Onboard Freedom of the Seas Eastern Caribbean Now!!! 3/8/2015

[F350Blackcloud]

If you drink, consider the ultimate drink package as part of your reservation cost. No worries with that sticker on your card.

[Alaska Newbie]

Are there heated pools?

[Susie51]

Following your review. Thanks for info about the shrimp cocktail.

[counsdr]

Ruben and Blackcloud, i'm sorry we never got to see you throughout the cruise!!

 

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the food or the dining room wait staff for our table. Our waiter Qwesi told us they didn't serve shrimp cocktails anymore and i'm sorry i'm being so negative, but I think he was just being lazy! He never offered to serve us something different if we didn't care for our meal, he never told us the special suggestions each evening, never pulled out our chairs or put our napkins on our laps. This was the first time I haven't had a fantastic waiter. Our head waiter Randy, as I have said, was wonderful. We had a table for 10 and except for 2 nights, the other 5 who were sisters, did not show up, plus our little ones were whisked away to kids club every night at 6:30 PM.

The ship did rock and roll, but at one point on our way to St. Thomas, we had 57 mph winds!!!

Cheryl

[counsdr]

I brought home all the daily compasses, so I am going to find out how to scan them and post them.

There were half price margaritas, 25% off drinks in the casino during happy hour I believe, the drink of the day was $10. We wound up getting the drink package as for $50 we got all the alcoholic drinks we wanted, glasses of wine up to $12, a soda cup, bottled water and 20% off bottled wine. Even though i'm a diamond member, it worked out better for us.

Disembarkation was the best i've ever had!!!! We left our cabins at 7:50, we were off the ship, thru customs, had taken the shuttle bus back to the Residence Inn, packed the car and were back on the road by 8:45 AM!!!!! Unbelievable!!!!! :D :eek:

Unfortunately, we got home, unpacked one of our boxes of alcohol and AH Riise had given us the wrong box!!!!! I don't know if we'll ever be able to get that straightened out.

Also, RC tore my brand new suitcase which I had bought as part of a set and is no longer available.

I will keep updating and filling in what I can.

Cheryl

[counsdr]

I talked my dd and her family into taking a RCI cruise because they were so much nicer than Carnival that they had been on. Now I have to tell her that drink prices are through the roof and if they plan to have several drinks a day then get a drink package and now one of my favorite things having a shrimp cocktail every evening is gone too. And so sorry Cheryl that you are not having good service. I'm not even telling her that!!

 

Be persistent about the shrimp cocktail! Escargot was also available every night.

If you are not happy the first night, talk to your head waiter immediately, don't be shy!!!!

There were plenty of nice waiters in the dining room. My room steward was perfectly nice and tidied my room both morning and night. My family's on the other hand, was nasty! They hadn't gotten their robes and neither had I. Since I never saw my room steward, and I was at guest services for something else, I asked why we hadn't gotten robes. They said they'd send them up. When we got to their room, he came in screaming to them how dare they go to desk services for robes instead of calling him! My son in law said, we never see you and he started screaming at him again! There were 4 of them in the room, he gave them 2 towels a day. My daughter called down to housekeeping to ask for my towels and was told she couldn't have any until the room was made up at dinner time. She explained the situation and they still refused to send her up any towels. She wanted to them to all shower for dinner and they couldn't! I got a towel animal every other night, they got one. The children were very disappointed.

Cheryl

[F350Blackcloud]

Our 8:00 table in the Leonardo dinning room was a 12 top with only our 2 boys and a great couple from SC seated every night. Our head waitress was Simone, she and her assistant greeted us all by name, seated us with the napkin treatment and treated our 14 & 11 year old like they will never be treated again!

The Royal Shrimp Cocktail was on every menu as was the excellent Caesar Salad and Escargot. My oldest now has love for the snails. Had 3 orders last night!

[counsdr]

The pools are not heated and everyone was complaining how cold they were. The only thing heated is the hot tubs!

I was surprised how cold the water was in Coco Cay and St. Maarten as well. I didn't go to the beach in St. Thomas.

Cheryl

[counsdr]

Our 8:00 table in the Leonardo dinning room was a 12 top with only our 2 boys and a great couple from SC seated every night. Our head waitress was Simone, she and her assistant greeted us all by name, seated us with the napkin treatment and treated our 14 & 11 year old like they will never be treated again!

The Royal Shrimp Cocktail was on every menu as was the excellent Caesar Salad and Escargot. My oldest now has love for the snails. Had 3 orders last night!

 

Hmmmm, my daughter never saw the shrimp cocktail. We had early seating, table 250, in the back by the window. I got a paper menu the night before as I have a severe allergy to fish and seafood and need to remain on a low sodium diet, so I don't look for it and as I said our waiter said it was not available. I questioned him and said my companions have always been able to order shrimp cocktail every night and he shook his head and said, NO!!!! So there you have it, two different families and two different stories!!!

Cheryl

[marriedinva]

looking forward to your cruise compasses...will be on this sailing in 3 weeks!!!

[VMIMarine]

For all those commenting on the sea states and winds, please note that while this is billed as an Eastern Carib Cruise, most of the sailing is actually in the Atlantic Ocean which can be very rough in the Spring and Fall. These are the times many Coco Cay visits are missed...we have missed that spot twice, both in October.

[F350Blackcloud]

Hmmmm, my daughter never saw the shrimp cocktail. We had early seating, table 250, in the back by the window. I got a paper menu the night before as I have a severe allergy to fish and seafood and need to remain on a low sodium diet, so I don't look for it and as I said our waiter said it was not available. I questioned him and said my companions have always been able to order shrimp cocktail every night and he shook his head and said, NO!!!! So there you have it, two different families and two different stories!!!

Cheryl

 

Sounds like two different cruises!

Everyone we encountered commented on the exceptional friendliness of the crew.

When our cabin steward (Gregory) introduced himself on our arrival, he gave us his card and asked if we needed anything. We asked for extra pillows. When we returned to the room, there was two more pillows for each of us and... made mouse animals out of the blankets on the boys bunks.

We had an insane amount luggage, he kept it all out of site and the room very neat. Towels were plentiful as we really went through them. We all took at least 2 showers a day! The shower was awesome, powerful and always hot.

Maybe they had different menus for the 7:00 service?

I wish wife kept the compasses. She carried them all day, every day. Never missed a thing!

Me and the boys stayed on the sports deck when on the ship. The flow rider water was warmer than the air. Very windy up there! Always had a great group to play basketball with.

[Betsynh]

Were you ever able to get the name of the piano player in the Schooner Bar? We are hoping for a great one... had a horrible one on the Adventure in 2013 and the best one ever on the Monarch years ago... Am hoping for a fun experience on April 19th week!!

Edited March 16, 2015 by Betsynh
typo

[geauxgirlgeaux]

Hello! It does sound like very different cruise experiences! I have a question about the internet and cell phone service.... was it worth it? Were you able to use the internet enough to justify the fee? Are you able to text over wifi on the iPhone? Did anyone use their cellphone for phone calls? Just trying to figure out the best way to stay in touch!

[Alaska Newbie]

Any info on any heated pools on Freedom?

Thank you.

[Alaska Newbie]

Thank you, I did read no heated pool😒

I look forward to reading the compass. We are doing this cruise next February.

We have never been on the Freedom.

[Badgertr]

Thank you, I did read no heated pool[emoji19]

 

I look forward to reading the compass. We are doing this cruise next February.

 

We have never been on the Freedom.

 

 

We were on March 1 western sailing. We are from Wisconsin and if you are from Alaska you are more like us. The water was fine for us, it's freshwater and we had big winds and it was a wave pool. The water felt very good to us, we walked right in with no "shock". We used the solarium pool only, don't know about the other ones.

[Susie51]

That's ridiculous about the towels. If they ran out of fresh towels and had to wait for some to be washed and dried, then RCCL needs to buy more towels! Otherwise, just one towel animal for the week.

[goodml]

In all my cruises I've never been on one with a heated pool. Certainly wasn't heated on Freedom last October. Are they usually?

[Clarea]

In all my cruises I've never been on one with a heated pool. Certainly wasn't heated on Freedom last October. Are they usually?

I don't believe Freedom has heated pools. If I remember correctly, the only Freedom class ships with heated pools were Liberty and Indy.

[counsdr]

Sounds like two different cruises!

Everyone we encountered commented on the exceptional friendliness of the crew.

When our cabin steward (Gregory) introduced himself on our arrival, he gave us his card and asked if we needed anything. We asked for extra pillows. When we returned to the room, there was two more pillows for each of us and... made mouse animals out of the blankets on the boys bunks.

We had an insane amount luggage, he kept it all out of site and the room very neat. Towels were plentiful as we really went through them. We all took at least 2 showers a day! The shower was awesome, powerful and always hot.

Maybe they had different menus for the 7:00 service?

I wish wife kept the compasses. She carried them all day, every day. Never missed a thing!

Me and the boys stayed on the sports deck when on the ship. The flow rider water was warmer than the air. Very windy up there! Always had a great group to play basketball with.

 

I guess we were on different cruises!!!!!! It just goes to show you that your cabin steward and waitstaff can make it a different experience. All the rest of the staff were wonderful!!!! Neither of our stewards gave us cards, they have on every other cruise, so I just thought they had cut that out. We also usually got a placard in our room saying "your cabin steward is Jon and ext is...." We didn't have that. We were in cabins 7338 and 7375. Our stewards were Jon and Emmanuel. The showers were wonderful!!!

I don't know about the menus, I wish I had asked to get a copy of the daily menu. The waiter at the next table to us was wonderful!

Will this stop me from cruising Royal? I doubt it.

The bar tenders at the R bar were amazing! Sanjay, Heidi and Carlos were absolutely fantastic!

Cheryl

[counsdr]

Hello! It does sound like very different cruise experiences! I have a question about the internet and cell phone service.... was it worth it? Were you able to use the internet enough to justify the fee? Are you able to text over wifi on the iPhone? Did anyone use their cellphone for phone calls? Just trying to figure out the best way to stay in touch!

 

The internet was very slow. Yes, it was still worth it as it is so expensive per minute and you are still waiting for the slow service as your minutes are ticking away. For one device at a time, it was $105 plus my diamond discount of $29.95 and my $75.00 OBC made it free for me.

I have no idea about the texting as I didn't even try. My daughter and SIL used the internet and we just had to make sure we weren't on at the same time, so it was totally worth it for us!

Cheryl

[counsdr]

Were you ever able to get the name of the piano player in the Schooner Bar? We are hoping for a great one... had a horrible one on the Adventure in 2013 and the best one ever on the Monarch years ago... Am hoping for a fun experience on April 19th week!!

 

I believe it was Paul Shea. As soon as I unpack i'll let you know for sure. I never made it to the Schooner Bar, as I babysat my grands every night so that my DD & SIL could go out alone. If my roll call comes back on, i'll ask if anyone went there.

Cheryl

[Nickymjw1]

Following...we are booked on the May 17th sailing and so excited! Thanks for your live report!

 

we are on the 17th sailing as well. did you join our roll call?

[CruisinWith4Kids]

we are on the 17th sailing as well. did you join our roll call?

 

Yes, I did! May 17th can't come soon enough!