Help with nuts and bolts: Freedom of the Seas

[littleblackegg]

My husband and I are taking a cruise in October on the Freedom of the Seas! I am very excited about the relaxation, and my husband is excited about the activities. I am reluctant to spend too much money on excursions (especially ones that don't offer meals, shade, and a bar for drinks). Is it acceptable to just hop off the ship and wander around? Is there access to beaches and umbrellas and food? I would love some quiet time on a beach, and my husband wants historic places. The last cruise I took was on the Dream, and the weather was terrible so we never left the ship. We had a great time anyway, but we were only there three nights. This cruise on the Freedom of the Seas is seven nights. I need to budget for our activities/excursions, and determine what we would like!

 

[msjprincess]

Eastern or Western itinerary?

I did the Eastern on Indy this past summer. We didn't book any excursions, we just did our own thing in each port.

 

[littleblackegg]

Eastern. Were you able to find ocean front chairs and umbrellas in each port? What sort of attractions were available to pedestrians doing their own thing? I would like to avoid expensive excursions, but want the experience to be fun for both me and my husband.

 

[msjprincess]

Eastern is different on FOS than it was on IOS.

CocoCay is Royal Caribbean's private island. So yes you can just hang out on the beach. They have a BBQ buffet for lunch. Just be aware that this is a tender port and it isn't unusual for them to have to skip this port because of weather/seas.

In St Maarten you can take a water taxi to downtown Philipsburg from the port. I think it's $7 pp. There is a beach, restaurant and shopping downtown. I think it was $15 to rent 2 lounge chairs and an umbrella on the beach.

I'm not sure about St Thomas. I would check out each port of call forum on Cruise Critic.

 

[DnA2010]

DH and I did freedom eastern- I was barely walking after an injury so we didn't do any major excursions. In St Maarten we just walked around but there was a beach, in St Thomas we took a "locals" bus for a $1 to a lovely beach- recommended to us by a bartender at shoping/bar area near where we got off. We enjoyed both.

 

[bumbershoot]

Is it acceptable to just hop off the ship and wander around?

Yes.

Is there access to beaches and umbrellas and food?

Where exactly are you going?

The last cruise I took was on the Dream, and the weather was terrible so we never left the ship.

Well, you've booked in October, so that's prime hurricane season...make some backup plans for things to do.

 

[sam_gordon]

Is it acceptable to just hop off the ship and wander around?

Only if the ship is docked.

 

[littleblackegg]

Only if the ship is docked.

Ha!!

 

[littleblackegg]

Yes.



Where exactly are you going?



Well, you've booked in October, so that's prime hurricane season...make some backup plans for things to do.

I have no idea where we would go. That's why I am asking for suggestions. Did you have a place in the Eastern Caribbean you particularly like? As for hurricanes, well, they happen. I've lived in Florida long enough to know to plan for severe weather. Also, my husband is an Eagle Scout. He stocks our water and canned goods and the like before the start of the season, and tracks storms on his NOAA site. It makes him REALLY happy to plan for these things. The peak of hurricane season is usually over in mid September for the Eastern Caribbean, but the past few years have seen some late storms.

 

[bumbershoot]

What islands are you going to, is what I meant.

I've done two easterns on freedom, and although both had coco* and Sint Maarten, they had different third ports.


*or were supposed to. My cruise last week wasn't able to get there due to winds. Sad. But very very common. So if coco is on the itinerary, prepare yourselves for another sea day.

 

[Canadian Disney Mom]

We never do paid excursions. We always just get off the ship and wander around the ports.

If you are doing Eastern on Freedom in Oct 2016, there is only one itinerary: CocoCay, Charlotte Amalie (St Thomas), Philipsburg (St. Maarten).

You will definitely find chairs & beach at Coco Cay and it will not cost you anything. DH brought his own snorkel gear and said it was great.

As someone mentioned above you can take a water taxi to Downtown Phillipsburg for $7pp (roundtrip). We normally walk (takes about 15 -20 min) but it is flat and its safe. Once you get downtown you can rent a few chairs on the beach for $15 or so. There are plenty of different places along the water that rent them at different prices and many include a bucket of drinks. There is also lots of great shopping.

I don't remember much about St Thomas but I think we took a shared shuttle downtown for around $4pp each way (I could be wrong on that part) and went shopping. Not sure what the beach situation is like.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

Go over to cruise critic. There's a ports of call board there that has tons of information about both ports. Ask your questions there and you will get tons of useful info.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'd been on my cellphone, and frankly I don't like researching on that. Especially not on RCCL's site. So the PP mentioned that it's only maarten and thomas... (Coco is simple for me, just like Castaway...sit on a lounger and zone out all day...but with Coco we're only 50% having actually been there when scheduled to!)

We've now been to Sint/St Maarten/Martin twice. Well, Sint Maarten twice; St Martin once. This recent trip we did a Bernard's Tour. I, sadly, did not love it as much as I anticipated. DH wasn't feeling well and skipped the tour (he missed 3 days of the cruise, really, b/c he got some rotten chest cold and horrible headache) so we were all off. We ended up being put in a bus other than what we would have been (b/c there was no room for 3 in our bus, so obviously they just put 2 in A bus). I never really gelled with our driver. And it was way longer than I had read it would be when I booked it.

Maho Beach was OK, but we were just wiped out by the time we got there and I wanted to leave so badly I nearly just skipped the end of the paid-for tour and caught a cab. Orient Beach was nice but 1.5 hours there was too short. (two loungers, an umbrella, and two drinks (rum punch for me, fruit punch for DS) for $10 wasn't bad.)

The first time we were there we took the water taxi to Philipsburg and just hung out there all day. Did some shopping and wandering. There's beach right there in Philipsburg. You have to take a water taxi, normal taxi, or walk about a mile to get into Philipsburg-proper to get to that beach. Rent some loungers and an umbrella, get a bucket of beers...simple and easy. Or just plop down on a towel.


St Thomas I tortured my hubby and son by making them walk into downtown. I thought it was a mile; someone said it was 2. So what if it was in the 90s? (ha ha ha) Got some GREAT chocolates there, bought bamboo sheets (we're vaguely addicted to Cariloha even though Im' sure we could find similar quality locally), and the menfolk were DONE. So we caught one of the shared open-air taxi vans and went on back to the ship.

Future trip to St Thomas we would have caught a taxi to just go over to Magen's Bay. There was no beach AT the cruise port that I saw.


Ports seem so big and scary the first time you're there, then the second time they seem so small and doable. We would have just changed it up in St Thomas but we hadn't brought swimsuits or anything off the ship with us.


Hope my thoughts help.

 

[Canadian Disney Mom]

Go over to cruise critic. There's a ports of call board there that has tons of information about both ports. Ask your questions there and you will get tons of useful info.

I couldn't agree more about Cruise Critics. It is my go-to for Cruise info, just like Disboards is for my Disney info.

 

[littleblackegg]

I'd been on my cellphone, and frankly I don't like researching on that. Especially not on RCCL's site. So the PP mentioned that it's only maarten and thomas... (Coco is simple for me, just like Castaway...sit on a lounger and zone out all day...but with Coco we're only 50% having actually been there when scheduled to!)

We've now been to Sint/St Maarten/Martin twice. Well, Sint Maarten twice; St Martin once. This recent trip we did a Bernard's Tour. I, sadly, did not love it as much as I anticipated. DH wasn't feeling well and skipped the tour (he missed 3 days of the cruise, really, b/c he got some rotten chest cold and horrible headache) so we were all off. We ended up being put in a bus other than what we would have been (b/c there was no room for 3 in our bus, so obviously they just put 2 in A bus). I never really gelled with our driver. And it was way longer than I had read it would be when I booked it.

Maho Beach was OK, but we were just wiped out by the time we got there and I wanted to leave so badly I nearly just skipped the end of the paid-for tour and caught a cab. Orient Beach was nice but 1.5 hours there was too short. (two loungers, an umbrella, and two drinks (rum punch for me, fruit punch for DS) for $10 wasn't bad.)

The first time we were there we took the water taxi to Philipsburg and just hung out there all day. Did some shopping and wandering. There's beach right there in Philipsburg. You have to take a water taxi, normal taxi, or walk about a mile to get into Philipsburg-proper to get to that beach. Rent some loungers and an umbrella, get a bucket of beers...simple and easy. Or just plop down on a towel.


St Thomas I tortured my hubby and son by making them walk into downtown. I thought it was a mile; someone said it was 2. So what if it was in the 90s? (ha ha ha) Got some GREAT chocolates there, bought bamboo sheets (we're vaguely addicted to Cariloha even though Im' sure we could find similar quality locally), and the menfolk were DONE. So we caught one of the shared open-air taxi vans and went on back to the ship.
Thank you!

Future trip to St Thomas we would have caught a taxi to just go over to Magen's Bay. There was no beach AT the cruise port that I saw.


Ports seem so big and scary the first time you're there, then the second time they seem so small and doable. We would have just changed it up in St Thomas but we hadn't brought swimsuits or anything off the ship with us.


Hope my thoughts help.