Freedom of the seas - Eastern July 10

[Mommags123]

My family had a FANTASTIC time on our Freedom of the seas cruise.

We had no doubt that we would have fun, but were a little leery because we were not traveling with my sister and her family who usually come along.

 

Me, Hubby, Son (24), and Daughter (18) were on this cruise to celebrate high school graduation and would be following the cruise up with a week at Disney.

Note - next time do Disney first and cruise last to take advantage of relaxing opportunities.

 

We flew down from PA the night before. Had a panic moment at MCO when hubby's bag did not arrive with all the others even though we were sky priority... but after about 15 it finally came out. Grabbed a rental car from the airport, drove to the port, grabbed dinner at a local place that had great food but mediocre service, then went to the hotel for the night.

 

Next morning we grabbed our free breakfast at the hotel, got our paperwork and luggage tags all organized and headed over to the ship around 10am. Hubby dropped me, the kids and the bags off while he returned the rental car. he returned the car and was back at the ship within 20 minutes. We are platinum with Royal so we got in that line, which was very short. They processed us through - 2 cabins( kids in one parents in another) very quickly. We probably could have boarded right away but took some time to get lanyards for our sea pass cards that they were selling right there... We found Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Browns ones - had to get them!!! We were in the wind jammer by 11. Son who supposedly went to the bathroom between plates came back with his first drink ( prepaid for drink packages) by 11:30. YUP, boarding was that fast and simple!!!

 

 

Had an informal meet and mingle planned with our roll call peeps at the sky bar. Had a good time getting to know a few new folks - all those Kentucky people and Brits were quite the crowd at the bar!

Muster drill was HOT - Sweat rolling down my back awful hot.. but they moved it along and we got to see some dolphins playing in the channel while were there sweltering.

 

 

Room steward hooked us up with extension cord for Cpap and opening up the balconies right away. Very friendly guy, great job on the room, a few cool towel animals... but we don't require much. We did mention our shower not draining right and I think the language barrier might have been a problem, but it never seemed to get fixed. So we stuck a washcloth in the hole behind the toilet and took short military style showers.. nothing to get upset about.

 

Dining room staff - friendly, especially our waiter. He was great. Only issue was getting drinks at dinner but after speaking with the head waiter we seemed to get better service. On other cruises we had after dinner shots offered, but not on this one... bummer. But if we wanted we could have walked to the bar and gotten them if we wanted.

 

Food was good. Didn't have a meal we didn't like. We got a free meal from travel agent for specialty restaurant - we chose chops. Food was great, but our steaks were over cooked. Since they were free we didn't complain and they were still tasty. We just like them pink and ordered medium rare, and they came out with no pink at all.

 

Since we normally cruise with my sister, we wondered if we would get just a table for 4 at dinner or if they would seat us with other people. We had a couple who were celebrating their honeymoon and a mother and college age daughter.... So it was a great mix of ages and we all seemed to have a lot in common and could maintain decent conversation. The mother and daughter duo were a little quiet - they daughter was pretty shy actually and had her phone with her at dinner which didn't help... but they were pleasant and we were glad we didn't get stuck with anyone obnoxious. (And secretly hoped our table mates didn't think we were the obnoxious ones they feared getting stuck with)

 

 

The ports we stopped in were great. I love Coco Cay. We did the jet ski tour and it was a million times better than the one at Labadee. Longer ride times in Coco Cay, no local merchants pestering you in the waters to buy stuff, and a great group of staff that made sure we all made it back safely when the sudden thunderstorm broke out at the end of our tour.

The food buffet however was completely unorganized - one line had burgers, but no buns. Another line had buns and no burgers... it was crazy!

 

St Thomas was beautiful - we did the boss underwater helmet/scooter dive.

Great crew on board. Beautiful boat ride out to Buck Island. We got to snorkel while we were waiting turns for scooters. Very patient and helpful staff because we had folks with issues ... One lady didn't want to get her head under water to get into the scoter, but they coaxed her and she loved it. Hubby had a moment of panic from claustrophobia and they helped him get adjusted and he was able to enjoy the whole thing. Took our cameras and got pictures of our family... just wonderful.

 

St Marteen we went back to Maho beach. The bar at the end of the beach is REALLY expanding and is just awesome. Shrimp po boy was delicious. There was a big difference in the beach between this trip and last one about 2 years ago... This time it was high tide and so the beach was much narrower and the climb out was not so steep. It was Bastille day ( July 14) and our taxi driver was anxious to get off work and head over to the French side to party with friends... Talked a little politics with him - similar problems in their country as ours.

 

Sea days were relaxing. I went to the art auction for the sole purpose of getting a free print for my desk at work. Got some free champagne and a mini education on art. I was surprised by the cost of some of the paintings but some of them were very nice.

 

 

We spent some time most nights in the casino. Hubby would be either hit or miss - lucky or not. I usually was not. Until the last night when we both got lucky and seemed to win back everything we had lost and then a little bit more. Nice way to end the trip.

 

We each had big / heavy suitcases but opted to carry it off ourselves because we had arranged for a shuttle and our disembark time would have been too late. Worked out well - we got through customs in about 45 minutes and was off earlier than expected. Luckily, Cortrans shuttle was able to take us and we were off to Orlando for our week at Disney earlier than expected.

 

Definitely had a great time, and it was everything we hoped for and expected.

Now we just need to plan our next cruise.. Thanks to all the folks in our roll call who came out for the meet and mingle - hope you all made it home safely.

[north29]

Freedom is our favorite ship, I will be sad when she is replaced by the Oasis.

[Clarea]

Nice to know Freedom still delivers the WOW.:)

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[ColoradoGurl]

This is a great example of the difference between someone who can roll with the punches and have a great time and those who look for everything that didn't go exactly right and feel it ruined their trip. Good insight to the mindset of someone who can recognize when something could have been better (like your shower problem or the steaks) but doesn't let it ruin their trip, and this is exactly how people should learn to be so they can enjoy their vacations instead of coming home and telling us how horrible everything has gotten.

 

I'm glad you had a good time, and I can see how doing Disney first might be the more logical option, but overall sounds like a great time.

 

Also, the simple fact that you were consciously aware of trying to ensure you weren't the annoying people at the dinner table means that nobody would ever accuse you of being such a thing :)

 

 

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Edited July 30, 2016 by ColoradoGurl

[Mommags123]

This is a great example of the difference between someone who can roll with the punches and have a great time and those who look for everything that didn't go exactly right and feel it ruined their trip. Good insight to the mindset of someone who can recognize when something could have been better (like your shower problem or the steaks) but doesn't let it ruin their trip, and this is exactly how people should learn to be so they can enjoy their vacations instead of coming home and telling us how horrible everything has gotten.

 

I'm glad you had a good time, and I can see how doing Disney first might be the more logical option, but overall sounds like a great time.

 

Also, the simple fact that you were consciously aware of trying to ensure you weren't the annoying people at the dinner table means that nobody would ever accuse you of being such a thing :)

 

 

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Thanks all.

The way I see it, any day on a cruise is better than a day at my desk.

(And I like my job)

But not everything can go perfectly 100 % of the time.

if so, I would win the lottery every time I played!:rolleyes:

But as long as nobody gets or I have to spend a lot of extra money, I can roll with the punches.

Even when the luggage was late showing up, there was another flight an hour later so we had already started making alternate plans when it came out on the conveyor.... I like to have plans, but I also like to have back up plans!

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your review, DW and I will be on the Freedom this Fall.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Me, Hubby, Son (24), and Daughter (18) were on this cruise to celebrate high school graduation and would be following the cruise up with a week at Disney.

Note - next time do Disney first and cruise last to take advantage of relaxing opportunities.

Didn't I warn you about that on the roll call? :D

 

Glad you had a great time. I'm still debating doing a recap of my own.

[Surfguyxxx]

Freedom is one of my favorite ships too. Big enough but manageable. I live about 30 minutes from PC now but future 2 hour drives to FLL will be fine, At least she's not leaving for Alaska or the Mediterranean and staying there. ;)

[pixiedustgirl13]

Thanks for your review; I enjoyed reading it, especially as hubby and I will be sailing on FOS next month! I agree with the poster who said that they appreciated your looking at things with "the glass half full." People who give scathing reviews for minor irritants just annoy me. Can you imagine being a crew staff member who has to deal (politely) with those type of people week after week? Especially considering their long hours and little pay. Anyway, I digress! Thanks again for taking the time to give us your blow by blow! Glad you had a great vacation! PS. What type of "free print" did you get for attending the Art Auction? I've attended a couple of those (although I think one was on Disney, the other on Celebrity) and never received anything.

[Mommags123]

Thanks for your review; I enjoyed reading it, especially as hubby and I will be sailing on FOS next month! I agree with the poster who said that they appreciated your looking at things with "the glass half full." People who give scathing reviews for minor irritants just annoy me. Can you imagine being a crew staff member who has to deal (politely) with those type of people week after week? Especially considering their long hours and little pay. Anyway, I digress! Thanks again for taking the time to give us your blow by blow! Glad you had a great vacation! PS. What type of "free print" did you get for attending the Art Auction? I've attended a couple of those (although I think one was on Disney, the other on Celebrity) and never received anything.

 

You have to stick around til the end of the auction to get the free print.

On a week end cruise we did on the Majesty with our girl scout troop they just gave them away at the art gallery - probably because there was not much time for auctions since it was only a week end cruise and they just wanted to get people there.

 

But in both cases the prints were 8"x8" and were fairly generic. The one I got on the Majesty is a wood rail fence in a grassy meadow surrounded by blue skies and fluffy white clouds. The one I got on the Freedom is of a flower vase and a fruit bowl sitting on a table. Both prints are very colorful and along with my jars of seashells and sand help complete my "serenity now" section of my desk at work.....