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FOS Review - January 15-22, 2012


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We booked the Freedom of the Seas for the week of January 15th to celebrate my 40th birthday. This was our 2nd cruise on Royal Caribbean and our 6th cruise overall. We had a fantastic cruise and booked our next cruise while onboard.

 

Cabin: We booked Promenade Cabin 7593, which is above the General Store. We knew when we booked it that we would hear the parades and we did. The PR rooms are great to watch the parades from and other activities below. We moved our cocktail table into the closet so we had more floor space. We enjoyed having two couches in the cabin so one of us didn’t always have to sit on the bed. Our cabin steward, Arnold, was FABULOUS (this was his last week on the FOS and he is moving to the Allure)! His service was great and he was always joyful.

 

The downsides of a PR cabin is that you can hear the Latin Guitarist playing in the afternoons and the bass is really thumping in the cabin. We could not nap if he was playing. The adjoining cabin was also a noise issue. We had an elderly couple next door and they were hard of hearing. So, when they watched tv we got to listen to it. We also heard every conversation next door.:eek: We loved the view and are happy we gave it a shot, but will not be booking a PR again.

 

Dining: This cruise we decided to only do the buffet and specialty dining. DH and I were impressed with the selections and service in the buffet at dinner. We had never done the buffet at night and loved it! We did the Mystery Dinner on embarkation day. It started in Olive & Twist then moved to Portofino. In Olive & Twist they gave us sparkling wine and hors d’oeuvres. We both had the filet, and OMG it was fantabulous! The wine was free flowing with the dinner. The mystery dinner was fun, but I had no clue who did it…probably too much wine on my part. We went to Portofino two other nights and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I did the seafood skewer one evening and the lamb chops on the other. The food was incredible!

 

Ports: We missed Coco Caye due to high seas and wind. Basically it was too dangerous to tender. So instead of spending my birthday on the island, we goofed off on the ship. Not a big deal to us since we can have fun anywhere.

 

Next was St Thomas. We booked the St John Eco Hike through the ship and I am glad we did. A Carnival ship was late to port, so we had to wait for them to dock before us. All early excursions were delayed. Since we had a little more time, we grabbed lunch at Windjammer. By 12:30 we were heading to St John. Jennifer with the Park Service was our guide and we learned all about the tropical plants and trees on St John. Also got to see my first termite nest…wow, they were huge! After the hike, we had 45 minutes on Honeymoon beach. We wandered around and took lots of pictures. The one thing we forgot to pack was rain ponchos…it rained twice on us. But we were on vacation, so we really didn’t care if we got wet. This was a great excursion and we highly recommend it.

 

On Thursday we hit St Maarten. We met up with some of our CC friends and caught a taxi to Maho Beach to watch the airplanes land. This was DH and my second time at Maho and Dett’s first time. It was fantastic! If you love aviation this is a definite bucket list destination. We did not stay long enough to see the Airbus land, but we did see a 757.

 

Cupcakes: Oh, how we love cupcakes! DH and I tried several different ones during the week and even took the decorating class. We made the burger and fries. It was fun doing that together and much easier than we thought it would be.

 

Pools: DH and I are not sun people. I am a pale redhead and burn easily…the sun is my enemy. Each morning bright and early we would sit in the loungers next to the Solarium pool and read our Kindles until 10:20am when the sun decided it wanted to shine on us. By that time in the morning loungers are at a premium and the chair hogs are in full swing. It was funny watching people literally dash for our loungers when we started to stand up! OMG, that was hysterical! We also enjoyed the hot tubs at night when they are practically empty.

 

Embarkation/Debarkation: Port Canaveral is a breeze. We arrived at the port around 10:50am, dropped off the luggage, parked the car, went through security, checked-in, and on the ship by 11:15am. We were in Sorrento’s having lunch by 11:30. Debarkation was quick once our number was called.

 

Overall: This was a fantastic cruise! Even with the apparent winds of 45-52mph on Monday and Tuesday and a rainy day in St John, we had a blast. We loved it so much that we booked the Western itinerary while we were onboard.

 

Lisa

Edited by RedHeadTexan
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Thanks for the review!

 

We're going on the Western route in May after doing the Eastern twice. We love Freedom :)

 

I think one of us has the wrong countdown.

 

Weren't you just on the Jewel for the four day that left on 01-12?

 

Ann

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:D

What was the cost of the Cupcake class? I love cake. Might just have to try that one. On Liberty last cruise they were putting in the Cupcake deal, wish it would have been open.

 

Rob

The class was $20 each. The Hamburger and Fries takes three cupcakes and tons of frosting. The class is about 30 minutes. There is also a cupcake card that you can get stamped for every cupcake you buy...buy 6 and the 7th is free. DH and I shared a stamp card, so it was filled up with no problem. As I said in my review, we love cupcakes.

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Gotta be something about Coco Cay ... we were on the Freedom in November for the Eastern itinerary, and again high winds and choppy seas made it too dangerous to tender. Too bad, we were looking forward to that particular stop.

 

Like the OP, we're aviation junkies and always stop at SXM / Maho to watch the heavies from Europe and the US land ... and seeing the folks hang on to the fence as the departing heavies take off is also quite funny to watch.

 

Glad you had a great cruise ... the Freedom's a terrific ship.

 

Michael and Silke

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Lisa - thank you for your review. I have a question about Portofinos on the 1st night. So you're saying that if you book Portofinos for the 1st night, it is the Mystery Dinner? How much was that? Is it still $20pp?

The Mystery Dinner was $49.50 per person. I thought it was a good deal with all that it included. I booked it online a few weeks before the cruise, and they did call our cabin around 2ish to confirm our reservation.

 

Lisa

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Gotta be something about Coco Cay ... we were on the Freedom in November for the Eastern itinerary, and again high winds and choppy seas made it too dangerous to tender. Too bad, we were looking forward to that particular stop.

 

Like the OP, we're aviation junkies and always stop at SXM / Maho to watch the heavies from Europe and the US land ... and seeing the folks hang on to the fence as the departing heavies take off is also quite funny to watch.

 

Glad you had a great cruise ... the Freedom's a terrific ship.

 

Michael and Silke

We are definitely aviation junkies! Every other year we go to AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI to see 10,000 airplanes in one week.

 

I was looking forward to Coco Caye, but tenders are never fun in rough seas. :eek:

 

Lisa

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Thanks for the review. We will be getting on her when you get off in Dec.

We're in Knoxville. Was wondering if you drove or flew down.

 

We drove down and it is about an 11 hour drive. We got off the ship and were in the car by 8:30am and got home at 7:30pm...that included time for lunch.

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  • 1 year later...
We drove down and it is about an 11 hour drive. We got off the ship and were in the car by 8:30am and got home at 7:30pm...that included time for lunch.

RedHead Texan--we are thinking about driving down from Atlanta to Port Canaveral in November. Since you were in your car by 8:30am to drive home, did you park at the port?

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