7/31 Freedom – Rude People, Cows and Bears! Oh My!

[Ready4cruisin]

Thank you so much for this review! I really enjoyed reading everything. I love your humor! It has made me even more excited for my cruise in September. (if getting MORE excited was possible) Thanks again!

Jen

[Frygirl23]

Great review!!!

[Jacquelyn11]

I work nights in a hospital, and this was a great read to keep me entertained Sat night-Sun morning!

 

(I live in the south, “Coke” translates to all sodas).

 

What can I say You can take the redneck BubbaQ out of Atlanta, but ya can't keep him away from Wal-Mart. XOXO BubbaQ I know you're lurking. :cool:

 

Being a GRITS (Girl Raised In The South) I understand this! "What kind of Coke do you want? A Sprite? A Fanta? A Fresca? A Tab?" I never knew what a Pepsi or a "pop" was till college!

 

And we LOVE our Wally Worlds here, thank-you-very-much!!:p It's were all the good "bubba's" get their Talking Fish and Deer Heads" for their walls! :eek:

 

Going to the Panama Canal is one of my "future" cruises planned. I looked into this one for my cruise next May/June but it didn't work out with my schedule. One of these days!

 

Entertaining, informative review! Let us know when you and Bubba plan the next cruise!

 

Jacquelyn :D

[golfadj]

Great review.

 

We did this cruise in Feb and had an outstanding time. Rey of myfriendmario was outstanding.

[Cathy p]

Fantastic review. We only wish we had been there with you guys. Every day I would look at the calandar and say we could be here or there.lo Sorry we had to cancel, however, we are retiring in Florida and hope to see you peeps on another cruise.

[Jeffy294]

 

Now that would have been funny. You know, with me being 6'9", 277lbs (at the start of the cruise, I won't say now :( ). One evening BSQ made me do my best Mike Alstott and pave the way to the Bar Nouveau. Remember how he used to do that, BSQ? Especially in Super Bowl XXXVII. :cool:

 

I have pics from the eastern side of Cozumel. Don't know if I can post them with only this post under my belt though.

 

That's just wrong.

 

Nice!!! Thats just how we roll:p I gotta another good picture of Cathrine from the front all dressed up, but I don't wanna post it since you can see the guys faces, I might be able to blur them out. I wonder if Cathrine has a Twitter? The Rare Bovine Pezius picture and caption just cracks me up every time I look at it. That little fella looks different from the other ones, must not be kin folk.:p

[debee1015]

COCKTAIL TIME!

 

Another socializing time we’d coordinated for our roll call was a nightly Cocktail Club. We’d selected the Nouveau Wine Bar, timing it so both early and late diner could drop by. In the Funtimes, I’d noticed a Martini tasting. We’re there. The description was “try 4 Martinis for a special price”. Now we weren’t sure if this was any 4 regular Martini’s or what.

 

 

$15 bought you a Martini Sampler. Mango, apple, pomegranate, a Cosmo, and what ever the blue one is were our choices. (I think), I followed this up with a Cosmo and Appletini. Maria is the bartender here and we LOVE her. She’s the best on the ship and this was the perfect location for pre-dinner cocktails. We just had to go down two flights of stairs (watch your heads) to the Posh Dining Room (lower level) for dinner each night.

The downside (a matter of perspective here) was our cocktail club lasting an hour. One can easily knock back 3 martinis in that time if one’s not careful. I don’t drink a lot. Nuff said.

 

On the Glory last October they did the 4 martini sampler, I went to the early and the late tasting (after the first 4 Martini's I split the 4 on the second go round with my guest). But I'm disappointed to see them put the martini in a wine glass

 

[KCMarie]

LOVED your review!

 

Wonderfully interesting writing style and slant on your experiences! Would absolutely want to be acruisin with y'all.

 

Point to ponder today...Wonder how many boxes of Depends I could take in my luggage, cause I would definitely need them being around your group!

 

(Making note to send this thread to my sister - an avid Mooo lover. I kidnapped her Mooo wreath one time from her front porch and sent it to Virginia to my daughter, my co-conspirator. From there, the Mooo had pictures taken all over the east coast and sent to my sister with ransom demands. Actually took sis quite a while to figure out what the heck happened to her Mooo and who the responsible parties were.)

[ClevelandTNCruisers]

Great review! Thanks for sharing!!!

[BSQ]

Being a GRITS (Girl Raised In The South) I understand this! "What kind of Coke do you want? A Sprite? A Fanta? A Fresca? A Tab?" I never knew what a Pepsi or a "pop" was till college!

 

I'm a Southern Californian who transplanted to Atlanta 13 years ago ... I had to go cold turkey from Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi.

 

The southern thing, brings me to the iced tea. In something I had read on board, it referred to the iced tea as "Sweetened Ice Tea". For any Southern New Cruisers ... it is NOT Sweet Tea.

 

Some other things I forgot to mention ...

 

I had to iron for BubbaQ one night, I knew there was an iron in the laundry room, so off I went. Here I faced a very unexpected obstacle. The iron is set up for right-handed people. Do you know what it's like to have to try to iron backwards??? So my fellow leftys ... practice right handed ironing at home. It was not easy.

 

I did do laundry. $3 to wash, and $3 to dry a load. We were on deck 6, the laundry room was in full use and there was a line of people waiting to wash their clothes. :eek: I walked up a flight of stairs and the laundry room on deck 7 was completely empty. So if you're doing laundry ... don't be afraid to check out the laundry rooms on other decks ... it might just be worth your walk.

 

Room Service was painfully[/b] s-l-o-w. WE decided to order lunch before our Cocktail party. When I called in the order, after the gal took everything down she said "It's going to be an hour, is that OK?" :eek: We canceled our order.

 

The one time we did use it, it was a 40 minute wait which from what I gather from others ... that was actually pretty quick. I'd heard some waits were upwards of 2 hours. So if you're using room service. Plan ahead.

 

Piano Bar was disappointing to me. My Splendor cruise was the first time I'd really gotten into going to the piano bar and it was a blast (Ron Pass is awesome!). In the Freedom Piano Bar was Rob Something or other (I only remember that much of his name cause it's in the FunTimes). The one time we went it was actually a little boring, he may not have even been in tune ... there was something about it that hurt my ears. (yeah, I'm actually a musician).

 

The Martini tasting was 5pm to Midnight the first night. :D

[BSQ]

On the Glory last October they did the 4 martini sampler, I went to the early and the late tasting (after the first 4 Martini's I split the 4 on the second go round with my guest). But I'm disappointed to see them put the martini in a wine glass

 

 

yours looked bigger. now I feel all gypped. The one on the end is pretty. (that's why I drink Martinis ... they are pretty) :D

[BSQ]

LOVED your review!

 

Wonderfully interesting writing style and slant on your experiences! Would absolutely want to be acruisin with y'all.

 

Point to ponder today...Wonder how many boxes of Depends I could take in my luggage, cause I would definitely need them being around your group!

 

(Making note to send this thread to my sister - an avid Mooo lover. I kidnapped her Mooo wreath one time from her front porch and sent it to Virginia to my daughter, my co-conspirator. From there, the Mooo had pictures taken all over the east coast and sent to my sister with ransom demands. Actually took sis quite a while to figure out what the heck happened to her Mooo and who the responsible parties were.)

 

Oh that's just wrong!! Just for your sister ....

 

 

just like any vacation family portrait ... his hoof is behind her head.

[nybumpkin]

 

I had to iron for BubbaQ one night, I knew there was an iron in the laundry room, so off I went. Here I faced a very unexpected obstacle. The iron is set up for right-handed people. Do you know what it's like to have to try to iron backwards??? So my fellow leftys ... practice right handed ironing at home. It was not easy.

I'm glad you mentioned that for all the leftys out there. The most I've ironed there is DH's and the boys' shirts for elegant night and it was a struggle. (I know, the answer is let them iron for themselves, but that's a disaster waiting to happen.:rolleyes:)

 

LOVED your review - thanks for sharing! We had Rey as our guide in Panama when we were there on Liberty three years ago (we did the beach and Gatun Locks tour) - Mario's tours are a great option in Panama.

[BSQ]

Seriously, thank you all for your kind words. I don't know that BubbaQ and I are all that in person ... But I do know we don't take ourselves too seriously. We're adults traveling with stuffed cowz ... could we really?

 

BubbaQ is usually quite shy. Cruising seemed to agree with him. Towards the end of the cruise I did tell him he needed an edit button. While I have an edit button, I don't always use it. :D (ok ok, seldom)

 

We drank a lot this vacation, normally we don't. We did buy one of the future cruise certificates (at BubbaQ's suggestion) so I think I'm gonna let him pick our next cruise.

 

Everyone has as story to tell after vacation. I'm glad you enjoyed hearing ours.

[BSQ]

I'm glad you mentioned that for all the leftys out there. The most I've ironed there is DH's and the boys' shirts for elegant night and it was a struggle. (I know, the answer is let them iron for themselves, but that's a disaster waiting to happen.:rolleyes:)

 

EXACTLY! I didn't want to be subjected to everyone's glares and the whispers "dude, that's the girl sailing with the guy that caught the laundry room on fire"

:eek:

[Jeffy294]

EXACTLY! I didn't want to be subjected to everyone's glares and the whispers "dude, that's the girl sailing with the guy that caught the laundry room on fire"

:eek:

RFLMAO.......Thats just wrong:eek:

[UpstateCruizer]

Great review Loraine~! We sailed with you on the Swine Flu Cruise but didn't get to spend alot of time chatting on that one (not sure why). We booked this Freedom cruise for October 2011 and look forward to it. Steven and I will be attempting a second shot at the Splendor in May and pray we see something besides San Fransisco ;)

 

Gotta check out your pics and love the ones you've posted in the review :)

[debee1015]

yours looked bigger. now I feel all gypped. The one on the end is pretty. (that's why I drink Martinis ... they are pretty) :D

 

The one on the end was a Red devil, it was pretty much 100% alcohol and no juice or anything.

 

Did they give you the choice of 7 Martini's? We had a little sheet and you could choose the 4 you wanted. I was VERY surprised when all 4 were full sized martini's. It was worth the $15 pp. Also other people's experiences differ but I felt the bartenders were very generous in regards to the amount of liquor in the drinks. Just MHO though.

[zachnlucy]

BSQ, which tequila tasting in Cozumel did you take?

[Indiansbaseball]

I nominate BSQ and BubbaQ as cruise directors for the next CC Cruise !!! Anyone second this nomination??

 

Jen

 

By the way, we did the Martini tasting on the Glory back in March... and you have different choices then we had. No Red devil on our list..might have to do this again. I agree..well worth the $15

[BSQ]

BSQ, which tequila tasting in Cozumel did you take?

 

On our own we drove over to Hacienda Antiqua. Heading away from downtown on the transversal road it's just past San Gervasio ruins.

 

The tastings were only of their tequilas, Cava Antigua ... which is pretty good stuff.

[BubbaQ]

I did tell him he needed an edit button. While I have an edit button, I don't always use it. :D (ok ok, seldom)

Alas, the use of the edit button is proportionate to the amount of alcohol consumed. Given where we were, the use was almost totally unavailable.

[Sherry84]

Best review I've read! Informative, funny, witty and included my favorite thing...photos! Also, love the cows, but the photo of the spider :eek: I HATE spiders! :p

[dumbwaiterboy]

Did they do the Farwell party the last night with the free drinks? When and where? I'll be on the sailing in less than two weeks...

 

Also, the funtimes seems kinda slow, were there other events (like trivia and stuff) that you didn't scan?

[vanislandcruisers]

HACIENDA ANTIGUA TEQUILA TOUR

except that it was $14 and would be either really dumb or really interesting. It was actually $10 (special price just for you my friends) and really interesting!! I mean REALLY interesting (to us anyway).

 

 

 

And then we started the sampling. You’re given two squirts (four for us … their special friends) into a plastic little cup and Paco explained the flavors we tasted within the tequila, about the type of tequila, if it’s aged, how long and in what. (Tequila tasting is very similar to wine tasting). All with us nodding and enjoying, occasionally blurting out the flavors we taste. By the time we got to our third sample (anejo) Paco noticed how we did our tastings. He exclaimed “Ah you know! You know how to drink good tequila!”

 

BSQ

 

Wasn't surprised to read you went on a Tequila Tour;):D

 

When did you move??..We are doing a Splendor do-over in October and were gonna toast you as we left Long Beach....well we will still have a drink(s) for ya and will look Southeast towards Florida

 

and Great job on the Review!!!

 

and like you we loved the Bar Noveau on the Freedom