I live close to Port Canaveral and find myself/family hopping on a cruise ship when I can for a weekend or longer cruises mostly to the Eastern Caribbean (luv St. Maarten) at any given time. I just got off the Freedom of the Seas with 8 family members and a good time was had by all. We had 4 balcony rooms and were able to move back the individual balcony dividers to make one huge balcony...family loved that.
Weather going down was rough and the Captain cancelled our Cocoa Cay scheduled stop. We were very disappointed but then again RC came through with many activities for every age group...overall the ship,staff and food were very good...would sail this ship again.
About the food..we loved the Windjammer for lunch and had dining room reservations every night. For my family they loved the waiters in our dining room. They were respectful, entertaining and could not do enough to take care of our dining needs...we even had pictures taken with them and hope we see them again on our next cruise.
Went to St. Thomas on our own looking for specific shops and jewelry stores. Had a blast and met amazing islanders. The kids did excursions to beaches (Megan's Bay) and loved it. Lot to see in St Thomas and everyone returned to the ship happy campers.