Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

After lunch, we walked around the mall for a bit. Saw this boat ad in the mall with an actual boat display. In case anyone is interested in picking one up…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we headed across the street over to Publix- we don’t have these guys in our neck of the woods as they are mostly in the southeast region but we shopped here last time so we are familiar with them. Now to test out how anal you really are – you can actually go to their web site and check online for the weekly sales ad to see what they have on sale before you arrive in town so you can pre plan things out to buy what’s on sale. Not saying I would perform this anal process but just saying in theory, it can be done…

 

So we picked up 2 bottles of wine here to take on the cruise. We are not big drinkers or else we could have bought more. We just wanted something to drink for the formal nights. Funny to fly all the way to FL to see various CA wines from the bay area at the grocery store but we picked up wines from other countries just to try them.

 

After getting the dinner food and wine, we walked back to the hotel and dropped them off and headed for the water taxi- which is just in the back yard of the hotel. Did I say I really like this hotel?

 

I keep calling this trip report a “sequel” but in theory each cruise report is a stand-alone so there shouldn’t be any carryover from one to another. HOWEVER, since we are staying at the same hotel as where we left off in the previous report and now we are going on the water taxi that we wanted to be on 2 years ago but couldn’t, there’s some weird feel to this. It’s as if we time traveled back to 2 years ago to continue on the previous cruise. To borrow a baseball phrase – it’s déjà vu all over again.

[vavasmom]

Your trip report is great.

Love the the photos.

 

We just had an aft balcony (1406) on deck 10 of Indy - I knew about the superstructure but missed the beautiful wake view from a Vision class ship. We did like that deck 10 has privacy since no one is above up to look down.

 

Where was the 3rd picture of post 75 taken?

[Bimmer09]

Harry, Welcome Back!

 

I stumbled into this review tonight and have already got up to speed with your latest adventure on the seas. Another brisk, witty read with (as always) stellar photos.

 

I am 14 days away from my next cruise (Celebrity Reflection) and this will keep the juices flowing until then (and beyond).

 

Great to see you writing again!

 

Norris

[harryfat1]

Your trip report is great.

Love the the photos.

 

We just had an aft balcony (1406) on deck 10 of Indy - I knew about the superstructure but missed the beautiful wake view from a Vision class ship. We did like that deck 10 has privacy since no one is above up to look down.

 

Where was the 3rd picture of post 75 taken?

 

Hi, Barbara,

 

Thank you for the compliments.

 

To answer your question, picture #3 is from the Mayan ruins in Costa Maya area. Whenever I get to day 4, likely “next year”, I will have more pics from there.

[harryfat1]

Harry, Welcome Back!

 

I stumbled into this review tonight and have already got up to speed with your latest adventure on the seas. Another brisk, witty read with (as always) stellar photos.

 

I am 14 days away from my next cruise (Celebrity Reflection) and this will keep the juices flowing until then (and beyond).

 

Great to see you writing again!

 

Norris

 

Hi, Norris,

 

How are you? Good to hear from you. Thanks again for your encouragement. You helped me tremendously on my trip report last time in giving me the pep talk. Really appreciate it.

 

If nothing else, writing a new trip report is like having a class reunion to say hi to old friends again.

 

I need to check out your Celebrity reviews as we might sail with them next year as they have big OBC sales for 2017 cruises. Cheapo dad always looks for sales.

 

Here are 2 pics of the Reflection from Cayman while we were in port. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK, water taxi time.

 

Per my research, there are several water boat types of service. It depends on what you want. There are some which are a set up river cruise such that you show up, say at 1:30 and they take you to see the places and you are done. They are the River Front cruises or Carrie B cruises or Jungle Queen. The Jungle Queen has a more elaborate option that includes a dinner and a show on their private place. You can get good prices on them through Groupon.

 

I didn’t want a “set plan” cruise. I wanted more of the “hop on hop off” option where we can start whenever and stop whenever. As far as I can find, there are only 2 major options on this – I am sure the locals can tell me if I am wrong. There’s nothing faster than making a mistake on CC and you can count 1 alligator, 2 alligator, 3 alligator and so on before someone makes a new post and corrects you. One can’t have thin skin to post around here.

 

As far as I can find online, there’s the pink water taxi and the yellow taxi. The pink one is technically called water shuttle. They are cheaper and you can also get discounts periodically on Groupon but their route is more limited and they have fewer boats. The yellow one is called water taxi. They have more stops than the pink one and they stop at the GalleryOne’s back yard and that’s why I picked them & the hotel for the convenience sake.

[harryfat1]

If you learn anything from this section on the water taxi, it’s this - GET THE APP! It will save you a ton of grief. They technically do not have a schedule for the various taxi stops so if you don’t have an app; you have NO IDEA on when the next one is coming. It’s like “Waiting for Godot” (that’s my one and only intellectual reference in this report as I will deteriorate quickly later on with rap song reference by day 1. Google this phrase if you never heard of it).

 

 

I downloaded their app couple months prior to sailing just to be a familiar with it and you can track each boat in real time along the route as well as knowing when they will show up at each stop in the next 2 hours. That way you can hop off and sight see and walk around and come back when you know there’s another boat coming. How cool is that?

 

 

Here is the sample screen shot of what the app looks like and the round pointy things are the boats. It’s unscientific, but from what I have seen, the weekdays seem to have 4 boats in service and Friday through Sunday, they add an extra one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only service that is on a schedule is the Fort Lauderdale to Hollywood beach connection that runs every 45 minutes one way or 1.5 hour round trip. That was originally what we wanted to do but due to the airplane delay, we didn’t have the time and energy to go down that far. Maybe next time we cruise out of Port Everglades, I will get a hotel in the Hollywood Beach area. Call it sequel of a sequel or sequel squared.

 

 

Anyway, you can get a whopping $1 per person savings on Water Taxi if you buy online but there’s no refund. You must use it with 365 days or else you lose it. So I waited until the last day from home to make sure the weather was good and we all felt ok before buying it online. You can of course buy the tickets after you get on board. Cheapo dad passing on any savings I know of so you feel like you are getting your money’s worth in reading this report.

 

 

So if you go on the water taxi’s web page, you can see that the GalleryOne is called stop #9. From there you can go up the numbers or go down. Downtown Las Olas is in the lower numbers (1 to 4) and that’s where we’re headed as plan B.

 

 

In the next few pages, I will just post the pictures of various yachts and boats and expensive houses we saw during the trip. The water taxi has a guide and a captain and they explain to us the significance and background stories of some of the houses and history. But the ADHD in me can’t remember a lick on who lives in which house and I’m not sure anyone cares anyway. It’s just eye candy for 99.999% of you to see how the billionaires live. We took over 50 pictures of various yachts & houses and I will only show a handful of them as after awhile, they are just the same – big and white and I will never get to touch one in my lifetime so it’s a “whatever” after the initial oooh and ahhh and wows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamesEM]

You are 100% correct about the Water Taxi schedule, I don't know why they even bother to print a one. Should you ever get around to taking the Water Taxi to Hollywood don't forget to take along some sun screen, I got a little red and I live in Myrtle Beach.

[Miryam1234]

Harry, this Water Taxi thing is exactly why I love your way of reporting! I would not have known about an app without you! Now I know and can prepare myself and my family. Might need to purchase a prepaid sim to use data in US (are there such available there?)

 

 

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[harryfat1]

Harry, this Water Taxi thing is exactly why I love your way of reporting! I would not have known about an app without you! Now I know and can prepare myself and my family. Might need to purchase a prepaid sim to use data in US (are there such available there?)

 

 

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Hi, Miryam,

 

Yes, definitely get the free app before you go on it as you can see by the time schedule just for that one afternoon, it’s not consistent. Vacation time is valuable time, you don’t want to spend it standing by the dock side waiting for a boat to arrive.

 

Sorry, I don’t know about International cell phone usage. You can go to the other sections of CC to ask this question as I am sure folks from overseas ask this question daily and there’s a Bob’s version on those board that will answer your question within the hour.

[harryfat1]

Pics from the water taxi:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

More pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So here is water taxi stop #6 by the Hilton. It’s also the transfer point to go south to Margaretville at Hollywood Beach that runs every 1.5 hour. In perfect world, we would have time and energy to get down there and be next to all the mega cruise ships to take hundreds of photos. That didn’t happen.

 

This was the closest I got with the mega zoom 65X lens and with the water taxi bobbling up and down with the wave and no stable place to set the camera, only have 2 pics that are presentable without significant blur.

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the people from the taxi got off at stop #4 and that’s where we got off also. I really didn’t research this area much as I wasn’t planning on being in this section (supposed to be in Margaretville looking at their Flow rider – yes, they have one also). So we just walked around and checked out various sites.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

There is a National Geographic gallery that is free to walk in and check out the various stunning Professional photos as you would expect from them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking back out, couple more sidewalk pictures. Checking out the local real estate market prices versus CA:

 

 

 

 

 

[truffles2]

Harry, what is the name of the water taxi app. I'm not finding anything that looks like yours[emoji849]

 

 

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[harryfat1]

Harry, what is the name of the water taxi app. I'm not finding anything that looks like yours[emoji849]

 

 

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It's called "Water Taxi Tracker". Looks like you are on Apple format, so here is the link for Apple.

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/water-taxi-tracker/id1108952459?mt=8

 

I'm on Android, but in theory they shouldn't differ too much. It's free on Android to download, hopefully free on Apple as well.

[truffles2]

Never mind, found it

Water taxi tracker

Duh

[harryfat1]

Then we hopped back on the water taxi and rode it all the way up to the beginning of the line at #1, that’s where the water taxi HQ is as we had a change in shift with new tour guide and captain for the night shift to take us back up the numbers to 9 (the stop numbers ranges from 1 to 12). So we have more pictures of boats and houses. Very cool to see Fort Lauderdale in this vantage point as you can see into the backyards of the multi-millionaires and billionaires.

 

 

Watertaxi HQ

 

 

 

 

Change of shift with the 2 ladies leaving and 2 new guys coming on

 

 

 

 

The other water taxi option (aka water shuttle)

 

 

 

 

They’re building the tallest condo in FLL here

 

 

 

 

The waterway in the lower numbers is much narrower so we can get up closer to see the boats and the condos

 

 

 

 

 

[truffles2]

It's called "Water Taxi Tracker". Looks like you are on Apple format, so here is the link for Apple.

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/water-taxi-tracker/id1108952459?mt=8

 

I'm on Android, but in theory they shouldn't differ too much. It's free on Android to download, hopefully free on Apple as well.

 

Great day! You were fast!

Thanks

[MInurse]

Hi Harry, also thanking you for the water taxi app. We're staying at the Hilton Marina the day before taking Independence. Only three weeks away!

 

 

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[harryfat1]

There’s a park area in downtown. We didn’t know it at the time, but we would eventually end up here on last day of the cruise – just goes to show you, not 100% of what you pre plan will end up to be exactly as you wanted.

 

 

 

 

More FL drawbridges. Can’t get of these.

 

 

 

 

Another water taxi company operating from downtown area but this one you can ride free for a few short stops to go from one side of the river to another. We never did it but keep this in mind you are in the area:

 

 

 

 

As we are operating on low battery energy wise from last night, we didn’t get off at other stops like Bahia Mahr at stop #7 to walk to the beach and south and take pictures of the cruise ships sailing away. Maybe next time.

 

Or if we had more energy, we could have gone back to the water taxi at night to see the rich houses all decorated in Christmas lights. That would have been very scenic to try to take few pictures of the holiday lights. The water taxi runs up to 10 PM and the ticket is good for all day so you can come and go as you wish. Just make sure to get the app so you know when the next boat will arrive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Great day! You were fast!

Thanks

 

Practicing to be like Bob. :p

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry, also thanking you for the water taxi app. We're staying at the Hilton Marina the day before taking Independence. Only three weeks away!

 

 

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Hi,

 

Glad the info is helpful. By staying at the Hilton area, you are at the hub of water taxi activity as you can go up river or down as well as going to Hollywood Beach.

 

Have fun on your vacation!

[harryfat1]

More high rises in FLL area

 

 

 

 

More fancy houses that I will never be invited to

 

 

 

 

 

 

They called this the Harry Potter house

 

 

 

 

Think they have these 2 big trees/bushes for privacy to block off some direct views into their back yards

 

 

 

 

I’m sure all of your backyard looks like this also, right?

 

 

[ckrobyn]

Thanks for the fabulous pics! We did the water taxi in November and really enjoyed it. We are staying at the Hilton Marina next month and hopefully will have a view of the ships ⛴

 

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