Freedom of the Seas Eastern Caribbean Photo Review- Jan 26th, 2014

[usckatieh]

Loving your review! We're sailing the Western itinerary on the Freedom in March, and all of your ship and kids' program info is so helpful (even though you're doing Eastern).

 

 

 

You take great pictures!

 

 

 

Did they stop doing the Dreamworks parades? I know from old compasses that there used to be one the first night.

 

 

Hey! They did a Dreamworks parade really late on day 1 or 2 and then on the last sea day right before our 5:30 dinner time but DH isn't a fan of crowds so we skipped it. I've heard its a big deal though!

[vargasjv]

You mentioned the Ecotour

 

"went to inquire about the Ecotour at the information booth, because I had seen in the Compass that kids are free with an adult purchase. I’d researched that excursion before we left but didn’t buy tickets so that we could have a flexible schedule. Sure enough, as soon as we walked up, they said they had a boat leaving at 9:30 (in 15 minutes) so we were all set our educational excursion. We hung out in the shaded waiting area behind the shops for the allotted 15 minutes until our guide came over to take us to our tour boat! Here are my gentlemen getting ready to leave the cove. "

 

Was that ECOTOUR a special on that day? Based on the Shore excursion the following is the cost:

 

Adult 29.00 / Child 25.00 USD

 

I don't see it being free for kids --- thanks

Edited February 10, 2014 by vargasjv

[usckatieh]

 

Was that ECOTOUR a special on that day? Based on the Shore excursion the following is the cost:

 

Adult 29.00 / Child 25.00 US

 

I don't see it being free for kids --- thanks

 

Yes, I think it was mentioned in the daily deals or the excursion booklet and I don't have pictures of those, but it said kids were free with an adult. In fact, the gentleman booking it didn't even know about the special but he just said "ok, that's fine" and wrote us down for $58. I guess they must occasionally run that special but not sure when they make that decision. I think it's for day-of bookings only though. Maybe it has to do with volume of presold tickets. I just counted it as a lucky deal.

Edited February 10, 2014 by usckatieh

[usckatieh]

Day 4 Cruise Compasses/ Adventure Oceans

 

 

 

 

 

 

[usckatieh]

Day 4- San Juan

 

I researched a little bit about San Juan and I had read that there was a free trolley you could take to the Forts but they were also within walking distance of the pier. What I didn’t realize is that there were mobs of people (2 other ships were unloading as well), wall-to-wall tour buses and construction zones in front of the pier when you get off the ship. We just sort of flowed to the right while we looked around. While there is a cute little waterfront park to the right side, I couldn’t find the trolley sign so we headed back towards where we saw a big Sheraton hotel. Sure enough, once we got across the street towards the Sheraton, we found the crowds of people that were heading up the hill to the fort. I’ll include a picture of the view from the port so hopefully that’ll help someone else get their bearings. We went on the street to the right of the Sheraton towards the white brass top building you see just to the right of the Sheraton sign and you could easily see the main entrance of the San Cristobal Fort (top right of the photo) from there.

 

 

Here’s the white building I mentioned. I think it was a casino.

 

 

I love how the modern and historic come together in San Juan.

 

 

San Cristobal is part of the US National Park Service. The admission to the fort was just $3/adult so it’s a very affordable self-guided excursion. There are lots of routes you can take once you get into the Fort and I’m sure there’s a tour or something but we decide to just climb around and explore. Here’s a panoramic from the one of the first walls we came to.

 

 

 

[usckatieh]

More landmarks from San Cristobal

 

 

 

 

Looking towards El Morro

 

 

An iguana sunning himself just over the railing overlooking the ocean

 

 

There are some areas with some pretty steep drop-offs and not all of them are gated, so be sure to keep young children close by when you’re exploring.

 

[usckatieh]

The plaza

 

 

There are some good educational exhibits in the plaza about the different soldiers that occupied the forts and why San Juan was such a popular island. If you exit San Cristobal near the plaza, the trolley markers are very easy to find along the street. El Morro is within reasonable walking distance but we knew the kids were wearing out so we started walking back towards the ship and stopped for lunch at Chicago Burgers at the Sheraton Hotel. As much as I would have loved to try more local restaurant, we have found that my DH has an allergic reaction to something in authentic Mexican food (he’s had the reaction at one local restaurant and one in California- not life threatening but very uncomfortable) before but we haven’t figure out exactly what spice causes his reaction, so we steered towards more predictable cuisine.

 

San Juan itself is just a very pretty city to explore. We stayed in the general area near the ships, but we felt safe to walk around. Here’s some of the colorful shops/homes.

 

 

Here’s the Holland America Eurodam ship which followed us from San Juan to St Maarten.

 

 

San Juan port at sunset

 

 

 

DH and I really liked San Juan and have decided to possibly take a Southern Caribbean out of San Juan next cruise so that we can spend an extra day exploring before we cruise.

 

Coming up- A grand tour of St Maarten/Martin!

[LizzieandLuke]

I am enjoying your review so much – I couldn’t wait to read the next entry.

I will be on the Freedom Eastern Itinerary in August with my husband, nine year old son and eleven year old daughter. Your review is making me excited.

:D

[usckatieh]

I am enjoying your review so much – I couldn’t wait to read the next entry.

 

I will be on the Freedom Eastern Itinerary in August with my husband, nine year old son and eleven year old daughter. Your review is making me excited.

 

:D

 

 

Yay! I'm glad to keep the excitement up! I really like that a Eastern itinerary! You'll have a blast!

[usckatieh]

Day 5 Cruise Compass and Adventure Oceans

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bballmom42]

Great review! very informative and so helpful for those who've never been on the the Freedom. My family (myself, hubby, daughter 14 & son 11) will be on the Freedom in August doing the Western itinerary. We haven't been on a cruise in 7 years, so we're looking very forward to it. Can't wait for your next post!

[usckatieh]

Day 5- St Maarten

 

I’ve been especially looking forward to St Maarten ever since we booked this cruise! The photos I’ve seen of the island are gorgeous. In my research I found a beach called La Galion that is mostly shallow with a calm surf and warmer water since it was in a cove, which is perfect for the kids, and it was supposed to be much less crowded (none of the ship’s excursions went there). Compared to Orient Beach with the possible nudes and Maho with the loud airplanes, both of which sounds like they get pretty crowded, I pretty much had my heart set on seeing La Galion from the beginning.

 

Warning- customer service venting ahead… One of my only major complaints about this cruise was Royal Caribbean’s miscommunication about the onboard scuba class. I’ll try to keep a long story short, but we booked this itinerary based on the fact that the PADI on-board scuba classes including a scuba session in St Maarten was available for our sailing according to the RC website. DH really had his heart set on learning how to SCUBA (even though it was only the limited certification). We had missed this class on the Oasis because we were told by RC customer service that there was no way to book ahead of time and to sign up on board and by the time we found to the Scuba desk after dinner on day 1, they had already begun the first classes- bummer, but life goes on. Once I booked our Freedom cruise, I called RC customer service because I didn’t see the scuba excursion listed when I was logged in and after a 45 minute phone conversation and several times of being on hold, he assured me that the excursion would be available for signup in December (after final payment). I’m thinking now that he just told me that to get me off the phone, which is disappointing because I called back in December to see why the excursion still wasn’t showing up and we were told that wouldn’t be offered for our sailing and to pick another excursion, but no reasoning to why. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand that plans change and excursions get canceled, but I was really disappointed with how RC customer service handled this. I never felt like I was getting a solid answer- especially after already been given the wrong answer once so I posed my question to CC and someone here posted the email address to the Freedom’s scuba guy. FINALLY (with no thanks to RC Customer Service), I got to talk to someone who knew what they were talking about that explained that the winter scuba class is only offered through the Grand Cayman sailings. Would that have changed my itinerary in the first place? Probably. Did it ruin our cruise? No way. It was disappointing that even up to the day before our sailing, the RC website still said that the PADI scuba excursion was offered through our sailing so they made no effort or care to change this misleading advisement. Vent complete.

 

But anyways, that’s the long answer to why I booked a private tour in St Maarten. There are 3 ways I found to get to La Galion. Taxi, car rental or private tour. I probably would have chosen taxi if I knew DH was coming with us, but originally having in mind that it would probably be just the kids and me, I went ahead and set up a private tour, so we’d have the extra security of being able to leave the beach whenever we wanted because they would be waiting on us, being able to leave the camera in the car so I didn’t could play with the kids and not have to worry about it getting stolen, and I knew with a private car would could accommodate the kid’s car seats! Usually, I don’t like to spend that much for excursions (remember San Juan was only $3-hehe), but let me just say that the private tour was amazing! I booked with Joyce Prince, which is another referral I got from cruise critic. There were 6 other ships with us in St Maarten so the markets outside the ship were a bit crazy! We walked all the way through the markets to near the exit of the port area and even though we were 30 minutes early (I wanted to make sure I knew where I was going) Joyce’s driver, Makk, was there ready to go!

 

We hopped in their clean SUV and started out with a few photo opportunities. Joyce basically lets you build your own tours, so I let her know we weren’t interested in stopping for shopping or watching the planes in Maho (my little boy would hate that much noise), but I did want see different parts of the island, stop for photos and of course visit La Galion for an hour or two on the beach. We started out driving up some back roads to a hill that overlooked the Great Bay/ Phillipsburg area. You could see 2 more ships sailing in! The water is SO amazingly blue!

 

 

Then we headed towards the Orient Bay/La Galion side of the island. I was also glad we didn’t rent a car because traffic in some areas was outrageous and they had streets closed due to all the people in port. As we drove around, the driver told us about the history of the island and pointed out where the Dutch side ended and the French side began. My husband said his favorite part about having a private tour was being able to ask whatever questions he wanted. An interesting fun fact is that St Maarten doesn’t have any sources of fresh water so the island depends on 2 desalination plants- one on the Dutch side and one on the French side- and that’s part of why they don’t have much agriculture, because water is so costly. Makk was very knowledgable.

 

Here’s a patch of scenery with St Barts in the distance.

 

 

Cactuses

 

 

Heres a photo from our drive along the French side. If you’re researching, I think we were driving along Rue de Coralita and there was a parking lot and lookout tower along the way. There was lots of kitesurfers in this cove and a very good breeze coming off the Atlantic.

 

 

Looking towards the Atlantic

 

 

[usckatieh]

La Galion

 

By about 10:30 island time, the first row of chairs and umbrellas were taken but there were plenty more that were just 5 feet further from the beach. The local restaurant rents out the chairs ($20 for 2 loungers and an umbrella) and other water sports equipment, plus they offer to bring you drinks and food to the beach if you let them know. There was also less inhabited beach if you chose to walk a little ways from the parking lot/restaurant. There were a few local vendors offering hair braiding, massages, bracelets, etc. One of them suckered my husband into a bracelet for both the kids (which my little boy promptly lost) but at least we were helping the local economy. Here’s a view of La Galion looking from the parking lot to the beach.

 

 

 

 

Our row of chairs

 

 

The surf was very mild so we moved the sand castles closer to the water

 

 

The beach was very shallow and sandy. The only imperfection was there were broken off bits of seagrass near the shore but nothing that really bothered us or the kids. Here’s a panoramic from the waterproof camera standing in the water.

 

 

My DH and I agreed that this was the most beautiful beach we’d ever visited!

[usckatieh]

Our next stop was a view that overlooked the nearby Orient Bay

 

 

Here’s the colorful roofs by Orient Beach

 

I may not be 100% but here are our approximate locations for the photos around La Galion/Orient Beach

 

 

We hit a few quick rainstorms as we traveled along the kids quickly fell asleep. Makk took us around to see some of the fancy houses on the French side (in case we decide to buy any real estate- hehe), the local airport, and we asked to head back to the port so we made one more stop on the way to take a picture of the beautiful blue water from the opposite side of Great Bay versus earlier in the morning.

 

 

Our tour experience was great and I feel like I got to see SO much of the island in a reasonable amount of time (we didn’t want to keep the kids in the car all day!)

 

A note about car seats. Patrick is still pretty lightweight so I wanted to bring his booster seat that still had the back which held the strap across his chest but Kasiah was big enough for a booster alone. Since I knew we wanted to self-disembark on the last day meaning we’d have to carry all our own junk, I decided to save ourselves on large piece of luggage to juggle and order a blow up booster seat that I’d seen recommended on CC. Here’s a link to the one we ordered on amazon. This was a great buy in my opinion. It’s safety rated, collapsible, easy to set up and there even an adjustable strap that holds the shoulder belt in the right place. It seemed very secure, wasn’t too much trouble to get in and out of. Kasiah said it was comfortable too! And at the end of the day, we just let the air out, rolled it up and stuck it in the backpack.

 

We grabbed a few last glances at St Maarten at sail away

 

 

[usckatieh]

Once we got back to the room from dinner, Kasiah sneezed and out came another once-wiggly tooth on the bottom. I’m assuming those grow back in eventually, right?

 

 

Next up was pirate night! This event is a bit of a free-for-all even on a ship with less than 200 kids. I can only imagine when it gets busier. The process is that you leave your kids at AO at 8:00 and they tell the parents to gather at Sorrentos at 9:00ish. Eventually you hear the kids chanting and stomping through the Promenade and you’ll want to be on the Sorrentos side of the hall, because they stop and do a few songs and dances. It’s all really cute, but as soon as they kids started singing, there were parents tripping all over themselves (and other people) to videotape, photograph, etc. and there’s very little room to move around. I managed to get one photo of Patrick with his makeup eye patch. Grandma picked him up the foam hat at the craft store so we were ready to be pirates!

 

 

Coming up next- A lazy sea day and lobster!

[cruising mommy]

I am LOVING your very through review of your cruise.We were on freedom 5 years ago, but so much has changed since then.And at the time we didn't use AO because our girls were 13months and 21/2.We will be back on again in September with 2 very excited girls who are now 5&7! If you dont mind me asking for your family of 4 how much did your private tour cost? Do you remember how much just a taxi was?We aren't looking to do any big excursions but the girls love the beach/ocean and would like to do something like you did.Thanks again for your awesome review:D

 

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[quartetman]

Katie,we're going on the Oasis of the Sea in 4 weeks have you been on it? We also live in Columbia.

 

Rick & Harriet

[smwg]

I have really enjoyed reading your review and seeing the pictures. Thank you for posting the daily newsletter. My family of 5 and my parents are going on this same cruise itinerary March 9th and reading your posts has gotten me even more excited. Please post the last newsletter. I'm excited, too, to see there is a lobster night! My favorite night of every cruise. :D Your children are adorable!

[tdmullins]

I just stole your pic of the Freedom at Coco Cay for my wallpaper!

 

I am doing this same itinerary first of March. Thanks for the Compasses, even tho I am a little bummed that I don't see any spa specials yet on them. I was hoping to snag one on CocoCay day. DH and I was just in CocoCay in August and plan on experiencing a first for us...staying on the ship on a port day.

 

Great Review and can't wait to read more of it!

[usckatieh]

If you dont mind me asking for your family of 4 how much did your private tour cost? Do you remember how much just a taxi was?

 

Hi Cruising Mommy! Our private tour was $375 for the day (or however long we lasted) which was in the neighborhood of other custom tours in the area. There were also a few other local tour vendors that offered group, pre-planned 4 hour tours for around $40-50/person so figuring for the 4 of us the private tour only ended up being about $175 more- still a splurge but not outragous. Most of the pre-planned tours just went to Orient and Maho and I was afraid those two areas would be too crowded. I can't remember how much the taxi ride would have been, but I was also initially concerned about getting a taxi to come back since it's kind of out of the way, but having been there now, I feel confident that the restraurant on the beach has enough traffic that calling a taxi to pick us up, wouldn't have been a problem. The benefit of the tour is that we got a really thorough view of the island which was really nice for a first-timer! Your family will have a great time!

 

Katie,we're going on the Oasis of the Sea in 4 weeks have you been on it? We also live in Columbia.

 

Rick & Harriet

 

Hi Rick & Harriot! Did you survive the snow this week? We missed it 2 weeks ago because we were on the cruise so I'm glad the kids got a chance to see it this week but I'm ready to thaw out and get back to real life! You can see a link to my Oasis review on my signature. We had a great time. It's a beautiful ship. I really enjoyed the diving show and Chops grill. Have fun!

 

I have really enjoyed reading your review and seeing the pictures. Thank you for posting the daily newsletter. My family of 5 and my parents are going on this same cruise itinerary March 9th and reading your posts has gotten me even more excited. Please post the last newsletter. I'm excited, too, to see there is a lobster night! My favorite night of every cruise. :D Your children are adorable!

 

Thanks! I hope your family has a blast!

 

I just stole your pic of the Freedom at Coco Cay for my wallpaper!

 

I am doing this same itinerary first of March. Thanks for the Compasses, even tho I am a little bummed that I don't see any spa specials yet on them. I was hoping to snag one on CocoCay day. DH and I was just in CocoCay in August and plan on experiencing a first for us...staying on the ship on a port day.

 

Great Review and can't wait to read more of it!

 

Glad you liked the photo! I think they did have spa specials the port days and the last day, but it may have been advertised on the daily specials insert which I didn't always take a picture of. Sorry, I usually didn't pay them too much attention, but they were always advertising the spa services throughout the ship so hopefully they can work out the best deal for you!

[usckatieh]

Day 6- Compass and Adventure Oceans

 

 

 

 

 

 

[usckatieh]

Day 6- Lazy Sea Day

 

I love highlighting all the good stuff on the cruise compass on sea days and spending my day hopping from one activity to the other. My DH is the opposite and prefers to roam around the ship with no plans at all so we decide to both have our way and I started the morning with my daughter at a watercolor class and DH and our son headed to the Windjammer for a leisurely breakfast.

 

Our watercolor class was excellent! We started out by tracing a sample drawing and then the artist explained about mixing colors and water color techniques and we were on our way! Due to the popularity of this class, there wasn’t enough table space for both of us to paint, so I just helped Kasiah with her technique, but she did all the actual painting herself. She’s an artist already!

 

 

After class, I took over kiddo duty and let DH go back to the room for a siesta and we played for a few hours in the lazy river and around the splash park. Kasiah and I decided to try out the ice skating rink after lunch and that was a adventurous experience considering I have only been on ice skates once before and that was 20 years ago. You could tell which people were from Northern areas, who were gliding gracefully around the middle of the ice, and which people were not, who were clinging to the wall for dear life with a look of sheer panic across their faces (that would be me). Eventually we did “get a hang of it” though my definition is probably looser than most, in that we were able to skate the 5 feet around someone who stopped to kiss a loved one over the railing without crashing face first into the frozen floor. There was this comedic moment (more like 4-5 minutes) where Kasiah slipped and fell on her bottom and the two of us combined, even with me holding onto the wall, could not figure out a way of getting enough traction to get her on her feet without becoming a hopeless pile of body parts. There was a lot of flailing and giggling and I’m just praying that I don’t ever see that pop up on youtube one day. :o

 

Here’s a quick iphone shot of my cutie peeking out from the gate on the ice rick

 

 

Tonight was the second formal night so took the chance to dress up again and eat one (or three) of our favorite sea friends!

 

 

The best towel animal of all greeted us after dinner!

 

 

Oh, and I guess this picture does show a little bit about the Pullman beds. You can see the collapsible railing on the side, so it wasn’t great for little kids (I’d say 4 and younger) but Kasiah did fine with it.

 

I knew the last sea day would be busy at the photo place so I went ahead and purchased our first formal night photos today. If you’re a C&A member, you can get photos buy 1 get 1 ½ off. The photo shop also had photos posted from candids on the pier, kids playing on the beach in CoCoCay, pirate night, etc. so if you want to buy the disk at the end of the cruise, you might as well stand in front of as many photographers as you see so you have the most options. FYI- if you don’t buy a digital package, you cannot order photos once you leave the ship. They are only available while you are on-board.

 

Coming up- “I don’t wanna go!”

[usckatieh]

Day 7- Cruise Compass and Adventure Ocean

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dcarjn]

I've absolutely loved both your reviews and the details you put into them. We are booked on Oasis for our 20 year anniversary and I think it would be awesome to take our kids on Freedom next. So when I saw this review I was excited. Im curious what your impressions are of Freedom after being on Oasis. I've wondered if any ship can compare and would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

 

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[usckatieh]

Day 7- Last Sea Day

 

It seems like sea days in a review get a little mundane, but we did get a little more time to explore all the cool things that the Freedom has to offer. We started out with a game of miniature golf on the sports deck. The holes are all pretty much the same but it’s still fun.

 

 

 

The kids and I headed over to watch the Flowrider for a while and they had it closed for private use. Nathan and I tried the Flowrider on the Oasis and it’s a blast- just remember to wear a bathing suit (women and men too!) that won’t fly off when you fall over and are blasted with a 30mph wave of water. The climbing wall on the Freedom looked like fun too. It didn’t seem quite as tall as the one on the Oasis but it looked like it had some challenging routes. Since we were up high already, Kasiah wanted to see the top deck so we walked up the stairs to the Chapel on deck, or as Patrick would say, duck 15. The chapel is simple and probably holds about 30 or so people.

 

 

I wanted to hit the pool one more time before we returned to a winter climate, so we spent the remainder of the morning jumping between the lazy river (which is really more like a lazy donut), the H2O zone and the hot tub. Here’s the kids starting to get wet- the first splash is the hardest!

 

 

 

It didn’t take long to get excited.

 

 

Kasiah had met a few friends by now through AO so she found a few of her buddies and they played games and swam around together.