Freedom Eastern Trip Report - 2/18/17 – Eight Days THIS Week w/ lots of photos!

[fletch1027]

Following along. So great that you are able to add a day at Disney...My favorite 2 vacations...The park and a cruise! Looking forward to hearing more. Enjoy!

 

Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk

 

It's like building your own Disney "Land and Sea" package, but without the cost of the Disney cruise part... :D

[fletch1027]

Subbing.....we are DVC members too and do the same thing you do, overnight stay at a DVC resort before heading to the port.

 

 

BLT DVC Owner here - following along! Your cruise spreadsheet looks a lot like my Disney spreadsheet (I color code the park blocks by their main park color instead of grey though! Ha! Please tell me you do this too?)!!

 

I never considered repurposing the spreadsheet for a cruise but I am going to see if it helps for my cruise Apri 16 on Liberty!!

 

Great minds think alike! :D Awesome to have two other DVC owners along for the ride! We own at Saratoga Springs, and we bought in 9 1/2 years ago. I know the number so well because we have 6 payments left until it's paid off! :)

 

Back in the day when our kids were smaller and we did the parks more "commando" style, I had a similar spreadsheet. Now when we go down there, we are a lot more casual about our days...

[Ocean Boy]

Thanks for following along! Not sure how far along I will get before Saturday but hopefully it will still be a fun read for you!

 

 

 

 

Will be fun to have a ride-a-long, although from what I've seen about your cruise a lot of the comparisons will involve your rain and our sun... :(

No, there are much better things to talk about than the weather. We had a great week and it will be fun to see how our experiences on the ship match up.

[fletch1027]

Subscribed! Going on Freedom this Sept to the Med! Be sure to include any drink specials/pricing if you can as I won't be getting the drink package and will just be trying to hit any specials that arise (Although I am sure they change week by week, but you never know!)

 

We are booked in an inside right now, but am very interested to hear what you have to say about your promenade room, as we could probably upgrade if we wanted to!

 

I don't recall any specific drink specials or pricing. We had a beverage package so it never came up with us.

 

Regarding the Promenade rooms, we love them. It was the second time we had been in one and they are great! Having the window to the promenade not only gives a little more space in the room (and additional bench seat), it also makes the room seem less closed in like an interior can do...

[Jkh14cruise]

We are following as we are on an 8 nighter Freedom beginning April 1 and have a WDW vacation planned for October. Look forward to your review!

 

 

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[fletch1027]

Day "0" - The Disney overnighter (cont)

 

After dinner and a little more walking around at Disney Springs, we headed back to Bay Lake Tower to get a good spot to watch the Wishes fireworks show. On the roof of the Bay Lake Tower building, there is a Disney Vacation Club members lounge that has a decent sized inside bar as well as a large patio area that faces the Magic Kingdom. While we were up here awaiting the fireworks show, I started playing around with the zoom lens to get some photos of the Magic Kingdom at night. It was very tricky taking night photos with a zoom due to trying to keep it still while the shutter was open longer.

 

After many deleted photos, I think these turned out decently. The Magic Kingdom is a cool looking place at night and this was a great unique perspective to see it! Also notice that the building lighting changes every so often.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking over at the Contemporary which also looks pretty cool at night...

 

 

 

to be continued...

 

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[SherriZ366]

Day “0”– The Disney overnighter

 

After what seemed like 6+ long hours, we finally arrived atWDW. This time, we decided to stay at Bay Lake Tower, which is technically apart of the Contemporary Resort (it’s the round high rise next to it). One thing I love about Disney is the little things they do to make guests feel special. Here is one of the buttons we had waiting on us when we checked in – I had noted on the reservation that we were celebrating our 24th anniversary

 

 

 

I wish RCI did things like this, however, the “you get what you pay for” principle kicks in and to me it’s not worth the extra money for aDisney cruise over RCI… :-)

 

We specified on the reservation (and spent a few more points on) a Magic Kingdom view room. Here was the view from our balcony without zoom

 

 

 

Space Mountain and Cinderella’s castle with zoom

 

 

 

 

Here’s a view looking over at the Contemporary with the iconic monorail rolling through the middle of it

 

 

 

Zoom in view of the monorail poking its head out

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

We stayed in Bay Lake Towers in November when we did Disney with SS, SIL and Triplet Grandsons (and the other grandparents) for the boys' 5th birthday. Great place -- very convenient. We had studios that were great but the kids one bedroom was amazing!

[sg1phileshipper]

Woohoo, another Freedom review. I am so following this. Thank you :)

 

Cindy

[fletch1027]

We are following as we are on an 8 nighter Freedom beginning April 1 and have a WDW vacation planned for October. Look forward to your review!

 

Thanks for following along! Cruising and WDW - 2 of my favorite things also! :)

[fletch1027]

Day “0”– The Disney overnighter (cont)

 

Disney is known for putting off cool fireworks shows, and this is one of them. Wishes has been a long running show at the Magic Kingdom. It runs around 10-15 minutes and has narration along with it with an informal story, so there isn’t a lot of “4th of July” tons of fireworks going off at once but rather they are spread out throughout and timed to go with the narration and music.

 

This was the first time we had watched Wishes from this perspective, and it was great! The narration and music was broadcast on the patio so the experience was similar to being in the park. Also, for those that have MK view rooms, the narration & music is also broadcast on a TV channel so you can sit on the balcony and watch as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

[mbrownferrier]

Great Disney fireworks pictures! Also agree with you about the delicious chicken fingers at Planet Hollywood! Yum!!

 

 

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[fletch1027]

Day “0”– The Disney overnighter (cont)

 

Some more photos of the fireworks show. It was fun experimenting with the camera to try and get some decent shots…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

[fletch1027]

Thanks for the report.

 

Glad to do it - thanks for following along!

[fletch1027]

Day “0”– The Disney overnighter (cont)

 

After watching the fireworks, we went back down to the ground level and back to the Contemporary dock area to watch the Electric Water Pageant. It is a little quirky and outdated, but we love it and always see it at least once when we are staying at one of the “monorail” hotels.

 

I have a connection to it because it debuted on October 26th, 1971, which was a day before my 1st birthday, so I am now dating myself. :-)

 

On the way to the docks, we passed this metal work Mickey which looked unique. Got to hand it to Disney landscape design (and maintenance) teams – they do an outstanding job!

 

 

 

These next few photos are from the Electric Water Pageant itself. It is made of a series of barges that are towed from one resort to another and puts on the show in front of each one (Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Fort Wilderness, Contemporary) before moving on to the next one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for "Day 0" - tomorrow we are heading out!!

[DeereNan]

I'm loving the report & pictures!

[fletch1027]

Woohoo, another Freedom review. I am so following this. Thank you :)

 

Cindy

 

Great to have you along!

[fletch1027]

great shots of the fireworks!

 

Great Disney fireworks pictures! Also agree with you about the delicious chicken fingers at Planet Hollywood! Yum!!

 

Thanks for the fireworks props! It was a lot of fun to play around with that Sony camera. There is so much more customization that can be done that I didn't have time to learn about.

 

Glad there's another Cap'n Crunch chicken finger fan out there!

[Baatman]

Really enjoying the photos. Thanks for posting.

[fletch1027]

Day 1 – Let’s go cruising!

 

The day is here – let’s get moving down to Ft. Lauderdale!! But before we packed up the car, we walked over to the main Contemporary building for breakfast. Bay Lake Tower and the Contemporary are connected by an elevated walking bridge on the 5th floor.

 

Before eating, I grabbed a few photos from inside the Contemporary. Here is a close-up of the monorail station inside the building with a train loading up

 

 

 

This is something unique Disney has started doing. RFID chips (same technology used for the RCI Freestyle mugs) are super cheap to manufacture. So cheap that Disney puts them on the bottom of all disposable drink cups to limit the number of refills you can get with them (4-5 within 2 hours of buying the drink). Here’s the timer as I got my 2nd refill:

 

 

 

Disney has a sub-culture of fans that that seek out what’s called “Hidden Mickey’s”, which also applies to other “Easter eggs” that are found around the parks & resorts. When the Contemporary was built, part of the design was huge tiled murals on the big interior atrium column. Two of the column sides have Easter eggs that people in the know can try to find. Here is one of the murals (facing the monorail station) that features a 5-legged goat. Can you find it?

 

 

 

 

There it is up on the top! :-)

 

 

 

Here is partial photo of another huge mural facing the restaurants. If the design of the people and animals look familiar, it’s because the same person that designed the “It’s a Small World” ride also designed these murals. Anyway, looking at this photo, you might notice a tile that was installed incorrectly. It should have been turned one more rotation to the right. They say it’s intentional to show that anything man made has flaws, but I think it may have been an oops. :-)

 

 

 

…and here's a close up (it is in the top middle in the above photo)

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

[fletch1027]

I'm loving the report & pictures!

 

Really enjoying the photos. Thanks for posting.

 

Thanks a lot for following along!

[fletch1027]

Day 1 – Let’s go cruising! (cont)

 

Our plans were to be at Terminal 29 by 11:00 am. In order to do that, we planned on leaving Bay Lake Tower by 7:45. Well, we were a little late but made it out of there by 8:00.

 

Here is our route down the Florida Turnpike from WDW to Port Everglades. As you can see by the time on my phone, we made it to the Park N Go lot by 11:15ish.

 

 

 

While on the topic of Park N Go, I cannot say enough good things about their service! Besides being half the price of parking at the terminal, they are very prompt, courteous, and professional. Shuttles are always running and there was hardly any waiting on either end of the cruise. For those interested, here is a blow-by-blow of how long it took us to get from parking lot to ship:

 

11:15 – arrived at Park N Go lot

 

11:20 – Park N Go shuttle bus was loaded and rolling towards Terminal 29 (shuttle was all Freedom passengers)

 

11:35 – arrived at terminal – this was the only bottleneck, but it was the traffics fault not the shuttle – we drove past Harmony’s terminal at 11:25, but it took us 10 minutes to creep back to the back alley where Freedom is stashed. What a step down for poor Freedom! She went from the big dog at Port Canaveral to the ghetto at Port Everglades… :-(

 

Here’s a photo of her looking so close but still so far away…

 

 

 

Once at the terminal, we went inside.

 

As a side note, I am hoping it pays off for those that arrive after noon but for the early arrivers, the general boarding line is faster than the Platinum and above line. Anyway, through security and heading to the check-in desk

 

 

 

11:45 – at the check in desk to get SeaPass, tell them I haven’t barfed in the past week, etc.

 

 

 

 

11:55 – on the Royal Promenade!!

 

Once on board, we needed to go first to the Excursion Desk to sign up for an excursion that had sold out pre-cruise (but I will get to that later).

 

The Excursion Desk experience only took 5-10 minutes, and I highly recommend that if you know you will need to go to the Excursion Desk, Guest Relations, or whatever that you make plans to get onboard as early as possible and go there directly to avoid the big crowds at all of those places later.

 

12:15 - up in the Windjammer (and had already said no to a couple of drink package and specialty dining offers). Is it just me or is RCI starting to adopt Caribbean street vendor sales tactics for their upsell options?

 

This was our 4th time cruising on Freedom. We always get onboard around the same time (between 11-12), and this was the emptiest I have ever seen the WJ! There were tons of empty tables and in the past there were always announcements for people to leave as soon as they finished to free up tables for others. I’m not sure what was different this time besides it being in Ft. Lauderdale now and due to the hassle and traffic getting back to Terminal 29 that spread out the crowd or what the deal was. Will be interesting to hear if anyone had a similar experience on other recent sailings (shout out to Ocean Boy). :-)

 

While looking for something to eat, I saw the biggest hamburger I had ever seen. I remembered back to the movie Uncle Buck when he made the giant pancakes that he had to flip with a snow shovel…

 

 

 

To finish up my embarkation timeline, the cabins were available at exactly 1:00 as expected…

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

[Pia1913]

We just booked the Freedom for January; B2B 8 and 6 out of FLL. Eagerly awaiting your comments/review.

[Ocean Boy]

We were on board by 11 AM and the Windjammer didn't open until 11:30. There was a line of people waiting for the opening but nothing dramatic. Once it opened they were all absorbed easily and by the time we finished eating and were leaving there were quite a few people but it was not crowded by any means.

 

Those thick burgers that were offered in the Windjammer all week were quite good. They had both beef and turkey burger choices. That was a nice addition to the food choices I thought.

[fletch1027]

Day 1 – Let’s go cruising! (cont)

 

Here’s my lunchtime dessert plate. May as well start carbo-loading now! I took this photo to emphasize the coconut ranger cookies which is my favorite food item on board. I say that as a warning that they will be mentioned more as the cruise goes on!

 

 

 

For all of its traffic related faults, one thing terminal 29 does have going for it is the great views of the Atlantic Ocean. Here are some photos I took while eating lunch. At this point I took a deep breath and declared that the cruise had officially began!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little after 1:00, we headed down to our cabin. We were in cabin 8623, which is an Interior Promenade room. To give you a general location of that, we were closer to the aft stairs and looking down from our window we were directly over the “Royal Promenade” arch / sign that is by the Guest Relations desk.

 

Here’s the stuff that was laid out on our desk when we walked in: M&M, Freestyle cups, coupons, compass, and our fabulous new Platinum pins! Platinum is a great C&A milestone – so great in fact that it passed totally unnoticed - besides the $100 balcony discount for our next cruise :-)

 

 

 

and of course on the TV the channel was turned to the trance inducing hand washing cartoon with the ear worm song that goes with it

 

 

 

Here’s a link to it if you want to be reminded / tortured… :-)

 

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to be continued…