June 18-June15 2006 Freedom Review...LONGGG!

[snoopy_leogirl]

I finally got the chance to post this for anyone who would like to read an extremely long review. If you have any other additional questions, just post them up.

 

Sunday June 18, 2006

Miami, Florida

 

Got up around 8am to go take a shower and finish packing up to go to the cruise port on Dodge Island in Miami. We were staying at the Intercontinental which is a 5 minute walk from Bayside Mall. This hotel is pretty big, nice, and clean. We really enjoyed the view I woke up to this morning. Outside, berthed at the port was the amazing Freedom of the Seas Along with our ship, were 2 other ships from Carnival (not sure which ones). I gotta say, Freedom was a sight alright. So huge, unbelievable to look at. Anyway, we reached to the port around 1:25pm or so and by the time we finished with all of the formalities, we finally boarded around 2:00pm. We went straight up to the Windjammer Café for lunch. What a large spread of food. There was too much to choose from. Already the Windjammer was packed with what looked like several hundreds of people. After lunch, we immediately went to our cabins to check them out. We first headed down to deck 2 to our parents’ cabin which was an oceanview cabin 2370 and cabin 2372 for my aunt and uncle. Both were nicely clean and comfy. We then went to cabin 9671 which was our interior cabin to be shared among me, my sister and younger cousin. Immediately thereafter, we went up to deck 5 to Galileo’s which was our muster station for the drill. The drill took about 20 minutes or so, and after that, we headed to our cabin, freshened up, and went out to deck 12 for the sailaway which was already underway. Miami looks great from the ship, and our last sight of land was Miami Beach which was so nice. The sail-a-way party was packed with people all over the place, kids in the pool, people on the deck chairs with drinks etc. This is pretty much the biggest crowd I saw along with the crowds at the parades at the Royal Promenade (which I will discuss later). We strolled through the Royal Promenade a while later to get some coffee and ice-cream at Ben and Jerrys. The ice-cream was really good. After the Promenade, we went to deck 13 to watch people “try to surf” on the Flowrider. Most people fell pretty fast which leads me to believe that it is quite tricky to get on and stay on for a while as most people were washed out. We also played a round of mini-golf and watched several people climb “the wall”. After all that activity, we headed back to the cabin to change for dinner. We were on the late seating for dinner which was pretty suitable for us. Our table was on deck 5 in Galileo’s dining room, table 530 which was pretty close to the window so we had a nice view for a short white till it got dark. This first night, I really enjoyed dinner. It was quite tasty and presented nicely. For appetizers I had the Onion Tart and the Cesar Salad. For the main course I had the Shrimp Ravioli which was good but the sauce was made from lobster sauce which wasn’t bad but I don’t eat lobster so it was a bit weird for me. Dessert was Apple Pie A La Mode which was amazingly yummy I would eat that again anytime. After dinner, we went to The Crypt for the family night disco. There were about 15 kids there with parents and it was nice to see everyone shaking and grooving. The kids looked especially happy. After that, we went to the Royal Promenade for the ‘Around the World’ Parade. This parade was very colorful, very pretty, very nice, and it involved some of the employees from each department that work on the ship. After the parade, it was off to bed

 

Monday June 19, 2006

At Sea

 

I woke up at 8:30am in order to pick get ready and pick up tickets for the freedom-ice.com show which I had heard so much about so I had to make sure to get these tickets. I picked up tickets for the Wednesday showing (Grand Cayman day). After that, I went back to the cabin to wake up the girls and got them to finally get out to Winjammers for breakfast at 10:30am. After breakfast, we went to the ice skating rink which was in Studio B. This looked like a lot of fun and there were a out 8 -10 people doing it already and some of them looked like professionals. Eventually (after 45 minutes or so) we got cold and got out. I would suggest wearing a jacket or a sweater for anyone who gets cold fast because it does get chilly after a while. The rink was pretty small, not tiny. I imagined it to be a bit bigger. After the ice, we headed to Olive or Twist for scrapbooking. Our coordinator was from the cruise director staff her name is Rayne from the United Kingdom. She was awesome. She taught us a few good techniques and tricks and we were off to a good start in creating an opening scrapbook page. Rayne is also a part of the Bingo staff, we met her there every time we went to play Bingo. We went to lunch thereafter to Windjammer/Jade. After lunch, we were off to the pool, we went to H2O, which was packed There were a few chairs still available so we took them and the kids were looking like they had a really great time out there. It was pretty hot that day so I went back inside for some relief from the sun. Later I went to play golf on my own and saw some wave action at the Flow Rider. After that, it was off to Olive Or Twist for the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle which was at 5pm. When I reached there, there were no people which was disappointing because I know that about 60 people registered for the event. After a short while, people showed up. I guess the main reasons why there wasn’t a huge turnout was because the weather was so nice outside that people wanted to stay out and maybe they forgot to show up even though we did get a formal invitation for the meeting. We ended up with about 20 people or so and Abe from the cruise director staff was our host. He was a really nice guy, who also is the Bingo announcer. We were treated to a gift for showing up for the Meet and Mingle, we got a water protected container that can be worn around the neck which had the official Royal Caribbean Seal on it, also there was a raffle for a dinner for 2 to either Chops or Portofinos. I met several members including Daytona John and his wife and 2 ladies that visit cruisecritic every now and then. After that, I went ahead to get ready for dinner since it was formal night. I think that some people were way overdressed for formal night but then again, that’s a personal choice. Dinner was nice with everyone dressed up but the biggest line that you could think of was formed waiting to take out formal pictures. Uggh what a line. It was so long that we had to skip it and go back later after dinner when formal portraits continued from 10pm till 11pm. Then it was off to bed to get ready for our first stop.

 

Tuesday June 20, 2006

Cozumel, Mexico

 

We woke up bright and early, got ready, ate breakfast and were off to the tenders on deck 1 to get to Cozumel. The tendering was very quick and efficient. We were on Cozumel within 10 minutes or so after getting on the boat. We met a nice taxi driver who volunteered to take us on a nice island drive and show us around a bit. The drive was scenic and nice. We made a few stops. One was to San Gervasio to see some of the Mayan ruins and another stop was to an area which I don’t remember what it was called but there was a beach there and a few small shops by the beach which were called the Target and Kmart of Cozumel. Nearby was also a restaurant of some sort. The drive took us about 2 hours I think. It was a good tour, though I have to say that there wasn’t much to do in Cozumel, unless you have an excursion planned. I really can’t point fingers though, I know that Hurricane Wilma set them back. You could tell by looking at the pier, with the damage, and all around the island there were wrecks in the grass fields and on the infrastructure. After getting back to town, the taxi driver took us to a nice restaurant in one of the alleys and boy was the food delicious It was typical Mexican food, we had beans, rice, chicken fajitas and corn chips with guacamole. It was pretty darn cheap too The seven of us payed a total bill of $42 which included a tip too. After lunch, we took the taxi to the Forum Shops which is the furthest shopping point on the main street and we walked down from there, intermittently stopping here and there for some quickie souvenirs. We finally reached to a point where we knew we had to get back to the ship and we were back to the port, waiting for tenders. When we got back on, the first place I took my cousin to was to the arcade. I think that the arcade was pretty good for a ship. It was pretty big, good choices of games and mostly was usually packed with kids of all ages and sometimes parents too. After arcading, we went to take out pictures all around the ship and we video recorded some stuff too. After that, I took the girls for a climb on the rock wall. They did okay for their first try, they both made it about halfway. Though I saw some people all the way up and down several times on several different paths. I was impressed. We then took a break for ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s...yummy Later, we dropped of my cousin (age 9) to Adventure Ocean’s Voyager’s Room. We then got ready for dinner and went to Galileo’s. That night I had the crab cake and the chicken soup which was a clear soup. The food was pretty tasty. After dinner, we took a walk around the ship and then entered Studio B for The Quest It was out first Quest experience and we were pleasantly surprised. My sister was pretty distracted though because the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks were playing Game 6 in Miami and she wanted the Heat to win so she kept getting up to see the score. The game was showing on the On Air Club. Quest was fun, new, different and a bit embarrassing I would say for some people who did some weird things. During Quest, they showed a quick flash of the NBA game and Ken Rush announced that the Heat had won Yaay The ship was roaring with fans all over. After Quest we stopped by the Pharaoh’s Lounge and many Miami residents were there wearing Heat jerseys and chanting and cheering for their home team. It was a nice way to finish the night.

 

Wednesday June 21, 2006

Georgetown, Grand Cayman

 

On Cayman day, we woke up pretty early and got ready to go for breakfast. We were good to go after a while, as tendering went by pretty quick. We were on the island in like 10 minutes. As we arrived, we took a walk along the stores close to the pier. There were what felt like thousands of people flocking around because there were three other ships in port: Freedom, Caribbean Princess, and two Carnival ships which I can’t remember the names of. It was a nice day but it was very hot. During our walk, we came upon a nice store which was right across from Scotia Bank. This store was pretty expensive but the quality of the items was so good. I would recommend this place to anyone. I think the name of the store was Too Hot. They sell t-shirts, souvenirs, flip-flops, hats, kids gifts etc. We then made a quick stop to the drug store to pick up a few quick items and then we were off to our independent tour to Stingray City/Snorkeling/7 Mile Beach. We took a bus to a small pier where we took a boat to Stingray City. The boat ride last about 35-40 minutes ONE way. It was a nice ride out. We were a total group of about 13 people I think. Upon our arrival, we noticed that there were about 10 other boats there with us and each had many more people than we did so the sandbar was crowded with at least what looked like 350 people. Very impressive. The place was surrounded by beautiful stingrays, of all different sizes. Our tour director lifted up the stingrays, showed us how to feed them squid, showed us how to play with them, pat them, and how to let them massage us on our backs. It was really educational and fun at the same time. Then we were off to the snorkel area which is very close to Stingray City. Not everyone went for the snorkeling but a few did and they had a good time because they saw nice corals, reefs, and eels. On the way back, everyone was tired and we finally made it back to the tendering area to get back on the ship. Upon our arrival back on our stunning ship, we took showers and got ready for dinner and the freedom-ice.com show. This show was one of the highlights of the ship for me. I was simply mesmerized by the performances. Considering how small the rink is and considering the fact that the ship is in motion, you will be surprised to see how so many people are able to come together and coordinate for such a spectacular show. At dinner, I had the mushroom soup and the steamed dumplings which were both simply yummy We were so exhausted that we called it a night right after dinner.

 

Thursday June 22, 2006

Montego bay, Jamaica

 

MoBay is a docked port so it is a lot easier to get off and on the ship, thank goodness. But this also happens to be the only island that we went to (so far) where they had security checks with xray scanning of bags while getting back on the ship. Again, it was a great day outside. A little overcast but still nice and hot. Our first stop today was taking a bus to City Center Shopping. This area is kind of in the middle of it all. MoBay is very crowded, you will see people everywhere. There are a bunch of stores at City Center some upstairs and some downstairs on the main level. It is a pretty small concentrated area of shopping compared to some of the other islands but we were done in amount an hour with the whole outlet. After City Center, a bunch of people wanted to be dropped off back to the ship so we went back to the ship and mostly everyone got off to get back to the ship. Also, a few people wanted to go to Margaritaville so we dropped them off too. And then we were off on an island tour with our guide Trevor. He was born in Jamaica so he knew pretty much everything about the island and he was helpful in answering our questions. He took us to several areas. We saw MoBay’s airport, posh area of houses, the ghetto, we sampled locally grown fruits: pineapple, mangoes and jackfruit. This is some of the best tasting fruit that I ever had, really It was all so juicy, fresh and sweet. Yummy We also drove thorugh the hills where there were some spots that had nice scenery. Trevor charged $15 per person and took us for a tour that lasted for several hours. He then dropped us back to the ship where we took a walk around the ship again after lunch at Windjammer. Then it was off to scrapbooking at Olive Or Twist with Rayne. This time we did a page on formal night. After dinner that night, I was off to The Crypt again with the girls for Family Night where its always fun. They only thing that irks me about The Crypt is that every time we were there, they always played the same music: Mambo number 5, Cotton Eyed Joe, Rich Girl etc. After The Crypt, I went to the casino which was always packed during the nights after dinner and on sea days. It is a pretty big casino with lots of slots among which the most famous were the Wheel Of Fortune machines.On this night, there were 2 big winners, both on Wheel Of Fortune slots, both winners won within 6 minutes of each other and one winner won $1600 and the other won $1000. Not bad for a days work. Lucky people.

 

 

 

Friday June 23, 2006

Labadee, Haiti

 

Both sets of parents got off to Labadee early, and the girls went to the pool instead so I decided to get off late. By the time I was at the island, it was already noon. I also knew that I wanted to get back on the ship by 3:00pm because there was a Friends Trivia Challenge at The Schooner Bar so I was in a hurry to explore Labadee. As I got on the island, I went to take a walk along some of the trails that I noticed. The higher trails were really nice, the view was spectacular. The island was packed with people all over the place, most of them eating, walking, relaxing or in the water. Some of the more secluded beaches were very nice. People were even snorkeling around the area. When we walked to the vendor market, we saw too vendors being way too pushy. We even heard some bizarre stories from people who said that when they walked in, the vendors would block off their paths until they bought something. That really bothered me but for me, they were just a bit too pushy, nothing else. I got so hot that I decided to get back down to one of the three lunch spots and grab a bite to eat. Even though the weather was extremely overcast, it was very hot and humid. I got in the lunch line around 1:30pm and there wasn’t much of a food choice left but I still managed to get some ribs and rice which was finger licking good. Really. After lunch I headed back to the ship. I went to the cabin to drop off some of the stuff that my parents bought and headed off to the Schooner Bar for Friends Trivia. I was the only one there and Guillermo, from Costa Rica was our host for the trivia. He said that this was the second time they were trying out the Friends Trivia, they didn’t do it the first time. The second time no one showed up and this time, so far, I was the only one that was there so he was on the verge of giving up hope that anyone would show up and I was pretty upset because no one else showed up but alas, one nice lady showed up. A minute later, 2 girls showed up. And then a guy came and then another older lady showed up so we had enough people to give the Friends Trivia a try. Yaay Basically, it was 20 questions, and we had to write the answers down on a given piece of paper. All questions were based on the TV Hit Show Friends which completed a 10 year run on NBC. After we finished, we were asked to switch papers with someone else. I ended up with this guy’s paper who had written the answer JOEY to each question. I guess he did it for the fun of it but he had all answers wrong. When we were done, I had 16 out of 20 correct but I was beaten badly by this girl who had everything correct. Oh well, I guess I am not the best at Friends Trivia. We all won a free Royal Caribbean Pen for partaking in this event. Next up was a family Scavenger Hunt which we took part in also. Basically, we had to answer about 10-12 questions about the cruise ship and in order to answer most of the questions, we had to run around the ship looking for answers. When we came back with our answers, we had 1 mistake but another team beat us to it and came back faster so they won. It was a good try though, and a great workout. After the Scavenger Hunt, we played Bingo. I was very disappointed in the fact that it was hosted in Pharaoh’s Palace because the place wasn’t large enough to accommodate everyone playing and we ended up sitting on the floor. Also, several people that were sitting had spare seats but never offered us the unused chairs. I was very disappointed. We ended up losing the last game by ONE NUMBER However, we did will the raffle for a free Cruise In Review DVD. After Bingo, we headed out to the Royal Promenade for the Circus Parade which was very lively, colorful, funny and fun to watch. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was then time for dinner, and after dinner was Family Quest which was a lot of fun too. We were one of the teams but didn’t fare very well but it was fun and that was the most important thing. We then headed out to the On Air Club for Kids Karaoke night. Some of the kids did wonderful, the place was packed with other kids and proud parents. We then hit the casino for some fun and then it was off to the Winjammers Gala. We only viewed everything, we didn’t stick around to eat anything. I was amazed at how nicely the food was put together, so stylish, decorative, creative and artistic. The area was full of people taking pictures of everything. There were also some live demonstrations on how the chefs create their masterpieces. Then, it was off to bed.

 

Saturday June 24, 2006

At Sea

 

The last day came so fast, it was unbelievable. I wish we had more time on the ship but she has to sail with her next set of passengers. Anyway, we woke up, and had breakfast. After that, we did everything that we wanted to do so that we didn’t go home with any regrets about anything. We went for the last session of scrapbooking with Rayne, we hung out by the pool since it was a beautiful day. After that, we did lunch at the Windjammer. Then later, we were watching the soccer match at the On Air Club. After that, it was off to the final game of Bingo. Bingo was at the Arcadia Theater, and it was pretty crowded, especially the main section. The jackpot was split between 2 lucky people. One was a lady from Miami, and one was a young guy from Baltimore. They each won $6000 plus a bit more. Lucky winners After Bingo, it was off to more roaming around and relaxing and finally for dinner time, we went to Galileo’s again. It was my uncle’s birthday and we ordered a cake for him. It was really nice to see the waiter, assistant waiter and head waiter sing for him. After that, we were at the photo gallery for a while, picking out our final pictures and I splurged and bought the scrapbook album and embellishments kit. They were pricey but I promised myself to make good use of them. Well, after that I was at the casino for a while and I ended up losing like $30 bucks. Then it was off to packing and to bed.

 

Sunday June 25, 2006

Miami, Florida

 

We got up at like 7:00am and we were scheduled to debark at 9:30am. We were ready to go to breakfast by 8:00am. After Windjammer’s, we went to buy a picture at the photo gallery for my cousin and then we were off. I turned around to see the ship and nearly sobbed my heart out but I was looking forward to the shopping in Miami so I was okay. Immigration took about 20 minutes in the line and about 5 minutes at the officer’s desk. In about 30 minutes we were downstairs waiting for our luggage and we were in a taxi to take us to the hotel, Hilton Blue Lagoon Drive. We spent the next 3 days in Miami, shopping our hearts out. We went home on June 28th and that was the end of our wonderful days while on vacation. I hope to do it again very soon.

[Puerto Rican Cruiser]

Nice and very descriptive review........ July 23rd FOS is waiting for me... :D

[gowensricks]

Thank you so much for posting such a descriptive review of Freedom. I will sail her on 8/13/06 (4 1/2 weeks away). Therefore, I had to live vicariously through you for awhile:)

[MszKitty]

After that, it was off to Olive Or Twist for the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle which was at 5pm. When I reached there, there were no people which was disappointing because I know that about 60 people registered for the event. After a short while, people showed up. I guess the main reasons why there wasn’t a huge turnout was because the weather was so nice outside that people wanted to stay out and maybe they forgot to show up even though we did get a formal invitation for the meeting. We ended up with about 20 people or so and Abe from the cruise director staff was our host. He was a really nice guy, who also is the Bingo announcer. We were treated to a gift for showing up for the Meet and Mingle, we got a water protected container that can be worn around the neck which had the official Royal Caribbean Seal on it, also there was a raffle for a dinner for 2 to either Chops or Portofinos. I met several members including Daytona John and his wife and 2 ladies that visit cruisecritic every now and then.

 

I was at the M&M. Actually, I was the first one there for a while before anyone showed up.

I'm sure a lot of people weren't there because since it was formal night they were getting all dressed up for early dining

But I have to be honest, I was a bit disappointed. After all the posting on our roll call I thought there were be more "meeting and mingling". I did see one guy going around introducing himself (which I figure now must have been Daytona John), but he never made it to where my husband & I and Mofred & her husband were sitting. The only person I talked to was Mofred (Maureen) and her husband. As it turned out, she and I kept running into each other all week. We even sat together at one of the shows and at the C&A party.

 

Mofred...if you are reading this, HIYA! I've got a great picture of us with Ken Rush.

 

However, YEAAA! to our "Unofficial" M&M! I enjoyed meeting everyone there. Unfortunately, I never saw any of them for the rest of the cruise (except as I said, Mofred).

[Matisse05]

Great review. Sounds like you had a great time. I'm sooo jealous!:p

 

Did I overlook your 2nd formal night?:confused: Perhaps I just missed it reading while pretty fast.

[snoopy_leogirl]

Great review. Sounds like you had a great time. I'm sooo jealous!:p

 

Did I overlook your 2nd formal night?:confused: Perhaps I just missed it reading while pretty fast.

 

 

Hi, actually believe it or not, but we were too tired to do the formal dressing up and dinner on the second formal night so we ate at Windjammer and the parents went to the dining room that night. I don't regret it becuase at the time, I really was too tired to do anything but its okay. :)

[teeburd]

Awesome review, we have our first cruise on the Freedom in March....It has been a while since anyone really posted anythng about her...I was jonesing for some FOS talk....cuz March is a long way away....Thanks!:D