Royal Caribbean; Western Caribbean Cruise Review (May 2015)
For who’m is interested…
Route:
- Port Canaveral/Florida;
- Labadee/Haïti;
- Falmouth/Jamaica;
- Georgetown/Grand Cayman;
- San Miguel/Cozumel/Mexico;
- Port Canaveral/Florida.
With: Freedom of the Seas
Sailing: 26 April 2015 – 3 May 2015
Dutch Family (5 persons: 3 Adults & 2 Teenagers)
1 Outside Balcony cabin (2 persons) & 1 Inner cabin (3 persons)
Remark: This is personal review & recommendations. Based on personal experiences and opinions !
Cruise overall score: 6 minus (out of 10); barely satisfactorily.
Pros:
- Although balcony cabin are expensive the overall offering of facilities & entertainment makes it a fairly good value for the money. Yet do not put an adult in an inner cabin without a window (is ‘horror full’).
- A broad range of facilities on board that you fortunate do not have to pay for.
- Buffet restaurant with a fairly extensive selection of fairly to good edible food.
- Joyful, very friendly & helpful staff.
- Shows that are good & surprisingly very entertaining.
- Soda Package; after 2 refills (per day) you already have value for your money.
If you drink more than 5 beers & more than 2 soda’s per day: get the extended drink package!
Yet as I recall; alcohol packages can only be taken for all persons in a cabin (above 18).
- Our teens found quickly same aging other teens and had a great time. Just closing the ‘Disco’ for all below
18 years after 23:00 hrs. and the aggressive hunt by security for teens not accompanied by an adult after
01:00 hrs. (to order/guide them to their cabins) was (‘American style’): exaggerated.
- The ship itself.
Cons:
- Lots of drinks (for example a ‘good tasting’ coffee) & food only available at outrageous rip-off prices.
- All other stuff you can buy only at actually totally outrageous rip-off prices (although last day on the cruise is generally the discount day; but no guaranties it will be on your cruise).
- Automatically adding off 25 to 30% ‘gratitude on everything you order or buy on board,
way more than the 15% average you should be charged (which is still a lot).
- A broad range of facilities on board that you do have to pay (‘big bucks’) for.
- The restaurant food simple never comes near the promised & proclaimed high quality tasting experience.
The food was mostly under-cooked, 'flat'- or even bad tasting. On only some rare occasions you get
something that is fairly good prepared and well tasting.
They cannot even cook a ‘al dente’ spaghetti (was half cooked) and a tasty tomato sauce.
What can be more easier?!
My suggestion: fire the ‘cook’ and buy ‘Heinz spaghetti sauce Traditionale’.
In my opinion you would do everybody a favor.
A filet Mignon cost ye 20 bucks extra for a piece of meat any regular USA steak restaurant would be
ashamed to serve you (that small). Lobster (tail) 45 $ extra (and they cannot even make a descent cocktail
sauce to accompany that).
The Mushroom sauce is a concentrated (way to salty) gravy with added mushrooms.
The cook (as shown on the onboard TV channel: from India; not from Norway) cannot even make a well
tasting curry (and I personally prefer fresh prepared mild Thai curries and not the to my experience worse
or strange tasting Indian curries, that could influence my judgment).
Al lot of more (bad) examples in stock; but we think you get our opinion about the food.
So the restaurant (food) was for everybody in the party very disappointing, only the waiters were cheerfully and excellent. Good that they have a large Buffet restaurant. Although I would suggest that their ‘Sushi’ part would actually use some visible real (raw) fish like tuna or salmon instead of making every day the same & most smallest sushi’s from the cheapest ingredients available. New was also the experience: that a (warm) BBQ sauce could be that greasy.
- Timing of the repetition of the main shows at 21:00 hrs. Which you normally never can attend if you are
scheduled for the second dinner seating (which starts at 20:00 hrs.).
- Onboard booked excursion gives the worst value for the money. Outrageously expensive for just a barely glimpse of the topic you are actually going for. Yet some excursion you are obligated to book on board (for example visiting the mainland & Maya temples in Mexico; otherwise you never make it back on time and the boat will be gone). Yet if you arrange Jamaican excursions yourself; you get more for just a bit more than half the price on board (considering you still pay the ‘tourist’ price…).
- Labadee/Haiti is a secluded/private part & (‘custom made’) beaches of Royal Caribbean Cruises (just as the ‘Red’ Beach is on Jamaica). Well kept & nice looking; but you see nothing of the (real) Haiti. There are no nice snorkeling areas (reachable from the beach). But available are costly attractions and the limited parts where you are allowed to swim is for the main part the sea badly accessible due to an abundance of broken and razor sharp coral and rocks on the beach but mainly in the water. Good water shoes are a necessity. The nice & ‘real’ BBQ is only for ‘Gold’; ‘Silver’& ‘Crown & Anchor’ member on their own even more private part of the beach. The rest has to sit down in a big buffet beach hut ‘enjoying’ the pre-cooked ‘BBQ’ food buffet which is even less tasty as the food on board…
- The meet the Stingrays snorkeling & reef snorkeling excursion on Cayman was fun & attractive. Unfortunate a lot of shore time was wasted on the excursion assignment chaos on board and then again the long waiting at the pier. Resulting that both snorkeling parts (Stingray & Reef) where way to short (2 times 45 minutes).
In opposite to that the lunch & visit to some non-particular attractive Cayman beach was way too long and the lunch was very limited (its absolute irritating when one of your kids is absolutely not allowed to take a second burger if that is the only thing available that is more or less edible).
Our worst rip-off excursion was the Dolphin meet & greet on the Cayman Islands.
The meet & great with the Dolphins was actually nice. But You were not allowed to video or take pictures yourself. They did this for you, consequently the price of 1 photo started at 50,- USD (just for one!). A few photos and the CD (with the video) would set you back a whopping 150,-USD.
Considerable more than the high price you paid for the excursion in the first place.
- There is nothing recommendable in Falmouth. Just expensive probably by Caribbean Cruise Lines owned shops on the pier and more cheaper (after extensive bargaining) local shops after the pier. For the rest Falmouth is a dirty; chaotic & crowded not seeing worthy little town.
- We did not visit Cozumel but went straight from the pier into a by Royal Caribbean hired ferry to the mainland; to visit (after a bus trip) the Maya Ruins at Tulum. The Excursion was great, yet again too little time again at the actual ruins, barely some time to visit some shop at the ruins entrance (go for the shop with the fixed prices or end up in endless bargaining in the other shops). Then too long driving time to a too long lunch on an otherwise expensive beach (1 shot of cheap Tequila emptied your pocket for 10 bucks) and no shopping time on the mainland in Playa del Carmen (which has a large selection of attractive shops). But straight on the ‘last’ ferry back to the pier/boat. ‘Last’ ferry ?!: the ferry was hired by Royal Caribbean. So it would wait for their last passenger before returning to Cozumel (when booked onboard).
If you would go yourself to the mainland in Mexico consider that:
1. The regular ferry does not dock near the cruise ship.
2. Both ways you will have a long waiting queue to get on the ferry. It can take you 1 to 2 hrs. to get across.
Recommendable 1: A lot of the shops and taxi’s on shore will only accept cash (US) Dollars.
The ‘cheapest’ and easiest way to get cash is at the ATM’s on board.
Recommendable 2: Make sure if you agree to prices (for example your own excursion with ‘private’ driver). That the price you have bargained for is made absolute clear to the driver including what you have agree on; where to drive to and where and how long to wait. We had our own excellent excursion, yet the driver still tried to get more (cash) money as agreed.
Recommendable 3: when you buy on shore using USD cash, make sure beforehand that the seller/store is able to give your change in USD again. Local currency is mostly worthless to you.
- ‘Paste’. Its doing the cruise & Island visiting: ‘Japanese style’. It is going so fast, the time a shore is that limited; that you get barely some impressions of everything. Before you know it and have realized it: you have spent 2 whole days on board; visited 4 Island and are back in Port Canaveral summoned of the boat...
Captains advise (you should take seriously).
Occasionally the Captain gives advice over the speakers. Although most of them a delivered in an amusing tone/setting; you should take some of them seriously or get into a lot of trouble.
Some examples:
- On Jamaica there are more liberal on certain more ‘psychedelic’ substances. Yet the boat is sailing regarding USA law. So…: ‘Stay of the Grass’ & also leave the ‘happy brownies’ for what they are… ;-)
- The ship did leave the port/pier every day exact on time. One minute to late back and you will be waiving to ‘your’ leaving cruise ship (and have become a citizen of that country).
- Lobster are for a lot of people a treat to eat them. However becoming a well-cooked lobster will ruin your stay on board, use sufficient sun protection or go out of the sun from time to time. There is so much more on board.
But shameful is as the Captain advises to pack/drink lots of fluent’s during excursions (due to the ‘hot’ weather). Yet when the crew assigns you onboard to the actual excursion booked by you, they also offer you bottles of water. When you accept them; they happily charge you 3 (small water bottle) or 5 bucks (larger water bottle) for it.
So all considering; would we do it again ? NO !
However; should you do it ? Well; maybe you should (your choice)… !
Surprised, about this (and personal) recommendation (regarding all the Cons)?!
A lot was as expected. Just the food/restaurant was a big disappointment.
We knew the prices on board and of the excursions would be high,
although these rip-off high prices (& ‘gratitude’) were still a bad surprise.
This is not only the case at Royal Caribbean Cruises, but also common at the other liners.
Pirates and especially crooks have never left the Caribbean, they just sail bigger boats…
In our opinion: It is an experience you should do once.
The cruise ship offers plenty of positive & nice things and you get a glimpse of what the Caribbean is all about.
After this you should return to the Caribbean, and take your time for it.
Just keep out of the tourist traps the cruise ships go to… ;-)
JRE
May 2015
