Freedom Review: 10/28/12 by FunInTheSun1964

[funinthesun1964]

I am totally loving your review! Thank you so much for taking the time to post it!

 

Thank you, and you are welcome! :)

[funinthesun1964]

I was on the same itinerary, 2 weeks before you. It's making me so sad seeing your pics of the ship! Glad you had a good time! *sigh*

 

I'm sorry to make you sad. And just to let you know, I looked for that waiter you so love in the comedy club, and in other venues, but never saw him!? Wonder if his contract was up? Or it is possible that we just never saw him, it is after all a huge ship. Sorry that I didn't get to tell him that you were in love with him :p haha

[funinthesun1964]

Great review! I'm glad someone else in Uniontown loves cruising as much as we do:) You don't live in Cricket Crossing do you? If you do we are neighbors!

 

HAHA we don't live in Cricket Crossing, but we are still neighbors because we live in Greentree!! :eek:

[funinthesun1964]

OK where did I leave off? Sorry this is taking me so long to finish, but with working all day, and the other things, you know how it goes.

 

I think I had finished with our sea day, and we were ready to go to Grand Cayman on the 31st. There was a halloween party planned and I was ready to see lots of costumes that evening. As I said before, we were going to meet Mel and Barb out in the area right after we tendered to shore.

 

We ate in the MDR breakfast, and again, wonderful service and friendly people to share a table.

 

While we were in our cabin getting ready to head out for the day, the CD announced that because of the swell, we could not tender in the usual place, but a slightly different location. We had never been to GC before, so we were new to the whole experience, and did not know one area from the other.

 

We got into a tender right away, no waiting. The only waiting we had was for the tender boat to fill with other people.

 

 

Then when we got to shore, it looked like this

 

 

 

We met up with Mel and Barb and since we were going to 7 mile beach, we loaded into a taxi - it was a small bus that was packed full! The charge was around 8 bucks a person, and we were crammed in there. The middle aisle of the (small bus, large van) had seats that folded out to accommodate more people! One guy was making us laugh with jokes about how he paid less to sit in that seat. He was kind of a big guy so he really looked uncomfortable.

[funinthesun1964]

So the small bus/large van was completely full now, and we were headed to the beach! I was so excited to see it! We passed housing, small retail locations, etc. along the way. We came to a roundabout in the road, the driver turned the corner, and then pulled into a NAPA auto store? What was going on? He said that there was a problem!! :eek: He walked next door to what I believe was an auto dealership and was outside talking to a man, and the rest of us were stuck in this vehicle complaining and wanting to get to a beach. I am not kidding, people were talking about everything from demanding refunds from the ride to telling jokes. It was some experience!

 

The vehicle

 

 

Just what I wanted to do in GC, go to a NAPA store! LOL

 

 

 

The driver had us all get out since the vehicle was obviously not going to start again. We were just all there in the parking lot.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, our driver flagged down another driver, and he agreed to take us the rest of the way to the beach! Wow, great, we could go to the beach after all!

[funinthesun1964]

We went to an area called "Sea Grape Beach" (I think that is what it was called) and found a spot to relax. It was pretty, not much going on in the area we were in.

 

 

 

 

[funinthesun1964]

While we were there, Mel and Barb took a walk down the beach (in the photo above, the one with the jetski in the ocean, down towards that way). There were places that way to get a drink, and people were sitting at tables, etc. When they returned they had bought a drink and were told the price, but the price they were quoted was in Cayman dollars, so they were surprised at the real price! I had heard it is expensive there.

 

While they were gone on their walk, we were in the water. It was rocky at first on the feet, but once you were in it was fine. We were just happy to be in warm weather and on a beach, rather than working in rain and temps in the 40s.

 

Then we decided to go for a walk. Just because. We didn't get a drink, we didn't want one at this time, just walked down the beach a while and returned. We knew that we had to meet the driver at a specific time to get a ride back (in the good vehicle!).

 

A few more pictures before we left:

 

 

 

[funinthesun1964]

Sorry, I duplicated a photo. Afterwards, we were on our way. Mel and Barb wanted to stop in town, and so did a few others, so the driver made a stop in the shopping area. Then he returned us to the ship.

 

Back!

 

 

Here is what the water looked like: LOL

 

 

the scenery

 

 

Paradise also here

 

 

 

 

We didn't have much of a wait to get back to ship, either.

[funinthesun1964]

We thought we would have room service for lunch. I had heard on CC that the chicken wraps were very tasty, and believe me they were. My DH loves chocolate so I told him about the rave reviews on that, so he ordered that and I had the cheesecake. He had a beer which was left over from the previous day's bucket, we just put it in ice for a while. I had some of my moscato wine, which I love.

 

By the way, I'm not sure if I mentioned this - our room Steward, Jorge, was efficient. We did not have the bucket of ice when we first arrived in our cabin on Sunday (embarkation day), but later in the day I asked him for it when I found him in the hall. He assured me it would be there shortly, and sure enough, it was.

 

Photos of the delicious room service food:

 

 

Sorry we had eaten most of it, LOL

 

DH said that this chocolate cake was so good, and it tasted like fudge:

 

 

The cheesecake was delicious!

 

[Coolcruise02]

Great review! Can't wait for more. :)

[jaded99]

I'm doing this cruise in 3 days and am loving your review! Keep the great pics coming please :) We will def keep an eye out for I Made, we love a good drink :)

[sweetcurves]

I'm sorry to make you sad. And just to let you know, I looked for that waiter you so love in the comedy club, and in other venues, but never saw him!? Wonder if his contract was up? Or it is possible that we just never saw him, it is after all a huge ship. Sorry that I didn't get to tell him that you were in love with him :p haha

 

LOL!!! I'm kind of glad you didn't (tell him that I'm in love with him...since it's really more a lust thing). :cool:

[funinthesun1964]

Great review! Can't wait for more. :)

 

Thank you! Halloween photos coming up!

[funinthesun1964]

I'm doing this cruise in 3 days and am loving your review! Keep the great pics coming please :) We will def keep an eye out for I Made, we love a good drink :)

 

You will love him, he is SO NICE!

[funinthesun1964]

LOL!!! I'm kind of glad you didn't (tell him that I'm in love with him...since it's really more a lust thing). :cool:

 

;) maybe someday you will see him on another cruise.

[sweetcurves]

;) maybe someday you will see him on another cruise.

 

 

Oh wouldn't that be nice? :D:cool:

[funinthesun1964]

After we had that delicious room service for our lunch, DH decided he wanted to go out on lido deck, maybe to use a hot tub, who knows. I wanted to go to the atrium lobby for a game of trivia. It was mentioned in the fun times about music, I love music and know many songs. But when I got there, it was actually about naming the movies after hearing a small clip from a song. I do not watch many movies at all, so I didn't do so well. I had another glass of wine there though, and had fun.

 

I met up with DH later - and we noticed that folks were starting to dress up in their halloween costumes. We noticed both passengers and crew were all ready for halloween!

 

The ship was decorated too! Many pictures to follow:

 

 

 

When we went to dinner that night, we were seated at a round table for six. We ate with a couple from Las Vegas, and a couple from Pittsburgh. For dessert that night, they had only two choices, chocolate cake and something else. I got the chocolate cake.

 

[sweetcurves]

That bald dude at the guest services desk (he's kind of hidden behind the guest), was super nice. We got back on board during the staff drills and none of the elevators were on, so he led us through the ship and took us to the only elevator that was working. Cute too.

[funinthesun1964]

unfortunately, the cake was dry :eek: and wasn't tasty, so I took just a couple of bites and left it. I would have rather had one of the usual dessert selections, but I really didn't need the calories anyway!

 

We noticed from the fun times that the halloween costume meet and greet would be at the casino area at 7:30 - so we went to hang out and observe. Now, as I may have mentioned before, we did not bring costumes but we wanted to see everyone else dressed for the occasion. We found seats and enjoyed!

 

[funinthesun1964]

scary stuff!

 

 

HAHA!

 

We went out on the Lido Deck after a while because that is where the party was going to be held. We didn't want to miss anything.

 

 

 

 

We took a seat and I Made found us again as well as a few other servers. I Made kept checking on us and I really didn't want anything to drink tonight, nor did DH. He came by one time and he had brought us two glasses of water :) I was shocked, we didn't even ask for it. I thought that was very thoughtful of him though.

 

We wanted to stay out on deck and there was quite a party going on

 

 

They had given tickets to 25 people or couples to be entered in the final costume contest. We waited until they narrowed it down to 10 people or couples and then they narrowed it down by audience applause. They finally announced a winner. We were wondering how they determined the top 25, we thought a few costumes we saw (such as the freaky guy in one of my pictures) were worthy of being in the top, but they weren't there. But, nonetheless, it WAS a party!

 

We went to be around midnight, after the party. We didn't eat anything from the buffet, we had our fill of food that day.

[funinthesun1964]

I was very tired, so this was a welcome sight:

 

 

Also, this was on our bed:

 

 

[funinthesun1964]

That bald dude at the guest services desk (he's kind of hidden behind the guest), was super nice. We got back on board during the staff drills and none of the elevators were on, so he led us through the ship and took us to the only elevator that was working. Cute too.

 

Ah, I didn't have a chance to interact with him at all. The only time I went to Guest Services was when I lost my card :o. Another young, dark, handsome guy helped me that time.;)

[sweetcurves]

Ah, I didn't have a chance to interact with him at all. The only time I went to Guest Services was when I lost my card :o. Another young, dark, handsome guy helped me that time.;)

 

Boy do I miss all that eye candy. LOL

[funinthesun1964]

Boy do I miss all that eye candy. LOL

 

LOL, you are too funny! :D:D

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review and your wonderful photo's.