Review - Freedom of the Seas March 30 - April 6, 2014 - TONS OF PICS!

TIME TO CRUISE!!!

It is time for my extensive review of our recent family spring break trip on the fabulous Freedom of the Seas from March 30 thru April 6. This was the third family spring break cruise, my sixth and DW’s 7th, and DD’s 3rd (12 and 9 – now hotshots at cruising and Platinum C&A members - lol). In 2012 we sailed on the Voyager out of Tampa and in 2011 took the Radiance out of New Orleans.

This will be a long review with a load of pics. I love picture reviews as it takes me onto the ship when I cannot be there! I took a total of 1200 pics although I cannot say the quality of my camera matches up with some of the reviews I have seen. I will break the review down by posting pics of the ship initially, then each port of call and then I will scan in all compasses including Adventure Ocean compasses. This process will take a long time but I always like reviews that are lengthy as long as they are steady so that is my goal!! During the planning for this cruise and the previous cruises I was on CC nearly every day looking for nuggets of information. I was never disappointed by the fine folks here who take the time to try to make other’s vacations better so I hope to do the same.

As I mentioned this was a Spring Break cruise so there were 1400 kids onboard! Not the place to be if you wanted to be with mostly adults although I have to say I was impressed with the behavior of most of the kids. There was a little rowdiness but nothing as bad as I expected and the teens only occasionally mobbed the elevators! We did this cruise with my SIL and her family so our kids had their cousins to run around with and that worked out pretty well.

I booked the cruise in early 2013 and the countdown immediately began! I joined the roll call on May 28, 2013 and was only the second or third poster on there but ultimately it was a very active roll call leading to a great Meet and Mingle! We shared ideas and excursion info and it was great getting to know folks in advance of the cruise.

An impatient crowd!

Flight was delayed due to weather

As you can see from the airport departure picture we flew from Cincinnati to Orlando on Saturday evening. SIL flew in on Sunday but there was no way i was chancing a delay since I wanted to be sure to get to the port in plenty of time! We rented a car at the Orlando airport because after pricing shuttles and connections it was just as cheap to rent the car. We planned on visiting Disney on the back end of the trip since our return flight didn’t leave until 5 pm. We went back and forth about whether to stay in Orlando or Cocoa Beach and ultimately choose the Residence Inn in Cocoa. Below is an image of a brochure I picked up at AAA showing park and cruise deals in Cocoa. Beware that some of these deals have changed.

Residence has a shuttle from the hotel to the pier (it is only about 5 minutes away) so we parked the car at the hotel. But the shuttle didn’t leave the hotel until noon! I want to be up on the pool deck by noon!! Originally they said I could park free but when we got there they wanted $6.00/day. I raised a stink and they dropped the charge. I also thought the shuttle was free but it was $3.00 per person each way. The shuttle ended up being a motorcoach with over 50 people scheduled to ride over so I wasn’t thrilled about fighting to get luggage off the coach. I saw these taxis coming and going from the hotel called 888Taxi and drove poor DW crazy about the noon shuttle being too late and wanting to get there earlier so she relented and we got the 888taxi. Awesome service. Driver took our luggage and for $14.99 took us right to front door of pier and delivered our luggage to the porters. (Ultimately I watched the hotel shuttle pull up from the pool deck! Ha!)

Brochure

Residence Inn

We sure have an active group of reviewers! This is the third review of this week. Mine just went up.

Looking forward to yours, it's like reliving the cruise from a slightly different perspective.

So excited for another review of Freedom Western...we sail in June. Can't wait to see the Adventure Ocean compasses...we have 3 kids in the 9-11 range and also a 12 year old nephew and 16 year old niece sailing with us. One question about AO, did they have Lunch & Play offered on the two sea days (where they take the kids to lunch and you don't have to pick them up between 12-2), and did they offer Adventure Dining for dinner any or all nights? Not sure that I would use any of that, I really like eating as a family, but just want to know if we have the option if other stuff is going on at those times.

Thanks and looking forward to more!

Looking forward to the rest of your review as our next ( Sept. ) cruise is on FOS. :)

Ready and waiting for lots of pictures before we sail in October

Looking forward to your review! Makes me even more excited for ours :)

Looking forward to this one too. I looooove Freedom!!

Our first family cruise was on her.

Can't wait.

Thanks.

Chass

We sail freedom Aug 31st and I love reading all the trip reports! Thanks keep it up!

Excited to read your review, we leave on May 4th!

Sailing Freedom for the first time in June. Reading lots of reviews, and yours will be one of them. There will be 10 of us total, four children. Looking forwarded to your review!

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Melody

Ready and waiting.:D Thank you.

I love reading FOS reviews...can't wait to go next month

Thank you to everyone for following along. I cant wait to see the perspective of this cruise from the other reviews. I am sure I missed stuff so I am hoping other picked up on it. for instance, at Labadee we went straight from the pier to Columbus Cove on the tram/shuttle. So I never got to go to any of the high observation points although I did try to get shots of the zip line from the beach.

Subscribed

Following! Just put a deposit down for the fall on Freedom!

There was a long line at the pier waiting to go through security. We got to the back of the line at about 11:30 and it took less than 30 minutes to get onto the gangway to the ship. RC did a magnificent job of getting us through security. Funny incident - A gentleman was stopped and his luggage searched and they took out a giant bottle of mouthwash! One of the security guys smiled and said who needs this much mouthwash for one week! Plus it was clear. Uh oh! Vodka!! Into the garbage it went! There isn't a whole bunch of space as you go through security into the terminal so it bottles up a little bit but as I mentioned they do a great job with moving traffic along. Important note - As many people already know you are permitted to bring on 2 750ml bottles of wine so long as you carry them on and do not pack them in your luggage. In Florida, many stores do not sell wine until noon on Sunday so be prepared if you are on a Sunday departure day that you either secure your vino on Saturday or you will have to wait until after noon on Sunday (and be late to the ship!!!). I put my wine on the scanner and no problems at all.

Took this pic before we got to the pier! Had to see the countdown clock say "Sailed"!!

The ship is peeking out over the buildings

Parking garage at pier

The line! (this was one of 2 lines entering the cruise terminal

Our line

Getting closer!

We made it! 16 months of waiting!

I believe the long large hose is the fuel line

I was taking pics like crazy and I thought I took more of our stroll through the terminal and up to the ship but I guess not.

That is the motorcoach from the hotel! I was now on the ship at least 45 min before they arrived at the pier! Good decision!

We ate breakfast at the hotel so there was no rush to get to the Windjammer. So we strolled around and sat on the pool deck for awhile relaxing and taking in the sights.

This pic is looking straight down to the gangway

Disney Dream

Disney Cruise Terminal

Carnival Sensation

Freedom was having a lifeboat drill. This drill delayed our departure slightly

This is the Grandeur! They are so far away! Maybe there was a reason for that!!! Ugh! I think this was a port of call for them. I have pics as we sailed by them on the way out and the ship was empty

Not ready yet!

When they heard I was on this cruise they brought a couple of extra trucks just to be sure!

Bridge wing

Pulling away from the pier!

Looking forward to your review.

So excited for another review of Freedom Western...we sail in June. Can't wait to see the Adventure Ocean compasses...we have 3 kids in the 9-11 range and also a 12 year old nephew and 16 year old niece sailing with us. One question about AO, did they have Lunch & Play offered on the two sea days (where they take the kids to lunch and you don't have to pick them up between 12-2), and did they offer Adventure Dining for dinner any or all nights? Not sure that I would use any of that, I really like eating as a family, but just want to know if we have the option if other stuff is going on at those times.

 

Thanks and looking forward to more!

Mickey99 - I am looking at the AO compass for the first sea day and I don't see a mention of the Lunch & Play. They have the dinner program (must have kids signed up by 3pm) and they will take the kids to the Windjammer from 515pm to 645pm. They will also pick up the kids from My Time Dining participants at 630pm at the MDR so you don't have to take them up to AO. I will scan in all the AO compasses later on.