Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[gobo2]

Harry,

 

Loving this review. Funny and helpful, as I'll be on this very trip in three weeks

 

Lisa

[JamesEM]

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?”

 

Know what you mean, when I saw all the bacon I could feel my left ventricle slamming shut.

[Q-Dog]

Hi Harry

I have read all 27 pages so far as we (First time cruisers) will be on the Freedom this coming Sunday for the 6 Night GC, Cozumel, Costa Maya trip.

I have obviously been progressively becoming more and more excited, but now I have been reading your "Report" and to say it has heightened my anticipation is a major understatement.

I am loving your pictures and picking up some invaluable newbie tips to boot.

 

Excuse the pushy nature of my next line, but any chance you can have your report finished by Friday as we fly Saturday morning and I don't want to miss any of it lol

[legion]

I'm on this cruise Feb,12. and am really enjoying your reviews.Some good advice throughout .Thanks for taking the time to do it.

 

 

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[fletch1027]

Know what you mean, when I saw all the bacon I could feel my left ventricle slamming shut.

 

 

 

I try to regulate my bacon intake my eating only the meaty part and leaving the fat on the plate. Not sure if it helps, but it makes me feel better... :-)

 

 

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[B&J_Pgh]

Hi Harry

I have read all 27 pages so far as we (First time cruisers) will be on the Freedom this coming Sunday for the 6 Night GC, Cozumel, Costa Maya trip.

I have obviously been progressively becoming more and more excited, but now I have been reading your "Report" and to say it has heightened my anticipation is a major understatement.

I am loving your pictures and picking up some invaluable newbie tips to boot.

 

Excuse the pushy nature of my next line, but any chance you can have your report finished by Friday as we fly Saturday morning and I don't want to miss any of it lol

we will be on this cruise with you and under CC's roll calls we have a nice little group on the same trip if you want to join us. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2238857&page=22

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry

I have read all 27 pages so far as we (First time cruisers) will be on the Freedom this coming Sunday for the 6 Night GC, Cozumel, Costa Maya trip.

I have obviously been progressively becoming more and more excited, but now I have been reading your "Report" and to say it has heightened my anticipation is a major understatement.

I am loving your pictures and picking up some invaluable newbie tips to boot.

 

Excuse the pushy nature of my next line, but any chance you can have your report finished by Friday as we fly Saturday morning and I don't want to miss any of it lol

 

Welcome to CC and your first post.

 

Sorry, unlikely I will be done by Friday as I have to work during the weekday. But you can catch Fletch1027's Freedom report from post 531. Just click on the link under his signature. There are many other great reports on the Freedom as well.

 

But the key is that these are just our vacations. You have your own. No need to follow other people's vacation plans. Have fun on your own terms and schedule. Best info I can give you is to look up, not down on your phone or tablet, while on vacation. Take lots of pictures looking at the places around you and you can only do that if you have your head up, not down.

 

Have a great cruise.

[Q-Dog]

Thanks Harry

I am looking forward to my phone going onto Airplane mode and being used purely for pictures, nothing worst than spending all that money on a holiday and burying your face into a phone / tablet.

I have been reading a few reviews and watching Youtube clips etc which I feel all helps to further my excitement.

[Miryam1234]

Grand Cayman has been the one and only port stop where my Dear Husband has agreed to come along on a guided RCI shopping excursion. I convinced him that that would be the easiest way to get to the first or second tender.

 

So we followed the shopping guide to the first Diamonds international shop right across the street from port (that was the minimum requirement for attending), collected the trinket and made a quick escape. It worked well for us since it was just the two of us.

[bcaha]

Thank you Harry for this review, it's very entertaining and on target.

I just wanted to chime in and say that we had a similar tendering experience for Grand Cayman on the NCL Getaway. We were sent up and down between decks 4 and 7 several times. Not sure why tendering isn't better organized - it's not as if they haven't done it before.

Hopefully RC is paying attention to your review....

[fletch1027]

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.

 

 

I'm not sure how the Freedom crew decides whether or not to do the tender numbered tickets, because when we were on Freedom in October they did the numbers for Grand Cayman tendering, however the other times before that they did not.

 

It was a pretty simple process: go to Deck 3 On-Air and get a ticket, then wait to hear the number announced on the PA system, then head down whichever stairs they say (Forward or Mid).

 

The funny thing is, people like me are initially turned off by the number idea because it makes it seem like it will take longer, but in the end it may actually make things less chaotic... :)

[n5749w]

I'm not sure how the Freedom crew decides whether or not to do the tender numbered tickets, because when we were on Freedom in October they did the numbers for Grand Cayman tendering, however the other times before that they did not.

 

 

 

It was a pretty simple process: go to Deck 3 On-Air and get a ticket, then wait to hear the number announced on the PA system, then head down whichever stairs they say (Forward or Mid).

 

 

 

The funny thing is, people like me are initially turned off by the number idea because it makes it seem like it will take longer, but in the end it may actually make things less chaotic... :)

 

 

 

Small work here, Fletch. I clicked on your profile to see if I can start reading your Freedom trip review as well as Harry's. I saw that your are from Sharpsburg. We kind of are too! My daughters go to school in Sharpsburg. [emoji847]

 

 

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[n5749w]

That should have said 'small world'. I am at work today... don't tell on me! [emoji56]

 

 

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[gobo2]

Grand Cayman has been the one and only port stop where my Dear Husband has agreed to come along on a guided RCI shopping excursion. I convinced him that that would be the easiest way to get to the first or second tender.

 

So we followed the shopping guide to the first Diamonds international shop right across the street from port (that was the minimum requirement for attending), collected the trinket and made a quick escape. It worked well for us since it was just the two of us.

 

Miryam,

 

This seems like CC insider gold. Could you please specify how you did this for us newbies? We've reserved a cabana at Royal Palms and would like to get our money's worth.

 

Thank you so much!

[AmyJA]

Took a week but caught up.

 

Been a fun ride so far.

 

Thanks......

 

BACON! ! ! !

[fletch1027]

Small work here, Fletch. I clicked on your profile to see if I can start reading your Freedom trip review as well as Harry's. I saw that your are from Sharpsburg. We kind of are too! My daughters go to school in Sharpsburg. [emoji847]

 

That should have said 'small world'. I am at work today... don't tell on me! [emoji56]

 

I'll never tell! I never read CC while at work... :)

 

It is definitely a small world! On our Allure cruise last year we ran into someone from Newnan!

 

What school do they go to? Our kids both went to Canongate, Madras, and Northgate...

[truffles2]

It is definitely a small world! On our Allure cruise last year we ran into someone from Newnan!

 

 

 

OMG, what a small world. I never even heard of Newnan until I met Bill & Mary Lou. It wouldn't be them, would it?

[n5749w]

They go to Trinity Christian (I am a part time substitute teacher there.) My nephews go to Madras. Too funny!

 

 

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[fletch1027]

OMG, what a small world. I never even heard of Newnan until I met Bill & Mary Lou. It wouldn't be them, would it?

 

 

 

No, their names were Rob and Amy but still a very small world. Newnan isn't that big. :-)

 

 

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[harryfat1]

Harry, I saw this opportunity and thought of you! RCCL is hiring an "intern" to document their experiences on instagram with photos of the 3 totally free cruises they'll send you on.

 

http://www.cntraveler.com/story/royal-caribbean-internship

 

 

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Hi,

 

Sorry I forgot to reply this yesterday.

 

Thanks for thinking of me when you read it. I'm way too old to be doing this. First of all, I don't even have an Instagram account or know how to use one. Just shows how old school I am...

[harryfat1]

I try to regulate my bacon intake my eating only the meaty part and leaving the fat on the plate. Not sure if it helps, but it makes me feel better... :-)

 

 

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Of course you realize the whole thing is cooked in its own grease so the “meaty” part has already soaked in all the fat that has been oozing out from the white part. Either that if the grease doesn’t get to you, the salt from the meat will…

 

This is what happens when you are old – you talk about these things. All the under 30 crowd reading this are all wondering – what are those old geezers yapping about?

[harryfat1]

Grand Cayman has been the one and only port stop where my Dear Husband has agreed to come along on a guided RCI shopping excursion. I convinced him that that would be the easiest way to get to the first or second tender.

 

So we followed the shopping guide to the first Diamonds international shop right across the street from port (that was the minimum requirement for attending), collected the trinket and made a quick escape. It worked well for us since it was just the two of us.

 

Who doesn’t love Diamond International? Can’t go on any cruise in the Caribbean or Mexico or even Alaska without seeing those guys.

[harryfat1]

Thank you Harry for this review, it's very entertaining and on target.

I just wanted to chime in and say that we had a similar tendering experience for Grand Cayman on the NCL Getaway. We were sent up and down between decks 4 and 7 several times. Not sure why tendering isn't better organized - it's not as if they haven't done it before.

Hopefully RC is paying attention to your review....

 

Good to hear all cruise lines are confused on how they run their operations. Guess they won’t mention this aspect of cruising in their fancy brochures or on their web sites.

 

Or maybe it’s the “forced exercise” they impose on their passengers from eating all the bacon by making them go up and down the flights of stairs…

[harryfat1]

Miryam,

 

This seems like CC insider gold. Could you please specify how you did this for us newbies? We've reserved a cabana at Royal Palms and would like to get our money's worth.

 

Thank you so much!

 

If you attend the “port talk” or “shopping guide talk” on the ship (see the daily compass on the beginning of the cruise), the shopping guy or gal will take you off the ship with him or her to go to every shop on the list. Think you are supposed to be part of the tour to go shopping with him/her and not run off to your personal tour but I guess they can’t make you stay with the group.

 

At Cozumel, they will even pay for your taxi to go to downtown at Diamonds International if you go with the ship’s shopper

[Calgary3]

Loving your report. Thanks for taking this huge amount of time out of your life for us on Cruise Critic. Much appreciated.

Edited January 10, 2017 by Calgary3