Freedom of the Seas Review: Our Family’s First Cruise (and What It Really Cost)

We took our kids on their first cruise in 2024 and we had the best time! According to them, “It was the best vacation ever!” Check out our thoughts on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas!

Freedom of the Seas: A Family Adventure!

Launching in May 2006, Freedom of the Seas was, at the time, the largest cruise ship and the first to have a Flow Rider surf simulator! The ship went through a $116-million renovation in 2020, which made it feel mostly new to us. This was the biggest ship my wife and I have ever been on and we were impressed as we crossed from the ramp onto the ship.

Getting There: Flights and a Pre-Cruise Hotel

We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise. That’s the rule we’d tell any first-timer: never fly in on sailing day. We stayed one night at the Holiday Inn Express. It was fine for a one-night stay: two queen beds, sleeps six, $191 for the night. The hotel ran a free shuttle from the airport, and a shuttle to the port for $12 per person.

For flights, my wife and I had each signed up for Southwest credit cards (we pay the balance off every month) and earned Companion Passes, which let a companion fly with us for just the taxes. Our flights for five people came to $948.26.

Embarkation and First Impressions

Our boarding time was 12:30 pm and we arrived to the port around 12:00. In general, you’re not supposed to arrive before your boarding time but the shuttle from our hotel left at a specific time so we chose to be early instead of late. Make sure to have your luggage tags from the ship ready to go on your suitcases. This will save you some time and make things so much easier.

We didn’t have to stand in line very long and before we knew it, we were aboard the Freedom of the Seas! We were all really excited and impressed by the ship. The renovations were well done, but to be fair, we didn’t see the ship before they were completed. There was so much to see and explore but we had young children with us so heading to the Windjammer for some lunch was top priority, once we had visited our muster stations.

The Windjammer: Where Buffet Dreams and ‘Meh’ Realities Collide

“Washy, washy!” As the kids would say, “IYKYK”. If you don’t get the first part, you’ve never been on a Royal Caribbean ship. If you don’t get the second part, ask a teenager.

For the most part, I liked the Windjammer. It offers quick and easy access to food. The majority of it is good. Some of it is ‘meh’. If you paid for the soda package, you can pick up your fancy, refillable cup outside the entrance to the Windjammer on the first day.

We used the windjammer for breakfast and lunch. We also made the brilliant decision to feed our younger kids dinner here, but more on that later.

We discovered that they had smaller portions of a few of the dishes available in the main dining. They also have smaller portions of the desserts. The beauty of being on a cruise is you can have as much as you’d like. There are a variety of options, but by the end of a 7 day cruise you might be ready for some homecooked meals.

My wife loves that there are washing stations for everyone before you walk in. This needs to happen in more places.

Accommodations: Our Cozy Inside Stateroom

While we were in the windjammer, an announcement was made that our cabins were ready for us. We were fortunate enough to only have to go down one deck for our room. I didn’t know what to expect for an inside stateroom that fits four people. I tried finding pictures but they were very limited. As expected, there wasn’t a lot of space but it ended up working well for us. There were two hanging twin beds above two twin beds pushed together for me and my wife. We stored our suitcases under our beds. There was a handy-dandy curtain that we could pull shut when the two youngest had gone to sleep so we wouldn’t disturb them when we were getting ready for bed. The room is somewhat chaotic, but I decided to post the picture so anyone wondering what a 4 person, inside-stateroom looks like. (For future reference, if you want to take a picture of you room, do it the first day, before you put anything in it…)

Everyone talks about how great balcony rooms are, which I’m sure they are fantastic (and pricey), but we love inside staterooms. They stay dark so our kids don’t wake up with the sun. That’s huge for me on a vacation.

The shower and bathroom was what you would expect. Nothing fancy, but adequate. One thing I will add: bring your own shampoo and conditioner. We chose not to this trip and we regretted it. We were only provided one bottle that was a body wash/shampoo/conditioner combo and it did not impress.

Deck Exploration: Pools, Slides, Sports Court and more!

Deck 11 has the windjammer as well as the pools, whirlpools, splashpad, outdoor movie screen, Sprinkles soft-serve ice cream (it’s slightly disturbing how many ice cream cones we had) and El Loco Fresh. Windjammer closed? Sick of pizza (yeah, right!) then get yourself some tacos, burritos or nachos! The pools were an awesome temperature. The kids loved being in the water.

Before we headed up to the slides, which the kids were dying to see, we stopped by the kids clubs on the 12th deck to get them checked in. You’ll want to do this as soon as you can as they do tend to fill up quickly.

Deck 13 is home to the sports court, the rock climbing wall, The Perfect Storm (2 waterslides) and the Flowrider surf simulator. I’ll briefly discuss each one of these:

• Sports court – I was surprised how nice it was. Plenty of activities like basketball, soccer, dodgeball and pickleball. Before you pack up your pickleball paddles, remember that it is outside and the ship is usually moving when you have the option to play. This means it’s pretty windy and makes it difficult for pickleball and basketball. I’m a much better shot than any of my fellow cruisers saw… They host tournaments like 3-point contests, soccer tournaments and dodgeball tournaments. We took first place in the dodgeball tournament and were all issued a certificate as proof. I can show you sometime if you’d like.
• Rock climbing wall – we climbed several times. The kids really enjoyed it. You need to be all the way dry when you go to get your climbing shoes or they will not let you climb.
• The Perfect Storm – These waterslides were a lot of fun. You need to be at least 48 inches tall (122 cm) in order to ride, though. We didn’t know this and had some sad little cruisers.
• Flowrider – The lines can get long tso don’t wait to get out there and shred! If you want to participate in the surf-only sessions you need to qualify. They host a number of qualifying sessions throughout the cruise. Basically, you have to prove to them you can get on the board, push yourself out and ride comfortably. You get two chances to try (unless you’re me. I got 1 chance and didn’t pass. It’s fine. I’m not bitter. I didn’t want to be part of their stupid special club anyway). If you pass, you get a wristband that allows you to surf during the stand up sessions. If not, there’s always boogie boarding.

On the front of the ship on Deck 13 is Freedom Dunes, the miniature golf course. It is only accessible from stairs on Deck 12. There is no elevator access which makes anyone in a wheelchair sad they can’t watch you 6 putt on a par2 (sorry Grandma!).

Adventures in Dining

Our main dining time was 7:15 which worked out great, for the most part. We were unsure at the beginning of the trip if we wanted to take the younger kids with us so the first night we fed them pizza and then dropped them off at the kids club at 7 pm. The kids clubs do close between 5 and 7 pm so make sure you take that into account. We had a large group so we talked to the workers at the front and told them we had 20 people. They accommodated us by getting two tables next to each other. We had the same setup each night.

Our oldest (13) wanted to go to the main dining with us and he loved it! His goal was to try something new every night. His kids club didn’t do any activities until 9 or later so having him with us turned out to be a lot of fun.

The food was pretty good! I’ve definitely had better (looking at you Princess cruise line) but overall we enjoyed what was offered. Tip for you lobster tail lovers: on Surf and Turf night you are only allowed to order one lobster tail entree per person in your party. If you’d like more you will be charged. We just had everyone there order it even if they didn’t want it. No lobster tails went to waste, okay mom?!

The only downside to main dining is that it takes around 2 hours from start to finish. If you want to catch an earlier show or have other plans, maybe get some pizza or eat in the Windjammer. We brought our younger kids to lunch in the main dining room for a test drive and it quickly showed us that we would not be bringing them to dinner. The most common phrases at lunch were, “Where is my food?!”, “I don’t like this macaroni!”, “Where is our dessert?!”, and, “Can we go play yet? The Windjammer for dinner was definitely the right move with them.

Activities for All!

Deck 4 is where you can find the Royal Theater, Casino Royal, and Playmakers Sports Bar and Arcade.

• Royal Theater – Quite a few shows to see here. We enjoyed the comedy show. The main act, “Once Upon a Time” was an average show. The talent was great, we just didn’t find the show super entertaining. My wife saw a few shows featuring singers and she enjoyed them.
• Casino Royal – There is also an entrance from the promenade on Deck 5. Plenty of table games, fun gambling tournaments and many of the up to date slot machines.
• We didn’t spend any time in the arcade or sports bar, but it did seem busy any time we walked through it.

Deck 3 is home to Studio B, the Art Gallery, Photo Studio and the main entrance to the Main Dining hall.

• Studio B – The ice skating performance was impressive. The ice rink itself isn’t very big but the show was enjoyable. There will be times when you can go skate on the ice for 15-30 minutes. You need to sign up in the app and they can fill up quickly. You will need to wear pants and they provide the skates and a helmet. They also turn Studio B into a laser tag arena. This was way more fun than I had anticipated! At night there will be an adults only gameshow here and I would recommend Mom and Grandma skip this one. It’s definitely for mature audiences and can get a little raunchy. They also bring in a bunch of drinks and turn it into a night club at night.

Deck 5 is all about the Royal Promenade. Tons of shops and most importantly where you find Sorentos pizza. Thankfully it is open until at least 3 am. When we would pick our kids up from their clubs, they were always starving. Nightly trips to Sorentos were a must. I have read some online posts saying they didn’t like the pizza. They must have very different tastebuds because we all enjoyed the thin crust pizza! They also offer cups of water or lemonade.

Deck 14 is where you will find the Viking Crown Lounge. We went here for a few dance parties. If you love to dance, we definitely recommend the Silent Disco party. Everyone wears headphones (they are sanitized before they are handed to you) and you can choose between two stations. If you don’t like the current song, switch to the other station! If you want to laugh, take off your headphones during a popular song to hear a bunch of tone deaf people singing along without the music.

What a Sea Day Actually Looks Like

We lost an hour to a time change, and the ship stopped for a while for a medical emergency, so we slept until 11. Then we packed it in: shuffleboard, a blackjack tournament (I made the playoff and lost), and a dodgeball tournament that our group won. It came down to me and one other player, and my throw landed first. After that came 3-on-3 basketball and rock climbing. The FlowRider closed while I was waiting because a guest fainted, so have a backup plan. We rode the waterslides with the kids, ate at the Windjammer, and my wife and I caught the ice skating show.

Another night we played laser tag in Studio B, which the kids loved, and after the kids were in bed my wife and I went to the adults-only Quest game show. It was wild and hilarious, and it turned into a dance party afterward.

Our Ports: Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Nassau and CocoCay

Grand Cayman: Our Own Boat to the Stingray Sandbar

We had a big group, so instead of booking the ship’s excursion we negotiated a private boat charter with the operators right outside the port. They took us to a sandbar where we stood in the water with massive stingrays. You can even hold them in your arms, which was wild. Our daughter spent most of the time climbing on me to stay out of the water. We’d seen people get stung stepping on rays in Coronado, California. With ten minutes left she finally got in and loved it. The guides hand out squid to feed the rays. My wife’s uncle rubbed some on my arm and a stingray latched on and sucked so hard it actually hurt. We were all laughing.

Tip: with a group, a boat negotiated at the port can cost less than the ship’s excursion. Agree on the price and what’s included before you board.

Jamaica: Swimming With Dolphins

This was our most amazing day. We had to drag the kids out of bed. We told them we were going to swim with dolphins and they barely reacted. Our daughter said she’d rather sleep another hour! After an hour-long bus ride to the dolphin cove and a quick safety briefing, we met our dolphin, Tony. She was incredible. We petted her, did a belly swim, and she pushed us across the water while we lay on boogie boards. Then she danced with us and gave each of us a kiss. The kids called it magical, and so did we. The waterslide afterward was a hit too.

Know before you go: you can’t take your own photos, and their photo package was over $200. Bring cash to tip your bus driver and guides, because that’s how they make their living. It poured on the way back, but warm rain in Jamaica is half the fun.

Nassau: Rain, a Beach Swim and the Queen’s Staircase

It poured most of the day, so we swam at the beach in the rain anyway. It turned into one of our favorite adventures. Then we walked with friends to the Queen’s Staircase, all 65 steps, which was beautiful and well worth seeing. Lesson learned: wear real sandals, not flip-flops. My feet were raw, and I bought new sandals in port on the way back.

Perfect Day at CocoCay: Skip the Waterpark, Enjoy the Beach

CocoCay was amazing. We skipped the paid waterpark and spent the day on the free beaches, swimming and snorkeling, and the kids in our group never wanted to leave the water. There’s fun stuff to explore underwater, but watch for small jellyfish. The food was similar to what’s on the ship.

Funny tip: the soda package works on the island too, but you don’t refill your Royal Caribbean cup there. The bartender charged me $9 for a can of Coke until I mentioned my drink package, then refunded it. If you have a package, say so before you pay.

What Our Cruise Cost, and What Freedom of the Seas Costs Now

We booked three inside cabins with family: a 4-person cabin for each family, plus a 3-person cabin we split. Here’s what the trip cost our family of five so far:

What	Cost
Our 4-person inside cabin	$2,108.24
Flights for five (with Southwest Companion Passes)	$948.26
Pre-cruise hotel, Holiday Inn Express Fort Lauderdale (1 night)	$191.00
Hotel shuttle to the port ($12 per person)	$60.00
Total so far	$3,307.50

The cabin worked out to roughly $527 per person for a week in the Caribbean with four ports.

Prices on this ship move a lot. Here’s what Freedom of the Seas costs today, straight from our daily price tracker:

Freedom of the Seas now sails short Bahamas and Caribbean cruises from Miami. Want to know if a sailing is a good price, or need help booking a group like ours? Talk to Kev. Booking through me costs you nothing extra.

Drink Packages

We do not drink alcohol so I can’t comment on those drink packages or the bars. I purchased the Classic Soda Package and my in-law’s purchased the Refreshment package. We each got our own souvenir cup that you can refill at Freestyle Coke machines on the ship. When we asked a crew member where all the freestyle machines were he told us they were all over. That was misleading because we soon found out that there are two in the Windjammer (one on each side) and two right in front of Sorentos. That was it. It did make it a little annoying to have to walk so far to get a refill, especially when the Windjammer was closed.

With the Classic Soda Package I was able to order a coke in the main dining room. The Refreshment Package has the same benefit as the Classic Soda Package but also allows you to get premium coffees and teas, fresh squeezed juices, bottled still and sparkling water, non-alcoholic cocktails and milkshakes from Johnny Rockets.

I recommend purchasing your drink package before you board. It will be cheaper. Once you have booked your cruise, check the app frequently because they will have sales for up to 30% off.

If you aren’t wanting to pay for the soda packages, you are still able to get juices for free from the Windjammer and El Loco Fresh. Each person is also allowed to bring on a 12 pack of soda.

Communication

We had 31 people in our travel party. Many of us had iPhones but iMessage didn’t work as well as we had hoped it would. We ended up using the Royal Caribbean app a lot. It worked well for us and we were glad to see that we received notifications when someone sent us a message. I’ve used other cruise line apps that didn’t have that feature. You had to open your messages and check often to see if you received a message. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case with RC’s app.

A few people in our party brought walkie talkies. We tried them on the ship but they weren’t reliable. We did use them in ports though, which ended up being very useful. If you won’t be able to use your cell phone in ports, then definitely consider bringing a walkie talkie. These are the ones we used.

Quick Tips From Our Sailing

• El Loco Fresh is the best free quick bite when you come back on board hungry.
• Laser tag in Studio B is a kids’ favorite. Check the schedule as soon as you board.
• Excursion photos are pricey (over $200 at the dolphin cove). Decide before you go.
• Bring small bills to tip bus drivers and guides in port.
• Wear real sandals in port, not flip-flops.
• If you have a drink package, mention it before paying at CocoCay.
• Kids club drop-off on port days gives parents time to explore.

Final Thoughts

We loved our time on the Freedom of the Seas! The staff was excellent. There was always something fun going on. Our kids never complained about being bored. The layout of ship was great. We had so much fun and would definitely recommend this ship to anyone looking for an amazing experience!

Have you been on the Freedom of the Seas? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear your experiences.