Freedom of the Seas Review 7-27-08 Eastern Route

[Sports Mama]

I have one word for this ship AWESOME!!!! There were 14 people traveling in our group (we were celebrating my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary). We ranged in ages of 5 – 72 years of age. For most of our group we have cruised before, but for 4 of them it was their first cruise. This was my 5th cruise.

EMBARKATION: We flew in the night before our cruise and left the Hilton Airport Hotel around 10:30 a.m. and arrived at the port around 11:00 a.m. We did not have to wait in line at all to check in. Everything was extremely smooth. I did notice when we were boarding a little before noon the lines were starting to get long. After we checked in we only had to wait about 20 minutes and we were walking on the ship to begin a wonderful week!!!

Just so everyone will know Ken Rush was the cruise director, but I did not ask him how long he is going to be on board. I know he is filling in for Richard Spacey while he is on vacation. Ken was a pretty funny guy. We were able to converse with him one time in the elevator and he was extremely personable. He was very visible and had a pretty good staff working under him.

Cabin: We were in 2654, which is an ocean view on deck 2. My parents were in a balcony on deck 6, 6308. There was adequate storage in both rooms. We really enjoyed our room on deck 2. It was really convenient to everything and quiet. All we had to do was go up the hall a little bit and catch the elevator for the pools, windjammer, and the sports deck, or we could take the stairs to decks 3, 4, and 5. It was also nice to just go down one deck for the ports of call too. It seemed like the aft elevators and stairs were convenient to all of the main areas of the ship. If I were to book a freedom or voyager class ship again, I would definitely try to get a room by the aft elevators and stairs.

Service: The service on this ship was the best I have ever had. This was my parent’s 7th cruise and they felt the same way. I mean every person we encountered was smiling and seem to be having a great time. In the dining room we had Edguarado and he left during dinner on Tuesday and we never saw him again. The young lady who took over for him said he had gotten sick. I believe the best service was by the head waiter Sergio. We saw him every night, in the Windjammer one afternoon, and at breakfast in the dining room. I cannot say enough good things about him. I even saw him help his waiters out and they all worked as a team in the dining room. I have been on 2 RCCL and 3 Carnival cruises and I hardly ever see the head waiter or Maître D’. We really loved the bar waiter in the dining room, he became our “doctor” who could medicate us. :eek: :D I believe his name was Junior. David in Sorrento’s was great as well. Every time he saw us waiting in line to get pizza he would pull us out of line, sit us at a table and get our food for us. My parents went to Café Promenade almost every night for coffee and they said the service was excellent there too. We went one evening and I had to agree. Our cabin steward was great too. I just wished I could bring a few of this people home with us!!!

Food: The food was good. There were a few items that we really liked, but for the most part none of us were impressed with the new menus in the main dining room. Believe me we did not starve and we did find things on the menu we liked. I think we all really enjoyed the last night’s menu the best and of course everyone loved the lobster. We did not try out the specialty dining so I cannot comment on them. The Windjammer was good too, but nothing exceptional. Johnny Rockets is a MUST!!! The service and food were great (aahh the shakes). We all loved the pizza as well. It must be really hard to feed 4,300 people (I think Ken said we had about 4,299 people on our cruise), and so I think they did a pretty good job. Yes, I did gain weight. Suggestion: bring buffet pants!! :D

Ports of Call: Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Puerto Rico, we went to El Morro and shopped. We took a taxi to El Morro and walked back. El Morro is amazing. What a beautiful place to see!! SUGGESTION: if you like rum, go inside to the information center and they were handing out complimentary rum drinks. YUM!! What a way to cool yourself off while you are walking and shopping. My husband wanted to go by there on the way back to the ship, but we ended up coming down the wrong road from the shops and didn’t feel like going back a couple of blocks. Also, wear some good walking shoes (lots of hills and brick streets). Old San Juan is neat. We did not feel safe walking around at night. We were in port from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. Shops were closing around 6 p.m. St. Thomas: we did a discovery scuba dive with Coki Beach Diving Company. They were great; however, the water was murky and not clear. When we compare it to Cozumel the diving is a lot better in Cozumel. I don’t think it is always this way; we just had bad luck with Mother Nature. We still had a lot of fun and saw a few neat things. We did a little shopping right by the ship – this was a nice little area to do shopping in. St. Maarten: we snorkeled with Captain Alan’s (3 island snorkel). The weather was not good at first, but it did get better. We had some pretty rough seas while out on his boat, thank goodness none of us got sea sick. Again the water was murky. You could see some things, but it just was not clear. We were able to see squid, schools of fish, jelly fish, and sting rays. I would highly recommend Captain Alan’s.

Shows: Wow, the shows and productions were fantastic. I only missed one. We had comedian Rick Starr the first night and on the second night he did an adult comedy show, magic by Drew Thomas (not to be missed if he is on your cruise), Scott Record (extremely talented man—another must see, if he is on your cruise), and comedian Steve Caouette. The production shows: Marquee and Once Upon a Time were fantastic. I missed the Marquee show, but most of my family went to see it and said it was wonderful. I realize the comedian’s and other acts do not stay on the ship except for a week. If you get a chance to see any of these guys you need too. I was only able to make one of the parades on the Promenade and it was really neat. I would suggest if you can make these do so, but get there early to get a good place to watch. The ice show is a must see too. We all really enjoyed it.

Ship Activities: All I can say is my 15 year old son LOVED the flow rider. He was always easy to find. If the flow rider was open that is where he was at. I signed the waiver the first day and he was able to ride the rest of the week without me needing to sign a waiver every day. It was also fun to just watch everyone. On the last day my husband, brother, and his friend (who are in their 40’s and 50’s) rode the flow rider and loved it as well. We were able to sign my son up for private lessons for the flow rider. They were given at night for $60 an hour and only 8 people per session. We also played a little putt-putt golf. Karaoke booths were fun and I was only able to karaoke one night. They usually had it late and I would have one too many after diner shots with my family and I would get tired. Aah, but the “doctor” was medicating us!!! :D Believe me there was plenty to do on this ship, there is no way you can get bored. The pool was crowd, but great. They had music going in the afternoons and nothing is better than being by the pool listening to music with a foo foo drink. I can definitely say the chair hogs were out, but I think one older guy came up with a solution. He had a blow up doll and put it in a chair. :eek: One morning I was having coffee out by the pool (around 9) and he brought it out and sat it on the chair. I died laughing. I would suggest that if you want a good pool chair in the shade or right by the pool, you will need to be there by 10 a.m., but there were plenty of chairs on the upper deck of the pool. My son enjoyed some of the teen activities offered by Adventure Ocean. He always participated in the dance every night. He liked the air hockey competition and the teen boogie board.

Disembarkation: What can I say-depressing. :( Everything went really smooth here. We were some of the last people off of the ship. Waited about 30 minutes in line for customs and then collected our luggage.

Some of the things I feel like you shouldn’t miss: shows, flow rider (at least watch if you don’t want to participate) or anything on the sports deck, ice show, dining room, parades, quest ( I wasn’t able to participate this time, but I have on past cruises and loved it), and Johnny Rockets.

Overall we all had a wonderful week and would not hesitate to go again. It was really sad when we were flying out of Miami we could see the cruise ship sailing away!!!

[Bobbigrl27]

Wow, great review, thanks for sharing!! I will be sailing FOS in 88 days and I cannot wait!!

[floatel_lvr]

Thanks for the review Sports Mama! We sail her in October and can't wait. I know what you mean about seeing the ship from the plane and how sad it makes you feel. A few years back we stayed over in Miami after the cruise and we were eating in Smith & Wollensky Steak House which is right on the channel. As we were enjoying our first drink the Explorer sailed past us on their next trip. We toasted her but were jealous of the people who took our place on board. We knew they were in for a great trip.

RA

[raytownlady]

Great review, brings back wonderful memories of our cruise on the Freedom last year and makes me excited about our upcoming cruise on the Liberty.

[srsimpkins]

Thanks! We are taking our honeymoon on FOS in 21 days!!!! We are excited and your review helped!

[kittymom65]

Great review, thanks for taking the time to share with us!:)

[luv2cruise1122]

What were the new menus like? What night was the best? The worst? and what was the theme? We are trying to decide which night to go eat at Chops Grille. Any suggestions?

[Sports Mama]

luvtocruise1122--

I wasn't real crazy about the new menu selections, but we always found something to eat.

Day 1: Bon Voyage Dinner

Day 2: Captain's Gala Dinner (formal night)

Day 3: Crown & Anchor Dinner (Puerto Rico) - we did not go this night because we were in port and did not make it in time. My mother said we did not miss much in the way of food.

Day 4: Surf Dinner

Day 5: Venetian Feast (formal night)

Day 6: Chef's Dinner - Lobster night

Day 7: Feast of Nations

I could not make a suggestion on which night to do chops, but the lobster was pretty good and on the last night the NY strip was pretty good. My son ate duck one night and said it was really good, but I can't remember which night that was. I believe there is a thread with a link to the menus. That should help you decide. It is hard to remember what I ate every night. We had a few shots after dinner every night that impaired my ability to remember what was on the menu :eek: :D !!!!! I hope I helped.

 

If any one has any questions please feel free to ask and I will try to answer them. I hope everyone has a great cruise. As the famous motto goes: "The only bad cruise is the cruise I am not on!"

[MrBucket]

Day 3: Crown & Anchor Dinner (Puerto Rico) - we did not go this night because we were in port and did not make it in time. My mother said we did not miss much in the way of food.

 

We plan on going to Chops on Puerto Rico night for that very reason. I made the lastest reservation I could, at 9:30.

I sure hope we will be able to make it back to the ship in time.

Or.... perhaps maybe I made it too late??

[gowensricks]

:) Great review! I too was on that cruise, and we had a ball! Did you all have on blue T-Shirts? I think I saw a group (perhaps the first day), with T-shirts that announced a 50th Anniversary. Anyway, the guy with the blow-up doll, my husband saw him that morning (he was on his way to the gym), and we thought he was joking, Then I saw him! That same gentleman was in the welcome back party, and it was said that he had over 50 cruises with RCCL, so he won the prize for most cruises on our sailing (I believe his name was Armand). Also, he would walk around the ship with big, colorful, oversized glasses that took up more than half of his face (a real character). Anyway, we all had a wonderful time and I echo your sentiments!

[linkerbink]

Thanks for the great review! My sister and I will be on FOS in October...our first time on that class...and we're really excited! I'm glad to hear the service was so good...some posts in other threads have indicated that service seems to be suffering lately.

[AF-1]

Got any pics of your group from the ship? Would love to see them.

[Sports Mama]

Mr. Bucket--

You should make it back depending on what you are doing. We were back on the ship by 6:30 p.m.

 

gowensricks--

No we weren't the ones with the blue T-shirts. I think there were several families on board celebrating 50th wedding anniversaries. Yeah, the guy with the blow up doll, the big glasses and the ruibber chicken was a character. I wonder if he needed a separate suitcase for all of us his toys. :D

 

Af-1 --Yes, I have a picture of the Welcome Aboard. I will try to scan it in a few days when I get a chance and post it.