Freedom of the Seas should be re-named to Freedom-to-do-Whatever-You-Please-on-the-Seas. As an avid cruiser, this cruise joins the short lists of worst possible. Security was extremely lax, food safety was very poor and customer service was non-existent. I felt embarrassed to have recommended the sailing for our large family cruise.

The stench of weed coming from various balconies was pervasive at all hours of the day and night. It was so bad, there were 2 guests smoking joints inside a public bathroom near the main dining room. Security staff were nice enough when called, but were ultimiately ineffective. One of the guest services staff even explained that it would be our job to identify the culprit. Seriously? I paid all this money for a vacation on which I'm expected to be on the clock policing others. Staff seemed overwhelmed and ultimately unfazed by what appears to be a common practice aboard Freedom of the Seas.

As for food safety, it's clear that we are completely back to the pre-covid days of endless buffets. But for the love of all that is good, servers should be handling the serving utensils instead of the throngs of passengers (some of whom don't believe in the washy washy). We were at near capacity and it was a crowded windjammer. Can anyone say Norovirus, or how about Hep A??? We've overcome so much to get back to cruising, but clearly we haven't Learned much from the experience. RCCL could be doing a much better job of keeping everyone safe. Read more