I'm largely comparing this cruise with my previous experiences with Holland America Amsterdam.

To begin with, Freedom is a ship with over 3000 passengers compared with about half on the Amsterdam. But the public facilities certainly didn't double. The direct result is a very crowded ship especially on the pool deck and in the Windjammer buffet restaurant (Lido on Amsterdam). Making it worse is the ship allows smoking on half of all outdoor decks. It means non-smokers are further crowded. Many smokers moved the ash tray to non-smoking sections and the staff never interfered. It is also impossible to run or walk without spending half the time in the smoking section and there is always the smell of cigarettes in most outdoor places. Given that this is a Caribbean cruise and the whole point is to relax under the sun in the open, this wide spread smoking problem is a serious deficiency and enough reason for me to not return to Royal Caribbeans.

Ironically, a lot of inside space was allocated to lounges and bars to generate alcohol income. They are usually empty most of the time except probably late at night (I don't know because I'm usually in bed by 10 pm). The point is, this megaship actually affords less usable space for passengers. Read more