New Poster with Review of Freedom of the Seas

[DeeDeeFreedom]

I am a new poster who has been lurking on the forum for a little while now, but this is my first post. First of all I would like to say that this is an awesome forum and I learned a lot of helpful information before my cruise. I am not a new cruiser (took my first cruise on SOS in 1998) but I had a long (6 year) break from cruising when I had my children. I just started cruising again in November '97 for my 10th anniversary with just my husband on the Freedom of the Seas. We decided to take the rest of the family (kids, parents, sisters and brothers, cousins) on the Freedom this summer because we had such a great time. We were on the August 24th sailing and there was 18 of us in all. Well, here is my review. All in all the trip was amazing. We had a few not so great moments, but certainly not anything to ruin our trip.

 

We arrived at the pier around 11:30 and I think we were on the ship around 12:30 or so. We had to wait a little while for the ship to clear, but once that happened we were on pretty quickly. As many others have mentioned, even though this ship has over 4,000 people onboard, it never felt crowded to me. We went right to the Windjammer and found a table right away. Here are my thoughts on the cruise in general. I'll start with the not so great stuff so I can end in a positive manner.

 

Food: The food did not blow me away. The Windjammer food was pretty much to be expected. Nothing to write home about. I thought the breakfast was pretty good, but it was your typical buffet food. The dining room was a little bit of a dissappointment. The food was much better in taste and presentation in November. We also noticed a lot of vegetarian items on the menu, and an Indian inspired dish every night. I'm not knocking Indian food, but it's not really my thing. The cod was horrific. Please do yourself a favor and leave that one in the kitchen. I will also confirm that they have added a Chops steak for a $14.95 surcharge. No one in our group indulged. With that said, we had the most lovely waiter. Her name was Ribi and she was from India. She was so sweet to our children and both her and her assistant went well out of their way to make sure that we were happy.

 

Adventure Ocean: This is a great program, and if you have children who are typically developing you will probably love it. Unfortunately for us we had two children in our group with special needs and they didn't seem to be quite prepared for that. They did give me a phone in case they had any issues with my son, but the one time that he did not want to participate in the parade they did not call me. Fortunately, knowing my son, I went up there to check on him and was able to get him before they left. There was also a rather large boy (looked 12 even though he was only 8) that was making fun of my niece with Down's Syndrome and none of the adults seem to notice. It would have been one thing if he just verbally taunted her, but apparently he put his hands on her and for me that was unacceptable. We did talk to the staff and I think they will be more aware next time, but at that point we were no longer comfortable leaving our kids.

 

That's enough of the negative. Let's talk about all of the great things about this cruise.

 

Cruise Director: I know that I have heard many things, both positive and negative about Ken Rush, but I have to tell you that I thought he was AWESOME! I think I have cruised with one of the best, Richard Spacey, and I was so dissappointed when I found out he was on vacation. After cruising with Ken my dissappointment soon dissappeared. I will admit that he may not be as "cool" as Richard is, but I found him to be very nice and quite funny. His Love and Marriage and Quest shows were absolutely hilarious. He was also very approachable. We ran into him several times on the ship and each time he was willing to stop and chat. Our little girls (Lauren and Mackie) were called out by the comedian and Ken remembered and spoke to the girls specifically. That was a thrill for them. He also let them ride with him on his segway which they loved. He will definitely be high on my list of great cruise directors.

 

Ports: We had a wonderful time off of the ship as well. We were too late to do the Barcardi Rum tour in San Juan, but we opted for a small tour of the town. It was lovely. We got a real history of the island, we got to see some of the forts up close and we even went inside the capital building. On Wednesday we booked an excursion to Trunk Bay on St. John. It was everything everyone says it was. Just breathtaking. I will have to say that if you are into beaches with bars and water sports this is not the beach for you. It is part of the National Park service and it is really more of an unspoiled natural beach experience. On Thursday we went to Orient Beach. That beach had a lot more action, so if you are into that you would enjoy this beach. Lots of water sports, nice bar and a beautiful beach. For all of you Star Wars fans, there is a little museum called The Yoda Guy in town that is run by the guy that created Yoda. That was a thrill for my husband to meet him since he is such a fan.

 

Activities: This is definitely a cruise for people who enjoy alot of ship amenities. We went ice skating, played basketball and spent quite a bit of time at the water park. We also did Karaoke and spent many late nights at the Crypt (the kids spent several evenings with their grandparents). You will not get bored on this ship. The production shows were fantastic and we really enjoyed the guest comedians.

 

All in all it was a wonderful experience. The few little negatives did nothing to damper our vacation. The positive experiences far outweighed any negatives we experienced. I will definitely cruise on Royal Carribbean again. I think my 8 year old daughter summed it up best when she said "this is the best vacation that I have every had--it's better than Disneyworld".

 

Thanks for reading my novel!

[crusinmama06]

Adventure Ocean: This is a great program, and if you have children who are typically developing you will probably love it. Unfortunately for us we had two children in our group with special needs and they didn't seem to be quite prepared for that. They did give me a phone in case they had any issues with my son, but the one time that he did not want to participate in the parade they did not call me. Fortunately, knowing my son, I went up there to check on him and was able to get him before they left. There was also a rather large boy (looked 12 even though he was only 8) that was making fun of my niece with Down's Syndrome and none of the adults seem to notice. It would have been one thing if he just verbally taunted her, but apparently he put his hands on her and for me that was unacceptable. We did talk to the staff and I think they will be more aware next time, but at that point we were no longer comfortable leaving our kids.

 

I have said this many times before. And I cruised Freedom wayyy back in April 07 and it seems like they still haven't changed. :rolleyes:

 

The AO staff do not seem compassionate toward kids with special needs.

 

I had no problem with the head of AO, she listened to my concerns. But those who were in direct contact with the kids, the counselors (other than the head cousenlor), seemed to have issues with kids who weren't "normal"

 

My youngest was 3 at the time and has speech delays. I was asked things like "We don't understand her. Does she even speak ENGLISH????" (this was said as she was laughing in my face. :eek: )

 

The Freedom AO was the ONLY cruise that I didn't feel comfortable leaving my youngest in. My youngest is going on her fifth cruise next week...so it's not like she is a cruise newbie. Freedom AO staff by far was our worst experience.

 

Now with that being said, my oldest LOVED AO. But she is a "normal" well adjusted child. ;)

 

This is one thing that I think Carnival has RCCL beat...their Camp staff are used to having very young children in their care and that translates to how they treat children who aren't up to speed developmentally.

 

So as far as the ship, Freedom is our favorite. As far as the AO staff...not so much. ;)

[DeeDeeFreedom]

My daughter loved it also. Unfortunately after nothing was done with the kid that teased her cousin, she also did not want to go back. She is fiercely protective of her cousin and her brother, so once she felt that they weren't being treated right she didn't want anything more to do with it. All in all it wasn't a problem because we told them that Adventure Ocean was there if they wanted it. They were never forced to go there and when they didn't want to go, they stayed with us and we all had a ball.

[DPurcell58]

I was also on this trip. What age groups where your kids in? I have a son, who has high functioning autism and I went on Mon. AM and asked if he could be moved down an age group (to the 9-11's) and Matt made a phone call and there was no problem. He was older than the kids but fit right in and had a ball. I'm surprised you had a problem, sorry to hear that. Sounds like it was a younger group. We've always be accommodated, been on the Explorer 3 times before this.

 

We also had a great time. They loved the Flowrider. Thought the food was pretty good. Went to Chops and that was amazing. Also loved Ken Rush. Love and Marriage was great. Went shopping in San Juan and to Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas and Little Divi in St. Marteen. Loved the H2O Zone too. Would definitely do this ship again.

[DeeDeeFreedom]

I was also on this trip. What age groups where your kids in? I have a son, who has high functioning autism and I went on Mon. AM and asked if he could be moved down an age group (to the 9-11's) and Matt made a phone call and there was no problem. He was older than the kids but fit right in and had a ball. I'm surprised you had a problem, sorry to hear that. Sounds like it was a younger group. We've always be accommodated, been on the Explorer 3 times before this.

 

We also had a great time. They loved the Flowrider. Thought the food was pretty good. Went to Chops and that was amazing. Also loved Ken Rush. Love and Marriage was great. Went shopping in San Juan and to Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas and Little Divi in St. Marteen. Loved the H2O Zone too. Would definitely do this ship again.

 

My son was in the 3-5 year old group. The incident with my niece occured in the 6-8 year old group. I also spoke to Matt at the beginning of the cruise and felt very comfortable with him, but I did feel that some of the counselors weren't quite on the ball, especially at night. I forgot to mention that this incident took place around 10:30 p.m. in the late night party zone. All in all I think it's a good program, but they could be a little more observant, especially with children with special needs. After the incident that I mentioned earlier, one of the counselors did recommend that my niece be put in my son's group (3-5) but by that time we had decided to keep the kids with us. I would also do this ship again, and I would probably also give AO another try. I would just mention what happened last time and hope that they keep their eyes open a little more. BTW, my son has mild cognitive impairments with some autistic tendencies so he is probably similar to your son. He was fine with the program while they were in the room, he just didn't want to go downstairs to the parade, but we took him out before he had to do that. Otherwise the staff in the aquanauts room were great.

[grayesun]

Thanks for providing fine review of your Freedom experiences, we're sailing on Independence in January and find perusing all the Freedom class ship reviews quite helpful. Nothing too unexpected in your food review comments, we've learned to not expect much better than average fare, so are seldom disappointed in Windjammer or dining room. Most useful was your comment on never feeling too crowded on boat...my prime concern is just too much humanity & long elevator waits, excessive lines & overcrowding at events on board. Hopefully, they've found a better method to distribute ice show tickets - this was poorly handled on our last voyage. Your "Disney" comment is what really caught my attention; our first cruise with kids (ages 16 & 11) in 2000 on Voyager elicited same response from them...let's skip Disney from now on, cruising is so much more fun. Thanks again for posting review.

[DeeDeeFreedom]

Thanks for providing fine review of your Freedom experiences, we're sailing on Independence in January and find perusing all the Freedom class ship reviews quite helpful. Nothing too unexpected in your food review comments, we've learned to not expect much better than average fare, so are seldom disappointed in Windjammer or dining room. Most useful was your comment on never feeling too crowded on boat...my prime concern is just too much humanity & long elevator waits, excessive lines & overcrowding at events on board. Hopefully, they've found a better method to distribute ice show tickets - this was poorly handled on our last voyage. Your "Disney" comment is what really caught my attention; our first cruise with kids (ages 16 & 11) in 2000 on Voyager elicited same response from them...let's skip Disney from now on, cruising is so much more fun. Thanks again for posting review.

 

Regarding the Ice Show. That is one thing that I missed. They had a distribution time one day and it just never occurred to me to rush to get the tickets. By the time we checked later in the day all of the tickets were gone. They did tell us that we could show up the day of the show and they would most likely have some seats that people just didn't show up for, but since we had 18 in our group it didn't seem reasonable that we would be able to all get in. So my advice would be to get in line early if you want to see the show. I saw it in November and it is really amazing.

[Twinboys]

I was also on this cruise! My first cruise, my husband and twinboys aged 10. My biggest fear was sea sickness, and I had none. We were in a JS on deck nine midship and it was absolutely perfect. Beautiful room, we loved the balcony and had wonderful service.

 

My boys loved the flowrider and ice skating. There was so much to do on this ship that I want to go back again! Loved the H2O zone to sip my drink by......

 

I became a bingo junkie and even won some money. Can't beat that. I found the crew friendly and helpful and this ship was emaculate.

 

I have no other cruises to compare this to, so for me and my family it was a great vacation. I am now a fan of cruising and we would all love to do it again. I'd like to go western caribbean next time for a change!

[DeeDeeFreedom]

I was also on this cruise! My first cruise, my husband and twinboys aged 10. My biggest fear was sea sickness, and I had none. We were in a JS on deck nine midship and it was absolutely perfect. Beautiful room, we loved the balcony and had wonderful service.

 

My boys loved the flowrider and ice skating. There was so much to do on this ship that I want to go back again! Loved the H2O zone to sip my drink by......

 

I became a bingo junkie and even won some money. Can't beat that. I found the crew friendly and helpful and this ship was emaculate.

 

I have no other cruises to compare this to, so for me and my family it was a great vacation. I am now a fan of cruising and we would all love to do it again. I'd like to go western caribbean next time for a change!

 

I would also like to do the Western Caribbean. I did it on my second cruise, but that was in 1999 so it's been a while. I would love to cruise on the Freedom again. It's a great ship with an amazing crew. I forgot to mention Peter in Sorrento's. Did you have an opportunity to meet him? He was so sweet and helpful. He would actually ask us what we wanted if he saw us standing in line and then he would go in the back and bring it to us. We made sure that we mentioned him by name in our survery.

[kborth]

That really upsets me. I have worked with special needs children for years and I just love them and their parents. This type of treatment demeans all children and sends the wrong message to the other kids in the program. I would suggest that in future all RCI employees receive training on exceptionalities.That being said, when I sailed with RCi I found the staff to be extremely sensitive but I did not have children in the Adventure Oceans program.This needs to be rectified. Kathi

[willysgrandma]

You know, you should really write a letter to RCL about the experience with special need children and AO and what you would like to see implemented to make the program better for children with special needs.

 

I think if every parents that had a disappointing experience would write with constructive criticism and offered some simple steps that could be implemented, it would help all parents. If they hear it from enough parents, maybe they will make some changes.

[DeeDeeFreedom]

You know, you should really write a letter to RCL about the experience with special need children and AO and what you would like to see implemented to make the program better for children with special needs.

 

I think if every parents that had a disappointing experience would write with constructive criticism and offered some simple steps that could be implemented, it would help all parents. If they hear it from enough parents, maybe they will make some changes.

 

I think that I will write to them, as you said to help them make the necessary changes. I really do believe they have their heart in the right place. They were very apologetic and sympathetic when we told them about the situation. I think that perhaps some extra training on handling children with special needs might be appropriate for the staff. With the meteoric rise in autism I would imagine that in that aspect alone they will be facing many more situations where they might have children with special needs in their program and they really should know how to deal with them.