We have cruised only four times, once before on a smaller RCL ship about four years ago. Our last cruise was a 14-day trans-Atlantic cruise on the Celebrity Silhouette. I believe the Silhouette and Freedom of the Seas are roughly the same size. Maybe it's not fair, but I can't help but to compare these two experiences.

I thought the Freedom of the Seas was dirty and not well maintained. In the dining room, many of the chairs have stains. The chair at my table had a large (the size of a quarter), dark stain on the seat. It was there all week. The chair in our cabin had a stain in the middle that my wife said looked like it was from a woman's period; YUCK! One morning I went to sit down in in a chair at the Windjammer. It had a big, greasy piece of ham on it. I tried to swipe it off with my napkin, but the grease had congealed and it didn't come off. It must have been there wor awhile.

When you enter the Windjammer, sometimes (sometimes not) there is a crew member giving hand sanitizer. But then you go to sit down and when you grab the plastic wicker chairs, they feel filthy. Also, there are Purell Hans sanitizer dispensers in many areas, but I often found them empty. Read more