Freedom of the Seas-Western--1100+ pictures/video-July 10, 2011 sailing

[salacia:]

I am really enjoying your detailed review! Thanks for taking the time to post.

[Queen of Oakville]

Love the review! Any chance of you getting these all up by Friday:D? I have to leave Saturday for our cruise on FOTS and your review is really helpful.

 

How have you found the food? I'll be honest and say the pics don't look toooo appetizing ... hope it tastes better!

 

 

My kids are really excited for the family disco. We had one on HAL and had a blast. Unfortunately, we'll miss it because of the first show. I hope I can keep them up for the 70s dance party.

 

 

Interesting about your cabin and the ramp. We had a cabin very close to yours but we traded for an upgrade to Deck 7 forward. I'm hoping the seas are not too rough.

[jagsfan]

Yours is one great review! The way your pictures are included in the text makes it all

seamless, and I feel like I'm cruising with you. A question....how do you get a ticket for

the Dragon's Tail?

I just realized why Ryan is in a "pullman" bed. When I was a child and we rode the train back and forth every summer Florida to NY, the beds came down out of the wall. Never

made the association before...one more reason to thank you.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of "our" cruise.

[Sharon I]

Am loving this review and all the pictures they are great. Love Labadee and see that it has changed alot since I was there in the mid 90's. We are going there on our next cruise in March, nice to see a sneak preview.

Bye the way your son is a good looking young man, wait till he gets just a few years older. The girls will be chasing him.

Keep up the good work with your review I am loving it.

Sharon I

[flames]

Sorry this is a bit late getting started, but I had a LOT of pictures and video to go through first.

 

I write my trip reports a whole day at a time, inserting the pictures as I go. This is what is SO time consuming.

 

First...a little background info into the trip.

 

My son Ryan, husband Randy & I actually flew to Florida July 1st to spend the week with my father-in-law. July 4th is his birthday and we are there every year at that time. My husband's brother also lives in Florida in the Daytona area.

 

After spending the week at Dad's, we went to brother-in-law's house for a long weekend. (& yes...saw the shuttle launch while we were there)

 

Our second night at brother's, he decided we'd spend the evening at HIS in-law's home in Winter Springs. A little off the plan, but it was okay, as we see sister-in-law's family every year anyway while we are in Florida.

 

Our cruise begins from their house the morning of the cruise......

 

 

Thank you for sharing and I am excited about going on the Freedom again:cool:

[andrewabby]

What type of music does the band in the dining room play? I hope it's not classical.

[medfordgirl]

I absolutely love the format of your review. If I was on your cruise I don't think you would find the cupcake cupboard empty:p God they look good. Is the special of the day cupcake cheaper? I am pretty sure Tuesday will be specialty restaurant night. This is so great, I can't wait to be back on Freedom. You are so wonderful to do this review. Great tan!!

[erin_cruisers]

Still enjoying your review, and awaiting the next installment.

I see they've really changed Labadee since I was there.

[cruisinskier]

I'm glad the review is helping most of you.... sorry about the casino/bathroom thing...that is actually in there for a friend of mine....long story.... But, I also write trip reviews for our own memory too. Sometimes when husband is having 'a day' at work, he'll pull up a review and read it to get him thru the day. So...it's a good memory to have for us also. :)

 

Hope to get next day up tonight or tomorrow morning....have that "work" thing to do today :rolleyes:

 

 

You take the time to post a great review and someone has the nerve to complain about it....just ignore them, there is one in every crowd :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for the very enjoyable, detailed review. And with all the links to photos, that is a great way to get around the limit of 6 pictures per post. Thanks again...I know these are time consuming!!

[ALSEAU]

Thanks for sharing your vacation with us, the way a review should be! ;-) lol

Going on Freedom end of Sep, thats all Frredom class for us now in reverse order, can't wait!!

One thing I'd love to see if you can is the cruise compasses, curious to what's going on just now onboard throughout the day. :)

 

 

Hey maxy35 see you are cruising with us. Come join your fellow passengers on this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1291333

[ryansmom]

Love the review, :D not a fan of the format, windowns are opening all over my screen, and I keep loosing my place. Is it because I am on a IPad?

 

Maybe it is because it's an IPad, from the regular computer, the format is perfect!!!!

 

I have no use for an iPad, so I wouldn't know? That would be my only guess tho?

 

 

Is the special of the day cupcake cheaper?

 

Of course not! :(

[ryansmom]

Ryan's Mom, what a great review. I am just lovin the pix in the review and the videos. Sitting here just waiting for your next installment. This is better than waiting for the next Saturday's installment of Flash Gordon. Guess that's way before your time, but what can youexpect from an old toad.

 

Glad you are enjoying my mini-novel... I am old enough to know who Flash Gordon is...I'm actually older than I look :rolleyes:

 

How have you found the food? I'll be honest and say the pics don't look toooo appetizing ... hope it tastes better!

 

The food was hot and I thought it was pretty good. I'm no gourmet and anything I don't have to cook/clean up is good in my book :p I hope you have a wonderful cruise and steady seas.

 

 

[ryansmom]

Am loving this review and all the pictures they are great. Love Labadee and see that it has changed alot since I was there in the mid 90's. We are going there on our next cruise in March, nice to see a sneak preview.

 

Bye the way your son is a good looking young man, wait till he gets just a few years older. The girls will be chasing him.

 

Quite a few have mentioned how Labadee has changed. Now you all have me wondering what it looked like before! :confused:

 

I know them girls will be callin & knockin soon! He will only be 13 in January, so I know it's comin... Thank goodness they are "just friends" right now...but, I see the girls starting to get interested in the boys :eek: (noticed last year).

 

 

What type of music does the band in the dining room play? I hope it's not classical.

 

There was music?? Honestly, didn't notice. I think one night there was a pianist...but it wasn't loud..very subtle and nice. so...could've been?

 

 

You take the time to post a great review and someone has the nerve to complain about it....just ignore them, there is one in every crowd :rolleyes:

 

I know, I did because it doesn't warrant my attention...but I don't write for those people...I write for OUR family and to help others planning. I look at it this way: thank God it's a free country and nobody is tying you to your seat forcing you to read what I write :)

 

 

Thanks for the very enjoyable, detailed review. And with all the links to photos, that is a great way to get around the limit of 6 pictures per post. Thanks again...I know these are time consuming!!

 

yeah...that limit of 6 really drives me nuts. But, I've always written my reviews this way.... :cool:

 

 

[SevenSeas1492]

The food was hot and I thought it was pretty good. I'm no gourmet and anything I don't have to cook/clean up is good in my book

 

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Amen!

[ryansmom]

Yours is one great review! The way your pictures are included in the text makes it all

seamless, and I feel like I'm cruising with you. A question....how do you get a ticket for

the Dragon's Tail?

I just realized why Ryan is in a "pullman" bed. When I was a child and we rode the train back and forth every summer Florida to NY, the beds came down out of the wall. Never

made the association before...one more reason to thank you.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of "our" cruise.

 

I meant to reply to you...sorry.... In advance of the cruise, we purchased the combo ticket for the coaster & Aqua Park. Excursion tickets are delivered to your cabin. I'm sure you could purchase it there tho? not sure? We did the coaster first, so they just wrote on our ticket when we redeemed it...because we needed to present the ticket at the Aqua Park.

 

Also...the pullman beds on the ships actually fold out of the ceiling of the cabin, not the wall...but, same idea.

 

[jagsfan]

thanks for the reply re the coaster......I know my husband would want to do it, unless it's

strictly a kiddy ride.......even those scare meto death.

[ryansmom]

thanks for the reply re the coaster......I know my husband would want to do it, unless it's

strictly a kiddy ride.......even those scare meto death.

 

No, it's not just for kids. When you purchase a ticket for it tho, you can take a guest for free. ;) You might want to go with him...there are individual seatbelts for each passenger. And, it really doesn't go that fast.

 

[gma5]

Love your review and your pics. Its much easier to see the pics on my computer than on my IPad.

I'm happy to know that we no longer have to tender in Labadee. It also looks as if there have been some improvements since I was there. Now I can't wait til I sail in Nov.

 

Martha

[ryansmom]

Day 13 -- Wednesday, July 13

 

Cruise Day 4 -- Falmouth, Jamaica

 

Today's Compass.

 

Of course we slept in this morning, and with a late docking in Jamaica, 10am-ish, we knew we wouldn't have an early 'gangway' awakening. I think I woke up around 8:30 or so and put the tv on so the guys would start to wake up. We put Graham Seymour's Morning Show on in the morning....some days it's pretty funny, other's...well, we just kinda haveta wonder?

 

Since breakfast in Windjammer was only being served until 11, we decided to get moving. I think we left for there about 9:45 or so? It's definitely more crowded earlier in the morning.

 

Since we were in no hurry today, today was the day I picked to take some pictures of the breakfast buffet offerings. The usual: biscuits/gravy, croisssant, pancakes, MTO omlet (that also does eggs any way you like), scrambled eggs w/ ham (had w/ mushrooms another day....so check each day what's in the scrambled eggs), sausage, bacon, toast (wheat & white), hard boiled eggs, the milk and yogurt station, waffles and french toast, bacon and sausage (I did see turkey sausage offered also), a nice variety of Kellogg's cereals, pastries...assortment of muffins and donuts and here too, breads, bagels and english muffins, hashbrowns (& I forget what's next to them?), oatmeal, grits, fruit: 1, 2 and 3...and of course....juice.

 

After breakfast, I took this picture out the window of Jamaica. We haven't been here since '93. The water was as pretty as I'd remembered. I also remembered to take a picture of Portofino and Chops. This is also the bar area in the front (entrance) of Windjammer. We had to run back to our room real quick to grab the other camera and stuff and then head ashore.

 

Now, we book excursions early on...way before sail date. While checking out excursions, they were a minimum $99/pp, most were an hour drive (either to Montego Bay or Ocho Rios) and there really wasn't anything we REALLY wanted to do. We decided it would be a lazy day and just take a quick walk around the port area.

 

The port area is coming along...there's more finished there than I thought there'd be. It's a very nice area and a lot of shopping. Although we didn't buy anything, we did take a lot of pictures and enjoyed this area very much.

 

Pictures of the port area: 1, 2, Diamonds International had just opened here, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.

 

We went thru port area and decided to go into town. We weren't going to buy anything, or take any tours, but we wanted Ryan to experience a little bit of Jamaica. We weren't going to be long, just take a short walk and go right back to the ship. Pictures from our venture out of the port area and into town: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, busy place, 7 and 8. On our way back to the ship, I noticed we were crossing Falmouth St. and 9.

 

The local town wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but not more than a few minutes would go by without a local offering a tour or hairbraiding. They are very organized. They wear neat 'uniform' looking clothes and have nice laminated books with all the tours listed with a pictures and descriptions inside. And, yes, of course, there was the half a dozen "braid your hair?" offers up the first block. This is the worst part...just OUTSIDE the port area. Once we turned a corner, it wasn't so much the ''braid your hair?'' as it was the 'tours' people.

 

After we took some pix & video, we headed back toward the ship. Our son was very uncomfortable with people approaching him and asking him things. One lady, who was actually really nice, tried to not only get ME to braid my hair, but she tried to convince Ryan to let her braid his hair! Funny thing is, I can't even get him to wear a ponytail at home for 5 seconds, let alone have her braid his hair I'm guessing they are used to rejection since they seem to be nice about it when you say 'no thank you'.

 

Although we had our passports on us, we only needed to show our Seapass at security to enter the port area. We walked around the port area some more, taking yet more pictures. Port area pix: I actually stopped to read some of the signs/posters along the way this time. History of Jamaica, the History of Falmouth, the History of Henry Morgan, the Arrival of Columbus, the ship, 1, 2, 3, putting up a lightpole, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, the token Harley place, get your dance on, 10 and returning to the ship for some pictures from the top deck.

 

Back aboard, we were going to the top deck to take pictures and passed by the H20 Zone. Pictures: here and here. And I couldn't remember if I took a picture of the self-serve soda machine instructions (I had), but I took the picture anyway. While in the area, we grabbed some ice cream and sat in the shade for a little bit before going out and taking our pictures.

 

Pictures from the top deck: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Passing to the other side of the ship for port side pix: (remember when I said I'd take pictures of the same thing over and over? This would be one of those times...) 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.

 

Pictures port side: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.

 

Then we walked and moved to a different part of the ship for yet more pictures: (again, pictures I've already taken before: here and here and Johnny Rockets) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

 

While up here, we stopped by Flowrider. It was closed, and apparently it's a good time for the staff to work on their moves. We watched her for a few minutes and left. And while up here and walking by it, a picture of the Wall. We headed toward the bow of the ship for some pictures, and had to take picture of this lady. My husband thought it was funny to see: a lady reading a fake book under a fake tree.

 

We got to the front of the ship and took a few more pictures: 1, 2 and 3.

 

After our pictures, we went to the Screening Room to watch "Little Fockers". We were about 20 minutes early and thought we'd be the only ones in there, but 2 other parties showed up with about 5 minutes till show time. A family and an elderly couple. For a movie title referenced to the kids, they weren't in it much? Shoulda been titled "Focker Relationships" or something along those lines. Otherwise, cute movie, extremely uncomfortable seats. Be forewarned there. Even though my husband wanted to see the movie Hereafter, when it was scheduled to be shown in the Screening Room, he'd pass on it just because the seats are THAT uncomfortable.

 

After the movie, we decided on a small bite for lunch, to hold us over till dinner. We wanted to check out the Jade offerings at Windjammer, so we headed in that direction. And, of course, taking pictures along the way: We stopped by our room to use the restroom first, and my husband was just being silly here, 1, 2 and 3.

 

We looked for the Jade offerings at Windjammer, but couldn't find any. We asked someone and they said it was from 6-8pm only. Weird. I would have thought it'd been out for the entire dinner? But...we'll check later, before our dinner. Since we were already here, decided to have lunch here. Took some pictures of some of the lunch offerings: taco fixin's, I have no idea what this is, sammiches, burger fixin's, burgers: turkey & beef, pizza and fries, hot dogs, more sammiches, bread and eggsalad, tuna and more salads. It wasn't crowded and we had a table with a view.

 

After viewing Jamaica from the Windjammer, Randy wanted to check out the ship and went off with my camera, while Ry & I went back to the cabin. I believe he went to the bow of the ship. The pictures he took: passing the pool area, from the bow of the ship, and here too and a look back.

 

While Ryan was watching tv, I took a peek out the window. I noticed a little boy at the re-entry to the ship who appeared to be lost. (Our cabin was right above the entrance to the ship, remember?) I'm guessing his folks are in port freaking out he's missing....but, like my son said he'd do, this kid went back to the ship. I don't think he was out there long, because I kept looking out the window to see if he was out there, and it was about 15 minutes from when I first noticed to my last look when he was gone. Could you imagine 'losing' your kid in a foreign country?

 

Randy soon returned and we hung out in our room and watched tv till it was time to get ready for dinner. Tonight wouldn't take long, it was casual nite.

 

We needed to be ready in plenty of time prior to dinner to check out the Jade in Windjammer and to see the Freedom.com Ice Show at 7pm. Now before you wonder how I got tickets, because I haven't been up earlier than 8am this whole trip so far, I can tell you I got them from Guest Relations desk. Remember when I put some credit on Ryan's Seapass? They happened to have a stack of tickets just sitting there on the counter. So I grabbed 3. I don't know if they just didn't get all handed out when they were handing them out in the morning, or they had printed too many or what. But, our plan before dinner was Jade & the Ice Show.

 

We left just before 6:30 for the 7pm Ice Show, to get in line early to get a good seat, figuring we had time to catch the Jade offerings after the Ice show and before our dinner.

 

First...the Ice Show. They only show it 2x/day for only 2 days. Not sure why unless the cast works in other shows? Anyhow, the show was awesome and they did ice dancing/skating to the 60s, 70s, martial arts and a couple did a little show where she kept "changing" on the ice. Not in front of everyone, but wrapped in a banner, or a ring of tinsel, or another prop. There was a lot of themes and skating and it was a great show. The skaters got a standing ovation from the audience when they were through. I highly recommend you don't miss this show. The things those people do on ice, in a tiny rink yet, is just simply amazing. I wish I'd taken more pix during the show, but I was afraid the flash would go off accidentally and blind someone skating! (We were in the center of the front row.) So, I only have pictures from the end: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

 

After the Ice show, we used the restrooms in the elevator lobby. When I came out, the guys were outside on deck and told me to come out. There was a beautiful sunset going on and we had to go out to see and take pix. I have a bunch of pictures (shocking, right?), but I'll just post a few: my son & I, another one of us...me with hair blowin' everywhere! And, as you can tell by the hair, again, it's w.i.n.d.y. out there! ...but, we got a decent picture...finally! I only have one picture of father & son, I think it's because it came out really good. And after a few shots of hair everywhere, Ryan finally got a nice picture of us. Sunset pix sans people: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and this last pic looks like a guitar on the left side of the picture.

 

After deck pix, we wanted to check out what it looked like up front...so to the helipad we went. Beautiful. A few pictures from up front: 1, 2 and 3. Looked cool sailing away from Jamaica with the moon out. After some more pix, we needed to head to dinner. And yes, that means we totally forgot to check out the offerings at Jade. Crud.

 

Tonights menu: Vitality, Appetizers, Entrees and Desserts. We ordered: cream of mushroom soup and the seafood laksa soup. Ryan didn't order any appetizer, but our server brought him out the chicken & cabbage dumplings. He didn't like them, but I thought they were very good. Tonight during appetizers, was the night the kids club blessed us with their pirate song and invaded the dining room. We got a couple of pictures, but none came out really well since we were so far away.

 

For dinner, Ryan & I each had lasagna al forno and Randy had surf and turf . Actually, it wasn't 'lobster' night surf and turf, but rather 'shrimp'. Our server told us next formal night would be the lobster surf and turf. Meh, it didn't matter, he said it was good! For dessert we ordered banana cream pie. I wasn't going to get anything and the server tried to talk me into something. (sometimes I wonder if they've got to start moving some food out of the kitchen the later it gets?) He mentioned the passion-berry mousse, but I declined. Then he tried the pineapple parfait, nope, I don't care for pineapple. Then he tried the coconut creme brulee. Not a fan of the coconut, I passed. He convinced me to try it saying there was barely a coconut taste to it. So, reluctantly, I agreed to try it. Hate to say, but he was right. There was hardly any coconut taste to it. I think I ate about half of it...Randy had a taste or two also.

 

After dinner, we checked to see if our photo from the day was there and it was. We put it with our other pictures and then went to Cupcake Cupboard to get Ryan a cupcake. He didn't care for any of the dessert offerings at dinner, so we told him he could buy a cupcake.

 

We wanted to test his card, so we let him do his very first onboard cruise purchase. Had to teach him to sign receipt and such. While there, again, I took pictures of the cupcakes: strawberry lemonade, this one I thought was interesting... hhmmm, I think she told me peanut butter w/ strawberry icing, vanilla chocolate, that dreaded coconut flavor again, an interesting key lime and one little oreo left.

 

We took his cupcake 'to go' and took it back to the room and then headed to the arcade with him. He said he had trouble loading credits to his card, but we got him all straightened out. We left him behind to play and we went to the Love & Marriage Show. While waiting for the show to start, the 'Kiss Cam' was on and picking couples out of the audience. Some were great, others got a "that's the best you can do?" and some really hammed it up for the camera! There was 2 girls sitting between 2 guys in the audience and they showed all 4 of them sitting in the row (with half of the guys cut off on the ends). Being fun, silly, or just drunk, the 2 girls ended up kissing each other and the entire theater started roaring with laughter. They got a big kick out of themselves.

 

It wasn't too long after that kiss that the show was ready to begin. Graham came out on stage and asked where those girls were sitting. They got his attention and he said, "I live on Deck 2." That just made everyone laugh then... Made me think though, how cool is it to be able to say, "I live on Deck ....".

 

It was a great show and Graham did a good job with the contestants. I swear he has HAD to done stand up comedy somewhere along the line. He's like a comedian in a cruise director's job! During the show, he ended up talking briefly about the showers onboard and how they remind him of the tubes at the drive-thru at the bank (since they are circular). He made some sort of joke about how he's waiting for that wicked flush onboard while he's showering and to be sucked up to the Windjammer...from the shower.... I'll tell ya this, I'll never be able to use that service at the bank without thinking of the showers onboard Freedom again.

 

After the show we went back to the cabin. Ry was there eating his cupcake with some milk he got from the Cafe. He'd just gotten back after hanging out in the arcade for the time we were at the show.

 

We got ready for bed and called it a night at about midnight.

 

We have an early morning tomorrow. Setting the alarm for 7am.

 

Big day in Grand Cayman snorkeling tomorrow. Yay!

 

 

[beej]

Hi Ryan's Mom. The Flash Gordon serial i am talking about is from the 40's. Guess i have Nana status. Just finished Wed. review. It gets better by the day. Really love it.

 

Be safe in Pa, and everyone else on the east coast, be safe and careful

[BettyPC]

Great review - very nice pictures! Your son reminds me of a young Peter Frampton!! Thanks for sharing with us.

[OceanDreams]

Really great review - love the format. So many times I will be reading a review and try to visualize what the place looks like. You did for me. Thanks

 

OceanDreams

[enidcruiser]

Great review - very nice pictures! Your son reminds me of a young Peter Frampton!! Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Guess that dates us.

 

Julia

[medfordgirl]

Great review - very nice pictures! Your son reminds me of a young Peter Frampton!! Thanks for sharing with us.

 

 

I am so glad you said that. I had been trying to figure out who he reminded me of. Ryansmom, your son is such a cutie!

[ryansmom]

beej.... okay, so I'm not up on the "40s"...but I know who Flash Gordon is from all the remakes over the years.... :rolleyes:

 

As for the boy.... we either get he looks like a young Peter Frampton or a young Leif Garrett...who is now bald! :eek: And, I've had to google them both to show him because he doesn't know who either of them are!