B2B On the Freedom ~ August 18th & 25th: My Diary

[maxs mom]

We returned to the ship around 1:30.

We noticed that they were replacing a lot of mattresses. Well......here is where the old ones were going!

This is Barefoot Beach as seen from the ship.

And this is Nellie's Beach:

[maxs mom]

After a relaxing afternoon.....we went to the CL and met up with a few folks in there. It was very quiet in there tonight.

We were seated at a different area of the dining room tonight. We chatted with a young couple. The service was excellent. Franco was our waiter......fabulous!

Franco had no problems getting plenty of sugar free chocolate ice cream!!!

After dinner we strolled through the Promenade and bought some lanyards to hold our sea pass cards. I love the lighted bridge on the Promenade and try to have a picture made there every night.

[wolfganghowell]

:eek: We have the same exact water shoes.

 

thanks for the pics - trying to pick my cabana on Barefoot! :)

[maxs mom]

Wednesday ~ August 21st ~ Falmouth, Jamaica

To the CL for coffee this morning where I met Russell, one of the Pinnacle members on board, and his wife's service dog, Scooter. The dog helps his wife with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and he was just wonderful.. As Harry said.....the dog was made Pinnacle when he had sailed 100 nights.....that's Pinnacle in dog years!!

Had a table for 6 in the MDR this morning. Nice folks. Everything was good.

We've never been to Falmouth before and didn't have any plans.

Here we are coming into port this morning.

The port area was quite nice. We heard that Margaritaville had free wifi so we walked on over there only to find out that there was no wifi there. Or anywhere for that matter. You can purchase wifi at the information booth for $10.00. So we just chilled at Jimmy Buffet's place anyway and enjoyed a margarita and some Red Stripe. We made friends with a delightful waitress there named Aleshia. She told us that the pool area would be opening up there before too long. Maybe by December when we are back there. Not a bad place to hang out.

The ship overwhelms the port area!

[maxs mom]

This is Aleshia. We will ask for her again when we are there in December!

[maxs mom]

I love shoes!!

This is the hot tub at Margaritaville complete with a saltshaker!

Fins to the right.....Fins to the left.......

We strolled around the port area before heading back to the ship for lunch.

[maxs mom]

Had a very relaxing afternoon on the ship. The Windjammer was not crowded today and was much more enjoyable. Some frozen yogurt and some time for reading was just right.

Went to the CL for drinks and met Gerry and Sandy there. Good times!

Back to the balcony area for dinner tonight. It was Italian night and I had the tiger shrimp.....it was just OK. but I had the sticky bread pudding for dessert and it was awesome!!!

Yum!!!

Had to get that bridge shot after dinner.

[maxs mom]

We caught the end of the show tonight........Spectrum......a Temptations/Motown tribute band. They have been performing on RCI for a long time and they are great. Once we spent some time in the CL with the lead singer when they were on the Mariner....that was years ago, but a lot of fun.

After this there was a quick game of Bingo (my least favorite shipboard activity!) followed by the Love and Marriage Game Show. This was our first encounter with the Cruise Director, Mike Hunnerup. Cruise Directors don't make or break our cruise. This guy was just OK as far as CD's go. The L&M show was a good one tonight. Quite funny. The oldest couple (From Scotland) won.

It was off to bed after this. It was almost midnight! Wow! We were party animals tonight! This towel animal was waiting on us in our cabin. I think we had towel animals almost every night actually.

[beej]

Jane, congratulations on your retirement. Thanks for bringing the Freedom to us. Having sailed her many times, she is like home. This fall we're doing the big girls, but Freedom will be in our hearts. Loved seeing Willy. I miss his music.

 

Can't wait for more

[maxs mom]

Jane, congratulations on your retirement. Thanks for bringing the Freedom to us. Having sailed her many times, she is like home. This fall we're doing the big girls, but Freedom will be in our hearts. Loved seeing Willy. I miss his music.

 

Can't wait for more

 

Thanks so much! This retirement thing is pretty cool! This was our first time on Freedom and I'm sure we'll be back.

[CathyCanada]

I'm still trying to get past the part where you said you were 60-something and then seeing your first picture?? You look great and thanks for the awesome pictures, Freedom is one of our favourite ships and just love Labadee! Will actually be spending my birthday this month in Labadee on the 16th! :D

[EWM]

Hi Enjoying your review of the Freedom. We are cruising on her April 2014 and doing the western itinerary...My wife and I have cruised several times and on this cruise we are taking four first time cruisers with us.

 

I see you board on deck four. To give the new cruiser the biggest WOW effect of the promenade. Would we enter by Boleros and use the stairs or by the Schooner Bar. Our friends have not traveled very much and we are hoping to make this the best vacation they ever have...Thanks in advance....Wade

[Chuggiebug]

I love your nightly bridge shots. And all of report is enjoyed greatly. Thank you!

[Ocean Boy]

I think, for what its worth, that walking up the stairs from Bolaro's is a bit more impressive than walking up from the Schooner bar. Either way, the first time setting foot on the Royal Promenade of an RCI ship is pretty awesome.

[audome78]

Jane,

 

Thanks for this review. I LOVE the fact that you are beach people. We followed many of your beach recommendations on our Brilliance Southern B2B this year. We have done this Freedom itinerary ( B2B) at least 2X, and doing it again in Feb, 2014, so I'm looking forward to your beach recommendations...maybe some that we haven't tried yet!

 

Thanks again!

Edited September 6, 2013 by audome78

[maxs mom]

I'm still trying to get past the part where you said you were 60-something and then seeing your first picture?? You look great and thanks for the awesome pictures, Freedom is one of our favourite ships and just love Labadee! Will actually be spending my birthday this month in Labadee on the 16th! :D

 

OMG!! Thank you so much for that compliment! I hope you have great weather on Labadee and have a wonderful birthday!

[maxs mom]

Hi Enjoying your review of the Freedom. We are cruising on her April 2014 and doing the western itinerary...My wife and I have cruised several times and on this cruise we are taking four first time cruisers with us.

 

I see you board on deck four. To give the new cruiser the biggest WOW effect of the promenade. Would we enter by Boleros and use the stairs or by the Schooner Bar. Our friends have not traveled very much and we are hoping to make this the best vacation they ever have...Thanks in advance....Wade

 

Hey Wade!

I agree with Oceanboy! Entering in through Bolero's would be the best way to go. It's so fun to be with first time cruisers. Y'all have fun!

[maxs mom]

I love your nightly bridge shots. And all of report is enjoyed greatly. Thank you!

 

Thanks, Nancy Jo! Looking forward to meeting you in December. I'll be on that bridge on the Independence every night also!

[maxs mom]

Jane,

 

Thanks for this review. I LOVE the fact that you are beach people. We followed many of your beach recommendations on our Brilliance Southern B2B this year. We have done this Freedom itinerary ( B2B) at least 2X, and doing it again in Feb, 2014, so I'm looking forward to your beach recommendations...maybe some that we haven't tried yet!

 

Thanks again!

 

Thank you, Jim. Yes.....that's all we do......find the best beach on every island and just relax. I hope the beaches in the Southern Caribbean di not disappoint!

[beej]

Entering by Boleros may be the best way to go, but , somehow, my feet always took me right to Schooner. I think one of the seats at the piano has my toosh imprint in it for life

[maxs mom]

Thursday ~ August 22nd ~ Grand Cayman

During the night last night there was a bad storm! Lots of loud thunder. But the seas remained calm. Very overcast this morning. Not good for beach people. We were going out to Seven Mile Beach today to the Royal Palms area, but decided to stay on the ship instead. The weather was just too iffy.

What we really like to do here is rent a car and drive over to the other side of the island to get away from the cruise crowd a little bit and go to Rum Point. I highly recommend this if you are looking for a good, quiet beach in GC.

But today we opted for a nice quiet day on the ship and it did not disappoint!

We had a relaxing breakfast this morning with a family from England, and the Scottish couple that won the Love and Marriage Game Show last night. They were delightful and we enjoyed talking to them.

After breakfast we went up to the Solarium and had the place practically to ourselves. We lounged and read. I swam some in the pool. Very nice!! It was wonderful.

John is "Duffnering"!

[maxs mom]

I went out to the main pool area and made a few shots. This is the only time I can stand to go out to this area. Sorry.......just not fond of crowds. But it was delightful out here today.

The cantilevered hot tub was so nice today with nobody there. I enjoyed a soak in there before we left.

[maxs mom]

We had a quiet lunch in the WJ today. The food was good, but the desserts were lacking......but the frozen yogurt always saves the day.

Actually it was after lunch that I went for a soak in the hot tub. That got me really relaxed for an afternoon of reading.

Another quiet night in the Concierge Lounge tonight.

We were joined after a while with Brian and Barbara. It was Barbara's 65th birthday!

We opted to go to Portofino tonight. Our reservations were for 8:30. It was, of course, very nice.......food overload once again!! I tried th seafood soup.

I also had a Caesar salad and then the shrimp/crab risotto. All very good!

John had a T-bone that he really enjoyed:

[maxs mom]

I couldn't forget about dessert! I had the tiramisu and John had the sampler:

After dinner, we made our way over to Studio B to watch the Quest. We are proud title holders of the Quest many, many times on the smaller ships. We've played ever since they started the game way back in the 80's. but we just watch now on the larger ships. It's much more fun on the smaller ships. The section we were sitting in tonight won first place. Maybe we were good luck for them. Same old questions this week. Nothing new, but it was great fun anyway.

I have more Quest pictures from next weeks game.

It was very late, so bedtime after that!

[Lionesss]

 

Just wanted you to know that we perched under those two trees the last 4 cruises and hope to do it again in July!!!!!!!!

 

Sea Ya