This was our first Royal Caribbean Cruise and we looked forward to this cruise for nearly a year. I have a list of pros and a list of cons. I feel very torn about the overall experience as well as Royal Caribbean. I want to start with my pro list..Freedom of the Seas is a gorgeous boat, it really felt special when you get on there and get to explore. I have no complaints about looks or cleanliness of the boat. We have room 1820, one of the new panoramic ocean view rooms. We loved this room and the view was amazing. Def. worth a little extra money. That being said, you do feel lots of movement, so this may not be the right room for someone who is susceptible to motion sickness. We LOVED the solarium, and my children loved the kids programming. It was hard to pull them away, and both made friends during the week. (kids are 5&12) Our Room attendant Randy, was so nice and kept our room so nice. Embarkation and Debarkation were amazingly fast. We were on the boat by noon, and off the boat before 7am.

Onto my cons list..I honestly think a reason I even have a cons list was the cost of the trip. We had been on 2 carnival cruises prior. With those being cheaper trips, it was easier to overlook anything that wasnt perfect, where on this boat, anything that was perfect, I felt a little annoyed and would find myself thinking, gosh we spend a lot of money on this trip..My biggest issue were the mixed drinks. They were inconsistent at all bars, and way too strong. I felt like they probably felt they were hooking their customers up, but for me, who purchased a drink package, didnt want drinks that were so awful I had to sip and then felt buzzed after one drink because they were too strong. I did write a formal complaint about this to Royal. The example I used, was at the solarium bar, I ordered 3 goombay splashes, made by two different bartenders..first was good, and was coconut and pinappley in flavor, the 2nd was made with margarita mix and was terrible, and the third was so strong I had to ask three times for them to add juice to, just to make it drinkable. This was within an hr period.

My second con was the fact we missed cocoa cay stop. Seas were rough all week, lots and lots of movement, so 4 days at sea was a lot, and it was very sad that we missed that stop. I know this isnt the fault of Royal, but feel it did take away from my overall experience, and made it hard to say our trip was amazing.. Read more