Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[happy cruiser1234]

Your quote above is not 100% accurate. While many are forced to stand outside for the muster, like in the ol' days, some people are sent to interior areas for the muster. I know this because we were assigned and sent to the MDR for the muster on the Freedom this past March. Not sure exactly how they decide who has to be outside, but I was glad it was not our family.

 

Maybe they only put the anal people outside. Every one else gets a comfy seat in a lounge:D....Hi Russ! Happy New year to you and the family!

 

Serena

[harryfat1]

Hi, Everyone, sorry for no pictures this morning. I only have the time to do this report after work. Morning are too hectic other than just quick replies.

 

I will try to have more pics and move things along. We’re still on day 1 and starting to complain too much in this report. My wife keeps saying as I get older, I complain more and more – guess I’m getting the “Grumpy Old Man” Syndrome. Get off my lawn, you bratty kids…

 

So where were we?

 

+++++++++++++++

 

As of this writing, there is a discussion on the RCI board on what is the standard dining time? For some ships, it seems to be 5:30 and 8 and on other ships, it’s 6 and 8:30. For our sailing, it started at 5:30 and then moved to 6 PM for just several week during when I made the final payment (I have print outs that shows both) and then it changed back to 5:30 again. Had to check every cruise review in October and November to see when their dining time was. We decided to push it back to 8 and for the most part, it worked out well. Later dinner is good if you have excursion tours as you won’t be back until early afternoon and that means late lunch at 2 and you won’t be hungry at 5:30.

 

Freedom typically have the pre-dinner show for the 8 PM dinner crowd meaning for us, most of the shows were at 7 PM and ends at 7:50, enough time to saunter over to MDR for 8 PM dinner. For early dinner, the show time is after dinner. As I just mentioned, Day 1 has a special one show only at 9:45.

 

I was monitoring the ship status on the ship’s TV and when I noticed the speed had started to get above 0 knots, I know we are moving so we all headed up stairs to see the sail away. Of course, at 6:25 PM, it was pretty dark up but it is what it is. With the cell phone cameras, we caught some night time scenery unavailable during the day but there’s only couple people at the condo waving and yelling. No sail way wave from Port Everglades web cam as it was way too dark.

 

Here are some pics from the sail away as it’s dark on a moving ship, bad combo for some super clear pictures but just to give the newbies an idea what sail away in winter time looks like from top deck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

I drew couple stick figures here at the beach area from my phone – just pretend there are people standing there waving goodbye (Hey, kids, wave to the stick people bye).

 

 

[harryfat1]

People at the Solarium pool

 

 

 

 

Back to the outside

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last one. The time was 6:40 PM. Put the phone on airplane mode and made our way back down below deck.

 

 

[harryfat1]

For the holidays, RCI’s marketing department was harping on a big promotion of “Holiday at Seas”. The way they made it sound, it was almost Disney like in how elaborate they would do the holiday celebration. In reality, not so much.

 

In the first night, they billed it as a “Santa Parade” on the daily compass at 7:30. Having seen the DreamWorks parade on the Allure, I was expecting something of that scale. In reality, to call it a parade is an insult to every parade in the world. It was more of a WALK consisting of 2 elves , Santa and couple guys playing the trumpet walking from back of RP to the other end of RP where the tree is and Santa plop his butt down at the chair. End of parade. Ehhh? 5 people walking 100 yards is a parade?

 

This reminded me of my son’s pre-school Halloween parade where they walked around the school court yard in their costumes and they called that a parade back then. But for a big ship’s production and the marketing department touting it on their special web link months prior to everyone, the result was pretty lame. In my post cruise online survey with RCI, when they asked about the special Christmas activity, I gave them a score of 2 on scale of 1 to 10.

 

After the big parade, they have the ”Christmas Caroling”. I was thinking of Disneyworld scale of a big chorus singing songs. Ha. 3 singers on the bridge sang 4 songs. Done. Bye. Thanks for coming. Ehhhh?

 

About the only thing that lived up to expectation is the Christmas tree lighting, which is as straight forward as you can get by just flipping the light switch. Not sure how you can screw that up.

 

In their ad, there was supposed to be fake snow at the RP like they would have at Main Street at Disney parks. We never saw anything like it on the entire cruise. Maybe they saved that for the actual Christmas sailing after ours for the big spenders. Cheapo families not worth RCI's time in trying to spend money on fake snow to impress them...

 

So if you are somehow reading this for 2017 holiday season info, do tamper your expectations. I have seen many Disney holiday events in CA and FL. RCI’s version is nothing close to those.

[harryfat1]

Here is Shrek in Holiday outfit by the tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Caroling

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tree lighting

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

really neat to see the Christmas decor and activities! I have never done a Christmas cruise, just a NYE one! Good to know I'm not missing much! NYE one I did was a blast, even though it was my first cruise SO many years ago, I remember it vividly!

 

Love the solarium! I know you said you aren't a Solarium lover, but I personally think it's so pretty and well done on RCI, love how big the pool is! NCL's Spice H20 does not compare at all. Even Carnival's Serenity deck isn't as nice!

[Coralc]

I've always thought that Shrek was sort of creepy. He looks even worse in holiday garb.

[harryfat1]

OK, onto MDR after the big “parade”. Met our servers. Very nice folks. No issues to speak of. The assistant waiter needs a little more seasoning as he never remember who needs tea every night for dessert (should be simple as everyone wanted tea except the youngest one), but we have to give him the number nightly. Small issue. I gave them top marks on the guest survey regardless.

 

Much has been discussed on the MDR menu changes for the worst. Not sure what more I can add. Other than what they have on the electronic boards by the stair cases isn’t exactly at the printed menu – guess the electric boards are still old menu and the print is older and they haven’t had time to update the electronic boards. So if you looked at the electronic boards and have something specific in mind, just know it may or may not be in print when you show up at MDR.

 

Since my younger one is the pickier eater, he liked his shrimp cocktail from the Allure but it’s no longer officially listed. But per the good folks here at CC, I know that they always have that so just order it off the menu for shrimp cocktail nightly if you like that. It shouldn’t have to be that way to have the “secret menu” that only the people in the “know” asks for it.

 

I like their onion rolls, the boys like the cheese and my wife and in laws like the sourdough rolls

 

 

 

 

Here is the shrimp cocktail

 

 

 

 

Chilled soup – otherwise known as poor man’s free Jamba juice

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

really neat to see the Christmas decor and activities! I have never done a Christmas cruise, just a NYE one! Good to know I'm not missing much! NYE one I did was a blast, even though it was my first cruise SO many years ago, I remember it vividly!

 

Love the solarium! I know you said you aren't a Solarium lover, but I personally think it's so pretty and well done on RCI, love how big the pool is! NCL's Spice H20 does not compare at all. Even Carnival's Serenity deck isn't as nice!

 

I have never done an actual Christmas or NYE cruise before. Both of these sailings are typically the two highest priced cruises in the year and cheapo parents need not apply. We typically go the week before the actual Christmas day as that’s typically the best value but so does every other family so the ship is typically extremely packed with triple and quad berths filled with big families.

 

Do me a favor and when you come back from Adventure of the Seas in few weeks, come back here and let me know how you like it. That is a possible option for our next cruise and I would appreciate another cruiser’s opinion.

 

Thanks,

[harryfat1]

I've always thought that Shrek was sort of creepy. He looks even worse in holiday garb.

 

Not into big green guys with santa hats? Looks too much like the fat Grinch from the side? :p

[aubreyc1988]

I have never done an actual Christmas or NYE cruise before. Both of these sailings are typically the two highest priced cruises in the year and cheapo parents need not apply. We typically go the week before the actual Christmas day as that’s typically the best value but so does every other family so the ship is typically extremely packed with triple and quad berths filled with big families.

 

 

 

Do me a favor and when you come back from Adventure of the Seas in few weeks, come back here and let me know how you like it. That is a possible option for our next cruise and I would appreciate another cruiser’s opinion.

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

 

Ok will do! I am very excited as it's my first time in these ports, but beware; this cruise has been my most expensive yet and I only paid 450pp! Sailing out of San Juan + all those extra ports will be interesting to see how cheapo Dad can do it! [emoji12]

 

 

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[harryfat1]

Ok will do! I am very excited as it's my first time in these ports, but beware; this cruise has been my most expensive yet and I only paid 450pp! Sailing out of San Juan + all those extra ports will be interesting to see how cheapo Dad can do it! [emoji12]

 

 

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That’s a great price you got for your cruise. I can’t anything in mid or late December 2017 sailings that come close to your price as the cheapo dads and moms start to early book the 2017 winter vacations. Good that you can sail in January when the ship should be less full of kids running around.

[JamesEM]

The wife and I were on the Freedom for the first 8 day cruise this past Nov., the food was less than stellar, after the first two nights we gave up on the MDR and ate rest our meals in the Windjammer. The service and table mates were good, but the quality of the meal did not merit us spending that much time in the MDR for a sub par dinning experience.

[DisneyDatknee]

The wife and I were on the Freedom for the first 8 day cruise this past Nov., the food was less than stellar, after the first two nights we gave up on the MDR and ate rest our meals in the Windjammer. The service and table mates were good, but the quality of the meal did not merit us spending that much time in the MDR for a sub par dinning experience.

 

 

Can quote the same experience on the Empress last November -- WJ had better food than the MDR...

 

 

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[tropiclvrs]

Loving your review...thank you for taking the time to do it! It took me a good hour or more yesterday (while at work, mind you) to get caught up.

 

BTW, I am from the Bay Area originally. After college I moved here to So. Cal and love it for the warmer weather. I was up in SF for the holidays and it's always good to be back home. That city will always have my heart!

Edited January 4, 2017 by tropiclvrs

[legion]

Thanks for the great review.Our cruise leaves Feb.12,2017. We are on the 12th deck panoramic window.Hoping the view is as good as it says.Lots of good tips in your review.Will be waiting to read more.[emoji1]

 

 

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[gatour]

In the onshore restaurant/bar industry the servers/bar tenders are expected to be sales people. When you go to to a restaurant (esp chain outfits) there is a reason why the server will ask "What will you like to drink, and while you are waiting what appetizer order should I put in while your drinks are being made". There are pre-shift meetings where they managers go over sale goals and items/promotions to emphasize when the interacting with the customers.

 

While an individual server/bartender may not have a quota, the ability to track the amount of sales per shift/individual is there and can affect the retention of said employee. Although said retention may also be affected about easy you can replace said employee.

 

They shouldn’t make service people sales people. Let marketing people do their stuff and service people perform the service.

[fletch1027]

 

I just noticed something that threw me - I thought that when Freedom moved to Ft. Lauderdale, they were doing an 8 night east/south followed by a 6 night western? There have already been a few trip reports from people doing these 6 & 8 night itineraries. We are doing the 8 night next month.

 

However, Harry's itinerary is for a 7 night western. Did they juggle the itineraries because of Christmas / New Years? Also, it looks like they used the previous Freedom western ports when she was in Port Canaveral (with the exception of skipping Grand Cayman), as opposed to the new itinerary that does GC, Cozumel, and Puerto Maya)...

[harryfat1]

I just noticed something that threw me - I thought that when Freedom moved to Ft. Lauderdale, they were doing an 8 night east/south followed by a 6 night western? There have already been a few trip reports from people doing these 6 & 8 night itineraries. We are doing the 8 night next month.

 

However, Harry's itinerary is for a 7 night western. Did they juggle the itineraries because of Christmas / New Years? Also, it looks like they used the previous Freedom western ports when she was in Port Canaveral (with the exception of skipping Grand Cayman), as opposed to the new itinerary that does GC, Cozumel, and Puerto Maya)...

Dude,

 

The title of excel says it's Allure. I just dragged it out for other people to use from my previous cruise.

 

Technically it's the one item that "doesn't belong"...[emoji12]

 

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[sbcatcher1]

Harryfat1. Do you post cheapo port reviews? We are going to Grand Caymon and Cozumel in a few weeks and would love a review from you.

 

 

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[harryfat1]

The wife and I were on the Freedom for the first 8 day cruise this past Nov., the food was less than stellar, after the first two nights we gave up on the MDR and ate rest our meals in the Windjammer. The service and table mates were good, but the quality of the meal did not merit us spending that much time in the MDR for a sub par dinning experience.

 

Can quote the same experience on the Empress last November -- WJ had better food than the MDR...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Interesting. I was going to get to the MDR versus WJ dinner comparison on day 4 as that was one night we ate upstairs because we had a late returning tour that made eating at WJ a necessity. We all thought the dinner food options at WJ were superior than the MD even though the snob in me still stubbornly tries to go to MDR for the ambiance.

 

I thought we would be the only family thinking this way as WJ is looked upon with disdain by many cruisers. Good to know we are not the only family thinking WJ was good. We’ll talk more by day 4 when I have pics uploaded.

[harryfat1]

Loving your review...thank you for taking the time to do it! It took me a good hour or more yesterday (while at work, mind you) to get caught up.

 

BTW, I am from the Bay Area originally. After college I moved here to So. Cal and love it for the warmer weather. I was up in SF for the holidays and it's always good to be back home. That city will always have my heart!

 

Hi,

 

Thank you for the kind words. I'm a East bay person myself along with Patti and few others.

 

Glad you find the trip report interesting, more than work itself.

 

That brings up another digression point (I can see people’s eyes rolling to the back of their heads with another digression topic). Where do people read CC?

 

In the old days, it’s typically at home in front of laptop in living room or in front of TV. Some people like to sneak in a quick peek at work. But nowadays with smart phones and tablets and the various apps, it’s easier than ever reading CC all over the place.

 

How many people read in cars (hopefully not while as a driver) or subway or trains to & from work? Or read while in church or family gatherings when they are bored (Let’s face it, your wife’s niece’s 6th birthday with Hello Kitty just isn’t your thing but you had better show up or else there’s hell to pay later on)? How many people will actually admit reading CC while on the toilet? This is why you never borrow or touch anyone else’s smart phone, if you know what I mean as you don’t know where that phone just came from…

[harryfat1]

In the onshore restaurant/bar industry the servers/bar tenders are expected to be sales people. When you go to to a restaurant (esp chain outfits) there is a reason why the server will ask "What will you like to drink, and while you are waiting what appetizer order should I put in while your drinks are being made". There are pre-shift meetings where they managers go over sale goals and items/promotions to emphasize when the interacting with the customers.

 

While an individual server/bartender may not have a quota, the ability to track the amount of sales per shift/individual is there and can affect the retention of said employee. Although said retention may also be affected about easy you can replace said employee.

 

I hear what you are saying in that many servers are trained to hard sell. I am actually ok with that aspect of it as when I walk into an establishment to dine, the waiter can try to upsell me with extra stuff or specials of the day. That’s ok in my book because I walked in and I want to eat THERE. You can try to sell me product A but I can also say no and get B. That’s my free choice to choose to listen or ignore the hard sell. I understand that.

 

Heck, I walk into McDonalds and cheap ass me only wants to order from the dollar value meal and the dude sometimes asks, “You want fries or a drink with that?” That’s upsell too. I’m ok with it.

 

What’s this Grumpy old man is complaining about is I have NO intention to eat at any of the establishments along the RP wanting to buy a drinks package. I tried to avoid all eye contacts as much a possible when I saw them standing there but their hands with the menu and flier are trained to be in front of you to get your attention.

 

So by firing the quiet service workers that can’t upsell as well as the marketing workers, in theory, wouldn’t that decrease the level of services overall as the marketing people are too busy selling than providing service?