Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

For the Grand Caymans, we booked a private island tour for our family and my wife’s friend’s family of 10 decided to book the same tour as well, so we had nice party of 16 for this tour. Our bus only holds 22 so we have the majority of the people on the tour.

 

For our sailing, the ship is scheduled to arrive in port by 8 AM and then first tender is officially to start at 8:15. So working backwards, we all had to get up pretty early on day 3 as we have the local tour booked at 9 AM by the dockside.

 

Here’s another one of those philosophical thoughts – should I be waking up earlier during my vacation than when I’m working and have to pay for it?

 

Regardless what I was thinking, too late to stop now. Woke up at 6:30 and rounded up the troops.

 

Took this picture of the empty hallway at 6:50 AM. It comes as no surprise there is zero foot traffic in the hallway at that time of the day.

 

 

 

 

WJ before 7 AM. Plenty of space – which is typically the case if you can wake up early for breakfast. WJ opened at 6:30 for this port day. Other days it opens at 7.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

BACON. I love bacon.

 

Not sure if bacon loves me. You know you are getting old when you look at certain food and instead of saying “Oooh, I want some of that”, you’re thinking “how many can I have without my doctor yelling at me?”

 

 

 

 

This whole thing is like cholesterol bomb – I can already feel my arteries harden just by looking at it without even putting any on my plate. Every cruise I am tempted to ask the workers at the buffet “Does the bacon come with a defibrillator for my heart in case I need it half way through breakfast? Are you guys required to have one within 100 feet of the food in case of emergency?”

 

But I don’t think my sarcasm will fly (or sail) with them…

 

My breakfast (yes, with bacon). I’m sure I shortened my life span by at least few weeks eating the standard daily breakfast items on the cruise…

 

 

 

 

By then the ship was really rocking side by side at the back of the WJ from the gusty wind. The long range forecast from home before leaving had Grand Cayman to be at 24+ MPH winds that day. Don’t know what the final number came out to be.

 

I do know the captain came over the PA to apologize for the wind and the movement of the ship. He said there was some concern earlier that the local port authorities at Cayman might have opted to close the port for all tenders due to the heavy winds but they never did follow through on that. Good for us to see our fist port of call.

[Biker19]

My breakfast (yes, with bacon). I’m sure I shortened my life span by at least few weeks eating the standard daily breakfast items on the cruise…

 

 

Was the smoked salmon out of did you have to ask for it?

[dream2cruise]

I see that your breakfast plate also has some of the "pink bacon" that my 3-year old niece likes. I'm glad they have smoked salmon available as I love bagels, lox and cream cheese. I hope capers and lemons are readily available.

[squiffynimrod]

Ahh, I see, said the blind man to the deaf woman.

 

as he picked up his hammer and saw.

 

Great report. Bonus style points for being entertaining.

[harryfat1]

Was the smoked salmon out of did you have to ask for it?

 

The first few days, we had to ask the guy behind the salad area. Then he would plop a few onto your plate after he takes them out from the counter area behind him.

 

Think last 2 days of the cruise, they just showed up by themselves without having to ask anyone for them.

 

No idea why on their change in policy.

 

Oh, yes, I took picture of the salmon in the buffet area to show CC.

Edited January 9, 2017 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

I see that your breakfast plate also has some of the "pink bacon" that my 3-year old niece likes. I'm glad they have smoked salmon available as I love bagels, lox and cream cheese. I hope capers and lemons are readily available.

 

Yes, those are by the side at the salad area where you have to ask someone at the counter for the salmon.

[Biker19]

No idea why on their change in policy.

 

Was is it not obvious they got tired of you asking?:p

[splash_in_the_water]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

I am trying to be a comedian when I retire as a CPA and then go on the cruise ships to perform my comedy act by telling bunch of Finance related jokes…

 

Our family love the size of the Oasis class ships. Hopefully you will enjoy them as well.

 

Great review Sir! I too appreciate your writing and light sprinkles of comedy thrown on it. If you're into comedy, look up a dude Mathew Broussard. Young guy, but also used to work in finance and turned comedian.

[harryfat1]

Was is it not obvious they got tired of you asking?:p

 

Oh, yes, I wish I have that magical touch.

 

If so, then many items that have gone missing from the MDR dinner would have re-appear also...Think my waiter got tired of saying "no duck, no duck" nightly trying to explain the menu to me...

[harryfat1]

Anyway, better get back to Cayman Island report before my March 2017 cruiser thinks I will never get there before he sets sail.

 

 

So after breakfast, we made it back to the cabin to gather our stuff and headed for the elevator to go to the gangway on deck 1. In some of the previous reviews, I had read on other sailings they were handing out tender tickets for people. But last night at the show, the cruise director was telling us no tender tickets were necessary. OK, time to go down.

 

Here is the mistake I made that I hope no one else makes. In my sailing with other cruise lines, they had beach towels at the gangway walkway for people to check out. I assumed it would be the same way for Freedom. Nope. You need to get them from the pool deck. Crap. I didn’t find that out until we got down to deck 1 and by then, it was too late to go up as we were on a tight schedule to start the tour by 9 AM. So if you plan any water related activities at Cayman, go and get the towels the day before you arrive.

 

Speaking of time, be sure you know the local time. The Freedom doesn’t change its ship time. We were on Florida time the entire cruise. And depending on what time of the year you are visiting Cayman, they may be one hour different or THE SAME as ship time as they don’t observe daylight savings time like most of the States do. So when you book a local tour, be sure to check the month of the year you while be in Cayman and adjust accordingly.

 

So the back elevator took us all the way down to deck 1 where they told us the gangway is. Except when you get out of the elevator, they roped off both ends of the entrance to prevent you from leaving so you are effectively trapped inside the two ends of the elevator banks. There was already maybe 20 plus people there ahead of us. So we assumed that was the line to wait. Not too bad, right?

 

Nope. Of course not. Things never work so smoothly in life. Few minutes later, some mean security guard comes to the ropes and yell at all of us for being there – Eh? It’s our fault that we took the elevator that says “gangway” to exit the ship? Where else are we supposed to go? Deck 12 and jump off?

 

He told us to leave as there are “hundreds and thousands“ of people booked tours with RCI and they have priority to be on the first tenders. We don’t have priority and we can only get on the tender after the tour people leave. By his estimation that would take 1 hour so he told all of us in line to get lost and don’t come back for 1 hour.

 

That dude must be the nice friendly face/attitude that RCI Miami corporate office wants to show as part of the exceptional service they promised you on a cruise.

[harryfat1]

Some guy in the front of the line asked if the people can stand there and wait. The security shrugs and said, “if you want” and tuned away. In the meantime, many of the ship tour people with their tour buttons on their shirts walked behind him onto the tender while we looked on.

 

So we were debating on what to do as we need to get off the ship but don’t look very promising. Then we opted for the same strategy as boarding the ship – somebody ash to be on the early ship, so why not us. Therefore, we decided to stand and wait it out.

 

About 5 minutes later, some other ship security guy comes over from the other end of the elevator bank and yelled at us that this is not the right line to wait. The standby line has already started and we have to go upstairs on deck 2 before we get back to deck 1. The classic “you can’t get there from here” concept. Wished these people would be more organized and be clear on their instructions.

 

So a whole group of us from deck 1 piled back to the elevator to go back up to deck 2 and be greeted by the “real line”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we waited in the new line on deck 2 and then to walk back down to deck 1 – where we were just minutes ago (déjà vu all over again). There are a lot of people ahead of us. Each tender is supposed to hold around 250 to 300 people per the security guy.

 

The first tender on our end somehow wasn’t full and they had extra space and they started letting small groups of 10 people from our standby line onto the tender wait to fill it up to the max and we were lucky enough to be one of the last groups of 10 to have made it.

 

Whew. That’s a lot of work to try to get off the ship early.

 

The glamour side of cruising they forgot to mention on their web pages or brochures...

[harryfat1]

Here is the picture of us inside the tender at 8:20 AM so we were lucky to have caught the first one.

 

As luck would have it, I was wearing my Disney “Grumpy” shirt, which portrayed my mood at the moment. Better instructions and organization on the tender process would have made this much easier for all involved.

 

 

 

 

The other tender on the front of the ship filling up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone that has read my previous trip repot will know I have an unnatural attraction for dockside rope lines. Every time I see these ropes, I will need to take a picture of it. I could spend years in therapy trying to find out what would Freud said about this.

 

 

 

 

[maryjaden]

Loving your review. Just a note about taking the cruise compass with you to shore so you have port information........ I always take a photo of the port info, then in an emergency, I have it on my phone.

[Carlos A.]

Don't tell me you are the guy in the turquoise shirt in post #485 flinging the kid...

 

Close but no. ;)

 

 

Nope. Of course not. Things never work so smoothly in life. Few minutes later, some mean security guard comes to the ropes and yell at all of us for being there – Eh? It’s our fault that we took the elevator that says “gangway” to exit the ship? Where else are we supposed to go? Deck 12 and jump off?

 

He told us to leave as there are “hundreds and thousands“ of people booked tours with RCI and they have priority to be on the first tenders. We don’t have priority and we can only get on the tender after the tour people leave. By his estimation that would take 1 hour so he told all of us in line to get lost and don’t come back for 1 hour.

 

That dude must be the nice friendly face/attitude that RCI Miami corporate office wants to show as part of the exceptional service they promised you on a cruise.

 

I would like to rephrase as I earlier said the tender process could be painless.

The Shore Excursion team, and the security crew of this ship need to improve their manners. I had the same problem as you trying to get off the ship in Costa Maya. If the elevator has a button that says "Gangway" why should I not use it? Same thing happened, someone yelled me that I had to get down by the stairs from deck 4. What!?

 

As for GC, I booked an excursion with RC. But don't think this made things easier. They summoned all the people with a Royal Caribbean excursion at eight in the theater. It was total caos. Then they made us wait there for more than an hour. When we finally made it to the shore they told us that our tour was cancelled! :eek:

 

So as far as I had experienced I wouldn't recommend to book an excursion with RC at GC only to get off the ship earlier. If you can manage being yelled and wait a few minutes you can get off the ship just as Harry did.

[SherriZ366]

Good Sunday morning to all from the west coast or wet coast as it’s raining outside right now. We don’t get much rain in CA (been in multi-year drought) so it’s always a happy day to have rain out here.

 

I’ll just keep plugging away at my snail pace to get through this trip report.

 

 

 

Later on, my wife’s friend and family came over to our cabin to check out our PR view and stayed and chatted on their impression of RCI so far and discuss the tours we will be going on the next 3 days. So we just chilled in the cabin talking the rest of the afternoon.

 

 

After they left, we showered and got dressed for formal night. We all had ties and suits on in case any fashion police out there wants to check up on us to make sure we have the appropriate for MDR dining. Wonder if anyone from CC ever stood in front of MDR next to the dining room staff to assist them in picking out the inappropriately dressed people on formal nights?

 

“Hey, you, in flip flops. Are you blind? Can’t you read the rules that said flip flops are not allowed for dinner? Lunch time only. I don’t care if you don’t read English and only understand Finnish or Hebrew…”

 

We attended the pre-dinner show with the Broadway show theme. It was OK. Nothing great but not bad either. Will blend into old man’s memory along with all the other ships' Broadway related performances as time goes on. Obviously not as memorable as a water show on the Oasis class ships.

 

Right outside of the theater, we saw King Julien and had a family picture taken with him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dude is working the crowd at the theater

 

 

 

Beautiful Family!!

[GrooveInWhichWeMove]

Cheapo Dad, I was on this cruise and I'm excited to see such a wonderful, detailed, photo-filled review of it!

 

I remember the tendering process at Grand Cayman very well... it was quite the nightmare. I'm surprised the Freedom of the Seas was not more organized about the process.

Edited January 9, 2017 by GrooveInWhichWeMove

[harryfat1]

Many thanks for all the new people posting their praises earlier tonight. My email notifications was going crazy with all the new posts coming in fast and furious during the 2 hour span and I was trying to finish up my post before I have to eat dinner.

 

So I apologize if I somehow ignored people’s posts earlier. I thank everyone’s kind words and glad to have you along for re-telling the tales of our mundane family vacation.

[harryfat1]

Close but no. ;)

 

 

 

I would like to rephrase as I earlier said the tender process could be painless.

The Shore Excursion team, and the security crew of this ship need to improve their manners. I had the same problem as you trying to get off the ship in Costa Maya. If the elevator has a button that says "Gangway" why should I not use it? Same thing happened, someone yelled me that I had to get down by the stairs from deck 4. What!?

 

As for GC, I booked an excursion with RC. But don't think this made things easier. They summoned all the people with a Royal Caribbean excursion at eight in the theater. It was total caos. Then they made us wait there for more than an hour. When we finally made it to the shore they told us that our tour was cancelled! :eek:

 

So as far as I had experienced I wouldn't recommend to book an excursion with RC at GC only to get off the ship earlier. If you can manage being yelled and wait a few minutes you can get off the ship just as Harry did.

 

We booked the RCI tour the next day to the ruins at Costa Maya and we couldn’t get out of the theater either for the longest time.

 

I understand it’s very hard to get people off the ship when you can only do it at 250+ at a time in a tender but they need better directions to instruct people where to meet and stand. If you don’t tell people where to go, the most logical path is deck 1 gangway – like GEICO commercial says, it’s what you do.

 

But if you don’t want people to go to deck 1, then make it known BEFORE people show up and have someone at the location to direct people to the right location. If they could have done both, it would have been a much smoother operation.

 

In the west coast sailing in Mexico, going into Cabo requires tenders also but that process with the other ships we had been on (Carnival ships and even Mariner of the Seas) were so much more smooth compared to the Freedom.

[harryfat1]

Loving your review. Just a note about taking the cruise compass with you to shore so you have port information........ I always take a photo of the port info, then in an emergency, I have it on my phone.

 

Hi, Mary,

 

Yes, I have read others take pictures of the info.

 

Haha, I'm old school. I feel better with a hard copy.

 

Up to this cruise, I have never taken my cell phone off the ship. Always turned it off after the ship leaves home port and kept it in the safe. This time with its better camera, I used the cell phone much more but still feel better with a hard copy.

[harryfat1]

Cheapo Dad, I was on this cruise and I'm excited to see such a wonderful, detailed, photo-filled review of it!

 

I remember the tendering process at Grand Cayman very well... it was quite the nightmare. I'm surprised the Freedom of the Seas was not more organized about the process.

 

Hi,

 

We have another person from the cruise. That’s great. Glad you are enjoying the trip report and it's good to have you along.

 

It’s wonderful to look at the old pictures and said “I was there on the cruise. Flinging that little kid in the background…”

 

Just kidding. :p

[harryfat1]

You know you are early to the port when your tender arrived when the ship photo people were still scrambling to set up their photo props as couple hundred cruisers pile off the tender at the dockside. They were still trying to set up the wheel when we walked by and the guy asked us to take a picture. Seeing we got off the tender on time (around 8:35), we made few stops at the photo stations (aka visiting crazy aunt that we locked up in basement)

 

 

 

 

Just with all new port area, you don’t know where’s what when you first walk out. The direction was to find the tour people somewhere near the taxi area as they would have “Amvivio” tour signs out. OK. That sound easy but where is the tax area?

 

Don’t know after wandering round for a bit and had to ask few people before one guy was nice enough to walk me to the area but didn’t see anyone there with the company sign by the taxi area.

 

 

 

 

Dock side vendors trying to sell tours – any resemblance to RCI selling on RP?

 

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

Your younger son always has the happiest, nicest smile! :)

Edited January 9, 2017 by Coralc

[harryfat1]

People booking tours at the dockside. In theory that’s the best way to do it as 1) you don’t know what the weather might be like when you dock 2) you don’t know how you might feel that day to do any tours 3) no need to rush off the ship to meet an artificial time line.

 

Get off when you get off and then book something if and when you are ready. Difficult concept for 9+ anal scale people to book it by the dockside instead of months out but something I will seriously consider at any tendering ports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Your younger son always has the happiest, nicest smile! :)

 

He’s a bit moody at times but when he is happy and enthusiastic on vacations, it resonates throughout the family and we all feel the happiness.