There were five things I loved about sailing on Freedom of the Seas on a weekend cruise to the Bahamas with Royal Caribbean!
I recently went on a weekend cruise to the Bahamas on Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas! The ship offers three- and four-night trips from Miami to the Bahamas stopping in Nassau and Perfect Day at Coco Cay. The four-night option leaves on Mondays and the three-night option leaves on Friday’s.
Weekend cruises are well known as party cruises with non-stop celebrating for bachelor and bachelorette parties as well as people just getting away for a quick couple nights in the sun! The four-night option can be a little less party and you generally get a sea day to enjoy the ship!
For this weekend cruise I met up with a fellow content creator Cruise Life Matt for an awesome weekend!
This article will cover the five things that I loved about the sailing!
Booking
I booked my three-night Freedom of the Seas cruise for $651 including port charges and tips. On top of the cruise fare, I also added the beverage package and premium internet and unlimited dining package for another $450 or so bringing the total to $1,100 for the cruise fare.
I had my own room, so basically had to pay for two people less the second port charges. So, it is definitely less expensive to sail with someone else in your room because you can share the room cost. In the event that you do that though, the beverage package has to be purchased by both guests in the room.
For flights I used miles and points to fly to and from Miami for the weekend sailing.
Travel Recommendation
Coming from the Midwest in the winter I generally recommend flying in the night before so that I do not have issues making the ships departure time. In this case I used points to stay at a hotel by the airport and then took an Uber to the port in the morning. The Uber was about $25 from the airport to the port. On the way back to the airport, Uber’s were in the $50 range, so I opted to take one of the last minute shuttles that were offering a $10 per-person ride to the airport. Once you exit the port area, there will generally be several people with signs offering airport transfers.
Let me help you plan your next cruise vacation! Email me at john@johnthewanderer.com and I can help put together a great vacation experience. As a travel agent I often have access to additional promotions such as onboard credit, meals or some other experience or group pricing.
Now that I covered how I paid for the trip lets get to the five things that I loved!
Five Things I loved about Freedom of the Seas
There were five things I loved about my sailing on Freedom of the Seas to the Bahamas. The five things are as follows:
#1 – Perfect Day at Coco Cay port day of fun in the Bahamas Sun!
The thing that I loved most about my experience on Freedom of the Seas was the port day at Royal Caribbean’s Private Island Perfect Day at Coco Cay!
This was my first time back to the island since the water park, dock and multiple feature areas were added several years ago.
I visited several areas on the island including South Beach and Oasis Lagoon. The beach experience of South Beach is pretty cool because you can swim out to a bar and climb up some ladders and enjoy a drink with your friends or enjoy the great sandy beach!
My favorite area of Coco Cay was the Oasis Lagoon which is billed as the largest freshwater pool in the Caribbean. The pool features non-stop DJ music as well as a swim up bar. I spent most of my time in the pool dancing to the music and having fun with friends!
There were plenty of beach chairs available to relax in the sun on one of the beaches or near one of the pools.
Snacks are available at South Beach including burgers, chicken sandwiches, cheese sticks and a few other great items. In addition, there were two buffet areas for a traditional beach BBQ experience. The food is included in the cruise fare!
The water park access is pretty expensive since it costs over $100 per-person. But it seems to be very popular among families!
#2 – Utilizing the unlimited dining package to enjoy some awesome food throughout the sailing
The second thing that I loved about sailing on Freedom of the Seas was utilizing the unlimited dining package to enjoy some great food during the sailing.
Normally when I cruise I go with the included food options rather than spending more for specialty dining but on this sailing I decided to join my friends and purchase an unlimited dining pass for about $100 on this sailing. This allowed to dine each night in one of the specialty restaurants as well as lunch if the restaurants are open (generally sea days). In addition, you can go to Johnny Rockets and Playmakers at any time during the sailing. If you dine at the Teppanyaki you have to pay an additional $15 and if you dine at the Chef’s Table there is about a $50 additional charge. At Playmakers you can spend up to $20.
During the sailing I went to the Italian Restaurant, Steakhouse, Teppanyaki, Johnny Rockets and Playmakers so I made good use of the unlimited dining package over the three-night sailing.
Steakhouse
My favorite experience was at the steakhouse where everything ordered was amazing and we had a great server who brought us all the sides to share.
Italian
At the Italian restaurant the lasagna was amazing while everything else okay but not spectacular.
Teppanyaki
Teppanyaki gave us a great show experience while dinner was being prepared.
The fried rice was amazing, and the steak was also excellent!
The Johnny Rockets experience
Johnny Rockets offered a really good burger that stacks up with Guy’s Burgers on Carnival!
Overall, the food was excellent! I would recommend the pass so you can experience all the great offerings onboard.
The one drawback with the unlimited dinning pass is that you are not allowed to make reservations prior to arriving on the ship. So that can be a little stressful and you have to be flexible with your time in order to get into all the places that you want. So if you get it make sure the first thing you do when you get on the ship is to make all the reservations!
#3 – Starbucks coffee at the Promenade Café was included in the drink package.
The third thing that I loved about my Freedom of the Seas cruise was that you can get Starbucks coffee at Promenade Café as part of the drink package.
Royal Caribbean has a partnership with Starbucks that offers Starbucks outlets on the ships. When you go to those outlets, the drink package is not included; however, coffee drinks at other bars and restaurants are included.
On Freedom of the Seas, there is not a specific branded Starbucks outlet, but rather Starbucks coffee and Frappuccino and other items are offered at the Promenade Café so you are able to use the drink package for them!
There is something about enjoying a nice cappuccino or other barista beverage in the morning as well as grabbing a pick me up in the afternoon.
#4 – The nightlife parties making use of rotating bars and entertainment spaces throughout the sailing.
The fourth thing I loved about the sailing was the fact that Royal Caribbean splits up the club experience between the various venues on the ship so you get to experience different lounges each night!
Over the weekend I was able to experience the night life up high in the Viking Crown Lounge one night, on the Ice Rink the second night and in one of the show lounges the third night.
It was fun getting to experience all those different venues for the party!
Of course, the highlight of the parties was the last night with the Silent Disco!
I love grabbing some headphones and singing along or keeping one ear on my headphone and the other listening to everyone else sing along to the music! It is so much fun!!
#5 – Nassau port day for a fun afternoon with friends!
The final thing that I loved about the sailing was getting to go to Nassau with some friends!
Yes Nassau is a very common cruise port and everyone has been there. But for some reason it is always a lot of fun! Especially if you go with friends and go on a Pub Crawl!
I love joining Cruise Life Matt for a Nassau Pub Crawl!
Generally we will go to one or two bars, one restaurant and then end the afternoon for the party at Senor Frogs!
This time around, we visited Sharkeez Daiquiri bar and then had lunch at Sharkeez upstairs before joining the party at Senor Frogs!
The first stop was some colorful daiquiri’s at Sharkeez!
Followed by lunch upstairs. I had some peas and rice which was good as well as a salad.
The final stop was Senor Frogs where we joined a lot of other guests partying and enjoying the crazy dj led events.
This time around there was a conga line and some booty shaking contests on the stage as well as some great music to dance to!
Check out TripAdvisor for some other great things to do in Nassau!
Five Things I loved
The above included the five things I loved about sailing on Freedom of the Seas.
Of course there were a few things that would have made the experience a bit better as well.
What didn’t I like?
While I loved those five things about the weekend cruise on Freedom of the Seas?
Both the check in and check out experience on Freedom of the Seas was a bit chaotic.
At check in, everyone is assigned a check-in window. Mine was 10:30 AM.
I got threw security and the check in part promptly. But once I was through security, I had to wait with a room full of people! That wait was for about 45 minutes before being able to go on the ship!
Waiting a little while is not an issue, but this time around the room just kept filling up with people. Royal didn’t offer any entertainment in the boarding waiting area. Perhaps they could have DJ music to help people get through the wait! Another idea could be water and juice to tide over the waiting period so that was a little disappointing.
In addition, for the departure, I was assigned a group somewhere in the middle of the disembarkation.
When my group was called, I joined a line of hundreds of people. All of the people were waiting to go through the final security before departing. That process took a long time and took away from the experience.
These two issues were a bit annoying. These are more or less growing pains from the cruise industry being back to full capacity!
All in all it was an awesome weekend in the Bahamas sun on Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas!