LemonNeko
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2014
There's been a few Royal reviews on the disboards so I thought I would add my own. We were on the October 4th Freedom of the Seas. It was myself, my mom and my son who is 3.
We flew from Toronto to Orlando via Air Canada Rouge. We booked through airmiles otherwise I don't think I would use this airline. We arrived at MCO around midnight. We had booked a car though Budget. It was not a good start to our vacation. We had to wait in line over an hour and then told they were giving us a 4 Cab pick-up truck as they had run out what we reserved. After telling them I don't feel comfortable driving such a large vehicle they finally found us a KIA SUV. Later when we dropped off the car at Port Canaveral we were told the MCO Budget is one of the worst. Because we knew ahead of time we were getting in so late we had booked at the Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista. The hotel wasn't deluxe but it was cheap (under $50 on a Friday night) and clean. Due to the mess at the Budget rental we didn't get to bed until 2am.
We headed to the Wilderness Lodge in the morning. I was disappointed that it didn't work out that we could go to the Halloween party but we decided to spend the day exploring the resorts. I really enjoyed the WL and we lucked out and were upgraded to a Woods View but if I was going to the parks I'm happy staying at a moderate for the price difference. My son loved the kids water play area with the kids slides. the thing he was most unhappy about is we didn't take the mickey bus.
We drove to the Budget in Port Canaveral. The drop off was much better and we didn't have to wait at all for the shuttle. We arrived at the port around 2pm so there was very little wait checking in. Getting on the ship was a bit of a let down as I thought they would have something a bit more welcoming. We toured the kids club area. The rooms were pretty basic looking. I did not like that you had to go through the arcade to get to the kids clubs. We had My Time Dining. I reserved every night at 5:45 prior to boarding so we ended up having the same servers every night. Dinner took about an hour which was long enough for us. I never felt rushed and felt they did try to serve us faster so my son didn't get too agitated.
We were supposed to go to CoCo Cay the next day but it was too rough for the tenders so it was a sea day. There was a modified daily compass with extra activities. The ship was apparently sold out but we were always able to find an empty chair and there was room in the pools. To get a pool towel you needed to have it registered on your seapass card. I'm guessing this has reduced people saving chairs by putting towels on the,. My son agreed to go to the kids club so I could use the adult pool.
The next day was a sea day. My son agreed to go to the kids club again. He must have really liked it as I think only once in all the times I asked if he wanted to go did he say no. I was told there weren't that many kids in his age group on the ship so we never had to worry about the club being full. They have 3 session 9-12, 2-5 and 5:45-10:00. After 10:00 it was $5/ hour. We also saw one of the characters from Madagascar. There was usually several character meet & greets per day and the lines were usually pretty short. We watched people using the flow rider.
Since this was an eastern cruise we had another sea day. Beforehand I had debated regarding the drink package. I'm glad I didn't get it. I would have likely been drinking more so that I could get "my money's worth". I typically had 2-3 drinks per day and didn't feel I needed more than that. The included lemonade and flavoured water was really good for most of the time. Food was always available but at certain times the selection wasn't that much.
Finally we arrive in St. Thomas! We arrived at 9am instead of the scheduled 12pm since we had to skip the first stop. We had booked a ship excursion but it didn't leave until 1pm so we had some extra time. We walked to the tramway and took it up. It was pretty expensive but I felt it was worth doing once. We went back to the ship to catch our excursion. We did the catamaran to Abi beach. This was a good tour to do with smaller children. The beach was small but it was not crowded as the only people there were on the ship excursion.
The next day was St. Maarten. It was pretty cloudy but I was hoping the weather was going to improve. We had booked the ship shore excursion the afternoon beach break which was to Orient beach. I took the water taxi over to Charlotte Amalie and spent the morning looking at the downtown area. Most of the shops were either selling beer or high end jewelry. Unfortunately as we were waiting for the excursion to start it started to rain. We were given the option to go or get a refund. I decided to go for the refund since it looked like it was going to rain for the rest of the afternoon but I was glad we had the refund option.
Our first sea day heading back. We decided to use our excursion refund to try one of the specialty restaurants. We choose Sabor since the menu appealed to us the most. The decor was a bit bland but the food was definitely the best we had on the ship. I wonder how they manage to get the avocados the perfect amount of ripeness everyday. If you book it with one of the people walking around with menus you get 20% off.
Our final day. We tried to get in lots of pool time since I knew it would be starting to get cold at home. I forgot to mention our room. We got an outside stateroom on the 2nd level towards the front. It was very quiet since the only public area was the conference room. There was some motion but not enough to bother us. My son didn't want to sleep in the Pullman bed so my mom and I took turns. The Pullman wasn't terrible but the bed was definitely more comfortable.
We arrived at Port Canaveral on time. We were one of the earlier disembarking times. Not everybody was following the recommended times so it was about 45 minutes getting though. It was easy to find the shuttle to the Budget and we only had to wait about 15 minutes before they drove us to pick up our car.
We flew from Toronto to Orlando via Air Canada Rouge. We booked through airmiles otherwise I don't think I would use this airline. We arrived at MCO around midnight. We had booked a car though Budget. It was not a good start to our vacation. We had to wait in line over an hour and then told they were giving us a 4 Cab pick-up truck as they had run out what we reserved. After telling them I don't feel comfortable driving such a large vehicle they finally found us a KIA SUV. Later when we dropped off the car at Port Canaveral we were told the MCO Budget is one of the worst. Because we knew ahead of time we were getting in so late we had booked at the Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista. The hotel wasn't deluxe but it was cheap (under $50 on a Friday night) and clean. Due to the mess at the Budget rental we didn't get to bed until 2am.
We headed to the Wilderness Lodge in the morning. I was disappointed that it didn't work out that we could go to the Halloween party but we decided to spend the day exploring the resorts. I really enjoyed the WL and we lucked out and were upgraded to a Woods View but if I was going to the parks I'm happy staying at a moderate for the price difference. My son loved the kids water play area with the kids slides. the thing he was most unhappy about is we didn't take the mickey bus.
We drove to the Budget in Port Canaveral. The drop off was much better and we didn't have to wait at all for the shuttle. We arrived at the port around 2pm so there was very little wait checking in. Getting on the ship was a bit of a let down as I thought they would have something a bit more welcoming. We toured the kids club area. The rooms were pretty basic looking. I did not like that you had to go through the arcade to get to the kids clubs. We had My Time Dining. I reserved every night at 5:45 prior to boarding so we ended up having the same servers every night. Dinner took about an hour which was long enough for us. I never felt rushed and felt they did try to serve us faster so my son didn't get too agitated.
We were supposed to go to CoCo Cay the next day but it was too rough for the tenders so it was a sea day. There was a modified daily compass with extra activities. The ship was apparently sold out but we were always able to find an empty chair and there was room in the pools. To get a pool towel you needed to have it registered on your seapass card. I'm guessing this has reduced people saving chairs by putting towels on the,. My son agreed to go to the kids club so I could use the adult pool.
The next day was a sea day. My son agreed to go to the kids club again. He must have really liked it as I think only once in all the times I asked if he wanted to go did he say no. I was told there weren't that many kids in his age group on the ship so we never had to worry about the club being full. They have 3 session 9-12, 2-5 and 5:45-10:00. After 10:00 it was $5/ hour. We also saw one of the characters from Madagascar. There was usually several character meet & greets per day and the lines were usually pretty short. We watched people using the flow rider.
Since this was an eastern cruise we had another sea day. Beforehand I had debated regarding the drink package. I'm glad I didn't get it. I would have likely been drinking more so that I could get "my money's worth". I typically had 2-3 drinks per day and didn't feel I needed more than that. The included lemonade and flavoured water was really good for most of the time. Food was always available but at certain times the selection wasn't that much.
Finally we arrive in St. Thomas! We arrived at 9am instead of the scheduled 12pm since we had to skip the first stop. We had booked a ship excursion but it didn't leave until 1pm so we had some extra time. We walked to the tramway and took it up. It was pretty expensive but I felt it was worth doing once. We went back to the ship to catch our excursion. We did the catamaran to Abi beach. This was a good tour to do with smaller children. The beach was small but it was not crowded as the only people there were on the ship excursion.
The next day was St. Maarten. It was pretty cloudy but I was hoping the weather was going to improve. We had booked the ship shore excursion the afternoon beach break which was to Orient beach. I took the water taxi over to Charlotte Amalie and spent the morning looking at the downtown area. Most of the shops were either selling beer or high end jewelry. Unfortunately as we were waiting for the excursion to start it started to rain. We were given the option to go or get a refund. I decided to go for the refund since it looked like it was going to rain for the rest of the afternoon but I was glad we had the refund option.
Our first sea day heading back. We decided to use our excursion refund to try one of the specialty restaurants. We choose Sabor since the menu appealed to us the most. The decor was a bit bland but the food was definitely the best we had on the ship. I wonder how they manage to get the avocados the perfect amount of ripeness everyday. If you book it with one of the people walking around with menus you get 20% off.
Our final day. We tried to get in lots of pool time since I knew it would be starting to get cold at home. I forgot to mention our room. We got an outside stateroom on the 2nd level towards the front. It was very quiet since the only public area was the conference room. There was some motion but not enough to bother us. My son didn't want to sleep in the Pullman bed so my mom and I took turns. The Pullman wasn't terrible but the bed was definitely more comfortable.
We arrived at Port Canaveral on time. We were one of the earlier disembarking times. Not everybody was following the recommended times so it was about 45 minutes getting though. It was easy to find the shuttle to the Budget and we only had to wait about 15 minutes before they drove us to pick up our car.
