Ahoy Cruise Critic-ers!

If you're reading this, it probably means that you are (a.) Interested in a cruise on the Freedom, (b.) are going on the Freedom soon, or, (c.) are wondering why some people gave Freedom three stars and below as their overall impression (I know, can you believe it?). I'm writing this report a little late, but it's never too late to help out future cruisers who are interested in going on (at the time of writing) the BIGGEST cruise ship in the world!

PRE-CRUISE: Cruise Critic is an awesome website (no shameless plug needed) and getting to chat with fellow cruisers who are about to board the same vessel that you are in mere months only adds to the excitement. Everyone in your group is usually in a spectacular mood and the excitement helps the weeks fly by. Traveling on this cruise is my husband (35) and myself (26). This is our 5th cruise, and 3rd with Royal Caribbean. Our other two were Princess (we were the youngest ones on the boat) and Disney (beyond awesome, words can't even describe). However, Royal Caribbean fits our cruise style - and by this, I mean that it caters to all ages, has tons of activities, isn't as old as HAL or as nutty as the S.S. Booze N' Gamble (can you guess which line that is?). We chose this particular itinerary because of the ship rather than the ports. We had been on the Eastern Caribbean with Disney so we decided to go on the Western Caribbean with RCCL. I had heard great reviews about the Freedom and spent the months prior to our vacation recording and watching Samantha Brown's "Freedom of the Seas Cruise" from the Travel Channel (check your local listings, it's on quite a bit if you want to record it!) I also forgot to mention that for some strange reason this particular week of cruising was really cheap. I'm assuming it's because it was January. We booked it in May of 2008 so maybe we got an early-booking discount. The trick is to find when you are available and check each week that you might possibly want to go. For us, there was a $200 difference between one week and the next. I still couldn't believe the price we got. So check out the off-season, it's worth it and the weather is still warm! Read more