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5soonerfans

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    Just off Freedom - Trip Report

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    We were also on the same cruise and agree with everything you have said! It was our third time on the Freedom for the same cruise. We think the food in the MDR was some of the best we have had in quite awhile. We went to the Coco Beach Club this trip and have rented the daybeds before. Both are very. nice. It was a Perfect Day. 🙂

    • Like 1

    Current Concierges continued discussion

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    On 10/12/2021 at 12:34 PM, 5soonerfans said:

    We just got off the Freedom and enjoyed visiting with Carlington every evening. We told him we may be back in mid- November and he said he will still be there. 

     

    On 11/4/2021 at 7:43 AM, SRF said:

     

    Good to hear that Carlington is working.  I had him on Grandeur for 3 cruises.

     

    When you see him again, tell him that Terry and Rossy from GRandeur say HI.

    We are sailing on the Freedom this coming Friday and in a suite this time. We got an email from the suite concierge and it is Carlington! I will be sure to tell him. 

    10:15 am flight out of Miami?

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Thanks everyone. We do have TSA Pre-check. We just flew home from Miami yesterday and everything went quickly. Although, I do think a lot of people had changed their flights to earlier days because of Dorian and the airport was not very busy. We were there for a wedding on Saturday and was supposed to be on the Navigator today, but did not want to stay around until Wednesday for a shortened 2 night cruise. We are going to take a chance and have a back-up plan just in case. 

    10:15 am flight out of Miami?

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Has anyone booked an early flight with success? We will be on the Navigator and back at the Miami port on a Friday morning and plan to self-disembark. I know it all depends on the ship getting cleared, but I can only remember one time we experienced a delay and that was many years ago in San Diego. Looking at our flight options I am almost willing to take a chance. 

    Radiance of the Seas Alaska Northbound, May 18, 2018

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    As always, life got in the way when we got home, but I have finally wrote a report of our trip. I have also attached a link to view the Compasses, menus, and some miscellaneous stuff. The link is shareable and you do not need a Google account to view.

    Please let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer or hopefully someone else can who has just cruised.

    Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pk6H9MkLRBu9FmnP8CfSAtasKBQc9gqT?usp=sharing

    May 18, 2018 Alaska Northbound

     

    Background: Myself (51), Hubby (51), Son and daughter-in-law (both 28), Son (26) and his fiancée (25) and son (21). We are all from Oklahoma. We stayed in two Owners Suites and one Grand Suite. All rooms were in great condition. Our stateroom attendant, Putu, was very good.

    We flew to Vancouver on the evening of May 16 and stayed at the Fairmont Waterfront. It was in the perfect location next to the cruise terminal. The only time we used a taxi was when going to Granville Island. The best thing was they took our luggage to the cruise terminal and checked it in for us. We didn’t see it until it was delivered to our stateroom.

     

    On May 17 we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. There is a free shuttle from Canada Place and we enjoyed our time there. We then rented bikes and rode around Stanley Park for a couple of hours. We had a light meal at the Cactus Club before heading over to Granville Island. For dinner we went to Joe Fortes which was very good, but pricey.

    The morning of the cruise some went to Tim Horton’s for breakfast which was very near the hotel. The hotel then took our luggage to the cruise terminal for us which was a very nice bonus.

     

    We checked in for the cruise around 11:30am. We did the usual for us, eating lunch, making spa appointments and confirming our MTD reservations. I am never confident with the cruise planner when linking reservations.

     

    MDR - The menus were newish. We have had them before on some of our cruises, but not last year on the Radiance. I would have to say that there were some parts I liked better, but overall not sure. The Vidalia Onion Tart is not as good as the original and there was one chilled soup. The gluten-free options were not all that great, but luckily our son is willing to be adaptable. The head waiter did stop by every night and Ben would place his order. He would ask if they could make something GF and sometimes they could. On Day 6 I asked if I could have the Savory Bites and Abhinav, our waiter, made it happen for the night of Day 7.

    Dress code – Most nights were casual except the two formal nights. You saw jeans, pants, casual dresses on those nights. On the formal nights there were quite a few dressed up, but mostly pants and long sleeve shirts for the guys and dresses or nice pants and tops for the women. I don’t remember seeing anyone wearing jeans on either formal night.

     

    We ate in Samba Grill one night and it was very good. There was a small salad bar to begin the meal. They then brought out some side dishes to go with all the meat they were going to bring out. There were seven different types of meat and they were all good. My one suggestion is to go hungry! It is a lot of food.

     

    Concierge Lounge – Ricardo Sanchez was the concierge. He was very helpful when I made a request. He also arranged for there to be a hot and cold plate of GF items for my son every evening.

     

    Diamond Lounge – Only three of us are Diamond, so we only went to the CL. I did pop in to the DL during cocktail hour to see how busy it was, and it did not seem to be overcrowded. Some of the regulars can probably give a better viewpoint. The food was the same in both lounges.

     

    Casino Royale – There was letter in the stateroom for each C&A member. We were all Choice, except for dear hubby, who is Prime. One word of advice: if playing Craps make sure both dice hit the wall every time or they will call it a No Roll and there is no warning.

     

    Ketchikan – We decided not to do anything here except walk around the town and do a little shopping. We ate lunch at Bar Harbor and it was very good.

     

    Icy Strait Point – Most of the group went Halibut fishing with Hooked Adventures. Not a lot of look as only one halibut was caught, but the group had fun. There are a lot of eagles to be seen. As we were leaving ISP we saw quite a few whales.

     

    Juneau – This was my favorite last year and again this year. We did the Canoe Paddle and Mendenhall Glacier Trek. We paddled over to the glacier and then hiked on it. Our guide, Daniel, drilled two ice spikes into the edge of a crevasse and then attached ropes to them and then to our harnesses, so we could lean back and look down into the crevasse. I am sure there are more technical terms to the whole process. The glacier has changed quite a bit since we were there last year.

    Skagway – We did the Musher Camp and Dog Sledding excursion. We were picked up at the port and drove up to the camp. We were pulled by sixteen dogs for a short sled ride. Our driver and owner of the dogs is the grandson of the Iditarod founder. We then met the dogs and late listened to a short and interesting talk about the Iditarod. After the talk we were able to play with a few of the puppies.

     

    Hubbard Glacier – We were not able to get very close to the glacier as there was a lot of ice in the water, but it was still amazing.

     

    Seward – We used Anchorage Tours and Transfers. Our driver, Ira, picked us up at the pier and we spent the day driving towards the Anchorage airport. Ira was very informative and took us to some spots for photos. We went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center for a bit. We then went to Alyeska Ski Resort and rode a tram up the mountain and had lunch. It is very scenic at the top and snow was still on the ground. On the way down, we saw a mother bear and her three bear cubs. After a couple of more photo stops and quick tour of downtown Anchorage Ira dropped us off at the airport around 6 pm. The price for the seven of us was the same as using RCCL’s bus excursion and included the tickets to the conservation center, the tram and a $20 lunch voucher for each of us. It was great that it was only the seven of us. T i

     

    We loved the cruise and I think I could do it every year. Having done both the southbound and the northbound, I prefer the southbound. This is mostly because that last day of the northbound is long and the flights home are so late. If northbound was the only option I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

    Radiance of the Seas Alaska Northbound, May 18, 2018

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    There was no immigration check on board and they did not take our passport. We never had to fill out an immigration form. If you are sailing from Vancouver, everything is taken care of at the cruise terminal before boarding and it is very easy. If sailing from Seward, the process is also easy when getting off the ship in Vancouver. When flying from Vancouver you actually go through US Customs at the airport before getting on the plane, not when you land at your destination in the US.

     

    Yes, they did show movies on the big screen even though it was chilly. People were usually in the hot tub and occasionally some kids would be in the pool. Four movies were shown everyday throughout the ship

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

    Radiance of the Seas Alaska Northbound, May 18, 2018

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    We popped into the DL a couple of times to check it out, but did not stay since only 3 of us in the group were Diamond. It never seemed to be too crowded and as far as dress, you saw everything. We went to the CL every night and sometimes we were in our casual clothes and sometimes we were dressed for dinner.

     

    I have started my trip report and scanned the compasses and hope to have it published by the weekend. My week has been crazier than anticipated, so I am slow to get it done.

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