Freedom (and maybe others?) overcrowding explained

[Aviator of the Seas]

I posted a question on this original thread:

 

Wondering about the occupancy rates, especially on my recent Freedom cruise where we encountered some serious overcrowding issues.  I believe I answered my own question when I received this [late] offer from a travel agent. Big FYI for those considering a cruise between these dates:

 

"Kids sail for free!  Offer extended to December 4. On select dates between October 2018 and May 2019, and September 1, 2019 and December 15, 2019.  Offer does not apply to holidays or school breaks.  Minors must be 12 years old or younger AND TRAVELLING WITH TWO ADULTS PER CABIN.  Minors pay only tips and taxes.  Some other restrictions apply.  Contact your travel agent".

 

Had I seen that, I would have selected other dates.  BTW, I traveled with our 10-year old grandson, and we never received this offer.  He paid full fare.   Also, it wasn't all Puerto Rican kids.  There were kids from all over.  Our grandson befriended one kid from the UK and several from NYC (his Spanish is not so good).  So it is not a "last-minute offer just for locals to fill up the ship", as the legend states.

 

Word to the wise.

 

Edited November 1, 2018 by Aviator of the Seas
typo

[bouhunter]

We're booked on Freedom 3 weeks this winter.  Have sailed from PR for years, not concerned.  Most ships sail pretty much full most of the year.

[Aviator of the Seas]

2 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

We're booked on Freedom 3 weeks this winter.  Have sailed from PR for years, not concerned.  Most ships sail pretty much full most of the year.

I very much enjoyed our Freedom cruise and still recommend it.  It's just that it had a different feel from my previous Adventure cruises.  I don't mind kids.  But some people do.

 

If anyone's worried, I found most kids on board well-behaved, even if sometimes clueless about personal spaces.

[puertorican]

2 minutes ago, Aviator of the Seas said:

I very much enjoyed our Freedom cruise and still recommend it.  It's just that it had a different feel from my previous Adventure cruises.  I don't mind kids.  But some people do.

 

If anyone's worried, I found most kids on board well-behaved, even if sometimes clueless about personal spaces.

 

I have been on the Freedom long time ago, actually on her early years, and on the Adventure a few times, differences that I saw on both, and maybe could explain a little the busy feel, at least in the Windjammer, before there were no Chops and No Giovanni's, that physical space on both sides of the ship, used to be tables and space to seat and eat, now it is occupied by both specialty restaurants, so less space to eat on the Windjammer, crowd is the same but less space to be. 

[Aviator of the Seas]

3 minutes ago, puertorican said:

 

I have been on the Freedom long time ago, actually on her early years, and on the Adventure a few times, differences that I saw on both, and maybe could explain a little the busy feel, at least in the Windjammer, before there were no Chops and No Giovanni's, that physical space on both sides of the ship, used to be tables and space to seat and eat, now it is occupied by both specialty restaurants, so less space to eat on the Windjammer, crowd is the same but less space to be. 

Yes, you're right.  Didn't think about that or I wasn't aware that the two specialty joints had been moved there.  Thanks.

[4williams5]

We just got off the Freedom a couple of weeks ago. The only place we felt crowded was the Windjammer for breakfast. There did not seem to be a lot of kids. Normally DD finds some to hang out with but stuck with us most of the cruise.  There were a lot of large family groups on this cruise.  Had different feel then other cruises we had been on in the past. Not bad, just different.

[The Fun Researcher]

Aviator of the Seas, did it seem like most of the "extra" passengers were kids, or did the ship just feel crowded in general?

 

That "kids sale free" runs pretty often and on a lot of ships so I'm not sure if that sale impacted things or not.  

 

One thing that bothered me on the Oasis class ships were the crowds.  It just felt like I couldn't ever find a quite place, even in the Promenade late in the evening, like 12pm - 1am.  Was the promenade still quiet in the late evening on the Freedom?

Dan

Edited November 1, 2018 by The Fun Researcher

[Aviator of the Seas]

3 minutes ago, The Fun Researcher said:

Aviator of the Seas, did it seem like most of the "extra" passengers were kids, or did the ship just feel crowded in general?

 

That "kids sale free" runs pretty often and on a lot of ships so I'm not sure if that sale impacted things or not.  

 

One thing that bothered me on the Oasis class ships were the crowds.  It just felt like I couldn't ever find a quite place, even in the Promenade late in the evening, like 12pm - 1am.  Was the promenade still quiet in the late evening on the Freedom?

Dan

The ship just felt crowded in general.  There were large family groups and even multi-large-family and neighbors groups, which seemed to want to do everything together at the same time.  The promenade was most comfortable early mornings only, or when in port.  Since we've been to Aruba many times, we stayed on board for our only quiet ship day.

[SRF]

It doesn't matter.  Kids or adults are still persons for occupancy.  It doesn't matter if 4 per cabin, because again, there is a maximum number of seats on lifeboats.

 

If every cabin was booked for 4 persons, there would be empty cabins to keep under the max capacity of the ship.

[FLACRUISER99]

1 minute ago, SRF said:

It doesn't matter.  Kids or adults are still persons for occupancy.  It doesn't matter if 4 per cabin, because again, there is a maximum number of seats on lifeboats.

 

If every cabin was booked for 4 persons, there would be empty cabins to keep under the max capacity of the ship.

Then why do they keep adding extra cabins?

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, FLACRUISER99 said:

Then why do they keep adding extra cabins?

Depends on location of cabin and which one's have max passengers. Each sailing will be different. Can't just have passengers go into any lifeboat, each cabin has a set Lifeboat. At times even if you are only passenger in a cabin that holds 10 you may not be able to add anyone if Lifeboat is full from other cabins

[schmeed]

We were on Freedom on 10/13 and there were two, non-English speaking, un-monitored, children misbehaving in Sorrentos while their parents sat at the tables out in the promenade.  They were dumping red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese on each other.  They were mixing the shakers (cheese, red peppers, oregano) and then dumping them on each other.  Finally, the little boy dumped almost the entire shaker of red pepper on the little girls pizza.  That ended the fight as she went pouting out to her parents.

 

We kept telling them to stop.  They couldn't/wouldn't speak English but I know they understood.  As we were leaving, I asked their parents to go look at the mess they had made (and it was BAD) but I'm sure they either didn't understand me, or more likely, didn't care.  They had the look of "I'm on vacation...someone else can clean it up."

 

It was appalling.  More than likely I will never sail out of SJU again.

[hmhanel]

We were also on the 10/13 sailing and while we did notice a large number of children and family groups we did not feel that this in any way detracted from a great cruise. This was our 5th sailing on Freedom and the crowds were no better or worse than any of the previous 4 cruises (IMO).

 

While the Windjammer was usually busy we did not have any issues finding a table. We also didn't have any problems with loungers poolside, though we shied away from the family pool area and preferred either the Solarium or the area directly in front of the bar on Deck 12.

 

It was a great opportunity to drink a beer (OK several beers) and people watch.

[SRF]

14 hours ago, FLACRUISER99 said:

Then why do they keep adding extra cabins?

 

For a mix of cabin sizes to best meet max capacity.

 

Also, depending on how they add the cabins, they could also have added some lifeboats.