Freedom of the Seas Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,406 reviews

Very disappointed

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Freedom of the Seas
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vulcan97
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Mar 2012
Cabin: Promenade Stateroom

Planning a cruise? If you're someone like me who has choosen to be childfree, stay away from Royal Caribbean. I just got back from a 7-nighter and it was hell. I have sailed with RCCL before and it was a decent experience but now they are apparently in bed with Dreamworks. On the surface of that statement, it doesn't seem so bad. I can put up with Shrek, Po, King Julian, etc prancing around the ship and rather enjoyed one entire "RCTV" channel dedicated to all animated feature films. Unfortunately, with cartoon characters comes family entertainment and with family entertainment comes lots and lots of screaming kids. For the most part, it was mostly tolerable by simply ignoring them and staying away from "that side" of the pool. But then... roundabout day 5... they all ganged up on me. I was sitting in the dining room enjoying my dinner when this racket started up. And got louder. And then there was some idiot with a megaphone, stomping through my peace, leading a ton of screaming tax deductions right through the middle of my main course. All I could do was close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears and pray that Moby Dick would munch a big hole in the back of the ship and all those little germ factories would fall out. It didn't happen.

To make matters worse, the TV in the stateroom was improperly formatted so everything I watched had the top and bottom of the screen cut off. That was a minor inconvenience until I tried to use the interactive menu system and couldn't see any of the indicators because they were all off the bottom of the view.

There were three venues onboard the ship to watch movies. The main theater, the "Screening Room" with a computer-operated projector and an outdoor big screen by the pool. Of the three, only the one in the main theater was any good. The outdoor screen was a "jumbotron" type of affair and not very good viewing (plus the addition of the aforementioned screaming kids). The small screen in the "Screening Room" had potential but failed to live up to expectations. The room was small, seating about 50 people. That's not a big problem but there was not enough elevation between seats so unless you sat in the front row, the view was always blocked by somebody else's noggin.

Cabin Review

Promenade Stateroom

Cabin PR

The Promenade Stateroom was as expected but the lack of an outside window made it somewhat uncomfortable due to not being able to see the sun and estimate the time of day. With an interior window, you have to be sure to keep the drapes pulled or other can see into your room.

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