Living the Suite Life- Freedom May 11-18 TR

[Raenstoirm]

This is my first TR. There are tons of freedom reviews around, but I couldn't find one that answered my questions about suites, so I put a lot of emphasis on the suite perks to help someone else that may be looking to see if it is worth it to upgrade. For us it was 110% worth it, as you will see. The trip was just dh (Stephen) and I, but we spent quite a bit of time with a couple we met on our meet and mingle roll call. After our week on Freedom, we headed to Disney world for 36 hours. I came home with just over 2100 pictures and hours of gopro videos, so there will be a lot of pics (not all 2100 though!) So without further ado...

 

 

 

 

Day 0/Day 1

Saturday & Sunday May 10 & 11

Cocoa Beach & All Aboard

 

Our flight to Florida didn’t leave till 5:40, so we had most of the day to get things done. After we landed we hunted for the rental car and then figured that all out. Neither of us had rented a car from an airport since the 90s, so it was a new adventure. And then we were off to Cocoa Beach. We found our hotel and then went to explore a bit. It was after 10, but we were still wound, so we went for a drive. We found the beach.

We woke up surprisingly early Sunday morning and found we had nothing to do since we couldn’t board the ship till 11. We had a minimal breakfast in the lobby; packed up and then when searching for the pier we had seen from the beach the night before. Turned out to be just an old fishing pier, but I got some funny pics of a pelican, so I was happy.

 

 

We still had time to kill, so I suggested we drop our bags off at the porter and then return the rental car so we had less to deal with on the shuttle. Dropping the bags off was easy, as was returning the car and soon we were on the rental car shuttle head to the Freedom of the Seas. Because we are suite guests, check in was a breeze and soon we were on board. I hadn’t done much research for the trip, so the ship layout was a mystery. We did some exploring, had a snack in Sorrentos (the pizza place) and the windjammer (buffet) and then found the concierge lounge (suite guests only) and hung out in there until the rooms opened at 1.

 

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

All Aboard continued….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concierge Suite

 

Espresso Machine. available 24 hours, but I ended up with Starbucks everyday anyway

[Raenstoirm]

All Aboard continued…

 

Our room is awesome! We have a Grand Suite this trip and it is twice the size of our other rooms!

 

 

 

 

 

After that, more explorations, and the unofficial meet and greet at the Sky bar. We got to chat with this guy I had met on here (omitting his name for his privacy). He seemed fine when I was talking to him, but a few minutes later he passed out! He had to be removed from the ship on a stretcher. We found out later he had had a stroke! Young guy too! Crazy! He was back posting on facebook from the hospital though, so I guess he will be ok.

Around 6pm, Stephen decided that he preferred to eat in our room tonight, so we took advantage of the fact that suite guests have access to the entire dining menus for room service and placed a monstrous order.

 

 

At 7, the welcome aboard show started. We took advantage of the reserved seating for suite guests, which was dead center on the balcony. Perfect seats. There was a neat aerial act and a so-so comedian. We think the comedian was just so-so because he had to keep his act PG. There is an adult comedy hour tomorrow tonight and we suspect it will be him as well and much more entertaining.

 

After the show, we headed back to our room and attempted to book our shore excursions through the TV system. There were some disagreements and then the things we agreed on were already sold out, but we came to some consensus and got stuff booked. It was already late (or at least we were already tired), so we headed up to the pool for a bit, met some very lovely people, headed down to the promenade for a snack and then off to bed. There were some very loud noises through out the night, so we had to call the front desk. It was just that one night though. I think they were draining the pool above us, since the next morning it was empty.

 

 

Tomorrow we have a beautiful day at sea. I recommend everyone stay onboard. – Casey Pelter Cruise Director

[Raenstoirm]

Day 2

Monday May 12

Sea Day

 

 

I woke up early, but because of the tough night, went back to sleep and didn’t get up till after 9. I headed out to the deck, so as to not wake up Stephen who rolled out of bed around 10:30. We hung out in the room till around 12 when I got bored and headed downstairs for Starbucks. When I got back, Stephen was finally dressed, so we headed to the windjammer in search of food. Windjammer was packed, so we were thrilled with the Suite perk of bringing our food into Portofino to eat and not have to scrounge for a table. We were the only ones in there! After that it was off to buy the unlimited photo package and then up top to watch the flowrider for a bit before the FreedomIce.com show. We got really good seats (another suite perk) when most of the place was packed by the time we arrived. The ice-skating was really good considering we were in pretty rough seas, but the highlight of the show by far was the guy with the wheel. He was awesome! He did all these amazing tricks inside an 8-foot wheel. On Ice. In a bottom of a moving ship!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, we headed back to the room (via the promenade to grab another starbucks and some cookies) to don swim apparel and head to the pool for a bit to start the process of getting burned to a crisp. We sat in the special suite only section with comfy chairs for about an hour until the unrelenting wind got to me and I figured we would go try the flow rider. Stephen had dozed off, so he was not amused by my suggestion, but was also not willing to stay behind, so he reluctantly tagged along.

[Raenstoirm]

Sea Day Continued…

 

Unbeknownst to us, it was stand up surfing time on the flowrider, so Stephen almost chicken out. At the last minute he decided to try it and I think he liked it. I loved it! After two tries they closed the flowrider for private lessons, so we headed back to the room to get ready for formal night.

 

 

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Sea Day Continued…

 

 

I had a couple questions for the concierge, Bertie, so I went into the lounge to get some answers (yes there are lockers in Labadee if you are ziplining, no you cannot upgrade a wifi plan you have already purchased and yes he could make our MTD reservation for tonight) and a free cocktail. I asked the concierge bartender for “something girly” and he came up with a strawberry margarita that was very tasty. I brought it back to the room and Stephen liked it so much we went back so he could get one! We made it a thing for the rest of the cruise!

 

 

I made Stephen take all sorts of formal pics, which he loudly grumbled about and then went to see the Captains Welcome Aboard speech. It was followed by a Broadway type show that Stephen detests, so we left after the Captain was done and headed off to dinner. This was our first night in the MDR since we had eaten on our balcony the night before and we then remembered why we prefer to eat in our room (a great suite perk). It was crowded and felt rather claustrophobic. We may only do it again on the next formal night. After dinner we headed back to the room to throw on regular clothes and then off to explore. We went up to the Viking Crown lounge (our favorite spot on Grandeur) for my first paid for drink (a B-52). We didn’t love the lounge nearly as much on this ship so I doubt we will spend much time up there.

At 11:30 we went to the Arcadia Theater to see the adult comedy hour. It was the same guy from the welcome aboard and from what I heard, it was much funnier when he was allowed to use adult content. I fell asleep about halfway through it. Stephen woke me up enough to stumble through the promenade to get back to our room. We did stop at the coffee shop for cookies, but the bastards were out of the kind I like (cranberry white chocolate chip). So I went back to the room empty handed.

 

 

Our view from the suite seats. There was never more than a handful of people in the section

 

My cookies!

[Raenstoirm]

Day 3

Tuesday May 13

Labadee, Haiti

 

 

I set my alarm for 8, but it took us quite a while to roll out of bed. We took advantage of the suite perk of eating in Portofinos again, so breakfast was a breeze. I finally got those highly fattening and artificial potato hash brown triangle things I have been craving. They did not live up to my memory, but oh well. Then we were off the ship and after the few obligatory port pics (I did buy the unlimited photo package), to the dragons flight. During our stop at Labadee last year, we had considered the zipline, but thought the price was not worth it. As soon as we sailed away, I regretted not doing it, so I made it a requirement for this cruise.

 

 

We met up in this little room, got our harnesses fitted then waddled (because of the harness) over to the test run. I was a bit scared of the test one, but it was fine.

 

 

 

 

Then onto the bus to take us to the top of the mountain to do the big one. IT WAS AWESOME! Well worth the 100 bucks a pop we paid for it.

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Labadee continued…

 

Then we waddled our way to the harness drop off and then found our way to Barefoot Beach Club (the near private suite only beach). It was nearly deserted. We hung out in the sun working on that lovely burn that we must get when on vacation. I put my rash guard on about an hour into sunning, so only my legs and my exposed hands got a little too much sun, but it doesn’t seem like a burn, just a bit pink. Part of Barefoot Beach is a special buffet and it might have been the best food we have had all cruise. Shrimp skewers and baked potatoes and Stephen had a few servings of steak.

 

 

 

By 3 o’clock literally everyone was gone, so we packed up and headed up to shower. While I showered, Stephen took a lovely nap on the balcony. LOVE our balcony!

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Labadee continued…

 

We skipped the standard Welcome Back reception in favor of more balcony time and I headed to the lounge to grab a drink. Then we headed to Chops for dinner. Stephen bought the upcharged steak and seemed to really like it. I was not all that impressed with the new menu. After that, off to the Captain’s reception for suite guests where we actually had some time to chat with him personally which was unique. He is from Canada so we could actually understand him too!

 

 

Then off to grab photos and head to the magic show. The magician was Drew Thomas and he was very good particularly in that type of theater where there are people seated on two levels and almost next to him.

 

 

 

 

The cruise director Casey, has a real thing with his bathrobe. He appeared on is daily tv show in his robe and then this day in the theater as well.

[Raenstoirm]

Labadee continued…

 

It was teen boogie board night on the flowrider, so we stayed up top for a bit and watched the fearless boys wipeout in spectacular ways and then headed to Battle of the Sexes. This version wasn’t as funny as last year’s. They did the island thing from last year, but this time 6 of each sex held hands and everyone had to go inside the circle they made. I participated it that. Girls had 20 more in the circle. Then they had to hold hands again and pass a hula-hoop from one end to the other and back without letting go. Boys won. Then they had to each make a paper airplane and got points for whose went the furthest. None of them actually flew, but the girls’ ones crashed more effectively, so girls one. Then there was the potty game. Everyone had to put a keychain between his or her legs and then squat over a cup and drop it in. Girls cleaned up! The last game was the singing game where each person had to sing any song when the mike was put in front of him or her. The song could not be a repeat of any other song that had been sung. It came down to 1 boy and 1 girl and then the girl drew a blank, so the boys got it. We were planning on swimming after that, but it just seemed like too much hassle to change into swimsuits so we grabbed a snack from the promenade and headed to bed.

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Day 4

Wednesday May 14

Falmouth, Jamaica

 

 

We were awoken this morning by the room service guy trying to bring us breakfast. Too bad we hadn’t ordered any breakfast! My alarm went off about 20 seconds later though so it was fine. Today was all about the beach. Stephen was adamant he wanted a beach day, so Jamaica was the day. We were up and dressed and breakfasted right on time and then we headed to the Crypt (bar on the 4th deck) at 10:45 like our tickets instructed. When we got there, there were already a couple hundred people there. Apparently nearly 2,000 people had signed up for excursions today and because Jamaica isn’t the safest port, they had all 2,000 meet on the ship in three locations. So everyone had to sign in and getting a sticker that dictated what tour you were on. And then, the awesome plan that this was, all 2,000 people had to get off the ship at the exact same time through 1 door. It was madness. I thought Stephen was going to kill someone. The kicker attached to this is that once we got off the ship each group stood under a tent and waited for their bus, so there is no reason we couldn’t have just gone to the tents in the beginning! It honestly took about an hour to get off the ship! But then we were off and on our bus to our Erie Mon Beach Party.

 

 

 

We had beach loungers, lunch and free drinks. Umbrellas were $6 and we did buy one. We thought it would protect us from the sun, but instead ended up protecting our stuff from the downpour. Within minutes of lunch being called, the sky just opened up. It poured for a good 20 minutes. Luckily everyone was under tents at tables eating lunch and even luckier, our stuff (including my kindle and Stephen’s iphone) was under the umbrella and stayed dry. After that the party really got started. They had some fun games including a dizzy relay where you had to run to a spot, spin 8 times and then run back. It was awesome watching people wind up face first in the sand when trying to run back. Lots of alcohol + spinning + running = a great time for observers! They also had some other fun team games that I plan to implement at the next family event.

 

 

There were people from 4 different cruise ships and each of us had a colored bracelet that let them know which ship we were on. The pink group (from the Disney Fantasy) got advanced warning when the bus came to pick them up. Our group did not. Stephen and I were swimming when they called for the purple bands to get on the bus. We had to scramble to get all our stuff, but we made it.

Back on board, we dropped our beach stuff in the room and headed to the pool deck. We had intended to swim, but decided to watch the Fantasy leave first. She took so long, we actually went back down to our balcony to watch her leave! Since we were already “home” and it was dinner time, we called for room service and ate on the balcony and then went back upstairs to hang out in the hot tub for a bit before returning to our room and finally showering.

 

[Raenstoirm]

Jamaica continued…

 

One thing happened today that has to imply that I am somehow psychic. Ever since booking the parasailing for Grand Cayman, I have been uneasy about it. I have always wanted to parasail, so there was no reason for my concern. On the beach today, I had decided that I would go to the concierge and change our excursion. When we were hangin out in the room this afternoon, a call came in from excursions. We were the only ones booked for the parasailing, so they had canceled the trip. See, psychic! :p So we called concierge and booked the submarine excursion instead.

Tonight was the Love and Marriage game show. It was funny, as usual, but not as funny as it has been in the past.

 

 

 

Then it was up to the pool deck for the Dancing Under the Stars party. It could be ship based, but we have noticed a sever decline in those late night events. On our first cruise there was tons of food and carved fruits and a full buffet. Last year there was less stuff and this year only a single table of food and a few carvings. Kinda sad. Anyway, since the dancing wasn’t all that entertaining, we took a stroll around the top deck and then went to bed since we had to actually set an alarm for tomorrow.

 

[Raenstoirm]

Day 5

Thursday May 15

Grand Cayman

 

I set my alarm for 7:30 so we could get off the ship pretty early. I made Stephen get up at 8:06 (his choice of time). And then it was a hurry up and wait kinda morning. We were supposed to have priority tender, but Bertie wasn’t in the lounge when we went, so we just opted to stand in the line since it wasn’t too long. After we got off the ship, mayhem ensued. We were a bit early so we wandered the port area for a while and then attempted to find our excursion and finally figured out that the submarine rep wasn’t there yet. She did arrive by the time stated on our tickets though, it was just weird since every other outfit had a rep there when we came ashore. We had chosen the Atlantis Submarine as our 3rd choice (our first choice tour was sold out and the parasailing canceled). It was a few block walk over to their tender that took us out into the ocean to their submarine. Neither of us had ever been in sub so that fact alone was really cool. We spent 45 minutes underwater and dove to depth of 115 feet. It was awesome. We got great views of the reef that is there and the Grand Cayman trench.

 

 

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Grand Cayman continued…

 

Atlantis

 

 

The turtle was really cool. We ended up diving to 115 feet.

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Grand Cayman continued…

 

After surfacing, we hopped in a cab to Royal Palms beach on Seven mile beach for a few hours of sun. It might have been the clearest water we have seen yet. We had planned on taking a taxi back to the ship, but a water taxi showed up and the couple sitting next to us got on it, so we followed suit. It was a lovely ride back to the pier. (One thing to note about Grand Cayman they do not take Amex. Every single location proclaimed this, so we have to assume it is island wide.)

 

 

Once we arrived back on the pier, the line for the tenders was literally an hour long. It snaked its way though every area of the pier. Suite perk number what-have-you, we just walked up to security, showed our gold cards and were immediately put on a tender. Given the heat and that line, the suite card earned its price tag right there!

Once back in the room, I passed out on a lounger for the first time all trip. We had planned to flowride, but I was just overcome with exhaustion. When I finally woke up, Stephen ran down to the MDR to look at the menu. There had been a minor mixup with room service last night and that showed us that the suite room service menu is slightly different than the regular MDR menu. (We both ordered garlic shrimp, but it was not on the regular menu served in the MDR that night so they assumed we meant shrimp cocktail and brought us two of those. After we showed her our suite menu, she brought it down to the kitchen and returned with what we ordered.) Our menu and the regular menu turned out to be the same, so we opted for the MDR for only the second time this cruise. It was formal night, so we got all dolled up and Stephen let me drag him around for pictures without whining. We hung out in the Concierge Lounge for a bit and then in the Library since it has such a pretty view of the promande till our dinner reservation.

 

 

Our waiter in the MDR actually knew our names. I was very impressed. We had only eaten there once! After that, Stephen opted to go back to the room to change back into regular clothes, but I decided that was too much work and kept on my formal stuff.

Quest was at 10:30, so we strolled the promenade, brought a plate of my favorite cookies (white chocolate raspberry) back to the room for later and then went up to Johnny Rockets for milkshakes. They weren’t bad, but I am not sure I would go out of my way for another.

 

 

 

Not a soul in there, but it was formal night. We only went in there this time so no clue if it was ever busy. The staff was VERY friendly.

[Raenstoirm]

Grand Cayman continued…

 

Then it was off to the Quest.

For the first time for us, Quest was held in an auditorium (Studio B which is also the ice skating rink) as opposed to the lounge. We were concerned that it would ruin the feel of the game, but it actually made it better. There were team captains that did the running and the rest of the team supplied the stuff. Stephen supplied a man’s belt (they needed 2 for that round) and I supplied my shall as an accessory for the sexiest man part.

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Grand Cayman continued…

 

After quest they were holding a “White Party” TWENTY 20 up on deck, but it wasn’t nearly as fun as the white party last year. The teens had a party in the normal adult night club, the Crypt, so they moved that scene upstairs. We bailed 20 minutes in, took a stroll around the top deck and then headed to bed.

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Day 6

Friday May 16

Cozumel, Mexico

 

I slept like crap last night. Our balcony door does not latch, so it has a tiny space and the wind decided to squeeze through there all night long and create this loud howling. It kept waking me up, so when my alarm went off an 8, I was not a happy camper, but I got up anyway. The weather outside was pretty crappy and the seas were really rough. We were due to dock 10:00 our time, 9:00 local, but the seas would not cooperate, so we had to hang out near the dock for a bit before we could finally come in around 10:30.

 

 

In the mean time, the weather became prettier and I got Stephen moving. We were set to get off when they gave the all clear. I had booked us a 3pm swim with the manatees (not ship sponsored), but the booking agent said that we could probably get into the earlier swim if we wanted. The earlier swim was 11:00 so I wasn’t sure we could make it. By the time we got off the ship, took our obligatory photos, got in a cab and got to the National Park where the swim was it was 10:50, but luckily they took us anyway. There were only 4 other people, so we were a very small group. There were 3 male manatees in the pool (Angel, Edgar and Quixote). Quixote really liked me and made a point of grabbing onto my leg with both flippers so I couldn’t move! They had us all pose with Angel and we played with the other boys while we waited our turn to pose. We were in the pool for 45 minutes! Not sure I would repeat it even though I absolutely adore manatees, but it was a good once in a lifetime experience.

 

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Cozumel continued…

 

While we were drying off, this random woman approached me and asked if she could borrow a towel. Apparently, her family was doing a dolphin swim and she had gotten out because she was cold, but had forgotten to grab the locker key from her grandson. We wandered off before getting our towel back!

After we were dry, we headed into the Dolphin Café for lunch and then explored the park a bit, tasted some tequila and then wandered down the beach to find a good spot.

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Cozumel continued…

 

The beach as a ghost town! We are not sure if that was because the seas were still really rough or because this particular beach was artificially built on a reef (a fact Stephen detested). I snorkeled for a few minutes, but the water was so rough it wasn’t worth it. Stephen got bored, we headed back to the pier early planning on grabbing a short tour of the island, but when we got back there was no tours left. Stephen thought we might grab a cab and ask them to take us on a little tour, but the taxi distances and fairs are preset and no one spoke enough English to understand the idea of an hour drive around the island and even if they did, the cab driver would not have spoken enough English to narrate a tour.

 

 

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Cozumel continued…

 

So instead we wandered up and down the main street a few times, did numerous laps around the pier stores and then headed back onboard with Stephen grumbling about getting on board too early the whole time.

 

 

Since we had plenty of time, we dropped our stuff in the room and headed to the pool for 45 minutes while we waited for flowrider to change from surfing to boogie boarding. Then we each got to boogie board twice before hurrying home to get ready for our 8pm Portofino reservation.

Tonight was 70’s night, so we scoped out a good spot and ran into Joe and Michele from Cruise Critic that we have been socializing with throughout the trip. The 4 of us danced the night away. It was by far the best 70’s night we’ve ever had.

 

 

 

[Raenstoirm]

Cozumel continued…

 

After that, the 4 of us continued our dancing streak, by heading to the Crypt for the silent disco. The premise is simple, when you walk in the door you are handed soundproof headphones. Channel 1 was mostly disco and channel 2 was current club hits. You picked which you preferred and danced away. I went down to the dance floor for a song, but we mostly stayed on the second floor and watched the mayhem. It was funny to turn off your music entirely and just watch the dancers boogieing to their own beat!

 

 

 

 

It was nearly 1:00 when Stephen decided we should take a stroll around the upper decks. It was really windy, as in lean all the way forward and not fall down, windy! Getting back inside was an experience!

 

[Raenstoirm]

Day 7

Saturday May 17

Day at Sea

 

 

I had another rough night last night. It is still really windy and the seas are still rough, so lots of stuff in our room made banging noises every so often. The maintenance man fixed the howling door yesterday afternoon, so at least that didn’t add to my early am rattle concert! I had set my alarm for 8 and got up rather begrudgingly. Stephen got up about 45 minutes later. We had time before our All Access tour, so we ordered room service breakfast for the first time. It was not great, so I did not regret not taking advantage of that suite perk of the full breakfast menu available for room service.

 

 

At 10:00 we headed to the meeting point for the All Access tour. There ended up being 9 of us, so it was a pleasant sized group. The bridge was the first stop, then the ice skating rink, stage production studio, then a stop in the MDR for lunch, followed by the galleys, food storage area and finally engineering, before winding up at the Champaign bar and a Bellini for everyone. We also got a nice bag and an apron each, plus our actual backstage passes.

 

The view from the bridge wing

 

The Captain explaining his job to us

 

The view from the bridge

 

The soup vats in the galley. There are 4 of these babies!

[Raenstoirm]

Sea Day continued…

 

All Access Tour continued…

 

Giant mixers

 

Lots of appetizers

 

We got to go backstage in the theater and the ice rink. The aerial act was rehearsing a new show, so we were the first ones to see it. These two are CRAZY! What then can do defies all natural laws.

 

Engineering

 

The Chief Engineer explaining the ship and his job. He has been on Freedom since she was constructed.

[Raenstoirm]

Sea Day continued…

 

All Access Tour continued…

 

The fuel is thick and sticky.

 

Who would have thought there would be snow on a Caribbean cruise??

 

Then we headed back to the room so Stephen could attempt to fix a little real estate wrinkle that had developed back home (he's a realtor) and then to the promenade to grab a snack. (Stephen had gotten a little sea sick on some of the smaller places during the All Access tour, so he hadn’t eaten much at lunch.) After that, we picked up our stack of photos (I lamented on the ones we never got to take..the big red couch being one, the beach shots on Labadee and we only got 1 character pic) and brought them up to the room. We lay on the balcony for 20 minutes and then we were off to the Dreamworks Parade. I guess I am used to Disney quality, because I just found this odd. It was chaos set to weird music.