Review of 11/25 Freedom of the Seas trip

I’ll try to break this up enough so that you can read it all or pick and choose by section. As with everything, these are my opinions and everyone may not agree.

Background– Husband/Wife, early 60’s, turning Emerald this cruise. All of our previous cruises are with Royal Caribbean. This is our second cruise on FOS. The previous FOS cruise was October, 2009. We are the type who stays in the inside cabins, Promenade View when available.

Overview– The Freedom class is our favorite class of ships. Freedom was in great shape. The carpet in our room was a little worn (but so is my living room carpet :-) ). The public areas were all fantastic. The crew was wonderful, even people we did not interact with in any capacity. A friendly smile and greeting was always there. Kudos to our room attendant, Roderick. We were welcomed by towel animals every night and the ice bucket was always full. High praise is also given to Alex and Federico in the Schooner Lounge as well as Donald and Zeomara in Cafe Promenade. I really can’t say enough about the crew. Carlos, of the Activities Staff, was funny and is also an illusionist, performed a couple of tricks at our table. I am sorry we missed the magic show where he performed a whole routine. People who saw it said it was great. Make sure to include Carlos in your activities if you can.

Embarkation– We stayed the night in Dania Beach pre-cruise. We usually get to the port early to enjoy a full first day. We used Uber to get to the port. Very easy. That being said, our driver did say that there are Uber/Lyft drivers who will not go to the port because everyone has to go through a security checkpoint to get into the port and the lines can be long and take some time. We got to the port about 10:30 and found no lines through security or at check-in. In fact, there were several agents open. Check-in, obviously, was quick and easy. We went to the waiting room for about 10 minutes and then we were on board. People we were traveling with got to the port at 11:30 and said they had a short wait in line, but nothing terrible.

Dining– This is the section I expect will get me some grief. :-) We are not foodies, so please understand. This was our first time using My Time Dining. We found this to be very inconsistent. Two of our meals pushed the 2 hour mark. Four were fine at about an hour each. Due to our activity schedules, we were not with the same table/same staff each night. The staff was friendly, but getting our meal was slow. I don’t know if that was a server issue or a kitchen issue. We used the Windjammer for 2 of our dinners. The dining room food was very good. We could usually find one of the menu specific options that we liked. One night I did ask for the Classic steak option. We usually asked for both a soup and an appetizer. And on several nights fought to limit it to 2. The Windjammer breakfast and lunch were pretty much Royal Caribbean standard buffet items. Very good, but standard buffet. Lunch on Wednesday had the taco bar. That was excellent and there was always a long line. If you go to the taco bar, load up one plate as seconds will cost you more time in line. :-) Dinner in the Windjammer was also very good in my opinion. Choices were plentiful and good. My wife was a bit disappointed that a majority of the entree choices on those evenings were on the spicy side, which limited her options considerably (she’s not big on hamburgers and hot dogs). In fact, this was the first time we have ever had a dinner in the Windjammer. The one thing I have seen mentioned in past reviews was that dining room selections were available in the Windjammer. We were unable to find these. No problem though.

Activities– There was always plenty to do on board. We enjoy the trivia and on this cruise we noticed an increase in the number of trivia games throughout the day. I would imagine that this is the reason for a lower quality of prizes. On previous cruises, the prizes were better at the end of the cruise than the beginning. On this cruise, even the prize for the last game on the last night was that highly prized Royal Caribbean key chain. This is fine for us as we play for the fun of the game and not the prizes as shown by our score of 3 on the music group Queen trivia. And I believe we got all of 2 on the TV Theme Song trivia. We did not see many of the theater shows as we have seen those before and don’t particularly care for most comedians. The singers in the Schooner Bar and the Bull and Bear were just fine. On the fun note here, our cabin was forward. It appeared every next activity was at the other end of the ship. We logged many miles a day just going from the front of the ship to the back of the ship. :-)

Debarkation– We do not do the self debarkation and we checked-in with no flight time. We were debarkation group 29. One of the last. This was fine for us. We had a nice breakfast in the Windjammer. Then back to the room for the last minute double check. C&A members were to meet in the Star Lounge. We were called by 9:15. We got our luggage and went through the MobilePass line at the terminal for which there was only one person in front of us. A quick look at the passports and we were out within 30 seconds. I highly recommend the MobilePass application if you are using Port Everglades. All of the general TSA lines were fairly long. Once outside, we encountered the biggest issue of the cruise. There was a long line of taxis at the end of the terminal and those seemed organized. The Uber drivers have to use the private vehicle area for pickup. Many people are now using Uber and the area is a small semi-circle. It was quite chaotic. As Florida does not require front license plates, it is difficult to find your driver as they approach. And as the area is small, security keeps waving drivers through. Our first attempt canceled on us. The second driver, as we saw him got waved through by security before we got there. We were successful on our third try as I called as soon as I was notified of our driver and kept in contact. In my opinion,Port Everglades or Terminal 29 needs to do more for the Uber/Lyft drivers.

I will be happy toanswer any questions about the ship/crew or whatever. Thank you for your time.

Did you happen to see any drink cards for sale?

Thank you for your review. Did you go anywhere at the ports?

I was on the same sailing and we did see the drink cards come out about day 3 or 4. They were 10 drinks for $75.

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I was on the same sailing and we did see the drink cards come out about day 3 or 4. They were 10

Thank-you.

We did the chocolate factory tour in St Kitts. That was okay. I'm not sure I would recommend it. But the port area at St Kitts is nice. We did the Antigua Scenic with Beach tour. That was fun and interesting. Some of the homes we passed looked to be no more that 10x10. The national park view was fantastic. There was a short stop at the Nelson Dockyard. More interesting stuff there. We had a couple of phone issues in San Juan so our times were off (per some military guys there, Verizon is having issues on the island. There was a tour being offered just off the ship, "See the parts of San Juan that Donald Trump did not see". That would have been interesting.

Last April, we also failed to meet the Uber driver at PE. We just decided to cross the street from the terminal to the taxi line for the drive to FLL.

Thanks for your feedback.

Enjoyed reading your very well written and organized review.

Keith

Thanks much for the well-written report.

Thanks for the info, we be on the FOS in one month. Thanks.

Thanks for the review.

I had been reading some of the recent reviews of Freedom and was getting a little worried. We sail in March on a 6-night Western Caribbean vacation.

If an Uber driver cancels on you, are you charged for the ride anyway?

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If an Uber driver cancels on you, are you charged for the ride anyway?

No, though you may have to claim the $5 cancel fee in the app - you get the credit right away..

Thanks for the review!!

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We are sailing on Freedom in April. On the debarkation... what is the Mobile Pass application? Thanks

We are sailing on Freedom in April. On the debarkation... what is the Mobile Pass application? Thanks

https://mobilepassport.us/