MichiganMan4

Wanted to share this from our recent Freedom of the Seas trip. Not sure how much it has changed since the launch of the "new" program vs the "old" program.

Just off the 31Mar sailing of Freedom that stopped in St Maarten. TONS of construction around the island (no surprise really). The road to / from the port is down to one lane and gets very congested. It took us over 90 minutes (each way) to travel to Maho Beach from the port.

Due to the length of time to travel to Maho Beach we didn’t end up stopping in the shopppng district like we had wanted to.

In the end Maho Beach was very much worth the effort to get there.

I would highly encourge a excursion booked via RCCL due to this (since the boat would wait for you if delayed).

Safe travels and good luck.

We too were on the FOS 31Mar to 08Apr and concur with many parts of your review.

Cabin (Mid-ship Balcony on 7) – Perfect for what we needed. Décor a bit dated, but not bad. Had a room for kids and adjoining room for parents. PERFECT setup. Cabin was steward was good/nice.

Ship Condition – Was Good to OK, starting to show its age a bit but nothing that inhibited our cruise.

Activities – Great to Good. If you were bored on this ship it was your own fault. Family Ice Skating, Flow Riding, Rock Climbing, Mini-Golfing, Arcade time, Trivia. There was a ton to do … and we did it. Adult Activity highlights were the Adult Comedy Show and The Quest. A sign language interpreter was signing for the deaf members of the audience… I never knew sign-language / adult content could be so much fun. The Bingo is VERY EXPENSIVE and not huge prizes. Although a family tradition, probably won’t do it next trip.

Excursions – St. Kitts: Highly recommend the Catamaran Sail / Nevis Beach Getaway. It was a glorious day on the water/ beach.

St. Maarten: I’m glad we did the Maho Airplane Experience through RCCL. Traffic in and out of the port was down to one lane and was backed up 20-30 minutes each way. Arrived back in port with only 15 minutes tospare. If travelling on your own, plan AT LEAST 75 minutes each way. Once at the beach, it didn’t disappoint.

St. Juan: We did aself guided walking tour around Old San Juan. Plenty to do/see/shop and guided tours are plentiful at the exit off the pier.

Labadee: We’ve been to Castaway Cay via DCL and had high expectations – which it came close to meeting. We reserved a clamshell (for shade) and glad we did as shade was at a premium that day. The beach in front of the clamshells is VERY rocky (as others on this board have said). With younger kids, I’d go to Columbus Beach but arrive early for best spots. The Zipline was fun – glad we did it but not sure we’d do it again. Alpine Coaster was an unexpected thrill – I controlled the brake for my daughter and I and “opened it up”… had to slow down a couple of times it got so fast. Will definitely do that again. Food on the island was Fair. Nothing to write home about. Labadoozies on the other-hand, were AWESOME.

MDR Service (8pm) – Great. I cannot say enough about this. Jeannette our MDR server was the best server we’ve ever had. Nice, informative, expedient. I want her on every cruise I go on.

MDR Food – Quantity: Great (Tip - order 2 Aps), Quality: OK. The Soups come out VERY HOT. Shrimp Cocktail only has 3 pieces. Cuts of meat/chicken/lamb were plentiful. We didn't feel the need to spend hundreds on dollars on specialty restaurants.

Bar Service – Slow but not awful. The bar staff had Eeyore syndrome a lot ofthe time (even after tips).

Overall – This ended up being one of the best family vacations we’ve ever been on. The limited negatives we observed did not prevent us from enjoying this vacation one bit. As such we booked again for next Easter while on-board.

Side Notes:

• Get (and use) the Global Entry card for use on disembarkation (worth every penny). Felt like a celebrity and they routed you to the front of the queue. Saved at least 30 minutes. We were actually at the airport too early foran 11:30 am flight home. Would have madethe 8:30am flight if we had booked it.
  
• Windjammer breakfasts were insanely busy. We ended up getting the continental breakfast via room service and eating on the balcony and then snacking during the day. Just tipped the delivery person each timethey came.
  

If Matt Yee is playing the piano in Schooner, everyone will be involved!

Does anyone know if there a way to find out if Matt is still on FOS and if he'll be there thru April?

While it's more fun to watch the games with a crowd, wouldn't you be able to watch the games via a mobile device/iPad using the CBS/NCAA app (assuming you purchased the Internet package)? To that degree, could you plug your mobile device to watch on the TV in your stateroom (not sure if this is technologically possible)?

 

Also we were told that the Escape had damaged the other gangway and only one was available for everyone to use, so it was definitely crowded.

 

We were on the 17Jan sailing and the "broken gangway" excuse was used (along with Coast Guard inspection) as the cause of a multi hour boarding delay... Hard to believe that a month later this gangway issue is unresolved. Ok ... Not so hard to believe, more like "sad".

It's absolutely allowed and encouraged, as this exact situation is described in the terms and conditions of NCL's Bring Your Own Butler (BYOB) program. As for the other BYOB program... Sorry you're out of luck.

My question is in regards to the DSC, should he or she be allowed to share in that too? According to some on this forum it amounts to millions of dollars shared by the crew each week. :-)

Thanks for the review...

Did your family members staying in the connecting Balcony room have access to the Haven or just the ones staying in the FFPH?

Thank you to everyone for their responses.

Looks like the 2014 debacle could have been due to the (lack of the) tunnel. Regardless we are going to play it safe and may book a late afternoon flight out of FLL.

Looking at the 17Jan-24Jan 2016 sailing of the Getaway. A minor logistical concern is the fact that the Miami Marathon is the morning the ship returns to Port of Miami (24Jan).

Does anyone have prior experiences from prior years on the impact of the Miami Marathon and getting to MIA airport from the Port of Miami? In some cities, it can be a big deal (e.g. Chicago & New York), but would like to hear experiences with Miami. From my minimal research it appears that the race starts at 6am and it traverses the A1A onto Watson Island which is the Google Maps route to the airport. Searching has yielded lots of feedback about embarking on the day of the marathon, but not much on disembarkation.

I'm envisioning the "worst case scenario" is that we need to book a flight later in the afternoon instead of trying to rush to the airport for a late morning / noon flight, but wanted to solicit feedback as to if this was even an issue.

Hopefully, my minor concern is much ado about nothing... Thanks in advance for any guidance that can be provided.

Second the comment regarding passport for child. A small $$ investment that eliminates significant headaches in case of adverse travel event / emergency.

Interested in the responses as we are traveling in the same (h5) January 2016.

To the OP, out of curiosity what cabin are you in?

We could only get a cabin on 15 as 16 was sold out. Curious to others on their Haven experiences on 15th floor vs 16th floor.

With the recent history of lackluster RC sales wouldn't an appropriate Mother's Day promotion be ... Buy One Get One Get Half Off for your Mother**

** Mother Must Be Mother In Law, Only one bed in cabin - you get the floor, MIL gets unlimited drink package free - you can only drink water. balconies only have one chair, must escort MIL to all activities.

Full disclaimer - love my mother in law, just having fun with stereotypical profile.

Sounds like a typical RC promotion. :-)

Introductory tone... This is a curiousity question... Not a rant. :)

I was searching for a Grand Suite on Oasis for the 16Jan2016 Western Caribbean cruise and when I started my searching back in late 2014 and continuing to today, Grand Suite availability for this cruise has never opened up. Is it abnormal for an Oasis class ship to sell out of Grand Suites this far in advance? On other cruise lines I've been on, there was always at least one or two (albeit outrageously priced) moderate suites available. Just curious if I should hold out hope for future availability or find a different option.

Thanks!

We'll be in on the Disney Dream next spring with a large group (13). Our reservations are all linked and we are in adjoining rooms, but I'm assuming that dining is assigned by cabin # and not by group. How does one coordinate gettnig assigned a large table? Can this be done in advance or does it have to be done on the ship?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.