kristi_k1052

1 hour ago, Sherri914 said:

Is the new El Loco Fresh a complimentary food venue?

Yes, they have breakfast and lunch. I went yesterday for breakfast and grabbed a breakfast burrito, huevos rancheros, hashbrowns and they have a bar with cheese, salsa, guac, sour cream, etc. My husband thought the breakfast burrito was very good.

24 minutes ago, Tinious said:

I see Oasis supports WowBands now.  Does anyone know if the Oasis now supports the texting feature on the royal Caribbean app after the update?

I'm on the ship. We bought WowBands yesterday. This ship had major tech difficulties in many areas yesterday. The WowBands did not work to open our rooms. We all had to go to Guest Services today to get them fixed. We do not have a texting feature on the app right now.

Our family of 9, plus another couple did the new escape room on Oasis this morning. The cost was $19.99 per person. 

The escape room is on deck 14. We arrived about 10 minutes early and stood in the hallway near the elevators. There is no real entry way for the escape room, just a door that says "do not open." We just stood outside that door until a staff member came out to greet us. He gave us some basic instructions and said we needed to work as a team and we had 50 minutes to complete the mission. As soon as you go inside the door you are in the room. You watch a short video and then the countdown begins. 

The attention to detail in the room is awesome and it was a lot of fun. It was also very difficult. Thankfully, we have a high school senior and a college student studying engineering in our group and they were very helpful with what felt like a lot of math. Everyone in our group of 11 played an important role in solving all of the puzzles. We "escaped" with 4:49 left on the clock. 

At the end, the staff member walked us around the room to explain all of the main challenges because we had all separated into little teams and didn't realize what the other teams had done to solve their puzzles.

If you like games and puzzles, you are good working as a team and someone in your group is decent at math I highly recommend doing this.

Hello!

My husband and I will be sailing on the Freedom of the Seas in a couple of weeks. I love reading other people’s trip reports, so I thought I’d try to contribute one of my own.

My name is Kristi (39) and my husband is Steve (35). We are from Atlanta, Georgia. We have been on seven Royal Caribbean cruises (Allure,Jewel, Brilliance, Serenade and Liberty x3) and one on Celebrity Solstice. We actually got married on the Liberty of the Seas in 2012, but this will be our first time sailing on Freedom. Our last cruise was on Allure and it was just a little bit too big for us, so I’m looking forward to getting back on a Freedom class ship. We’ve been to most of the Caribbean islands Royal visits, but never to Aruba and Curacao which was our primary reason for selecting this cruise.

We are flying from Atlanta to San Juan the evening of Friday, July 20, and staying at the San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino. We’ve stayed at this resort in the past, so it’s our go to when departing out of San Juan.

I like to get on the ship as early as possible. I have a Cruise Compass from a June Freedom sailing that looks like the Windjammer and shops open around 11:30 a.m. so we will probably depart the hotel around 10 or 10:30 on Saturday morning.

We have the Four Night Dining Package. I bought this several months ago so I cannot quite remember how it works, but I think I was able to pick the first courtesy reservation for day 2 rather than the first night on the ship. I think I signed up for My Time Dining, but we are not big main dining room fans. If I had to guess we will eat at specialty restaurants, Johnny Rockets, the Windjammer or room service each night of the cruise, but we will see! I’ll do my best to still go by and take pictures of the main dining room menus for each day though.

I’m the planner in the family. My husband is the opposite and it’s possible he doesn’t even know where we are going on this cruise. He just shows up and goes with it. Needless to say, most of our trip is planned at this point.

Here’s a quick rundown of the cruise itinerary and what we have planned for excursions. All of our excursions are through Royal Caribbean.

Saturday, July 21 – San Juan

Sunday, July 22 - Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas – original excursion was cancelled by RC, so nothing planned yet. We’ve been to St. Thomas before, so it’s possible we will stay on the ship.

Monday, July 23 – Cruising

Tuesday, July 24 – Willemstad, Curacao - Curacao Highlights and Beach Fun excursion

Wednesday, July 25 – Oranjestad, Aruba - Sailaway Beach and Snorkel Cruise excursion

Thursday, July 26 – Cruising – Bottomless Galley Brunch

Friday, July 27 – Basseterre, St. Kitts - St. Kitts Catamaran Sail & Nevis Beach Getaway excursion

Saturday, July 28 – San Juan

I’m not sure if I’ll post a review each day on the ship or do a full review after we depart. I do plan on getting a Surf and Stream package but haven’t purchased it yet. I think it’s cheaper if I wait until I get on the ship, but I could be wrong?? It’s showing in the Cruise Planner at $12.59 per day right now.

Currently, I’m working on our packing list and buying any last-minute items we need. The planner in me has to resist the urge to start packing this far out, so I’m just pulling the clothes we need into the spare closet at this point.

Let me know if you have any questions about Freedom of the Seas or this itinerary and I’ll try to get the information/take pics for you while onboard.

16 days!!!

Following. Would love to see the cruise compasses.

I've been on several Royal cruises and have always found it a unnecessary to make specialty dining reservations online prior to the cruise, however, we have never been on Allure. Do you recommend making reservations in advance to get the best times or are there plenty of reservations available when you get onboard? Also, do they offer better deals for booking once onboard or is it the same 30% off offer they show online?

Thanks,

Kristi