My First Trip Report! Freedom of the Seas Western 04/24/2016

[pixiedustgirl13]

I'm enjoying reading your review. Hubby and I are sailing on FOTS in September. We've never sailed on Freedom Class, so we're really looking forward to it!:)

[jcjrsmith]

We were peckish to decide to get a slice of pizza… big mistake :eek:! It honestly tasted like it was topping placed on a piece of cardboard, I didn’t know it was possible to make pizza taste that bad.

 

Yeah, the pizza leave a LOT to be desired. I've sailed on a number of different Royal Caribbean ships (list is in my signature) and the pizza is about the same as what you would find in the frozen foods section of a grocery store.

[MrsKC08]

I can’t believe anyone wants a room about it though, I love people watching as much as the next person but wow it must be noisy in those rooms, sometimes the music on the promenade deck would go on pretty late.

 

We were in room 8307, a family promenade room, and we loved it! We never heard any noise from the promenade.

 

We also had promenade room on our FoS cruise in 2014 and loved it! We never had any noise problems and enjoyed being able to see what was going on out the window. I would book another one of these in a heartbeat!

[Fox23]

Sorry I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the cruise director. I'm sure someone on here must though :)

 

I thought the pizza might have just been a FoS issue but oh well. I think our next cruise will be Celebrity in 2018 so here's hoping it will be better!

 

Day 5!

 

Today I was super excited because I woke up and the weather was fine & sunny! When I visited Grand Cayman on my 2010 cruise it was bad weather and the sea was too rough to allow us to tender, I threw hissy fit like only an only child can and spent the morning sulking and crying – I was 22 LOL :o! This was not going to be the case today, the sun was already out and it was 30degrees and calm as we got up at 7.30 and headed to breakfast to ensure we managed to get one of the first tenders. We were on land by 9am as we thought we were due to meet our stingray city tour at 9.15am, but we ran into another couple who were also going with Moby Dick and realised it was 9.15am island time and so we had another hour to kill. We had a look around the port but it wasn’t the prettiest area, we peaked in tanzanite international and I had no luck convincing Lee to buy me a ring! We also went in Pandora and I bought a charm for myself and for my mum. I had wanted the sting ray charm but then realised it wasn't shaped like an actual ray so went with a flamingo instead. There was free wifi in the mall too so we made the most of that then headed back to the meeting point.

 

It was another small tour I think there were only 10 of us and it wasn't far from the port to the yacht club where we jumped on a small boat. The waterways around the yacht club were surrounded by massive mansions and I was reminded of the houses around Miami beach. It was about 20 – 30 minutes out to the sand bar they called ‘stingray city’ then a little further over to the reef where we would be snorkelling first. They supplied snorkels but I'm a bit fussy about how many mouths they have been in so we brought our own! It wasn’t great snorkelling but I saw a few fish and lee even saw a ray. Next we went over to stingray city and there were rays everywhere, so much better than when we did a similar tour in Grand Turk. They really aren’t bothered by people and would come right up and brush themselves along your legs. We all got to hold one and feed them and the tour guide was able to use our waterproof camera to get some pictures of us and we got some great under water shots of the rays.

 

I will say though the English guy running the tour wasn't the most friendly and didn't seem to have much patience if people weren't successful holding the rays straight away. He was also pretty insulting when it came to describing how women react to rays, i.e. screaming and flapping which no one in our group even did! I really liked the size of the group and I liked that there was no pressure for them to take photos which they would try and sell you... however the tour guide would put me off booking with them again.

 

We got back to the ship around 2.30 and just got straight back on ship and chilled at the adult pool for a bit before going to the gym. Tonight was the second formal night and we went to R Bar for our usual drinks before our 8.30pm booking. I had a Lady Marmalade cocktail and it was soo good :) It was lobster night so again I was expecting better food and maybe some more interesting options. I remember on Carnival they used to have an obscure item every night called ‘Did ya ever’ and this was usually something unusual you might not have tried before. I don't like lobster and so I decided to risk the beef again, I think the first ‘bad beef’ had been a strip loin and tonight’s was tenderloin. I thought 'its formal night it must be better'.... I was wrong! It was the same inch thick bit of roast beef which was again too cold, sigh :mad: Why couldn’t they just offer a minute steak or something, its a cheap cut but at least it's real steak. The starter was nice but it was advertised as a terrine when it was actually a pate – there’s a difference and I feel like a team of chefs should know this. Also there were a lot of people ordering multiple lobster tails but then not bothering to ask to hold the sides, hence a huge amount of waste food. This really annoyed me, I ate my bad beef even though it was rubbish because I was taught not to waste food, the fact that people order so much and then leave half of it really winds me up. I know it’s a cliché but come on there are people starving out there, there’s no need for such blatant wastage.

 

After the massive let down that was dinner, we went for some drinks in the Schooner bar (really liked the piano guy in here even if he did sing the same song every night) whilst we waited for the love and marriage show to start which wasn’t until 10.30pm. We’ve never been any of the entertainment on a cruise before but I had heard good things about this show and they were correct, it was hilarious. They chose 3 couples from the crowd, newlyweds, 10 – 30 years and the longest married couple in the room who had been married 60 years! The other two categories had to ‘audition’ to be picked and as it happened the newlyweds ended up being in their 80’s! The show didn’t finish until 11.30pm which I think made this our latest night so far haha :D

[Fox23]

Today we were due to dock in Cozumel and we were excited in the hope that breakfast burritos might be on the menu (we were sorely missing the blue iguana burrito bar!). Walking into the WJ we were in luck, right in front of the bar was a stand serving burritos, perfect start to the day :D I also had a fried egg in an English muffin because I’m greedy :o We had had a little bit of a lie in as we couldn’t disembark until 10am and we didn’t really have a schedule. The plan was just to get a taxi to Paradise Beach chill for a few hours then go snorkelling at Money Bar. The Liberty of the Seas was already docked on the opposite side of the dock to us and it looked like a mirror image as she’s also a Freedom class ship and was facing the opposite direction to the Freedom. The giant waterslide on Liberty looked pretty cool too.

 

Getting off the ship around 10.30am the port was a total shambles - the taxi queue was insane and I use the word queue loosely. Eventually we were at the front and got in a taxi to PB with another couple, the charge should have been $15 per taxi but I’m pretty sure the driver took $15 off each of us… we didn’t really care as we’d budgeted that cost but it was a little cheeky. Arriving at PB we were one of the early birds and it was still rather quiet, the pool looked lovely but we headed to the beach instead and grabbed a couple of chairs. We ordered some cocktails, I had a banana margarita, and I think this was around $8 but you could also get yard glasses. We chilled out for a couple of hours and didn’t pay to use the water toys, in fact we only went in the sea briefly as Lee had managed to give himself 3rd degree burns after the snorkelling in CG (it’s his delicate Scottish skin hehe) and so he was sat in the shade under an umbrella and wasn’t too keen on venturing into the sun at all. Around 2pm we decided to go get some food, I was determined to have Mexican food in Mexico since it’s probably our favourite cuisine. We ordered the nacho volcano and some mahi-mahi tacos to share and it wasn’t amazing but was pretty good. I think it was about $25 + tip. While we waited for the food I used WhatsApp to call my parents so it was good to make use of the free wifi. We were then meant to be heading to Money Bar to go snorkelling but after the food we just couldn’t be bothered and it seemed like too much effort… in hindsight we definitely should have done this first, so we just sat by the pool for a little while until we decided to get a taxi back to the port around 3.30.

 

Back at the port we had a look round the shops and bought some ‘tat’ as Lee refers to it. It was very busy with Liberty cruisers as they were due to leave before us and I found the way every shop keeper tried to accost you and harass you into their shops very off putting. We bought a couple of t-shirts and a pottery frog for the wall (we have a pottery gecko we got in Costa Rica he can keep company) then I bought some tequila in World Duty Free. I was prepared to spend about $40 dollars however on a recommendation I ended up buying Hornitos Black Barrel for $22 and now I have it home I must say it tastes pretty good in a margarita! Back on the ship you guessed it we hit up some drink at the adults pool. We were meant to be going to the gym but decided we couldn’t be bothered and ended up staying by the pool until about 7pm as we had planned to eat in the WJ tonight. The Liberty had left and hour early causing a ‘horn off’ between the two ships which was pretty funny.

 

We got changed and headed for dinner, tonight they were serving tacos and I had both chicken and beef, both were good :) also ate a lot of sushi. I really wanted to get a crepe and left room for dessert but the queue was too long and I lost patience. After dinner we wandered the ship trying to decide what to do other than drink! There was a comedy show due to start 9.30pm with a famous comedian so we thought we would give it a go. It was really really not funny… maybe it’s our British humour :confused:… I wish I could remember his name so I could warn others off haha but the worst part was we weren’t in seats we could easily leave from so we had to stick it out the whole hour, rookie mistake there! I was super impressed by the theatre though, the seats were comfy, the views of the stage were good and pre-show there were plenty of waiters offering drinks service.

 

Once we escape the comedy we weren’t tired for a change so decided to check out the casino… this is where we discovered the kitty glitter machine which was both a blessing and a curse. Neither of us have every really gambled or spent much time in the casino before, in fact I’ve always avoided it because it usually smoky but I think the one on the FoS was big enough that this wasn’t an issue. We had seen kitty glitter early in the week and had a good laugh at the ridiculousness of it; we swore we had to have a go. Our first go we won $7 from our $1 bet, I know this is small change but neither of us have ever really gambled before so it was exciting for us. Anyway, by the time we’d spent our $5 we’d managed to win back over $70 in total so we were pretty chuffed with ourselves and it made a good end to the evening… I think if we hadn’t only had $5 cash on us there would have been no prying us away!

[cruiseapril]

Enjoyable review. Good details about the excursions.

[Fox23]

We woke up with the usual last days blues, although after the cruise was over we still had a week’s holiday in Orlando, so there wasn’t too much to be upset about. After not being able to get a good spot for sunbathing on the last sea day I made us get up at and go get chairs before breakfast, so we were on deck for 9.15am. This was totally unnecessary as although the solarium was filled with towels (there didn’t seem to be anyone preventing the towel chair saving) the top deck above the main pool was virtually empty. So as not to be hypocrites we sat out for a bit rather than just saving the chairs and headed to breakfast after about an hour. I knew it was my last chance to try the omelette station so queued for what felt like an age for a cheese omelette, it was good. I think melted and in something else is the only way I can eat American cheese (apologies!). The night before I’d discovered a new cocktail, the mudslide - I’m not sure what else was in I other than baileys but I started my day with one of those and chilled out listening to Rhythm Explosion who were playing on the pool deck. They played some old tunes and an old couple got up to dance, I thought it was so cute. We drank the morning away then watched the men’s belly flop competition more because it was happening right in front of us than out of any interest. I think there was also a BBQ too although we didn’t get any food from there. For lunch in the WJ I had a burger and salad (last visit to the salad bar :() then we went to look at our professional photos from the formal night. We didn’t look great, haha oh well saved us some money there! We wandered the ship for a bit while lunch settled then grabbed more drinks and headed back out on deck. As the day wore on we moved to the solarium – it always seemed to be much quieter as soon as it hit around 4pm. I guess because a lot of people have early dinner reservations. Here I had a two toned frozen cocktail called a Miami Vice, I was so gutted I discovered these new drinks late in the trip. Some days the pool would be temperate and some days it would be freezing, today was a cold day so we retreated to the Jacuzzi and ended up heading in to pack and get ready for dinner around 6pm. The gym was forgotten once again :o

 

We headed to the WJ to get some sushi before going for drinks and to the MDR, that was the plan anyway to just have a few pieces of sushi… Lee came back with a German sausage on his plate ha! We then went for some of our last drinks in R Bar :( ln the MDR I had French onion soup to start and it was very nice. Lee had ordered scallops then the lamb shank, I got massive food envy at the lamb shank looked really good but I hadn’t wanted to risk it after all the terrible ‘steak’. The pasta could have been straight out of the microwave so I was a little bit gutted. Lee didn’t have dessert but I had some pistachio ice cream which came with a cookie and it was ok. Overall the MDR did absolutely nothing to wow me accept for the wonderful service provided by the waiters Jose & Delroy.

 

After dinner I grabbed a peppermint tea from the Promenade Café and we went to listen to the music in schooner bar. Later I tried the habanero margarita here and it was really good :) Lee had one of the many varieties of old fashioned which were on the menu. Before long we found ourselves at Kitty Glitter hoping to relive our beginners luck from the night before. We spent $5 and won $16 but the lady who played after us won the $50r bonus in cash which was on top of the machine with a door that would open at random. We were so bitter we then blew our $16 winnings playing the other kitty glitter machine and winning nothing… it’s probably a good thing I don’t have the ability to gamble that often, once a year at Ascot should probably be my limit! We stayed up until about midnight sorry that it was the last night then called it a night….

[Fox23]

One thing I loved about this cruise was that you could carry off your own luggage. Our slot for disembarkation wasn’t until 9.45am had we decided to have our luggage taken off for us so since we only had 1 suitcase and 1 rucksack each it made sense we could just head off when we wanted. Saying that the queue to disembark was huge and the queue at immigration even longer, I reckon it took over an hour until we were out of the terminal around 10am.

 

Finally here are my lasting impressions of the cruise.

 

What I loved about Freedom: The ship itself - it was so clean and beautiful it was definitely the nicest ship I have travelled on so far. The promenade – I liked that you could amble down it and I would love to see some of the open promenades on the oasis class ships. The staff – as always most of the staff were lovely and friendly. The room – it was bigger than any other inside cabin I have stayed in. The solarium – I liked the design but I wish it could have been more open like the main pool area. The drinks package – although I’m not sure it’s worth the money (it was built into my BOGOHO offer) I loved not having to worry about how much we were spending. The freestyle machines were also great. The WJ – food was better in here than expected, couldn’t fault it for a buffet. The bars – all the bars (with the exception of olive and twist) were great and I love that they all offered slightly different things and types of drinks… oh I didn’t try vintages either, it always looked dead.

 

What I preferred on previous (Carnival) cruises: The food in the MDR – I’ve said enough on this and I know you must all be bored with my moaning. Also in this category Guys Burgers, the blue iguana burrito stand, the deli, & the pizza. The fact you aren’t been constantly asked to pay for “extra’s” i.e. Jonny Rockets, real steak at dinner, ironing. The laundry rooms – why can’t RCI have these?! The party atmosphere – I felt this was lacking on Freedom. The adult’s only area with hammocks etc. The fact you can just pop to the buffet from the pool area and get a slice of pizza not travel 5 decks down to the promenade. The Alchemy bars. The fact you get a towel animal every blooming night not twice in a week! The room stewards take the time you learn your name and greet you with it.

 

Even though there were niggles we had an AMAZING holiday and we would still travel with RCI again. For us it’s more about the ports than the ship itself so that dictates our decisions when booking a cruise. Our next cruise is likely to be the Celebrity Eclipse in 2018 so no doubt that will give us another perspective and another fantastic holiday! :cool:

 

Thanks for reading :)

[WolfgangJT]

Mudslide has Kahlua, Vodka, and Bailey's Irish Cream...best ones are made with ice cream and has chocolate syrup ran around on the inside of the glass. My DW's favorite frozen drink.

http://www.kahlua.com/us/drinks/classic/frozen-mudslide/

 

Miami Vice Recipe:

http://bartending.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-miami-vice-cocktail-0126746/

 

In case you ever want to make those for yourself when back home.

 

On a side note, you mention lack of party scene, and then also mention not liking Olive or twist (though your review stated mainly because you expected it to be a specialist cocktail bar)...interesting note from your blog is you never tried the Olive Or Twist at night (like show time or after). That is where the late night party/music is said to be at...also where they do the silent disco if I am correct. If you go on FoS any other time, might want to re-check there more for the nightlife scene than the specialty cocktail scene. ;)

 

It's mentioned in this topic:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2326751

Edited May 27, 2016 by WolfgangJT