I traveled with my husband and my parents on Freedom from July 1- July 8. The itinerary was Eastern Caribbean. My husband and I are in our early twenties, and parents are in their late forties. As a side note, we usually do not spend so much money for summer vacation, so we tried to be thrifty once we got on board. We felt like the ship was one of our biggest destinations, so we did some research and created our own shore excursions. More on that later.
We drove from Georgia to Miami, and there we met my cousin who dropped us off at the ship. There is a great outdoor shopping area three minutes from the port if you have time to kill before you board. We got to the ship at 1:45, and the suggested time was 2pm. There were no lines! We had our Sea Pass printed, and we were on the ship within thirty minutes of getting out of the car. Pretty impressive. I noticed that people were allowed on the ship at noon if you wanted to get there early.
We found our room, and we were very impressed with our inside staterooms. No frills, but on Deck 8, so I thought we were in a pretty good location. Our stateroom attendant was wonderful. My husband and I found our room with twin beds, and our attendant had the queen bed fixed up when we returned from the muster drill. Our stateroom had plenty of storage and ample space to get ready, ladies. I took over the desk/vanity, and found the lighting and storage acceptable. Oh, and the bed was super comfortable. Overall, pleased with the stateroom...not that we spent too much time in there!