My View: A Rainy Spring Break on Freedom of the Seas

[APDMOM]

We went to the excursions desk to make sure our excursion was still a go. It had started raining again by this time, and we thought for sure they would cancel it. The lady at the desk told us she did not know - we would have to go to the kayak area on Labadee to find out. I took a negative thought captive, realizing she has no control over the weather and she had no way to communicate with the excursion people on Labadee. A walk in the rain should be fun!

 

"Leave the umbrella, pack the cannoli…I mean sunscreen." :D

 

While walking to the kayaking, it was raining at first, fading into a drizzle. The drizzle ended up being a blessing in disguise, as it was the PERFECT, relatively cool morning for the 8:30 departure of our excursion.

 

Having fun at the beach while waiting for our first ever solo (or is it duo) excursion "date". We are not the ’selfie’ generation. See how we don’t even look at the camera lens... [emoji23]

 

 

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

I can not describe in words what an amazing experience the kayaking was. It was beautiful! Our guides were Jarome (I think) and Fritz. They always made sure everyone kept up. We stopped a couple of times for them to tell us about the village and to answer questions. They always waited for everyone to arrive before sharing about life on Labadee.

 

Here are just a few pictures -some taken with my waterproof camera. (Unfortunately, it is a Panasonic, which we have re-dubbed PAINasonic… sticking with Nikon from now on) I also had an older non-waterproof Nikon in a Ziploc bag:

 

 

The Village:

 

 

 

 

We stopped by a craft market where the salespeople were typical for Haiti - pretty pushy. I did want a souvenir of our day, so I bought a small painted piece of wood with kayaking on it to commemorate our fun day. I turned it into a fridge magnet when we got home.

 

DH by the market:

 

 

TIP: There is a guy that follows the group in a boat, and he will borrow your camera or phone to take pictures for you, if you are interested.

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

Time to paddle back to the ship… Or at least DH was paddling most of the time while I played with my camera. I did let him play with the camera one time - for the span of about 3 feet of paddling. :D

 

 

 

Beautiful Scenery:

 

 

 

Just before we got to the end, it started raining again in earnest. Look at those big drops on the water!

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

The sun finally came out later in the day, and the masses headed down to the beach. We saw another group kayaking while we were walking to lunch. Look at those poor people paddling in the heat of the sun. :)

 

 

 

Some views of Labadee from our ship:

 

 

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

Some closer up shots of the Cabana’s at Nellie’s Beach (If anyone knows the numbers, feel free to annotate the pictures for future cruisers who want to know):

 

 

 

Beautiful rocks:

 

 

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

My View: The end of day 3:

 

 

The day ended just about the same way it started… look at the rain approaching again! It was definitely an unforgettable and beautiful experience! Goodbye to Labadee, until June.

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

I will be back tomorrow with my views of San Juan.

 

Goodnight, fellow Cruise Critics :)

 

 

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[trihawks1]

Awesome review. We will be cruising on Freedom in December. It will be our first time on Freedom; however, we have been on Indy and loved it so much that we decided to try Freedom this time. Can't wait to read the rest of your review. P.S. I love the "tips" as It really helps those of us who take notes for an upcoming cruise.

 

 

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[JamesEM]

DW and I were on the Freedom this past Nov., E. itinerary and had a great cruise except the food was less than sealer.

[Ocean Boy]

Day 3: Labadee

 

Our view as we approached Labadee… look at all that rain! "Don’t worry, it’s the Caribbean. It will pass soon." (Yeah, right!)

 

This was our 23rd cruise and it was the rainiest of them all.

 

Upon arrival, the rain was still pouring down… but most of our balcony was dry! :D

 

Wait, am I seeing clear skies? (It lasted only a little while)

 

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We were on Freedom the week of March 4th. This was for us also the rainiest and windiest cruise that we have ever been on. It was so windy that we had to sail right by Labadee. In return we got a whole day in San Juan but that was plagued with rain showers or maybe I should say rain downpours. I always tell people that the great thing about the Caribbean is it may rain for 5-10 minutes and then it blows out. That didn't happen this time.

[ValerieJo]

Great review and pictures. Sorry you had to endure the famous Caribbean Liquid Sunshine. :)

 

Looking forward to meeting you in November on Navigator.

[KiwiGal117]

Thanks for doing this APDMOM! We are booked for Spring Break 2018 on Freedom (it's a 6 day not an 8 day) and I just wondered how the crowds were in terms of college kids, etc. I am travelling with my DH and DS who is 13 and my brother and his wife, who have never cruised before, and friends of ours, who similarly have never cruised before. I'm nervous that we may have picked the wrong time to introduce them to the wonderous world of cruise ships!

[melski]

Thanks for doing this APDMOM! We are booked for Spring Break 2018 on Freedom (it's a 6 day not an 8 day) and I just wondered how the crowds were in terms of college kids, etc. I am travelling with my DH and DS who is 13 and my brother and his wife, who have never cruised before, and friends of ours, who similarly have never cruised before. I'm nervous that we may have picked the wrong time to introduce them to the wonderous world of cruise ships!

 

My family has done 3 spring break cruises. Our Spring Break has been the 3rd or 4th week of March, and around my area more college spring breaks, tend to be early March. On all 3 cruises, we saw many multigenerational families or groups of family friends traveling together rather than college kids....not to say that some of those adults can't drink like they were still in college! While I'm sure someone will say they had a bad spring break experience, I think late March/early April has less risk of college spring break. Spring Break is really fun for my teens since they had a chance to meet so many other teens. Next year, we'll be on Harmony over Spring Break!

[gumby1224]

I have room 7708 booked for a cruise in January. This is the first time in an aft. So excited!

 

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[APDMOM]

Awesome review. We will be cruising on Freedom in December. It will be our first time on Freedom; however, we have been on Indy and loved it so much that we decided to try Freedom this time. Can't wait to read the rest of your review. P.S. I love the "tips" as It really helps those of us who take notes for an upcoming cruise.

 

 

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Thanks for following along, trihawks! I will try to keep the tips coming. I will quote some of my favorite cabin hacks from previous reviews at the end of this review... stay tuned. :)

[BillOh]

We LOVE the corner aft cabins on Freedom and Voyager class ships. We usually book far in advance for two reasons:

1. We typically get the best prices within the first two months after the itineraries are released (I have a spread sheet of that… did I mention I was a Type A Perfectionist?)

2. We want to get one of our favorite 4 cabins on these ships 7408 and 7708 (first choice), or 1400 and 1700.

 

We spend a LOT of time on our balcony, which is why I present...

our home away from home for 8 days:

 

Corner aft 7708:

 

 

 

 

The "obstructed" view:

 

We got to rescue 3 ping-pong balls that landed on our balcony. Our neighbors below got even more! :)

 

 

I will post more views of the balcony as the week goes on… It was GREAT that we had this space, as it was an exceptionally rainy week. A majority of the time on our last two sea days, the public spaces were very crowded due to the rain. We frequently escaped to our safe haven.

 

 

 

 

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They have the Ben and Jerry's suite where you get free icecream. They should have the ping pong suite where you get free room service, when they deliver your room service, giving them a ping pong ball gets the $7.95 waived!

[APDMOM]

DW and I were on the Freedom this past Nov., E. itinerary and had a great cruise except the food was less than sealer.

 

Hi, JamesEM! I had read the reviews about the food concerns during those months.., It seems there were some issues somewhere between October and February. The week before we embarked, another CC member reported back that Freedom made significant improvements, which was very encouraging (I believe they were on Freedom in November and February... will see if I can find the thread later).

 

Overall, we had good to excellent meals. Only the lobster was not that good, and Royal can really learn a thing or two about making better desserts. ;p

 

While we are on the topic of food, here are my favorites:

 

1. Lamb Shank (Oh so tender!!!)

2. Crab Cake (It is an appetizer, but I always order it as a main course)

3. Austrian Stritzel (Promenade Cafe - although they did cut back by no longer sprinkling them with crystals of sugar)

4. Pavlova (was available almost every lunch and dinner in Windjammer)

5. Curry dishes in Windjammer

6. Crepes in the windjammer every other night (I order it with banana and white chocolate chips... yum!)

[APDMOM]

Great review and pictures. Sorry you had to endure the famous Caribbean Liquid Sunshine. :)

 

Looking forward to meeting you in November on Navigator.

 

Same here! That is going to be so much fun! Nine days to enjoy the balcony :D

 

We were on Freedom the week of March 4th. This was for us also the rainiest and windiest cruise that we have ever been on. It was so windy that we had to sail right by Labadee. In return we got a whole day in San Juan but that was plagued with rain showers or maybe I should say rain downpours. I always tell people that the great thing about the Caribbean is it may rain for 5-10 minutes and then it blows out. That didn't happen this time.

 

LOL! That is exactly what I thought - it will blow over soon. We cruise just about every spring break and usually have beautiful weather... fortunately, we live at the beach, so the sun was not that crucial to my cruise experience :)

[APDMOM]

Thanks for doing this APDMOM! We are booked for Spring Break 2018 on Freedom (it's a 6 day not an 8 day) and I just wondered how the crowds were in terms of college kids, etc. I am travelling with my DH and DS who is 13 and my brother and his wife, who have never cruised before, and friends of ours, who similarly have never cruised before. I'm nervous that we may have picked the wrong time to introduce them to the wonderous world of cruise ships!

 

Hi, KiwiGal! I agree with Melski. Any cruise can differ regarding what you may run into. I say, just enjoy the first experience through their eyes. As a more seasoned cruiser, you will be able to steer them clear of the crowds and rowdy parties ;) With the drinks package push, I thought we would have trouble, but I did not even run into one obviously intoxicated passenger. We cruise just about every spring break and the longer cruises have never been bad. We find the 3-4 day cruises are the worst for us (not our scene), so we stick to longer itineraries.

 

A word of caution that I learned from my own mistake: When I took my sister and best friend on their first cruise, I kept telling them how that cruise was different or not as good as other ships, etc. I realized that I was putting a damper on their first experience, so I deliberately stopped myself from comparing and just enjoyed the experience with them. So, be careful to try and see it as your first cruise too. I think you chose an excellent ship for a first cruise for them. :)

[APDMOM]

I have room 7708 booked for a cruise in January. This is the first time in an aft. So excited!

 

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Enjoy, gumby! :)

[APDMOM]

They have the Ben and Jerry's suite where you get free icecream. They should have the ping pong suite where you get free room service, when they deliver your room service, giving them a ping pong ball gets the $7.95 waived!

 

LOL! I second that, Bill! :')

[APDMOM]

Good morning on Day 4:

 

 

I’ve got Sunshine…. on a cloudy day :)

 

I love this area on deck 4 where you can walk around the dining area and get a great view forward:

 

Aft View = The Best View:

 

 

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Edited April 3, 2017 by APDMOM
Spacing

[APDMOM]

My View - Day 4: San Juan… Look at the beautiful sunshine!

 

 

We know we are close when we see the Pilot!

 

Approaching San Juan:

 

El Morro:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

More views as we are pulling in:

 

 

 

The old and the new:

 

 

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[KiwiGal117]

My family has done 3 spring break cruises. Our Spring Break has been the 3rd or 4th week of March, and around my area more college spring breaks, tend to be early March. On all 3 cruises, we saw many multigenerational families or groups of family friends traveling together rather than college kids....not to say that some of those adults can't drink like they were still in college! While I'm sure someone will say they had a bad spring break experience, I think late March/early April has less risk of college spring break. Spring Break is really fun for my teens since they had a chance to meet so many other teens. Next year, we'll be on Harmony over Spring Break!

 

Thanks - our Spring Break (we're in Canada) is usually the second week in March - our cruise is booked for March 11, 2018. I think it will be fun, and as we are a big group, it will likely be fine, but I just finished reading JohnGaltNY's review of Majesty over Spring break and got nervous.