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Just off Freedom of the Seas

Duffys wife 1957

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bridkid

bridkid

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I'm so glad to see the positive reviews of Freedom. Also the tips for the rock wall and flowrider are quite helpful as we have 8 kids with us ranging from 17-21 so I'll have to sign the waiver and remember with NO alcoholic beverage in hand:)

 

We're definitely in the countdown mode now with more snow/heavy rains this week... I did see it was 83 and sunny in St Thomas..aaaah:D

 

One question, was the early dining in MDR back to 6p?

 

Thanks

 

Early seating was 5:30

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Downdie

Downdie

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Hi everyone who was onboard the Freedom the week of 14/2. I watched the Freedom dock in St Maarten from the top deck of the ship on the other side of the dock. At disembarkation, it was my distinct impression that the Freedom was nowhere near being full to capacity. Am I correct? I've got money riding on this.

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PudgiPoo

PudgiPoo

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Question: What is your opinion about February weather in the Caribbean? It seems to me that most cruisers experience high winds on February cruises. I have only cruise once in February and we had a lot more rough seas then any other cruise.

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H8mundays

H8mundays

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Which means all the evening activities listed in the Compass were at a different time than they are now as RCCL assured us that early dining has been moved back to 6p.

 

Thanks

 

The compass that I have will reflect 5:30 & 8 pm dining as we were on the first cruise with the new times

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Duffys wife 1957

Duffys wife 1957

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Tuesday 16

We again ordered coffee and croissants through room service, and then went to breakfast in the Main dining room. We continued to eat breakfast in the MD for the rest of the cruise. The food was served hot, and the service was wonderful.

After breakfast we had our Meet and Mingle in Olive and Twist. It was great meeting everyone that we have talked to for over a year. They had coffee and little snack cakes.

We headed up to the pool and hot tub in the solarium. There were many chair hogs in the solarium. I spoke to one of the pool attendants and he said they have to be left for ½ hour, bla bla bla . We had sat at one of the tables and watched the chairs and most of them were vacant with towels the rest of the day. I woman with her husband looked around for a chair and I pointed 3 out for her and told her that they had towels on them for the last 2 hours. She had the pool attendant move them, the hogs never returned to get the towels. The charge is $20.00 a towel so if you don’t return them you will get charged.

We had a delicious at the Windjammer, DH ate mostly the buffet at the Jade. He said it was great also. We always tried the drink of the day, and they were very good.

Dinner in the MDR was wonderful as usual with the same attentiveness as the past few days. It was formal night and we had pictures before dinner and there were many opportunities to have a variety of poses and backgrounds.

The casino was smoke free on the formal nights and it was great. The casino was busy and we only ran into 1 person who was smoking. One of the attendants asked politely to observe the no smoking sign and they obliged. This is the first cruise line that I can honestly say we didn’t encounter that many smokers. They have areas where it is allowed like the Crypt was smoking but there we only 2 people in there when we walked in. I think most people really only smoked in the areas designated. Don’t get me wrong people were smoking, but it wasn’t an issue for us most of the time.

We went to the show and that was great too, then down to Café for a cup of Decaf and cookies. DH went to the Wine bar for a glass of Merlot and they told him they only had 2 kinds so DH picked one he knew he would like. The bill came to $20.00. Needles to say that was the last time he got a glass of wine there. The next day was St. Thomas

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Duffys wife 1957

Duffys wife 1957

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Hi everyone who was onboard the Freedom the week of 14/2. I watched the Freedom dock in St Maarten from the top deck of the ship on the other side of the dock. At disembarkation, it was my distinct impression that the Freedom was nowhere near being full to capacity. Am I correct? I've got money riding on this. Today 02:59 PMHi everyone who was onboard the Freedom the week of 14/2. I watched the Freedom dock in St Maarten from the top deck of the ship on the other side of the dock. At disembarkation, it was my distinct impression that the Freedom was nowhere near being full to capacity. Am I correct? I've got money riding on this. Today 02:59 PMHi everyone who was onboard the Freedom the week of 14/2. I watched the Freedom dock in St Maarten from the top deck of the ship on the other side of the dock. At disembarkation, it was my distinct impression that the Freedom was nowhere near being full to capacity. Am I correct? I've got money riding on this.

 

I believe that it was a full ship.

Question: What is your opinion about February weather in the Caribbean? It seems to me that most cruisers experience high winds on February cruises. I have only cruise once in February and we had a lot more rough seas then any other cruise. Today 06:17 PM

 

Question: What is your opinion about February weather in the Caribbean? It seems to me that most cruisers experience high winds on February cruises. I have only cruise once in February and we had a lot more rough seas then any other cruise. Today 06:17 PM

Question: What is your opinion about February weather in the Caribbean? It seems to me that most cruisers experience high winds on February cruises. I have only cruise once in February and we had a lot more rough seas then any other cruise

 

It was quite windy on the upper decks on Friday one of our sea days. The only rough seas that I recall was the evening we left Port Canaveral. We really didn't have bad seas the rest of the time. In fact on Saturday the ocean looked like glass it was so calm. So yes it windy on deck but the seas weren't so bad.

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Duffys wife 1957

Duffys wife 1957

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Wednesday 17 St. Thomas

Breakfast in the MDR. Delish as usual.

We booked a excursion to Megans Bay. We shopped for a while, then met our excursion. I will say that it was a beautiful beach. We stopped at the top of the island at the look out and got great pictures. Then we went to Megans Bay. It was extremely crowded. We enjoyed ourselves but I would never go there again. I think it is highly over rated, and we felt like sardines. We did rent beach chairs there, if you bring your chairs back you get part of the cost back. The next time I would go over to St. Johns or pick a less popular beach. The width of the beach is very narrow. They did have cold beer, which was a plus. We got off the shuttle and shopped a bit more. Then back to the ship.

Dinner in the MDR was great.

The Ice Show was on this night, we didn’t get tickets. But people we met said they walked in without even showing the tickets. By the time we got to the deck to get them they were all gone. The had a Live Music Concert in the Arcadia so we just walked the Promenade and had a few drinks. The Love and Marriage Game show was hilarious at the Arcadia after the concert.

Tomorrow St. Maarten

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jakenashleysmom

jakenashleysmom

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Thought I'd chime in here as well! Thrifty....nightmare for us too. However, we did arrive at the port much earlier than you, before 11:00 and there were hardly any lines......there was this really loud, obnoxious woman in front of me in line though......KIDDING!!!! It was Michelle!!:D We boarded quite quickly at this time.

 

St Thomas, head for the Best Western Emerald Beach Resort if you want a nice beach with facilities and NO CROWDS!! Close enough to port as well, maybe 15 mins.

 

We had a very active roll call, and If I do say so myself, we met some great friends for life!!!! Can't think of anything else to add, I'll wait for Duffys wife to post more so I can comment.......:)

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Duffys wife 1957

Duffys wife 1957

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Thursday 18

Breakfast in the MDR…..Yummy

We booked excursion to Orient Beach excursion. We loved this beach. We got to Waikiki Beach and we had a completely roped off area with cushioned beach chairs, Rum punch flowed all day. The beach was gorgeous and the water was divine. We brought some things from these the nice natives. We got some great deals. After this wonderful day at the beach we got dropped off and did a little shopping. We stopped at Sharky’s right off the pier, 2 beers for $5.00. This is my favorite island.

Got back on the ship, we had dinner in the MDR and then headed to the Arcadia for the magic show. It was great. Early night for most of us.

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tbrownharr

tbrownharr

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We are just off the FOS too 1/31 - 2/7 eastern. I have just scanned the compass's so if anyone wants them give me your email and I will send them to you.

Thank you for the offer. We look forward to seeing them! Thanks in advance - tbrownharr at aol dot com

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Duffys wife 1957

Duffys wife 1957

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Friday 19

Breakfast in MDR.. Wonderful as usual.

I spent the day lounging in the sun in the Solarium and on the top deck.

Ate lunch at the Windjammer and it was delish too.

We went back to our room in the early aftenoon to discover that we had no water. We found out that a pipe had burst on one of the lower decks but it would be fixed within 2 hours. It was formal night so we were hoping that we would have water.

Back up to the upper deck and hung for the rest of the afternoon. We got a little water but no hot water L. So we did the best we could. The water came on and off sporadically for the rest of the evening.

Had a wonderful dinner, then off to the Arcadia for the show, Once upon a Time. This was a great too.

We went to the casino because it was smoke free night there and we had fun, we didn’t win but had fun losing.

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family w

family w

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Thanks for your review. We are sailing 3/28 and I'm getting more excited each day. Yet another snowy day here in NJ; I can't wait for warm and sunny. I have some dining rooms questions:

1) We have requested to be seated just our family of 5 for 1st seating. Did you notice if there were many tables of 5 or 6 people, or were most tables 8 or 10?

2) Did you see many people show up in the MDR for dinner in jeans? It would make prep for this trip way easier if I thought it would be OK for my 2 teenage sons to wear jeans and a polo on casual nights.

3) I see someone else commented on the 5:30 1st seating time. When I booked I thought I was told dinner would be at 6 or 6:15, but I noticed in the Cruise Compasses posted from a Jan sailing that dinner was 5:30. That seems really early. Were evening show times also earlier than "usual"?

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post all this great info.

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mrsm

mrsm

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Thanks for the review! I just booked two rooms for my family on the 4 night sailing in November - we've never done RCCL and I thought that would be a good chance to give it a try.

 

I know someone said there's no charge for the Flow Rider - do you just line up to do it? Were there long waits? I know my son is going to want to try it.

 

You mentioned that you have to pay $20 if you don't return your towel - we've only done DCL where they just have piles of towels around the pool to use, RCCL doesn't do that?

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