Freedom of the Seas Cruise March 9th-16th; A cruise of firsts

[Yorkvillain]

Great, great, great review! Love it. It's been a few years since I have been on the Freedom but in 5 months I will make my return.

 

My plan in the meantime is to continue reading your great review, bookmark it and then re-read it again about a month before we sail.

 

I thought Portofino was already replaced by Giovanni's. I'm glad to hear that it hasn't been yet.

[shelbylook]

I had total plans on being there, but I slept right through it! I napped a huge amount that day. I blame it on the rain...lol

 

I asked around at the meet and mingle for you. I really wanted to meet you!

 

Joyce said you asked about me and I felt better because she said you'd be at the slot pull. :( We'll just have to try again sometime!!

 

Cathy

[tdmullins]

Great, great, great review! Love it. It's been a few years since I have been on the Freedom but in 5 months I will make my return.

 

My plan in the meantime is to continue reading your great review, bookmark it and then re-read it again about a month before we sail.

 

I thought Portofino was already replaced by Giovanni's. I'm glad to hear that it hasn't been yet.

 

Thank you for the kind words! I know how excited I get reading other people's reviews and I just hoped to pass that on some.

 

I wish I was going back on her in 5 months!!

[gmcmilla]

Any chance you have any Cruise Compass's you could share?

[nolesrule]

Something else I had bought pre-cruise was the classic romance package. It was to include a bottle of champagne, cupcakes, a special menu breakfast in your room, a photo of your choice from the cruise and picture frame. It was to be delivered to our stateroom on the first day. All that I had got so far was the card saying that I had purchased it with a message to Tony that I had wrote when I ordered it.

 

What is it about those romance packages? We had a similar problem when we ordered the Ultimate Romance package on Jewel of the Seas last year. We never got special breakfast menu or the picture/frame voucher, nor the flowers. I'm not sure how many times we had to trek to guest services before we finally got everything resolved. I devoted most of my comment space to that on the comment card.

[dmndlil]

More please! We are sailing on Freedom on May 18th :D

[Jessicalice]

loving this review

[slyther]

Love this.. we sail Freedom 4/20

[tdmullins]

Any chance you have any Cruise Compass's you could share?

 

I do have them. I will try to get them scanned and put on here.

[tdmullins]

What is it about those romance packages? We had a similar problem when we ordered the Ultimate Romance package on Jewel of the Seas last year. We never got special breakfast menu or the picture/frame voucher, nor the flowers. I'm not sure how many times we had to trek to guest services before we finally got everything resolved. I devoted most of my comment space to that on the comment card.

 

That's funny...I ordered that package on the Jewel and it all went perfect. Robes, flowers, champagne, cupcakes were all in the room when we go there. But that was a year ago, I wonder if something has changed that has thrown everything out of whack?

[proudpatriot07]

We leave on April 20 and I am loving your review (even though I've already been on the FOTS it is still so fun to read about). Thanks for posting it!

[tdmullins]

I woke up as we were entering the channel to the port. So I watched as we sailed in for a little while.

 

 

 

 

Instead of ordering anything from room service I thought I would just run down to the promenade cafe and see what kind of breakfast sandwiches they were offering. They weren't. They only had some donuts and a few pastries. So I went ahead and went up to the windjammer to grab us some thing to eat before we got off the ship.

 

When I walked through the door, Tony was sitting on the couch with a tray from room service in front of him. Yep, you guessed it..our special breakfast that was supposed to be delivered on Friday. So now I had a plate full of food from the Windjammer and all of this other food. I was pretty mad and decided to call them. They didn’t seem happy but said they would put a note on the order saying it was Friday. I reminded them that they confirmed the day and time with me when I placed the order, that I just wasn't changing my mind or something.

 

We left the ship a little before noon. We stopped and took the “life preserver” picture. I try to get at least one of these a cruise, in a new port. It's kinda a thing now.

 

 

My plans were to grab one of the free trolleys and head to the forts. I couldn't see trolley stop #1 that was supposed to be right outside of the cruise terminal. So we walked down the street some trying to see if we could find the trolley or any of the stops. I did read that it was good to walk down the street some and grab it at #14 to avoid all

Edited April 1, 2014 by tdmullins

[tdmullins]

Sorry all I totally screwed up my last post trying to get video to work.

 

So let me start it again.

 

 

 

 

 

My plans were to grab one of the free trolleys and head to the forts. I couldn't see trolley stop #1 that was supposed to be right outside of the cruise terminal. So we walked down the street some trying to see if we could find the trolley or any of the stops. I did read that it was good to walk down the street some and grab it at #14 to avoid all the people trying to get on at #1. We found #14 and a trolley pulled in seconds later. It was a nice open air trolley that took us around the city. By the way did I mention they were free? So it was nice open air transportation that pretty well allowed you to see the city as you were going...for free. We decided to go straight to EL Morro.

 

 

Some video I shot while riding the trolley.

 

[YOUTUBE]NnZP-mwRPNU[/YOUTUBE]

Edited April 1, 2014 by tdmullins

[tdmullins]

We got off at the trolley stop at the end of the driveway to the fort. We wanted to get some pictures there, but the trolley does travel all the way to the entrance if you choose to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2014 by tdmullins

[tdmullins]

After El Morro, we jumped back on the trolley and headed back into the city. The buildings are just so colorful and it was a pleasant trip.

 

 

 

A HAL ship peaking through the buildings. We actually saw this ship arrive to San Juan while we were at the fort.

 

 

 

[tdmullins]

After El Morro, we jumped back on the trolley and headed back into the city. I had researched restaurants and decided I wanted to eat at Barrachina's. I told my husband that we needed to get off at trolley stop #9. We passed #3, then drove awhile. Next thing we see is #12. I was like what happened to all the other numbers? So we jumped off there and went on our own. Much to my husbands embarrassment I pulled out my trolley map to see where we ended up and how far away the restaurant was. He HATES this. For some reason my map reading in public drives him crazy. He says that it puts a lost tourist target on my head..lol. At this point I was a little frustrated because THERE WERE NO STREET SIGNS!!! If they did have them, they were placed where I wasn't looking. I kinda just went by the trolley stops to find my around the map..lol. But we found Barachinna pretty quickly, considering everything. The host said it would be a 30 minute wait or longer. But people must have left because we were seated within 15 minutes.

 

We were seated in the outside area. This is the bar out there.

 

 

 

 

It was delicious! Made me regret not ordering one for myself!

 

We ordered the Special sampler for two.

 

 

We loved it. It had coconut crusted calamari, grouper fingers, turnovers (chicken), stuffed fried plantains, croquettes and corn fritters. My favorite was the grouper fingers with the corn fritters not far behind. The sampler was available for four...I almost wished we had ordered that..lol.

 

After eating we walked around and did some shopping as we made our way back to the ship. It was a wonderful walk. The weather was nice with a constant breeze, so it really was a pleasant day to walk around.

 

 

 

 

I got flagged going through security because I had bought these little wooden swords to take home to my three nephews. I am not sure what they must have looked like on the screens, but I got the whole.” I am going to have to check your bag.” LOL. She looked at them and just told me to not take them out of my room. My second bag then got flagged because of my GoPo's monopod. I assume it looked like a weapon.

 

Once back on board I went up to the pool deck and took some pics of San Juan from there.

 

 

Fort San Cristobel. You can see how close it actually is to the pier. On a beautiful day like today it would be a pleasant walk.

 

 

Before we leave San Juan here is some video I shot while at the fort.

 

[YOUTUBE]ZdFeljBoXxE[/YOUTUBE]

Edited April 1, 2014 by tdmullins

[Panto pen]

Great review Terri and the photos are excellent - really wetting the appetite for our summer cruise on Freedom this year - thank you for taking the time and effort to be so meticulous and informative - looking forward to the rest!

[Dawniepoo]

Great review so far. Thank you!

[tdmullins]

Back in the room we decided to hang out on our balcony, read some and just enjoy the nice weather. Both of us fell asleep and ended up napping for an hour! It was 5:25. Back on board was at 5:30. So I stayed out there to watch and see if we had any pier runners. We did. It was only about 5:35 when the last few showed up. But the captain sounded the horn right at 5:30. I told Tony that I bet those guys crapped themselves a little when they heard that horn.

 

 

We sailed away at around 6. We just stayed out on the balcony, took pictures and filmed going by the fort.

 

 

 

 

Here is the video I shot while we sailed past the fort. I love how the ship casts a shadow across the fort.

 

[YOUTUBE]f3vcRCw5VmA[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

After passing the fort, I headed to the shower to get ready for dinner. Earlier that day I had called to change our MTD. To 7 instead of 8 because I had reservations for the ice show at 9. When I called she told me that I had canceled my MTD reservations online before we sailed. I informed her that I had only canceled the one night we had Portofino's reservations. I asked her if us not coming the night before would cause them to cancel and she said no. But gave me 7:15. But as we were sitting on the deck later we decided to do the windjammer again. It was turning into a laid back cruise for us. And we had really enjoyed eating there the night before. So I just called and canceled our reservations.

 

We ate in the Jade area again tonight. I actually loved the causal atmosphere yet it was totally different than lunch. The lights are turned down and they serve you green tea. Someone is always around to get you drinks or take away plates.

 

From there we decided to stroll down to the promenade to take some time before we headed to the ice show. I ran into THE SALE. It was the Micheal Kors sale and it was set to start in 10 minutes. So I got in the middle of it all and grabbed me a new purse at 25% off. Poor ole hubby could only stand there and let me go for it....remember the spa incident? Well my purse cost less than that, so he had no way he could complain...hahaha.

 

 

That little shopping spree only took about 15 minutes of my time total, and we continued on to the ice show from there. When we arrived at the Studio B doors, they were shut with a sign that said closed for rehearsals. We stood there for awhile even tho we felt that being so close to show time something wasn't right. But since Studio B is right beside of On Air we decided to listen to some karaoke for a bit while we waited to see what was going on.

 

Speaking of Karaoke, which by the way, we don't go to a lot or really any, isnt it funny that its about the only place you can get away with singing badly? Some people were good, some just horrible...lol. This one poor guy missed the whole first line to Summer of '69. But somehow squeezed it in there anyhow.

 

But lets get back to the Ice show. About 10 or more had come up to the doors, looked then turned around and left. I finally asked someone and they told me that the Ice Show was the next night,Thursday night. I told Tony that I wasn't sure which night it said when I reserved it online before we left because I had forgot to print it off. But I knew it was either the day we were in San Juan or the next day when we were in St Maartin. Either way I knew it was 9:00, and that I would just watch the cruise compass and just go then. I told Tony that I knew I had read somewhere on the cruise compass that the ice shows were on Tuesday and Wednesday, but maybe I was going crazy.

 

So we just left deciding I would figure out where I went wrong later. We headed back to the Promenade and spent some time at the Bull & Bear.

 

 

All week long I had asked bartenders about the shorter glasses that margaritas come in, but everyone was out. On our way to the Promenade we stopped in the Schooner bar to see if they had them yet. The bartender mumbled something like he didn't know but did muster up some enegry to ask one of the waitstaff that just kinda mumbled no. I just dont them that I would go to another bar. They pretty well could have cared less if I stayed there or not.

 

I shared all of this to let you know that I asked the same question to the waiter at Bull & Bear, and his response was. “ If we don’t, then I will find you one!” Ok this is what I call service!!! But man he was gone a LOOONNGG time and I started to feel really bad. Just when I started thinking, “He's not coming back”, here he came down the promenade waving my glass! I loved this man! He told me he had to go to three different bars to find one. I tipped this man very generously because what he did was way above the call of duty.

 

We enjoyed sitting at the Bull & Bear and enjoying a drink. It's right in the middle of the action of the Promenade. They also offer a wide range of bears and ales that are not available at other bars. For those hard cider drinkers they do offer Strongbow at this bar.

 

BTW, remember me mentioning the guy that acted like he was stealing our table the first day? The guy I pegged would be the “one”. Him and his family came and sat down at a table next to us at the Bull & Bear. So I hadn't actually hit the nail on the head with him since three days into the cruise before I saw him again.

 

We left there and headed to the room, deciding it was going to be another early night for us.

 

 

 

I did take the time to look back over the Cruise Compasses to see where I went wrong with the Ice Show. I looked all through that days and I could not find a word about the Ice Show. So I was really starting to question myself. But then I looked back at Tuesday's and it said this.....

 

 

So I am not as crazy I thought!

[riclop]

Loving your review. Thanks.

[mulan1123]

Your review is getting me excited for my cruise on Freedom in November!!!!

 

Love your pictures :)

[EmpressofPurple]

A cake at the entrance of the Windjammer.

 

 

I love seeing this display!! I was commenting to my daughter that they didn't have the wonderful fruit carvings to welcome us onboard the Explorer (3/21-28) last week... although I did see great fruit carving demonstrations onboard, and as the week went forward more carvings (covered with plastic wrap) appeared in the Windjammer...

 

... but we never had that wonderful "welcome aboard" display like this one!! I always love that, feel like you've really arrived somewhere special.

 

(It was amazing watching the sole fruit carver create beautiful roses and other flowers from watermelons, pineapples, melons... and others construct animals by using long wooden skewers to connect cut pieces of fruit, like the ones in your photo, into bears, etc. I love food demonstrations!!)

 

Thanks for sharing these great photos, I've just started reading your review but so far I'm loving it. I've never been on a Freedom-class ship, and it looks just beautiful.

[mickeycrz03]

LOVING your review. DH has given me the go ahead to make vacation plans for just the 2 of us in Sept. I am leaning towards booking a cruise on Freedom of the Seas based on your review. Can't wait to read more.

[murfturf]

We were on Freedom the year before, so I am loving reading your review. Everything was very similar until I saw you were in San Juan! We did St. Thomas instead after CocoCay. I love San Juan!

 

I also loved Jade - we did it the first night especially since my stomach wasn't adjusted to the movement of the sea. The soup and tea made for a perfect dinner for me.

 

Subscribing!

[singingslp]

You are awesome at writing reviews. We are sailing on the Freedom in June. Can you tell me about the Soda machine? Is it only soda? What about lemonade or fruit punch? Is it true that you must scan a micro chip in your mug and fill up? Also, how much are the cupcakes at the cupcake place?

 

 

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Melody