cjappert

We had a DX on our seapass for our Jan 7th sailing on freedom

thank you! ill look into in some more!

We did this cruise 2 weeks ago and formal nights were on day 2 and day 7.

Our kids are 2 4 and 9, so they're still pretty small which is what makes me nervous about having connecting rooms. The suite perks really don't matter much to us, I'm just not sure about how it works with connecting rooms and little kids

thank you Matt! Do you find the Jr. Suite to be worth it? or should we do 2 connected rooms? We booked the Jr. Suite since it was the last one available, but im second guessing it

thank you everyone ! We have a family Jr. Suite booked, does that mean we get to take advantage of any suite perks? if so what are they?

thanks! we booked it for January 7th. By the end of the second day is what I was thinking so its good to know I was pretty close! Honestly we have no issues with getting some drinks and hitting the hot tubs. We just figured instead of driving for 2 days, might as well be on the boat for 2 days, even if its cold, they have bars... and playcares lol

While on the ship, we ended up booking the 12 nights southern on Anthem. We've wanted to do a southern Caribbean cruise for a while now so we're both excited. We really liked this one since it leaves from New Jersey ( we always drive to florida from Canada which is a 23 hour drive, so the 8 hour drive to New Jersey is SUPER appealing to us lol)

 

We booked a family Jr suite since we have 3 kids, even tho the youngest can still technically sleep in a playpen. It was more than we wanted to spend, so i'll be looking different rooms that would lower the cost.

 

For those of you who did this itinerary, what can we expect on anthem? Also, when can we expect to start feeling the warm weather?

We just got back and parked at the port. Best choice we made with 3 young kids!

WHStoneman We were there at the same time! We were at the table right behind you... the one with the grumpy kids and screaming baby.. smh. :wacko:

I'm glad to see this is not the norm in the MDR. We did ask if we would change tables and we were told no. Maybe we just got spoiled sailing with Celebrity. Its the only real difference in quality we noticed between the 2. And honestly, when I got home I had LOST 1lbs, so I don't even know if I should be complaining LOL

We just got back from sailing with Royal for the first time. We went from January 7th to the 15th on Freedom of the seas. Overall we really enjoyed it! We had only sailed with Celebrity prior to this trip, so we weren't sure what to expect. We are a family of 5 ( 3 kids ages 9, 4 and 2.)

 

Boarding: It went really well and was quick. We got to the port around 11:15, and at 11:35 we were enjoying our first drink on the ship. 

 

Our room : We had a family panoramic room on deck 12. I cannot say enough good things about it, it was amazing! It was just over 400 square feet, with a king size bed, a double fold out bed, bunk beds, 2 bathrooms, and a full wall of floor to ceiling windowns with a view of the front of the ship

 

Sabor / Chops : both were great, worth the money we spent.

 

MDR : This was the biggest downer of the entire cruise. We had early seating reservations. We found the service to be terrible, and we were super not impressed with the food. We only went 3 times, after that we decided to just go to windjammer. The first night no one even asked if we wanted drinks, second night we had to ask 3 times to get drinks, and 3rd night we had to ask again to get drinks.. and they finally arrived with our desert. The food itself was fine, but definitely nothing to rave about. overall just very disappointing.

 

Windjammer: Breakfast was good, but lunch and dinner got repetitive. Again, Meh about the food in general.

 

Playcares: Our kids LOVED the playcares and wanted to go all the time! They made a tone of friends on the ship and had a fantastic time!

 

Nursery: Our 2 year old was in the nursery. Again, they ladies there were great. Even tho our son didn't like going ( he's never been to any daycare, so we expected this) they did great at keeping him happy. He went every morning for 3 hours, giving mommy and daddy 3 hours of freedom per day (yay!)

 

Ship: We really liked everything about the ship. Great size, nice ambiance,  nice pools, good bars and a lot less kids than we expected. No complaints here!

 

 

Overall, we had a great cruise. The weather didn't really agree with us ( first 3 days we had 25 foot waves, which means we couldn't stop in Labadee) but those are things no one can control. I think next time we cruise with Royal, we'll book more specialty dining to be able to avoid the MDR all together.

 

theres a sail away party?? we've never cruised with RCCL , only with celebrity so not sure of what RCCL does!

We are leaving January 7th ( yay!) and wanted to know what we should to on day 1. We are planning to drive from Disney world that morning and park at the port (FLL) to be able to get on the ship nice and early. Here's what i have on our to do so far, let me know what ì'm missing!

 

 

1- Book the playcare / nursery for our 3 kids

2- Go have lunch ( is windjammer the best place? or are there other neat places we should try? We are on Freedom)

3- Go request a table at MDR for our dinner ( not sure if we can even do this? but we would like a table by the window,,)

4. Test out the flow rider

 

 

is there anything else we should be doing other than exploring the ship?

we haven't gone yet! our cruise leaves in 2 weeks!

i would love to let the server surprise me, but I'm too chicken... and picky lol. The closest I've done is debated between 2 items and just asked the server to bring me whichever of the 2. Every time they brought both lol. This was on Celebrity.

oh we will! I just love the fact that its on deck 12. So close to the pool, windjammer, daycare ( we have 3 little kids) and of course... bars!! :D

We have only sailed with Celebrity, so I cant comment on any of the RCL ships. In January we will be on Freedom, and I can say we are really excited about it! We have a family panoramic room, which I cant wait to see!

omg don't tell me that!!!! I've been counting down the days to the triangle hashbrowns!! ( no kidding, ive been following a low carb diet and have dreams of these LOL)

nope, I've been to cuba 11 times already ( and we're only 30 lol), so we wont be booking one!

we found the prices really high! we're gonna be staying at Disney world the night before and driving down in the morning. We did that last year and it worked out great.

Has anyone done 'the beast' zipline in puerto rico and used another excursion company? or even just used a cab to get there? I find the price for it in the cruise planner pretty high, so im looking for a cheaper way to do it....

ohhh! I have so many questions for you!! lol

great idea! thank you!

 

Do you know about how long the walk back is? we'll have our 3 young kids with us so I want to make sure they don't complain for hours lol

would you recommend a guided tour? or would we be able to see a decent amount of things on our own?