I decided to write this review because we booked this cruise based on price and had read reviews after we booked so based on what I read I thought this was not going to be a great vacation but it absolutely was! So if you booked already, relax and get ready to enjoy a wonderful trip!

That said, here are my thoughts on the cruise and a few tips no one seemed to mention here in recent reviews. We were a family of 5 in 2 adjoining staterooms with kids 2, 4 and 6 years old. This was our 2nd RC cruise and probably our 15th as a family. Cruising is our preferred vacation and have sailed with NCL, Carnival and Disney.

A quick compare of this RC to our most recent interactions with NCL, Carnival and Disney - Disney is in a different class; overall quality is much, much higher but so is price. This cruise is basically on par with NCL. I would say NCL has a better "older kid's camp" program but since NCL doesn't accept babies, RC does add value. The food quality on this cruise and availability was higher to me than Carnival but not significantly and again on par with NCL. We have never had "dine your time" work out on any cruise line that offered it so we had early seating but "dine your time" kept saying "reservations strongly recommended". Carnival has, by far the happiest employees; second only to Disney but much happier than this RC staff- this RC staff was not warm, and most did not go out of their way to make our cruise "extra special" but I would not say the staff on Freedom was terrible; but no where near Carnival. Read more