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

[fletch1027]

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?

 

 

We have sailed on Freedom before and after the changes. There are technically more people, but we didn't notice a difference. I think Freedom is large enough to disperse them without anyone noticing. When I had the chance to upgrade our room after the final payment price drops, I was torn between the Deck 9 D balcony and one of the new panoramic OV cabins that are now up in Deck 12 forward. I ended up grabbing the balcony, but I have read a lot of positive reviews here on CC regarding the panoramic rooms!

 

I know the track was altered. We jogged on it last time but not this time (we did extra stairs and less elevators instead), but I have seen comments that people prefer the previous longer track.

 

We did not eat at Sabor. We play trivia weekly at a Mexican restaurant and knew we would be eating Mexican while in Cozumel so we avoided Sabor.

 

In regards to the Crypt, we never went to the Crypt. Our then 16 yr old daughter enjoyed the teen activities that took place in the Crypt, so she would have missed it more that we did.

[fletch1027]

One of the cool things about Freedom class ships is the option to have access to the bow of the ship by the helipad. I know on Oasis and Quantum classes it isn’t accessible to the public. It is on some of the smaller classes, so technically Freedom class is the largest ship where you can get up there! It is open to the public unless they determine that the winds are too high.

 

It used to be one of the “secrets of the Freedom” to go up there for sail away, however based on this cruise and the number of people up there this time the secret is out, but it was still great.

 

For those that don’t know the way up there, it is accessible a couple of ways. The way we have always gone is to go outside on Deck 4 and walk all the way forward until you get to some steps going up to Desk 5. Head up those steps (be careful they are pretty narrow) and continue forward there are then a few more steps to get up to the helipad itself. The other way I did not know about until reading about it on a CC post here recently. Apparently, there is a door at the back of the Star Lounge on Deck 5 that leads right out to it. Have not tried that but I will definitely investigate in February.

 

Here is a view from the helipad looking at the forward cabins before sail away - I altered the faces of those that did not sign the waiver to have their image used :-)

 

 

 

Of course everyone is antsy and ready to set sail. The guys finally untied us – we had to wait until around 4:05 – what took them so long!!??

 

 

 

Now that we pushed off, a pelican claimed our old spot.

 

 

Some photos of Freedom sailing out of Port Canaveral for the last time (with passengers).

 

 

 

 

This is another photo I “borrowed” from out roll call board. Credit goes to John & LaLa for the photo and also for coming to see us off for her last cruise from PC!

 

 

 

Next post: our experiences with specialty dining

 

 

 

[goldgirl2]

We have sailed on Freedom before and after the changes. There are technically more people, but we didn't notice a difference. I think Freedom is large enough to disperse them without anyone noticing. When I had the chance to upgrade our room after the final payment price drops, I was torn between the Deck 9 D balcony and one of the new panoramic OV cabins that are now up in Deck 12 forward. I ended up grabbing the balcony, but I have read a lot of positive reviews here on CC regarding the panoramic rooms!

 

 

 

I know the track was altered. We jogged on it last time but not this time (we did extra stairs and less elevators instead), but I have seen comments that people prefer the previous longer track.

 

 

 

We did not eat at Sabor. We play trivia weekly at a Mexican restaurant and knew we would be eating Mexican while in Cozumel so we avoided Sabor.

 

 

 

In regards to the Crypt, we never went to the Crypt. Our then 16 yr old daughter enjoyed the teen activities that took place in the Crypt, so she would have missed it more that we did.

 

 

Thank you for all that information!

[fletch1027]

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

 

I totally understand! We drive down from the Atlanta area and from ATL to Orlando is around 6.5 hours, then the jog over to PC is another 45-50 minutes. Last February we cruised on the Allure and especially on the drive home, the extra couple of hours from Ft. Lauderdale is very noticeable. :(

 

We have loved Freedom over the years, and we are driving down to Ft. Lauderdale this coming February to cruise on her again (because of the new 8 night itinerary).

 

That trip will help determine whether Freedom remains worth the drive or if we need to adopt Oasis as our new PC favorite. :)

[fletch1027]

In an effort to break up the monotony of a day by day rehash of our cruise, I thought I would veer off for a bit and dedicate a post to our BOGO specialty dining experience, that way if I refer to Chops or Gio’s (Giovanni’s Table) in later posts, everyone will know what I am referring to. My ADD is especially adept at veering off into the weeds anyway, so it’s perfect!

 

Like I had mentioned earlier, we took advantage of the BOGO offer from RCI to try 2 specialty restaurants on night 1 & 2 of the cruise. We also decided the two we wanted to try were Chops and Gio’s.

 

Before leaving, I had read various things (mostly negative) here on the CC boards about the recent changes at these restaurants – most changes in regards to the menu. All of the feedback I had read was definitely in the back of my mind as we dined at these places.

 

I know here on CC there are tons of people that frequent these places often, however for me this wasn’t the case, so as I go into these reviews, keep these two things in mind:

 

- This was our first time eating at either Chops or Gio’s (or Portofino before that) so we do not have a baseline for comparison if it is "better or worse"

- We had the BOGO deal, so my judgement is based on paying essentially $15 for my dinner. If I had paid $35 for Chops or $30 for Gio’s, it would have been judged on paying that much.

 

We had picked Chops for the first night, and looking at the menus for Freedom’s three specialty restaurants, this one was easily my favorite going in. We had a 5:30 reservation and arrived right around 5:30 and were immediately seated at one of the tables for 2 by a window which is always a bonus. We had great service despite a huge party (around 16) being seated close by. Our waiter said they do not like to do parties that large but they insisted. Anyway, it didn’t affect us which was fine by me. Having the “Refreshment” package, I ordered a Diet Coke, and let me tell you depending on which bar you get a glass of soda from, they range from below average to what am I drinking! This bar gun (which I am assuming is the bar at the front of the Windjammer between Chops & Gio’s), was the nastiest one on the ship. The Diet Coke was horrible, so needless to say I got my fill of water these two dinners. The atmosphere in there was easy going and quiet which was nice. Anyway, we ordered our salads and apps from the menu below and here’s what I got and what I thought:

 

 

King Caesar – This was a large step above the MDR in that it was large and had a good ratio of dressing to lettuce (the MDR tends to use way too much dressing) – but the best part was the awesome tasting warm croutons on top of the salad. That was a great touch!

 

Grilled Black Pepper Bacon – This was a great app and something I had never had prepared this way. What can I say – it’s bacon - hard to go wrong there…

 

(this is a screen shot from the RCI page – our sides were a little different)

 

9oz filet – I ordered it medium and it was delivered medium so that was a plus. It was as moist and tasty as possible considering it was grilled at sea and not over an open fire.

 

Sides – The sides are served “family style”, so between the two of us we ordered the following to sample: truffle fries, garlic mashed Potatoes, Yukon & gruyere croquettes, and creamed corn.

 

Of these, the Yukon & gruyere croquettes were the star of the show! I could have had those only and been happy. The truffle fries were excellent as well. The garlic mashed potatoes were what you would expect and the creamed corn came in last without much flavor.

 

 

 

 

For dessert, I had the chocolate mud pie which was great – as good or better than any of the MDR desserts.

 

Summary for Chops: We were out of there by around 7:00, so a 90-minute total meal time is within my expected window. The waiter brought us our $0 check to sign, so there were no issues with the BOGO pricing which was good. Also when comparing the Chops experience to something back home, here’s how I judged it:

 

Apps, dinner and dessert at somewhere like Outback or Longhorn would have been around $60 for the both of us, and something similar at a “high end” place like STK or Ruth’s Chris would have been over $100.

 

Chops easily beat Outback or Longhorn but fell short of somewhere like STK, however for a total of $30 it was half the price of Outback or Longhorn for a better meal so a win for Chops. On the flip side, after paying for the cruise itself and everything that goes with it, I don’t think I would pay full fare for Chops.

 

 

On the 2nd night, we made a reservation for Giovanni’s Table (Gio's) for 6:00. I’m a pretty picky eater so I was hoping I would find something I liked. When we went in there, I tried to figure out which of the many tables in there belonged to Giovanni. Maybe the chef’s table but I never could verify that… boo – another bad joke. Sorry!

 

We were seated right away at a two-person window table just like the night before. Our wait staff here was great as well. Gio’s is a little different from Chops in that the apps and salads are family style, so below is the menu along with what we ordered:

 

 

Warm mozzarella and prosciutto bake – This was very tasty and probably my favorite app of the two nights!

 

Caesar salad – Can you see a trend developing? However, this was not as good as the Chops Caesar as it seemed to have the standard MDR croutons on it.

 

My memory is failing, either the Pasta side is intentionally family style or we decided to split two of them between us and make it family style. Also featured below on the main Entrée menu is the item of interest that everyone is talking about – the beef tenderloin (aka filet). I understand that it is disappearing from some of the ships in the fleet. Fortunately for me on the Freedom it was there just with his tenderloin alias:

 

 

 

Pastas – Baked ricotta & spinach crepes and the Maryland crab ravioli – Both of these were good and tasty, however I would compare the ravioli to the higher end fresh ravioli that can be bought at grocery stores in the refrigerated section.

 

Beef tenderloin – This was good as expected – ordered and arrived cooked to medium.

 

Dessert was good. I can’t remember if there was an official dessert menu to look at before the dessert cart came or if they wheeled out the dessert cart and explained things before we ordered. In either case, we both decided to split the chocolate cake and cannoli, both of which were tasty.

 

 

 

Summary for Gio’s: This dinner look longer than Chops. We were in at 6 and out a little before 8 for an almost 2 hours of total time. Just as at Chops, the waiter brought us our $0 check to sign, so there were no issues with the BOGO pricing which made the BOGO a good 2 for 2 experience. On the down side, between the Facebook group and reading posts on CC, there have been a lot of unhappy Gio’s customers lately. Things including menu items not being available, things being served that were barely warm, service taking way too long, etc. Luckily for us that was not the case, however I did notice at the table next to ours they had to send back an app because it was almost cold.

 

When comparing the Gio’s experience to something back home, it was a notch above Olive Garden or Carrabba’s, but in the end to me it was satisfactory for the back half of a BOGO, but I would never pay full price ($30) to eat there.

 

So after reviewing this post, I liked both places overall but on the flip side the only way I would go back to them again is if I was getting a BOGO-type of deal. Even the 4-5 night specialty packages to not come close to the average price per night of this 2 night BOGO deal, so there is no way I would lock myself into specialty dining for all of those nights.

 

Wow - that turned out to be a lot of words!

 

Next up is a post about Halloween at sea which was an interesting experience!

 

 

[fletch1027]

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.

 

Yep, that was probably you guys then... :)

[fletch1027]

Thank you for all that information!

 

No problem - hope it helped a little! :)

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review. Almost believed you complained about your oceanview balcony! Should have also shown them your picture of RCCL violating its own policy of not bringing bottled water on board.:)

[fletch1027]

This voyage of the Freedom had two main aspects – it was the last Freedom cruise from Port Canaveral and also it was a Halloween cruise.

 

This was our first cruise over Halloween, and there was a noticeable difference on the ship as there were decorations all over the place – primarily in the Promenade.

 

There were also many cruisers that decorated their cabin doors for Halloween. Here was the best one that I saw which was down the corridor from us. Not sure if they are active on CC or not but if so, your door was awesome! I heard a funny dispute between the husband and wife where the husband thought that since Halloween was over the decorations could come down and the wife said that it should stay decorated the whole cruise. Needless to say they stayed up… :-)

 

 

 

This was the first decoration that we noticed as soon as we got on the ship hovering over the Promenade:

 

 

 

This was a great subtitle decoration that you wouldn’t notice unless you looked up at her:

 

 

 

The grave of our departed CD Casey Pelter, although he seemed to always be around. Maybe that was his ghost:

 

 

 

The venerable Morgan (or as Captain Toni referred to it – “the car”) was hard to recognize under all of the decorations:

 

 

There were many other inflatable types of decorations all over the place that I didn’t bother taking pictures of, but all in all they did a great job decorating for the holiday. I noticed that they stayed up most of the cruise, but by the last sea day most of the inflatables had been taken down.

 

To continue with the Halloween theme, our towel animal that night was of course the bat. The cabin attendants love using sunglasses as towel animal accessories. It’s funny, but in the bat’s case, if they are mainly nocturnal, what do they need sunglasses for? :-)

 

 

 

 

Now that I have veered off the “day” tracks for a few posts, my next one will put us back on track for our newly scheduled day at sea…

 

 

[easyboy]

The Halloween photos were awesome!

[fletch1027]

The Halloween photos were awesome!

 

Thanks - my goal is to get this review wrapped up by the end of the long weekend.

 

Halloween was a cool time to be on the ship between the decorations as well as the costumes on display in the parade... :)

[songbird1329]

We couldn't get enough of the Halloween décor on the Promenade.

[fletch1027]

Here is where I give more props to Captain Toni for adjusting our itinerary to maximize our vacation by skipping Coco Cay and replacing it with Grand Cayman! So what was originally scheduled to be a stop at Coco Cay (which would have been skipped anyway due to the weather) was now our newly scheduled day at sea!

 

One of the things I liked about a balcony was being able to see cool stuff (cool to me anyway) like the rain storm off our starboard side:

 

 

We missed that one, but found a couple of others as we had a little more than 50% sun / 50% overcast and about 10-15 mins of sprinkles up on the pool deck during our daylight hours. From what the crew said, this was the first consistent sun they had seen in a while besides the great weather in Port Canaveral – so that was nice!

 

Here we are passing within 10-12 miles of Cuba on the way to Grand Cayman. I had a Sarah Palin moment – “I can see Cuba from my back porch!” :-)

 

 

 

The whole cruise we were catching up to and passing other ships as we had the “pedal to the metal” to stay on schedule to make it to Grand Cayman by Tuesday morning. We had dinner at Giovanni’s Table and as we were sitting there, we caught up to and passed Oasis which was also heading west with us. We would eventually meet up with her in Mexico, but until then – see ya later! Here’s as good a photo as I could get through a window with my iPhone 7:

 

 

 

The highlight of today was the passenger Halloween parade. There were so many funny and great costumes that I didn’t get photos of them all as I got caught looking more than shooting! Here were some that I did get:

 

A very scary in its authenticity (both in costume and acting) tribute to Jack Sparrow. He also won my award for best re-use of a political sign!:

 

 

 

My love of wrestling icons from the 80’s caused me to immediately regognize the Ultimate Warrior from out of the crowd:

 

 

 

Jack Sparrow’s pirate crew would not have been complete without every rum fans favorite “captain”…

 

 

 

I had one other funny Halloween photo that I will post next, but I have reached my six photo limit for this one. Tomorrow we drop in on our first port – Grand Cayman but I think I may have already mentioned that once or twice… :-)

 

 

[cincicruisers]

Enjoying your review. Thanks for sharing.

[fletch1027]

We couldn't get enough of the Halloween décor on the Promenade.

 

Agreed - I would definitely do another cruise over Halloween!

[fletch1027]

Before I get started on our Day 3 adventures, here is a leftover photo that wouldn’t fit into the last post. This is by no means meant to be politically motivated, I just thought it was funny in its own way:

 

 

 

Now with Halloween out of the way, on to our story! This cruise was meant to be unlike the last several cruises we have taken. Previously we had done a ton of intense planning of everything from evening onboard entertainment to MTD times to MTD daily menus to shore excursions etc…

 

This is something that I have seen a few other people do here on CC, and I had in the past done something similar – and that is a way OCD spreadsheet to plan most minutes of every day of the cruise. CC has been a great thing to prove to myself that I am not alone! :-)

 

Below is a photo of my last cruise spreadsheet (Allure last February) on top compared with the "virtual" one for this cruise. :-)

 

 

 

Admittedly the spreadsheet does help a lot and I'll do another one for our next cruise, but in this case our plan was to max on relaxation and not stress much of anything else. The only things I did ahead of time was to buy Cruise Planner items that popped up on sale (Voom, the Refreshment drink package for 30% off, and BOGO specialty dining deal) and finding a good beach excursion for Cozumel.

 

Here we are pulling into Georgetown with the MSC Divina already in port:

 

 

 

Another balcony advantage that I discovered is that it’s a fun place to hang out as we pull into a port. Here’s a picture that I thought was cool of the wash created as we moved into our parking position:

 

 

 

Tendering was pretty straightforward and easy. We split up where one of us got the tendering number and the other got a couple of bottled waters. We didn’t queue up until after tendering started, so there was a little line down on Deck 3 by On-Air, but the line went fast and we in Group 8. We met back at Schooner Bar and waited for our turn which took about 20 minutes as they were calling the numbers in pairs.

 

I’m a geek in that I’m always intrigued with the inner workings of the ship, so I like to sneak a peek down the “I-95” corridor whenever we are down there:

 

 

 

Finding out about the itinerary change the day we left was great, but on the flip side we didn’t have any plans made for Grand Cayman. On our previous two trips to GC, we booked tours with Captain Marvins, and they were both awesome adventures with a great company. Can’t go wrong with those guys! I detailed each of those in my other two Freedom trip reports linked below in my signature area. The first time we did the “2 Stop Stingray City & Snorkel” tour bundled with the “Hell / Turtle Farm Tour”. That made for a full day, but we got back in plenty of time to tender back. The second time we just did the “3 Stop Stingray City & Snorkel” tour then wandered around Georgetown and had some lunch before heading back to the ship.

 

This time, we were torn between checking out 7 Mile Beach vs. wandering around Georgetown (also it should be stated that my wife has encountered enough stingrays for 1 lifetime or so I am told). :-)

 

Since we had a beach day planned for Cozumel, we decided to wander around the town. Our tender is off and motoring to Georgetown as the next one is filling up:

 

 

 

On to Georgetown!

 

[fletch1027]

Enjoying your review. Thanks for sharing.

 

No problem - they are fun to do!

[fletch1027]

As we pull around Freedom on our tender, I spotted the 3rd ship to roll up to Grand Cayman today – the Disney Fantasy. She must have snuck in after we left the cabin to tender. When seeing other ships in port I always compare them to what we came in on. Besides the water coaster and Fantasy being able to blow its horn to Star Wars music like the Imperial March, I think we are on the superior ship (at least superior to me when in relation to the cost / value ratio) :-)

 

 

 

We get off the tender at the port and walk past all of the congregating tour groups and start looking for something to explore and we found something right outside the gate.

 

History lesson time – how many people know there is an official military fort directly outside the pier entrance named Fort George? I’m thinking just about all of us walk right by without noticing it. Well, that’s because it’s so small you will walk past it unless you’re looking for it! We stopped anyway to check it out because I’m a sucker for history related stuff, and it’s right there in all of what looks to be its 30 foot by 20 foot glory. :-)

 

Until reading the sign, I did not know that Jamaica used to govern over the Caymans. The fort was built to protect the island from Cuban raids, and that the “fort” was last used by the US during World War II to watch for German u-boats that crept into the Caribbean.

 

 

 

Here’s the remaining lookout post:

 

 

 

Sign below the lookout post:

 

 

 

The only wall I have seen that contains collectible shells and coral - also useful for husbands to use as a barricade from the jewelry stores!:

 

 

 

 

Cannon – must be a replica because it looks too nice compared to the other stuff here. :-)

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

[grand isle joe]

Love the review. We sail her in the spring.i have to disagree about the Fantasy. Having sailed both (Fantasy 2 times, Freedom 3 times) and think the Fantasy is a more beautiful ship IMO. Looking forward to the rest...thanks.

[fletch1027]

Love the review. We sail her in the spring.i have to disagree about the Fantasy. Having sailed both (Fantasy 2 times, Freedom 3 times) and think the Fantasy is a more beautiful ship IMO. Looking forward to the rest...thanks.

 

 

 

Thanks! I agree that all things being equal the Fantasy could be a better overall experience, but that's why I added the caveat about value for the $$. I would rather do 2 Freedom cruises than 1 Fantasy cruise. :-)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jules815]

Thanks for your review and pictures.

 

Freedom has always been our favorite ship. :)

[harryfat1]

Ooooh, the trifecta discussion on some of my favorite topics - Disney/Cruises/Excel Schedule. As a cheapo dad, the premium price for a Disney cruise is too rich for my blood. Everyone spends their money differently. For me, I rather spend few days at the Disney theme parks and then a Freedom/Oasis cruise afterward for the same price of a Disney cruise.

 

Do you mind checking the time stamp on your pictures while on the tender? We have a private excursion planned for Cayman and I’m trying to figure out the timing on how long it takes to get off the ship.

 

Thanks.

[scottygirl]

As we pull around Freedom on our tender, I spotted the 3rd ship to roll up to Grand Cayman today – the Disney Fantasy. She must have snuck in after we left the cabin to tender. When seeing other ships in port I always compare them to what we came in on. Besides the water coaster and Fantasy being able to blow its horn to Star Wars music like the Imperial March, I think we are on the superior ship (at least superior to me when in relation to the cost / value ratio) :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been on the Fantasy and she's a beauty. I sail the Freedom in February so I will be able to do a one on one comparison!

[fletch1027]

After our tour of the fort area (which took around 15 minutes), we turned right on the main street (towards the direction where Margaritaville, Hard Rock, etc are located). Our goal was to check out the Cayman Islands National Museum. It was a nice looking building and very easy to find, about a block past Margaritaville. We went in and the entry area is also the gift shop. It was here that we were surprised at the cost. We were told that some of the exhibits were not open and that the tour cost was $6.50 pp Cayman dollars…

 

…which brings me to my next tip: be careful in the Caymans because that’s the only Caribbean island where the US dollar is worth less than the native currency. One Cayman dollar = .80 cents US. This leads to a lot of surprised people that eat lunch or shop assuming that the prices listed are in USD – then get their CC bill the next month after the exchange rate has been applied and see that their $20 lunch was actually $25 USD. To be fair, some places do list prices in USD, but be prepared to ask before you buy.

 

Back on topic, we decided that $8 USD each was more than we wanted to pay to see the museum. I guess I am spoiled by free things here in the US like the Smithsonian… :-)

 

 

 

We headed out of the museum, and wandered around a bit more and bought a couple of things here and there – some Del Sol color change nail polish for our daughters Christmas stocking – I got a pair of bamboo socks from Cariloha to try out and just some general browsing around to get some steps in.

 

I’m a sucker for parody t-shirts, but luckily I hardly ever buy any:

 

 

 

Saw this sign and almost got it for my work office but I didn’t want anyone that didn’t know me to see it and get ticked off… :-)

 

 

 

Went into a shop that sold antique coins, jewelry and other things. Some of the stuff was cool because it had authentication paperwork that showed it was retrieved from a shipwreck which caused my nerd alarm to go off. Speaking of that, I assume that interest in Meerschaum pipes increased exponentially after the National Treasure movie came out:

 

 

 

After some wandering, we decided to head back to the ship to get lunch because we figured that nothing in town was worth paying for compared to the food we had technically already paid for on the ship.

 

We passed this cool fountain where I mentioned to my wife that she could still say that she petted a stingray, although this one was metal:

 

 

 

Why did the chicken cross the road? I’m not sure if this one did. My wife was just glad it wasn’t an iguana. When we previously toured the Turtle Farm, there were literally dozens of iguanas all up in the trees and they are one of her least favorite things. Luckily there didn’t seem to be many roaming around downtown George Town!

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

[Jarronwood]

I am into planning in a big way. Is this spreadsheet available in excel format? I would so like to have a template.