My Brother, Mother, and I just returned this past Sunday (5/17) from a great week aboard the Freedom of the Seas.  It was our 5th cruise on RCCL - which means we are now Platinum members of RCCL's Crown & Anchor program.  We cruised on this ship about 20 months ago, so we knew the ship's layout well, and we expected nothing less than a relaxing week away from the stress of life.  It was our 3rd cruise to the Western Caribbean, and we were hoping that by going in May we would avoid past problems with Hurricane season and half of our ports being destroyed before we got there.  We booked our shore excursions through RCCL's website about 4 weeks before the trip.  It was very convenient and easy - and highly recommended considering that 4200 other passengers might want to do the same excursions!!  We've been on cruises in the past where shore excursions have sold out by the time we got on board, so now we book everything ahead to avoid disappointment.  About a week before our cruise, RCCL emailed me to inform us that our last port (Cozumel) had been canceled because of the Swine Flu and was being replaced with an extra day at sea.  We were slightly disappointed, but we have to been to Cozumel twice before, so we were ok with it. 

One thing that made us book a 2nd cruise on the Freedom was that RCCL just repositioned this ship from Miami to Port Canaveral a week before, so we didn't have to go to Miami to get the ship.  We live 45 minutes north of Pt. Canaveral, so it was an easy drive to the terminal.  Dropping the luggage/passengers off was a bit congested, but it moved quickly once we got inside the terminal.

Upon boarding the ship, we soon discovered that the cruise director (the person in charge of the ship's entertainment) was still Richard Spacey......the best in the business.  He was the cruise director our first time on Freedom, and we were hoping to have a repeat of him again.....which we got.  The entertainment on RCCL ships FAR beats any other cruise ship's entertainment.  There is simply no comparison.  We have sailed on Carnival once and Princess once, and the shows were so raunchy and suggestive, we walked out of the theater the 2nd night and never went back.  Freedom's shows are nothing less than fantastic, energetic, and awesome.  The Freedom dancers and orchestra are some of the most incredible entertainers you'll ever find.  Of course Richard kept us constantly entertained with his nightly jokes and dancing all over the stage.  His version of "A Day in the Life of a Cruise Director" was especially entertaining. Read more