Freedom Christmas Cruise Rreview

[BIGScott]

Good Morning all. A quick review of the FOS Christmas cruise!

 

First of all this is a beautiful ship. everything about it was spectacular. the CD was great and the staff was all wonderful. The ports were nice (Labadee, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios and Cozumel) and the tendering went very smoothly.

 

Disembarking was the fastest ever - we left the ship at 7am and had passed through customs and claimed our luggage by 730. we were able to catch an earlier flight home and beat the snowstorm :eek:

 

More than ever I wish I was paid in pounds or euros. there were hundreds of europeans on board and one gentleman from italy was telling me that these cruises were the cheapest form of vacation they could take!

 

The waiter Pavle and waitress Shelly at the Pub on the Promenade were fantastic! Two of the nicest people I have ever met.

 

the shows were good - the broadway review (Marquee?) was great. the comedians were very funny. I did not go to the ice show but heard it was very good too.

 

Chops was excellent - our party of 8 was seated on time and the dining experience was fantastic. Ditto for Portofino's which had an even better filet mignon than Chops did. Compared to the rest of the dining experiences we had (see below) those two nights were stand-out.

 

The fitness center was top-notch, helpful staff and very clean.

 

The coffee shop was a blessing at 530am - Seattle's best coffee was excellent!

 

Now for the bad part(s). There were 4250 passengers on board, the most ever for RCL on one ship. At times things felt over-crowded but for the most part not so bad. The second sea day i was by the pool early and had 2 chairs. A fellow passenger asked me if I would keep an eye on his 2 chairs next to mine while he and his wife had breakfast. i said sure (the pool deck was still relatively empty). This man mentioned that on the first sea day he came back from b'fast and his towels and shirts were IN THE POOL!!

 

Of the 4250 passengers there were 1250 children on board and this became the biggest issue for me personally. I know this is the holiday break for schools and I had a 15 year old son and nephews that are 9 and 13 travelling with me, so it is not like I am unaccustomed to children. But I have to say I have never in my entire life seen such disruptive, ill-mannered kids! Worse than that was parents who seemed not to care whether their children were disruptive, rude and out of control. The dining experience was awful and we mentioned it to the HW. I did not expect him to do anything about it - as I said, there were 1250 on board, moving our table would have done no good.

 

At one table near ours (there were 5 tables of relatives/friends surrounding my table) the parent of a 2 year old actually thought it was cute when their kid sat and screamed for ice cream - and then rewarded him by giving him ice cream - as though he was a trained (?) monkey performing for treats. finally on the second to last day I went to the dinig room early and put a note on one of the tables asking the parents to control their childrens behavior. They did not. All in all it made the nights we spent at Portofino's and Chops that much more enjoyable.

 

All in all it was a great cruise with my extended family. It is unfortunate that our only peaceful dining experiences were when we had to pay extra at Chops and Portofino's.

[38anchor]

Good Morning all. A quick review of the FOS Christmas cruise!

 

First of all this is a beautiful ship. everything about it was spectacular. the CD was great and the staff was all wonderful. The ports were nice (Labadee, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios and Cozumel) and the tendering went very smoothly.

 

Disembarking was the fastest ever - we left the ship at 7am and had passed through customs and claimed our luggage by 730. we were able to catch an earlier flight home and beat the snowstorm :eek:

 

More than ever I wish I was paid in pounds or euros. there were hundreds of europeans on board and one gentleman from italy was telling me that these cruises were the cheapest form of vacation they could take!

 

The waiter Pavle and waitress Shelly at the Pub on the Promenade were fantastic! Two of the nicest people I have ever met.

 

the shows were good - the broadway review (Marquee?) was great. the comedians were very funny. I did not go to the ice show but heard it was very good too.

 

Chops was excellent - our party of 8 was seated on time and the dining experience was fantastic. Ditto for Portofino's which had an even better filet mignon than Chops did. Compared to the rest of the dining experiences we had (see below) those two nights were stand-out.

 

The fitness center was top-notch, helpful staff and very clean.

 

The coffee shop was a blessing at 530am - Seattle's best coffee was excellent!

 

Now for the bad part(s). There were 4250 passengers on board, the most ever for RCL on one ship. At times things felt over-crowded but for the most part not so bad. The second sea day i was by the pool early and had 2 chairs. A fellow passenger asked me if I would keep an eye on his 2 chairs next to mine while he and his wife had breakfast. i said sure (the pool deck was still relatively empty). This man mentioned that on the first sea day he came back from b'fast and his towels and shirts were IN THE POOL!!

 

Of the 4250 passengers there were 1250 children on board and this became the biggest issue for me personally. I know this is the holiday break for schools and I had a 15 year old son and nephews that are 9 and 13 travelling with me, so it is not like I am unaccustomed to children. But I have to say I have never in my entire life seen such disruptive, ill-mannered kids! Worse than that was parents who seemed not to care whether their children were disruptive, rude and out of control. The dining experience was awful and we mentioned it to the HW. I did not expect him to do anything about it - as I said, there were 1250 on board, moving our table would have done no good.

 

At one table near ours (there were 5 tables of relatives/friends surrounding my table) the parent of a 2 year old actually thought it was cute when their kid sat and screamed for ice cream - and then rewarded him by giving him ice cream - as though he was a trained (?) monkey performing for treats. finally on the second to last day I went to the dinig room early and put a note on one of the tables asking the parents to control their childrens behavior. They did not. All in all it made the nights we spent at Portofino's and Chops that much more enjoyable.

 

All in all it was a great cruise with my extended family. It is unfortunate that our only peaceful dining experiences were when we had to pay extra at Chops and Portofino's.

 

I was also on the same sailing as yourself - isn't it a nightmare being back home. I was genuinely really upset to be leaving as we had such a fabulous time.

 

I also think its funny that people can have such different experiences on the same cruise. We found the disembarking to be a nightmare, but as this was our first cruise we had nothing to compare it with.

 

As we were doing a RCI post cruise, we had to meet in the Pharaoh's lounge at 06.50am!!!!! Admittedly we were off the ship for 7am, but then we had 45 minutes to wait until the baggage turned up. Not good :-(

 

Now I agree that it was a busy sailing, but we never had a problem with the crowds. Even on Sea days it was easy to get chairs, admittedly not right next to the pool, and many times both me and my boyfriend were the only ones in the hot tubs.

 

We even managed to get loungers right next to the solarium pool mid afternoon on a couple of occasions.

 

Again, children were not a problem for us, even during dining, but we were on 2nd seating if that made a difference. TBH, you should have seen if there was another table, as we were able to move easily both the first and second night for various family reasons (not RCI fault).

 

I do have to admit though there were quite a few rude people onboard, and unfortunately it seemed to be the Europeans. From the UK myself, I thought the majority of people we met were fantastic, but there are always a few (especially in the Casino).

 

All in all I thought this was a great cruise, and I just wish I was still onboard.

[BIGScott]

we did mention to the HW we would like a quieter locale but since we were at the 6pm seating there really were very few options.

 

Again, i knew there would be kids everywhere at an early seating - i was just shocked at how ill-mannered they were and at how little the parents seemed to care that their progeny were so poorly behaved!

 

i am glad you had a great first cruise - this was our 4th Christmas cruise and we all had a great time - I just wish our dining room experience was better!

 

Peace

[BillOh]

I also think its funny that people can have such different experiences on the same cruise.

Again, children were not a problem for us, even during dining, but we were on 2nd seating if that made a difference. .

 

I have no doubt people can have totally differnent experiences on this ship and both be right. I think your right about the 2nd seating, another reason we prefer it. 45 minutes to get luggage isn't that bad, but maybe with a post criuse excursion you should get better. Also, thanks to the OP for posting. I hope you continue.

[crcossel]

ok I am at that age where most if not all of my friends have kids. we don't.

 

It constantly amazes me how they don't see or hear what their kids are doing. It can be total kaous (sp?) and they just keep with their conversation that they are having as if nothing is the matter. I know some of them think I don't like kids because I tend to bring it up if its bothering me but I just think kids should be well behaved. Noisy and rough is for outside only.

 

I have mentioned it to the parents not in a confronting way but just in conversation and it seems that they just honestly don't hear the noise anymore.

[cathyr4561]

I have no doubt people can have totally differnent experiences on this ship and both be right. I think your right about the 2nd seating, another reason we prefer it. 45 minutes to get luggage isn't that bad, but maybe with a post criuse excursion you should get better. Also, thanks to the OP for posting. I hope you continue.

 

 

I'm sailing on the Freedom on the Seas on February 17th but thought that there wouldn't be that many children because they should be in school - shouldn't they?

[3dogmom]

I'm sailing on the Freedom on the Seas on February 17th but thought that there wouldn't be that many children because they should be in school - shouldn't they?

 

The week of the 17th is actually when a lot of the northern schools take their winter break.:eek: This is why I'm on the week prior to yours;)

[BIGScott]

I travelled with my son and my 2 nephews (ages 15, 13, 9) and even THEY were appalled by the behavior of some on the ship. And I agree, some parents choose to ignore their kids bad behavior or think their kids are so much more well behaved than others, but when i say some of these brats were disruptive I am being polite.:eek:

 

And the previous poster is absolutely correct - the week of Feb 14 is winter break in the northern climes here in the USA. many go skiing but more go cruising!

 

This has NOT soured me on cruising - it has just reinforced my opinion that paying the extra $$ for Chops or Portofino's is well worth it (great food in a nice atmosphere), and it seems the added $$ keeps out the riff-raff :D .

 

maybe I am getting too old to be on the mega-ships and need to invest in a private yacht (as my mother suggested):cool: