May 25, 2014 - 1st Day on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas

This year we were supposed to do another Disney cruise last week, but a work thing came up for that week, so we had to push the cruise out a week.  To stay on Disney it would've cost $3,000 extra, so we decided to try Royal Caribbean for the same cost we had previously booked.  To think that one year ago, I was with Jason at Shand's Hospital in the Cardiac ICU while he recovered from open heart surgery!

Wai-po dropped us off at the port again so that we didn't have to pay for parking.  We got to the port at about 10:30 and boarded the ship around 11:30.  We went straight to lunch and then wandered around the ship checking it out.  The kids got their picture with all the DreamWorks characters that were on the ship.  After that, the kids got their bathing suits on and Jesse rode the flow rider.  Then they swam in the pool.

We at dinner every night at Leonardo's at 5:30 pm and most nights we were able to catch the first show at 7:00 pm.  Two nights we went to the 9:00 pm show because we didn't make it in time.  The shows were alright, but nothing to really call home about.  There was this stunt couple that did the hanging off the rope (at least one of them) that was pretty cool.  The first time they came out (first night on the ship), I hid my face most of the time because I was afraid they would fall.  The second time they came out (last night on the ship), we were sitting in the front row, so I couldn't do that since they could see me.  It was pretty daring!