Well, this is my first negative review of Royal Caribbean- I am Emerald status on Royal Caribbean, been on about 18 cruises, including Disney, Norwegian and Celebrity as well as the most being on R/C. R/C has been my longtime favorite for many reasons however some of those reasons are going away quickly. This line has gone down in quality and service even since my last cruise in March 2016 prior to this one on the same ship! First of all, one of the things you look forward to on a cruise is GOOD food. Was not to be had in five days with the exception of the one night we paid to eat steak at CHOPS. It was excellent but $35 p/p is pretty steep when you have already paid for meals. If I had known every night in MDR was going to be awful I would have paid to do Chops and perhaps Giovanni's more than just the one night. It was supposed to be a special cruise, Freedom's last cruise out of Port Canaveral since it has been homed there for over 10 years since she was built! IT was nothing special, as a matter of fact, downright disappointing. It was like they didn't care at all and just wanted to be "DONE" and sail down to Ft. Lauderdale. The menu items at MDR were not desirable. They used to have shrimp cocktail on the appetizers every night, I never saw it this cruise. I think they had it the one night we ate at Chops. NO lobster night!! Really??? Was told only on 7 night cruises, not 5.

CABIN: Carpet and bedding very worn as well as the couch. This ship just had an overhaul a few years ago and they didn't bother to change out the furniture on a 10 year old ship? It needs updating badly. My bed was hard as a rock and has been on the past 3 cruises on this ship so I ordered a foam pad prior to sailing and was told it would be on my bed when I arrived...NOT so. When I asked about it, I was told they were sold out and didn't have any. Somehow they managed to take one from someone else's bed and I got one day two. NO more ice buckets? Sign says Ice avail upon request. I requested and was told they were OUT.. No buckets. WOW. What a way to treat your Emerald Status guest who might I mention was paying DOUBLE b/c I was single on this cruise. My parents were in the cabin next door. Their bed had a huge dip in it, you laid in a hole! The pillows were flat as pancakes. I had to use 3 stacked. The blanket they gave me was so worn out I would have used it for covering pipes in the winter or something. Very bad.

ENTERTAINMENT: I've seen the production shows so many times, they were the same. Haven't changed in 10 years, sad. Missed the first comedian but saw him on the TV and was not impressed. 2nd comedy night, farewell show, comedian SUCKED. Not good at all. They had one entertainment boy band acapella (sp) group that was pretty good but my parents being in their mid 70's couldn't relate to their songs. Would have been nice if they had done some older Motown to mix it up a bit. Their name was Edge Effect. Read more