I did my first consecutive cruises with the Christmas and then the New Years cruises on the Freedom of the Seas. The Christmas cruise was wonderful. I missed Captain Tor, but the new Captain did a great job on Christmas day of introducing Santa with droll announcements about an incoming flight and emergency landing on the ship and then Santa with a parade of elves and musicians wandered from the top deck of the ship down through the ship to the On Air Club to give presents to the kids and for photo opps -adorable. We also got Christmas cards with our dining server & assistant server's pictures on it for Christmas which was super cute & a nice souvenier. I had done the Christmas cruise the year before and there was an evening Christmas eve service which was not offered this year - I did miss that. But there was lots of caroling/other Christmas related events and of course the ship was decked out with Christmas decorations. The entertainment was good -only two "broadway style shows" and they were both revue style with a mix of numbers -one was "Marquee" and the other was "Once Upon a Time" -I had seen both before (these were my third and fourth cruises on the Freedom respectively) but they were very enjoyable and the talent of the singers and dancers was impressive. They also had some comedians for evening entertainment and "the Las Vegas Tenors". The tenors was three men who all sing as ... you guessed it, tenors. They were good and did a nice mix of musical choices from opera to pop. My only booked excursion was partially cancalled (it was the Stingray City Land/Sea tour) and the stingray part got cancelled which was what I most wanted to do, so that was sad. Especially since on my last cruise I also booked the tour and it was completely cancelled. The transition between cruises was nice-there was lots of communication. We had to go to the Starlight Lounge at 9:30am ... it took about an hour before they were actually ready to move us, so we just sat and I'd brought a book and read so it was fine. They took us right through customs and we were back on the ship lickety split. I changed crown & anchor levels between cruises & they adjusted to give me the better credit which was nice, as normally when you go home after a cruise it can take up to two weeks for the adjusted level to show. The second cruise was much rowdier (New Years) -it was almost impossible to get a space on the pool deck after 11am (I always got a chair, but I'm one of those people who follow the signs that say take your things with you if you're leaving for more than 30 minutes) so if I went to something else and came back there were no chairs -even on the deck above the pool deck, it was that crowded -BOO. Cynde at dining was awesome and got me my same waiters (we moved a section over) for dinner -loved them -Christopher & Artie. Loved the evening dining period. I was impressed with the Windjammer and Windjammer food quality after being on the Vision of the Seas Windjammer -Freedom does it right, though they need more staff to bus tables. Café Promenade food was great and I also enjoyed Sorento's -their pizza was better than I remembered. I did Johnny Rockets once on the first cruise and the food was good but the service was poor. For example, it's seat yourself and I sat myself inside next to a cluster of wait staff who were standing and chatting while waiting for orders to take to tables and I still had to wait almost half an hour before one of them noticed me. They just all assumed I'd already been taken care of even though there was nothing on my table except my book. Hmm. For New Years we got party hats or tiaras on our tables and a special menu that was rolled up with a ribbon (also something we could take as a keepsake -I'm a scrapbooker so I loved that). They took down Christmas decorations like Ninjas halfway through the second cruise and got all the balloons up in nets on the promenade for the New Years drop. I did one spa special each week and those were both great. They also offered a babydoll lash treatment which I did the second week and I love it -it's basically giving me two months where I don't need to use mascara (though I could use mascara on top of the treatment) but my lashes look great as is, so I'm happy. Overall very happy with both cruises. Cheers to the staff both weeks for working holidays with amazing spirits.