We are a family of 5 with three boys ages 12, 14, 16. We sailed the Freedom on July 24-July 31. We flew to Orlando from Chicago the day before and stayed at Embassy Suites near the airport. The hotel was nice, clean, friendly. In the future, we would probably stay in Port Canaveral, close to the pier...for reasons below.

The morning of embarkation, our limo picked us up at 10:00am and we were off to the pier; filled with excitement. Once we reached the pier, a RCCI agent approached our driver and told him that we couldn't be dropped off until 2:00 or after due to a medical emergency on the ship....the prior cruise passengers still weren't off and the ship still hadn't docked; it was sitting in the water.

Our driver dropped us off at the nearby Radisson and we waited to take the shuttle bus with hundreds of others. Kudos to the Radisson Hotel; we used their very nice pool and they locked our luggage in a secure room. They really went out of their way for many people who hadn't even stayed there. Long story short; we waited at the hotel until approx. 4:30 before we were shuttled to the pier. Stood in line outside for another 1.5 hrs and walked onto the ship about 6:00pm. Definitely a test of patience. We found out that a medical emergency on the sailing prior resulted in the ship making a detour to evacuate a passenger that suffered a heart attack and was in critical condition. Obviously a sad situation. Although, we found out that Royal Caribbean knew of the delay the night before and could have sent out a heads up. We did get a spa coupon the night before though??? Read more