This is one of the most disappointing vacations I've ever taken. I've been on ~8 cruises in the past 10 years, but I can't see myself being a patron of RCCL going forward. My girlfriend and I booked this cruise almost 9 months in advance and were extremely excited to see the "newly renovated" Freedom of the Seas after being on it 2 years ago. Little did we know they weren't actually renovating the ship, just removing club and adding a premium ($) restaurant. Whatever, no big deal. We rushed to our cabin to check it out and it was alright. The bathroom door was a bit damaged and there was some black mold in the shower. Ugh, not the best start, but we're on vacation! We'll make do.

Next, we went to the main dining room to check out our table. I had requested a 2-top over the phone with the Crown and Anchor rep who assured me that it would be "no problem." We walked up to our table...an 8-top. Great. Thanks C&A rep! We waited in the main dining room for 45 minutes to speak with the Maitre D who got us changed to a private 6-top. I don't mean to be petty, but there's a big difference between trying to have a romantic dinner at a 2-top and a 6-top.

We went back to the cabin to find that my parents sent us a wine/cheese plate from the shore. Awesome! We had about an hour before the muster drill, so we called up our room steward and asked if he could somehow procure us a corkscrew so we could get at the wine and get crackin' on our vacation. He said it would be no problem and he'd be right there. Whelp, no sign of him at all until after the drill. The cheese my parents bought was now sitting at room temperature for 2 hours. It was at this point that we realized we didn't have hot water, so we asked about that. I guess asking for a corkscrew and a functioning shower was too much, so he blurted out "are you SURE you don't need anything else?!" This set up a feeling of "lets not bother the room steward or he'll get mad" sort of feeling for the rest of the trip. We were in charge of taking out any glasses we brought back to the room for the rest of the trip (he would just make the bed when he came in). One day, when we came back from port, our steward was done cleaning (nowhere to be seen/out of the hallway), but our door wasn't shut all the way. It was very obvious from the hall. We pushed lightly on the door and it swung open with all of our electronics and whatnot out in the open. Read more