FREEDOM AT LAST!! Semi-live Report 5/26-6/2

[bobmacliberty]

On 6/11/2019 at 5:45 PM, EeyoreRN said:

Sail away from San Juan was so pretty, but there were only a few lights on around the forts.  It was already full dark out and we couldn't see as much as we would have liked.

 

We had the same experience.  Our previous cruise out of SJ was pre-hurricanes and the fort was fully lit up.  We told our traveling companions how cool it is and we were disappointed.  I wonder if they are still conserving power.

[EeyoreRN]

On 6/11/2019 at 6:41 PM, skidawg79 said:

 

I’m in your picture!!! Lol.  The picture of the solarium pool, I’m the guy with the sunglasses just to the left of the giant colorful bird (my head is just above the railing to get in to the pool. Haha. That’s funny.  

 

Haha that is funny!  Small ship! 😉

 

On 6/12/2019 at 7:00 PM, bobmacliberty said:

 

We had the same experience.  Our previous cruise out of SJ was pre-hurricanes and the fort was fully lit up.  We told our traveling companions how cool it is and we were disappointed.  I wonder if they are still conserving power.

Yeah I guess it could be the power.  My initial thought was because it was Sunday?

[Getting out there]

I was on the re-positioning Adventure cruise post hurricane that ended in San Juan. I got up a little too late to see the fort, but someone reported it was lit up. I was really disappointed,

[puertorican]

On 6/14/2019 at 3:42 PM, EeyoreRN said:

 

Haha that is funny!  Small ship! 😉

 

Yeah I guess it could be the power.  My initial thought was because it was Sunday?

Actually the forts are part of the National Parks Service, so they are managed and conserved by the federal government, after Hurricane Maria they haven’t fix the lights around the area, the forts did not suffer a lot, they are being there for centuries, but the modern infrastructure not, and that is still not completely up. Sorry maybe in your next trip they will be up completely. 

[umpisoccer]

So did you have a cruise critic meet and mingle event sponsored by Royal Caribbean Freedom of the seas staff on your cruise? If so when was it scheduled for with the ship being in port 5 consecutive days?

[umpisoccer]

So did you have a cruise critic meet and mingle event sponsored by Royal Caribbean Freedom of the seas staff on your cruise? If so when was it scheduled for with the ship being in port 5 consecutive days?

[seabeew]

EeyoreRN,

 

Thanks for your review. Nice job! You have a lovely family. 

 

Any chance you could post all of the Compasses in a separate thread? Thank you!

[EeyoreRN]

On 6/15/2019 at 1:50 PM, Getting out there said:

I was on the re-positioning Adventure cruise post hurricane that ended in San Juan. I got up a little too late to see the fort, but someone reported it was lit up. I was really disappointed,

Aw, yeah that is a bummer. I'd love to see it lit up!

 

On 6/15/2019 at 7:20 PM, umpisoccer said:

So did you have a cruise critic meet and mingle event sponsored by Royal Caribbean Freedom of the seas staff on your cruise? If so when was it scheduled for with the ship being in port 5 consecutive days?

Yes our Meet & Mingle was Tuesday night (day 3, St. Kitts) Olive or Twist, 10 pm. Sadly I missed it. St. Kitts was a long, active day for us and I crashed too early!

 

On 6/17/2019 at 12:42 PM, seabeew said:

EeyoreRN,

 

Thanks for your review. Nice job! You have a lovely family. 

 

Any chance you could post all of the Compasses in a separate thread? Thank you!

Thanks for the kind words about my family!  Thanks for reading. Will do that now for the Compasses. Great idea! Thanks for the suggestion.

[EeyoreRN]

May 27, cruise day 2, St. Thomas

 

Cruise Compass: CC Day 2 0527.pdf

 

Today we had no excursion booked. The plan was to take the ferry over to Water Island and hang out at Dinghy's. We woke up a little late to pouring rain and decided to go up to Olive and Twist to see if the bar was open yet.

 

 

[EeyoreRN]

May 27 continued

 

Today we had no excursion booked. The plan was to take the ferry over to Water Island and hang out at Dinghy's. We woke up a little late to pouring rain and decided to go up to the buffet for some brunch. I only took a photo of Emma's plate to show the GF options.  She said the French toast was pretty good.

 

 

We decided to check our Olive or Twist but the bar wasn't open yet.  Here's the view

 

Pretty gray and stormy.  It did this all morning and seemed to start clearing up almost by around noon, but every time we thought we might venture off the ship it started to sprinkle again.  By around 1 or two it started really looking almost nice but by then we we were really enjoying our "downtime" so we ultimately decided to just enjoy the ship.

 

We got some drinks from Boleros. My favorite the coconut mojito...can't remember what the kids had but it was a boleros favorite

 

Love the glass sculptures around the ship esp Boleros

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by EeyoreRN

[EeyoreRN]

May 27 continued

 

Proof that the sun tried to peak out

 

Enjoying our balcony

 

Peter and I had spent our Honeymoon at Caneel Bay, St. John, back when it was a RockResort.  I spied this boat with the logo and got all nostalgic

 

Somewhere on the ship... advertising the beverage package?  Or displaying available drinks!  Maybe this was the promenade cafe I'm thinking.  We needed something to remind us where we were that day!

 

Eventually we put on our swim suits and went up to the pool deck to listen to Caribbean tunes with One Love.  Very relaxing!

 

Tonight was the first formal night and there was quite a range of outfits from very casual to gowns and tuxes.  We took a middle of the road approach.  We met Rama as suggested after 6:30 at the 4th floor dining room podium.  It took him about one second to show us to a great four top in the corner by the windows

 

Dinner was good, some items were downright great! Service was also good, considering we were kind of barging in. 

 

Appetizers:

Bouillabaisse

 

Wedge salad

 

GF french onion soup (pre-ordered the night before)

 

Escargots

 

Mains:

GF vegetable casserole-tasted like recycled ratatouille from buffet, good but not original

 

Beef so delicious perfectly cooked great flavor!

 

Seafood pasta

 

Desserts

 

This one not memorable.  Strawberry or peach shortcake?  Sundae?

 

Grand Marnier souffle absolutely delicious!

 

Cheese plate, meh.  They need to up their cheese game overall on this ship

 

We went back to the room so joey could change before the headliner, Marquee.  Stopped at schooner bar for some piano with Lyndon Davies

 

 

Marquee was great. Performers terrific but some of the choices a little odd, maybe it could be updated.

 

Back in the room for bed, Peter ( our cabin steward, not my hubby) had left us a towel animal.  Cute, but what is it?  Thoughts?

 

We loved our first full day on Freedom!  Up next, St. Kitts!

[bobmacliberty]

The coffee beans arranged to spell St. Thomas were definitely in the Café Promenade.  They did this for us each day on the corner of the counter where you order specialty coffee drinks.

[ubish00]

Loving your review.  Very helpful.

 

[FirstAnthem]

Can’t wait to hear about your day in St Kitts! 

[EeyoreRN]

On 6/18/2019 at 11:10 PM, ubish00 said:

Loving your review.  Very helpful.

 

Thanks for sticking with me!

 

6 hours ago, FirstAnthem said:

Can’t wait to hear about your day in St Kitts! 

It was SO GREAT!!

[Mamacane71]

We leave in 24 days...Reading this is getting me really excited. We are flying jetblue down two days early from Ft Lauderdale. If we drive three hours and fly from Ft lauderdale vs Tampa it saved us almost $200.00 per person. As there are 9 of us that was a big enough reason to fly from FLL. :) Staying at the Best Western Condado. Pictures and reviews make it seem ok. Anxious to see it in person. We will be doing the ABC and St Maarten route. Thanks again for taking the time to post this review!

[FirstAnthem]

I hope you come back to the review! I’m really enjoying it, and am interested in it because my daughter has celiac and we will be on this ship and itinerary on September! You do really well reviewing cruises! 

[JustUs275]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review! We are on this itinerary/ship in October 2020. :-)

Terri