Freedom of the Seas - July 5 to 11 2015

[stlgreg]

There was a group of 18 of us together to celebrate a 25th anniversary.

 

Our group was one of many interests and spread across many ages

7 under 15

3 from 18-23

2 in their 30s

4 in their 40s

2 in their 60s

Everyone stayed busy as their was activities for all.

 

My 9 year old girl said Kids club was fun. She would have like more activities she would have been interested in. But you can't please every kid now can you? She went to four of their activities.

She was unable to sign up for the talent show because she over slept.

She wasn't more specific than that so I dont have much else to say

 

The only drawback I had with this specific cruise was the girls on board to celebrate their Quinceañera. There was two groups one from Columbia and one from Argentina. One group had at least 300 girls and the other seemed to be about the same. For the most part the girls were rude and disprespectful. They used the "I dont speak english" when anyone called them on their "stuff" but I was able to converse with a quite a few of them.

 

I fully understand that RCCL is not going to turn down that much business. I also realize letting others know that there is 700 15 year girls on board is probably just asking for trouble. There was a 25 to 1 ratio of girls to chaparones. Thats a bit rough. The only thing I could think of that RCCL could do is perhaps provide the girls with a letter that they are represnting themselves and to remember there are others on the ship.

 

one night they shut down the pools for a private party for the girls. There was 10 minute notices that was going to happen. It was at eitehr 11 or 12 at night.

 

One of the crew members told me that this is something that occurs July - each week.

 

We were on an excurision and ended up with 7 of the girls with us on the excursion. The local spoke (obviously) fluent in Spanish and she really put the girls in their place.

 

The food is most definately beter on Celebrity. But there was more fun to be had on the Freedom.

 

Service around the boat was magnificent. Cannnot say one bad word about any of the crew members. Marvin was our waiter and he did a great job taking care of not only the 18 of us but the other two tables that were his. He was very friendly and accomidating.

 

This was my third cruise and i would say my favorite Cruise DIrector (Jamie) that i had. He was fantastic.

 

We did get the soda package. There is something like five machines spread out. There was two outside of the pizza resturant and i think there was only one day where both machines worked. The one on the left just didnt want to work. In the kids area that soda machine never had diet soda in it. So when the windjammer was closed the only place to get freestyle soda was the one working machine outside of pizza place.

 

The magic show was amazing. Just a great show.

 

Our ports were Jamacia, Haiti, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

We didnt leave the shopping area in Jamacia. We were worn out that day. Nothing real exciting here

Haiti was the RCCL private beach. Seeing how we played on Cocoa Beach prior to leaving on the cruise, this beach couldnt compare. It was ok. it was real pretty. Just not a great beach. What i look for in a beach is a fun surf to play in and great sand. There was quite a few rocks in the water that really made it hard to get around.

 

Grand Cayman was a pretty neat place. I would like to go back some day. 13 years ago we were suppsoed to be there for our honeymoon cruise but we were unable to tender that day so we ended up skipping that stop. So i felt like we were finally able to make it here.

 

Cozumel was my favorite spot. We did some great shppping and push and pull with the dolphins. My 9 year old got scared a bit of the dolphins but she did enjoy it. Pictures cost a lot more than i thought they would be. I was able to talk them down a bit on them though :)

 

On a scale of 1 to 10, would i do this cruise again? I would give that an 17! Bring it on!

[im4clowns]

We were on the same cruise and I would say the same about the two groups of 15 year old. They were rude. They ran freely over the ship. I was surprised at lack of supervision.

[im4clowns]

Also I agree about the soda machine. On the last night around 6 every machine was out of all diet products.

[BamaEagle]

I was also on this cruise and have already commented on another thread about the groups of girls. I agree completely about how rude they were. The ratio of chaperones for the group of over 200 Argentinian girls may have technically been about 1 to 5, but the situation was really a lot worse than that. There were only about 5-6 middle aged adults with the tour company (Teen Expender) for the whole group and there were about 5-7 college aged guys (all handsome, lol) who led all of their activities. It didn't look like the young guys were involved much in "chaperoning." They were more like social directors. The girls were scattered in staterooms all over the ship and I have no idea how they got around the rule of having an adult booked in every stateroom.

 

If this is the norm for July, we will never go that month again. I won't say they ruined the trip, but they had a pretty bad impact on it. They completely took over Columbus Cove beach at Labadee and they took over some of our chairs while we were snorkeling at Chankanaab on Cozumel, pushing our stuff aside. When they left, one of our masks and snorkels went with them.

 

Finally, just having such a high ratio of teens to adults, even far higher than usual for summer time cruises, had a lot of small negative effects that became really annoying, like the Coke machines being empty, Sorrentos commonly with a line of over 30 people, etc.

Edited July 19, 2015 by BamaEagle

[#1cruiseaholic]

Interested in the 25 to 1 ratio with the girls that were 15 years of age. I was under the impression that anyone under 18 had to have an adult with them per stateroom. Can't imagine sending these huge numbers of kids with that little supervision.

[Clarea]

Interested in the 25 to 1 ratio with the girls that were 15 years of age. I was under the impression that anyone under 18 had to have an adult with them per stateroom. Can't imagine sending these huge numbers of kids with that little supervision.

They must have some special deal with Royal because I don't see many adults with the girls.

[luvnola66]

I hope that the Quinceañera season is over now as we are on the FOS first week of August.

[BillOh]

On a scale of 1 to 10, would i do this cruise again? I would give that an 17! Bring it on!

 

 

If you did the same cruise with us in May, you might have given it an 18! Interesting report. I've only run into those groups and their "conveinent English" at Disney world where their polite workers don't' dare get in their way.

 

Regarding the soda machines, that seems to vary wildly, but most weeks the machines seem to be in good working order. I had a really bad week with that on Allure, then much better weeks following.

[luvnola66]

Well I hope their season is over as we are on FOS the first week of August

[PH8]

"Haiti was the RCCL private beach. Seeing how we played on Cocoa Beach prior to leaving on the cruise, this beach couldnt compare. It was ok. it was real pretty. Just not a great beach."

 

 

Sorry,quoting doesn't seem to work right now.But I think Labadee is way more pretty than Cocoa Beach..The water is gorgeous compared to the ocean at CB...I understand though,you prefer the surf,while I don't....Something for everyone..:)

[jillpra]

We board August 9th. I looked on some websites and didn't see any cruises/tours on Freedom for them in August. Keeping fingers crossed.

[mominva]

I was on that same cruise with my husband and 3 teens. There were Quinceaneras from 3 countries: Bolivia, Argentina and Columbia. Because 2 of my kids are close in age to these girls, they made friends with them. Most were nice. They even invited my kids to one of their private parties. I never saw any bad behavior. It is just that they are teenagers and oblivious to others. When they arrive at a beach, they can overwhelm it.

 

We were at Red Stripe Beach in Jamaica. It was nice and quiet. Then, the quinceaneras started arriving in bus loads! Our quiet beach was now very CROWDED.

 

They did have a private pool party one night. I spoke to someone who tried to take her 2 girls to the pool that night. She was told they could use the adult solarium pool. When she took them there, a couple was using the pool and insisted that it was an adult-only pool. The woman who was already using the pool went to complain about it. She didn't want to share the pool with kids.

 

My family had a blast on this cruise. We all have the post-cruise blues now. There is so much to do on the ship and we really liked the 4 ports we visited. I met lots of people at breakfast and everyone was having a great time. My kids met people from all over the US ( and South America!). They are keeping up with their new friends through social media.

 

I am trying to post the cruise compasses so that I can throw them away, but I am having trouble attaching them.

[riclop]

Glad you enjoyed yourself but that is why we avoid summer cruises too, too many wild unsupervised kids.