Went on the Southern Caribbean Cruise June 30, 2018 for 1 week, went to Curacao, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba with start and finish at Puerto Rico. Loved the itinerary, all the places were great and the excursions were wonderful.
The ship had some issues...first let me say I have cruised several times before and have cruised on Royal Caribbean in the past and was super impressed, it is why we chose to come back to Royal. Freedom of the Seas is a little dated with decor and needs some maintenance like painting, replacing broken items, etc. Our room attendant was not very attentive, it seemed he was burned out. He would say hello and was friendly. I am used to towel animals on every cruise every night and this one I had to leave a note asking to have some animals....that being said we only had 2 :( Our bed was really hard and by the end of the ship we were really sore from sleeping in it. Balcony was wonderful to sit on and enjoy the view, have breakfast, etc. The only problem on the balcony is if you sit in the chairs it is very difficult to see as the banister is right in line sight. You have to look above it or below it which is hard to do if you are say between 5'5' and 6 feet due to the banister. We had a spacious ocean view balcony room, 8688.
RESERVATIONS: Our Royal Caribbean reservationist had made promises that didn't happen i.e. chocolate covered strawberries will be in the room upon arrival, they weren't and guest services said they weren't put in the computer but they were able to get us some anyways.
San Juan is still recovering from hurricane damage, quite sad actually because some people still have no water and no electricity. Tourism is a big support for Puerto Rico though so I encourage people to go because it is beautiful there.