Freedom of the Seas Review
RCCL could use some tips from Princess and some updating
Rating by category
Additional details
My first cruise ever was on RCCL back in 2003 - on Voyager of the Seas. We loved it. Had a great time, and have cruised 15 times since (Princess, Celebrity, Carnival), and never with RCCL again - because we shop on itinerary and date...and Princess has offered better itineraries for the timeframes we want to travel. I cruised with them again with some girlfriends in May 2014 - and was very disappointed. (I posted a full review on here) I chalked it up to the ship (Vision of the Seas)...but will admit it made me worries for the already booked November 2014 cruise on Freedom.
Port Canaveral - I have never used this port before. Not sure I would again - there is little to do there, not many hotel options. We used Wayne from Airport Shuttle to pick us up from the airport and take us to the Marriott. He was great. We highly recommend Wayne. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Cocoa Beach - it was fine. We booked their park and cruise package. We didn't have a car but our friends were driving from Georgia so they used the hotel to park, which is nice of the Marriott to let us do that. We just paid for the 4 extra tickets for the shuttle the next morning.
We walked to Florida's Seafood Bar & Grill for late lunch/early dinner. It was great and definitely walkable. The food was really good and so were the drinks. It did start to rain when we were walking back to the hotel but needed to stop at the Walgreen's for a few toiletries. We walked to Waffle House for breakfast the next morning - it was COLD and there were only so many choices for walking. It was ok.
Cabin Review
Large Oceanview Stateroom
The room was great. There was a lot of space for our things, and an actual shower door!! (yay no attack shower curtain). It is a room that could be for up to 4 people, I don't know if that is why it felt so spacious? But we had a lot of extra storage room that wasn't used (including drawers we never used), not enough hangers - but plenty of nooks and crannies for things in the bathroom and in the vanity. We moved the coffee table to under the window - so it was out of the way. My friends were in a room just like ours and had 4 people, and again felt there was plenty of space for their things, moved their table as well and the desk chair. Our room Steward Erasto was great!I really liked the location - as I like to walk, and measured my steps everyday and reached my 15000 steps goal on most days! There was a lot of noise on the first night, from I believe the people in the room next door partying on their balcony - but it was only that night. And one night it was very rough seas - and there was quite a lot of banging of something outside our window - we never figured it out - but my friends said the same thing on the opposite side of the ship.