Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas

Freedom of Seas is a huge cruise ship that includes all the amenities you can imagine.  We recently set sail on the luxurious Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas cruise ship.  Our vacation plans included a luxury vacation that offered activities for adventure seeking couples and this cruise ship delivered the experience we were seeking! This cruise ship has won the “Best for Fitness & Recreation” award several years in a row.  We got on the ship in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; right from the start everything was easy. The check-in process for this cruise ship was fast and allowed us to quickly put our bags in the room so we could explore this beautiful ship before we set sail.  Tip: Royal Caribbean allows their guests to board their cruise ships early.  Boarding the ship early felt like getting an extra vacation day for free.

Freedom of the Seas grand hall

Freedom of the Seas Amenities

Our ocean view stateroom felt spacious. We had plenty of space for all of our stuff and room to lounge around.  The ship had all of the amenities, including numerous bars, restaurants, and pool areas. On the top deck, they had the Flow Rider surf experience, outdoor basketball courts, and a decent rock-climbing wall. Freedom of the Seas also has an ice skating rink that you can try out if you want to be indoors during the day.

Pools

We had several days at sea, so we took advantage of the diving lessons on ship. For an additional fee,
we spent an hour learning to use the SCUBA equipment and practiced in the pool. It was just enough time to convince us we want to learn more!

Freedom of the Seas Flow Rider

The fitness center was amazing. They had every machine you could imagine, along with free weights. They offered many free classes, like stretching and Fab Abs, and you could purchase yoga, spinning, pilates, and boot camp classes. Not a bad deal to help work off all the food! The fitness center also includes saunas and steam rooms.  A full service spa is around the corner from the fitness center where you can get a relaxing massage after relaxing around the beautiful pools.

Gym on the Ship

Cruise Ship Cuisine on Freedom of the Seas

About the food – the buffet, main dining room, and several other restaurants like a pizza place and a soft-serve ice cream station are all included in your cruise price. There is plenty to choose from, and the quality is decent to good. We live in an area with access to some of the best food in the world, so this is not normally a big deal to us. For this reason, we have not bothered with the specialty restaurants in the past. This year we gave them a try.  You do pay, but normally it is a set price.

For example, we had dinner at the Mexican restaurant one night. They automatically bring out chips and salsa and guacamole. You then get to choose an appetizer (try the jalepenos stuffed with chicken, wrapped in bacon), a main course, and dessert. All of this is only approximately $25/person. We also tried the steakhouse. They were running a special for $35/person. Again, that included an appetizer, soup or salad, main course, and dessert. The quality was superb, and the meals were perfectly prepared.

Cruise Ship Dining Room

Royal Caribbean Destination Highlights

Our itinerary included stops in St. Kitts, St. Martin, San Juan, and Labadee, Haiti. We will cover most of those stops in later posts, but I want to talk about Labadee here. Labadee is owned by Royal Caribbean. They rent land from the Haitian government and have put the time and money into making it a luxury stop. They offer many excursions, from snorkeling (we loved it!) to zip-lining over the ocean.

If you don’t want to pay for an activity, there are several beach areas where you can grab a chair and relax for the day. The ship’s dining room sets up their buffet lunch in the pavilion area, and there are many bars run by ship staff so you really have everything you need. Anything you want to purchase while in Labadee is charged to your Sea Pass account.

Labadee

Freedom of the Seas Entertainment

All Royal Caribbean ships offer entertainment. We saw several production shows along with a couple of headliner acts. Everything was very professional and a lot of fun!

Cruise Ship Entertainment

The service on Royal Caribbean is always outstanding.  The staff on the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship was fantastic.  We were always able to find a place to relax without being in a crowd. Overall we had a great experience and look forward to cruising again with Royal Caribbean!

Get Away from it All

I was chatting about Royal Caribbean vacation travel with Cathy & Frank (@RoarLoud ) and they inspired me to write a blog post about my vacation experience.  Their travel blog is RoarLoud, a premier adventure travel blog focusing on the full spectrum of travel, from backpacking, eco-family travel, to ultimate luxury travel.   We highlight the full experience of travel to our readership and have had successful campaigns with hotel, airline, and tour groups.  RoarLoud prides itself on bringing our travels to a broad audience, encouraging everyone to adventure near and far.

Having a lifestyle that allows us to enjoy incredible vacations in beautiful places is good.  Connecting with new friends along the way is great!  I feel like this blog post will be one in a series of articles about our vacation travel with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.  I hope you visit us again and enjoy our future stories about vacation travel.