Just back from Freedom of the Seas 07/09/06

[suzy671]

To CruiseAwayWithMe - Thanks for the info.

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

To CruiseAwayWithMe - Thanks for the info.

Your welcome. I love informing people because it makes me look back on my cruise experience and how much fun I had. :D

[suzy671]

Krystle - did you find the ship to be too big with 4300 passengers?

[BoozeCruise2]

Few items that need a bit of "refining" that Krystle mentioned. I was on the same cruise and actually had drinks with her parents. Nice people.

 

First the barbershop was always busy. Actually had a waiting list because I called on separate days, and so did a friend. It is small, but they do provide one heck of a shave. Not a straight razor though like in the old days.

 

I went to Ben and Jerry's several times and never smelled anything bad. The only odor that is persistent on the ship is by the flow rider which is a problem with the new way the Freedom rids itself of sewage. They actually dry it and burn it, and the stack needs to be extended as the stench can be smelled often. I was told this by two crew members.

 

The boxing ring is here to stay, and in all the future sister ships too. :D I am glad for it. I was in boxing two classes and enjoyed them. Ten dollars a class is nothing compared to all the other nickle and diming they do. The theme of the ship in my opinion is for the active person, rock climbing, flow rider, beautiful huge gym, and I believe the boxing ring reflects this.

 

Finally something about the dining room. The food was barely above ok. And many share this opinion with me. I had on average 3 entrees per meal :eek: and gave them a fair shot to improve.

 

If I could do it again I would of been in Chops twice and Port. at least three times. The waiters at Port. said it best. How can meals prepared for nearly 4000 people be as good , hot and delicious as individually made one's in the speciality restaurants. Same can be said for the service. Trust me on this one.

 

Oh and for the official record. My group did the first ever Offiicial Freedom Pub Crawl. We hit every bar. Signed and verified by the Captain, with photo, and signed by every bartender that served us. Quite a feat, and quite a hangover lol.

 

BC2

[Viclo12]

Tell us more about the pub crawl please! Where did you start and where did you end? How long did it take you?

[jordieth]

Is Ken Rush off the FOS already? We had him years ago and really like him. How what the CD for your cruise and how long will he be there?

 

Thanks.

 

Chris

 

Hi, yes Ken Rush is off until September. When we were getting off of the FOS on July 9th, he said he was going home to California that day also to spend time with his family and would be back in September.

[Prttybrown]

G-O

How funny you are... Of all the people who could have possibly replied to this message - I get heckled by my own sister! :-)

 

LS

[Brad1185]

Krystle, thanks for the info and pictures. We are going on the Freedom Aug 13th. We decided to go to either Chops or Port on Sat night. Surf night looks great to me.

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

I did the flowrider about 10-20 times and I never smelled any kind of odor. It is fresh water. I have 10 bruises from the flowrider and 2 scratches. I took some rough falls on the flowrider. I'm definitley not a surfer or not experienced because I live in Michigan. Some people lived in California and were experienced at surfing. But, it was fun to try the surfing even though I got beat up haha. I smelled an odor by the Ben & Jerrys. It was a rotten milk smell, I asked my dad if he could smell it and he said he could. :confused: But, I guess people have different views on what smells. :eek:

 

The only way you can get in the boxing ring is if you pay the 10 dollars to get into it otherwise you can't go on the boxing ring. I saw someone go on the boxing ring once before and they yelled at them. I worked out in the gym every day. I enjoyed the little tvs that were connected to all of the treadmills or bikes. Bring your ipod earphones and plug into them. The tv is fun to watch. Channel 30 was XY which is Royal Caribbean's music video station.

 

The flat screen tvs are great. They look so good around the ship. As a matter of fact, we are getting three new flat screens in our house next week. We have all the big and fat tvs in our house mainly. (If you know what I mean.)

 

I went to Portofinos once and I had a table by the window. The waiter in Portofinos was much nicer then our dining room waiter. I didn't go to Chops but I heard that people like Chops more.

 

Did anyone think that Freedom of the Seas was rushing everywhere? We left every island at 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM. I remember on previous cruises when we left the island at 11:00 PM. We were always sailing by dinner time. It's okay but it would have created more time in the islands.

 

I spook some Spanish on the islands because I'm in Spanish class. I enjoyed speaking and listening to Spanish. I was picking up on some of the Spanish. I went into the Haitian Flea Market and bargained with some people. It was fun. :)

 

It will be interesting if they change anything on Liberty of the Seas. I'll be on Liberty of the Seas on 07/07/07. Yup, lucky 7's. I'm going on the Eastern Caribbean because I've done the Western Caribbean a lot. I've done the Eastern Caribbean a lot too but I have done it in about 4 years.

 

I'm going to the baseball game today Detroit Tigers and it will be on Fox Sports channel. On the news, they said the baseball game was sold out. We have free tickets to the baseball game and we will be the first row behind the tiger den.

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

Krystle - did you find the ship to be too big with 4300 passengers?

No, I didn't even notice that many passengers. The embarkation and debarkation was such a breeze. Everything went quickly including most of the lines. You won't even know how many people were there. I think they dealed with the amount of people very good.

[suzy671]

Krystle - thanks again, my DH just booked us the Junior Suite, can't wait to see it.

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

Krystle - thanks again, my DH just booked us the Junior Suite, can't wait to see it.

Your welcome. I hope you have a great vacation. :)

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

anymore questions?

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

The Crypt: I watched the disco once out of the whole cruise. I always went to sleep at 10 PM or 11 PM usually because I got up early around 6 AM. I saw the family hour and I was watching it from the second level and it looked really fun. They did the funky chicken, hulla hopping contest, and a conga line. I think the disco area seems a bit small to me. I thought it would be a little bit bigger. Maybe they should make it twice its size next time.

 

A Clean Shave: Okay, no one out of my group had an appointment there but I'll say some quick observations I saw from outside. I think it looked really nice and professional inside. I didn't see a lot of people in it most of the time that I walked by. It looks pretty small from walking by it. But, i'm sure that there are some guys who would enjoy the experience.

 

Cafe Promenade: I think I already touched on this. I only went there once because it is at the back of the ship. Cafe Promenade used to be at the front of the ship but Sorrentos replaced it. They had many cookies, cakes, brownies, and many other treats. All of the pasteries tasted very good. There is a bunch of books that I looked at and that's a good addition to the Cafe Promande.

 

Sorrentos: My favorite place on Deck 5 probably, haha. It had wonderful pizza. They had four different types of pizza. I got the vegetable once and usually I got the cheese. The sauce makes the pizza taste really good and it's thin too. I don't know who won't like this pizza because it tasted so good.

 

Cozumel, Mexico

We tendered in this island because of the damage of Hurricane Wilma. The docks looked ruined when I was looking at them. There was one smaller Royal Caribbean ship that was docked but the rest of the ships tendered. The tender process was the worst on this island because they are not used to tendering here. They usually dock here. We snorkeled first then we got taken to a beach that was really nice. There was two girls there selling toe rings and we bought a couple. She spook Spanish but her English was very good. I spook a little Spanish on the islands because I'm learning Spanish. The beach was very nice. I heard a lot of Spanish being spook. On the Catamaran that we were on, it was run by four people who all spook Spanish. Only one of them could speak both Spanish and English. But, I really liked the tour and it was fun. We got tendered back to Cozumel and I got some blue shorts that said "Cozumel" on the behind. They had cute clothes there. Then, we went back in a closed airconditioned tender. We were bobbing up and down in the water for 30-45 minutes right by the ship because we were waiting for a tender to be full and leave. Everyone thought it was ridiculous. But, good news for people going to Cozumel in the future because they will be docking in four weeks. But, overall I had a great time in Cozumel despite the tendering expereince.

 

Grand Cayman

There must have been about four cruise ships in port and everything ran smoothly. We didn't do the snorkelling with the stingrays because we did that too many times. We saw a shipwreck in Grand Cayman and they took us to a beautiful snorkelling destination. There was coral reefs all over and a bunch of large fish. It was the best snorkelling expereience of the cruise. Everything ran good at this island including the tendering process. In Grand Cayman, we were taken to a new port in Grand Cayman called Port Authorities. It looked very nice and new. The shopping is good down there around the tendering place where they drop you off. I had a great time in Grand Cayman.

 

Montego Bay, Jamaica

We were finally able to be docked in Jamaica. The small boat that they took us in was just a minute or two walk from the cruise ship. We were taken to a place to snorkel which wasn't very good. Then, we went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. We stayed there for an hour. I got all kinds of pictures of this place. They had a long waterslide but it didn't look very safe. Also, they had some trampolines in the water to jump on. It was very tropical and colorful there. There was music and flat screen tvs. I didn't go on the waterslide because I heard some people hurt themselves on the slide. Someone bumped their head on the slide and someone else scratched themselves. The waterslide was metal and it didn't look that safe. Otherwise, on the way back we had fruit punch, coke, sprite, etc. It was a good trip even though the small boat was nothing great. Montego Bay was nice but it seems that Jamaicans push you more for sales. It was a wonderful experience though. I have been to Jamaica several times but I've been to Ocho Rios the most. I've been to Montego Bay once or twice but it seemed like typical Jamaica to me. Well, I got off and shopped at Jamaica right by the cruise ship. They had nice t-shirt shops and necklaces to buy that were right by the docked ship.

 

 

More review to come later.

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

I watched Freedom of the Seas sailaway on the Miami webcam today.

 

Goodbye Francois, Pedercini, James, etc. :)

[pickleo]

I just returned from a week on the FOS also. You described the ship and its happenings just the way I would. We did however, notice a SEWAGE smell on deck 6. It was terrible. Grand Cayman, was packed due to 3 others ships docked in the port. Montego Bay, and Cozumel were fine; tendering was even easy. The Freedom is beautiful, but I would prefer to go on the Voyager class again. The Ice show wasn't as good as on the one on the Mariner. James, the cruise director was very funny- full of energy. The Love and Marriage Show, and the Quest were both worth staying awake for!!

[Lynn the Cruiser]

I am enjoying reading everything about the FOS. We are getting ready to book for June 24, 2007 to the Western Caribbean. I've only ever been on the Voyager class ships and now we want to try something alittle different and it seems hard to go smaller. I'm starting to get excited already and it's only been a month since our cruise on the Navigator was over!!!!! Now I have something to look forward to again. Any more info will be helpful.

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

I just returned from a week on the FOS also. You described the ship and its happenings just the way I would. We did however, notice a SEWAGE smell on deck 6. It was terrible. Grand Cayman, was packed due to 3 others ships docked in the port. Montego Bay, and Cozumel were fine; tendering was even easy. The Freedom is beautiful, but I would prefer to go on the Voyager class again. The Ice show wasn't as good as on the one on the Mariner. James, the cruise director was very funny- full of energy. The Love and Marriage Show, and the Quest were both worth staying awake for!!

I never really went on deck 6 because I didn't have a cabin there I guess. I thought the ice show was awesome. I was in the second row and it was great. The lady kept on changing clothes and it's amazing to watch everyone doing their flips and turns. I don't even remember the ice show from Mariner of the Seas but I know Freedom of the Seas probably topped it for me. James Andrews was a great cruise director, they choose the right guy. I watched the Love and Marriage Show on tv about 5 or 6 times and it was great, just like the Newlyweed Game. :)

Freedom was very similiar to Voyager Class ships. I found on the first day that I already knew my way around the ship. I've been on Mariner (2004), Navigator (2003), and Explorer (2001). I don't have all the ships I've been on listed down there, only a few. (the last few years)

[bug18]

I was on the 7/16 sailing and also noticed the smell by the flowrider. My group was there at different times and we all commented on it. I didn't notice any smell at Ben & Jerry's. I didn't have anything there either but noticed nothing as I was passing by.

 

I also loved the ice show and thought it was the best I had seen compared to VOS and the AOS.

 

Tendering in Cozumel was a breeze for me. I guess I was there at the right time.

[AJ's Girl]

Can anyone tell us more about the PubCrawl? This is something that I can really love doing?!.....lol!

[SuzM]

Oh noooo. We have 2 cabins on deck 6 next week. Where do you notice the sewage smell and did they resolve it?

[pickleo]

Oh noooo. We have 2 cabins on deck 6 next week. Where do you notice the sewage smell and did they resolve it?

I had cabins 6628, 6629, 6697 and 6699. The smell was really strong when you exited the elevators on the Aft side, and down the hallway toward the Presidental Suite. As far as I know, the problem was not addressed.

 

Yes, the smell was by the flowrider too.

[SuzM]

Thanks, Pickleo -- We're much closer to the forward elevators so hopefully it won't be as big problem..

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

I didn't notice the smell by the flowrider maybe because I went on it so many times. :confused:

 

AJ: There was a pub crawl on the 7-9 cruise on Freedom of the Seas, I heard about it, but never participated. Basically, everyone gathers from your meet and mingle group. Then, you have a drink at every bar on the ship and I can just imagine how pricey that is. They did it on a sea day and I guess they got some shirt signed by every bartender. It's a good idea maybe for those who like to drink ;) Good luck on that.

[AJ's Girl]

Krystle - Thanks for the info. I will look into that!