HesterMofet

Are there discounts for Florida residents on every sailing out of the state, or do you have to inquire as to which ones have the discount? Looking to retire there, so wondering about the perks through RCCI.

Avis beat Budget hands down for moving people through the check in/check out line and getting us out the door to the shuttle. At Orlando Airport Budget we always had to wait in a long line and when we got to the Budget in Cape Canaveral, we always had to wait in a long line to check back in and then wait until nearly 11 for a shuttle. Avis moved us through the lines (and there were lines) much faster at both the airport and in Canaveral and had us on a shuttle and at the port by 10:15.

I have found this before on their website but for some reason am having difficulty finding it. Does anyone know how long before the cruise you need to do your tux reservation? I know you can get them right on the ship but we have one person in our group that is rather large so I suggested they do theirs in advance to insure his size is available. Seems to me it had to be done at least two weeks before?

I would do it ASAP since you don't pay for it until you board. I went to the page and was happy to see that they ask for measurements now. When I went there before, they only had stock sizes and my husband did not fit what they had. It sounds like they have done some updating of that feature, but I wouldn't wait.

Not the same, but our first cruise was a 7 night on Freedom that ended on Easter. So it was smack dab in the middle of the spring break season. They even announced at the Captain's Welcome that there were 1200+ kids onboard. We hardly noticed them. The only evidence we saw of bad behavior was someone who scratched the name Kourtney into one of the elevators on the inside door. I was scared that we were going to be overrun because it was our first cruise and I am not a fan of misbehaving children. I was pleasantly surprised.

I agree with others who said that spring break is so spread out now, I don't think one week is going to be overrun with little ones.

The Ship had a lot of people our age. There were also some older crowd.

NO the ship did not close up early. There were plenty of things to do. Dancing and Gambling late night, Pizza til 1:00am, hot tubs open late. There was live band late by the Martini bar. There was a guitarist singing & playing in multiple places. Hope you have a good a time as we did.

Thanks so much!

Thank you for your review.

We are Royal balcony cruisers who would like to try Celebrity.

A couple of questions, if you don't mind:

Did you find a lot of people your (our) age on the cruise?

Does the ship "shut down" very early? Other cruisers have said that there is not a lot of late night nightlife on Celebrity compared to Royal. Not a real late night person, but there were times we enjoyed listening to the guitar player/singer in the pub until midnight or one.

Thanks so much!

We had the same thing happen on one of our cruises. The OBC promised never showed up. We contacted them when we got home and they credited our card, but it was a pain because at the guest services desk they acted like we were liars. Oh well, lesson learned. I will always ask for documentation of OBC from now on.

I was "victim" on stage about 10 years ago. I would like to see him again.

He was on our Freedom cruise last year. Very different from the usual shows and lots and lots of fun!

At the risk of sounding like a cheerleaders, I've been on there cruises and they were all of FOS. It was easy for us to get to with the Orlando airport nearby and the ship is so big you really can't do everything on one cruise!

I will say that now since we have been on her three times, we are ready to move on to a different ship. Which one will depend on itinerary and home port.

Every time I think I might want to try a Carnival cruise, something happens to convince me not to do so.

This latest time was while we were sitting in Fishlips at Port Canaveral and a Carnival ship slides by with blaring music and, wait for it, a guy yelling "Everybody Twerk!"

We've done both the Lafite tasting in the MDR and another tasting in Vintages. Both were excellent for new wine fans. I liked how they taught you *how* to taste the wine and enjoy the food with it.

However, if you go to Cozumel, the best liquor tasting we have done yet is the Jose Cuervo Experience. :D

Liked your review but you said nothing about the ship. We have been on her 4 times & think she is a GREAT ship.

 

george35

George, as you can see by my signature, the only three cruises I have been on were on Freedom, so of course, I think she's wonderful!

Beautiful, big, clean, lots of amenities and then only time she ever felt crowded was when I was trying to get an elevator after muster, a show or coming back on a tender.

The difference between her class and Oasis is that there are lots of places to walk out and see the water from the decks. I love that. Being able to go to the bow of the ship at night to watch the stars is glorious!

Please feel free to ask any questions!

Western 8/16 to 08/23

I'm just going to hit some highlights here! We are a couple in our 50s who love both going to ports and relaxing on the ship.

Pre-Cruise Hotel: We stayed at Four Points by Sheraton in Cocoa Beach and it was awesome. A little "boutique" type of chain hotel with a restaurant that had a large fish tank with a shark in it. There is also the Cocoa Beach Surf Company (selling beach stuff, surfboards, etc.) and a Starbucks. Across the driveway is another part of the CBSC that rents surfboards, chairs and umbrellas for the beach and gives surfing lessons. The pool is a little weird because it is at the edge of the parking garage, but it worked for us. We went to Fishlips on Saturday to watch the Carnival and Disney ships depart. Carnival was having a sail away party that included the host yelling, "I wanna see everyone twerking!" Further proof why we choose RCCL.

Embarcation: Terminal One makes this a breeze. We got to the Avis around 9:45 and expected to wait until at least 11 for a ride to the port, but they had a shuttle ready to go at 10. We got to the port about 10:15 and got all checked in. They started boarding at 11 and by 11:15 we were sitting by the pool having a drink. Rooms were ready right at one.

Dining: The first night we had a great server, but the second night they traded him out for someone else (due to number of tables each had) and he was a low talker who seemed very unenthused with his job. We ate in the main dining room Sunday through Wednesday. On Thursday for our anniversary, we went to Chops. Many reviews have stated they thought the food quality had gone down, but we did not find that to be true. Friday and Saturday we ate in the Windjammer and found it to be more than adequate. Very good.

Service: Overall, very good except for the above mentioned dining room waiter. Our cabin attendant, Rodney from India, was the best yet! I called him "stealth" because he always knew when we were out of our room and was finished before we returned. The bartenders and bar waiters were excellent.

Entertainment: We had been on Freedom before so we had seen many of the shows. The ice show is definitely a not-miss event. The skaters were wonderful. Also, we hung out at the Bull and Bear and listened to Ian Millar three nights. He is an excellent folk singer/guitarist.

Ports: At Labadee we rented a beach bed, which was very much worth the money. We wanted to have one relaxing beach day and that did it! The swimming was a lot of fun as well. We stayed on the ship at Jamaica because our excursion stunk last time. I did not pan it as I should have done because it seemed like they were trying, but we decided since we had no desire to see Dunn's River Falls, we'd take a "sea day" and read in the Solarium. In Grand Cayman, we did the tour of the turtle farm and the rays. Both were lots of fun and really educational. I was a little scared of the rays at first (Steve Irwin!) but the explained to us that the rays here are much more docile. Some were very friendly, almost like dogs. They would gently take the food from your hand. We also went to Hell and got our passports stamped. Goofy fun. In Cozumel, we did the Jose Cuervo Tequila Experience and it was also a lot of fun. You also get to see a small art museum and store. This is at Discover Mexico, which has miniatures of a lot of Mexican historical sites and buildings. However, do not drink a yard of ice blue margarita before attending this excursion. Woo! :) You taste three different kinds of tequila, learn which is good for sipping and which is good for mixing, plus a margarita. We also saw a show where guys in native costume climbed up a 50 ft. tower and sort of "flew" down on ropes.

Disembarkation: Very smooth, once we figured out where to go. Our tag number was supposed to be for the Arcadia Theatre, but it also said that C&A members could wait in the Star Lounge, so that's where we went. However, the sign on the Star Lounge said it was not for the lowly gold members we are. I mentioned this to the loyalty ambassador who was standing there because we had to then schlep our stuff elsewhere. They called our number and we were out the door within minutes. The new way to pick up your luggage is much better than the carousels. It is sitting behind a sign with your number on it and you just pick it up and head for the immigration line.

Post-cruise: We got a limo to the Hyatt Regency at MCO. Definitely worth not having to take a shuttle to get a rental and drive a rental to a hotel and then the rental to the airport in the morning since we were leaving on Monday. Very nice hotel, relaxing. Has both views of the runways and the inside of the airport. Very nice pool outside on floor 6.

Casey Peltier started on Freedom today. Jamie Fentiman confirmed this onboard Saturday night.

Much appreciated folks! Thanks!

My set sail pass does not say if it's terminal 1 or terminal 10.

I am sure the rental car shuttle will take us where we need to go, but I am just curious.

Thanks. :)

Two rules about the dining room and kids:

1) Behave

2) Be covered and clean - No tank tops with teen boy armpit hair hanging out and no girls with booty shorts.

Otherwise, i don't care. The way you dress does not impact on my enjoyment of my cruise. I'm not there to see or be seen by anyone but my traveling companions.

For the record, my husband hates suits so he does jeans/khakis and polos on casual night and dress pants, dress shirt and a tie on formal night. No one has ever looked askance at him for not wearing a suit. I wear sundresses on casual night and nicer dresses on formal night, but no gowns. Sometimes we stay dressed up if there is a show, otherwise we change back into casual after pictures.

I hope seaotter's experience means they have fixed the place for the better. We did this excursion on October of 2013 and found the place to be very run down, including spots where it felt as if the plastic planks were going to give way.

After about an hour another snorkel trip came by so the water was crowded. With so many people and it being right next to the helmet dive, the snorkeling was so so.

We got out there about 9:30 but by 10:45 it became crowded and we were ready to go. The whole thing about a boat coming by every hour is bunk. We got there at 9:30 and did not see another boat to go back on until 12:15.

The boat ride back was awful as well. It was choppy and the "captain" was going so fast the front of the boat was coming out of the water. The seats were around the edge of the boat and there were no safety features. When he went over a particular large wave, this poor four year old kid went flying into the wooden bench across from him and started crying. Everyone was hanging on for dear life!

Thanks for the info! I do have the right number. I swear I searched for it, but RCI's search engine leaves a lot to be desired.

Again, thanks!

To reach the ship by phone:

Dial 888-724-7447

My mom is elderly and we like her to have the number in case something happens.

I know there is a credit card charge, but I just want to be sure I have the right number. I can't seem to find it again on the RCI website.

Thanks!

It depends on how important it is for you to get a certain date and time for your dinners in specialty restaurants. We wanted a certain time since it was our anniversary, so that we booked ahead.

I would also book any shore excursions that you can't live without doing. I mean, if it doesn't matter, you can wait until you board, but if it's really something you want to do, grab it while you can. Also in making that decision, look to see in the shore ex brochure how many times it is offered at that port. Labadee offers jet skiing all day, but some other excursions are only offered once that day because of time constraints.

We're getting the pop package early so we don't have to wait, but are going to look when we get on so we can see if there are any deals on the packages that include liquor. I have heard that they sometimes run a special BOGO 50% off and that is the only way we would buy one. Probably. :)

Casey is on vacation now, and will be returning to Freedom on August 16 for 4 months. Jamie Fentiman is covering Casey's break from June 7 till Aug 16

I was just about to write to you because on the chart you have him as coming back on the 17th. I'm on the 8/16 sailing and I was hoping he wasn't going to be helicoptered in on a sea day. (Just kidding)

If you scroll through this thread, it has the compasses for Western from 3-15-2015.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2182750&highlight=freedom

I had been looking for them myself. Hope this helps!:)

We like Four Points by Sheraton. We usually rent a car and drive from Orlando on Thursday or Friday and spend a couple of days in Cocoa Beach. Four Points has a restaurant, a Starbucks and their own little beach gear shop. It's also right across from Ron Jons. The only negative: not good if you are a pool person. The pool is in the parking garage. Yeah, you read that right.