*Freedom of the Seas Review 5/22/2011 7 Night Eastern Caribbean*

[kruzerci]

Just returned from the 5/22/2011 7 night Eastern Caribbean on Freedom of the Seas. I’m not going to do a lengthy review because I just got home and we are exhausted and there have been so many Freedom reviews lately, but I just wanted to let everybody know that we had a great time once again on the lovely Freedom. We were lucky with great weather and a near perfect cruise. I’ll just hit the main points and I would be more than glad to answer any questions.

 

Background- We’re in our early 40’s and booked this cruise almost a year ago onboard the Majesty. We have been on the Freedom before when she was new as well as the Liberty among many others. We are Diamond C&A members and have stayed loyal to Royal Caribbean, feeling they are the best all-around line for us. Having been to many, many, many Caribbean islands between cruises and land vacations, we rarely do excursions anymore and usually spend our port days at the beaches, which is why we love the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. We cruise for the nightlife, fun in the sun, and serenity of being disconnected from home! We have done everything from insides to suites and this time we did a deck 8 inside because of a resident rate. It was fine for 7 days but we will go back to a balcony next year.

 

Pre-cruise/Embarkation- We arrived in Orlando the night before and stayed at a Hilton with rewards points. We got in fairly late so it was essentially just a chance to get a few hours sleep before boarding day. We parked at the pier on boarding day, price was $15 a day. We arrived at the terminal around 10:45 and were on the ship and in the Windjammer by 11:05. This was by far the easiest embarkation we’ve had thus far. Props to Royal Caribbean’s Port Canaveral team. Of course the priority boarding made a huge difference for us, but it looked painless even for those without. I’ve never been a honey stung chicken fan but I know many on here are, so I have to say it was really good on Freedom this trip! On the itinerary, departure was listed at 4PM, but the muster drill was at 4PM and the ship sailed at 4:30 behind the Sensation and before the Disney Dream.

 

Port Canaveral- We have previously sailed from Canaveral on Sovereign twice and on the Mariner in 2005. We loved sailing Freedom out of Port Canaveral for the ease of embarkation/disembarkation. I know the time of year can make a difference, but the demographics were certainly different than sailing out of Miami as well.

 

Cococay- We’ve been too many times for it to be exciting, so I got off early, went for a walk on the beach, got back on around 10 AM and turned Cococay into an at sea day, enjoying the empty pool deck and gym.

 

St Thomas- Went to Sapphire beach. Gorgeous beach, one of my favorites on St. Thomas, rented chairs for $15 and headed back to the ship late in the afternoon.

 

St Maarten- Went to Orient beach as we usually do. The cab is $7 a person and you can get nice chair rentals with an umbrella and drinks for $8 a person. I can’t remember of the name of the place but I have a photo of their sign when I get my pictures posted (we have over 500).

 

Days at sea- These are always our favorite days! We spend most of our time on the ship laying out and working out and Freedom is really perfect for both of those activities. I’ll say it was hard to get chairs in the solarium because the chair hogs were out in full force by 7:30 AM every day at sea. We could only get chairs there the first day at sea. I do wish the itinerary was backwards because no matter how you look at it, it kind of feels like the cruise is going to be soon over after you leave St. Maarten simply because the last two days were at sea. We enjoyed having the two first days at sea on our Liberty Eastern Caribbean trip. We still enjoyed the itinerary as a whole though and would rather have 3 sea days than just 2 on the Western trip.

 

Disembarkation- We did the express disembarkation and we were off the ship and in the car by 7AM. No lines whatsoever. So much easier than waiting for your tags to be called.

 

New Additions- We were talking the whole trip about how much more we enjoyed the Freedom than the first time we were on her when she was barely a year old and sailing out of Miami. I can’t put my finger on what was different, but the ship had a really happy feel, looked brand new, and was really just a pleasure to sail on. I could take or leave the new big screen. I was totally opposed to it in the beginning, but it grew on me upon realizing they weren’t going to be blaring Disney movies during the day on the pool deck. Most of the time it showed ocean scenes or music videos. Cupcake cupboard was a nice addition instead of the barber shop. That’s about all I can comment on the dry-dock as those were the only things that affected us. Aside from that, the ship was spotless and literally shows no signs of wear, and trust me I usually notice things, thus why we try to sail on the newer ships. The only thing that surprised me was that most of the carpet (hallways, stairs, etc) did not seem to have been replaced during the dry dock. Not that it looked bad, but you could tell areas had been patched/cleaned. Still looked great, I just thought that was one of the main projects of a dry dock.

 

Food- Very subjective so I won’t say much about it. We have found the food to be steadily declining across the fleet in recent years, but I will say this time was the exception. We had the best dining experience we have had in quite a few cruises. The food in the Windjammer was particularly good, in my opinion, compared to other recent cruises. We did the MTD in the MDR and our food was always quickly prepared and hot. We have done MTD lately because I feel they try to get you in and out fasted to accommodate more people. We were in and out in about an hour every night, very good to the common 2 hour meal in the traditional seating. We kept our same waiter every night and were at one of two tables depending on what time we went.

 

Entertainment- We didn’t do most of the shows because we had seem them the last time were on the Freedom. We did go to one production show, the comedy shows, and the ice show. All were spectacular.

 

Ship in general- As I said before, the ship just seemed to be glowing. I was worried about her hitting the 5 year mark, but she is remarkably well maintained. Graham Seymour was our cruise director and he was amazing. We had him on the Navigator in 2006 and were thrilled when we found out he was our CD again. We love the gym, steam rooms, solarium, pool deck, flowrider, promenade, dining room- I guess we love everything out this class of ships. We feel the Freedom class is a perfect fit for us, we wont go smaller for a 7 day cruise, but don’t necessarily want to go larger either. Maybe in a few years...

 

Diamond Lounge- We took advantage of the Diamond lounge every night of the trip, open bar from 5-8:30 PM is hard to turn down. We have never really taken advantage of it before, but it’s going to be hard to do without on other ships now that we have experienced it… another reason to stick with Freedom! Amit was the concierge, great guy, super friendly and eager to please. He took care of all of our tickets, tours, disembarkation without even having to ask. We hope to sail with him again one day.

 

Like I said, I’m exhausted! Very relaxing week but jam packed at the same time. Anybody with any questions please do not hesitate to ask while it is fresh on my mind. I’m sure I missed a lot. I’ll continue to post as things come to mind and I will post my pictures as soon as they are uploaded to Picasa.

 

Needless to say, in case you didn’t guess, we booked Freedom again for next May, same itinerary. We are also doing the Monarch 4 night later this year. This was one of the best trips we have been on and you can’t beat it for the price. I can’t justify spending the extra money and time on Oasis or Allure when we can easily drive to Port Canaveral, have to fly to Fort Lauderdale, and are still in love with the Freedom class after 3 trips on them.

 

 

We met some great people, had a relaxing week in the Caribbean, and had a blast. I can’t wait to do it again. Those sailing on Freedom in the future, let me put your worries at ease as this was one of our top cruises out of all of our sailings. The only complaint I have is that the 7 days went by way too fast.

[missbogota]

Great review! Can't wait to see her next weekend!

[Luetta]

We sail on the Freedom in 3 short weeks. I have a question about St Martin. This is my very first cruise so I am clueless, but have been doing tons of reading on here and checking out St Martin both online and in a travel guide book.

 

What I really want to do is to go over the the French side, look at the shops, get a souvenir, have something good to eat then maybe go to Maho beach to see an airplane or two, then to Phillipsburg to check out the shops there. I'm thinking just doing this on my own would be good, but worried still. There are a couple ship excursions, or other tour companies....but I don't know if their itinerary is really what I want. I don't know if I want the specific short time restrictions in Merigot, or wherever else. I wondered if just getting a Taxi ourselves would be fine? How hard is it to find a good taxi? ANy Idea of how expensive it would be?

What would you recommend?

Thanks. Loved all your comments.

[Cruzin RN]

We have traveled to St Martin several times and we rent a car. Very small island, impossible to get lost...plus if you have several people to haul around it can be cheaper than a taxi!!!! Several car rental places at the port... Have fun!!!

[rcipilot]

Rented a Corolla from Budget Rent A Car at the Pier for around 70.00 for the day. Had reserved in advance. Was there on the Freedom over Spring Break. Drive to Orient Beach is quick and easy. Although off season now traffic around Airport can be slow going so give yourself lots of time to get back to Pier. Enjoy

[tofusmom]

We were on the same cruise and had a wonderful time.:D I will write a review soon but I have to do chores first. We booked for next May as well but the Western route.

 

Ann

[LBumb]

great job

[cruisegirl1]

We sailed on this sailing. Likewise we enjoyed the Freedom more this time than our previous Freedom sailing. The new priority building entry is a great addition in Port Canaveral. Once we got to the port, we were through security and checked in and on the ship in less than 15 minutes. Bravo RCCL!

 

We did a balcony guarantee and had a cabin on deck 8 by the forward stairs. Close to the solarium and theater, but far from the food venues. (except Sorrento)

 

We had a great cruise. The seas were so calm ( 2-4 feet most days), it was like sailing on a lake.

 

We did the ship excursion to St John, just for the transportation (we never took the actual tour) and that worked out perfectly. The ferry captain gave lots of info of what we were seeing on the ferry ride. Hopped a taxi to Trunk Bay and had a magnificent day there. Did taxi to Orient Beach and had a nice time at the Ethnic SXM Beach Bar. Great staff and delicious rum punch, ($7 pp for chair/umbrella/drink and clean restroom)

 

Production shows were good ( we had seen them before) , Ice show is always terrific, but we are a little disappointed in what RCCL calls a “Headliner” We like a recognizable name.

 

We dressed according to the dress suggestion, and did not notice others too much.

 

Surprisingly we went to a few 3D movies. Also, in my opinion, the DreamWorks association is nicely done, without characters “in your face”. Kudos to RCCL in this!

 

Food was good, not great. Chops and Portofino were wonderful but nearly empty the nights we went. In fact it seemed – there were more staff and officers dining in Chops than passengers. We had an on-line reservation for Chops but could not get the time we wanted for Portofino (on line) so we decided to wait to book on board. Not only was the time we wanted available, but the restaurant was nearly empty. (Is an empty restaurant a good or bad thing? – not sure)

 

I also agree that chair hogs were awful. I took my morning walks at 7 AM and there were lots of chairs reserved. Usually 4-8 in a row. I couldn't tell if pool attendants were removing the items after a period of time. We were able to find chairs every day, some in a more preferable (to us) location. Solarium was very crowded but we able to get chairs there 2 days ( ok – one day it was after 2 PM)

 

Concierge and Diamond Concierge are both very helpful. We started out in the CL but is was so quite, and interior, that we visited the Diamond Lounge for the last 4 nights. It was easier to meet new people in the DL

 

I thought the pool screen was underutilized. The time I was near the pool deck, it was showing only music videos.

 

We had just recently sailed the Allure and weren’t sure how that would affect our cruse - but we really liked the Freedom.

All in all – a terrific time.

M

[kruzerci]

We were on the same cruise and had a wonderful time.:D I will write a review soon but I have to do chores first. We booked for next May as well but the Western route.

 

Ann

 

We will be getting off as you're getting on next year :). Being back in reality is terrible, thank god it's Memorial Day!

[Con5421]

At what time you can get in the terminal?

 

Connie