abs711

Good Morning,

Just wanted to pop in and let you know all know what an amazing time we had on the Freedom. This was our second time on this ship and about 12th cruise overall. We felt the ship was in great condition. A couple patches of wear and tear but nothing drastic. The beds could have been a little more comfortable and the Pullman was awkward and on a slant.

The most impressive part of the trip was by far the service. I can not begin to tell you how amazing I found the service. I have been in the hospitality industry for twenty years with the last eleven being in a four diamond resort. I wish I could have taken some of the staff home with me. Our room steward Rey was amazing. He was always there when we needed something. In the mornings or evenings he would keep our 8 year entertained while we finished getting things together to leave the room. We received towel animals everyday. He kept our ice filled which was a request of ours. He was just amazing.

Our waitstaff in the restaurant I found to be nice, polite and mostly efficient. There was a delay most nights but at this point I almost expect it. We never waited to be seated in My Time Dining. I enjoyed having the same waitstaff every day even with My Time.

The food was okay. Not excellent, could have been hotter. But we never went hungry.

I found the buffet staff to be excellent. Although on a couple sea days food became scarce by 10:00 AM the staff was great. Anytime we decided we needed something someone was somehow there with it. Coffee almost gone, server with a refill. Daughter finished her juice, another would show up. We were checked on by officers daily, to make sure we had everything we needed. If we asked for something like sugar free syrup at the buffet they would find us to bring it to us. We didn't have to stand there waiting.

We did eat at the Steak house and Italian restaurant and both were very good. The Filet at chops was amazing. We did the bottled mimosa Galley brunch and we found it enjoyable. The mimosas were plentiful. Food ehh.. could have had more options.

The staff at the guest service desk was always friendly and helpful.

The kids club staff was extremely nice and understanding. Our daughter has a medical condition that requires a little extra attention and they were spot on. We never had a problem, and never felt like she was an inconvenience. Which is how NCL made her feel.

Even security was helpful! Our daughter can't go through scanners and each day the same woman was there and ready to "pat down" our daughter as quickly and discretely as possible.

Everyone on this ship seemed to have a can-do attitude. It was extremely enjoyable.

I was wondering this also. I will be on Freedom for Easter with my 8 year old. I bought a dozen pre-filled eggs that I will hide in our cabin.

This is a huge hot button for me. I work in a Four Diamond Resort and the amount of dogs we are seeing is obnoxious! I am also the parent of a child who is eligible for a service animal if I had a spare $20,000.00 lying around! I believe they should have to be licensed and I (as a manager in a business) should be aloud to ask for said license. It is not my business what service the dog provides but I should be a loud to see a license. Last week there was a yappy dog lounged out on one of our lobby couches. I assure you a service dog would not be lounging on furniture while out in public!

If it's an option, leaving the actual kids seems like the best idea!!! :')

Haha! That was my first thought also! Although I have gotten used to having my dd coming.

Also, don't forget kids meds (allergy, fever/headache, tummy troubles, etc.). We also pack in ziplock bags it's so much easier for kids. Then they don't have to unpack you can just grab it from the suitcase under the bed. I also bring an over the door shoe rack so that I can keep everyone's stuff organized. It's great for brushes, and toiletries and such. Oh and hand sanitzer and wipes for ports. You never know when you may not have running water for washy washy!

Have fun!

I was married while in port on St. Thomas 10 years ago. We had really wanted a toes in the sand ceremony which is why we chose to do it while in port. There is a huge risk as the possibility of missing a port is always out there. We chose St. Thomas since it is an actual dock and rarely missed (as compared to a port you need to tender). It also aloud us to choose our vendors. I did hire a wedding planner on the Island to orchestrate everything and she was amazing. She (Janelle from Island Bliss Weddings) picked us up at the ship and whisked us away to get our license. We then had a jitney come pick up our guests and we all met at Megan's Bay. It was an amazing experience and I would not have changed it for anything. It was cost effective for us and was exactly what we wanted.

This will be our first visit to St. Kitts and I would like to see as much of the Island as I can. It will be my husband and I along with our 7 year old daughter. Who do you recommend? I am surprised to see none offer a kids rate but I gather it is because a seat is a seat to the operators. I was also surprised to see that Annie's doesn't permit kids under 12. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I did ask my daughters Endo for a note listing all supplies. I did include her 15 C juice boxes for emergencies. I did reach out to the access desk to get clearance for her emergency juice boxes. I am also bringing some 0 carb juices for her. She is only 7 and would be miserable if all she had was water for a week. The juice boxes were the biggest thing for us though. I was petrified I was going to have to go into ports without her 15 C juices. They work the best for her when I need to get her sugar up.

Thanks again!

Meab - My apologies, just reread everything and have a couple questions.

My daughter will also be a couple days shy of 7. She is 50" tall. Was your 7 year old able to do everything?

Could you pay cash if you chose to do so? Or did they charge your credit card before arriving?

Thanks!

Thank you Meab!

Thanks Augusta78 - good point.

I was just reading there paperwork and it if we miss the port it seems like a lot of hoops to jump through. Also, if the weather is bad we can't cancel. Does anyone have any experience with this? Can I book at the port? Is it more $$?

Does anyone know if there is a huge difference between the Dolphin encounter or Dolphin Swim? My daughter is only 7 not sure if she would appreciate the swim. I did check heights and she is tall enough for it. Just not sure it's worth the extra money.

Bummer! I just updated my Costco card to a blue in hopes of getting this promo and it's not available :(

My vacation summary is back up. Still not showing Escape as a booking option but the lady at NCL says everything is fine, it's showing on hers. She did say "NCL would never change an itinerary without notifying all passengers first" That made me giggle.

My route is missing under Vacation Summary but is still under plan and book. We are going in October. I see it's not be offered either. Calling NCL now.

I am trying to decide between The Parking Doctors or Park 4 Cruise. Please share your opinion.

Check your e-mail address and phone numbers. We are cruising with friends of ours and when we went to print I noticed on both of our bookings the second person on the contract had the e-mail address and telephone number kicked out.

I also got married in port (St. Thomas). Not sure which Island's you are hitting but if your going to St. Thomas your BIL may want to consider it. Since it is a US Territory it was so easy. We had a wedding planner on the Island and she was amazing. Any family that wanted to be there but couldn't cruise with us flew into the island. It was a great experience. Part of choosing St. Thomas was that it is rarely missed unlike some other ports. But the above poster was correct you do assume some risk by not booking through the cruise line.

So, I have one cruise booked for November. I went in yesterday to pre-pay my gratuity since I read about the new increase and I realized I was locked into what I originally booked ($12.00 p.p. per day). As long as I pre-pay before my final payment is due. Most of us pre-pay anyway as to not have the additional charge on the ship. So what would be the point of cancelling they are still giving me what I contracted for.

Same goes with UBP. I booked when they where not charging Gratuity. That hasn't changed. Now if I had booked a few months later I would have been booking it knowing I had to pay the gratuity. Again, it would be what I committed to. I didn't need to accept that promo.

Now if the questions is will I book another, I am not sure it will depend on the deal given to me at the time of booking. As of now, the deal that I booked is still far below what comparable cruises are selling for on different lines. I get that change is sometime hard to take and I can see how it may impact people on future bookings, but I guess I don't see the point in cancelling since NCL hasn't really changed anything I or they originally committed to.

And for those who say well the gratuity went up in Specialty Restaurants keep in mind that was never guaranteed it wasn't in your cruise contract. Say you have a favorite restaurant in your home town. You go every week and order the same Filet Dinner. But this week you go and it is $5.00 more because the price of Beef has increased so much over the last couple weeks. Do you no longer go to that restaurant because they deliberately upped the price of the Filet by $5.00? Do you truly believe they did it just to upset you???

I guess I must be missing something?!?!

Thank you for the wonderful review.

Your review on Chankanaab National Park is exactly what we are looking for. I can not find online where to book. Can you please share with me which company you used to book the SCUBA?

As a Catering Manager for a Large Hotel let me share how I explain this to my clients:

The way these "packages" end up not being a complete loss is because 1 person may have 3 drinks and 1 person may have 20 drinks. When it's all said and done our hope is that it will even out and not be a complete loss for either party. For both parties it is a roll of the dice. I may loose money if everyone has 20 drinks or the group may loose money because everyone only had 4. It is a crap shoot on both sides. The alternative for my clients as it is for you is to pay as you go.

In my opinion it's nice the cruise lines even offer this. As they have the market once you step on the ship there is no need to give you a possible better option.

We cruise to St. Thomas with about 20 people. We where married on the Island and a couple people met us there. I did not go through the ship I hired a planner on the Island. We chose St. Thomas because they didn't have a residency requirement. We wouldn't change our wedding for anything.

That being said you do need to be prepared for disappointment. People who couldn't wait to go will all of a sudden not be able to go when it comes time to book. You do also have to be prepared for missing your port. That was another reason we went with St. Thomas it is rarely missed in February.

Best of luck to you!

I love this post... As we get on when you get off which means we are almost there!!!! Have a great time!

Glassman, If you need to leave so early I wouldn't bother. I believe the package starts at 9:30. 3 - 3 1/2 hours wouldn't be worth it financially in my opinion. We were docked overnight so I was able to go from 10-6.

JimAOk:

I was on Carnival but booked independently.

I went to the one on Paradise Island. I believe there is only one in the Bahamas.

Glassman:

Since there were 6 of us the Taxi was $4.00pp both ways. The Taxi's were super easy and convenient. As long as you leave an hour to get back to the ship you will be more then safe. I would say from the resort to the ship with a little shopping in the port it took us about 30 minutes.