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Second Guessing Freedom of the Seas


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We are scheduled for a 6-night Western Caribbean cruise on Freedom this spring staying in a category K interior stateroom on deck 9. Final payment is due in a couple weeks and I'm really starting to second guess our decision. Bad food. Cold food. Mattresses hard as rocks. What's going on here?

 

Oh, just eat in the specialty restaurants. Why? Why should I have to pay extra to have a decent meal when the price of the cruise includes dining? Oh, just bring an inflatable mattress with you to put on your bed. Are you kidding me? This is supposed to be a vacation!

 

So I'm reaching out to all of you experienced cruisers... are these reports scattered complaints are legitimate trends and I need to rethink not only our ship but the cruise line as well?

 

We were on the Freedom last December and if you click on the link under my signature below, you might find a picture or two from our cruise to see if the Freedpm/RCI is the right cruise ship/line for you.

 

Having said that, not sure why you would allow total strangers to influence your vacation decision – even including my own trip report? When I read other peoples’ trip reports, I ignore all the subjective comments and only focus on the facts.

 

For example, I pay attention to parts of the report that says if duck or escargot is no longer on the menu but ignore the comments on the taste on the food itself. That’s because the reviewers are not me. I will be the judge of my own food order, not them. I just care if what I want to eat will be on the menu.

 

In school, if you consistently achieve a 95% grade, which is very good as you will get straight A’s. If you achieve 95% satisfaction rating on any given sailing, this will imply 5% of the passengers were dissatisfied. So on a sailing of 4,000 passengers, which means 200 people will walk off every sailing feeling unhappy/dissatisfied. Chances are those unhappy people will make their way to CC and post negative comments.

 

This is fine as they paid for their vacation and they can voice their opinion one way or another. What you are not hearing is the silent majority that was happy with their cruise but didn’t feel compelled to write about it. People tend to write more when they are upset but they may not represent the majority.

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We were on the Freedom last December and if you click on the link under my signature below, you might find a picture or two from our cruise to see if the Freedpm/RCI is the right cruise ship/line for you.

 

Having said that, not sure why you would allow total strangers to influence your vacation decision – even including my own trip report? When I read other peoples’ trip reports, I ignore all the subjective comments and only focus on the facts.

 

For example, I pay attention to parts of the report that says if duck or escargot is no longer on the menu but ignore the comments on the taste on the food itself. That’s because the reviewers are not me. I will be the judge of my own food order, not them. I just care if what I want to eat will be on the menu.

 

In school, if you consistently achieve a 95% grade, which is very good as you will get straight A’s. If you achieve 95% satisfaction rating on any given sailing, this will imply 5% of the passengers were dissatisfied. So on a sailing of 4,000 passengers, which means 200 people will walk off every sailing feeling unhappy/dissatisfied. Chances are those unhappy people will make their way to CC and post negative comments.

 

This is fine as they paid for their vacation and they can voice their opinion one way or another. What you are not hearing is the silent majority that was happy with their cruise but didn’t feel compelled to write about it. People tend to write more when they are upset but they may not represent the majority.

 

Excellent comment.

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Between choices that didn't appeal to us (subjective, I know) or cold, tough and tiny portions even for a cruise ship, we were so disappointed.

I never really understand why people complain about the portions being small on cruise ships. You can order a 2nd, 3rd, 4th....10th, etc. if you want to with no problems. I would rather they serve small portions so that I can try 2 or 3 different starters or entrees rather than huge ones where much of it will end up wasted.

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I never really understand why people complain about the portions being small on cruise ships. You can order a 2nd, 3rd, 4th....10th, etc. if you want to with no problems. I would rather they serve small portions so that I can try 2 or 3 different starters or entrees rather than huge ones where much of it will end up wasted.

 

 

 

Exactly! Order however many your heart desires!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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I never really understand why people complain about the portions being small on cruise ships. You can order a 2nd, 3rd, 4th....10th, etc. if you want to with no problems. I would rather they serve small portions so that I can try 2 or 3 different starters or entrees rather than huge ones where much of it will end up wasted.

Agree, no problem here with small portions.

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Having said that, not sure why you would allow total strangers to influence your vacation decision – even including my own trip report? When I read other peoples’ trip reports, I ignore all the subjective comments and only focus on the facts.

 

I absolutely rely on reviews. If I'm spending thousands of dollars and vacation days on a trip I want to know what I'm getting into. In this case Freedom has generally had great marks. What concerned me however was there have been a lot of uncharacteristic complains about the ship in the last few weeks so I started this thread.

 

Normally I can separate the whiners from the legitimate concerns, but in this case I couldn't figure out if it was the loud minority or a trend. From what I'm reading in this thread, it sounds like the loud minority, and for that I thank you all. I'm really looking forward to this trip. It can't get here soon enough!!!

 

I never really understand why people complain about the portions being small on cruise ships.

I'm right there with you. Granted this will be our first cruise in 7 years, but being hungry was certainly never a problem with any of our past trips!

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We sailed the Freedom TA this fall. Commented to one another about how the ship's crew were particularly friendly and good and must be well managed. Commented to one another that it was the best poolside drink service we've had in ages with plenty of roaming bar tenders at all times. We're really impressed with the bars not being overwhelmed during Diamond hours even with over half the passengers having coupons to use....

 

Came home, saw all these negative reviews and wondered how we could have been on the same ship as the complainers.

 

As far as the matress goes, we did not notice it being particularly good or bad. Everyone likes different types of beds though. I imagine frequent cruisers used to one type suddenly getting something else might be unhappy with the difference.

 

Dining? TBH we did have a package so only ate in the MDR once. That Meal had a weird issue wherein an appetizer labled as crab salad contained no crab and was made from tiny shrimp. But otherwise the food was very good that night. Best Thai chicken I've had, and I order it every cruise.

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We were on Freedom last month for the 6 day following the TA and had a wonderful cruise. MDR food was good and our MTD servers excellent. The entertainment was “entertaining”, and overall the staff was courteous & friendly. We stayed in a Grand Suite (splurged for our 20th anniversary) and the concierge was excellent.

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I have been on FOS twice this year including last month. While I will say that the food on Royal in general is not what it used to be, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary as to the food. I must confess that we were given a gift of the ultimate dinning package and while we did enjoy it I will not do it again on the next cruise. What I have noticed on my last several cruises is that the Windjammer dinners seem to have improved as the MDR has diminished.

 

I thought the bedding and service overall were quite good. So I really wouldn't worry too much about someone else who was unhappy with their experience, as yours will be different and you should make the absolute best of it.

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