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Back from Freedom of the Seas!

caral2004
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caral2004

caral2004

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Hello all!

 

We sailed on Freedom of the Seas from March 2 to March 9! We did have a wonderful cruise and I would like to share our experiences with you since this forum helped me to plan this cruise.

If you do have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me and I will do my best to answer you.

Also please note that I am French and English is my second language so you will see mistakes in my writing and I do apologize for this.

 

First, we are a family of 3 : myself, my husband and our teenager who did celebrate his 16 birthday on the cruise!

 

Prior to the cruise

We left home on Friday morning - we met a family at the airport talking about their upcoming cruise - funny we were on the same cruise! That was nice! We were on the same flight to go in Florida and to come back home after the cruise.

 

So we arrived in Orlando around 14h30 on Friday. We already reserved a car at Hertz so we drove from the airport to Cocoa Beach where we already booked an hotel room for 2 nights.

 

After a nice drive, windows opened to feel the warm weather - note that we are from Quebec Canada and the winter is very very cold here! - we arrived in Cocoa beach.

Our hotel was the Best Western Cocoa Beach where we had a Ocean Front View in the building directly on the beach on the 7 floor!

Before checking in we stopped to the liquor store and the grocery store - both are few blocks away from the hotel.

 

Our comments on the Hotel in Cocoa Beach - The Best Western

Good location - the hotel has different buildings and one is directly on the beach. This is where our room was.

Clean hotel

Nice welcome at the lobby

We had a fridge in our room and this is always a value for us

We had a balcony where we can sit, have a drink and look to the beach and the ocean.

Breakfast is included in the room rate - this is also great for us.

Of course, this is not a luxury hotel but for us it was perfect to rest before the cruise. Especially since we are in the room only to sleep or just relax on the balcony before dinner and after.

Some restaurants are blooks away from the hotel, like the Cocoa Beach Pier with his restaurants - where we had our 2 dinners.

My only disappointment of my room was the balcony door: I would prefer to have a patio door in order to keep it open. I was happy when my husband found a way and succeed in leaving the big heavy door open! But this is a small detail.

 

 

So after checking in at the hotel, we went on the beach of course! it was very windy and chilly but we were finally on vacation in a warm weather! Our son did swim in the big waves!

 

First Dinner : Atlantic Ocean Grill at the Cocoa Beach Pier

We were happy with the view on the ocean - we had a table directly near the big windows.

Excellent food - but too much for us for that night since we were very tired.

Good seafood! The lobster tails were excellent!

We walked back to the hotel by the beach.

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just erica

just erica

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Thanks so much for starting this review! My family and I will be sailing on Freedom this November. It will be our first cruise and first vacation so we are very excited!!! We are from Ontario and this winter has been absolutely brutal for all Canadians....so glad you got to spend some time in the warm weather!

Looking forward to the rest of your review...

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just erica

just erica

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Oh I forgot to ask you, we have a teenage son as well and I am hoping that he will enjoy his time onboard. What did you find your son liked the most? any good tips from him on getting the most out of the ship?

Thanks again!

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tidygirl

tidygirl

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Oh I forgot to ask you, we have a teenage son as well and I am hoping that he will enjoy his time onboard. What did you find your son liked the most? any good tips from him on getting the most out of the ship?

Thanks again!

 

We were on FOS in Sept with young adult kids the son,(24) son-in-law (23) and hubby (47) fell in love with the flowrider, enjoyed playing on the volleyball teams,(even talked the 2 girls into that!)played mini golf and did the rock climbing wall. As you can see our family is very active and don't like to lounge around!

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A2Mich

A2Mich

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Hello all!

 

 

Also please note that I am French and English is my second language so you will see mistakes in my writing and I do apologize for this.

 

 

 

With all due respect, with you being French Canadian, your English usage is considerably better than many where English is their only language....:)

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caral2004

caral2004

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I am very excited to hear about what you thought of freedom, did it evr feel crowded? Did your son experience long waits to surf or rock climb? Did you find her too big and things too far? TIA!

 

Depending on the time you are at the rock climb, sometime no wait at all! A bit different for the Surf but the wait was not too long and while you are waiting you are looking to others trying to surf and it is very funny and exciting to see that so that helps.

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caral2004

caral2004

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Thanks so much for starting this review! My family and I will be sailing on Freedom this November. It will be our first cruise and first vacation so we are very excited!!! We are from Ontario and this winter has been absolutely brutal for all Canadians....so glad you got to spend some time in the warm weather!

Looking forward to the rest of your review...

 

Thanks Erica!

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caral2004

caral2004

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Yay! Can't wait to read the rest! I am travelling with my 16 yo son in August so I am especially interested in your sons experience!

 

Ok I will include activities we did and activities my son did as well.

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caral2004

caral2004

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Oh I forgot to ask you, we have a teenage son as well and I am hoping that he will enjoy his time onboard. What did you find your son liked the most? any good tips from him on getting the most out of the ship?

Thanks again!

 

Every evening after dinner, with the compass and the Teen Schedule we received every night in the room, my son was planning his time. He did a lot of activities with us since we are a very a close family and we enjoy spending a lot of time all together. So on the ship, we played mini golf, ping pong, shuffleboard, did some karaoke, went to shows and other activities. But he also participate in activities with other teenagers like the basketball and soccer tournament. And of course the Surf is very popular and the climbing wall. For the surf, even if he did not feel to surf, he liked a lot to be there watching to others so we took some sun sometime watching others surfing! There is also video games (arcade)...he had a budget that he could spend there, but nothing, he spent nothing there because of all other things he could do! In my review, you will also see activities that we did on shore as well!

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mulan1123

mulan1123

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Thanks so much for starting this review! My family and I will be sailing on Freedom this November. It will be our first cruise and first vacation so we are very excited!!! We are from Ontario and this winter has been absolutely brutal for all Canadians....so glad you got to spend some time in the warm weather!

Looking forward to the rest of your review...

 

I can agree on our Canadian winter this is year brutal!!

 

I will be on Freedom in November as well, with my parents and brother! This will be my second cruise, I went on Oasis last year and LOVED it!

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DrD

DrD

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I am trying to figure how to put pictures here...so you can see the view from our room. :)

I will continue my review in few days....

 

Hi, the best way I've found is to use a free hosting service like photobucket. Once you've posted pictures the site will generate a link which you can then copy and past into your post and the picture shows up nicely. Use the one called "IMG." Just be aware if you later delete the picture from photobucket your post will have a broken link.

 

 

Est c'est vrai, votre anglais est magnifique.

 

Thanks for the review. As you can see below I'm going soon (for the second time.)

Edited by DrD
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