Robert Hagea, our head waiter, and Joseph De Bourgh, our stateroom attendant both rendered exceptional service and were committed to meeting our every need. Our only complaint regarding the stateroom was that the phone button for Housekeeping only caused an Error message to appear when pushed. The food and beverage on the Freedom was one of the best we had experienced from many of the ships we had sailed previously. Coffee seemed to be a problem on them; getting a flavorful and hot cup on other cruises was almost impossible. The coffee on the Freedom was a good medium strength at all times and also piping hot. Our food in Leonardo's was always delicious and prepared properly. A good selection was offered every evening. We were confused, though, about the dinner time the first night as our Sea Pass card had one time on it for the first seating, but the Compass had another. The lemonade, however, was awful, and a kahlua and cream I ordered was too thick and then I found out they were using the vanilla ice cream mix instead of half and half. Then at the Arcadia theater they were trying to sell popcorn for $2 a box, when you can go to Sorrento's and get a whole pizza for free???

Some of the entertainment was not what we had come to expect from Royal. Don Barnhart, the first comedian, was not funny at all. Scott Alexander and Kivi Rogers, however, were hilarious. Peter and Ildiko were also very entertaining with their gymnastics and aerial work. The Freedom of the Seas dancers and singers were pretty good.

We didn't care for the bands or DJs. Initiative, the island music band, left much to be desired and did not play very long or as many soca or reggae tunes as we expected. For a cruise line with Caribbean as their middle name it was disheartening to not have good Caribbean music onboard, especially on the pool deck. Venues that had music for dancing could not accommodate dancers. The Latin music was played at the Boleros lounge which had a small sliver of a dance area, instead of a venue with a nice big dance floor like the Star lounge or the Olive or Twist. Since the cruise originated in San Juan there was a large number of Hispanics wanting to enjoy the Latin music, but Boleros had no room for everyone, and people were packed all over the decks above and below. DJ Tecoy in the Olive or Twist lounge would play songs that no one seemed to want to dance to. And he would turn up the bass very loud and make it uncomfortable. Speaking of Olive or Twist, the windows of the Viking Crown, where the main draw is the beautiful view, were dirty and needed cleaning. The cruise director's staff was not good at being the MC for the various events and games. Nicola Cottrell and her partner Geoff were terrible and looked like they threw things together at the last minute. Also, the music in a lot of places was way too loud: On Air, the Star Lounge, the fitness center, even around the pool deck. Read more