Review: Freedom OTS 08/24 - The Good, The Bad, The Surprising.

[Bazzito]

We’re just back from a 7 night cruise on the Freedom of the Seas out of Port Canaveral. Sail date was 08/24/2014. Itinerary was eastern Caribbean (Coco Cay, St. Thomas, St. Maarten). Coco Cay stop was cancelled due to Tropical Storm Christobal. 2 sea days to St. Thomas was O.K. with us, but we heard many complaints from passenger who wanted the beach day.

We’d cruised on the Liberty OTS and the Independence OTS, so this trip completed our “flush” of the Freedom class ships. Everything was right where we remembered it, so it was a familiar layout.

The Cruise Critic review mentioned that this cruise is popular with families – and they weren’t wrong. Lots of families taking advantage of the last week before Labor Day and the start of school in the civilized northern states. (School has been in session in Florida since the 2nd week of August. The geniuses in charge just can’t wait until students drop dead from heat exhaustion during football practice.) On the whole, we found nearly all of the children and teens extremely well behaved at all times. (We had a very different experience on the Liberty in June, 2008 where the rude and unruly behavior of the children and teens was a constant annoyance. But that cruise sailed out of Miami. You may draw any inference from this fact that you care to.)

THE GOOD:

Our stateroom steward (Walter Cordova) was among the best ever. Attentive without being intrusive and he responded to every request promptly, including a need for assistance from maintenance. Couldn’t have been more pleased.

Soda package value increased quite a bit, IMHO. The new tumblers are much better than the old “Tower O’ Suds” model from years past. (These, we’ll probably actually use around the house when we get home.) But the big deal is the installation of Coca Cola Freestyle machines by Sorrento’s and in the Windjammer. What a great addition! Finally, RCI added a feature that I actually can use. Well done!

They showed “Gravity” in 3-D in the theater one day and it was really impressive. My wife hadn’t seen this movie and she just loved it, the discomfort of the 3-D glasses notwithstanding. I thought they fit just fine over my Rx specs. It was really a great movie experience. Now they REALLY need a popcorn machine on the ship!

The smallish orchestra was one of the best I’ve ever heard on an RCI ship, and the onboard orchestras on RCI ships are typically of excellent quality. They were flawless in their playing, perfectly in tune at all times (I’m a conservatory trained musician, so I know.) and their tenor saxophone player was about as good as one could possibly hope for. Very impressive.

The casino:

After 6 straight nights of losses at the craps table, they brought in a special shooter who “shot the lights out” on the last evening, allowing me (and many others, if they were smart) to recoup ALL of my losses from the previous nights. Thanks, RCI! You did that for us years ago on the Sovereign OTS as well. Glad to know that you still offer that service. You’re the best!!

Connoisseur Club:

It’s nice to be able to enjoy a cigar in comfort with excellent attention from an attendant. The attendant on duty (Sanjayduth) each night was much like our cabin steward - attentive without hovering or being overbearing. The cigar lounge is one of the really nice features of the Voyager and Freedom class ships. It’s just too bad that RCI keeps building bigger and bigger ships – yet somehow they’re not big enough to accommodate cigar smokers. Civilized gentlemen would gladly trade a merry-go-round or a zip line for a cigar lounge! (Pssst. Cigarette smokers love it, too. But I guess they don’t count, either.) It’s nice to find a class of ship that doesn’t treat smokers like pariahs.

And while I’m on the subject, these ships offer all kinds of things that not everyone wants to participate in, yet they are there for the passengers to enjoy .nonetheless. Honestly. Do more than 5% of passengers ever climb the rock wall? Yet RCI has made it the centerpiece of their marketing efforts for years. Why not offer a cigar lounge on the mega-ships as well? And do more than 100 people a cruise shoot baskets on the basketball court? Yet they’re still on even some of the “smaller” ships for an activity option. And did they sell more cupcakes on our cruise than they did cigars? I’ll wager not, but the cupcake shop is prominently located on the promenade for those who want to patronize it. It just seems to me that there ought to be enough room on the ever growing behemoths that RCI keeps floating out to remember to install a cigar lounge like they used to on the Voyager and Freedom class ships. (Writer descends soapbox...)

THE BAD:

The Drew Thomas magic show was ruined for me by all of the rotten music played at ear splitting amplitude. Sad, really, because he is certainly a talented magician who presents big stage illusion show. To have one on a cruise ship is a real accomplishment, for certain. The use of the dancers and assistants is really well done. You can tell that RCI spent a bunch of money on the staging, costumes and the use of their resident singers and dancers. It’s obviously professionally choreographed and well rehearsed. But the assault of relentless ear splitting electronic, auto-tuned, THUMP THUMP THUMP sound from the moment the audience is seated left me in a foul mood by the time the show actually started. And once the show starts, the loud volume was similarly unrelenting as well, completely sapping any enthusiasm for Thomas’ obvious talent. RCI is usually very good with the details of their shows, but this one has really gotten away from them. They need to reign in the volume and re-think the entertainment experience of this show. It’s a well known phenomenon that the amplitude (volume) of touring shows increases with the length of their runs as the sound technicians become jaded. Replacing the sound engineers on this ship should have been done a long time ago. Or at least the director should stick his head in the door once in a while and make sure that the show is an entertainment rather than an instrument of torture.

THE SURPRISING:

Windjammer:

(Really not that much of a surprise, actually.) We booked this cruise at the last minute and got one of the last two balcony staterooms on the ship, so we were assigned My Time Dining. My wife doesn’t especially like MTD and neither of us care much for the formal nights, so we ate every evening meal in the Windjammer. I know that food quality is a common topic on the forum, but ever since our first cruise on RCI in 2002, we’ve noticed that they've taken great pains over the years to improve their buffet food across their fleet. My wife enjoyed every meal she had in the Windjammer, and commented on it a number of times. I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to food, but to hear her consistently praise the food in the buffet was a bit of a surprise.

Dreamworks characters:

I’m here to say, and honestly do so, that an adult can actually spend a week on an RCI ship and NOT encounter a single Dreamworks character - except on purpose! This had been a worry for me, but it seems that my fears were groundless. I’m not a big fan of the Dreamworks “Fractured Fairly Tale” movies with their scatological humor and cheap pop culture references, but it’s their empire and they’re certainly entitled to do what they want with it. I just didn’t want to have Shrek wandering around where I might bump into him by surprise.

 

I needn’t have worried. The character appearances are spaced our throughout the cruise and the times are listed in the Cruise Compass. Great for families who want an encounter (and photo op, no doubt) and also for adults who want to avoid the fray. And probably the biggest surprise of the cruise was an experience that any cruiser will want to enjoy - and that’s the “Move it! Move it!” parade.

As I went to the promenade to retrieve a purchase made earlier on Day 7, I could see that preparations were being made for the parade. I thought that I might just as well check it out, since it looked like I was about to be trapped on the promenade anyway. Much to my surprise, it was tremendously engaging and enjoyable with a pumped up soundtrack of just about every pop song you’ve ever heard with the word “move” or “dance” in it revved up to a double-time pace.

"High energy" doesn't begin to describe it. The costumes were elaborate, colorful and gave the impression that RCI hadn’t skimped on a thing. All of the performers were enthusiastic, smiling, energetic at all times, and really seemed to be having a good time. The parade proceeded from both ends of the promenade and made a full circle so that every person got to see the Dreamworks characters up close twice. It was a ton of fun and I even wore my green Shrek ears back to the stateroom with pride! Whoever put this thing together was just brilliant. “Fun for the whole family” would be an apt description of the “Move it!” experience. If you’re in SOMEBODY’S family, you’re going to have a good time. Yep. I’m a believer!

We really enjoyed our Freedom OTS cruise and we eagerly booked an Oct, 2015 trip from Barcelona to Tampa on the Vision OTS while onboard. We’re looking forward to it.

Note to Self: Pack earplugs!

[molly361]

Thanks for the review- We are looking forward to sailing on her for Christmas

[BillOh]

I agree about the Dreamworks characters, The nice things about the bigger ships is the activities you are not interested in take people away from the ones you are interested in. I'm betting there are more wall climbers than cigar smoker's though ! ;)

 

On the Cupcake Cupboard, I'm hearing rumors, only rumors, that they may consider removing it from some ships. We will see as both Oasis class ships and Freedom will be doing over-hauls soon. The cupcake making classes did sell out on my last Allure trip. Something to watch.

[JFontaine]

Thanks for the review. What's a crap's 'special shooter'?

[jules815]

Thanks for the review. What's a crap's 'special shooter'?

 

I was wondering this myself.

 

Thanks for the review.

[scooter90]

Try as I might, everytime we are scheduled for Coco Cay we miss it due to weather, waves, etc. I just keep rebooking cruises hoping to one day get there.

 

Freedom is one of my favorite ships. Glad you enjoyed yourself.

[linkerbink]

Earplugs are a staple item in my cruise box....I heartily agree about the earsplitting volume of the shows! Completely unnecessary. Every cruise I comment on this in their comment cards but so far this seems to falling on - here it comes - deaf ears!!

[LBumb]

good job

[Bazzito]

Thanks for the review. What's a crap's 'special shooter'?

 

Sorry I wasn't clear about it.

 

Typically, there are usually about the same dozen or so crapshooters on any given cruise. So, they get to know eachother pretty well and the dealers all call them by their first names (friendliness encourages tipping).

 

"Special shooter" was my inept way of saying that on the final night of the voyage, a woman who none of us had ever seen before steps us and rolls more than 30 (thirty) place bet numbers - and never made a second winning pass line point! This is what is commonly called a "monster" roll. During rolls like this, players that make bets in the boxes on the table with the big numbers in them make lots of money.

 

You know what they say, "Better early than late. Better late than never."

[ang73]

Thanks for the review! We will be on this same sailing in October.

 

I was especially glad that missing Coco Cay didnt bother you. I've been a little nervous that if we miss it, that many sea days will get boring. But it sounds like there will be plenty to do aboard Freedom!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

[njmomof2]

We were also on this cruise. We sail this week most years as it is the last one before school starts.

 

We didn't mind missing Coco Cay as the extra sea day allowed my boys to have plenty of time on the Flowrider and rock wall. Weather was great and staff wonderful as usual. We only did one show and that was the Bon Jovi tribute band. Love Bon Jovi, not this group. A bunch of people walked out during the first song.

 

Also can't say much about Casey Pelter. I never really thought that a cruise director mattered much but after having Graham Seymour and Drew Devine, this guy was completely forgettable. Only saw him in person one time at the show.

 

Hoping to sail her again next year.

[Big_G]

Thanks for the review! We will be on this same sailing in October.

 

I was especially glad that missing Coco Cay didnt bother you. I've been a little nervous that if we miss it, that many sea days will get boring. But it sounds like there will be plenty to do aboard Freedom!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

 

We're 0 for 4 and never got bored. :D

[Fairechild]

Thanks.

 

I cant wait to get on board. I know that my kids will love the Dreamworks but I can only take so much at a time.

 

:)