We embarked at Port Everglades on February 14, 2009. I believe we were dropped of at the port by the rental car shuttle at approximately 11:30 AM. (I found the FLL rental car facility a little confusing and had to ask several people to direct us to the shuttle) We had to wait on 3 different lines before boarding the ship but they all moved pretty quickly and it wasn't too painful. I was travelling with my husband, two sons ages 10 & 13, and my 80 year old dad. We found our way to the Freedom buffet restaurant for lunch. The lines were kind of long and the layout was a little difficult to negotiate but we managed to find a table and get our food just fine. The buffet was what I would expect from a buffet. Nothing amazing but everyone could find something that they liked. I personally liked the grilled mozzarella sandwich from the deli window which I did not discover for a couple of days.
After lunch we found our way to our 2 adjoining oceanview cabins on the main deck. I must say I was very impressed. The cabins were attractive and very comfortable and definitely larger than the same category on Royal Caribbean. Plenty of storage space, very comfortable bed and pillows and very clean. Our cabin steward did a great job and was very friendly and polite.
We originally chose the early dinner seating. When the 5 of us arrived at our designated table in the Chic dining room we were disappointed to find a small booth for 4 with a chair stuck on the end of it. We spoke to the the maitre d and he told us he could give us a bigger table for that night but it would be easier to accommodate us if we switched to the late seating which we did. This worked out very well. We enjoyed not having to rush to the early dinner and we ended up with a lovely table and the most wonderful waitress and assistant waiter, Ayna and Evgeny. The quality and presentation of the dinners were very good. The desserts were very good as well. I would say the dinners were superior to Royal Caribbean.