Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[h20skibum]

The Southern Caribbean Cruise from San Juan is one of our favorites. We love the port intensive cruises. We stayed in Isla Verde, and being like Cheapo Dad, used the local bus for transportation. It is less than a buck from the Resort area to Old San Juan. You can do you own walking tour there.

 

 

http://sanjuanpuertorico.com/bus-routes-map/#13/18.4457/-66.0636

 

Enjoyed the balancing forks photo. I haven't seen them do that for a while.

 

 

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[DISFANS3]

Great Trip Report..

[hucifer]

Challenge accepted. 20% X 5% X 10% = 0.1%. Harry deserves even more credit than you gave him.:)

 

And my AS rating is 8.734 (rounded to the nearest thousandth), not 9.2

 

Ah, thank you for the correction, Bob. And it does seem Harry deserves much more credit than my pie-in-the-sky guess gave him. As an English major, math is my nemesis, so I appreciate your response. To quote a famous action figure/fashion doll, "Math is hard."

[hucifer]

If you think about it, what is a trip report/cruise review? It’s just a summary of the everyone’s vacation and barring anything bad happened on the trip, the report should have a joyful tone. If I just go and list out what I did every minute, then it’s like doing a time sheet for work – I spent 2.5 hours working on this client’s tax return and 1.0 hour researching this tax law and blah blah – not very exciting. By adding “fluff” and some stupid jokes on the side, it makes it more of a fun story line.

 

I also have read many trip reports prior to my cruises and like you, I don’t always finish them after I get started with my ADHD. Of the reports that kept my interest throughout, it’s the ones that show what the writer is thinking that kept me bound.

 

It’s simple to say, we went, we took pictures and we left. But if you explain why you wanted to see whatever and the thought process involved before and during the event, then the reader has more of a connection as they would think “what would I do” and keep on reading.

COMPLETELY agree, which is why I bypass most reports. I have written a few Disney trip reports and follow the same thought process. If you don't include humor, if you don't show what happened between the attractions, if you don't include an emotional element to the story, it will become dry and lifeless. I don't have time to read that.

 

I‘m probably the Howard Stern of CC where people think he is an idiot but they listen to show to hear what idiot has to say that may be funny or dumb.

I wouldn't compare you to Howard Stern, as he says things for shock value. Perhaps more of an observational writer, like a Jim Gaffigan or Jerry Seinfeld.

 

Obviously having tons of pictures help as not everyone cares about my blah blah rambling as a picture is worth a thousand words and everyone loves eye candy. CC makes it very difficult to insert pictures into the reviews. I am embarrassed to admit how many times it took me to finally figure out what to trim from the URL from Flickr to make it work.

While I appreciate how the pictures complement the story, I am all about the story. You are an excellent writer with a witty tongue, and that's what keeps me reading.

 

In that sense, I provide the same 3 “E”s in my trip report. Entertainment with my stupid jokes. Enrichment with my tips and mistakes to avoid for newbie cruisers. Experience with all the pictures so people felt like they came along with us on a cruise and see new sites.

A winning combination, I would say.

 

Finally, as for replying to all the people that posts a meaningful comment. Just my Asian etiquette that says I should respond if people have questions or comment. If they care enough to comment on anything I have said, I should acknowledge that with a response one by one.

That's mighty classy of you. Most trip report writers do not do that.

[bobmacliberty]

Ah, thank you for the correction, Bob. And it does seem Harry deserves much more credit than my pie-in-the-sky guess gave him. As an English major, math is my nemesis, so I appreciate your response. To quote a famous action figure/fashion doll, "Math is hard."

 

And since I be an Engineer, I don't do so well with the English and the spellin. Good thing the world needs all kinds of people.

[princess-stitch]

Love your report, Harry! We were on the Freedom the week after you, so I enjoy seeing pics of the ship and what excursions you took compared to ours. Question for you (sorry if you've already said it , and I missed it), what type of underwater camera do you have? I'm looking for a decent, yet not too costly one. Thanks!

[harryfat1]

When in PR this Nov. we made use of the free Ho Ho trolley, worked out great, first we did a few laps around the city, (my wife loved window shopping via air conditioned trolley) then we got off and saw the sights we wanted to see. About St Kitts and the monkeys, be aware that some folks have caught fleas from these guys.

 

Forgot to add - http://www.sanjuanpuertorico.com/trolley-old-san-juan/ for more info.

 

Thanks for the SJ tips and the monkey. I’ll just take a picture (or two) of the monkey from afar with my zoom lens.

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry ,

I'm one of those newbie lurkers . I just wanted to tell you I'm loving your review .

I was getting disappointed not seeing anyone posting about the salmon on RCI . Our 1st

Cruise on them will be this March , my retirement celebration ! Thanks for the tips !

 

Thanks for the kind words and appreciate you posting a comment here.

 

Hope some of my newbie suggestions will be useful for you.

 

You have your salmon pic now.

 

Have a great cruise in March. Love it when people go on first cruises. Pure joy and excitement.

[harryfat1]

Fleas? Actually, another CC poster developed a staph infection from holding them for photos. I am not a fan of touching or holding monkeys.

 

Yeah, I don't touch iguanas either when they have them all over town for photo ops.

[harryfat1]

Harry, you keep cracking me up [emoji3]. I love your wicked sence of humor. You got me. Hook, line and sinker. You Sir, are my new favorite male writer [emoji335][emoji425]. And you have every right to be proud of your family, they are wonderful.

 

 

Cindy

 

Hi, Cindy,

 

Thanks again for following along.

 

In Youtube, every video you watch, they always say "If you like this, click on the subscribe button" as they can make money from it.

 

Too bad CC doesn't have that feature as cheapo dad needs $$ for next cruise. But then again YouTube also has the thumbs up and thumbs down feature. Not sure my fragile ego can take all the thumbs down I know that'll come my way if people can vote...:p

[harryfat1]

The Southern Caribbean Cruise from San Juan is one of our favorites. We love the port intensive cruises. We stayed in Isla Verde, and being like Cheapo Dad, used the local bus for transportation. It is less than a buck from the Resort area to Old San Juan. You can do you own walking tour there.

 

 

http://sanjuanpuertorico.com/bus-routes-map/#13/18.4457/-66.0636

 

Enjoyed the balancing forks photo. I haven't seen them do that for a while.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

Thanks for the SJ tips. I am now leaning on going to that route than the eastern. Could end up with a double booking for awhile until we finally decide.

[harryfat1]

Love your report, Harry! We were on the Freedom the week after you, so I enjoy seeing pics of the ship and what excursions you took compared to ours. Question for you (sorry if you've already said it , and I missed it), what type of underwater camera do you have? I'm looking for a decent, yet not too costly one. Thanks!

 

Thank you for the compliment. Good thing we left you folks on the next cruise one or two unbroken bar stools for usage after all the wild parties we had on our cruise.

 

Cameras get updated every year or two, so you won’t get the exact model we have (nor should you as you should get the newer model). I like the Panasonic model as it was reasonably priced back then.

 

I will try to put in a link to Amazon. I assume that is allowed. If that doesn’t work, I will find it on the Internet elsewhere for you.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-TS25D-Waterproof-Digital-2-7-Inch/dp/B00KHW3HRY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484409815&sr=8-1&keywords=panasonic%2Bunderwater%2Bcamera&th=1

[princess-stitch]

Thank you for the compliment. Good thing we left you folks on the next cruise one or two unbroken bar stools for usage after all the wild parties we had on our cruise.

 

Cameras get updated every year or two, so you won’t get the exact model we have (nor should you as you should get the newer model). I like the Panasonic model as it was reasonably priced back then.

 

I will try to put in a link to Amazon. I assume that is allowed. If that doesn’t work, I will find it on the Internet elsewhere for you.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-TS25D-Waterproof-Digital-2-7-Inch/dp/B00KHW3HRY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484409815&sr=8-1&keywords=panasonic%2Bunderwater%2Bcamera&th=1

 

Thank you!

[Mapleleaf14]

I have really enjoyed your report- love your sense of humour! My husband is getting tired of me reading highlights from your comments! We are going back on a Royal cruise (Navigator) in two weeks after many Celebrity cruises. This is really getting me in the mood.

 

 

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[cgolf1]

Hi Harry, thanks for doing this awesome trip report. We will be going on the Freedom for our first RCCL cruise after a few on DCL. Your report has definitely got us looking forward to our trip:) We are going to do our best not to compare lines and if we start to we can just remember the deal we got on the Freedom cruise:)

 

One question, did you notice how often they did 2 for 1 adult beverages and if it was listed somewhere or if you had to be in the right place at the right time?

[harryfat1]

I have really enjoyed your report- love your sense of humour! My husband is getting tired of me reading highlights from your comments! We are going back on a Royal cruise (Navigator) in two weeks after many Celebrity cruises. This is really getting me in the mood.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment. I will forward your praise to my comedy writing team (of one) and let them know…

 

Maybe your husband is thinking, if what you are reading out loud daily is the “highlight” of the day, I don’t want to know the “low lights” are…

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry, thanks for doing this awesome trip report. We will be going on the Freedom for our first RCCL cruise after a few on DCL. Your report has definitely got us looking forward to our trip:) We are going to do our best not to compare lines and if we start to we can just remember the deal we got on the Freedom cruise:)

 

One question, did you notice how often they did 2 for 1 adult beverages and if it was listed somewhere or if you had to be in the right place at the right time?

 

Hi,

 

Thank you for the kind words.

 

I think it’s human nature to compare your current cruise ship/line with your prior experience. It is hard not to. The key is not to let the difference affect your current vacation. Yes, things ae different (and maybe not as good) but you know that ahead of time and when you compare the savings.

 

2 for 1 drinks? I didn’t see any ads. Where you find that info? Maybe other cruisers can chime in.

Edited January 14, 2017 by harryfat1
You try typing with your toes in the cold of January...

[harryfat1]

There has been some discussion on the firmness of the beds on Freedom. Bed firmness is another one of those subjective personal preferences items. The fear/complaint among many folks on CC is that the mattresses are too hard and some have to email RCI and request an egg crate for their bed.

 

For my personal back & butt preference, I don’t have an issue with the bed itself but then I like my mattress on the firmer side back at home. In the first picture, it came from my kid’s bed as they have an egg crate topper from the previous cruise – I assumed someone there requested and it was just left there.

 

 

 

 

The second picture came from our bed and doesn’t have the egg crate thing but a layer of padding. Personally I can do without the padding as I felt it made the bed a tad too soft but with it was ok as well.

 

 

 

 

So depending on your personal needs and preferences, you can request the topper if you have back issues.

[harryfat1]

After breakfast, we made it back to the cabin to get ready for the tour. For this tour, I booked it through RCI to visit the Chacchoben Mayan ruins. I know what you are thinking, “Dude, how can you call yourself a cheapo dad when you paid premium price to RCI for a tour when you can just book it yourself for much less?” Believe me, I struggled with this tour for awhile.

 

Yes, you can go to Trip advisor and the port section here at CC to find many solid reputable local tour operators. You can save at least $25 per person over what RCI charges. I understand that. But the paranoid (anal) part in me always thinks of worst case scenario – what happened if we are stranded?

 

The official description from both RCI and private tours is that it takes close to 1 hour drive each way from the port to/from the ruins through the jungles. The entire tour lasts 4+ hours. Given we are in port only from 12 noon to 6:30, the paranoid person in me worries that if our private vehicle breaks down in the middle of the road coming back, what could happen? I have zero fears of car issues in Grand Cayman or Cozumel as I know there are tons of taxis in both places as they are big cities with lots of taxis everywhere. I have less confidence if something goes wrong when we are 1 hour away from the ship in the less traveled regions.

 

One can debate either end of the argument but for my paranoia/9+ anal scale, I opted to pay the RCI premium. The official policy is that RCI will NOT guarantee to wait for you even if you booked an RCI tour & your vehicle is delayed in coming back but they will at the minimum get you to the next port (Cozumel) free of charge. And they will try and wait for you to the extent possible if you are delayed on tours booked through the ship. So that’s why I booked the tour with RCI. Final bonus is I rather sit in the big greyhound buses than the smaller vans of some of the private tours in the 2 hour round trip drive – motion sickness and all…

[harryfat1]

With the ship scheduled to dock at 12 noon, the meeting time is 11:45 at the theater to get the infamous privileged sticker that we didn’t have the day before at GC. Before heading there, we went over to RP with our water bottles to fill up the water. One problem - everybody and their cousin has the same thought and they ran out of water in the two ice containers and there was a big old line backed up to get the water and people were cutting in line to boot.

 

Final straw is even though there was a BIG OLD sign that tells people DO NOT put their water bottle directly under the dispenser (can you spell CONTAMINATION?), still many idiots still try to shove their water bottles right into the dispenser. The better way to do it is get water into the cups and then take the cups to a table area and pour the water into the water bottle. But people are lazy.

 

By putting their water bottle opening directly into the dispensers and touching it, they are spreading whatever germs they might have from their water bottle.

 

Look, stupid people, we don’t want your spit or germs from your water bottle. Even the worker there was trying to tell the people not to put their water bottles directly under and pointed to the sign right on the top of the water dispensers forbidding people from doing so - where is that mean security guard from yesterday when you need him? But nope. Stupid people be stupid people - many kept on doing it one by one in front of us shoving their water bottles under the dispenser.

 

Mental note to self and to you folks looking to get water from RP prior to getting off the ship – take your water bottle to WJ during breakfast in the morning where they have a gazillion cups of ice water just sitting there. Get the water from there and pour those into your water bottle at WJ. Clean and safe for you as well as others and you don’t have to deal with other folks’ water bottle germs.

 

After that we headed for the theater and got our tour sticker. Think it was 36? Matters not what the number was. You people wouldn’t care if it was 36 or 3.14159…

[Biker19]

You people wouldn’t care if it was 36 or 3.14159…

 

Is there some pie story coming?

[harryfat1]

Here is another tip to pass on (I should get paid per each tip I give out here – cheapo dad needs $$ to pay for the Harmony). Try to sit as HIGH up as possible at the theater. Look at the pictures below. Be as close to the top of deck 3 where the yellow seats are. Why? I will soon tell you.

 

We said hi to my wife’s friend’s family of 10 as they signed up for this tour as well but they sat on the other side so we just waved and plopped our buns down toward the front. BIG MISTAKE.

 

They started to call the tour people by tour name and number. When they called the Chacchoben tour, the guy said this is the largest group, he was not kidding. Looked like around 400 people stood up and tried to pile out of the theater starting from the top where the yellow seat area – now you know why I suggest for you to sit up? Way up? Being on top, you will be in front of the line. Not saying you will have 400 people for your Mayan tour or wherever else you are going, but they form the line from the very top so it’s best to be at the front of the line than the back of the line. One of those – DUH, why didn’t I think of that - tips you only think it about after the fact. Brain not working on vacation.

 

I was a bit surprised by the popularity of this tour as I thought more people would go to the beach or elsewhere. Didn’t know Mayan ruin as such a big hot ticket item. But I guess the other people went through the same RCI versus private tour debate and opted for RCI as well. If they were going to the beach, they probably didn’t need RCI to do it. So maybe most of the Mayan ruins people booked with RCI.

 

Let’s start to time stamp things to see how long the process is. We got our stickers and sat down at 11:57 AM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every one of the people standing and ahead of us to get out to the top of the stairs is on the Chacchoben tour. Now is 12:08.

 

Being on the port side was a good thing for our cruise

 

 

[harryfat1]

So after a long time in line and going 2 decks down, we finally made it out of the ship. An accomplishment in of itself. After yesterday’s difficulty in exiting for the tender and today’s long line for the Mayan ruins, never realized it was so difficult just to get off the ship. Stopped off at the obligatory port for family photos (had to feed the crazy aunt in the basement something to eat before we head out for hours).

 

Just ignore the dude’s butt photobombing our photo. The ship’s photographers are not very good in framing their pictures. I should work on the ship as a photographer – can’t be that much worst.

 

 

 

 

Next to us was one of the HAL’s damn ships. I like HAL for what provide. Not so good hardware in older ships but great software in their services. They have a tent and sofas for their passengers coming to/back from tours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t think my teenage boys will have much fun on them now. Back when they are young, they didn’t know any better. Kids’ clubs are the same everywhere on every ship. As the kids get older, then they start having stronger preferences where they don’t want to go.

[Canadian1]

After breakfast, we made it back to the cabin to get ready for the tour. For this tour, I booked it through RCI to visit the Chacchoben Mayan ruins. I know what you are thinking, “Dude, how can you call yourself a cheapo dad when you paid premium price to RCI for a tour when you can just book it yourself for much less?” Believe me, I struggled with this tour for awhile.

 

Yes, you can go to Trip advisor and the port section here at CC to find many solid reputable local tour operators. You can save at least $25 per person over what RCI charges. I understand that. But the paranoid (anal) part in me always thinks of worst case scenario – what happened if we are stranded?

 

The official description from both RCI and private tours is that it takes close to 1 hour drive each way from the port to/from the ruins through the jungles. The entire tour lasts 4+ hours. Given we are in port only from 12 noon to 6:30, the paranoid person in me worries that if our private vehicle breaks down in the middle of the road coming back, what could happen? I have zero fears of car issues in Grand Cayman or Cozumel as I know there are tons of taxis in both places as they are big cities with lots of taxis everywhere. I have less confidence if something goes wrong when we are 1 hour away from the ship in the less traveled regions.

 

One can debate either end of the argument but for my paranoia/9+ anal scale, I opted to pay the RCI premium. The official policy is that RCI will NOT guarantee to wait for you even if you booked an RCI tour & your vehicle is delayed in coming back but they will at the minimum get you to the next port (Cozumel) free of charge. And they will try and wait for you to the extent possible if you are delayed on tours booked through the ship. So that’s why I booked the tour with RCI. Final bonus is I rather sit in the big greyhound buses than the smaller vans of some of the private tours in the 2 hour round trip drive – motion sickness and all…

Good call on this one. We did the tour (with Princess though in 2006) and it does take a bit to get there and back. Very very interesting and when we went it was being excavated by the Royal Ontario Museum. .... shout out to fellow Canadians [emoji12]

On certain occasions it is definitely better to book with the ship. When we were on Celebrity and we were in Panama a couple of tours through the ship were delayed and we waited more than 2 hours for them to get back. That wouldn't happen for a private tour for sure!

[harryfat1]

Anyway, time to walk the VERY LONG pier and very wet also. I assumed it rained the night before or the morning of? Princess has a ship next to us. We have only been on one Princess cruise from years ago. We liked it well enough. It’s just that they don’t have connecting cabins for me to track my boys so that’s been a deal killer every time I think of booking a Princess cruises. They need more connecting cabins like RCI or other cruise lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our butt easily beats HAL’s butt in size and in shape. I like them big and round