Around the ship

We spent three days at sea during our cruise. I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun we all had on these days when we were not in port. There were so many activities on the ship that we could always find an exciting way to spend our time. 

Exploring the ship was just as interesting as engaging in the organized activities. Just when we thought we had seen it all, we went for a walk on the sixth day and discovered the helipad on the front bow. Below Scott and John are standing on the edge of the helipad. There are cabin suites just behind the portholes above the helipad. I am sure these suites were expensive, but the views from these rooms would have been impressive!

The pool area was the kids' favorite place on the ship. They spend hours running between the splash zones, the lazy river, and the pools. This was a nice area for me as well as I could either relax in a lounge chair while they played or I could swim with the kids, depending on my mood. Another thing that Amelia and John loved on this part of the deck was the (free) soft serve ice cream machine that was open nearly 12 hours a day. They loved swirling ice cream into their cones!

There was a large atrium shopping area inside the ship. While we didn't do much shopping in this area, one thing caught John's eye as we walked through the mall. After a significant amount of begging John got his beloved airbrushed tattoo, a scorpion. Later in the week John succeeded in talking his dad into getting him an even larger tattoo on his calf. I think that one was a dragon. Between the Heat jerseys, his tattoos, and the crazy lacrosse shorts, John was quite into his "stylish" image during this week.

The ice skating rink was located on the fourth floor of the ship so it was pretty close to sea level. Around the perimeter of the seating area surrounding the rink were giant portholes. I thought this area was so neat because of the juxtaposition of seeing the warm Caribbean waters while skating on frozen ice.

We saw a fantastic ice skating show one afternoon during a day at sea. It was amazing how a dozen skaters could perform flips and spins on this small rink. The kids and I also went ice skating twice during our week on the ship, which was a blast.

This was John's second time on the ice (Amelia's fourth time, I think), and he made a lot of progress with his skating. By the end of the second ice skating experience John was cruising around the rink without falling at all.

Back to exploring the ship. We found a covered walkway with shuffleboard courts underneath the lifeboats on the fourth deck. This was a fun place to watch the current of the water.

We played mini golf on the nine-hole course on the top deck. Amelia and Scott are wearing the orange shirts in the photo below.

And here are two of my other most favorite activities. First, the rock climbing wall! The wall was impressive, towering very high above the ship on the top deck. 

Amelia, John and I went rock climbing one morning. It was so much fun! I thought this was the perfect combination of difficulty (the climb wasn't easy) and pleasure, as it was quite rewarding to reach the top and look out of the corner of your eye towards the magnificent sea in the distance.

All three of us are in pictured above. John is on the left, I am wearing the dark orange shirt in the middle, and Amelia is wearing the purple shorts on the right. We all reached the top of our routes and rang the bell at the top of the wall.

Another super fun activity was the Flow Rider surfing experience, where Amelia and I both tried boogie boarding (poor John did not meet the height requirements for this, though he tried his best to fool the attendant into thinking he was taller so he could sneak on!). The Flow Rider was so much more difficult, and also more fun, than I would have thought from watching others do it. Below Amelia is positioning her board to catch the wave.


And here you can see Amelia's excellent form while on the board riding the wave. Amelia was amazing on the Flow Rider! She stayed on her board for a long time because she had great posture and held it steady. I was not quite as successful as Amelia though I did manage to stay on the board for a minute or two. The force of the rushing water is so strong (and loud!) that this is a challenging physical experience.

Above is a photo of our family on the last night at dinner. Dinner was always a fun time and the food was tasty. We often met for a pre-dinner drink in one of the many lounge areas on the ship. Don't worry - the large beer on the table in front of Amelia was mine, not hers!

Each evening our cabin steward would put the next day's itinerary in our room (along with the towel animals!). This was a three-page newsletter that described all of the activities that would be offered on the ship the next day, which restaurants were open and when, etc. I often took the itinerary along to breakfast the next morning so that I could map out our plan for the day, as activities like the rock climbing wall were only open during certain hours.

Anyway, Amelia often read the newsletter too and one day she told me she wanted to go to the Pictionary contest that was taking place that afternoon. We never attended any of the organized games like Bingo so I wasn't sure what to expect, but the kids and I went to Pictionary. It ended up being a smaller group setting, with maybe about a hundred people gathered in one of the lounges. The facilitator divided the room in half to two teams, and each team sent four representatives up to the white board to draw the items on the card. Imagine my surprise when the host asked for volunteers from each team and Amelia immediately shot her hand in the air and asked to be selected!

Amelia was the only kid her age to take the stage, but she did great! I loved how she had no fear at all of getting in front of this room full of adults to participate in the game!

Another notable event during our time on the ship was that we celebrated Amelia's 9th birthday! Grandmommy and grandaddy thoughtfully arranged for the kids' cabin to be decorated as a surprise. Amelia was delighted when we returned back from breakfast one morning to find these lovely decorations!

On the day of Amelia's birthday, our waiter and others in the dining room sang "Happy Birthday" to her and brought out a piece of cake with a candle. Amelia was so excited about this!

You can see from the pictures that we all enjoyed our time on the Freedom of the Seas!

P.S. I just realized that you can view a roll of the pictures from each post by clicking on a photo. Since my photos are displayed in a smallish size, viewing them in the roll format shows a much brighter and more detailed picture.