They were right...I was WOW'D!!-Freedom of the Seas

[LovesCruising]

Sorry that I haven't updated my review/trip report. I have been sick all weekend with some kind of bug so I have been flat on my couch. I promise to get to it this afternoon when I get back home!

 

Thanks for following my wonderful cruise!

 

Im so glad your coming back to add more - enjoying your review so much - feel better.

[MrsKC08]

Vacation officially begins!

When I left off here I showed you where Ken made his first official stop once on board. Poor guy was so excited he just had to go the the restroom I guess! As I waited for him I looked around the Casino.

 

 

Since we entered the ship on deck 4 we wanted to go ahead and check out our assigned dining table. You see, about 60 days prior to sailing I sent an email to royal's dining requesting a certain table assignment. The following day after sending that email I was graciously emailed back stating my request had been honored with a layout of the dining room and where our table was going to be. So...was it what I asked for? Yes...and No. But I am not complaining one bit. We loved our location for the most part and our wait staff was very good. (more on that later)

 

 

 

After the stop at the dining room we then worked our way up one deck to the Royal Promenade, and let me just say...no photo can ever do the first impression of this area of the ship justice! This was one of our favorite spots of the ship...The central hub if you will!

 

 

 

 

[MrsKC08]

Time to go up on Deck!

 

After looking around the promenade for a bit we made our way up to deck 11. We wandered around a bit and I took several photos. Some of the other ships that were in port (Disney and Carnival) and the pool areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Ken found a spot to relax for a few!

 

[Ilovepj]

HI,

 

Looking forward to your review, I am doing the eastern route on Oct 6th, so I cant wait to read more.

 

Thanks

[mrsfuzzmo]

Then Ken found a spot to relax for a few!

 

 

Hey! That's us in the picture with you. That's my husband in the yellow, my SIL with the polka Dot bag, and the rest of us over at the railing with the guy in pink!!

[LovesCruising]

Then Ken found a spot to relax for a few!

 

 

Hey! That's us in the picture with you. That's my husband in the yellow, my SIL with the polka Dot bag, and the rest of us over at the railing with the guy in pink!!

 

That is toooo funny!:)

[AZAficionado]

I'm loving your pictures and your review so far! I can't wait to see how you enjoyed the cruise.

 

Also, bravo for even doing a review. They are a ton of work.

 

And finally, YAY for another Freedom review!!! Seems like every other review is for Allure.:rolleyes:

[MrsKC08]

Thanks guys for sticking around. Sorry that I didn't update yesterday...I'm still kind of dealing with this crud. It is all in my head now.

 

I will be back tonight once I get home to update more!

[MrsKC08]

Hey Lynn,

Great review! Can't wait to see the rest of it.

 

It was so nice meeting you guys as well. We enjoyed our time talking with you at the Radisson and meeting your dad.

 

This turned out to be one of our best cruises yet, although the most rainy by far. Absolutely LOVED Richard Spacey...he was a blast.

 

Happy sailing...

Karen

 

Ahh, Karen, you joined me here to relive our cruise!:D

 

It was really nice meeting you and your husband. We sure enjoyed the time we spent visiting at the tiki bar at the hotel. Just wish we could have connected at some point on the ship! We couldn't believe that we had gone all those days without seeing you, until that one night in the Promenade. Conrats again to your hubby for winning Bingo!

 

We loved the Freedom so much that we have her booked again for the week of Valentine's day next year~!

[Dolby1000]

"Ugg, this 6 picture limit is going to drive me nuts!"

 

Totally agree, it makes posting a picture review a tad annoying.

 

BTW: Keep going, never been on the Freedom, enjoying your review of your trip. Seems like we are going to have to go a ship class down (talking size, not service as we were last on the Allure) for our next trip.

 

There just is nothing in the world that can equate those first few hours on the ship, is there.

 

OWD

[PattyG12]

I recognize one of my favorite bartenders, KC, at the Radisson.

[MrsKC08]

Time for Lunch...

 

By this time my early morning breakfast was wearing thin so we made our way to the Windjammer for lunch. Ken and I both agreed that this was the best embarkation lunch we have ever had. The selection was wonderful, there wasn't much of a line and the food was nice and hot. Another big plus was that we didn't have to wait long to get a table. There was a nice crew member finding tables for anyone who looked like they were needing one! Matter of fact, every time we had a meal in the Windjammer that week we were very pleasantly surprised and impressed both with the food and the service!

 

 

Looks yummy doesn't it?

 

After our lunch we made our way to the adult only Solarium to relax for a bit. Rooms were not suppose to be ready until around 1pm, so we had about 30 minutes or so to just relax and enjoy the fact that this was going to be our playground for a week. It wasn't long before I put my toes in the COLD water of the Solarium pool. Although I had my swim suit on, it was far too cold to be taking a dip.

 

 

Time to see our room...

Promptly at 1pm we made our way down to Deck 6 to check out our room and to see if by any chance our luggage had arrived. Some of our luggage was outside the door and it wasn't long after we got to our room that the rest was dropped off. Side note: for this particular voyage we chose an inside room (6391) because room location and category wasn't a big deal to us. Our whole cruise was based on ship experience, period. Because of this I did not take any photos of the inside of our cabin. I mean really, you seen one "closet" you've seen them all, right? LOL My opinion of the room is that it was clean and adequate for us for the 7 nights. It suited us just fine and wouldn't mind sailing again in this category just to be able to be on this ship!

 

This cruise I actually decided to decorate our cabin door, which I have never done on any of our past cruises. Do I think I would do it again...probably; it was a nice touch and I got a lot of comments about it throughout the week.

 

 

I was able to decorate our door and unpack before Muster drill! Yay~ This is really a plus for us to be able to be settled before sailaway and not have to worry about it again.

 

As for the Muster Drill, it was quick and painless and we were in and out up on deck for sailaway within 15 minutes. For those of you have skipped this drill, you don't want to do that on the Freedom; everyone has their sailpass scanned.

 

It's Sail-Away Time...

We had decided to make our way to the heli-pad for sailaway, and so did many others but it was the best place to be as you slowly make your way out of Port Canaveral!

 

 

 

 

 

[MrsKC08]

Sailing away from Port Canaveral...

We had asked our friends to be watching the webcams to try their best to see us. I mean after all, every weekend you could always find us watching every sail away from Port Canaveral and Fort Lauderdale and often spoke about how we would soon be those people waving back to those watching. We were thrilled to find out that they actually did see us. That made being on the helipad during sail-away all the better!

 

I captured a couple shots from this area before heading over by the pool for what was left of the sail away party.

 

 

 

 

As we were watching the Coast Guard, I noticed this guy doing things with his Jet Ski...

 

 

As far as sail away parties go, this one seemed energetic but aren't they all? Everyone is so excited about being on vacation! There isn't much else to say about it, other than it didn't hold our attention for very long. So, we thought we would go check out the two hot spots on deck.

The Rock Climbing Wall:

 

 

and then the Flow Rider:

 

 

We watched both for a while and talked about whether or not we would visit these two places throughout the week. Ken and I both were psyched about doing the rock climbing wall but didn't think we would risk the flow rider. Ken's words, "our vacation would totally suck if you got on there and hurt your knee or ankle." Nice guy, thinking about the welfare of his wife. To be honest, I think that he was a little intimidated himself by the speed of the water shooting out. But to his defense, I do have some issues with my knees and ankles from time to time and it WOULD suck to have an injury while at sea.

 

But...we never tried either one of these during our cruise. Hopefully we will get the chance in February when we sail the Freedom again!

 

[MrsKC08]

Checking out more of the ship...

After watching these amazing kids work the boogie boarding on the Flow Rider, we made our way back inside and down to the Promenade. Since we had late dining, we decided to grab a little stack from Cafe Promenade. Ken treated his sweet tooth with a couple peanut butter cookies (he will have quite a few of these throughout the week) and I tried one of the croissant sandwiches. I apologize, as I didn't take any photos of these little snacks but I promise there will be plenty of food porn coming soon!

 

Deck 3- Studio B (Ice skating rink) and OnAir Lounge

After having our little snacks, we made our way down 2 decks to Deck 3 to check out Studio B and the On Air Lounge. Ken and I both are big participants of karaoke, usually. Matter of fact, that is kind of how we met but I won't go into those details. You're here because you want to know about the Freedom...

 

One key piece of information for you about the On Air Lounge...if you like Margarita's this will be your favorite place. Why do you ask? Because every night between 4:30 and 7pm (might even be 7:30) they offer B1G1 margarita's! That's right folks, you buy one and you get one for free and don't worry, they DO NOT water these babies down. This was Ken's favorite spot every night.

 

 

As I mentioned, this is where they do the karaoke just about every night or afternoon throughout the cruise. As for selection, it seemed like they had a lot but they were all relatively old songs with not anything new but you are bound to find a song or two that you know. Just have yourself a drink or two and be ready to sing your heart out. And, if you are too nervous to sing in front of a live audience of people you don't know, they have 2 private karaoke booths that you can sing in for free. You just swipe your card and pick your song and the music will start to play.

 

 

 

 

When Ken and I saw these, we both said we would be doing that sometime during the week...but again, we never did! This is on my definite "to do" list for February!

 

Right next to the On Air lounge is the entrance to Studio B.

 

 

 

Another note/tip for you, whenever you are going to be in Studio B either for the Ice Show or Quest or for the dance activities they have, make sure that you bring a sweater as it gets quite chilly in there. After all, it is an ice rink people!

 

Here is another view of On Air as you are coming out of Studio B.

 

[MrsKC08]

Do you want a ship tour?

 

I thought about this long and hard and came to the conclusion that I will not be doing a ship tour in this review. I feel like this has been dragging out for a while, thanks to this sickness I have been dealing with, and I might have lost some people which is not what I set out to do. I also feel that no one can do a ship tour as good as KansCocoa did of her cruise on the Freedom so... for those of you who are interested in more detail information about each deck and venue, please check out her review HERE! I promise that you won't be disappointed because she did an AWESOME job!

 

Just make sure you come back here for more of my review! :D

[Gilly's Daughter]

Really enjoying your review thanks. I'm going on the Freedom next March with my hubby and kids. Can I ask a quick q? Did they keep to ship time for the duration of the cruise or change to local port time? I want to book a dolphin swim experience in Cozumel and want to check times that I think we will be docked are local times!

Thanks and I look forward to the rest of our review.

Leanne

[MrsKC08]

Really enjoying your review thanks. I'm going on the Freedom next March with my hubby and kids. Can I ask a quick q? Did they keep to ship time for the duration of the cruise or change to local port time? I want to book a dolphin swim experience in Cozumel and want to check times that I think we will be docked are local times!

Thanks and I look forward to the rest of our review.

Leanne

 

Glad you are enjoying my review. The ship stayed with the eastern time zone throughout the entire cruise.

[dreamer976]

No, you haven't lost me! I just keep checking back whenever I enter these boards. Sorry to hear you've been sick.

 

Have been on Freedom before and will be onboard again in December. I'll be waiting for more. . .:)

[luvsun22]

I'm still here! Loving your pictures and your review!

[Fly with me]

Hi there,

 

We were on the same sailing. Friends who sailed with us just sent the link to your post. You actually caught us in one of your sail away photos! It was in post #62. Fun!

 

I haven't read through your entire review yet. I hope to. Freedom is our favorite ship to date. This was our second time on her.

 

Happy sailing!

 

Caren :)

[Fly with me]

Hi Lynn,

 

I had to go back through my photos from the cruise. I haven't even put them on the computer yet! I thought if you caught us in your photo that maybe I caught you. Well, I have Ken in two photos and maybe the top of your head in one of them. I was over by the stairs trying to get photos of Fishlips and the other restaurants along the way, as well as the folks around the helipad.

 

You've inspired me to work on my photos! It's so fun to relive our time on Freedom! :)

 

And I went back and read your review. We are very much alike...my lists have lists!! Priceless!!

 

Hope you're feeling better!

 

You mentioned you work in CLT, for an airline, by chance?

 

Caren

[petesweet]

Thank you for this great review. We got so excited about the Oasis class ships that we completely skipped Freedom class. Now FOS is on our radar after our Allure cruise. I'm reading everything I can about it.

Happy sails.

Kathy

[Dawniepoo]

I love how you decorated your door, especially the lyrics above the door handle. "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" ;)

[MrsKC08]

Good afternoon everyone! I hope that you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend and spent some time thanking someone who served or is serving in our military while you were enjoying your time off and cook outs!

 

I will be back this afternoon after work to add more to my review. Thanks for sticking around~

[spammie]

Lynn, just found your review and I'm loving it! Freedom is our favorite RCCL ship. We have always sailed the Western with her but will be sailing the Eastern for the first time on her in September. Can't wait to read the rest of your review. Sorry to hear about you being sick. I assume your one fluff is a Maltese? We have a 6 month old half Maltese, half Shihtzu that we rescued and her name is Lily. She is a doll baby! Wanda