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Just returned from Freedom 5/13/12 Western

kruzerci

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kruzerci

kruzerci

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I'm debating whether or not to do a full review since this was our third time on the beautiful Freedom, but we just finished the 7 night Western Caribbean. Everything was great, as usual. A few little notes:

 

-It literally took us 15 minutes from parking the car to stepping into the Windjammer. Easiest embarkation and disembarkation ever.

-We loved Falmouth, which was a pleasant yet unexpected surprise. So much nicer than Ocho Rios and Montego Bay!

-This was our first time in Labadee since the pier has been built. We loved it, as well. It's hard to beat a beautiful day in Labadee.

-Rahul was the Diamond concierge, Graham Seymour was the CD. We enjoyed Graham (we have had him on Navigator and Freedom prior to this cruise), but were disappointed with Rahul.

-The ship looked great, hardly showing any age.

-This was our first time dining in Portofino, we usually do Chops, but Portofino was wonderful, the filet was better than what I usually get at Chops.

-We had a D1 on Deck 9 (forward), we loved the location and the room. It felt huge compared to standard oceanviews and E category rooms.

-It seems like there have been some serious crew cutbacks because of the economy. We noticed a shortage of dining staff in both the WJ and MDR... our head waitress said Royal Caribbean has had to make cuts because of fuel costs and the economy. That being said, the crew was remarkably happy for how busy and tired they seemed. Everybody was very friendly.

 

We booked a cruise on Allure for the same week next year, but may switch to Freedom again depending on airfare, and bought two "next cruise" bookings onboard. We can't wait for our next one. Freedom remains our favorite ship!

 

I'll try to answer any questions and will be posting pictures once they are uploaded (we took over 600)!

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Greek50

Greek50

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Sounds like you had a wonderful time! I am trying to decide between FOS (Western) and the Allure (Eastern) for August 5th-with our schedules it is always last minute. Ports of call are much better with FOS than Allure. Price difference is $1900! Final payment is May 22nd so waiting to see if any price drops or better rooms open up. Decisions decisions!

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gcvt

gcvt

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It seems like there have been some serious crew cutbacks because of the economy. We noticed a shortage of dining staff in both the WJ and MDR... our head waitress said Royal Caribbean has had to make cuts because of fuel costs and the economy. That being said, the crew was remarkably happy for how busy and tired they seemed. Everybody was very friendly.

 

They really are amazing. Not sure how much has changed since last January but the crew was really quite incredible...except for that one guy at the bar by the cantilevered hot tubs - not sure what his problem was all week :rolleyes:

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SECdawg

SECdawg

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Can you tell me what hours the Diamond Lounge had the evening cocktail hours? I know it was 5-8:30 on our cruise last year. We heard it would be moved earlier since they changed the dining times in the MDR.

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E&B

E&B

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-It literally took us 15 minutes from parking the car to stepping into the Windjammer. Easiest embarkation and disembarkation ever.

 

What time did you get tot the port?

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brenehuns

brenehuns

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I leave on the Freedom this Sunday. I was so glad to read your post. Haven't ever been on a Royal Caribbean cruise before and am really looking forward to it. I haven't cruised in 8 years so I am a little rusty on what has changed in the meantime.

 

 

countdown.pl?image=Beach-2&name=Brenehuns&date=5-27-2012&text=&ship=Freedom of the Seas

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mnjwilson

mnjwilson

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We were on this sailing last week too, and I agree with you 100%. The dining staff was VERY short staffed. I don't fault the staff because they were trying so hard, but you could tell they were very stressed and tired. We ate in the MDR 4 nights of the cruise and 3 of those nights were a disaster. The dining staff could not keep up and we felt so bad for them.

 

I agree with you on Portofino as well. Chops was a great experience, but the food and service at Portofino was incredible. We went on our last night and it was a perfect ending to our cruise.

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mnjwilson

mnjwilson

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Curious about the entertainment in the Schooner and Pub? Thanks for your info.

 

We never made it to the Schooner so I can't speak to that one, but the live music in the Pub was great and it was always packed.

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kruzerci

kruzerci

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Can you tell me what hours the Diamond Lounge had the evening cocktail hours? I know it was 5-8:30 on our cruise last year. We heard it would be moved earlier since they changed the dining times in the MDR.

 

It was 4:30-8:00 if I remember correctly, I will double check when I get home from work.

 

What time did you get tot the port?

We got there are 10:50 and were onboard a little after 11:05.

 

hi can you tell me what you did in falmouth?

 

We did the Chukka Beach Break through Royal Caribbean. We wanted to go to the beach, but didn't want to venture out on our own in Jamaica. We hardly ever book excursions through Royal Caribbean, but this was only $29 per person and included transportation and beach chairs, so it was a no-brainer, we would have spent nearly that on a taxi.

 

It was beautiful, especially good for the price. We are going to do it again when we go back in December. I will post pictures.

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kruzerci

kruzerci

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We were on this sailing last week too, and I agree with you 100%. The dining staff was VERY short staffed. I don't fault the staff because they were trying so hard, but you could tell they were very stressed and tired. We ate in the MDR 4 nights of the cruise and 3 of those nights were a disaster. The dining staff could not keep up and we felt so bad for them.

 

I agree with you on Portofino as well. Chops was a great experience, but the food and service at Portofino was incredible. We went on our last night and it was a perfect ending to our cruise.

 

We did Portofino on the last night, as well. It was a perfect ending!

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kruzerci

kruzerci

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Can you tell me why you were not happy with Rahul in the Diamond lounge. I will be going on FOS in 3 weeks.

 

He just wasn't as personable as previous concierges. He seemed nervous and wasn't as outgoing as we were used to.

 

Don't get my wrong, he wasn't terrible by any means, but it seemed like we were always sitting with empty wine glasses and he was always at his computer.

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north29

north29

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We were on this sailing last week too, and I agree with you 100%. The dining staff was VERY short staffed. I don't fault the staff because they were trying so hard, but you could tell they were very stressed and tired. We ate in the MDR 4 nights of the cruise and 3 of those nights were a disaster. The dining staff could not keep up and we felt so bad for them.

 

I was on a TA on the Navigator in April, and the dining room staff was not up to par, despite working extremely hard. I hope this is not a coming problem for the employees. We first though that being seated at a table for two with many large tables around us was the problem with our service, because the large tables take extra time from the staff, and that was the problem, maybe not. I gave a WOW card to the waiter and assistant waiter for trying to keep us happy, they did work hard.

Thanks for posting

 

PS We were on the Freedom in February and never notice any problems in the MDR related to service.

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orville99 "Live from...." Rare

orville99

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We were on the Freedom the week before, and experienced the same issues in the dining room. One evening they pulled a waiter from Chops to help set tables, and another evening they pulled one from Jonny Rocket's (really looked weird, since it was a formal night). The MTD waitstaff we had didn't know how to serve meals properly, no one ever came to our table to take drink orders, the water glasses were never refilled. There was no wine list on the table, and on three nights, my wife's menu was different than mine. Imagine the discussion going something like, "honey, what are you having? Well dear, I'm having X. Where's X, I don't see it on my menu. It's right under Y. Where's Y? I don't have that either." The bread guy came by once each night. The waiter had no idea lobster is served with drawn butter - I had to ask for it twice. We never saw a peppermill (well actually we could see it, it just never accompanied our salads to our table), and on two nights we didn't receive at least one of the items we ordered. All I got out of the headwaiter was a lame statement that they were having a few problems that week.:(

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wolfganghowell

wolfganghowell

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We too have noticed the drop in MDR service - not really the waiters fault. They seem to have fewer staff and the last 3 cruises we've had ass't waiters that were brand new and didn't know much - poor guys were so nervous. Because of this, dinner is taking way too long - we enjoyed it when we could get in and out in an hour, 90 minutes max. But 2 hours - no thanks. Our upcoming Freedom cruise we plan on only 3-4 nights in the MDR, the other nights will be Johnny Rockets, WJ or pizza. :) And yes - we will make sure our waiter knows so we don't inconvenience him or any possible tablemates and yes, they get full tip amount. ;)

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