We we also on the Freedom the week of December 3-10. I have cruised exclusivly with RCI 4 times in the past and the service, food, entertainment and the ships were always excellent. "TOP NOTCH" However, this week was quite the opposite. I had convinced 13 people to go on this vacation with my family of 4, telling them that they would not be disappointed. Sadly, that was not the case. Due to the virus, the ongoing disinfecting throughout the week was enough to make you sick. Everything was soaking wet. They were spraying a liquid bleach solution on everything. Hallways, handrails, doors, elevator buttons etc... Some of us were traveling with children. Imaging how that was. Trying to keep you children from using the handrails when walking up and down stairs, or not to touch the elevator buttons. The entire week was spent telling out kids to not touch anything. It was awful. Having cruised with RCI in the past I had very high expectations. I expected the food to be great, the service to be high quality and the ship to be beautiful. We experienced none of that. The food was cold, the service was less that acceptable and the ship was in total disaray. The dinning room was only open for breakfast the first day. From then on you could only eat breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer Cafe. Imagine 3,900 passengers all trying to eat at roughly the same time. From a consumer standpoint, I see it as not getting what we paid for. All passengers were given a 20% discount on a future sailing. To me "THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH". We booked this trip over 15 months ago and saved for a long time, just for it to be ruined.

If you continued to follow this situation on RCI's website, the had posted a Freedom of the Seas important update for the following weeks sailing. The CDC forced RCI to keep the Freedom in port for extensive cleaning. RCI then gave passengers an option. They could cancel their trip with FULL REFUNDS and a 25% discount on their next booking within 12 months, plus 200 per person to change airline tickets. OR they were also given the option to still cruise on the modified 5 day sailing set to leave on Tuesday. If they opted to still cruise, RCI was REFUNFDING passengers 50% of the cost of their trip, PLUS 50% off a future booking within the next 12 months. Now that seems like a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Especially since the passengers that canceled their trips were given better future discounts than those of us who had to endure a week of less than acceptable conditions. They should have offered us the same option to cancel. I realize that the virus is not the fault of RCI, but I do feel that the way it was handled was very wrong. RCI should be ashamed for putting peoples health at risk without even giving them the option to make that decision on their own.

I have been very loyal to RCI in the past, but now I think it's time to try another cruise line. Maybe you should all do the same. I certainly hope that there are still some companies out there that still believe in customer satisfaction.

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