My review of Freedom of the Seas 10/11 sailing

[drdoct]

Our first cruise was on the Jewel which is a considerably smaller ship than this one. It was a great experience and made us realize that we love cruising. We are 40's with two boys 12/9yrs. This was our first large ship.

 

While I realize there are two whole classes larger, Freedom offers a whole lot more than Jewel did.

 

The good:

 

*Staterooms available right away. This is a big thing. I loved being able to check out where we will be sleeping right away. On the Celebrity cruise I was on it took an hour into sailing before anything was ready but that cruise was a bad experience.

 

*Sorrento's pizza. It's open longer than I'm awake and it's nice to run by and grab a few slices of mediocre pizza to munch on.

 

*Promenade. It's great for the street party and for just going fore to aft.

 

*Food. Excellent as always. I was worried that the larger ship would have more of a problem with hot meals but that was not the case at all.

 

*Movies and football game availability (limited). It was good to have 3d movies and nfl football by the pool.

 

*Live shows. I love RCCL because it uses live musicians. Yeah it's a lot of click track fillin's, but still nothing like seeing and hearing the band playing instead of boring canned music. The singers were exceptional. Top notch singing. Same with the dancing, very good crew.

 

Needs Improvement:

 

*Crown and Anchor (gold) amenities unclear. We got some copied sheet but everything that I've seen others claiming to get wasn't on it. That may be because our stateroom attendant wasn't very friendly. He was fine cleaning wise, but not knowledge wise. We never got any instructions for departure or much else out of him except the daily compass. Maybe we just had an awesome attendant the first time we sailed though.

 

*Cruise director. I think he's a good guy and he communicates very well without being too in your face. His scheduling skills are lacking though. It seemed like huge blocks of dead time and then everything at once. And it's obvious he doesn't like Karaoke. When you're sitting there and the venue is standing room only, then there isn't enough of it. One hour a night on such a large ship is way too little Karaoke time. It really needs someone like a Derek Lewis to have a nightly timeslot for people to enjoy themselves. When you have one hour and a maximum of 10 people to sing, it makes it a bit cutthroat getting to the books and getting your name/number in. Same goes for trivia and scavenger hunts. Completely full standing room only events. If they would add some more in that dead block of what the people wanted and less of the napkin folding (10 people there) type events then it would be smarter. He did a decent Quest and 70's block party.

 

*Coffee. Ok, one of the things I LOVED was on the Jewel, there was a drink station (self serve) by the pingpong tables going out to the pool deck. It was so nice to grab a cup of coffee and sit. I can't stand having to ask for every cup of coffee in windjammer. Just keep the pots full and give us more access. Same goes for 'sprinkles' the ice cream machine. It's a great idea but they shut it down at like 6pm. Why not keep it there until midnight? I understand that you save money by shutting it down but really, I'm sure the passenger's satisfaction would outweigh the costs.

 

*People who have no clue of American football. What I mean by this is we would be watching a game by the pool and then when it hit that time scheduled for the movie, they would just turn off the game and start the movie. It also happened down in on air. Right in the middle of a college game, they turned if off to play Majority rules. I'm sure this goes to boneheaded scheduling though. Nothing like seeing a whole OnAir bar clear out; they have to go see the game in their rooms because of an immature game like majority rules. If you are going to have a sporting event showing, then show the whole event and schedule around it. Otherwise don't have it at all.

 

 

I realize I went into the 'needs improvement' category with more detail. It doesn't mean I had a bad cruise. In fact, I wish I could be back there today. It was a great cruise. As a rather new cruiser (only 3 under our belt), I'm starting to recognize what we like and how we like to cruise. Meaning, I didn't much like a port each day. It wears you out. I prefer a few sea days mixed in. I still think it's funny how there can be 4100 people on board and yet sometimes you'll see the same 10 people at every event you go to. It's fun to get to know those 10 people who have the same taste as you. I love RCCL's shows. The filler shows (headliner) like magicians, impersonators, comedians... not so much.

[txcowboy10]

Thank you for your honest review...Freedom is a great ship!

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review.

 

Keith

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Thanks for your review!! Glad you had a great time!! Good points on your need improvement!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Lionesss]

Nice review.

 

We always loved the Freedom and sailing out of PC.

 

Thanks for posting.

 

Sea Ya

[Scotty G]

Needs Improvement:

 

*Crown and Anchor (gold) amenities unclear. We got some copied sheet but everything that I've seen others claiming to get wasn't on it. That may be because our stateroom attendant wasn't very friendly. He was fine cleaning wise, but not knowledge wise. We never got any instructions for departure or much else out of him except the daily compass. Maybe we just had an awesome attendant the first time we sailed though.

 

Good review but this needs some clarification. What is it that others say you should have that the list doesn't? Also, did you compare the list provided to the one on the RCI C&A page?

Your cabin attendant seems to have done what he is required to. The lists for C&A benefits come from the Loyalty Ambassador and the departure info list is provided by Guests Services. He only places in your cabin what he is provided by them. Not his job to be knowledgeable of all activities on the ship. More experienced, knowledgeable attendants may do that and we have had exceptional cabin attendants and waiters who could recite the following days activities and meals off the top of their heads. If he was a new hire, recently assigned to the ship he is only expected to clean your cabin according to RCI standards. Sounds like he did that!