MITSUGIRLYS FREEDOM OF THE SEAS REVIEW & PICTORIAL

[Havin'fun]

Love your reviews - looking forward to what comes next!

[swodog94]

Following!

[rdcmadden]

Following... We are on the Freedom on June 16th. 

[mitsugirly]

18 hours ago, RickinStl said:

Following, We have freedom booked for next year

 

Thanks for following. The Freedom is very nice.

 

17 hours ago, 4ptjo said:

Hooray! Welcome home and Congrats on being done with school. Can’t wait to read your review! 🌺

 

Thanks. I'm so glad I'm done with school.  !!!!

 

16 hours ago, crusinot said:

Following!

 

Thanks

 

16 hours ago, RNnNC said:

Following,,,I'll be in a cab to my hotel in 3 weeks!!!!!!! 

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

 

16 hours ago, singinalot said:

hi Kim, happily following along. Sounds like a much needed time away for all of you. 🤗

 

It definitely was!

 

15 hours ago, bighairtexan said:

WOW you are a VERY good sport. I keep looking at it thinking it reminds me of an old Soviet Bloc apartment complex from the 1940s thru 60s!!  I feel as if last time you sailed from San Juan you were in Old San Juan not that long after the hurricane and that had its own set of issues.  But thanks for posting. I am definitely rethinking Air BnB (not in a  good way) for next year.  Hilarious about the table but no "ping or pong".  SMH laughing.

 

Oh no, don't discredit airbnb...they do have some wonderful places on there. We've used them before and some places are simply amazing! We've used them for land vacations as well (stayed in a $1.5 million dollar home in Aruba and hopefully will stay there again...it was AMAZING!)

 

15 hours ago, maggieq said:

I remember reading your last review on the jewel out of San Juan ?  Please look at alternatives for your next pre cruise  stay. I wouldn’t feel safe in a building with thses kinds of security doors on them. Do you check reviews before you book?

 

Yes, my last RC cruise was out of PR on the Jewel. Yes, we check reviews prior to going and they were all good on the place. They have a lot of places for rent in this building and we checked them all and went with the one that we thought best suited our needs in the building. All of them got good reviews. (All owned by different people).

 

15 hours ago, CasinoCruzGirl said:

Following and enjoying 

 

Thank you and glad you're enjoying it.

 

15 hours ago, Missusdubbya said:

Looking forward to the rest of your review! Sounds like your family really needs a break

 

Yes, we did need a break. Hopefully this bad run of news has ended at this point.

 

14 hours ago, blarko said:

So many ports, I’d be exhausted and need a vacation after that cruise! Looking forward to your review. Thank you for doing this.

 

We love the port intensive cruises. We have so much fun.

 

13 hours ago, fyree39 said:

That condo is a dump. Yikes!

 

Yea, the building was but the condo room was nice. We still had a great time.

 

13 hours ago, LuCruise said:

Yah...I always get excited when I see you are doing a review.  And great to hear you're back on Royal.  Never been on Freedom but have been on Independence which is same ship class.

 

Congrats on your graduation!  That's lots of hard work..excellent!  I'm so very sorry to hear all that Billy and your family has been through.  Horrible.  This cruise sounds well needed.

 

Thanks. How was Independence? I would love to sail another same class ship.

 

Thanks for the congrats! I'm so glad it is over with now. The cruise was definitely needed at this point.

 

12 hours ago, EeyoreRN said:

Following!  We board Freedom in 3 weeks, and there are so few recent reports about her!

 

Thanks for taking the time.

 

Thanks for following. I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

 

11 hours ago, SenatorsFan said:

Hey, Kim! Many congrats on finishing your degree. I knew you could do it. And how special to take a cruise to celebrate. (And get a break from all the recent tragedies). I'm looking forward to following along. We just sailed Epic in April with our oldest son and his wife and had a good time. 😃

Heather

 

Thaks so much Heather. I love the Epic. It's the only ship I've sailed twice on.

 

2 hours ago, Havin'fun said:

Love your reviews - looking forward to what comes next!

 

Thanks so much.

 

39 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

I forgot to send my thoughts and prayers for Billy. What a horrible thing for him. 😞

 

I'm so glad your degree is finished! Now wasn't that a huge sigh of relief?

 

Thanks so much. Billy definitely needs it at this point.

 

A BIG sigh of relife! I'm so over school and I hope to never go back.

 

32 minutes ago, swodog94 said:

Following!

 

Thanks

 

22 minutes ago, rdcmadden said:

Following... We are on the Freedom on June 16th. 

 

Thanks and I hope you have a wonderful time.

[mitsugirly]

Ok so just a few more of the condo.

 

Heading into the bathroom. It was nicely stylish and looked like it had been remodeled.

 

 

 

The one odd thing I found about this place....now just to backtrack...the Airbnb homes I have been in are usually amazing and are usually stocked with everything possible that you could need or want for a stay there. They understand people are coming in for vacation and they want to supply you with everything you could possibly use that you normally wouldn't think to bring on vacation.  From all the cooking utensils you need to non-perishable foods and so on. This place had it all....(such as lotion and aloe for sunburns and medical supplies and coffee, sugar blah blah blah...you get the picture).

 

Well....a few things it had I was like EWWWW...why would they leave this here?? Such as mascara and toothbrushes and chapstick to name a few. Now I'm not talking about "in the package" either. I'm talking used and it a baggy. Ekkkk! I just thought it was weird and of course if you are crazy and desperate enough to use them then....I guess that's on you. lol

 

So outside at the pool area looking up to our condo.

 

 

Since our place was at the top and from one side to the other. We had 2 different views, depending on where you were.

 

From the huge bedrom, you had a view of the city and buildings and off in the distance the mountains.

 

 

From up here, we got a sense of direction of where we were and was able to look down and see where to go for our pre-cruise run for pop. We spotted a gas station and also a grocery store near by. Awesome.

 

 

 

From the living room...we had an amazing view of the ocean!

 

 

 

And looking down, you could see the pool area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part of the description on this place said there are a couple of manatees that hang out right in front of the place (they provided pictures of them from a shot taken from the condo), but of course, we didn't have any luck spotting them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful beach for sure.

 

 

 

 

I could stare at this all day!

 

 

 

At night the town was all lit up and beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

So my thoughts on this place. We absolutely loved the condo itself. It was nicely decorated, it was comfortable, came with a lot of extras and definitely a cute place you could stay in for a vacation. The only shocker was the living room was just smaller than we imagined, but the view from the living room was amazing! It had these little windows down below that you could see out no matter where you were at in the room.

 

I believe I forgot to take pictures of it during the day...or at least I haven't found them yet, but here's some from the website from the owners and this is me taking a picture with my camera of their picture (so not the greatest).

 

 

 

So I guess you could say we were happy with the room itself. Just the building and being on lockdown was weird.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Now remember Kendra went with a cheaper room and on the 12th floor. I honestly had no idea what her room was like when she booked it, but I went down the next day to take pics. (Remember she has 3 kids in her room and her rooms always a disaster lol).

 

She ended up with a studio apartment type of setting. It just reminded me of a larger scale hotel room but it was very cute and nicely decorated...also with the beach theme of course.

 

Her kitchen was small and only had a cooktop stove inside of an entire oven/stove and her washer/dryer was also in the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

She had a storage area right before you hit the bathroom that was loaded with things to use if you were staying there for any period of time.

 

 

The bathroom

 

 

Her shower had the stone floor in it (I had this once and didn't really care for it but it looks nice).

 

 

The rest of the place was all open with sitting areas, a small table and the same windows along the wall that ours had to look out.

 

 

 

It had 1 bed in it and a couch that made in to a bed.

 

 

 

 

Now Kendras place did come with tennis rackets and she had her ping and pong in her room. So, I guess if we wanted to play, we could have. Maybe mine had it and I just didn't find it by the time we left. Who knows?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

On to day 2. We got up and I read my text messages from Kendra that came in the middle of the night after we had went to sleep and she hadn't got into her place until around 3am. I knew they would be sleeping in so we decided to go to breakfast and catch up with them later.

 

We headed out of the building, out the front gate with our key, and then down the street.

 

We came across a place called La Brasserie and it looked like the perfect little shop for breakfast.

 

 

 

 

It was like a little bakery but also a small dinner inside and seating outside along the sidewalk.

 

 

As long as the hubby had his morning coffee, we knew it would be a good place.

 

 

I ordered the Mallorca, because you can't be in PR without having one, and it was yummy!

 

 

 

Hubby had an omelet and so did Sakari.

 

 

 

We all thought it was very good, including the homefries. We had definitely made a good decision.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

On the way back, we went down the side street our place was located on and decided to head toward the beach instead. I wanted to check it out. It was a beautiful beach with plenty of palm trees. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, being around any type of water makes Sakari want to go swimming. So we headed back up to the room for a day at the pool. Kendra had texted me and said they were up and about to go find some breakfast. She said she'd meet up with us after that. 

 

Sakari morphed into her mermaid self and daddy helped her out to the pool.

 

 

 

 

She loved that it was so deep and the day consisted of doing tricks, seeing who could touch the bottom and so on.

 

 

 

It wasn't too much longer that Kendra and family joined us....and we were pretty much at the pool most of the day. 

 

 

 

We went out to the beach every so often to watch some of the kite surfers...I think that's what they are called. It was real wavy at the beach and they were doing some amazing tricks out there and going really high up in the air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Billy even managed to get his walking boot off and hobble into the water for some fun.

 

 

 

We spent most of the day there and the kids were happy and didn't want to leave of course.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Swimming and being out in the sun makes you hungry so it was time to head back to get into dry clothes and find some dinner.

 

 

We discovered that there was a gate on the side street...as long as you used the key to get out. Down the street we went.

 

 

The night before, when we were walking around after eating, we had seen a place called Pico Rico. We had decided that's where we wanted to go for dinner. 

 

 

Our place was located right next door to a hospital and you would always see a lot of hospital workers in the area.

 

 

 

 

The food was delicious and definitely hit the spot.

 

 

 

With a full day at the pool and in the sun, then getting our bellies full, we headed back to the condo and decided to just vegetate the rest of the night. We watched a little tv and then fell asleep fairly early. I texted Kendra one last time to make plans on when we were getting up and checking out and off to bed I went.

 

 

 

[dreadpirate3]

I've been looking for your spring break review! It looks great!

 

One note, my family has a condo in a beach area here in Florida, and you have to use your key for everything because they have random people try to use the spa, bathrooms, pools, etc. No barbed wire though!

[mitsugirly]

Day 3...Cruise day!

 

We were up before Kendra and her crew and already hungry. It was time for breakfast and Sakari loved the place we went to the day before and begged to go back. I normally like to try something different but she insisted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to try something different this time around.

 

 

Hubby had his coffee...so he was happy.

 

 

After breakfast we headed back to the room to pack up our things and Kendra was already at breakfast (I think they went to the same place).

 

Our check out time was 11am and Kendra's wasn't until 12 noon. So, we gathered our things and headed to Kendra's room.

 

 

It was around 11:45am and we decided to go ahead and head downstairs to find a ride to the port. As we were leaving out of Kendra's place, there was a lady standing outside with her dog. We had 4 adults and 4 kids with about 25 suitcases (just kidding) walking out of her place. Oh boy. The lady standing outside was obviously the cleaning lady that came in to clean after check out. I know she thought we had all stayed in that room.

 

Kendra and I proceeded down the hallway, talking very loud, and making comments like

"You are lucky that you got to check out at 12 and OUR ROOM was 11"

"Your room was nice, but the view from OUR room on the top floor was amazing"

"Yea mom, I wish I had to view you did from YOUR room"

 

and so on. LOL   Fingers crossed our coverup story was believable to the cleaning lady.

 

Outside was a stray cat that we played with while we waited on Uber to pick us up. Kam had a husky dog beanie boo that she put down in front of it and a catfight broke out at that point. We never laughed so hard. That cat was seriously threatened by the stuffed animal.

 

 

 

 

Uber came and we all piled in.

 

 

 

Sakari was showing the kids the magic trick she learned from youtube. lol

 

 

 

And we finally arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Kendra said "that ship looks old and little". Hmm, I didn't understand why she thought that but after prying a little, it came down to saying that it was because of the green tinted windows. (She remembered when she was little and we went on RC that they all the green tinted windows and didn't realize it was just a RC thing). Little? I'm not sure where she got that from. 

 

We did walk to the grocery store prior to leaving the condo to get pop and they did allow us to check the luggage in with it instead of carrying it around with us. Woo hoo!

 

CHECK IN WAS SUPER QUICK! Like I noticed this last time as well. Not much of a line and if there was, it moved FAST and nonstop. We were checked in, and walking up to the ship in no time. 

 

 

 

 

Yea, she's excited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[carnival03]

Thanks for the review, I always enjoy them. We're headed out on Anthem of the Seas on a completely different itinerary (Bermuda, St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee) in just under three weeks, but your review is definitely pasings by the time that seems like it's dragging lol.

[mitsugirly]

Billy is not a breakfast person, so by the time we made it on the ship, he was starving and the first thing we did was head to the buffet.

 

They were celebrating Easter and had a cute display as you walk in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch was good and the amount and variety of food on this ship was plentiful and amazing! The rest of the cruise would continue to offer a wide variety of foods during meals and we found that everything was good! This would be Billys first cruise with RC and he even made the comment that all the food was fantastic.

 

 

 

The hubby wasn't hungry yet, so he just hung out for awhile.

 

[mitsugirly]

We decided to go check out our rooms. We headed to Kendras room first.

 

She had an interior, but it did come with a curtain.

 

 

 

She was in room 7657 toward the back of the ship.

 

 

 

Sorry I had the wrong setting on my camera when I took pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

I liked that they had a couch in it. We have only had a couch in a few of the interior rooms and it makes it feel bigger to me.

 

 

 

 

 

Your standard small bathroom with super small round shower. I hate these things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LikeAllCruiseLines]

When were your cabins ready? Great Review

[mitsugirly]

Now remember I decided to go with a bigger room this time. I booked the Ultra Spacious Oceanview at the front of the ship. Kendra kept making fun of me for paying an extra $500-600 to do this but remember...this is my graduation cruise and I deserve it!

 

We stayed in room 9200 (which I would later discover that ours and the room on the other side of us (9500) were the same size but the room on the other side of us and down were smaller. I did get a glimpse of some of the mini suites down the hall from us and they were very small in comparision.

 

 

I walked in and was OH EM GEE! This thing is HUGE! wow!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The space was AMAZING! A living room/couch area (the couch pulled out into a bed) and there was a curtain to block that area off.

 

Then the bedroom area consisted of a sitting area too..over by the windows. There was TONS of closet space, drawers, places to hang clothes and even the mirrors at the sitting table opened up for more storage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also had 2 desks to sit at.

 

 

 

This room definitely got Sakari's approval (notice her ok hand signal).

 

 

The sitting area beyond the bed and by the windows. There were 2 chairs (one on each side) with foot stools and those opened up for additional storage as well. There was a glass table in the middle of them, but we just pushed it in the corner because I wanted to stand there to look out the windows.

 

 

 

 

Now lets talk about the bathroom again...SO SMALL! It was the same size as any other bathroom, like the interiors, and I would have thought with all this space they could have extended it some and made it bigger. I would have definitely gave up part of the room at the second desk area for a bigger bathroom and shower. Ugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we come to Sakari's "room". She absolutely loved this. I was like having her very own place. It had a bunk bed in it and she claimed the top bunk. lol  It also had a nice sized closet in it and she was able to have all of her clothes and necessities in there with her. Then the best part was it also had a curtain to pull it closed and she felt like she had her own room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The jealousy immediately came across Kendra's face and she couldn't hold back anymore. She now wanted to pay the extra $500-600 for this room and wished that she had! HA! mom +1 vs Kendra 0. I'm winning.

 

 

They had these magnets to put on your door instead of the normal door hangers when you needed something.

 

 

 

 

 

So if you can't tell....WE LOVED LOVED LOVED THIS ROOM! If I had my choice, I would get this each and every time and now I feel a little spoiled and will be looking for something equivalent to this in the future. I would take this over any balcony any day.

 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2019 by mitsugirly

[LuCruise]

2 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

Thanks. How was Independence? I would love to sail another same class ship.

 

Thanks for the congrats! I'm so glad it is over with now. The cruise was definitely needed at this point.

 

Loved Independence.  Great size ship, beautiful and lots to do.  The shows were great too with an amazing performance of Grease and really enjoyed their production show too.  It was recently amped as well with waterslides, laser tag and Sky Pad (if they bring it back).  If you love Freedom, you would love it as well.

 

Wow...what an amazing room.  I eyed that category room on Harmony but was a bit more than we wanted to pay.  But they look wonderful and spacious.  Did you feel any movement with it being at the front of the ship?

[RazorbackIslandGirl]

Congratulations on your degree! I'm sorry for all your recent loss. Sounds like this was just what the Dr ordered. Loving your review so far. Thank you for sharing with us in such great detail! I too love photo & detail intense reviews. It helps ease the pain until our next adventure!

[mitsugirly]

Since the hubby hadn't ate lunch when we did, he decided he was hungry and we headed back up the buffet....only to find that it was closed. Down to the promenade deck we went to find the pizza place.

 

 

 

Now we usually cruise spring break with our cruising friend (Kia) and her kids. She had her flights canclled all together and wasn't sure if she would be able to get to the ship in time or would have to fly to our first port stop.

 

She did make it just in time (flying in the day of the cruise) and she let me know that they were having an Easter Egg scavenger hunt and then party after that. Sakari is growing up on me and really wasn't too interested in an egg hunt or a party. I really wanted to be at the sailaway party and dance the day away...but where was it? The Freedom has an odd layout on the pool deck and there's really no place for dancing parties or a sailaway party. That was the one thing I really didn't like about it. They obviously had the sailaway party somewhere else because there wasn't anything going on in the pool area.

 

I finally talked Sakari into going to the dance party. The minute I told her Kia would be there she changed her mind. Kendra had also went to the egg hunt and party so we met them down there.

 

The kids were playing with the hula hoops and balloons.

 

 

We immediately found Kia and I introduced her to Kendra and the kids. They participated in the balloon dance competitions and hula hoop contests while I relaxed and took pictures. Kia and I have the same camera (our last cruise together her camera got water down in it and it didn't recover so she bought a new one). While they were dancing and playing games I took it upon myself to do some pictures and videos with her camera of her and Xander her son. I didn't bother to tell her I did it and I wonder if she now knows? SURPRISE! lol  I figured it would be a nice surprise when she got back home to see them when she downloaded her pictures.

 

Then the Easter bunny came out for the kids. Sakari is at that stage where she just don't know... I hate that. I know the days coming that she will learn the truth about the Easter bunny, Santa and the tooth fairy and that's a sign that she's no longer a child in her eyes. 😞

 

 

The kids were given tons of sugary goodness for Easter and then they had another egg hunt there in the room. They had previously hidden the eggs before the party and the kids were to go find them. They made a comment about the Easter bunny would go to the back of the room and you could get pictures with him...but it was right at the point they anounced eggs were hidden and the kids were busy with that. No pictures darnit. (Even though I'm not sure I could have convinced Sakari to take a picture with him in the first place).

 

 

After the party we went back up and met up with the guys and then they decided it was time for dinner.

 

The buffet area had some neat litle areas, including one that we would adopt during the cruise, that was like a little gazebo.

 

 

 

We just hung out the rest of the day and before heading back to the room that night Kendra left Billy with the kids and snuck off to the room to hide the Easter baskets. I told Sakari that I needed to use the restroom and then sprinted to the room...taking the steps down 2 floors, to the room, put out her Easter basket, then ran up the 2 flights of steps and back to the pool area only to say it was late and we should probably go back to the room. WHEW! I don't mind going down steps but going up...sigh. But, for the sake of the Easter bunny...

 

 

We had a wonderful view of the moon reflecting off the water from our nice huge room.

 

 

After Kendra seen our room, she kept making comments about wondering if they could do an upgrade. Well, when I got back to the room, this was stuck on our door (not sure why it had room 9201 on it when we were 9200). I guess that answers her question.

 

 

 

I spent the rest of the evening packing our beach bags for our first port day tomorrow and Sakari sat around drawing on her new ipad art program. Everyone knows what an artist she is and she normally only draws with paper and a pen (won't use a pencil for some reason and she always claims "I don't make mistakes so I don't need to erase"). Well lately, she's been trying to draw pictures on her small iphone with a program she downloaded. I decided to get her an ipad and put a program on there for her to use and we bought the drawing ipad pen and she's discovering how to use it and using color. I personally like her paper drawings better, but at least she's trying something new.

 

She's so in love with her dog (a  husky) so everything she draws is somewhat husky or wolf related. She'll make different characters out of a husky on just about everything she does.

 

This was the drawing she did that night before going to bed.

 

 

 

 

All of my previous cruise reports (over the last several years I believe) have shown Sakari's drawing ability. It was discovered as early as preschool that her ability to see things in detail and draw them were really advanced. She was 3 years old when she first started drawing and she amazes me all the time. Well of course her teachers have noticed it all these years as well and she was submitted for the gifted and talented program from her teachers at school. Kids from every school are submitted and I believe she had 3 kids from her school submitted to the program. She had to submit a portfolio of her drawings and creations (I think this was done right before one of our last cruises) and several judges had to grade and cretique her work and submit whether or not they thought she was a good candidate to attend the art school here next school year (in August). They did approve her (and she was the only one accepted from her school out of the 3 kids submitted, which shows not everyone is accepted and you have to earn that spot) and set up an interview with her prior to us cruising. Sakari passed with flying colors and they were all very impressed with her abilities. The only thing left was to submit her application to the art school and hope for the best that she would be accepted. (They only allow 20% of the students who attend there come from a different school that they would normally attend).

 

We kept our fingers crossed and got word last month that she had been accepted to the art school for 6th grade next year. She is super excited and toured the school and can't wait to go!!! We are so proud of her! Of course, she just looks at it like it's every day life and something she loves to do.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

4 hours ago, dreadpirate3 said:

I've been looking for your spring break review! It looks great!

 

One note, my family has a condo in a beach area here in Florida, and you have to use your key for everything because they have random people try to use the spa, bathrooms, pools, etc. No barbed wire though!

 

Thanks so much and glad you found it.

 

Using the key is understandable about keeping unwanted guests out and from using the amenities there. But I think it's just the barbed wire that weirded me out. But if they didn't want others using the pool and facilities, you would think they wouldn't keep the round turning gate to the beach open during the day. I mean you even had to have a key to get into the building from the pool area as well. It was such a hassel for us.

 

We were out by the pool all day and if you had to use the restroom, you had to use the key to get in the building and EVEN HAD TO USE THE KEY TO GET INTO THE PUBLIC RESTROOM inside the building on the first floor. It was just a little rediculous IMO.

 

3 hours ago, carnival03 said:

Thanks for the review, I always enjoy them. We're headed out on Anthem of the Seas on a completely different itinerary (Bermuda, St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee) in just under three weeks, but your review is definitely pasings by the time that seems like it's dragging lol.

 

Aww, glad it's helping pass the time by. I hope you have a wonderful trip.

 

3 hours ago, LikeAllCruiseLines said:

When were your cabins ready? Great Review

 

I have no idea and I don't believe I heard an announcement but they seemed to be ready right away. I mean they dock at 6am in the morning and have everyone off the ship early. Then you don't start getting on the ship until after noon so most are ready. We didn't have any problem getting in to drop off our things within an hour of getting on.

 

2 hours ago, LuCruise said:

Loved Independence.  Great size ship, beautiful and lots to do.  The shows were great too with an amazing performance of Grease and really enjoyed their production show too.  It was recently amped as well with waterslides, laser tag and Sky Pad (if they bring it back).  If you love Freedom, you would love it as well.

 

Wow...what an amazing room.  I eyed that category room on Harmony but was a bit more than we wanted to pay.  But they look wonderful and spacious.  Did you feel any movement with it being at the front of the ship?

 

I will definitely check Independence out. It sounds amazing. I kept saying the only thing the Freedom was missing was waterslides and something like a ropes course. That would have made it complete for us.

 

That room has changed my standards for sure! I will always be looking for that little unique diamond in the rough room from now on when we book rooms. It was just amazing.

 

I did not feel ANY movement at all this cruise. We did have beautiful weather though, so not sure if it would have been different had we had some wavy water/ocean conditions. I have previously found (as everyone knows)...the lower the deck the smoother the ride and also being in the middle. Then the front (to us) has always been the next choice of rooms. The back is where I have felt the most movements on our cruises and try to avoid going too far back but that's just me.

 

38 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

Just caught up.  I'd love to sail RCI again.  We're talking about trying one of the Oasis class ships, so that might be in our future. I agree that RCI's food is fantastic!

 

I have said for many years I want to do Oasis or one of those class ships. Some day.....

 

3 minutes ago, RazorbackIslandGirl said:

Congratulations on your degree! I'm sorry for all your recent loss. Sounds like this was just what the Dr ordered. Loving your review so far. Thank you for sharing with us in such great detail! I too love photo & detail intense reviews. It helps ease the pain until our next adventure!

 

 

Thanks so much for your comments. I appreciate it. Glad you are enjoying the review.

[mitsugirly]

Ok, that's all I have for now because I now get to sort all of my ship pictures, try to remember what venue/place they belong to and on what deck so I can share those photos. Taking photos throughout the cruise of different places and then trying to connect where they go once you get back home is always the biggest task for me. LOL

[AKR2011]

I'm so happy to see that you're back with another review! I am so sorry to hear about Billy's losses. It sounds like this cruise was a nice break for your family. And congrats on Sakari's latest art achievement! That school sounds wonderful. I've been enjoying her artwork over the years, and it's so cool to see how much she's grown and will continue to grow. I absolutely love that it's always included in your reviews.

[aztekpm]

Wow, your family has certainly had a few bad months!  So sorry to hear that and do hope it's over and good times are ahead!  Glad you decided to do another review and agree loved sailing out of PR.  I'm living vicariously thru others as I don't cruise again until Nov.

 

I hear you with the weather, I was on a girls trip south when you were flying to PR.  It was southern KY before it started warming up and Northern KY cooling down on our way back.  LOL we wanted to turn around and go back to the sun and warmth, so ready for the sun and warm weather to get here and stay!

 

It's crazy how big all the kids are getting.   Sakari has lost that 'little' girl look and your fears about your little girl are coming to life!

[bobmacliberty]

Loving the review so far.  We'll be on Freedom in 2 weeks (different itinerary) so this is helping me get excited!  Do you have a tilt shift (aka miniature) setting on your camera?