Just back..Freedom of the Seas Western!

[Helen]

Have never attached pics to Cruise Critic site so having some difficulty, sorry. Attached several but only posted that 1. Will try later!

[jldev]

Oh this is so great to be reading your experience because we will be cruising on Freedom doing the Western on 16 October. We've never been on such a large ship either and are coming all the way from New Zealand. We will spend the night prior to the cruise at Country Inn and Suites and will also have a rental car to drop off the next morning (Hertz). I also like the idea of going out to dinner early on the Saturday night in hope of seeing some ships go out - did you manage to be there in time to see any?

 

When you got on board and started looking around, did you have to sign up for anything such as the ice-skating show?

[Helen]

luv2zdworld: We did get to see a ship leaving but am I bad for forgetting which one it was? Was so tired and excited that it just left my mind. Oh,

but we saw dolphins and a MANATEE!! Everyone stood up to look at that. Never saw one before so that was VERY exciting!

 

I presigned waivers on the RCCL cruise site for the wave rider and rock climbing wall but you do have to go down to the promenade deck to get your tickets to the ice show. It will be in the compass and my husband got ours on Mon. morning for that evening. It really was spectacular.;)

[arco5618]

Hi do you have any pics of the daily compasses? Me and my wife will be traveling on 9/4/11. Thanks

[Helen]

Arco: I do have the compasses and will post later.

 

After getting the feel of the ship we headed to our rooms. Beautiful!! So much bigger than I thought they would be. We were 1406 and 1404. A JS and D1, connecting rooms which was nice but permanent divider between balconies which was too bad.

 

The JS we had was more than enough room. Huge sitting area. Lots of storage which we didn't even fill up and balcony with 3 loungers, large eating table with 2 chairs and small chairside table. Bathroom was a good size with bathtub and shower...nice but deep sides that I had a hard time getting used to being short and sticky shower curtain. The boy's shower in the D1 had just shower with cylindrical door that I would have preferred.

 

The boys had surprised us with a bottle of chapagne in our room so we had a toast as the ship sailed away. Great start to our cruise!:D

 

Relaxed on the balcony for a few hours and then got dressed for dinner (casual) and made our way to the Welcome Aboard Show. Just can't say enough about Graham Seymour and what a great job he does. After the show he had our first dinner in the MDR and along with the 5 of us we were seated with 2 wonderful couples who we enjoyed being with the rest of the week. Our waiter (Delroy) and his assistant were outstanding and did a super job taking care of us. After dinner we headed to the Casino (which turned out to be a nightly ritual) and then down to the Promenade deck to see the Dreamworks parade. Very nice and so much fun to see children in those promenade rooms looking down from their picture windows with those big grins! We were exhausted and it was back to our rooms after a very long day.

[Helen]

Trying to post pics:confused:

[Helen]

More pics.

[lampskies]

We are scheduled for Rose Hall Hilton...what are your tips? I hope it was a positive/fun experience!!!

 

We booked the Rose Hall Hilton thru Jamacaforaday dot com on our April 18th Navigator sailing....and yes, we are doing it again on our Thanksgiving sailing. As of now the Rose Hall is not bookable thru RCCL (but may be soon, will explain later) so when you get off the ship there is a "staging area" with tents for different excursions and people with signs to tell you who they are and where they are going. We couldn't find the Rose Hall staging area, a couple of the RCCL staff was helpful in finding someone and telling us where the bus was. We later found out that because it wasn't a RCCL excursion and they weren't allowed to have signs displaying who they were. There is a time change in Jamaca but the ship doesnt recognize the time change so some people were a little confused about what time departure was. They give you a brochure once you get to the hotel showing when your drinks are free and where times were to eat which was a little confusing. We got there and it looked as if ALL the beach chairs were reserved, they had towels on them, but they must put towels out in the morning on all the chairs because nobody EVER sat in many of them around us. On out brochure it said drinks were available between 12 and 3:30 if I remember correctly and it was 10:30 so it looked as if we werent really "allinclusive" so I asked the lifeguard and he said "everything is free just go get yourself some". There is catamaran rides, snorkeling, parasailing etc there....the lifeguards are a little lax. A guy took a sail surf board out and was WAY out and in trouble and until myself and a few other said "hey he's drifting out to sea" they finally went out to get him. The beach is long and narrow and a LOT of seagrass kept washing up....they did a good job of raking it. The two pools had ample seating, both around it and at the pool bar and we were there the Thursday before Easter. My wife and I were there without our kids on this trip and there were WAY too many little kids for our liking....we were expection it to be more adult oriented.....but not bad, just expect it if you go...we both had the tuna sandwich for lunch which might have been the BEST I have ever had....

Oh ya, back to the RCCL thing. The gal that was the shore excursion/jewelery lady from the ship (not sure what she is called) was at the Rose when I was walking thru the lobby and she recognized me and said "may I ask how you knew about this place and how did you like it, and can anyone eat out by the pool? We are thinking of adding this as a shore excursion." Oh ya....even though it was allinclusive there were prices on the menu.....wierd?

[Helen]

Going to try to share the compasses. Here goes!

[Helen]

Tried to send attachments from Adobe and kept getting error message from cruise critic saying they were oversized. Got frustrated and gave up!:confused: Really need to be a kid to do this...anyway I just took pics of them and downloaded. If anyone wants me to send them just give me your email address and I'll be glad to do that. Sorry about day 2 but DH spilled his coffee all over it:rolleyes:

 

A little hint about anyone wanting to go to the Rose Hall Hilton. We took a van there from the pier 20.00/per person if I recall right. When we were ready to leave the concierge said they had free transport to the Rose Hall Shops so we took that and then RCCL had free transport from there to the ship. Nice little savings! Just can't do that going because there are no taxis at the shops.

[dthoman]

Tried to send attachments from Adobe and kept getting error message from cruise critic saying they were oversized. Got frustrated and gave up!:confused: Really need to be a kid to do this...anyway I just took pics of them and downloaded. If anyone wants me to send them just give me your email address and I'll be glad to do that. Sorry about day 2 but DH spilled his coffee all over it:rolleyes:

 

I'll take an email. I am going of FOS on Sunday May 29. Thx. Here is my email yntski69@aol.com

[jldev]

I'd like it too please Helen and I'll PM my email address to you.

[jldev]

I'd like it too please Helen and I'll PM my email address to you.

 

Can't seem to PM on this forum so can you please email to joanna at travelwithkidsonline dot com

 

Our cruise is not until October 16 but reading these will make it all the more real !! :)

[ThornPhoenix]

I, too, would appreciate receiving the cruise compass' via email:

Thornphoenix@ comcast.net

[PCalabrese]

We cruise Oct 2 and we can't wait! Can you share the compasses? we will be western as well. pcalabrese at gmail dot com. thanks so much!

[ewt715]

Thank you in advance for the compass. ewt715 @ hotmail . com

[AF-1]

Helen, cruisecritic has size restrictions on posting pics. However, I see on various threads large photos being shown. I am going to buzz over to Radio's Live thread; he posts some very large pics; I will ask him what program he uses and how he posts such large pics. Maybe this will help you in the future.

[Helen]

Day 2

 

Awoke to a beautiful sunny morning and DH realized he'd forgotten to hang our room service order on the door last night:( so we got dressed and went down to the MDR. We were seated with 2 other couples, one of whom had just gotten engaged the night before. So excited! It was fun listening to them and it was nice to meet different people.

 

After breakfast we went back to the room and the boys were having their breakfast on the balcony. We told them we were going to the pool deck and would see them later. At 9 a.m., a lot of the chairs were already taken and the upper deck was really windy! We settled in at the solarium pool which we decided we like better anyway. Nice and quiet and no kids! Stayed for most of the day until the boys wanted to go to the gym. I vowed I would try to keep in shape on this trip so when they went, I went! The gym is fantastic and has everything you can think of. We usually stayed about an hour and a half.

 

Relaxed on our deck before getting dressed (formal night) and wished I'd written down the menus but didn't, sorry. The food was mediocre to good. We had prime rib that night I believe and you could order it med. rare or med.well. Enjoyed our tablemates everynight and our waiter was great! Already bringing my guys their iced tea without having to ask:).

 

We went to the casino for a few min. then headed to then to Karaoke at 11:00. After another full day we headed to bed,

[drinkandswim]

Please send me a copy of the Compass.... ebqpm-cruise at yahoo dot com.

[Helen]

Day 3: Labadee

 

We pulled in around 8 a.m. Could not see the pier because we were aft but still could see the Island. Forgot the terrain was mountanous (sp) but much improved since we were there 2 yrs. ago. Had breakfast on the balcony and got off the ship around 10. There are so many places to choose to sit and we walked around till we were under the zip line. Fun to watch those people flying by you! The boys did the coaster and rode together so my son in front could video (don't think you're supposed to do that) since they had seen several on youtube.

 

They start serving lunch at about 11:30 so we head to one of the stations where they served typical picnic fare. Hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken, salad, fruit, cookies,etc. So, so. not great. Had a labadoozie...great drink! Just so relaxing...I know I mentioned before but a lot of the entries into the water are EXTREMELY rocky and I wished I had brought my water shoes. The area where the water park is nice but we didn't have small children so we stayed where we were.

 

Very, very hot so after 3 or 4 hours we called it quits. Tonight we are looking forward to going to Portofinos so we head back on board to relax a litte before our 5:30 reservation.

 

The restaurant did not disappoint!!:D We had the best waiter and the best food on the ship. Seated next to the window and enjoyed every course from bread to soup to appetizer to main course to dessert. Just fabulous and worth the extra 20 dollars. Three of us got the sirloin upn our waiter's recommendation, one had veal I think and another the seafood skewer. Wonderful. Please go if you can..it was so nice and we were there for about 2 and 1/2 hrs.

 

After dinner we went to Karaoke where youngest did "Gettin Jiggy with it" and because I bet him he wouldn't, I paid for him to have a massage the next day! I'll know better next time:rolleyes: Another great day!

[handful4mom]

Helen, if you don't post the compasses, can I please get copies sent to me too? We go in a month! cindyswartz@bubbyzone.com. Thank you!:)

[SzaSza]

Hi Helen,

 

Would you please send me the compasses also? patti91101 at yahoo dot com

 

Thanks!

Patti

[05mak05]

Would have loved to help them out and buy something but they make it impossible. They scream and follow you relentlessly and pull at you so you can't even look at their wares. Too bad but would never go back.

 

The ship is gorgeous! It is the biggest we have been on and I was worried about crowding since it was full. Never felt that way except a few times in the Windjammer. Staff is constantly cleaning and they do a great job. I took several pictures around the ship which I will post later. You will love it.:)

I don't think we'll ever again get close to the merchant area in Labadee as it's so nerve racking. Our next cruise is in November, and we had hoped that perhaps things had improved but it doesn't sound like it. Surely RCI has tried to impress upon them to tone things down and not terrify prospective buyers. We should all mention that on comment cards and perhaps RCI would hold some seminars or send in "secret" shoppers. Can you imagine walking through the huge cruise port areas in Cozumel or Costa Maya and being harassed the entire time? Labadee merchants could sure learn some sales techniques from the Mexican merchants!

[LabLoverT]

I'd love to have the compasses. Thank you! tlc991 @ comcast . net

[Helen]

Have started sending the compasses. Will try to finish by tomorrow but had a busy and won't be home tonight. Let me know when you get all of them so I can scratch you off my list!:D