TRIP REPORT w/pics Freedom Western 4/26th to 5/3

That's what I thought! What's on the second floor now?

Deck 3 of the former nightclub is now staterooms. Deck 4 of the former nightclub is Sabor.

Well he asked if we were from Columbus and from the balcony we answered YES. To this he sent out the challenge "O H" to which we are required by law to respond "I O" .

I completely understand Bill O-H......!

Really enjoying your review! Congrats on the suite upgrade. We never get that lucky, but will be happy to cruise in the room we chose on Freedom May 17th! Thanks for sharing...

Great pictures and review!

Day 4 FALLMOUTH

This day might bore some of you, but I hope you like the pictures. ;) We had planned a lot of beach days for this trip, so I didn't want to do one here. We had never been to Fallmouth before. When we were on this ship years ago Ocho Rios was on the itinerary. I really wanted to give the Blue Hole trip a try, but I wasn't sure that was wise with my back surgery 16 months ago. Next time I will go there. If anyone on this cruise that went there want to tell me what I missed, go right ahead.

We woke up with My old friend Navigator next to us, where she would remain the rest of the trip.

It was good to see her again after 6 years. I will sail her again someday. We pretty much decided to just get off the ship and walk around and shop. My wife is the queen of shopping and I usually hate it, but I do tend to melow out on cruises, which probably saves the lives of many people when I get back home. First order of business was getting Gina's port bead out of the way.

At first I didn't want her to get one of these bracelets that her friend Penny introduced her to, but now holiday shopping for her is easy. I've probably wasted as much money on other things and it makes her happy.

I found a couple of shirts to buy, and she found a new pool coverup. We walked around long enough to get hungry and I wanted to try some of the often reported and praised beef patties for sale in the port. I figured they had to be good when we saw several crew members in line with us including our Next Cruise girl. Later we saw a dolly of about 12 boxes being taken back on the ship for the crew. We got a beef and cheese one. I would describe it as a high end "Hot pocket" Flaky croissant type crust with hot beef and cheese. A couple of drops of hot sauce and it was delicious. It was only $3.

Oh, while waiting for our beef patty, I noticed a prominent halo around the sun and got this picture.

After eating we toured around the Jimmy Buffet place. I found a shirt I really liked, but didn't want to pay $24 for it.

The pool area looked nice, but after Labadee we were taking a little break from the sun.

Oh, here is another shot of Freedom and Navigator.

By 3pm we were ready to get back on board and were happy to find another dozen chocolate strawberries and a bottle of wine waiting for us. Also as predicted earlier, our invitation to the upper tier (diamond and higher) welcome back party was on our desk. I thought about the first one and how we just walked in and nobody was checking credentials, so we decided to continue the ruse. (With some encouragement from our roll call friends) We walked in, with invitation in hand, like we owned the place. I avoided making eye contact with CD Casey Pelter as I had said hello to him just 24 hours earlier at the Emerald and lower event. I was afraid the hoser would out us. Well, we each got 2 more free cosmos and this event had some hot horsedoovers as well. The event was pretty much the same event, except they added a little skit by the aerial performers. They introduced her as a Next cruise person and walking up to take the mic from the Hotel Director, whom may be the biggest comedian on the ship, she pretended to fall and ended up upside down in his arms and a whole stunt was performed.

We did notice this group was a little more stuffy and didn't laugh nearly as much as the lower tier members. They probably have seen in many times. The highest experienced cruisers were announced including Royal's newest Pinnacle members. But one of the top members was not there. We would learn later she was feeling ill and was taken off the ship in Grand Caymen. I heard later she expired that morning.

Dinner that night was the menu that included the Lasagna, so I was happy. It was good and our service continued to be excellent. We went to Love and Marriage that night. The show was good, Casey might have added one new question, but it was pretty much the same show. Frequently on Majesty we see the older couples have done this 50 times and are well prepared, but this time we suspect the newlywed couple was well prepared and they did win. We were the middle couple on Jewel back in 2012 and enjoyed it, so we didn't try here. The auditions were lame, we easily could have been picked.

The funniest part of the show may have been in the audience before it even started. One of the newlywed couples was in the front row and she desperately wanted to be the first couple. Her husband and friend were late arriving and she had seats saved for them. It was almost show time when a guy behind us told his wife, "Video this" He got up, walked to the front row and sat right in the middle of her seats. She panicked and at first was talking nice and finally she started really freaking out till he started laughing and went back to his own seat. They promised to send the couple the video later.

Good Morning Bill, as I was scrolling through your review, I just found myself in one of your pictures. I was in your roll call, sorry we did not have the opportunity to meet. I missed you at the Meet and Mingle and now I know why you were not there. Congrats on the upgrade! We had a cabana on Barefoot Beach and evidently you caught me floating on my mat right before or after my husband and I went to the buffet. That is me with the ship in the background. Can't wait to read the rest of the review. I am going to try and do a review as well.

Good Morning Bill, as I was scrolling through your review, I just found myself in one of your pictures. I was in your roll call, sorry we did not have the opportunity to meet. I missed you at the Meet and Mingle and now I know why you were not there. Congrats on the upgrade! We had a cabana on Barefoot Beach and evidently you caught me floating on my mat right before or after my husband and I went to the buffet. That is me with the ship in the background. Can't wait to read the rest of the review. I am going to try and do a review as well.

Thanks for letting me know. While it was disappointing not making the M&M, it did present a challenge for me the rest of the week finding people and saying hello. It happened in funny ways sometimes. I did recognize a few people, including "Spire" the last day at Johnny Rockets and a few people did come up and say hello when they figured out who I was. We made the best of it. Now, I have to go back and look at that picture. :D

found it, if you want me to email you the full resolution version of that pic bmccall at insight dot rr dot com

who was your captain and HD?

who was your captain and HD?

Michael Rasmussen was the HD, and I believe Tor Olsen was the captain. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

DAY 5 GRAND CAYMAN

As my signature shows, I have not missed a tender port yet. I guess late April and Early May is a good time to cruise. I was especially nervous about that this time. Since 2011 I pick one cruise port each trip to go scuba diving. Initially I planned on another couple to cruise with us. They were going to take my wife on one of the Stingray excursions while I went diving. But they canceled so I picked a shore dive from the Royal Caribbean offerings.

We ended up at Don Foster's dive shop and they have a pretty good reputation. Our lunch continued and the weather was great. No tender issues!

Once again Navigator was with us along with an unknown garbage skow.

After a short tender ride we waited in the excursion gathering area (tent with seating) until our tour people showed up. There were about 10 people in our area when the operator showed up and led us to their van. It turns out 10 people signed up for the learn to scuba excursion and I was the only one that showed up for the full fledged shore dive. Basically I had a 1 hour guided private dive.

Sergio from Argentina was my guide and we discussed my experience and his knowledge of the area to plan the dive.

I am just a cruise diver, pretty much diving just once a year with few exceptions. The only equipment I own is my own mask and snorkel tube. I was happy with the equipment and advise they offered.

Other groups that showed up had paid for a 2 tank boat dive. Now I wish I have been in that group. Here at Caymen the reef close to shore didn't look too inviting and the sea life was small and minimal. That said, I did find the facilities and personnel to be first rate. I would use them again. I was happy to have another dive under my belt (4 so far)

Afterwards, we pretty much shopped and ate at the Margaritaville for lunch.

This has been a great read!

Thanks for taking the time to do it

It was the first floor of the old Crypt nightclub Deck 4 forward across from the Schooner Bar.

The ship you were on last week seems very similar to the ship I was on the prior week.

Thank you for posting this review. We were booked on this cruise, but had to cancel 2 days before sailing due to medical reasons. In fact, we would have been in the room next to you (9340) before you got your upgrade. We've been on FOS before and were looking forward to sailing on her again. Hopefully in the near future.

Once again Navigator was with us along with an unknown garbage skow.

 

:rolleyes: ZING!!!

Well he asked if we were from Columbus and from the balcony we answered YES. To this he sent out the challenge "O H" to which we are required by law to respond "I O" .

I completely understand Bill O-H......!

I-O!

Bill must have missed your post :D

Thank you, thank you! Keep it coming. Marilyn

While I did miss the Meet and Mingle, that didn't stop me from enjoying the company of the people who kept me company in the roll call for more than a year. Several people I didn't see made a point to find me and say hello, or I recognized them around the ship. Jody (Malmj) had a corner aft balcony and invited people from our group to watch sailaway from Grand Caymen on their balcony.

In the picture below I will point out the lady sitting down on the chair Doris, and Mike, the guy with the drink and sunglasses on the right. They were the roll call members - PEACEBEAUTYTRUTH who picked us up at the Radisson and drove us to Fishlips for the pre-sail party. THANKS!

Here is a view of the superstructure at the back of the Freedom class ship as viewed from deck 7 and we are also leaving Navigator behind, but I suspect she will be following us.

Below is my wife Gina and Jody's husband Jimmy as they look out the "extra" window off this corner aft balcony. I just like this picture as it turned out well. Both Jimmy and Gina are infectiously happy people .

Here is a view of the deck on the suite at the aft of deck 6.

The ship you were on last week seems very similar to the ship I was on the prior week.

Thanks again for getting off so quick. I was on board by 11:30 I believe!

Thank you for posting this review. We were booked on this cruise, but had to cancel 2 days before sailing due to medical reasons. In fact, we would have been in the room next to you (9340) before you got your upgrade. We've been on FOS before and were looking forward to sailing on her again. Hopefully in the near future.

Nobody wanted that room! That was the room my friends Jon and Penny had before they had to cancel! It's a great room. I never did see who got our rooms. I wanted to stop and see if they got our welcome back gifts and meet and mingle invitations. :D

I'll have Cozumel and our day at Nachi Cocum up shortly, but thought I'd mention Royal has updated my cruise history after 6 days.

I'll take congratulations from The Pinnacles, D+ and Diamonds first. Platinum and below please wait 24 hours.

KIDDING!

As an aside, why don't RCL ships out of Galveston go to Labadee ?

I'll have Cozumel and our day at Nachi Cocum up shortly, but thought I'd mention Royal has updated my cruise history after 6 days.

 

 

I'll take congratulations from The Pinnacles, D+ and Diamonds first. Platinum and below please wait 24 hours.

 

 

KIDDING!

I will say congratulations early! Even though I have not yet sailed on Royal, so not even lowly gold ;) I am enjoying your review immensely! :D

As an aside, why don't RCL ships out of Galveston go to Labadee ?

Guessing it's too expensive, i.e., they would have to burn more fuel to make it there and two other stops in 7 days from Galveston.

I'll have Cozumel and our day at Nachi Cocum up shortly, but thought I'd mention Royal has updated my cruise history after 6 days.

 

 

I'll take congratulations from The Pinnacles, D+ and Diamonds first. Platinum and below please wait 24 hours.

 

KIDDING!

Congratulations to one of Ohio's newest Diamond members.