Escaper4207

Boarding Day continued...again...

Freedom is laid out well and overall, a gorgeous ship. It's clean and evident that it is well cared for. We worked on getting oriented that first afternoon and spent it exploring, unpacking (luggage arrived by 3), registering our kids for Adventure Ocean, and preparing for dinner. We ate in the MDR 5 out of the 7 nights with the other 2 nights attending the Chefs dinner and Chops. The MDR was always good, sometimes great, and the service always amazing. In fact, our head waiter went so above and beyond, when he was working in the windjammer in the mornings, he would even save a table for us:-D He was so attentive to my kids and bent over backwards to make sure we were happy.

We chose to do My Time dining and this worked out very well for us. I made our reservations prior to boarding so that I could base them on the different port return times and I didn't ever find the need to change any of them. We were lucky enough to have the same awesome waiter all but 1 of the nights in the MDR. I would choose My Time Dining again.

After dinner the first night, we took the girls to Adventure Ocean for introduction night - the only night the club is only open from 8:30 - 10:00 in case anyone is curious. During sea days, it's open from 9-12, 2-5 and 7-10 with the option of Adventure Dining from 5 - 7pm (free with sign up) and late night from 10 - 2am (7.00 per hour). The schedule is similar on port days, but although we did not utilize it, my understanding was that you could check in your kids while you were at port as well. Our kids only went to the evening sessions, but they loved it and wanted to go every night so it was a win for us:-) The counselors seemed to make it really fun for the kids and were always pleasant and safety conscious.

We were still pretty exhausted after the day before, so we hit the sack early, all calling it quits by 11.

Next up...first full sea day!

It does add up quick without it, and it was nice for hubby to not have to think about the bill racking up:-)

I plan on writing a pretty lengthy review, but it'll be in spurts as I get re-aquainted to real life lol. I'll also try to post some cruise compasses this weekend:-)

Loved hearing you liked cabin 1400....that is our cabin for the July 3rd sailing and we cannot wait. We always get aft cabins and this is our first corner aft cabin.

You're going to love it:-) I will always be booking an aft cabin going forward!

Room 1400:

You should book this room right now. It. Is. Amazing. 1400 is a corner D1 category aft balcony that is the size of a junior suite at the price of a superior balcony. The location is perfect...1 floor below the pool deck, Windjammer, Chops and Giovannis Table; 2 floors below Adventure Ocean; 5 floors above the promenade. The room is huge for a cruise ship and the balcony is perfect. I would book this room again in a heartbeat and I'm hoping to fond similar rooms on any

Other ships we might venture on to.

Boarding Day continued:

Since we boarded right at 1, we were able to go directly to our room and marvel at its awesomeness (see above), drop off our carry on's and explore. Our first stop was the windjammer for a late lunch and while I wasn't super impressed, it wasn't bad and we picked up some drinks at the same time. We had ended up purchasing the premium package for my husband at the great deal of 310 including taxes and tips and for that price, it was totally worth it. I'm not as big of a drinker, so I skipped it, but did come very close to that amount. They had run a sale a couple weeks before our cruise that was supposed to be 20% off but I think there was some kind of glitch because it was closer to 40% off and when I went to book it for myself a week later during the 20% off sale, it was 380 with taxes and tips. Most of my drinks were between 12 and 14 with the service charge and taxes if that helps give an idea of the value of getting it

This will be my first review on cruise critic so here goes....:-)

Background: We're a family of 4 (35, 34, 9 and 6) and we had booked this sailing in March 2015. We did this for a few reasons, main one being price, second one being stateroom selection and third being the ability to pay over time since I stink at saving lol. This was actually my husband's third cruise, my second cruise, first on Royal for both of us, and first for our kiddos.

Originally we were going to fly from southwest Missouri, but after scouring for the best prices, we gave up and decided the 16+ hour drive couldn't be THAT bad haha. We had enough Disney points for 2 free nights at POP Century for the Friday and Saturday before the cruise and enough IHG hotel points for two free nights that we could use to split each way of the drive into 2 days. Ultimately, driving saved our family of 4 quite a bit, and it really wasn't bad at all - I'm writing this review on the last 6 hour leg of our journey.

And the journey begins...

We left on the Thursday prior to our cruise which also happened to be my girls' last half day of school...perfect! We stayed overnight in Chattanooga and left by 9 the next morning, headed to Orlando. We arrived at POP Century at around 6:30 and swe all ready had our Magic bands, so check in was super easy allowing us to go directly to our rooms and enjoy the resort amenities - pool, outdoor movie and most importantly, the pool bar. Since this is a cruise review and not a Disney review, I won't go into great detail but say that we did thoroughly enjoy staying on site and the 15+ hours we put in at the parks the next day. It was exhausting, but insanely fun and if you're stopping there, i highly recommend a character meal (we did Chef Mickey's this time) and dinner at Be Our Guest in Magic Kingdom. Also fastpasses...keep up on those fast passes.

Boarding Day!

We had every intention of leaving Orlando by 10 the next morning, but after such a long day, that didn't happen:-) We ended up arriving at port a little after 12, and were extremely pleased with port parking which we had reserved and paid for the week before. It certainly isn't the cheapest route (120.00 for the week) but with 2 small children who aren't that great at helping with luggage it was perfect! DH was able to drop us off at the door, the luggage with the porter and then literally park as all of this is on the bottom floor of the parking garage.

Check in was quick and painless and we were on the ship at 1:00.

Stateroom 1400:

To be continued...

Has anyone tried this yet?

Great review! Do you think it would be good for a family of 4 with 2 kids (9 and 6)?

I am booked for this, has anyone gone yet and can report back?

I'm curious too. I booked through resort for a day and everything is included (including the water park) but would love to hear more reviews...seems like a great deal compared to the hilton

I am curious about this as well...it looks like we will have free drinks and I would like to take advantage of them:)

We just purchased our day passes for Jewel Runaway Bay ai through resort for a day and I was hoping to get some good feedback on that excursion:) We will have our 9 & 6 year old with us and the new water park was super tempting...has anyone done this? TIA!

Following along as well! We sail on May 22, 2016:)

We were fortunate enough to do the Chef's Table on the Dawn in Nov 2009. It was wonderful... And at the time $75. It has now gotten very popular and we have been unsuccessful in our attempt to do the Chef's Table again. Last September our friends were in a Suite and boarded before we did. They tried to make reservations immediately upon embarking...and the Chef's Table was full already!

Bummer...we were really hoping to do this on our October Jewel cruise! We are still going to try our hardest:) Anyone that has done it on a 7 night, do you know what night it is?

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