We are a family of 4 (two 40 somethings, 1 12 year old and 1 10 year old) who love to cruise. We had been looking for something for spring break of 2013 back in the fall of 2012 and booked our Freedom of the Seas cruise on a Cyber Monday special. We had never been on the Freedom before but had been on her sister the Independence back in 2008 and really enjoyed the ship. This was also our first cruise out of Port Canaveral.

We drove down the day before and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Cocoa. We enjoyed watching the ships sail that afternoon from a park located along the port it really put us in the mood to cruise. I booked the hotel through Hotwire and got a fair price seeing it was spring break. With Hotwire you prepay your hotel with no cancellations. Therefore, I was surprised to see a charge of $85 on my credit card bill fter we got home when I knew I had paid months ago. One call to the hotel and my credit card was credited the amount. The hotel has a nice pool area (but the hot tub was closed) and the morning breakfast was very nice.

I had also prebooked parking at the park n cruise facility for $5.99/day after get some recommendations about them from some co-workers. We arrived at park n cruise at about 10:30 am pulled into their drop off lane, several employees were available to help unload the car. My husband was directed to the cashier to pay and the employees took all our luggage over to the Freedom line. I was directed to where to park the car. When I got back from the car and headed over to the Freedom line where my husband and kids were waiting I noticed some of our luggage wasn't there.... and started to panic.... In trying to be over efficient one of the employees had taken the luggage that was in the Freedom line and loaded it onto the shuttle and not checked to see who that luggage belonged. We had two bags missing - one a carryon that I was not happy left without me and another bag that was going to be checked at the ship (which I also would have preferred to be with me). The employee called the shuttle driver identified our carryon and asked him to bring it back. After waiting an addtional 15-20 minutes our bag made it back everyone apologized and we received a coupon for a free visit in the future. We have used offsite parking at other ports and have never had our bags taken from us like this, we have always stayed with the bags then we all get on the shuttle together. It all worked out in the long run and we would use them again now that we know how it works at their facility. Now let's get to the ship! Read more