Smilyshel

For initial boarding and our last disbarment in San Juan we entered and left on deck four through a series of covered ramps but in all of the ports the gangway was off of deck one so just a little ramp down to the pier.

Thank you for this review. We are doing this same cruise in August! I am wondering if you were happy with the port you chose to skip and stay on the ship. We have excursions booked in Antigua and Barbados but trying to decide which other port we want to stay on board. Also, I saw someone mention a white party on freedom one night. Did they have that for your cruise?

 

 

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From what we heard people were swarmed in Antigua as soon as they got off the ship but it may be better if you can say you already have plans so we didn't really have any regrets not getting off although I had researched some pretty neat sounding places that we missed out on (Nelson's Dockyard).

St. Maarten was pretty destroyed with last years hurricane. Although I'm sure they could use the tourism money if I had to skip one more island it would probably be there.

I do not recall a white party being held unless it was in the promenade. I do remember reading about a 70's dance party but we didn't attend it. The dining room dress was two nights formal, one Caribbean and the rest casual. I submitted all of the cruise compasses to Royal Caribbean Blog . com and they have been posted if you wanted to check them out.

I hope you have a fabulous trip and if you think of any other questions I'd be happy to answer!

Saturday, June 9th – Puerto Rico & departure

We had been assigned number 9 for departure so our time off was scheduled for 8:15. We got up early to finalize packing and get some breakfast in the Windjammer around 7:00. Unlike yesterday the Windjammer was utter chaos! We tried to find a table before even getting our food and there were none to be found. Thankfully earlier in the week I had heard someone say that there was overflow seating in Chop’s grill so we snagged a spot and several people followed us.

Our meeting spot for departure was the Arcadia but we immediately ran into hordes of people everywhere. We quickly found out that there were problems with the local authorities and no one was being let off the ship. We grabbed a spot in a corner by the Schooner bar but the problem was compounded by people with sequential numbers after us arriving and not being able to go anywhere. Eventually (about 45 minutes later) they called all numbers 1-14 but there were so many people no one could move anywhere as more and more people tried to squeeze in off of the elevators. Finally we made it to the exit, gathered our luggage and met with customs. The taxi line was very quick and we were on our way to the airport.

We arrived at the airport a little before 10:00. Unfortunately, you can only check in for your flight four hours before and they had changed our departure time to 2:15 so we had to wait around. We eventually were allowed to go up to the ticket counter only to find out that we were supposed to have all of our luggage scanned by the USDA and stickered. Back out of line, ugh! TSA took a bit to get through as well so it was about 11:00 by the time we made it back in the terminal. I had spotted a Margaritaville in the airport a week prior during our arrival so I wanted that for lunch but it was a bit too early. San Juan airport doesn’t really have any plugs to charge devices so make sure everything is charged up before your arrival. We decided to eat around 12:30 and just be forewarned that the airport Margaritaville prices are ridiculous, $20 a burger and $5 for a soft drink! There weren’t really many other options available so we sucked it up.

We had a four hour flight up to Baltimore but before we were off the plane I could see we were already delayed an hour and 20 minutes on our next flight. As I started this trip report I cited my track record with flying and this was going to come back to haunt me. We suffered through at least three more delays due to weather, no flight crew and no pilot. Our original scheduled departure was for 8:10 and we did not leave the ground until after midnight. After waiting for our luggage, calling an Uber, and the drive home we walked through the front door at 2:45.

I hope you enjoyed my first cruise trip report, I had fun reliving all of our adventures. I know each person can have a very different experience on the same cruise and this was mine. Hopefully you picked up some small nugget of advice like I did reading some of my favorite reviews on Cruise Critic.

So in conclusion, would we do it again? Absolutely! Everyone had their fussy moments but those were heavily outweighed by the fun times, great food, new experiences, and stunning scenery we all were able to take in. Back to reality and starting to dream about our next vacation.

Friday, June 8th – Sea day

Breakfast in the Windjammer, we didn’t really know what to expect since everyone was on the ship but it wasn’t too terribly busy. Eric wanted to hit the casino today and we spent some time playing cards as a family in the open area of one of the decks. There was a 2 for $20 sale on port t-shirts on the pool deck so we all decided to go up and pick one out. It was a little crazy but we all managed to snag one we liked. Some more just hanging out and casino action for Eric and then the girls and I decided it was time for another ice cream break, some pizza for lunch and then catching the belly flop competition back up at the pool. The girls had been begging to go to the arcade so I thought it would be a good time to start packing up while they were there with dad.

It was sad to have the last dinner with our new friends in the main dining room. I had a repeat of my favorite dessert of the week, the crème brulèe. We also took a picture with our waiters, who were fantastic the entire trip.

We attended the farewell show at 9:00 in the Arcadia entitled Once Upon a Time. They combined modern songs with fairy tale costumes and settings. We sat on the very front row, it was a great show.

Tonight was the last formal night and it was also lobster tail night! One of the girls had baked Alaska for dessert, what a treat! We received our last towel animal and because it was a repeat of the ice show we just went to bed early.

Thursday, June 7th – Barbados

This is our last port stop of our cruise and thankfully our excursion didn’t start until 10:30. Given last night’s events we all slept in and just had a light breakfast of granola bars in the room. I again purchased directly from Viator a beach day and glass bottom boat and snorkeling with turtles and a ship wreck excursion ($86 for all four of us). Barbados is a very large port and we had quite a walk to find our ride. The bus was filled to capacity but our guide was funny and nice for the short trip. We all received our wristbands for the day and took a walk to the ship to immediately start our tour. The boat was clean and new looking but the glass bottom ended up being just a tiny window. Goggles and snorkels were passed out as well as inflatable vests. One plus was that the boat had a slide off the back. At our first stop we did indeed see turtles, rays and a ton of fish. They wanted us all to stay together as a group and because of this the water was very crowded. Back on the boat and we moved to a ship wreck site. Our girls got brave and tried out the slide. One guide offered and took my underwater camera down into the shipwreck for pictures. Once back on the boat the rum punch and juice for the girls started flowing for our return trip. A short trip back to where we started and we were handed drink cards and told we had use of the chairs and hammocks in Pirates Cove. Because there was a trip before us most of the chairs were already taken but they did set up more for us under a tent. The water here was clear and beautiful. I enjoyed another rum punch while Eric had a beer and the girls cokes. A vendor came by selling dresses and also offered her hair braiding services. Both of our girls decided they wanted it done and afterwards we caught the 2:30 packed bus back to port. We had another late lunch in the Windjammer.

Our guide got us back to the port around three and we returned to the Windjammer for some late lunch. Dinner was casual again and we were warned by the captain that their could be up to six foot waves tonight. We attended the 9:00 show of the comedian and juggler David Lucas. Our youngest complained that her tummy didn’t feel well and I gave her some Dramamine during the show. About and hour after we had all went to bed I heard and smelled the ominous sounds of our daughter throwing up. Upon turning on the light she had managed to hit her bunk, our bed, the divider drapes, dirty clothes, luggage and the entire living room floor. Our window does not open and there was no way we could clean this up on our own. Housekeeping and maintenance were thankfully quick to respond and I had remembered to pack a small can of both Lysol and air freshener so we made it through the night.

Our last stop of the day was at a waterfall that you could get in ($3 per person entrance fee). Our driver was none too happy that Eric and the girls got in and were now wet and wanted to get back in her van. Good grief – she is the one that brought us there! Before we got back in the van I purchased some homemade coconut bread and coconut cake for just $1 each that were a delicious snack on our return trip. Eric was also propositioned for some local weed which we politely declined. We now had about an hour return trip on the curvy hilly roads that we had previously navigated. After the coconut treats our girls were wore out and took a nap.

We were next given the option to rub volcanic mud on our bodies ($) but were told it would be excruciating if we had a sunburn so we all passed and decided to just do the sulfur spring tour. This was the beginning of the nickel and diming of fees of our trip. We had paid $189 for this excursion for the four of us already. The sulfur spring tour ran us $28 plus a tip for the guide for all of 15 minutes and boy did it stink, I would not recommend this stop. One more stop at a look out and then we went to our Tet Paul Stairway tour ($35 entrance fee + guide tip). This tour did last about 45 minutes and different fruit and flora were pointed out along the way with amazing views to boot.

Wednesday, June 6th – St. Lucia

We had another full day planned for St. Lucia so up early for breakfast in the Windjammer. The cruise terminal was a little more confusing to navigate than all of the previous ports but after asking several people we eventually found our company and a honeymooning couple met up with us for our excursion. We again purchased this tour through Viator and it was called a flexible Tet Paul Stairway tour. Our guide did inquire about what we would like to do and what time we would like to return to port. The couple wanted to be back around 2:30 and we were fine with that so we set off.

Our first stop was at a lookout that had vendor booths. We were immediately bombarded before we could even exit the van with merchants selling their wares. It made us all quite uncomfortable and they even went so far to put the jewelry on us that they were selling. We were glad to get back in the van and be on our way.

We drove a little while listening to our guide about some of the island’s history before stopping at a banana plantation. We got to learn about the process of growing bananas, were treated to a fresh banana each, samples of banana ketchup and banana bar-b-que sauce on plantain chips, and a homemade rum tasting. Our oldest purchased a banana flavored soft drink to take along for the ride.

Next we had a quite harrowing drive through the rain forest as Eric can attest since he was in the front seat on our driver side as they drive on the opposite side of the road than us in St. Lucia. I was in the back of the vehicle and had to hold on pretty tight to the grab bars while we navigated the twists and turns of the now dormant volcanoes. We were happy to have another stop at a lookout and met a nice gentlemen that gave us some history of the fishing village, sang us a Bob Marley song and showed us some of his homemade authentic souvenirs made from the jackfruit. One more stop at another lookout to see the view of the two Piton peaks and a college student made us an angel fish and grass hopper out of palm fronds.

Tonight’s dress suggestion was Caribbean and we all had our favorite dinner of the trip, chicken cordon bleu. After dinner we attended the ice skating show Freedom Ice. It was lively and impressive. We got our second towel animal – complete with goggles - tonight as well.

To get your pictures to appear within your post (rather than as an attachment), you will need to post them on a 3rd party photo hosting site (I use Shutterfly). Once uploaded to Shutterfly, you can right-click on a picture and copy it, then paste into your post. .

Thanks for the help, it worked! I had been using photo bucket and resizing and this was so much simpler!

My mom taught me that if you can't say something nice to not say anything at all. Just going to leave that there and go back to my report.

Tuesday, June 5th – Antigua

Eric begged for an off day so that we could actually relax on vacation so we didn’t even get off the ship today. We had a leisurely breakfast in the main Leonardo dining room. Although you could order off of a menu we found the smaller buffet they had put out to be sufficient. It was much less chaotic than the Windjammer.

Since the majority people were in port we decided to hit the pool for a while. They had the Peter Rabbit movie playing on the big screen and we had no problem finding prime deck chairs. Around 11 the ice cream machine opened and we all enjoyed a cool treat. For lunch we decided to check out Sorrento’s pizza and despite the bad reviews I had read it was tasty and a nice change of pace. After lunch we headed back up to play a round of putt putt then back to the room for naps – vacation is tiring! Our oldest wanted to try her hand at the rock wall, which she rocked out several times with no problem!

Enjoying this trip report a lot! We will be on this itinerary in July. Your tours seem to be very nice in seeing as much of the island in such a short time.

Do you have the cruise compasses? I would be curious in seeing them if possible

Barbara

I did save and scan them all as well as the kids compasses but they are too large to post here. I did submit them to another website that I can't type out the address here but if you search Royal Caribbean blog (just put all of the words together with a .com) they have been posted their under cruise compasses. Hope that helps!

Our day was only half over at this point. Some Caribbean music was turned on for our travels and various sites were pointed out along our travels. We stopped at a look out for one of the prettiest pictures of the cruise – a view of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea separated by St. Kitts. Next, it was on to try our hand at snorkeling at a ship wreck, and you guessed it, Peaches the monkey came right along. All of the gear we needed was provided by Javin. Our last stop of the day was at a secluded beach with a view of their sister island Nevis and another picnic this time including rum punch. Javin was very conscientious about our time and got us back to the cruise terminal with plenty of time to spare before the all aboard.

Back on the boat and time for showers, another fun dinner, and perhaps the best show of the cruise, the showman, El Gaucho. He did tricks, interacted with the audience, and was very funny.

We were next taken to a spot where some local vendors were set up with merchandise and drinks, including local beer, for only $2. We wondered around while Javin set up some ropes for us to be able to repel down to some lava rocks. One thing to note about St. Kitts is there are multiple people with trained monkeys all around the island. They will put their monkey on you and then demand a “donation,” just beware. I was suckered even though we had our own monkey on our tour. More photos down on the rocks and back up for our first of two picnic lunches that he provided with tasty bakery treats, fruit juices and a variety of empanadas.

Monday, June 4th – St. Kitts and Nevis

We were able to sleep in a tiny bit later as we weren’t meeting our tour guide until 9:00 and we knew more about what to expect when disembarking. Back to the Windjammer for breakfast and then off the boat. I was very excited about this excursion as I had read fabulous things about My Island Tours by Javin on both Cruise Critic and Travelocity and he did not disappoint. This was by far our favorite excursion of the entire trip. It was $300 for our family of four. We were paired with a family of five and one other couple for the tour. Javin himself as well as another young man he was training named Javen and of course Peaches the monkey greeted us and we were on our way. I brought my camera but Javin takes a ton of photos and posts them for free for you to be able to download after your trip on Shutterfly.

Our first stop was at an old cotton gin factory. We were given a quiz on some local plants by smelling them and told stories of Javin’s time as a youth playing in the factory. We also got to give Peaches a treat and pose for a picture. Our 8 year old is deathly afraid of animals so she avoided him the entire trip and would not pose for the photo.

Next stop was for a rain forest hike. Javin spoke about all of the different types of plants and had a very nice path made for our hike. Peaches of course came along and would visit with all of us along the way. Back to the van for some ice cold water.

Thanks for all the kind words so far! I had fun reliving the vacation while writing it out. Sorry I can't seem to figure out how to embed the images, they will only show up at links. :confused: If anyone has any tips let me know. I'll try and post another day worth later today. :cool:

Tonight was the first of the two formal nights in the dining room. We all had our showers and left early for some pictures before our 6:00 dinner seating. We all became more adventurous with both our dinner selections and the quantity ordered. I tried escargot for the first and last time of the cruise. We then headed to the Arcadia for the 8:30 showing of Marquee. I could really feel the boat moving every time we went to the Arcadia Theater so I learned to make sure I had on my sea sick patches. When we returned to our room for the night we had our first towel animal. Rolex outdid himself utilizing our daughter’s sunglasses and headphones. Off to bed because we have another early morning tomorrow.

Sunday, June 3rd - St. Maarten

Because we had an 8:30 tour and we didn’t know how long it would take us to get off the boat we got up early and headed to the Windjammer for breakfast. (Quick side note, on the way to breakfast each morning I liked to take a picture of the elevator floor each day to mark the day of the week and it made a nice divider on my camera roll to know when each days pictures begin). It was relatively easy to disembark and we quickly found our way through the cruise port terminal to find our scheduled double decker bus tour after stopping for the obligatory photo in front of the welcome sign.

I had purchased this tour directly through the Viator site again even though it was the same excursion that was offered directly from the boat – we paid $162 total. (When you first sign up for the Viator web site they will email you a 10% off discount code so I recommend researching all of your excursions before signing up and then purchasing them all in one transaction to save the most money). Because of this we were the first people on the bus and had our choice of all the seats. We chose the last row on the top because it was covered and several members of our family burn very easily which worked out great until both me and the 12 year old bonked our heads returning to our seats after the first stop. Everyone reminded us to duck at each subsequent stop which was quite comical but my head hurt for the next few days because of it. Our first stop was at a shop in a warehouse that gave us six different rum tastings (this could have contributed to my head bonking but not the 12 year olds!). We purchased a bottle of blue coconut Toppers Rhum which of course was confiscated upon returning to the ship and returned on the last day of the cruise. We rode around the island for a while and heard some of the history through the provided headphones. We were informed that the island suffered 95% destruction after last year’s hurricane and we could see many uninhabitable buildings and destroyed boats. Our second stop was at Mojo beach. Because we were so early in the morning we were only able to see a couple bi-planes come in. Our girls of course had to go down to the ocean and subsequently got filthy dirty and wet. Next stop was a gelato shop and a ride on a carousel. After that we had a quick stop at a high point look out where you could see how beautiful the water was. Our last stop of the day was at a cheese store (we were on the Dutch side of the island) where we sampled some Gouda cheese and were all given free cups of ice cream. Back at the terminal before heading back on the boat we stopped to get a Guavaberry Rum Punch. It was large and delicious for only $7. After I got mine it drew quite the crowd and many more were purchased. Back on the boat for a Windjammer lunch and time for some naps.

Boarding our boat, The Freedom of the Seas, went very smoothly. We already had our luggage tags attached so drop off was a breeze. We filled out our medical forms and showed our passports and were on board in about fifteen minutes. It was about 2:30 at this point so we checked out our room and headed to the windjammer for some lunch. Afterwards we explored the boat to start getting a feel for where things were. We headed back to the room for a while before the muster drill and half of our luggage was delivered. Unfortunately the ones with our dress clothes were not in the half delivered and we ended up having to go to dinner in our sweaty clothes. We did carry on our swim suits but next time I will make sure we have a change of clothes as well.

We located our assigned table in the Isaac dining room and were seated with a family from Arkansas that has two boys that are going into 9th and 12th grade. We hit it off immediately. We were also introduced to our head and assistant waiters, Cruz and Hector, whom we grew to love through the whole cruise. The food was wonderful. A photographer came around and insisted that I take a picture (in all of my grubbiness) with the newly met wife and Eric with the newly met husband, we all had a good laugh over it.

After dinner, we headed back to our room and met our steward, Rolex Booker. I had left him a box of bourbon balls and a note introducing ourselves as well as an advance tip which I had read could insure better service. The remainder of our luggage was delivered and the girls two bunk beds were pulled down from the ceiling at this point. I spent the next couple of hours unpacking and organizing our room while Eric and the girls went and checked out the pool for a little night time swimming. I was glad I had packed some extra hangers for all of the dress clothes. I had also purchased and packed an over the door shoe organizer which worked out nicely for everyone’s bathroom supplies. There were sufficient shelves, drawers, and hidden compartments for the four of our belongings. I’m a chronic over packer as evidenced by our 8 suitcases (four large, four carry on size). I brought along some strong magnetic hooks which held all of our hats and goggles nicely. I was also able to find some large dollar store clips that were great for hanging up wet swim suits and holding your beach towel to the chairs. Lastly, I recommend a pop up hamper (I got mine at the dollar store) to help contain all of the dirty laundry. It worked out well to empty it every other day into the empty luggage. We all took our nightly shower and everyone was pretty tired at this point so unfortunately we skipped the all aboard show because it didn’t come on until 10:15 and we had an early morning the next day.

On a side note we decided that since our girls are 12 and 8 that we would suck it up and share a room for the week since we didn’t plan on spending a tremendous amount of time in it. We had cabin 2350 that had an ocean view window. Below are some pictures of the room.

Love on the Beach, our Drinks, and Casa Bacardi entrance

Saturday, June 2nd - San Juan and boarding

We got up early to partake in the free hotel breakfast and take in a bit of San Juan before heading to the pier. We were able to cross the street and walk along the beach to take in the views and collect a few sea shells and sea glass and of course take some pictures. We headed back to the hotel to get packed up and called an Uber to go on a tour of Casa Bacardi. Our Uber driver didn’t speak any English but we managed.

We arrived too early as Casa Bacardi had changed their operating hours so we took a walk over to a local park where they were having little speed boat races. There was another beach and a playground that we hung out at for a while, and we had a view of one of the historic forts. We saw a few lizards and someone had spelled out LOVE in rocks on the beach which made for acute picture. We finally headed back to Casa Bacardi for our tour. I had pre-purchased our tour tickets online from Viator which ended up being quite a bit cheaper than buying them there that day. Included with the tour was a nice glass filled with your choice of beverage. Our girls got tropical punch and passion fruit juice and Eric and I got some sort of rum sunrise drink that was super tasty. We rode a tram around some of the property before going into the building for more history and a short movie about Bacardi. It was a nice tour and even better that it only ending up running us $25 for the four of us. After shopping for some souvenirs we called another Uber to take us back to the hotel to grab our luggage and on to the cruise ship port. Jose was a much better driver and prided himself on trying to learn English in his downtime. He told us that he hopes to be able to save up to buy his own boat one day and is one of the reasons he drives for Uber. He also owns his own car wash business with three employees that he was very proud of.

As mentioned before, we tried to save money where we could in this process as we quickly figured out that cruising is not cheap. While researching flights I found it would be cheaper to fly down on Delta ($805.60 total) and back on Southwest ($911.60 total). Because of this, I also applied for both of their credit cards to take advantage of new customer bonuses, so we received statement credits of $200 on our Delta flight and $131 ($200 minus the$69 annual fee) on Southwest bringing our airfare total for the four of us to$1386.20.

Both Eric and I applied for Capital One Venture cards which have the promotion of receiving a $500 statement credit if you spend $3000 in the first three months. We both took advantage of this and just paid our monthly bills through the cards and saved another $1000 in no time.

We flew to Puerto Rico on Friday, June 1st to start our vacation. No surprise given my track record with flying that we had multiple delays and got stuck in the Atlanta airport. We had a late lunch /early dinner in the airport at Carrabbas Italian Restaurant. We arrived in Puerto Rico about two hours after expected, around midnight. The taxi ride was a little scary and our hotel, Tres Palmas, did not seem to be situated in the best part of town. Regardless, we checked in and fell quickly to sleep. The hotel seemed a little run down but the beds were clean and the air conditioning was cool. There was some mold on the walls and the plugs were a little wonky, which seems like they would be relatively easy fixes. I booked Tres Palmas on booking dot com for a total of $147.15.

Hello! This is my trip report for our family vacationaboard the Freedom of the Seas cruise to the Southern Caribbean from June2-9. This is not a review but just a retelling of our trip as I hadpreviously learned so much from reading other people's experiences (especially@harryfat1 self-proclaimed Cheapo dad- check his out!).

We are a family of four - me, my husband Eric, and our two daughters,ages 12 and 8, and this was our first cruise. I am a compliance directorfor low income tax credit housing but previously an accountant so I like beingsuper organized. Eric is a personal injury attorney as well as the authorof the Community College Hero app series which is a modern day choose your ownadventure story. We are from Louisville, Kentucky known best for theKentucky Derby, the Louisville Slugger bats, bourbon, and Muhammad Ali amongother things. I like to save money where I can so I'll give you tips onhow we cut corners as well as post actual prices we paid for things to possiblyhelp you in planning your trip.

After some discussion in mid-January we decided to embark on our first cruise for our family vacation this year. We researched different cruise lines and itineraries and thought Royal Caribbean would be a good fit and I fell in love with the idea of a port intensive cruise as I was a little worried about getting sea sick. Once we decided on the cruise line, route, and travel dates we posted on the Cruise Compete website to see who could give us the best deal. We ended up receiving $275 on board credit for booking with an agency out of Florida,$225 more than if we had booked directly with Royal Caribbean. In the months that followed I read and absorbed anything I could about cruising, mostly on Cruise Critic, Royal Caribbean Blog, and Travelocity and Viator reviews. I also found a Facebook group and the Cruise Critic roll call for our sailing which was a nice way to share ideas, meet people and just get excited!