Freedom OTS Trip Review - 10/30/16 - Freedom's Farewell to Port Canaveral

[fletch1027]

I just realized I said we were members since 2015 - it was actually 2005. :) We are hoping to get to Aulani eventually too but it takes so long to get there so we have to wait until DS is out of school I think. Maybe that will be his 2020 grad trip :)

 

You guys bought a year before us - makes sense why we both own at SSR... :)

 

Next year we will have it paid off!!

[Wolfhunt]

I came in for the Freedom report since we will be sailing on her for the first time in a month and found Disney reports - BONUS!

 

We are also DVC (home resort is also SSR). Have three trips planned next year using our points. A long weekend to Disneyworld in February, a long trip in December covering both Disneyworld and Universal, and a week in May at Disneyland. The May trip will only be our second trip to Disney west. Along with using DVC for the room I turned in a ton of Disney Movie Reward points and we have a private tour of Disney Studios in Burbank.

 

Now just need to figure out how to squeeze in a cruise some time next year (any cruise line, we are not too picky)

 

Looking forward to the rest of your report

[fletch1027]

With the comments so far, I have been surprised that there have been so many that have dug the Disney info. For those following along that don’t care about pre-cruise stuff, this is the last post before we head to Port Canaveral. For those following along that like the pre-cruise Disney stuff, I’m sorry to say that this is the last pre-cruise Disney post. See, I try and please everyone! :D

 

One interesting thing that Disney has done within the last couple of years is institute RFID on their “self-serve” beverage cups. I'm assuming they started with RFID on their refill mugs because people would tend to bring them on multiple trips. I remember seeing people at the pool with mugs so old the images on them were just about gone due to years of dishwasher trips!

 

One thing that RCI does better than Disney is refill mug billing. Disney charges one set price for a refill mug no matter the length of stay, so there is no reason to buy one for a two-night stay. They have also added RFID chips to all the disposable soda cups as well. The way they do that is to limit each cup to 3-4 refills in the 3-4 hours after buying it. Here is a photo showing what it says when getting a refill:

 

 

 

It is an understatement to say we love food at Disney and lucky (or intentionally) for us, the Polynesian features two of the most popular food items on property.

 

The first one is Dole Whip which can only be found at two places on Disney property. The Magic Kingdom and here, so technically the Poly is the only place to get one without needing a park ticket! For those that aren’t familiar, Dole Whip is pineapple soft serve and is amazing! We both prefer the pineapple vanilla swirl which to me is a perfect mix of flavors. We did limit ourselves to one a day each.

 

 

 

This next item is also only available at two places on Disney property and both are at the Polynesian, and that is the famous Tonga Toast! The photo below doesn’t do it justice – Tonga Toast is a very thick slice of sourdough bread stuffed with bananas, deep fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Just about big enough for two people to share cause it’s pretty hefty:

 

 

 

Since we did not buy park tickets for our 2 days, we planned a casual day for the Saturday before the cruise of wandering around the newly re-done Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney). There used to be an 18+ area of Downtown Disney called Pleasure Island which charged admission for access to several clubs. It closed about 8 years ago, but it was an awesome place to go. For me I loved the comedy club and another fun place called the Adventurers Club. Anyway, sad to see it gone, but the new Disney Springs is alright and kind of resembles an outdoor mall like is popular today.

 

The week before leaving, I got an email from the DVC saying that I was selected for an invite to a special free sneak preview of Dr. Strange at the huge AMC theater at Disney Springs, so that worked out perfectly for us! They ended up filling three theaters for the screening. The movie was much better than I was assuming it would be. They also showed trailers for Rogue One (yes! 1st time I had seen it on the big screen), Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and the new Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

 

 

One of the new Disney Springs shops is a deluxe chocolate shop so we were mesmerized for a bit watching them make chocolate. We then went inside and I saw an awesome BB8 made out of chocolate – my new favorite droid!! :-)

 

 

We are now done with Disney – tomorrow morning we brace ourselves for the "big" hour drive to Port Canaveral.

 

 

[easyboy]

Thanks for writing a trip report. We will be on the Freedom next month so I will be following this report closely. Having written a trip report myself in the past, I know how much time and effort t takes to organize/upload the pictures/do the write up, so I thank you in advance for your efforts.

 

Hope you don’t mind if I drop in few pictures to your trip review as part of the discussion.

Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[goldgirl2]

I love the Disney pics! We have not been there in five years. We always have a dole whip and a turkey leg!

Edited November 11, 2016 by goldgirl2

[fletch1027]

I came in for the Freedom report since we will be sailing on her for the first time in a month and found Disney reports - BONUS!

 

We are also DVC (home resort is also SSR). Have three trips planned next year using our points. A long weekend to Disneyworld in February, a long trip in December covering both Disneyworld and Universal, and a week in May at Disneyland. The May trip will only be our second trip to Disney west. Along with using DVC for the room I turned in a ton of Disney Movie Reward points and we have a private tour of Disney Studios in Burbank.

 

Now just need to figure out how to squeeze in a cruise some time next year (any cruise line, we are not too picky)

 

Looking forward to the rest of your report

 

 

Great to have you along for the report! Wow, I never would have thought there were so many fellow SSR owners lurking around the RCI CC board!

 

Our next DVC stay will be in February for one night at Vero Beach as we drive down to Ft. Lauderdale for our next Freedom cruise! Seems like we are forming into a predictable pattern... :)

[fletch1027]

I love cruise mornings – especially when we have a very short drive to get there! As I mentioned before, we live south of Atlanta, but we have been such avid Florida vacationers that we got a “Sun Pass” so we can sail through all of Florida’s toll roads without having to carry tons of small bills and change and stop all of the time.

 

Since Freedom has been living at Port Canaveral (since 2009 – quite a run) we have grown to love her having sailed on her several times, so when we were looking for a “quick” fall vacation, I started looking at a couple of 3-4 night options. I then noticed this 5 day cruise on Freedom for what I called a “pre-repositioning” cruise to give it time to get down to Port Everglades, it was a no-brainer to make the vacation “less-quick” and jump on this. Plus, how cool is it to be on her last ride out of PC? Based on the number of Pinnacle name tags I noticed on passengers around the ship, we we not alone in that thinking.

 

I booked us into what had been our favorite budget conscious cabin – Deck 8 interior with a Promenade view. I say had been, but more on that later.

 

We headed towards PC, but before I move on I wanted to post a photo that I grabbed off our roll call board posted by chandom that I thought looked awesome that shows Freedom all lit up in her pre-dawn glory

 

 

 

In took detailed notes for how long it took to get from car park to onboard the ship. Later when reflecting back, I realized that this info is likely moot since it’s her last trip out and it’s not as fair a comparison to Oasis since there will be around 2,000 more people doing the same thing. Anyway, since I did the work, I will post it anyway! :-)

 

Our goal was to be on Freedom by noon. We left Disney with the intent of getting to PC around 10:30, but a last minute stop at CVS derailed us a little.

 

At this point, I would like to heap a ton of praise on the guys at Park N Cruise. We swear by them and have used them every time with perfection. The price is great (we paid $8.95 per day as opposed to around $16 a day to park at the port), and the shuttles run pretty much constantly as you will see in the timelines (both leaving and coming back). Also due to the volume of people they switched to a complimentary valet parking system which made it even easier.

 

11:00 – Arrived at Park N Cruise

11:20 – Shuttle dropped us off at the entrance to Terminal 1

 

After being dropped off, we headed into Terminal 1 (which for us was our first cruise using Terminal 1). We separated into our Gold line for the last time (we are now Platinum woot!), and started the process.

 

11:30 – Through security and to check-in queue

11:38 – Seapass in hand

11:50 – Walking onto Freedom

 

All in all, I was very impressed with a 50-minute turnaround from car to ship. I’m not sure how that will change with Oasis, but for this time it was awesome!

 

I snapped this photo before going through security. For the life of me I can’t understand why a ship at sea and phones that catch on fire aren’t a good mix??

 

 

 

As we planned for the trip, the original itinerary’s ports of call were Coco Cay and Cozumel and two sea days. As the events unfolded for hurricanes and such, then watching the weather the week before we were assuming that we would have to skip Coco Cay and end up with three sea days and one port. Jen and I actually had a conversation on the drive down saying that if they planned ahead, they could find a port we could go to and not have to have an extra sea day. Little did I know that Captain Toni was hiding in our back seat, because as we were checking in, we received this paper. Normally when RCI is handing out papers to everyone it is bad news, but this time it was this – booyah!! Trade Grand Cayman for a 3rd day at sea? I'll take that everyday of the week and twice on Sunday!!

 

 

Below are some obligatory trip report photos as we made our way onto the ship:

 

 

 

and through the Promenade for the first time this trip:

 

 

 

Since we were on before noon (and also had to verify reservations @ Chops & Giovanni’s Table), we headed up to the Windjammer for lunch. How did I know everything was in order and as it should be for this cruise you ask? The answer is because everything was in its place… :-)

 

 

 

Sorry I couldn’t resist the photo – but I then had a hard time finding the catsup and mayo!!

 

To be continued…

 

[irishgal432]

Thanks for the review. I was on the cruise and must have missed meeting you at the Sky Bar get together.

 

Just an FYI your sunpass will now work on the Atlanta peach pass lanes if you travel up through Atlanta. Also, Peach passes can be turned off if you have a carpool of 3 people to use those HOV/Toll lanes.

[MaritimeR&R]

Current movies on board?Thanks.

[fletch1027]

I love the Disney pics! We have not been there in five years. We always have a dole whip and a turkey leg!

 

Those are definitely a pair of Magic Kingdom favorites! All of us love Dole Whip and I have a sister in law that gets a turkey leg every time!

[stickyshocker]

OP Thanks for reporting on Freedom, I was originally booked on this sailing but flopped at the last minute, but all signs are pointing to this ship as my next cruise, i'm actually booked on Anthem but for some reason I've been lurkin' more on all the Freedom threads than the ship i'm currently booked at.(I know where my heart is). I was there, when you guys were pulling at Cozumel and would like to share an image of my vantage point if you don't mind?:)

[chandom]

Kind of a supplement:

If anyone is interested in the "paper work" from this sailing.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xo9xl8i973pp210/AADYxrI-bbaHPSnXv7JnFcB9a?dl=0

[songbird1329]

Loving your report so far. We were on the sailing just before yours, and Captain Toni mentioned he was considering changing ports because of the weather.

 

Loving your Disney pictures, too.

[fletch1027]

PS, if my memory correct, Freedom hasn't been at PC that long has it? I won't be offended if I'm corrected. I went on her in 2008 when she was in Miami, but I was thinking she did some time in Port Everglades and Europe. I did enjoy revisiting Freedom and discovering the fun of cruising out of PC.

 

Whenever it was mentioned on the ship by either the Captain or CD, they always said "almost a decade".

 

Looking on Wikipedia (which is never wrong) it says that "On May 4, 2009, Freedom of the Seas moved its home port from the Port of Miami-Dade to Port Canaveral, where it replaced Mariner of the Seas", so you didn't miss the last cruise out of Miami by very much... :)

 

So, "almost a decade" is a bit of a stretch, but for a cruise ship in one place, 7 and a half years is still quite a good run!

[fletch1027]

If you get a chance, can you comment on the pub and schooner entertainment?

 

Schooner Bar - varied nightly, but we were only there for trivia so I have no legit comments

 

Bull & Bear Pub - James Brown nightly - we only heard him in passing but what we heard sounded pretty good. I remember the name because of the more famous version... :-)

[JessyCruises]

Thank you!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[fletch1027]

Thanks for the review. I was on the cruise and must have missed meeting you at the Sky Bar get together.

 

Just an FYI your sunpass will now work on the Atlanta peach pass lanes if you travel up through Atlanta. Also, Peach passes can be turned off if you have a carpool of 3 people to use those HOV/Toll lanes.

 

 

We did not make it to the Sky Bar get together, but I think I saw the cabin crawl gang at one point. Was everyone wearing "Hello my name is" name tags?

 

Yes, we bought a new car last year and put a Peach Pass on it since the systems are merged now. Our last car had a Sun Pass, which probably looked odd for a car with Georgia tags... :-)

[chandom]

... Was everyone wearing "Hello my name is" name tags?

...

 

Yeah, our Cabin Crawl group would have been on Halloween, during the 2p-3p time range. Did issue name tags, or at least tried too.

Edited November 11, 2016 by chandom

[goldgirl2]

This will be our first time on Freedom. We have sailed on the Liberty and the independence. I have read that rooms have been added and the club is now a restaurant. How did you like these changes? Obviously, there are now more people on the ship with additional rooms. Did it feel crowded? I think I will miss the track going all around the ship. What are your thoughts?

Edited November 12, 2016 by goldgirl2

[SherriZ366]

Thanks for your review -- we will miss the FR at Port C as it is only 4 1/2 hours away.

[fletch1027]

Current movies on board?Thanks.

 

These are the ones I remember for sure without scanning all of the compasses. Some of them were repeated.

 

Poolside:

Sea of Trees

Star Trek Beyond

TMNT: Out of the Shadows

 

Arcadia:

Miss Peregrine's Home... (3D)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (3D)

[fletch1027]

After lunch, we went to Chops & Giovanni’s Table to verify and set our two dinner reservations. This was one of the firsts that we tried on this cruise. This wasn’t the first time we had done specialty dining. On our last Allure cruise, we ate at the Izumi (hibachi) restaurant, but because that was something offered that was unique compared to the MDR, it seemed more justifiable to my thinking of “we paid to eat already – why pay extra to eat somewhere else?”. This is how I have always felt about Chops and Gio’s. They offer a slightly better version of steak or pasta than what is offered in the MDR, so to me it wasn’t worth the extra cost.

 

Two things swayed me this time around. RCI’s BOGO offer and the fact that there was only the 2 of us on this cruise. RCI’s BOGO offer has been discussed a lot here on CC, but here is the summary: each person pays $30 and for that you get dinners on nights 1 & 2 in one of the 3 specialty restaurants. I’m assuming the driver for this is to fill the specialty restaurants on the typically lighter nights 1 & 2, and maybe in the process get people hooked on the restaurants and book more often. So in my mind I thought of it as $15 each for each night which made it comparable (or a little cheaper) to eating out here at home, so we said what the heck. When purchasing this online in Cruise Planner it is a little confusing because it’s like booking a guarantee cabin. All you choose when booking is the desired time for night 1 (no restaurant and no restaurant of time for night 2). The site says that when we get to our cabin, there will be a note telling us our assigned restaurants & times for both nights. From tips I saw on CC, we decided to not wait until we got to our room – we went straight to the places we wanted (for us, Sabor was definitely our 3rd choice).

 

It was very easy to take care of that and we reserved Chops for night 1 and Gio’s for night 2. We then headed to our cabin, which to Jen’s surprise, I had upgraded to a balcony. The background for this was that I had put an alert for this cruise on the fishy website and I kept getting price drop alerts after final payment and I was able to pay around $150 total to upgrade us from Interior Promenade to a D balcony on Deck 9. I was very pleased with that, because on Deck 10 there are still cabins and I always make sure we are on a deck with cabins above & below. Here is the obligatory trip review photo of our cabin:

 

 

Of course since we had this, I had to immediately go out there and take some pictures from it.

 

Looking down at the entry ramps. Hey guys we totally beat you onto the ship!!

 

 

Loading the lifeblood of the ship onboard – oh and they were also loading some pallets of bottled water as well.

 

 

 

The big issue arose however when I looked out of the balcony and saw the port and terminal. I then had to immediately go down to Guest Services to complain and demand a different balcony room because the description said “Superior Oveanview Stateroom with Balcony” and all I could see was the terminal and parking deck! Unacceptable!

 

That will *likely* be my one and only bad cruise joke however no promises. That was a joke that I did submit and was read by CD Casey on his morning show – however not good enough to win...

 

Here is a photo of the two most important tools in Jen’s arsenal – the day’s compass and a highlighter!

 

 

I figured I would also include a screenshot of my iPhone to show what I do to keep my phone active so I can still receive emergency phone calls and texts but not accidentally trigger any very expensive international data usage. Not sure how to configure an Android, but this has always worked for my iPhone:

 

 

To be continued…

[harryfat1]

 

Loading the lifeblood of the ship onboard – oh and they were also loading some pallets of bottled water as well.

 

 

 

The big issue arose however when I looked out of the balcony and saw the port and terminal. I then had to immediately go down to Guest Services to complain and demand a different balcony room because the description said “Superior Oveanview Stateroom with Balcony” and all I could see was the terminal and parking deck! Unacceptable!

 

 

 

I agree with you that RCI ripped you off by not delivering on the promised ocean view balcony. I assume you must have the similar view of the terminal and parking deck several days later on the day of disembarkation. That would make it two mornings of broken promises by RCI.

 

I believe you should immediately email RCI and demand a 50% credit on what you paid for this cruise against a future cruise for all your pain and suffering.

[fletch1027]

OP Thanks for reporting on Freedom, I was originally booked on this

sailing but flopped at the last minute, but all signs are pointing to this ship as my next cruise,

i'm actually booked on Anthem but for some reason I've been lurkin' more on all the Freedom threads

than the ship i'm currently booked at.(I know where my heart is). I was there, when you guys were

pulling at Cozumel and would like to share an image of my vantage point if you don't mind?:)

 

Sure - feel free!

[fletch1027]

I agree with you that RCI ripped you off by not delivering on the promised ocean view balcony. I assume you must have the similar view of the terminal and parking deck several days later on the day of disembarkation. That would make it two mornings of broken promises by RCI.

 

I believe you should immediately email RCI and demand a 50% credit on what you paid for this cruise against a future cruise for all your pain and suffering.

 

I went down to GS and they made it right with a deal they said they do not normally do for people. They told me that if a apply and are approved for a RCI Visa that I would be eligible for 10,000 rewards points! No matter that 10,000 points only translates to $100 OBC - that is still an awesome deal! ;)

 

Seriously though, when Casey read my joke on the morning show, he also mentioned that some people actually have made that complaint. Yikes! :eek: