Just off Freedom: Review

[DrD]

Freedom of the Seas

March 27- April 3rd

Western

 

First, about us. We are late 40’s with a 14 yo and 11 yo, both boys. We’ve cruised many times (about 14 I think) and this is our 3rd cruise on Freedom. I’ll do a quick day by day run down and then cover specific areas. Please note I don’t always remember what happened on what night so don’t freak if I say I went to a show on day #2 and you think it’s supposed to be day #3, you’re probably right.

 

Pre-Cruise:

We flew out Friday morning early and took Mears from the airport which was ok but we did have to wait quite a long time for our shuttle. For the price though what can you expect.

 

We stayed at the SeaWorld Marriott Renaissance in Orlando. This is a very nice hotel with a beautiful lobby and we were happy with our stay. Friday afternoon it rained a bit but when it cleared we hung out by the pool. We had room service dinner as our room had a nice big dining table. The food was excellent. Saturday we went to SeaWorld and I had to ride all the big coasters. I think it immunized me against any seasickness! My boys love coasters and I’ve promised them I’ll ride any coaster with them, once. In the afternoon we went over to the waterpark and had a blast. We rented one of the cabanas and that made the whole experience so much nicer. Having a quiet, private, shady spot to take breaks in and keep all our stuff was very nice indeed. We went back to SeaWorld for the 8pm Shamu show (it will be one of the last ones as they’ve announced they will be discontinued) but unfortunately it was rained out. The good news is that this was the last time the weather affected our plans for the entire trip.

 

Boarding

 

Sunday morning, time to cruise! I got up early and went for a run in the SeaWorld parking lot which was empty that early. This was my first and last run of the vacation. Turns out the beverage package tends to demotivate one in the exercise department. We took a limo from Sunshine limo (not much pricier than other transportation and fun for the boys.) We got to terminal about 11. I’ve not cruised since they built the new terminal and man oh man is it better! No long security line but instead multiple lanes, and the whole place is bigger and nicer. By the way, my wife had a power strip in her carry on but security didn’t say a word. We checked in and were onboard by 11:30. Overall a very smooth and fast process. We grabbed a table by pool and the boys and I jumped right in! We had bathing suits on already. By 1 o’clock we were in out cabins. We had to adjacent cabins on deck 8, no connecting door but our steward was able to open balcony divider. The cabins are quite nice but we had stayed in one before so no surprises there. Our steward, Heather, was awesome. She did a great job and was super nice. In fact that’s how she ended almost every sentence, “niiiice,” with her Caribbean accent. I thought the bed was fine but between all the food and drink I could have probably slept on the deck and been ok. My wife thought the bed was fine also and she is more particular about it then I am. We received our luggage very quickly, like 1:30, except one of my sons didn’t get his until 5! Not sure how they got so separated.

 

They had a nice Easter display at the entrance to the lunch buffet with a giant cake which was delicious! I’ll try to post a picture later.

 

For some reason we didn’t sail away until an hour past time but it was neat seeing Carnival and Disney go out. Not so neat to stand there for an hour waiting, but that was our choice. It was very windy and cloudy but warm.

 

We went to the welcome aboard show and the comedian was hilarious! We decided to go to his adult show later but it wasn’t as funny as the family one.

 

Next, late seating dinner. We love late seating traditional. You can usually see the show before dinner and it’s so nice to not have to rush to get ready. Also there are many more options for an extra meal or snack at 3-5 o’clock than there is at 10-midnight. It’s nice for us to eat late and then maybe do one more activity and go to bed. Also the pool areas is quite uncrowded from about 4-7 as early seaters are getting ready for or eating dinner. For the first time in years we sat with another family. This worked out great as they were very nice and it seemed RCCL did a good job in matching us up in that they also had 2 kids, just a bit older than our boys. Our waiter, Franco, was excellent. I’ve often complained about not being able to get drinks at dinner but not this time! He always brought me at least 2 and sometime a third one to go. A few times he had my glass of red waiting for me when I arrived. Now that’s what I’m talking about! I’ll talk about food and service later, for now let’s just say, outstanding.

After dinner I don’t remember what we did, maybe just went to bed.

 

Sea day.

 

Ahh, waking up at sea! Go out to balcony (after ordering coffee from room service of course) and loving the fact that I’m on a cruise, and on the first day. We just kind of bummed around that day. We went to lunch in the dining room which was great. We played some card games in the crown lounge (Olive and twist) and soaked in the pools. It was difficult to find a chair but we aren’t that into lying out, as long as we can find a place to dump our stuff while we’re in the pool we’re happy. It was quite windy though, I always forget how windy it is on sea days when you have to go fast to get to the first port. That night we skipped the show as we’d seen it before and had another great dinner. This was the first formal night and weirdly everyone (like, everyone) was dressed up. I didn’t search the dining room but everyone at our table and at nearby tables had at least jacket and tie and equivalent for ladies (whatever you call it, cocktail dress?) I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it’s easier to get ready for late seating so more people dress. After dinner it was late-night (adult) comedy which was good.

 

Labadee

 

The other 2 times we’ve been here we had a cabana, this time not, and let me tell you it’s a huge difference. I loved Labadee the first 2 times but this time, not so much. Lines at the bars were ridiculous, as they were at the lunch. Speaking of, it was very mediocre, especially considering how long we had to wait, in the hot sun no less. Next time I’ll skip it and advise you to do the same. Go back to the ship. We did the aquapark which we love (yes wife and I do it too) and it’s enough of a workout to make one feel they deserve a few more drinks (later, not waiting on that line). We were supposed to do jet skis in the afternoon but it was canceled due to wind. It was not windy at all, so I wonder if it was something to do with the fishnets we’ve been reading about. I know some people jet skied in the morning though. Anyway, I was overall disappointed with this stop but probably have been spoiled by having cabana. I can say it was very easy to find a lounger in the shade.

 

I don’t think we went to a show that night; we went to dinner at Giovanni’s for the first time. It was good but honestly it wasn’t worlds better than dining room, we will probably skip specialty dining next time. We rarely do specialty as we like the main dining room experience (like having a glass of wine waiting for you, did I mention how cool that is?) Of course we had let our tablemates and waiter know we would not be at dinner that night.

 

Falmouth

 

We did breakfast in the dining room, it was great! Last time 2 years ago the eggs benny weren’t very good, this time they were perfect with runny yolks and all. Service is a bit slow but that seem to always be the case in MDR for lunch and breakfast. No big deal. In Falmouth we did the Chukka thrill seekers pass which was fun. The zipline and rope course were great, the tubing petty lame. I had thought our pass included ATV, it said so in the description, but we were told by the staff that it was not included. I had already promised it to the boys so fortunately I was able to pay extra and add it on. Definitely worth it.

 

Back on board, we went to see the illusionist for the third time and loved it as always (you’d think I’d remember his name by now, sorry.) He changed the show significantly since last time. Another great meal with our new friends and then maybe something else but usually after dinner my memories are a bit hazy, now why is that do you suppose? ;)

 

Grand Cayman

 

Here we did the seatrek helmet dive and it was the best excursion of the trip and one of the best ever! The helmets are so cool and easy to use and the water is incredibly clear. Our guide put fish bait right in front of helmet so my face was inches away from a whole school of fish. He did the same for my gopro, great video! Everyone loved this and I highly recommend it. Afterwards we ate lunch at the restaurant right next door and then went to the candy store on the dock. Be aware that most prices are in Cayman dollars which are actually more than US, like $1.25 each. So if prices are in Cayman dollars you may get a surprise when you pay the bill in $ US. My boys got a giant gummy worm (5 pounds!!!!) and were very happy with that. Then back to the ship for more eating and drinking and lounging about. We skipped the show again as it was a singer and that’s not really our thing but I heard from others that he was great (I do remember his name even though I’ve never seen him, weird right? It’s Clint Holmes.) After another great dinner we went to love and marriage which is hilarious as always. This was the second formal night and again it seemed everyone was dressed up.

 

Cozumel

 

In the morning we went to our favorite shop, La Ruta de las Indias, a historical/nautical place with arms and armor and ship models. Back to the ship for lunch, then in the afternoon we did the jungle buggy and snorkeling which was ok. It got off to a poor start because we had to wait in the sun (no shade at all) for over an hour for the group to gather and forms to be filled out. When we eventually go to the garage they had a nice shaded area and we’re all like, “why couldn’t we have done the forms here?” RCCL really needs to put some shade up in the excursion meeting zone, it was brutal. We are from Colorado so our heat tolerance is not great. The buggy was very fun but the snorkeling was lame compared to what we saw in Grand Cayman. After dinner we went to the Quest which was fun as always. I took the boys as they’re pretty mature about that kind of stuff and they had a blast.

 

That night we were awakened multiple times by an in-cabin announcement looking for a passenger. It came at 3am, 4am, etc, about 3 times. Not good. We were very curious about what happened and the next morning the Captain made an announcement about it. Apparently some kid ran away from parents and was hiding out in a friend’s cabin. Captain was NOT happy; he gave us all a mini-lecture on how it is our job to control our kids, not the crew’s. I agree with him and hope that kid got in a lot of trouble. And there were so many kids on this cruise; of course it’s Spring Break. Captain in his announcement also told everyone that this is the last week of Spring Break and there won’t be so many kids starting next week. Not sure who that was for, maybe the crew? Anyway the kids were mostly fine, yes they love to run around not looking but it’s nice to see how much fun they’re all having.

 

Last day at sea

 

Where did it go? It was just the first day. A lazy day of eating, drinking, and hot tubbing. We went to JR at 1pm but the line was very long, so we came back at 4 o’clock. Yes we were still able to eat dinner 4 hours later. I finally went to bingo with my wife and I have to admit it was fun. My younger son won a game earlier in the week but it wasn’t for cash. He got a bunch of prizes and then of course wanted to go to every game. Before dinner there was a different comedian who was very funny. We then enjoyed our last supper and said goodbye to everyone. After dinner we went to majority rules gameshow which was fun but we left halfway through (but were kind of worn out).

 

Debarkation

 

We followed our tradition of going to MDR for last breakfast. For the first time we did self-debarkation as we had an early flight and we’re going to do it every time. You don’t have to pack until you are ready to walk off, you don’t have to find all your bags in that huge pile, and you can leave anytime you want. All that for just having to drag your bags around. Ours all have wheels so who cares? I really don’t know why we haven’t done that every other time. We took the RCCL shuttle back to airport and were checked in at gate by 10 am for our 11:40 am flight. After an uneventful flight we were back in Colorado. I was sad to be done with vacation but my spirits were greatly lifted when I walked out of airport to 68 degrees, sunny, and 10% humidity, with the glorious mountains as clear as bells.

 

Random things that I don’t remember when we did them

 

We saw Goosebumps the movie at the pool, this was fun but the screen needs to be fixed, there’s a big deadspot that in some scenes lights up green. They did show the NCAA games on the big screen by the pool when they were on. We didn’t go to any movies in the main theater.

 

Women’s cannonball competition: new for us, fun. I guess with the men’s belly flop the ladies needed a contest too. Fair enough.

 

Themes

 

Food: MDR. This is very subjective and I think it depends a lot on what you like. We like everything and I was able to try a variety of seafood, pasta, and meat dishes and everything was excellent. I never once ordered off the everyday menu although our tablemates did a few times. They seemed happy with the food as well. My boys had their escargot every night and enjoyed all their entrees also. Deserts were maybe a bit weak. One lunch and 2 breakfasts in the MDR were great also.

 

Buffet: It’s a buffet; I did think it was good overall. They had nice fried eggs every morning that were set out so you don’t have to wait on the omelet line. I could wish for more variety, it was pretty much the same every morning. I think I had more or less the same meal most days, although it was a good one. Lunch was good, more variety and everything was warm. One day they had some Asian dishes that were excellent. (try the Burmese fish soup, I didn’t see anyone else have it except me, it was great.)

 

Others: The sandwiches and pastries in the café were excellent, especially the bread. They make their own bread and you can tell. We ate a lot of bread on this trip! The pizza is mediocre but it’s fun to go get it and hang out. (but see below)

 

Service: Outstanding! Everyone was very nice, and as I’ve said both Heather (Steward) and Franco (waiter) were excellent. We always had multiple offers of bread and water glasses were always full. I’ve already discussed the drinks. Bar service was also good, although I did notice that roaming servers were not very active. I almost always had to get up and go to a bar to get a drink. I think though this is not a bad idea, one should make sure one can get up and walk before next drink! If someone kept getting them for me while I was lying about that could have been a problem. The drink servers seemed to stand around a lot, but would come over if you waved. Service in WJ was also quite good with plenty of coffee offers. I can’t think of anything bad to say about the service at any point. We did get the “please give me a 10” talk from Franco which is a bit inappropriate but didn’t detract from the overall experience, and I did give him a 10 when I did the survey yesterday.

 

Maintenance/appearance: Overall the ship looks great. I like the overhaul of the Pharaoh’s lounge and champagne bar. Everything seemed well maintained except around our balconies where there was considerable rust and peeling paint. But who cares?

 

Entertainment: Since we’ve seen all the production shows we didn’t go again, except for the illusionist Drew Thomas. (The name came back to me!) The shows we did see were good and the other activities were also. We enjoyed Bingo, Trivia, and all the music. Cruise director and staff were excellent, although the main CD (John Perry) was off the ship for much of the week as he had to do some training in Miami.

 

Comparison

 

I’ve read a lot here about declines in RCCL. I’m in a good position to judge since this was my third cruise in 4 years on the Freedom, and I’m happy to say there was absolutely no decline in service or food quality. If anything, especially for service, it was the best yet.

 

Criticisms

 

So I have to have some negatives, right? The lines seemed bad this time around specially for ice cream and pizza. It could be because of all the kids but we’ve always gone during Spring break. Also it seemed they could have helped the situation by say having more than one place to get ice cream. I also noticed long lines for Starbuck’s every morning. Sometimes the crew made the lines/crowds worse. For example, they stopped people at the end of the gangway of the tender for a photo. This really slowed down the unloading process. Also, they would frequently set up a picture station onboard that was perfectly designed to cause maximum traffic jams. And I won’t rehash Labadee but the line problem was worst there.

 

Summary

 

Overall, another great cruise. I will stay loyal to Royal and have already booked next Spring break on the Oasis. Only 355 days! We love the Freedom but are ready to try Oasis, especially as she will be at Port Canaveral next spring. We like Orlando for all the pre-cruise family activities and try to sail from there as much as possible.

 

Thanks for reading.

[cincicruisers]

I enjoyed your review. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[Clarea]

Thank-you for the report.

[CanadaRob]

Appreciate the report, still deciding if Freedm could be in our future

[GordorRCL]

Great review..we have similar age kids and after 5 freedoms we have done allure 2 times. You will love oasis!

 

 

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[CTCruiser76]

Excellent report...we are going on this cruise next week, can't wait!!!

[perfect match]

Thanks for your review! I can hardly wait until our turn to sail aboard Freedom! :cool:

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[Teeara]

I was watching the Port Canaveral webcam when you left PC and was wondering what was the holdup. I think it was because the Carnival ships weren't ready to depart and held everything up. Anyway, you were lucky to have the 82 temps for your sailaway. The cruise that left the day you disembarked only had 70 according to the PC webcam.

 

Thanks for the review! I'm sailing on Freedom in 2.5 weeks and am eagerly awaiting it. Look for me! I'll be at the back waving at you! ;):D

Edited April 5, 2016 by Teeara

[wenny101]

Great Report! Thank you for taking the time to share with us.😀

[DrD]

I was watching the Port Canaveral webcam when you left PC and was wondering what was the holdup. I think it was because the Carnival ships weren't ready to depart and held everything up. Anyway, you were lucky to have the 82 temps for your sailaway. The cruise that left the day you disembarked only had 70 according to the PC webcam.

 

Thanks for the review! I'm sailing on Freedom in 2.5 weeks and am eagerly awaiting it. Look for me! I'll be at the back waving at you! ;):D

 

Yes the weather was wonderful throughout the cruise.

 

You will have a great time!

[Big_G]

Good to hear your report as our next is on Freedom and soon.

[elephant98]

We were on the Freedom too and largely agree with your assessment.

 

Especially the bad food on Labadee. I normally don't expect too much from a cruiseline beach day brunch. But, man, that was particularly bad.

 

I would add that the new Voom internet is not yet available on Freedom. Too bad, because their internet is beyond terrible. I paid for unlimited service on two devices so my wife and I could imessage each other using the ships wifi on our iphones. We were constantly kicked off and/or disconnected. The loading of internet pages is the slowest I've ever experienced. The imessage worked just well enough for us that I'm still glad we got the package, but it wasn't at all worth the $140 we paid.

 

I would also add that the new Sabor restaurant is terrific. Everything we ordered was great.

 

Staff in Johnny Rockets was very green and had a hard time understanding English. In retrospect it was amusing. My wife ordered a Fanta orange soda for our son, and we got club soda. My son ordered a hot dog and it came out covered in ketchup and . . . mayonnaise? (I've never seen that before.) Service was very slow an uneven. But the food was good.

 

I found the captain's blunt comment that "its not our responsibility to watch your kids" a little surprising. I agree with him, of course. But, he could have used it more as an opportune teachable moment and simply reminded parents to be diligent in watching their kids.

 

As always, our room steward was top notch. But, we experienced a noticeable reduction in quality - relatively speaking - with the service in the main dining room, buffet, and bar staff. Service expectations and experiences are obviously very subjective, so I hope it was just us who had a relatively disappointing experience in that regard. I don't know if there is anything to the notion that Royal puts its best staff on its newest and biggest ships that sail out of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. (It seems to me that Royal would want the same level of performance across its entire fleet.) But, I did leave this cruise feeling like the staff on the Oasis/Allure were noticeably better overall and that the Freedom had the "B team". (Interesting to see that the Freedom will soon be sailing out of Miami and the Oasis is moving to Ft. Lauderdale.)

 

The ship looks great out of dry dock, save for the fact that it doesn't have a slide on the pool deck like the Liberty does now. (Why is that, I wonder?) We did our best to keep our six year old son from going out on the balcony and seeing the Liberty's new slide when we pulled up right next to it in one of the ports. Which wasn't that hard to do, because our son absolutely loved, loved, loved the kids club on the Freedom.

[DrD]

We were on the Freedom too and largely agree with your assessment.

 

Especially the bad food on Labadee. I normally don't expect too much from a cruiseline beach day brunch. But, man, that was particularly bad.

 

I would add that the new Voom internet is not yet available on Freedom. Too bad, because their internet is beyond terrible. I paid for unlimited service on two devices so my wife and I could imessage each other using the ships wifi on our iphones. We were constantly kicked off and/or disconnected. The loading of internet pages is the slowest I've ever experienced. The imessage worked just well enough for us that I'm still glad we got the package, but it wasn't at all worth the $140 we paid.

 

I would also add that the new Sabor restaurant is terrific. Everything we ordered was great.

 

Staff in Johnny Rockets was very green and had a hard time understanding English. In retrospect it was amusing. My wife ordered a Fanta orange soda for our son, and we got club soda. My son ordered a hot dog and it came out covered in ketchup and . . . mayonnaise? (I've never seen that before.) Service was very slow an uneven. But the food was good.

 

I found the captain's blunt comment that "its not our responsibility to watch your kids" a little surprising. I agree with him, of course. But, he could have used it more as an opportune teachable moment and simply reminded parents to be diligent in watching their kids.

 

As always, our room steward was top notch. But, we experienced a noticeable reduction in quality - relatively speaking - with the service in the main dining room, buffet, and bar staff. Service expectations and experiences are obviously very subjective, so I hope it was just us who had a relatively disappointing experience in that regard. I don't know if there is anything to the notion that Royal puts its best staff on its newest and biggest ships that sail out of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. (It seems to me that Royal would want the same level of performance across its entire fleet.) But, I did leave this cruise feeling like the staff on the Oasis/Allure were noticeably better overall and that the Freedom had the "B team". (Interesting to see that the Freedom will soon be sailing out of Miami and the Oasis is moving to Ft. Lauderdale.)

 

The ship looks great out of dry dock, save for the fact that it doesn't have a slide on the pool deck like the Liberty does now. (Why is that, I wonder?) We did our best to keep our six year old son from going out on the balcony and seeing the Liberty's new slide when we pulled up right next to it in one of the ports. Which wasn't that hard to do, because our son absolutely loved, loved, loved the kids club on the Freedom.

 

I agree about the internet, we had a hard time with it but I didn't mention since VOOM is imminent.

 

The service in JR was ok for us, he did forget one thing.

 

I'm thrilled to hear that Oasis service is even better! Can't imagine. Time to change my countdown clock!

 

The Captain's announcement did sound rather harsh, as I said he was obviously pretty mad. Probably got woken up and was grumpy.