My husband and I, both in our mid-forties, took our first cruise on Voyager of the Seas 5 years ago to the Western Caribbean to celebrate our 15th Wedding anniversary and had the time of our lives. It has been the first time that my husband had ever been out of the US. We have been waiting for the chance to cruise again, but had promised the kids that we would take them on the next cruise. So after saving the needed money I booked our next cruise on Freedom of the Seas, also to the western Caribbean . This time we booked a year in advance and purchased two cabins, an inside for the kids (ages 19, 16, 9) and a junior suite for us (needed that alone time).

Embarkation was longer than I remembered for our first cruise. We had completed and printed the online set sail pass and made sure we had all our documents in order weeks before sailing, but upon reaching the port, found out that there had been an immigration issue with the previous cruise causing a delay. We arrived at the port at 11:30am and sailed right through the initial check-in (advantages to booking a suite), but then were given a card with the number 6 and directed to another room that was packed full with all the other passengers awaiting to board. We were lucky to find five seats together and proceeded to wait. Once they started calling the numbers, it went pretty quickly and before we knew it we were on the largest ship in the world. We went immediately to buy our soda cards, (as with anyone with kids knows) it would have cost a small fortune without them. Then it was on to find our cabins and unloaded our carry on bags. Before going off to investigate the ship, we decided to get something to eat at the Windjammer. The food was good and plentiful, but then again we are not very picky eaters, with exception to the 9 yo.

Once finished with our lunch we were off to explore the ship. It was absolutely amazing and never felt crowded. We were so busy exploring that we didn't even noticed that we had left port and were underway until we passed by a window and saw the ship was moving. We took that opportunity to take the kids up to the bow and watch the ship sail out into the open ocean and kiss Miami goodbye. We decided it was time to go back to our cabins to see if our luggage had been delivered, which it had. The junior suite was perfect for me and husband with plenty of room to stretch out, especially on our private balcony. We had the center cabin on Deck 10, and were able look down onto everyone else's balcony. The bathroom was also pretty roomy for a cruise ship, with a full size bathtub (that made my day, as I love to soak a tub night). The kids inside cabin was just as I had remembered, like the one we had on our first cruise, but the kids didn't really seem to care that it was small. After a quick unpack, we went off to explore some more. We also took the time to register our youngest in the Adventure Ocean program and checked the teen facilities for our son. Since our oldest is 19 we figured she would be off on her own anyway. The kids clubs turned out to be a blessing. Our son, (normally shy) made several friends on the first day and is actually still in contact with a few of them. My youngest also made a new friend that she talks to almost daily (thank god for internet email). Read more