Oh how exciting. BLT does look very central and AKL does look very unique. When we drove to Saana for our lunch, I did feel that AKL was quite far out though so I wonder if the transfer times to the parks are longer?
In terms of Freedom of the Seas, I can HIGHLY recommend adding it on at the end of your holiday as it was such a relaxing way to finish. It will be a while before I get to that in my trip report so I'll explain now that, for our family of five, we did have interconnecting cabins.
For families of five on Freedom, you either need to have two interconnecting cabins (they come in all types) , a Family Oceanview Stateroom or a Family Suite. When I did the figures, two cabins came out less that getting one of the Family Oceanview Staterooms or Family Suites as they are quite expensive.
For this cruise, I was determined to have my first balcony cabin but I didn't want to have to pay for a balcony for our children! On Deck 9 of Freedom down the far aft end on both sides, there is a balcony connecting with an inside which would have been great except both the balcony and inside cabins only take a maximum of 2 people - so only works for a family of 4. However all the way forward on Deck 9 is a balcony connecting with an oceanview and both cabins take a maximum of 4. I booked those cabins on the port side with the plan for DH and I to be in the balcony and the girls in the connecting oceanview.
Then my in-laws decided to come on the cruise too so I invited them to take the Oceanview that I had booked and then one of our children would sleep in there. I get on well with my in-laws so it was great because it really brought our our overall cruise cost down because I made my in-laws the main passengers in that cabin (and they paid that cost) so my child in there was just the 3rd subsequent passenger (at a much lower cost)
No it is certainly not normally rough sailing. However, we had never been up that high or that far forward on a ship before so I did feel the motion more than on other cruises. DD10 did feel a bit sick on the first sea day but she came right after a day.
Hope that helps
This kinda makes it real now....la la la
Happy days....Anyone else heading over in November
You are going to have the most wonderful year planning and researching your trip - I loved the whole process of doing ours!
, but worried about the kids. Is the hand rail high enough? I worry about our little fella he will be five years old when we travel. He is full of beans....and I mean full of beans! Did you get a good deal who did you go through?
Yay! How exciting! 
