We flew into Orlando 3 days prior to our 1/23/11 sail date. We booked a room on Priceline and stayed at the Renaissance Sea World. Beautiful hotel but lots of business travelers as they had a big realtor convention the time we were there. The grounds and hotel are beautiful and if going to Sea world it's right across the parking lot. We went to Animal Kingdom one day and took a taxi over there. It was around $30. Took Disney busing back to Downtown Disney and spent the evening there. Great time at Disney.

On Sunday we took Cocoa Beach Shuttle from our hotel to Port Canaveral. I would not take them ever again! We had called 2 days prior and wanted a private van to take our party to the port being picked up at 10:00 AM. They said no problem they would be there by 10:00 AM. At 9:45 AM the dispatcher called and said that the driver was stuck in traffic and would be there 15 minutes late. No big deal we thought. Then they called back and said that he would be 1/2 late. OK so we wouldn't be able to board by 11:00 AM like we thought but that's fine. Well they didn't pick us up until 11:20 AM! I called upset because now we were and hour and 20 minutes late and we had another couple waiting for us at the port. She told me "ma'am it's not a big deal at all your ship doesn't leave until 4:30"! This is my vacation and we wanted to be picked up at 10:00! I told her that we wanted some kind of a discount for them being so late. She said she would give us the cruise critic discount of 10% off. I already had that discount anyway so whatever. The driver that picked us up said her husband was tho other driver that was late and he wasn't stuck in traffic he was just lost! We all got in the van and to our surprise there where other people in the van, not private like the told us. The driver said we need to stop at another hotel as well which was out of our way to pick up 4 more people. I was not very happy. We didn't get to the port until 1:00. Our other travelers where already on the boat wondering where we were.

Embarkation: Since we got there at 1:00 there were 2 long lines. We still where on the ship by 1:35 so it wasn't to bad but still disappointing. Freedom is a beautiful ship! Staff is very welcoming. We went to the Windjammer and had lunch. Very busy and hard to find a seat as it was full. Good selection of food and I would say just average. Deserts are very lite which is good when on vacation we thought. Read more