Trip Review: Freedom Of The Seas, Eastern Caribbean, May 17 - 24

[Mott1086]

Overview

Good afternoon, gang, and thank you for taking the time to read our review on our May 17th – May 24th, seven-night, Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Freedom Of The Seas, departing from Port Canaveral, and traveling to Coco Cay (Bahamas), Charlotte Amalie (St. Thomas), and Phillipsburg (St. Maarten).

Traveling on this cruise vacation was myself (Michael, age 38), and my beautiful wife (Tara, age 30). We stayed in cabin 9589, an inside room, located in the middle of deck nine, and on the port side of the ship.

This was our eighth cruise vacation, with all of the sailings coming exclusively on Royal Caribbean ships. We have sailed on the Allure (twice), Enchantment (twice), Majesty, Vision, and the Freedom (two night trip to Nassau in January, right before the dry dock).

We had such a great time on that short two night trip, I called my travel agent and we booked this seven-night trip as soon as we got home.

While Tara is the spender, I am the budgeter of the relationship, and had found a great way to set aside money to spend onboard our cruises.

 

Every pay day (every two weeks), I would take fifty dollars and purchase some on-board credit from the Gifts and Gear section of the Royal Caribbean website; when all was said and done, I had purchased a total of three-hundred and fifty dollars prior to the cruise.

Two weeks before the cruise, I called the Crown / Anchor Society to have them send me an amenities report to ensure that all the monies I have purchased were there, as I had done on the previous seven cruises, all without incident. Imagine my surprise when they told me there was nothing attached to my reservation!

After getting transferred and transferred and transferred again, I wound up talking to someone from the Guest Relations department in the Executive Offices in Miami.

She was incredibly kind, sweet, patient and really helped me out by working with the accounting department to figure out what was going on.

The Monday before we left, I received a call from Miami with the exciting news that my “missing” monies had been found. Apparently, the money had been applied to the cruise fare instead of as an on-board credit, even though final payment was three weeks prior to the first on-board credit purchase that I had made. Miami was very apologetic, and offered an on-board credit in the amount of fifty-dollars as a goodwill gesture because of all the confusion and runaround that I had received.

That issue finally settled and we were all packed and set to go with five-hundred dollars of on-board credits ready to spend; the original three-hundred and fifty that I purchased, fifty from Miami, and one-hundred from my travel agent.

Please feel free to leave any comments on our review, ask any questions that you might have, and I will answer them honestly and as quickly as I can. I have a small selection of pictures that I will post at the very end of the review. Thank you again for reading along!

[Mott1086]

Day One: Sail Away From Port Canaveral (Sunday)

 

Tara and I live in Orlando, which makes the drive from our apartment to Port Canaveral less than an hour. To be honest, it helps that we have a Sun Pass, so that we don’t have to stop for tolls, plus the fact that I have a little bit of a lead foot. ;o)

My parents were in town for the week, so they dropped us off at Terminal One, shortly before eleven.

Terminal One, for those of you who haven’t been there, is absolutely stunning. It is huge, and has an incredible flow-of-traffic pattern that works great for the Freedom, and will do wonders once Oasis finally comes to town.

Security is set up with three metal detectors, and while the queue line set-up is quite extensively long, it was constantly moving and did not take more than three minutes to walk through.

Past security there is a set of stairs (for those who want to burn off some extra calories prior to hitting the Windjammer), as well as a set of escalators for the rest of us. Off the escalators and around the corner, you come to the check-in area.

As expected it is set up and separated by Crown And Anchor Status, and we head all the way down to the end, where the Platinum members register. We wait no longer than five minutes before being called now to agent number thirty-three.

The check-in process is incredible simple, sans an extra few minutes as the agent looks at both Tara’s birth certificate and our marriage certificate to ensure her last names match.

Point of reference here, Tara has yet to legally change her last name since we got married; she claims she hasn’t done it yet to ensure I am a keeper, even though we have been together for ten years, and married for almost three!

With Sea Pass cards in our hands, we head towards the ship, before passing an unusually long line of people waiting to get their photos in front of a backdrop of the ship.

We pass on this money-losing opportunity and are on board the Freedom by eleven-thirty, where our first stop is to sign up for beverage packages at a table right outside Boleros.

Tara opts to purchase the Royal Refreshment package, while I go for the Premium Package.

We head up to the Windjammer on deck eleven, and with drink number one in hand (a delicious mudslide courtesy of the Plaza Bar, located at the entrance of the Windjammer), we indulge in the usual café’ fare of hot dogs, burgers, salads, mashed potatoes, fries, desserts, and my favorite non-alcoholic drink, Strawberry Kiwi water.

After gaining five pounds at lunch alone, we head down to the Next Cruise offices, which has been moved down to the Royal Promenade right next to the Café Promenade.

This new location for Next Cruise was the former home of the Britto Gallery, pre-dry dock.

We book a Boardwalk Balcony room for the Oasis, and are pleasantly surprised to find out that the deposit is only one-hundred dollars, and not two hundred as expected. Hot damn, extra money to spend in Casino Royale!

When given the choice, we elect to use the on-board credit for this Freedom trip.

After leaving Next Cruise, we explore the ship and I can honestly say that the Freedom is absolutely stunning and looks incredible after her dry dock make-over. From the updated Star Lounge, (I believe pre-dry dock this was called the Pharaoh’s Palace), to the new carpet throughout the ship and the R-Bar, Royal really went all out in updating this young lady.

We then travel to our cabin, as it is now after one, to drop off our luggage. As expected, we find our Platinum discount sheet on the bed, as well as the fifty dollar credit from Miami, and the one hundred dollar credit from my travel agent.

After a brief unpacking, we head up to the Helipad, which is easily accessed through the door next to the tech booth in the Star Lounge (Deck five, forward). The view from the Helipad is unrivaled, and we spend a good amount of time up there, enjoying the sights of Port Canaveral before taking a quick walk through Casino Royale , (soon to be our home away from our cabin ), the Solarium, various bars for more mudslides, and to make reservations at Sabor for lunch at noon on Friday.

Back up to the cabin we go to try and get a few minutes of rest, and this is when we meet our cabin steward, Lloyd, who is just a riot and overall great guy. He had jokes, mad skills, great advice for things to do in the ports, and always kept our ice bucket full to the brim.

Moments later, the first call for the Muster Drill started, so we started the slow walk toward our station, which if I remember correctly was on deck four…but don’t that against us.

After the painlessness of the Muster, we grab drinks from Bolero’s (a mudslide for me, of course, and Tara get’s a Wild Berry Lava Flow).

This is the first of many times when we discover that the bars onboard the Freedom is short-staffed by at least one crew member. While the lines are not extremely long, they constantly have a line of four or five guests waiting for drinks, with many bars having one, sometimes two crew members working them. This is noticeably different from each of our other previous trips, where all the bars are significantly staffed.

We watch sail away from the Helipad, and the Carnival Crapsensation is first out of the gate; we follow and soon enough it’s time to say, “Ciao, Florida, we shall see you in a week!”

We signed up for My Time Dining, and taking advice from several members here on the forums, sent an email to RCI Dining, requesting a table for two.

We ended up making reservations all week for a dinner time of five-thirty and were seated at table one twenty five, which had an incredible view of the sea all week long.

While Tara and I are both very social people, we both manage hotels here in Orlando, and some alone time at dinner is just what we were hoping for; alas, we made great friends with the couple next to us, and ending up meeting for dinner all week long.

The theme for dinner on the first night was Mojo and Tara had the seafood spaghetti, (which she said was delicious), and I had the strip loin, which was excellent as well.

After dinner, we head back to the room to change, before hitting the casino. I used the restroom and noticed that the toilet did not flush. I called Maintenance, and they said that they were aware of the issues with the vacuum system that was affecting most of the toilets on the ship and would have the problem fixed as soon as possible.

Casino Royale took forty dollars of our money, as the slot machines were not in our favor Sunday evening, so we headed down to On Air to watch some Adult Karaoke.

While I truly believe that I am the next American Idol anytime I step into the shower, I am not yet ready to share my talents with the world. That said, I commend anyone who is willing to provide the rest of us with some karaoke entertainment and several acts were really good.

Special shouts out to the British guy who sang Oasis’s “Wonderwall”, as well as the lady duo who did a great job with “Jose Cuervo”.

After grabbing a final mudslide from the Casino Bar, we hit the cabin for the night; tomorrow is Coco Cay Day!

P.S. The toilets had not yet been fixed as we turned out the lights and went to sleep…

[njmomof2]

Enjoying your review. We've sailed Freedom a number of times, but this is the August will be our first post dry dock, so I'm enjoying hearing about things that have changed or been updated.

 

We too will do the Eastern itinerary, the same as last August, but this time I will have 3 additional passengers joining us...my son's GF and 2 other friends, all 17 years old. Will make for a different cruise, I imagine.

 

Looking forward to hearing about the remainder of your trip. And lucky you to live in Orlando and be just a short drive from the port.

[abw]

Same itinerary in late July on Freedom so I am excited to hear your review.

[tlatrice]

Great start! I'm going on Freedom in November so your review will tide me over till then! :D

 

Question: is there still a Michael Kors store onboard?

[Mott1086]

Day Two: Coco Cay (Monday)

… Shortly after two in the morning, Tara and I were awoken by the sound of the toilet flushing; after an initial fear of having the Phantom of the Opera use our rest room, we realized that the vacuum system was back up and running effectively, so we nodded back off to sleep until our alarms went off, shortly after nine in the morning.

Breakfast, which consisted of a made-to-order omelet for myself, and eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown triangles, and bread for Tara was in the Windjammer again, and, even though we were surprised to see so many still on board and not out exploring the island, we got a great window seat, with perfect views of the tender boats coming and going from the island.

A quick trip to the room to pack for our adventure on Coco Cay, was followed by a non-eventful tender ride to the island, and by ten-thirty, we had reach the island.

Tara found a perfect spot, right before Barefoot Beach, close to some trees, which provided shade for her, and a great view of the sun for me to work on my Caribbean tan.

When the heat got unbearable, we jumped in the sky blue-colored sea and were surrounded by stingrays on either side of us. Neither Tara nor I were brave enough to touch them, and they soon swam toward the guests that were hanging out on the sandbar.

Since we had a relatively late breakfast, (at least for us, anyway), we skipped the BBQ lunch that was provided, and spend a good three hours in the water, enjoying the warmth that the Bahamian sea was offering us.

At one point, Tara ventured toward Barefoot Beach to check out the cabanettes, (clam-shaped blue chaise lounge chairs, which had a shade covering for up and down position, ensuring a completely shaded upper body), which we going for fifty-dollars for two cabanettes, and two floating mats.

As the mats were selling for eighteen dollars apiece, we figured the fifty dollar was a steal, and we took mental notes to try the cabanettes next time we make it back to the island.

I grabbed a Coco Loco as we headed back toward the tender to get back to the Freedom, and made a traditional purchase at the Coco Logo shop, where the famous Coco Mama greeted us with a warm smile and hug that reminded me of grandmother hugs when I was a young kid, back in the day.

Back on board, we stopped by Guest Relations to see if my on-board credits had been posted yet, as was told that no on-board credits for any guests has posted yet, and to try back tomorrow (Tuesday) after noon.

Next up, I grabbed a mudslide from the Casino, lost forty dollars at the Cash Wheel slot machine as we sailed away from Coco Cay, and had a quick lunch in the Windjammer.

Dinner was themed to Saffron, and formal night number one, brought out the best dressed in all of the guests that we saw.

I was pleasantly surprised to see everyone dressed up, as we usually see one or two guests, (traditionally the millennia generation), who show up in jeans or shorts; alas, nothing of the sorts this evening.

Tara’s choice off the menu consisted of shrimp ravioli, while I was a heifer and ordered both the marinated grilled chicken breast and the beef sliders; for the second night in a row, both the service for the crew and dinner itself were impeccable.

An evening stroll around the jogging track where was caught the final ten minutes of Big Hero Six on the Titan Tron (something must have gotten in my eyes, as they began to water during these ten minutes of the movie), numerous mudslide beverages, brain buster trivia in the Schooner Bar, and another run at the slots in the casino (surprise, I lost!), rounded out most of the evening, before we took in the adult comedy show in the Arcadia Theatre (located on decks three and four).

The adult comedy show, with great jokes and stories, featured the comedic offerings of Mr. Rodney Johnson. He was seriously one of the funniest comedians that I have seen, regardless of being on land or at sea.

That said, his show is not kid-friendly, and this is explicitly written in the Cruise Compass, as well as several announcements made prior to the show.

After an hour of laughing our *** off, we headed back to the cabin, put out the breakfast room service menu and fell asleep…

[LuCruise]

Following your review. Love it so far. Must be interesting for you to compare the ships as you've been on a few. We're going on Allure next year also hitting St Maarten and St Thomas so interested too in what you did at those stops. Looking forward to hearing more.

PS - SO smart of you to put a little away at each pay check.

[Mott1086]

Great start! I'm going on Freedom in November so your review will tide me over till then! :D

 

Question: is there still a Michael Kors store onboard?

 

Hi--Tamara:

 

YES! The Michael Kors store is still there. If i remember correctly, it is located right across from Sorrentos pizza place. They have PLENTY of bags to chose from :o)

 

You will enjoy the cruise!!

 

-Michael

[Mott1086]

Enjoying your review. We've sailed Freedom a number of times, but this is the August will be our first post dry dock, so I'm enjoying hearing about things that have changed or been updated.

 

We too will do the Eastern itinerary, the same as last August, but this time I will have 3 additional passengers joining us...my son's GF and 2 other friends, all 17 years old. Will make for a different cruise, I imagine.

 

Looking forward to hearing about the remainder of your trip. And lucky you to live in Orlando and be just a short drive from the port.

 

Thank you for the kind words! Most things have stayed the same on the Freedom, with some upgrades to them. I would like to sail on her with her Western route out of PC before she goes to FLL.

 

-Michael

[Mott1086]

Following your review. Love it so far. Must be interesting for you to compare the ships as you've been on a few. We're going on Allure next year also hitting St Maarten and St Thomas so interested too in what you did at those stops. Looking forward to hearing more.

PS - SO smart of you to put a little away at each pay check.

 

That's a great idea to compare the ships I've been on...if I get time I will do that! Alas, back to work tomorrow.

 

Thanks! I found that budgeting a little every check IS SO MUCH EASIER for me, especially since we went from getting paid every week to every two weeks!

 

-Michael

[tlatrice]

Hi--Tamara:

 

YES! The Michael Kors store is still there. If i remember correctly, it is located right across from Sorrentos pizza place. They have PLENTY of bags to chose from :o)

 

You will enjoy the cruise!!

 

-Michael

 

Thanks so much for your quick reply!

[Mott1086]

Thanks so much for your quick reply!

 

I got you, boo! :o)

 

I'll have to check with Tara, but I believe most of the MK purses were around the $200 - $300 range

 

-Michael

[eaglesfaninfl]

Looking forward to your next installment, we are taking the same cruise next February. We live in the Tampa Bay area so our previous cruises have been out of Tampa. Glad to hear the new cruise terminal is living up to expectations and the FOTS sounds like a fine ship!

[karen&roy]

I read on this board the mats were free on Coco Cay for the water? You said now they are $18 to rent? LOVE the review so far, we will be on her in Sept

[ampc007]

I have been patiently waiting for another Eastern! yay :) this will be our first family cruise on FOS in sept too! We have 2 inside connecting rooms deck 8... looking forward to reading more!

[cruisefan222]

Do you know how much the wifi cost?

[lyban]

Thanks for the review, looking forward to reading all of it.

We will be on FOS also deck 9 in 9300, I have been trying to find out is there anyplace on deck 9 where you can see all the way down to the promenade.

 

Also since our staterooms are not too far from you. Would you remember what the huge white space on the diagrams are.

 

Thanks for any help

[lyban]

Sorry for the small photo, hopefully here is a bigger one, I mean the white spots across from 9300

 

[Mott1086]

Day Three: At Sea (Tuesday)

…Room service came knocking preciously at eight-thirty, stirring Tara and I from our light sleep, with the deliciousness of breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, and my favorite part of the room service breakfast, grilled tomatoes; much to my surprise Tara doesn’t like these, so I get a bonus offering!

The little glasses of orange juice remind me of the Dixie Cups I used to have to pee in, to pass the drug test portion of the high school sports physical, alas, breakfast is delicious…not overly warm, but also not stone-cold.

After quick showers, we discover the toilets are not working yet again, and a subsequent call to Maintenance is placed once more. This time, we are told they are aware of it, and this is affecting some one-hundred and fifty cabins; maintenance says this is a top priority for them.

Tara had an appointment at eleven with the Vitality Spa for a ladies “Top To Toe Special”, which consisted of a back massage, shoulder massage, foot and ankle massage, and facial.

This special was apparently only supposed to be while we were in Coco Cay, however, they told us “due to popular demand”, and it had been extended. The total retail value was one-hundred and forty-nine dollars, plus the automatic gratuity.

Tara went back and forth as to whether or not she should do it, and I told her she should since she works very hard at home, and a good massage would really help relax her.

While Tara was doing her ladies thing, I ventured up to the Rock Wall, sadly disappointed to see that it was closed due to the high winds; soon after I found out we were sailing into apparent winds of forty miles an hour.

With the Rock Wall a no go, I found a perfect spot to work on my tan, located towards the aft section of the ship on deck twelve. I started reading my Kindle and soon found my eyes becoming heavy, so I put that away in my bag, and foolishly (!) took off my and fell asleep.

I woke up shortly before one and immediately felt a terrible pain on my face; a quick trip to the public restroom discovered that not only did the toilets work up on deck twelve, but I had turned into Lobster Michael, as I had intense sunburn on my forehead, where my hat had been protecting me prior to taking it off and falling asleep.

To make matters worse, once I took off my sunglasses, the area surrounding my eyes what white, making me look like Lobster Michael, with bright white Raccoon eyes…Tara got a kick out of that for the rest of the trip.

After picking Tara up from the Spa, which was met with a verdict of “I’m glad I did it, but I won’t do it ever again”, we headed over to Johnny Rockets for some lunch. Impressively stunned by how many people are thinking the same thing for lunch, we wait a brisk ten minutes for a table before being seated inside.

The outside seating looks to be where it’s at, on any given “normal” day when the winds are trying to blow people over. Lunch consists of the BLT for Tara, the Original for me, along with two Coke’s and the half-onion rings / half-fry side; we pass on dessert and for seventeen dollars, (including an extra tip), we leave very full and satisfied.

Leaving Johnny’s, we turn to the left and enter the Challenger’s Video Arcade.

As a Recreation Manager here in Orlando, I am always checking out the “competition” to see what new games and ideas they have to see if I can incorporate it into my resort. Nothing calls out to us, until we get to the other side of the Arcade and come across this game called “Black Out!”

The premise of “Black Out!” is simple enough; it is a touch screen game, where you use your fingers to throw alien-like creatures at the sun, in the events of cleaning the sun up from dirt. It is a redemption prize game, meaning that if you completely cover the sun, you will win a G-Shock watch.

Friends, this game is incredible addicting, and far too easy to add money to your Sea Pass card to play; a mere sixty dollars later and we have reach a personal high score of covering ninety-nine percent of the sun, but no winner yet and no watch. Sad panda!

We then head down to Guest Relations to check on my on-board credits, and are told to stop by after dinner and they have been found and are just waiting to be posted correctly.

We spend a few hours in the room, (toilet is back up and working now), taking an afternoon nap, before heading to the main dining room to meet up with our dinning friends at the table next to us, for a theme of ****ake; tonight Tara had the beef sliders, and I went back to the marinated grilled chicken breast, as nothing else really jumped out at me.

We talk about what we have planned to do tomorrow in St. Thomas, and all come to the same consensus that we would like to spend some time up at the famous Mountain Top, so we plan to meet up at eleven-thirty tomorrow morning, right outside the Galileo main dining room.

We went to see the nine o’clock headliner show, featuring the musical talents of Mr. Tony Tillman, and friends, if he is on your sailing, DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!

This was, far and away, the best production, of any kind, that we had ever seen on a cruise ship. His bio in the Cruise Compass says that he performed as Sammy Davis Junior is a Las Vegas production, and he really does “wow” the crowd.

He has an incredible repertoire of songs ranging from Motown to Lady Gaga, and from Elvis to Justin Bieber. Please do not miss this show!

Following Mr. Tillman’s incredible performance, we donate another forty dollars to the Casino Royale fund, grab some adult beverages, and head up to the Helipad.

By now, it is shortly after eleven o’clock in the evening, and the pathway leading to the Helipad is completely pitch-black, which, in all honestly is a little nerve-wracking.

That said, once you get to the actual Helipad and look up, the view of the stars is unbelievable and the pictures that I took, simply don’t do the universe justice. We stayed out there for about twenty minutes, mesmerized by the beauty of the world, before noticing some incredible lighting in the distance in front of us.

A quick trip to Guest Relations to check on my on-board credit and surprise (!) it is still not there. The agent is very nice and assures me it will be there tomorrow before we leave St. Thomas.

Off to the cabin we go to get some sleep, as tomorrow we are in St. Thomas…

[Mott1086]

Looking forward to your next installment, we are taking the same cruise next February. We live in the Tampa Bay area so our previous cruises have been out of Tampa. Glad to hear the new cruise terminal is living up to expectations and the FOTS sounds like a fine ship!

 

So excited for you! It's a great ship, itinerary, and Terminal One is great!

[Mott1086]

I read on this board the mats were free on Coco Cay for the water? You said now they are $18 to rent? LOVE the review so far, we will be on her in Sept

 

Hey Karen & Roy:

 

I'm not sure where the free water mats rumor came from, but they were definitely $18 on the island. We checked the Shore Excursions brochure, and asked on Coco Cay itself, and that was the price.

 

That said, I don't see why you couldn't bring your own.

 

Thank you for the kind words regarding the review.

 

-Michael

[Mott1086]

I have been patiently waiting for another Eastern! yay :) this will be our first family cruise on FOS in sept too! We have 2 inside connecting rooms deck 8... looking forward to reading more!

 

AMPC-- You are going to have a blast. :o)

 

-Michael

[Mott1086]

Do you know how much the wifi cost?

 

Hey Cruisefan222: The big "special" they were promoting all week, was one device for $10 per day.

 

Toward the end of the week they were promoting a two devices all access for $29.

 

The final day they had a thirty minute package for $9.99

 

Hope that helps!

 

-Michael

[Mott1086]

Sorry for the small photo, hopefully here is a bigger one, I mean the white spots across from 9300

 

 

Lyban: It's been my experiences that the white spaces are traditionally used for crew duties. By that I mean, storage of towels, sheets, glasses, etc. This makes it easier for the cabin stewards to complete their duties.

 

Hope that helps!

 

-Michael

[lyban]

Thanks Michael,

 

Any answer to my other question about anywhere on the 9th deck can you look all the way down to the promenade.

I know you can on deck 8 but not sure about 9

Thanks