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

[APDMOM]

Only Oosterdam was with us in port:

 

 

 

After our adventurous day in Labadee, we decided to have another ‘date’ by walking to San Cristóbal. It is up a hill, but a fairly easy walk on a mild day. The previous time we were in San Juan, it was so hot that we tried to catch the free trolley. Alas, traffic was a mess, so we turned back to the ship. This time, the weather was beautiful and cool enough to walk to the fort for a visit.

 

TIP: It is $5 to enter the fort, but it covers both San Cristóbal and El Morro.

 

TIP: If you have a national parks pass for US parks, bring it along. You can use it at both forts!

 

As we got off the ship, we saw the painting of the anchor in progress:

 

Our walk to and from San Cristóbal:

 

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

San Cristóbal has these tunnels to walk through as you enter:

 

Views from San Cristóbal:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

El Morro, as seen from San Cristobal:

 

More Beautiful Views:

 

The Old and the New:

 

 

Soldier quarters:

 

An Inhabitant of San Cristobal:

 

 

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[APDMOM]

My favorite views always include a cruise ship!

 

 

 

 

Speaking of ship…. time to return to the patiently waiting DS to take him for a swim:

 

 

 

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[floatel_lvr]

APDMOM,

Loving your review. You have an excellent eye and have captured many beautiful images. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with all of us cruise junkies!

[APDMOM]

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.

 

 

Funny you should mention that... Majesty was my least favorite cruise. It was a 3 or 4- day trip and it was a party ship like I had never seen. I came to reason that people can go without sleep for a couple of nights to party out their cruise, but on a 5+ day cruise, everyone needs sleep - not to mention they are more likely to book excursions and need rest for those. :D

 

 

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[APDMOM]

APDMOM,

Loving your review. You have an excellent eye and have captured many beautiful images. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with all of us cruise junkies!

 

Thank you!

 

Great CC name!!! From a fellow Floatel Lover. ;)

[APDMOM]

TIP:

 

Before I close the day of San Juan, here is my favorite tip I found on CC regarding this port. There is a free trolley that will take you around the old town. It can get busy, so it may be hard to find a seat. A trolley comes by about every 15 to 20 minutes - depending on traffic.

 

Here is a picture of the trolley and the sign with number that indicates a trolley stop (Stop number 14).

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

I love when the ships stays in port until after sunset. It is a beautiful sight to view the ships at night:

 

 

 

Oosterdam:

 

A little bit of San Juan at night (The frog got deflated since last time we visited):

 

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

Time for some household chores. I will be back tomorrow with the colorful views of St. Maarten.

 

Thank you for following our adventure!

 

 

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[Ocean Boy]

I, too, have EXACTLY those night time photos of Freedom in port at San Juan! Great photos of the fort. I don't know how many times I have been there but I seem to have this need to visit the fort with every stop we make in San Juan.

[Ocean Boy]

Time for some household chores. I will be back tomorrow with the colorful views of St. Maarten.

 

Thank you for following our adventure!

 

 

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One of my favorite places in the Caribbean.... and maybe the world.

[melissagohard]

Absolutely loving the review so far! Will be sailing on Freedom in less than 2 weeks (11 days.... but who's counting?!). Your review and pictures are getting me so excited! THANK YOU!

[Russ Lomas]

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!

 

Not to hijack the thread, but I can offer you some observations on what to expect on the 6 day Freedom cruise in 2018 since we just completed that exact cruise two weeks ago during the Ontario March break week (I am a teacher in London, ON). Do not worry about the large number of college kids on board. There were groups of them, but they really were not noticeable at all. A large portion of the cruisers at that time are large family groups where they may be traveling with children including teenagers and those in their early 20's. The college kids were all well behaved.

 

Overall, most of the kids were except for a couple groups of boys who were 10-14 years old who were running around the ship playing tag, pushing every button on the elevators, and dropping ice cream on the carpets everywhere. Your son should have no trouble making friends aboard and my guess is that the two first-time cruisers you will be bringing aboard will love the ship, staff, food, and service.

 

 

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!)

We traveled on the Freedom on the week of March 12th for the 6 day Western cruise. We have to agree that the food in the dining room was very good overall (better than our previous cruise on the Freedom in March 2016). I have to agree...my 4th lobster was not that good (but the 5th one I had was the best of the five I ate). I second a couple of the point you make above - the Indian curry dishes in the Windjammer were consistently very good and my favourite food in the Windjammer. The crepes in the windjammer every second night was great as well (I only wish I had known about that before I stumbled across them part way through the cruise - on days 1, 3, 5, etc. Another good tip is that they have make your own pizzas in the Windjammer on the first evening (ONLY) of the cruise. The looked ten times better than the ones in Sorrentos.

 

Keep up the awesome review and your photos are outstanding. I love your photo of the ship at night in San Juan in a white tone contrasting to the diagonal line of the concrete railing in a yellowish tone in the foreground in one of your photos. Your photos of San Juan have me even more excited that I have booked three nights in San Juan pre-cruise for our next cruise.

[APDMOM]

One of my favorite places in the Caribbean.... and maybe the world.

 

 

I agree. [emoji846]

 

 

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[APDMOM]

Absolutely loving the review so far! Will be sailing on Freedom in less than 2 weeks (11 days.... but who's counting?!). Your review and pictures are getting me so excited! THANK YOU!

 

 

:D Enjoy the final countdown to fun and (hopefully) sunny days!

 

 

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[APDMOM]

 

Keep up the awesome review and your photos are outstanding. I love your photo of the ship at night in San Juan in a white tone contrasting to the diagonal line of the concrete railing in a yellowish tone in the foreground in one of your photos. Your photos of San Juan have me even more excited that I have booked three nights in San Juan pre-cruise for our next cruise.

 

 

Thank you for the compliments and especially your helpful input on spring break cruising! I had your lobster number 4 as my first, which is why it ended up on my husband's plate. He agreed something was a little off about that crustacean :D

 

Enjoy your time in San Juan. I wish we had a whole day there!!

 

 

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[benjaminhuf]

Great review and great pix. Many thanks!

[JamesEM]

Great tip about the free Ho-Ho buses and trolleys in SJ, when we were visiting SJ there were five cruise ships in port, so we had to back tracked a few stops in order to get a seat because they were so crowded.

[floatel_lvr]

Thank you!

 

Great CC name!!! From a fellow Floatel Lover. ;)

 

Thanks!!! ;)

[APDMOM]

Great review and great pix. Many thanks!

Thanks for reading along :)

[APDMOM]

Great tip about the free Ho-Ho buses and trolleys in SJ, when we were visiting SJ there were five cruise ships in port, so we had to back tracked a few stops in order to get a seat because they were so crowded.

Yes, thank you James EM! That is good advice!

 

TIP: Walk out to the left when you reach the end of the pier and follow the trolley route (there are maps posted) to get on one or two stops before it reaches the pier. :)

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 5 - St. Maarten:

 

 

 

Beautiful views as we approach the island:

 

Our ‘obstructed’ view from the balcony. Unfortunately, the ship backed in, so our cabin was on the opposite side of the ‘view’. On our side was a shipping dock.

 

 

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[APDMOM]

We shared the port with 4 other ships. As we were pulling in, Harmony was already docked:

 

 

 

That slide… I’ll leave it at that. (Or not [emoji33])

 

 

 

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[APDMOM]

Carnival Sunshine… docked before us:

 

 

TUI Discovery, aka the ex-Splendour of the Seas:

 

We noticed that they took bikes off the ship - all marked TUI Discovery. It looks like they bring the bikes right along with the ship for excursions. It seemed like fun, so we decided to price a cruise on Discovery. Woah!!! How about forking out $5600 just for a balcony for 3? I think we’ll rather cruise twice on a larger ship for the same amount…

 

Bikes from TUI Discovery:

 

 

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