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

[Jeffy294]

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?

 

The Farewell party was the last night, they only served Champagne but it was plenty of it. They got everybody up on stage dancing and such. I do miss the old Captains party myself, it was a lot of fun on the Conquest ships. This was held in the main show lounge. They did do a lot of Trivia during the day, it was listed on the little daily breakdown thingy that you tear off.

[BSQ]

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?

 

I didn't scan the tear offs. I'm not sure I have all of those, but will look this evening. As usual there were a few trivias each day. The one time we wanted to attend one the FunTimes said it started at 5pm. We got there at a quarter till and they were already on question 10 :eek: YMMV

 

Oh and the farwell party was at 5pm. We didn't attend.

 

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

I bow down to the most entertaining storyteller ever! Hey Jim! I started a new job last November that moved me from So Cal to Florida. I'll be thinking of y'all doing the swine repeat!! Every now n then I miss wavin to the ships. :D

[TortieGal]

Loved your review, my friend! Too bad we didn't have more for you to write about on our Splendor cruise. But how many different ways can you describe back to back to back to back to back sea days? ;)

[gometros]

We really enjoyed the Serenity Deck area. The only way to improve upon this area would be to have a pool up here. The showers were good enough for a break from the hot sun though.

 

The Habana Cigar bar was a nice place to sit and relax … apparently it had been changed to nonsmoking for a few weeks, then back to smoking during our cruise. I’m not a smoker, so selfishly I’d wished it had stayed non smoking. It was a good place to get away from all the chaos on the main decks. But, a Non Smoking Cigar Bar? Obviously that makes no sense.

We did throw away a little money in the casino, but otherwise didn’t spend much time in here. We browsed the promenade shops from time to time, and enjoyed sitting outside on deck three when we sailed away from ports (hardly anyone is every down here … very peaceful).

 

Loving your review so far. I have one dumb question. While I'd be happy if the whole ship was non-smoking, the Habana Cigar bar seems to be the one logical place where smoking should be allowed. Otherwise, why call it a cigar bar?

 

Also, I've been meaning to ask this question on a serenity thread, but since you mentioned it, I know there is an adult pool also. Is the adult pool area not as quiet as the serenity area? I like to sit and read and get wet once in a while, so I'd be more inclined to hang in the adult pool area. Just interested in the difference.

[McDebbie]

Guess this is one way to cut down on the return luggage... :D

 

Before ...

 

After…

 

 

I HAVE to stop reading these things at the office, laughed so hard they heard me down the hall.

[Irishlinny]

BSQ, just loved your review...wonderful writing style and wit!:D

We're trying to put together a group cruise for Nov 2011 (different ports), so am trying to get all I can about the ship.;) So glad you and BubbaQ had a great cruise!

[BSQ]

Loved your review, my friend! Too bad we didn't have more for you to write about on our Splendor cruise. But how many different ways can you describe back to back to back to back to back sea days? ;)

 

Thanks fellow Orphan. :D Hmmm, I wonder why no one asked for copies of the capers from that cruise. :confused: :D

 

 

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

 

They are a little hard to read, but the tear off sheets from the FunTimes are at the end of the album. I had them all except Friday.

[BSQ]

Loving your review so far. I have one dumb question. While I'd be happy if the whole ship was non-smoking, the Habana Cigar bar seems to be the one logical place where smoking should be allowed. Otherwise, why call it a cigar bar?

 

You're asking the wrong girl. I think John Heald's blog covered this little experiment,

 

Also, I've been meaning to ask this question on a serenity thread, but since you mentioned it, I know there is an adult pool also. Is the adult pool area not as quiet as the serenity area? I like to sit and read and get wet once in a while, so I'd be more inclined to hang in the adult pool area. Just interested in the difference.

 

Yes, there is an adult pool and the back of the ship on the Lido deck. It's a small pool and two hot tubs. It has a retractable roof, which was closed a couple times during our cruise, and that just made it soooo humid and stuffy back there.

 

I did see security enforce the no kids rule, but it's not a totally kid-free zone since they put it right next to the Pizzeria, an Ice Cream station and a Grill.

 

It is no where near as quiet as the Serenity area. I think BubbaQ and Jeffy took a couple trips down the waterslide from the Serenity area, otherwise, just using the deck shower was fine for us.

 

I liked the view better from the Serenity decks since they are more open, and they have a nice breeze as well. The sun loungers are nicer, there's sectional outdoor sofas in the shade near the bar area, and the clamshells (if you can get one) are kinda nice - though we preferred these for sail away and at night instead of actually lounging in the sun on them.

 

There were two Jacuzzi's on the top serenity deck ... I'm sure the chemicals in them neutralized em by now. :rolleyes:

[michelle1836]

and that concluded our expeditions on land. Two sea days were a head of us.

 

I can't remember when the past guest reception thing was, but my invitation was to the first one at something like 4pm ... we'd barely gotten back on the ship ... so the scheduling of that could have been better.

 

we actually never got our past guest invitations! we went to guest services and they gave us 4 free drink tickets :D

 

 

These were the two scheduling blips that stood out to me, though I think there were some others.

I wasnt' thrilled with the scheduling on this cruise either. I think I may try anytime dining next time

 

I've eluded to it a couple of times. BubbaQ is on the VERY tall side. Often it looked like his head all but grazed some of the ceilings. I was worried that the ship might get claustrophobic for him, but in all he said it wasn't too bad. I usually walked in front of him and often repeated the words "watch your head ...." So gentlemen above 6'10? prepare to stoop ... a lot.

even Dan at just a mere 6'3" banged his head on the balcony door at least twice

What a great review.

I will touch on what BSQ said about rude people. This was the worst I have ever seen it, and not just kids. We seen a couple doing the Rumpy Pumpy in port side hot tub on the Serenity deck while we were docked in Costa Rica, there were only a handful of people on the ship at this time. People are just not considerate anymore. I even noticed the kids sitting in the stairwells on this cruise, they blocked the whole thing I guess just to be smart arse's. Where did this trend start? I must have missed it. I am 6"7 325lbs so I just walked though them and never stopped, it was no need for me to say excuse me cause they were in the damn way, it was like parting of the red sea when I stomped my size 14's right through the center of them. If only BubbaQ had been with me we would have really done some damage.

LOL on the hot tub thing. I think Jeff has been scarred for life! and I saw many more kids running around on this cruise than on the Pride. I think the placement of the kids' clubs were a bit off

quote]

 

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?

yes you both are all that in person!! and thank you again for taking charge of the 'group' cruise

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)

[hobbyhrs97]

Thank you for the great and funny review, we are going on the Freedom in Jan.. have a tour booked for costa rica and waiting to book the canal tour when CCL drops this in.

I will have to keep a eye out for the martini thing and hope we get the past guest invite..Not to sure what they consider a past guest(it has been 5+ years since my last cruise)..no boos allowed due to the fact I get very sea sick... gonna try ginger this time!

[MarylandLady]

Hey BSQ!!! Great review!!!! Laughed my butt off several times!!! I had lunch with Michelle today and she told me your review was here. I hadn't seen it yet!

 

You are so right about the group cruise -- it will probably be a cold day in hell before I book one again -- that is, unless you are on it. I can depend on you to get our act together!!! Good job!!!

 

I agree that I found some pretty rude people on this ship -- don't know what that was about. I've seen some cranky people before, but this one was special!!!:rolleyes:

[BSQ]

Aw thanks Marylandlady. It was really a group effort to pull this one off. In the end, I think things happened the way they were supposed to cause seems like everyone had a great time. Our Roll Call Rocked!

 

So I would encourage everyone to participate in a roll call thread for your cruise. That's where the action was for planning this vacation.

[TortieGal]

Thanks fellow Orphan. :D Hmmm, I wonder why no one asked for copies of the capers from that cruise. :confused: :D

 

 

I usually save the capers from the cruises but when I got home from that one, I thought are these really going to be useful to anyone? :)