Jump to content
  • We'd love for you to participate.

    Create an account

    Ask questions, share experiences and connect.

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now

FOS Eastern Caribbean Cruise


KeithnRita
"A midwest winter weather get away"

Overall Rating: Fair

TRIP INFO

Sail Date:01/02/2011
Destination:Caribbean - Eastern
Departed From:Port Canaveral
# of Nights: 7 Nights
Cabin Type: Inside
Sailed As: Couple

RATINGS

Food:<p>4</p>
Itinerary:Very Good
Cabin:Very Good
Entertainment:Fair
Overall Value:Good
Spa/Fitness: 
Embarkation: Very Good
Debarkation: Very Good
Staff/Service: Fair
Overall Rating: Fair

COMPLETE REVIEW

We began our road trip to port very early on the morning of Dec 28, 2010. We spent the night in Lake City, FL. The next day we drove on to the Holiday Inn Express in the gated Summer Bay Resort near Disney in Clermont, FL. We spent 2 days there visiting with Rita's son and his girlfriend. They live about 5 miles away. The resort was first class and our stay entitled us to all the amenities at the resort.

On New Year Eve we drove to the Solivita retirement community in Poinciana, FL and spent the night with cruise friends (Ellie and Frank) who would be cruising with us. We attended a NYE dinner and street dance with them at the facility.

On New Year afternoon we all drove over to the Radisson Hotel at Cape Canaveral and took advantage of the free cruise parking and shuttle service to the ship. The hotel is showing it's age, however it's still nice. We stayed there a few years ago when we cruised on the Zaandam.

Jan 2, 2011 or cruise day has arrived. We were able to get on the shuttle about 10:30 and 5 minutes later we were at Port Canaveral. We waited in line outside for maybe 15 minutes and then waited approximately 30 minutes after going thru security and cruise check in. Our rooms would not be available until 1:00 so the 4 of us did our usual tour of the ship and found our dining room table at Isaac's, on deck 4 aft. We had our standard buffet lunch at Windjammers, deck 11 and then went to our inside promenade stateroom, which we were pleased with. We liked our window overlooking the promenade and we liked our bed. The overall size was a little smaller than we are used to, however it was livable!

We are cutting this back to a short review since we had more dislikes than likes. We loved the ship, however it just holds to darn many passengers. It was crowded just about every where you went. We were surprised about the embarkation and disembarkation, considering the numbers, they went very well. RCI did a good job in this area. Being at Port Canaveral instead of FLL most certainly helped.

The service on the ship and the food were not good. The worse we've had on 19 previous cruises. We had one bar server tell us we need to add an extra tip to the drinks as the 15% is not enough! If they had to ask for more then they did not deserve more! Our waiter told Rita we could give him cash even if we choose to use the auto tipping. He was the worse waiter we've ever had! The before mentioned Windjammer buffet for breakfast was terrible. One morning I got a piece of bread that was so hard I could carry a cup on coffee on it like a tray. Lunch was a little better, except for the pre-manufactured burgers! They also had a buffet set up in the dining room for breakfast which was a little better. When we ordered off the menu the food came to us cold!

There were good and friendly servers aboard the ship, however with us they seemed to be the exception. The last couple days of the cruise some even brought up the end of cruise survey and how we should note their names and give them a good review. The only ones we praised for excellent service was in the Champaign Bar. We gave the two of them a cash tip on the last night. Our cabin steward, who did a great job for us and who we also gave an extra tip, said if we didn't mention her name she might get in trouble with her supervisor. This seemed odd to us. We blame the bad service on RCI and the management staff on the FOS more than we do their employees. We roll with the flow and still had a great time on this cruise. We realize we are living in an imperfect world.

We did attend one show and it was fantastic. It was a group doing Motown music and we even bought their double CD. We did not attend the comedian's show and we are glad of that. We watched some of his act on the tube and no one was laughing--mainly because he was not funny!

As far as the music on the ship we were disappointed on not having any ballroom music to dance to. We did enjoy Rick and Trish of the Zig-Zag band who played a lot of 50-60 rock. Each night when we entered the Pharaoh's place they would play our favorite waltz and we would dance to it alone on the huge dance floor. It was the only waltz they played. The band is definitely first class! Rick is one of the best electric guitar players we've ever seen.The four of us attended the rock and roll show at Pharaoh's on the last formal night and we were the two couples picked for the twist contest final. Ellie and Frank won. We all received key-chains and bingo T-shirts!? E & F also received genuine plastic gold metals!

We want to think E & F for taking us to Chops to celebrate my (Keith's) birthday. The food there was excellent. It should have been since they charge extra. Are they not intentionally serving below par steaks and other food in the dining room so more will choose to dine at the pay restaurants?

Our ports were Cocoa Cay, which we did not get off since it was to cold to swim; St Thomas, where we went shopping and then for good NY style pizza recommended by Rick of the Zig-Zag band; and St Martin, where we also shopped and make a donation in one of the casinos. One thing we did not like there, which we've never noticed before, is vendors trying to sells their wares when we stopped at an outdoor bar for a drink. We noticed they were also approaching folks at the beach. It reminded us of why we did not like our Mexican Riviera cruise.

One thing we did learn, these large ships are just not our cup of tea. Now we can say we tried one and did not like it. We got off the Freedom of the Seas Sunday about 8:30 AM (our time) and made it home about 11:30 PM. We decided to drive straight thru to out run the ice/snow storm in the south.

FOS1.jpg




User Feedback

Recommended Comments

Wow. Really sorry to hear of your bad time. I too was once approached by a waitress on Princess in the buffet DR and "told" how to fill out the survey. When I told her it was our decision she sort of gave me an mt'd head smile and moved on to the next table and did the same thing. However this was one person and it seems the bad sx. was shown by many. What a shame. thumbdown.gif Did you write RCI about this?

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks so much for the review. Whether it is good or bad, we are definitely glad that you shared with all of us. We understand about the BIG ships. That is one reason why we stick with Holland America quite a bit... they are smaller... not crowded... easy to get around... food is usually quite good... entertainment is good. We would like to try one of the Celebrity ships... but maybe one of their "smaller" ones.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

BTW I read on another cruise web site that per a recently posted readers poll the FOS ranked near the top for mega ships. In fact it was 1/10th of a point from the top. I would like to think that the problems you encountered have been corrected and then some! Its just too bad you had this woeful time. sad.gif

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the review, Keith...so sorry that all didn't go well. I really appreciate hearing the bad, along with the good. I don't think the really big ships are for me either. Love the picture!!!

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Keith, I just reread your review on the FOS, we will be cruising on her this coming October,

and this will be the Largest ship we sail on, we are going to try a bigger ship and see what it's like.

We prefer the size of a medium or smaller ship also. Thanks for the review!!

scalise12 :cool2:

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Keith, I just reread your review on the FOS, we will be cruising on her this coming October,

and this will be the Largest ship we sail on, we are going to try a bigger ship and see what it's like.

We prefer the size of a medium or smaller ship also. Thanks for the review!!

scalise12 :cool2:

We certainly hope you have a great cruise. In spite of the short coming we encountered we still had a great time. With what Larry posted there is no doubt that the larger ships are very popular.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Keith, I just reread your review on the FOS, we will be cruising on her this coming October,

and this will be the Largest ship we sail on, we are going to try a bigger ship and see what it's like.

We prefer the size of a medium or smaller ship also. Thanks for the review!!

scalise12 :cool2:

We certainly hope you have a great cruise. In spite of the short coming we encountered we still had a great time. With what Larry posted there is no doubt that the larger ships are very popular.

Indeed they are but of course they are not for everybody. We once cruised on the Tahitian (now Ocean) Princess which is small. It holds 700 passengers and is about only 32k tons and I can see the allure. Its more intimate. You see the same people more often and for us it had the best food. i wonder if its b/c its being prepared for so many less passengers than the mega ships. its laid back style was perfect for the cruise we were on, French Polynesia.

The downside is that you feel the ship more in rough seas so cabin selection is especially important on a ship of this size. smile.gif

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites



Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...