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Freedom of the Seas 7/3/11 - Review

mgraham66

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mgraham66

mgraham66

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I wasn’t going to review my cruise since I was a first time cruiser and thought there wouldn’t be anyone who wanted to hear from a newbie; plus I have been back over a week and thought it was too late. After thinking about it, and knowing how much cruise critic had helped me out over the past few months, I figured I would go ahead and write something.

 

We were first time cruisers due to the fact that we have owned a time share in St. Maarten for over 16 years and love our time share life very much; we never really had a desire to experience anything other than that. We had, in the past, vacationed too many of the Caribbean islands and had settled on St. Maarten for its beauty and fun. My daughter chose this cruise for her 16th birthday celebration so we now had a reason to cruise, and to finally get the opportunity to see what life was like on the other side. For years we have watched these beautiful floating cities sail in and out of St. Maarten and never had any idea as to what was actually happening on these enormous vessels.

 

We were on the 7/3/11 sailing on Freedom of the Seas. Traveling was: myself (45), DH (51), DD (16) who brought a friend (17), and my brother in law, who always travels with us, (67). So as you can see we covered a vast array of ages and each with different opinions.

 

We arrived in Orlando on Friday, July 1st and stayed 2 nights at the Buena Vista Suites. This hotel had the best value with “all suite” accommodations and a free full breakfast. We also rented a car from Budget using a Costco wholesale club discount code (which I could dig out if anyone wants the code). Budget was great, and did not charge a fee to drop the car off in Port Canaveral. Saturday we spent the day at the Disney Theme Parks (bought the tickets in the lobby of the hotel so we didn’t have to deal with any crowds). We had a park hopper ticket and ended up doing 3 parks all in one day! (I really needed a vacation after that!).

 

Sunday we drove to Port Canaveral and arrived at Budget at approximately 11:00am. Returning the car was very easy and there was a shuttle van waiting to take us to the port free of charge (just tipped to the driver). We arrived at the port by 11:20am. We left our bags at the curb as instructed by the porters, and continued on to embarkation. We waited in line for about 15 minutes. The staff checking us in were very nice as well as those directing our way. The check in process was quick and easy and we were on board the ship by 11:50. We walked in on deck 4 and we were already blown away by the ships beauty. I looked to the left and realized that we were right by the main dining room and as I learned by members of cruise critic, we walked in to see where our table was. We were seated on deck 4 table number 440 near the main stair case and we were given a table for 5 which is what we had requested. We were very pleased with our location and so we continued on...we proceeded up 1 deck to the promenade level. We went to the Promenade Café for coffee and grabbed a few sandwiches to take with us to the pool area (something I also learned from CC J). We didn’t want to go to the Windjammer just yet as we wanted to take pictures and walk the ship to figure out where everything was. As I had read on these message boards this was the best time to take pictures because the ship was empty. We walked around a bit, found the gym, pool, solarium pool, and helipad.

 

The ship was so big and so beautiful. Before we knew it was 1:00pm (and again through CC I knew our cabins would be ready). We had adjoining balcony cabins on deck 7 (7628 and 7626). We were quite impressed with the size of the cabins as we were expecting a lot smaller accommodations. We met our room steward who was a really nice man name Ronald from Jamaica. Ronald asked how we wanted our beds situated and we had asked to have the adjoining door opened. We also asked if our divider between the two balconies could be opened, and he said yes. Two of our 7 suitcases had already arrived so we were definitely impressed with that. I had read previous posts that some cruise critics have waited until 7:00pm for their suitcases to arrive. We had pre-ordered water and wine which all were arranged nicely on our desk along with 2 wine glasses and a wine opener. I had pre-ordered the girls the soda pack and their cups were also on the desk. We freshened up and left to tour the ship some more. My brother-in-law had chosen not to use a credit card for his on board account charges so he wanted to go to guest services to put cash on his account. We arrived at guest services and the line did not look too bad so he waited. Needless to say he stood in line for 45 minutes without moving and he was only the second person in line. When he inquired as to why there was only one person handling this, he was told “we’re so sorry” and that was about it, nothing was done to correct the problem. He continued to wait another 15 minutes and at this point he was getting cranky. The line behind him kept growing. The holdup was that a family of 5 was booking dinner reservations, excursions etc. and before you knew it the family of 5 grew to the family of 25 (who went ahead of the line) and each family member was booking individual activities. He finally gave up and left very unhappy.

 

Before you knew it, the muster drill was called which moved along quickly, and we were then sailing away!! The sail away party at the pool was a lot of fun so we stayed for that and then eventually made our way to our cabins to rest and wash up before our 8:30pm dinner seating.

 

When we arrived back to our rooms our all of our suitcases had arrived, Ronald had taken care of the balcony divider as well as the bedding situation. (Great service!!)

 

We met our waiters who were Roberto and Albert, both from the Philippines and both very nice men. I really won’t go into what we all had for dinner (honestly I can’t remember! Lol) I believe I had the Prime Rib. Anyway, the food was very good!! Dinner took approximately 2 hours and by 10:00pm we were finished and we were exhausted. We did not take part in any activities for the night just wanted to get a good night’s sleep.

 

I have cruise compasses and will post for days 2-7 I don’t know what happened too day 1. So Far we all gave our day one experience 5 stars (with the exception of guest services which my brother in law gave 1 star). By the way he eventually showed back up to guest services around 10:30pm and there was no line. He had explained what happened to him earlier in the day and the supervisor had apologized. The supervisor told him that whoever he had complained to should have explained to him that if all he wanted to do was to put cash on his account, he could of come back later when there is no line because everyone is given a $200.00 allowance on day one prior to their putting cash onto their account.

 

Don’t want to ramble on, more info to follow……. (I tried to upload a few pictures but for some reason it did not allow them to upload now I am not sure if I will even be able to upload the daily planners in my next posts)

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Woodmnky

Woodmnky

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Thanks for the review. Looking forward to anymore information that you want to share as I have a lot of time to waste before my Dec FOS cruise:D.

 

BTW - I appreciate the info about the Promenade Cafe being open on embarkation day as I was wondering if there was a way to avoid the WJ that day.

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bobmal99

bobmal99

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mgraham66,

 

Enjoy your review so far. Looking forward to more..

 

If you load your pictures to a site called

www.photobucket.com

 

It will be extremely simple to place your pictures in this thread..

 

Any ??'s just ask. Glad you and your family had a fun time..

 

 

 

I wasn’t going to review my cruise since I was a first time cruiser and thought there wouldn’t be anyone who wanted to hear from a newbie; plus I have been back over a week and thought it was too late. After thinking about it, and knowing how much cruise critic had helped me out over the past few months, I figured I would go ahead and write something.

 

We were first time cruisers due to the fact that we have owned a time share in St. Maarten for over 16 years and love our time share life very much; we never really had a desire to experience anything other than that. We had, in the past, vacationed too many of the Caribbean islands and had settled on St. Maarten for its beauty and fun. My daughter chose this cruise for her 16th birthday celebration so we now had a reason to cruise, and to finally get the opportunity to see what life was like on the other side. For years we have watched these beautiful floating cities sail in and out of St. Maarten and never had any idea as to what was actually happening on these enormous vessels.

 

We were on the 7/3/11 sailing on Freedom of the Seas. Traveling was: myself (45), DH (51), DD (16) who brought a friend (17), and my brother in law, who always travels with us, (67). So as you can see we covered a vast array of ages and each with different opinions.

 

We arrived in Orlando on Friday, July 1st and stayed 2 nights at the Buena Vista Suites. This hotel had the best value with “all suite” accommodations and a free full breakfast. We also rented a car from Budget using a Costco wholesale club discount code (which I could dig out if anyone wants the code). Budget was great, and did not charge a fee to drop the car off in Port Canaveral. Saturday we spent the day at the Disney Theme Parks (bought the tickets in the lobby of the hotel so we didn’t have to deal with any crowds). We had a park hopper ticket and ended up doing 3 parks all in one day! (I really needed a vacation after that!).

 

Sunday we drove to Port Canaveral and arrived at Budget at approximately 11:00am. Returning the car was very easy and there was a shuttle van waiting to take us to the port free of charge (just tipped to the driver). We arrived at the port by 11:20am. We left our bags at the curb as instructed by the porters, and continued on to embarkation. We waited in line for about 15 minutes. The staff checking us in were very nice as well as those directing our way. The check in process was quick and easy and we were on board the ship by 11:50. We walked in on deck 4 and we were already blown away by the ships beauty. I looked to the left and realized that we were right by the main dining room and as I learned by members of cruise critic, we walked in to see where our table was. We were seated on deck 4 table number 440 near the main stair case and we were given a table for 5 which is what we had requested. We were very pleased with our location and so we continued on...we proceeded up 1 deck to the promenade level. We went to the Promenade Café for coffee and grabbed a few sandwiches to take with us to the pool area (something I also learned from CC J). We didn’t want to go to the Windjammer just yet as we wanted to take pictures and walk the ship to figure out where everything was. As I had read on these message boards this was the best time to take pictures because the ship was empty. We walked around a bit, found the gym, pool, solarium pool, and helipad.

 

The ship was so big and so beautiful. Before we knew it was 1:00pm (and again through CC I knew our cabins would be ready). We had adjoining balcony cabins on deck 7 (7628 and 7626). We were quite impressed with the size of the cabins as we were expecting a lot smaller accommodations. We met our room steward who was a really nice man name Ronald from Jamaica. Ronald asked how we wanted our beds situated and we had asked to have the adjoining door opened. We also asked if our divider between the two balconies could be opened, and he said yes. Two of our 7 suitcases had already arrived so we were definitely impressed with that. I had read previous posts that some cruise critics have waited until 7:00pm for their suitcases to arrive. We had pre-ordered water and wine which all were arranged nicely on our desk along with 2 wine glasses and a wine opener. I had pre-ordered the girls the soda pack and their cups were also on the desk. We freshened up and left to tour the ship some more. My brother-in-law had chosen not to use a credit card for his on board account charges so he wanted to go to guest services to put cash on his account. We arrived at guest services and the line did not look too bad so he waited. Needless to say he stood in line for 45 minutes without moving and he was only the second person in line. When he inquired as to why there was only one person handling this, he was told “we’re so sorry” and that was about it, nothing was done to correct the problem. He continued to wait another 15 minutes and at this point he was getting cranky. The line behind him kept growing. The holdup was that a family of 5 was booking dinner reservations, excursions etc. and before you knew it the family of 5 grew to the family of 25 (who went ahead of the line) and each family member was booking individual activities. He finally gave up and left very unhappy.

 

Before you knew it, the muster drill was called which moved along quickly, and we were then sailing away!! The sail away party at the pool was a lot of fun so we stayed for that and then eventually made our way to our cabins to rest and wash up before our 8:30pm dinner seating.

 

When we arrived back to our rooms our all of our suitcases had arrived, Ronald had taken care of the balcony divider as well as the bedding situation. (Great service!!)

 

We met our waiters who were Roberto and Albert, both from the Philippines and both very nice men. I really won’t go into what we all had for dinner (honestly I can’t remember! Lol) I believe I had the Prime Rib. Anyway, the food was very good!! Dinner took approximately 2 hours and by 10:00pm we were finished and we were exhausted. We did not take part in any activities for the night just wanted to get a good night’s sleep.

 

I have cruise compasses and will post for days 2-7 I don’t know what happened too day 1. So Far we all gave our day one experience 5 stars (with the exception of guest services which my brother in law gave 1 star). By the way he eventually showed back up to guest services around 10:30pm and there was no line. He had explained what happened to him earlier in the day and the supervisor had apologized. The supervisor told him that whoever he had complained to should have explained to him that if all he wanted to do was to put cash on his account, he could of come back later when there is no line because everyone is given a $200.00 allowance on day one prior to their putting cash onto their account.

 

Don’t want to ramble on, more info to follow……. (I tried to upload a few pictures but for some reason it did not allow them to upload now I am not sure if I will even be able to upload the daily planners in my next posts)

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mgraham66

mgraham66

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mgraham66,

 

Enjoy your review so far. Looking forward to more..

 

If you load your pictures to a site called

www.photobucket.com

 

It will be extremely simple to place your pictures in this thread..

 

Any ??'s just ask. Glad you and your family had a fun time..

 

 

Thanks for the link, I will try it!!

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mgraham66

mgraham66

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Day Two – Coco Cay

 

Thanks to the Cruise Compass I was able to know what time the sun came up (6:26am) I woke up at 6:00 and sat on our balcony so that I could see an un-obstructed view of a BEAUTIFUL sunrise! Everyone else slept! I then went to the helipad and watched the ship pull into Coco Cay. We all went to breakfast in the Windjammer which was very good…finding a table isn’t always that easy, but there is such a quick turnover you just have to keep looking. The staff in the Windjammer were great! Both the left and right sides of the Windjammer have the same options, we went straight to the back because that was where we were able to get made to order eggs and there was more room to move around when there was a crowd. The made to order station was great! One morning, my husband had ordered fried eggs with cheese and made an egg sandwich with bacon and toast and brought it to the pool one day .

 

We then took the tender over to the island. There were more than enough chaise lounges and did not have a problem finding 5 together. We just relaxed and soaked up the sun. The water was a bit churned, but still beautiful. Lunch was served as a barbeque right near where we were seated. (There were two different areas serving lunch, we sat near one of them.). The line was quite long so we were able to watch for the right opportunity to jump in. I had the ribs which were ok. I think I chose ribs that had a lot of fat on them so I didn’t care much for them. The special drink island drink was very good (had to order two of them because the two girls each wanted the souvenir cup! Lol) Needless to say 2 put me to sleep. The girls were signed up for the water adventure park which they enjoyed, they said it was a lot of swimming and so that tired them out a bit! The only down side to the day was waiting on line in the blazing hot sun to go through security and get a tender back. We got in line at 2:00pm thinking that it would be the better time, but turned out to be the most popular time. We boarded the ship and I immediately went to the gym to work off my 2 drinks. It was pretty cool walking the treadmill and watching the ship pull away. We then relaxed a little more by the pool and listened to the DJ. There were some Fourth of July activities going on.

 

That night was formal night with dinner being a “Feast of Nations” we got dressed and went to the different areas to get our pictures taken (we could only fit in two different backgrounds as the lines were long at every location). Dinner was good. (Again, can’t remember what I had) and we were again finished at about 10:00pm. The girls went to something that was happening in the teen area (which they said was a little boring; I’m not sure what it was). We went to the 10:45 Production Show “Marquee” in the Arcadia Theatre which was very good! (We live in NY and often attend Broadway Plays in NYC; this production was just as good if not better than some plays that I have seen!)

 

Still giving our cruise 5 stars. (Noticing by now that the staff are impeccable!! Every staff member that we walked by went out of their way to say hello, always had a smile, always asked if they could help in any way). As for the ship itself, it is beautiful, clean, we had not encountered any problem thus far. The next day was a full sailing day so I was curious to see if we were going to feel crowded at all on the ship. (one reason why I never desired to cruise)….Cruising so far was definitely a lot of fun!!

 

I am still working on loading the daily planner! Please bear with me! Thanks!

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mgraham66

mgraham66

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Day Three – Sailing

The Ice Show tickets were being distributed that morning beginning at 8:00am. I got up early and got on line at about 7:40 (a suggestion from one of the CC message boards) this was definitely a good idea because by 7:50 the entire promenade level was filled with people standing on line.

We had breakfast in the main dining room since we didn’t have anywhere to rush off too. Our waiter mentioned that the MDR has really good Eggs Benedict. He said they are not on the menu, just ask for them and they will make them for you. So if you have time to dine in the MDR for breakfast that would definitely be my pick. It was a more laid back experience not so much hustle and bustle as in the Windjammer, and the Eggs Benedict were VERY GOOD!

We were at the pool by about 9:30am there were plenty of chaise lounges to choose from which I was surprised about. We did sit and watch a few chair hogs place 4 -5 towels on their chairs and walk off to breakfast. Their chairs were empty for over an hour and RCI didn’t do anything. I guess it is difficult to try and figure out which people are off eating or which are in the pool. I know on a few occasions I was afraid to get up from my chair when my group was either off to the bathroom, pool, bar etc. I didn’t want to leave my chair thinking someone from RCI would think we were reserving chairs and take our stuff away. I did see someone from RCI question people about chairs that were adjacent to the pool area (were were up a deck looking down at the pool) the pool was very crowded by 10am. This area is very busy with music, games, etc. it was fun to “people watch”. Our overall experience so far at the pool was mixed. I enjoyed the people watching, DH slept, DD and friend loved the Jacuzzi but felt very crowded (we were on an ALL sailing day so this was to be expected) my brother-in-law was complaining about the drinks from the bar. (I will get to that in a minute). As for the pool, many people sit in the areas that you need to use to get into the pool or they sit on the ladders so there wasn’t any real easy way to get into the pool. As more people were showing up, I did notice the pool getting cloudier and cloudier this kind of turned me off a bit. So when faced with a negative, turn it to a positive! When I needed a refresher, I walked over to the kids area and stood under a water fall….this I must say was very refreshing and I felt a little better knowing the water was rushing off of me and that I wasn’t “sitting” in cloudy water. It really felt good, and I did notice more adults standing under these waterfalls than the kids! So, I didn’t let the cloudy water get in the way of enjoying my cruise. As for the drinks at the bar…..We did have a few throughout the day and we all noticed that under normal circumstances having two margaritas would put us to sleep or make us feel “tipsy” we all noticed we were perfectly fine! No napping or silliness….this made us wonder if there really is pure alcohol in the drinks? I said there has to be because I am watching them pour and pour and pour without hesitation…..but I did notice and I did ask why if the tequila was gold in the bottle why was it pouring out clear? The bar tender was very nice and poured a little in a small cup for me to taste. I have to say, the color was different than the bottle (I have no idea why) and the taste was very mild. In my younger days, I have tasted pure shots of tequila, and they were definitely a lot stronger than this. So, my observation of the pool bar drinks was that: Could RCI possibly water down there alcohol? (this is just a thought) This of course did not stop us from ordering the drinks, what we did was order the drink and an additional shot of tequila on the side to put into the drink.

Overall we all had a fun day at the pool….That night our 7:00pm Headliner show was Beatlemania Live. The show was fantastic! How does RCI do it? We have gone to two shows in a row and so far they have been GREAT!

Dinner was again very good (can’t remember what I had!). After dinner we went to something that was going on in the promenade called “Rock Britannia Street Party” this was something done with our cruise director “Graham Seymour” who, by the way, was the best! This was probably the greatest time we had. We were all in the promenade singing and dancing to rock music from Britain. The entire promenade was rocking. (my daughter thought the ship was going to sink because everyone was jumping!!) We really had a fun night!!

Tomorrow was St. Thomas…..

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mgraham66

mgraham66

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I will try and combine St. Thomas and St. Maarten tonight.....As for the planners, I have them scanned into my computer and they are in a pdf file...does anyone know how to get them on here? I keep having trouble each time I try, not sure what I am doing wrong...

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mgraham66

mgraham66

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Day Four - St. Thomas

 

If I hadn't mentioned this before, if you are able, your best bet to get from deck to deck is the stairs! The elevators closest to the main dining room are very busy ALL day! The quieter elevetors, each time we took them, were in the front. These are your best bet if you are heading to a show, the gym, the ice show, or even the pool area! We tried to take the stairs as much as possible and it was great excercise!

 

We had a lot of time that morning because we weren't pulling into St. Thomas until 11:00am. Went to the gym in the morning and then breakfast in the Windjammer. We did not book any excursions for St. Thomas because most of the options were things that we have done for years in St. Maarten. We chose to take a cab to Emerald Beach Resort just to hang on the beach (will get into that in a second). Our biggest mistake was getting off the ship when we did. Since we were coming off a full sailing day, I think everyone was anxious to get off in addition to the fact that it was a later port of call... everyone was ready. We went to deck 3 and it was PACKED. We waited in line for about 20 minutes and didn't move. Finally we were able to climb down the stairs and get off. I really didn't think this through, but since we weren't rushing anywhere we should have waited a bit. This was one of the few times that I felt "crowded" on the ship. When we got off we looked in a few shops as we walked to the taxi stand. We were charged $30 for the 5 of us and went to the Emerald Beach Resort. The resort was just "ok"... the beach was just ok also....they charge $7.00 per chaise lounge and I believe if you want a chaise under an umbrella the price is $10. The girls swam in the pool and had lunch. That's about all we did....it wouldn't be a resort that I would choose to stay at. It also was near the airport, so the airplanes were coming and going quite a bit. We grabbed a cab back. There if a lot of traffic on St. Thomas....if you are going to venture around, allow enough time for traffic. Our cab driver took us through back roads to avoid the traffic. My view of St. Thomas was soso (maybe becasue we didn't venture out to really see the islands beauty).

 

We dressed for dinner. This was a quiet night on the ship...don't get me wrong, there were a lot of different things to do, but the choices were not as much as the other nights (which was fine for us). That night we had reservations to go to the Portofino Restaurant (before we left I had made reservations for Day 4 and Day 7 both for the Portofino). I did this because I thought I would get bored eating in the MDR every night! The Portofino was a very nice atmosphere. When we walked in, EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE including the chef's in the kitchen went out of their way to say hello to us. (the service on this ship is really amazing!!!). Our table was very nice as well as our waiter! The menu choices were limited which is to be expected. The girls really were not impressed and could not find something they really wanted to have. My daughter ended up with chicken fingers and french fries which I think might have come from the Windjammer. Her friend ordered the egg noodles with pesto sauce. When she got it, it turned out to be spinach fettacini with the pesto sauce. She enjoyed it even though she wasn't expecting green pasta. My husband had ordered a tuna carpacio salad. He loves sushi and I think he was expecting a different type of tuna. (not too sure what he was thinking since I don't eat it) When he got it, the tuna was sliced very very very very very very very thin and was on the bottom of the plate and there was a small salad on top of it. He had to scrape the tuna (like it was butter) off the bottom of his plate and spread it onto his knife. It literally was like a pate'. This wasn't the end of the world, just something he wasn't expecting. I had some sort of pork for dinner. I think overall everyone was expecting a slightly different menu. Needless to say nobody wanted to go back for the other reservation we had booked for day 7 so we went to guest services (no line! haha) and cancelled the reservation with no problem. They credited back the $20 pp charge to my sea pass account. We didn't do much in terms of shows that night...just went to bed early.

 

Day 5 St. Maarten:

 

This of course was our port that we were looking most forward to...We were coming "home"!!! It was great pulling into St. Maarten and looking at the island from a different perspective. We sailed right by our Time Share Hotel and we now came full circle...as I had said in my first post for years I have sat on my patio watching these beautiful huge vessels pulling into the island, now I am on it looking back! Unfortunately as soon as well pulled into port the skies opened up and it poured for the ENTIRE DAY! This wasn't your typical St. Maarten weather. We have expirienced every type of weather condition through the years, but on this day, it did not let up...very said because my daughter was so excited to show her friend the island that she has vacationed on since she was born. Getting off the ship was a breeze on this day (maybe due to the weather) Again we did not book an excursion we wanted to visit our friends at our Time Share and then continued on to have lunch at our absolute favorite restaurant on the face of the earch, Antoinne's. Jon Pierre is the owner, he was so excited to see us. We had a really nice relaxing lunch over looking Great Bay and of course the beautiful Freedom of the Seas. We then did some shopping and boarded the ship. Of course as sailed away, the rain stopped! Oh well, we were still having fun!

 

That night we went to the show "Now You See It" a magic show. It also was a wonderful show...as I have said before EVERY show we went to was fantastic. Went to dinner afterward which again both the food and the service were top notch. After dinner we went to the 80's Video Dance Party which was a lot of fun then off to bed. We were all having a great time and still after a few bumps in the road with the pool bar drinks, guest services in the beginning, getting off the ship in St. Thomas, we are still at a 5 Star Rating!!!

 

If anyone knows how to get the pdf filed loaded, I can post the daily planners. I am not computer savy....

 

More to come......

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mgraham66

mgraham66

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Thanks for the review looking forward to the rest. :)

 

Since you lived in St. Maarten can you recommend a nice beach bar on a nice beach that has some shade, where we can get some drinks and some snacks? Thanks!

 

 

I would say Mr. Busy's Beach Bar on Dawn Beach...Here is a link that explains about the place. http://dawnbeachsxm.com/busby-index.shtml The restaurant has a lot of shade and is set under the tree's. Most beaches are full sun, but on Dawn beach you can rent chairs and umbrellas. It is an absolutely a beautiful beach with views of St. Barth's.

 

:)

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mgraham66

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great review so far! thank you! which day would u recommend to book speciality dining at Chops?

 

I guess it would be personal preferance, I chose Wednesday becasue it was the middle of the week and it broke up sitting in the MDR every night. The menu in the MDR is always good, so I don't think you will miss anything whatever night you choose. (Friday is the lobster night if you don't want to miss that)

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mgraham66

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Thanks for the great review! We are sailing on the FOS on 7/31 - can't wait!!!

 

Did you like the big outdoor screen by the pool? Was it too loud?

 

Thanks!

 

I enjoyed the screen. Earlier in the day it showed scenes of the caribbean (palm tree's, ocean, beaches etc.) as the day went on it had some current events (but not for long). We had the space shuttle launch and also ESPN's tour de france. (it was not bad or loud). At some points during the day there was trivia questions flashing up (without sound) and whenever there was something going on at the pool like the belly flop contest, the sexiest man contest that's what was showing. That was good because the pool area got very crowded during those events. I actually videoed off the big screen instead of trying to video through the crowds. They do show movies in the evening, but we never saw one, we were always too busy doing something else.

 

You are all going to have such a great time!! We can't believe it's all over already for us!!

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