bluegirly Posted February 23, 2017 #1 Share Posted February 23, 2017 So here is my attempt at a cruise review: Embarking was a mess. The lines were long and it was a tiring process. But for me, all was forgotten when we got onboard. It definitely wasn't enough to rain on my parade. We had an ocean view stateroom with a bed and pull out sofa for our boys, ages 5 and 7. It's tough to move around such a small space with four people, but we made it work. We spend so little time in our room while we are on vacation, that we typically don't care about that. The pools were fun, clean, mostly warm. We didn't spend too much time in the solarium but I did visit one of the cantilever hot tubs there, just to say I did. The kids loved the H2O zone. Our stateroom attendant, Linda, was great. Very helpful but not overbearing. She knew all of our names the first day. Loved Linda. Adventure Ocean: can't say enough good things. My husband was worried the kids would be bored. He couldn't have been more wrong! Technically, our younger son should have been in the 3-5 age group. He will be six in two months, and is very active and very competitive. The girl at registration on the first day asked him "cooper, do you like to play dodgeball, or would you like to color?" When he responded that he beats big kids at dodgeball, she moved him up and that was that. The girls who worked in Adventure Ocean were amazing. They definitely had their hands full, but never once did they lose control of the group. Kids had a great great time. Dining: dinner every night in the main dining room. Lenny and Whinnie were our servers, and I wish I could have brought them home with me. They were the best! The food in the MDR was great. The cold soups were my favorite. I had one every night. Windjammer for breakfast and lunch was ok. My kids loved having French toast every day. I'm a breakfast person, so I was in heaven. Ham every morning? Yes please. Grits? Gimme. Lunch was good. Nothing to write home about but I was happy. My younger son struggled during lunch and dinner (we fed the kids at WJ since we had the late dining. That way we dropped them at Adventure Ocean and were able to eat in the MDR without them). He's pretty picky, but I was still surprised. I guess he just wasn't happy with the lack of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets ;) So on our sailing, there were over 1,000 people from Taiwan. Some kind of dot-com company was having a conference. I'm assuming the WJ was trying to accommodate them, because the amount of Asian foods was pretty surprising. Maybe that is how it is on a typical sailing, but I doubt it. While it didn't bother me that there were so many Asian options, I did wonder what would have been offered if that group wasn't on the ship. Cafe promenade is open 24 hours but they literally didn't have anything my family could enjoy. Just not our type of stuff. Sorrentos pizza was open most of the day, but the pizza was pretty bad. Full disclosure: I'm a pizza snob. Still, we definitely didn't go hungry. My kids definitely indulged in the self-serve ice cream machine by the pools. I cannot confirm nor deny that they ice cream for lunch one day. Entertainment: the ice show was the best. I sailed RC in 2015, and didn't think anything could beat that ice show. This one did. The nightly shows were good. Tony Tillman was my favorite. He was on my previous cruise, and i enjoyed him just as much this time. The magic act wasn't great, just ok. My kids insisted on sitting in the front row, and I think we missed a lot of the "ooooh and ahhhh" moments because we were too close. My seven year old loved the rock wall, and my five year old was obsess with miniature golf. I was finally able to do the Quest game, which I missed on my last cruise. If you can make it, GO!!!! It was so fun. I literally cried from laughing. My husband and brother were both recruited for the belly flop contest. So that was fun for all of us. There really was something for everyone. It's impossible to be bored on a cruise. The absolute worst part of my trip was the group from Taiwan. I don't know if it is a cultural thing, but they were incredibly rude. They took up entire stairways taking pictures, and no one could pass. Literally. I'm not exaggerating. They would do anything for a picture, including blocking foot traffic. All that said, it wasn't enough to ruin our trip! We had a great time and Freedom is a great ship. Can't wait to sail with RC again. Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wine-O Posted February 23, 2017 #2 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Nice review -- glad you enjoyed your cruise and the kids had fun. We'll be on Freedom in October for the first time, and looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easyboy Posted February 23, 2017 #3 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Glad you and your kids had a great time. That was a nice family picture, and happy kids' faces! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doe-c-doe Posted February 23, 2017 #4 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Very nice review - Thank You. Good looking family too :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
movierunner Posted February 23, 2017 #5 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Thanks for the review, our cruise coming up on the 18th and our 1st. one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted February 23, 2017 #6 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Very nice review, thank-you.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famof4togo Posted February 23, 2017 #7 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Thanks for the review...we take our 6 year old with us next month for his first cruise...glad to hear your boys had fun....what types of activities do they have for the kids in the Adventure Club? Did you let them stay late into the evening? Curious about how all that worked.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robo1098 Posted February 23, 2017 #8 Share Posted February 23, 2017 I like and totally agree with one thing you said a couple times "wasn't enough to ruin my trip". You can always choose to be upset about little things but it doesn't get the time or money back. Too much money to spend time being upset over the little things. Glad you enjoyed the cruise. I'll be in April 1st. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradpole Posted February 23, 2017 #9 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Thank you for your review, we were onboard the same sailing. The large group was a bit of a challenge early in the cruise but they got better as the week went on! You mentioned the Asian selection in the windjammer, that was pretty much Royal's standard fare, they didn't do anything extra for them at the buffet they didn't even try to correctly make the Congee or Miso Soup offered at breakfast! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegirly Posted February 24, 2017 Author #10 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Nice review -- glad you enjoyed your cruise and the kids had fun. We'll be on Freedom in October for the first time, and looking forward to it. Have a great trip!!! Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegirly Posted February 24, 2017 Author #11 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Very nice review - Thank You. Good looking family too :-) Thanks!!! Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegirly Posted February 24, 2017 Author #12 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Thanks for the review...we take our 6 year old with us next month for his first cruise...glad to hear your boys had fun....what types of activities do they have for the kids in the Adventure Club? Did you let them stay late into the evening? Curious about how all that worked.... Ok, so there are three sessions for kids club. Morning, afternoon, and evening. For us, we spent mornings and afternoons with the kids. Then we fed them at windjammer and sent them to kids club at 6:45 (start of evening session). We had the late seating at dinner, so we got to see our show at 7, and then eat dinner at 8....all without the kids. They would have been bored anyway. By the time dinner was over, it was time to pick up the kids at 10. We let them stay till ten every night. They go to bed at 8 when we are home, so that was a treat for them. They did soooo many cool things in Adventure Ocean. There were tons of games: dodgeball, tag, those types of things. They did little science projects, which my kids loved. One night they had a pirate parade through the main promenade. Your son will make a ton of friends and have the best time ever!!!! Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegirly Posted February 24, 2017 Author #13 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I like and totally agree with one thing you said a couple times "wasn't enough to ruin my trip". You can always choose to be upset about little things but it doesn't get the time or money back. Too much money to spend time being upset over the little things. Glad you enjoyed the cruise. I'll be in April 1st. Exactly! You've spent the money, why sweat the small stuff??? And it really was small stuff. Nothing horrible happened. It only gets horrible when you let it get to you. So my husband and I, instead of getting mad about the large groups blocking traffic to take pictures, we made a game out of photobombing them. There are a few dozen pictures of me with some Taiwanese people floating around somewhere..... ;) Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegirly Posted February 24, 2017 Author #14 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Thank you for your review, we were onboard the same sailing. The large group was a bit of a challenge early in the cruise but they got better as the week went on! You mentioned the Asian selection in the windjammer, that was pretty much Royal's standard fare, they didn't do anything extra for them at the buffet they didn't even try to correctly make the Congee or Miso Soup offered at breakfast! Thanks for the info! I really was wondering about that!!! Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robo1098 Posted February 24, 2017 #15 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Love that attitude! Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riclop Posted February 24, 2017 #16 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Thanks for the review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floatel_lvr Posted February 24, 2017 #17 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Thank you for the review. Glad you all had a great time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famof4togo Posted February 24, 2017 #18 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Ok, so there are three sessions for kids club. Morning, afternoon, and evening. For us, we spent mornings and afternoons with the kids. Then we fed them at windjammer and sent them to kids club at 6:45 (start of evening session). We had the late seating at dinner, so we got to see our show at 7, and then eat dinner at 8....all without the kids. They would have been bored anyway. By the time dinner was over, it was time to pick up the kids at 10. We let them stay till ten every night. They go to bed at 8 when we are home, so that was a treat for them. They did soooo many cool things in Adventure Ocean. There were tons of games: dodgeball, tag, those types of things. They did little science projects, which my kids loved. One night they had a pirate parade through the main promenade. Your son will make a ton of friends and have the best time ever!!!! Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app THANK YOU...yes he is very excited !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grand isle joe Posted February 24, 2017 #19 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Thank you Bluegirly for the review. Our daughter loved the kids' club much more than Disney's kids' club. She found much more flexibility by the staff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laginog Posted February 24, 2017 #20 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Great review! Thank you!!! Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puckstoper9 Posted February 26, 2017 #21 Share Posted February 26, 2017 Thanks for the great review. I love the fact that you didn't let small things ruin your vacation. I sometimes get tired of the complaints about small things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBogeyman Posted February 26, 2017 #22 Share Posted February 26, 2017 Was also on this cruise. Getting on the boat took so long partly because none of the group of 1000+ Taiwanese filled out their CC info prior to checking in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pia1913 Posted February 26, 2017 #23 Share Posted February 26, 2017 At times like these, this is where priority boarding comes in handy. Rack up those points! :D Nice review. We'll be on the Freedom for B2B in January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legaljen1969 Posted February 26, 2017 #24 Share Posted February 26, 2017 Freedom is my favorite ship. I am glad you had a nice time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegirly Posted February 27, 2017 Author #25 Share Posted February 27, 2017 Was also on this cruise. Getting on the boat took so long partly because none of the group of 1000+ Taiwanese filled out their CC info prior to checking in. [emoji35][emoji35][emoji35] Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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