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

[slord12]

I too enjoyed Carnivals warm chocolate cake until I found out it was 1400 calories of enjoyment.

 

Worth it! This is why I try to walk/exercise even on vacation!

[slord12]

How sad! I'm at the end of my wonderful vacation. Oh well, I'll just have to go and do it all over again.

 

I woke up this morning and wanted to eat breakfast in the MDR. I'm an eggs benedict fan and hadn't made it there all week to enjoy that! Jon and I got up and were immediately seated with a nice mother daughter pair from Connecticut. We each had a fruit bowl and some pastries from the small buffet set up front, then Jon ordered some fried egg breakfast and I had my beloved eggs benedict. So good. Breakfast was really slow though, and I never got my bloody mary I ordered. Oh well!

 

We hung around the ship exploring and did our last minute gift shopping since we didn't have any shopping time in port. I wound up getting a map and 4 RC beach towels. I collect maps from everywhere I go in the world and then have them framed nice and hung all around my house. They make nice souvenirs!

 

We went to Freedom Fest after we shopped and I had one of those roast beef sandwiches everyone talks about! I topped mine with horseradish and mustard, so good! I had a good laugh about the chocolate covered strawberry line, what is it with cruising and chocolate covered strawberries?? People were going crazy over those things!

 

After Freedom Fest we packed up most of our stuff, even though we were self disembarking we just wanted to have everything ready so we could enjoy our afternoon and evening!

 

We went up to the sports deck and I stopped by the activity desk. They had a flowrider class available for 7:45 that night. Even though no one else was signed up yet (they need a minimum of 4) Jon said he'd do it with me! They would keep me posted on whether or not enough people signed up. We ran into Rick, Tammy, and Gina up there and told them we probably wouldn't be at dinner because of our lesson. Sad!

 

Jon decided to play in the dodgeball tournament, but they wound up losing in the second round. Rick, Tammy, and Gina all stayed to watch! The team they were playing against wasn't exactly playing fair. They would throw a ball and somebody would catch it, and even though they were out, they wouldn't go out unless the activities guy actually saw them. Jon did peg some little punk acting guy in the head though, and it was hilarious. I caught it on video!

 

 

We went back inside after dodgeball and caught an ice skating session. We decided to do it, just to say we did! We skated a while then sat at the On Air bar and watched some Masters coverage. The bartender was a very sweet guy from the Philippines!

 

 

 

 

We headed up the Jammer for one more afternoon snacktime! Had to have one more scone. As we were up there we noticed we were sailing right into a storm, so I was super nervous that it would mess up our flowrider session!

 

Since we were already packed up for the most part, we headed down to the casino and played some slots. Jon didn't have such good luck, but I walked managed to double my money from $100 to a little over $200!

 

Before we knew it, it was 7:30 and almost time for our flowrider lesson. We ran upstairs and the weather was beautiful! Yay!

 

Up next, our flowrider lesson!

[wrcjr98]

I'm really enjoying your review & pictures. Thank you for taking the time to post it. We just booked the Freedom for December, but, the Western itenerary - but you're helping me get to know the ship! Unlike you, I had a horrible experience on the Dream last year. Yuk. We usually sail Norwegian - so this will be our first on Royal Carribean. Thanks again for all the great info!

[JohnGaltny]

Really nice job on this review and timely for me since I just yesterday book this itinerary.

 

Wife and I are smaller ship fans (Enchantment, Explorer) so I'm curious to see what the Freedom class is all about.

[slord12]

I'm really enjoying your review & pictures. Thank you for taking the time to post it. We just booked the Freedom for December, but, the Western itenerary - but you're helping me get to know the ship! Unlike you, I had a horrible experience on the Dream last year. Yuk. We usually sail Norwegian - so this will be our first on Royal Carribean. Thanks again for all the great info!

 

Thanks for reading! Oh no, I hate to hear you had a bad experience on the Dream. I hope you'll love the Freedom! The only cruise my parents have taken has been Norwegian in a suite, so they're very spoiled and unwilling to try anything else!

[slord12]

Really nice job on this review and timely for me since I just yesterday book this itinerary.

 

Wife and I are smaller ship fans (Enchantment, Explorer) so I'm curious to see what the Freedom class is all about.

 

Thanks for reading! Both my cruises have been on large ships, so I'm excited to see how my first small ship cruise in June will compare (Carnival Sensation). I really enjoyed this eastern itinerary, the stops were beautiful!

[Lynandgio]

We went to Freedom Fest after we shopped and I had one of those roast beef sandwiches everyone talks about! I topped mine with horseradish and mustard, so good!

 

So the Freedom has the same roast beef sandwich as found on the Oasis class?

[cruisinfreedom09]

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!

 

WE had him on our cruise too!!!! He is awesome and So NICE!! He came by our table each night after dinner and all the adults in our party (we had 4 families traveling together) would order the shot of the night and it was always So Nice!! We have a nice collection of shot glasses from that cruise because you get to keep them! I didn't know that on our first Freedom cruise. Anyway, he was a great part of our cruise. We still use the phrase "so nice" to describe things especially when we are longing to cruise again! We also had one of the servers around the pool always saying, "it's sippy, sippy time! Great pictures and great review! Thanks for triggering these great memories!

[slord12]

So the Freedom has the same roast beef sandwich as found on the Oasis class?

 

I'm assuming they're the same..delicious and surrounded by a layer of fat to seal in all the flavor! Freedom Fest was the only time I saw them though.

 

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[slord12]

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!

 

WE had him on our cruise too!!!! He is awesome and So NICE!! He came by our table each night after dinner and all the adults in our party (we had 4 families traveling together) would order the shot of the night and it was always So Nice!! We have a nice collection of shot glasses from that cruise because you get to keep them! I didn't know that on our first Freedom cruise. Anyway, he was a great part of our cruise. We still use the phrase "so nice" to describe things especially when we are longing to cruise again! We also had one of the servers around the pool always saying, "it's sippy, sippy time! Great pictures and great review! Thanks for triggering these great memories!

 

I love hearing how many people met this guy! I think it's so awesome how one person can really make an impression. Thanks for reading!

 

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[akf84]

Loved your review! I have cruised twice on Carnival Pride and Freedom of the Seas will be my first RC cruise in November.

 

My question is about sea turtles! I love them and swimming with them in the ocean is the #1 thing on my bucket list. Which tour would you recommend? We will be on the same itinerary.

[slord12]

Loved your review! I have cruised twice on Carnival Pride and Freedom of the Seas will be my first RC cruise in November.

 

My question is about sea turtles! I love them and swimming with them in the ocean is the #1 thing on my bucket list. Which tour would you recommend? We will be on the same itinerary.

 

Thanks!! You'll love this ship! If you want to see a lot of turtles I'd def recommend going to Tintamarre Island in St Maarten, I saw countless numbers there. I liked my excursion in St Thomas more, just didn't see as many turtles. In St Maarten we went with Captain Alans 6 hour tour. It was still great, just nothing could compare to our day in St Thomas!

 

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[slord12]

I'm out of town for work so I'll finish this up on Friday - and post the video finally!!

 

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[wrcjr98]

Have a safe trip - we'll be waiting when you get back! Your review is my latest addiction!! :)

[Disney Deb]

We are booking this same cruise for Nov 3rd so very very grateful to see all the pictures! My husband and I have done RC cruises twice but this will be my :)Mom's first so we can't wait to share it with her.

[slord12]

Have a safe trip - we'll be waiting when you get back! Your review is my latest addiction!! :)

 

Thanks, I'm finishing it up now!

[slord12]

We are booking this same cruise for Nov 3rd so very very grateful to see all the pictures! My husband and I have done RC cruises twice but this will be my :)Mom's first so we can't wait to share it with her.

 

I love the pictures too, that's my favorite part of all the reviews I read. Enjoy your next cruise, I know your mom will have a great time!

[slord12]

I left off where it was time for our Flowrider lesson!

 

 

We opted for the group lesson, it was $60 per person for an hour. We really wanted to be able to learn some things and get a lot of riding time so this was a great deal to me and worth the price.

 

We arrived about 7:30 to get checked in and our bands put on our wrists. We wound up with a group of 2 kids from Seattle and an older guy who was really trying to get the surfing down. The kids had taken a lesson already and so had the guy. We had a nice fun group. The kids dad agreed to hold my camera and try and get pictures of us - if you're out there, thanks and we appreciated it!

 

Everyone was busy packing or at dinner during our lesson so we really felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. We only had a few people walk by and stop to watch! I really liked having this lesson at night - the lights made it look awesome!

 

The instructors were awesome (I only remember Carter - I can't remember the girls name for the life of me!) and they really encourage to try different things, instead of just the standard boogie boarding (laying down). We had a wonderful time, and Jon even got the stand up surfing on his 2nd try!

 

Now for the fun pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come!

[slord12]

More pictures from the Flowrider lesson!

 

Dropping in backwards - this was so fun!

 

 

 

 

Soon our time was up, and we were tired and hungry! We missed our dining room friends on the last night (poor planning on my part - but I really wanted this Flowrider lesson) so we were planning on making it to the Jammer. By the time we changed clothes though the WJ had shut down for the night, but we remembered we hadn't been to Johnny Rockets there so we excitedly headed over there!

 

 

There were actually several people still in Johnny Rocket's and the food was good to me! I had the fries/onion ring combo and Jon started with chili cheese fries. He ordered some giant burger - the smokehouse maybe? I had the burger with mushrooms, onions, and cheese. Both were huge and tasty. Of course we just HAD to get milkshakes too, so our $4.95 per person cover charge quickly escalated to a $20 bill. We didn't care though, we enjoyed it and that's all that matters. We took a quick walk around the decks since we were so stuffed from dinner. Took a few pretty pictures of the pools at night while up there.

 

 

 

After eating we wanted to spend our last night playing more in the casino as I'd had some good luck earlier. I got back on my machine (Sex in the City) and continued to win. Gina found us and came down and hung out with us until the casino closed around 3am. I walked out with around $500 (I started with $100 and it let me play until closing, gotta love that!). We caught just a few hours of sleep and then were up at 6:45 to self disembark.

 

We skipped breakfast to go ahead and get in line. I thought that Carnival's self disembark process was more organized and layed back. Royal's felt rushed and chaotic, and good Lord people were trying to break in line and cut you off. Anyway, we were back in my car at the Radisson by 7:42am after hopping on the shuttle at the port!

 

We were sad as we drove away and caught that one last glimpse at "our" ship! We're ready to come back soon!

[slord12]

I have a few more pictures I want to post when I get them scanned (the one's we bought from RC). Also, my video has been having major issues uploading to youtube, and I had to start it over uploading last night, so it's still coming, I promise!

[clcurry]

Thanks for the wonderful review! This was just what I needed! My BF and I are doing the same itinerary in May. This is my third cruise and first on an Eastern route.

 

I too don't book ship excursions and am trying to figure out a plan for us in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Thanks for the info on Capt. Pat. I might look into that. The BF and I are introverts and not sure how we'd feel about an intimate charter excursion but your day sounded awesome!

 

Were you able to observe anyone who ordered the all inclusive alcohol packages? We're considering getting the premium one so we can try different fancy drinks w/o having to worry about keeping a daily mental tab.

 

Also...hey, we are from Macon! Nice to see a review from some neighbors. :)

[Redsfan]

Thanks for the info! I'll def have to plan a trip that goes to Half Moon. Aren't the renovating? I've seen posts lately about Carnival using RC's island.

 

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hmmm, not sure I replied to this LOL...when were were there a few years ago they were building the pirate ship on the beach, but I think it's done now. They are also adding some Cabana's I think. Carnival is using RCI's Island for some itin's, but I think it's to replace some stops in Key West for a reason that escapes me. Great, great review still. We are 7 months out but great to read a fantastic review with this ship.

[Jiffymom]

So many ost I'm skimming thu. Yes I am reading the show excursions. I can't find how or where he got seasick relief lol

[AF-1]

Slord12, my my; you did a great job with your review; the pics were awesome; looks like they all loaded up onto cruise critic nicely; and you had a great time. Many people have read your review; and I bet some people booked Freedom of the Seas just by reading your review. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[slord12]

Thanks for the wonderful review! This was just what I needed! My BF and I are doing the same itinerary in May. This is my third cruise and first on an Eastern route.

 

I too don't book ship excursions and am trying to figure out a plan for us in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Thanks for the info on Capt. Pat. I might look into that. The BF and I are introverts and not sure how we'd feel about an intimate charter excursion but your day sounded awesome!

 

Were you able to observe anyone who ordered the all inclusive alcohol packages? We're considering getting the premium one so we can try different fancy drinks w/o having to worry about keeping a daily mental tab.

 

Also...hey, we are from Macon! Nice to see a review from some neighbors. :)

 

Awesome, you'll have a great time! I'd really recommend Captain Pat in St. Thomas, her and Andy are so nice and you'll only be with 4 other people (besides Pat and Andy of course). So even if you are an introvert I think you'd have a wonderful time..drink some rum punch and you'll be good to go! ;) Our excursion in St. Maarten was a lot of fun too, but after St. Thomas anything was going to seem less exciting!

 

I didn't talk to anybody who had the alcohol package so I can't personally comment. I've read several reviews on here of people who did have it though and it seemed almost like a challenge to keep up with drinking an amount to get the moneys worth. But, I could see where it would be nice to be able to order lots of things and not necessarily drink them all but to be able to try different things!

 

I actually work in Macon, too funny!