Freedom of the Seas - Food Pictures from Feb 2017

[meatloafsfan]

We sailed on the Freedom of the Seas from February 12 - 18 2017. We take lots of food pictures and I've done several reviews on the carnival boards specifically about our dining.

 

This one will be a little more lax - lots of pictures, a little less review.

 

Overall the cruise was okay. I paid a low price (since I booked when Royal was still offering $1.10 exchange rate for Canadian) so it made the cruise worth the money paid. For future cruises, Royal isn't in my top 10 though (and as a family we've agreed that I need to stop looking at the Royal website for deals).

 

Our main reasons are:

 

1. Hard beds, thin pillows, and crappy blankets.

 

If I can't get a good night sleep on vacation, it makes for a pretty bad trip. Royal is the bottom of the cruise heap for us when it comes to sleeping comfort. Celebrity, Disney and Carnival all feature comfortable beds, fluffy pillows and soft blankets (we don't really the like comforters on any line because they are too heavy).

 

2. Lack of day time activities that aren't sports related.

 

Trivia was held in the Schnoor's lounge. This is too small of a space and only a small portion of the seating is wheelchair accessible (there is a step up to the centre round part). Other than the trivia a few times a day (which was over crowded so we gave up on), there were few non-sports or non-selling day time activities for us. We spent a lot of time sitting around people watching. This is great for a little while but it's nice to be broken up by some ship activities.

 

3. Food quality (other than the specialty dining).

 

The specialty dining was good to fantastic. The regular food left a lot to be desired. It was very hit and miss. I'm not willing to have that on vacation. I can accept the occasional dish that's not good or to my taste, I can't accept not being able to go to the buffet at all because I can't find enough tasty food. And with room service now featuring an $8 charge, sorry but that is too limiting.

 

4. Constant selling.

 

It was non stop - from drink packages to specialty dining to having the promenade taken over by pop up shops - it was all the time and very in your face. Even when you tell them you've already bought specialty dining (or drink packages), they keep pushing for more or for upgrades. We were asked while dining in a specialty restaurant to book more specialty dining. It was at every turn and even activities which seemed like activities turned into "buy this". It's pretty bad when Cozumel has less pushy sales people than the cruise ship.

 

 

Okay, so I know that a lot of people are going to stop reading or will post some flippant comment and that's okay. You go ahead. I'm just going to ignore those people.

 

 

 

 

For the rest of you - Sabor is fantastic, The veal chop at Chops is one of the best things I've ever eaten and the pastas and appetizers at Giovanni's are worth the trip. I highly recommend looking for the deals and plan to visit all 3. Breakfast and lunch in the dining room were pretty good (breakfast being consistently very good). We had the non-alcoholic unlimited package and really enjoyed the coffees and frappes at Café Promenade. The Freestyle coke machines worked for us consistently as did the cups (this was the first cruise we never had to replace a single cup - they always worked).

 

The adult Solarium pool is great. The temperature of the water, the size, the chairs, the hot tubs - all top notch. If you are uncertain about a port and choose to stay on the ship - head up to the adult area. It won't be crowded and you'll be able to enjoy a very relaxing time.

 

If you like sports related activities - they are in spades all over the ship. From rock climbing to ice skating to flow riding to Padi certification (at a cost), there is a lot of sports stuff to do. It's all listed in the daily times and its very frequent.

 

Royal isn't for us but it may be for you.

 

 

 

Anyways - much, much food porn to follow!

[meatloafsfan]

When we boarded the ship, we skipped the buffet and headed straight to Café Promenade. We were lax in getting pictures this time but did have some sandwiches and desserts. It was pretty empty and we were one of only 2 tables taken until around 1pm. We tried out the drink package almost right away and enjoyed some lattes and Americano's.

 

Prior to leaving I had booked the BOGO specialty dining for the first and second nights. On the ship we booked Chops for night 1 and Giovanni's for night 2. They were adamant on the times though - it had to be early. I was able to push Chops to 6pm but Giovanni's had to be 5:30pm. We normally do late dining but the other option given was 8:30pm but I felt with specialty dining taking 1.5 to 2 hours (easily), I didn't want to be finishing up that late so early it was.

 

When we arrived at Chops we were the only table. By the time we left around 7:30pm, there were maybe 6-7 tables in use.

 

We had one of the best servers ever tonight. She was from South Africa (I'm sorry I can't remember her name). She was just wonderful and because she wasn't busy, she spent a lot of time talking with us throughout the meal.

 

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My mother started with the goat cheese salad. The goat cheese, cranberries and walnuts were wonderful. The greens were okay but a little too stringy for my mother. In the future, if I were to order this, I would ask for them to leave out the greens and just have the cheese, fruit and nuts.

 

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My dad went with the Wild Mushroom soup. This was wonderful - very rich and earthy. Hot, creamy and very filling.

 

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I had the French Onion soup. (sorry the picture didn't come out). This was very good - you could take the wine and the onions were well done. The cheese was thick and real gruyere.

[meatloafsfan]

For appetizers we ordered:

 

The Pork Belly - this was under whelming. It could have been cooked more to make it crispy. This was more like a piece of fatty pork. With how many people rave about this, I am guessing that it was just that mine wasn't cooked as much as normal. The flavour was good, it just didn't have that wow factor I was expecting.

 

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Scallops. These were again good. The mustard sauce was very tasty. Again, these were good but not great. I think a little more carmelization would have made these better.

 

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The shrimp cocktail. Big, big shrimp! Tasty yes, but again - not too different or unique.

 

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[meatloafsfan]

My dad had debated between the filet and veal chop. Once I announced that I was getting the veal chop, he went with the filet so we could try both.

 

Veal Chop. This is possibly the best piece of meat I've ever eaten. Tender, melt in your mouth, perfectly seasoned - just perfect. We all tried it and declared it the clear winner at the table.

 

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My mom wanted to order the slow roasted short rib but our server told her not to. It is, in her experience, the most returned dish in Chops. My mom's not really into beef but ordered the filet mignon - butterflied and well done. It came exactly as ordered. Even well done it was still good.

 

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My dad's Filet was excellent. Served Medium as requested, tender and juicy. And a very large piece.

 

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For sides we ordered the Asparagus, spinach, mushrooms and the potato croquettes.

 

The croquettes were awesome; the rest of the veggies were good - they could have used some seasoning though.

 

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[meatloafsfan]

When it comes to desserts - well, as Meatloaf says, "2 out of 3 ain't bad".

 

We ordered the red velvet cake. This was very good. Moist cake, rich icing - very tasty.

 

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Chocolate mud pie. This is fantastic. Super rich though - it was great because we shared around all of the desserts. I can't imagine being able to eat a whole slice of this by myself.

 

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Our 3rd choice was the fresh baked cookies. These were anything but "fresh baked". I swear they had been microwaved to be warm. They were hard and seemed like the same cookies they were serving down in café promenade. Both of my parents were bakers and I owned a bakery for a while - there is no way these cookies were fresh baked. It takes at least 12 minutes to bake a cookie of this size and dessert was delivered no more than 7-8 minutes after we ordered it. These were mostly left behind and uneaten.

 

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[meatloafsfan]

Breakfast on the first sea day was in the dining room. Food was good; service was friendly but odd. My mother received her breakfast far ahead of my dad and I and she was done by the time we were served.

 

My dad ordered 2 pancakes which came out hot and fresh.

 

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And an omelet with bacon:

 

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I also had an omelet:

 

DSC03888 by PATRICIA TODD, on Flickr

 

My mother ordered two poached eggs and bacon (sorry, no picture) and then my dad got her a plate of fruit to enjoy while we ate our hot food.

 

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[meatloafsfan]

For lunch we again hit up the MDR. We prefer the dining room to the buffet as it's easier on my mother (she is in a wheelchair and can only use one hand). We also find the food much better in the MDR than the buffet.

 

My mother wasn't really feeling well so she just had the chicken soup:

 

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While my dad and I split the noodles:

 

 

And he had the fried chicken with some kind of warm potato salad:

 

 

And I had the lamb pita:

 

 

For dessert - my mother had the orange panna cotta

 

 

And both my dad and I had the strawberry napoleon.

 

[meatloafsfan]

Dinner tonight was Giovanni's at 5:30pm.

 

Starting with appetizers -

 

We enjoyed the scallops:

 

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And the eggplant:

 

 

And the cheese wrapped in prosciutto on the toasted bread (this was amazing!).

 

 

Entrees were okay but not as good as the appetizers or the sides:

 

Veal (not recommended):

 

 

Lamb Chops (were okay but overdone - had asked for medium well and they were very well done):

 

 

Steak:

 

[meatloafsfan]

The pasta sides were outstanding and we ate more of these than the mains.

 

Risotto:

 

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Gnocchi with blue cheese sauce:

 

 

Gnocchi with lamb ragu:

 

[meatloafsfan]

Dessert were good but not really memorable.

 

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[meatloafsfan]

Breakfast the next day was again in the dining room.

 

Today's special was Huervo Ranchero's. A little odd take on it but my mother likes sunny side up eggs and ate the rest as a sort of breakfast salad.

 

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I had the French toast which came with a very liberal dousing of cinnamon sugar.

 

 

My dad again went with an omelet and bacon.

 

[meatloafsfan]

For lunch we had pizza and sandwiches from Sorrentos and then dessert from café promenade.

 

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[meatloafsfan]

This was our first of 3 dinners in the dining room.

 

Starters were:

 

Shrimp cocktail - I was glad to see this again offered regularly. I had seen the copies of the menus from November where it was only on once or twice. Its my dad's go to appetizer so it was nice that it was offered every night.

 

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Some kind of seafood soup. The seafood was good but the soup base was weak.

 

 

For entrees:

 

I had the moussaka - not good at all.

 

 

My mom had the chicken which was fine.

 

 

My dad had the steak. Taste was good but a little more done than he wanted.

 

 

My parents also shared a portion of the pasta with the beef ragu. Neither one of them liked this - the beef was okay but the sauce was like bad, canned tomato sauce.

 

[meatloafsfan]

We also ordered a plate of veggies since it's the one thing you rarely get enough of with the meals. This was very good. The beans were a little less cooked than I would have liked but the broccoli and carrots were spot on - firm, a little al dente but chewable.

 

 

 

For dessert:

 

My mom had the angel food cake with strawberries and cream (I think this was the no sugar added dessert). She liked this as it was light and creamy.

 

 

My dad asked for a banana split.

 

 

And I asked for Nothing - which is exactly what I got:

 

[deliver42]

Sorry you didn't enjoy Royal. Different strokes for different folks. I've been on Carnival, and NEVER again.

[Camelia-]

Thank you for your comments and for those pictures! Loved them - I really appreciated the fact that you told us what each dish was - lots of times though we see amazing pictures we're left to guess what they are pictures of! I hope that the mattress situation was (sadly) limited to your cabin because I agree that not being able to sleep on a decent mattress definitely takes a toll by the end of the cruise!!

[meatloafsfan]

So the next day was Cozumel. We skipped breakfast and headed off to enjoy the port area. We did a little shopping and then stopped and had a couple of drinks at Pedro's (right by the pier). We returned to the ship at lunch time and headed up to the buffet. It was pitiful. My mom had some slow cooked lamb in sauce and found a big vein. There just wasn't a good selection. I ended up settling for a hamburger (it was so dry) because at least I could identify what it was - everything just seemed to be random chunks in various coloured sauces. I also had mashed potatoes - these were actually pretty good but I'm not willing to stick to mashed potatoes for lunch each day.

 

Anyways, we were back in the MDR for dinner again tonight. It was the Italian inspired menu which has traditionally been my favourite of all Royal menus.

 

My dad again started with the shrimp cocktail (as did my mother).

 

 

And they both had the pasta e fagoli soup - my dad stated that his was "just warm" which my mother was thrilled with so she could eat it right away without waiting for it to cool.

 

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I had the risotto balls (arincini). Normally I love these but they were hard, had big chunks of mushroom in them and very little rice. It was also a lot of breading this time.

 

 

I also had the Caprese salad. This was very good. Nice, mild cheese, ripe tomatoes and lots of drizzles of olive oil and balsamic.

 

[ImpulsivePuppy]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2477089 :-P

[meatloafsfan]

Entrees.

 

I have always been a big fan of the Lasagna. This time it was disappointing. The cream sauce was thin and tasteless and then meat was gritty.

 

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My mom had the eggplant. This was good.

 

 

My dad had a steak and the garlic shrimp

 

[melissagohard]

Thank you for the foodie pics and reviews!! Keep 'em coming! [emoji7]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[meatloafsfan]

For dessert we basically ordered one of everything to try.

 

There was the masticated strawberries with ice cream:

 

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The lemon cake with Greek yogurt

 

 

bread pudding

 

 

Tiramisu

 

 

And the dessert trio

 

[meatloafsfan]

The next day I don't have any daytime food pictures but we did hit up the dining room since it was the second formal night which means prime ribs for my parents and lobster for me.

 

Well done prime rib

 

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Medium prime rib

 

 

Duo of lobster tails

 

 

And the lentil chili with soy meatballs (do not order)

 

 

Desserts:

 

My mom ordered the berries and cream

 

 

While my dad and I went with the banana and cream cake (this was very good)

 

[judeniece]

THANK YOU for taking your time to add all these pictures and let us know what they are and how they were, some really do look delicious and i just cant wait now to travel. I love food its what my holiday is all about ...:'):')

[meatloafsfan]

On our last sea day we had breakfast at Café Promenade.

 

Yogurt cups with granola

 

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Fruit bread:

 

 

Apple Danish:

 

 

And Muesli (ick):

 

[meatloafsfan]

My last set of food pictures is from dinner on the last night at Sabor. I had been iffy on this restaurant since I didn't think my parents would enjoy it (they don't do spicy) but the dining room had been hit and miss and we still had our OBC to spend. They offered us a deal of $20 per person and a free Margarita each so we booked it.

 

In total I spent $50 per person on specialty dining and we were able to each in all 3 restaurants (BOGO for the first two nights at $30 pp; $20 for Sabor = $50 total).

 

So to start we were each given a Margarita:

 

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And chips

 

 

And Salsa

 

 

My parents don't each avocados so we skipped the guacamole.