Just back from Freedom...here's what was new to me

[dachshunddoglover]

Our family was on the 9/19/10 sailing and had a wonderful, wonderful cruise. We love Freedom. The only tiny negative (which did not impair the enjoyment of the cruise) was - we purchased two soda packages for the children. During the week, the kids don't like to carry the mugs so they just got their soda at a bar with the coke sticker on their sea pass. On the last sea day, we took the mugs to the pool deck because we expected to be there several hours. The pool deck now has a self dispenser that will fill your mug when it reads the chip in the bottom of the mug. I went over to the coke machine to fill it for one of the kids and it did not work. The screen said it was not "valid". I called over a pool manager who tried it also. He accused me of bringing the mugs from a previous cruise. I was livid. I informed him that I did not have a copy of our bill in my bathing suit but we did indeed purchase the soda package when we boarded at the Windjammer. So - go check your mug right away and make sure it works and if it does not, exchange it for one that does.

E-Beth

[Tyler80]

We just returned from the Sep 19 western caribbean sailing on Freedom. As a little background: we sail 2-3 times a year, and on this trip we earned our 20th RCCL cruise credit. We were previously on Freedom for her inaugural year Thanksgiving sailing and most recently cruised on RCCL in Nov 2009 on Jewel. We've also sailed once on Disney and 5 times on Celebrity.

 

Overall, we had a fantastic trip, so the things below are ONLY the things that frustrated me. In addition to the things below, I will say that I continue to find Freedom to be very crowded (and we had several crew members comment on this as well when we discussed with them the other ships they've worked on). We will most likely avoid this class of ship in the future.

 

Some things that caught us off guard on this trip (and perhaps they've been noted previously on CruiseCritic, but I did not see them):

 

1. There is now a $10 upcharge to order 2 entrees per person in the specialty restaurants. Both Chops and Portofinos offered a 2 lobster tail "special" entree each night. My husband and I wanted to order 2 steaks and share the lobster tails to make it surf & turf...but we were told in both restaurants that we would have to pay he $10 upcharge to do so. The restriction only applied to entrees...still unlimited appetizers, desserts, etc.

The only exception to the 2 entree upcharge appeared to be with the pastas in Portofino...you could still order a demi/appetizer portion of pasta and have a meat entree without an additional charge.

 

2. You can no longer order a bottle of wine in one venue and carry it to a dining area without paying a corkage fee. For example, we've had previous experiences where we were encouraged to order wine for dinner from the menu at Vintages in the Promenade. We met a couple onboard who tried to arrange this and were told there would be a $12 corkage fee (and no, the wine was not on the dining room menu). Likewise, we tried to have a bottle of champagne sent from the champagne bar up to Chops for our dinner...this was an $150+ bottle of champagne, but we were still told that there would be a $12 corkage fee if we either carried it in open OR had it transferred to Chops.

 

3. Olive & Twist did not carry some of the alcohols listed in their featured drinks menu. They carried neither Hendrick's gin or Zodiac vodka, even though these alcohols were listed as the key ingredients in a number of the menu items. Each bar had a different drink menu, so I feel the bars should stock the alcohols listed in their menu (FYI - we had Zodiac in the champagne bar and saw Hendrick's in the Pub, so these products were on board the ship).

 

4. The public areas of the ship were dirty. I have never seen a Windjammer buffet in such bad shape, the public restrooms were downright nasty, and we never saw anyone wiping down elevator buttons, handrails, etc. Also,

 

5. There were hand sanitizer stations in all the right places, but none of the greeters/hostesses requested passengers to use them. The only time we were encouraged to use the hand sanitizers was when entering the Diamond C&A breakfast on the final sea day (and that request was made by a non-dining room crew member).

 

Like I said, overall we had a great week onboard Freedom but I wanted to share the information above with others, as these are items I would have liked to know prior to boarding.

 

 

I was also on the September 19th sailing of Freedom of the Seas.

 

I found the ship to be empty most of the time. I kept asking my wife where everyone was. I've also sailed on Liberty of the Seas during the summer and the ship never once felt crowded (even with 4,274 passengers onboard). On our Sept. 19th sailing there were 4,100 guests onboard. Again, never did feel very crowded to me. Never had to wait for a table in the Windjammer or search for seats in the theater.

 

1. My wife and I ate at both Portofino's and Chops Grille. Let me tell you both meals were outstanding and well worth the $20 per person at Portofinos and $25 per person at Chops Grille. The cover charge does include your gratuity/tip. The wait staff wants you to get your money's worth so they will offer suggestions that include side options and bring you whatever you want. In regards to the $10 second meal price personally I don't know how anyone can possibly eat more than one entree after you've had an appetizer plus a salad and then eat dessert. Maybe this is Royal Caribbean's way to politely slim down the cruising population? We each got an appetizer, salad, entree and dessert at each restaurant and were stuffed by the end of the meal.

 

2. We don't drink wine, so I have no comment on the corkage fee.

 

3. We only drank cocktails from the Pool Bar and the Acadia Theater. We're not big drinkers and only drank 4 alcoholic drinks each during the whole cruise.

 

4. We never saw any parts of the ship that looked dirty! Our room was on deck 7 and several times while coming down the stairs ship staff was wiping down the railings and or sweeping the carpeting. Also saw staff sweeping the carpeting by the dining room several nights before dinner. In regards to the elevator buttons, we never took the elevator once during the whole cruise. We always took the stairs and did daily walks on deck 4 and on deck 12. We ate at the Windjammer Cafe 3 times and never once found it dirty and the selection of food was great. They have a great salad bar. There was always open tables available, and servers walking around to help clear tables and or get you water, iced tea or coffee.

 

5. Like PAGA said, there were hand sanitizer machines at every dining location. We used them when they were available, but were never asked to use them. I found this nice. Obviously no one knows if I had just came from the restroom and had washed my hands prior. I can make my own decision on whether or not to wash my hands.

 

It's funny how differing opinions can happen onboard the same ship. Everyone who is going on Freedom of the Seas, you will love it. Don't miss the shows, they are all wonderful as is the food and wait staff. Enjoy!

[goouchjac]

You post implies that there is something wrong with the OP (and others) who identify negatives aspects of their cruise. I don't think there is anything wrong with noting the areas that could have used improvement and letting other's know about both the + and -'s.

 

Well then you read it wrong:mad:,,not what I implied at all......

[HB Cruiser]

Hey E-Beth!!!

 

We were on the Freedom this past May and Liberty the previous May, with Adventure inbetween.

 

NEVER have I seen a "dirty" ship in 19 cruises. Sometimes the bathrooms might not be tidy due to slobs of passengers that seem to not be able to put the paper towels in the trash recepticles but have never seen them dirty.

 

I mentioned the Adventure previously to compare the diffs between ships. The crowded conditions are not as bad on the Freedom class ships as the Voyager class ships. The flow of passengers is much better. Originally I did not want to try the Freedom class as I was afraid of the extra passengers. I was wrong, it is much less crowded.

 

Tim

[Cravin]

Some people just can't help finding negative things to say about their cruise:mad:,,we have been on many RC ships and even the big ones and never found them to be "dirty",,,as for the hand sanitizers,,we always use them and find most of the passengers also do.

The crew work hard keeping the ship up to speed and we appreciate their efforts,,not easy with all those passengers walking around and believe me some people are just out and out slobs:mad:....

 

Some of us like to hear this type of information. Personally, I take the comments at face value and determine what relevance it has on me. For the most part it is a case of "if that's the worst thing that happens on my trip, I'll be just fine with that".

 

Also, the OP did mention that they had a great trip.