Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[legion]

2weeks from today [emoji924][emoji925]

 

 

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[bobmacliberty]

That's one impressive looking feast! Time to go get some breakfast.

[InletBill]

What time of the day/night did you shoot the purple walkway with no one else in the photo? I'm guessing something like 0300 ??

[harryfat1]

Thanks for the great review.Looks like lots of work on your part.Ive been checking every morning for updates, Love the pictures.Although the food ones make me hungry your ordering tips will really help me on cruise Feb.12. Your reports have made be more excited to be on this fantastic ship.Sad to see your review coming to an end.

 

 

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Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Glad my info has been helpful and getting you ready for your upcoming cruise.

 

As for the food ordering at MDR, when in doubt, just order something unknown and still order one solid backup you know you will like. That way you can try out something new and not have the fear of not liking it as you know you have a backup dish.

 

I have one funny picture I will show on day 6 dinner of another table relating to what to order. Stay tuned for that one.

[harryfat1]

Thanks Harry and Happy New Year!

 

 

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Kung hei fat choy/gong xi fa ca Harry! I've been following this one closely, and just like a real cruise, I'm excited for the review to continue but also sorry it'll be over soon.

 

Thank you both. Happy Chinese New Year as well.

 

It’s always sad whenever anyone’s vacation comes to an end but one must end for another to begin. All the planners out there needs to come home and rest and think about what went right/wrong in the previous planning trip and improve on the next trip and start the planning process. Can't do that until you finish the current cruise.

 

I already have it Google mapped for the 8 night trip this summer to see more rocks so I will plan for that trip after I finish with this trip report. Then maybe for my next cruise report, I will digress and show pics from the summer trip. Such is my writing style…

[harryfat1]

Just the opposite. I didn't want this excellent review to be taken down a rat hole.

 

 

 

Biker was referring to the fact that TigerBeth's original post (the one that I quoted) was removed.

 

新年好呀！ (I hope I didn't just accidentally insult you. :o)

 

Haha, I was just kidding. I know you meant to prevent things from getting into a controversial subject.

 

Thanks for the Chinese quote and it didn’t even say “Go to Hell (the Cayman Island one)”

[harryfat1]

Happy New Year today! Enjoy your celebration 🎉

Lol at the Mickey Santa Hats...especially on your Father in law! Thanks for the review 👍🏼

 

Yeah, we have had the Santa Hats for many years now and it’s fun and festive to bring along as we typically cruise during the December month. Like I said, the 6 of us wearing Santa hats walking on RP drew some attention – maybe not always with approving eyes…

[harryfat1]

Harry, enjoy your New Year celebration. My son and his family are also celebrating in the Bay Area. I won't even try to do anything with Chinese characters, because one little stroke in the wrong direction, and it means something else.

 

My son's in-laws are from Chengdu, and I used google translate one year to look up the characters that would represent their names to include on a card. My son's mother-in-law's name is Xinhua, and evidently I called her the newspaper. They all got a big laugh out of it.

 

Oh well, it was a good attempt. It is a tough language with all the dialects and inflections. Kind of like the pronunciation of ma could be a mother or a horse.

 

Anyway, enjoy your day.

 

 

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Hi, Mark,

 

Thanks for the good thoughts. Yes, if your son is in the bay area, he knows the region is heavily populated with Asians and Chinese New Year is a big deal among the Chinese and the Vietnamese and other nationalities.

 

If a Chinese New Year falls on a weekday, the San Francisco school district makes that day a school holiday as they know the parents are pulling their kids from school anyway s might as well make it an official holiday as not to lose Federal money for kids not going to school.

[harryfat1]

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Harry and Family! Good Health and Fortune in the New Year!

 

I'll be seeing the Bellagio fountains in person soon, and I always think about the last scene in Ocean's 11 and that Matt Damon and Brad Pitt were standing HERE! And I love that song by Andrea Boccelli. We were lucky enough to see him in person many years ago, and even though he was singing with an unknown soprano, that song still makes me tear up.

 

And before that I'll be in Disneyland; won't be shopping for a Mickey Santa hat, but I will be looking for a 2017 ornament.

 

Hi, Joan,

 

Have fun on your trip out west. Disneyland is under a bit of renovation for the upcoming Star Wars Land. One good web site for Disneyland is Mouse Planet. I am on their weekly email updates on all things Disney theme park related. Go to their web site to check out the weekly Disneyland happenings.

 

I assume you know to download the Disneyland app on your phone so you know what the wait time for various rides is. This will help you plan on what to do next while you are in one line and holding fast pass for another ride.

 

As for Bellagio, here is the web site for the list of songs they play with the water show. During the holiday season, they have a special set for that. Don’t forget to check out the conservatory area inside Bellagio hotel.

 

 

https://www.bellagio.com/en/entertainment/fountains-of-bellagio.html#/Music

[harryfat1]

So it was? And then put back earlier in the thread? That would be the first time I've seen that.

 

Don't know. Looks like a full quote to me. Not like anything said was that controversial.

[harryfat1]

Thanks, Harry, for the book recommendation, it looks like a good one to keep in mind. I definitely plan to do this drive someday!:)

Heather

 

Hi, Heather,

 

Yeah, it’s a good coffee table book. Big and hardcover and lots of pictures of the scenic drive for all 50 states.

 

Good eye candy and bucket list preparation as I try to see how many I have done on the list – way too few to mention.

[harryfat1]

Happy new year, Harry!

 

When I started reading this review, I knew - from your past Allure trip report - that it would be funny, entertaining, and educational (I know I'm missing an E). Little did I know we'd be treated to bonus narrated side trips to the Hoover Dam, the Badlands, and Sedona. Talk about a good bargain -- multiple vacations included with the low price of a Cruise Critic subscription.

 

I'm going to put this out there -- I think this sequel is actually better than the original!

 

Thanks again for all your time and effort.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words and reading both the Allure and this report.

 

My biggest worry when I first started the sequel is that it will suck as typical sequels fall short on either repeating the same idea again as to be boring (visiting uncle in prison) or go in different direction that previous readers didn’t want to go to (complain about MDR food). Especially with Allure having more photo ops and I was more creative back then with the vintage and black and white pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I think this report has its own special characteristic in that I have more reader interactions and many people harping on the anal theme and playing off of that has given this report a different feel to it. At least from my perspective it has.

 

Throw in the digressions that is all over the map (literally and figuratively) and finally the cell phone cameras improvement has helped covered other shortcomings of the sequel.

 

 

sequel.

[harryfat1]

Happy new year Harry!!

This has been a great review, can't wait to finish it, after you've enjoyed the holiday with your family of course!

 

 

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Thanks for the kind words.

 

Chinese New Year Celebration in SF is a multi-day event culminating in the 2 hour night time parade couple weeks later. It’s shown on local TV for the entire 2 hour period.

 

 

http://www.chineseparade.com/

 

 

Here is one of the many samples of the parade on YouTube.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Happy New Year. The picture of you and your wife is stunning

 

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Thanks for the compliment. Must be the Mickey ears that made me look good.:p

 

The picture was taken by my son on my cell phone. So that just tells you that anybody can take these pictures. The phone does all the work.

[harryfat1]

Happy New Year Harry! Your pics of the day Look amazing!

 

I especially loved your family pictures with the Santa [emoji318] hats on! I'm also a Disney fan, love to throw a little Disney in when ever I can!!

 

 

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Happy New Year to you as well.

 

Yes, for us Disney folks, we like to just drop in that “Hidden Mickey” trick. I used to wear the my cartoon Christmas ties on the cruise on formal nights at MDR but my wife think they look too childish so I’m just stuck at the basic colors nowadays as a “mature looking dad” – whatever that means…:rolleyes:

[harryfat1]

Wow! For a second there I thought you were posting MDR pics! I was thinking Royal had stepped up their game. [emoji12]

 

 

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Haha, nope, sorry, too ethnic and too specialized cooking for a cruise ship. Although I wonder if Quantum sailing in Asia has more Asian dishes.

[harryfat1]

What time of the day/night did you shoot the purple walkway with no one else in the photo? I'm guessing something like 0300 ??

 

Haha, I am way too old to be up at 3 AM. Those were the good old college days. Nowadays the only reason I am up at 3 AM is to go to the bathroom…

 

I assume you mean this purple picture?

 

 

 

 

The time stamp on the phone says 10:40 PM. Think we just got lucky with no one else in the background. Maybe because this was a port day at Cozumel and people were tired from being in port all day.

 

I went back to look at the picture set and this one was taken at 10:30. As you can see there were more people and you can actually see the official ship photographer’s photoset in the background. Those guys work up to 10:30 so if you wait until after 10:30, they will have packed up and be gone and you can have the entire area to yourself.

 

That’s a tip I never thought of until I type this. Thanks for asking as now people will know to get to various photo places after 10:30 as on the formal nights, the ship’s photographers hog all the good spots and they won’t let you take your own pictures in those areas so you have to wait for them to vacate after 10:30 to have access to the better photo spots.

 

 

[harryfat1]

(OK, back to the trip report as we “move it, move it” onto day 6. This is the appropriate theme as we have the DreamWorks parade later that afternoon but first thing first. Breakfast time)

 

 

As we had been eating breakfast at WJ, we opted to try the MDR for breakfast as that’s one day we are not on any pressing schedule.

 

After slinging around the camera on our necks the past few days while in port, we felt lazy all day and just left the big cameras in the cabin and only walked around with the 2 cell phones. Which is easy but also has limits as you will see the photos on day 6 have more issues.

 

Woke up around 8:45 as it was a lazy sea day. Here’s the wonderful long line at MDR at 9:20. They are opened until 10 AM. Took about 15 minutes of wait before we were seated. Probably would have been only 14 minutes if we were willing to share a table – we were not. Cheapo dad not in sociable mood before coffee – not a pretty sight if you know what I mean. So if you are not willing to share a table, they make you stand aside until a table is available. Which was like a minute of wait for the 4 of us.

 

 

 

 

 

Chairs outside MDR for people with mobility issue that needs to sit while waiting in line

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So we sat down and it’s been 2 years since we had breakfast at MDR and we didn’t really remember what was the protocol on what was in the buffet area and how to order from the menu. Then the mean wait person rushed over and started barking to know what we wanted.

 

As we didn’t really know, he wasn’t very happy to have to waste his time and breath to explain how things work at MDR.

 

Also as my son had the chocolate drink back at the Allure couple years ago, he wanted to ask question on the chocolate milk drink on the menu and the waiter didn’t want to talk to us about it as he said he doesn’t deal with drinks as that’s the responsibility of the assistant waiter.

 

Maybe on day 2 all the people got the drill and by day 6, they know what to do but for us, we were clueless. Sorry. This is our visit here at MDR on this cruise. Help us out a little here.

 

So we finally understood that we order some items from him on the menu, the other stuff are in the middle of the MDR. We can’t order drinks from him, that will have to be ordered from his assistant which is nowhere in sight. The main waiter only takes order of anything we want on one section of the menu. Got it.

 

So we each ordered one item from the menu and then walked over middle area to see what else is there to eat in the meantime – not really too much to excite me. More of the bacons and waffles types seen at WJ.

 

Breakfast menu – making it larger picture size for the people reading this on the computer. I typically don’t take pics of menus as they are online but since breakfast is not online, I took this one

 

 

 

 

 

The buffet portion of the breakfast n MDR – you can get the food here to supplement whatever else you ordered from the menu

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

This is the crappy waiter’s name and table number. I hope you guys don’t get him on your cruise.

 

 

 

 

Here is what my younger one had chocolate milkshake – he said it wasn’t that good. The one he had on the Allure was better.

 

I had go back into the archives and dig up the old milkshake picture from the Allure to see the difference.

 

You talk about MDR cut back – take a look at 2 years difference

 

 

One from Freedom

 

 

 

 

One from Allure

 

 

[harryfat1]

As we were eating, our “regular MDR” waiter from night time saw us and came by to say hi as he works MDRs in the morning. One good thing about having your own waiter that he is familiar with you and he immediately refilled our water and juices/coffee instead of us waiting for the nonexistent assistant waiter that only showed up once to take the order and then vanished.

 

 

On my post cruise online survey (yes, I actually complete those with comments), I gave our servers a 10 out of 10. As there was no area to drop in my opinions on other servers that were not assigned to us (e.g. random ones from WJ or MDR), I didn’t comment on this other Malcin guy or I would have given this dude a 5 out of 10.

 

 

OK, omelet picture

 

 

 

 

I’m a big Eggs Benedict fan so this is mine

 

 

 

 

 

The bacon plate is my son’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiny cramped table for 4 at the edge

 

 

 

 

 

 

My fruit plate

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK, done with breakfast, they had some sort of event where they have the ship’s officers at RP and the captain will sign the t-shirt if you buy one.

 

As we didn’t get a chance to have our picture taken with the captain on day 2 (see earlier post), this is the makeup time. My typical impression of RCI ship captains is that they are typically much personable than the Carnival ship captains which looks like they are being tortured when they are forced to come out to meet with guests at the first formal night for 30 minutes of photos and then never be seen the rest of the cruise.

 

On the Mariner and Allure, both captains were friendly and talkative when they met with passengers. On the Allure, captain Tor talked to my younger son about his camcorder around his neck the first time he met us at the welcome back party and on the second occasion when we had our picture taken with him on the formal night, he said “Hi, we meet once again” as he remembered us from previous time).

 

The Freedom’s captain - not so much. Had the one picture taken with us and just walked away. No interaction whatsoever. Oh, well…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the price and the reason for the t-shirt as a fund raiser for good cause

 

 

 

 

The t-shirts themselves (visit uncle Bob in prison time)

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So on the last day, they have the typical 2 t-shirts for $20 sale of various RCI logos. If you need to buy some t-shirts for the folks (the real aunt or uncle) back home, wait until the last day. These $10 t-shirts typically show up on last day of the cruise. On the Allure, it was total chaotic mess with tons of clothes everywhere as people rumble through them in many stacks. Much more organized on the Freedom as they are on hangers arranged by size and very easy to find.

 

 

Here’s how Freedom does it – much more civilized and organized

 

 

 

 

Here’s the Allure with the t-shirts in the pile and you have to dig for them

 

 

 

 

 

 

But we weren’t ready to shop yet. We were trying to head out to Studio A/B to get some ice skating time in. One problem - so is everyone else. That day was much more windy so all the sun worshipers came inside and the morning skating session was full by time we showed up and they turned everyone away saying the skating sessions are all booked the whole morning. So this was the only picture we had of the skating area.

 

 

 

 

Thus if skating is high on your list of things to do, plan to go to Studio A/B early in the cruise or whenever they have it. Because it will be swamped by last day - especially on popular kids vacation time like our sailing with 1,000+ kids under age of 17, many of those love to skate.

 

As we skated on the Allure couple years ago, it would have been nice to skate but it wasn’t a must for you. So plan accordingly for your cruise.

 

[lbjen]

Harry I want to thank you for your entertaining, and informative reviews, and wish you a very happy new year!

 

I'm also a big trip planner (yes, accountant here too ;)), there is so much to see and do on board, that you could never possibly find out about it all without doing research and reading reviews like yours. I'm off to make good use of an hour or two, checking out your Allure review as we are on Oasis this summer. Lots to learn!

[aubreyc1988]

Happy New Year to you as well.

 

Yes, for us Disney folks, we like to just drop in that “Hidden Mickey” trick. I used to wear the my cartoon Christmas ties on the cruise on formal nights at MDR but my wife think they look too childish so I’m just stuck at the basic colors nowadays as a “mature looking dad” – whatever that means…:rolleyes:

 

Hey, just posting back with my link to my review on Adventure, will be posting first entry tonight

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=52144705#post52144705