FREEDOM’s just another word for a really awesome cruise: Sept 22-29, 2013

[ericrz]

Hello! So cruise #6 for my wife and I, and #3 for our 7-year-old daughter Sophie, is in the books. We cruised on the Freedom of the Seas, from Port Canaveral, on the eastern Caribbean itinerary.

 

Our group consisted of the three of us (R and I oh so close to the big 4-0), my parents (in their 60s), and my youngest brother Kevin, his fiancee (both in their 30s), and their 4-year-old son. The trip was made possible by my very generous folks, and we’ll always be grateful for that!

 

We had three D1 balcony cabins on Deck 9 -- 9314, 9316, and 9318. We were able to get the stewards to slide the dividers back, making one large balcony. I really like that -- the kids can go back and forth between the cabins without going into the hallway. (My parents’ room and my brother’s room also had an interior connecting door).

 

We are booze smugglers, and all of our booze made it through. My brother did have a bag sent to the “naughty room” based on a non-alcoholic beverage inside. Will explain that shortly.

 

And away we go….. (I’ve got this entire review written, so each part will pop up in fairly quick succession, as I compile the pictures to post with each. Whole thing should be up in less than an hour.)

[ericrz]

My wife, daughter and I live in Birmingham, Alabama. The other members of my family live in St. Pete. So while they were able to drive over Sunday morning, I don’t feel comfortable flying in same-day. So we flew to MCO mid-afternoon on Saturday.

 

I found a good deal on a rental car through National (I’m an Executive member, so can pay for a midsize and take something better when we get there.) We picked out a nice Ford Flex. Plenty of room for our luggage, and it had leather seats, satellite radio, navigation system, etc. Nice ride.

 

The ride over on the 528/”Beachline” (I grew up in Orlando, and will always remember it as the “Beeline”) was quick and easy. We were getting into Cocoa Beach right around 4PM, so we decided to go straight to Fishlips and try and watch the Carnival Dream and the Disney Fantasy sail away.

 

Luck was with us, and we got an outdoor table at Fishlips, upstairs against the railing. We started off our vacation with some appetizers, a couple of frozen drinks (kid-friendly for Sophie, adult-friendly for Raya!) and a couple of beers for me, and watched those amazing ships pull away. We also briefly saw a manatee in the waters below us, and a pretty decent-sized sea turtle as well. (I was also able to pop inside a couple of times and keep an eye on the Florida football game, as they defeated those hated Tennessee Volunteers!)

 

After that, we headed down A1A to the Best Western Ocean Suites to check in. Registration was quick and easy. We’d reserved a king suite facing the ocean, and it was very nice. Not quite a two-room suite, more of a “half suite” with a living area and the bedroom separated by a half wall. A lovely balcony facing the ocean, and the sofa pulled out into a bed for Sophie.

 

One warning -- the sofa bed was QUITE uncomfortable. Raya and I could easily feel the springs through the thin mattress. Sophie did OK on it, but she only weighs 45 pounds. A larger child, or an adult, might have a hard time getting comfy on that bed!

 

Also: like a lot of beachside hotels, in Cocoa and elsewhere, the BW is made up of a cluster of non-connected buildings. Registration/lobby are in a building by the road, and our room was in the beachside building. Each building had its own parking, which was nice. But I wasn’t comfortable leaving our luggage in the car overnight, which meant we had to drag it all up to the room on Saturday, then on Sunday drag it all back down to the car, load it up, and drive around to the lobby building (where the shuttle picked us up) and then unload it again. Would certainly have been easier to stay in a single-building hotel!!

 

There was quite a party going on at one of the pools that afternoon/evening (the desk clerk even warned me about it) but our room faced the other way and we didn’t hear a peep from inside.

 

After getting the luggage upstairs, we decided to head down to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. I hadn’t been there in a good 20 years, but when I was in high school in Orlando, I was a regular visitor. I’ll always remember that Ron Jon’s sponsored the “surf report” on Orlando radio station WDIZ-100.3: “Waves today are 3-5 feet, fair form, semi-choppy….”

 

We bought a few souvenirs from Ron Jon’s, then stopped at the Publix (directly across the street from our hotel) to pick up some sandwiches for a late dinner. I also popped into Publix’s liquor store to get some Malibu rum to smuggle onboard, and a couple bottles of champagne to legitimately carry onboard.

 

After that, it was time for bed, ready for the next day’s adventure to begin!

 

Pictures from Fishlips, the hotel and Ron Jon’s:

 

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We got up around 8, showered, and went down to have the hotel’s complimentary breakfast buffet (in yet another different building!). It was nothing special, but got the job done. After that, we went down to the beach and walked in the sand for a few minutes -- Sophie had never been to a Florida beach on the Atlantic side, so she was pretty fascinated by the larger waves!

 

Back to the room, we packed up and loaded the luggage, and drove it over to the lobby. I then moved the car to the BW’s “remote lot” where they allow guests to leave their cars parked for the week, free of charge. A three minute walk from the lobby, it’s a lot out by A1A.

 

The shuttle came pretty close to its 10:30 scheduled time. I’d paid $6/person, each way, for the shuttle. There were some BW guests going to each of the three ships departing Canaveral that day -- the FOTS, the Disney Dream, and the Carnival Sensation. The driver loaded the first group, and we headed off to the port. The company was “Cocoa Beach Shuttle,” I think. He had a 15-passenger van with a trailer for luggage.

 

After a quick stop at the Carnival dock, we were next, and we got our first look at the beautiful Freedom of the Seas. The shuttle driver backed us in to a spot and the porters were right there to take our luggage. A quick tip to the driver for his help unloading, and to the porters, and then we grabbed our carryons and headed to the terminal.

 

The lines weren’t too bad -- the pre-security line was the worst, maybe 20 minutes or so. Most of that was inside, so it was OK. After security, we went upstairs to the terminal, where there was a shorter line for Crown & Anchor Gold, which was nice. Less than 5 minutes before we got up to the counter, and we caught up with the other members of my family there.

 

A quick checkin, some signatures, a picture of each of us, and then we had our SeaPass cards and were headed for the ship! This was about 11:30, and people were already boarding, no wait.

 

As we boarded the ship, Sophie and Chris got their mandatory wrist bands. We then decided to send five of our group to the Windjammer to try and claim a table, while my mom, my brother and I went to see if we could drop our carryons in the room. I knew the rooms wouldn’t officially be open until 1, but we had some bulky carryons -- my brother was carrying a garment bag plus Chris’ carseat, my parents had my dad’s CPAP machine, etc.

 

So we rode up to deck 9, went through the closed bulkhead doors, and down to the rooms. It looked like my parents’ and my brother’s room were done, while they were still working on ours. So we just left our carryons in their rooms, and slipped back upstairs to the WJ.

 

We had lunch in the WJ, lines were manageable and not too bad. After lunch, the rooms were ready, and most (though not all) of our luggage had been delivered. We also met our cabin stewards (my folks and brother had the same one, we had a different one) and asked them to have our balcony dividers opened. The had them open by 3:30 or so.

 

We changed into our swimsuits and headed out to the pool deck, where the kids played in the H20 zone for a while. I took a walk and explore the ship a bit -- checked out our table in the deck 3 dining room, walked the promenade, etc. We did the muster drill at four, and then gathered on our nice triple-wide balcony for sail away. We were on the starboard side, so we waved to the folks at Fishlips and Grills before heading past Jetty Park and out to sea! (The Sensation was just ahead of us, and the Disney Dream behind us as we sailed).

 

We had 5:30 dinner, so after sailaway it was more or less time to go. At this point, my brother was still missing one of his bags. Although it didn’t have any booze in it, it did have a large, undisguised bottle of bloody Mary mix. We speculated if a trip to the “naughty room” was in his future….?

 

Down to the dining room, where we had a table of eight all to ourselves. Pretty far at the back of the room, but only two tables over from the window. Our waiter (Ronnie) and assistant waiter (Norris) introduced themselves, and they were fantastic all week. Both Ronnie and the section head waitress (Evangeline) are from the Phillippines, as is my brother’s fiancee. So they all got to talk a bit during the week, and on day 6, we got a nice treat at the dinner table (I’ll explain that later).

 

I didn’t take food porn pictures or notes this week, so I can’t tell you all what I had for every meal. I will say that my parents believe the food on RC to be superior to that on Carnival. I’ll be honest -- in the MDR, I don’t see a big difference. I do think the buffet choices and quality are much better on RCI, however. In any case, we didn’t have a bad meal all week.

 

After dinner, all of us except my folks went down to Adventure Ocean to get the kids registered. The counselors were really nice, and I think the kids had a good time. However, as I posted on another thread, the Explorers room (6-8 year olds) was really, really sports-focused this week. There was a dodgeball or “gaga ball” tournament every single night at 10PM, and all kids in the room had to participate. I don’t love that. Not every kid (my daughter included) is into sports, and I think they should have had alternate activities available, or maybe not played sports every single night.

 

(Other thread is here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1922405 )

 

Still, both kids had fun in AO -- both really loved the pirate parade. We also used the “drop off outside the dining room” feature at least 2, maybe 3 times. Basically, AO staff would be outside the deck 4 dining room at 6:40 every night, and if you brought your kids out to them, they would take them from there. Worked well for my nephew especially, as it’s hard for a 4-year-old to sit still at a dinner table for 90 minutes to 2 hours!

 

After AO, we stopped back by the room. At this point, my brother’s missing bag had not shown up, and he had a message on his phone inviting him to come to Deck 1. Gulp. So after catching up with everyone else in the Schooner Bar for a bit (playing “name that tune” movie trivia), he and I went down to see the “naughty room” for ourselves.

 

We proceeded to the bowels of the ship and found the large storage room, with still 20-30 bags inside. Two crew members were standing at a table -- beneath the table were a few dozen containers of liquor, twelve-packs of beer, etc. Kevin identified his bag, and they put it on the table. They didn’t want to open it -- they made him do it, and poke through until the bottle was uncovered. He tried to claim that he just likes to drink it for breakfast, no alcohol, but they still took it. They gave him a claim slip to get it at the end of the cruise, but he didn’t bother.

 

So I won’t open a whole smuggling thread here, but I’ll say this -- if he’d had two bottles in that bag, he only would have had to surrender one. As soon as they saw “something” against the rules in that bag, they took it. If there’d been another bottle buried in there, they never would have known. The rest of the actual booze, in checked bags, in carryons, and in two small flasks in my own pockets, made it through without incident.

 

Afterwards, I made a brief stop in the casino. Thanks to frequent Vegas trips, I’m a “gold” (middle level) member with MLife, which is the casino club for the MGM chain of properties. They have a recent agreement with Royal Caribbean, which entitled me to a few perks, and I had a letter in the cabin instructing me to come down and meet the host after the casino opened on the first night.

 

I did so, and he was very friendly. He got me signed up for “Club Royale,” and put a sticker on my card, which would have allowed me fee-free cash advances at the casino cage (I never used it). I also got five free drink coupons (good at the casino bar only), a keychain, and a free dinner for two in one of the specialty restaurants onboard. After confirming that I could transfer it to someone else, I let my folks have it, and they enjoyed a nice dinner in Portofino’s on day 3.

 

After all that, it was bedtime for all of us -- early port call in Coco Cay tomorrow!

 

A few pics from our morning on Cocoa Beach:

 

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After breakfast in the WindJammer, we made a quick restroom break before heading to the tenders.

 

Well, it was supposed to be a quick restroom break. Somehow, poor Sophie pinched her fingertip in one of those heavy stall doors. When I sent my mom in to check on Sophie and my wife, to see why they weren’t coming out, she said Sophie was hysterical and wouldn’t come out of the stall. :(

 

The restroom attendant was very sweet, got Sophie a rag and some ice cubes, and eventually they came out. Sophie wouldn’t let me see it for a while, but eventually I looked and it was a black and blue dot on her fingernail. Fortunately, it didn’t break the nail and it didn’t fall off.

 

So after that little bit of excitement, we headed for Deck 1 and the tenders. It was only seven of us going ashore -- my dad, who walks with a cane, wasn’t sure that he could navigate the sands of Coco Cay too well, so he stayed onboard.

 

The tender boarding process was quick, and of course it was just a short ride to the island. What a pretty place. We found some chairs at the snorkeling beach first, then moved a little more down the island to find more shade and a bit more breeze.

 

The Coco Locos were cold, the water was warm, and it was a beautiful day. I rented a floating mat ($12) for the kids to play around on, and we had a lovely day. Lunch was fine, if not spectacular. Bar selections were a bit limited -- basically beer, Coco Locos, and not a whole lot else. No bloody marys, no margaritas.

 

We re-boarded the ship around 2. With everyone else in the rooms, I wandered the ship for a bit. Tried out the adults-only Solarium pool for a while. So nice. Better chairs, quieter atmosphere, closer to a bar, it was gorgeous.

 

This was the first formal night, so we all got cleaned up and headed off to dinner. After dinner, we took some pictures, and then changed and sent the kids off to AO. We once again gathered in the Schooner Bar, which became a favorite spot. My brother and I slipped outside for a while to watch Monday Night Football on the big screen. A neat experience, but the game itself (Denver-Oakland) was a bit of a snoozer, so we didn’t stay too long.

 

We picked up the kids from AO around 11, and then it was off to bed…

[ericrz]

[ericrz]

I spent an hour or so in the casino this morning. Every sea morning, from 9-11AM, all slot / video poker points in the casino were doubled. By the end of the cruise, I had enough points for a free t-shirt, and they’re somehow supposed to credit back to MLife account as well.

 

Otherwise, we spent pretty much all day by the pool, mainly the H20 Zone. We had both breakfast and lunch in the WindJammer. After dinner, we took the kids to the AO drop off point, and hung out somewhere for a couple of hours. Probably Schooner.

 

A tangent here before I go any further. During this cruise, they were doing some serious work on the port side of the pool deck. As of Monday night, the entire port side, from the revolving door at the aft port elevators, the juice bar, and all the port side tables/seating from the H2O Zone, through the main pools, and to the port side solarium entrance was blocked off. The outside entrances to the men’s rooms, at both the solarium side and the aft elevator lobby/WJ side were blocked as well.

 

In effect, this blocked off a good 20-30% of the deck 11 pool deck, and required everyone coming in/out from the WJ or the aft elevators to use the starboard revolving doors. Frustratingly, even the construction workers used the starboard doors when moving supplies in and out. Why couldn’t they use the port side door that was blocked off for passenger use? As you might imagine, there was often a wait for the revolving door (why they don’t just have sliding doors like the solarium, I don’t know. I hate revolving doors.)

 

I wasn’t thrilled with this. I know these ships need periodic work/refurbishment while staying in service. But with the loss of so much seating, the closure of the juice bar (although I doubt we’d have used it much) and the noise from pressure washing and other work over there, we didn’t get the full pool deck experience. And yet we paid the same price as cruisers on other weeks. A minor annoyance.

 

Anyway, we picked up Sophie from AO around 8:30. I’d told her we could see a show that night. So the five of us (minus my parents, who picked up Chris from AO and took him back to the room) headed to the Arcadia Theatre to see a singer named Clint Holmes.

 

I know he is/was a Vegas regular in recent years -- I remember seeing his face on billboards all over town. He put on a pretty great show, singing mostly covers, as well as his only hit, a song from 1973 called "Playground in my Mind."

 

He brought his wife Kelly Holmes on stage for a couple of songs. Apparently, she goes by the name "Kelvis" when doing an Elvis impersonator act in Vegas. I've never seen a female Elvis impersonator, but they did a duet of "Suspicious Minds" which was pretty darn awesome.

 

It was off to bed for us after that, though Kevin & Melba went and saw the “Love and Marriage” show, which they enjoyed.

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We were docking in St. Thomas at noon this day, so we had a lazy sort of morning. Both breakfast and an early lunch in the WJ.

 

We had a Royal Caribbean-sponsored tour this morning, the “Sapphire Beach and Island Drive” tour. Most of us had been to St. Thomas before; on a Carnival cruise in 2003, Kevin, Raya and I went to Trunk Bay on St. John. We thought about that this time, but then decided we didn’t want to take the time for a ferry ride.

 

So we stayed on St. Thomas. We were in an open-air bus with about 20 people. The driver let my dad sit up next to him in the passenger seat of the cab, which was easier for him to climb in and out of.

 

It also meant he got a seatbelt, unlike the rest of us! Driving or riding on STT is an adventure -- first off, driving on the left-hand side makes everything look “wrong” to me. Turning vehicles look like they’re going into oncoming traffic, even though they aren’t.

 

And St. Thomas is mountainous. Like really, really, mountainous. Holy cow. Some of the dropoffs on the side of the road -- wow. There’s only a thin aluminum guardrail separating us from a 500-foot drop. Yikes.

 

The kids loved it, of course. They thought it was grand fun.

 

Anyway, it was about a 30 minute ride to Sapphire Beach, with a couple of stops and photo opportunities. We then pulled into the parking lot at Sapphire Beach, where we met Nigel, the guide there. Our tour price included a chair, a drink, and snorkel equipment for each of us. We had two and a half hours at the beach, and it was gorgeous. There’s a lovely coral reef, and four of us snorkeled out there to chase the fish a bit. The kids stayed closer to shore, played in the water and the sand, and even saw an iguana (a preview of our St. Martin stop, to be sure!)

 

After 2.5 hours, it was back to the open-air bus and the drive back, with a little touring on the way. We stopped at an amazing overlook above the harbor, where we could see the Freedom (the other two ships in port had already left by then). Of course, there were souvenir sellers parked at that outpost, and they were also selling ice cold beer. I love how in the Caribbean, basically there’s always someone selling beer, and there seem to be very few (if any) rules about where and when you can drink them. My brother and mom and I each grabbed a cold one, and we also bought some trinkets for friends back home.

 

We got back to the ship about 5:30-ish. My parents had to hustle off to make their 6:30 Portofino reservation. The other six of us cleaned up and changed, and then we had dinner with the kids in the WJ. We dropped the youngins at Adventure Ocean (it was PJ movie night!), and then met my parents up top in Olive or Twist.

 

It was a little smoky up there, so we moved back down to the Promenade and tried the Bull & Bear for the first time. What a fun spot. If you can get a table on the Promenade, it makes for great people-watching. Loved it.

[ericrz]

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So on the recommendations of many, many reviews here and elsewhere, I booked us a tour with “Bernard’s Tours” for this day. Since there were eight of us sharing the cost, I booked a private tour, figuring that would be easier. We could set our own schedule, leave our bags on the van, etc., etc.

 

We came off the ship and found the yellow info center, just the confirmation email said. We were checked in and paid up quickly, and the guide led us back to the parking lot, where we met our driver, “DJ Dave.”

 

He got us loaded in the van, explained about the cooler full of drinks and told us it was our mission to empty it. Though we didn’t completely kill it, we did get rid of all the beers (mainly my brother and I, with a little help).

 

We more or less stuck to their standard tour, with some time modifications. I asked about Le Gallion beach instead of Orient Bay, as I’d heard that the former is nicknamed the “Children’s Beach.” He agreed that it’s a great beach for kids; but since September is low season on the island, there were no facilities available at Gallion (no chairs, restrooms, or bar). So we kept his recommendations.

 

We stopped at the iguana farm, at the “sea urchin man,” and a few photo stops around the island. Dave was funny and knowledgeable, and we really enjoyed the tour.

 

Around 10:30 we arrived at Orient Beach. Dave led us in to the “La Playa” beach club and explained that we could rent chairs/umbrellas for $5/each, which also came with a free drink. We rented two pairs of chairs -- Chris was napping at this point, so we let him and my Dad have a shady spot and we rotated in and out of the water.

 

We’d originally told Dave we would leave at 12:00, but when Kevin and Melba decided to make a quick parasailing trip, we extended to 12:30. They said the views were amazing.

 

Dave had called ahead to arrange a table for us at Rosemary’s in Marigot. We had an amazing lunch there, really fresh fish and cold beer. After just a bit of browsing in the open-air market, it was back in the van and off to Maho Beach.

 

Now. I already discussed this in another post here on CC, but I’ll mention it again. When we started the tour, I told Dave I really wanted to see a plane land at Maho. He said he didn’t know the arrival schedule, but he could check with one of the other drivers, either via phone or when we saw them in passing. We did encounter other Bernard’s groups, at the iguana farm, the sea urchin man, and at La Playa. I never double-checked with Dave to see if he’d verified the arrival schedules. But apparently, he didn’t.

 

We got to Maho around 3PM, and the 3:05 JetBlue plane had come in a few minutes early, and we’d missed it. (Dave didn’t know it was 3:05, as he was checking the arrival “surfboard” just like I was). There wasn’t another arrival scheduled until 4PM, and none of us felt safe waiting that long.

 

As I said in the other thread, I feel that this was a 50/50 split, as far as blame goes, between myself and Dave. I easily could have printed out the arrival schedule myself. I didn’t bother, because every review I’ve read of Bernard’s says their drivers know the schedule and get you there in time. I also never followed up with Dave, which I could have.

 

But I really shouldn’t have had to. He should have either known the schedule from the get-go, or he should have checked on it, like he said he would. Seeing at least one landing at SXM was something I really, really, really wanted to do.

 

So I was pretty cranky about it for a few minutes. I’d organized this tour for my family, everyone had a great time, but now we just (by 10 minutes or less!) missed the one thing I really wanted to see. We easily could have left La Playa or Marigot a bit earlier, or skipped one of the picture-taking overlooks. But we just didn’t know.

 

(Other post is here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=40147767&postcount=193 )

 

Anyway, in a few minutes I had another beer and remembered I was on vacation on a beautiful Caribbean island with my family, so I got over it. But next time, I’m planting myself at Sunset Bar for a couple of hours!!

 

We got back to the Freedom around 4PM, changed, and headed off to dinner. Afterwards, we dropped the kids at Adventure Ocean, and promised we’d see them during the pirate parade! We claimed an outside table in the Bull & Bear and played some cards while we waited. We were all pretty tired; it was kind of difficult to stay awake until 9:30 when the kids came by!

 

The pirate parade was a blast. The kids had their faces painted, and were wearing their own decorated bandanas. The AO counselors led them marching down deck 5, chanting pirate songs, and they stopped outside Sorrento’s and did a whole dance number. It was really cool to see, and both Sophie and Chris loved it!

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We all got up early this morning to have our Dreamworks “character breakfast” in the MDR. It was very cute, and Sophie loved it. She drew pictures of all three characters we saw (Alex, King Julien, Gloria) and the King Julien character especially made a big deal about her drawing skills.

 

Chris was a bit disappointed not to see Shrek. I did think it was a bit strange to have all three characters from the same film series (“Madagascar,” in this case.) If a kid like Chris hasn’t seen those movies, he won’t recognize the characters. I was pretty surprised that Shrek didn’t make an appearance.

 

Anyway, we had a fairly lazy day. Most of us, in turns, retired to the room for a nap throughout the day, and otherwise we just hung out by the pool. Sophie got a chance to meet Shrek up above the H20 zone on Deck 12, though she couldn’t hug him while wearing a wet bathing suit!!

 

But before dinner, Shrek and Fiona had a photo op on the Promenade, so we caught up with them there and took a lovely family photo. :D

 

Tonight was our second formal dinner, and the Filipino staff had some surprises for us (but mainly Melba). They brought us all kinds of treats in addition to our regular meals. There were some delicious cheesy sweet rolls on the table when we sat down. Later, the waiters brought us huge bowls of rice, chicken adobo, and some sort of noodle/shrimp dish. Everything was great, but we’d already eaten our meals, and so no one ate too much. Ronnie promised us it wouldn’t go to waste -- the crew would enjoy the leftovers!!

 

Afterwards, I kept a promise I made to Sophie. I told her I’d take her out by the pool at 8PM to watch “Teen Beach Movie” on the big screen. She’s seen it a few times, and loves it -- she even has (and wore!) her own “Teen Beach Movie” t-shirt to watch the movie. She sat on the edge of the pool with her feet in the water most of the time, and I sat on a lounger and alternately watched the movie (which is fairly clever) and read my book.

 

Afterwards, I dropped her at AO (that was part of our deal!) and met the rest of the adults in the karaoke bar. Just caught the end of the session, the last four people or so. No one in our group had signed up, as the session filled up quickly. I wish they would restrict people to one song signup per person, for at least the first half of the session or something. Not really fair to let people single multiple songs when others get none.

 

Also, we were curious to try the “karaoke booths” at the back of the lounge, but they were out of service this cruise and always locked.

 

After the karaoke, we headed in to Studio B for The Quest. It was our first time seeing it -- what can I say about it that hasn’t already been said? We sat way up behind the seats at one of the tables, and so we didn’t participate, just watched. But it was hilarious, mainly because of the antics of cruise director Richard Spacey, but also thanks to our fellow passengers. If you haven’t seen it, go -- but don’t be easily offended!!

 

We picked up the kids from AO and headed off to bed.

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Sigh. The last day. Always a bit melancholy. I really want to do a B2B someday, just to be one of the few people who isn’t depressed on day 7. I’ve convinced Sophie as well, she kept saying “we have to do a back to back someday.” :D

 

We slept in until after 9, and had a late breakfast. No one was really sure what they wanted to do today. I think the kids were both a little sick of the pool / swimming. I went to the casino for a while in the late morning with my mom, earned enough Club Royale points for a t-shirt, woo hoo! (I came back from the casino about $100 ahead, which was a nice surprise).

 

Later in the morning, I took Sophie to the arcade, which I’d been promising to do all week. We played some air hockey, some Skeeball, and she earned enough tickets to get a few trinkets from the prize machine.

 

Soph & Chris watched a movie in my parents’ room for a couple of hours, and ordered some room service pizza and cookies. Raya and I went to a late lunch in the WJ, and then wandered the promenade shops for a bit, before getting a half an hour or so in the Solarium, just so we could test out those comfy, comfy loungers.

 

On our way back to the room, we checked out the Sports Deck for the first time. I wish I’d made more of an effort to get on the FlowRider sometime during the week -- boogie boarding only, I’m not standing up on that thing!

 

We went back to the room and finished the annoyance of packing our suitcases, getting it mostly done before dinner. We headed down to the Promenade around 5:10 to see the “Move it Move it Parade.” I had no idea what a big deal this was. The Promenade was packed when we got down there. We tried to stand out of the way, but then a (fairly rude) crew member made us move. We ended up sort of roped in right in front of some people sitting at the Cafe Promenade. I didn’t want to block their view, so I sat on the floor with the kids while the others stood in the back.

 

The parade was very cool, and the kids loved it. Richard came down on the middle “bridge” and danced and acted goofy up there. It was a good time.

 

Our last dinner in the MDR followed, and we said our goodbyes to Ronnie and Norris. Chris fell asleep at the dinner table, and so Kevin carried him as the whole group moved down to the Schooner Bar. It was Classic Rock name that tune this night, and we got a pretty good score -- 37 out of 40. Unfortunately, someone else got a perfect 40, so no prizes for us.

 

The rest of our group headed back to the cabins to finish packing. Raya, Sophie and I headed for the “Farewell Show” in the Arcadia. It was pretty entertaining. Some funny videos, some shtick from Richard, a couple of amazing trapeze artists, and a really funny comedian/juggler. Good times.

 

Back to the room for us, we packed our last-minute things, put the luggage in the hallway, said goodnight to everyone else, and headed off to bed. The ship was a bit rocky this night, and our (now empty) hangers were clanging around in the closet a little bit. This was my worst night of sleep on the ship.

[ericrz]

[ericrz]

By the time we woke up, we were in Port Canaveral. Sigh. We’d requested an 8AM departure, so we headed down to the MDR around 7:15 for breakfast. Once we finished, they’d already called our zone, so we headed off the ship, all a little gloomy about it.

 

Luggage and customs were both fairly quick and easy. We snagged a porter and he piled an amazing amount of luggage on a single cart. We tipped him well for his efforts. He delivered our luggage to the passenger pickup area just across the street.

 

While the ladies and kids waited for us, my dad, Kevin and I caught the Avis shuttle. I had paid for a round-trip shuttle back to the Best Western for Raya, Sophie and I. But somehow during the course of the week, I lost my return shuttle ticket. So I hitched a ride on the Avis shuttle, and then Kevin drove me in their rental car just a half mile down the road to the BW to get my rental. We drove back in tandem to the port, loaded up the luggage and the rest of our people, and had lots of hugs and kisses as we said goodbye.

 

While the five of them headed back to St. Pete, we headed to Orlando. I grew up there, and still have lots of high school friends there. I’d made arrangements to meet a friend, along with her four-year-old daughter, at the Orlando Science Center. That’s a great place, and I hadn’t been since I was a kid and it was the John Young Science Center. (It’s been completely torn down and rebuilt since).

 

We had a great couple of hours at OSC with them, and then had lunch with them at a great, funky burger place called “Burgerfy” on Park Avenue in Winter Park, just outside Orlando. After lunch, we had to head for the airport. We said our goodbyes, filled up the car with gas, dropped it at National, dragged our luggage inside, and flew home! (Security line at MCO was about 15 minutes, which is pretty decent for that airport!)

[ericrz]

So this was Raya and my sixth cruise, second on RCI, all the others on Carnival. Our first RCI cruise was in 2006, when Raya was pregnant, a quick 3-nighter with some friends on the Sovereign of the Seas. Due to high winds/waves, we missed both of our port calls and basically had a 72-hour, rocky “cruise to nowhere.” Not great.

 

This was a much better experience. Weather was perfect, islands were beautiful, everyone got along and had a great time.

 

My mom really wanted us to get the true Royal Caribbean experience, and I think we did. Food was great -- though as I mentioned, I think the MDR is about equivalent to Carnival. Staff were fantastic for the most part, though a couple were quick to get defensive when we questioned something.

 

Didn’t love the maintenance work on the pool deck. Didn’t love all the physical games and sports emphasis in Adventure Ocean. I think Sophie enjoyed Camp Carnival more. But this week’s sports emphasis in AO sounds like something outside the norm, maybe just the preferences of the staff currently working on Freedom.

 

The Freedom is a gorgeous ship. So well-designed, we hardly ever waited in a line. I think that’s one place where RCI beats Carnival handily. They seem to be able to handle crowds much, much better. I also think you see a bit of a “higher class” of passengers on RCI. I don’t mean to sound elitist, but Carnival has the reputation as the “Walmart of the Seas,” and I think that’s fairly accurate. RCI is more like Target. :D

 

So would we cruise RCI again? Definitely. But we’d also cruise Carnival again, if price and timing and itineraries were better. And while Sophie is still fairly young and into princesses and fairies, I’d really like to try a Disney cruise sometime. Even if it’s just a 3- or 4-night cruise tacked on to a Florida visit with my family, I’d like her to experience that.

 

Thanks for reading all this! Any specific questions re. the Freedom or our ports, I’ll be happy to do my best to answer!

 

Also: I compiled the little bit of video we took (some from iPhones, some from a digital camera -- some portrait, some landscape) into a couple of YouTube videos, which you can see here:

 

[cruzeluver]

Great review, thanks for posting! Got me missing one of my favorite ships.

[fpcruiser]

Sorry about your second place finish in classic rock trivia. We were the team with the perfect 40 score.

I am glad you enjoyed your cruise, we also had a very good time.

 

No one at our table was impressed with the singer and his wife. Although he did work his tailend off performing.

[ericrz]

Sorry about your second place finish in classic rock trivia. We were the team with the perfect 40 score…..

 

You guys kicked butt. There were a couple of tricky ones on there. Us and the table next to us both got 37s, but we missed different things.

[njmomof2]

Enjoyed your review. We sailed her end of August on the Eastern as well.

 

I know you really wanted to see the planes land at Maho, and we did it last year when we sailed Freedom, but I don't think it's that much of a thrill. Maybe because I grew up in NYC and every summer weekend during my childhood, drove to Atlantic Beach along Rockaway Turnpike that ran along the back end of JFK, and all of the jumbo jets flew on the last bit of final approach right over your head. Somehow other than the take offs (which was cool as the backwash comes across the road) it wasn't that thrilling. But that's just me.

 

Sorry that you didn't hit the sports deck earlier. We spend most of our week up there, with both boys on the Flowrider and one of the boys up the rock wall all the time. We also love the ice skating rink. We don't do AO, as my older one is almost 16 and my younger one (11) doesn't have much interest in meeting other kids (although somehow he always manages on the last night LOL!).

 

I love National and wish they had an office in Cocoa Beach for drop off so I could use the Emerald Aisle as well, but they don't so I haven't rented from them in quite a while (since I stopped doing Disney 3x per year). If I got a good enough rate for the week, with free parking, it makes sense to keep the car, but most of the hotels have a higher park and sleep package so a one night rental, with a rental shuttle drop off, makes more sense for us.

 

Thanks for your review.

[usckatieh]

Thanks for the review! I have a daughter about the same age as your and we are considering the Freedom next so your perspective was really helpful! Thanks!