WannaCruise

This morning from our balcony (through the door because this is the loudest worst door lock handle ever).  


We are in Cozumel today and plan on doing nothing! Jane

We are past final payment and now all checked in for a four day on Freedom of the Seas January 23, 2023!!  It will be the first time away from the babies (both under two) for me and my wife for more than a night but, as I told her, we deserve it and at some point we just gotta do it (very fortunate to have some awesome nearby grandmas to help).  It's a cruise of many firsts, we are fortunate to have cruised a fair amount, we will pass into Emerald status on this cruise with a goal of being Diamond in a few years, this will be our first time in a Junior suite as well as first time with Ultimate Dining and first time at Coco Beach Club.  I have done almost all of the Voyager class earlier in younger days on family trips and together we've done two Symphony cruises and a Navigator (the most recent Symphony was during spring break of this past year which was unfortunately not a great time with the crowds, lack of activities, pretty poor service level overall compared to previous voyages and yes a cruise is better than no cruise, yes spring break is always busy but we were limited by teachers and school aged children in the group of family we had with us, so that's a whole other conversation, but looking forward to things being somewhat more normal and not have to worry about the testing drama for a large group, masks, blah blah blah) so while we don't have the time or budget for a big 7 day cruise every year we are very much looking forward to a getaway as the two of us and splurging a bit as our Christmas gift to each other.
I have been getting free interior and ocean view stateroom Casino Royale offers on all of these Florida based 3/4 nighters as well as a variety of older/smaller ship 7 nighters since before the shutdown and not being able to take advantage of them yet due to the babies and work commitments had been killing me!  We were on one of the very last cruises in Feb 2020 just before the shutdown to check out Navigator in her newly amped state as well as the brand new south beach and other additions at PDCC so this is a bit of a retread in a way, but hey, we know what we like and this ship appealed to us the most.  I say that because we really preferred Navigator over Symphony - I totally understand and respect of course that different folks like different things and Wonder looks amazing, lots of fun things to do, but for me the size and access to most areas, the connection to the ocean, the price, the familiarity to get around the ship easily .....that 2020 trip made Navigator our favorite of any ship we've been on and so that led us to being very keen to see Freedom in her relatively fresh state having been amped and then empty for two years.  We likely won't be onboard any Oasis class 7 nighter again until we can afford to truly go all out, stay in a suite, get ultimate dining etc to fully take advantage of all the things those ships can offer.  Being in a 'normal' non suite room on Symphony (without access to my favorite part of the Voyager class, the Viking Crown) and without doing specialty dining etc just created a lot of FOMO if that makes sense?  The base level approach was not for us, I don't think I would recommend it for other seasoned cruisers but would love to try Odyssey and will try to keep an open mind - we're all different and clearly Royal knows they had some challenges on the service end with the recent news about the main dining room menu etc and I applaud them for acknowledging that, but there's plenty of chatter about that elsewhere.  At the end of the day we are well aware of the business model, if you want more than the basic experience be prepared to spend more to get it and so on this particular four nighter we can afford to do just that.  It's good marketing and Royal clearly knows what they're doing, I'm fine with that.
Through a great travel agent we've used in the past we paid a very reasonable upgrade fee on top of my casino royale offer to get ourselves into one of the brand newly built out Junior Suites on Deck 11 (thanks @Matt for the tip in a previous live blog of Freedom).  Final price was a third or less per person than what they have been going for in recent sales.  We both have DBX with Wifi at a great black Friday rate (imo the key is a very expensive, unnecessary clump of word salad for any experienced cruiser who is organized even a bit) we grabbed Ultimate dining for the first time as well as a Coco Beach Club day pass for $89.  
We're flying into Miami from Ohare around noon the day before using American Miles and staying with Hilton points I've racked up at work (can't tell you how much I love having 99% of this entire trip already paid for aside from the cash we'll bring onboard).  Have yet to choose the exact hotel but we will stay on Miami beach so we can escape winter and start vacation mode as soon as we land!  Checkin is all set for 10AM Monday to take full advantage of our time aboard.  In the mean time, I'll be lurking around here and taking in as much content as I can to survive a busy stretch at work and get through the holidays.  I know we will miss our baby girls at times, but it's just a few nights and without them I will have time to review and be a blogger wannabe, looking forward to some time to play with my Nikon D5200 and various lenses, will link to my Flickr if necessary.  40 days and counting, happy holidays to everybody here and thankful for all I've learned so far.
 
Cheers
 

Ok... Worst live... Need to change to livish!  
  This morning is day 4 sea day and isn't too bad temp wise so I have my phone out to blog a bit
DAY 1--embarkation was really incredibly easy.  I set our Uber time for 1015 (we had an 11 time). The Uber showed up early at 10 and they let us into the terminal well before 11.  Porter found us immediately and off we went! We forgot to take pics which the crew member did in 2 seconds while checking the other stuff.  We were sitting in chairs waiting to go on by 1040 at the latest and on the ship with the first group by 1102.  



Note about dining!  We booked individual dining because we wanted the times and still did the 3 day pkg.  Don't... Just don't.  We are still in a mess of trying to refund everything and do far only 1 meal of the 3 is refunded.  My lunch reservation is still showing up even though the Jamie's guy said it would cancel.  No money will be saved because I'm sure I will miss stuff.  There were tons of spots available at 11 and while I'm sure it gets tight, they will work you in.  
We headed up to the pool deck then to start that drink pkg.  I was the 5th person on the abyss slide and it was fun!  Don't need to do it again unless I'm trying to get to the boardwalk but it was fun if the line isn't bad.  



We got to our room at 115 or so (they were ready at 1) and our luggage was in the hall when we got there.  Our room is beautiful and spacious for a regular balcony and I'm glad that I cancelled our Royal up bid.

We've been analyzing the balcony and we are just people that underutilise it.  We were out there looking at stars on night one, but haven't been out since.  Id rather be in the sun and Jeff just usually hangs with me until he can't take it!  So unless we get a good deal, ocean view or interior is really ok.  
 But I digress.  We did the spa your which drove Jeff crazy but forgot to go back for the drawing!  Oh well.  I did sign up for the thermal spa.  I've really enjoyed it, but I'm finding that cutting out time on the oasis ships with all the shows and dining is hard.  I was going to go this morning and alas, sleep was calling my name!  Maybe later today....   I will try and remember to take pictures of the spa area...it is tranquil and Serene if you don't have stupid people talking and playing loud videos on their phone (only happened once thank goodness)
   Dinner was at 5 at the mdr.  Here's my take... Early dining is great to get to shows and that is it.  Sailaway was at 430 and we had to change so we were 15 mins late and it just was a race with it being "dress to impress" for new year's Eve.  Too much so and because our specialties are that early for the shows, we won't see many sailaways.  It's frustrating.  Mdr on day 1 though was very very good. Service was great and we enjoyed the food.  






We had the fine line aqua show tonight and though the story makes so sense, the dancing and tricks were amazing.  Tons of seats available... Maybe because it was Nye.  We hit the bionic bar on the way...very fun!  I have tons to add of pics from both but it's getting hot on the pool deck so maybe will add later!  

   



We finished the night on the promenade for balloon drop.  It was surprisingly not crowded and we had a great time until we headed to dazzles and I lost my phone.  Decided to hit the customer service desk because I figured I left it in the bathroom.  There were only a few people ahead of me but ONE person working!  An hour later I got my phone back thank goodness or this would be a photoless livish boring blog!  
   Overall thoughts from day 1:
***5pm too early to dine on sailaway and most ports.  Do windjammer or casual instead
***This leads to #2.  New years Eve is fun but if it's also embarkation night, it is kind of overwhelming and takes away the fun a bit.  You are busy being wrapped up with dressing up (and the bling was fun) and you lose the deck sailaway vibe.  I'd rather have NYE mid week.  
**The ship doesnt feel crowded at all.  I know we are pretty full, but I've not seen a lot of kids and lines for the slides have been pretty low.  Even first sea day at 10 there are tons of chairs at deck 16 level.  None of course at pool level but it took till 830 for those to be gone today.  Here's at 800

And at 845

So that is day 1.  More to hopefully follow tonight on days 2-4!  Jane

Sounds like you're having a blast, Jane.  So glad to hear it.
I see you got a room with the bed next to the balcony.  We did on the second half of our B2B on OA as well.  It makes SUCH a difference in spaciousness.  Since we are sailing in balconies much more in the next few months, I am trying very hard to make sure that we have the bed by the balcony.

Still beats the view I see out my window this morning... 😉
Have a great day in Cozumel.

Still beats the view I see out my window this morning... 😉
Have a great day in Cozumel.

Still beats the view I see out my window this morning... 😉
Have a great day in Cozumel.

Still beats the view I see out my window this morning... 😉
Have a great day in Cozumel.

1977 in 10 minutes….

We met him a few years ago on Independence. He's a really nice friendly guy.  Very down to earth.

Based on this it seems he's gotten the itch again
 
 

Good morning from Roatan, Honduras!
 

There was. On the paper that I posted earlier yesterday, there were events on deck and Boleros and a few other places. But the kids wanted the balloon drop. They were making fun of me because they said I should have went to the “New Years Chill Out” in the Aqua Theatre. That actually sounded pretty good to me lol

Happy New Year!  Can imagine how crazy Promenade is for New Year's Eve, especially on Oasis class.  Wondering if they had other areas on the ship where things went on?  Or was it really just the Promenade?

Home for the next 7 nights…
Crown Loft Suite - Deck 17



 
Downstairs Bathroom


Lower Living Area


Second Floor





Master Bath


Balcony

This is more my scene 😌
 

That is when we met him too. Super funny. He is probably my all time favourite, but Clo is very close. She is witty and so much fun. 

We had Jamie on Independence. He's hilarious.

We had Jamie on Independence. He's hilarious.

Onboard! First stop…not WJ 😜
 

Can't sleep so I will catch everyone up...if I can remember what I've done! 
  Yesterday was very low key.  We got to the Hilton fort Lauderdale marina and check in took forever.  We were unfortunately not thrilled with the room.  It's fine, but in the old wing, first floor (so Patio is below the walkway and thus feels like a concrete box), and the door has a huge gap at the bottom.  There is no soundproofing at all and we are people not bothered by noise. 

 

The weather wasn't terrific, butt we spent some time by the pool and then ate dinner at the pool bar.  It is truly highly overpriced, but other than the fish tacos (which were horrible) it was good.  The wine... Well, I'm looking forward to vintages lol!  
   Today was sunny and much happier!  We didn't get to the pool until around 11 and there were no chairs at all.  Maybe 10 mins later, 2 showed up in the shade so we took them.  I decided to sit in the sun on the edge of the pool and read, and when someone left, I grabbed their chair.  Eventually my husband  abandoned the shade and joined me.  We ended up ordering chips and guac and hummus and they were all very good.  

  We finally dragged ourselves to shower and head to the water taxi.  It took us one hour, forty mins to get on.  It was a mess :(. Literally a boat would come every half hour and load like 2-4 people.  Once on though, it's such a nice ride. We decided to head to stop 10 to see the mansions all decorated for Xmas.  



We got to bokampers at around 7 and we seated by 710.  Great we thought... And then 30 mins later we still hadn't seen a server even though we had gone and spoken to someone several times.  It was a mess.  Jeff finally went to the hostess who seated us...we actually think she was the manager doing a million things.  She literally took our order, got our drinks, apologized a million times and then ended up comping us our drinks and giving us half price on the food.  It was unexpected and kind for sure!  I recommend the atmosphere and the food was great... Hopefully staffing and big groups dont kill you.  



We did get to see the bridge go up a couple times too!

We literally managed to walk right on the water taxi... Big change from before!  It was a quiet boat till the very drunk people got on, but that's ok.  That will be me soon on the drink pkg!!!   
  So now I'm too wound up to sleep and can't wait for 10 1/2 hrs when I walk onto Harmony!!   My aim is to church in once a day but keep in mind the title of this blog lol!  @Lovetocruise2002 will be blogging symphony and will be much more interesting lol!!!!     I have the Muppet Christmas carol singing going through my head, but instead of "there's only one more night til Christmas" I have "there's only one more night night til Harmony"!!!!! Jane

It’s cruise day!
 
Wish me luck for staying up till midnight tonight. This hotel is very noisy. Do not recommend. All I can say is I cannot wait to hear the sound of the water! 

Glad to hear you landed safely and are there.  Did you check in your luggage or try carry on?  We did carry on in the summer (to Disney in Orlando) when things were a mess, but definitely more challenging when packing for a cruise.  

Hyatt Place near the cruise port has spacious rooms.  It's near Harbor Shops which has a wine store, a Publix and some good restaurant options.

So far, so good. 🤞