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

The Hallo-wino Cruise!

Freedom of the Seas

October 26, 2014

Introduction:

Due to a big price drop (a misprint actually), we booked a promenade view room for an astoundingly low price. We had two other couples traveling with us, plus a large group of friends from past cruises that jumped on the price drop. We wound up with room 8321, which connected to our friend’s room next door.

Our cabin

Thankfully this ship has sliding shower doors

The view from our room

How was the noise?

How was the noise?

None at all, the PR rooms are very well insulated from sounds. During the parties and parades you could hear the muffled music, but they don't do those when people would normally be sleeping.

We were on the Halloween cruise but on Enchantment. Rough weather Sunday, never saw Cococay again.. Great room. I want to do Freedom on the two nighter in Jan.

Embarkation:

We drove down the morning of the cruise and parked at the Radisson Hotel, the shuttle ride over to the terminal was quick and easy. The terminal was pretty backed up due to the ship arriving late, so the expedited check-in offered to us as past guests really came in handy. We were onboard in just a few minutes. We then spent a couple of hours up in the Diamond Lounge catching up with friends and enjoying the hospitality. The two card rooms were being used as overflow areas for the Diamond Lounge. The service in the overflow area was excellent; Igusti, Inyoman and Diana were an awesome team. We all briefly stopped into the Concierge Lounge, but didn’t stay long. The CL on the Freedom Class ships is just too small. The view and comfort are much better upstairs.

Day 1, Port Canaveral:

We first stopped at the cabin to drop off our bags and stopped by the promenade for some pre muster drinks with Kathy and friends. After muster drill I got some sail away pictures on the helipad.

Sail away pics

The new cruise terminal

We were on the Halloween cruise but on Enchantment. Rough weather Sunday, never saw Cococay again.. Great room. I want to do Freedom on the two nighter in Jan.

Sorry you missed Coco Cay, we had pretty good weather and seas. I have friends going on that two-nighter.

Following along with you Grady so I can get ready for our Christmas Freedom cruise. (also a misprint priced one;))

Following along with you Grady so I can get ready for our Christmas Freedom cruise. (also a misprint priced one;))

Gotta love those misprints Ellen! :D

The Diamond Lounge

The two card rooms were used as DL overflow each night

We usually sat in the actual Viking Crown Lounge. Mostly because we were all bar flies, and the VCL has a proper bar. But also because the DL and overflow got pretty crowded.

Not to be nosey but what' do you mean misprint priced cruise?

Not to be nosey but what' do you mean misprint priced cruise?

There is a cruise on Freedom that had incredibly low prices (PR Ellen?) that turned out to be a mistake. Some here were able to book the cruise in the hour or so before Royal figured out they had a mistake and fixed the price.

Not to be nosey but what' do you mean misprint priced cruise?

In our case the Freedom Christmas sailing had a price of $369 per person for a D2 balcony cabin. It must have been a mistake. It lasted for about 2 hours. I believe some got it for even less than $369.

A nice CC person posted the deal (Thanks again Ken :) )

There is a cruise on Freedom that had incredibly low prices (PR Ellen?) that turned out to be a mistake. Some here were able to book the cruise in the hour or so before Royal figured out they had a mistake and fixed the price.

In our case the Freedom Christmas sailing had a price of $369 per person for a D2 balcony cabin. It must have been a mistake. It lasted for about 2 hours. I believe some got it for even less than $369.

 

A nice CC person posted the deal (Thanks again Ken :) )

This was the case for our cruise as well. It was a short lived misprint that we grabbed up. Just a lucky find. We got a PR room for around $800 for the two of us.

In our case the Freedom Christmas sailing had a price of $369 per person for a D2 balcony cabin. It must have been a mistake. It lasted for about 2 hours. I believe some got it for even less than $369.

 

A nice CC person posted the deal (Thanks again Ken :) )

An even better deal for us as it was priced at $279 CDN$ or about $250 US at the time. 40 something days to go.:)

Glad others could take advantage of it.

We met two friends in Chops for dinner after the lounge. Service was very slow, much slower than normal even in the supper clubs. The food was delicious, so the entire experience was a mixed bag.

After the long Chops visit I met some of our other friends out and about for the evening. We hung out in The Crypt nightclub until about 3 am, and then hit the Café Promenade for snacks. The Crypt (and the other clubs on Freedom and Voyager Class ships) is probably the nicest dance club I have ever been in on a cruise ship. It’s a real shame that Royal Caribbean is going to slowly eliminate them over the next few years.

Chops

The Crypt

The awesome shattered glass staircase

Did you meet my "kids"? ;)

There is a cruise on Freedom that had incredibly low prices (PR Ellen?) that turned out to be a mistake. Some here were able to book the cruise in the hour or so before Royal figured out they had a mistake and fixed the price.

They were PR cabins for 369 on both 10/12 and 10/26, and some in December. I had three of those PR's booked for 10/12 but was not able to go ultimately.

The pricing was advertised 9/27/13 - 10/02/13

Grand total with prepaid gratuities and travel insurance (through RCI) with taxes and port fees was $1097. Pretty good deal; sorry to have missed out. Love Grady pic reviews. Yes, Daghis alerted to the original deal.

Did you meet my "kids"? ;)

Which ones? We were all a bunch of big kids in the DL each night. The cocktails saw to that. :D

Love your reviews keep it coming. We lucked out too on the PR cabin deal for our upcoming December cruise!

:) Nice review...

:) Nice review...

Thanks! There's lots more to come, I just ran out of time yesterday.

Glad you d a good dinner at Chops. We did also. Great food and wanted to go again.

See your pic of the new terminal being built? Sunday morning the crane dropped a huge beam on the bathrooms at Grills on the deck. Thank God no one was in there. It did mega damage. They are now only allowed to swing that crane holding heavy items over Grills at night when no one is there. They have messed up our fav port place so badly.

Glad you d a good dinner at Chops. We did also. Great food and wanted to go again.

See your pic of the new terminal being built? Sunday morning the crane dropped a huge beam on the bathrooms at Grills on the deck. Thank God no one was in there. It did mega damage. They are now only allowed to swing that crane holding heavy items over Grills at night when no one is there. They have messed up our fav port place so badly.

Thank goodness no one was in there!

Glad you d a good dinner at Chops. We did also. Great food and wanted to go again.

See your pic of the new terminal being built? Sunday morning the crane dropped a huge beam on the bathrooms at Grills on the deck. Thank God no one was in there. It did mega damage. They are now only allowed to swing that crane holding heavy items over Grills at night when no one is there. They have messed up our fav port place so badly.

That sucks! Grills is the place we always eat at when we're at PC. Glad no one was hurt though.