Our family of three (mom, dad, almost 10-year-old daughter) booked this cruise last August. At that time, we were still in the "afterglow" of a fabulous Oasis of the Seas cruise (a 7-nighter to Western Caribbean). So, we had been looking forward to this trip for 10+ months.

While Freedom no longer has that "new car smell"--nor does it offer the over-the-top size of Oasis--it was a wonderful, wonderful cruise. As on Oasis, we loved having the Royal Promenade as our spot for coffee drinking and people watching. We loved the great food and service in the Main Dining Room (we were in Leonardo's on Deck 3). We also loved the entertainment (despite our overall impression that it was a teeny bit inferior to what we saw on Oasis); the stand-up comedians were my personal favorites.

I could tell that my husband initially wanted to dislike the Freedom purely for not being the Oasis. But by the end of our cruise, all three of us were sold on Freedom as a great ship: plenty big but much easier to navigate! In fact, we realized that the Windjammer felt much more spacious and less chaotic than on Oasis. We also observed MUCH less "hard selling" in Freedom's Royal Promenade (if you see our review of Oasis, you'll notice that was one of our only grips with that ship). Read more