Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

Most of us got the lamb shank. Except for one person...

Bread

French Onion Soup

Poor man’s free Jamba juice - pineapple and lychee soup

After the main course is served, we have the singing waiters for the goodbye song. Personally I still prefer the Carnival’s version of the “Leaving on a Jet Plane”. I only know of that song from Carol King’s album but I know the original was from John Denver and Peter, Paul & Mary. Anyway, RCI’s song is nice as well. Another one of those “cruises only” old tradition where they sing to you as you leave. I’m sure many veteran cruiser people scoff at this as well as all the other old “corny” stuff I like as a newbie +1 cruiser. Whatever. I like what I like. Scoff all you want.

Here come our waiters

Our neighboring tables waving the napkins

A lot of empty tables downstairs – must be at WJ or specialty restaurants. But whoever was there were waving their napkins also

We’re doing our part of the napkin waving

All lining up

Here are our waiters again

My wife took a nice picture of the MDR with the waiters on the cell phone

One more with slightly more zoomed in

Taken by my from the side/back view

All done

Oh, here’s an interesting picture. So as I was positioning myself against the railing for some good photo ops of the waiters singing, I looked down and saw a big group eating dinner and took a picture of their food from above. I have no idea who they are, so shout out if this was one of you or maybe not after I dissect the picture on what they were eating.

So let’s start from the almost 12 o’clock position at the top where the green shirt lady was folding her arms. Psychologists will tell you that is a defensive non friendly gesture that tells you she is not happy about something. Then look down at her plate. She hardly touched much of her dinner, which I think looks like turkey? Then she has ordered a second main course plate that doesn’t looked like it’s been touched. To her left at the one o’clock position, her companion looks like he already polished off the first plate of whatever and is working on the second one.

Moving clockwise to the next couple, the dude at the two o’clock has the green thing (assume it’s salad). His companion is having a huge bowl of pasta – that’s a lot of food there. Looks like they polished off most of whatever is in the middle that they shared but they are not big on eating the veggies.

Moving to the next couple at the 6 o’clock position. Looks like she must really like pasta as she has a double order of the same pasta (double double). Her companion to the left got the same lamb shank as us and she cleaned it off pretty well.

That takes us to my favorite dude in this picture. Check out his plate. He already polished off two main courses of whatever is in front of him – I assume the big empty bowl is same type of pasta from the double double pasta lady discussed above. Then to the left of that is a pretty empty plate of whatever he ate. As if 2 plates of food is not enough, the dude is reaching to his dining companion to take some of her lamb shank. That dude can eat as he’s still eating after 2 plates…

When I took that picture, never knew all that stuff going on until I came home and looked at all the plates and started analyzing it. So, yes, people, you DO NOT want me to be on the same sailing as you as there’s a chance you will show up in a CC trip report. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and on other people’s Face book for life. What happens on cruise ships stay on cruise ships, except for all the CC trip reports for the whole world to see…

This might not be soapy water. It could be a no rinse sanitize solution. They can wipe it and just leave it to air dry. I use something similar when cleaning my beer making equipment. It is just about as sudsy as this. If it is a sanitizing solution they probably do not need to go back and wipe it up as it does a better job the longer it is on and I am sure that it is safe to the touch as well.

By the way, I am loving your report. I lurked in the shadows of your Allure report and did the same for this one until now. I especially love how much you ANALyzed that table.

great pics, did I miss the itinerary? I was at work so I couldn't read the whole post

This might not be soapy water. It could be a no rinse sanitize solution. They can wipe it and just leave it to air dry. I use something similar when cleaning my beer making equipment. It is just about as sudsy as this. If it is a sanitizing solution they probably do not need to go back and wipe it up as it does a better job the longer it is on and I am sure that it is safe to the touch as well.

 

By the way, I am loving your report. I lurked in the shadows of your Allure report and did the same for this one until now. I especially love how much you ANALyzed that table.

Hi, Matt,

Thanks for the info. If Fletch or anyone that will be going on the Freedom in near future sees the cabin stewards wiping down the door handle, they can ask what it is and let us know.

Yeah, it was fun looking at the table to see how many plates they ordered. The only reason I took a picture was I was right above them in the railing and I just figure a new picture form a different perspective would be good to break up the string of constant waiter pictures. Didn’t realize there were so many things going on until I came home and look at it on the bigger screen.

Thanks for following along both reports.

great pics, did I miss the itinerary? I was at work so I couldn't read the whole post

Hi,

Thanks for the compliment,

I uploaded the itinerary on post #62. This is the last night of the cruise.

I'm kind of sad that this is coming to an end; but only kind of because our cruise on the Freedom leaves on the 12th and we leave next Thursday night for the long drive down to Florida. Your review has filled a void in my life and made me look forward to the Freedom of the Seas. After reports on this board I was beginning to dread the food on the ship but based on what I've seen in your report, I won't starve (though I'll probably be very happy to jump onto the Celebrity ship the following week).

And again, thanks for the tip about emailing for the dining table assignment, it has really put my mind at ease. Though we won't be using the MDR for the first two nights since I'm not "cheapo" only "budget conscious and frugal" so I booked the BOGO specialty dining for the first 2 nights (Chops and Giovanni's table for $30 total per person). We don't normally do a lot of specialty dining on ships (in fact, we did a 21 night cruise on Carnival and at either in the MDR or buffet every night - no extra food budget) but I paid so little for this cruise (I booked it when the Canadian dollar exchange rate was still set at $1.10) that I'm okay with paying a little extra.

For the last night though - that lamb shank looks like it's already calling my name. :)

I'm kind of sad that this is coming to an end; but only kind of because our cruise on the Freedom leaves on the 12th and we leave next Thursday night for the long drive down to Florida. Your review has filled a void in my life and made me look forward to the Freedom of the Seas. After reports on this board I was beginning to dread the food on the ship but based on what I've seen in your report, I won't starve (though I'll probably be very happy to jump onto the Celebrity ship the following week).

 

And again, thanks for the tip about emailing for the dining table assignment, it has really put my mind at ease. Though we won't be using the MDR for the first two nights since I'm not "cheapo" only "budget conscious and frugal" so I booked the BOGO specialty dining for the first 2 nights (Chops and Giovanni's table for $30 total per person). We don't normally do a lot of specialty dining on ships (in fact, we did a 21 night cruise on Carnival and at either in the MDR or buffet every night - no extra food budget) but I paid so little for this cruise (I booked it when the Canadian dollar exchange rate was still set at $1.10) that I'm okay with paying a little extra.

 

For the last night though - that lamb shank looks like it's already calling my name. :)

Hi,

Good to talk to you again. Thanks for the compliments.

Chinese have a saying – there is no such thing as a never-ending banquet. All good things come to an end. Given I have been at this for over a month now, it’s time to be done so I can go on and plan for my rad trip to see the rocks. Barring anything weird happening, I should be done by Sunday so you will have all the info you need for your cruise.

No need to worry about food. Yes, they swapped out the duck for something else – I want to say chicken but I don’t know for sure as I did not compare menu item line by line between the previous version and current version. That’s the thing about making a comment on CC, if you are not exactly n point, someone will post that you are wrong as per comparison of the old menu and the new menu; they didn’t swap the duck on day 2, but on day X instead…

First formal night on Allure we had duck

First formal night on Freedom, we had chicken – in theory same fowl family but we all know chicken is much cheaper than duck

There will be plenty of food, maybe just lower quality in the substitution

My wife and I discussed if they charged $50 more per person ($7/pp/day) and use that money to get better food product, would people be happier?

Anyway, I believe you can use the BOGO specialty dining on other nights of the week as well so you don’t have to feel you must use it on the first 2 nights. Just change the reservation time once on board. If you do the sail away party at FLL, first night dinner at specialty restaurant makes sense in terms of timing. Second night is formal night so you may or may not want to do MDR. Depending on your touring schedule at the various ports, you can use one of the port days for specialty dining.

Have a great cruise if we don’t speak again prior to your sailing. Drop by here afterward and let me know the highlights of your 2 cruises.

Dessert menu - special holiday theme menu

I got the log thing based on the fancy sounding name but the actual product was a tad underwhelming.

Had our goodbye picture taken with the wait staff and said our goodbye’s and headed out to visit the crazy aunt for one last time.

The reprint of the Santa hats were unless than stellar so we passed on buying those. Then we selected the previously reserved ones from our folio. Paid for those and then we are done with everything. Went back to cabin to do the final packing and then ushered the luggage to the hallway. I was going to take couple of pictures while outside but as luck has it, the attendant was right there ready to take it from me so just rushed off 1 picture and he was there standing next to me smirking at the dummy taking photo of a luggage...

Completed the customs declaration form by hand and was done for the day. For those of you that are tech savvy, you can download the customs ap and declare from the phone with customs using the app. I downloaded the app and thought about using it but wasn’t sure I can include the in laws with us as technically they have their own customs form and addresses. Decides to just play it safe and use the old fashion way – anyone used the app for their in-laws with success? There were signs that informed people to use the apps at the cruise terminal.

Took one picture of the luggage outside the hallway. I was going to take one of the entire hallway full of suitcases but I got our out too late and the guy already started to collect them. As he was just standing there looking at me taking a picture of my suitcase before taking it away, he must be thinking - what a dork. Taking a picture of the luggage as if it's his own kids he's dropping off at kids camp.

Day 7 – Time to go Home

So if you hang out at CC long enough, you begin to see the typical “FAQ”s on the RCI boards. One of which is “Can I make my flight time at 10 AM if I cruise out of FLL?” And within 3 nano seconds Bob and others will chime in to give the typical answers.

So why do people ask these questions? Do they think they will hate their cruise so much they can’t wait to go home? Of course not. They do it because 1) they need to go home for whatever reason to see their loved ones 2) wherever they are flying to don’t have to many flights and this is the best time can they find 3) the earlier flights before 10:30 are cheaper.

For us, we encountered the similar situation going home. I had a choice to rush off the ship super early and take the 10AM Virgin America direct flight to SFO. Naw, too early and too stressful for me. Go ahead if that’s your cup of tea. I can wait for the night flight. In theory the best time would be 12 to 3 PM flight. But then EVERYONE and their cousin think the same thing. So many times the mid-day flights are inflated in price as everyone else is booking them.

Another option is look at the flights for next day at 10 AM. Sometimes if you can get those at a lower price, the savings will pay for r the extra night stay. That’s what happened to us on eth Allure cruise. We saved money by coming back the next day after the cruise. The savings X 4 more than pay for the discounted room as everyone is rushing home. So always try to price the flights for one more day to compare. For our Freedom trip, at the time, the price difference on next day wasn’t much of savings and after 2 nights of pre cruise stay, I didn’t feel compelled to stay longer.

When I read other trip reports, the reviewers by time they get to the last day, they tried to wrap it up in a hurry in 2 paragraphs – they self-assist to rush off the ship. Got to airport and got home. The end. Thank you for reading. Ehh? Anal people like yours truly can’t connect the dots on how to go from point A to point Z without all the middle dots. Inquiring minds wants to know.

As I promised in the first post, this is the mailman version of the trip. I will stop at every point. So I will walk you off the ship (literally and figuratively). My style is to report from airport to airport.

Woke up at 7 something. Looked outside. People are already walking about downstairs. Glad we are not at the theater with our luggage tag #1 ready to get off.

Gathered the family and walked outside. The last day of the cruise there is always a mess on the walkway as they change and clean everything out from previous cruisers. Anyone know the difference between red and green bags? No, not Christmas related…

Yes, it’s Saturday. Back to the real world of days of the week instead of Day X on a cruise.

They were making announcements that the customs and border app was down so if you were trying to use the app, you can’t. They will have forms for you when you exit to fill it out there. Didn’t impact us as we weren’t going to use it anyway.

WJ was fairly crowded even at 7:49 as you thought many people would have gone off already with self assist. First chance to check email and whatever else now that we have data plan network info again.

Last time for the salmon breakfast

I asked my wife to stand by the signs on where they are calling the numbers. For compassion sake, I am dropping in the “As you depart” info I posted awhile back.

You see that they were WAY AHEAD of schedule on where they are calling the numbers. They want the cheapo riff raff people off ASAP. It’s only 8:43 after breakfast but they have already called the 9:30 tag people. So they are almost 1 hour ahead of schedule.

So we went back to cabin to gather the stuff, met up with the in-laws and waited at the lounge area. In theory there’s a lounge for the peasant +1 cruisers to hang out but we saw some chairs on deck 4 so we just plunked ourselves down as we know the final exist from ship is there.

Now keep in mind for those anal people that has everything planned out, we have zero plans for that day. Zip. Nada. We don’t even have a plan on how to get to the airport. This is about as “wing it” as the 9+ anal people will get.

Several months prior to the cruise, I booked a shuttle to take us from the port to FLL airport (same company that took us there from hotel for the same price )but then I canceled that in favor of the alligator visit which got canceled for the Miami HoHo which was cancelled due too early of wake up time. So let’s complete this circle and find a way to the airport as we have no plans other than walking off the ship.

In theory I could have tried to call the shuttle people but I wasn’t sure how long I would have to wait for one to come last minute without previous reservation. But I was pretty sure I can find something at the pier once we get off. It wouldn’t be as cheap as a pre reserved thing but whatever.

Harry, I love your trip reports so much that I am reading your Allure report for the second time in advance of my March 12, 2017 Allure sailing.

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[emoji26]Sad to see your great review come to an end.However I guess it's just about time to get packing for our Feb 12th Adventure on The Freedom. We leave here on the 9 th so it's coming fast.Thanks for taking the time to write this fun review.I really appreciate all your advice.Take care and happy planning for your next adventure.

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As for disembarkation, we like to do the self assist, i.e. bag draggier routine because you can depart the ship anytime your are ready to roll. Great observations about the folks eating on the floor below, I'll add the lady at the 7 O'clock position had the stuff on her side of the table (butter dish, salt and pepper shakers, etc) lined up in front of her. Also, I would like to add I'm not a happy camper about this new format.

As for disembarkation, we like to do the self assist, i.e. bag draggier routine because you can depart the ship anytime your are ready to roll. Great observations about the folks eating on the floor below, I'll add the lady at the 7 O'clock position had the stuff on her side of the table (butter dish, salt and pepper shakers, etc) lined up in front of her. Also, I would like to add I'm not a happy camper about this new format.

Kindly explain self assist vs non self assist Harry or another kind person please.

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Here come our waiters

 

 

In your picture of your waiters, the African-American man is, I believe, Donovan. If that's Donovan, he is one of our favorite waiters on RCI. He was our assistant waiter on the Mariner in 2008. When we went for our 20th anniversary cruise, he was the assistant waiter at the table next to us. We talked to him for a few minutes after dinner the first night. We ended up getting switched to his table so we could enjoy him for the rest of the cruise.

I don't know that many people switch tables to enjoy the assistant waiter, but we did. We, of course, also gave him great comments on the evaluations. If we find ourselves on a ship where Donovan is a server, we always try to get to one of his tables.

It wouldn’t be as cheap as a pre reserved thing but whatever.

Wow Harry...never thought I would see these words come out of your mouth (or your fingers??, your keyboard??). Be careful or you may lose your Cheapo crown. :D

Even though you are not done yet (not on the plane!), this was another fantastic review. You are one of my top favorite reviewers here. With 142K+ views for this review, it seems that others agree. Looking forward to your next cruise.