Deedeelynn

My reality:
Step 1 - What food venues are open? - Let's go!
Step 2 - There is no step 2.

hahahaha... sounds like every one of my cruises.. 

The red velvet cake is the best.

Never compliment @monorailmedic or feed Gremlins after midnight. The result for either is the same.

Well, not to pull latitude on you but I started my trip in Augusta Maine which was zero last night. I have gained 82 degrees on this voyage. ?
The sun continues to shine today on board. Too hot for a full day of sun so we took a relaxed lunch crawl  from pizza and sandwiches on the royal promonade to dessert at the Windjammer. Next we took in the ice show which is the most action packed of the few I have seen on other ships. Always amazed at the talent level! Now back behind the flowrider on a lounger watching the expanse of the ocean behind us. 

21°C?  That's not so bad...

Wow, Kontiki looks awesome !  I'm going to give this one a try next time I'm in St. Maarten.  

Good morning from Freedom! I love life and especially on board Royal Caribbean. This is a very live photo from my perspective with a sunrise shot from our pano room.  More later ?
 

Just a follow-up on the beach place we stumbled upon. Can't find a web site for Kontiki but this is their Facebook page. Also here are some photos...

Hello again! Sorry for the delay as my room did not work with the access code given. Had a day in St. Marrten and just met the internet guru so armed with the new code I am live again!
I will use this pre dinner post to just catch you up on last night.  As I mentioned, with a late embarkation, everything seemed more laid back. My time dining the first night is usually the most hectic and it was actually one of the smoothest nights ever in the MDR. I will have to see if it continues in which case I will give extra kudos to the wait staff. 
The sail away out of San Juan and past El Muro was beautiful at night. We will take the advice of fellow bloggers to enjoy the time at night in the various ports cause it is rather unique. 
The Patriot game was on the pool screen and was well attended with a good deal of passionate fans. ?
The rest of my evening was low key and went to bed rather early. 
Just to paint a better picture of where we are coming from cruise wise, we are in a panoramic room on the 12th deck with no drink package. We may get a drink a day so it doesn't pay. We prefer to search out the more intimate parts of the ship but love all the headline shows. No gambling or art but lots of sun andr relaxation 
Later tonight I will share our rental car day in St. Maarten. ?

following one of my favorites have been on her 4 times and she never gets old

Freedom is my favorite.

It's time and I am jazzed! I start this blog on the front sun deck area up front deck 12. It's my second blog and hope to share enough info to help others and just maybe entertain. 
We embark from San Juan in about 5 hours which has lent itself to be a very relaxed time. We arrived at the port at noon and from handing the bags to the porters to walking on board was ten minutes max. I assume we slid in right after the call of all those that were waiting for the ship to be cleared to board. The windjammer seemed  quieter possibly again because there is so much time before the muster drill. No sense of a rush to get food before they close. 
We are coming back to Freedom from our first trip on an Oasis size ship. Honestly I was surprised that my first impression was that this ship seemed small. I remember how I thought Freedom was gigantic just last year. Well,  not to fear, after walking around during the past few hours, it is feeling large again.  Plus it helps being next to the Disney Wonder which is a good deal smaller. 
I will recap the full day later but will leave you with some pre departure thoughts.
- San Juan airport was very busy with the taxi line being about a 30 minute wait. No Uber from the airport. 
- We stayed at a nice boutique hotel, the San Geronimo, but it's more european style than American. It is less than a mile to the port and about a mile and a half to the center of old San Juan. 
- fortunate enough to have been here for the San Sebastian festival in old San Juan. Good music and fun but very crowded. 
Hope you enjoy following and feel free to ask questions. I will try to track the answers down!

 

ok aren't the ships confined spaces and the lack of personal sanitation the cause of noro virus with all the people crammed into small spaces now we add dogs cats turkeys hamsters and whatever to the mix where does the litter box go where does the dog poop and pee I have seen a great dane that its owner said was a support dog the smell will become overwhelming and what about fleas and ticks does the ships doctor certify the health of the animal I think not I applaud you Royal for doing the right thing in my humble opinion animals do not belong on cruise ships yes it costs me a lot of money to board my 3 cats and 2 dogs when Im cruising but I accept it as part of cruising it would never occur to me to bring little poopsie or Sylvester on a cruise its not fair to all the passengers with allergies or just don't want to cruise with other peoples pets 

As someone who has a Certified Therapy Dog, I always found the "emotional support" animal an issue.  Not that people don't need it, but the ones that take advantage have no clue that at one point their animal could end up hurting someone or another animal if they are not fully trained. Our Liberty is a THERAPY Dog, not SERVICE Dog, a distinct difference.  Many people think when I am visiting with Liberty somewhere that she is a service animal. She provides comfort to Air Force personnel, Hospice, children etc and travels sometimes with a group of Therapy dogs.  She had 12 weeks total training with both my husband and myself. Service Dogs are trained for 18 months in a foster home then 2 years before being provided to their new Handler that needs them.  I think it really has gotten out of control and like someone else here said, it takes a few to ruin for others that truly do need an emotional support animal.

I find chicken to be very therapeutic. Especially after a big night out, a couple of spicy wings really put me at ease ?

People abuse the system all the time.  A former neighbor claimed support animal so he wouldn't have to pay pet rent.  I drove him to pick up his puppy from the breeder.  It wasn't trained at anything, it was a ten week old puppy.   Sure enough though, he didn't have to pay pet fees.  With the talk of more restrictions coming, a year later he signed up for a 4 hour session that provided a whimsical certificate so that he could argue the dog had received professional support animal training.  It was basically a play session with other dogs or so he told me as he encouraged me to follow suit.
There have been many incidents reported on trains, planes and ships where a claimed 'service' or 'support' animal bit someone or otherwise behaved inconsistent with a properly trained service animal.  I imagine there is potential liability if another guest is injured by a fake service animal.   Even if the risk of legal action against Royal is low (or the chance of winning a suit is low), it certainly will create a negative experience for a guest to be impacted and have their vacation ruined by a misbehaving fake service or support animal.
Seeing someone else getting away with it may tempt more to try it.  "Why not bring Fluffy?, they did".
If Royal needs to lean on the ADA to support this change in policy, I'm all for it.  
 

Can anyone explain to me how/ why Royal gets to pick and chose which laws of the United States apply to them and when???
Here they are citing the ADA; yet they don’t feel minimum wage applies to them. Another example, they fly under a Bahamian flag and are really incorporated in Africa yet they have no problem calling the US Coast Guard every time there is a problem at sea even while in International waters. I don’t get it....
The reality is the more Royal has raised their prices the more finicky customers they are going to attract. 
I wish Royal would adopt the same pet policy Cunard uses for its trans Atlantic sailings. You can bring your pet and it’ll cost about $800US. Your pet is boarded in their kennel area, has some type of attendant, and you are only allowed to socialize with your pet in a certain designated room; they are not permitted in any other areas; even staterooms.
 
 
 
 

Actually, Royal can require the passenger to prove their disability, which is allowed under the color of law. The burden of proof falls on the passenger and not on Royal.  For example, a blind man with his eye-seeing assisted dog will still need assistance boarding. In this example, when booking and/or during boarding, the passenger will provide the same proof as before the policy change. But, I wouldn't pass the few that would try and either circumvent this policy and/or play childish games. I see it all the time in Guest Services (i.e., those who complain about everything just to either get a fee waived and/or to get something free.).

Therapy Chicken. I believe that is in a red wine mushroom sauce.

Having a T-Rex would be kind of cool.  Messy though (when it gets around meat/people).

We've been on the Freedom previously and we're back on for a B2B in...19 SLEEPS!!. Ooops...sorry, was that too loud?
I will be sure to report back.

Don't hesitate.... We've been on Freedom 3 times... Once with an aft balcony.  If I get a chance to do it again, I'd jump on it.  My profile pic is from the aft balcony on Freedom.

We sailed Freedom in October 2018 and I often commented to myself as I walked around the ship how great she looked, I don't believe she looks run down at all.