Western Caribbean - Freedom of the Seas

On Oct. 1st I got the priviledge to set sail on the 18th voyage of the largest cruise ship in the world, the Freedom of the Seas. We set out from Miami, Florida (the only port in Florida large enough to handle the beast) and wound our way over to Cozumel, Mexico. Then off to Grand Cayman, then Jamaica then to a little portion of Haiti that Royal Caribbean bought then back home. It took us 7 days and 8 night to cruise out way over 2000 nautical miles.

Initial ship impressions:

WOW. This things monstrous and absolutely beautiful. In its own sort of way that is. Im still partial to the smaller, more classic cruise ships such as Disneys cruise ship which features the elongated front bow and the rich navy blue and white with yellow pin-striping. The Freedom of the Seas is all white but is accented with lots - and I mean lots - of glass, primarily green in shade.

The ship is I believe over 1100ft long and has 15 floors to it. The GP has access to floors 3-14. Floors 1-2 are mainly for the crew except when we board/unboard the ship and floor 15 is a chapel for those who wish to get married aboard the ship. It has 6 huge diesel/electric engines producing some ridiculous amount of horsepower which pushes the 160,000ton boat through the seas.

Run down on Floors:

Deck 3 -

Photo gallery where you can pick up and purchase photos that have been taken of you or your family during the day. Photographers roam the ship all day taking random candids of anything and everything. They then organize and put them out for display.

Ice Skating Rink - This is where they have their ice show and then when thats not going on, you can skate on the ship. We skated twice and Im still a perfect 0 for falling down while skating. Fun but pretty small. I couldnt get any speed up and when I did I risked killing someone or checking them into the boards.

Leonardos - The bottom floor of the 3 main dining room. This is where we had dinner every night of the cruise (cept 1 night - Ill explain that). Dinners were magnificent to say the least.


Deck 4 -

On Air Club - A basic Sports bar with lots of TV's and a large High Def screen for the big games. Also had a green screen booth where you could record yourself in your favourite music video.

Casino Royale - Obviously, a casino. Basic layout. Not too confusing but lots of slots and your typical card games. I played 40 dollars worth of BlackJack and went all in with 15-20 bucks and hit blackjack and won 3 to 2 odds and walked away taking money from the house. yay. Other than that, my fiance and myself arent fond of inhaling smoke so we avoided that part of the ship most of the time.


Deck 5 -

Royal Promenade - A large street like area that has lots of shops on either side along with a very high ceiling. During the day its shops, by night it turns into a centerpeice for parades and fun night time shows.

Decks 6-10 -

All of your staterooms (almost) are housed on these decks.


Deck 11 -

Main aquatics area. All the main pools, adults and kiddie pools. Also the ShipShape fitness center at the front of the boat and the Buffet eating area in the back.

Hanging off the sides of the ship are 2 cantilevered whirlpools that can handle around 20 people and are completely encased in glass. Its absolutly beautiful to sit in and relax and check out the view of the ocean. You can sit up and look straight down to the water beneath you as well.


Deck 12 -

Home to the Freedom Spa area, Jogging track and various bars. It also is home to the kids and teens area which did a fantastic job because I barely noticed they were there.

Deck 13 -

Home to the Flowrider, the rock climbing wall and the sports court. The Flowrider is by far the best thing on the ship. Its completely amazing and must be checked out here:

http://www.flowrider.com/

I did the Flowrider quite a few times and even managed to stand up on the boogie board for a few seconds. I got used to doing a couple tricks and overall its one of the single best water rides Ive been on. Ever.


Ill add more to this later. For now, here are 56 pictures I took (out of over 200) of the entire trip.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/554750986epumtD

Wow, that ship does look amazing. I definetly want to do a Royal Carribean Cruise, especially after doing two Princess Cruises. I went on a similar trip out of the everglades, just in reverse order. We went to Princess Cays, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and then Costa Maya for 1/2 a day. I look forward to possibly reading about some of the things you did at each port, because there are some really awesome things.

Hope you climbed the waterfall in Jamaica or went to Stingray Beach in Grand Cayman!

MY GOD!! It's like friggin' Titanic or something! Normal cruise ships look big to me.. but that's a monster! And it does look good, like you said, it's like a city on the sea. I love the fruit birds.. and the horses/birds in the watermelon.

They have something similar to those Flowriders at Hurrican Harbor and places. That's usually all I do once I finish the water slides. I don't stand on them since it's more of a boogie-board thing, but it's fun to do flips and spins on them once you get good.

I went to Cozumel once when a few years ago.. but never on a cruise ship.

Anyways, looks like an amazing trip, you lucky bastard you.

Yea flowriders are really fun, but have you seen the more intense Wavehouse version that is more like surfing.



There is one right near my house in San Diego thats a blast.

Sounds like an amazing trip Real, the ship sounds absolutely amazing. Does it have any form of a golf simulator/driving net or anything of the sort?

[jayman]

Originally posted by Symbiotic

Yea flowriders are really fun, but have you seen the more intense Wavehouse version that is more like surfing.



There is one right near my house in San Diego thats a blast.

hey.. we're practically neighbors, well.. actually i just moved to spring valley, but i was living in sherman and work in middletown, near kettner and washington..
real.. that sounds like fun.. that is, for landlubbers.. [lol]i had all the cruises i could handle in the navy, and got to go to many of the places you mentioned. do they still have a sea turtle farm in grand cayman? it used to be the only place in the whole world where one could actually eat sea turtles legally, but that was in 92 or early 93 and a steak was like 25 bucks, good tasting though..

Hmmm... thats a smart little mechanism the flowrider is. Interesting concept, surfing in a stationary spot, I would rather get a tube or crazy carpet and go belly first seeign how I dont know how to surf, but either way it looks fun. 160'000 tons? Wow, I am guessing thats imperial, but it still is a massive amount of weight. Whats the capacity on it? Well, never mind that question, I'll google it in a second, but this thing sounds huge. Got lots of pictures?

Pictures on linked at the bottom of my post.

Its got a capacity of like 3500-3750 people. They are already planning another series to stand over this one. This one pretty much eats up an ENTIRE port. When it docks - its the only thing in dock. And the next series, Project Genesis, is going to pretty much MAX OUT the size a cruise ship can be without being too big.

http://www.directlinecruises.com/news_genesis.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Cari ... esis_class

Information on our ship as well.


EDIT - Flowrider pictures - the exact one from the ship, you can see how it was shortened ALOT. This made the wave a bit more intense, harder to work on but made whip outs oh - so hilarious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlowRider

How long untill rollercoasters are on these ships? heh

Glad you got to go on a cruise Real! We go every year (Cat 12 room only - heh heh) and yeah, every year there is just something special that we take away from it. Good TR.

Originally posted by Symbiotic

Yea flowriders are really fun, but have you seen the more intense Wavehouse version that is more like surfing.



There is one right near my house in San Diego thats a blast.

!!! That'd be so much fun! but i'd screw up. i suck at surfing. but hey.. not worrying about rocks or random people would be nice for a wave that size.

[jayman]

yeah, we have one of these in san diego..
i went on a pleasure cruise once.. our boss takes the shop every year..i've turned him down 3 times since then... after 6 years in the navy being stuck on a ship for a few days with the people you work with just doesn't seem like fun anymore.to top it off the sort of entertainment on the cruise ship had just seemed so fake and generic to appeal to me. too bad the ship we were on didn't have one of those though..
however the "eat as much as you want whenever you want thing was rad"
glad you had fun.... oh, do they still have a sea turtle 'farm' in the caymans? when i went in 92 it was the last place in the world where it was legal to eat them.. tasty.. but VEEERRRY expensive,most of the money went towards research, and they were only allowed to slaughter a very limited (single digit) number of them a week. come to think of it i had a blast there.

Project Genesis eh? A 1.45 Billion dollar dip in your pocket, whats the pint of having a ship with a 6'500 thousand capacity? Do that many people want to be on the same boat at the same time? Or maybe they are making just to say they made it, like so many other things in history.

I dont see how the flowride can have a 300 PPH Capacity like they say... That means one person every 12 seconds... that doesent seem possibly. Dont they let you stay on it for like a minute?

^If you can stay up for a minute. Many people get on it trying to do some crazy trick and wipe out in a matter of seconds.