Finally reunited with a Cruise Ship!

Tony and I just recently returned from a seven night cruise aboard the Freedom of the Seas. It was our fifth cruise overall. I love cruising. I love the ocean and being out there in it. I love the port of calls and experiencing new things. I love the shows and the food. I love being taken care of by the staff. I just love everything about cruising. So I still get excited when I get to go back.

So hop aboard with Tony and I as we sail away to a few islands in the Caribbean!

This trip we sailed out of Port Canaveral again. We really like this port when we sailed out of it in August on  the Enchantment. But this time we ended up staying all night at the Doubletree in Cocoa Beach.

For the first time we decided to wait until after 1 to leave hotel. We decided we wanted to wait until close to or after the rooms were open instead of schlepping our stuff around waiting. One of the perks of our Silver level with Hilton is that we were able to ask for a late check out. We left the hotel a little after one, after putting on our luggage tags in the parking lot.

It was a 6 mile drive to the port.

First glimpse of ship:

I still get soooo excited when I first get to see the ship!

Last cruise we parked right in front of where the porters were taking luggage. This time since it was a larger sailing and we were a lot later than normal getting there, we ended up parking on the third level of the garage. So we pulled around dropped off our luggage with the porters then parked. The check in process was a breeze as usual and we were walking on board in about 15 minutes.

Here is where you drop off your luggage.

  

Check in was a breeze and before we knew it we were on the ship!

Here is a video of  walking onto the ship from the terminal.

The rooms were ready and we headed straight there to dump our stuff. The elevators were crazy as expected so we decided to hoof it up the 5 flights to our cabin on deck 9. We were quite winded after our trip. It might not have been as bad but we decided to do it at a slight sprint for some reason. We always try to use the stairs while on a cruise to help with all the calories we end up consuming while cruising.

 Our room 9280

This closet was awesome. I called it my dressing room.

Our soda cups were waiting on us. I was hoping they would be different than the ones we got on the Enchantment in August, but they were the same.

  

After getting a good feel of our room we headed to the Windjammer for some lunch. It was busy as usual, but waiting until close to 2 to go it was very manageable. We got a table very easily and the buffet lines ran about 2 to 3 people deep.

My first plate of food in the Windjammer.

I could not find Honey Stung Chicken. I thought it was weird since this has always been available the first day and seems to be the start of a cruise item. I looked at all food bars , but it was a no go. If I missed it then it was hid pretty good. I decided I would just order it at least once later so that Honey Stung Chicken was ate at least once! But the food was pretty good. A little better than Windjammer fair than I had before. I was hoping this was a sign of good eats to come.

Tony was still in jeans and wanted to change into shorts before we did any exploring. So we headed back to the cabin in hopes our luggage might be there. Yeah! It was. So I took the time to unpack. There was a ton of room for everything and the suitcases fit nicely under the bed.

Everybody was supposed to be onboard by 3:30 with muster being at 4. So I took this time to run up to the pool deck to take some pics of the port and the ships there with us.  

The Disney ship in port with us.

She really is a pretty ship. I would like to ride the tube  thingy they have.

The Carnival ship.

I have mixed feelings about this ship. My first cruise was on this class of ship with Carnival. But they have cut and chopped and added pieces to this ship til now it just looks kinda weird. This is probably my least favorite Carnival ship in the fleet and I haven't even sailed on her.

I finished up my picture taking jaunt at about 3:30 and I came back to the cabin to check on Tony. Right after I got there our cabin steward Supri, came by to introduce himself. He then told me that the Muster was at 3:45. I thought, hmm they changed the time. But we ended up not leaving the room til 3:55 because I “kinda” dozed off on the couch and Supri had to knock and remind us..lol.

This is where I was when Supri knocked.

Me with our wonderful room attendant Supri.

The first day tends to be a long one with lots of things going on, so I think I will stop here and continue Day 1 on my next blog. 

Join me next time as we go through muster drill and, "Did the Captain just say we were going to be delayed?"

                                                                                                                               The Boss Lady