MarinerBride

We had early dine, so at 5:45 we headed to the dining room. I wasn't sure what the kids would think, but this was one of the highlights for them. They loved being called princess and champion. The kids menu wasn't amazing, so we ended up ordering a bit from that and the regular menu for them, and it worked out well. One thing I noticed on the first night is that the My Time Dining line was insanely long, and I sort of felt like they kicked us out of our table before we were truly done. 

We had a lot of fun exploring the ship - previously we had only sailed on Voyager and Sovereign Class, plus things have changed a lot and again, this was a first for the kids. I had packed swim suits for the kids so we were able to take them straight to the pool. I also got them checked in for Adventure Ocean.

At 1 we were able to get into our staterooms, and we got the balcony divider opened up between our two rooms. Later on, my daughter climbed the rock wall (don't forget socks!), and we ate a lot of ice cream and waited to set sail.

We've recovered from the cruise and holidays, and I thought I'd share a review from our recent trip! This was my 5th cruise, husband's 4th, and kids' (6yo and 9yo) first. Husband and I got married onboard 15 years ago, but hadn't sailed since our 5th anniversary, so we decided it was a good time to cruise again and celebrate. We booked about a year ago, and I kept an eye on prices and got several decreases. We had a Jr Suite for the 4 of us, and my parents were in the balcony room next door. 

We flew SW into FLL, and the airport was crazy when we landed, but we had no major issues. We took an Uber XL to our hotel, Hyatt Regency in Miami. FYI, my parents didn't believe me, but you cannot comfortably travel with 6 people and luggage in an Uber XL. It was late, so we ate dinner at the hotel, which was really good.

We had an 11:30 check in for the cruise, so we relaxed a bit in the hotel, and then left in our Uber around 10:30. Traffic was pretty bad, so plan ahead. Once we got to the port, we dropped off our bags, went through the Suite entrance, went through security (we had some bottled drinks they let us keep for the kids), got checked in, and were on the ship in no time. This was a huge improvement over our last sailing! Even my parents who didn't go through the Suite entrance were impressed at how quickly everything moved. We had watched our safety video in advance, so we stopped by our muster station, which was also super convenient. Then we stopped by a bar to get our first drinks! We ended up purchasing the Deluxe Beverage + Internet package, mostly out of convenience, and for the kids we got the Soda + Internet. Again, I had been watching the prices, and the lowest I saw them were $69/person/day for just the drinks, and $86/person/day with internet.

13 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You have to contact whomever you booked with to choose that - this close in early traditional may be full but they may accommodate you on board.

I just found it on our SeaPass - we're in traditional early dining!

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

Do a search here and read Adventure Ocean info. Other than the menu, early dining hasn't changed much since your last sailing.

Where do we even sign up for early dining?

Oops, I lied - it's been 10 years since we've cruised. 🙈

We're sailing on Freedom next month for 4 nights with our 2 kids (6 and 9), as well as with my parents. We're in a junior suite and my parents are next door. We haven't sailed in 5 years, so I know things have changed, plus this is the first cruise ever for our kids. What do we need to know for the kids? How has dining changed (we were always early dine kind of people)? We've got a Water Park Cabana reserved for CocoCay and Atlantis Water Park reserved for Nassau.

Planning ahead for our December 2022 cruise - what excursions (if any) do you like for Grand Bahama Island? We're sailing with our kids, who will be 6 and 9.

38 minutes ago, karena1 said:

You won't be disappointed.  Freedom is an amazing ship.  I love the pool area - so colorful and we really like Playmakers also.

I'm so excited! We haven't cruised in 9 years! I just wish it was sooner!

We're booked! Freedom, 9626 and 9622! The connected cabins were unavailable, but these two are next to each other, and we can have the balcony barricades taken down. Only 354 days to go! 😁

I meant I'd love to have adjoining rooms - one Jr Suite, one balcony room. I'm not sure that's an option on any ship though.

If we want a Jr suite with an attached balcony, does that change anything? 

15 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Personally I wouldn’t pick Liberty because she doesn’t have Playmakers, since that is one of my favorite bars. However, this may not be important to you. 

Champagne bar has always been my favorite, but it's been so long since I've cruised, and I've never gone with kids, so I'm sure things will have changed! 

37 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

All the ships are the same class.

 

So pick based on itinerary and price.

28 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

what are the itineraries?

 

We are nostalgic about Indy because that was our very first cruise and 5 years later she was our child's first cruise. That was before she was AMPed. We were supposed to be on her in Nov 2020, but covid happened and we moved to Harmony. We got to see Indy 3 weeks ago in Coco Cay: Indy seems so small compared to Harmony, but we still think of her fondly. And you can see the water slides.

 

My kid no longer likes water slides because the staff wouldn't let him use a nose clip and/or goggles, and he hates the water rushing up his nose and in his eyes. 😞

 

Remember that you can keep an eye on the price and if it drops, you call RCI and get it adjusted. If it's after the final payment date, they will give you cabin credit (OBC). I would also consider a cruise that is at least 6-7 days long (maybe, Thanksgiving week?) because by the time you get on the ship and start enjoying yourselves, a 4-5 day cruise is over. I personally get a travel related, stress induced migraine which lasts 2-3 days, so we'd never go on a 4 day cruise because I'd suffer the entire time.

Itineraries are the same, just different order. This is our first cruise with the kids, so we're leaning toward shorter this time in case they hate it, plus we have limited time out of school and don't want to spend the actual holiday days away. And this week is closer to our anniversary, which we prefer. 

4 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

we usually sail out of Fort Lauderdale. Once out of Miami and once out of Port Canaveral. 

Are you flying to the ports? I was unpleasantly surprised by the Uber/Lyft prices from Orlando to Port Canaveral - $122 each way. A taxi from FLL to the POrt Everglades is about $25. 

With the flights being around the same price for us (I wait for sales and check prices daily), the difference in price for the airport-port transportation is definitely something to consider, unless the cruise is so much cheaper that you can neglect the difference.

Also, the distance itself - if your kids get car sick - FLL or Miami would be my choices. My kid used to never get car sick, but because he hasn't ridden in a car for like a year during the pandemic, he now gets car sick after 20 minutes.

 

Other than that, the ships are super similar. If your kids are into water slides, you may want to pick the ship that was AMPed.

Yes, we are planning to fly to the port (from TN) - all have a direct flight option. As far as cruise costs, Miami/Freedom is cheapest, followed by FLL/Independence, then PC/Liberty. The kids do like water slides! Which one was AMPed?

We're planning a cruise for next December - my husband and I, with our 2 kids who will be 6 and 9. We're looking at Dec 19-23, 2022 to the Bahamas.

Our choices are:

Freedom out of Miami

Independence out of Port Canaveral

Liberty out of Fort Lauderdale

We haven't cruised in 9 years due to work and family, but we're ready to go back and have fun - and celebrate our 15th anniversary after getting married onboard Mariner in 2007 (and also cruising on Majesty in 2008 and Mariner in 2012).

I've sailed with Graham Seymour, Drew Devine, and Jimmy Rhodes. Graham and Jimmy were both great - Drew was funny, but probably not my favorite. I felt like I saw Jimmy all over the ship the most, but maybe because Graham and Drew were on Navigator and Mariner vs. Majesty. Jimmy was on the pier greeting everybody who got off the ship in Nassau, which I thought was great. I also loved his cameo with the dancers one night.

The view was really nice, and the window was large enough that I spent several evenings just sitting in it looking out over the water. It wasn't claustrophobic at all, although it was somewhat noisy. I heard people talking all through the night - either in the halls, maybe in the balcony above us, or even as far down as deck 7. I heard other noises too that may have been related to the lifeboats, I'm not sure. Also, bring something to tie the hangers together, because on the last night we were rocking and they kept banging against each other and driving me crazy.

As far as Irvin - to be honest, we had no idea who our stateroom attendant was until he wrote his name on our voucher envelopes. I didn't know what he looked like until randomly on Thursday night I was walking back to the room and he opened the door for me when he saw me. He did a decent job with the basic cleaning, and we enjoyed the towel animals, but it wasn't perfect - I found some cotton balls in a cabinet and a condom wrapper in one of the nightstands! He also didn't replace our pool towels on Wednesday night, but we ended up not wanting them on Thursday anyway.

We just got back - the SO was great! Here are my pictures of 9048:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allison_beck/tags/9048/

Check back after next week and I'll post pictures from 9048. :)

You can read about my experience here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=15450857&postcount=93

Also, feel free to read some of the other posts I've made to more specific questions:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=10589584

We tried to go with nice casual, and our wedding party was formal.

Here's a picture of everybody (our parents are on the front row). You can also browse the rest of my pictures with the link in my signature.