Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

Harry,

I am another lurker from your Allure trip report. I am sailing on the Allure this spring. I love your Freedom report too. I sailed on the Indy last year.

On our cruise I stopped by the Future Cruise Office to pick-up a new Cruise Vacation Planner and was surprised to see there weren't any passengers waiting in the office. The sales lady started to give me her pitch, and I said "no thanks, I'm not interested in buying a future cruise certificate, at my age I have stopped buying green bananas", you should have seen the look on her face.

Haha, who says CPA’s have no sense of humor?

Harry:

 

Enjoy your style, and by way of thanks I have something to suggest you might enjoy. Ever tried making a photo book with captions? I like Blurb; the latest software lets me customize text & photo boxes. Image wrap prints a photo of my choice right on a hard bound cover.

 

I used to make a book for special vacations, like cruises or scuba diving trips. Now that we've got a little 3 year old girl, I make a 'family book' for each year, broken down using months of the year like chapters, with an opening summarizing the month, and lots of captions and photos in the pages. Unlike a traditional photo album, it tells a story and the images fit together in a greater narrative. A few bucks extra gets me a PDF version that I can view on tablet or a computer.

 

Since I write it, I get to endow it with my, um, 'unique perspective' on life (e.g.: religious, political, cynical, snarky, poison her in advance against druggies & other types I don't want her marrying, etc...). And since I'm 47 and due to turn 62 within a month of her turning 18, if I'm going to impact future generations, so to speak (or just remember when my hair wasn't white), this might be it.

 

There are a number of such book-making services. It seems to me your style, enjoyment for forming trip reports, role in your family bringing their special moments together, would lend themselves to this sort of satisfying endeavor.

 

It reminds me to make sure my family does something worth writing about once a month. Drives my wife nuts that any special trip or what-have-you earns the quip 'And this'll be one for the book!' On a guiltier note, I send a copy to my out-of-state parents who we don't visit enough...

 

Richard.

Hi, Richard,

Thanks for the info on Blurb. I will check them out.

I use Shutterfly for all my online vacation storage and have gotten their hard copy photo books in the past when they have big promos (free first 20 pages, just pay shipping and handling which is pretty hefty by the way). Other times, we buy the Costco photo albums that hold 300 pics per vacation for the hard copies. Costco also have photo books but I never ordered those form them yet.

The difficult part for me is trying to select just 300 photos. As you can tell from my online uploads, I can't decide amongst the couple thousands of pictures that were taken and so I am uploading most of them. So having to narrow down to 300 is not easy for me.

I create a special web page on Shutterfly for each vacation and share those with friends and family. Those are easy, just upload a ton of crap and have a simple daily description and be done. Most of the people don’t care about cruise details like the CC do as their anal scale is more around the average 5…

Hi Harry,

 

I love your review - we're sailing on the Freedom next month (same itinerary - 6 nights) so this couldn't come at a better time for me!

 

Plus, I have to thank you for the information about requesting a dining table. As an only occasional Royal cruiser (I go where the deal is), I didn't know this. Thanks to your information I contacted Royal, asked for a large table, gave them the dimensions of my mother's wheelchair (which ends up wider than the regular dining room chair due to the wheels), and they came back with a dining assignment. They even turned a table for 8 into a table for 7, taking out the extra chair so there's enough room for my mother to comfortably roll up to the table!.

 

Thank you so much for all of your information sharing. I really do appreciate it.

Hi, Trisha (hope you don’t mind if I call you that),

Thank you very much for your compliments. It warms my heart that I can help your family in making your cruise 0.03% better with info on the seating.

That’s the whole point of this whole exercise - to help fellow cruisers in their preparation. I researched for my cruise by reading other people’s trip reports and then I pass that info to the next group and hopefully whoever reads this can pass it on to next group of Freedom cruisers. Pay it forward so to speak so we all can have good karma in our future cruises.

Well, OK, I am also writing this report so I can share the rap song I love - I like them big…

Totally off topic (sorry Harry) but I saw your screen name and I'm assuming that you are a fan of the band and not the processed meat.:D

 

Just saw in the paper the other day that they have made the "Bat out of Hell" album into a musical. Opening in The West End (London) soon and plans on bringing it to Toronto.

Hey, Ken,

You back already from your cruise? I thought you were on the Allure this week? Or was it last week?

I lose track of time when I am doing one of these marathon trip reports. When I get home from work and sit in front of the computer, I’m just zoned into cruise talk and think “Now I’m in day 3 at this portion of the tour – what was I doing when I took these 3 pictures?”

Oh, please, by all means, interrupt or digress all you like. You are talking to the king of digression here. If there’s one thing I know I’m good at in these trip reports is my mind flies off to all tangents of life.

If my brain works in a straight line fashion, this trip report would have been done in 3 days. Instead, it’s 2 plus weeks since I started this and I’m still on day 3 of the cruise blabbering about artworks on the wall that nobody cares about…

Speaking of Meatloaf (the band, not the food), I KNOW for sure I have that “Bat out of Hell” record album somewhere in the garage – Two out of Three Ain’t Bad. Of course, I would need to buy a new record player to play it but I know I have it somewhere. That’s going to be my weekend project to see if I can find my old record collection – there’s further digression. Instead spending time uploading pictures, I am spending it looking in my messy garage for my old LP (and for those of you know what LP is or have a ton of them from your younger days, you are old…)

I know you mentioned perhaps going on a Celebrity cruise next. You can book a Celebrity cruise in the NextCruise office and you will get whatever promo they have going on. Conversely you can book a Royal cruise on a Celebrity ship.

Thanks for the heads up. I didn’t know that you can book Celebrity cruise on RCI ship and vice versa. I know they are same ownership as I am a shareholder but I knew their booking engines can be interlinked. That’s what I like about CC. Always learn something new from other cruisers.

It was difficult to decide on what to do while on the cruise as I always try to get feedback from people after we get home and people have enough time to digest what we just did and have a family discussion on what we want to do next.

In theory we would love the Southern Caribbean cruise on the Adventure of the Seas as that’s port intensive and it works better for my kind of vacation activity – tons of new photo ops in getting off the ship to see a new port daily. However, I am wary of the long flights from SF to San Juan on top of the cost. The cost of the flight will likely be more than the cruise itself.

So for now, we have booked the Celebrity for eastern Caribbean just to take advantage of the current promo but not 100% committed to go. Hence it’s not in my signature yet.

But since there are many veteran cruisers reading this report, if anyone has suggestion on what to do at the popular eastern Caribbean ports, I would appreciate any suggestions from those that have done some fun stuff but not too pricey at these ports.

We are going to

1) San Juan – which I think we will just do the self guided walking tour to see the old town and the fort. There should be enough photo ops to keep our cameras busy. First time visit.

2) St. Thomas - we've been there twice previously. Did the basic island tour. Been to the St. Johns also. Not sure what else to do there.

3) St. Maarten – we went there many years ago before the kids were born on a self guided taxi tour on the French side. This time I guess we will do the Bernard’s guided tour that has many rave reviews on Trip Advisor.

Thanks in advance to anyone with comments and suggestions on what to do at these 3 ports. Keep in mind the name of this report – don’t give me exotic excursions that costs $120/pp…

Harry - I also love reading your reviews - thanks for taking the time to do this! Check out Choice Air through Royal Caribbean for air fare to San Juan for cruise on Adventure - I just read last night how some of their prices were really great compared to going through the airline itself. This won't help with the long flight but might save some money (and we accountants love to save money - lol!)

I think this may be by Dale Chihuly. The decorations outside of Bolero's on Mariner and Explorer (as well as at The Atlantis in Nassau and some Las Vegas resorts) are by him. If not, this is definitely his style!

Thanks Joan. I just came home and did a very quick scan of my Mariner pictures from 2010 and found these 2. Not the best of quality as we didn’t have as good camera back then but take a look.

Wait, the WJ closes at 3? When does it reopen?

(Sorry, OT but I promised 24 hour a day food everywhere when I sold this trip to my Disney addicted crew.)

Hi,

I hope you have the answer to your question. My work place’s firewall blocks all posting to community discussion boards like CC, so I couldn’t respond from work to your question.

Actually, I have the Tapatalk app on my phone and I saw the message flashing this morning that there was a new comment to this thread when I was listening on a tax webinar online. I was tempted to reply from my phone but I knew couldn’t type fast enough on the phone to get a response out before all the smart folks at CC chime in. Sure enough, as I was counting 1 alligator, 2 alligator, 3 alligator… Bob responded with his lightening typing. I knew I couldn’t beat him.

Other people have chimed in as well with their correct answers but I just want to add couple points.

If you look all the way back at post 487 where I scanned the daily compass (yes, there’s a reason why I scanned these and why I always take a hard copy in my backpack off the ship so I know about food time back at the ship), under “daily planner”, they always list the opening/closing time for the various food venues. So you will see that the WJ close by 3 PM officially for lunch and reopens at 6 to 9 PM for dinner.

Having said that, go ALL THE WAY DOWN to bottom of that page under “snacks”, you will see that they bury the 3:30 to 4:30 pm afternoon snack time for WJ (who actually reads that far down on a daily compass while on vacation? Seriously - move it higher). I have never tried the snacks in WJ at that time so I cannot say what’s being offered but from Sherri’s post, it sounds like taco and other munchies you can have if you missed the regular lunch time slot.

Also under the “snacks”, you will see you can get food to eat at Café Promenade or Sorrento’s pizza or even room service in the afternoon for free. In theory you can also get Johnny Rockets for a late lunch as well as they are opened from 2 to midnight but that’s $7/pp so that excludes cheapo dad…

This is such a fun, witty thread. I appreciate your time & efforts. Many times I have LOL'd. Does your wife find you as amusing as your fellow travelers??? :)

Hi,

Thanks for the compliment and appreciating my warped sense of humor. Like food, humor is very subjective. I once had a coworker who never laughed at any of my jokes and whenever I try to say something funny, she would just sigh and said “Oh, Harry…” and shake her head. Shrug. It is what it is.

My wife doesn’t read CC. She thinks I am way too high on the anal scale and I waste time worrying about things that may or may not happen. She’s the type that will deal with problem IF and WHEN they arise. She thinks I spend way too much time on CC to try and improve our vacation by 0.03%.

She may be right. If you think about it, probably less than 3% on any sailing have CC people on it. On our sailing of 4,400+ people, if even 3% of them are CC people in that they read or posted info here, that would be 130 people or so. Our roll call had maybe 25 people at the most and even if you triple that for the “lurkers in the back that never post”, that’s still less than 100 people. Way under the 3% mark.

That meant there are 97% of the people from the cruise that non CC folks and they probably had just as much fun as us, if not more since they didn’t have to worry small details that the anal people worry about and enjoyed the cruise as is, not as what we anal people want it to be. Ignorance is bliss, so to speak. But I guess we anal CC people have access to shrimp cocktail and morning plate of salmons they don’t have…

Just getting caught up, thanks Harry for sharing. Your last "review" was fantastic!

 

And your boys have grown up a bit! :)

Glad to have you join us. Actually it’s not that hard to catch up. It’s like catching up to a snail in the race – besides being slow; this snail goes sideways to boot with all the digress talk.

Given I digress with all my ADHD wandering thoughts between music and glass works and complaining about life in general, it’s almost a miracle we made it up to day 3. Think the weeds in my front yard grow faster than how fast I move along in this report…

I would appreciate any suggestions from those that have done some fun stuff but not too pricey at these ports.

We are going to

1) San Juan – which I think we will just do the self guided walking tour to see the old town and the fort. There should be enough photo ops to keep our cameras busy. First time visit.

- you will have more than enough photo ops in San Juan. You may need back up SD cards - the two forts are incredible (be sure to see both since they are very different from one another), beautiful shot of the city from every angle with its cobblestone streets, visit the cemetery for more great shots, do not forget the FREE shuttle that takes you around old San Juan

2) St. Thomas - we've been there twice previously. Did the basic island tour. Been to the St. Johns also. Not sure what else to do there.

-not sure if you are docking in Crown Bay or not or if you just want to do a beach for the day on the cheap if so (I know you like doing island tours usually) but Emerald Beach is really pretty good (not the island's best but so easy to get to for a decent beach) if you port in Crown Bay

3) St. Maarten – we went there many years ago before the kids were born on a self guided taxi tour on the French side. This time I guess we will do the Bernard’s guided tour that has many rave reviews on Trip Advisor.

-you cannot go wrong with Bernard's tour if you have never taken it before - we have done it a couple of times with our guide - the Mailman

Thanks in advance to anyone with comments and suggestions on what to do at these 3 ports. Keep in mind the name of this report – don’t give me exotic excursions that costs $120/pp…

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment and appreciating my warped sense of humor. Like food, humor is very subjective. I once had a coworker who never laughed at any of my jokes and whenever I try to say something funny, she would just sigh and said “Oh, Harry…” and shake her head. Shrug. It is what it is.

 

My wife doesn’t read CC. She thinks I am way too high on the anal scale and I waste time worrying about things that may or may not happen. She’s the type that will deal with problem IF and WHEN they arise. She thinks I spend way too much time on CC to try and improve our vacation by 0.03%.

 

She may be right. If you think about it, probably less than 3% on any sailing have CC people on it. On our sailing of 4,400+ people, if even 3% of them are CC people in that they read or posted info here, that would be 130 people or so. Our roll call had maybe 25 people at the most and even if you triple that for the “lurkers in the back that never post”, that’s still less than 100 people. Way under the 3% mark.

 

That meant there are 97% of the people from the cruise that non CC folks and they probably had just as much fun as us, if not more since they didn’t have to worry small details that the anal people worry about and enjoyed the cruise as is, not as what we anal people want it to be. Ignorance is bliss, so to speak. But I guess we anal CC people have access to shrimp cocktail and morning plate of salmons they don’t have…

You're right about the perks of being anal. I'd rate myself at a solid 8.5 on the AS. I'm also married to a bean counter. He never peruses CC no matter how much I tell him of its value. However, maybe I can lure him on if I promise him one of your Excel spreadsheets. He lives, breathes and LOVES them. Ugh. Mine are very basic, but I am a planner. Making an orderly plan helps me enjoy my time, but I like to allow for "limited" flexibility so we don't get too far off track. :-)

We are pricing out the Allure for this March, so I've bookmarked your review of it to start on next. I'm also reading Fletch's review of it concurrently with this one. You two guys are a hoot!

Hi,

 

I hope you have the answer to your question. My work place’s firewall blocks all posting to community discussion boards like CC, so I couldn’t respond from work to your question.

 

Actually, I have the Tapatalk app on my phone and I saw the message flashing this morning that there was a new comment to this thread when I was listening on a tax webinar online. I was tempted to reply from my phone but I knew couldn’t type fast enough on the phone to get a response out before all the smart folks at CC chime in. Sure enough, as I was counting 1 alligator, 2 alligator, 3 alligator… Bob responded with his lightening typing. I knew I couldn’t beat him.

 

Other people have chimed in as well with their correct answers but I just want to add couple points.

 

If you look all the way back at post 487 where I scanned the daily compass (yes, there’s a reason why I scanned these and why I always take a hard copy in my backpack off the ship so I know about food time back at the ship), under “daily planner”, they always list the opening/closing time for the various food venues. So you will see that the WJ close by 3 PM officially for lunch and reopens at 6 to 9 PM for dinner.

 

Having said that, go ALL THE WAY DOWN to bottom of that page under “snacks”, you will see that they bury the 3:30 to 4:30 pm afternoon snack time for WJ (who actually reads that far down on a daily compass while on vacation? Seriously - move it higher). I have never tried the snacks in WJ at that time so I cannot say what’s being offered but from Sherri’s post, it sounds like taco and other munchies you can have if you missed the regular lunch time slot.

 

Also under the “snacks”, you will see you can get food to eat at Café Promenade or Sorrento’s pizza or even room service in the afternoon for free. In theory you can also get Johnny Rockets for a late lunch as well as they are opened from 2 to midnight but that’s $7/pp so that excludes cheapo dad…

Thank you!!

Ha Ha. :D I do old school photo albums with the stick on pages and clear cover. And I use scissors to crop out the unimportant stuff. I like them. Please don't reply. It was just a comment about photo books. Scissors are faster. :D

Harry,

 

I am another lurker from your Allure trip report. I am sailing on the Allure this spring. I love your Freedom report too. I sailed on the Indy last year.

Hi,

Thanks for the compliment.

I especially appreciate the folks that posts a comment that have less than few hundred posts in your history. I know it’s scary for the new folks to post as you don’t know what to say or afraid of saying something bad and people jump all over you. So you hesitate and wonder should you post or not?

Then when you finally decide to “uncloak” and drop in couple sentences, you quickly rush back into the safety of darkness. So I appreciate you folks for making the effort.

Have a great cruise on the Allure.

Harry - I also love reading your reviews - thanks for taking the time to do this! Check out Choice Air through Royal Caribbean for air fare to San Juan for cruise on Adventure - I just read last night how some of their prices were really great compared to going through the airline itself. This won't help with the long flight but might save some money (and we accountants love to save money - lol!)

Thanks for the heads up tip on the flight prices. Never knew that about the San Juan airfare prices.

I would appreciate any suggestions from those that have done some fun stuff but not too pricey at these ports.

 

We are going to

 

1) San Juan – which I think we will just do the self guided walking tour to see the old town and the fort. There should be enough photo ops to keep our cameras busy. First time visit.

 

- you will have more than enough photo ops in San Juan. You may need back up SD cards - the two forts are incredible (be sure to see both since they are very different from one another), beautiful shot of the city from every angle with its cobblestone streets, visit the cemetery for more great shots, do not forget the FREE shuttle that takes you around old San Juan

 

2) St. Thomas - we've been there twice previously. Did the basic island tour. Been to the St. Johns also. Not sure what else to do there.

-not sure if you are docking in Crown Bay or not or if you just want to do a beach for the day on the cheap if so (I know you like doing island tours usually) but Emerald Beach is really pretty good (not the island's best but so easy to get to for a decent beach) if you port in Crown Bay

 

3) St. Maarten – we went there many years ago before the kids were born on a self guided taxi tour on the French side. This time I guess we will do the Bernard’s guided tour that has many rave reviews on Trip Advisor.

-you cannot go wrong with Bernard's tour if you have never taken it before - we have done it a couple of times with our guide - the Mailman

 

Thanks in advance to anyone with comments and suggestions on what to do at these 3 ports. Keep in mind the name of this report – don’t give me exotic excursions that costs $120/pp…

Thank you very much for the tips on all the ports. I will start to get serious on SJ walking tour come this Fall.

We typically do a long 2,000 miles+ road trip every summer to just go from place to place. So I need to research that in the Spring after all the cruise stuff is behind me. And when that road trip is done, I plan for the cruise.

Other people love to work, I work to support my vacation habits...

You're right about the perks of being anal. I'd rate myself at a solid 8.5 on the AS. I'm also married to a bean counter. He never peruses CC no matter how much I tell him of its value. However, maybe I can lure him on if I promise him one of your Excel spreadsheets. He lives, breathes and LOVES them. Ugh. Mine are very basic, but I am a planner. Making an orderly plan helps me enjoy my time, but I like to allow for "limited" flexibility so we don't get too far off track. :-)

 

We are pricing out the Allure for this March, so I've bookmarked your review of it to start on next. I'm also reading Fletch's review of it concurrently with this one. You two guys are a hoot!

If you do go on the Allure or Oasis class in general, you will likely need to do some sort of schedule because they have irregular show times because their theaters are not big enough to accommodate ½ of the passengers like a regular cruise ship so you need to make reservations for many of the shows.

For example, the water theater I believe only holds 600 or so people if I remember correctly. I don’t follow the Allure anymore so others can correct me but they used to have only 6 water shows per cruise (2 per day for first 3 days). Do the math and you see that only 3,600 can sit and watch the show but the ship holds 5,400 in regular double capacity or around 6,000 when it’s full during holiday sailings.

So there is typically mean there’s a scramble for booking the shows prior to boarding. They do have some spots for people to book when you first get on the ship on day 1. But you get the idea that on the bigger ships, the earlier you decide to go and plan ahead for the shows, the easier it is for the 8+ anal crowd.

So, did I reply to everyone? I feel bad if people post a comment or question and I don’t respond. Except for Patti who told me no to respond. OK, let’s get the snail moving here

The show tonight is the magic act of Drew Thomas. You can Google his info as he has a web site and on YouTube as well as other fun stuff online. Think he is a regular on the Freedom as I have seen his name on many Freedom reviews here on CC and he has his own Freedom video as part of the magic act so there’s a chance you will see him on your sailing on the Freedom.

The next couple pages are pics from the show. Skip them if you don’t want to spoil your Freedom experience. One good thing is that he ALLOWS you to video tape the entre magic show. Unlike other acts that won’t allow any recording, Drew wants you to record and share with friends to get his name out there. So my son recorded a lot of the show as part of the 7+ hour vacation video as he likes magic anyway. Bring your cell phone/camcorder to the show if this magic stuff interests you as you can record without any issues.

Audience participation part

Look, Ma, what’s that flying in the air?

Here’s the segment that included the snow in the theater

Different segments of the magic act

How did he end up back at the other end of the theater?

Last picture

Thanks for the heads up. I didn’t know that you can book Celebrity cruise on RCI ship and vice versa. I know they are same ownership as I am a shareholder but I knew their booking engines can be interlinked. That’s what I like about CC. Always learn something new from other cruisers.

 

It was difficult to decide on what to do while on the cruise as I always try to get feedback from people after we get home and people have enough time to digest what we just did and have a family discussion on what we want to do next.

 

In theory we would love the Southern Caribbean cruise on the Adventure of the Seas as that’s port intensive and it works better for my kind of vacation activity – tons of new photo ops in getting off the ship to see a new port daily. However, I am wary of the long flights from SF to San Juan on top of the cost. The cost of the flight will likely be more than the cruise itself.

 

So for now, we have booked the Celebrity for eastern Caribbean just to take advantage of the current promo but not 100% committed to go. Hence it’s not in my signature yet.

 

But since there are many veteran cruisers reading this report, if anyone has suggestion on what to do at the popular eastern Caribbean ports, I would appreciate any suggestions from those that have done some fun stuff but not too pricey at these ports.

 

We are going to

 

1) San Juan – which I think we will just do the self guided walking tour to see the old town and the fort. There should be enough photo ops to keep our cameras busy. First time visit.

 

2) St. Thomas - we've been there twice previously. Did the basic island tour. Been to the St. Johns also. Not sure what else to do there.

 

3) St. Maarten – we went there many years ago before the kids were born on a self guided taxi tour on the French side. This time I guess we will do the Bernard’s guided tour that has many rave reviews on Trip Advisor.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone with comments and suggestions on what to do at these 3 ports. Keep in mind the name of this report – don’t give me exotic excursions that costs $120/pp…

We will be doing the Southern itinerary next week on Adventure, as we talked about earlier, but almost all of my ports are over 110pp, I am not "CHEAPO" - I am the opposite of you CHEAPO Dad, I spend waaaaaaaay too much money on my cruises, especially this one!

I am doing one in St Kitts thats 25.00pp though, which I figured you'd applaud!

In St Maarten, which is our first stop, we are doing the America's Cup Regatta, (109pp i thinK?) I've done it before and it's literally the best excursion I have ever done. In Sept, we were in St Maarten and the excursion got cancelled, so we winged it and went to Pinel Island. I believe the it was 20.00pp to get to the ferry (Would be less for you since you have more passengers, was just the two of us) and then 10.00 pp for the ferry. It's nice and secluded on Pinel, there is just one small restaurant there, you can snorkel off the beach. The water is clear and the ocean floor is not rocky. We didn't pay to get chairs, just layed out beach towels, but all prices were reasonable. Was a nice day at St. Maarten, but I am DETERMINED America's cup won't be cancelled this time! If we end up getting to do it, my husband will go pro it and upload it on youtube

In St. Thomas, we have been there so many times. Love doing catamarans there, they are awesome and you usually can find them pretty cheap 60-70pp with food and refreshments. We have also done that skyride to paradise point for 20.00pp that takes you up to the top of the mountain to get an amazing view of St Thomas and ate at the restaurant. Wouldn't recommend the restaurant, was worse than Applebees in my opinion. We have also went to Gladys restaurant and that place is AMAZING! Would highly recommend that if you are into local foods and cheap eats.

and if you have any specific questions to ask about my ports of call next week (St. Maarten, St Kitts, St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua) just ask away

But I am VERY interested to get some more cruise photos for you, to help me deal with my excitement for mine next week :D

We will be doing the Southern itinerary next week on Adventure, as we talked about earlier, but almost all of my ports are over 110pp, I am not "CHEAPO" - I am the opposite of you CHEAPO Dad, I spend waaaaaaaay too much money on my cruises, especially this one!

 

I am doing one in St Kitts thats 25.00pp though, which I figured you'd applaud!

 

In St Maarten, which is our first stop, we are doing the America's Cup Regatta, (109pp i thinK?) I've done it before and it's literally the best excursion I have ever done. In Sept, we were in St Maarten and the excursion got cancelled, so we winged it and went to Pinel Island. I believe the it was 20.00pp to get to the ferry (Would be less for you since you have more passengers, was just the two of us) and then 10.00 pp for the ferry. It's nice and secluded on Pinel, there is just one small restaurant there, you can snorkel off the beach. The water is clear and the ocean floor is not rocky. We didn't pay to get chairs, just layed out beach towels, but all prices were reasonable. Was a nice day at St. Maarten, but I am DETERMINED America's cup won't be cancelled this time! If we end up getting to do it, my husband will go pro it and upload it on youtube

 

 

In St. Thomas, we have been there so many times. Love doing catamarans there, they are awesome and you usually can find them pretty cheap 60-70pp with food and refreshments. We have also done that skyride to paradise point for 20.00pp that takes you up to the top of the mountain to get an amazing view of St Thomas and ate at the restaurant. Wouldn't recommend the restaurant, was worse than Applebees in my opinion. We have also went to Gladys restaurant and that place is AMAZING! Would highly recommend that if you are into local foods and cheap eats.

 

and if you have any specific questions to ask about my ports of call next week (St. Maarten, St Kitts, St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua) just ask away

 

But I am VERY interested to get some more cruise photos for you, to help me deal with my excitement for mine next week :D

I think you said you got a great deal on your cruise so you can splurge on the excursions.

Once you get back from your cruise, come back here and we can talk about what you saw. By then, this trip report will be done and we can talk other ports as right now, you only want to see my pics.

Sooner or later we will go this route, just a question of which year.

As side note, Drew was promoting the magic kit at the show for the kids to buy to get him/her started on being a magician at home. I saw at least 2 sets of families trying to buy them later on at the gift shop the remainder of the cruise. One mom balked at the $35 price tag and put it back on the shelve (no price tag on the box so she had to stand in line to ask), the other kid’s dad begrudgingly paid for his kid’s magic kit and said the kid better be practicing this when he gets home and perform at all the future family gatherings to get his $35 investment back.

So, we’re off to dinner after the show. As I was making a big deal out of nothing at the “smart/dumb casual” dress suggestion few days ago, we showed at the dinner and guess what? The waiters were all wearing Caribbean night! Oh, yes, wonderful. Another great communication effort by the Freedom staff! No, not exactly…

So they tell people on their daily compass to dress “smart causal” and then the MDR workers wear Caribbean night. I packed 2 Hawaiian shirts for the cruise. You all have already seen the first one as that was the boarding picture. I was saving the last one later on. But had I known tonight was going to be “Smart Caribbean night” at MDR, I would have dressed accordingly with my Hawaiian shirt and have people think I am waiter and tell me to fill their water for them…

So you said - who cares about what to wear? Well, the waiters have the song and dance routine for the festive Caribbean night. That’s one thing I missed not being on the Carnival cruises – they have singing and dancing waiters. The Fun ship, right? Remember one of my 3 E’s of cruises - Entertain me. On our Allure cruises, we had no dancing waiters. Glad to see some on the Freedom. Especially since they no longer have classical music in the back of MDR, at least they have singing waiters.

From cost perspective, it makes sense. No need to pay extra for the classical musicians. Just make your waiters sing. They’re there already.

I will have some pics from the song and dance at the end of the dinner. Better if on video with music. Go look it up on YouTube if this interests you.