Background - We're a family of 4 (2 kids - 9 yr DD, and 12 yr DS) and this was our 2nd cruise. Our 1st cruise was with Princess (Caribbean Princess) and while it was lots of fun, our experience on Freedom of the Seas blew that ship away from many, many levels. Pre-trip, I was a little nervous about how crowded the ship would be, but I think that RC has their act together when it comes to handling crowds. We had some waits, but there were 4219 passengers on board!

We flew on American into Miami and luckily we had decided to fly in Miami the day before because this was the week when American canceled so many flights due to plane inspections. This ended up having little impact on us, but I would have been a wreck if we had tried to fly in on the same day. Lesson learned, no matter how early the flight may get in, fly in a day early.

Hotel info - we stayed at the Marriott Biscayne Bay. We didn't get in until 7pm, so it really was more about finding a place to sleep. Only comment I'd make is that the rooms only have kings or 2 doubles. Next time, I'd find a hotel that offered 2 queens in the same room as we were a little cramped that night. Took a quick cab ($5) over to Bayside Marketplace to walk around and find a place for dinner and when we got back, the kids jumped into the pool. The hotel is showing its age, but again, I wasn't really there for the atmosphere and it met our needs. Read more