Freedom, Grandeur and Independence: 3 Underrated Royal Caribbean Ships Worth Booking

Every price and rating below was pulled from each ship’s Cruise Critic page for this post. Cruise pricing moves week to week, so treat the dollar figures as a snapshot rather than a quote. Where a number in the video has moved since filming, this page uses the current one and says so.

Which Royal Caribbean ships are underrated in 2026?

Three of them, on the evidence. Freedom of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas and Independence of the Seas.

The pattern is the same across all three. Strong member reviews. Thousands of them. Full sailings. A fraction of the price of the newest ships in the fleet. Almost no coverage.

Icon of the Seas, for comparison, starts at $791 per person.

People already sail these three ships constantly. The reviews prove it. What they are missing is coverage.

Is Freedom of the Seas worth booking?

Yes, and the refurbishment is the reason.

Freedom entered service in 2006 and was the largest cruise ship in the world at launch. She carries up to 4,500 guests with 1,400 crew, a ratio of roughly three to one. She sails primarily out of Miami.

Royal Caribbean put $116 million into her in 2020. That work rebuilt the pool deck, adding the Lime and Coconut Bar, cabanas, in-pool loungers and the Splashaway Bay water park. It refreshed the adults-only Solarium. It added four dining venues: Giovanni’s Table, El Loco Fresh, Izumi and Playmakers Sports Bar and Arcade.

She has 1,894 staterooms. 880 of those have private balconies. Another 168 look onto the indoor Royal Promenade instead of the ocean. That promenade layout runs through the Voyager, Freedom, Oasis and Icon classes, so it reflects a design choice rather than an aging ship.

Cruise Critic’s editors rate her 4.0 out of 5 across 2,431 member reviews. She holds 21 Cruise Critic awards.

The reviews are not uniform. One guest rated her three stars and called the food “boring, bland, and uninspiring.” Another came straight off Wonder of the Seas and noticed the drop, writing that “there were no cold towels or water stations available” compared with other Royal Caribbean sailings. Both complaints sit against 2,431 reviews averaging 4.0.

She also runs two very different deployments. From Miami she sails Western, Eastern and Southern Caribbean routes, calling at Cozumel, Nassau, Labadee, Grand Cayman and Perfect Day CocoCay. From Southampton she runs Baltic itineraries into Norway, Copenhagen and the Netherlands.

At $218 per person against Icon’s $791, that is a wide gap for the same ocean.

Is Grandeur of the Seas too old to book?

She is the oldest ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet and the smallest. She entered service in 1996 and carries under 2,000 guests at double occupancy, against 4,500 on Freedom. She sails with 802 crew, a ratio near two and a half to one, the tightest of the three.

She also holds 46 Cruise Critic awards, more than either other ship here.

Everything on board runs off the Centrum, a multi-deck atrium spanning decks four through eight. Guest services, the shops and the elevators all sit within reach of it. Dining goes beyond the main dining room to Chops Grille, Giovanni’s Table, an Izumi venue, a Chef’s Table experience, Park Cafe and Ben and Jerry’s.

Two practical notes. Cabins run compact and the decor is dated, though storage beats many newer ships. If you get seasick, skip the forward-facing cabins, because a ship this size moves more in rough water.

The reviews carry one serious complaint. A guest titled her review “Retire Grandeur of the Seas” after a burst septic pipe filled her family’s hallway and forced them to sleep in the Schooner Bar overnight. She wrote that “Grandeur of the Seas needs to be retired.” That review is real, and it sits against 1,855 reviews averaging 4.0.

Her small size buys something the big ships cannot get. She docks in ports Icon and Oasis have to skip. Cruise Critic lists her sailing from Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Port Everglades, Colon, Cristobal, Cartagena and San Juan, on Southern Caribbean routes reaching Curacao, Cartagena and Aruba.

One note for casino players. On a ship this size the player pool is small, so your odds in a raffle or a hot-seat drawing tick up against a mega-ship floor. What that play earns you toward status is a separate question, and the four Club Royale changes that landed this year are covered in 4 Royal Caribbean Casino Changes That Cost You More.

Why is Grandeur more expensive than the newer ships?

Because her sailings run longer.

Grandeur starts at $512 per person, above both Freedom and Independence. Her Southern Caribbean itineraries run eight nights rather than the usual five or seven. Divide $512 across eight nights and you land near $64 a night. That math is ours, not a published Royal Caribbean figure.

Is Independence of the Seas a good ship for families?

She is the third Freedom-class ship, so she shares Freedom’s bones with a newer refurbishment on top. She entered service in 2008, held the largest-ship title for a few months, and carries 3,858 guests at double occupancy with 1,360 crew.

Her 2018 refit came out of Royal Caribbean’s $900 million Royal Amplified program. It added 107 cabins, bringing her to 1,918 staterooms across 38 categories, from interiors up to a four-bedroom Presidential Suite. It added the Observatorium escape room, a laser tag arena, two water slides, the Sky Climber jungle gym and a kids’ aqua park.

Not every addition stuck. The Sky Pad virtual reality trampoline is gone, and that space now hosts cornhole on sea days.

She carries 17 bars, including the Champagne Bar, the Ale and Anchor Pub, Vintages and Schooner Bar. There is a 220-square-foot movie screen on the pool deck. Cruise Critic calls her one of the ships with the largest followings in the fleet, and notes that British cruisers “have been begging for its return” whenever she leaves Southampton. She has four Cruise Critic awards. The following came from repeat cruisers rather than trophies.

Accessibility runs deeper here than on most of the fleet: 31 wheelchair-accessible cabins with roll-in showers, transfer lifts at a pool and a whirlpool, infrared assistive systems in the main theater and Studio B, and a daily newsletter in braille on request.

One gap worth naming. There are zero solo cabins on board. Cruising alone means paying a double-occupancy rate.

The honest criticism concerns the cabins. A guest who sailed her before and after the refit stayed in an inside cabin and wrote that “not much changed since the refit.” Cruise Critic’s editors say the same, flagging dated carpets and curtains. Another guest reported that “steak was undercooked when ordered medium, had to return, pork was overcooked, dry and tough.”

Where does Independence of the Seas sail from?

Miami for most of the year. Her summer homeport moves to Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey in 2026.

That matters if you live in the New York metro area. It turns a flight into a drive or a train ride. Cruise Critic notes the change draws more American cruisers than her Miami and Southampton deployments do.

Her itineraries cover more ground than either other ship here. Eastern routes reach San Juan, St. Thomas and Perfect Day CocoCay. Western routes take in Falmouth, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Some sailings run north to Bermuda and Canada, with New England calls at Boston and Portland, Maine.

Which of these three should you book?

The new ships are still worth booking. The point is narrower than that. Older does not mean worse on this fleet. Often it means cheaper for the same week in the same sea.