First Family cruise review Freedom Eastern 9/20

[ampc007]

First family cruise review (never done this so be nice now J ) Eastern FOS 9/20

 

We are a family of 7 kids ranging from 6-16, we had 2 connecting inside cabins deck 8.

 

We paid to park at the port, because my hubby wanted covered parking and the convenience, was well worth it to us. We thought the ship was beautiful and nicely laid out. My kids quickly figured out where everything was by the end of the night, and we relied upon them often for directions lol..

 

I felt our room was clean, but the carpet could have used a much better vacuum job. Think it’s more the vacuum and not the person doing it? We loved our room steward he was super attentive and quickly learned our names even could tell apart our twins. We took the advice from reading things here, and moved the glass coffee table into the closest. We then placed our shoes under and on top. Placed our bags under the beds. Best purchase was a mini surge protector 3 outlets and usb charger . With 3 teens and all the “hair” stuff definitely needed the extra outlets. Also brought along some magnetic door hooks, and clips which we used to hang up our cover ups and post the cruise compass for the day. Brought along some highlighters (but I’m the only one who used it) which was helpful as well. We carried on a small case of water bottles and between the 2 fridges we were able to add about 4-6 bottles every day with out having to move any of the other things inside with plenty of room. We left the bathroom light on every night as a night light. The kids watched Madagascar 1000x j/k sortof but that is the only channel that was ever on in our room it seemed lol

 

We had MTD reserved every night, and after the first night requested the same table with no problems. We also loved our wait staff!! the assistant was much more personable though and did tricks and things for the kids. They sure work hard! We all took advantage of being able to try and order multiple things, we routinely ordered 3 apptz and 2 dinners (not much went to waste) I think we all gained about 8pds lol. The kids loved being able to order anything! I know food is subjective, for the most part we all liked our food. It was much better than “wedding” food. We thought the lobster night was great! The only part that never wowed me was the desserts…. For me nothing stood out, it was all ok, not bad and not great.

 

We ate most mornings in the Windjammer we found a table first and then took turns getting our food since there were 9 of us total. There were a lot of choices, but nothing here was fantastic, you can’t really mess up breakfast, but was just ok. Wish they would have had different cut up fruit choices, and more muffin, donut, pastry choices. The one day we ate in the dining room for breakfast took forever and the wait staff was no where near as friendly as our dinner staff. We ate once in the dining room for lunch and the salad bar that everyone talks about was amazing!!! Definitely a must do. Again tho the staff was just not as friendly as at dinner. They didn’t even give us a kids menu and said there wasn’t one? (they did have chicken fingers on main menu tho) We loved sorrentos sandwiches, the pizza was fine for what it was. Café Promenade also had great sandwich choices. LOVED the fact that there was a star bucks available (but no Pumpkin spice :( ) We got the older kids the Soda package and not sure we would do that again or not? The only complaint really about the dining room, was they never seemed to ask us if we wanted drinks, and when we asked for them , they took forever to come. No one wanted to carry around the soda mug. We mostly just went to the pool bar. (They would ask for Shirley temples no problem)

 

The kids H2O area is wonderful! The main pool area was way to crowded for us with smaller kids. We usually just stayed by the kids area, and I did try the hot tub in the Solorium one day. Which was nice, but honestly the Solorium is where we thought most of the chair hogs were lol. Every time we would go through there were no chairs, and hardly anyone in the pool lol. But maybe our timing was just off? But their chairs sure seem comfy.

 

The kids loved loved loved all the choices for activitites.. They tried it all. My older teens had no interest in trying out the teen club, they went once to something and said it was “lame” I think it was because they combined the ages groups tho. My twins never wanted to go to the club, so that surprised me some, but when we picked them up, they said they had fun… That group was also combined. I have to be honest though I have a lot of friends who only sail Disney, and have nothing but rave reviews of the kids club. So maybe my expectations were high? But I wasn’t overly impressed. The main thing here was the staff, they were nice and all, but not overly friendly, and didn’t seem to go out of their way to make the newcomers feel welcome… just my opinion.

 

We loved the ports. The older kids did the Aqua Park in Coco Cay and said it was fun, but much harder than it looks! The little ones had fun just floating around and trying to snorkel on their own. We enjoyed putting our chairs down in the water. Tried the Coco Loco was pretty good but not as good as what I had in St.Thomas. The BBQ was fine for what it was, but wished they would have had more covered seating. It was HOT! Not sure if all of Coco Cay is like this or not, but the area we were in (by the Aqua Park) was very rocky and had to be careful where you walked in the water.

 

St. Thomas we jumped in a cab and went to Sapphire Beach (She kept trying to get us to go to Coki) $10 pp each way. We loved our choice, hardly anyone there and beautiful. We rented some chairs and they had floats for the kids. Ordered a wonderful lunch and had drinks. The best drink ever was the BBC…. Banana Baileys Colada yummy!!! WE also rented a jet ski over by the marina. Much cheaper than what they charged on Coco Cay. Stayed for about 3 hours our taxi driver came back to get us no problem, walked around port (shopped) and tried everyone of the Cruzan samples lol.. St. Thomas was our favorite for sure!

 

ST. Maarten we did the RCCL excursion Airport Adventure SXM

Was about a 3 hour tour… they take you out to Maho and you can swim, snorkel etc there is NO beach access tho. They offer food and drinks on board and the crew was great!! Was a lot of fun, the kids being novice snorkels loved the experience. We saw a lot of smaller commuter type planes. Was fine for what we wanted. I did a review over on the St. Maarten page. The little kids were hot and tired when we came back, so that is all we did.

 

We thought the onboard entertainment was great, the kids loved the shows and one of my twins got picked to be in the ice show (the first show) when they pull them around at the end :) (yes it was an issue that the “other” twin didn’t get picked lol) but was made better by a cupcake and ice cream ;) We really enjoyed the Elton John guy he was funny and really good! Entertainment is also subjective, but we didn’t enjoy Drew Thomas, way to chatty lol… My husband and son went to the first comedian and said he was funny, we went to the late show the last night of the other guy and walked out… didn’t think he was that funny, if all you have to go on is the F word, well that’s not my thing. Heard great things about the Schooners guy, he was pretty good, got better as the night went on lol.. No disrespect here, but we felt very under aged in there lol. Our favorite night was the 70’s party in the promenade lots of fun, then we went up to the silent Disco to people watch… pretty funny and fun. We thought Casey the Cruise Director was awesome!!!

Well that’s all I can think of (sorry much longer than I intended) if anyone has any questions let me know.

 

Oh and the whole towel check out thing was a PITA… but it’s all good, we had a GREAT time and would for sure do it again!!! We couldn’t have asked for better weather :)

 

Not sure if this is a tip or not, but When we returned we grabbed a porter that takes you through a separate line and seemed much faster than going through the “other” line.

[ampc007]

I don't know how to move this over to the Freedom page.. sorry

[momof4_tn]

Thanks for this. We leave on Sunday for the same itinerary. We have a private driver booked for St Maarten, but I haven't made any plans for St Thomas.

 

Was Sapphire a nice beach? Was that cab fare for all of you? There are 5 of us and I was worried about the cost. You said you rented chairs and had lunch. How much did those things cost? Was the water clear? Was the beach sand or rocky?

 

Trying to make a decision before we leave on which beach to visit in St Thomas. Thanks

[ampc007]

Thanks for this. We leave on Sunday for the same itinerary. We have a private driver booked for St Maarten, but I haven't made any plans for St Thomas.

 

Was Sapphire a nice beach? Was that cab fare for all of you? There are 5 of us and I was worried about the cost. You said you rented chairs and had lunch. How much did those things cost? Was the water clear? Was the beach sand or rocky?

 

Trying to make a decision before we leave on which beach to visit in St Thomas. Thanks

 

yes it was $10 pp each way so $20 plus tip.. My hubby took care of the rental, but I believe it was $9 for the chair rental ( I think they gave us the kids noodles and floats for free) The food was VERY big portions we thought, and ranged from $9-14.. The Mahi Mahi was really good. I the drinks also ranged from $6-10 dollars I think.. wasn't cheap by any means but was good. The beach girls will give you a menu. The water was crystal clear and lots of fish for snorkeling .. There was alot of seaweed on the shore, and parts of the water were rocky, but we thought coca cay was way more rocky in the water. We had some friends on the boat that went to Megans Bay and said it was great. From what I've been told you really can't go wrong with any of the beaches here hope that helps. Enjoy!

[RAYMORRA]

Did your smaller kids go just once to the kids club or did they try it again? How about at night after dinner for a few hours? I'm traveling with a 5 year old girl and 8 year old boy...hoping that they combine those two age groups as they are very shy and won't even try it if they have to be separated.

 

Thank you for the review! we sail in a couple of weeks so this helps with the excitement!

[SimonTemplar]

Thank you for the review. We leave Sunday and your post is helpful to us. Glad you had a good time on FotS!

[ampc007]

Did your smaller kids go just once to the kids club or did they try it again? How about at night after dinner for a few hours? I'm traveling with a 5 year old girl and 8 year old boy...hoping that they combine those two age groups as they are very shy and won't even try it if they have to be separated.

 

Thank you for the review! we sail in a couple of weeks so this helps with the excitement!

 

My boys went 4x, never for more than 2hours. 2x after dinner and 2 afternoons. Although they never wanted to go on their own, they did always say they had fun. I'm sure you will be able to bump up your dd to the next group 6-8 so they can be together.. Just ask. Our older dd just turned 12 the day before and we didn't want her in the teen group, and they said no problem to bump her down. We never did put her in, and ended up giving her more freedom than we thought we would, but all worked out.

 

Enjoy!!!

Thank you for the review. We leave Sunday and your post is helpful to us. Glad you had a good time on FotS!

Enjoy your trip!