proudpatriot07

This may sound silly but for the white party- did everyone wear all white? Lol bc if they don't advertise this before hand how would everyone know to bring a white outfit lol

Nope. And on disco night, there were 2 people on our cruise who were totally decked out in costume, so I guess they knew about it beforehand. Needless to say they definitely wound up on the TV coverage for the disco night/70s party... and the cruise director threw a t-shirt to them ;)

We always bring some sodas onboard, but they have coffee, tea, water, lemonade, milk, and some really good flavored waters in the Windjammer. Hot chocolate is also available (I poured a packet into a cup then got coffee on top of it- this was yummy).

I do believe you can bring wine onboard when you get on the ship, but anything alcoholic you buy in port, they take from you once you get back on, and the steward delivers it on the last night.

There are 2 formal nights... otherwise the dinner dining room dress is in the daily newsletter, cruise compass. It isn't super formal on non-formal nights. You can wear t-shirts and shorts in the dining room at lunch and breakfast, though. The dining room has lunch on sea days and I highly recommend it.

If you don't want to dress formal, just go to the Windjammer those nights, they have most of the same foods. Or order room service :).

We were on the week of April 20 and no midnight buffet then either :(. Ship was still great and we enjoyed our cruise. You can't beat Freedom of the Seas for the price and size of the ship. I liked the cruise director, Casey. I thought he was funny and although he was visible, he was not overwhelming.

Our itinerary was Cococay, San Juan, and St. Maarten. I was scared we'd miss Cococay, we were late tendering to the island but we still got there. Definitely a beautiful place.

Haha, I definitely log in at work! Good thing I get my job done, but I'm pretty sure our IT department knew I was going on a cruise based on my browsing history that week before :)

We're upper 20s, no kids, very active... we sailed on Freedom OTS the week after Spring Break here, but it was Spring Break in other areas. There were kids on the ship but it wasn't overwhelming- I think a lot of the kids stay in the kids club, sports deck, or at the kid's pool. The Solarium is a great place for adults, no kids under 16 are allowed in there. We never saw many kids on the Promenade deck either, unless a character was out there (the characters are only there for 20-30 minutes).

Just off Freedom... no hammocks in the Solarium but I didn't see any kids in there either. There were a few older teens but they were with parents. It's really quiet in there and nice, great pool.

I think dress codes are enforced more on Royal. For example, on a Carnival ship, you can go into the Lido Restaurant wearing a swimsuit top and shorts, no coverups. On Royal a few weeks ago, you didn't see that. You had to have a shirt/tank top/cover up on in there.

As far as the dining room attire goes, it seems like people were dressed fine to me, but I'm pretty chill in how I dress and don't care much.

I think you should try Royal Caribbean... if you don't like it go back to Carnival. We did a Carnival Cruise last November because it was cheaper and we wanted a balcony, but now we'd rather do a Royal Caribbean in an interior room... we just liked it way better. With RC's excellent loyalty program, I doubt we go back on Carnival as we now want to build loyalty with RC.

We love the MDR for breakfast and lunch (on sea days). They will seat you with other people, or you can tell them if you want to eat alone. The food just tastes better in there and there are some dishes you can't get on the buffet.

I really like the French Toast in the MDR, it's really thick bread compared to the Windjammer's :).

The Starbucks at Cafe Promenade is nice, it has a more limited beverage selection than Starbucks on land, but you can get most of what you'd want there :)

We were just on the Freedom OTS a week ago and it was on the Room Service menu, so it's still around.

I really liked the cafe promenade coffee and the dining room coffee at breakfast. I didn't even pay for the Starbucks- just drank the Seattle's Best and it was great. If I wanted a treat, I poured half a pack of hot chocolate in a cup, then poured coffee on top of it, hehe.

It wasn't the best coffee ever, but it was totally fine for the week :). I typically like it a little stronger.

Most of the dining room items are available in the Windjammer, along with a few things that weren't in the dining room. You do have wait service in the evenings too. It's a good option if you want to try several things and then go back to get more of something you like, rather than having several entrees brought to you and then just not liking them and feeling like you wasted a whole entree.

Plus, if you want something really simple for dinner, like pizza or a burger, it's so much easier to just get that in the Windjammer.

I really want to cruise to the Northeast (Boston, Maine, Canada), Alaska, and I also want to cruise on Allure or Oasis.

Just got off the Freedom. We had towel animals every night except the first one, which I completely understand with that being turnaround day for the room stewards. The animals were pretty awesome and they'll use your sunglasses and other props to make it look cool sometimes, so leave your sunglasses, remote, etc out and the steward might make it extra special for the kids!

I love, love, love the Freedom of the Seas! We have done 3 Carnival cruises and 1 Royal.... and our next one is in 18 days and it is RCI, back on the Freedom of the Seas. We went on the Carnival Legend after sailing on the Freedom of the Seas and we were very disappointed. I was so ready to get home and so was my husband. I started a review and didn't even finish it (I loved writing the review for my Freedom of the Seas cruise).

We had a balcony on Carnival and that was nice, but we figured we'd save the difference and go with an inside room to be back on Freedom of the Seas. There's so much to do on the ship- a Flowrider, ice skating, rock climbing wall. I don't know if Carnival's ships have those things or not but I haven't been on one that did.

You won't be disappointed with Freedom of the Seas. It is a great ship and a great value.

We leave on April 20 and I am loving your review (even though I've already been on the FOTS it is still so fun to read about). Thanks for posting it!

Loved reading your review, thanks for the ideas on vegetarian and gluten free foods! I do eat seafood occasionally but usually stay vegetarian, it's nice to know that that new menus have options.

I wonder if they still have Indian food available? That was always my vegetarian go-to in the MDR if I didn't like the veggie offerings at dinner.

When we were on FOS (almost 3 years ago), they had the Tutti Salad Bar at lunch which was delicious- best salad bar ever. It makes up for only having 2 menus. We always do MDR lunch on sea days. I hope they still have it.

Hope the Freedom has chocolate breakfast, I will definitely be telling my MDR server to let me know when it is.

That ice cream looks delicious. I may have to make a trip to Johnny Rocket's just for that when we're on Freedom of the Seas.

Does anyone know if they have a veggie burger? Just curious :)

Thanks for your review! We also live in SC (Chas.) and are really happy to have a nice, large RCI ship so close in Port Canaveral. We've been on FOTS before but we are doing the same itenerary you guys are. Really looking forward to it and thanks for the tips on Puerto Rico. It looks like you and your family had a great time and I hope you're staying warm in Columbia!

My husband and I debated this. We've done 3 Carnival, 1 Royal, and thought about Disney but just couldn't justify the price difference. One big selling point of Disney is that they sail from Port Canaveral, which we can drive to. But, we found a much better deal on Freedom of the Seas- a 7 day cruise in an interior, that is actually cheaper than a 4 day Disney.

We don't have kids, but I think your kids will like Royal and it's a longer cruise. There were characters on the boat, like Shrek and Donkey, lots to do and all the kids on our Royal Caribbean cruise seemed to really enjoy it and have fun.

My friend loves Disney and I think it's probably great if you're a Disney fanatic. But, if you're more of a cruise fanatic, the Royal one might be better with the money difference. Longer vacation always rocks! Heck we could even add on a day at Disney and still come out cheaper on ours...

We had our honeymoon on FOTS back in May 2011. It was too late to be on the Love and Marriage show as we got married in March and honeymooned in May (Husband was in college for his second degree, so we had to wait until school was out). I don't know if they still do it but there was a little honeymoon-er get together in one of the bars on the ship. I think eating at a specialty restaurant would be nice too or maybe a couple's spa treatment!

Really sorry you had Norovirus, but thanks for sharing your experience. I would only go to the clinic if something got really, really bad but it sounds like you made the right call. Glad RC went above and beyond to help even though you were stuck in the cabin.

We're booking Enchantment for a March/April cruise- snow day here in SC so we decided to book a cruise :).

Thanks for your review- it's good to see reviews on the ship. We're a 20something couple and excited about it; like you guys, it rocks to be able to just up and book a cruise :).