FREEDOM OTS TRIP REPORT 7/10/11 sailing - (Teens Perspective)

[MissTraveler08]

Hello :) Tonight, I'm posting the intro to our Freedom of the Seas TR! To give you all a little background information, My name is Abby and I am 15 years old! I have one sister, she is 14. And my mom and dad. For myself and the rest of my family, this was our first time cruising! Initially, no one (besides me) was interested on going on a cruise. I some how persuaded them all one night, and within the next week we had booked our first cruise! We agreed that we would do some sort of caribbean cruise, but we had NO idea that there were so many different cruise lines to pick from! I began researching cruising in March, and we were planning on traveling in June-July. As you can see, it was kind of a "last minute" vacation and it the cruise lines were limited. After a bit (well...A LOT!) of research we had narrowed it down to Disney, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Those 3 were really the only 3 options we had that had caribbean itineraries in the June-July range. We knew for sure that we were not interested in Carnival. We are avid Disney fans, but we went against Disney because we were afraid of being surrounded by young, fussy children!

 

As we were planning and booking the cruise, we decided not to sign up for any excursions ahead of time. As you will see later on into the review, we did end up booking many excursions :) We did use a TA from USAA to help with the planning of the cruise. Which was helpful since we really had no idea what we were doing!

 

It was so much fun to dig through all of the reviews before we planned the cruise! So I decided to do one for myself, in hopes that I can help someone else out along the way, just because the rest of you all helped me out so much. :)

 

Because this cruise was a few months back, and I have been on a vacation since, my memory isn't as great as it would've been if i did this as soon as I had come home! Excuse me if I am not very descriptive :) I am very sorry... But we left for our beach house in Vero Beach, FL, not long after we got back from the cruise. I will try to update this as much as possible! But being that I am a high-school student with LOTS of homework & sports practice, I don't always have extra time, unfortunately. ;(

 

I will try my best to insert pictures as I go along here, but since i am new to this, I don't really know what I'm doing! :rolleyes:

 

PRE-CRUISE: We had an early flight out of MSP, so we drove up the night of July 8th and stayed at the Country Inn & Suites. It was nothing special, but it saved us 3 hours in the morning between getting ready, the car packed, dropping dog and cat off at kennel, and driving to the airport! We arrived in Minneapolis around 5 pm, but instead of going straight to the hotel, we stopped at Mall of America & REI first to grab last-minute clothes, water shoes and dinner at Napa Valley Grille! Then we headed over to our hotel around 9 P.M, which was right across from the MoA. We went to bed early since we still had to wake up around 6 AM.

 

We woke up, took the hotel shuttle over to MSP Airport. Believe it or not, security lines were already SO LONG! We travel very often, and I have never seen it so busy at such an early hour. We made it through security & checked in on time (surprisingly!). The flight was on time and landed earlier than scheduled! We arrived at MCO Airport (Orlando International Airport) and headed straight to the Hyatt which we had planned to stay at the night before heading to Port Canaveral. Since we had landed around 2-3 pm (roughly?) we had lots of time to kill. We walked around the airport which has some shops but was nothing new to us! This was about my one millionth time to that airport! (We have a beach house in Vero Beach). We were hungry so we stopped by McCoy's for some late lunch in the airport (located in the hyatt) and headed to the pool! The pool was very crowded but we did spend most of our afternoon there laying out! We had hoped to go to Downtown Disney that night but didn't end up having enough time...It wasn't a deal breaker though since we have been there countless times! :)

[MissTraveler08]

9/10/11 EMBARKATION :) - The long awaited day was FINALLY HERE! We were so excited (also nervous). We woke up early, I believe it was about 5 A.M. We checked out of the hotel and made our way down to Baggage Claim (If you are familiar with MCO, it was down on the ground level by Disney's Magical Express loading area) where we met for the transports. Our TA made the transport arrangements but I am almost positive it was Royal Caribbean Transports.

Since my parents dealt with all of the cruise document stuff and set sail passes, I don't really know what information & paperwork was exchanged when we met there. Soon enough, we were on the bus going to Port Canaveral! The ride was about 45 mins and it went by pretty quickly! We arrived, and saw the 3 ships in port that day. Disney Dream, Royal Caribbean Freedom OTS and Carnival "Sensation".

 

*Will continue on tomorrow, 9/20/11*

[MissTraveler08]

Getting on Ship / First Day-

Once we went inside the cruise terminal, we had to wait in line to go through "security" and up the escalator to the check in desk. There was a long line which lasted about 30-45 minutes. Which went by quickly since we were all busy on our phones since it would be the last in a long time that we would get to use them! Once we made it up to the desk, my parents dealt with the paper work, passport, etc and we had our pictures taken. Off we went to the SHIP!

Our initial reaction was "WOAH". Since it was our first time on a ship (besides my dad who used to sail on the ocean liner "Sun Viking" (I believe that was the name?). We explored the ship, had lunch at the Wind Jammer and then went to our room to unpack! We booked 2 balcony staterooms for the 4 of us. :) Our stateroom attendant, Darrel Cummings, was phenomenal the entire cruise! One of the attendants removed the balcony divider so ours connected! It was very nice. After we unpacked, we went down to the promenade and signed up for cupcake classes on our 1st "at sea" day! My sister and I headed to the pool, and my parents went on to explore. Our parents met us back at the pool and had booked facials and massages for us for the next day after our cupcake class. :) *WILL CONTINUE ON*

[deanswife1990]

Enjoying your review. We sail the FOS on Sunday.

[adow76]

Great to read your review! We will be cruising Freedom in just a few short weeks. I am very anxious to read your review about the teen activities, for you and especially your sister, as our daughter is 14. If you can let me know of any extra little things to pack for her for any activites in the teen club - that would be amazing!! I appreciate you taking time from school/homeowrk/sports to write more!! :D

[MikeNJ1109]

Excellent review so far, looking forward to reading more. My wife, daughter (5yo) and I will be on the Freedom in November, so am living vicariously through this review! :)

 

Michael

[BLAMBKY]

Yeah!!! I am so glad and thankful for you taking time to write this review! :D We will be on the FOS soon, so this is just in time for my 15DD to read this!!! If you are taking questions, did you go to the get acquainted get together for your age "club"? Were there many other teens on board? Anything special we need to plan on taking? (Yes, I am starting to pack TODAY!) Looking forward to the rest of it!

[MissTraveler08]

Yeah!!! I am so glad and thankful for you taking time to write this review! :D We will be on the FOS soon, so this is just in time for my 15DD to read this!!! If you are taking questions, did you go to the get acquainted get together for your age "club"? Were there many other teens on board? Anything special we need to plan on taking? (Yes, I am starting to pack TODAY!) Looking forward to the rest of it!

 

Glad you all are liking the review! I am beyond jealous of you all that are cruising on Freedom in the upcoming months - :) Since my sister and I were in different clubs, we actually didn't get involved with that! We basically just went out on our own and did different things each night! I did walk past one of the activity gatherings one night, and there was NO ONE there! I guess they made not have had good turn out? I'm not exactly sure! But the Flow Rider Time Slots were always a big hit and long lines! They also had karaoke, sports games and things like that! Nothing too out of the ordinary, as far as things go that you should pack! One thing that I would definitely recommend bringing would be rash guard & board shorts. If you don't already know what that is, it's basically like waterproof shirt & shorts. These are awesome for walking around the boat, islands, and especially the flow rider! Another great thing about the rash guard is that it protects you from UVA/UVB rays. We found ours at Roxy that had SPF 50+, which was great because after the first couple of days, I really didn't need anymore sun! I'm sure you all will love the cruise! It was awesome, and feel free to ask ANY questions, I will be more than happy to answer! :) Enjoy the rest of my review! (Hopefully I will post more tonight along with pictures).

 

+ Sorry, I left one question out!

There were some teens on the boat, not many around my age group! Most of the kids around mine and my sisters age were never at the "club gatherings" or "ocean activity" whatever you call it!

[MissTraveler08]

Great to read your review! We will be cruising Freedom in just a few short weeks. I am very anxious to read your review about the teen activities, for you and especially your sister, as our daughter is 14. If you can let me know of any extra little things to pack for her for any activites in the teen club - that would be amazing!! I appreciate you taking time from school/homeowrk/sports to write more!! :D

 

Hi :) Thanks for reading & glad you have been enjoying it!

 

As far as extra things to pack, I would recommend bringing water shoes (for the islands, especially Haiti), Surf Shirt and Board Shirts, If you don't know that that is, it's basically a waterproof shirt and shorts. They're awesome for walking around the boat, pool, islands and especially the Flow Rider! There was some sort of dance at the end of the cruise, I believe they called it "Prom" or something! I'm sure what you bring for "Formal Wear" would work, if she plans on going to it! But I'm pretty sure that not all age groups had that dance at the end. I will hopefully have more on the trip posted tonight as well as pictures! (if i can figure out how to). Thanks so much for reading and have fun on Freedom OTS! :)

[MikeNJ1109]

Hi :) Thanks for reading & glad you have been enjoying it!

 

As far as extra things to pack, I would recommend bringing water shoes (for the islands, especially Haiti), Surf Shirt and Board Shirts, If you don't know that that is, it's basically a waterproof shirt and shorts. They're awesome for walking around the boat, pool, islands and especially the Flow Rider! There was some sort of dance at the end of the cruise, I believe they called it "Prom" or something! I'm sure what you bring for "Formal Wear" would work, if she plans on going to it! But I'm pretty sure that not all age groups had that dance at the end. I will hopefully have more on the trip posted tonight as well as pictures! (if i can figure out how to). Thanks so much for reading and have fun on Freedom OTS! :)

 

Hope that the OP will be able to post more info regarding her cruise ... looking forward to reading more, as we'll be on the Freedom in November.

 

Michael and Silke