The Hallo-wino Cruise! A Freedom of the Seas Pictorial Review!

great job

Great review! I love the rainbow and chicken pics.....Funny![emoji1]

We also snagged the promenade "mistaken price" room. I was on Freedom last year for Halloween cruise(with Silky Sal and gang), and it was a totally different cruise as far as cruise director and activities. We had the great CD, Richard Spacey and his cohort, Katie Turner, activities manager last year. They did a phenomenal Halloween party! It was much more organized and lots more fun. They did not have the 70's party the same night. Too bad for RCI, Richard Spacey took a job with Celebrity, although I'm not sure how most Celebrity passengers will appreciate his hyperactivity! We loved it! Katie is now on Oasis. The two of them worked great together.

Great meeting you, Grady, and "that guy"! Glad you enjoyed Royal Palms. We look forward to cruising with y'all again soon!:)

Didn't get pics of the crawl, thought it might get weird if I started snapping away whenever someone walked in the door. :D But I got plenty in Cozumel, those will be coming soon.

I would have probably thought that to be weird, but all those wine samples, I was smiling, ready for a photo!LOL I just arrived back home Thursday night, and haven't looked over all John's photos. I am really looking for the one of your second "costume" worn for the parade! That was hilarious! Hope John got it!:D

I would have probably thought that to be weird, but all those wine samples, I was smiling, ready for a photo!LOL I just arrived back home Thursday night, and haven't looked over all John's photos. I am really looking for the one of your second "costume" worn for the parade! That was hilarious! Hope John got it!:D

We also snagged the promenade "mistaken price" room. I was on Freedom last year for Halloween cruise(with Silky Sal and gang), and it was a totally different cruise as far as cruise director and activities. We had the great CD, Richard Spacey and his cohort, Katie Turner, activities manager last year. They did a phenomenal Halloween party! It was much more organized and lots more fun. They did not have the 70's party the same night. Too bad for RCI, Richard Spacey took a job with Celebrity, although I'm not sure how most Celebrity passengers will appreciate his hyperactivity! We loved it! Katie is now on Oasis. The two of them worked great together.

 

Great meeting you, Grady, and "that guy"! Glad you enjoyed Royal Palms. We look forward to cruising with y'all again soon!:)

Great meeting you guys too! Hopefully our paths will cross again someday. And I totally agree about Spacey, he was an excellent CD. He was on FOS when we went on her the first time, very good at his job. Graham Seymour was there the next time and we liked him a lot as well.

Unfortunately I won't be posting phase 1 or 2 of my costume on here. Phase 1 might get me kicked off CC, phase 2 definitely would! :D You guys that saw it will just have to live with the terrifying memories. ;)

great job

Great review! I love the rainbow and chicken pics.....Funny![emoji1]

Thanks folks, I appreciate it! :)

Day 5, Grand Cayman:

 

We got an early start for our day in GC due to the aforementioned briefness of our visit. We quickly ate onboard and got a tender. We took Cruising Grandma’s advice and headed to the Royal Palms. It is a nice bar right on Seven Mile Beach. We had several buckets of beer and many drinks. We hung out at the beach and in their pool at the swim-up bar for a few hours before heading back on board.

 

As with the previous day, I was able to squeeze in a trip up to the gym before hitting the Diamond Lounge. After the Diamond Lounge we stopped at the On Air Lounge to watch karaoke. We then watched the Quest in Studio B. They held the Club Twenty dance club in the Solarium. It was better attended than the previous night’s pool deck party and a pretty good time.

 

After Club Twenty they held the late night dancing in the Viking Crown Lounge, due to The Crypt being used by the teen program. This really bothered me, as I thoroughly enjoy The Crypt. Adults aren’t allowed into the teen dance club, so why should they be in ours? The crowd in the VCL was noticeably smaller than what is usually seen in The Crypt, so another swing-and-miss for RCI’s nightlife planners.

 

 

 

At Grand Cayman

 

 

The Royal Palms on Seven Mile Beach

 

 

 

Special thanks to Lord Timothy for this funny sighting

I have 2 teens and we had just left FOS after a b2b and the teens are only in til 1am so I'm unsure why they don't open it after?? My 2 really enjoyed being in the crypt! Funnily enough a part of the ship my husband and I have never visited! I'm not surprised the Halloween party was disorganised as Casey is a very poor CD compared with Richard and his side kick Katie from last yr or Graeme Seymour

Day 6, Cozumel:

Cozumel was the only port for which we had an organized excursion planned. We joined a group of other Cruise Critic folks for the Cozumel Bar Hop. It was booked directly through the operator, not via RCI. We met just outside the International Cruise Terminal building. They provided a tour bus for transport to the far side of the island. Four bars were on the itinerary; Punta Morena, Coconuts, Playa Bonita, and Rastas. Each was a little different and had it’s own charm, but Coconuts was my favorite. The tour includes one shot at each stop, but I had a few extra beers just for good measure. It was a fun tour, and I would recommend it.

That evening was Halloween, so we had to get into our costumes as soon as we got back on board. This was not an easy task after drinking all day. But we did eventually get into character and head upstairs to the Diamond Lounge.

I was surprised by how many clever and creative costume ideas that fellow passengers had. There was a Halloween themed 70’s dance party on the promenade. We hung out in the pub during this, due to the hideously overcrowded conditions outside the doors. After the dance party they had a costume parade down the promenade, and a balloon drop.

Later in the night I met up with friends in The Crypt for the “silent disco”. The crew distributed wireless headphones with two different channels of music. This creates a fun experience where everyone is singing and dancing to different songs in a club with no music playing.

We stayed in the club late, after the silent disco was ended. It was still well attended as we left to get pizza shortly before 3. After pizza we walked back down to the club to see if the party was still going. We were surprised to find many guests still on the dance floor in a club that had been prematurely shut down. I can’t figure out why management would shut down a dance club when patrons are still buying drinks and enjoying themselves. That was lost drink revenue on a cruise with precious few partygoers.

Royal Caribbean should really take a lesson from Carnival on how to run a nightclub. I was just on a CCL cruise last month, and the lounge was packed every night until at least 3:30 or 4 in the morning. That ship was half the size of FOS, with half the passengers, and its pizza counter was open 24/7 for hungry partiers. Most drunks want pizza, not cold sandwiches and cookies from Café Promenade! If RCI wants to attract a younger crowd, fixing their nightlife would be a good place to start.

Our lovely ship at the pier in Cozumel

The first stop on the Cozumel bar crawl

Stop #2

This little guy just walked around the bar like he owned the place

Stop #3

The place had huge margaritas

Stop #4, Rastas

Apparently knees jerk in Mexico too

The promenade was decorated for the Halloween party

I normally don't post "people pictures" in my review as I don't know folks comfort level with being posted online. I hope they won't mind, but the costumes were awesome. The picture doesn't do them justice. In person you could see frost around the edges of the fabric, the white faces and blackish blue lips. Outstanding job, they looked like they just got pulled out of the North Atlantic.

A really well done pumpkin display in the Windjammer

Our awesome bar team. They were in the DL each night, and then with us again in The Crypt.

This HAL ship looked to just be sitting still, or moving extremely slow. I heard later it was a possible medical evacuation going on.

Great photos! Great review!:)

Awesome photo's, thanks for posting them.

Thanks for posting the review! I just absolutely love the Freedom class!! :) Jealous of the beautiful weather too!

Day 7, At Sea:

My last day on board started pretty late. Six nights of partying takes a toll on the system. We had lunch in the main dining room, and I watched the crew vs. guests’ volleyball competition in the sports pool. I also spent some time hanging out with friends at the Solarium and main pool bars in the afternoon.

We made one last visit to the VCL for the Diamond Lounge, and said goodbye to the awesome bar staff. After the lounge we made our lone dinner visit in the main dining room, both food and service were good.

Later in the evening we had a few drinks in the pub, and then made out way down to The Crypt. It was pretty slow in the nightclub at first, but picked up as the night went on. After the club we made one last trip for late night snacks on the promenade.

The Bull and Bear pub

Sorrentos Pizza

Pharaohs Palace

Fantastic job as always Darth. You are really making me miss the Freedom right now.

Thanks for the great review! We are going to be right across the hall in 8316 and 8318 on the March sailing. How was the location? Additionally, did you hear anything else about what the changes would be during the dry dock in January? Thanks.

Fantastic job as always Darth. You are really making me miss the Freedom right now.

Thanks!

Thanks for the great review! We are going to be right across the hall in 8316 and 8318 on the March sailing. How was the location? Additionally, did you hear anything else about what the changes would be during the dry dock in January? Thanks.

Great location. We never heard any noise in spite of being between the elevators. The only other dry dock rumor I heard was that FOS was supposed to get Dynamic Dining, now it's apparently canceled. Who knows what's true or not. :confused:

More ship pics:

The cigar lounge

The Schooner Bar

Internet cafe

The library

The Concierge Lounge, very small on this class of ship. We never spent much time in there in the evenings as it gets pretty crowded.

The teen clubs

The Royal Promenade

The Champagne Bar

Guest Relations