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Freedom 4/17 cruise in review with photos


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Good day to all felow cruisers. I am going to attempt for the first time to post a review of my Freedom of the Seas cruise that I took with the rest of the family on 4/17. Hopefully I can get some photos included on my post like some of the fellow reviews that I have seen. Wish me luck

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Well on this day I have a friend from work picking me up from my house then heading to the OIA to pick up the rest of the family to head out to Port Canaveral to stay the night. My car stayed home the entire cruise.

 

Let me give you a little background of myself and the rest of the family. I am a single guy that lives in Orlando Florida and works for the mouse (WDW). My parents took me (and the rest of the family) on a Land and Sea cruise in Alaska in 2009. This was my first cruise ever and was hooked. Since then I have cruised 5 times since all with RCCL out of Port Canaveral on the Monarch and Freedom. I am traveling with my Mom, Dad, Sister, and Nephew. For my Mom, Sister, and Nephew it was there first time on RCCL and there first time on the Freedom.

 

Well we all get to the Residence Inn by Marriott where we stay the night. Great hotel with lots to offer. Great rooms as well. We ended up eating at Burger King that night and had a Family Movie night and Game night in the room that evening.

 

Comming up next is Day 2 of vacation Embarkation Day

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Well this is the day that we leave for our Western Caribean Cruise on the Freedom of the Seas.

 

We took the shuttle from the hotel to the Port which was about a 5 minute ride.

 

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A view of the Disney Dream as we come into the Port Canaveral. Behind it is the Freedom.

 

Well it is time for me to head to work. I will try and post more tonight when I get home.

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Well we arrived at the port via the suttle bus from the hotel. I was able for the first time able to use the priority line since I have achieved Platinum status. I like to call this line the Fast Pass Line. It took me and my family about 30 min or less to get checked in and on the ship.

 

Once on the ship we headed to the Windjammer where I had an excellent meal as always. Finding a table was easy as I was able to grab a table for all 5 of us.

 

After lunch we headed to the rooms. We had 2 of them. I was is a D2 9250 and my parents and sister were in the JS 9272. Rooms were great size and had plenty of space.

 

We went to the Muster Drill and they checked us in with a scanner instead of using the paper manifest. The process went quicker I think.

 

After the drill I ended up heading to the Helipad for the sailaway. This is also where my Dad found me as well. There were 2 other ships also in port this day as well. Along with the Disney Dream the Carnival Sensation was also there.

 

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Another shot of the Disney Dream

 

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Carnival docked at their dock

 

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The Carnival Insporation leaving before us

 

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A fiew of the Front of Freedom looking back at the bridge.

 

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A view of Jetty Park as we are leaving

 

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The RCCL flag flapping in the wind.

 

Next up the first night on board.

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Well we have come to the first night onboard. We had the early seating which worked out perfect because we got there right at 6pm and was out of the MDR by 730pm the latest on most nights. Dinner was great. I have really come to like the Ceaser salad because I got that every night. The food thoughout the cruise was fantastic. So I wont dwell on what I had to eat each night because I just dont remember the order.

 

After dinner, Dad and I went to the welcome aboard show in the Arcadia theater. We sat in the upper level as we did for most of the shows. The show followed about the same script as the one did last year. The only parts that were different is that they brought and Dreamworks character out during the pre-show and the comedian was different. As far as the comedian goes I did not like him at all. His jokes seemed to fall flat and to mature for a first night audiance (more adult themed).

 

Later that night I went to the Dreamworks Parade they had down the Royal Promanade. They ended up having the parade again during the last sea day. I thought that the parade was well done and better than the circus parade they used to have.

 

After that I went to the Casino and started the Casino donation for the trip.

 

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King Julian (I think his name) during the pre-show

 

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Parade photo of Princess Fiona getting down

 

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Parade photo of Shrek

 

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Parade photo of the lion from Madagascar

 

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Photo of the inflatable penquine from Madagascar

 

 

I thought that RCCL did a great job in bringing costumed charaters on board. They did not overload you with charachters like Disney does. The only time I saw them was during the Parade, Final show and one charcter when he was leaving from his appearence on the Royal Promanade.

 

Next up the last post of the evening I think as I talk about one of the new enhancements on the Freedom that they added a couple of weeks ago.

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Well this will be about the new enhancements on the Freedom.

 

1. They replaced the barber shop with the Cupcake Cupbard. The Cruise Dricector promoted this every chance that he got. This looked brighter and was used more that the barber shop.

 

2. They had digital boards on each of the floors right by the stairways. These provided directions for the lost, a list of upcomming activities, Dinning menus, and on the departure day a running update of numbers that they have called. I will embelish on the last feature later.

 

3. They did re-carpet the mini golf and made it much better than last year. I will post photos of that in a later rewiew

 

4. The big enhancement was the "jumbo-tron" on deck 11 facing toward the 2 pools. On this screen they showed movies at select times, Displayed Good Morning in several languages, had some scenery displayed when not in use, and during the Belly Flop event they broadcasted the event just like at an areana. Below is a few shots of the Yogi Bear movie that they played on the first night.

 

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Well tomorrow I will cover the first day at sea.

 

Also thanks for all of the kind replys that everyone has sent. I will attempt to post something before I head to work tomorrow. Good Night to all.

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This was the first full day on the Freedom and we were at sea on the way to Laberdee, Haiti. I slept in till about 830am then headed up to the Windjammer for breakfast. Since it was busy I ended up finding a table in Chops where they had seating for Platinum and above C & A members.

 

I ended up relaxing in the Solarium on this day. Once I showed my sister the solarium she could be found most days there. This was also the day for the Meet and Mingle in the Olive or Twist lounge. I also checked out some of the activites by the pool in the afternoon.

 

This was also the first formal night and we had dinner at Portifino for my Dad's birthday. Great food and service in Portifino's. Tonight was also the first of 2 production shows. Freedom does have some nice production shows.

 

 

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The Solarium

 

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The Royal Promanade

 

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H2O Zone for the kids

 

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Begining of the ice carving

 

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Towards the end of the ice carving

 

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crowd watching the ice carving

 

Next post will be photos of the public areas.

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More pics

 

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View from my balcony looking foreward

 

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View from my balcony looking back

 

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Door sign which is part of the birthday decorations

 

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Room decorations for birthday

 

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Sorrentos Pizza

 

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Bull and Bear Club, excellent drinks there

 

 

Well it is off to work again today. I will try and post some more this evening after work as we move on to Laberdee

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The Beauty and the Beast. IMHO, Disney has the most beautiful modern day built ships afloat from the exterior view. The Sensation is one of the most unattractive ships afloat. Especially after Carnival added those exterior balconies.

 

 

 

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Another shot of the Disney Dream

 

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Carnival docked at their dock

 

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The Beauty and the Beast. IMHO, Disney has the most beautiful modern day built ships afloat from the exterior view. The Sensation is one of the most unattractive ships afloat. Especially after Carnival added those exterior balconies.

 

I couldn't agree with you more! Whenever I see a picture of the Dream, I still think it's a computer rendering. It is so nice looking. Carnival.... not so much.

 

Great review BTW! Can't wait to read the rest.

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I couldn't agree with you more! Whenever I see a picture of the Dream, I still think it's a computer rendering. It is so nice looking. Carnival.... not so much.

 

Great review BTW! Can't wait to read the rest.

 

Such a pity as we have been on carnival glory when left from port canaveral and it was v good but the carnival ship leaving now looks awful and a bit tacky lol esp compared with freedom and the dream!

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