Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas June 2-9, 2018 Southern Caribbean Trip Report

To get your pictures to appear within your post (rather than as an attachment), you will need to post them on a 3rd party photo hosting site (I use Shutterfly). Once uploaded to Shutterfly, you can right-click on a picture and copy it, then paste into your post.

Great review so far. I enjoy reading some personal info. Post what you want to post (within Cruise Critic rules of course) and don't worry about other people telling what you should or should not say. It's easy enough to skip over info if someone does not want to read it.

Great review so far. I enjoy reading some personal info. Post what you want to post (within Cruise Critic rules of course) and don't worry about other people telling what you should or should not say. It's easy enough to skip over info if someone does not want to read it.

Agreed, that is why I write reviews in paragraph form. If you aren't interested in the hotel the day before skip to the next paragraph. I'll soon be doing my 3rd annual road trip/cruise review. It will be several posts before I get on the ship!

BTW, thanks to the OP if you come back. He helped me with a minor practical joke. A coworker of mine, who is not on cruise critic was on this cruise. I had the OP and his roll call say "Hi" to him several times. He had no clue how so many people knew his name.

My mom taught me that if you can't say something nice to not say anything at all. Just going to leave that there and go back to my report.

Tuesday, June 5th – Antigua

Eric begged for an off day so that we could actually relax on vacation so we didn’t even get off the ship today. We had a leisurely breakfast in the main Leonardo dining room. Although you could order off of a menu we found the smaller buffet they had put out to be sufficient. It was much less chaotic than the Windjammer.

Since the majority people were in port we decided to hit the pool for a while. They had the Peter Rabbit movie playing on the big screen and we had no problem finding prime deck chairs. Around 11 the ice cream machine opened and we all enjoyed a cool treat. For lunch we decided to check out Sorrento’s pizza and despite the bad reviews I had read it was tasty and a nice change of pace. After lunch we headed back up to play a round of putt putt then back to the room for naps – vacation is tiring! Our oldest wanted to try her hand at the rock wall, which she rocked out several times with no problem!

To get your pictures to appear within your post (rather than as an attachment), you will need to post them on a 3rd party photo hosting site (I use Shutterfly). Once uploaded to Shutterfly, you can right-click on a picture and copy it, then paste into your post. .

Thanks for the help, it worked! I had been using photo bucket and resizing and this was so much simpler!

Tonight’s dress suggestion was Caribbean and we all had our favorite dinner of the trip, chicken cordon bleu. After dinner we attended the ice skating show Freedom Ice. It was lively and impressive. We got our second towel animal – complete with goggles - tonight as well.

Wednesday, June 6th – St. Lucia

We had another full day planned for St. Lucia so up early for breakfast in the Windjammer. The cruise terminal was a little more confusing to navigate than all of the previous ports but after asking several people we eventually found our company and a honeymooning couple met up with us for our excursion. We again purchased this tour through Viator and it was called a flexible Tet Paul Stairway tour. Our guide did inquire about what we would like to do and what time we would like to return to port. The couple wanted to be back around 2:30 and we were fine with that so we set off.

Our first stop was at a lookout that had vendor booths. We were immediately bombarded before we could even exit the van with merchants selling their wares. It made us all quite uncomfortable and they even went so far to put the jewelry on us that they were selling. We were glad to get back in the van and be on our way.

We drove a little while listening to our guide about some of the island’s history before stopping at a banana plantation. We got to learn about the process of growing bananas, were treated to a fresh banana each, samples of banana ketchup and banana bar-b-que sauce on plantain chips, and a homemade rum tasting. Our oldest purchased a banana flavored soft drink to take along for the ride.

Next we had a quite harrowing drive through the rain forest as Eric can attest since he was in the front seat on our driver side as they drive on the opposite side of the road than us in St. Lucia. I was in the back of the vehicle and had to hold on pretty tight to the grab bars while we navigated the twists and turns of the now dormant volcanoes. We were happy to have another stop at a lookout and met a nice gentlemen that gave us some history of the fishing village, sang us a Bob Marley song and showed us some of his homemade authentic souvenirs made from the jackfruit. One more stop at another lookout to see the view of the two Piton peaks and a college student made us an angel fish and grass hopper out of palm fronds.

We were next given the option to rub volcanic mud on our bodies ($) but were told it would be excruciating if we had a sunburn so we all passed and decided to just do the sulfur spring tour. This was the beginning of the nickel and diming of fees of our trip. We had paid $189 for this excursion for the four of us already. The sulfur spring tour ran us $28 plus a tip for the guide for all of 15 minutes and boy did it stink, I would not recommend this stop. One more stop at a look out and then we went to our Tet Paul Stairway tour ($35 entrance fee + guide tip). This tour did last about 45 minutes and different fruit and flora were pointed out along the way with amazing views to boot.

Our last stop of the day was at a waterfall that you could get in ($3 per person entrance fee). Our driver was none too happy that Eric and the girls got in and were now wet and wanted to get back in her van. Good grief – she is the one that brought us there! Before we got back in the van I purchased some homemade coconut bread and coconut cake for just $1 each that were a delicious snack on our return trip. Eric was also propositioned for some local weed which we politely declined. We now had about an hour return trip on the curvy hilly roads that we had previously navigated. After the coconut treats our girls were wore out and took a nap.

Our guide got us back to the port around three and we returned to the Windjammer for some late lunch. Dinner was casual again and we were warned by the captain that their could be up to six foot waves tonight. We attended the 9:00 show of the comedian and juggler David Lucas. Our youngest complained that her tummy didn’t feel well and I gave her some Dramamine during the show. About and hour after we had all went to bed I heard and smelled the ominous sounds of our daughter throwing up. Upon turning on the light she had managed to hit her bunk, our bed, the divider drapes, dirty clothes, luggage and the entire living room floor. Our window does not open and there was no way we could clean this up on our own. Housekeeping and maintenance were thankfully quick to respond and I had remembered to pack a small can of both Lysol and air freshener so we made it through the night.

Thursday, June 7th – Barbados

This is our last port stop of our cruise and thankfully our excursion didn’t start until 10:30. Given last night’s events we all slept in and just had a light breakfast of granola bars in the room. I again purchased directly from Viator a beach day and glass bottom boat and snorkeling with turtles and a ship wreck excursion ($86 for all four of us). Barbados is a very large port and we had quite a walk to find our ride. The bus was filled to capacity but our guide was funny and nice for the short trip. We all received our wristbands for the day and took a walk to the ship to immediately start our tour. The boat was clean and new looking but the glass bottom ended up being just a tiny window. Goggles and snorkels were passed out as well as inflatable vests. One plus was that the boat had a slide off the back. At our first stop we did indeed see turtles, rays and a ton of fish. They wanted us all to stay together as a group and because of this the water was very crowded. Back on the boat and we moved to a ship wreck site. Our girls got brave and tried out the slide. One guide offered and took my underwater camera down into the shipwreck for pictures. Once back on the boat the rum punch and juice for the girls started flowing for our return trip. A short trip back to where we started and we were handed drink cards and told we had use of the chairs and hammocks in Pirates Cove. Because there was a trip before us most of the chairs were already taken but they did set up more for us under a tent. The water here was clear and beautiful. I enjoyed another rum punch while Eric had a beer and the girls cokes. A vendor came by selling dresses and also offered her hair braiding services. Both of our girls decided they wanted it done and afterwards we caught the 2:30 packed bus back to port. We had another late lunch in the Windjammer.

Tonight was the last formal night and it was also lobster tail night! One of the girls had baked Alaska for dessert, what a treat! We received our last towel animal and because it was a repeat of the ice show we just went to bed early.

Friday, June 8th – Sea day

Breakfast in the Windjammer, we didn’t really know what to expect since everyone was on the ship but it wasn’t too terribly busy. Eric wanted to hit the casino today and we spent some time playing cards as a family in the open area of one of the decks. There was a 2 for $20 sale on port t-shirts on the pool deck so we all decided to go up and pick one out. It was a little crazy but we all managed to snag one we liked. Some more just hanging out and casino action for Eric and then the girls and I decided it was time for another ice cream break, some pizza for lunch and then catching the belly flop competition back up at the pool. The girls had been begging to go to the arcade so I thought it would be a good time to start packing up while they were there with dad.

It was sad to have the last dinner with our new friends in the main dining room. I had a repeat of my favorite dessert of the week, the crème brulèe. We also took a picture with our waiters, who were fantastic the entire trip.

We attended the farewell show at 9:00 in the Arcadia entitled Once Upon a Time. They combined modern songs with fairy tale costumes and settings. We sat on the very front row, it was a great show.

That looks like it's gonna be painful. Our last cruise, on Serenade, they said they were no longer allowed to use the "hurt box" for the belly flop competition. Good to see that's not a fleet wide thing.

Saturday, June 9th – Puerto Rico & departure

We had been assigned number 9 for departure so our time off was scheduled for 8:15. We got up early to finalize packing and get some breakfast in the Windjammer around 7:00. Unlike yesterday the Windjammer was utter chaos! We tried to find a table before even getting our food and there were none to be found. Thankfully earlier in the week I had heard someone say that there was overflow seating in Chop’s grill so we snagged a spot and several people followed us.

Our meeting spot for departure was the Arcadia but we immediately ran into hordes of people everywhere. We quickly found out that there were problems with the local authorities and no one was being let off the ship. We grabbed a spot in a corner by the Schooner bar but the problem was compounded by people with sequential numbers after us arriving and not being able to go anywhere. Eventually (about 45 minutes later) they called all numbers 1-14 but there were so many people no one could move anywhere as more and more people tried to squeeze in off of the elevators. Finally we made it to the exit, gathered our luggage and met with customs. The taxi line was very quick and we were on our way to the airport.

We arrived at the airport a little before 10:00. Unfortunately, you can only check in for your flight four hours before and they had changed our departure time to 2:15 so we had to wait around. We eventually were allowed to go up to the ticket counter only to find out that we were supposed to have all of our luggage scanned by the USDA and stickered. Back out of line, ugh! TSA took a bit to get through as well so it was about 11:00 by the time we made it back in the terminal. I had spotted a Margaritaville in the airport a week prior during our arrival so I wanted that for lunch but it was a bit too early. San Juan airport doesn’t really have any plugs to charge devices so make sure everything is charged up before your arrival. We decided to eat around 12:30 and just be forewarned that the airport Margaritaville prices are ridiculous, $20 a burger and $5 for a soft drink! There weren’t really many other options available so we sucked it up.

We had a four hour flight up to Baltimore but before we were off the plane I could see we were already delayed an hour and 20 minutes on our next flight. As I started this trip report I cited my track record with flying and this was going to come back to haunt me. We suffered through at least three more delays due to weather, no flight crew and no pilot. Our original scheduled departure was for 8:10 and we did not leave the ground until after midnight. After waiting for our luggage, calling an Uber, and the drive home we walked through the front door at 2:45.

I hope you enjoyed my first cruise trip report, I had fun reliving all of our adventures. I know each person can have a very different experience on the same cruise and this was mine. Hopefully you picked up some small nugget of advice like I did reading some of my favorite reviews on Cruise Critic.

So in conclusion, would we do it again? Absolutely! Everyone had their fussy moments but those were heavily outweighed by the fun times, great food, new experiences, and stunning scenery we all were able to take in. Back to reality and starting to dream about our next vacation.

Awesome job! Loved following along!

Great job! Now to start planning your next cruise - it helps with cruise withdrawals!

Thank you for this review. We are doing this same cruise in August! I am wondering if you were happy with the port you chose to skip and stay on the ship. We have excursions booked in Antigua and Barbados but trying to decide which other port we want to stay on board. Also, I saw someone mention a white party on freedom one night. Did they have that for your cruise?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Enjoyed your review, thanks!

I hope I didn't offend you with my ship vs boat comment. I meant it to be advise more than to be *itchy

Thank you for this review. We are doing this same cruise in August! I am wondering if you were happy with the port you chose to skip and stay on the ship. We have excursions booked in Antigua and Barbados but trying to decide which other port we want to stay on board. Also, I saw someone mention a white party on freedom one night. Did they have that for your cruise?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From what we heard people were swarmed in Antigua as soon as they got off the ship but it may be better if you can say you already have plans so we didn't really have any regrets not getting off although I had researched some pretty neat sounding places that we missed out on (Nelson's Dockyard).

St. Maarten was pretty destroyed with last years hurricane. Although I'm sure they could use the tourism money if I had to skip one more island it would probably be there.

I do not recall a white party being held unless it was in the promenade. I do remember reading about a 70's dance party but we didn't attend it. The dining room dress was two nights formal, one Caribbean and the rest casual. I submitted all of the cruise compasses to Royal Caribbean Blog . com and they have been posted if you wanted to check them out.

I hope you have a fabulous trip and if you think of any other questions I'd be happy to answer!

i enjoyed this very much .

Loved your review and all the personal touches. Glad you all had a great time, looks like a great itinerary!

Thank you very muchfor taking the time and trouble to post such a detailed review. It is very muchappreciated.

My wife and I sail on Freedom later this year, and this is agreat reminder of what lies ahead.

I am glad that you and your family had a positive experience on your first cruise.

Regards

Ron.

Loved this review. Freedom was our first family cruise too and enjoyed reminiscing as I read along!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From what we heard people were swarmed in Antigua as soon as they got off the ship but it may be better if you can say you already have plans so we didn't really have any regrets not getting off although I had researched some pretty neat sounding places that we missed out on (Nelson's Dockyard).

 

St. Maarten was pretty destroyed with last years hurricane. Although I'm sure they could use the tourism money if I had to skip one more island it would probably be there.

 

I do not recall a white party being held unless it was in the promenade. I do remember reading about a 70's dance party but we didn't attend it. The dining room dress was two nights formal, one Caribbean and the rest casual. I submitted all of the cruise compasses to Royal Caribbean Blog . com and they have been posted if you wanted to check them out.

 

I hope you have a fabulous trip and if you think of any other questions I'd be happy to answer!

Hi,

Did you board from a Low deck? or did you have to walk up those steep ramp thing to board?

Thanks

Mike

For initial boarding and our last disbarment in San Juan we entered and left on deck four through a series of covered ramps but in all of the ports the gangway was off of deck one so just a little ramp down to the pier.