Fantabulous Freedom

Following is my review of my Freedom of the Seas Eastern Caribbean cruise. I did not take my good Nikon so apologize in advance for the pretty sad photos I snapped with my point and shoot. Next time.....

Although I had done it twice before, I didn't relish the thought of flying into Orlando and then having to trek 40 minutes to Port Canaveral. I love Liberty and had always wanted to sail on Freedom but had avoided the hassle of the inconvenient port.

ABOUT US

DH and I are a mature Diamond member couple. This cruise we were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary with our 29th cruise (19th with RCCL) followed by our 30th cruise on Enchantment (20th with RCCL). An Enchantment review will be separate.

PRE-CRUISE

We flew into Orlando the day prior and rented a Budget rental car for only $34 (more on that later). It was a very pleasant drive to Cocoa Beach and the tolls are minimal so it is much cheaper NOT to take the rental car toll deal.

And we're off

You know you're headed in the right direction when you begin seeing these

About 40 minutes of driving and we were there and excited to see Disney Fantasy.

Reservations for this night were at Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach. It was a decent hotel with complimentary breakfast just a short walk from the beach -- nothing exceptional. We walked on the beach for a while.

Walkway to beach

The beach

View from our balcony

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Good start, looking forward to more of it.

Jonathan

From the hotel balcony we watched Disney Fantasy depart.

For dinner we drove around and stumbled upon Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q. Yum yum. It was quite tasty and I recommend it. Certainly nothing fancy -- just real good food.

With tummies full we made our way to Ron Jon Surf Shop. One just can't be in Cocoa Beach and not go there. Fun browsing as usual.

Some mighty pricey surfboards!

Sunday morning after a decent complimentary breakfast we drove to Budget Rental Car just three miles north to turn in the rental car. The chaos began here. There was no one to check out our car and we were told to park anywhere and go inside. Normally you just drop the car off and go on your way but not at this place. We had to get in line behind about 15 people, most of whom were there without reservations wanting to rent a car on the spot. We waited and waited and waited. The representatives were frazzled and disorganized. After about 30 minutes we finally were able to turn in our rental car and get in another long line of folks waiting for the Budget shuttle to the terminal. What a horrible mess that was. I WILL NEVER RENT FROM BUDGET AGAIN.

Finally, drenched from the wait in the heat, our turn came to get on a shuttle. We were dropped off at the terminal in short order, just after 11 am. Okay, all is well now. We were directed to the suite line where we checked in and immediately thereafter walked on the ship. Took 30 minutes -- not too shabby.

Yay, going on board.

Very nice....

Excellent beginning.

Your pictures and narrative keep me wanting more...

More please.

Sea Ya

Yay, I love cumulative reviews... subscribed.

Tom

First thing I did was sign up for an appointment with the Loyalty Ambassador and I would be her first appointment which was the next morning.

Next we headed for the Windjammer. Yikes, how could it be? No honey stung chicken. Waaaaaaah. We never had a problem finding a seat here all week (for breakfast and lunch).

CABIN

Our junior suite 9580 was spacious with a large balcony. It was quiet and convenient and I very much loved this cabin.

Walk-in closet

Yay, a fair size shower

There was more storage space than we could ever use. Beds were quite comfy. The Diamond welcome basket and drinks of choice were waiting in our cabin. The large bottle of Evian has been reduced to a small one. Coupons were loaded on our Sea Pass and a list of what was included was provided. No match play coupons - boo hoo.

Our cabin attendant seemed okay until the sixth evening when he did not service our cabin. I had never experienced this before. We certainly didn't need it cleaned but we had no clean towels and dirty, wet ones were still on the bathroom floor and no ice! I called housekeeping for clean towels and someone came to the cabin and apologized and cleaned up the dirty towels and trash and brought us ice. The next morning our attendant apologized saying he thought for sure he cleaned our cabin and that his supervisor had distracted him that evening. They all work really hard so I wasn't upset - just surprised.

Excited to hear more!

We had six towel animals throughout the week.

Aren't they cute

Our luggage was received by 1:30 pm. That has to be the earliest we've ever gotten it.

Ships at Port Canaveral with us. Disney Dream and I believe Carnival Sensation. That Disney ship is gorgeous. I sailed Disney Wonder years ago and it was super nice.

AROUND THE SHIP

She is a lovely lady and all crew members were very polite and friendly. All the public spaces are beautiful.

Chapel

The wonderful Promenade -- I love the Promenade!

I'm enjoying so far. I too like Sonny's BBQ from when I lived in Florida. Not the best BBQ, but still good and affordable. Lived in Orlando for many years, and while I would likely never live there again, I do miss it! Keep up the great review!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

MORE FROM AROUND THE SHIP

One entire side of the pool deck and one of the irritating rolling doorways was blocked for refurbishment the entire week. This made the pool deck even more crowded than usual. On sea days we could find a lounger on an upper deck but never by the pool and never ever in the solarium. I'll post some photos later of the progression.

More Promenade

Down to the money grabber

This was stored at the bow of the ship on deck five. I saw a passenger standing next to them smoking a cigar!

There was not a roped off area by the pool for gold card holders but I saw this stairway and had to investigate. Oh the horror! I walked up there without a gold card just to see what it was. Found a few loungers and not one soul -- not even a person to ensure you had that coveted gold card.

Lets get a little food porn in here. We usually have room service breakfast on our balcony the first morning.

The guest assembly drill on Freedom was outside in the heat. As usual, we were lined up so close to each other it was suffocating. Necessary of course, but why do we have to stand so close?

We checked out the Diamond Lounge and it was quite nice with two computer stations. Turns out it wasn't nearly large enough for all the Diamond pax on board. The first evening there was a sail away event for Diamonds in the Olive or Twist and boy was it crowded. I did not venture back again for cocktails - only lattes in the late morning a few times. Diamond lounge cocktail hours on this ship were 4:30 to 8 pm. One afternoon at 4:15 I went in to use the computer and the place was packed with folks sitting there waiting for their cocktails. There was not one empty seat to be had so I cannot imagine what it was like later in the evening.

The Diamond concierge left a phone message each day about things to do, etc. but whenever I went in the lounge he never even looked up to speak to me.

Mini Golf

Rock climbing wall and basketball court

Flowrider from the top

Kiddo Place

This reminds me, there were 300 children on board but I didn't notice any being unruly or disruptive. Mine at that age would have been much worse.

Lovin' it :) We LOVE that ship.

I love that ship so much. Cannot wait to be back on her in June.

Nice Suite as well. I may have to go that route soon. :D

And Sonny's? Yuck. (But bear in mind I live in Florida so I have had my fair share...lol)

Keep the pictures coming. The roughly 2000 I have aren't enough. :p

Great so far, can't wait for more...your pics are awesome, feels like I'm on the ship, come on April...

Thanks all for the comments.

Some more photos from around the lovely Freedom.

Casino -- DH's favorite spot

Boleros

Art for sale

The Crypt

Listened to some teen karaoke one night in the On Air Club.

The Champagne Bar is a nice quiet place to read during the day. They held some health-type classes in there one day which I overheard.

The wonderful Promenade

Look who showed up!

The airplanes

The handy boards

Cafe Promenade with tasty little sandwiches and sweets. The panini I ordered was nasty, but I could have eaten six of those lime desserts in the cup.

Ben & Jerry's -- in case you don't care for the complimentary self-serve frozen yogurt or the dining room ice cream.

Cupcake Cupboard - I did not have a cupcake on this cruise. Have tried them previously and found them just okay.

Promenade Pup - Saw several toddlers taking a ride on him

Britto store

Handy ship

Great pics! Leaving in 34 days on the Freedom and this is getting me even more excited! :D

Sorrento's had fair pizza.

Bull & Bear Pub

Back to the pool deck. Securing plastic around the entire side to keep us out.

Artwork around the ship

Great pics! Leaving in 34 days on the Freedom and this is getting me even more excited! :D

Excited you should be -- she is wonderful!!

More shots from around the ship.

Fitness Center

Very nice library

More kiddo space

Behind the kiddo area

Johnny Rockets - We used one of our BOGO milkshake coupons and I enjoyed a delicious peanut butter shake. We were the only passengers in there that evening.

Pharoah's Palace

H20 Zone at night

Hey, half price drinks

ENTERTAINMENT

We enjoyed the comedian Dan Grueter and the aerial show in the theater on day one. We also liked the comedy musical Once Upon a Time, Now You See It, and the farewell show with Randy Cabral.

One of the production shows

This gal could sing

The ice skating show was exceptional. I made our reservation prior to sailing and we found seats in the second row. It always amazes me how they do what they do in that small area on a moving vessel.

The hula hoop gal was amazing (and I was impressed with myself that I can do 1,000 rotations each night with ONE hula hoop). She blows me away!

We watched Ironman 3 in 3D in the theater one afternoon.

A fun event was the Silent Disco in the Crypt. Upon entering you are given headphones equipped with two music style choices. The place is silent but each person hears his/her preferred music. It was pretty funny watching folks dance in silence.

Well, I thought RCCL had brought horse racing back as we enjoyed it on Radiance in June, but not on Freedom.

We watched a couple games on the poolside big screen.

Looks like Kaepernick

What can you say about Richard Spacey? He is like no other thank goodness. He needs to have his own show someplace on the big or small screen. I also liked his sidekick Katy. Their morning shows were hilarious and his little movies showing on the cabin TV are really funny. Of course he did Evolution of Dance for us.