April 7, 2013 Freedom of the Seas picture review - 2nd Cruise and 1st time Royal

[slord12]

Hello all!

 

Well, I just got back on Sunday from a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the beautiful Freedom of the Seas. This was my second cruise ever (first was on the Carnival Dream Western Caribbean in September 2012), so I was very excited to see what Royal Caribbean had to offer. I LOVED my Dream cruise so I was excited/nervous to see what this ship and itinerary would be like. So, how did it compare? Stay tuned to find out!

 

Just a heads up, this review will be excursion/port heavy. I don't spend a lot of time taking pictures of the common areas of ships when I can google better images than I take! I'm currently working on my video (I'm only through St. Thomas now and it's already 30 minutes long, yikes) so I'll post that here when it's finished. I've already gotten permission to post pictures/videos I have of others and there families we met!

 

Ok a little pre-cruise info!

 

We headed down Saturday, we stopped at Finn's Beachside Pub in Flagler Beach (love that place) for fish tacos. We made it to the Radisson around 3:30 and spent the afternoon relaxing before heading over the port for dinner at Rusty's that night. Pretty good food, but all of those restaurants at the port always seem the same to me! We had a nice table by the window, and got to see the Disney Fantasy come sailing in (medical emergency so they had to come back at night). We ended up just hanging around Rusty's with a few drinks after dinner before heading back to get some sleep! Big day tomorrow and I was super excited!

 

Up next, first day on the Freedom of the Seas!

[slord12]

We were up bright and early to catch the 10:15 shuttle to the port. This was a smooth process, just like last time. We were in line by 10:45 and on the ship by 11:30. I thought the process was efficient and easy!

 

Once on we headed straight to the pool area for a nice welcome aboard drink! We enjoyed the steel drums and band there too! I loved the guy who sold these drinks, all day he walked around and his signature line was "SO nice!". I must agree, so nice!

 

 

 

Our rooms were ready around 1, so we headed there to drop the carry on's and then went exploring! Such a huge ship, but we quickly figured out where everything was. We went over to the Windjammer and had a nice lunch with a little of everything!

 

Our room was 7583, a promenade view room. We had a nice view of Vintage's Wine Bar!

 

 

Jon at sailaway watching the Sensation leave (we have a 3 day Bahama's cruise on her in June)!

 

 

Jon (still with the bookbag) checking out the basketball courts, he wound up spending a good chunk of time here!

 

 

We spend the rest of the afternoon checking out EVERYTHING before heading up to change for dinner. I stopped by the welcome aboard show at 7pm and it was what I expected, but the performers Ildiko and Peter were pretty impressive!

 

We had a WONDERFUL dinner table (#112 anybody out there?) with Tammy, Rick, Gina, and Carole!My only regret is we didn't get a group photo before we left! Our waitress was Lizel from the Phillipines and she was very sweet and prompt. For dinner tonight I had the smoked fish rillettes (fish dip), spinach salad with balsamic, and the horseradish crusted salmon. For dessert I tried the BBB creme brulee, and this was the only thing I didn't really care for, but I was super full so I was happy. Jon enjoyed the same appetizers and the prime rib with horseradish, which I also kept taking off his plate, it was good! He had the blueberry/peach crumble with icecream for dessert, and knocked out my creme brulee since he really enjoyed it!

 

The seas were rocking and rolling even though the weather was fine (I guess it was the wind) so Jon's patch wasn't working so he called it a night pretty soon after dinner. I explored a little more then hit the sack since we had an early day tomorrow.

 

Up next, Coco Cay!

[JoTop]

Can't wait for Day 2!!!

 

We were up bright and early to catch the 10:15 shuttle to the port. This was a smooth process, just like last time. We were in line by 10:45 and on the ship by 11:30. I thought the process was efficient and easy!

 

Once on we headed straight to the pool area for a nice welcome aboard drink! We enjoyed the steel drums and band there too! I loved the guy who sold these drinks, all day he walked around and his signature line was "SO nice!". I must agree, so nice!

 

 

 

Our rooms were ready around 1, so we headed there to drop the carry on's and then went exploring! Such a huge ship, but we quickly figured out where everything was. We went over to the Windjammer and had a nice lunch with a little of everything!

 

Our room was 7583, a promenade view room. We had a nice view of Vintage's Wine Bar!

 

 

Jon at sailaway watching the Sensation leave (we have a 3 day Bahama's cruise on her in June)!

 

 

Jon (still with the bookbag) checking out the basketball courts, he wound up spending a good chunk of time here!

 

 

We spend the rest of the afternoon checking out EVERYTHING before heading up to change for dinner. I stopped by the welcome aboard show at 7pm and it was what I expected, but the performers Ildiko and Peter were pretty impressive!

 

We had a WONDERFUL dinner table (#112 anybody out there?) with Tammy, Rick, Gina, and Carole!My only regret is we didn't get a group photo before we left! Our waitress was Lizel from the Phillipines and she was very sweet and prompt. For dinner tonight I had the smoked fish rillettes (fish dip), spinach salad with balsamic, and the horseradish crusted salmon. For dessert I tried the BBB creme brulee, and this was the only thing I didn't really care for, but I was super full so I was happy. Jon enjoyed the same appetizers and the prime rib with horseradish, which I also kept taking off his plate, it was good! He had the blueberry/peach crumble with icecream for dessert, and knocked out my creme brulee since he really enjoyed it!

 

The seas were rocking and rolling even though the weather was fine (I guess it was the wind) so Jon's patch wasn't working so he called it a night pretty soon after dinner. I explored a little more then hit the sack since we had an early day tomorrow.

 

Up next, Coco Cay!

[jmjmann76]

I am really excited to read your review since I will be taking my first Royal Caribbean cruise on Freedom of the Seas in September (same itinerary). My only previous cruise experience was 1 Carnival cruise, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thanks!

Jeni

[mets550]

Thanks for posting this. We sailed on Liberty a few years ago but will be going on Freedom this August, so I'm really looking forward to this review as well.

[slord12]

Can't wait for Day 2!!!

 

I'm working on it now, but the pictures aren't cooperating for some reason! :confused: I think it's the website! Stay tuned and thanks for reading! :)

[slord12]

I am really excited to read your review since I will be taking my first Royal Caribbean cruise on Freedom of the Seas in September (same itinerary). My only previous cruise experience was 1 Carnival cruise, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thanks!

Jeni

 

Awesome! You will love this ship, it's really special and beautiful! I think any cruise line has it's positives and negatives, and I usually choose to see the positives! Thanks for reading! :)

[slord12]

Thanks for posting this. We sailed on Liberty a few years ago but will be going on Freedom this August, so I'm really looking forward to this review as well.

 

Thanks for reading! You will have a great time on this ship! :)

[Luv06012012]

Can't wait to read more of your review...I'm on her in 3 1/2 weeks although we are on the western caribbean itinerary.

 

Boy do those drinks look "so nice"!

[Sunshine-lady]

Same here. DH and I are looking forward to your review. We sail on Freedom in just 2 short weeks. We are sooooo excited.

[slord12]

I must admit, I was super nervous about this day as I had heard horror stories about not being able to tender here due to wind/weather. My fears were unfounded as the Captain announced this was the MOST BEAUTIFUL day he'd seen all year! Whew! We got up and headed to the Jammer for breakfast which was always fast and good. I think I ate fruit, bacon, eggs, pastries, and breakfast potatoes almost every day! Good thing I exercised and did A LOT of activities and walking! We then made our way down to find no line and we were some of the last on the first tender over!

 

See how glorious the weather was?!

 

 

We didn't do anything here except relax, sleep, eat, and snorkel! I love to snorkel, so this wasn't the best day but I still found a nice little reef area. I swam out to the sunken airplane just to say I did, but really there wasn't much to see there. For lunch we had the chicken, ribs, rice and beans, salad, dessert and fruit punch! Let me tell you, people were getting WILD at the buffet. I mean literally like a pack of wild beasts descending on some poor small prey, it was really funny to watch.

 

Here's pictures from our day on Coco Cay! Look for more footage in the video I'll post when it's finished!

 

 

Main Street...as I called it!

 

 

 

 

Excuse Jon's recycled t-shirt and bathing suit from yesterday, LOL!

 

 

More pictures to come!

[slord12]

Can't wait to read more of your review...I'm on her in 3 1/2 weeks although we are on the western caribbean itinerary.

 

Boy do those drinks look "so nice"!

 

Thanks for reading! We're already looking at the western route next year! Look out for that guy, he is awesome and you'll def have no problem finding him, and feeling obligated to buy and drink from him because you like hearing him say "so nice!" so much!

[slord12]

Same here. DH and I are looking forward to your review. We sail on Freedom in just 2 short weeks. We are sooooo excited.

 

Thanks for reading!! Enjoy your trip, I'm ready to go back!

[mets550]

Thanks for reading! We're already looking at the western route next year! Look out for that guy, he is awesome and you'll def have no problem finding him, and feeling obligated to buy and drink from him because you like hearing him say "so nice!" so much!

 

That's funny, as I read another Freedom review a few days ago that mentioned him as well!

[theavonb]

I'm so looking forward to the rest of your review. Hubby and I are booked on the FOS for next April (our 2nd cruise) and we went on the Dream last Nov. for our 1sr cruise. Ours will be the Eastern this time, can't wait to check out the Freedom.

[Raptor2010]

Once on we headed straight to the pool area for a nice welcome aboard drink! We enjoyed the steel drums and band there too! I loved the guy who sold these drinks, all day he walked around and his signature line was "SO nice!". I must agree, so nice!

 

That was Prince Charles :) he was our server on the Freedom last year and we loved him :) He remembered us from a previous cruise, saw us by the pool and said (with that wonderful accent) "Mr and Mrs Taylor, welcome back . . . " We couldn't believe he remembered us. Glad to hear that he is still on the Freedom :)

[kruzerci]

Great start. Now the obligatory question- did you prefer Royal Caribbean or Carnival?

[slord12]

More pictures from our day at Coco Cay!

 

 

 

 

Around 3pm we decided to head back to the ship, we had to wait in a line around 10 minutes, so that wasn't too bad!

 

Here's a shot looking a gorgeous Coco Cay from the ship!

 

 

We headed to the Jammer for afternoon snacks (3-5pm everyday...DO NOT MISS THIS!!). Afternoon snacks are the best time to go to the Jammer..seriously. Nachos, burgers, hotdogs, fries, salad bar, etc....but most importantly THE DESSERTS. Bread pudding everyday, and it is delicious. My favorite snack though was the fresh, warm scones. They have sugar scones everyday, and then a different flavor every afternoon to go with those. Top those babies with cream and berries and you have the best snack ever! Seriously, I'm mad that in a hour, I can't go get one. Anyway..

 

We headed to the arcade since we were pretty cooked for the day! Let me just say to the parents that I really hope there are limits on how much your kids can charge to your cards, because this arcade rips people off more than the casino. I've never seen an arcade that when you win a game asks for more money! We played air hockey, ski ball, and some racing game. We decided to stick with the casino from then on!

 

Here's Jon playing some "vidja games"

 

 

Dinner tonight was good as always, but poor Jon was really feeling the movement of the ship tonight. His patch wasn't helping at all. I don't remember what he had for dinner, he was feeling so bad. I know that I had the lobster bisque and a caeser salad with the beef tenderloin. For dessert I had the strawberry cheesecake. All was very good! I knew Jon was feeling bad when he turned down cheesecake, it's his favorite.

 

I went and saw Marquee at 10:45 with Gina from our table and it was a pretty good show! I will say here, I did miss Carnival's late night comedy club. The comedians I saw on this ship were not good, at least not to me. However, Royal's production shows were far superior in my opinion!

 

After the show I was exhausted, luckily Jon was knocked out so he at least got some relief from the seasickness. Tomorrow was a sea day so I was worried he would be miserable...but luckily, a cure is on it's way! Oh, and we got our first towel animal tonight, a cute little elephant!

 

 

Stay tuned, up next is Day 3 - First Sea Day!

[slord12]

I'm so looking forward to the rest of your review. Hubby and I are booked on the FOS for next April (our 2nd cruise) and we went on the Dream last Nov. for our 1sr cruise. Ours will be the Eastern this time, can't wait to check out the Freedom.

 

Have a great trip! We may be back next April again, we're eyeballing that western route! Thanks for reading!

[aliciacr02]

We were on this same cruise and had an amazing time! Can't wait to here someone else's perspective as well. This was our second time on the freedom and she always delivers :)

[slord12]

That was Prince Charles :) he was our server on the Freedom last year and we loved him :) He remembered us from a previous cruise, saw us by the pool and said (with that wonderful accent) "Mr and Mrs Taylor, welcome back . . . " We couldn't believe he remembered us. Glad to hear that he is still on the Freedom :)

 

Haha that is great! All of the crew we met were awesome and really seemed to care about getting to know us! Thanks for reading!

[slord12]

Great start. Now the obligatory question- did you prefer Royal Caribbean or Carnival?

 

Yikes, way to put me on the spot! ;) Wellll, that's really hard to answer. Honestly, I loved both. I know, lame answer, but it's true. It's so hard to compare 2 great vacations. I do prefer Carnival's comedy club and comedians, but I prefer Royal's production shows. I liked Royal's food better for the most part, but prefer Carnival's desserts. I like the water slides on Carnival, but loved the flowrider on Royal. I liked the sushi bar on Carnival better, but Royal had a better buffet. Those are literally the best comparisons I can give! All of the are considered silly things to me that in the grand scheme of life make no difference. I will say, I will most definitely cruise Royal and Carnival again! Thanks for reading!

[kruzerci]

Yikes, way to put me on the spot! ;) Wellll, that's really hard to answer. Honestly, I loved both. I know, lame answer, but it's true. It's so hard to compare 2 great vacations. I do prefer Carnival's comedy club and comedians, but I prefer Royal's production shows. I liked Royal's food better for the most part, but prefer Carnival's desserts. I like the water slides on Carnival, but loved the flowrider on Royal. I liked the sushi bar on Carnival better, but Royal had a better buffet. Those are literally the best comparisons I can give! All of the are considered silly things to me that in the grand scheme of life make no difference. I will say, I will most definitely cruise Royal and Carnival again! Thanks for reading!

 

Nice fair answer ;)

[slord12]

We were on this same cruise and had an amazing time! Can't wait to here someone else's perspective as well. This was our second time on the freedom and she always delivers :)

 

Glad you had a great time, we will be back for a second time too!! Thanks for reading!

[JoTop]

When you get off your cruise, hurry the ship back to port to pick us up on May 26!!:D

 

Can't wait to read more of your review...I'm on her in 3 1/2 weeks although we are on the western caribbean itinerary.

 

Boy do those drinks look "so nice"!