Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas LIVE Blog Embarkation Day

It’s Cruise Day

All Aboard the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas! A Four night cruise headed to the Bahamas! Visiting ports of call: Perfect Day at Coco Cay, and Nassau.

We started our morning in our home in Orlando. This past summer we moved to Florida and we are still getting used to living with a driving distance to 4 cruise ports! The drive was a breeze, did leave early enough to take our time and not feel rushed to arrive at Port Miami for our 1:30 p.m. check-in time.

Paying to park at Port Miami in the Royal Caribbean terminal was $25 a day. A bit pricer than when we paid for terminal parking in Port Canaveral, but worth the convenience, we were ready to get on the ship.

Embarkation & Check-In

After leaving our checked bags with the porters in the terminal we made our way into the cruise terminal. Keeping your proof of testing, vaccine card, and passport all close by is handy, you will need all multiple times, through this process.

We did do the online check-in before the cruise through Royal Caribbean’s app. This allowed us to fill out the health questionnaire and take our pictures and receive a boarding time to arrive at the cruise terminal. (Pro tip if you don’t want to take your picture while doing the check-in through the app, let’s say you don’t have your face on and are still in your pajamas, alternatively you can do the check-in through on your computer and upload a photo instead. Uploading a photo isn’t a feature available on the app.)

Once we reach the check-in counter they verified our documents again and wanted to take my photo again. This hasn’t ever happened to me where they didn’t like the photo I took on my own. But since my hair was down for the photo that I took, and during embarkation, my hair was up this was the explanation I was given. Go figure!

Security was a breeze and it was time to get on the ship! As traditional holds true stepping off the gangway onto the ship, I have to jump to help kick-start the cruise! Are you superstitious? Not saying, I am but I do enjoy a fun tradition!

Luckily, our stateroom was ready, a benefit of boarding a bit later in the day! This meant we could drop off our heavy camera equipment backpacks, and go explore the ship without being weighed down!

1st meal onboard

Time for lunch on the pool deck! El Loco Fresh is located on deck 11 and this is my favorite quick-service restaurant on any Royal Caribbean ship! There wasn’t a long line to grab a bite which is always a plus! The crew will serve you as you direct them to what of the offering of rice beans, chicken or steak, prebuilt burritos, and chicken or cheese quesadillas.

They have a topping bar with extra fixings and an array of hot sauces if you want to give it an extra kick!

Sailaway

Due to safety protocols there isn’t a full blown sail away party. But there was live music playing on the pool deck around 4p.m. We had decided to go live on YouTube to show off the explore the cruise ship together! Interesting, there were a few members of the community who will be sailing on the Freedom very soon and even a couple who just got off today! If you have specific questions you want me to cover for your upcoming trip let me know!

After the 1hr livestream it was time for dinner! You can watch the replay here! We opted for the early 5:30 seating as this works a bit better for our family when traveling with our daughter. Keeping kids on their schedule while traveling can be tough but at least if they stay well fed we can help eliminate some meltdowns 😉

Main Dining Room

We were seated on deck four in the early dining time and had a nice table for the 3 of us close to a window. It was nice to see the sights as we started to pull out of the dock and sail out of Port Miami.

The service and food came quickly and was tasty. It was a bit of expedited service since we were some of the first to sit down and the dining room from what we could see was socially distant but very empty.

We were told during check-in the sailing was like and only at 1400 pax, which is approx. 31%. We could feel the low guest count in the dining room.

Entertainment

Turns out there are lots of spots great for peak-a-boo!

The "Majority Rules” game show took place in the lounge which was a vaccinated area only. Since our daughter was with us and under 2 were didn’t stay for the show. You can see on the daily planner activities that are marked with “V” for vaccinated guests only allow in that area, and guests are allowed to take their masks off in these indoor spaces. And areas marked with “E” are for everyone.

On to explore more of the ship and discover other happenings throughout.

We stumbled upon movies under the stars on the pool deck. The weather was perfect and calm seas for this. The new Tom and Jerry movie was playing! Rafael had mentioned that he couldn’t even feel that we were moving at all.