Review Of A Fantastic Week On Freedom Of The Seas (Western) - October 13-20, 2013

[Canadian Tyler]

Great review so far. But now I have the Gilligan's Island song stuck in my head! :)

[bigque]

Great review so far. But now I have the Gilligan's Island song stuck in my head! :)

 

LOL! You almost made me spit water all over my Computer Here At Work!

[mickeymouse12]

Hi Mike, Any problems with renting from Hertz? I've read some complaints about long lines when returning rental cars with other companies. Thanks, Deb

[bigque]

Hi Mike, Any problems with renting from Hertz? I've read some complaints about long lines when returning rental cars with other companies. Thanks, Deb

 

Hey Deb. We arrived in Orlando at 1:30pm the day before (Saturday) and there was no line at all at the airport. When we turned in the car in Cocoa Beach on Sunday morning about 10:15am, the turn in took only about 5 minutes which was basically for them to check out the car. Their shuttle had just left to go to the ship to bring people back when we pulled up, so we waited about 15 minutes after turning the car in for the shuttle to come back to take us to the ship, so by 10:40 to 10:45 we were on our way to the ship. This conflicts with the time I mentioned earlier in the review as I am readjusting my time schedule. I hope that helps.

Edited October 29, 2013 by bigque

[bigque]

Day - 4 Falmouth Jamaica

 

My day actually started out after midnight on a warm misty rainy night! A spooky look, as I glanced back at the Viking Crown...

and as I looked out over the seas I see……….. (Key The Twilight Zone Music)………….A Ghost Ship!....

oooooohhhh! So I thought I would head over to the comfort and safety of the H20 Zone. It is beautiful when lit up at night!

Better yet I think I’ll go back to the comfort of my stateroom! LOL! Here is a picture of 9340 Center Hump (I never did post a picture).

[bigque]

So Now.......Hey MON! This is the day of the island visit to the land of Bob Marley, Raggae, Dred Locks, Jamaican Rum, Ganja, beautiful women and Where Stella Got Her Groove Back.....Hey MON...... I'm ready for this day MON!

 

We were not scheduled to pull into Falmouth until 10:00am so we thought it would be a good day to have breakfast on the balcony. I ordered on the interactive TV the night before rather than leaving the leaflet outside the door. It was quite simple and very user friendly.

Good time to talk about that while I am mentioning it. As I said the interactive TV was very user friendly for ordering room service and for checking on how much you have been spending on your Sea Pass Account or making sure you don’t have any extra charges on there. I use a debit card for my account. I have a separate checking account that I use just for vacations or cruises so that money is not coming out of my main checking account. I know how much I put into it, so I can then keep track of how much I am spending on the interactive TV. No holds were placed on the card as I checked the balance on the ships ATM machine and my total bill was debited about 3 days after the cruise. Because I have a separate account for just this purpose I have not experienced the horror stories some tell about using a debit card and I have used that method on all my cruises, so if there is a problem it will not affect my main account.

As we sat eating breakfast we started getting close to pulling into the port

[bigque]

So we finished up and started getting ready for our day… A ship sponsored excursion “Dunn’s River Fall Express” which consisted of a trip to the falls (About 45 – 50 minute drive), and a lunch stop on the way back. In all it was about a 3 ½ to 4 hour excursion. The only hiccup in this was in the beginning there was a mix up with company getting our tour bus for the excursion, so we took off about 30 minutes late. Our tour guide “Sasha” was new and only been during tours for about 3 months, but she was good, nice and friendly. Whatever she couldn’t answer on the way to the falls, the bus driver could usually provide an answer. We had previously booked a different excursion to the falls that was cancelled back when RCI was cancelling a bunch of excursions. I am actually glad that the excursion was cancelled as it was an all day (7 hours) excursion and we would not have really had anytime to spend in the port area when we returned.

 

We saw this guy trying to put out a fire in his

car on the side of the road on the way to the falls!

 

A road side vegtable stand

 

At the falls! Sorry, no pictures of the falls itself as the wife who did not climb the falls as I did only took video of me climbing. You start the climb down on a beach or you can start at various entry points during the climb. There are guides who lead you up in groups while holding hands but as you climb up the hands eventually released. There is also a guy who follows your group up taking picture and shooting videos that you can purchase after the climb for I think $30.00 but I did not purchase it as the wife was shooting video at the various picture taking locations on the stairway that runs along the side of the falls. There are many groups that go up at the same time. It was really a lot of fun to do and I'm glad I got to experience it. When you first see it, it looks harder than it actually looks and there were people from as young as like 8 or 9 up to some older folks. You can get off the falls at anytime during the entry/exit points.

 

It was real beautiful there.

 

On the way back we stopped at a little place off the

side of the road for lunch. The following pictures are at that stop.

 

[mickeymouse12]

Hey Deb. We arrived in Orlando at 1:30pm the day before (Saturday) and there was no line at all at the airport. When we turned in the car in Cocoa Beach on Sunday morning about 10:15am, the turn in took only about 5 minutes which was basically for them to check out the car. Their shuttle had just left to go to the ship to bring people back when we pulled up, so we waited about 15 minutes after turning the car in for the shuttle to come back to take us to the ship, so by 10:40 to 10:45 we were on our way to the ship. This conflicts with the time I mentioned earlier in the review as I am readjusting my time schedule. I hope that helps.

 

Thanks I think we are going with Hertz

[bigque]

More of the lunch stop!

 

 

 

I had read many negative reviews of Falmouth and people saying that it is a wasted stop and that many say they just stay on the ship. I think that with Falmouth you have to make plans to do something either ship sponsored or private excursion to get away to enjoy this stop on the itinerary. If you just stay on the ship and just go by what others have said about the port you really don’t know, I like to know for myself to make a judgment or opinion on how it is, that way if I ever go back, then I could say if I am staying on the ship or not. We thought the ride to Ochos Rio to the falls was a nice trip seeing the country side and the little towns we past through. We did not go into the town of Falmouth itself outside the gate of the Port area, so I can’t really comment on that.

The port area itself was a nicely built place by RCI. It had the typical souvenir shops and jewelry shops that you see in many of the other ports, but we enjoyed walking around looking in them. There was also a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville, for those who wanted to get out of the heat. When walking around the shops we thought about a t-shirt for sale we saw back on Labadee that said “Same Sh**…Different Island” and got a big laugh out of that cause we thought it was so true LOL!

There was one little shop that a guy at a table would let you sample free shots of liquor and as many as you want, just for coming into the store. I think he thinks that if you get liquored up, you would spend a bunch of money in there! LOL! We did purchase a few items here (hat, coffee, a bottle of a Jamaican Rum, t-shirts for folks back home)…..Wow did the shots work???? After that it was back to the ship to grab a quick Windjammer lunch as we did not eat anything at the lunch stop on the excursion.

Back at the port:

 

 

This guy was there balancing himself on a chair on 3 glass Pepsi Bottles blowing fire out his mouth for pictures...for a tip!

 

 

[bigque]

A couple more Falmouth Shots:

 

 

 

 

 

Now about the two young ladies I mentioned from The Crypt. These young ladies were seen for a great part of the day at a little outdoor bar in port drinking and drinking and really during their dances as in the Crypt, on top of the bar and everything. The Jamaican men were really liking this and more than glad to dance with them. As I was standing out on the balcony enjoying the scenery and having a beer I look down and see a security person escorting in arm them back to the ship and handed them over to the ship’s security. They look like from my vantage point on the 9th deck that they were talking a lot of trash to security and of course drunk as usual. Well I had seen them many of times around the ship, but after this day we never saw them again the rest of the cruise, so we wondered if they were confined or thrown off the ship. We never knew. As I sat out on the balcony, I fell off to sleep and the next thing I knew the ship had pulled away from the pier and we were underway and it was then getting close to dinner time. This was the day we ate at Chops. We had a 7:00 reservation and once again Chops was delicious. After we finished a litlle after 8:00, I took our deserts back to the cabin and the wife went to the Promenade to wait in line for the BIG Michael Kors store sale! When I came back down, I saw that she was lucky enough to have secured a spot about 5th in the line and there was a long line. When they opened the doors, the big rush in was on! They were just grabbing purses that they had scoped out earlier that they knew they wanted and some just held on to one or two until they decided which one they wanted........ "It's A Madhouse........A Madhouuusse" OK now.....What Movie?????? Don't know???? The Original Planet Of the Apes! LOL!

Edited October 30, 2013 by bigque

[bigque]

After this we walked around for a bit and walked around for a bit sat and did the people watching thing outside the Bull & Bear Pub on the Promenade. The wife went back to the room to rest up a little bit for going out later in the night and I went to watch some of the Love & Marraige Game Show in the Arcadia Theater @ 10:30.

 

After that It was time to go up and make sure The Wife was awake as we wanted to go up to the Dancing Under The Stars Party with an outdoors buffet on the pool deck at 11:30. We sat and watched people at a little of the buffet food had a couple of drinks, The Wife did a line dance and next thing you know it was 1:00am.

 

 

The Buffet Table Setup

 

 

The Temperature Band (Really enjoy them the entire week. They were good!

 

The Crypt advertised Nightclub dancing at 1:00 so we went by there but nothing much was happening in there so we went back to the room, sat on the balcony for a little bit and ended day 4.......... Yeah MON!

 

Falmouth - B (It is what it is) / Dunn's River Falls Express Excursion - A

 

Next Up - Day 5 - Georgetown Grand Cayman

Edited October 30, 2013 by bigque

[bigque]

As I prepare for day 5, if anyone have any questions feell free to ask. I will answer to the best of my knowledge! writing this review is fun. I t makes me envision everything I did and saw on this cruise! I hope you all are enjoying it....even with the corny stuff thown in every now and then! :cool:

[alaata]

Can't wait til u finish. Waiting for March to come.

 

new to cruising. ♥ FOS 3/16/14. carnival victory 8/23/14 ♥

[bigque]

Can't wait til u finish. Waiting for March to come.

 

new to cruising. ♥ FOS 3/16/14. carnival victory 8/23/14 ♥

 

Three more days to Review so I should be finished by the weekend. I will then try to post the Cruise Compasses that someone requested. I have never done that before so I don't know how it will come out.

Edited October 30, 2013 by bigque

[boaterette]

I am enjoying your review. Good humor.:D

[bigque]

:cool:

I am enjoying your review. Good humor.:D

 

Thank You! More To Come!

[irishgal432]

Okay, How good was the Micheal Kors sale? I may have to hide it from my teenagers.

[bigque]

Okay, How good was the Micheal Kors sale? I may have to hide it from my teenagers.

 

Good Enough that you may have to hide it from your teenagers! :D

25 - 35% Off!

[ericadawn2001]

I'm really enjoying your review!! Can't wait for more! Looks like a great vacation!

[bigque]

I'm really enjoying your review!! Can't wait for more! Looks like a great vacation!

 

It was the best cruise vacation for us yet and can't wait for the next one! And Thank You! :cool:

[bigque]

Day 5 - Georgetown Grand Cayman

 

This day started once again with my daily ritual of going to the Helipad to watch the sunrise.

 

 

 

After that I went back to the room to find the wife up and getting ready for the day. We did not have an early excursion on this morning, so we just took our time and I watch and took some pictures of the tenders coming in (This is a tender port) to take folks to the port.

 

About 9:30 we went to have breakfast at the Windjammer then headed down to get the tender.

 

[bigque]

 

We sat at the outdoor bar in the port area and I had a Red Stripe Beer and then walked around a little till it was time for the 10:45 excursion which called “Island Tour and Tikki (7 Mile) Beach”

The tour took us around and we were told a little history of the Island , which included a 1st stop at the factory where they made Rum Cake (Which a purchased one or you can buy it on the ship also! You also got to sample some and also sample some local rum.

 

[bigque]

The next stop at this very upscale outdoor mall. It was right on the water front and had a little park

where we got to see one of these just walking around like it was cool!

Hey...Come here Mr. Iguana!

 

There was an observation tower that you can go up and take pictures. In every direction you look you can see the entire island from up there.

Edited October 31, 2013 by bigque

[bigque]

From there the next stop was…………(Key the music from “The Omen”)…………HELL! I had heard about to place and had to go see it for myself. Now we went as part of the tour, but knowing what I know about it now, would I take a taxi there just to see it….No! The only way I would go if you are really listening is if it was part of a tour! The town consisted of a Post Office, 3 Gift Shops (Hats and t-shirts are more expensive than in port) and what is considered the highlight……..The Limestone Rock Formation Area…….(Key the scene of the Griswald Family in the movie “Vacation” in a hurry standing by and looking at the Grand Canyon with their arms around each other rocking their heads and then say “Ok Let’s Go” ----If you seen the movie you know what I’m talking about)! Nontheless here are my picture in Hell!

The Limestone

The last stop for this excursion was a stop a stop at Tikki Beach for a two hour stay. Loungers, Umbrellas and welcome Rum Punch is included but lunch was extra. Being that we are not big beach people we elected to have the tour guide/driver to take us back to the port. A few people stayed at the beach ( would get picked up at a designated time later) and others decide to go back as we did.

When we returned to port we went outside the gate and purchased a couple of jewelry items we saw in some jewelry stores and then went back into the prt area, purchased some souvenirs and then took the tender back to the ship. The tenders appeared to ferry people back and forth all day in about 15 minute intervals.

In the town outside the gate

[RubyDog08]

Mike,

Your review just keeps getting better; it's almost like actually being there with you guys! Can't wait for my turn in December. ;):p