We took our family of 12 on an 8-day Christmas cruise on RCCL’s Freedom of the Seas that left out of Ft. Lauderdale on 12-23-17. We chose this cruise because most of the other Christmas cruises offered by other cruise lines mainly went to Mexican ports and to islands we have been to many times. We ranged in age from 71 to 11. My wife and I have been on 11 previous cruises. For my son’s family it was a first. For my daughter’s family, the third. We’ve cruised on RCCL twice before, Oceania three times, NCL four times and Costa and Azamara once each.

After this experience I can say that this will likely be our last cruise on Royal Caribbean. Overall I would rate the the cruise 4 out of 10. Here’s why....starting from what we felt was the worst to what we thought was the best:

HEALTH AND SANITATION 1/10 Read more