FloridaCruiseGirl1210

Yes unfortunately I got the same remark ? might have to look at a different cruise line for his bday cruise.

Hello Everyone, Long time no post, it feels good to be back. My husband and I were looking at booking Freedom for his birthday cruise August 16. We decided to hold out and the next day all the Freedom sailings for August were gone. I called RC and they said they were being held (basically until the completion of the test cruises, i presume). When RC drops new bookings does anyone know what time they drop at? Is it 12am EST or randomly throughout the day? Any insight would be appreciated.

I will be, Probably won't be able until early next week.

Also, I do have photos, but I will have to add them in later...

Day 2: Woke up at 7am to go workout. Yes, I love working out on a cruise, I don’t have access to a real gym (other than a treadmill and some free weights) and so I like being able to get a good sweat in early in the day. Ironically, I apparently went a little too hard and was sore until the second to last day, so I only got one workout in. After the gym, I grabbed coffee and went to catch up with the BF. We went to the Windjammer and spent 20 minutes trying to find just a seat to get food. A lot of people were just sitting at tables, reading books or on their phones with no food OR beverage near them. There were even making announcements made that if people were done eating please clear the tables so other people could have a place to eat. Oy vey, we learned we go early to the Windjammer on sea days or we go elsewhere. After breakfast we wandered around the ship, got some drinks, made our way back to the Champagne Bar, took a nap, just took it easy, we ended up managing to not have lunch since we ate at like 10am. Soon enough it was time for the first Formal Night. We had a lovely dinner and then promptly got some champagne and went to get our photo with the captain. None of my previous four cruises had I met or had a photo with the captain so I was pleased to finally check this off my list of things to do. We ended up purchasing the digital version of the photo (yet to receive the link yet). So we can print it and put it in the photo book I’m currently building. We went to bed relatively early after consuming a few beverages at the Champagne Bar since we had an early morning zipline booked for Labadee the next day.

I’ve been trying to write this recap/review for the past two hours and have been pulled away with laundry, dishes and all the other things returning home brings. But honestly, putting this trip into words is probably the most difficult part. When I booked this trip back in April 2018, I had no idea if my BF even liked cruising, I booked this trip as a hopeful vacation for us. I booked it because I had never been to any of the four ports and had never cruised longer than 4 days. I planned and planned and planned and honestly, nothing could have prepared me for how incredible of a trip this was. The people, the places, the memories, very few things I would change (more on that later). Let’s start from the beginning since that’s where all great stories begin… Day 1: As I mentioned before, I worked until 3:30am the morning we left. I got off on time, thankfully. Rushed home, showered and off we were to the Orlando Airport. Easy peasy check-in, through security (I have TSA Pre-Check and it was 5 mins for me, 12 through normal security.) Our plane was at the gate from the night before so we started boarding on time and left on time. I was not able to sleep on the flight other than just keeping my eyes closed, but also because the flight was only about 40 minutes long. There was no beverage service, we went up and came right back down. I found out on our return flight that the trip only takes 35 minutes, but Southwest Airlines budgets 1 hour and 9 minutes for the flight which I found interesting. We landed and were off the plane to get our luggage by 8:15am. We realized it was WAY to early to go to the terminal so we found a place near the terminal called Joes Café to have breakfast. Not that the food was bad, but we probably would skip that in the future. I hadn’t eaten in about 12 hours by the time we got there so I was ravenous but that meant when we boarded I wasn’t hungry. Joes was right next to La Bamba in Fort Lauderdale and was about a 5 minute ride to the port. A lot of people at Joes had just left their ships and were killing time before going to the airport. We left Joes and went straight to Terminal 29 at Port Everglades. Honestly, I felt like I had been transported to the early 2000s when my mom cruised for the first time. I know it is a cargo port but I feel like they really could modernize it and make it nice. On top of it being essentially a warehouse, the boarding process wasn’t great. We came in and were told to go through the switchbacks, as we went through them the women directing people through security, opened up a shortcut and let all 30 people behind us through and then was laughing and joking about it without apologizing, we were pissed to put it lightly. The whole check in process was fine but for some reason, when we got to the area where we would get on, they weren’t boarding yet and this was 11am. They finally started boarding (or so we thought) and were finally called before we were directed to another holding corral. This just seemed very inefficient and also seemed that no one knew what was actually going on. We finally got on board at 11:45-12pm. Once we were on board all our troubles went away. We went to Café Promenade to utilize our drink packages with COFFEE. It was much needed and I ended up getting specialty coffee every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. We walked around and tried to get food at the Windjammer… It was packed and at that point realized that we weren’t hungry yet. At that point we video chatted with the BF’s nieces who had never seen the ocean before as they are landlocked in Missouri. They were awestruck by the concept of a cruise ship and the ocean it was adorable. Then off to a bar, a lot of the bars were packed since it was sail away but we found a the Champagne Bar on Deck 5 and stopped there for the drink of the day (DOD) a Margarita Azul. The two bartenders Jeinrick and Nino were amazing and honestly this became our bar. We were there every single day, multiple times a day and by the end of the trip we had such a bond with these bartenders and bar patrons that it was so hard to leave. We have now named it Cheers, since it’s where everyone knows your name. After 2 drinks our rooms were ready… Thank heavens, I was DEAD. We got in, unpacked our carry on, took some photos, our luggage arrived, we unpacked and napped until a hour before Muster. I needed that nap so much, it’s the only thing that kept me going until the end of the day. After muster, we went straight to our 5:30pm dinner (last year we had early dining and it was at 6pm, this time 5:30pm, I’m curious as to why the half hour change). We had tablemates this time. They weren’t bad tablemates but the BF and I rarely have time to dine together on our own so it wasn’t ideal setup. After that straight to the bar, where we met people and basically hung out there until the 10:15 Adult Comedy show… I’m not even sure the name of the comedian, but uh, it wasn’t adult. He literally made fun of the fact that he changed a word from Poop to S**t and there was the “adult”. After the show off to bed. I'm going to break this into sections since as we can tell, I'm a chatty Cathy, I plan on doing a review at the end since I'm still gathering my thoughts on a conclusion.

We are back! Unfortunately... Headed to an Everglades Airboat excursion and then the airport. Will probably do my full written recap tomorrow...

Bon Voyage All! Will update at the end!

So far this ship is VERY similar to the Mariner (yes, same class I know). BF is within 2 drinks of paying for the first day of the DX. This will def be doable... sustainable...who knows? Since this is a 8-night sailing it seems that they have dropped the discounted price to $65 for the first.

Food at Joe's Cafe was pretty good and ironically directly next to La Bamba ? Now in the terminal waiting for them to give us the all clear to board... Terminal 29 is quite different than the new RC terminal we sailed out of last year. Oh well...

Food at Joe's Cafe was pretty good and ironically directly next to La Bamba ? Now in the terminal waiting for them to give us the all clear to board... Terminal 29 is quite different than the new RC terminal we sailed out of last year. Oh well...

We have made it to Fort Lauderdale! This mornings flight was painless except for the fact that my feet were trying to bust out of my shoes the entire flight (note to self: get compression socks). Also minimal if any sleep on the flight... Off for some breakfast at Joe's Cafe, we will see how it is... We had a pretty epic sunrise while leaving Orlando...

I am on break at work only 3 and a half hours left. I got some solid sleep before work and finished the majority of my packing! Just add toothbrush! I got my early bird check in A25. The bf checked in normal A33... lmao I'm so ready for vacay

Travel alert done! Apartment so locked box for mail no light timers bc apartment! Fresh perspective ✔ Happy go lucky attitude: Confirmed!

Yep that's the first thing I put in my bag!