Freedom B2B Trip Review 4/28/13 - 5/12/13 (picture heavy)!!!

[Robinola]

The Courtyard Marriott in Cocoa Beach has a room with a jacuzzi in it. This hotel is wonderful, with shuttle service. Within walking distance to Ron Jon's surf shop and other area attractions, and right near the ocean. You can get shuttle service to and from the ship. Stayed there two years in a row. It's wonderful. Really good restaurants in the area also.

[Sisley]

Would you happen to have a picture of the champagne bar menu? Or could you give me an idea of the champagne prices by the glass or the champagne cocktails. I love champagne! :D

Thank you! :)

[AZAficionado]

your review is awesome...I am really enjoying your pictures. Thinking about booking Freedom for next year, looks like a beautiful ship. I am like you, always go to the best beaches...your pics are bringing back great memories! Thanks.

Where else would you go on vacation??? It is the best beaches or nothing. ;)

 

The Courtyard Marriott in Cocoa Beach has a room with a jacuzzi in it. This hotel is wonderful, with shuttle service. Within walking distance to Ron Jon's surf shop and other area attractions, and right near the ocean. You can get shuttle service to and from the ship. Stayed there two years in a row. It's wonderful. Really good restaurants in the area also.

Awesome!! Other options for places to stay when sailing out of Port Canaveral.

 

Would you happen to have a picture of the champagne bar menu? Or could you give me an idea of the champagne prices by the glass or the champagne cocktails. I love champagne! :D

Thank you! :)

I don't have a picture, but I do have some prices. Most of the champagne cocktails (Bellini Sunset, Sparkling Mojito/Maragarita, etc.) are all $7.75 (plus gratuity). The champagne prices vary from bottle to bottle. Veuve was $52 for the bottle and $13 per glass - they price their glass at 1/4 of a full bottle. I think the Mirabelle was less than that. Some were cheaper than Veuve and many were more expensive. I think the most expensive by the glass was $32, and by the bottle was $300 - obviously not everything is available by the glass.

[AZAficionado]

Day 12 (5) - Philipsburg, St. Maarten

 

 

Reading material.

 

 

As usual, my research was about finding a beach and food/drink nearby. Orient beach came up so much that I decided to go with the less popular choice of Dawn beach, about 3 miles from the port. Yes, I decided against the "nude" beach (just FYI, most beaches on the island are clothing-optional). Nude beaches are like false advertising. Sure, some people are nude, but you really wish they weren't. And the ones you really want to see nude, aren't. Right on Dawn beach is Mr. Busby's Beach Bar which turns into Daniel's By The Sea at night. It is supposed to have good food. The plan was to grab a taxi to Dawn beach and spend the day there. On the way back, if there was time, we could do some light shopping in town.

 

Seriously?!? Rain?!? I know we've been pretty lucky so far, but can't we get just one more day of sunshine? Sigh.

[Icruzthere4Iam]

Thanks so much for taking the time to inform and entertain us. It is very much appreciated. I look forward to my turn on Freedom in September!!

 

If you haven't stopped in here's the roll call for 9/22 Freedom, looking forward to being onboard and this wonderful review is fueling that!! Take care, Jim

[AZAficionado]

Change of plan: We decided to walk around town and hopefully stay somewhat dry. Luckily the rain gave up in the late morning.

 

The port area.

 

I thought this looked kinda cool.

 

It appears that you have to take a water taxi into town ($7 each, but you can ride it all day long - not a bad deal). However, this is not the only option. You can leave the port area and walk to town, depending on your mobility. If the thought of walking 4 laps on the jogging track seems like a good way to burn off some calories, you can walk to town. You see, the water taxi is actually a Diamonds International-sponsored boat, complete with marketing video that tells you to "run, don't walk, to Diamond's International as soon as you reach the pier". I don't think their lawyers approved that video...

 

We walked around town. There were plenty of shops selling all kinds of stuff. However, it was a holiday on the Dutch side of the island (the side we docked on).

 

 

 

 

The beach in town looked kinda nice, but I bet in good weather it gets super crowded.

[AZAficionado]

Since we had really nothing else to do, we decided to go to Dawn beach and at least see what it looked like. I think a lot of people ended up taking a taxi tour of all the beaches on the island.

 

This is the harbor right next to Dawn's beach.

 

 

Really pretty. Too bad about the weather. Next time I'm in St. Maarten, I'm coming back here.

 

Mr. Busby's Beach Bar which has a restaurant and bar and rents all the usual beach equipment (loungers, umbrellas, snorkel gear, etc.)

 

Amstel Bright (excellent, $1 each 11am to 4 pm, 9 oz. bottle) - hard to beat this deal.

[AZAficionado]

Crab Baguette (excellent, very fresh crab salad on a soft but crusty roll) and BBQ Chicken (excellent, thin cutlet grilled with tangy BBQ sauce).

 

As we were having lunch, our waiter from Portofino and the manager of Portofino and Chops walk in for lunch. It turns out that Mr. Busby's has live lobster. If you are at a place that the crew eats, the food is going to be good. And it was!

 

We headed back into town and walked around some more.

 

We stopped in here for a drink at the end of the day.

 

Mojito (excellent, made with Havana Club rum from Cuba. Shhhhh, don't tell the government).

 

Of course the sun came out after we left port. Oh, well. We still had a great time.

[AZAficionado]

I didn't discover this sooner, but they offer a special in the Casino from 5:30 to 7:00: $3 minimum tables! It made for a nice way to vary my bets a lot without gambling that much. I'm not much of a gambler, but I do enjoy playing Blackjack. Went before dinner and had a blast (and won).

 

It was Wash & Fold day again. I managed to cram 14 socks, 14 t-shirts and 11 undies into that bag. Looks like ~40 items is what you can expect.

 

Tropical Martini (S) (good, tasted like a piña colada, nothing special) and more Veuve Clicquot but on my wife's Sea Pass to burn up one of those BOGO wine "coupons". Too bad it was linked to my credit card. Doh.

 

Crab Cake (very good, big lumps of crab, great flavors) and Caesar Salad (as always, very good).

 

Angus Sliders (very good, great flavors, aioli was fantastic) and Orieccetti Pasta (excellent, short rib ragu was rich and full of flavor).

[Icruzthere4Iam]

Mojito (excellent, made with Havana Club rum from Cuba. Shhhhh, don't tell the government).

 

 

Yes please!! God those look good.........:D

[AZAficionado]

Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel 2009 (very good, nice combination of forward fruits and spice)

 

Rum Baba (excellent, very moist rum cake was complimented well by vanilla ice cream) and Cherries Jubilee (good, nothing special and a bit too sweet).

 

Tonight, the waiters danced for us.

 

Which caused everyone to get on their feet.

[AZAficionado]

Went back to the Casino (won again - almost back to breaking even for the whole trip). Clearly, this vacation was starting to take its toll and we started ending our nights early.

 

The penguin and dinosaur were witness to this.

 

Two sea days left! After 12 days on the Freedom, could we still find things to do? I guess we'll all find out later...

[AZAficionado]

Mojito (excellent, made with Havana Club rum from Cuba. Shhhhh, don't tell the government).

 

 

Yes please!! God those look good.........:D

They were fantastic. There is a Greenhouse on St. Thomas too.;)

[Icruzthere4Iam]

They were fantastic. There is a Greenhouse on St. Thomas too.;)

 

This is excellent information sir, thank you!! :D

[OTownNick]

I didn't see anything in your review mentioned about the outdoor movie screen. Did they show any movies under the stars?

[Zhane's mum]

We headed back into town to walk around a bit.

 

Oh no! Not again!!! Luckily, no. Residents of the Caribbean: You can build coops for your chickens instead of letting them just run wild.

 

True, it can be scary to happen across a chicken as you're walking along, but nothing beats free range chicken!! :D

[AZAficionado]

I didn't see anything in your review mentioned about the outdoor movie screen. Did they show any movies under the stars?

They were showing movies on the big screen at various different times. I believe one night they showed James Bond Skyfall.

 

We headed back into town to walk around a bit.

 

Oh no! Not again!!! Luckily' date=' no. Residents of the Caribbean: You can build coops for your chickens instead of letting them just run wild.[/quote']

 

True, it can be scary to happen across a chicken as you're walking along, but nothing beats free range chicken!! :D

I'm guessing you didn't read my chicken story from Day 5 at Grand Cayman. That was scary.

 

An aside: I was reading News of the Weird last night and they had a piece on the popular trend of keeping chickens in urban areas. This has caused a number of businesses to sprout up including one that sells "saddles" for chickens to prevent hens from losing most or all of their tail feathers when the roosters decide to have a "moment of passion". Look at all the things I've been learning that I never really wanted to know...LOL

Edited May 24, 2013 by AZAficionado

[AZAficionado]

Day 13 (6) - At Sea

 

 

What's happening on the ship:

 

 

And into everyone's life, a little rain must fall...

 

It was not a very nice day - very windy, overcast with sporadic rain. Most of the activities up on deck were moved to other locations. A number of activities were added. Overall, Richard Spacey and his staff did a very nice job of switching things up at the last minute.

 

We decided to try Johnny Rockets again. We had the exact same waiter who did a fantastic job again.

 

Fries & Onion Rings (very good, came with ranch dressing on the side, tender steak fries, crunchy onion rings). Just as good as last time.

[AZAficionado]

Twelve (out of ten) (excellent, very tender and juicy, very flavorful "red" sauce - ketchup with a bit of spice, reminded me of In-And-Out Burger) and Smokehouse Burger (double) (excellent, smoky bacon, mild white cheddar, onion rings, 1,000 island sauce, very tender and juicy, subtle smoky flavor). My wife ate about 1/3 of the Smokehouse Burger before throwing in the towel. It doesn't look like it, but that thing is huge.

 

To be honest, we were both beat and were engrossed in books we were reading. We spent most of the afternoon just reading. We did hit the Casino later for a few hours, which was fun. Total for the vacation we were down $20. I can't complain about that.

 

Mirabelle which was excellent.

 

My understanding is that the Champagne Bar recently got a new menu, which I think is much improved. There are a number of champagnes on it that looked interesting. I'll admit to liking pink champagnes and they had several on the list I wanted to try. It was very disappointing that they didn't have most of the new stuff in stock at all.

 

While I'm at it, I'll mention that a few times at dinner, they didn't have some of the wines in stock. I remember going to a third choice at some point before picking something that was in stock. I'll cut them some slack since in every case I was ordering things that most people won't order. While I didn't do the Wine & Dine package, both couples at our table did. They never had a problem getting a bottle from the list. So, that problem appears to have been resolved.

 

Dinner was a second shot at Portofino. From talking to our waiter, all of the Portofinos in the fleet are going to be replaced with Giovanni's Table at some point. I guess RCCL is having to pay for the name or something. Personally, I think Portofino is much better and I hope they keep many of the menu item from Portofino and transfer them to Giovanni's Table. However, all of this is speculation from a waiter.

 

Bread - Almost too pretty to eat. Actually, at this point in the cruise, it didn't get touched.

 

Crostini (excellent, nice variety - tomato, mozzarella, tuna, duck, spicy seafood) and Frittelle di Patate e Zucchini (excellent, potato fritter, zucchini tempura, veal fritter).

[AZAficionado]

Ossobuco alla Piemontese (outstanding, fall off the bone tender, on a bed of polenta, rich sauce) and Filetto di Manzo (excellent, super tender filet with a red wine rosemary sauce).

 

Dessert Sampler (very good, tiramisu, warm chocolate cake, marscapone cake, fresh berries and cream) and Ricotta Tart (excellent, pine nuts and ricotta, not too sweet).

 

 

Why?!? Why must they bring these? I'm completely addicted to the crispy chocolate log-thingies.

 

Knowing this would probably be our last night in here, I had to take a picture.

[AZAficionado]

Twenty was the late-night activity.

 

Our DJ.

 

Who kicked things off by jumping in the pool right away. That's him climbing out of the pool.

 

This caused lots of people to get in the pool. This week's crowd was a little more enthusiastic that last week's.

 

One of the dancers.

 

The moving "statues". It must have been so hot inside those suits.

[AZAficionado]

 

There was a bigger turnout than last week.

 

There is also an after-party up in the Viking Crown, starting at 2:00 am. We went. It was lots of fun. It was also a big mistake for us. We should have went to bed long before 2:30 am. I just can't party like I'm 20 anymore. Sigh.

 

Beware of 'gators.

 

We'll get to see how big of a mistake the after-party was tomorrow...

[KLStrategies]

15 days and counting until the FOS Western trip! Just cant keep away from your daily reviews, what will we do next week!!

[Ilovepj]

Loving your review, can you tell me if there is shopping right off the ship in st marten and st Thomas?

 

Thanks

[Clarea]

Loving your review, can you tell me if there is shopping right off the ship in st marten and st Thomas?

 

Thanks

Yes there is shopping within walking distance at both ports.