My View: Freedom (and the verdict on 1700 vs. 7408)

[batt01]

Enjoying your posts very much. Thank you!

[StGeorgeCruisers]

Thank you for reminding me to check rates at The Radisson. We booked a year in advance as well and had the same rate as you. Just checked online and the price had dropped. Re-booked to a bigger and better room for a much lower price! Thanks for the reminder and the great review!

[tinkr2]

This is really nice. I have never paid much attention to rooms before but am now taking notes. I am a famous last minute booker. We have sailed Indy twice and I love the look of that balcony. I am going to try and get it on freedom.

 

 

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[mollyeilis]

:) We first sailed on Freedom in 1700, and next year December we'll be in 7688 on Adventure.

 

Thanks for the hotel suggestion; might help us for March (Freedom pano room).

[bbiggar]

Loving your review and remember there is no such thing as too many pictures. We sail January 3rd and can't wait. Thanks for some of the ideas to save space as I would have not thought of magnet hangers.

[CaptainEd]

First cruise in 12+years... How do you request a private table?

We are a family of 5.

Enjoying your posts.

[Clarea]

First cruise in 12+years... How do you request a private table?

We are a family of 5.

Enjoying your posts.

If you are in My Time Dining, just request when you show up for dinner.

 

If you are in traditional dining, send your request to rcldining@rccl.com about 3 weeks before the cruise.

[Cruising Bonnie]

Thank you for reminding me to check rates at The Radisson. We booked a year in advance as well and had the same rate as you. Just checked online and the price had dropped. Re-booked to a bigger and better room for a much lower price! Thanks for the reminder and the great review!

 

 

I just checked also, they lowered my price $40 and booked the shuttle time. Thanks for the heads up!

 

 

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[APDMOM]

Thanks for reading along, everyone! I am glad to see some of you are getting price drops on the hotel too.

 

bbiggar, I am with you! I love pictures and can never take enough. I am so glad I do not have to deal with the price of film and development :D I am loving the digital camera age!

[APDMOM]

Day 2: At Sea

 

We started the day with breakfast in the Windjammer. I asked at the cold meats counter whether they had smoked salmon available. The lady went to the back to check, and I was not disappointed. She brought out a tray! So, if you do not see smoked salmon out, just ask at the cold meats counter. It was available almost every day.

 

We enjoyed the morning show with Casey Pelter, our cruise director, and saw that there were no jokes or comment cards for the day. We decided to enter the drawing for "joke of the day" with my DH providing the joke while "borrowing" my handwriting... We will see how it goes...

 

We skipped the Meet and Mingle, as we were more interested in attending the Captain's corner. This is one thing about the scheduling that seems to have become the routine. Meet and Mingle is scheduled for 10 a.m., while Captain's corner starts at 10:30. I decided that I did not want to go to the M&M for just 20 minutes, then rush down to the Promenade for a seat. Captain's corner is one of my favorite things to attend on a cruise. You never know what questions will be asked, and with Mike Rasmussen (hotel director) you are in for a witty treat! I love his sense of humor - he is more natural than the stand up comedians and I really enjoy his ad lib comments.

 

Captain's Corner was in front of the Bull & Bear Pub:

 

We learned some interesting facts about staff ranks, schedules, and the workings of the ship. We also learned about some funny happenings in the history of Royal Caribbean. For those who do not know, Captain's Corner is the ideal place to find out about things you always wanted to know, like "How often do you leave someone behind in port?" This was asked and answered on a previous cruise, and the answer was... 'about once a week'. Here is the sheet of paper we were handed, with some interesting facts (for the geeks among us):

 

 

After what I consider my comedy break and geek fix for the week, we enjoyed lunch in the Windjammer. Nothing stood out as noteworthy, but we did enjoy a well prepared meal all around.

[APDMOM]

Freedomice.com

 

Afternoon entertainment was consisted of the ice show. There were four shows throughout the week, and we decided to get it out of the way early to avoid missing it later on. Unfortunately, Royal no longer does the prior reservations or ticketing. The show seating is handled like any other show on the ship - just show up. We got slim pickings on seating, as we showed up only 20 minutes before the show started (that was not our original plan). Many people were saving seats - more than I had ever seen at the ice show. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed the show, but I would recommend showing up at least 45 minutes early if you want front seats. We were lucky to even get 3 seats together when we showed up.

 

The ice show had one new act and a couple of twists on the old acts, which made it interesting and fun to watch. If you do not know yet, there are two pirate ships at one point during the show, and four young passengers get the chance to ride on them. So, if you are interested in your children getting this opportunity, show up early and ask one of the staff members about it. They also get front row seats, right by the entrance to the ice.

 

 

 

 

 

Casey Pelter closed out the show with a great ice skating skit. He has a very good sense of humor and I always enjoyed his additions to open and close out the shows. You can find a video of the skit on YouTube. Casey was an excellent cruise director - now one of my top 4 favorite CD's

 

[APDMOM]

Inserting a few of my favorite things here... I love some of the art they have all around the ship:

 

 

 

 

After a peaceful time on the balcony and a bit of a rush to prepare the family for formal night, we enjoyed our dinner from the Saffron menu. My favorite, as always (but not for too much longer), is the artichoke crêpe dish.

 

Our ratings for tonight's meal, based upon our personal preference:

Banana Rum chilled soup: 5/6

Smoked chicken appetizer: 4/6 (small portion)

Shrimp Cocktail: 4/6

Artichoke Crêpes: 5/6 (creamy and rich... beware!)

Shrimp ravioli: 5/6 (small portion... DH ordered this along with the hamburger sliders. If he had known how good the shrimp ravioli was going to be, he would have ordered two of those in stead).

Hamburger sliders: 5/6 (Available every night)

Strawberry Cheesecake: 3/6

Lemon Meringue: 3/6

 

We went to the promenade to see if we could snatch some Captain's reception sparkling wine - no success. We may have been too early, so, I don't know if they still serve this complimentary treat.

 

We returned to our first towel animal, announcing the end of the first full day of our cruise... Tomorrow is Labadee!

Edited December 4, 2015 by APDMOM
typo

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 3 in Labadee:

 

...but we still have a few hours before we get there...

 

It was an early morning for me, so I went to get some pictures of the sunrise and to see what differences I could find on the ship since dry dock. It looked like a promising day. After a rainy day yesterday, everyone was ready for a bit of sunshine at the beach.

 

Come, watch the sunrise with me...

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Our previous cruise on Freedom was last December - just a few weeks before dry dock. So, I went to look at some of the changed the ship underwent. I found St. Tropez...

 

 

 

 

...and here is the hallway to the new cabins that took away a part of the jogging track:

 

I will post other changes later in the review.

 

While on my walk, I spotted a box with Christmas decorations. Sure enough, by the end of the day, the ship had started undergoing the metamorphosis for Christmas. So, there is the answer to the question that gets asked a lot... the ship gets decorated the week of the Thanksgiving cruise (at least Freedom does).

 

[APDMOM]

Once in the cabin, we were anxious to watch the morning show to see how "our" joke did. We were so stunned when we won, since we typically never win anything...

 

 

 

We arrived in Labadee without delays and the weather was thankfully beautiful. We had sunny skies the whole day!

 

 

TIP There is a great place to get a picture of your family in front of the ship. Just turn right at the gate. There is a trashcan that serves as our temporary tripod, and we always get a picture here (We should have stood closer to the 'tripod'):

 

[APDMOM]

The Dragon Coaster

 

This was our 5th visit to Labadee, so we decided to finally do the Dragon Coaster. We had pre-purchased an all day pass for me, and our DS rode with me as a free passenger. This coaster is different from anything I had experienced in the past. It was truly easy to navigate and you could slow down the speed at any time. We did the first round a bit on the slower side to get an idea of how the track runs and how the brakes work. After that, we did three more rounds with faster speeds every time. The last round we went so fast that I even bounced up off the seat at one point (No worries! The seatbelt kept me safe)! It was a lot of fun and we will likely repeat this on our next visit in March.

 

 

 

 

 

It is definitely an excursion you want to book in advance. Our online price for all day access was $35.75. The single ride price was $25. We found out from other riders that the all day access was not offered to them on the island. They had to pay $25 for the first ride and $10 for each consecutive ride. It is therefore worth ordering this in advance online.

[APDMOM]

When it got busy with longer lines, we decided we had spent our money's worth in rides, and we returned to the quiet ship for a swim in the nearly deserted H2O zone. Labadee is really beautiful. I did not take as many pictures this time, but there are many more in my Indy review if you are interested.

 

Lunch was in the Windjammer with really delicious chicken curry and great Beef Bourguignon.

 

We opted for a quiet afternoon on the balcony, including a nap to make up for the early morning start.

 

Some more views from our balcony:

 

 

 

Too soon, it was time to leave Labadee in our wake:

 

 

 

Dinner menu tonight was Pimiento.

 

Our personal ratings:

Straberry Bisque chilled soup: 4/6 (not enough mint to make the 5)

Shrimp cocktail: 4/6 (It was not listed on the menu, but was available each night. It became DS's favorite)

Arancini: 3/6 Lasagne (DH ordered it as appetizer) 4/6

Tiger shrimp: 5/6

Chicken Marsala: 4/6 (Not quite as good as it was on Oasis)

 

We stopped by the Star Lounge to see "If you know it, dance it!" We just wanted to relax and watch people have fun. We had planned to just enjoy the "show" .... and maybe do the Macarena and a line dance. However, it turned out to be "everyone get up and dance, whether you know it or not". It was presented as a dance-off between the two sides of the lounge.

 

Although it looked like everyone had fun, it was not quite our scene or the idea we got from the name, so we headed back to our balcony where we enjoyed the almost full moon illuminating the water. Bliss!

With that, I will close for tonight. Coming up tomorrow... Where did that beautiful sun go? Not Jamaica, Mon!

[MrsPete]

Great review!

I loved your tips.

[kandj05]

Please tell us the joke you won the hat with.

[APDMOM]

Great review!

I loved your tips.

 

Thank you :) I enjoy writing them!

[APDMOM]

Please tell us the joke you won the hat with.

 

Here is what we put on the card:

 

Name: Ron (with borrowed handwriting from wife)

 

The Winning Joke:

Two bikers stop at a red light. A nun with a broken arm crosses the street in front of them.

 

One biker asks, "Hey, Sister! How did you break your arm?"

 

The nun says, "I slipped in the bathtub".

 

Biker, "Oh."

 

After the nun crosses, one biker asks the other, "What is a bathtub?"

 

Other biker, "How would I know? I'm not Catholic."

 

:D

[APDMOM]

My View (but not for long): Day 4 - Jamaica

 

 

Early in the morning, we saw the promise of sunshine... we really did see the sun:

 

 

 

Our day started with breakfast in the Windjammer, followed by a latte and the future cruise talk. It was a bit different from what I had expected. I thought it would be about booking onboard benefits and details, but it was a talk about all the ships and different itineraries. It was interesting enough, and we found out about a Grandeur summer cruise to New England, which we may consider. We did not book a cruise while onboard, as the prices are still too high at this time. We may do a last-minute summer cruise...

 

Toward the end of the future cruise talk, we went to the balcony to watch the ship dock. Everything looked promising, as the dark skies were getting brighter.

 

 

 

The few clouds we could see from our balcony were clearing out (or that is what we thought), so we packed our bag to head out and buy a caribbean shirt for our fast-growing 11-year old. We dinged out through security, and as soon as we got to the gangway opening, it started pouring rain...I mean tropical storm kind of pouring rain. This was not your average Caribbean shower passing over. We turned right around, along with some other passengers who had changed their minds, and dinged back in through security to relax on the ship.

 

Here is the amended view:

 

The weather on this day became a family joke. After a while, it seemed to clear up again, so we got ready to play mini-golf. Before we even set foot out the door, another storm hit us. No mini-golf. It cleared up again, we got ready to swim and ...you guessed it.... another storm. No swimming. We therefore had a very relaxing day exploring the ship and enjoying the balcony.

[APDMOM]

We stopped in Falmouth during our last two cruises, so we were very content with staying on the ship.

 

Here are a few more 'clear' views of the port:

 

You can barely see the pool at Margaritaville:

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Good bye to Eurodam, the other ship that shared the port today:

 

During our ship exploration, I got a sneak peek at Giovanni's:

 

 

 

 

Dinner menu tonight: Basil

 

Once again, here are our personal ratings of the dinner items:

Shrimp cocktail 4/6

Honeydew/melon chilled soup: 3/6

Crab cakes (I ordered it as a main meal) 6/6...here I had to change my scale from a 5-point rating to a 6-point scale, because the crab cakes set a new standard! If you order the crab cakes as a main meal, you get two and an extra helping of salsa.

Look at that... I do not even remember what DH and DS ordered. Those crab cakes were just too good. They came with some kind of salsa... I really need that recipe.

Does anyone on CC have it?

 

[APDMOM]

Tonight, we enjoyed one of the highlights of this cruise, which will not be easily forgotten. Paul Boland is not to be missed. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much that I left with almost no voice after the show. He is the best impersonator I have seen. He is leaps and bounds better than the impersonator we had on Oasis.

 

The show consists mostly of singing impersonation. However, he also throws is surprises like... what it would sound like if Arnold Schwarzenegger would rap. Paul has a natural ability to get the audience involved in a spontaneous manner. You could not just sit back - you just WANTED to be involved and participate. There was no pressure from him - it just happened. He is that good! The kids' skit, where he got all the kids from the audience on stage, was one of the most precious I have seen. Paul Boland... I will remember that name!

 

Quiz Time: Let's see if you can guess the singers:

 

Number 1:

 

Number 2:

 

Number 3: (one of a duo, just to help a bit)

 

Number 4:

 

The answers will follow later...

 

I will try to complete Days 5, 6 and 7 tomorrow.

 

Thank you for reading along!