Just Home from B2B on Freedom: My Thoughts

[cruzeluver]

Hello all. I wanted to give an overview of our back-to-back cruise on Freedom of The Seas that just ended yesterday. We were on the 04/14 and 04/21 sailings (Western itinerary followed by Eastern). We had a fantastic time and are already in full-blown post-cruise depression. Below are my thoughts on this trip: the good (the vast majority), the bad (just a smidgeon) and the ugly (one or two things). I believe in giving Royal its due where they excel, but I will also point out where improvements can be made. Nothing occurred that was so bad that it had a major impact on our trip nor would it discourage us from coming back.

Who Are We

My partner Jim and I (Ryan) are experienced cruisers with twelve previous cruises together on various lines, this was only our second on Royal with our previous one being on the Mariner a few years ago. Due to being Select members on Celebrity we were accorded Platinum status on Royal. The perks were nice. We love, love to cruise and are relatively easy to please.

Our Stateroom

We were lucky enough to snag the Ben & Jerry “Sweet” for both weeks and would book it again in a heartbeat. The room itself is fine. Storage is adequate and everything was clean and in good repair. The perks that come with the room are the real reason to book it whenever you can. We received coupons good for one scoop of ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s every day. But the big perk is being given access to the Concierge Lounge and the services of the on board concierge. We never took advantage of the continental breakfast served in the lounge, but we went for the evening open bar and appetizers almost every evening. We also met some lovely folks there. The concierge, Willie, is worth his weight in gold! He was charming and couldn’t have been more helpful. We did go to the lounge a couple of times during the day for the complimentary cappuccinos which were excellent. We also were able to use our gold card for quicker service at guest services (there is a separate line).

The ship

We found Freedom of The Seas to be quite lovely. The public areas were very nicely appointed and the condition of most spaces were excellent considering the amount of wear and tear these ships get. She was easy to navigate, especially with the addition of the touch screens located throughout. The rock wall and flowrider were a lot of fun and easier than we thought they would be. The bars, lounges and the theater were comfortable and finding seats was never a problem. We knew that smoking is still allowed in the casino so we did not spend a lot of time there.

Service

Nearly everyone we dealt with from waitstaff, cabin stewards, guest services, activities staff and others was friendly, professional and eager to do whatever they could to provide a great vacation. The jacka$$ at the dive shop was very unhelpful, arrogant and not a good representative of Royal but he was really the only one we had an issue with. We had a change in cabin steward from week one to week two. The first was extremely friendly but just ok as a steward (our room was rarely cleaned before 2:00PM). The second was much better and was actually one of the best we have ever had. If you can snag Ulrich as your waiter in the main dining room and Oscar as your assistant waiter you will be very well taken care of.

Cruise Director

We had the man, the legend, Richard Spacey. I had read quite a bit about the guy and know he is quite beloved around here. He is certainly energetic and has great comic timing. Spending two weeks on board we also discovered his speeches are rehearsed to within an inch of his life. Absolutely nothing in his patter if off the cuff or varies even in the slightest. This is not a criticism. Doing what he does year after year I would imagine changing it up would be difficult. His morning show with activities manager Jamie were funny and usually informative. Richard’s “movie” he kept showing clips of was stupid and just an exercise in vanity. This sounds like I am being really hard on the guy, but I don’t have anything against him. The one time we met him he was actually very nice to us and came off a lot more genuine than he does on stage.

Royal’s Towel Policy

Stupid, stupid and more stupid! (Did I mention it is stupid?) Apparently a large number of towel thieves sail with Royal and as a result towels for the pool and for on shore must be checked out on the pool deck with your Seapass and a $25.00 charge appears if they show any still signed out to you at the end. Celebrity (owned by Royal) does not do this. Pool towels are for the taking and beach towels are left in your room. Heck, even Carnival which I consider below Royal in almost every way trusts their guests enough with beach towels left in the room. Again, this did not ruin our cruise, but it was a pain. A couple of times I had gone up to the pool deck to exchange towels just to find no one at the towel exchange counter or no clean ones available, resulting in additional trips.

The Food

We were very pleasantly surprised. So much so we ended up not booking Chops or Portofino which is very unusual for us as we usually go to all specialty dining on any ship. We thought the options in the main dining room were good and overall food quality and presentation were excellent. We also utilized the dining room as much as possible for breakfast and lunch as I detest buffets. The Tutti salad bar in the dining room at lunch was great. We did go to the buffet for breakfast a couple of times. It was no better or worse than other buffets we have been to. Pizza at Sorrento’s was surprisingly good, hot and fresh. Sandwiches, snacks and coffee at Café Promenade were also very good. During week two we did take advantage of the pasta demonstration, three course lunch and galley tour offered at Portofino’s which was wonderful, well worth the $15.00 pp charge.

The Ports

Labadee- Did pretty much what we did last year. We bought the all-day Dragon’s Tail coaster passes and had a blast! We also chilled on the beach where we were very well looked after.

Jamaica- Booked a tour with another couple with Courtney Taylor! I cannot recommend Courtney enough! He took excellent care of our group. We dove and swam at Irie Blue Hole (amazing place!), shopped at a small market where we were not harassed, had an amazing lunch at Scottchie’s and went to the King Pepper factory. Terrific day!

Grand Cayman- Swam with the stingrays (really cool!) then shopped and had lunch in town at Breeze’s (very good).

Cozumel- Spent the day at Mr. Sancho’s. Nice beach, great food, even better service! We also rented jet skis there and did the ATV tour. Really exciting and would do it all again.

Cocoa Cay – Rented snorkel equipment and did the beach snorkeling. Not bad. Lots of fish and the sunken cannons were cool.

St. Thomas – We were looking for something different here as we had been to St Thomas numerous times. Got a tip on CC for a free self-guided walking tour you can download and print off. It was great! Saw some beautiful old government buildings, churches, a synagogue, Blackbeard’s Castle and climbed the 99 steps. Carnivale was going on so downtown was really jumpin’! Lots of live music and vendors. Had a terrific lunch at Gladys’s.

St Maarten – Every time we go here it’s the same routine. We cab it over to Marigot for awesome French pastries at Sarafina’s, walk around the market at climb to the top of Fort Louis for amazing 360 views. Then we head back to Philipsburg for shopping and just hanging around town.

Back-to-Back Process

Royal really has this down. We had a meeting on Saturday where we were given the process for turn-around day. On Sunday we and the 50 other B2B folks met at Pharoh’s Palace at 9:15 and were escorted off about 9:45 to clear customs. We were back on the ship in less than 20 minutes! They had a lovely lunch for us in the dining room which was great as we didn’t have to fight the crowds at the buffet.

Meet & Mingle

Both weeks Royal supplied coffee, tea and pastries. A member of the activities staff hosted. We were given little mementos and a few little prizes were raffled off. Unfortunately, week two they scheduled the darn thing at 8:15 AM! As a result only about 20 of the more than 80 who signed up made it. Not sure why it was so early. Week one it was at 10:15AM which was much better.

Fellow Cruises

As always, we met a lot of wonderful people everywhere we went. We have always had good luck with table mates (we always do second seating and request a large table) and this trip was no different. We have made what I think will be at least a couple of life long friends this trip. Of course there were a few duds on board as well. I’m talking to you, folks that came to the show 30 minutes late and instead of just quietly sitting in the back insisted on climbing over others to get a couple of random seats down front. Really classy! I am also talking to you Mrs. Entitled who used the opportunity of our B2B meeting to lecture the poor crew member on why teapots in the cabin should be a perk for all Diamond and above folks. Really? A Friggin’ teapot? Yeah, that will keep the masses coming back. And I believe this meeting was to make sure we knew how the back-to-back process would work ,not for you to air your petty nonsense about your stupid perks. I am also talking to the IDGOM (“I Don’t Get Out Much”) who thought a sleeveless t-shirt was appropriate dinner wear. You looked ridiculous! At least make an attempt to look decent.

Overall

Again, no serious complaints and we will certainly be back. We had some new experiences, got to revisit some favorite haunts, had terrific service and food and made some new friends. What’s not to love? If anyone has any questions I am happy to answer them.

[retiredgram]

Great review Ryan. Loved the whole "fellow cruises" section. Your description of everyone had me laughing.:D;)

 

Thanks for taking the time to post. Would love to hear about your future cruises. Loved your style of writing the review.

[Eriksgarden]

Great review! We were on Freedom the week before you and were also pleasantly surprised in the MDR. We ate 2 nights at Chops and once in Portofino and while these were phenomenal, we felt like we were cheating on Ossie and Leon in the MDR. They were awesome!

[ginrom]

Just loved your fellow cruisers part! :D

Thanks for your review.

[dagored]

Thanks. Going eastern in Sept. The rude and entitled are on every cruise and they seem to be increasing.

[lovelife]

Thanks for taking the time to review. I just booked Freedom for our 30th wedding anniversary so was delighted to read your comments. I never knew the Ben & Jerry Sweet gave you access to the concierge lounge and all that good stuff. Cool.

[cathykb]

Entertaining review - thanks!

 

Cathy

[StarSong2001]

Thanks for this review, it was helpful and entertaining. I found your comments about Richard Spacey to be enlightening. I loved him to pieces (I was on your 1st leg of the trip), but since that's the first time I've ever seen him I didn't realize that it was a canned act. If I heard all the same jokes and supposedly impromptu comments the very next week, I'd been a little disillusioned.

 

And thanks for the info about Cocoa Cay - looking forward to snorkeling there if possible some day.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for the review and glad you enjoyed the cruise.

 

Keith

[Luv06012012]

Welcome back! I dread coming back after just 7 days...I couldn't imagine a B2B! That would be torture!

 

Thank you for your review....I'll be enjoying Freedom in 11 days!!!!!!!!!!

[It'sRC4ME]

Thanks for the nice rundown. I was especially interested in your comments about Richard Spacey. We've been with him on Freedom twice and will go again in December (hopefully he'll be on a break) and have found that we just skip anything he will be at because he makes it all about him. We've actually walked out of the Love & Marriage show because his schtick was so annoying.

[foolishmortals]

Hi, Ryan! Great review! We had a great time with you and Jim. Too bad we didn't get a video of Jim's Matrix moves down the waterfall. Michael has a lot of pictures and videos to go through but I'll email them to you once we sort through them all. It's been nothing but work work work since we've been back. We've never had post cruise depression this bad before. LOL. Jamaica was definitely the highlight of this trip for us. I strongly agree with Ryan--- Courtney Taylor is the way to go for seeing Jamaica and having a great time!

[Ubiquitous Cruiser]

Hi Ryan/Jim ... will never forget Jim's "Running Mon" move down the waterfall at Blue Hole ... oh to have a video of that!!!

[Gaynors]

Thanks for your review, we did the eastern half right before you left and also had a great time. I think we sailed on the Mercury out of Charleston together a few years ago, which is still one of our very favorite cruises ;).

 

Penny

[target-panic]

 

Fellow Cruises

 

I am also talking to you Mrs. Entitled who used the opportunity of our B2B meeting to lecture the poor crew member on why teapots in the cabin should be a perk for all Diamond and above folks. Really? A Friggin’ teapot? Yeah, that will keep the masses coming back.

 

I guess Status can be a dangerous thing when placed in the wrong hands. I've noticed this on my last couple of cruises. It seems that for some, the higher the status level rises, so does the level of discontent.

 

Kinda like this:

 

 

" Crown & Anchor " = " Frown & Bicker "

:D:D:D

 

[lakelorain]

Loved your review.

We too aren't crazy about Richard Spacey either. He should be a stand up comic. Not as involved with the people as some of the other CD's.

[laseiber]

Loved your review.

We too aren't crazy about Richard Spacey either. He should be a stand up comic. Not as involved with the people as some of the other CD's.

 

For me Richard was a breath of fresh material and more interactive with passengers than the 4 or more with Jimmy Roads. On my cruise on freedom in feb the cruise director was pretty go about the same as Richard.

[rednancy1]

Great review, especially about the tea pot ladies. :D:D

 

Love it. :)

[kimmiecruises]

Great review! I love the way you broke it down, easy to read, informative and entertaining. I can't wait for our first time on RCCL and FOS, was in just 2 days, but we've had to postpone and we are back over 100 days again :(

[beachnative]

You have an excellent writing style for reviews. I am laughing at the fellow cruisers section.....there are always a few of those odd types on board ships.:D:D:D....especially the entitled.

 

We will be on the Freedom in two weeks and are looking forward to seeing Richard Spacey again.

[hairymelon]

Great review and you did make me giggle with your 'fellow cruisers' section!! You get them on every boat :rolleyes:

[mrchips14]

It is funny but either Richard Spacey is stalking me or I am stalking him.

 

He was the CD on 4 out of our last 5 cruises. 4/11 Oasis, 5/12 Explorer, 9/12 Explorer and now on the Freedom in 2 weeks.

 

Hope he got new socks. LOL

[StarSong2001]

It is funny but either Richard Spacey is stalking me or I am stalking him.

 

He was the CD on 4 out of our last 5 cruises. 4/11 Oasis, 5/12 Explorer, 9/12 Explorer and now on the Freedom in 2 weeks.

 

Hope he got new socks. LOL

 

Think he said he's up to about 350 pairs now.

[Ubiquitous Cruiser]

It is funny but either Richard Spacey is stalking me or I am stalking him.

 

He was the CD on 4 out of our last 5 cruises. 4/11 Oasis, 5/12 Explorer, 9/12 Explorer and now on the Freedom in 2 weeks.

 

Hope he got new socks. LOL

 

He loves you. Didn't you hear him?

[imnocleaver]

I believe your "Fellow Cruisers" section may just make this the best review ever, IMO. Or at least this week. :D