Freedom of the Seas Review--Western

[swimducky21]

This is my first time writing a review, so please give me some slack. I just started my account a couple days ago and have only been on two cruises: Freedom of the Seas and Carnival Dream, both Western Caribbean itineraries. The Dream was in March of 2012, and Freedom in May 2014.

 

We have a 16-hour drive home and I decided to make the most of my time. I’ll be starting from the beginning of our trip and giving you a review of MY OPINION and MY EXPERIENCES along with pictures I took with my camera. All prices in USD and I will not ruin the surprises of the shows for you.

 

BACKGROUND: Let’s start with why we chose Freedom of the Seas. Two years ago, I graduated high school and we took a cruise for my graduation present. So for my brother’s graduation, he also got to go on a cruise. We went on Dream the first time and stayed in a “Cove balcony” cabin; it was the best. This time, we looked into Carnival’s Dream, Magic and Breeze, but they all had the same port itinerary, just different days as we had already been on. This is when we started looking at Royal Caribbean. We first started looking at Oasis and Allure, but then thought those ships were too large for the six of us (my mom, dad, brother (18), my brother’s friend (19), myself (20) and my boyfriend (19). This is when we started looking at Freedom. Besides Cozumel, the ports were new for us. We booked our cruise over a year in advance, and got a relatively good deal from what my mom told me. We booked inside cabins with no amenities. About nine-ten months until the cruise, my mom decided she wanted a balcony cabin to look at the ocean. We are frequent members of Costco Wholesale and took a travel brochure home just for fun. This is when we found that Freedom was in there, with a bunch of amenities. My mom then called up Costco and we changed to balconies (two rooms; 9674 and 9676). I’ll get the amenities later, but lets just the change we made was well worth it.

 

PREBOARD: My “family” is from St. Louis, Missouri, so about a sixteen-hour drive to Port Canaveral. We drove a GMC Acadia with a rack on the back of the hitch. On the hitch we bought large container tubs and put our suitcases inside and bungeed the tubs to the rack. We left at two-am on Saturday morning before the departure day on Sunday. On Saturday, we drove to Jacksonville, Florida and stayed at the Embassy Suites, a 14-hour drive from St. Louis. I’ve been competitive swimming for about 14 years of my life and have had my fair share of staying in Embassy Suites. Let me just say this, my mom was glad that she used the points to stay there for free. The happy hour was nothing special, just chips and salsa along with pretzels and free drinks, including alcoholic, which were watered down. On the positive side, the pool was guarded by a security guard making sure the kids had parents with them, and there were plenty of kids. We went to bed that night around 9 ET, driving wore us out.

[Badgertr]

Looking forward to more, we're booked on it for the first time and would like a newbie perspective.

[swimducky21]

I have it all written out, but as of right now we're somewhere on I-75 traveling home and I have no internet besides my phone. We spent the night at an Embassy Suites in Atlanta after a day at the Kennedy Space Center. I'll try to post a couple days tonight.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[BillOh]

Even though I've done Freedom on a similar western intinerary I will probably read everyone I see from now till next April. I' can find some value in about every review,so I am looking forward to more of yours. I probably would have been more money, but I do think Oasis/Allure would have been fun for you.

[mrpayroll]

Looking forward to your review as we will be on FOS in September.

[swimducky21]

Everyone woke up around 6:30 am on Sunday to eat the free breakfast and then left around 8. The breakfast wasn’t much to talk about either. The omelets weren’t the best and there wasn’t any name-brand yogurt, just yogurt that’s in a plastic bowl that looked like it was scooped in. The eggs were watered down and the staff was just plain rude.

Two hours later we were in Port Canaveral making our way to Ron Jon Surf shop. For my immediate family, it’s a tradition for us to visit Ron Jon’s while at Cocoa Beach. We didn’t stay there for long, as we wanted to get on the ship. Since we brought our own vehicle, and one could say my parents like to save money as my brother and I are in college, they found a parking area for $7/day affiliated with the Radisson hotel. This was the same lot we used on our last cruise, but the lot did move across the street to an abandon building that the company now leases. We checked our vehicle in, and no more than 30 minutes later we were at the port getting ready to go through security. TIP: make sure to have your luggage tags on before going to the port. The luggage guys do have staplers but the men are very busy, almost like an ant colony. Going through security didn’t take a while, but the people in front of us in line tried the vodka in a case of water bottles and got busted; kind of funny if you ask me. My parents got away with it on Carnival, but didn’t want to try it with RC. The part that took the longest was getting our Seapass card, I know that there were 3,000+ people aboard, but this was one of the only times I felt the presence. We finally got on the ship around 11:30 and the room became available at 1. Good thing we packed our swim suits because we didn’t get our luggage until 6 that night, with 2 hours to spare before our 8 o’clock dinner. I can’t recall the name of our room attendant, but she was awesome. Like I said before, we had rooms 9676 and 9674, which when facing forward, was port side, although we never docked portside, at any of the ports... Each time we would head in as if our room was on port side, but then the captain decided to turn around so the bow faced out. Since we had two rooms right next to each other, we asked to have the divider between our rooms unlocked. This helped a lot when my mom needed to get the boys up in the morning. TIP: If you are one of those people that enjoys sitting on your balcony, ask for a lounge chair from the pool. Our room steward was able to grab one and it got used every day, buy one of the six of us. We were not able to remove our glass coffee table like some people have mentioned. In our room we saw our Costco amenities. Before boarding, we had an idea of what we were getting, but we got more than what we knew. Since we had two rooms, all the features were doubled.

They included (all x2 since we had 2 rooms): dinner for two to either Chops Grille or Portofino ($70 value), dinner for four to Johnny Rockets (does not include shakes), a $215 voucher (we used to pay for our gratuities), two tickets to ride Dragon’s Tail Coaster, two tickets for the Dragon’s splash waterside, two tickets for the Dragon’s water park, 2 beach floating mats, $25 beach credit to use at Labadee, one spa experience (choose from La Therapie hydrolift facial, Swedish massage or reflexology), complimentary tribute to an icon wine flight at Vintages and lastly, soda package for two guests. I’ll explain how we broke everything down later.

[swimducky21]

After seeing the room, we went to the Windjammer. Although I’ve read many reviews that say don’t go, it’s too busy for lunch on the first day, we didn’t have a problem finding a table there. Afterwards, everyone went exploring until the mandatory mustard drill at 3:30pm.

Around 4ish, the ship started to leave. I say ish because we had 4 ships in port that day. Both Carnivals left before we did and we left before Disney. The camera was not working this week because they took off for Memorial Day. TIP: Take deck 5 all the way forward (must go through Pharaoh’s Palace) and you’ll reach a helicopter pad, which is on the bow. This is where we watched as we left Port Canaveral. Once we started moving more in the canal, we saw dolphins jumping and manatees swimming. I wish I could have taken a picture, but they were too quick. Again, everyone went exploring before we got back to the rooms and got ready for dinner. Every dinner was amazing. I’ll include the menu and what I had for dinner and desert each night. One thing I didn’t like was the times for the dinner, either 5:30pm or 8pm. My mom wanted the same waiter/waitress each night so we tend to dine in the MDR. We chose the 8pm, because at some ports the ship didn’t leave until 7 and we didn’t want to rush to get ready for dinner. Our waitress name was Junela from Philippines and the assistant waiter was Troy from Jamaica. For an appetizer I had the smoked fish Rillettes. I must add, I’m not a seafood person, but I wanted to try something different. It was ok, not the best. My boyfriend had escargots for the first time and he said they were really garlicy. For main course I had the slow roasted prime rib. If you get any sort of meet, don’t get it more than medium-well done unless you want the thing dead. Dessert is always my favorite. That night I had a carrot cake, and man was that delicious. After dinner, the kids redeemed the drink packages. Although I’m not much of a soda person, the guys thought it was the best thing invented; however, they thought it was stupid you could only refill every 15 minutes. That night we didn’t do much. Parents went to bed early and the guys went to the Casino and played Blackjack, while I watched. Afterwards, we went to play put-putt before everyone decided it was time to crash for the night. I don’t know where to add this in, but TIP: if you want to sort your photos, take a picture of the day of the week in the elevator, it helps a lot.

 

 

I don't exactly know how to upload the photos unfortunately. What I did instead was make a flickr account. Here is the link to all my photos. https://www.flickr.com/photos/125207535@N06/

The photos are titled by day and the order supposed to be looked at.

[swimducky21]

My parents like to get up early and enjoy their coffee. Me, on the other hand, I am a typical college kid who enjoys my sleep. I must say the first night was the only morning I woke up and got a picture of the sunset. TIP: My parents like their coffee a dark roast not light and they did not know that RC offers black and “water” as my dad called it. So just make sure you write on the room service card, what kind you want. The boys got up around 7:30 and we were at breakfast in the MDR by 8am. The morning was nothing special as everyone mostly did his or her own thing. Although at 10:30, we went to the CC meet and mingle. My parents stayed while the kids went off and did their own thing. Come to find out, we won a free 30 minutes of internet (had to be used all at once, worth $10) and my brother’s friend won an “collector’s edition” art piece. My boyfriend and I decided to go sit by the pool. I’m going to go on a little rant here. There were three times aboard when I felt the presence of everyone. Sitting by the pool on sea days was one of them. The chairs were ALWAYS covered in towels and majorities of the time people weren’t even sitting in them. I must admit, we did move some towels, after asking the people around who said the couple hadn’t been back for over an hour. I’m sorry, but in my opinion, if you’re going to save chairs, someone in your party needs to be there.

 

By 1, we decided to redeem our Johnny Rockets vouchers and each our lunch. Let me say, those onion rings are to die for along with the milkshakes. There are daily flavors with the milkshakes, as my brother’s friend got a banana one. If you decide to eat there, make sure your stomach is growling, you are starving and it’s well before the time you plan on eating dinner. I can say I ate way too much didn’t want to even look at that restaurant again all cruise long. The food was amazing, but if you don’t want to expand your waistline the first day on the cruise, I would wait on eating there.

 

I was pretty mad that we missed the World’s Sexiest Man competition and the Belly Flop contest, but the video was shown all the time on RCTV. Around 4pm each day there was an event called Margarita Madness where TIP:: the margaritas were buy one get one ($7). After lunch, my boyfriend and I went rock-climbing and watched the Flowrider before our first formal night.

TIP:: If you want professional pictures done, get ready at least 45+ minutes before your dinnertime. By the time we were ready for picture around 7:30, the photographers were busy with both early and late MDR shifts. We waited in line for 20 minutes to get our pictures taken on a bridge in on deck 5 aft. Dinner was again amazing, but it was also formal night. For myself, I had the Caesar Salad, as I did not want anything on the menu. My brother’s friend got the chilled banana and run soup and said it was almost like a smoothie. For the main course I had the carved filet of beef tenderloin. What I noticed is that the sauce they use on the side is one used on most dishes at least on one every night. For dessert I got the lemon meringue pie and it was delicious. After dinner the family went to late night adult comedy show staring Stephen Thomas. His show was only 30 minutes long, but it was funny. My mom mentioned how she felt bad for his wife as it his material seemed to just pick on her, including “magic wife dust”. Every night the guys would play blackjack after the show and then watch TV before they went to bed. Nothing much to say about the first sea day besides wear a lot of sunscreen, it’s not fun getting burnt the first day and suffering like I did.

[swimducky21]

In the morning, everyone got up around 7:30-8, parents ordered room service before we went to MDR for breakfast. I noticed that, unlike Carnival, the breakfast doesn’t change besides one item. It was buffet style, which I didn’t like, but also you could order from the kitchen.

 

Afterwards, we got ready for our first port: Labadee, Haiti, which looked like Jurassic Park. While at college, I had some free time and read some reviews about Labadee. I’d say about 80% of the people said it was their favorite. I’m going to say right now, that was not the case for me. If we did not have those vouchers, I probably would have stayed on the ship. The Dragon’s tail coaster was $35 per person, so a free $140 for us. Although the views were great, it’s not worth it in my opinion, as the ride up took longer than going down. The next thing we decided to do was the waterslide, free for the 4 kids, which required us to walk through the venders. Oh how much fun that was, not! I promise you, every one of those venders asked if my family wanted to stop and look at their stuff they have in their hut. I understand that’s how they make their living, but if I wanted to stop and look at their stuff I would have. Them harping on me, made me want to stop even less. The beach where the waterslide was located was ok. My dad talked to a security guy and he said RC brought sand it and made the beach. TIP: If you have snorkel gear, bring it. There isn’t much, but we did see a couple crabs and it’s interesting to see how the continental shelf drops off into the abyss. On the waterslide, there will more than likely be a wait, so be prepared. It took us 15+ minutes to go down, with maybe 10 people in front of us. The kids then got our wristbands for the water park. TIP: If you have kids, maybe under the age of 10, go with them! They do give your lifejackets, but I promise, it’s for the better. My brother, his friend, my boyfriend and I are collegiate swimmers and were observant of our environment with the little ones. Other teenagers, however, were more aggressive and would not wait in line to climb up the stuff and since they are heavier the kids would start to freak out and let go. After about 30 minutes of climbing, we started to get board and extremely tired. I’m writing this on Sunday, 5 days afterwards, and still have bruises on my legs from climbing. At 11:45 the lifeguards called everyone out and it was time for lunch.

 

If I remember correctly there are 4-5 buffet style stations around the port, which are run by RC and are FREE! I must say though, the food was nothing like that on the ship. The ribs were not cooked completely and burgers were bathing in their own grease. Yummy right? I think the lines opened up at 11 and closed around 1:30. TIP: get there at 11! We were in line for over 45 minutes getting there around noon. After lunch, we started walking back to the ship as the sun was getting the best of us. WARNING: we did see a truck with guys sitting in the trunk with machine guns, so stay in the fenced in area and don’t leave.

 

All aboard was 3:30 and they weren’t kidding when they said that. I guess everyone was on, because we left around 3:15. The massages that we received, my parents redeemed that day. TIP: The massages MUST be done while in port, not at sea, something my mom didn’t know. I think they both got a Swedish massage and only said great things about it. While they were getting pampered, the kids played 2 on 2 basketball. That was a lot of fun, it was the only time we used the court as people would always want to join our game and we didn’t want to play competitively. TIP: If you go on the bow any day, today would be the day. It’s fun to watch as the ship travels between two islands and interesting to see the people in homemade boats cross in front of the ship.

 

Before dinner was a “magic show”, with some guy from America’s Got Talent. In my opinion, it was not interesting. I know the little kids around me really enjoyed it though. Dinner was again good tonight. I had spinach dip for the appetizer and Conchiglioni pasta for main course. The dip did not have enough chips and as a table we asked for a plate of just chips since most of us got the dip. The pasta was scrumptious. I really don’t know how to describe it, I guess like tortellini. We got to know our assistant waiter, waitress and head waitress of our section very well. TIP: If you have little kids and they enjoy the towel animals that your room steward leaves, ask the waiters to show napkin animals; they know how to make stuff too. We learned how to make a roasted chicken and a RC shoe. At dinner they dining room staff sang to us, some Italian song that I can’t remember the name of, while the guests twirled their napkins in the air. I have nothing but praises for our dining staff.

 

After dinner it was time for Battle of the Sexes. I must say the cruise director and his staff were awesome. I’ll get more to that later. I’m not going to tell you about what went on at each game, but this is a must. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you. Again the guys played blackjack while I watched. On channel 14 (RCTV) our cruise director, Casey Pelter, had a morning show from 12am-12pm with what was happening that day along with answers to write in questions. Let me add, listening to this guy talk was hilarious. Our cruise director on Carnival was very boring; whereas, Casey could have a comedian show all by himself and keep everyone entertained the entire time.

[swimducky21]

This morning, we were planning on going to the MDR, but once we got down there the line was past the elevators and we had a tour planned, so we couldn’t wait. Instead, we went to the Windjammer. I was bummed to later find out that it was “chocolate breakfast” in the MDR, oh well.

 

I think we could get off around 10:30 in Falmouth, Jamaica (Disney Magic was also in port that day). We booked a tour of Jamaica with Courtney Taylor Tours, just the six of us and did our own thing. We found out about his tours through traveladvisor.com and also CC. Funny thing was, we got Courtney Taylor as our tour guide. He was awesome and gave us a lot of information about his country. One thing that was weird for me was seeing all the marijuana on the side of the road, just growing wild, wereas in the US that would be worth hundreds of dollars. On our tour we went zip-lining at Mystic Mountain, jumping a water fall called Irie Blue Hole and ate authentic jerk chicken.

 

The zip lining was $110/person, but well worth the price. It included a ski lift to the top of the mountain, where you could also do a “Jamaican bobsled” (aka coaster), go down a water slide, zip lining or eat a restaurant and of course they had shopping. The ski lift took 15 min each way, but the whole time you can see the Caribbean. TIP: If you go zip lining, make sure you go over and put your name on the list before looking around, as they take you in groups. We didn’t do this and had to wait around 40 minutes. I’m not going to tell you about the zip lines because I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but it was one of my favorite excursions I did. My dad has a bulging disc in his neck, so he opted not to do the zip line and instead with the Courtney to the local grocery store and bought Appleton Rum; 5 year and 12 year, along with a pound of blue mountain coffee, which was $17 (a little pricey if you ask me).

 

Two hours later, we were back in the car making our way to Irie Blue Hold. Courtney talked about the cities and their lifestyle while we listened. We learned about his PhD (pot hole dodger) while traveling our way up the mountain to blue hole. Since the place is owned by locals, and not a tourist park yet, like Dunn River Falls, they prices aren’t jacked up, only $15 per person. This place was awesome! If you are an outdoors person, this is definitely the place for you to go. The waterfall is in the works to become a tourist destination, but the government has to come out and do “safety checks”. The tour guides aren’t much older than I am, but were very energetic and entertaining. We each got to jump off the falls, go into the cave, jump of a rope swing, jump of a cliff, and just hang out in the falls. Since the zip line took longer than we thought, we had to, unfortunately, rush through this place. TIP: bring your water shoes. The falls are made of limestone and it is a freshwater stream. The falls aren’t slippery and the tour guides make you take off your shoes when jumping, but it’s worth it.

 

We then went to get Jamaican jerk chicken at a local restaurant called Scotchies (named after a pepper). It was cheap (around $7-10/ person), but delicious and well worth the price. You can see the cooks smoking the chicken and pork right in front of you. TIP: if you like corn bread, try a festival. They are deep fried and just plain delicious. We then left to go back to the ship and Courtney kept telling us stories about his country and they were all interesting. I do have one complain, which I can’t really help since he’s the owner; he would get phone calls from his employees.

 

At port, we went shopping and my mom bartered with all the shops in which she bought something at. We ended up getting two shirts, originally $19.99 a piece for $20 total. TIP: when going back to the ship have your passport and seapass card if you’re over the age of 18, they will ask for it.

 

That night the guys tried surfing, and failed miserably. One would think that swimmers would be good doing another water sport, but that was not the case here. The next day though, the guys started complaining that they were sore, which was extremely funny. I have a herniated disc and didn’t want to reinjure myself, so I opted out of surfing and boogie boarding.

 

My parents used their Chops redemption and got to enjoy a mommy-daddy date night while the kids went to the MDR and joked around with Junela and Troy. That night we meet Michael, the head chef for which department, I can’t remember. He came to our table and just started talking to us and saying we were well behaved kids and thanked us for that. I had Arancini for my appetizer and chicken marsala for main course. The mushrooms were amazing, but I was not a fan of the chicken; it had no flavor. I was tempted to order something else, but I didn’t want to be rude. That night, a lot of the higher-up crewmembers came to the dining room and introduced themselves, nothing special.

 

One of my favorite game shows was that night, “Love and Marriage”. TIP: Get there early!!! We got there at 10 (starting at 10:30) and the people were just starting to pile in. Let me just tell you, this show is a must; you never know what is going to come out of those couple’s mouth. Let me give you an example: our elderly couple was married for 56 years, 1 month and 15 days. Casey asked the ladies “where is the craziest place you’ve made whoppy?” She then replied, “on a balcony of a motel in Myrtle Beach”. When the guys came back on stage, and Casey asked the husband the same question, his replied with exactly the same answer. This show lasted about 1 hour and I was crying by the time it was over because I was laughing so hard. That night was suppose to be a dance party in the Crypt, but when the kids got there at 12:30, no one, not even the DJ. It was creepy and ere, so we didn’t stay long.

[swimducky21]

I think this day, we went to the MDR and had breakfast around 8, with the first tender leaving around then go to go the port. Lucky for us, we were the only ship in port that day (our taxi driver said that’s unusual). Breakfast was nothing special again, almost repetitive.

 

We left around 9 to go on a tender to Grand Cayman Island. All we had to do was go down to deck 1, wait in line for not even 10 minutes and take a ride. The ride was only 5 minutes long, if that, and we were on the island. Doing some research before hand, my mom knew about the taxis versus the local transportation. TIP: The taxis in the port are $8/person, but if you leave the port and ask the security people, they can direct you to the local transportation, which is $2.50/ person (cheaper if you go a short distance). Keep in mind that this is a public transportation, so there will be locals getting off and on.

 

We had the cab driver take us to the best beach for snorkeling, which was Cemetery Beach. Governor’s Beach is extremely crowded and not the best for snorkeling. Cemetery Beach had less than 20 people the 4 hours we were there. After a while, we got bored decided to walk to Governor’s beach, 2 miles down the beach, in the hot sun. Lets just say everyone felt that walk later in our legs and ankles later that night.

 

We picked up a taxi from there to take us to the shops. TIP: IF YOU ARE GOING TO BUY ALCOHOL, IT’S ABOUT 20% CHEAPER HERE THAN ANY OTHER PORT AND EVEN ON THE CRUISE SHIP!!! My parents were going to buy Grey Goose (1L). It was $35 on the ship and $28 in Grand Cayman. For lunch, we skipped eating there because it’s so expensive. For a burger at a restaurant it was $16, so it would have been around $120 for all of us to eat. Instead, we went to the Windjammer and ate lunch for free.

 

After lunch the guys wanted to go boogie boarding and surfing, again fun tow watch them last for no more than a minute before they wipe out. For dinner, it was formal night again. All the chefs from the kitchen stood on the grand staircase while we listened to their positions. The chefs did have different neckties on. There were yellow, red, and blue. I know yellow was for the newbies, but I can’t remember what the red and blue were for. As an appetizer I had creamed wild mushrooms and slow roasted prime-rib for dinner. The second formal night is when they have the fisherman’s plate, which included lobster tail. The tails are small and my brother’s friend ordered 3 plates.

 

After dinner, the guys decided to play Blackjack in their suits before the Quest as they thought it was good luck. The quest starts at 10:30, and when they say “recommended for adults” they really mean it. TIP: GET THERE EARLY! We got there at 10 and studio B was almost already full, no kidding. I don’t want to spoil this activity for you, but let me just say this was another one of those games were I was laughing the entire time. It was just plain awesome. Soon after the Quest everyone went to bed to get ready for Cozumel.

[swimducky21]

This morning, we went to the Windjammer for breakfast. Again, we didn’t have a problem finding a seat. I almost wonder if the people who say the Windjammer is busy are trying to sit by the windows, because those were almost always full.

 

We got off the ship around 10:30 and took a taxi ($22 total for 6) to Chankanaab (Cozumel National Park). It was about a 10-minute drive, nothing bad. My immediate family has been here before when we chose Carnival. This time, we were just going to sit on the beach. My mom found a coupon online at their website for $2 off the $21 price for adults, so we paid $19/person for my mom, dad and myself. The boys wanted to do the Royal Swim with the dolphins. Through RC excursion it was $185/person, whereas we paid $115/person going through their website.

 

When we got to the park, a worker who was very informative approached us. My boyfriend is a certified scuba diver, and the whole cruise he was saying how mad he was that he was going to Cozumel, but was not going to scuba. Come to find out, this worker told us at the national park, its $45 for certified scuba divers (must show proof) and $65 for non-experienced for an hour underwater, plus a class beforehand. A certified diver tour guide does go with you showing you around. The four kids did the scuba diving. I must say if you have a herniated disc like me, or even a bad back, it might not be the best thing because you have to walk a 30+lb oxygen tank plus gear about 200ft walk to the water, but once in the water it’s ok. I must say this was a very cool experience and probably something I’ll never get to do again. We got to go about 30ft below water and in a cave where we saw a thermal climb of salt-water (clear and warm) change to fresh water (foggy and cold). There was another tour guide taking pictures of us and if we wanted to buy the photos it was $60. I couldn’t bring my camera down, as it only goes 12ft.

 

Afterwards, the guys had the dolphin swim where they got kisses, pulled and pushed by the dolphins. Two years ago, I got to bring my waterproof camera into the area and take pictures/videos myself, but this year I couldn’t. They weren’t even allowing people to bring their own cameras in. If I wanted to watch from the side, I had to pay $5, but I still couldn’t bring my camera. They had people there taking professional pictures, but at the end they were charging $185 for a CD, plus the photos were washed out in color. TIP: the price for the discs is not final, barter with them!!! With the Royal Swim there is a buffet that comes with it in the building right behind the dolphin area. TIP: if you have people who have the royal swim wristband, have them go get food for you if you’re hungry, it is a buffet after all. Otherwise, the price of a plate of nachos is $8.

 

Going back to port, we stopped and looked around at the shops. TIP: the shops in the Carnival duty free terminal had better selection and prices than the Royal’s terminal. By the time we got back to port, it was time to start getting ready for dinner. Like I said before, we had 2 redemptions for Chops. This night, my parents were kind and said my boyfriend and I could use the reservations. That food was delicious I must say. For an appetizer I had grilled black pepper bacon, oh. my. god. It was delicious. For dinner I had spicy jumbo shrimp. They weren’t kidding when they jumbo. There were six shrimp and I only ate 4 of them. Dessert was awesome with red velvet cake. We were lucky to have sat next to the captain and his crew. I wish I could have talked to them and gotten a picture, but I didn’t want to bother them at dinner.

 

After dinner it was time to go to the ice show. TIP: make the reservations for the ice show online. Right after dinner, we went to the ice show to grab seats and there was a line about 100 people deep waiting to get into Studio B. The people who had reservations could get in first and get good seats, while the people who didn’t get first couple rows and had large poles in the way. The ice show is a must. There are some parts that are slow, but for the most part, it’s amazing how these skaters are doing spins, twists and even flips on a swaying ship.

 

Another must event is the 70’s Dancing in the Street party, which lasted about an hour. If Casey is your cruise director, oh my, you’re going to have a good time. I was lucky enough to catch a shirt. The whole dancing is a huge party in the middle of the promenade and the cruise staff is awesome, just make sure to look up. The guys decided to do on last night at blackjack. My boyfriend didn’t want to spend any more money, so my brother’s friend lend him $5. Lets just say my boyfriend was up to $140 in a matter of 30 minutes, but cashed out at $100 giving back $20 to my brother’s friend. By the time they were done, it was past 1 and time for bed.

[swimducky21]

The last day aboard ☹. TIP: WAIT UTNIL THE LAST DAY TO BUY ANYTHING!!!!!!!!! EVERYTHING IS 10+% OFF, LIQUOR AND PERFUME INCLUDED!! The RC shirts were 2/$20.

 

The morning started out with waking up at 8:30 after the long night beforehand. The guys wanted to get up and to the stand up surfing before it ended at 11. We went to the Windjammer for breakfast and were out with plenty of time for them to surf.

 

Afterwards, we went to go look at the shirts and all the stuff on sale in the promenade. Around noon, there was a buffet in the promenade, with delicious food, along with many activities. The officers were there along with the head executive chef; we got photos with both. This was the last time I felt the presence of everyone. It was hard to move around the promenade with everyone at every table. At the booths, I guess you can call them, were different things going on. There was a table with napkin folding and another with towel folding both with pamphlets to bring home. At another table there was a chef carving out fruit for decorations. The last table we saw had an ice sculpture of a swan, which was pretty cool.

 

My boyfriend and I decided to go lay by the pool when we decided we had enough to eat; another large mistake. Like the first sea day, the pool was crowded and towels were covering chairs like no other. This day was way worse than the first one. I did see a patrol officer keeping watch though. TIP: if you can’t find a seat on deck 11 or 12, try taking deck 12 forward and there will be a staircase going up. It is windy up there, but it was not crowded at all and almost peaceful.

 

 

Around 5, the DreamWorks parade started. If you have little kids, this is definitely the one thing you don’t want to miss. All the characters come out. Although the parade doesn’t last more than 20 minutes, but it was fun to see the little ones’ faces brighten up their favorite character walked by.

 

After the parade, we went back to the room to get ready for the goodbye show before dinner. The show was something you don’t want to miss. It’s really interesting if you want to see almost everyone who is in charge of making your week a good one. The show finished just before dinner, when we found Casey and snipped a photo with him. He said he’d seen us at many of the shows and thought we were a well-behaved group of teens.

 

At dinner we made the best of times with our waiting staff before saying goodbye. TIP: there is a $12/day/person gratuity. With our Costco amenities, we did however; pay the most of this with the $500 we received. My dad also gave a tip to the head waitress, our waitress, and our assistant waiter, as they were very kind and knowledgeable about what was on the menu. At dinner that night, they honored the waiting staff and all the hard work they do, which was well earned. For dinner I had Caesar salad and rigatoni pasta. The pasta was bland was bland but after adding some pepper it did get a little better. For dessert that night I had apple strudel, and it was fantastic. After dinner, the guys played Blackjack, nothing new here, but afterwards is when the fun started.

 

So at the goodbye show, we sat second row. The adult comedian was there for about 20 minutes giving us a preview of what his show was going to be like. In the middle of his act, he started making fun of my brother’s friend, calling him a punk because he was 19 years old. So for the adult comedy show, we decided to sit front row. TIP: get there early as it fills up fast. This was probably the biggest mistake we made all cruise, mostly because it was just plain embarrassing. For the 45 minutes that he was on show, I’d say about 20 of them, he was making fun of my family. An example of this was my dad’s shirt. It was his last clean shirt, and probably the ugliest thing anyone has ever seen. My dad is from Wisconsin, so we are Green Bay Packers fans. His shirt, was a Hawaiian Packers shirt. I really don’t think I need any more explination. The comedian made my dad stand up after describing the shirt and everyone went wild. After the comedian, my parents went to bed and the kids stayed up for a little longer to pack ☹.

[swimducky21]

We got up around 7:30 and finished packing before we headed to breakfast. This time, we went to the MDR. We thought it was going to be crowded, but wasn’t at all. Lucky for us, we were in and our in 20 minutes. TIP: if you want to get off the ship fast, do a self-carry off. We grabbed our stuff and just walked off the ship. Since we didn’t want to wait for our luggage, this was the best thing to do. On the way boarding the ship (first day) we overheard someone saying they had been waiting 3 hours for their luggage.

 

It took us 5 minutes to get through the terminal, until we hit costumes. Costumes were slow because they have to check your passports. TIP: if you have room, pack your liquor in your suitcase. We bought four 1L bottles of different kinds of rum and didn’t have to worry about thing. What was even weirder was that they didn’t check our bags. All we had to do was show our passports and say we had 1 bottle of liquor (a small lie) and we were through. Lets just say that if someone wanted to bring in marijuana, for example, they could have easily done that. Taking the shuttle back to our car was sad, but the driver did drop us off at our vehicle.

 

Afterwards, we went to the Kennedy Space Center. I’m not going to go into details about that since this is about the cruise, but in my opinion, completely not worth the $50/person we paid.

[swimducky21]

The cruise was much better than Carnival, besides the cabins. Our cabin was set up for 3 people with no room for anyone else. It was also in the aft of the ship and for some reason the ship vibrates. I don’t know why this is, but people were complaining and guest relations said it was the way the ship was built. One thing I noticed was on Carnival there was more room for storage, we got a gift package with a bunch of different bathroom essentials when we arrived and when the beds were put down at night, we got Andes mint chocolates. On RC, we didn’t receive the package or chocolates, but instead of clothe curtains, we had a shutting glass door, which was nice especially when we hit choppy waters at night. Behind the shower doors though, there was mold that was noticeable. That was probably the only downfall I saw about the maintenance of the ship the whole time. Our rooms were cleaned every morning, afternoon and put down at night with a cruise compass for the next day and sometimes a towel animal. Even during the day while we were in port, there were staff painting, wiping down the railings and cleaning windows.

 

On our last day, I guess the lady in the room next to the boys was sick the whole cruise. I wish I would have taken a picture (unfortunately I didn’t) but the room was all torn apart: carpet out, bed out, and disinfectant everywhere.

 

If I think of anything else to add, I will do it. If you made it this far, I just wanted to say thank you for reading the whole thing! Hope you enjoyed it and if you have questions let me know, I’ll do my best to answer them.

[Mrs_Tiki]

Thanks for your great review, swimducky! It was very well-written and informative. You have a great-looking family!

 

My 21YO daughter (who is also a college swimmer) and I will be taking this cruise in August and have never been on the Freedom before. It was nice to hear about the highs and lows from a young person's perspective.

[JohnGaltny]

Nicely done and it's great that you separate the good from the not so much.

[susieatsea]

Thank you for the awesome review, Swimducky. We will be sailing on the FOS in November (Western route). We previously sailed on her in 2013 doing the Eastern route. This will be our 15th cruise. We have been on a lot of different ships and find the Freedom the best so far. Reading your review makes November seem like a long way away...lol. Thanks again.

 

:):)

[beshears]

I just started reading your review of the FOTS's. We just got off of it (I believe the same itinerary) the 4th of May.

 

We don't live too far from each other if you live in St. Louis, as we live in Kansas City, and I work close to the airport. The only difference, we fley, and you folks drove.:)

[swimducky21]

Thanks everyone for liking my review!! It took some time, but I'm glad there are people who appreciate it. Make sure to check out the photos! Also, if there are any questions, feel free to ask.

 

 

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[swimducky21]

I just started reading your review of the FOTS's. We just got off of it (I believe the same itinerary) the 4th of May.

 

We don't live too far from each other if you live in St. Louis, as we live in Kansas City, and I work close to the airport. The only difference, we fley, and you folks drove.:)

 

 

We left May 25th, so probably the same itinerary.

 

 

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[mare0207]

Thanks for posting this review!! Our family leaves August 17th, your photos are great!!

 

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[Bballmom42]

Thanks so much for the great, detailed review. My family will be on the Freedom in the beginning of August and reading your review is getting us so excited. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[MustSailNOW]

Great review! Our first trip on Freedom is in October!

 

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[beshears]

I just seen your pictures. Some like mine, others different. :)

 

We had an inner room. Did you get "chocolate's" on your bed, as you were in an "elite" room?