Freedom for parents of two under two!

[dr martini]

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

 

[Pamp]

ENJOY!

[melmar02]

Enjoy your hard earned break! 

[Babsy47]

As a grandma, rest assured that some of us love having grandkids for a few days.  I know that for me, it is a win all around — I get grandkids in a limited dose and parents get a nice break and each other alone for a few days.  Have fun!!!

[dr martini]

three weeks from now almost to the exact minute we'll be in the car on the way to the port.  settled on Hilton Bentley South Beach 95,000 hilton points for a one bed king Sunday night before our Monday departure, will try the $50 bill trick when checking in to see if there are any upgrades or ocean views, but it's just one night.  Chose South Point area because I have stayed there before and know a few bars/restaurants, it's a great vibe.  After booking I verified via phone with the front desk that we can use any of the amenities like beach chairs/pool etc in the event our room isn't ready until 3 or 4 (our flight scheduled to land just after noon), will just chill on the beach and get dinner.  I think we can handle that.

[Sweety]

Have a peaceful cruise 

[JohnK6404]

Have an amazing time! 

[dr martini]

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.

As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  

Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

[dr martini]

Saturday - Drove to and stayed at  Rose hotel in Rosemont (suburban Chicago) IL just next to the O’hare complex.  Ohare is a huge airport, obviously, and has a lot of hotel, restaurant and parking options nearby.  We live a few hours away and are constantly debating cost/benefits of taking the smaller closer airports and a connecting puddle jumper type flight vs just driving to the big airport and flying direct.  Winter weather being what it is, this time of year we usually choose to just drive to O’hare.

I’m a Hilton Honors member, the Rose seemed to be the best priced for a new-ish looking hotel in the Hilton family of brands, about $150 plus $30 for parking.  It seems to me like not brand new but more like a reclad and remodel (should I say amplified!?) of a formerly plain looking Hampton.  Booked it for the deal, I don’t know that I would go out of my way to choose it again but it’s certainly fine.  Going for a very modern look, lots of pink and black and white.  We had a single king, checked in with the app, room key and parking was through the app with our phone as a key, nice big bathroom, had a couple drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine with dinner, honestly better food than it had to be which is all one can ask anymore.  We shared some appetizers and a salmon poke bowl that I unfortunately didn’t get pictures of.

 

Parked in the O’hare ramp for Terminal 3 which American flies from.  If you don’t know, O’hare’s main parking ramp next to the airport is labeled in sections with names based on the local pro sports teams which is fun - take a picture to remember where you are!

 

We checked in on our phones the night before and got to the airport about two hours early - American was already offering $300 vouchers for alternate flights (which we weren’t eligible for as I booked us with miles and we had the morning flight we wanted) with all the other madness going on in air travel we wanted to be as prepared as possible and there was also a dusting of snow so we expected some kind of delay just for de-icing at the very least.  There was no line for TSA precheck at 6AM, dropped our bags and met our favorite bartender who is still at the same spot (nothing like knowing somebody) had a few mimosas and left Chicago on a nice big wide body Boeing 787 Dreamliner for clearer southern skies after just over an hour of delays.

 

 

[dr martini]

Sunday - Night Zero

 We took a random cab from Miami International after grabbing our bags and I have to say, that was a mistake and I know better.  We’ve been in plenty of cabs before and are used to the rambling and chatting, the not so fresh or new vehicle, the terrible driving, helping the cabbie navigate through the concrete jungle etc but this guy has to win some kind of award for being the most big city cab experience of all time.  We survived and I will be arranging an Uber black or something a bit more polished for the rest of our trip.  Waved at Oasis as we passed by, we would see her sail away later on in the day.

 

After a pretty good amount of research combined with talking to friends and family who live in south Florida and are in the Miami area often we decided on the Hilton Bentley South Beach which is in the south point neighborhood, all the way at the bottom tip of the island.  There are hundreds of places to stay in south Florida, many certainly cheaper or closer to the airport/seaport but after being here I can say this is a new favorite.  I booked the cheapest room I could with Hilton Honors points (95,000) and had planned on tipping some cash to our check in agent upon arrival to see if any upgrades were available.  This is a lot cheaper than paying the full price ahead of time online and I just trust the staff’s opinion more than some pictures online.  A good photographer and web marketing can make things very deceiving. 

Anyway, I’ve used this trick a lot on other trips to Vegas, Key West, Chicago etc. Just slid $40 cash along with my credit card and driver’s license at checkin and asked our clerk if any rooms with a nice view were available.  She said she would work on it and call me back in the meantime the pool and other amenities were available to us.  Our $35 resort fee at the hotel came with two beach chairs, bottles of water and towels.  We changed into some proper attire we had previously put in a packing cube for the day so we didn’t have to dig through our whole bag in the middle of the lobby, grabbed a couple rum and cokes at the pool bar and headed to the beach.

This will do nicely, thank you.

 

 

Quite the mix of a crowd on the beach on a Sunday, but it made for good people watching and seeing the parade of ships sail away did not get old.  While watching, the front desk called and told me she had a few options, a tenth floor room with a great view of the city and the bay but no balcony and a ninth floor room on the corner that didn’t have a straight view out at the beach, but had a balcony and a view to the south.  Needless to say, I chose the room with the balcony and we were not disappointed.  

This is a two room suite on the corner with a full kitchen, bathroom with separate shower, tub, toilet and bidet.  The fridge came pre stocked with a selection of wine and beers, the kitchen had all of the necessary cups, plates and silverware one would need to do some basic cooking, but we were just cleaning up to head out for dinner.  When in Rome, do as the Romans and in this case being in South Point meant only one restaurant would do, and that’s the original Joe’s Stone Crab.

 We had no reservation but only waited at the bar for 15 minutes or so before being seated and had an amazing meal.  Bread, constant touches from a variety of staff filling water, cleaning the table, topping off wine, sweeping crumbs, keeping pace of service (we chose a family style large platter of stone crab claws with fried tomatoes and hashbrowns as sides.  This was how I remember the main dining room as a teenager on my first Royal cruises two decades ago but that’s a whole other story.

 

I’m honestly a bit sad we don’t have a whole week to spend here on Miami Beach and in this hotel room but Freedom will be in town to pick us soon, as I type this the other ships are making their way into port.  We checked in on the Royal app the first day we were able to and secured a 10:30am checkin time.  I never understand why people would ever try to fly in the day of or not get to the ship early, but then again we don’t get to cruise often and I am well aware we are overdoing it a bit this time around, but it’s precisely because we don’t get to travel as much now with the kiddos in our lives that I wanted to splurge and make this trip special.  Anyway, time to get packed back up.  We’ll grab a small bite to eat and some coffee and head to the port soon.  Cheers!

 

 

 

 

[dr martini]

Day 1 - Departing Miami

 

Got a quick walk on the beach down to the south point pier and back before taking a Lyft ride over the port.  Much better experience than the cab from the airport and a beautiful 80 degree day was underway.

 

While it’s true that Junior Suite guests don’t get many of the full on suite amenities and things vary from class to class, one of the best parts of the experience is the suite check in.  There was no line at all outside for Freedom Suite entry at 10:15 AM, we dropped out bags with a tip to the porters and walked right into the Gold elevators that take you to the suite checkin waiting area.  Instead of waiting in lines, diligent staff watch as you come in and come to you with an iPad to scan your checkin documents and passport.  There are also bottles of water, cookies and small sandwiches if you need a quick bite while you wait.  In the name of research I had a sliced prosciutto with cheese, my wife tried an egg salad and we split a cookie.  The sandwiches were incredible!  Just a great little thing they didn’t have to do, but yum.  It’s not a news flash to most people here but Terminal A in Miami is just a gorgeous, huge, efficient facility that really lets you start off the trip on a high note.

Just a few minutes, say by 10:40 we were all up and moving to walk aboard the ship!

 

 

[Sweety]

We fly Midway all the time. We live in Hyde Park.

[dr martini]

First order of business was to complete all the safety and check in procedures.  We had already listened to the ship horn sound and watched the short video about life jackets on our phones at the hotel earlier in the morning.  Our muster (in case of emergency) station was C8 on the wraparound promenade of deck 5, so we hung a left as we walked aboard and within the first minute had our entire check in taken care of, boom.  Just like that, let the sail away party begin.

Before heading upstairs to check out our room or the Lime & Coconut we wanted to add a few dining reservations.  The unlimited dining package has one slight trade off and I didn’t fully understand when I booked and I do see a lot of questions about online - the rub of it is basically you’re only allowed to make one reservation beforehand in the cruise planner and then have to wait until you’re on the ship to make the rest of your bookings, which can be done at any restaurant.  There are other people trying to scheme around this but I’m not going to get into that here.  We went right from our muster station and went right to Izumi where we had no problem at all working with a staff member who was right up front on their computer with access to all the specialty restaurant onboard.  Our ten minutes of work being done, it was time for a drink and our own little walking tour of the ship!

 

 

Looking at deck plans and even some of the great YouTube tours and other things online is a ton of fun and helps build anticipation to get people like myself through Midwest winters, but there really is nothing like seeing it all in person.  We chose Freedom for this vacation not because of the itinerary particularly, but for the ship as it was the newest Amplified ship of those on my casino Royale offer and because we loved our Navigator experience so much.  Main differences with Nav to Freedom’s upgrades were noticeable right away - things that blew me away were the playmakers space and the main pool deck.  Playmakers is huge on Freedom!  It really is like walking into a new flashy sports bar anywhere in the states.   We didn’t have reservations but realized Giovanni’s was open for lunch as we walked by and we swung in to check it out.  We were the only people there, rooms weren’t ready yet and we thought hey, why not?

Dining here starts with a nice pair of garlic knots and red sauce with a tiny bit of pesto, we had a couple salads and did our best to split the assorted meat and cheese tray which was huge!  Definitely made more for a group twice or thrice our size.

After lunch we walked back down deck 11 and our room was ready just before 1.

Room 1156 is a junior suite balcony that was added during the 2020 amplification by carving back some space from the spa and workout areas, Matt had a post about it that really helped set this whole mini splurge trip of ours into motion.  The room is huge, enough storage for a transatlantic or to comfortably have our two girls in the room with us.  

The balcony is very generous as well, they have removed that middle pane of glass above the handrail, there are two lounger type chairs and a small table with two matching arm chairs.  Can’t get over how great and new it all is.  There’s also a full set of three different soap, shampoo, and conditioner mounted in the bathroom shower/tub and a huge walk in closet.  I’ll have to grab some more pics there.  We took a quick half hour nap, fully unpacked and stored our bags in the huge walkin closet and below the bed and headed back out to the pool deck to enjoy sailaway with a quick stop up on deck 13 to check out the Viking crown lounge, stilled called Olive or Twist in some of the naming on Freedom.  One of my favorite areas on the Voyager class she’s nearly identical to me here, just great views and never very crowded.

Spent a long time in one of the solarium hot tubs that hangs over the edge with a great view of Miami as we sailed away.  

Cleaned up for dinner, had a couple nice drinks at the Schooner bar, looked around the casino but didn’t play anything (yet) and headed back up top for our dinner reservation at Giovanni’s.  The dinner menu is larger than the lunch and service was still outstanding.  We went with salads and Stromboli, I chose a more traditional looking pasta with a lot of garlic and capers and a hunk of grilled salmon floating on top which was phenomenal and my wife ate most of hers before I could get a great picture so it must have been pretty good!  Haha anyway trying to get as much in as we can without being ‘those people’ on our devices the entire time.

Just got docked at Perfect day and listened to a pretty cheesy pop song that I don’t remember from previous trips but hey!  We’re here. Off to try out the cocoa beach club, let’s have a day.

[dr martini]

couple other random observations onboard and in our room

• room safe is broken, called maintenance and showed our root attendant right away so we weren’t blamed for it, we’ll see if/when that gets fixed 
• There are USB outlets on the vanity, which is great, but those are also broken.  Seems like someone tried to jam a plug in the wrong way maybe?  Again not a huge deal but that leaves this pretty good sized room with only two real outlets.  I have a USB hub with 6 outputs, thankfully, but we’re still short as the bathroom only has the European shaver plug only type outlet and there are no outlets anywhere else in the room.  We also requested and have a small medical fridge/freezer unit for my wife to store milk in as she’s still pumping for our youngest aka we are running this whole operation on one outlet essentially.  Not the end of the world, but annoying.  There is a usb plug on the phone and yes we’ll be using that.
• I noticed throughout the day that the pop dispensing guns at the all the bars are Saran wrapped up and not working.  They do have two liters and bottles of all necessary items around but I’m sure it’s a pain for the staff.  I asked our very friendly bartender at schooner and he laughed it off with a shrug and ‘supply chain’ type comment, we all could sure approach the world today more like that.

• Wi-Fi on this ship is blazing fast 

[Ampurp85]

I love Freedom.........So have all the fun!!

[dr martini]

Don’t have a ton of time to type this all up, just going to drop some photos from yesterday and I think you smart people will figure it out.

 

 

[dr martini]

What a whilrlwind!  I knew the four night would go too fast and the week home catching up and recuperating flew by even faster!  We had an amazing cruise overall and it was a great experience in our junior suite, I can see how the full level suite life becomes the way to go, especially on the newer and bigger classes.  I will say though, however, we absolutely loved Freedom and loved chatting with the staff, all around we heard the same story, a lot of crew with repeat contracts on Freedom and other Freedom/voyager class ships, many of them said the same things my wife and I would say about Oasis class - it's just a lot.  That can be a good thing, but there are just so many options, even on a full week long cruise, you might only make it to a venue once, even if you really like it you're out catching other shows and venues, seeing other places and never make it back to the spot you first liked!  It's a good problem to have, I suppose, but it was remarkable hearing many crew say the same thing, they really like the balance and size of Freedom.

 

Highlights from Day 3, our sea day, include the sushi making class in the morning and actually getting a pair of chairs on the top deck in the afternoon!  It's been posted elsewhere but Freedom of the Seas has bright pink seat covers throughout the ship that stand out on the blue lounge chairs asking folks not to save seats and behold and by golly, they actually work!  Great improvement from previous cruises, thank you Royal!

We started the day steaming at a brisk 30 knots according to our map channel in the stateroom and we could feel it on the balcony after previously doing 9-12 knots the first couple days.  It's one of the great things about these 3/4 day cruises to CC and Nassau, not far to go and generally smooth seas.  After coffee and fruit with a few pastries out on our balcony ordered from room service that we ordered every evening for the following morning, we took a walk out on the promenade with the Palm beach/FLL/Miami skyline out to our right, I had seen enough of that around the forums and news sites to guess that there had been a medical emergency and, sure enough, the captain made an announcement around 9AM that we had an ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA code type call in the previous night and the wind and other conditions were too strong for a helipad landing, we were close enough and would be taking a gentleman back to Miami but it would not affect our itinerary, never heard any other details.  We chatted with one of our favorite bartenders about it and he either played it cool or genuinely didn't know that we were going back at all until the captain made the announcement, which makes sense, they don't need to get everyone excited over something that won't affect us much after all, it was our sea day. I also did not realize that on many or even most medical emergencies that Miami Fire and Rescue comes out to meet the ship and we avoid having to steam all the way into port to dock etc etc.  

We watched the passenger exchange just in time to walk into Izumi on deck 4 at 10 for our class.  The sushi making class was full, the instructors were very patient and obviously very skilled, it was a really fun activity and a lot of food, plenty enough for our lunch and well worth the $30-ish per person we paid.  I would highly recommend it if you're a sushi fan.  If you're not a fan, then don't do it (we had a couple people absolutely over the top worried about various food allergies and tastes and preferences and to those people I would love to say, please just sit it out next time and let the rest of us enjoy instead of interrupting every 5 min.  We have some limited diets and those with conditions in our family, it's nobody's fault and it's unfortunate and they have a tough time certain places, but they also don't have to make it everybody's problem either).  Anyway, +1 on the class. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent up top as I said on some comfy loungers with a view of the Atlantic with the usual bellyflop competition and reggae band in the background, so great to feel a cruise at full staffing with full range of activities going on, truly felt just like many others pre-covid.  For dinner we returned to Izumi for the Hibachi and it was fine, the food was good although I should mention that we found during the sushi class that supply chain issues and seafood sourcing in general was very tough, not just for Royal but for the whole world right now, they used to have dozens of different sushi and seafood options and on this sailing had less than five.  In any case our meal was entertaining, we knew that going as just us two we would be paired with whatever spot they have open but we had fun with it, met another couple our age who had a very similar approach to cruising and hung out with them in the casino later that night, had a lot of laughs and some late night nachos at playmakers which were awesome!  Really impressed with the food there and just the whole venue overall.

 

Day 4 Nassau -

Our final day we did the Pearl Island Escape with Snorkel, overall we really enjoyed it and it's gorgeous, but cannot recommend it to everybody and I'll explain that a bit later.  The boat ride out was great after getting past all the usual herding cats that is necessary with any group tour and we rode our large water taxi out of the industrial always under construction and not very clean port of Nassau.  It's well documented plenty of other places that Nassau isn't the most glamorous destination, so we were looking forward to a little boat ride and something else outside of the busy town.  The ride to Pearl Island took about a half hour and it was a perfect, just perfect day, mostly clear with a few fluffy clouds and a high in the low 80's forecasted.  Exactly why we all take trips like this.

The island is larger than we expected, you never know from youtube videos and tripadvisor etc, some things you just have to see in person to understand and it was very beautiful spot, maybe 25 yards at the widest and maybe a hundred yards long?  The very northeast end of the island was closed off and still had work going on, it was unclear if it was repairing damage from a storm or building new spaces.  The island itself just had a lot of highs and lows, depending on your preferences and what you want or expect.  Having traveled the islands plenty before, we knew to keep our expectations low and go with the flow.

Service was very slow to nonexistent, the island is naturally gorgeous but the manmade elements are all quite aged or currently under construction, the boat you take out to the island is very full to capacity and very dated.....being out at the mercy of the wind and the water all this is certainly understandable, if you have a relaxed island attitude and are good with walking over rough surfaces and prepped for a little adventure etc then great, go enjoy, but if you aren't in great shape and don't want to be out in the sun all day, out in the water, if your group is on the older or younger ends of the spectrum, it might be a tough day.  Bar service was painfully slow, we had a lot more luck at the tiny bar at the end of the island where they just had a few liquors and beer on ice as opposed to waiting for every group of 5 at the bar who wanted 5 different blended frozen drinks, the food was very low end (paper plates, fried fish) but we were in for this, we didn't plan on eating much and had been eating too much for a few days straight!  It was nice to just chill and enjoy the view. 

There were two boats back and the first one to return to the port area was absolutely packed, I think that speaks enough to what those folks thought of the day but we loved it and were the last ones to board the later return water taxi.  We spent our honeymoon in a small Mayan coast fishing town, we knew the deal and had been around that vibe before and had no problem with it, we were there for the sun and the swimming but there seemed to be a lot of confused or upset customers who didn't really know what they were getting into.  Snorkeling was also kind of a disaster, they didn't have a good head count on equipment and were always going back to a supply shed for more gear, they made everyone wear a life jacket which is kind of cheesy in 10 feet of water, but I suppose after seeing the mix of people they have to work with I can understand where they're coming from.  Reef had some parrotfish, clown fish, small rocks and clumps of coral.  Not world class, but hey, better than an afternoon in my office with snow out the window!

The afternoon brought just a few grey clouds in the distance and while we never got any rain, we did get to see a nice sized waterspout across the small cut next to another little island.  Having visited family in Florida a lot over the years we had seen them before and weren't scared as some were, but certainly remained aware and in respect of nature - it's like a rainbow or a great sunrise, who doesn't appreciate something so beautiful and unique?!  Weather in the caribbean and bahamas is predictably unpredictable, on warm days the heat rises off the land, creates clouds that head over the water and little showers pop up and dissipate all afternoon.

Final night dinner we returned to Giovanni's Table, which for my vote was hands down the best restaurant on the ship.  Best vibe and decor, best menu with a bit of variety and freshness for every course, best wine list (although I do with Royal had more by the glass options for the deluxe bev holders) and just best experience we have had on a royal ship outside of maybe 150 central park a few years ago.  It was outstanding.  Back to the schooner bar and the casino and just like that, we were back in Miami.  

As our flight options weren't great I chose a 1:30 out of Miami instead of trying to push it with a 9 or 10am and be in a big rush.  We had our final breakfast in the main dining room, our first time in there and it was great.  I do feel a little bad almost for not eating there earlier, but as I said earlier this was a splurge and we won't always be doing the unlimited specialty dining.  It is so much food!  And just like the deluxe bev package, one does feel the need to keep squeezing every bit of benefit out of the package because it's paid for and there's so much to see and do and eat!  Definitely need to get back on the bike and hiking trails now that we're home but we truly enjoyed it and I am glad we tried it out.  In the future I will probably just go with one night at a specialty restaurant or look for a chops +1 type deal, I don't think we need that kind of indulgence every night.  

We loved Freedom and were absolutely reaffirmed with our choice as we booked this cruise largely out of our love for Navigator.  Freedom is a slightly larger and I think slightly better ship, mostly just because the slightly larger size gives her a few more venues and options.  We were so very relieved to see that our experience with staffing and activities etc etc on Symphony in March of 2022 was the exception and not the rule, Royal had things back to our expectations on this sailing and we loved it.  The newly built junior suites on deck 11 are amazing as well, when Freedom changes home ports to Fort Lauderdale and gets off the 3/4 night Nassau/Perfect day cycle we will absolutely be back on her again and look forward to booking one of those staterooms again.  For now, it's back to cutting wood and plowing snow.  Oh well.  Trips like this are why we work.  Top highlights have to be the Hilton Bentley on South Beach, Giovanni's Table, Playmakers, the Lime & Coconut and the PDCC Snack Shack!  Can't wait to be back, thanks for reading along.

[FireFishII]

 Thank you. I really enjoy reading these live blogs. 

[BobbieS]

Thank you for sharing your trip!