Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

Happy belated Year of the Rooster, a coup of years ago when we were in San Francisco and DW and I had Dim Sum in a Cantonese tea house for the first time, what a great experience that was.

 

Happy New Year to you as well. The Chinese celebrate the New Year for multiple days. In SF, they celebrate it for 2 weeks until February 11 where they block of couple miles of SF city streets for the Chinese parade that lasts for couple hours and is on TV.

 

This station estimated around a million people went to the event couple years ago. Don’t know about if it’s actually that high but lots of people for sure:

 

 

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/About-One-Million-People--245722071.html

 

 

Yes, the tea house experience is very different and that’s where the pictures were taken. You don’t order food form the menu. The ladies push the carts around and you just point to whatever and they drop the food on the table for you

[SherriZ366]

Captain Toni was awesome on our "last Freedom cruise from Port Canaveral" cruise in October. He made the call to change our itinerary from Coco Cay to Grand Cayman because he knew our Coco Cay day would have been too windy - then during the morning announcements they mentioned the other ships that had to cancel their CC stops... :)

We just missed Captain Toni on our June FR cruise. Captain Been was very nice at the D+ Breakfast but I would have loved to have sailed with Captain Toni. We are booked on OA for our next cruise as she is home ported in Port C, which is 4 1/2 hours from our house. I will miss FR and her great staff.

[harryfat1]

Bahaahaa.....😂😂😂 I'm afraid I'd truly be up a creek without a paddle if I had to pay that price! They can't be serious?!! Somebody in their sales department must be "dinghy"!! 😂

 

Yeap, don’t get too close to that paddle as you can’t afford to break it

[harryfat1]

Hidden Mickey trick? Not sure what you're talking about. Unless you're looking close, you may not notice it right away... :D

 

As a guy in my mid-40's, this is my version of “mature looking dad”. It works on formal nights as well as when I wore it to church yesterday... :)

 

 

I also have a few subtle Star Wars ties that barely have spouse approval...

 

You have the classic Mickey tie where you can go for the hidden Mickey trick but most of my ties are the “in your face” type – would you expect any less from me? I am probably one of the most passive aggressive people out there.

 

Since we are all into show and tell time – you know what that means, yeap, you all get to see my tie collection. Well, at least just the few I grabbed from the tie box. As I don’t wear ties to work anymore, they are just sitting in closet collecting dust so my wife stores them in those plastic boxes you buy from Target after the holidays.

 

These are just 6 I picked from the top. There are many more but you get the idea.

 

Bare foot Santa and Warner Brothers

 

 

 

 

Red Mickey for Valentines and Chinese New Year with Speedy Gonzales

 

 

 

 

Now we really get to the “in your face tie” with the Taz and Holiday Bugs Bunny with Friends

 

 

 

 

Yeah, maturity and subtlety are not two words you would use to describe me…

[harryfat1]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your review! I sailed on Harmony last week, and my family used your elevator tip when coming back onto the ship from our excursions. It worked like a charm!

 

Also, I'm happy to report that there were several trays of smoked salmon in the Windjammer for breakfast everyday. No need to ask for the secret stash. Maybe the availability varies from ship to ship? Maybe the newest ship gets the bells and whistles? Who knows. :rolleyes:

 

I like your Pillsbury picture. I need to change mine from the plain old anchor to something different – maybe something big and round. Hmmmm, wonder what that could be…

 

Anyway, thank you very much for the kind words. Glad the elevator info was useful. It’s just human nature to be lazy after a long hot day at the ports to grab the first elevator by the gangway. Much easier to avoid the crowd by going across to the other side.

 

I think you were on the cruise when I showed picture of the salmon at WJ so it not only varies by ship, it varies by day on the same ship as some days on WJ there were no salmon and other days it's right there

[harryfat1]

I will be leaving on the Navigator this Friday. Hope that the salmon is out!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

So are we! I guess we will have to catch the ending when we return. :D

 

~Patti :)

 

Have a great cruise, you two.

 

What ports are you guys visiting?

 

Yeah, depending on how much real life interruption I get during this week, this report should be all done by the weekend.

 

The fat lady is in the house humming in the back stages but not yet out on the center stage yet.

 

For those who are not familiar with the phrase "It ain't over until the fat lady sings", here's Wiki's explanation:

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_ain't_over_till_the_fat_lady_sings

[Coralc]

ABC Islands, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Labadee. (9 nights) And we are B2B so also Nassau and Cozumel (5 nights) . :D We may check in from the hotel (free wifi). We are flying on Wednesday. :D

Edited January 31, 2017 by Coralc

[lbjen]

I just got done reading your Allure review, wanted to give props for the Coopers & Lybrand mention (I'm still under 40, just, and know about the pre-PW!).

[harryfat1]

Ah, finally, after reading your review like a Where's Waldo? book, I finally spot myself in a picture! I'm in the line for skating, wearing the grey hoodie - you can see the back of my head. How exciting!

 

Skating was definitely busy - I had come before the 1st session and signed up for the 2nd one. I also tried to go earlier in the week but again would have to wait for sessions, and at that time I would be busy later so I knew it wouldn't work out.

 

I hadn't skated since I was a child so I was surprised I could still do it. :)

 

Congratulation, you are famous! Well, at least the back of your head is now famous, along with your grey hoodie as you have people from all over the world checking out your hair cut.

 

That’s the problem with a shorter 6 day cruise, less time spent on the ship to do other things.

[harryfat1]

thank you for a GREAT review. I love your style.

 

I will be leaving on the Liberty of the Seas the end of February

 

Hi, Joyce,

 

Thank you for the compliments. Another fellow bay area person.

 

Have a great cruise next month as well as all the cruises you have listed. My limited brain power would explode having to plan that many cruises at once.

[harryfat1]

ABC Islands, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Labadee. (9 nights) And we are B2B so also Nassau and Cozumel (5 nights) . :D We may check in from the hotel (free wifi). We are flying on Wednesday. :D

 

Oh, please don't check into CC while on vacation - just focus on your current vacation. This will still be here when you get back. Not like it's flying away or anything.

 

Put down the phone/tablet and step back slowly and just enjoy being away from work/home. Send that pretty beach post cards to people at work and say "Glad you folks are NOT here walking on the warm sandy beach and I am..."

 

Very nice to be gone for that long and going to the ABC islands on top of a B2B. Super envious of you now.

 

Dang, it's taken me 1+ month to write a trip report for a short 6 night cruise. If I am on your vacation itinerary, I would still be writing about it 3 months later...

[harryfat1]

I just got done reading your Allure review, wanted to give props for the Coopers & Lybrand mention (I'm still under 40, just, and know about the pre-PW!).

 

In that case, you will appreciate these pictures that I didn’t upload previously as I know nobody else outside of the profession understands.

 

There were 3 CPAs in the Cayman tour and we noticed that the top floor of parking are all dedicated to PWC & EY folks. Assuming those are the partner spots. Entire parking area is empty. Must be nice to work there to just set up bunch of tax free corporate structures and hit the beach on weekends.

 

See the EY building

 

 

 

 

Also have pic of KPMG building

 

 

 

 

PWC Reserved parking on a top deck of a totally empty parking lot

 

 

[harryfat1]

After lunch, back to the cabin to start packing for the return home now that we have basically bought everything we were going to buy (except for the photos those will be the last minute items).

 

No pics of packing.

 

One bad thing about decorating the window and the door is that you have to make time to take them down when you leave the last day.

 

More people down on the RP are still doing last minute shopping by time we are all done with the packing

 

 

 

 

So with the packing more or less done, time to head out to Johnny Rockets. As the gold level cruiser with RCI (aka peasant +1), they give us a BOGO milk shake. We started this tradition on the Allure and will continue on forever I guess as the boys like it. So we headed for JR and got the BOGO milkshake takeout for them. I tried to convince them this was part of their Christmas gift but think they tuned me out like all teenage kids typically do.

 

I’m a Guy’s Burger fan from the Carnival side so Johnny Rocket doesn’t do it for me. Besides the obvious price difference (free versus $7) that cheapo dad will never spring for, I just like the taste of Guy’s burger more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take out counter wait area

 

 

[harryfat1]

More Clouds today & windy also

 

 

A lot less kids playing today compared to day 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the 2 milkshakes

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So at 5 PM, there’s the one and only DreamWorks parade. On the Allure, they had 2 DreamWorks parades on our sailing and 2 ice shows (Dragon) as well as Let you entertain me. So if entertainment is important to you, look into the Allure as it has more entertainment options. The one thing Freedom does better than the Allure is they actually have ropes to block off people. On the Allure it was a free for all back when we cruised. Any idiot can and did just walk up in front of you the last minute and block your view. The ropes come out on the Freedom early and if you are just behind it, you are good.

 

On the Allure, there were a lot of people watching the parades. Almost Disney like in having to scout out a good spot out early but there are a lot less people watching the parade on the Freedom. Not sure why.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the other side of the billboard

 

 

 

 

My wife on the next deck above us. Looks like she’s riding some sort of space speed boat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RP not crowded at all less than 15 minutes before the parade but on the Allure, it was packed before the first parade

 

 

[h20skibum]

Oops. Wrong link

Edited January 31, 2017 by h20skibum

[fletch1027]

Trying to zoom in to catch the Rhapsody before she is gone. See her way in the horizon as I put the camera on the railing to get a steady shot to zoom in

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Harry, what kind of camera and what size zoom lens are you using for these shots?

 

I discovered that our company has a gadget inventory of electronic toys that we can checkout / borrow for a couple of weeks at a time, so for our cruise in three weeks, I am checking out a Sony A7 and a 55-210mm zoom to go with it. My version of a cheapo lifehack because I would not ever spend over $1,200 for a camera! :)

[fletch1027]

You have the classic Mickey tie where you can go for the hidden Mickey trick but most of my ties are the “in your face” type – would you expect any less from me? I am probably one of the most passive aggressive people out there.

 

 

Yeah, maturity and subtlety are not two words you would use to describe me…

 

I have a couple of wild ones like that also. My favorites are one with Dexter from the Dexter's Lab cartoon and one with the Peanuts characters using computers because I am accused of being a computer geek. :)

 

I like the subtle ones also because you can see them catching peoples eye, then they look again and sometimes a third time to make sure their eyes aren't playing tricks on them when they figure out what they are looking at. :D

 

Here's another subtle Star Wars one I picked up at Disney World a couple of years ago. I had to screen shot it off the web since I'm "hard" at work this morning...

 

[fletch1027]

Oh, please don't check into CC while on vacation - just focus on your current vacation. This will still be here when you get back. Not like it's flying away or anything.

 

Put down the phone/tablet and step back slowly and just enjoy being away from work/home. Send that pretty beach post cards to people at work and say "Glad you folks are NOT here walking on the warm sandy beach and I am..."

 

That's why I don't see myself ever doing a "live" trip report - I don't want to ever do anything resembling work on my vacation! :)

[scottygirl]

In that case, you will appreciate these pictures that I didn’t upload previously as I know nobody else outside of the profession understands.

 

There were 3 CPAs in the Cayman tour and we noticed that the top floor of parking are all dedicated to PWC & EY folks. Assuming those are the partner spots. Entire parking area is empty. Must be nice to work there to just set up bunch of tax free corporate structures and hit the beach on weekends.

 

See the EY building

 

 

 

 

Also have pic of KPMG building

 

 

 

 

PWC Reserved parking on a top deck of a totally empty parking lot

 

 

 

Coopers and Lybrand Alum here. Why didn't I ever get the Grand Cayman assignment? ;)

[lbjen]

In that case, you will appreciate these pictures that I didn’t upload previously as I know nobody else outside of the profession understands.

 

There were 3 CPAs in the Cayman tour and we noticed that the top floor of parking are all dedicated to PWC & EY folks. Assuming those are the partner spots. Entire parking area is empty. Must be nice to work there to just set up bunch of tax free corporate structures and hit the beach on weekends.

 

That's actually the industry I used to work in, but most of my contacts are in Netherlands Antilles. Moving to the Cayman Islands is still on my wish list!

[DISFANS3]

Fantastic trip report...

[michtan]

When your Cheapo Dad's trip report keep showing up at the top of the boards everyday I finally decided to see what it was all about. Took me 3+ days to read through your cruise review. Great job, loved reading about your experiences and the helpful hints along the way. Going to ask for MDR sitting selection in a couple of weeks for when we sail on Brillance of the Seas.

I have a question about what APP you use on your phone for the miniature effects - Tilt feature, I am assuming Cheapo Dad would NOT pay for an APP, but I could be wrong. Retired accountant here, so I appreciate all the money saving tips you've provided.

[fninsn]

Thank you to everyone that gave suggestions for things to do in St. Kitts. I am torn between the Thenford Grey tour and just walking/relaxing near the pier. Decisions decisions decisions!

 

 

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n5749w,

 

Here is another suggestion for St. Kitts if you want to stay close to the ship and relax.

 

We went to a place called "Palm Court Garden" when we were in St. Kitts in April. It's an easy 10 minute walk from the pier and we paid a small fee ($12USD per person I think) which included a reserved padded lawn chair, umbrella, access to the facilities and free wifi. There is a restaurant and bar and a beautiful infinity pool/hot tub that overlooks the ocean where you can see your ship in the distance. There is no beach access there, but we enjoyed the pool and gardens very much.

 

 

Harry,

 

I would like to say that I have been enjoying your trip report along with everyone else on this board. I primarily sail on Celebrity, but I will be doing the TA on Freedom of the Seas in April and I'm very much looking forward to it, especially after reading this report.

 

Linda :)

[n5749w]

n5749w,

 

 

 

Here is another suggestion for St. Kitts if you want to stay close to the ship and relax.

 

 

 

We went to a place called "Palm Court Garden" when we were in St. Kitts in April. It's an easy 10 minute walk from the pier and we paid a small fee ($12USD per person I think) which included a reserved padded lawn chair, umbrella, access to the facilities and free wifi. There is a restaurant and bar and a beautiful infinity pool/hot tub that overlooks the ocean where you can see your ship in the distance. There is no beach access there, but we enjoyed the pool and gardens very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda :)

 

 

 

Thank you! This sounds so relaxing!!

 

 

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