LIVE - Freedom of the Seas Transatlantic - Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale - Oct 22-Nov 5

Beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing. Looks like you are having an awesome time so far

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Following along from Hamilton - enjoying the review and pictures very much!

Really enjoying this “LIVE” especially since I’ve never been on this class. We are scheduled for the 8 day Freedom cruise beginning of January. Your photos are phenomenal. I could never do it with any camera, let alone with iPhone.

Please post a selfie 🤳 so we can cruise with you “up close and personal “

Following!!!

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Really enjoying the review!! You are doing such a great job on it!

Enjoying your commentary and photos so much! Thanks for sharing!

Good afternoon from

Day 4 on the Freedom of the Seas!!!

I had planned to sleep in today, although was mostly awake and just lounging around since 9am! I eventually ventured out at 11:20 for a check of the weather on the Promenade deck! It is a beautiful day! The ocean looks quite calm but the ship is rolling from side to side quite a bit. I heard that the captain has not put the stabilizers out as of yet.

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Having skipped breakfast, I was ready for lunch. I swung by the solo lunch get together, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that it would be hosted throughout - including at the dining table. There were about 6 people in attendance. On the way to the dining room though, I found some fellow Cruise Critic friends so I abandoned the solo group and ate with them.

I am shocked at how well the Freedom is doing their dining on this sailing! Not only does breakfast take place on 2 separate decks of the MDR with 1 being buffet and the other a la carte, but they are doing full lunch buffets as well in addition to the tutti salad bar! They had everything from a made-to-order stir fry station to a hot food area with veggies, potatoes, steak, chicken, and more, to a full dessert buffet including a sundae bar and a chocolate fountain!

I started with salad from the salad bar:

And then ordered the burger, which had mushrooms and cheese on it:

And finished with a sundae with butter almond and coffee ice cream, sprinkles, slivered almonds, and walnuts!

I then got the warmest hug ever from Alex the lion on the Promenade!

And now I am sitting poolside at the solarium pool! I plan to read for a while, maybe go to the poolside line dancing, and maybe take a swim (in the wave-created wave pool) before dinner!

Stay tuned for more!

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The DH and I are on this cruise too. We are in stateroom 6338. The weather has been perfect.

We haven’t tried any breakfast venues yet because we’ve slept in every morning thus far. There were a lot of pre-cruise stressers back home, so we are taking advantage of much-needed relaxation!

We spent three days in Barcelona and stayed at H10 Montcada, which is beautiful. We did a wonderful tour to Montserrat on Saturday.

We purchased a three-night specialty dining package and planned to eat twice in Chops and once in Giovanni’s. We had an issue in Giovanni’s on Monday night and they’ve offered us a complimentary night of dinner to make up for it. We have a guacamole class at Sabor booked next week. Our main dining staff have been great.

The only show we’ve gone to is Hector is Magic, which was fun.

The OP is doing a great job posting pictures & compasses!

Kel J - glad to hear you're enjoying your cruise! If you bump into me, say hello! Young solo - likely the only one fitting that description! 🤣

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What a great review, thank you so much for taking the time to write and share your adventure. I love Freedom, great ship.

Keep it coming! Great to hear about the food! The food has been good but not amazing on our two RC cruises, looks like Freedom has stepped up their game...hopefully this survives the move to the US!

Are they done with the scrubbers on the back yet? I like sitting out behind the Diamond Lounge and this past year it was closed off as they were putting the scrubbers on.

Are they done with the scrubbers on the back yet? I like sitting out behind the Diamond Lounge and this past year it was closed off as they were putting the scrubbers on.

Yup appears to be done now! Although I haven't been out there at all since the diamond lounge is only open to Pinnacles for happy hour and I heard it's a zoo during the day! :)

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It was a beautiful afternoon at sea today! I spent some time reading in the solarium, talking to a fellow Canadian cruiser that I met, and later swimming and hot-tubbing.

On that note - a word of caution for anyone who is a weak swimmer and is short. The pools are deeper than the posted signs, so be careful! Fortunately they had to partially drain them today because of the waves from the ship's motion, which meant I could actually touch the bottom and was able to get in and let go of the pipe running along the sides. Also, the water was surprisingly warm today which was a nice treat! It was the solarium pool that I went in, and I was told the main pools were even warmer!

And another random note - the lifeguards have been out in full force which is fantastic! There is at least 1 at every pool (1 at each of the side by side main pools, another in the solarium, and a couple more in the kids' area).

I also got crafty and had another delicious drink for free courtesy of diamond perks! I waited for happy hour, headed to the Promenade cafe, ordered a mocha frappuccino with my 1 coffee credit, and asked for a shot of Baileys in it using one of my 3 happy hour drink credits. The result was delicious!

I later got some sushi from the Windjammer's dinner buffet. It was tastier than usual cruise sushi! Once again, good job, Freedom of the Seas! I took it outside to deck 12 to watch the sunset.

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After getting ready for dinner, I got a glass of wine from the diamond lounge and headed off to dinner.

Tonight's menu looked less than exciting, but they once again pulled it off just fine and whatever I ordered tasted great!

I started with shrimp cocktail, followed by Caesar salad:

My main course was the sea bass:

For dessert I asked for and received a bowl of mixed berries!

The show tonight was "Marquee", a compilation of different Broadway show songs. It was very good!

After the show I picked up a tea from the Promenade Cafe and headed up to my room!

Tomorrow is day 5, and we will be in Tenerife! I am very excited as I loved the island when I visited last year on a Transatlantic cruise. I will once again be visiting El Teide volcano!

Thanks once again for following and stay tuned!

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Beautiful!!

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The sunset pictures are glorious!

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We are on the first sailing when she returns to FLL as well. Looking forward to it!

Good evening from day 5 on the Freedom of the Seas! Today, we were in Tenerife!

I once again opted to sleep in a bit and skip breakfast. We arrived right on schedule at 11:00am and I headed off to the Windjammer for an early lunch at around 11:45. I had a chicken burger which was pretty good, although not super favorful! I added some bacon for flavor!

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We were docked behind the Celebrity Reflection, and in front of some oil platforms.

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We had a relaxing beach day today at Playa de la Teresitas. Delicious dinner in Chops tonight. Now watching a movie poolside. What a warm, beautiful night!

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Today I booked the Canadas del Teide Panorama tour through RCI. Last year I had done a full island tour including the volcano through NCL. Unfortunately RCI did not have an equivalent, however, I enjoyed the volcano so much last year that I decided to do it again!

The buses picked us up right on the pier and took about 2 hours to reach the platform of El Teide, at 7000 feet, including 2 stops along the way. The weather variation was remarkable. It started out at 30 degrees C which is unseasonably warm in Tenerife, was really windy and cold at the first viewing point, and then got a bit more comfortable higher up with a lot less wind!

Check out these layers of lava:

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Next we stopped at another viewing point with restrooms and a restaurant.

And we eventually made it to our final stop - Mars! Hahaha! It really does look like Mars!

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