPR, the only ID I needed was my LPR (Green) card, but I was a British Citizen. The rules may vary for different nationalities, has his Philipine passport expired? I would check the websites of the countries being visited to be sure.

Sorry - don't mean to be confusing- he is still a Philippines citizen however, his parents relocated to the States when he was a teenager - he now is in his early 20's and has a resident card (green card) works in the US and pays taxes........

I am only concerned about Haiti because the person on the phone this morning stated that he was fine with his green card for Cozumel, Jamaica and Grand Cayman but not for Haiti......

Since you are only going to Labadee and there is no way to go anywhere else on Haiti do the normal Visa requirements apply or are they waived as part of the agreement that Royal has with Haiti and their lease of Labadee?

 

I would call Royal to find out.

That's the problem, I've called Royal twice....two different answers :(