Four Days of Fun and Freedom - All Aboard with LMM's little sis :)

[RachLovesSteak]

While this is my first post on Cruise Critic, some seasoned CC veterans may find that I’m a familiar face. Here’s a hint – my writing won’t be as good as my sister’s, and my pictures definitely won’t be as good as hers 😉

 

I’m a longtime Cruise Critic lurker, and have found everyone’s posts to be especially helpful during the big return to cruising. For this reason, I decided to branch out of my lurking habits in hopes that sharing my experience might be helpful to others as they prepare for their own Royal Comeback.

 

I won’t be posting my review until I return from my trip, but I am excited to be doing an Instagram takeover for my sister’s travel blog to document my 4 day cruise on the Freedom of the Seas. Come follow along @VictoriaOnVacation !

 

Yup! I’m the stateroom-modeling, pub-mix-snacking, steak-loving sister of the one and only Victoria On Vacation, better known in the Cruise Critic world as @LittleMissMagic !

 

Join in the fun this week on Instagram, or catch me here next week with my full review! Cheers, and happy cruising! -Rach

[sandc4e]

LOL, being a Hamilton fan I was like oh!  Lin Manuel-Miranda lil sister.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[BSocial]

How fun!  We are used to seeing your photos in your sister’s reviews.  Looking forward to your review!   Have fun, a great cruise, and welcome to Cruise Critic!!

[bobmacliberty]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.  If your review is half as good as your sister's, it will be great!

[LittleMissMagic]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic.  If your review is half as good as your sister's, it will be great!

 

She's making me very jealous of her location right now (Perfect Day Coco Cay) with the IG takeover! If you haven't already, check it out on Instagram @VictoriaonVacation!

[LauraS]

We really would appreciate if you posted here....

[LittleMissMagic]

1 hour ago, LauraS said:

We really would appreciate if you posted here....

 

Rachel will be posting a full trip report here on this thread once she gets back from the cruise! (IG is just for "live" updates if anyone wants to see.)

[cruisequeen4ever]

Oh how fun! Thank you for taking this on! 

[alexgtp]

Was Johnny Rocket or Playmakers open for lunch on embarkation day?

 

Any chance you have copies of the daily Cruise Compass you can share.

 

Thanks!

[RachLovesSteak]

On 9/7/2021 at 10:06 AM, alexgtp said:

Was Johnny Rocket or Playmakers open for lunch on embarkation day?

 

Any chance you have copies of the daily Cruise Compass you can share.

 

Thanks!

Hi @alexgtp Johnny Rockets was open from 1pm - 10:30pm on embarkation day, and Playmakers was serving food from noon - 11pm. I have copies of all 4 Cruise Compasses and will post them soon 🙂

Edited September 9, 2021 by RachLovesSteak

[kruzerci]

I have to agree with your post about the food in the MDR. We were onboard last weekend it was absolutely terrible. Nothing was good- like cafeteria food 🤢. 

[RachLovesSteak]

Hi guys! Thanks to everyone who followed along on Instagram last week! It took me a few days to get to work on my trip report (doesn't it stink how quickly real-life catches up to you after vacation?!) but I'm excited to start reliving the fun with you all here.

 

Like many Shinglebell family vacations, this cruise was planned pretty last minute, which is why only 50% of the Shinglebells were available to join in the fun. Well..that’s not entirely true. Dad was available, but he opted to take advantage of the opportunity to go on a golfing trip with his buddies. Alas, I was able to twist Judy’s arm and convince her to come experience the “new normal” of cruising with me.

 

 

Speaking of the “new normal” – I know there are lots of questions about health protocols, both pre-board and onboard, and there are lots of existing discussions here on Cruise Critic that cover many of those topics. I will be doing a full post on Covid protocols over at Victoria on Vacation, but I'm not planning to post it here, as I don't want to bog down Cruise Critic with potentially redundant information. Feel free to check out my Covid protocol content over on the blog if you'd like! 

 

The decision to partake in the Royal Comeback…I have been eager to get back to cruising pretty much since March 2020. I used to feel a bit silly telling people that cruises are my favorite vacation, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve decided to own it. I, Rachel, am a self-proclaimed cruise-a-holic. As soon as it was announced that cruises were coming back in July, I knew I wanted to book one. Then I started seeing the posts on Cruise Critic - “reduced capacity,” “endless availability of pool chairs,” “it’s like our own private yacht!” and I knew I had to get onboard ASAP. I started researching ships, itineraries, and Covid protocols and immediately narrowed my search down to 3 and 4-night sailings, because at the time, those shorter itineraries did not require vaccinated passengers to take a pre-boarding or mid-sailing Covid test. Obviously when it comes to cruising, the longer the better! So, 4-nights it was. This brought me to the Mariner of the Seas out of Port Canaveral and the Freedom of the Seas out of Miami. After finding nearly identical flight prices for both me and Judy out of our respective airports, it became a no-brainer. Two days at Coco Cay on the Freedom vs. one day at Coco Cay on the Mariner. Say it with me - TWO DAYS ALWAYS!!

 

 

The last time Judy and I visited Coco Cay was in 2012, which was before the island was renovated and dubbed Perfect Day Coco Cay. We were supposed to visit Perfect Day Coco Cay on our Harmony of the Seas sailing in December of 2019, but unfortunately our stop at the island was cancelled due to weather. Needless to say, two stops at Perfect Day Coco Cay was not only appealing because of the possibility of double the perfection, but also because our odds of actually getting to dock at the island were twice as high. Will we make it to Perfect Day Coco Cay this time? Will we make it there TWICE? Stay tuned to find out…

 

Getting there…I live in Austin, TX and Judy lives in Anderson, SC, so we would both be flying to Miami for the cruise. Initially, I planned for us to fly to Miami on Sunday, August 29^th and spend the night in a hotel before boarding our ship on August 30^th. But Judy is a nervous traveler. She was nervous about traveling alone, and she was also concerned about the Covid numbers in Florida and wanted to try and minimize our time there. I was able to find flights for each of us on Monday morning that connected in Atlanta, GA, and put us on the same flight into Miami, which really eased my mom’s mind. So, we did it. We committed the cardinal sin of cruising. We flew in on the day of our cruise. Do I recommend this? No. Have I now successfully done it twice? Yes. Has someone (cough cough, Victoria) had a reallyyyy close call with a missed day-before-cruise flight turning into a skin-of-her-pants-day-of-cruise flight? Also, yes. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Judy and I were both on the first flights out of our respective airports, and I knew there was at least one additional flight that day that would get us to Miami in time for our cruise, so I felt okay about the decision. We ended up landing in Miami about 30 minutes ahead of schedule and were in a Lyft on the way to the port by 1:00pm. WHEW!

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by RachLovesSteak

[RachLovesSteak]

Boarding the Ship…When I completed our online check-in, I had a choice of boarding windows every 30 minutes from noon until I believe 4pm. I scheduled us for a 2:30pm check-in time, but since our plane hauled its little booty to Miami, we ended up arriving at the port at 1:20pm. I was worried this would be an issue, as I’d read that boarding times were being more strictly enforced due to Covid protocols. However, we had no problem. I think we only saw 4 other passengers total from the time we walked through the door of the terminal to the time we stepped foot on the ship. The boarding process was incredibly quick. We showed our Set Sail Passes at the door and were directed inside where we showed our Set Sail Passes again, along with our passports, negative Covid tests, and our Covid vaccination cards. We then went up the escalators to a check-in desk where we showed all of the same documentation again and were given green #TheRoyalComeback bracelets that indicated our vaccination status. Next, we went through the metal detector and bag scanner, then up the escalators where – you guessed it – we showed our Set Sail Passes and Covid vaccination cards again. The one thing Judy and I both noticed is that we were never asked if we were choosing to show our proof of vaccination. The question was always phrased “Can I please have your Covid vaccination card”. We thought this was odd since our sailing did not require vaccination for passengers 12 and older. A few days after booking our cruise, I received an email from Royal Caribbean where I was asked to provide both mine and Judy’s vaccination status, and the options were “I am vaccinated,” “I am not vaccinated,” or “I do not wish to answer.” I answered that we were both vaccinated, and I think that’s why everyone who scanned our Set Sail Passes knew that we would be providing proof of vaccination. I also saw posts on Cruise Critic from vaccinated passengers who received emails from Royal Caribbean about scheduling their PCR test at the terminal (a requirement for only those who are not vaccinated). I never received that email, and I assume it’s because I had already communicated to Royal Caribbean that everyone in my travel party was vaccinated.

 

 

Finally! After a year and a half of no cruises, we took our corny boarding picture and stepped aboard Deck 4 of the Freedom of the Seas! Man, it feels good to be back! We were immediately directed to our muster station where the crew members asked if we’d gotten a chance to watch the safety briefing video on the Royal Caribbean app. Mom had received a notification on her phone about it while connecting in Atlanta, but I either didn’t get the notification or didn’t pay attention to it. Regardless, neither of us had had time to watch the video (those pesky same-day travelers!), so we were treated to a live re-enactment by our muster station crew. They scanned our Sea Pass cards, and we were on our way!

 

 

It was about 1:45pm at this point, and we were hoping to drop our bookbags in our stateroom before finding some lunch. Rooms weren’t quite ready yet, so we headed up to the Windjammer for lunch. By the time we’d washed our hands and found a table, an announcement was made that rooms were ready.

[RachLovesSteak]

Choosing our Stateroom…I had been keeping a fun little secret up to this point. Two days after booking our cruise, I received an email from Royal Caribbean inviting me to participate in RoyalUp. We received a RoyalUp invite for our Harmony cruise in December 2019 but opted not to participate because we had carefully selected side-by-side rooms in a location we loved. When you participate in Royal Up, you have no control over the actual stateroom you’re assigned to, and we didn't want to end up with rooms that were inconveniently far apart. Of course, I had once again carefully selected the location of mine and Judy’s stateroom – Balcony room 6638, located on the coveted “hump” that provides a little extra balcony space, and is conveniently located near the stairs and elevator. But this time, I only had one room, so I didn’t have to worry about my rooms being upgraded to opposite ends of the ship. So, I did what any numbers-lover does. I “ghost-booked” all four of the stateroom categories I was eligible to bid on to see what they would cost if paid for out-right, then I made a little spreadsheet to figure out my breakeven bids. This is the Royal Up email invitation I received from Royal Caribbean, and these are the rooms I was able to bid on –

 

 

These are my breakeven bids based on what I paid for my original balcony stateroom and what I would’ve paid had I booked each category of room outright –

 

 

As you can see, even at the maximum bid, the 1- and 2-Bedroom Grand Suites were good deals. The Junior Suite was decent with a bid below $200, and the Spacious balcony was not worth bidding on. Through my ghost-booking, I knew that if I bid on a Junior Suite I could end up with a room in a variety of different locations (forward, mid, and aft across three different floors). There were only two 2-Bedroom Grand Suites, and both of them had partially obstructed aft-facing balconies. I prefer a Port or Starboard balcony view, and I didn’t really want to be all the way aft. There were twenty 1-Bedroom Grand Suites available, all of which were located mid-ship on deck 10. Sold! I put in a “weak” bid of $175 per person and crossed my fingers. Three days before our cruise, I received this email –

 

 

WOOHOO!! I figured there was a good chance I could keep this a surprise from Judy, and I was right! I only ran into one little snag along the way. Our luggage tags never got updated to our new room! I tried to call Royal Caribbean on Sunday, but kept getting a “We’re sorry, we’re currently closed” recording, even though their website clearly indicated they were open. I debated just waiting until we got to the port and using one of the blank luggage tags that the porters have with them, but I was trying to be sneaky here. So, I got creative. I edited our luggage tags to show the correct floor and stateroom number and printed them in black-and-white to avoid any confusion with deck-specific-color-coding.

 

 

I figured there was a 50/50 chance I’d have to go looking for our bags, but they made it to our room without issue!

[RachLovesSteak]

I was able to surprise Judy with this fabulous stateroom – Grand Suite 1556!

 

[Missusdubbya]

Loving this review Rach! What a nice surprise for Judy 😁

[RachLovesSteak]

23 hours ago, kruzerci said:

I have to agree with your post about the food in the MDR. We were onboard last weekend it was absolutely terrible. Nothing was good- like cafeteria food 🤢. 

@kruzerci HAHA that is a great way to describe it. Like food you have to eat instead of food you want to eat. Definitely not what I'm looking for on a cruise! We did find lots of other food options we really enjoyed, but MDR did not do it for us. I hope you enjoyed your cruise!

[RachLovesSteak]

This is the Suite letter that was waiting for us in our room –

 

 

Judy earned Diamond Crown & Anchor status prior to our cruise on the Harmony, and I earned it while sailing on the Harmony, meaning this was my first cruise as a Diamond member! I received a certificate and a pin to mark the occasion –

 

 

 This is the Diamond Welcome letter that was waiting for us in our stateroom –

 

 

And the Diamond Perks letter –

 

[RachLovesSteak]

After taking turns ringing the doorbell to our Suite like the standard-balcony girls that we are, we decided to head up to the pool deck to cash in one of our Diamond drink vouchers. We both opted for a Lime & Coconut, which is served in this cute little souvenir bucket.

 

 

We spent some time people watching on the pool deck before heading back to our room to freshen up for dinner. One of the perks that came with our Suite upgrade was access to the Suite Lounge, which featured a complimentary cocktail hour from 5pm-8pm each night, so we decided to pop in for a pre-dinner drink.

 

 

We watched the MSC Meraviglia set sail, and then it was our turn! There were only a few other groups in the Suite Lounge, but you could feel the excitement as we pushed back from the pier. Cruising is BACK!

 

 

 

After sailaway, we made our way down to the deck 3 Main Dining Room for dinner. I did a lot of back-and-forth pre-cruise on whether or not to purchase a Specialty Dining Plan. I was considering both the Unlimited Dining Plan and the Chops+1 package. We thoroughly enjoyed the Unlimited Dining Plan on our Harmony cruise, but the Freedom only has a fraction of the number of specialty restaurants that Harmony has, so I wasn’t sure it would be worth it. We also didn’t have any sea days and didn’t think we’d be boarding the ship in time for lunch on the first day, meaning we wouldn’t get to utilize the package for any lunches. Ultimately, much like our Harmony dining snafu, I dragged my feet too long and both dining packages I was considering were no longer available. I have a lot of thoughts on our dining experience on this cruise that I’ll share later on, but this ended up being a good thing. Probably not for the reason you’re thinking though.

 

We requested late seating dinner at 8pm in the Main Dining Room each night, and that’s what our Royal Caribbean apps indicated we had. However, we eventually realized that that all vaccinated guests were assigned to deck 3, which was also the designated My Time Dining room. We did not piece this together until the following day, so there were a few confusing moments throughout dinner, but what we gathered was that we could pretty much show up to the deck 3 Main Dining Room anytime during dinner hours and get a table. Y’all…this dining room was deserted. Granted, we eat late, but I think there was a total of 4 other occupied tables that night. Our servers were wonderful, but the food…oh dear. I’ll admit, I always thought Victoria was a little bit of a diva about the food in the Main Dining Room, but I can now confirm, I agree with everything she’s ever said. Not one thing we ate that night was good. Despite our very sweet serving team who seemed desperate for diners, we did not return to the Main Dining Room again on our cruise.

 

After dinner we decided to change into our swimsuits and head up to the pool deck for some hot tubbing. We made it to the pool deck around 10:05pm…only to find out that all of the hot tubs close at 10pm. This was the case for the whole cruise, so I guess at least for now, the days of late-night Solarium hot tubbing are gone ☹

 

We headed back to our room and enjoyed the balcony for a little bit before turning in for the night. It had been a long day, and we had another big day coming up at Perfect Day Coco Cay!

[RachLovesSteak]

Sing it with me! Lovely day, lovely day, lovely day at CocoCay! Those who have visited Perfect Day CocoCay already have the song stuck in their head now. You’re welcome! For those who haven’t – Perfect Day CocoCay has its very own theme song to the tune of Lovely Day by Bill Withers. It is quite catchy, but am I the only one who wishes they would’ve use Perfect Day by Hoku instead? I mean after all, it’s not called Lovely Day CocoCay 😉

 

I woke up in time to see us pulling up to the pier at CocoCay, and I was surprised (okay, a bit annoyed) to see the Adventure of the Seas already docked. When I was trying to decide which day to purchase our Thrill Waterpark passes, I checked Cruise Mapper to see if we would be sharing CocoCay with any other ships. Cruise Mapper showed us being the only ship there on Tuesday, and we would be joined by the Mariner of the Seas on Thursday. I actually went back and double-checked to make sure I didn’t read it wrong –

 

 

I know from reading other Cruise Critic trip reports that the Adventure of the Seas does back-to-back days at CocoCay. For whatever reason, Cruise Mapper only shows her there on the first of those two days.

“What are they doing here?!” -Judy

 

 

I’ll go ahead and say it – sharing the island with the Adventure had no impact on our Perfect Day. The island still felt prettyyy empty!

 

 

Based on my false information from Cruise Mapper, I opted to book our Thrill Waterpark passes for our first day at CocoCay to minimize crowds and lines for the slides. I also liked that this gave us the flexibility to reschedule to the second day should our first stop be affected by weather. I purchased our waterpark passes for $74.99 each, which seemed like a great deal, as I remembered that Victoria had purchased our passes for $99 each on Black Friday for our Harmony Cruise. The very next day the price dropped to $70.99 each, so I cancelled and repurchased. I know it’s only $8, but it’s the principle of it! I’d love to know more about how Royal Caribbean determines pricing for CocoCay excursions for each sailing, because based on my Cruise Critic reading, the lowest price that passengers on the Adventure of the Seas reported seeing for Thrill Waterpark was $88.99. On the other hand, I believe they were offered a much better price for Coco Beach Club. For us it never dropped below $150, which was much more than I was willing to pay! Maybe it’s a strategy to disperse crowds? Or perhaps it’s based on the age demographic of passengers? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

On a pre-pandemic Perfect Day at CocoCay, I would’ve been rallying the Shinglebells bright and early and insisting we get off the ship right at 8am to beat the lines at Thrill Waterpark. Even with our surprise friend in port, we weren’t too concerned about lines, so we started our day with a lovely room service balcony breakfast.

 

 

We then made our way up to deck 12 to get our first glimpse of Perfect Day CocoCay

 

[RachLovesSteak]

We received this “Tips to Know Before You Go” in our stateroom along with our Day 2 Cruise Compass and map of Perfect Day CocoCay. You’ll notice that it mentions that Thrill Waterpark is busiest at 10:00am.

 

 

Blame it on blog research, or maybe just on that balcony breakfast, but we decided to test the theory by arriving at Thrill Waterpark at 10:15am. The pier was bustling with people as we made our way to the entrance. We were already nervous…should we have been here at 8am?!

 

 

A very questionable decision to stop for photos. The lines are building by the second!!! What are you doing?!

 

 

We waited about 30 minutes in this line at the entrance

 

 

Okay, okay, enough of my sarcasm. As one would probably expect, and as I already spoiled at the start of today’s report, there were no lines. We might have even welcomed some lines as a little breather as we huffed and puffed our way up all of those stairs for the slides. But alas, we are completely spoiled by how empty it was that day.

 

[RachLovesSteak]

We started off easy with a dip in the wave pool. Amateur blogger here – I totally forgot to take a picture of the wave pool, but both Judy and I really enjoyed it! I had fun bouncing around in the waves, and Judy liked staying in the shallow area and letting the waves crash on her feet. After getting acclimated to the waterpark mindset, we decided we were ready for some slides.

 

There are two towers of slides – Splash Summit and Daredevil’s Tower. Splash Summit has 3 different styles of slides, all of which require a tube or mat. Daredevil’s Tower features 5 body slides. We decided to start off easy with Splash Summit.

 

 

There wasn’t a lot of direction about which tubes were needed for which slides, and there weren’t any people around for us to follow. We noticed that there was a conveyor system that lifted pink rafts up the slide tower, so we decided to just walk to the tower entrance and start with that slide. There was a lifeguard at the base of the tower who asked us what slide we wanted to ride, and we told him ever-so-educated-ly “the one with the pink raft”. He had us step onto a metal square that I assume was a scale that determined our combined weight, and then we embarked on what would be our first of many treks up the stairs. It turns out the slide with the pink rafts is called the Sling Shot, and it is not exactly an “easy start”. It was, however, mine and Judy’s favorite slide hands-down, and I would buy Thrill Waterpark tickets again solely for this slide! I won’t share any details because the element of surprise is part of what makes it so fun, but guys – you gotta do it!

 

We did the Sling Shot several more times as well as the other slides at Splash Summit – Twister, which you can ride in a single or double tube, and Splash Speedway, a series of four racing-style slides that you ride on a mat. After several trips down each slide, we decided we were ready for some lunch.

 

While I was researching for our cruise, I came across a vlogging couple called @viewsandqueues who had recently shared their voyages on the Adventure and the Freedom. They are so fun and energetic and offer a great perspective on cruising – I highly recommend checking them out on YouTube if you’re looking to get pumped for an upcoming cruise vacation! Anyway, they raved about the Snack Shack Crispy Chicken Sandwich, and I knew from their videos that I could trust their food recs. I’d also heard great things about the Mozzarella Sticks from the Snack Shack. There’s a Snack Shack conveniently located inside Thrill Waterpark, so our lunch spot was a no brainer.

 

Here’s the infamous Shack Crispy Chicken Sandwich. It fully lived up to the hype –

 

 

But guys…these mozzarella sticks…

 

 

What the heck are these?!

 

 

I am far from a foodie, which is why I can confidently tell you guys that these were not mozzarella sticks. It was actually kind of funny – right before I bit into one of these so-called mozzarella sticks, I said to Judy “I love when cruise lines do simple foods like mozzarella sticks. Everybody loves them, and it’s impossible to mess them up.” HAHAHA! I made Judy take a bite and she said “Oh I think they served these in the Diamond Lounge on the Harmony.” At this point, we thought Royal Caribbean didn’t know what mozzarella sticks were and they were trying to pass off these cheese croquettes as mozzarella sticks. Thanks to our second day at CocoCay, we were able to piece together that this was not the case. Stay tuned for Day 4 to find out how…

 

[Sea Dog]

 

 

On 9/9/2021 at 7:47 PM, RachLovesSteak said:

These are my breakeven bids based on what I paid for my original balcony stateroom and what I would’ve paid had I booked each category of room outright –

 

 

I am sorry but I am horrible at math. Could you breakdown how you get the breakeven bid? Is it based on what you paid for the original room booking price minus the new GS price? Is it based on per person or total? I am trying to figure out what that would be for my cruise.

 

Thank you. I am loving your review.

[RachLovesSteak]

1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

 

 

I am sorry but I am horrible at math. Could you breakdown how you get the breakeven bid? Is it based on what you paid for the original room booking price minus the new GS price? Is it based on per person or total? I am trying to figure out what that would be for my cruise.

 

Thank you. I am loving your review.

 

Of course, @Sea Dog ! The breakeven bid is per-person. I did a ghost booking of each upgrade category to figure out what it would have cost had I paid for it outright. Then, I subtracted what I paid for my balcony stateroom and divided by 2 to get my breakeven bid. So, (Price of 1 BR GS - Price I paid for Balcony) / 2 = Breakeven Per Person Bid. I hope this helps!

[Sea Dog]

5 minutes ago, RachLovesSteak said:

I hope this helps!

Absolutely. Thank you so much. I figured it was something like that but having you explain it in detail helps my fuzzy math head comprehend it. 

 

Also brilliant on the luggage tag editing.

 

We sail November 7th on Explorer and I put a bid in on a GS 2 BR hoping to upgrade from our Jr. Suite with 3 people in it.

 

Thanks again for the excellent detailed review.