"Live" From the Brilliance of the Seas with Trainman-2 & Judith

[Trainman-2]

 

Actually, we are not "Live" because we are home already...

 

 

And as you can see in the photo above, we were never actually on the Brilliance, but we did walk right by it! We were on the ship docked next to it, the American Freedom, a WW-II Cargo Ship for a 5 hour cruise around Tampa Bay. We sailed while the Brilliance was still off loading passengers and returned to the dock and got off the ship just before the Brilliance sailed.

 

What An Adventure it Was!

 

We hooked up with "Aboat1" on Cruise Critic months ago and the four of us had a great time! In the photo above are, left to right:

 

Trainman-2, Judith (holding my cane), Kathie (Aboat1) and her DH, Jack.

 

A few photos...

 

The American Freedom - Photo taken from the Jewel last year

 

 

Fully Manual WW-II Style elevator (No buttons for kids to push)

 

 

Only one propeller, no Azipods or Bow Thrusters (The ship had two Tug Boats to help pull away and push back to the pier)

 

 

Check in on the Main Deck (No Air Conditioning)

 

 

For the whole story and lots more photos, go to my "Blog Like" thread in the Friends of Cruise Critic section. The link below should take you to page 94 where the story and photos begin.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1749882&page=94

 

The Victory Class cargo ships were version 2.0 of the Liberty Ships with better engines and some other improvements. Here is a link to info about them on Wikipedia.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_ship

Edited November 20, 2013 by Trainman-2

[micmacmissy]

Very cool! Are you a veteran, Trainman2?

[Trainman-2]

The American Freedom does these one day harbor cruises twice a year. I recommend them highly.

 

They had concessions (cash) all over the ship with wine, beer, and all kinds of food.

 

They had a zillion plastic Walmart style chairs to sit in and tarps strung up everywhere to provide shade from the sun or keep out of the rain.

 

The ship's web site is: http://www.americanvictory.org/ and they have some interesting videos there.

 

YES! I am a veteran. A retired Army LTC with almost 32 years of Active and National Guard service.

[drarill]

Trainman, looking forward to your live review!!:):)

[zellmo]

I hope you could smoke on that ship!!!

[Trainman-2]

If you look at the photo of the ship above, on the fantail, right above the word "American" and below the 5" gun, was a Smoking Area. (Ugh!, Poo!) It wasn't very big and we had to rotate in and out with the other smokers, but it was nice.

[h20cruzer]

Glad you and Judith had a good time. Had my hopes up when you said Live Brillance of the Seas!!!!

Darn

Norma

[micmacmissy]

Thank you for your service!