Live from the Freedom of the Seas - March 18, 2012

[mikeblum]

wonderful job of having us along with you on your great week...super job...i agree about the sting reys...teh fewer bpats out there the better...i have been out there with 20 to 25 other small boats and it is crazzy insane...hardly any chance to enjoy these creatures...they are very very calm...have a safe flight home to pittsburgh and enjoy the space center today...thanks again...

[landni]

Did I miss your time in Cozumel? Curious to how you spent your time....

[luv2cruiserccl]

I cannt wait to see some more of your photos. Hope your flight home is good to!!!!!

 

Sent from my BlackBerry 9630 using Tapatalk

[haywardwis]

Thanks for the review, we truly enjoyed the ship and ports! We have a late flight home, so it made for a nice read while waiting at the airport. Sad to go back to work tomorrow, but had another wonderful cruise!!

[MiniMom57]

It's been a while since I have been on RCCL, we are ailing freedom in 4 weeks:) quick question, do they have the drip coffee machine in sorentos for regular coffee like the Mariner had, or is all pay at the Seattles best on the promenade??? Thanks and looking forward to following your review.

 

 

Just got off Freedom today -- there is free coffee, decaf, tea, water, and hot cocoa in the Promenade Cafe 24 hrs a day; there is a Starbucks counter there as well, but there is a charge for each item.

[MiniMom57]

is shrimp cocktail an item on menu every night? Have a family member that really enjoys that choice. Thanks.

Haven't sailed RCI for a while do to teen son enjoying Carnival activities. Now ready to book Freedom next spring so researching thru you!

 

p.s. to the other buffett fan---no wonder I had to add a number after my screen name, you had taken it ;);)

 

Shrimp cocktail is not on the menu every night and is now 3 or 4 small shrimp instead of 6 large ones like it was a couple of years ago.

[MiniMom57]

Daghis, would love to know what the entertainers in the Schooner Bar and Pub are like - type of music, vibe, energy. If you've ever sailed Voyager or Rhapsody and seen Derek Lewis you will know what a high energy participation show is like. Hoping for some fun, not some mellow put me to sleep stuff.

 

And thank you again for your generosity of time. I am always amazed by the kindness of those who post Live reports from their cruises. It means so much to those of us landlocked at home! ;)

 

The Schooner Bar had a piano player/singer named Steve Green "man of a thousand songs" -- he was a lot of fun each of the 3 nights we went there.

 

the Bull & Bear Pub had Lace Walker -- he played electric guitar and sang and was fantastic (music was mainly in the Eagles and Clapton category). The music was a little LOUD due to the small venue.

[QTMichele]

Great review! I hope you post pictures too. :) We loved the Freedom, and are booked on the Liberty towards the end of the year. Can't wait! Also can't wait to see what it's like to go from a large ship to a "small" ship (Allure to Liberty). I'm sure I'll be fine with it, but I'm still curious to see how it "feels" and to see how the others in our group will feel about it.

 

BTW, I was just on Labadee last month and had a Nellie's Beach cabana... they get all the perks that the Barefoot Beach cabanas get, including use of either beach (Nellie's or Barefoot). I have quite a few pictures and descriptions in my Allure 2/12/12 review (see signature) if anyone is interested in more details. OH... I believe Nellie's Beach used to be the tendering spot before the dock was built - I could be wrong though!

[Daghis]

I'm home now, having gotten here about an hour and a half ago. I'm still unwinding a bit before I head off to bed.

 

Kennedy Space Center was quite enjoyable. They're having a special promotion where if you buy a normal ticket, you can then upgrade it to an annual pass for just $7 more. We decided to do that on our way out because we weren't able to see everything we wanted to and are planning to return after our next cruise on the Freedom of the Seas in October.

 

Disembarkation was generally okay. Everything until the point when we left the ship was perfectly fine. However, once we were back in the cruise terminal, the long lines to wait for Customs/Immigration were unpleasant. After getting through there, it was another 10-15 minutes wait for our bags to finally make their way around on the carousel. Then we went outside to wait for the shuttle for Budget, only to get caught in the rain for a bit. Once we got our rental car, things went pretty smoothly from that point on, though.

 

I ran into a problem with my camera and feared that I had lost all my photos. Fortunately, they were all synced to my iPad, so I did have them backed up, but the camera wasn't able to see the SD card. It turns out that I had inadvertently rotated the mode dial to "clipboard mode" where it takes pictures to internal memory only. Whew!

 

Once I get the photos onto my computer, it'll be a lot easier to upload them to share and I'll post more of them later.

[FLCruisers49]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post info and pictures about your trip! We are going in about 11 weeks and can't wait to be on the Freedom again! Did you happen to bring home any of the daily compasses? Glad you had a good trip. Looking forward to hearing more about the ports and the ship!

[cruizinmimi]

I'm home now, having gotten here about an hour and a half ago. I'm still unwinding a bit before I head off to bed.

 

Kennedy Space Center was quite enjoyable. They're having a special promotion where if you buy a normal ticket, you can then upgrade it to an annual pass for just $7 more. We decided to do that on our way out because we weren't able to see everything we wanted to and are planning to return after our next cruise on the Freedom of the Seas in October.

 

Disembarkation was generally okay. Everything until the point when we left the ship was perfectly fine. However, once we were back in the cruise terminal, the long lines to wait for Customs/Immigration were unpleasant. After getting through there, it was another 10-15 minutes wait for our bags to finally make their way around on the carousel. Then we went outside to wait for the shuttle for Budget, only to get caught in the rain for a bit. Once we got our rental car, things went pretty smoothly from that point on, though.

 

I ran into a problem with my camera and feared that I had lost all my photos. Fortunately, they were all synced to my iPad, so I did have them backed up, but the camera wasn't able to see the SD card. It turns out that I had inadvertently rotated the mode dial to "clipboard mode" where it takes pictures to internal memory only. Whew!

 

Once I get the photos onto my computer, it'll be a lot easier to upload them to share and I'll post more of them later.

 

Thank you so much for a wonderful virtual cruise with you last week. I do have a request (if you can do it). Can you scan or upload the shore excursions sheet that you get on the 1st day? That would be greatly appreciated. So glad you didn't lose your pictures.

[Waitin to cruise]

It looks like you have a full day planned in Grand Cayman on Thursday. What time do you need to be ashore?

 

When we're on FOS next month we'll be meeting our tour in Grand Cayman at 9:00 a.m. (ship time). It looks like the first tender is at 8:30. I'm a little nervous about it since we've never tendered before (only our 2nd cruise).

 

I'm wondering what time we will need to line-up to tender to make it ashore on time. I've heard bits and pieces on these boards about getting tickets for tendering and those on ship-sponsored excursions having priority. Our excursion isn't ship sponsored.

 

Would you mind paying attention to the wait-time for tendering Thursday morning? I'd appreciate any advice you may have. TIA!

 

I was on this cruise also and the tender went soooo smooth. I think we were suppose to start tendering at 8:30am and about 8:20 we got in the elevator to head down that way when they made the annoucement and we were off the ship on the tender within minutes (no wait at all) We were on shore in no time. Or excursion ran to the end of our time in Grand Cayman and there was quite a long line to get on the tender back to the ship but still it went smoothly and took about 30 minutes from the line to the tender. (my times might not be exact, but should be pretty close)

[famofsix]

I was on this cruise also and the tender went soooo smooth. I think we were suppose to start tendering at 8:30am and about 8:20 we got in the elevator to head down that way when they made the annoucement and we were off the ship on the tender within minutes (no wait at all) We were on shore in no time. Or excursion ran to the end of our time in Grand Cayman and there was quite a long line to get on the tender back to the ship but still it went smoothly and took about 30 minutes from the line to the tender. (my times might not be exact, but should be pretty close)

 

Thanks for putting my mind at ease about tendering. I think we'll do just what you did and head down around 8:20. It's probably helpful to beat the announcement.

 

What was your excursion? We're booked with Nativeways' Rays, Reefs & Rum Point.

[Waitin to cruise]

Thanks for putting my mind at ease about tendering. I think we'll do just what you did and head down around 8:20. It's probably helpful to beat the announcement.

 

What was your excursion? We're booked with Nativeways' Rays, Reefs & Rum Point.

 

 

We did the Sting Ray City, it was really fun and the water is so beautiful but there were MANY ships at port that day (I think it was 5 or so) so it was jam packed with people, but still a good time. The sting rays are awesome. Make sure to get a back massage from one.

 

As soon as you get off the tender in Grand Cayman that is where all the tours are and it was really crowded when we arrived so just have your tickets out and ask a worker where you are suppose to gather for your tour, it was hard to see the signs though all the people. Oh and shopping at this port was the most pricey, that I seen.

[TPCRUISER2]

Thanks for all the info! Any time changes on your cruise? Thanks in advance.

[rookieblue]

I'm pretty much all packed, have all my documents in my carry-on bag, checked in for tomorrow's flight down to Orlando, Florida, and am just about ready to start my vacation. So, with that all accomplished today, I thought it'd be a good time to start sharing my next adventure with all of you.

 

I'm sailing on the Freedom of the Seas, departing this Sunday from Port Canaveral, for a week-long adventure to Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Caymen; and Cozumel, Mexico.

 

As I've done with previous "live" threads, I'll do my best to share my experiences here. With any luck, assuming I've got my iPad configured properly, I'll be able to share photos, too. That's a bit more at the whim of the Internet gods. :)

 

Some background about this vacation's travelers...

 

I'm Marc from Pittsburgh, PA, and I'm traveling with my friend, Bryan, also from Pittsburgh. This is my eleventh cruise (seventh on Royal Caribbean), and this is Bryan's fourth cruise (all on Royal Caribbean). DH and the kids are staying home this time around.

 

This cruise originally started as a "complimentary" cruise on the Norwegian Spirit, thanks to a promotion from the Rivers Casino here in Pittsburgh. I say "complimentary" because we still had to pay taxes and fees which amounted to about $500.

 

While on the Allure of the Seas last August, I qualified to become a Club Royale member, and thanks to some promotional credit from them, along with onboard credit for booking while onboard and prepaid gratuities from the travel agent, I was able to book this cruise on the Freedom of the Seas for the same week at a cheaper cost. I'm thrilled to be sailing on this cruise instead since I tend to like the larger ships (as evidenced by most of my recent cruise history).

 

We were originally booked in a Promenade cabin since I really like those, but yesterday, a last-minute balcony guarantee rate of just $799/person popped up which was cheaper than what the Promenade cabin was, so I quickly called my travel agent and had them put through a no-cost upgrade. I'm now in a balcony cabin (category D2)!

 

I'm very excited about this cruise! I've been watching, and re-watching, cruise programs on my TiVo and YouTube for the past couple weeks in anticipation. Having sailed on the Liberty of the Seas several years ago, I'm also excited to see what they've brought from the Oasis-class ships back to the Freedom of the Seas. From what I've seen from others here, I think that they'll be some very nice additions to the Freedom-class.

 

Anyway, I invite you all to come cruise with me vicariously through this thread. I look forward to having you along for the trip!

Hi My name is Sheri and I cruised on Freedom 2 years ago. I loved the cruise director Allan Brooks, is he still there? We might go on Freedom again..

[Snookum]

Just wondered if all the cabanas are the same. Are the ones for non suite guests as nice as the ones for suite guests? Do you think they are worth it? TIA:)

[Daghis]

Thanks for all the info! Any time changes on your cruise? Thanks in advance.

Thank you for reposting the question. I tried to find it this afternoon to reply to it, but my search attempts weren't successful.

 

No, there weren't any time changes during the week. We remained on EDT, and were one hour off in Grand Cayman and Jamaica, and two hours off in Cozumel (soon to be just one hour off).

[Daghis]

I'm going now to go through the past week and comment on things I didn't before, giving more of a proper review, I guess, but I might repeat myself in some cases, so please forgive me in those cases.

 

Before I start with getting to the cruise, I want to comment about the luggage tags we used. Because we got an upgrade a few days before sailing, we couldn't use the nice luggage tags that Royal Caribbean had sent us. They updated our cruise docs and included the new print-yourself luggage tags, so I made a few copies of them, folded them up using their simple instructions, and brought them along.

 

 

They need to be attached to the bags using staples and/or tape. I brought along a mini-stapler for this purpose. The tags seemed to work reasonably well, although one tag did get one of its staples loose during transit, so perhaps tape would have been a better choice.

 

Anyway, we returned the rental car to Budget shortly after 10:00. They weren't ready yet to take us to the port, claiming that the Fire Marshals were controlling when companies like Budget could drop people off, so we waited about 15-20 minutes before they took us. After that, it was a relatively quick ride to the port where we passed by the Disney Dream and headed to Terminal 10 where the Freedom of the Seas was docked.

 

We hopped out and proceeding inside, going through several layers of security on our way. Two sets of people verified our SetSail Pass and passports before getting to the metal detectors and X-rays. Bryan had a bit of trouble getting through the metal detectors as he kept forgetting additional bits of electronics and such that he was carrying on him.

 

We finally made it around the loop under the escalator and back around so that we could proceed up the escalator to the check-in counters. Unlike checking in for the Oasis and Allure, this terminal is far more compact, with lines leading up to the few people behind the counters. We were in the Platinum-and-above queue, and probably waited about five minutes before it was our turn. Check-in was otherwise pretty standard, and after a few minutes we were sent on our way. I'll note here that I noticed something different about my SeaPass... there was no folio number listed. I figured that this was because they had changed their systems and it was no longer required to be printed on the card. More on that later.

 

Our timing was excellent. We finished checking in pretty much exactly at 11:00, and they had already started boarding the ship, so we were able to head right on up. We paused for a few minutes for the traditional boarding photo, waiting while the photographers got their act together (they seemed to be caught by surprise), and then headed onto the ship.

[Daghis]

Our first stop was up to the Royal Promenade for Sorrento's. We've always done the Windjammer buffet in the past for boarding day lunch, but I wanted something different this time. After wandering around the Royal Promenade for a little while until Sorrento's opened at 11:30, we headed back and each had a couple slices of pizza and tried some of their yummy desserts.

 

It was then time to explore the ship! I wanted to see how the ship compared to other ships I've been on in the past, including the Liberty of the Seas several years ago and most recently, the Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. I found the layout to be extremely familiar, not surprisingly. It was easy to get around and find things, and for once, I was actually getting better at remembering whether places were forward or aft, and whether I was forward or aft myself.

 

Up on deck 11, we came across Sprinkles, the soft-serve ice cream station, and treated ourselves to some ice cream.

 

 

Out the window, I could see a whole bunch of luggage getting ready to be loaded onto the ship.

 

 

I think I could even see my bag (the red one near the top-right corner).

 

 

Elsewhere around the terminal, buses continued to arrive, dropping off people in the front and luggage in the back.

 

 

Continuing forward on deck 11, we headed into the gym to take a look around. In my opinion, the Freedom-class ships have the best gyms of any of the Royal Caribbean ships. They are filled with lots of equipment, and the view from here is fantastic! I didn't make use of the gym equipment during the week, but I would have enjoyed it if I had.

 

 

[Daghis]

We wanted to get a better look at our surroundings, so we proceeded up to deck 12 where we were able to get a better view. We were able to see the Carnival Sensation

 

 

and the Disney Dream

 

 

both docked and ready for their departure with us.

 

We could even see Rusty's Seafood & Oyster Bar (in the center with the tents), where we'd soon be passing by and having today's diners waving at us as we passed by.

 

 

Here is the main pool area, with the newly added big screen in the background.

 

 

 

The big screen at the pool provided much visual entertainment during the week ranging from music videos to sports to movies.

 

 

I'll note that the picture on the screen wasn't perfect. We watched it for a bit one evening when they were playing a movie and I noticed that a section of the screen wasn't properly aligned so things looked a little funny. It wasn't anything terribly jarring, and Bryan hadn't even noticed until I pointed it out to him.

[Daghis]

I love the H2O Zone and would love to play around there by myself, but without a young kid handy, I feel a little guilty about that.

 

 

 

And just in case I needed a reminder where I was...

 

[Daghis]

It was now after 1:00, so we headed to our cabin. I was excited to find out more about this cabin because it was such a late change to our plans to have a balcony instead of our Promenade cabin. We had booked a Balcony Guarantee and ended up with 9662, a category D2 cabin a bit aft from the aft elevators on the port side. It was a great location, in my opinion.

 

I found the cabin to be plenty spacious with enough room to get around the beds and out onto the balcony quite easily.

 

 

 

 

Standard bathroom on ships like this...

 

 

 

And a view of the chairs and table on our balcony:

 

[Daghis]

We noticed that the beds hadn't been separated. We had requested that they be apart, but when we switched to the guarantee category, that request got lost in the process. Not a big deal, as I was sure we'd be able to get that fixed up easily.

 

We looked in the hallway for our stateroom attendant who would usually be wandering the area looking for newly arriving guests, but we didn't find ours. We did find one who worked down the hall, and he promised to pass along our request to our attendant. Sure enough, when we did return to the cabin after dinner, our mysterious stateroom attendant had separated the beds.

 

Oh, and regarding the balcony again, we were facing the Disney Dream and had an excellent view of her and Disney's terminal.

 

 

 

By the way, the Main Dining Room is quite beautiful. I don't have any pictures from the My Time Dining area on deck 5, but I'll comment that compared with the Oasis and the Allure, the Freedom-class ships win the "best view" category for My Time Dining. On the Oasis-class, the view from the dining room on deck 5 (where My Time Dining is) is obscured by life boats. It's rather disappointing. From our window-side table on the Freedom of the Seas, we had excellent views, save for the first day when the sun was shining in during dinner and they had the light-filtering shades lowered.

 

[Daghis]

Let me talk briefly about our dining experience. Things got a bit curious when we checked in for My Time Dining at the station outside the deck 5 dining room and the woman behind the counter asked if it was just the two of us and whether Mary and Vincent were going to be joining us. We looked confused, said it was just the two of us, and we were led to our table by the window. Our servers were Manuel (from India) with assistant Angostino (I don't remember the correct spelling, I'm afraid, also from India).

 

I want to go ahead and say that these two were among the best dining room servers I can recall having. They were professional, personable, and were on top of everything. We both had soda packages, and Angostino always ensured that we had plenty of Diet Coke to drink. Manuel took our food orders, never our special requests, and gave us some very enjoyable dinners during the week.

 

I'm not a "foodie" by any stretch of the imagination. The closest I'll get to that is sharing the only food-related pictures I took of the dinner we had in Portofino's. I found the food in the Main Dining Room to be of very good quality and I can't think of anything about which I'd complain.

 

Let me add that there was a change to the menu that was new to me. In addition to the $14.95 Chops Grille filet mignon option, there were also a Maine Lobster (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 pounds) served broiled, grilled, or steamed, with drawn butter or fresh garlic-herb butter for $24.95, and a Surf and Turf option (both the 10 ounce filet mignon and the Maine lobster) for $34.95. I did order the lobster on a later night.