Things to do on Freedom of the seas.
Overall impressions of this Mega ship
The Freedom class ship is world famous for having plenty to do on board. We are a late 40's empty nest couple so we didn't have anything to do with the various kids programs. On our first cruise on Voyager, we spent a lot of time in the adult only solarium. We did so again on Freedom and the area is very nice and includes the cantilevered hot tubs. Freedom may be famous, or infamous for the abundance of "chair hogs" and they were plentiful on Freedom. They weren't as bad in the Solarium, but they were obvious and the crew did nothing obvious in this regard. There was an occasional unescorted child trying to get in the solarium pool or hot tubs. The young girl who kept trying to get in the solarium pool bothered me a lot because, in my opinion, she was too young to be unescorted and we never saw an adult with her. The pool and hot tubs in this area were great and at least one was open and hot each night for late night soaks. We spent about 2 hours in one with members of our roll call group the first night.
Our room location 9342 center hump was great for getting around the ship easily. We did end up taking the stairs as much as possible going up two floors to the Windjammer and pool decks or down a few floors to dinner, shows, or the promenade. The elevators are also infamously slow on Freedom, and to some extent it is true. There was stories of kids pressing buttons. We didn't see that on the elevators themselves, but on times we did use the elevators they would stop at floors where nobody was waiting because the people got tired of waiting for them and walked instead.
Freedom is also famous for having the first onboard surfing simulator. We did visit it and watch people from our group on occasion and clearly the Flowrider is a hit among different age groups and among both sexes. I had read about people getting seriously hurt so I decided to wait till the last sea day so not to ruin my vacation. I'm glad I did it, but I didn't and won't do it again It just doesn't appeal to me, but clearly I am in the minority in that regard. Also on the sports deck was the basketball court, rock climbing wall and miniture golf course. I did shoot a few hoops and play mini-golf. I didn't see the rock wall used a lot and I wasn't in shape to try it this year. The mini-golf was perhaps the only place where I saw signs of age on Freedom. The putters that were out were very worn and with torn grips and a few places on the course the carpet was coming up. This was the only place that Freedom showed its age. It is still a great looking ship after 100 voyages.
The promenade is big and very tastfully decorated. On Freedom Sorrento's is on the promenade and made a great place to catch a snack almost all the time. While we felt the service quality was great all over the ship, the Sorrento's staff was a cut above the rest.
Sorrento's Manager
Our cabin was very nice & comfortable as we were treated with a towel animal every night. On our last night we made a towel into a heart shape with a note of thanks along with the envelope with the tip. Our cabin steward was so touched, she cried & gave us a hug. The service on this ship was fantastic!
Our last night was a lot of fun at the Boleros bar with our favorite bar tender, Ramon. We made more new friends & said our good-byes to friends that we made throughout the week. It was difficult to turn in the last night as we knew that we would wake up the next morning in the port of Miami.
Debbie and Ricki
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