All Things Freedom of the Seas!

[BillOh]

Does anyone know about WiFi on Freedom?? My daughter's sign language teacher would like her to skype with her classmate a couple of times during the week. Does it cost a lot??? Does it work???

 

Yes, it is relatively expensive and based on 2008I would say its too slow to be practical for Skype. I don't know how much they have improved their bandwidth capacity on Freedom since 2008, but I remember helping another get logged into their AOHell account. Whatever bandwidth they have to the real world has to be shared and I'll bet the passenger portion is severely limited.

[troutcruisers]

I have a few questions I am hoping you can help me with:

 

1) What nights are formal nights?

2) Do you think it's worth waiting to book for a WOW sale or a savings certificate? I think the savings certificate (if there is one) may be applied to an already made booking, I'd have to check with my TA.

3) We plan to book our first ever balcony. Do you have recommendations for which deck or room?

4) Do you think it is best to book very soon, from a price perspective? I'm not sure how much the prices go up on Freedom.

Laurspag-

Usually formal nights are 2 and 5, but I am hearing also that night 5 and 6 are sometime switched.

I cannot really speak on the savings certificates as we always book our next cruise on the current cruise we are on:o. We just cannot wait!

As far as the balcony goes, we stayed on the 8th floor on Adventure of the Seas and loved it. It was so quiet and wonderful. We are going to do the same this time around. You get a great view of the ocean this high up, but are still in the middle of the ship and on a quiet deck. On the Oasis this year we stayed on the 14th floor, right below the pool deck and we loved this too. Its really just what you like and where you want to be in my opinion, but I am sure some others on here have sailed this ship many times before and can add some insight for you too.

We are sailing 2/24/13- How about you?

[MrsB05]

:o Hello everyone! I've been on RCI 3 times so far - twice on explorer, once on Monarch. We are now ready to take a step up to a bigger ship and longer cruise - Freedom! We are going to be booking soon for a February 2013 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise.

 

I have a few questions I am hoping you can help me with:

 

1) What nights are formal nights?

2) Do you think it's worth waiting to book for a WOW sale or a savings certificate? I think the savings certificate (if there is one) may be applied to an already made booking, I'd have to check with my TA.

3) We plan to book our first ever balcony. Do you have recommendations for which deck or room?

4) Do you think it is best to book very soon, from a price perspective? I'm not sure how much the prices go up on Freedom.

 

1) Definitely 2nd night. I've never been on a 7 (only 4, 5,6 and 9!) so not sure about the final formal night but I'm betting 5th night.

2) We too booked on our last cruise which is great 'cause you get the reduced deposit (for us it was $200 total) plus we also got a $100 OBC. Nice thing, too, you can book "whatever" cruise and then switch it to something else if you change your mind/find a better deal once you're home. We booked Oasis September 2013 JS and then switched to Freedom October 2012 and saved about $1,000. It wasn't a WOW sale, just cheaper; likely the difference between Oasis and Freedom. I did also apply a $125 certificate and was told by RCI that I will get any price drops up to final payment. We also apply points from our Royal Caribbean Visa and you can do this pretty much up to the end.

3) We only book balconies and prefer JS for longer cruised. We've been mid ship and aft and never had any trouble. We loved the aft balconies on Radiance class (fish tail). Rooms are so so but the balconies are huge. I believe Freedom has similar aft balconies but they likely go really fast!

4) I booked/switched to Freedom in early February. The price has already gone UP $150 per person! I think if you know you want to go and want a certain room or type of room, it's best to book early and watch for price drops before final payment.

 

Have fun!

[laurspag]

Great info! I considered booking our next trip on board when we were on Monarch in May, but I wasn't sure what we would be doing. Now that I know we will cruise once a year, most likely, I'm going to make sure I do that on the next cruise.

 

I am also thinking the time to book the February 2013 cruise is NOW. I really feel that the prices may increase, and my TA is great at letting me know if there is anything I can take advantage of. I was thinking that we are about due for a Wow sale, but someone told me they thought it would be around May, and I have a feeling it may be better to book now instead of waiting.

 

I love formal nights, but I also want to go to Portofino (I love that place!) and Chops, which I've never been to. I prefer to make reservations once I see when we are where, when formal nights are, etc.

 

I will be on the February 10th cruise. Well, once I make my reservations! This is my first longer cruise. Monarch was a 4 night and both of the Explorer trips were 5 nights each. It is my first time on a ship in this class, and for 7 nights. I'm very psyched. :)

 

Now, what balcony room to choose? Farther back in this thread, someone had pictures of the aft balconies. It may we want a balcony room that much more!!!

[lori450]

Laurspag,,

First of all, welcome to the wonderful world of the cruise obsessed ;)

 

As far as balconies go, I always prefer the hump cabins, a little bigger and the view is wonderful! 9332,9330, 9632, 9630, 8630..... are examples of hump cabins. Since you are booking a year in advance, you might be able to snag one. As far as the aft balconies, (IMHO) I did not like them. I tried them twice. Yes, the balcony is substantially bigger (bonus!), but, for me, I did not like only being able to see where we left. I love going out on the balcony as we approach a new destination, or sail by an island, etc. I found it very frustrating that I could only see the wake. MANY people will disagree with me, but I wanted to give you my experience, just in case you might be like me. The other issue was the cavitation of the propellers. the cabin shakes when entering a port and we were awoken a couple of times by this. Again, not a big deal, but it's there. Some aft cabins have an issue with soot and some don't get much sunshine. On the other hand, the balcony is bigger. If you get a corner aft, then you have a cabin the size of a junior suite (there is a pole in the cabin - but it just blends in). If you are a laid back person who just likes to watch the relaxing sight of the wake, an aft is for you.

 

As far as the WOW sale, I have not found much of a savings, they can sometimes be only a discounted deposit. Let your TA tell you when it's a good time. I have always preferred getting the cabin I want over saving $100. But that's just me.

 

Definitely book Chops. Once you've gone to Chops, you will prefer it over Portofino (Portofino is great too!).

 

As you can see, I;ve been on the Freedom a few times and a couple of her sister ships. The Freedom class is my favorite. If you have any other questions, just ask away!!

[laurspag]

Lori, you make some very good points concerning the balcony cabin. I think I would be happy with just about any balcony, but I'd be happiest with a hump cabin.

 

I'm very lucky in that I cannot hear. I pick up a bit with my hearing aid, but I don't sleep with it in. Noise doesn't bother me in the slightest, BUT I am very sensitive to vibrations. I have always slept great on a cruise ship, but I think it would be less than ideal to wake up while pulling into port. Plus, my husband probably would be less than thrilled.

 

I'm going to ask my TA tomorrow if any of those cabins are available still.

 

The more I cruise, the further hooked I am. :D Crazy, isn't it?

[BND]

No freezer compartment in our D1 category cabin. Can't speak for suites though.

 

I must say though, I was quite impressed with the mini fridge! I read a lot on here about how they are more of a 'cooler' than a fridge. Not true in our cabin at all. The first thing we did was remove all the beverages and snacks, put them on the shelf to the left, and put a post-it note on the fridge saying nothing had been consumed with an arrow pointing left. We then used it for all of our own things. We put warm beverages in there and they got cold pretty quick. If you get the thick silver insulated ice bucket, it'll keep ice quite well - I imagine you could keep an ice pack in there without any problems.

 

We were in a GS in Oct. Fridges are the same mini, barely cold ones that everyone has.

[troutcruisers]

Lori450-

As far as balconies go, I always prefer the hump cabins, a little bigger and the view is wonderful! 9332,9330, 9632, 9630, 8630..... are examples of hump cabins. Since you are booking a year in advance, you might be able to snag one. As far as the aft balconies, (IMHO) I did not like them. I tried them twice. Yes, the balcony is substantially bigger (bonus!), but, for me, I did not like only being able to see where we left. I love going out on the balcony as we approach a new destination, or sail by an island, etc. I found it very frustrating that I could only see the wake. MANY people will disagree with me, but I wanted to give you my experience, just in case you might be like me. The other issue was the cavitation of the propellers. the cabin shakes when entering a port and we were awoken a couple of times by this. Again, not a big deal, but it's there. Some aft cabins have an issue with soot and some don't get much sunshine. On the other hand, the balcony is bigger. If you get a corner aft, then you have a cabin the size of a junior suite (there is a pole in the cabin - but it just blends in). If you are a laid back person who just likes to watch the relaxing sight of the wake, an aft is for you.

How about 8342? We booked this for next Feb. 2013. My husband wants to know if anyone has been in this room or near it and can advise if we made a good choice? Also, how do I know if I will face the ocean or the port when we pull up? Thanks for the help!

[lori450]

Lori450-

 

How about 8342? We booked this for next Feb. 2013. My husband wants to know if anyone has been in this room or near it and can advise if we made a good choice? Also, how do I know if I will face the ocean or the port when we pull up? Thanks for the help!

 

8342 is just on the back side of the hump. It should be lovely. It's just on the aft side of the center-most hump cabin. You will be able to see out and back. The center cabin will be a little in the way if you want to look forward, but won't completely block you. if you tell me which ports you will be in, we will try to let you know which side the land will be on. It can't be guaranteed, but we can tell you of our past experience.

[Flacruiser123]

I don't know if a aft balcony cabin list has been posted for Freedom before, but I put one together this morning so thought I would share it with you all. Feel free to use it as you wish.

 

 

Love this picture with the room numbers! How nice!

 

Our family members are booked in both 7408 and 7708 corner aft's for the Nov 25 cruise. Yeah! And yes, we booked a long time ago :D

 

There is a recent review in the CC Member Review for Freedom from someone who stayed in, I believe, 6414, a family suite, who was very disappointed that she could not look down from the balcony to see water below. I've been in the aft on several cruises but not the Freedom class. Has anyone who stayed in my rooms or higher not been able to look below to see the water wake?

 

I, too, would be most disappointed if I could not look down to see the water wake, the flying fish, and everything that goes with looking directly below. Even with the metal beams on Radiance and Voyager class, as long as we were 7th floor and higher, we were able to look down at the water.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Flacruiser123

[lori450]

That is so cool. I would have never thought of doing it that way (nor would I know how to do it that way). :D

[laurspag]

I love being able to see the rooms like this also. Does anyone have a picture like this of the other balcony rooms on Freedom?

 

By the way, I told my TA I'm ready to book, and I'm just waiting to hear back. It would be a very special thing to look at a picture like this and say, "that's my room!"

[laurspag]

As you can see from my signature, I'm officially booked! Doesn anyone have menus or compasses to share?

[lori450]

Congrats!! you'll have a great time! Unfortunately, all the compasses and I have are too old.

[Singlebarrel]

As you can see from my signature, I'm officially booked! Doesn anyone have menus or compasses to share?

See my post on January 26 on this thread (#1990) for a copy of the Eastern Itinerary Compasses. Have fun!

[ambernjoshsmom]

Finally finished this thread wow lots of info thanks everyone. We are going on our first cruise the end of april for our 25th annv. So excited.

 

Anyways a quick question i know all the pop and alcohol is and extra cost but is water and juice also extra or is there some drinks that are free?

 

Thank you

[ST-UK]

You can grab water or juice from the windjammer anytime :)

[ambernjoshsmom]

Thank you thats what i thought but was not sure

[laurspag]

See my post on January 26 on this thread (#1990) for a copy of the Eastern Itinerary Compasses. Have fun!

 

Thank you! Just what I was looking for.

[troutcruisers]

Hi everyone - Has anyone done the mystery dinner theatre on the Freedom? We have not done this yet and sounds like something fun.

[MrsB05]

Hi everyone - Has anyone done the mystery dinner theatre on the Freedom? We have not done this yet and sounds like something fun.

 

I'm interested to know, too. It's in Portofino?

[laurspag]

Have any of you purchased a picture package prior to the cruse or on the cruise? There is a thread out there about how the pricing, but it inidicates the cost various by ship and length of he cruise. Since I will be on the 7 day Eastern Caribbean, I was wondering if any of you did this. It appears the pre-cruise pricing is excellent, if you are a big picture fan like me.

[lbullard]

Have any of you purchased a picture package prior to the cruse or on the cruise? There is a thread out there about how the pricing, but it inidicates the cost various by ship and length of he cruise. Since I will be on the 7 day Eastern Caribbean, I was wondering if any of you did this. It appears the pre-cruise pricing is excellent, if you are a big picture fan like me.

 

So you basically prepay at a discounted rate for pictures....do you have that info via web... I am interested...

[laurspag]

I did some checking, and here is what I found. Go to your "my cruises" page on RCI. There is a section where you can book excursions, beverage packages, etc. Go the very bottom, and there will be a link for photo packages.

 

It's too early for my trip, but you can sign up for them to send you an email when your packages become available.

 

I chose an upcoming FOS 7 day cruise to get an idea of the pricing. 10 pictures are $149.95, 15 pictures is $199.00 and unlimited photos is $349.95. :eek:

 

These usually run around $20.00 a photo, so the prices for a 10 or 15 photo package is pretty good. I tend to really like the photos, so the unlimited is very appealing. However, it will just be me and my husband this time. Then again, we are going on a 7 day cruise instead of a 4 or 5 day cruise...

 

We had the lifestyle pictures done on our first cruise, and I absolutely loved them. I think I might go with the 15, but I have plenty of time to decide. What I am trying to figure out is how much the packages are onboard? Someone said they are more expensive, but still cheaper than $20.00 per photo. It would pretty neat to know that I could choose my favorite 15 and that they were already paid for.

[laurspag]

Oh, and that little picture next to my signature is a lifestyle photo.