Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

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

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

You’re welcome. Having done a long one couple years ago, it helps in knowing the process involved and the time it takes to do another one.

 

This time around is easier as I made some friends since the last time and good to have people to banter with as I do this. It’s like running a marathon. Easier to run with a group than solo.

[harryfat1]

OK, back to more GC info. Continue on with dock side pics.

 

Tent area for the ship based tours

 

 

 

 

 

 

Map of the area if you need it

 

 

 

 

Different gates lead you to different ships so make sure you remember what gate you came out of so you are in the right line to go back

 

 

[harryfat1]

All right, guess we’ll just hang out by the taxi stand for a while as we looked for my wife’s friends to get off their tender to meet up with us (their cabins are toward the front of the ship so they took the forward tenders).

 

Nothing like trying to find two sets of people (tour people and friends) in an unknown area filled with hundreds of people. As much as cheapo dad doesn’t like to pay extra for ship board based tours, there’s something to be said about the simplicity of jus meeting at the ship and getting a priority sticker on your shirt to get off the ship early on the tender and never having to search for you guide.

 

Then I started to add up the money saved with private tour, I quickly vanquish the idea of ship based tour until the next day when we did book a ship based tour.

 

So by now you are wondering what did we book anyway? We had been to sting ray city many years ago so this is just a tour to see the rest of Georgetown and Seven Mile Beach.

 

The best value I can find online was the $27/pp tour that took you to various places and ends at 7 mile beach – the whole tour is supposed to be around 4+ hours. And just because they love me, they gave me a 5% online discount code to lower the final price to be at $25.65/pp. These guys have a solid review rating on Trip advisor so after emailing couple times and they sounded like they are organized, I went ahead and booked the tour with them. On trip advisor, they are known as Clark’s tour and then about a month before the cruise, they changed the name to Amvivo online. Don’t know if it’s just a name change or Amvivo bought out Clarks. If you are interested, just Google Clarks tour Grand Caymans and you will find their web page.

 

You can in theory book a similar tour right at the dock side at one of the booths. I saw their prices at $20 online but their trip is shorter at 2 hours and they only let you spend 10 minutes at the beach to get your toes wet. If you wanted to stay longer, then it’s supposed to be $5/pp for taxi back so you end up at $25 or so anyway and you see less. But in hindsight, you will not as rushed to get off the ship so maybe the other cheapo $20 tour that you can book at dockside would be good for the laid back crowd.

[harryfat1]

Sure enough, at around 8:45, we see our tour leader and his entourage show up with the company sign. Soon after that, my wife’s friends’ family showed up so we got all checked in. Got our tour ID tag and a free bottled of ice water and waited to board the bus. A bit after 9 AM, we followed our driver, Silver (I’m sure that’s his real name) to get into the bus and headed out.

 

Here’s where you check in for the tour:

 

 

 

 

Got the free iced cold bottle of water from these folks

 

 

 

 

Boarding the bus that would hold 22+ people

 

 

[harryfat1]

View of the parking area with other tour buses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pic of Freedom versus the Epic. Sorry, just not a fan of how the Epic looks. Too blocky for my taste.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Cayman folks drive on the left hand side from its UK influence. Along the way, Silver told us a bit of the island and the people. Never realized there are many more chickens and iguanas on the island than people. I know that in our travels to Wyoming on the road trip that they have more cows in state of Wyoming than people. Didn’t realize the same is true for Grand Cayman as well – just different set of animals.

 

Speaking of iguanas, it didn’t take long for Silver to spot a group of them by the trees along the side of the road. Not the best pics through the glasses of the bus window but it is decent with the zoom lens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also drove by the Government Building

 

 

[harryfat1]

The first real stop was at the Tortuga rum and rum cake tasting place. They have few birds in the back for some quick snaps before we headed inside to see the small shops and tried out the free booze. They had free bananas and mango flavored rums to let people try. I prefer the banana flavored one myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

I love the iguana photos! They are very clear and in focus! :)

[harryfat1]

For all the kids reading this report at home, just scroll pass the alcohol pics below. No alcohol for you. Bad cheapo dad influence.

 

Has anyone ever thought about the influence we have on the young kids out there reading all the trip reports and the all reviewers just drop in photos of their alcoholic drink daily? I was thinking about that but then other side of me said, It’s free booze, dude. Stop thinking and hurry up and get the second flavored one before the bus leaves…So there you have it. Pics of free booze. Kids - don’t try this at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also had sample rum cakes as well. You can get ones with some exotic flavors if you like. You see pictures of them being made in the back.

 

 

That’s a lot of rum cakes

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I love the iguana photos! They are very clear and in focus! :)

 

Yeah, I'm surprised how well they looked when I came back home and uploaded them. Too hard to see the details on the small camera. Considering all the pictures of iguanas were taken through the glass of the van (driver just pulled over to the side but nobody got out), they were very clear given I had to zoom in.

 

By end of day 6, I have even better close up of one in FLL.

[gobo2]

I'm here with your cup of water! What mile are we on? Run, Cheapo Dad, run!:p

[harryfat1]

I'm here with your cup of water! What mile are we on? Run, Cheapo Dad, run!:p

 

Let's see, this is only a 6 day cruise and counting all the stuff pre cruise, we have already passed the half way mark.

 

Soon I will be hitting "the wall" so you better have the water bucket ready for me...

[harryfat1]

The gift shop inside

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday rum cake for gift – guess that beats the fruit cakes from grandma…

 

 

 

 

 

 

And you folks KNOW that I would have a photo of the cost for all the cheapo folks trying to figure out if it’s good value to buy or not

 

 

[harryfat1]

There’s nothing like having couple sips of rum at 9:30 AM to wake you up. HELLO!

 

 

Never saw the sign on top that said “free Wifi” until after getting home and looked at it. DUH. Guess I was too much in a hurry to go inside for the free booze.

 

 

 

Good photo opts outside with the pirates. If Royal had female pirates that looked like this on the ship, I would be like James and get a picture with her every cruise…

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Next stop is Camana Bay. That’s the high end development area. Looks like they are still in the process of developing it. A bit too artificial looking for my taste but it feels too sanitized & has that Disney atmosphere to it whenever the whole project is completed later on. We then went up to the top of the building for some overall view of the west bay area and saw the ship way off in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review and nice photos.

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Walking all the way to the top

 

 

 

 

They’re still building more

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cruise ships way in the back

 

 

 

 

Here's the Freedom

 

 

[harryfat1]

The tour then took us to see the outside gate of the governor’s mansion. Didn’t realize that the locals don’t elect the governor – she is appointed by the Queen of England every 3 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the access points to 7 mile beach

 

 

 

 

This place is supposed to be one of the oldest homes on the island at 200+ years old, so that’s it’s claim to fame. Note all the shells they have lined up outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dani negreanu]

This time around is easier as I made some friends since the last time and good to have people to banter with as I do this. It’s like running a marathon. Easier to run with a group than solo.

 

Hi Harry,

 

Still in the "group", and enjoying every minute :)

 

Then again, you're the one deleting the URLs...

 

Dani

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry,

 

Still in the "group", and enjoying every minute :)

 

Then again, you're the one deleting the URLs...

 

Dani

 

Hi, Dani,

 

Thanks for continuing to follow along.

 

This time around is a lot more fun as I get to talk to old friends like you and others I met 2 years from my previous report. When I was writing the Allure report, I didn’t really know anyone from CC at that time. During the middle section of the report it was as if I was talking to myself as I was posting but there was no interaction with anyone.

 

There’s that philosophical question “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” If applied to writing trip reports, then it becomes “If one writes a trip report and no one reads it or talks about it, does it become a diary/journal?”

 

I appreciate all the conversations with everyone as I don’t want it to be just a monologue of me reporting about what we did for Christmas vacation (something my kids had to do for school when they were young). More fun if it’s interactive.

[harryfat1]

Couple more pics of the GC water front

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it’s off to Hell. Never did find out how these lime stones were formed. But sure is interesting looking. Look up the details at Wiki if you are want the background detail.

 

Yeah, the cynics will call it a tourist trap. So it is. But that’s what you do as a tourist, right? Go to tourist traps! GEICO should have a commercial on this having a group of tourist pile in and out of buses– because that’s what you do…

 

You can use the restrooms here and they few shops if you care to buy anything – think my wife bought a post card while I took a picture of the chicken by the parking lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Should this picture be the front cover of the trip report?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The official tour on the web site had us going to Dolphin Discovery to walk around but we never did make it there. Silver dropped off us outside of the Turtle Farm are as they had free Wi-FI. For cheap ass tourists like us that didn’t want to pay for the ship’s Wi-Fi service, there’s no better phrase than “Free Wi-Fi” while in port. Especially with our Cozumel tour in doubt, I needed free Wi-Fi desperately to access my email to see what’s going on. Who cares about sight-seeing? Priorities, people.

 

Actually I take that comment back as that was for humor value but not a good comment in general. I have always been a big fan of not looking down at the phones while on vacation. Your eyes can’t do both – it’s either up or down. If down, you can’t take pictures of anything around you as you are looking at your phone typing to whomever.

 

Case in point here – I typically ignore all the free wifi whatever while on vacation. Up to this cruise, my phone never even made it off out of the room safe on port days. But since I had to deal with the tours people, I had to check my email and looked down and then forward the info to others on the tour so they can read the email as well. As a result, I took zero pictures in the 15 minutes we were there. My wife took the one picture you see here. So if you spent a lot of your vacation like me looking down here, you will end up with significantly less pictures to show people back at home.

 

 

 

 

At any rate, back to the story. I read my email and the tour people agreed that if we were docked at International Pier, we’d meet in front of Hard Rock Café as originally planned. If at the other pier, it’d be Senor Frogs. They will have a sign with my name on it waiting for us regardless of where we docked. Easy enough.

 

Breathing a sigh of relief, I sent off couple quick emails to friends and family at home saying we have 80+ degree weather on the cruise before we had to pile back on the van for the last stop.