Royal Caribbean - Freedom of the Seas
Supporter
We just cruised Freedom the week before Easter. We had a balcony room which we loved. Overall the ship was clean and the staff was super friendly and helpful. A few things we wished was better. It is not that the food was necessarily bad but the choices in the main dining room are much smaller than the last time I cruised Royal in 2019. Maybe an after Covid thing?? Also, we tried my time dining, and it may be for some, but I will be going back to choosing my dining time in the future. Just wanted to share a quick thought on my experience as I know @YamKriegs mentioned it was one she has not cruised before.
Oh one more thing, if I don't have to I will not cruise out of Miami anymore. Way to busy and the time to get into the port took way to long.
We did My Time Dining once and haven't gone back to it since. I always stick with the late dining time now and if we don't want to go, we head to the buffet. Thanks for sharing! What was the itinerary? I need to get on Freedom because it's the only Freedom Class badge I don't have hahaha. If you haven't seen the badges in the app, that's how they get you.
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Going on this ship this July. Do I need to book specialty dining? It’s my 40th birthday while on cruise. From what I’ve seen via videos and such food in MDR and buffet looked decent. Don’t need anything too fancy for a 5 night cruise. Was hoping to avoid paying extra. This was such a reasonably priced cruise. Was able to snag 2 rooms for half what 1 would cost on DCL. Looking forward to having some space to spread out with the kids in their own room. This will be our first Royal cruise.
Going on this ship this July. Do I need to book specialty dining? It’s my 40th birthday while on cruise. From what I’ve seen via videos and such food ...
No, I would not say you have to book speciality dining, unless something looks special for your birthday! The food was good, just not as many options as I remember in the past. Every night was a theme. One night Italian, one Mexican, Seafood, and I can't remember the first and last one but all were good. My favorite appetizer was the French Onion soup and on Italian day the special meatballs. We often ordered an appetizer for each, plus one more to split. Seafood night, I had the shrimp dish and it was really good. For desserts, I stuck with the cobblers just because they are my favorite type of dessert.
It was just the two of us, but we thought our room was a good size, never stepping over each other. Have a great birthday cruise!
We did My Time Dining once and haven't gone back to it since. I always stick with the late dining time now and if we don't want to go, we head to the ...
It was 5 nights out of Miami with a stop at Coco Cay and then Cozumel. I really think My Time Dining is a bad name for it, because essentially they still want you to make reservations before you cruise for a time to eat. I thought it was like come when you are hungry. We went to guest services and there were easily able to add us to the early dining for a table for 2. We tend to eat early and snack late!
I also will add our trip, after CoCo Cay, while we slept the ship went back to Miami for a medical emergency. Most of the passengers slept through it, I just happened to wake up and notice how bright it was and then realized we were back around a city. I did not realize it Miami at the time. Still made it to Cozumel on time.