My thoughs on The Freedom of the Seas Mediterranian Cruise Sep 10-17

[mvh]

First of all, here is a little background on me. My DW and I are both 50 and this was our first time in Europe. We have cruised about 15 times (RCI, Carnival, NCL and Princess) in the Caribbean, mostly with our kids who are twins in college. This trip was with 2 other couples.

 

Let me start by saying it was an absolutely fantastic vacation, but very little had to do with the cruise itself. This by far was the most boring ship and worst service we have ever had. I don't know if this had anything to do with the fact this was a European Cruise or not. The wait staff was stretched so thin, it took close to 3 hours to get through dinner on most nights which made us late to all the shows. It really didn't matter because the shows were so bad we left early anyway. I really felt the waiters (assistant waiter) worked as hard and as fast as they could, but they were just overwhelmed and spread too thin. What happed to the bar service person and the bread service person? Do they not exist anymore? Never once did the head waiter or Madre' De ever come by. We are not loyal to any line and we are not cruise snobs, but this really stuck out as being very bad. However, we had such an incredible time at all the ports it did not put a damper on the trip. The ship was basically just a place to eat and sleep.

 

Good,

Ports: Every port was amazing.

MDR: Food was very good, absolutely no complaints from anyone in our group for lunch(1 day) or dinner (7 days)

Piano bar was great. The player/singer was great

Gym was fine, no problem finding weights or machines

Assistant waiter Jesus worked his butt off to make dinner as good as possible (too bad main waiter was bad)

 

Bad,

Lack of service everywhere. Slow, slow dinner. Hard to get a drink and most bars didn't have all the same drinks.

Room steward was basically non existent. This was the first time I had a room steward say he couldn't get me wine glasses or a cork screw, but our friends had no problem. He also didn't bring all of our papers with our perks we were supposed to get. However, they envelope for the extra tip made it with no problem.

Our toilet didn't flush on the first time hardly ever, which was unbelievable. Of course when they came to check it, it worked every time.

The sink was really slow to drain and it wasn't fixed until day 5.

Halls smelled like a sewer.

Over all condition of room was just worn.

Windjammer is just plain bad

 

Final thoughts.

 

We usually book our cruises based on itinerary and this one was our best so far in that regard. However, I think we will really think twice about booking with RCI again, they really seem like they have gone way down hill in the last few years. I honestly think NCL and Carnival really out do RCI as far as value.

 

I will try to answer any specifics.

[grapau27]

You are right about the ports of call which are the best in the Mediterranean area.

We were on Freedom in June but don't agree with some points.

One and a half hours was the maximum time we spent in MTD but we went to Giovanni's 3 tines and chops once and it was fantastic.

There was bar staff bringing drinks to sunbathers around the pools and lifeguards too.

Our cabin steward was excellent and very helpful.

I do agree though on one point.We were in cabin #8338 on the hump of the ship and from the first day noticed the toilet suction was poor and had to get maintenance out 3 times to fix the toilet when there was no suction and the bowl filled up.

 

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[momphoto]

I too was on this cruise. (my review is listed). I think you may have just had a bad waiter. We had MTD and the first night the service was so slow it was painful. The second night we asked to be sat elsewhere and wanted to be closer to the windows. We had the best waiter/helper in this area for the rest of the week, Fnu and Deron were wonderful and food was served quickly and they always took time to ask about our day and have a chat. Food for us was the biggest disappointment on the cruise.

 

I agree the ports of this cruise made it all worthwhile! We enjoyed every port and of course the weather was fantastic, until of course our sea day...lol.

[arahsay]

My husband and I were on the same cruise. Other than the condition of our stateroom and room steward, we agree with everything you said. We definitely noticed a decline in overall service on the ship.