My 20 year old daughter just returned from a relaxing cruise on Freedom of the Seas. Overall, we enjoyed ourselves. We booked this cruise just about two months before the sail date.
I traveled from Atlanta, picked up my college-aged ... Read More
My 20 year old daughter just returned from a relaxing cruise on Freedom of the Seas. Overall, we enjoyed ourselves. We booked this cruise just about two months before the sail date.
I traveled from Atlanta, picked up my college-aged daughter in Statesboro, GA and the we traveled to Port Canaveral. We stayed at Radisson Resort at the Port. I will review this hotel on Trip Advisor, but suffice it to say, everything was fine. It's a bit busy and the room smelled a bit damp (typical Florida motel smell,) but we were comfortable enough.
We used the hotel's Park and Shuttle service and it was extremely efficient. There were plenty of shuttles available and we were loaded upon the shuttle immediately. After a very short drive, we arrived at the Port.
Embarkation - As we received a complimentary upgrade to a Junior Suite, we were escorted to the Suite Guests check-in area, where there was no waiting. In fact, we encountered no lines at all during check-in. We were walking on the ship no more than 10 minutes after entering the building!
Cabin - We were in Cabin 1706, an aft-facing Junior Suite on the 10th deck. It was lovely - large with many storage areas, including a small walk-in closet. The balcony was huge and included two loungers, two chairs and a dining table. Our only beef with this cabin was that it never received sun or a breeze. We didn't spend a great deal of time on the balcony, other than to eat breakfast there two mornings.
Dining - this is an area in which we were very disappointed. The Windjammer Cafe was almost always quite crowded. It was stressful to walk in to the place as we first had to search and search for a place at which to sit. The food was fine - just that. The menu tended to stay the same from day to day. However, we only ate dinner there once. Perhaps there is a greater variety in the evening.
MDR - another disappointment. Our service was adequate, I'll say that. Food was bought out quickly (almost too quickly,) but wasn't always hot. We unfortunately had a table close to the waiter station, so were treated to a constant and loud show of rolling trolleys, clattering dish cleaning, etc. It was kind of unappetizing to see plates being scraped ten feet from our table. Also, we noticed that multiple dishes were brought out at the same time and simply left covered on the waiter station until the next course was offered. If we knew that our second course was going to be brought out at the same time as our first, we would have ordered them separately. The food seem to progress from okay to terrible by the last day of the cruise. The last night, we received "French Onion Soup," which was so bad that we could only laugh. The broth contained no pieces of onion that we could discern, the "bread" appeared to be a very small square of toasted sandwich bread. No cheese was visible, but we think that a small piece of cheese may have been placed on the toast. I say "may" because by the time the soup arrived at our table, it had sunk under the broth. I really wish I had taken a photo of this pitiful soup. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen offered in a restaurant.
Beverage service was also lacking in the MDR (but excellent at all of the other bars on the ship.) I had the Premium Beverage package which entitles me to unlimited drinks. Unfortunately, it was quite difficult to receive more than one glass of wine during the entire dining time. Drinks were never offered - I had to get my server's attention and order an additional glass. Typically, the second glass of wine arrived just in time for the dessert to arrive.
Excursions - we enjoyed all of our excursions and I will post more information on those specific pages.
Entertainment - we went to the late night comedy show. Meh.
Disembarkation - again, extremely efficient. Our disembarkation time was 7:45 am and we were off the ship by 7:50am.
Summary - would we cruise on RCCL again? I suppose. We were happy with everything with the exception of dining. Read Less
Sail Date
May 2015