My View: A Rainy Spring Break on Freedom of the Seas

Just 6 days ago, we returned from another great adventure of 8 nights spent in the Eastern Caribbean, while sailing on Freedom of the Seas. It seems like a distant memory, as this week has been crazy! From rush hour to unpaid overtime, I feel like I need to embark on another ship soon (no, the school system does not have ‘overtime’ in the dictionary). At least I LOVE my job and I am not really complaining, as I have only 9 weeks to go! :D Oasis of the Seas and Summer are around the corner...

This will be more of a trip report with many pictures of our Eastern Caribbean voyage. I don’t plan on being very wordy, as I just don’t have the time, so:

1. I will try to post tips in red so that any skim-readers can just catch the nitty gritty.

2. I will do a summary at the end of the pros and cons.

3. I do not have many ship pictures this time, as I have many in my previous reviews of Freedom. Just click on them in my signature if you want to see more ship pictures.

4. I will do my best to report on one day of our cruise, every day this week. That means we can "disembark" this review next Sunday.

Come sail away with me.... As always, it is very hard to delete that countdown clock, but it is inevitable as it now says:

Day 1: Fort Lauderdale

We were notified (I think the day before our cruise) that there would be a delay in boarding due to annual Coast Guard inspections. I quickly researched Cruise Critic. Alas, the news was not good. Apparently, a Coast Guard inspection can really delay a ship - as I read here about Majesty about a month ago. We debated whether we should show up really early to at least get a seat and wait, or if we should wait until about 1:30 p.m. and hope to avoid standing outside in the sun.

We opted to take our chances and went early. We parked at Park ’n’ Go.

(Since tips don't post in red on the app, I will just put them in a separate paragraph)...

TIP: If you pay online in advance, you can save additional money. We paid around $80 for the 8 days by paying in advance.

TIP: Since Freedom is at terminal 29, you have to take a shuttle either way (port shuttle from the parking garage or shuttle from a private parking area).

We have used Park ’n’ Go quite a few times now and we are very impressed. The first time, there was quite a delay to get a shuttle back after our cruise. However, this seemed to be an unusual occurrence, since most CC reviews are very positive, and our consequent experiences have been great! They even give you a couple of bottles of water when you return from the ship, to send you off on your trip back home. Nice touch!

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When we got to the port, we sailed through security and were in the downstairs waiting area for a short while. The announcement was made that embarkation was going to be delayed, and they moved passengers to an upstairs waiting area, as the seating was full downstairs. They moved us according to levels and the upstairs seating was getting full quickly too.

Our timeline:

~9:50: Arrived at Park & Go

10:03 Left Park ’n’ Go

10:12 First glimpse of the ship at terminal 29

10:17 Dropped off luggage

10:37 Done with security and check in - waiting downstairs

10:54 Moved upstairs to wait

11:01 ANNOUNCEMENT: Ship is cleared!!!

11:09 Emerald is called to embark

11:26 Mai Tai in the Windjammer

Overall, it did not feel like we waited long. Now, I know it is not the normal flow of things during the Coast Guard inspection, but I am glad we took a chance. Even if we had to wait 3 hours at the terminal, it would have been better than waiting at the hotel, second-guessing our decision. The life of a Type A Perfectionist...It is not easy :D

Let me backtrack a bit for pictures… the first glimpse of the ship:

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TIP: We always take a picture of our luggage when we drop it off. That way you have a picture to show guest services, in case your luggage gets misplaced:

TIP: I also memorize the name and number of the porter whom I tip. I learned this from a previous bad experience, but that is a story for another day. :)

I got the VOOM Surf and Stream package when it was on sale before the cruise. You get a card with your login code when you pick up your seapass at check in.

Overall, I did not have much trouble with the internet. It actually worked better than it did when we were on Oasis. We only had a couple of times that it said we could not connect to Royal wifi. We would just quit and try again. It usually worked after 1 or 2 tries.

TIP: I always take a picture of the code they give us on the card. That way I can have it on my phone. We keep the card with the code in the safe in the cabin:

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When we got onboard, the elevators were not working. I heard that it was due to the ongoing Coast Guard inspection. We decided to take the stairs to the Windjammer, carry-ons and all. After 7 flights of stairs, I had earned that first Mai Tai (Drink of the day on embarkation day):

Due to the inspection, rooms were not ready until 1:30 p.m. I was amazed at the bad attitudes of some passengers about this "inconvenience". They clearly did not read what had happened to Majesty - they should have been thankful to even be on the ship…

:) We just "smiled-and-waved".

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I love your postive attitude and I am looking forward to the rest of your review.

We LOVE the corner aft cabins on Freedom and Voyager class ships. We usually book far in advance for two reasons:

1. We typically get the best prices within the first two months after the itineraries are released (I have a spread sheet of that… did I mention I was a Type A Perfectionist?)

2. We want to get one of our favorite 4 cabins on these ships 7408 and 7708 (first choice), or 1400 and 1700.

We spend a LOT of time on our balcony, which is why I present...

our home away from home for 8 days:

Corner aft 7708:

The "obstructed" view:

We got to rescue 3 ping-pong balls that landed on our balcony. Our neighbors below got even more! :)

I will post more views of the balcony as the week goes on… It was GREAT that we had this space, as it was an exceptionally rainy week. A majority of the time on our last two sea days, the public spaces were very crowded due to the rain. We frequently escaped to our safe haven.

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I love your postive attitude and I am looking forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks, VPIcruise! We love cruising too much to let anything get us down. Our glass is never half empty, not even half full... always overflowing ;)

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Look what we found when we got to the balcony... a blimp flag!

Just kidding (in the spirit of this being April first)...

But you never know what you may spot from that corner aft:

Somebody got busted:

…and this one is definitely a first for us!

At least we did not get mooned this time (yes, we have spotted that once too)!

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Loving the review!!! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

Patiently waiting for the next installment.:)

The safety briefing (forever known in my mind as muster drill) was fairly quick. They scanned everyone’s card, so no one could skip it.

Sail away was at 5:30 p.m. For once, we were caught on the port webcam!

Ciao, Costa Delziosa:

See you later (tomorrow), Coral Princess:

Goodbye, Fort Lauderdale!

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With that, it is the end of our first day. I will be back tomorrow with our sea day and maybe even Labadee!

Thank you for following along.

My View: The End of Day 1:

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Love your pictures and look forward to more.

Loving the review!!! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

 

Patiently waiting for the next installment.:)

You are welcome! I was not going to do it, because I am so busy. I realized that I would regret it, since my reviews are also my "journal" of memories that I will read for years to come - even when they are buried in the Cruise Critic pages. :)

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Love your pictures and look forward to more.

Thank you!

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…and this one is definitely a first for us!

 

 

 

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We disembarked the day you boarded the Freedom when they were doing the Coast Guard inspections. We had the day to kill and took the Water Taxi for the day. Just as we were about to get off the taxi around 5pm, we saw that boat above go right by us but I did not get time to get a photo of it. Thanks for posting the photo.

We just booked Freedom out of San Juan for Jan 2019 the other day! We've never been on a Freedom class ship but thanks to your advice on another thread, we booked the corner aft on deck 9! We've never been in a corner aft so we're excited to try it! Your pictures make me excited!

Great photos, especially the sunset. We love the Freedom, and were bummed when she left PC.

mac_tlc

We just booked Freedom out of San Juan for Jan 2019 the other day! We've never been on a Freedom class ship but thanks to your advice on another thread, we booked the corner aft on deck 9! We've never been in a corner aft so we're excited to try it! Your pictures make me excited!

Were you able to book that stateroom with only 2 guests?

Ditto Bob's question.

Enjoying your " style " of review. Looking forward to more. :)

We disembarked the day you boarded the Freedom when they were doing the Coast Guard inspections. We had the day to kill and took the Water Taxi for the day. Just as we were about to get off the taxi around 5pm, we saw that boat above go right by us but I did not get time to get a photo of it. Thanks for posting the photo.

You are welcome! :)

We just booked Freedom out of San Juan for Jan 2019 the other day! We've never been on a Freedom class ship but thanks to your advice on another thread, we booked the corner aft on deck 9! We've never been in a corner aft so we're excited to try it! Your pictures make me excited!

Wow, Laura! I was just about to read your review of Adventure on Friday, when I decided to save it in my favorites for later. I knew I had to put it on the backburner in order to finish writing this review first. We are booked on Adventure for Canada/New England next summer...

Thanks for following along!

Great photos, especially the sunset. We love the Freedom, and were bummed when she left PC.

 

mac_tlc

Thank you, mac! We were bummed too. However, Oasis turned out to be one of our new favorite ships, so we are okay with it for now. I REALLY (selfishly) wish they would have one of each class of Royal Caribbean ships in Port Canaveral. Maybe some day... :confused:

Were you able to book that stateroom with only 2 guests?

If I remember right, the corner aft on deck 9 sleeps only 2. :)