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

[fletch1027]

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

 

The spreadsheet club is growing! :D

 

There are many out there that OCD people like me use. This one is pretty straightforward (and is based on an Allure cruise):

 

- Cruise days & MDR daily dinner menu at top

- Dark gray are the times we are in port

- Green is when I booked MTD

- Blue are shows that can be pre-booked

- Bottom is the uber-OCD tip section where I tried to determine how much I would be paying in tips for excursions, extra grats, taxi's, etc. Then I broke it down by bill size and went to the bank before leaving and got it all ahead of time. My goal was to have enough small bills for the trip so I never had to wait in line forever at Guest Services just to have them break a couple of 20's for me. On the 2nd tab there are some random tip and excursion notes from a previous Western itinerary on Freedom from a couple years ago... :cool:

 

I copied it up to my google drive and shared it. Let me know if this link works:

 

Cruise Planning Spreadsheet

 

 

 

.

[cruiserdudebobby8]

Great review so far! loving the pictures

[easyboy]

The spreadsheet club is growing! :D

 

I copied it up to my google drive and shared it. Let me know if this link works:

 

Cruise Planning Spreadsheet

Works for me. Thanks.

[fletch1027]

Thanks for your review and pictures.

 

Freedom has always been our favorite ship. :)

 

 

Currently it is ours as well. When we sail her again in February it will be an interesting test to see if it was the ship or her 3 hour closer proximity (Canaveral vs. Everglades) that was the root of the love... :)

[fletch1027]

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.

 

As one Harry to another, I would have to say that there are definitely “cheapo” levels. On one end are the non-cheapo’s that do the Disney land and sea packages and spend a ton on each end. On the other end there are the very-cheapo’s that bundle a vacation with a day at Gatorland followed by a day cruise on the Victory gambling boat. :D

 

I think you and I are somewhere in-between, where we enjoy the land-based Disney (not cheap) followed by a great 7 day RCI cruise (not cheap but cheaper than Disney). However, the RCI cruises can be made cheaper with things like cabin selection… :)

 

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.

 

So, this trip was a little different for us in that since we didn’t have an excursion planned, we were not in a rush to get off the ship, however after a not-too-intensive metadata search through my photo’s I came up with this general timeline. Once our tender number was called and we made it down to deck 1, the time from there to shore was about 20 mins. The photo I took of the I-95 corridor was taken at 11:00 and the one of the tender boat pulling up after we pulled out was 11:06, and we were taking pictures at the fort by 11:29, but that includes a rest room stop at the port and walking out to where the fort is.

 

If you want to see the strategy I used to get off the ship on the first tender (even though we had booked a non-RCI tour, below is a link to one of my older trip reports. The Cayman section is around halfway down the page, but feel free to read the whole thing if you want. :-)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1815231&page=4

 

 

What excursion do you guys have planned?

[fletch1027]

One of the shops on the main road had a second floor balcony which made for a cool photo vantage point looking back towards town:

 

 

 

We had a leisurely stroll back to the port. Heading back to the ship around 2:00, there were no lines at the port and we were able to walk onto a waiting tender. It took around 10 minutes to fill up and off we went. I noticed a fellow cruiser had a funny shirt that caught my eye, because both Jen and I’s parents have bought RV’s with the intent of traveling more. That plus us being from Georgia was the perfect storm of comedy for me!

 

 

 

There she is – our home away from home! That is unless your name is Super Mario then it’s just home period…

 

 

 

We got back onboard and headed up to the Windjammer for a late lunch / extended snack since we had MTD reservations for 5:30. Anyway, at that time (around 2:30) the Windjammer was empty enough where they only had one side open. That was troubling to me since in the morning we are told to use both sides evenly so the ship doesn’t tip over. :-)

 

 

We ended up back in the cabin a few minutes before the all-aboard time. Looking out over the balcony, I saw what was likely the last tender heading around to the port side:

 

 

 

Seeing the last tender reminded me of a funny Capt. Toni moment during the morning announcements before tendering started. He went through the usual things (ship vs. shore time, seapass, etc.). Then when he warned everyone about what time to get back by, he said that if you were late and missed the last tender, you would be hearing this song in your head as you watched Freedom head for Cozumel. I won’t say the song, but if you are curious, click the link below to go to a YouTube video I found that combines that song with the greatest movie saga of all time – Star Wars of course. When you hear the song (clue: Celine Dion), you will see why its so funny that Capt. Toni played it for everyone…

 

 

[YOUTUBE]uD51cdLbZJc[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

 

After the first two nights of trying out specialty dining with the BOGO deal, this night was our first in the MDR. We were a little curious how the repartee with the wait staff would go since we hadn’t been there the first two nights. As it turns out, it was perfectly fine! Our wait staff were Kenyata & Jason and they were awesome!

 

I know there is a lot of MDR food discussions here on CC, and I agree with a lot of it in that they could do a lot better in the quality department especially lately when things seem to be disappearing from them and replaced with inferior options. That being said, we like going to the MDR for two reasons. First, we can relax for 60-90 minutes and be served and not have to fight the crowds up in the Windjammer. I’m OK to do that two times in a day but three is too many. Using MTD with a table for two we have never been in there for more than 90 minutes and that’s because it’s us taking our time. The other reason is the relationship that is built with the wait staff. By the 3rd night, they know us well enough that as soon as we are seated a Diet Coke appears for me. :-) Another example of this relationship is that it had been around two and a half years between Freedom cruises for us (did the Allure in-between). Jen and I recognized our wait staff (Rodson and Helmsley – although they are not a pair anymore) from that last cruise but we didn’t think they would remember us because there had been over 100 cruises since our last time on Freedom. However, Helmsley and I made eye contact and he came over to our table and although he did not remember our names he recognized us and remembered that we had our daughter with us last time! Rodson was the same way. We will be on Freedom again in February and we will request Rodson’s section when we get on board. Unfortunately Helmsley is transferring to Liberty between now and then so that stinks for Freedom but good for Liberty!

 

Tonight we went to a performance of an a cappella group called Edge Effect. They were pretty good and sang a lot of popular songs spanning a few decades to make everyone happy. I do not think they are permanent entertainment, but I’m not sure of their sailing schedule either…

 

 

 

Overall it was a relaxing fun day. So glad that it was a day at Grand Cayman instead of a 2nd sea day in a row! Getting back to our rooms, we saw the towel of the day. I believe it is an elephant… :-)

 

 

 

Tomorrow – viva Mexico!

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2016 by fletch1027

[harryfat1]

As one Harry to another, I would have to say that there are definitely “cheapo” levels. On one end are the non-cheapo’s that do the Disney land and sea packages and spend a ton on each end. On the other end there are the very-cheapo’s that bundle a vacation with a day at Gatorland followed by a day cruise on the Victory gambling boat. :D

 

I think you and I are somewhere in-between, where we enjoy the land-based Disney (not cheap) followed by a great 7 day RCI cruise (not cheap but cheaper than Disney). However, the RCI cruises can be made cheaper with things like cabin selection… :)

 

 

 

So, this trip was a little different for us in that since we didn’t have an excursion planned, we were not in a rush to get off the ship, however after a not-too-intensive metadata search through my photo’s I came up with this general timeline. Once our tender number was called and we made it down to deck 1, the time from there to shore was about 20 mins. The photo I took of the I-95 corridor was taken at 11:00 and the one of the tender boat pulling up after we pulled out was 11:06, and we were taking pictures at the fort by 11:29, but that includes a rest room stop at the port and walking out to where the fort is.

 

If you want to see the strategy I used to get off the ship on the first tender (even though we had booked a non-RCI tour, below is a link to one of my older trip reports. The Cayman section is around halfway down the page, but feel free to read the whole thing if you want. :-)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1815231&page=4

 

 

What excursion do you guys have planned?

 

Oh, yeah, you can start a brand new thread on the main forum to discuss what cheap means and the various degrees of it. There will be tons of comments on this topic. You and I are the value cheapos versus the ultra cheapos who have the money to do a cruise but won't spend the money to leave the house - we all know someone like that.

 

Without veering your trip report to far off course on a Disney versus RCI cruise price comparison, just a quick note that for the cruise timeframe I’m looking at for December 2017, a 4 nights Disney cruise for an inside cabin costs more than a 7 night cruise on the Oasis on the Boardwalk balcony. Are you kidding me? I’ll give my money to Disney via the theme park route instead of their ships.

 

Thanks for looking up the time stamp. The Freedom is scheduled to arrive in port at 8 AM for our sailing as that’s the first port on day 3 so she has plenty of time to get there. I’m trying to get to the dock by 9 AM so that would mean I need to get up butt early and be on the first couple tenders. Just like you guys, we did the Sting Ray thing awhile back so this time it’s just a tour of the rest of the island we didn’t get to see.

 

As for the Star Wars song reference in your other post, I must be dating myself as an old dude as I always associate that song with the original male singer back in the 70’s instead of the remake with Celine.

[John&LaLa]

Enjoyed cruising with you!!;) Thanks for posting your review and will follow along!!:cool:

 

Hi, I forgot to ask how the Cow Butt Sweet turned out for you. Any noise from the door below.

[wilmingtech]

 

Another example of this relationship is that it had been around two and a half years between Freedom cruises for us (did the Allure in-between). Jen and I recognized our wait staff (Rodson and Helmsley – although they are not a pair anymore) from that last cruise but we didn’t think they would remember us because there had been over 100 cruises since our last time on Freedom. However, Helmsley and I made eye contact and he came over to our table and although he did not remember our names he recognized us and remembered that we had our daughter with us last time! Rodson was the same way. We will be on Freedom again in February and we will request Rodson’s section when we get on board. Unfortunately Helmsley is transferring to Liberty between now and then so that stinks for Freedom but good for Liberty!

 

 

We had Helmsley on our first cruise! He was great! Loved his little "Heh heh" laugh after everything he said. Our kids will always remember him. He would get them anything they wanted and you could tell he truly enjoyed creating a hospitable environment for them. We were hoping to see him on our next trip in March.

 

-Sean

[fletch1027]

We awoke on day 4 about where we usually are on previous Cozumel days – almost there. We headed up to the WJ around 8:30 to grab a quick breakfast. At that time it was busy but still very manageable. We got a table for 2 window seat so we could watch us roll past the tip of the island as we ate. We then headed back down to the room to get packed up for our beach day which I will expound upon in my next post.

 

While we were in the room, from the balcony I watched the pilot boat pull up so I knew it was just a matter of time now before we would be docked up.

 

 

 

Here are a couple of the typical Cozumel photos of us pulling up into port. I mostly posted these to show the weather. Apparently, the past couple weeks of October Caribbean cruises they found a lot of rain along the way. Today in Cozumel it was a little overcast but no rain to speak of.

 

 

 

 

We docked and got the go ahead from Captain Toni right on schedule. We grabbed a couple of waters from the Promenade kiosk on the way out (we had the newly rebranded “Refresh” package which I will share some thoughts on later), and headed for Deck 1. There was a short wait, but the line kept moving quickly and we were on dry land in no time.

 

One thing I noticed right away was our dock neighbor – the Oasis - aka Port Canaveral’s new best friend. On previous visits on Freedom our port neighbor was usually a pair of smaller ships, but with Freedom & Oasis class, they take up the whole side.

 

I thought this was a cool comparison photo – and there’s definitely more of those to come in a later post!

 

 

 

To be continued…

[fletch1027]

Without veering your trip report to far off course on a Disney versus RCI cruise price comparison, just a quick note that for the cruise timeframe I’m looking at for December 2017, a 4 nights Disney cruise for an inside cabin costs more than a 7 night cruise on the Oasis on the Boardwalk balcony. Are you kidding me? I’ll give my money to Disney via the theme park route instead of their ships.

 

I totally agree! Especially with grown kids Disney cruises for us isn't worth the extra money compared to RCI...

[congonati]

Ha! I'm pretty sure that's my brother in law in the blue shirt on the deck 8 hump balcony. Too funny! :D

[SherriZ366]

I totally agree! Especially with grown kids Disney cruises for us isn't worth the extra money compared to RCI...

Just got back from Disney -- their charges for the theme parks are really steep. Makes one appreciate an RCI cruise.

[crusinot]

Following!

[fletch1027]

We had Helmsley on our first cruise! He was great! Loved his little "Heh heh" laugh after everything he said. Our kids will always remember him. He would get them anything they wanted and you could tell he truly enjoyed creating a hospitable environment for them. We were hoping to see him on our next trip in March.

 

-Sean

 

Yep - he is great! Unfortunately (for those of us that are cruising on Freedom), he is transferring to Liberty sometime between now and the end of January.

 

I told him we would be on Freedom again in February and he said he would be gone by then... :(

[SilkySal]

Hi, I forgot to ask how the Cow Butt Sweet turned out for you. Any noise from the door below.

 

We definitely enjoyed the Sweet! Since we were on a B2B, we got 4 weeks (28) of punches for ice cream!!:p We gave some of them away and even came home with around 4 punches! Wondering if we can hang onto them and possibly use them the next time we cruise a Freedom class ship!:rolleyes: I only heard (maybe) a door below 1 or 2 times, which wasn't loud at all, so no problems there! No noise from the connecting cabin next door either! We included our cabin in the crawl for everyone to see! Oh and I especially enjoyed access to the CL for specialty coffee in the mornings, as well as priority disembarkation at the ports!!!:cool: Will look forward to those perks if and when we reach D+.:rolleyes:

[songbird1329]

Georgetown -- we found the Fort the first time we visited. Or rather, the remnants of the fort.

 

And yes, we had a lot of rain in Cozumel the week before you were there.

[John&LaLa]

We definitely enjoyed the Sweet! Since we were on a B2B, we got 4 weeks (28) of punches for ice cream!!:p We gave some of them away and even came home with around 4 punches! Wondering if we can hang onto them and possibly use them the next time we cruise a Freedom class ship!:rolleyes: I only heard (maybe) a door below 1 or 2 times, which wasn't loud at all, so no problems there! No noise from the connecting cabin next door either! We included our cabin in the crawl for everyone to see! Oh and I especially enjoyed access to the CL for specialty coffee in the mornings, as well as priority disembarkation at the ports!!!:cool: Will look forward to those perks if and when we reach D+.:rolleyes:

 

Glad you enjoyed it. Was the motion activated moooo still hooked up? I didn't want to tell you about it. Always fun to figure it out on your own. :o

[congonati]

We definitely enjoyed the Sweet! Since we were on a B2B, we got 4 weeks (28) of punches for ice cream!!:p We gave some of them away and even came home with around 4 punches! Wondering if we can hang onto them and possibly use them the next time we cruise a Freedom class ship!:rolleyes: I only heard (maybe) a door below 1 or 2 times, which wasn't loud at all, so no problems there! No noise from the connecting cabin next door either! We included our cabin in the crawl for everyone to see! Oh and I especially enjoyed access to the CL for specialty coffee in the mornings, as well as priority disembarkation at the ports!!!:cool: Will look forward to those perks if and when we reach D+.:rolleyes:

 

FYI, we saved one of our vouchers from our Feb 2015 sailing when we were in the Sweet on Liberty. We successfully used them on the Freedom Halloween sailing. Still have a few punches left also. :)

[fletch1027]

Although I have mentioned earlier in this review that my intent this time around was to try to eliminate a lot of need to do my OCD type of planning, there was one aspect that I felt I needed to devote a few hours on pre-cruise and that was where we would spend our beach day in Cozumel.

 

On our previous couple of trips to Cozumel, we have done a tour to Tulum. One time we did it with an RCI tour and the other time we did everything on our own with a private tour. The ONLY advantage to the RCI tour is the “not get left insurance” that you get. It’s more expensive, it’s rushed, the tour guide to person ratio is huge, but there is a lot more planning involved when doing a private tour. If anyone is interested in Tulum, I went into great detail in my previous two trip reviews on how we did them.

 

Anyway, back on topic. In order to get good beach value coupled with convenience and low stress, here was my criteria for selecting one of the various Cozumel beach options:

 

- price – we do not drink so we did not need to pay more for an “all-inclusive” day

- location – we wanted to be a short cab ride away from the pier

- ease – although there are many smaller beach locations, we wanted one that we knew had an active “cab stand” so we didn’t have to try and hail one

- nice – good feedback on places like CC, Trip Advisor, etc.

 

When I uploaded all of this data into the algorithm machine, the answer that spit out was Paradise Beach. The beach was a short (around 10-12 minute) cab ride from the pier. While in line for a cab we met a couple that was cruising on the Oasis that was heading there as well so we saved some money by splitting the cab with them. Between Jen and I we paid around $10 for the shared ride up and around $16 for the ride back with just us. The cost at Paradise Beach was $3 each for the beach chair / umbrella rental and the understanding that we would spend at least $10 on food / drinks. So overall we paid under $30 for the both of us, not including the lunch we bought. I feel like that is a great deal compared to what RCI beach excursions were offered.

 

Arriving at Paradise Beach, you are led down a nicely landscaped path to get to the pool area and out to the beach:

 

 

 

Below are a couple of photos of the beach area. For there being an Oasis, Freedom, and a couple of other ships in port that day, Paradise Beach never felt over-crowded. These photos were taken right after we arrived. By the time we left around 1:30 or so, the chairs were around 75% occupied.

 

 

 

 

The food was pretty good – better than I was expecting. I had a chicken wrap that was too big to finish and Jen got a taco salad that was also too big for her to finish. She especially liked the avocado chunks which were a nice touch and different from most taco salads you get back home.

 

 

 

They also had impressive restroom facilities with lockers if you needed to rent one. Here is their guard parrot that liked attention but not enough that I put a finger in the cage… :-)

 

 

 

As the morning went along, the overcast burned off and it turned into a decently sunny afternoon. Unfortunately, I forgot my headphones but I was still able to figure out a way to kick back and relax.

 

 

 

It was a great beach day. We packed it up and headed back to the pier with around 2-3 hours to spare before the all aboard time. We stopped briefly in the port shopping area to pick up a few bottles of vanilla before getting on board. I had also studied up on the “Mexican vanilla” as well. The guidelines I followed was to check the ingredients to make sure it was “pure” as well as to make sure it didn’t contain an ingredient called coumarin. It’s pretty bad stuff that is banned for use in the US as a food additive.

 

Picked up a bottle for us as well as bottles for our moms for Christmas before walking back to the ship.

 

 

To be continued…

[scottygirl]

We love Paradise Beach, always our go to in Cozumel. However, our February 2017 Freedom cruise we are thinking about staying on the ship, shh don't tell anyone. ;)

[fletch1027]

Ha! I'm pretty sure that's my brother in law in the blue shirt on the deck 8 hump balcony. Too funny! :D

 

That is crazy! It's such a small world and CC makes it that much smaller. :)

 

In one of my other trip reviews, the same thing happened where someone reading the thread either saw themselves or someone they knew in the background of a photo...

[SilkySal]

Glad you enjoyed it. Was the motion activated moooo still hooked up? I didn't want to tell you about it. Always fun to figure it out on your own. :o

 

Nope, the mooer was not plugged in when we arrived to the Sweet but our wonderful room attendant plugged it in for us!!;) We made sure to plug it in during the cabin crawl for some good laughs!!:D

[SilkySal]

FYI, we saved one of our vouchers from our Feb 2015 sailing when we were in the Sweet on Liberty. We successfully used them on the Freedom Halloween sailing. Still have a few punches left also. :)

 

Thanks! Good to know! I will hang on to them!!:cool:

[grand isle joe]

To get a "real" cow experience those B+J cows there should be auto cow pies coming out the south end of the cow......plop plop.......now THAT would be funny.