B2B On the Freedom ~ August 18th & 25th: My Diary

[maxs mom]

 

Just wanted you to know that we perched under those two trees the last 4 cruises and hope to do it again in July!!!!!!!!

 

Sea Ya

 

Love that spot!

[MsBrownize]

Great review and pics! Thank you!!

[maxs mom]

Friday ~ August 23rd ~ Cozumel

We didn't dock here until 10:00 so we had a little extra time this morning. Weather looks a little iffy today.

Breakfast was good, once again. We shared a table with 5 cousins from a family from London who were also on the B2B.

The arrival in Cozumel:

We cleared right at 10:00 so we got off and made the long walk to the taxi stand. We immediately got a taxi to our favorite place here......Nachi Cocum. We've been going here for years. They only let 100 people in per day so it never gets too crowded. (My kind of place!) Usually there are only 40- 50 people there, but today they were full. We got there early so we got some premier chairs. You must make reservations for Nachi at Island Marketing. You pay a $12pp deposit at that time, then pay the rest when you get there. There were a couple of new changes since the last time we were there. You can now buy a Wi-Fi package for the day for $5. And you can pay your balance with a credit card where as before, you had to pay in cash.

Nachi is an All Inclusive, so all our drinks and food were covered. We got set up in our chairs under a great palapa and ordered our favorite Mexican beer......Pacifico.

Some ominous clouds were rolling in and it was very hot, so I quickly made as many pictures as I could before the weather got worse.

Here is our nice little spot of prime real estate:

[Geema]

I just found your review this morning! Glad to see you are having another great cruise! Really looking forward to your Independence review to see how you liked it after the new changes to her!

[maxs mom]

There's a great pool here with a hot tub and a swim up bar.

Here's the pier and a look at those clouds I was talking about.

A nice family from NY came and sat next to us. We enjoyed talking to them.

Soon the clouds really rolled in and it began to rain a little. The temperature went down a good bit. A lot of people were chased under the shelter, but our palapa was good cover, so we just stayed put and rode it out. We read and sipped on our Pacificos. It really didn't rain that much. We swam in the ocean, ordered our lunch......once again.....too much food! I got a fruit salad, chips and salsa, chicken tacos and John got his usual hamburger. (We lived in Mexico for two years and he never ate any Mexican food!) It was all very good.

We just relaxed, read, listened to music, and before we knew it......it was 3 o'clock. Our waiter called a taxi for us and we headed back to the ship. Another great beach day, even though the weather wasn't the best.

[maxs mom]

I just found your review this morning! Glad to see you are having another great cruise! Really looking forward to your Independence review to see how you liked it after the new changes to her!

 

Yes.....I'm really looking forward to checking out those changes on the Indy......especially Giovanni's Table!!!

[maxs mom]

So it was back to the ship.

Only a short time to rest this afternoon, but with a nice view:

The Mexican beer got to us a little bit, so that slowed us down this evening! Another quiet night in the CL.

Dinner was good tonight. The waiters did some magic tricks for us and Franco even sang for us.

We were too tired to do anything else tonight. I think the 70's party was tonight. I always enjoy that, but we turned in early!

[Ocean Boy]

Mistake.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Ocean Boy

[CathyCanada]

Loving your Diary and thanks for the info on Nachi Cocum, always looking for different things to do in Cozumel.

 

Sorry you missed the Royal Palms, we love it there!

 

Looking forward to more...

[maxs mom]

Loving your Diary and thanks for the info on Nachi Cocum, always looking for different things to do in Cozumel.

 

Sorry you missed the Royal Palms, we love it there!

 

Looking forward to more...

 

Oh....we'll be back to Royal Palms in a couple of months! Don't worry!

[cruising bean]

Love your reviews. We are booked on Freedom for Dec14. Cannot wait.

 

Reading everything on this ship. Thanks for doing this.

[maxs mom]

Saturday ~ August 24th ~ At Sea

Wow! It's Saturday already! I'm just now getting in the cruise groove. Good thing we've got another week. I would hate to have to get off tomorrow!

This morning we had breakfast with the Officers at 9 o'clock in Portofino. It was very nice. There were about 5 or 6 tables set up with a couple of Officers at each table including the Captain. (Who was Ron Holms, by the way......I don't think I ever got a picture of him....but he was very visible throughout the cruise.)

We were served mimosas and several courses. I had a poached egg on sourdough with salmon and spinach.......quite good!

We sat with the head of Human Resources and the Chief Engineer and his wife. Very nice conversation. Nice time.

At 11:15 we met with all the consecutive cruisers to be informed of the procedure for getting off and back on tomorrow and get our new sea pass cards. We were served mimosas there, too! I forgot to mention that we met some former cruise buddies (June and George) on this cruise who had been on the previous two weeks and on the spur of the moment, booked next week as well. We sat with them at the meeting.

And here we are headed back to Port Canaveral:

[sadie8]

Jane - Always love your reviews and pictures. Can't wait for week two.

[cruisinconniebean]

Wonderful review...I'm taking my first cruise on Freedom in just a few short weeks and now I really can't wait :)

[maxs mom]

After the Consecutive Cruiser meeting I strolled the Promenade. It was a little difficult because they were having some sort of street party and it was very crowded. It was quite nice, though. They were serving all sorts of food and drinks.....really good stuff. I walked from one end to the other and back again and saw a lot of interesting sights.

A lot of people were eating here, so maybe the WJ won't be so crowded today.

[maxs mom]

Jane - Always love your reviews and pictures. Can't wait for week two.

 

Hey Janet! Always nice to "see" you on the boards! Hope you have a cruise lined up for the near future.

[maxs mom]

Wonderful review...I'm taking my first cruise on Freedom in just a few short weeks and now I really can't wait :)

 

Thanks! Hope you have nice weather for your cruise. Shouldn't be many kids on board at that time!

[LA Law]

Jane: Great review as always. Caught the toe pictures. Can't wait to make our "multiple toes/feet" picture with all in December!

[The Big Booper]

 

...>>>SNIP<<<...

 

...>>>SNIP<<<...

 

 

 

Enjoying your photo review, as always.

 

And you got to meet THE KING. :)

 

moving moving moving

 

The week you're on the Indy we're on Allure going to the East.

[maxs mom]

The WJ was not quite as crowded at lunchtime today. So feeding some of the masses on the Promenade today worked. We finally got smart and took our food into Chops to eat and it was way nicer in there!!

 

We got most of our stuff packed up this afternoon in anticipation of changing cabins tomorrow. I had Richard, our cabin steward, (who was great, by the way) call our new cabin steward and let him know that we were coming and hopefully he could get our cabin ready first. Then I walked down to meet the new cabin steward myself. Fortunately our cabin for next week was on Deck 6 as well and also on the starboard side.....it was just all the way aft. Nowell was the new cabin steward and he was so nice and said that everything would be ready.

 

There was hardly anyone in the CL tonight, but it picked up a little later on. We enjoyed talking to Christopher, the bar tender, about his family this evening. Christopher was awesome all week and we will miss him next week as he is being reassigned. The bar tenders and bar waiters are reassigned every two weeks so that everyone has a fair shake at making some extra money.

 

June and George came in and sat with us for a while this evening after they had had dinner.

 

We said goodbye to the folks in the CL and headed down to dinner at our usual 8:30 time. We were back on the balcony. I liked this location.

 

I ordered some kind of seafood that was just OK and I had the chocolate sensation for dessert. That's always on the menu and always good.

 

After the nightly bridge shot.....we turned in.

Edited September 7, 2013 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

Jane: Great review as always. Caught the toe pictures. Can't wait to make our "multiple toes/feet" picture with all in December!

 

 

You know it, girl!! Can't wait!

[lah66]

Awesome review! Congratulations on your retirement! Love seeing your outfits every evening..you are quite the fashionista! Love that you take so many pics of you and your hubby! Seems I am always behind the camera but that has to change! I am always shy about asking someone to take our pics..no more! cannot wait for week 2!

Lauri

[maxs mom]

What is all this stuff in the hallway!??? Oh yeah......some people have to get off tomorrow! Not us!! Heh, heh, heh!

We had this guy waiting on us in our cabin:

We met a lot of nice folks on this cruise. Everybody was really laid back. It was a really nice week.

We were looking forward to the next week. I thought it might be a little different. The roll call for the new week was a lot more active. We were also looking forward to seeing our friends, Al and Phyllis, that we met on the Indy back in April. They booked this leg of the B2B and have also booked one of the legs with us on the Indy in December. It's so great to meet folks and then be able to cruise with them again!

Should be a big day tomorrow!

[cruise wizard]

There's a great pool here with a hot tub and a swim up bar.

Here's the pier and a look at those clouds I was talking about.

A nice family from NY came and sat next to us. We enjoyed talking to them.

Soon the clouds really rolled in and it began to rain a little. The temperature went down a good bit. A lot of people were chased under the shelter' date=' but our palapa was good cover, so we just stayed put and rode it out. We read and sipped on our Pacificos. It really didn't rain that much. We swam in the ocean, ordered our lunch......once again.....too much food! I got a fruit salad, chips and salsa, chicken tacos and John got his usual hamburger. (We lived in Mexico for two years and he never ate any Mexican food!) It was all very good.[/size']

We just relaxed, read, listened to music, and before we knew it......it was 3 o'clock. Our waiter called a taxi for us and we headed back to the ship. Another great beach day, even though the weather wasn't the best.

 

Hi Jane - it has been awhile since we have cruised together - looks like you are having fun!!!! Just a couple of questions..............

 

We are going to try Nachi for the first time (have been to Mr. Sancho's) - how much were the cab fares and their availability? How were the facilities for bathrooms and changing area?

 

Thanks...........

[maxs mom]

Awesome review! Congratulations on your retirement! Love seeing your outfits every evening..you are quite the fashionista! Love that you take so many pics of you and your hubby! Seems I am always behind the camera but that has to change! I am always shy about asking someone to take our pics..no more! cannot wait for week 2!

Lauri

 

LOL!! Thanks! Now that I'm retired.....I only have to shop for cruise clothes!! We have some really interesting pictures that others have taken with our camera, but many of them turn out well. I love to dress up every night on cruises because I don't get to any other time.