Freedom Western Caribbean Review--6/13/10

[Gon2hwe]

I plan to make this a quick review and it may be in segments so please bear with me.

I booked this cruise last May'09 in a WOW sale. Half deposit with obc. I had a whole year to plan it and ended up with four others besides my husband, with 3 cabins. We booked hump cabins on the 8th deck. A few months before sail date I found a $200 drop pp on a resident rate. Shortly after final payment I found another $220 drop on a resident rate if we moved to a D2 from a E1 cabin. We ended up with a slightly bigger cabin with $440 obc + $100 obc from the Wow sale. I assumed we would lose that but we did get it.

We flew to Orlando on Delta with no problems and arrived on Friday before our cruise. We stayed at Comfort Inn in Cocoa Beach. This hotel is definitley showing some wear and tear as any beach hotel will but it was a pleasant stay and the staff was very pleasant and helpful. The pool was clean and enjoyable. The only problem here was the coffee pot in the room kept switching off. Something electrical I think. I would definitely recomend this hotel before a cruise for a short stay. They had a cruise package there also.

We rented a car from Thrifty Car rental. Through recommendations from Cruise Critic we got the loyalty card. This allowed us to walk right out of the airport to the parking garage and pick up a car. It couldn't have been easier. They do charge an extra drop off fee to return it in Cape Canaveral but the price was still less than some others agencies. We returned it Sunday morning and took the shuttle to the ship. The process was very easy and the staff and shuttle driver was very nice.

Once at the pier we had to wait a little while in chairs while they boarded a wedding party but we were on the ship within an hour. Checkin itself was a breeze since we did the online check in .

Once onboard we were directed to the elevators to the Windjammer for lunch. It was not very crowded and found a table quickly. When finished we checked and our rooms were ready. We stored our carry ons, checked the balcony, and went out to explore.

[Gon2hwe]

We decided on My Time Dining and preset our time to 6:30 every night. We had the same waiters every night and were given a window table with Benimena as our waiter and Reshi as our assistant waiter. They were exceptional every night and and our head waiter was present every night to make sure everything was taken care of. We were not disappointed all week and they made our dinners everynight enjoyable.

I know food is a big topic here on CC, but we found the food to be quite good throughout the week. My only exception was the bread and deserts. The bread was hard and tough and the desserts just never seemed quite sweet enough. I'm told that this is the European way of baking but I feel it should be a little more Americanized since most cruisers are from the USA. Just my opinion. It certainly didn't make or break my cruise.

Let me just say that the Freedom was a beautiful ship. There was always someone cleaning somewhere. The pools and hot tubs were very clean and I would have loved to enjoy them more. Here we come to the complaints about chair hogs. It was the single most aggrevating thing about the whole cruise. Chair after chair with nothing but a towel on it. At any given day at sea only about 2/3 of chairs were being used with the rest being occupied by a towel. It probably wouldn't bother me so much if row after empty row of suite guest reserved seats weren't empty too.

On the first day,Novell, our room attendent introduced himself. He was an excellent steward all week and made our cruise very carefree. I begged him to come home with me the day we left.

We were all very impressed with the cruise director and he kept us laughing all week.

All the shows that we saw were excellent. We didn't see any late night shows as we're early risers. Our favorite show was the Tribute to the Temptations. Even the younger people were getting into the music. The ice show was very innovative and executed very well considering it's such a small rink.

[Gon2hwe]

I made the mistake of not taking bonine when I got on the ship and by Monday morning I was pretty green around the gills so to speak. We managed to get to the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle but I was'nt able to stay long. The staff didn't do much as far as the meeting was concerned. They came in and gave away a few prizes and left. That's the point I had to leave so not sure what happened after. I thought they should have at least gotten people to introduce themselves.

Excursions are the reason I cruise, and as a general rule Royal Caribbean does an excellent job of planning them. There was only one exception which I'll go into later. We had not done a Western Cruise before and really looked forward to all the ports.

Haiti: Royal Caribbean has done an excellent job of building this port. They now have a pier there and all the buildings look new and well kept. The only problem here was the beaches themselves. We tried 2 different beaches here and found them almost unswimmable because of the rocks in the water. Later we heard if you go through the market theres a beach that's not as bad.

Two in our party did the zip line and really enjoyed it. One of them was 64 Yrs. old and had no problem.

Two others in our party did the sandbar catamaran and enjoyed it except again rocks and shells in the water. My recommendation would be to take water shoes in Haiti.

The food at the bar b que was surprisingly good.

Jamacia: Here my husband played golf at Sandals. We had to arrange this ourselves after RC cancelled his excursion there. He enjoyed it alot even though pricey.

Three of us did the Dolphin Touch and Dunns River Falls excursion. We really did enjoy this excursion and found all the tour guides and bus drivers very courteous. I must say that we did get out of the falls about 1/2 way up. The rocks can be rough on your feet even with water shoes.

The other two in our group took a cab to a beach. They were harassed some when they went in the water(to buy trinkets and drugs) but they expected it and didn't seem bothered by it much. I really enjoyed Jamacia and all the people there were very nice and friendly.

[southern traveler]

Great review! We will be on The Freedom in Sept. can't wait!

[yogimax]

Thank you. I see you enjoyed the tribute show to the Sensations. We really enjoy these shows, including the one they do for the Beatles.

[Gon2hwe]

Grand Cayman: First of all let me say that Grand Cayman is a beautiful Island. Of all the ports we visited I'd most like to return. The excursion we chose here was The Best of Cayman. My recommendation on this excursion would be to just skip it and just go to a beach and Stingray City. We waited quite a while to start this tour and got 20 minutes into it and then had to go back to pick up some ladies who didn't get on the bus. What was so confusing was that there were two different tours on the same bus. The Best of Cayman and Cayman Culture tour. The bus driver was rude to them after he picked them up and was rude the rest of the day. We were only allowed one bathroom break all day and no chance to get anything to eat or drink. My sister is a diabetic and thank goodness she took snacks with her. We finally arrived at a pier where we went out to Stingray City. This almost made up for how bad the day had gone so far. We really enjoyed this part of the day. The stingrays are very tame and friendly. This is the fondest memories we have on the cruise even on the worst excursion.

Cozumel: DH played golf here on a RC excursion and really enjoyed it. Two of our group went to Passion Island and loved it. They even got massages on the beach and said it was great. They said the food here was excellent also.

The other three of us went to Tulum with beach break. I thought I was prepared for how hot it would be but I wasn't. I had always wanted to see Mayan ruins and I was not dissapointed. The ruins were great except for being so hot. They are up on a hill above the water and the view is beautiful. Our tour guides we very well versed and did a great job. Next we went to a beach down a very narrow sand road. We had a wonderful lunch in a little open resturant. The food was very authentic and tasty. The gucamole and salsa were to die for. I was a little puzzled that all the servers wore mask. Someone please tell the Mexicans were not afraid of swine flu anymore! The beach here was great. The water clear and the beach was clean. Let me say here that we did see topless women here and I'm sure it was the highlight of some teen boys day. I would not take small children on this tour as it is very long and the ruins are hot.

[AspiringCindy]

Love the report!! Did you have a chance to visit either of the specialty restaurants? Also which night was the "once upon a time" show?

[Gon2hwe]

Thanks for the comments. We enjoyed all the shows.

 

The last day of our cruise was a sea day. We decided to go ahead and pack everything we could early so we could relax and enjoy the rest of the day. We did some last minute shopping and looking at pictures. They had a T shirt sale 2 for $20. Do that early for the right sizes. There were sales in the promenade but not much to write home about. That afternoon I went back to the pool but you guessed it, chair hogs were out in full force. I went to every pool, even the kiddie pool and towels on half the chairs, all the suite guest sections empty. (Guess you can tell this bugs me.)

We decided to go to Chops for dinner on our last night. It was not crowded at all and the food was excellent. They were out of rib eyes but they found a T Bone for my husband and it was huge. He said it was very good. I ordered the filet. I should have had it butterflied because it was very thick and a little rare for medium. They did take it back and cook it some more though. The service was excellent here and the manager was very attentive and service was very prompt.

We chose to do the valet service for our luggage. There was 6 of us in a minivan so It helped out alot. We had to have our checked luggage in the hall by 11:00. They also print out your boarding passes for your flight so we got to skip that long line at the airport to check in. The next morning my husband left after breakfast , took the Thrifty shuttle to pick up the car and when we got off the ship he was waiting for us in a parking lot across from the entrance.

All in all we all enjoyed the cruise. Nothing is ever perfect on a cruise but I feel this cruise was pretty close. Service was excellent by all the staff and the ship is beautiful. I believe that food and excursions and ports will be inturpreted differently by different people. Royal Caribbean does a great job of giving a good value for your money. Hopefully Oasis or Allure will be next!

[Gon2hwe]

Love the report!! Did you have a chance to visit either of the specialty restaurants? Also which night was the "once upon a time" show?

Went to Chops... Excellent!

I think Once Upon a time was Friday. Sorry so many shows, it's hard to remember.

[bionicman97]

Enjoying the review.

[Gon2hwe]

One thing I'd like to say is that I tried to upload photos to this review with no luck, but In a way I'm glad because I researched this cruise with all I had. I think it took some of the wonder and amazement out of the whole experience. I saw that in the faces of some in our group who had only sailed with carnival or not at all. I hope I won't do that on my next cruise since Oasis and Allure are so different. Hopefully our experiences will be helpful but I hope everyone makes judgements on their own. After all there are so many different things to do I know that everyone will find lots to love about cruising and the Freedom is a great ship!

[Quigley10]

Great review, and great meeting you at the M&M! You're correct-the M&m completely fizzled after the prizes. We won a prize -it was an eclectic mix of highlighters, magnets and a 2007 lanyard. Fun to meet everyone, though!

 

It's interesting how different tastes can be. We loved the bread and always had extra, even at the buffets! Did you ever have to wait for MTD? We were at the main seating at Galileo's (deck 5) and seemed to always see a line for MTD. Not sure if those were people with reservations...

 

The deck chair hogs were annoying! We didn't find it to be too difficult to find chairs on deck 12 overlooking the pool, but the reserved chairs on deck 11 were frustrating. Thankfully, we were usually too busy to spend much time trying to claim chairs.

 

Great review!!! :)

[HB Cruiser]

Great review, and great meeting you at the M&M! You're correct-the M&m completely fizzled after the prizes. We won a prize -it was an eclectic mix of highlighters, magnets and a 2007 lanyard. Fun to meet everyone, though!

 

This has happened at almost EVERY M & M we have ever been too. I really think RCCL is missing the boat here (yes pun intended ;) ). They have every opportunity to get with cruisers that post regularly on the internet and could say positive things about them and the way they handle the M & M's but they just seem to not be real interested in them.

 

On a couple of our cruises with our cruise buddies we basically took over AFTER the staff left. Just as they would say well, party over, ours normally gets started. We always have someone stand up after the staff gets done and say , "If you all would like to stay we are now going to have our own M & M." We go through and have each individual stand up, tell us their name, where they are from, and then their screen name. We even had a post card swap a couple of times. We would bring postcards from our home area and trade them with others that have done the same. This was pretty fun & interesting. It is also a good time to have a cabin crawl.

 

RCCL at one time did the same thing as far as having us introduce ourselves but it seems now the staff does not have the time. :(

 

Tim

[Gon2hwe]

Great review, and great meeting you at the M&M! You're correct-the M&m completely fizzled after the prizes. We won a prize -it was an eclectic mix of highlighters, magnets and a 2007 lanyard. Fun to meet everyone, though!

 

It's interesting how different tastes can be. We loved the bread and always had extra, even at the buffets! Did you ever have to wait for MTD? We were at the main seating at Galileo's (deck 5) and seemed to always see a line for MTD. Not sure if those were people with reservations...

 

The deck chair hogs were annoying! We didn't find it to be too difficult to find chairs on deck 12 overlooking the pool, but the reserved chairs on deck 11 were frustrating. Thankfully, we were usually too busy to spend much time trying to claim chairs.

 

Great review!!! :)

 

 

We always went to the dining room fairly early 6:30 or so and never had to wait more than 5 minutes. Usually just until someone came to seat us. But we always had the same table and waiters. I guess because we reserved a time.

[Gon2hwe]

This has happened at almost EVERY M & M we have ever been too. I really think RCCL is missing the boat here (yes pun intended ;) ). They have every opportunity to get with cruisers that post regularly on the internet and could say positive things about them and the way they handle the M & M's but they just seem to not be real interested in them.

 

On a couple of our cruises with our cruise buddies we basically took over AFTER the staff left. Just as they would say well, party over, ours normally gets started. We always have someone stand up after the staff gets done and say , "If you all would like to stay we are now going to have our own M & M." We go through and have each individual stand up, tell us their name, where they are from, and then their screen name. We even had a post card swap a couple of times. We would bring postcards from our home area and trade them with others that have done the same. This was pretty fun & interesting. It is also a good time to have a cabin crawl.

 

RCCL at one time did the same thing as far as having us introduce ourselves but it seems now the staff does not have the time. :(

 

Tim

 

 

I probably would have tried to get something going after the RC staff left but I was beginning to feel pretty rough about then. DH even offered to but I just wasn't able to stay.:o