Day 7 - Disembark back in Miami and Fly Home
Day 7 - Saturday May 30
We woke up to find ourselves docked back in Miami. Breakfast was offered int he Windjammer until 8:30am and the main dining room until 8:00am. How your disembark is by group. We somehow got groups 49 and 50, meaning, we were the last to get off the Freedom at 9:30am. We were also assigned to wait in the main theater as we had to be out of our cabins by 8:00am.
We wanted a direct flight and Southwest only had one per day between Miami and Houston and that was at 5:40pm so we weren't in a hurry. We left our cabins with our carry items a little before 8:00 and headed to the Windjammer for one last breakfast. Our big suitcases were picked up by the porters if left outside your door before 10:00pm the night before. After a nice breakfast overlooking Miami, we headed to the Royal Theatre and settled in to wait until our time to get off at 9:30. We broke out the phones, iPads and Nintendo systems but after 20 minutes or so, a crew member came into the theater and said everyone can leave. I also didn't want to as we weren't in a hurry but here we went. I had heard this before that while your disembarkation time is set, no one really cares and you really can leave whenever.
We walked off the Freedom at 8:45pm for the last time. LT chose not to sent their luggage with the porters the night before so they were moving their luggage along. Mom and our family easily found our luggage in the terminal and picked it up. We chose to get a Lyft to the airport as it was to be cheaper (though slightly) than a transfer through the airline. Word of advice, the Lyft from the terminal was a decent bit more than the Lyft to the terminal. It also took our driver a long while to get to us. We called the lift about 9:25am and wasn't picked up until 10:05am.
Another piece of advice, get a hotel and spend the day in Miami vs flying out like we did, especially if your flight is as late as our was. We arrived at MIA airport at 10:30am. Now Miami airport has a lot of small wings with security that leads to each. Southwest had its own wing. When we got there at 10:30, we found out that we couldn't check out bags until 4 hours before our flight which was about 1:40pm. We walked through the airport a bit trying to find something to do. We eventually found a Burger King with plenty of tables so decided to sit there. We got lunch though the staff was pretty rude and broke up what we had with us to keep ourselves entertained.
Our group was very punctual the entire trip as even though we didn't have a reason to rush, we were at baggage check at 1:30pm just to find the machines not able to take our fight yet. A 10 minute wait and we were able to. We easily got everything checked and proceeded through security. We found that the Southwest wing of MIA (Terminal G) was nothing great. I really hope the other wings for the other airlines were better… We found one "sit down" restaurant, a snack / convince store area and a few vending machines. We again, found an area to camp and an outlet to charge devices and entertained ourselves for the 4 hours. We chose to eat at the 'Brew House' sit down restaurant about an hour before our flight which was passable but nothing to write home about.
I do wish we should have had a hotel for this night and spent the day exploring Miami. We could have Lyft'd to the hotel, put our bags with them and then seen the city. The next day, we could have done the same and the hotel could keep our bags while we got lunch and not had to spend a little over 7 hours at the (not so good) airport.
Our flight was listing a bit late most of the afternoon and we ended up pushing back at 6:15pm which was 35 minutes late but we ended up landing in Houston only 15 minutes late at 7:45pm. We let those with connections off first and then made our way to the baggage claim. We got our bags and took the shuttle to the parking spot to get to our car. We were leaving the lot at 8:45pm.
The Buna crew of L, T and mom parked in EcoPark and walked over to their truck and headed home as well. They had about a 2 hr drive and made it just fine.
It was so much fun to travel with the extended family like this and Royal Caribbean and the Freedom of the Seas did not disappoint. Next time, I think we will consider just cruising out of Galveston and not have to worry about flights or build some time in to see Miami but do think a cruise was what we needed!
- Breakfast at Windjammer
- Spent the morning at the pools for us / casino for the rest of the family
- Lunch at Johnny Rockets
- Afternoon enjoying the ship and then ice skating
- Dinner at Izumi Hibachi
- Evening show of juggler David DiMuzio
We woke up to find ourselves docked back in Miami. Breakfast was offered int he Windjammer until 8:30am and the main dining room until 8:00am. How your disembark is by group. We somehow got groups 49 and 50, meaning, we were the last to get off the Freedom at 9:30am. We were also assigned to wait in the main theater as we had to be out of our cabins by 8:00am.
We wanted a direct flight and Southwest only had one per day between Miami and Houston and that was at 5:40pm so we weren't in a hurry. We left our cabins with our carry items a little before 8:00 and headed to the Windjammer for one last breakfast. Our big suitcases were picked up by the porters if left outside your door before 10:00pm the night before. After a nice breakfast overlooking Miami, we headed to the Royal Theatre and settled in to wait until our time to get off at 9:30. We broke out the phones, iPads and Nintendo systems but after 20 minutes or so, a crew member came into the theater and said everyone can leave. I also didn't want to as we weren't in a hurry but here we went. I had heard this before that while your disembarkation time is set, no one really cares and you really can leave whenever.
We walked off the Freedom at 8:45pm for the last time. LT chose not to sent their luggage with the porters the night before so they were moving their luggage along. Mom and our family easily found our luggage in the terminal and picked it up. We chose to get a Lyft to the airport as it was to be cheaper (though slightly) than a transfer through the airline. Word of advice, the Lyft from the terminal was a decent bit more than the Lyft to the terminal. It also took our driver a long while to get to us. We called the lift about 9:25am and wasn't picked up until 10:05am.
Another piece of advice, get a hotel and spend the day in Miami vs flying out like we did, especially if your flight is as late as our was. We arrived at MIA airport at 10:30am. Now Miami airport has a lot of small wings with security that leads to each. Southwest had its own wing. When we got there at 10:30, we found out that we couldn't check out bags until 4 hours before our flight which was about 1:40pm. We walked through the airport a bit trying to find something to do. We eventually found a Burger King with plenty of tables so decided to sit there. We got lunch though the staff was pretty rude and broke up what we had with us to keep ourselves entertained.
Our group was very punctual the entire trip as even though we didn't have a reason to rush, we were at baggage check at 1:30pm just to find the machines not able to take our fight yet. A 10 minute wait and we were able to. We easily got everything checked and proceeded through security. We found that the Southwest wing of MIA (Terminal G) was nothing great. I really hope the other wings for the other airlines were better… We found one "sit down" restaurant, a snack / convince store area and a few vending machines. We again, found an area to camp and an outlet to charge devices and entertained ourselves for the 4 hours. We chose to eat at the 'Brew House' sit down restaurant about an hour before our flight which was passable but nothing to write home about.
I do wish we should have had a hotel for this night and spent the day exploring Miami. We could have Lyft'd to the hotel, put our bags with them and then seen the city. The next day, we could have done the same and the hotel could keep our bags while we got lunch and not had to spend a little over 7 hours at the (not so good) airport.
Our flight was listing a bit late most of the afternoon and we ended up pushing back at 6:15pm which was 35 minutes late but we ended up landing in Houston only 15 minutes late at 7:45pm. We let those with connections off first and then made our way to the baggage claim. We got our bags and took the shuttle to the parking spot to get to our car. We were leaving the lot at 8:45pm.
The Buna crew of L, T and mom parked in EcoPark and walked over to their truck and headed home as well. They had about a 2 hr drive and made it just fine.
It was so much fun to travel with the extended family like this and Royal Caribbean and the Freedom of the Seas did not disappoint. Next time, I think we will consider just cruising out of Galveston and not have to worry about flights or build some time in to see Miami but do think a cruise was what we needed!
