Our Final Look at Freedom Pre-Drydock:Dec 7th (Including Western Compass)

[APDMOM]

Without further ado... the review:

 

I always try to post tips in red, so if you skim-read reviews... all tips are in red :D

 

Pre-cruise: Radisson Resort at the Port

 

We always stay close to the port the night before. If you have lived in Florida for a while, you know that I 95 can be very unpredictable. It is therefore the safest to stay close to the port. So, we drove the 3 hours down to the Radisson. There are two reasons for our hotel choice:

 

1. Cruise and park rate was the cheapest when we booked the hotel a year ago.

2. You can book the shuttle in advance, so we booked the 10:30 a.m. shuttle.

 

Our stay was uneventful. Aside from the double beds (as opposed to queen sized beds), this hotel delivers great service. We had good wifi (building 5). Thanks to reviews on another travel website, we knew to ask for a room far from the pool. Also, if you have difficulty with stairs, ask for a ground/first floor room. They have no elevators. Breakfast is available at extra charge. We opted for our own packed breakfast from home. You can book the room with breakfast for an extra $10 per person.

 

By the way... the shuttle is free for the first two people on park-and-cruise, and an additional $12 for each extra person.

 

The pool:

 

The room:

 

 

 

Room Service:

[APDMOM]

December 7th: Embarkation

 

We got onto the shuttle at Radisson at 10:30 a.m. The ride over took less than 10 minutes, and the driver took care of handing all our luggage to the porters. A sign in the shuttle showed that porters get paid $26 (more than what my husband makes!) to $38 per hour and tipping is not required. Shuttle drivers get minimum wage. We tipped the shuttle driver.

 

 

Once inside the terminal, we had no lines. We went straight through security, up the stairs, to the counter. Three of us were platinum, two of us were gold. Since we were all on the credit card of one of the platinum members (onboard account), we were allowed to go to the platinum area. Once we got our seapass cards, we went straight onto the ship and were at the "Welcome Aboard" sign at 11:10. Definitely not bad for 5 people checking in, including two foreigners!

 

On the ship!

 

Edited December 17, 2014 by APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Hello, Promenade Café (and some new desserts!)

 

We decided to avoid the crowds and got some nice seating in the Promenade Cafe. I loved the Muffuletta Sandwich. They also had brand new desserts that we did not have on our 2 previous Freedom class cruises. The cheesecake Lollipops were mouthwatering good the first day. After that, it was hit or miss. Some days they had too much of a gelatin taste.

 

Since our rooms would not be ready until 1, we just had some great family time here, enjoying the complimentary coffee and snacks. For newcomers to Freedom of the Seas: Yes, the snacks are included! You only pay for specialty (Starbucks) coffee. The other "Seattle's best" self serve coffee is 'free' (i.e. included in the price of your cruise).

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

The Promenade Bargain

 

We booked this cruise more than a year ago when there was a pricing glitch in the system. The inside cabins were listed as $639, but the PR (promenade view) inside staterooms were listed as $369. I found this gold nugget of info right here on CC, when Sonvoltken6 started thread regarding this strange pricing. Although these rooms may sell for that price as last minute deal, it was very unusual so long before the sailing.

 

I immediately put 2 adjoining cabins, as well as a third one in a row on hold, paid my deposit, and hoped for the best. The next day I called the C&A society to confirm the booking and price. They gave us an additional $50 per person off, based upon the member special. So, we paid $319 per person. A few days later, it was reported that the price had indeed been a glitch, but Royal WOW'ed us by honoring the price for those who had paid the deposit.

 

So, with that said, it was time to check out our promenade staterooms.

After our first FOS cruise, I made a list of the PR locations so that people could make an educated booking. We decided to book above the guest services desk, based upon its proximity to the elevators (or stairs in our case), Promenade Cafe, and hopefully distance from noise... it turned out to be a GREAT location.

 

Here is a link to the thread about room locations:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1860809

 

I will post some room tips and pictures a little later.

[APDMOM]

PR room 7327:

 

As mentioned before, we had 3 PR cabins. 7325 and 7327 were connecting, and 7329 was separate. All three were over guest services and overlooking the 'bridge' on the promenade:

 

 

With the connecting door open, the room felt very spacious. I am quite spoilt after this trip, since we had 2 bathrooms and I had a closet all to myself! DH and DS shared one in the connecting room:

 

Connecting door open: View from 7327 to 7325:

 

 

The room:

 

 

[APDMOM]

For the "Newbies"

 

Bear with me as I post many cabin pics for the 'newbies' who are curious about the storage and bathroom space.

 

The bathroom: The showers have excellent pressure, and the sliding doors are much better than the shower curtains on other cruise lines. There is also a clothesline in the shower, that can be pulled out to hang swimwear to dry.

 

 

They provide only bar soap of inferior quality, and shampoo of even poorer quality. So, pack your own shampoo. The liquid shampoo in the shower works pretty well as a soap, if you bring a loofa.

[APDMOM]

Storage space:

 

The closet: Having had balconies on our past 2 Royal cruises, I forgot how much less storage space inside cabins have. It is still manageable, but I am glad we had the two rooms! Suitcases fit readily under the beds.

 

 

Drawers below the TV:

 

Cubbies on both sides of the bed:

 

Additional shelves by the vanity:

 

The hairdryer inside a drawer by the vanity:

[APDMOM]

"Secret" storage: ;)

 

The minibar: (It does not work as well as a fridge, it is just a cooler. We did keep chocolate milk and milk in it with success for about 6 hours, but I would not push it much longer than that.)

 

 

Storage behind the vanity mirrors:

 

 

Storage behind the mirror in the bathroom:

 

[APDMOM]

The outlets: By the way... of all three rooms only the announcement channel in room 7329 worked.

 

 

 

One in the bathroom:

 

The view from our room:

[APDMOM]

The Spa Tour Trap:

 

My mom and I decided to enter the spa raffle by doing the tour. Although I enjoyed the tour, the raffle was a bit of a disappointment. It was too much "sales pitch" with too little fun. Many people only showed up for the drawing, throwing their raffle tickets in at the last minute without doing the tour. I realized that must be allowed, because the raffle tickets were even available on the promenade.

 

We were right by the box of the drawing. They hardly mixed the tickets, since the box does not lend itself to mixing. So, our tickets were obviously hiding in the bottom, since we did the early tour. To me, this was not worth the trouble, standing in a crowd, listening to sales pitch after sales pitch. Even the art auction and shopping people came to the raffle, so it really was not much of a spa raffle. Of the prizes available, I was only interested in 2, so I will skip this stop next time.

 

Some of the spa tour pictures:

 

 

 

Tip: If you don't know how to get to the spa, or any location on the ship, just use one of these interactive screens by all the elevators. You can also see a copy of the Compass and Dining room menus here:

[APDMOM]

The Dreamworks Sailaway

 

Let me just say that Royal throws a WOW sailaway. The music was fun and the activities team was very engaging. They had a great medley of dance songs, and it is hard to keep your feet still, even if you are a clumsy, uncoordinated dancer-wannabe like me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thriller!!!

[APDMOM]

Time has caught up with me, so the first night's dinner "drama in the MDR" recap will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

Sweet dreams for cruising! :)

[JamesEM]

Do you know if the connecting cabins have the same furniture as non connecting cabins?

[cant_w8_2_cruise]

We are 3 months away from our first sailing on Freedom and I am loving this detailed report! Thanks APDMOM! Can't wait for more! :D

[BillOh]

We just returned from another enjoyable, albeit eventful, cruise on Freedom of the Seas. Although we skipped Cozumel, I was able to snatch the Compass for the previously planned stop in Cozumel.

Enjoy!

 

 

Thanks in advance, I am watching everything Freedom related pending my return next April. I do recognize the work involved and appreciate it.

 

I rarely read compasses, but I know I'm in the minority there and your readers will be grateful. In this case I am reading them. One small observation I will throw out . I love Royal, I am a cheerleader, but one of the things I hate (I'm allowed an obsession even if its trivial) I saw "Free footprint analysis" on the schedule. I hate that! I first saw it on Jewel in 2012. Nothing's free, its just a come up for an overpriced product of questionable value. Though on Jewel they billed it as a free back pain seminar. The "class" was nothing more than a hokey demo the quality of a carnival barker at a fair. Well, at least I know to avoid it. Now back to your wonderful review and I turn control back to the less angry part of my mind.

Edited December 17, 2014 by BillOh

[APDMOM]

Do you know if the connecting cabins have the same furniture as non connecting cabins?

 

Yes, the only difference is the door. Here iarea pictures of 7283 - my parents had it last year: Tip... If you don't need a connecting room, this is one of the best if you want to observe the promenade activities (like the parade) from the room. It is above Vintages, and overall very quiet.

 

 

[APDMOM]

We are 3 months away from our first sailing on Freedom and I am loving this detailed report! Thanks APDMOM! Can't wait for more! :D

 

Glad you are enjoying it. :)

 

Thanks in advance, I am watching everything Freedom related pending my return next April. I do recognize the work involved and appreciate it.

 

I rarely read compasses, but I know I'm in the minority there and your readers will be grateful. In this case I am reading them. One small observation I will throw out . I love Royal, I am a cheerleader, but one of the things I hate (I'm allowed an obsession even if its trivial) I saw "Free footprint analysis" on the schedule. I hate that! I first saw it on Jewel in 2012. Nothing's free, its just a come up for an overpriced product of questionable value. Though on Jewel they billed it as a free back pain seminar. The "class" was nothing more than a hokey demo the quality of a carnival barker at a fair. Well, at least I know to avoid it. Now back to your wonderful review and I turn control back to the less angry part of my mind.

LOL! That is exactly why it is called the "spa tour trap". They constantly try to sell you the products! I agree that I will avoid most of the "freebies" in the future. Only the 'free' hair show paid off for me on Indy - I got a free haircut :)

[APDMOM]

Drama at Dinner (This is a bit of a rant, so skip if you don't care for the details. Me fellow cruisers may wonder what that big ruckus was on deck 4, so here it is)

 

Thanks to CC again, I was able to e-mail ahead of time to see if we could get a table for 5 by the window. Royal (WOW, again) e-mailed us back within 24 hours that they had confirmed a table for 5 by the window. We were very excited to hear about this service, and visited the MDR in the afternoon to see our table. Sure enough, we got a table by the windows on deck 4.

 

We showed up for dinner, and followed an elderly passenger toward our table. A seating host was taking him to his table, right next to ours (but not by the window). Well, "Mr Pinnacle" did not like his assigned table, ignored the seating host, and proceeded ahead of us to our table. When I kindly showed him the table number, and explained that he is our neighbor, he argued that the seating host had shown him THIS table, and THIS is the table he was going to take. We said, that is fine, he can join us since there are 6 chairs. He started yelling at us and arguing that he has a party of six, and we could not have the table. In the meantime, our waiter tried to convince him to move, but he refused. We took our seats, except for my dad. When my dad tried to sit down, the man grabbed the chair so that my dad could not pull it out. I could not believe this was happening! The Maitre'd came over and finally convinced the man to move. Needless to say, it was a bit tense around the table with this man and his party continuing dinner at the next table over. Our other neighboring table saved the day by joking around with us and offering to buy the extra chair at our table. They had me cracking up in a short time, and we continued our cruise, trying to make the best of dinner. Mr. Pinnacle continued his tantrum by refusing to let our waiter be his server for the week, so they pulled one from elsewhere to serve his table. We found out at the Crown & Anchor event that he was pinnacle level, so he probably felt entitled to different treatment...

 

Off to the positive! The food was very good. The Mojo menu was served. Our table ordered watermelon chilled soup, smoked salmon appetizer with garlic toast, sliders on tomato bun, prime rib, and the chocolate amaretto with cherries. All the meals were well prepared and delicious.

 

I only have one picture from dinner... we were too shocked to pull out the camera sooner :D

 

Edited December 18, 2014 by APDMOM
Clarify it is a rant :)

[APDMOM]

Welcome Aboard Show

 

It had been years since I saw a Welcome Aboard show on Royal, so I decided to see what it is like now. The show was just okay to me. The aerialists were excellent, but the rest of the show was not my cup of tea. The comedian had a couple of moments, but he took up too much of the show time. I am not fond of stand-up comedy, as it is too rehearsed and unnatural. The captain and hotel director who "entertained" us during the week with their impromptu comedy had me in stitches several times during the week - much more so than the professional comedian. Once again, this is a personal taste issue, and others may really like the stand up comedian.

 

[APDMOM]

Our updated itinerary:

 

As most of you know by now, our itinerary had to be updated due to the propellor issue. Let me just say that it did not bother me. I know this is a personal thing and many people were upset about it. I was just glad to be on the cruise and that we are even able to afford cruising. I do not want to say more about the issue, because I do not want this to start another debate about what Royal should have done. There are enough threads covering that already.

 

So, here is how the itinerary changed:

 

The original plan:

 

The new plan:

[APDMOM]

Day 2: At sea! Spa, Rain, Ice and a bit of Champagne...

 

Sunrise or not:

 

I got up just about 15 minutes before the official sunrise. It turned out to be very cloudy on the horizon, and I opted to take pictures inside in stead. The sun did show up, but we also had a rain shower, bringing the crowds inside. We enjoyed an 'early' breakfast in the Windjammer (about 7:45 a.m.). At that time not too many people had shown up, and we got a nice table for the 3 of us "early risers". By the time we were done, there was quite a crowd, and the were just opening the other side of the Windjammer. This was around 8:30. My parents opted for breakfast in the main dining room, which they enjoyed too.

 

The ship is so nice and quiet during the 'sunrise time' that I got many pics without people. Come tour with me for this first part of the ship pictures:

 

Christmas Decorations:

 

Guest Services Desk:

 

Forward elevators area:

 

Cupcake Cupboard:

 

Sorrento's Christmas Tree:

 

Midship elevators:

 

[APDMOM]

More of the Promenade:

 

 

 

 

Pharaoh's Palace:

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Schooner Bar:

 

 

Model Schooner outside Casino:

 

They had some really interesting art in the stairwells. I liked this set:

 

[APDMOM]

The Casino:

 

 

 

[jules815]

Enjoying your review and pictures, thank you for posting. FOS is my favorite ship. :)