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

[fletch1027]

I thought it was pretty cool that the outgoing and incoming residents of Port Canaveral were parked side by side in Cozumel, so I thought I would take a few posts to show some pictures I took of them while they were lined up on the dock.

 

These first three pictures show kind of a RCI tunnel effect looking down the dock flanked by these two floating cities. Pretty impressive!

 

 

 

Little farther down…

 

 

 

Looks like you can almost shake hands between the two cantilevers:

 

 

 

We then got on the ship and headed upstairs to get some other comparison photos.

 

This photo was taken from by the Squeeze Bar on Deck 11 looking directly across to Oasis to get an idea of how Deck 11 lines up with her big sister:

 

 

 

This photo was a little down from Squeeze Bar through an open sliding window. I thought it was cool to get a close up look at some of the Oasis hot tub suite balconies:

 

 

 

My next thought was how high can I get? So, our next stop was up to Deck 14 where I took a photo from Olive or Twist directly across to Oasis. From up here, it didn’t look like Oasis was much taller – but we all know better… :-)

 

 

 

Next up, the wandering isn’t done yet…

 

[SilkySal]

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.

 

Only if the cow pies were pure chocolate!!:p Would also need some sort of "pooper scooper" and a way to get them into the Sweet right through the Promenade window!!:cool: Now, that's a cabin worth having!!;) Of course, watching the cow pies being deposited may be somewhat disturbing (in the end)!!:rolleyes: hahahahahaha!

[stickyshocker]

Sure - feel free!

 

 

 

that ship next door:;)

hopefully i got the size right

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[grand isle joe]

Only if the cow pies were pure chocolate!!:p Would also need some sort of "pooper scooper" and a way to get them into the Sweet right through the Promenade window!!:cool: Now, that's a cabin worth having!!;) Of course, watching the cow pies being deposited may be somewhat disturbing (in the end)!!:rolleyes: hahahahahaha!

 

:D,,,,,,maybe a little trap door with a long pole with a basket you could catch the pure chocolate cow pies when they "drop"........a load "MOOOOO" would signal a coming event.......now THAT would be an exciting addition to the room....

[easyboy]

Your comparative photos are very interesting.

[harryfat1]

Looking at your pictures of two ships next to each other reminds me of what happened on our cruise couple years ago.

 

One wait staff from the Allure was talking to another guy from the Navigator of the Seas (on the left hand side of the picture) across the way. I took the first picture not too far from where the waiter was standing on the Allure talking to the other guy in the picture.

 

Guess they know each other from previous working time together on the same ship so they were just carrying on a conversation on the top deck from both ships. Guess that’s their version of meeting their co-worker at the water cooler in the office and asking them how was their weekend…

 

 

 

 

[fletch1027]

 

that ship next door:;)

hopefully i got the size right

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Great photo!! See you guys later! :D

 

How long after Freedom left before Oasis left?

[stickyshocker]

Great photo!! See you guys later! :D

 

 

 

How long after Freedom left before Oasis left?

 

 

That was in the morning as you guys were pulling in, that ship is loud. You were scopin' my ship as i was yours.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[fletch1027]

With our highest vantage point I could think of being Olive or Twist, I took some more photos. This time of the view looking forward where I thought it was a cool comparison between the two.

 

These next two photos are very similar with the only difference being the camera I used. I had two cameras along on the trip. My iPhone 7 and an Olympus TG-4 which I have for its waterproof underwater features, but it also takes pretty good photos on land and if has the ability to mount filters. It also has various modes, but today I just had it set to plain old auto.

 

This is the version taken with the iphone7…

 

 

 

…and this one was taken with the TG-4 with a polarizing filter

 

 

 

Hard to tell which one is a better quality because the tinting of the Olive or Twist window kind of messes with both photos, although overall the quality of camera phones has gone up and up over time!

 

This photo is almost the same angle with the only difference being that I turned a bit to include more of the Oasis

 

 

 

For the last few photos we went down to a place that regular passengers can’t get to on an Oasis class – the bow! I figured this would be a cool perspective to get as far forward as possible.

 

Due to the size of both, a photo capturing both bows would have to have been taken from 50-100 feet out in the ocean, but I did the best I could with my back up against the Freedom flagpole. :-)

 

These two photos are pretty much the same but since I can have six photos per post I figured I would include them both:

 

 

 

 

This last one was taken as close to Oasis as I could get while still being able to see Oasis’ bridge and cabin slope areas:

 

 

 

Well that concludes the photo comparison diversion. Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did taking the photos! :-)

 

Now on to the rest of the story!

 

[fletch1027]

Looking at your pictures of two ships next to each other reminds me of what happened on our cruise couple years ago.

 

One wait staff from the Allure was talking to another guy from the Navigator of the Seas (on the left hand side of the picture) across the way. I took the first picture not too far from where the waiter was standing on the Allure talking to the other guy in the picture.

 

Guess they know each other from previous working time together on the same ship so they were just carrying on a conversation on the top deck from both ships. Guess that’s their version of meeting their co-worker at the water cooler in the office and asking them how was their weekend…

 

That's funny - we have seen something similar. We were getting off the ship and noticed our MDR Asst. Waiter outside on one of the MDR decks having a conversation across to another MDR staffer on one of the Oasis MDR decks.

 

Cruise ship life seems like a crazy thing sometimes... :)

[Canadian Tyler]

 

We were there waving!! Trying to spot ourselves - any chance you'd have a hi-res version?

 

Here's Freedom from our vantage point.

 

 

 

Enjoying the review! We were on Freedom in January in the B&J's "sweet" and have fond memories. We didn't see/hear a motion activated mooer though! Sounds like we missed out!

[harryfat1]

Thanks again for writing this trip report. I will finish reading it when we get back as we are heading for the airport this afternoon for FLL for our Freedom cruise in 2 days.

 

Appreciate the helpful info you have provided in your report. I will likely write something on my end when I return so please free to drop to chat whenever I get to it.

 

Another thing we have in common is our appreciation for the zoom cameras. I used the older 35X zoom couple years ago and then just upgraded to 65X when Canon had a refurbished black Friday sale so I am eager to test it out on this vacation.

[fletch1027]

First off, a big apology for those that were following along before this big gap in time. I thought I would have plenty of time before Christmas to wrap it all up, but then life got in the way and between the end of year doctor appointments, last minute running around for Christmas, and our DD being home from college, the time disappeared. Anyway, I’m back now and plan on finishing strong! :-)

 

After we finished our wandering around taking photos of Freedom and her big sister, I noticed the “Jet Taxi” returning from Playa del Carmen:

 

 

 

For those that aren’t familiar (and I wasn’t until I went there), Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea so in order to get to “mainland” Mexico as a cruise ship passenger, your only viable option is to take what they call the ferry boat. However the ferry isn’t a slow moving boat like we think of here in the states. It’s a pretty fast boat that holds a lot of people. It’s fast enough that in choppy seas it can catch a little air. For some with motion issues it can be a problem. For me I thought it was a lot of fun. Anyway, if anyone takes a ship tour that goes over to the mainland, that’s how you get there. The advantage to the ship tours is that they charter the ferry’s and they pick up & drop off right at the pier by the ship. If you are on your own, you will need to catch a cab to the downtown pier where their home base is. We have done it both ways and either is doable. Reference my previous trip reviews for more details.

 

One tip I will share here again is if you are doing it on your own, never buy a round trip ferry ticket in Cozumel. There are two companies that run ferry’s with different schedules. Always buy a one way ticket, then when you get to Playa del Carmen, buy your one way ticket for going back to Cozumel. Also make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get back to the ship based on SHIP TIME. The ferry ride is around 30-35 minutes and the cab is around 15-20 depending on traffic. We played it safe and took a returning ferry that left Playa 2.3-3 hours before the ship left.

 

 

Here’s a view of the Senior Frogs by the pier from the ship around an hour before we left. Looks like it is rocking:

 

 

 

It’s leaving time! I always glance at the pier as we are pulling out to see if there are any “runners” that are late getting back. None this trip (people on pier must be headed to Oasis which left after us), but if you search on YouTube, there are some funny (except for the ones running) videos…

 

 

 

After leaving, we got ready for dinner in the MDR. There have been several hilarious threads on CC dealing with some crazy topics, but based on one of them that we all know and love, I am happy to report that our MDR table came stocked every night with this!

 

 

 

After dinner, trivia and listening to some music, we returned to our room to find our newest towel friend the dinosaur – luckily not Barney!

 

 

 

We also found something else that we always dread on a cruise. The evil luggage tags are the harbinger of being thrown off the ship soon… :-(

 

 

 

I'm glad we had already planned to self-disembark because group #32 sucks!

 

That’s it for our day of Cozumel adventures. Tomorrow is our final day at sea before Freedom’s final return to Port Canaveral…

 

[fletch1027]

Thanks again for writing this trip report. I will finish reading it when we get back as we are heading for the airport this afternoon for FLL for our Freedom cruise in 2 days.

 

Appreciate the helpful info you have provided in your report. I will likely write something on my end when I return so please free to drop to chat whenever I get to it.

 

Another thing we have in common is our appreciation for the zoom cameras. I used the older 35X zoom couple years ago and then just upgraded to 65X when Canon had a refurbished black Friday sale so I am eager to test it out on this vacation.

 

Hopefully I will finish my report before you do yours because I hit pause for a week of so on mine... :(

 

I love the "natural" zoom on cameras as opposed to the digitally enhanced zoom. Although I didn't being it on this trip, I love my Nikon P510. It has a 42x zoom and I got it for a steal. Below is a link to my last trip report when I talked about it:

 

P510 Photo

 

I will definitely bring it on our next cruise on Freedom in February. However, I am debating whether to take it to Maho beach. I know I can get some killer pics of the planes coming in, but I don't know if I want to risk it with the blowing sand. I will likely take the waterproof camera that I got around a year ago, the Olympus TG-4. It only has a 4x zoom, but still takes great photos.

 

 

Hope you guys had a great cruise! I will definitely be subscribing to your review!

[fletch1027]

Wow, for our last several cruises we have done 7 days. For this 5 day cruise the last day sneaks up and bites really fast… :-(

 

We didn’t set an alarm but still woke up around 8ish, so we got dressed and headed up the WJ for breakfast. It was sufficient as usual. With breakfast being my favorite meal of the day, I hold it to a higher standard than dinner. I guess that’s also why I seem less bothered by the changes in the MDR menu over time than others. With breakfast, I have always felt the same about the WJ – it’s ok but nothing special. It would jump way up for me if they would use real eggs for the scrambled eggs. Looking at what they put out has zero appeal to me when I see it. The wait for an omelet from the station was consistent all week – around 10-12 minutes. Some days we could afford to wait, some days we didn’t have the time.

 

Heading back to the room, I plopped in a chair and got some use out of the balcony while Jen started to organize things for packing.

 

 

Since this was the last cruise out of Port Canaveral, they threw a nice party for everyone in the promenade late morning. Captain Toni was up on the catwalk running the show. I got the feeling that the crew was definitely going to miss calling Port Canaveral home. In the case of Freedom, they were the “big dog” in PC for so long, now they will be in the shadow of the Oasis ships down in Port Everglades. Along with that, from what I have seen, it is also noteworthy for a ship to stay in the same port for as long as Freedom was in PC.

 

Below are some pictures of the balloon drop that was part of the festivities. It was funny that the balloons did not behave as expected and “dropping” them became a much more manual process than they were anticipating. I guess it isn’t something you can practice ahead of time…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The party also featured complimentary cake and champagne. One would assume these things would be free at a party, but on a cruise it never hurts to make sure. :-) The crew did such a good job spelling a tough word like Canaveral, it’s a shame they goofed up on a much easier one. Every cake was missing the “second L” but on some they were going around with red gel to correct it…

 

 

 

Here’s a shot looking down on the party from the forward deck 8 overlook:

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

[fletch1027]

We were there waving!! Trying to spot ourselves - any chance you'd have a hi-res version?

 

 

 

Here's Freedom from our vantage point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying the review! We were on Freedom in January in the B&J's "sweet" and have fond memories. We didn't see/hear a motion activated mooer though! Sounds like we missed out!

 

 

 

I just looked at the original on my Mac and it doesn't look much clearer. Blame my iPhone and its fake zoom. :-)

 

From what I did see, this was the only burgundy looking shirt w/ a hat in the photo but I'm not sure it's a match. Here is is with the same clarity as the fake Loch Ness Monster photo... :-)

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BillOh]

it is also noteworthy for a ship to stay in the same port for as long as Freedom was in PC.

 

Does anyone remember how long she was in PC? I'm struggling to remember. I did Freedom in Miami in 2008, but I think she did some time in PE before going to PC? (I'll admit my memory is questionable. )

 

That said, has any ship stayed in one home port exclusively longer? Oasis was in PE from 09 I believe until this Nov? Allure came out in 2010 and except for a short stint in Europe has been in PA. Other ships like Navigator seem to be shifting all the time.

 

PS to Fletch, glad you're back finishing this. I don't plan on being back on Freedom again before 2019, so I'm in no hurry :)

Edited December 27, 2016 by BillOh

[John&LaLa]

Does anyone remember how long she was in PC? I'm struggling to remember. I did Freedom in Miami in 2008, but I think she did some time in PE before going to PC? (I'll admit my memory is questionable. )

 

That said, has any ship stayed in one home port exclusively longer? Oasis was in PE from 09 I believe until this Nov? Allure came out in 2010 and except for a short stint in Europe has been in PA. Other ships like Navigator seem to be shifting all the time.

 

PS to Fletch, glad you're back finishing this. I don't plan on being back on Freedom again before 2019, so I'm in no hurry :)

 

We sailed Mariner in May 2008 out of PC and our first Freedom was August 2009. I think Mariner left in January 2009 for her transfer to LA, so Freedom probably arrived then.

[fletch1027]

According to Wikipedia, Freedom moved from Miami to PC in May of 09 - and that fits in with what John just said, so a little over 8 years. Not quite the "almost a decade" that they announced on the ship, but still quite a long time for a ship to call a port home...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[easyboy]

Enjoyed the review and nice photos.

[fletch1027]

Enjoyed the review and nice photos.

 

Thanks, but it's not done yet! :)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Thank you for the great review! We will b on the Freedom for her TA from Barcelona this coming October. We will also be celebrating Halloween on her - one year later!

 

We spent Halloween on the Harmony's TA. They had her decorated, but the decorations did not go up until Halloween day and came down that same night, overnight. I hope the Freedom is decorated before Halloween. The decorations were kind of fun and I would have liked to have been able to enjoy them longer.:)

Edited December 28, 2016 by Sunny AZ Girl

[sg1phileshipper]

Awesome review, thanks for writing. Can't wait for the rest.

 

 

Cindy

[easyboy]

Thanks, but it's not done yet! :)

Great then! :):):)

[fletch1027]

As our last day at sea moved along, we plotted out our last day and what we would be doing. After stopping by the farewell party, we went by the WJ for our last lunch of the cruise. I always dislike our last day on the cruise because it is usually a sea day which gives one plenty of time to think about things like packing, traveling back home, and going back to work. :(

 

Back at the room we continued to organize things a little more although I tried to get some more time out on the balcony watching the sea pass by…

 

 

 

 

Sometimes on past trip reviews I have included things like compasses and MDR menus, but I didn’t do that this time because this was a 5 night “re-positioning” cruise so there wasn’t anything on them that would be of much benefit. I assume the compasses were just a mish-mash of what’s on a 7 nighter and the MDR menus were also the standard 7 night ones but with 2 of them removed (including the 2nd formal night one).

 

Anyway, that afternoon we ventured out because I did notice on the compass a showing of my favorite movie of 2016 – Star Wars Episode VII. Even though we’re on a ship with other things to tempt our time, I had to take advantage of this!

 

I will make a negative comment here though. While I cannot speak for how screenings look (quality-wise) on Oasis or Quantum class ships, the Freedom does not have the facilities to pull off a theater-quality 3D movie. The projector isn’t powerful enough to properly light the film to compensate for the light that is filtered from wearing the dark 3D glasses. I’m not sure why RCI shows 3D films. I would be perfectly fine with the 2D version and it would make a better experience and it would also be less expense for them (between having to buy the glasses as well as the crew having to clean them every show).

 

Here are a couple of photos from it. They don’t look as dark because my camera wasn’t looking through the glasses and that's why they are blurry as well (hopefully the Disney lawyers won’t see this and come after me) :-)

 

Kylo Ren

 

 

Rey

 

 

After the movie, we stopped by the Café Promenade so I could see what kind of cookies they were offering. Whenever I am on an RCI ship, I am always on the lookout for my favorite cookie – the coconut ranger cookie. They are pretty popular so I always grab several whever I spot them in the WJ or other places like Café Promenade.

 

 

 

If anyone else likes them as much as me, RCI publishes the recipe – here’s a link to it:

 

Coconut Ranger Cookies Recipe

 

Only have a little cruise left as we wind down to the sad end.

 

To be continued…