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

[mpoole3]

Great review! I'm loving the quality of the photos! I also love the hat DS is wearing!

[AF-1]

Seems like you had good weather for your cruise; glad you had a good time. Nice pics; very clear; my wife and I took our six grandkids on Freedom and they all had a ball. Looking forward to the rest of your cruise.

[mickev99]

I am soooo enjoying your review! We are going on FOS in June, it will be the Western itinerary, but I'm still getting great ideas from this review. Your kiddos are adorable! Did you notice whether Adventure Ocean offered 'lunch and play" for a fee between 12-2 on sea days? I've seen it sometimes, but not others, so I can't quite figure out when it's offered. They'll be going into port with us, so I'm not concerned about port days, just if we wanted to do a wine tasting or trivia, or an adult activity that ran into the time of 12-2.

 

Thanks, and can't wait to read more! I'm looking forward to information on the Character breakfast. My girls are 9, 9, and 11 and still love the Dreamworks characters!

[evelyn51]

Great review! I'm loving the quality of the photos! I also love the hat DS is wearing!

 

Ds looked like a minime of Dh! Awesome photo!

[dmndlil]

Thank you for taking the time to write this awesome review. We are on the same itinerary for our May 18th sailing. :D Can't wait to read more!

[alligeek]

Great review! Thanks so much for posting this--we have a soon-to-be-four year old son, and I'm making more than a few mental notes. :) Your kids are adorable!

[sunset785]

Thank you for posting this! We are headed out on the Freedom next week (western) but I love seeing the pics. Our room is also on deck 2 oceanview and we are with a 2 year old so I enjoyed seeing how the room is set up. Can't wait to read the rest of the review.

[usckatieh]

I am soooo enjoying your review! We are going on FOS in June, it will be the Western itinerary, but I'm still getting great ideas from this review. Your kiddos are adorable! Did you notice whether Adventure Ocean offered 'lunch and play" for a fee between 12-2 on sea days? I've seen it sometimes, but not others, so I can't quite figure out when it's offered. They'll be going into port with us, so I'm not concerned about port days, just if we wanted to do a wine tasting or trivia, or an adult activity that ran into the time of 12-2.

 

Hi Mickev99! Thanks for commenting. I thought it was a bit odd but they only seemed to have AO during lunch on the port days. That did limit what we could plan for adult activities in that time range.

[usckatieh]

Thanks everyone for your comments!

 

Thank you for posting this! We are headed out on the Freedom next week (western) but I love seeing the pics. Our room is also on deck 2 oceanview and we are with a 2 year old so I enjoyed seeing how the room is set up. Can't wait to read the rest of the review.

 

Sunset- if your 2 yr old doesn't like the pack and play anymore, you ask your attendant to make up the couch as a bed in the evenings and turned against the bathroom wall, it gave them just enough room to scoot in and out at the bottom but no where to fall out of bed. It really worked perfectly for our little guy!

[usckatieh]

Day 3 Daily Compasses/ Adventure Oceans

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lmares1968]

I'm loving your review. You have a beautiful family! I'm looking forward to reading more.;)

[panoramaofthepast]

A question about Coco Cay - are there umbrellas or Clam shells available? We need to be careful about too much sun!

[Motleu]

Love the review! You have a beautiful family! We are going on the Freedom on March 30 - Western for a spring break cruise. Thanks for the info and compass. I like how you incorporate your daughter's schoolwork into the trip to allow her to miss school. That is nice that the school worked with you to create a study plan. Very nice! Keep it coming!

[SD CRUZER II]

We are enjoying your review. We are sailing on the same Eastern cruise on FOS on 5/18. First cruise with our 3 ur old so geting good tips from you. Keep them coming.

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Forums mobile app

[molsonschooner]

A nice helpful review with someone who has a sense of humour. Love it.

[usckatieh]

Day 3- Windy Day at Sea

 

Today was our first sea day and a great chance to check off some of my top Freedom to do’s! We started out with a Character Breakfast in the Main Dining Room. You can book this ahead of time under “Dining” in the online schedule before the trip. Once you come to the dining room, you let them know you’re there for the character dining and they seat you in your special corner. Once everyone has ordered, they bring the kids up by a big poster of all the charaters and start a little program with music and exercise moves. Then Shrek comes out and they let each table come up and take a photo with him one at a time. There are 4 characters in all. We stayed through Shrek, Puss in Boots, and Fiona and after that the kids were getting antsy so we called it a day. It felt a little chaotic having that many hyped up children in one corner of the dining room, but the kids really enjoyed the experience.

 

 

After that I popped by the Meet and Greet at Olive or Twist. They were doing tons of give aways. We have a really great, active roll call and it was fun to walk around the ship and suddenly see someone your recognize from conversations online! I didn’t stay too long at the meet and greet because my daughter was begging me to go to Adventure Ocean so after I dropped the kiddos off for a little pre-lunch fun with their peers, DH and I did a little exploring of the ship. Here’s the pool deck on the first day, before it got crowded- that deck was packed on sea days!

 

 

Here’s the grand entrance to the promenade- I love the colored bridge

 

 

The neat little lady that dives out of the ceiling and the car which my 4 year old pondered why it was there if they didn’t get let you sit in it. I think he kind of has a point there.

 

 

And I snuck in the top floor of the dining room to grab a few photos. DH and I thought this was the prettiest dining room. I love the deep wood colors and the grand staircase.

 

 

 

Let me just say that this was the only day I really felt the boat move. The cross winds were picking up and you could just see the waves all the way out getting a little rougher. I’m sure it was by no means “bad seas” but it was the roughest I have been on so far. It was kind of comical to watch people sort of diagonally shift directs in a zig zag pattern as they walked through the promenade or especially in the Windjammer. It was the first time I’d really been able to go to the pool and watch the water slosh over the sides and the motion moved side to side. I had taken my Bonine since the first day but the DH and the kids never even remotely showed any signs of motion sickness so thankfully I never even had to use my vast supply of remedies- although I will keep them on hand for our next trip, just in case. I’m not sure if it was the weather/seas or what but I definitely felt more movement in the Freedom all week long than we did on the Oasis. I’m not sure if it’s because the Oasis is wider or it has better stabilizers or what, but I can say our aft deck 2 cabin seemed to feel much less movement on this windy day than the higher decks.

[usckatieh]

A question about Coco Cay - are there umbrellas or Clam shells available? We need to be careful about too much sun!

 

We ended up at Coconut Willie's beach and unfortunately I didn't see umbrellas there. I prefer to be in the shade too. I have been told that they have lots of clamshells on Barefoot Beach though. We weren't able to check out any other beaches, but I'm hoping to go again so I can do a little more exploring. Lots of the hammocks were in the shade though and they weren't far from the beach!

[usckatieh]

The family had lunch at the Windjammer. Some of our Windjammer favorites throughout the week were:

 

Breakfast- omelet station, breakfast potatoes, boxed cheerios, chocolate covered churro-looking things, and I love that they had fried rice every morning.

 

Best lunch options for the kids- They had pizza, pasta, hot dogs, deli meat and cheese every day.

 

Favorite adult lunch choices- French bread sandwich with deli meats, fried fish sticks (those were amazing!), baked pastas, carving station- it’s hard to walk away hungry.

 

If you haven’t been on a cruise before, you have the choice between water, flavored waters, lemonade and something else- maybe tea- for free. We purchased the soda package for my husband because generally drinks a few sodas a day and we figured at 2 or more sodas a day, you break even and/or save money. Beware of the time limitation on refills on the Freestyle machines though- Nathan went to fill up his cup at one machine and it was out of diet Coke. He picked it up and took it to another machine and he got the message that he’d have to wait 10-15 minutes before his next refill because the little microchip thought he had just filled his cup. The RC beverage dude happened to be nearby and explained that if he leaves his cup and picks a different soda variety, he won't run into that time delay problem, but he wanted a diet coke and nothing but a diet coke. You can also go to any restaurant on the Promenade or drink station in the WJ for them to fill up your cup too, so that’s always a good alternative. Most of the time the machines worked fine and Nathan said they even tasted better than on the Oasis. His theory is that the water was different- he liked the water better on the Freedom too.

 

We had scheduled a 2:30 ice show online and you need to book this ahead of time because it is popular. When they suggested on CC to get there more than 30 minutes early, they were not kidding! We walked towards Studio B at 2:00 and there was a line packed with people way out into the hallway. I thought we’d for sure be stuck in the nosebleed section, but as we walked in one of the activities team members asked Kasiah and Patrick if they’d like to meet someone from the show! We said “of course!” and he leads us down to some reserved seats in the front corner of the ice rink and tells us we can sit there! Apparently they needed some kids to “kidnap” and take around the rink when they do a pirate skating skit and since there were so few kids on the ship in the winter, our family got lucky! I really enjoyed the ice show so I took quite a few pictures.

 

 

Mesmerized

 

 

I had heard about this guy but his act is hard to describe. Definitely impressive. He did some amazing things gravity defying tricks in that little hoop.

 

 

Here’s the kids sledding around on the ice. They got about 2 spins around the rink and then the pirates returned them- I told them no refunds! :p

 

 

 

From that show on, Kasiah became a celebrity on that ship. People in the elevator would stop and say, “weren’t you the curly haired little girl who was in the ice show?”

[usckatieh]

In our downtime, the kids tried out the H2O zone. They loved it. It's really good for all ages because the water sprays everywhere which really helps you cool off. Plus, its just in a little bit of water in the bottom so for kids my age, you don't necessary have to be right there next to them at all times, like I do in the pool. Non-potty trained babies and toddlers have their own little splash area. They are not allowed in the pools or hot tubs.

 

We decided to step it up a notch and get dressed up for smart casual night too!

 

 

We had to get some suspenders for to hold my skinny little guy’s pants up and after I sent the pictures to my family, my sister wanted know why we wanted him to look like a little mobster.

 

 

I can’t remember exactly what we ate that night but here’s some of our main dining room favorites:

 

Best appetizers- Ceaser salad, spinach dip

 

Best entrée- Lobster on the 2nd Formal Night, Duck, Lamb

 

Best desert- The baked Alaska was amazing! And of course I ate the top off the crème brulee one night and left the banana mush- hey, it’s vacation, I can do what I want!

 

Nothing like a towel animal waiting for you to finish off a great day. Although we had arguments about what breed this particular animal was. I’m leaning towards brontosaurus.

 

 

Coming up- Exploring San Juan on foot!

[tserface]

You have a very handsome family! Thanks for the details.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[panoramaofthepast]

We ended up at Coconut Willie's beach and unfortunately I didn't see umbrellas there. I prefer to be in the shade too. I have been told that they have lots of clamshells on Barefoot Beach though. We weren't able to check out any other beaches, but I'm hoping to go again so I can do a little more exploring. Lots of the hammocks were in the shade though and they weren't far from the beach!

Thanks

[A2Mich]

You have such beautiful kids! Really enjoying the review and so glad to see it from a family perspective! My family and I are planning to book the same cruise , though in either an FP or FO cabin as we have 3 kiddos. Glad you had a great time and love the photos!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[jalee7]

Thanks for the great review. We will be on freedom in April and have been to coco cay several times. I think the Eco tour will be good. Something we have never done before. Looking forward to the rest of your review. ;)

[Kimmy0303]

I am loving your review! We are sailing on FOS in April with our two teenage boys for the first time. Your review and pictures are a perfect way to study up and get everyone as excited as I am! Can't wait until your next update :-). Thank you!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[TheGaDawgFan]

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.