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Freedom of the Seas - A family review 2/8/2015

wilmingtech

By wilmingtech,
in Royal Caribbean International

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bobmacliberty "Live from...." Rare

bobmacliberty

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I'm definitely following along. We're on Freedom in June and it will be very interesting to get your first time perspective. I loved how you described what the kids wanted from the cruise. I envisioned you writing down what they said word for word. My daughters were 12 and 15 when we cruised Liberty of the Seas and they had a great time doing all of the teen stuff.

 

You also have my admiration...4 kids in a motor coach. :eek: Have a great cruise!

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wilmingtech Great Review Rare

wilmingtech

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With you staying at the Best Western, Did they have a shuttle for you and how quick and easy was that?

They do have a shuttle but we dropped everyone off with our van at the port and I am planning on parking the van and taking an Uber back.

 

I believe it is $10pp RT for a shuttle from best western includes all your bags.

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wilmingtech Great Review Rare

wilmingtech

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Pics of the Terminal -

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Some loose notes...

 

Forgot to mention the Best Western had heated pools which was great as it was about 60 degrees out and the kids went swimming at night and it was very warm.

 

Also... We ended up checking the bag with the 2 bottles of wine and soda. Although now after going through security it seemed they could care less about who is carrying wine. Seems the security doesn't care. We did get one can of red bull through security and no one even mentioned it. I wish now we just carried 4 bottles of wine through in 2 different bags. No one was checking cases of water, soda or drinks. If they were they were in luggage bags but we didn't notice.

 

Check-in is flying. Much longer lines (and slower) for diamond and gold ...etc. We have been in line 5 minutes and are next up already.

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Thetrail

Thetrail

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This will be a review of the Freedom of the Seas departing 2/8/15 from Cape Canaveral Florida.* We are a family of 6 and this will be our very first cruise ever.* Our goal for this review is to give a perspective from each member of our family pre, during and post cruise.* We are starting the review early so that we can introduce ourselves and dump some of our pre-cruise expectations and excitement here before we actually go on the cruise.*

While I would love to do a "Live" review I don't think that will be realistic this time around as we will be buried in excitement and activities after Sunday.* I am not even sure how much I will be able to post between now and the day we get back from the cruise.

 

Lets get to the introductions first -

 

Our story may be a little different from most.* For the past 20 months we have been living fulltime in a motorcoach and traveling the country.* This past week we have had to drop our motor coach off to get repairs done.* While leaving our coach we had pack everything for the cruise, defrost the fridge and freezer and turn everything off and make sure we have all the important documents and such. We had invites from close family and friends to come and visit while we were here in Orlando so we took advantage of that so the kids could spend time with their friends they have not seen in a while. And finally tonight (Saturday) we are headed over to Cocoa Beach for a hotel room before we head out to the Cruise Terminal at Cape Canaveral in the morning.

 

My wife and I both come from a hospitality background.* I grew up in the restaurant industry and she has also worked in restaurants as well as a flight attendant.* Currently she is a full-time stay at homeschooling mom who is the hardest working member of the family.* I currently freelance for production companies that produce corporate events all over the world.* We have 4 children ages D14, D12, D9 and S7.* We are well traveled, and love good food .* So expect a critical review of the food. We also like to get off the beaten path.* Big turnoffs are doing the touristy thing and mediocrity.* You'll often find us on the path less traveled meeting up with locals rather than being packed into an excursion of hundreds of people.

 

Here are some of the things we are looking forward to -

 

S7- He loves the fact that we are going on a giant ship.* He also loves watching the youtube videos of the ship.* He is really looking forward to playing golf.* Not too many videos have showed the Mini-Golf course but I think that is where he would want to spend most of his time.* He wants to do the flow rider as well but we are not sure he will be tall enough to go on.* We will have to see where we end up with that once we get on the ship.*

 

D9 - She has been waiting and pouring over every detail of the cruise since we booked it 4 months ago.* She has been asking regularly to watch youtube videos of the cruise ship and figure out where the free ice cream is on the ship.* She is mostly looking forward to eating and swimming.

 

D12 - Looking forward to good food, she is excited to get dressed up for formal night and a chance to get the fine dining cuisine from the main dining room.* She says she should be able to stay up as long as she wants and get cream puffs and hot chocolate from room service.* She also is looking forward to snorkeling in the islands and feeding the fish.* And of course the flow rider is the main attraction on this one.

 

D14 - As thin as a bean pole you would be surprised that this girl loves to cook, bake and most of all eat.* She is looking forward to eating as much as she wants, whenever she wants, especially room service.* She is looking forward to the freedom of doing things on her own without having to watch or take her little brothers and sisters along.* She is nervous about getting lost on the ship or missing the ship all together.* She also is curious about the teen club onboard and what that will be like.

 

Wifey - Looking forward to spending time in the gym as the ocean flows by.* She has tried not to think about the cruise since we booked it as it seems surreal and with so many variables in our lifestyle she has learned to not get excited until it actually happens. She will be most grateful about not having to cook or clean for an entire week.* She is also looking forward to the unending supply of food....mostly so she doesn't have to listen to "mommy I'm hungry" all day long.

 

Me - I've been stoked about this cruise since we purchased.* Being that I work in events I tend to be the planner of the bunch.* I've spent way too much time pouring over videos and reading cruise critic to figure this all out.* I'm most excited about the food and spending romantic nights walking around the ship with a glass of wine and I also promised my wife to do a stadium run through the ship at some point so I can burn off some fat and eat more food.

 

Tonight we stopped by the port to get the lowdown on Terminal One and take a look at explorer of the seas.

 

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I'll post a little from the hotel tonight and hopefully a little from the ship tomorrow before we set sail.

 

-Sean

Will be doing a B2B on her next April so this will be of great interest to me, hope you all have a wonderful cruise...K.O.:)
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wilmingtech Great Review Rare

wilmingtech

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Onboard yet?!?! [emoji3]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh yes! We made it!

 

We were all hungry and didn't want to battle our way through the Windjammer so we stopped into Sorrento's which was mostly empty and would you believe...they have Gluten Free Pizza? This is great as our 2 little ones are gluten free and they are so excited to be able to get pizza.

 

8d441ba682699a358ef3c65c03177aa1.jpg

 

And now according to D9 the GF pizza is the "Best GF pizza she has ever had!"

 

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Gluten Free Pizza - Nice very thin crust. Its very underdone which my wife and kids love. I prefer mine well done. Its a step above most off the shelf grocery store foods. Not fantastic but fits the bill and the kids are happy with it.

 

I had the chorizo pizza which is about the same...a touch better then most grocery pizzas. Cheeze was tasty and the Chorizo was a giant slice of sausage.

 

One thing we are happy about is the 'Real Cheese'. We had friends that went on the NCL Pearl in September and said that all the cheese was imitation (oil based) cheese. So we are excited to see real cheese on the pizza. The Gentleman working the counter said "Royal Caribbean..we only use real cheese."

 

More to come...today will just be a bunch of random posts as we wander aimlessly....

Edited by wilmingtech
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Merv692

Merv692

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Debating now if we try to hand carry the soda or just check it. And if we should check the wine anyways or have wifey carry that and me carry the other 2 bottles.

 

Will let you know how it pans out.

 

Last year (April 6, 2014) They made us carry our soda and water. W couldn't check it. We have checked it in the past. Last year they let us bring it. Just had to carry it.

Have fun!

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nanatutu

nanatutu

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Great job so far! Curious to see whether your bag with wine in it goes to your cabin or to the naughty room...😕

 

Sent from my KFTHWI using Forums mobile app

 

I too am curious about the wine. Did you have two bottles in two separate bags for 4 bottles total? ;)

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TomAceEsq

TomAceEsq

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Know that Cocoa beach is a run down beach town and most of the hotels here are showing their age.

 

 

Loving your review! But, as someone who grew up in the area, Cocoa Beach is hardly a "run down beach town." I agree there are a lot of hotels that are aging, but Cocoa Beach by and large is a community full of people that live and breathe life into the surrounding area. It is not driven by tourism like every other port you'll visit, nor does it depend on the port for survival. I believe the area you are referring to is Cape Canaveral. Best Western isn't the best hotel in the area, so I can see how it would give you the impression that it isn't the beautiful community that it is.

 

Can't wait to see your ship review! Happy sailing!

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BLAMBKY

BLAMBKY

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Some front end stuff....

 

We initially booked with little research. We choose the family oceanview on the 7th deck. If I booked again I would have picked the family ocean view on the 8th deck. Reason being is that there are 2 bedrooms (one for bunks and one with a bed) separated by a living space. The other floors have a tiny alcove for the bunks and the living space is in the same room as the bed.

 

If 8th floor family oceanview was not available I would spend the extra money and get 2 rooms, a balcony and an interior. The 2 bathrooms would be nice especially having 3 girls on formal night.

 

Next time I would also shop Travel Agents for deals (obc) or booked a cruise in the off season and saved a few dollars. We just booked because they had a bogo and all 4 kids were a low rate (in the family oceanview) after wifey and I paid. I wasn't really concerned with the price but after all the post purchasing research I've done I probably could have at least had some OBC.

 

We were hoping February was a slow season when we booked but our cruise is completely sold out.

 

A good thing that we didn't plan is that Freedom is just one week out of drydock which has given the crew a long awaited break and gives us a refreshed ship. I know the crew has worked through drydock but they have been off the ship and haven't had to deal with passengers for a month. So hopefully this turns into a bonus for us when it comes to service and food.

 

One other thing we found out after purchasing is that there are 2 partial charters on our cruise. Shouldn't be a big deal but I'm wondering how much it will affect the availability of certain venues at times if they all do group things together. In talking with experienced cruisers they say the ship is so big we probably wouldnt even know there were partial charters had we not read about it.

 

For future reference this class of ships has balcony/interior connecting cabin on the aft 9th deck.... I have wanted to try them since 2011 sigh....looking forward to living vicariously through your family until I can book and finally start planning our next cruise (hopefully June 2015)

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ciera123

ciera123

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Thanks for posting/reviewing. Going on my honeymoon cruise 8-9-15. Very interested in some fun excursions for st. Thomas that not everyone would think of. Look forward to the review.

 

Check out the Ports of Call thread.....Caribbean/St Thomas for lots of info. Champagne Catamaran Sail was fabulous all 3 times we've done it! :)

 

Loving the review so far!

Edited by ciera123
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