MITSUGIRLYS FREEDOM OF THE SEAS REVIEW & PICTORIAL

[mitsugirly]

Alrighty then...let's try this again. I typed up my next segment and must have hit something and it completely disappeared. 

 

 

Back closer to the shore, we found a few sea urchins. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at shore, there still wasn't very many people here. It was pretty awesome.

 

 

 

Kam had made a flower pot. It was full of sand and sea weed and she tried like crazy to take it with her. When she wasn't looking, Kendra dumped it and packed the bucket away. Kam was highly upset. 

 

 

My little (now big) peacock mermaid was having a blast. 

 

 

 

 

I have a lot of issues with my camera always fogging up. You go from the heat to the cool ocean and then back to the heat and then I battle with it fogging up non-stop. It's frustrating. I have usually taken several photo's before I notice this. I'll have to remove my fish eye lens, wipe it down, put the lens back on only to repeat that over and over again to the point I get so aggravated that I'll eventually just take it off completely. 

 

 

 

 

 

The hubby was enjoying a local beer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is where Lawrence sat with the locals to keep cool. 

 

 

 

 

We had been here for about an hour and figured it was time to pack up and get back on the road to the next beach. We really liked this beach. It was just so pretty and not crowded and we highly recommend it. They do have chair rental (we just wasn't going to be there long enough) and also a place for food and drinks. 

 

We pulled out at 10:42am and was on our way to the next place. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

On the way, Lawrence started passing out drinks and the partying began with all the kids boozing it up in the back. Us adults had to remain sober and supervise these little rugrats. Shawna face-timed her mom as we were going down the street and had her convinced she was drinking on this tour and Kendra helped her along by telling her mom "yea, didn't you know the legal drinking age is 13 here?" Of course she didn't fall for it because Shawna was the only 13 year old with us and everyone else is younger. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

Into the rain forest we went...only this rain forest tour consisted of driving. That's my kinda tour. LOL

 

 

 

We stopped at one point and Lawrence was telling me that the "black pineapples" they grew there were amazing and some of the sweetest pineapples you can get. 

 

Well, I heard "black" and tried to take a picture. All I seen was the black hanging from what I thought was a banana tree. Hmmm

 

 

Now that's a colorful house and stones. 

 

 

We passed a place where people were zip-lining and all the kids were like "man, why didn't we do that instead?" I said "because I can't get Sakari to do it". Sakari said "hey, I would do that!" I told her it was higher and scarier than zip-lining at the small one at DePalm Island in Aruba that we have been to several times so how is she scared of that and not this? Maybe she is about to go back to my fearless child I used to have that would do anything???

 

 

 

I mean she was 3 years old zip-lining in Belize all by herself.

 

 

 

She was 5 years old jumping off a 2 story deck into the ocean as well. She was just fearless back then. 

 

 

 

 

That child has swam with stingrays and sharks and everything else but all of a sudden developed a fear of zip lines 2 years ago. Now all of a sudden she wants to do it again. We have a couple zip-lines here in Ohio down south and I think I'll take her this summer to "test the water" (or land) and see how she does before ever booking another zip line excursion for big money in the Caribbean.

 

 

Meanwhile, Billy felt the need for a nap...

 

 

 

 

 

We were winding and twisting up and down the rain forest mountains. 

 

 

Now I know he said something about this tree. Maybe it's some of the biggest trees grown there or bagillion years old? **edit** the hubby said he told us "it's over 100 years old". 

 

 

 

 

He pulled over on the road, at a little market, and bought us some goodies. Well, this is the "black pineapple" he was talking about. It was GOOD! 

 

I was the lucky one who sat in the middle section of the bus and I passed it back and forth. (True story here now...) It started up front and the hubby and Billy took one each, I took one, passed it back to the kids and Kendra and they took one. Then passed it back to me, I took one, then passed it back up front and we repeated this process over and over until....Kendra caught on that I was getting a "double-dip" each time it was passed to me. Oops! LOL

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We came to this area and it was SO BEAUTIFUL. I was hoping this might be one of the beaches we were about to visit but it was not. This is Morris Bay! They definitely should put this place as a beach to visit or their "tour".

 

 

Funny thing is, I posted one of these pictures on my SM and one of my cruise friends said they had the exact same picture. LOL It definitely wow's everyone as you come around that corner and see it. 

 

 

The water was crystal clear. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was just so beautiful. 

 

 

[z4ltw]

Thanks for taking the time and effort in posting this. I'm sailing her on Sunday!

[mitsugirly]

 

Then there was a field. A field with no palm trees...Kendra informed me these were the black pineapples. Ohhhhh....now I get it. So I wasn't looking down on the ground when they told us about it before and missed them.

 

 

Billy woke up in time to see these houses. He was now on face-time with a friend back home and he just couldn't get over the houses on "stilts" LOL I mean we have these in the US...he don't get out much I guess. 

 

 

 

Goats gone wild....seriously. They were all over the road and on the side. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

 

I noticed a sign that said "Turner" on it. Now I knew there was a Turner's Beach and hoped that we were there. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was our next stop. It was Turners Beach. (Our driver in the picture below-very tall). 

 

 

 

 

We came up to the eating area and a very short older gentleman came up to us and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Lawrence. Are you enjoying the tour and our beaches?"  😮🤣

 

Oops, I had thought this entire time we were touring with Lawrence.

 

When we stopped, our no-named driver, who I will now have to refer to as Mr NotLawrence, told us that if we were hungry, this would be an excellent place to stop and eat if we wanted. He said the service was fast and the food was good. 

 

 

 

 

 

The beach was beautiful and the water was amazing. However, no palms trees lining the beach like I like. Darnit. 

 

 

 

I immediately set out to find us a place in the sand. From the looks of things, we weren't about to find any shade on this beach. 

 

 

 

 

It was pretty crowded here too. It's obviously a popular beach. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boys said they were hungry and was about to order something. I really wasn't hungry and wanted to just "snack" on something like fries. Sakari only wanted fries as well. So, I sent the hubby after 2 orders of fries for us. 

 

This is what a crazy salty beach hair looks like. 

 

 

 

 

There was a guy walking by with a donkey and asking if you wanted to take pictures. What does this guy do when his donkey goes potty on the nice clean beach?

 

 

 

 

Sakati knows to put her 100 spf sunscreen on. This will be the first cruise we really didn't burn and feel uncomfortable for a few days. Good for us. Sakari always does nothing but tan anyhow but I still make her put it on. 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I decided to go exploring....Sakari and Kambriah came with me. B and Shawna headed for the water instead. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sakari found a crab. It was dead, but Shawna didn't know that and it would be the perfect opportunity to scare this child that has never seen any of this stuff before. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

I really didn't see any areas that looked good for snorkeling. This was more of a "beach only" type of visit for us. I did see several people head out in this area along the shore, but they weren't there for very long before they came back. I imagine there wasn't much to see. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I couldn't get the kids out of the water at this point. They were just not cooperating for any pictures. Kam, jumped for joy and decided to be my guinea pig. 

 

Floating above the water kid...man she really got pretty high up!

 

 

 

 

Since she did something for me, I had to let her bury my feet in the sand. 

 

 

 

The kids having a blast trying to ride the waves in....

 

 

 

 

Well now....for some reason I am missing the rest of my pictures from this beach. I'll have to stop for awhile and see why they didn't upload the rest of them when I get home some time later tonight. Darnit. 

Edited May 9, 2019 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

56 minutes ago, z4ltw said:

Thanks for taking the time and effort in posting this. I'm sailing her on Sunday!

 

 

Thanks. I enjoy doing them and I hope you have an amazing cruise on the Freedom! She's a beauty. 

[skidawg79]

Wow that water at turner beach! 

[mitsugirly]

14 hours ago, skidawg79 said:

Wow that water at turner beach! 

 

 

Isn't it beautiful!

[mitsugirly]

So the hubby came back with mine and Sakari's fries....

 

 

 

Only it wasn't 2 orders of fries. He said they didn't just sell fries. I thought that was weird. I really wasn't too hungry (enough to eat a cheeseburger) but Sakari really just wanted fries so she ate the fries and I ended up with the cucumber cheeseburger instead. It was yummy I have to admit.

 

One thing I did find interesting is that this place serves you on REAL plates! Not plastic or throw away.

 

The kids continued to play in the water until the very end.

 

 

 

We had been here for about 1 hour and it was time to pack up and head to the next place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lawrence said his goodbyes and we headed to the bus with Mr NotLawrence and off we went.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Now I guess Mr NotLawrence was going to head to each beach along this area and let us take a look and if it was something we wanted to stop at for a while, he'd stop. Otherwise, he'd keep going.

 

 

 

Next up was supposed to be Darkwood beach, but when we got to this one, he said it was Ffryes Bay. Once I laid eyes on the water toys...I knew this wasn't the place we wanted to stay. With this many kids, it just wasn't a good idea to have to deal with resisting the temptation not to play on them for the youngsters. So, we kept going...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

The next place we came to was Valley Church Beach.

 

 

 

This place reminded me of Aruba. You can drive down the street and find all these neat places to stop, pull up under a tree in the car, and head out to swim. There were tons of trees everywhere with several cars parked by them and I thought this would be a nice place.

 

 

 

 

 

He kept driving on down to where everyone parked. It was the "crowded area" with beach chairs, tons of people, and a concession stand. Hmmm, that's not at all what I was looking for. I told him to turn around and go over by the non-crowded area and the trees. That's what we were looking for.

 

He turned around and ask where I'd like to be. He tried to park at the very end of the parking lot (which was a little far away) and I said "Are you not able to pull up where the trees are to park? Like, where the other cars are parked? He said, "oh, you want to go down there...." So he went to an area we picked out and we all got out and found a spot. Then....he drove off back to the parking lot. LOL Ok, obviously he wasn't going to park there like the other cars so I gave up on the point I was trying to make. I was hoping he'd stay there so we didn't have to unload everything and we would also have cold drinks.

 

 

 

 

This is where we ended up at and it was the perfect spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended up enjoying the rest of the day here.

 

 

 

Funny faces

 

 

 

 

 

Billy played ball with the kids in the water. They really had him hopping around all over that beach. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Palmetto Pilot]

Awesome review. Freedom is my favorite Royal ship. I can't wait to see what she looks like after her drydock.

[mitsugirly]

They had some really neat "tent" rentals there. I guess it's a tent campground and you can rent these.

 

 

 

 

Except they are not just your every day tent....they are "luxury tents".   When we walked past them, someone was opening theirs and holy mother of god they were nice! They have a full-size bed in them...like a bed! Like with bedposts and all. They have dressers and a couch and just wow. It was like a little studio apartment. How crazy was that?

 

When I got home, I looked them up and it was around $1100 to stay in for 8 days.

 

We decided to walk down the beach and to the concession stand for something cold to drink.

 

 

I guess it wasn't too overly crowded here. From the parking lot, all I could see was the sea of chairs lined up. But, when we walked the beach, a lot of them were empty.

 

 

 

I absolutely loved the colors of this concession stand. If I had a house in the Caribbean, I'd want to do it like this. 😄

 

 

Now every place we have stopped at has had pop for $1 a can. This place was outrageous and charged $3 I think it was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we headed back to our spot, after getting drinks, we stopped in the parking lot to ask Mr NotLawrence what time would be a good time to be leaving. He replied around 3pm.

 

 

 

 

There were areas along the beach where the tide has come in and it created little areas of shells and crushed shells as well. It was so pretty and felt so neat as I ran my hand through it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a fun and a relaxing day hanging out here. It was partly cloudy by the time we arrived here and we were able to just sit and hang out and talk while the kids enjoyed the water most of the time. 

 

Then at one point, the clouds went away and the sun was blaring down on us and that was our queue to get ready to pack up.

 

It was almost 3pm and knew this adventure was just about to end. We didn't make it to the last beach, Jolly Beach, and I don't believe he bothered to even show it to us nor did I see it as we passed it. We had been here for 1 1/2 hours.

 

I took a few more pictures as we packed up our things.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr NotLawrence pulled up across the street and we all piled in and off we went.

 

 

 

 

 

[miamimere]

I always look forward to your reviews, and they have been super helpful on previous trips!  We did the Freedom in 2018 and loved the ship, the Freedom class is my absolute favorite of the Royal ships. 

 

We started booking more Carnival and MSC cruises because our family outgrew the royal rooms and my kids no longer willingly shared the double sofa bed.  I was so excited to see your pics of the ultra spacious room.  I showed my husband last night.  Good to know that we have some options!!!  Thanks so much for the info 🙂

[mitsugirly]

On our way back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We could see her off in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always laugh when I see fast food at places in the Caribbean...I don't know why.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it back around so it was definitely a short ride since we were packing up to leave the beach AT 3pm, which means we left after that time.   It now gives me an idea of how close that string of beaches is and next time I might just hit up Jolly Beach. 

 

We had a lovely day of seeing several different beaches and some of Antigua along the way. It would definitely be a place I'd like to head back to but next time, I think I will just pick a beach and stay there. All this running around beach hoping is nice to see the various beaches and sites, but you just don't feel like you've got your "fair share" of being at a beach. This place is definitely a place I need to come and STAY on the island to explore those 365 beaches. LOL

 

I would recommend Lawrence of Antigua tours. For $50 taking you all over the island...well you can't beat that. Mr NotLawrence was nice (despite the misunderstanding at the beginning about "staying 10 minutes"). He provided drinks during our rides and let us stay where we wanted for the amount of time we wanted with no issues. Lawrence himself was nice, although we didn't get to talk much at the beach because we were on limited time there and wanted to experience the place. I'm not sure if he had a group of his own. I do believe that I saw 2 Lawrence of Antigua buses in the parking lot because I remember walking out and was like...wait, which is ours?

 

I don't know how much a taxi to the furthest area (Long Bay Beach) is, but if you have a large group, need a van, and wanted to go that far, it might even be worth it to just hire Lawrence to get you all there together (like a private tour) even if you was to stay there all day. But anyhow...very nice company.

[BNL1213]

I am living for this review!!!  thank you again for doing it for us future Freedom cruisers.  Do you happen to remember what nights were formal?  Trying to book some reservations on the ship and that info would be helpful.  I believe it's Monday and Friday nights.  But want to be sure. 

 

Thank you!!!

[mitsugirly]

1 hour ago, Palmetto Pilot said:

Awesome review. Freedom is my favorite Royal ship. I can't wait to see what she looks like after her drydock.

 

 

Thanks and drydock? 😮 I can't seriously imagine what she would need done to her to make her better. She's beautiful and in such good shape.

 

 

54 minutes ago, miamimere said:

I always look forward to your reviews, and they have been super helpful on previous trips!  We did the Freedom in 2018 and loved the ship, the Freedom class is my absolute favorite of the Royal ships. 

 

We started booking more Carnival and MSC cruises because our family outgrew the royal rooms and my kids no longer willingly shared the double sofa bed.  I was so excited to see your pics of the ultra spacious room.  I showed my husband last night.  Good to know that we have some options!!!  Thanks so much for the info 🙂

 

Aww thanks and glad I can help. I would say it's my favorite as well and will look for this class (and Oasis) in the future.

 

This room was AMAZING!

 

3 minutes ago, BNL1213 said:

I am living for this review!!!  thank you again for doing it for us future Freedom cruisers.  Do you happen to remember what nights were formal?  Trying to book some reservations on the ship and that info would be helpful.  I believe it's Monday and Friday nights.  But want to be sure. 

 

Thank you!!!

 

 

Aww thanks for the kind comments.

 

You are correct. Formal nights were monday and friday. 🙂

[mitsugirly]

Back at the port, we did a little shopping and then headed to the ship around 4pm.

 

 

 

We started hearing a battle of the horns and knew someone was pulling out...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other RC ship was pulling out and it revealed.....X was with us too. (I knew this but the rest of the family didn't realize there was another ship there with us. 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the room to shower and we had this magnificent view from our overly sized room. 

 

 

 

I always find the hours the buffet is open on port days. Like why can't they adjust these so that those coming back on the ship, after a long day in port, have someplace to eat, other than the 24/7 venues? I just don't get it!

 

So, pizza it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After eating and relaxing for a bit, Sakari was getting the itch for water again. This child would live in water if she could.

 

She changed into a bathing suit, morphed into a mermaid, then back to the pool we went.

 

As we were relaxing and watching a bit of the movie Homes & Watson, I heard this flapping of a tail and here she came to us (mermaid tail still on).

 

 

She informed us that the lifeguards told her that she couldn't wear her mermaid tail in the pool and that it was "too dangerous". Say what? Dangerous for who? Those around her? Because there were maybe 3 people in the pool. Dangerous for her? Seriously...it's a monofin and she can swim better with it on than without. They didn't have any problem with it the night before and she has not had one issue with any other cruise or ship. She was a little upset but took it off as instructed. She swam for a little bit and then decided she'd rather go back to the room and draw on her ipad. 

 

We headed to the casino for a bit and I did "ok" and was still playing with the same $20 I started out with from the first time I went.

 

 

 

 

They were having an 80's party tonight and I knew I wanted to see a bit of it. Up to deck 5 to check it out. My favorite era is the 80's and I just love the music and dancing.

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't stay the whole time and knew that I still needed to get back to the room and pack for our day in St Lucia tomorrow.

 

 

 

This was our towel animal for the night. I thought i looked like a big but Sakari insisted that it was Dumbo (we had just went to the movies and watch Dumbo prior to the cruise and she said it was tiny like Dumbo and he was trying to flap his ears). I'm thinking Angry Bird myself. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Reginaldvanpelt]

Love your review! We board Freedom in a week and are really looking forward to it!

[mchin]

I haven't been on Freedom for quite a while.  Are all the pools fresh water or do they have a mix between fresh and salt water?

[Clarea]

18 minutes ago, mchin said:

I haven't been on Freedom for quite a while.  Are all the pools fresh water or do they have a mix between fresh and salt water?

 

All freshwater on Freedom.

[MamatoJack]

Enjoying the review! I've been on Freedom twice when it was in FLL, we really enjoyed the ship but I am kind of hoping she gets the Indy treatment and they add some water slides 🙂