My husband and I went on the Freedom of the Sea's first cruise out of Port Canaveral.  We went on the Mariner of the Seas last year for our honeymoon, but I got sick with a bad cold on the 3rd day and was in bed most of the trip with a fever, stuffy nose and sore throat - definitely not what we had planned for our honeymoon!  So this trip was our Second Chance Honeymoon and it was much much better than the first one!

We only live 2 ½ hours away from Port Canaveral, but decided to go ahead and drive down the day before.  I highly recommend the Radisson in Cape Canaveral.  They have a shuttle to the Port, and you can leave your car parked there for free.  For a weeklong cruise, the room cost the same as parking at the Port would have, so we figured we might as well get the vacation started a day earlier!  We got there late because my husband had to work on Sunday, but if you are able to get there during the day, do so, because they have a great pool area with rocks and waterfalls and we were disappointed that we didn't get to use that.  We did get some use out of the bar though, and had a great time.  You have to sign up for the shuttle service, and it was full until 2:30pm, but I called in the morning and there were cancellations so we got a 10:30 shuttle which was nice because we were just going to pay for a cab to take us so we could get there earlier.  The shuttle was so easy, they packed our luggage up, and unloaded it at the terminal, so all we had to do was walk off the bus and into the building.  There was a short line outside, and once we went through security, there was one party in front of us inside.  Embarkation took no time, the staff was super friendly, and a few minutes after 11, we walked onto the boat.

OMG, the boat! There are no words to accurately describe how spectacular this ship is!!  It's huge, beautiful, and there's a ton to do.  I dragged my husband all over the place and I think we saw most of the ship before we even left port!  Even though it's so big, it's a lot like the Mariner, and the Promenade makes it really easy to get around, so it was pretty easy to find everything, especially since I had done a lot of research on this site and Royal Caribbean's.  Read more