Freedom OTS Trip Review - 10/30/16 - Freedom's Farewell to Port Canaveral

It's been a while since I have done a trip review. I have done two previous ones - both on Freedom. We also sailed on Allure this past February. I took a lot of pictures however I did not do a trip report for that cruise. It seems like there are so many well done Oasis class reviews already mine wouldn't add much value to the mix. :)

This cruise definitely warrants a trip review because it was a special 5 night “pre-repositioning” cruise marking the last Freedom sailing out of Port Canaveral. Freedom has been living at Port Canaveral for almost a decade which is pretty unheard of when compared to RCI's other ships.

We have grown to love Freedom over the years. We did Allure and will likely cruise Oasis class again, however my current feelings are that the Oasis class ships are like going to visit your cousin in the big city and Freedom is like being comfortable at home. :)

We live in Georgia south of Atlanta and drive down for all of our cruises so part of the reason we grew to love Freedom initially was the shorter drive. The extra 3 hours between Orlando & Ft. Lauderdale is a killer at the end of a long day!

Our love of Freedom will be put to the test in February when we sail on her again from her new home on the new 8 night East/South Caribbean itinerary that looks really cool. After that we will see if Freedom is still our baby or if Oasis will become our new closer more bloated baby.

I’ll start the review with our standard stopover at Disney before we head to the ship. I know feelings are mixed on CC regarding too much pre-cruise stuff, but my feeling is that if you like it read it, if not scroll through to the cruise stuff. :D

I am generally favorable towards RCI, but I’m by no means a blind loyalist. My intention is to comment honestly – whether it is good or bad, with my main intention is to do something that will be enjoyable to you guys to read instead of working with a lot of photos and less of me rambling on and on!!

As I post, feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer as best I can as I work through it...

Can't wait for your review. We will be sailing on Freedom Dec. 4th. Sitting back and ready to read. TIA for the review!

Can't wait for your review. We will be sailing on Freedom Dec. 4th. Sitting back and ready to read. TIA for the review!

Good to know - I work better with deadlines... :D

This cruise was planned as a celebration of sorts for us. We were each within a month of our birthdays and it was also an “empty nest” celebration as our youngest went off to college this fall. Sad to see her go, but a celebration in that (in regards to cruising) two people fit better in a cabin than three and also the school calendar is not an issue and we can go on a cruise whenever we want. Last three in February but this one in October!

Although this was one of several cruises on Freedom, we tried some things out this time that we had not done before on a cruise:

Upgraded to a balcony (previously regular or promenade interior)

Ate in a couple specialty restaurants

Bumped up from Coke package to the Refreshment package

Based on a lot of posters on here, I know a lot of you guys would look at that list and wonder how we survived previous cruises with even less that the minor things we sprung for on this cruise! Luckily for us and our cruise budget we do not drink, because I can see how that can really add to the overall cruise cost! :-)

Anyway, Thursday the 27th of October was my birthday and we were definitely ready to hit the road the next day to drive down to Florida and get this vacation started! Since it was only a 5 night cruise, we spent two nights down at Disney World instead of the usual one night.

As excited as we were to head out, the other two residents in our house did not share our enthusiasm. Somehow they know when somethings up and there is an impending drop off at the “pet resort”… :-)

Next post – arriving @ the “World”…

Looking forward to your review. Thanks for taking the time. We will be on her in the spring. We also sailed her two times before and like the size.

Thanks for the review.

Your doggies do not look happy that you are leaving. Looking forward to your review.

Nice start. Will be following along.

Looking forward to your review. Thanks for taking the time. We will be on her in the spring. We also sailed her two times before and like the size.

I agree. It has similar feature advantages to an Oasis class ship, with the tradeoff of there being slightly less of them (1 less Flowrider, less specialty and free dining options, etc) but with the advantage of everything being "closer".

We are huge trivia fans (as I will address in the review) and I like the layout of the Schooner Bar much better on Freedom than Oasis. It seems more intimate in that is is more square shaped and tucked away in a quieter corner of the ship as opposed to Oasis class where it seems long and narrow shaped and has a very distracting between the promenade below and the rising tide bar going up & down next to it...

Your doggies do not look happy that you are leaving. Looking forward to your review.

They are never happy when we leave. They see suitcases come out and know something is brewing... :)

We have been Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owners for almost 10 years and it has been great for us as we loved to take our kids to Disney for vacation over the years. However, there has been a shift as they started to get older, Disney ticket prices have steadily risen, and we have gotten more into cruising that we tend to use the Disney resorts as a place to stay on the way to a cruise. :D

That being said, we were very excited to hear that there would be a DVC presence at the Polynesian Resort. This has always been our favorite place to stay of all the Disney Resorts. We spent a week here for our 10 year anniversary (we then spent our 20 year anniversary on Freedom back in 2013). As you will see in the pictures that follow, the Polynesian is within a monorail ride of the Magic Kingdom, however it is so quiet and relaxed there that is seems like it’s a “world” away (hopefully last bad pun but no promises).

We arrived Friday afternoon and knew we were in the right place when the kid in me made us wait there outside the lobby with our bags until a monorail passed overhead! In my mind I heard that familiar phrase as it sailed by “Por favor mantengase alajado des las puertas”…

We then entered the lobby which was redone a couple of years ago being guarded by the intimidating Tikiman

Here is one of Tikiman’s friends guarding one of the stores. The store came into play later as I had forgotten to pack my Hawaiian shirt so now I have a new cool Disney one - and no I didn't forget on purpose!

I had already checked in online using the Disney app, and got a text on the drive down telling me what our room number was which was pretty cool. The only reason we had to stop by the lobby was that I had procrastinated in getting our magic bands selected so I had to pick them up at the lobby cause there wasn’t time to mail them to us. For those that don’t know, Disney has been using magic bands for a couple years to handle things like room key, resort charging, park tickets, etc) – similar to what RCI has available on the Quantum ships (and maybe Harmony?)

One of the advantages of spending less days at the parks is that I can use more points to have better room views. For this trip we got a studio room with a “Lagoon / Magic Kingdom” view. Studio implies small, but this studio was pretty stacked. It had a king bed, fold out twin bed hidden under the TV, sofa bed, bathroom with sinks & shower and a 2nd bathroom with tub shower, sinks and toilet!

Here is a photo of the longhouse (aka building) we were in:

This is the view from our room towards the lagoon. The buildings in front of us are 2 bedroom “over the water” bungalows that are also part of the DVC (behind one of the bungalows you can see the tip of Cinderella's castle):

to be continued…

 

It's been a while since I have done a trip review. I have done two previous ones - both on Freedom. We also sailed on Allure this past February. I took a lot of pictures however I did not do a trip report for that cruise. It seems like there are so many well done Oasis class reviews already mine wouldn't add much value to the mix. :)

The title drew me in. Thanks for doing it, with regard to this one and your Oasis class trips, I find value in all trip reviews whether by CC vets I enjoy or newbies. Things change, so its nice to note that. So often I see a CC member state, this is the way it always is based on their 2002 cruise. ;)

Now, I'm off to enjoy your Freedom report.

PS, if my memory correct, Freedom hasn't been at PC that long has it? I won't be offended if I'm corrected. I went on her in 2008 when she was in Miami, but I was thinking she did some time in Port Everglades and Europe. I did enjoy revisiting Freedom and discovering the fun of cruising out of PC.

The title drew me in. Thanks for doing it, with regard to this one and your Oasis class trips, I find value in all trip reviews whether by CC vets I enjoy or newbies. Things change, so its nice to note that. So often I see a CC member state, this is the way it always is based on their 2002 cruise. ;)

 

Now, I'm off to enjoy your Freedom report.

Thanks! I may end up going back and doing one for our Allure cruise but maybe make it more photo based and concentrate on the St. Thomas & St. Maarten stops since those were both pretty cool... :)

Enjoyed cruising with you!!;) Thanks for posting your review and will follow along!!:cool:

Enjoyed cruising with you!!;) Thanks for posting your review and will follow along!!:cool:

Thanks Sal - it was a great cruise!

Enjoying the review! I've been on Freedom class 3x and going again at the end of this month. I am also a DVC owner so I love hearing about your DVC stay :)

If you get a chance, can you comment on the pub and schooner entertainment?

Thanks!!

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Enjoying the review! I've been on Freedom class 3x and going again at the end of this month. I am also a DVC owner so I love hearing about your DVC stay :)

 

If you get a chance, can you comment on the pub and schooner entertainment?

 

Thanks!!

 

 

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Awesome! What's your home resort?

We weren't in either place for music/entertainment, but I will look through the compasses and post some examples.

Awesome! What's your home resort?

 

We weren't in either place for music/entertainment, but I will look through the compasses and post some examples.

Thanks for that reminder.

Need to scan the set.

Awesome! What's your home resort?

 

 

 

We weren't in either place for music/entertainment, but I will look through the compasses and post some examples.

We own at SSR. Members since 2015 :). We have been on a cruise kick lately so have been renting our points lol

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This post will be mainly photos with some random not so deep thoughts included from some views and things we saw as we wandered around the Poly resort and unwound from the drive from Georgia.

Here is a view of Cinderella’s castle at the Magic Kingdom across the lagoon

Space Mountain is a longtime favorite of everyone. One other theme that may emerge in this report is my love of all things Star Wars. The Space Mountain in California was redone in a Star Wars theme. Had they done that here, I may have had to pay up to go check it out!

One thing that Disney does better than anyone else is their theming. The Polynesian Resort is no different. All of the Disney “Deluxe” resorts have a signature pool. The volcano pool here at the Poly is likely the most popular. There is a water slide that runs through the volcano

During the refurbishment that happened a few years ago, they also added this kids play area by volcano pool that has stuff like more water slides, water guns, etc…

Not sure if they are named Donald & Daisy, but there are some non-animatronic ducks here that come along with many signs saying not to feed them.

Every night at 6pm, they hold a torch lighting ceremony with guys like this that put on a 2-3 minute show before lighting a couple of the hundreds of tiki torches that line the sidewalks at the resort. He lights his by hand and the others use Disney magic to light on their own :-)

to be continued…

We own at SSR. Members since 2015 :). We have been on a cruise kick lately so have been renting our points lol

 

 

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We also own @ SSR. We have only rented points out 1-2 times. We are banking some to build up for a 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii...

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Hi,

Thanks for writing a trip report. We will be on the Freedom next month so I will be following this report closely. Having written a trip report myself in the past, I know how much time and effort t takes to organize/upload the pictures/do the write up, so I thank you in advance for your efforts.

Actually if my old man fuzzy memory serves me correctly, I think we talked last year and we have the same first name? Or I could be wrong and your name is something else like John. At any rate, happy belated birthday as we now know what the 1027 in your screen name means.

Personally, I enjoy reading all the pre cruise info that people are willing to share. As this is your “trip” review, not a “cruise” review so any and all pre cruise activities are part of the your vacation and can be shared if you choose so. My feeling is better to provide extra info than not enough info. If people are not interested in certain sections, they can just scroll pass it but if anyone wants the info, they can’t read about it if you didn’t provide it.

Especially since I am a big WDW fan, I’m really enjoying this part of the report. But we typically hang out at the cheap All Star resorts instead of the fancy Poly area.

Speaking of Star Wars and Disneyland, we were there last year during Christmas instead of taking a cruise. They transformed the entire Tomorrowland area to be Star War themed with the Storm Troopers walking around the area all day long with the Star Wars theme songs blasting nonstop over the speakers. Space Mountain was renamed HyperSpace Mountain and as you already know, they integrated Star Wars action into the ride itself. I had thought this was done for all Disney theme parks? Didn’t realize it wasn’t done at WDW.

Hope you don’t mind if I drop in few pictures to your trip review as part of the discussion.

Nighttime at Disney has always been a really cool thing to be there to see. All of the parks have some sort of firework show that is typically every night. Although I didn’t get to see it on this trip, Disney Hollywood Studios has a nightly Star Wars themed firework show sync’ed to the music of John Williams which is awesome, but I digress. We are at the Poly, which has a few cool things to see also.

The Electrical Water Pageant is a lesser known gem that is done nightly and can be seen from any of the resorts that border the Magic Kingdom lagoons (Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Contemporary, Wilderness Lodge & Fort Wilderness. It started in 1971 and is not too much different now than when it debuted. It is a series of barges that are towed from resort to resort with a synchronized light and music show to accompany it. It is less than 10 minutes long but fun to see. Here are a couple of photos. They aren’t great, but then again even the new super duper iPhone 7 isn't built for bright lights on a dark lagoon. :-)

The Magic Kingdom does a nightly show called Wishes. However, since this is Halloween season, they do an enhanced version to go along with their “Not So Scary Halloween Party”. I took these photos from the back porch of our room which is the big advantage of the lagoon view room.

I was a little more pleased with how these fireworks photos turned out. I brought a second camera on the trip. This one is an Olympus TG-4 which I think of as a point and shoot on steroids. Its main benefit is that it’s waterproof, but it also has the ability to use filters and internally it has shutter options for helping with things like nighttime shooting.

to be continued…

Thanks for writing a trip report. We will be on the Freedom next month so I will be following this report closely. Having written a trip report myself in the past, I know how much time and effort t takes to organize/upload the pictures/do the write up, so I thank you in advance for your efforts.

Wow, I drew in Cheapo Dad himself to my trip report! ;) I subscribed to your awesome Allure report and it was so comprehensive and funny that it was part of the reason I haven’t gotten around to doing one from our Allure cruise in February. There was nothing for me to add! :D

You are correct about the hard part being corralling up all of the photos, getting them uploaded somewhere, getting the BB codes so they show up and trying to group them into sets of 6 cause of the CC photo posting limit! I wich the limit was 8 pics per post, however I guess that may make the threads longer when people quote post and leave in all of the photos... :eek:

Actually if my old man fuzzy memory serves me correctly, I think we talked last year and we have the same first name? Or I could be wrong and your name is something else like John. At any rate, happy belated birthday as we now know what the 1027 in your screen name means.

Yep, that’s me. We are two of the few Harry’s on CC. I’m the one that the online razor company was not named after and I was disappointed that they don’t offer a Harry discount.

Personally, I enjoy reading all the pre cruise info that people are willing to share. As this is your “trip” review, not a “cruise” review so any and all pre cruise activities are part of your vacation and can be shared if you choose so. My feeling is better to provide extra info than not enough info. If people are not interested in certain sections, they can just scroll pass it but if anyone wants the info, they can’t read about it if you didn’t provide it.

That’s true – I sometimes go back to my old reports to remember what I did on previous cruises. :)

Especially since I am a big WDW fan, I’m really enjoying this part of the report. But we typically hang out at the cheap All Star resorts instead of the fancy Poly area.

There used to be a lot less disparity between Disney resort levels and I even remember for our 10 year anniversary we got into the Poly for $149 a night. It’s now over $350+ per night which is WAY over what I would pay. If it wasn’t for owning DVC we would never stay at places like the Poly or Contemporary.

Speaking of Star Wars and Disneyland, we were there last year during Christmas instead of taking a cruise. They transformed the entire Tomorrowland area to be Star War themed with the Storm Troopers walking around the area all day long with the Star Wars theme songs blasting nonstop over the speakers. Space Mountain was renamed HyperSpace Mountain and as you already know, they integrated Star Wars action into the ride itself. I had thought this was done for all Disney theme parks? Didn’t realize it wasn’t done at WDW.

So, it’s a little different at WDW because all of the Star Wars stuff is over at the Disney Studios park as opposed to the Magic Kingdom at DL. They have done some Star Wars stuff over at Studios to tide everyone over while they build the big Star Wars Land section onto the Studios, but nothing as cool as Hyperspace Mountain!

Hope you don’t mind if I drop in few pictures to your trip review as part of the discussion.

I love mind pictures and I will try to contain my jealousy as I look at them… :cool:

We also own @ SSR. We have only rented points out 1-2 times. We are banking some to build up for a 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii...

 

 

 

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I just realized I said we were members since 2015 - it was actually 2005. :) We are hoping to get to Aulani eventually too but it takes so long to get there so we have to wait until DS is out of school I think. Maybe that will be his 2020 grad trip :)