Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

 

I like to stay at Staybridge Suites or Residence inns Mon - Wed. They generally offer something that resembles a hot evening meal (for free!).

 

I have various break even points for hotels (when it's worth not having an included breakfast) and minimum standards for room inclusions (mini fridge, microwave, etc.)

 

I also mapquest takeout restaurants in the area and their deals.

 

When we travel down to Florida (stopping at hotels each night), I am probably a 9+ on the anal scale. Everything is planned, mapped, noted plus at least one alternate if something goes wrong.

 

I find it fun to plan those kind of trips.

 

Good point. I forgot to mention the manager’s dinner reception at these hotels. Homewood Suites also have the similar weeknight freebie dinner items.

 

If you don’t need a kitchen, there’s also Embassy Suites with their breakfast and night time snacks.

 

Depends on what states you live in, some people are lucky to have Drury hotel in their area. They are great for dollar value given what you pay in giving you free breakfast and night time drinks and snacks.

 

Staybridge also have free uses of their washer and dryers in the laundry room so you can wash your clothes there 24/7 for free. Just bring some laundry stuff in the car. Makes packing easier if you can do laundry half way through your vacation.

 

Here are few pics I dug up from the 2015 and 2016 road trips for those who are hotel fans.

 

This is the Residence Inn over by the Mt. Rushmore area in South Dakota from 2015. Huge kitchen and eating area. This is just for the 4 of us. The inlaws are couple doors down with their kitchen area also.

 

 

 

 

Residence Inn by Portland Oregon in 2016. They have an upstairs loft bedroom bed for the boys and we have ours on the main floor. They love having their own bed and space and separate bathroom upstairs. Nice kitchen also.

 

 

 

 

Free breakfast in make your own waffle at Residence Inn. The cruise ship doesn’t even have these toppings that you can get at a free breakfast from hotel.

 

 

 

 

Here’s an example of the free dinner you get from Residence Inn on manager nights. Free burgers and salad and free glasses of wine or beer. Cruise ship will never give you free wine

 

 

 

 

This is the largest hotel room I have ever stayed in at the coast of Oregon. All 1,400 square feet of it. Huge kitchen and look all the space to fit the family of 4 in 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Has fire place and balcony with ocean view of Pacific ocean. They called this the grand suite and cost less than $230 per night with AAA discount for our stay.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Agreed - I just posted a bunch of stuff from our visit to the Yoda Guy museum on my trip report!

 

Also fun in St. Maarten if you haven't been there before is to go to Maho beach and watch the planes come in to the airport that is a couple hundred feet from the beach. No tour for it - just the cost of the cab ride...

 

 

I saw this picture on your Allure trip report the other day. Very nice.

 

Also saw the other picture of the dude in the tight swimming trunk and I initially thought it was you out there flexing out your hardware to impress the ladies…

 

We will likely take Bernard’s tour to get an overview of the island for the in-laws and the boys as they have never been there. Just beaches and planes the entire day might be too boring for them.

 

But I’ll be sure to be on the lookout for some chunky beefcake person at the beach to take some pictures of him to bring back for your & others viewing pleasure in my next trip report…

[harryfat1]

Harryfat/Cheapo Dad

 

Great report, great writing style! Really enjoying your cruise story...!

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you are following along.

[harryfat1]

Thanks for more bacon.

 

You’re welcome. Daily breakfast staple.

 

Pretty sure I lost few days from my total life expectancy eating the cruise ship breakfast offering of bacon and other bad stuff but can’t resist as we don’t buy bacon to cook at home regularly for health reason. Only indulge myself during vacations.

[harryfat1]

Harry, for a newbie to RCCL would the Figure out the Freedom give us some useful information that we can use so we aren't so overwhelmed?

 

Also did you attend any of the port shopping talks and if so are they worth it? I know on DCL the raffled off some stuff and my wife won some Effy earrings.

 

Hard for me to suggest what you should do on your vacation. It’s your call on what you like to do.

 

Guess part of it depends on how prepared are you for RCI? Meaning how much time have you spent in reading the various trip reports and reading the daily questions/postings from other cruisers to have a vague idea on what’s what? If you are somewhat prepared, then maybe you won’t need to go to the Figure out the Freedom talk as they tell you what deck is what and where you can get free pizza and snack on the RP.

 

I got nothing out of it myself other than knowing where the ship might docks as there would be 3 RCI ships in port that day but than I am 9+ anal scale person so I knew about the basic stuff beforehand . My family got more out of it as they are not CC people so they got to see some pics of the ship. Just know the talk is 80% ad and 20% actual info.

 

As for port talk, it’s 95% sales info on the various stores and 5% info. Yes, if you read my previous post on day 2, you will see we went to the port talk and they had raffle but we didn’t win. If that’s important to your wife, go ahead and attend. Bring something to read in case you get bored as they talk about Diamond International/Del Sol/Tanzanite stones/more diamonds and so on…

Edited January 18, 2017 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

We loved Valley of Fire! http://www.herdofturtles.org/2014/04/17/valley-of-fire/

 

Badlands were HOT! 110 degrees when we were there.

 

Love traveling through the western US. Some amazing landscapes for sure. I certainly wouldn't want to be the driver on those 400-500 mile days though. Thats some crazy road to put down in a car full of family :)

 

-Sean

 

Hehe, more digression talk about rocks that most cruisers don’t care about…

 

Thanks for the link. Very nice pictures.

 

Yeah, Badlands was hot in August 2015 when we were there – think it as around 100 when we were there. About half way through the sightseeing, the boys and the in-laws decide not to get out of the air conditioned van anymore after seeing the same rocks for the nth time. So we left the van running while they stayed inside while my wife and I ran outside to take few pictures and ran back to the van. Good enough is good enough.

 

Yeap, we are one happy family in piling in the van and drive miles and miles. At least in the van, you have more space to stretch your legs than the airplane. I rather drive 500 miles than fly 2,500 miles. Especially if the 500 miles has no traffic and is just WIDE open space like this. Speed limit is 70 MPH on some stretches so you can zip along pretty fast.

 

You know I can’t just talk road trips without digging into the archives for some pics. Here are few more pics that I dug up from the archives.

 

Yes, if you don’t like seeing rocks, then part of the western US is pretty boring for you sightseeing wise. However, having said that, I will also drop in couple water based road trip pictures from our 2016 trip so my Oregon friends won’t go up in arms by saying their state is very green and water based so not all western states are dry.

 

So you people that tuned in thinking you are looking at pictures of the Caribbean cruise but nope, you are looking at coast of Oregon thousands of miles away instead. That’s ok, you can wait few minutes. This is for all the overseas friends that may never go to Oregon so here is your one chance to see it.

 

First thing first. For the overseas folks, this is what it looks like to drive in some part of western US. Easy to go 500 miles (or 800 kilometers) this way.

 

 

 

 

Photos of the river outside Portland Oregon

 

 

 

 

Their biggest waterfall. You can walk across the bridge on the top and look back down

 

 

 

 

These guys getting a suntan along the Pacific ocean

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Picture of the Oregon coast

 

 

Bet you don’t see this at the beach everyday

 

 

 

They have miles and miles of sand dunes area where you need ATV to access it

 

 

 

 

We took the tour on the big vehicle to see the sand dunes

 

[harryfat1]

We have also done Maho Beach in St. Maarten. Fun to do once or twice.The beach there was kind of steep down to the water.

We got to see a couple of big planes come in. If you do Bernards's Tours, they usually take you there. They try to time it so that you can see a large plane land, and maybe take off.

When the large planes take off it is amusing to watch the drunk people hang on to the fence behind the jet wash. I don't recommend trying it though! Lol!

 

 

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Yeah, we will likely do the Bernard's tour to see the area. Will try to take pics of the drunk people holding onto the fence for dear life...

[harryfat1]

Really enjoying your trip report. Thank you. We hope to be on the Anthem this December so your report is helping keep the anticipation high.

Was that some kind of a wild cat, looked like a leopard, in the trees? I'm referring to the picture that your wife took, and you didn't know why. Right side of the photo, about 3/4 of the way up.

 

Thank you for the compliment.

 

Don't know what that is but don't think it's a leopard as the branch doesn't look very strong and any decent size cat would break it. But just glad no incident happened to anyone on our tour or any tour in the area as far as I know.

[harryfat1]

How do you know in advance if they will have a theme nights? I sail at the end of March on Freedom 6 day and just curious if they always do a 70's theme or a any theme and how do find out?

 

 

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Read the daily compass I scan at the beginning of each sea day. That should tell you what they have planned for the day.

[harryfat1]

Harry,

 

I find myself both eager for your next inistallment and sad that it's almost over.

 

Thank you for the nice thought. While the report is closer to the end than the beginning, I still have a bit more to go.

 

As they say in sports, it ain't over until the fat lady sings. I can guarantee you that the fat lady is not even in the building warming up her song. Think right now she is on a 1 week cruise sipping something at the solarium...

[harryfat1]

Oh, yeah, then there’s the rest of the group that tuned in not to read about my road trip but about the cruise. DUH…

 

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, reading a Harry's trip report is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you gonna get. You thought you tuned in to read about western Caribbean cruise but ended up looking at rocks outside Las Vegas and Pacific ocean outside Oregon

 

Anyway, back to the task at hand - where were we? Oh, yeah, getting back to the ship….

 

Remember what I said before about lines and ropes. Like Pavlov’s dog, when I see ropes, I salivate and need to take a picture. yeah, go right ahead and try psycho analyze me…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's the name of the company that owns this ship? Oh, yeah...

 

 

[harryfat1]

Couple more last second pics of Costa Maya before closing up the camera for security scan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally made it back to the ship. Remember the tip I mentioned from GC? Walked in from deck 1, took stair case to deck 2 and walked across the ship to take an empty elevator without a long wait. Also remember to crank up the AC in the cabin before leaving in the morning and you will have that nice cool feeling when you open the door coming back.

 

Now one big drawback with the docking time and the tour is we had to skip lunch for the day. I know, such sacrifice and hardship in having to miss one meal on a cruise. Since we had to meet at 11:45, we just pre-planned it by waking up later and had more a brunch before 10 AM. But we were hungry by time we made it back to the cabin at 5:45 PM. This was the one night we didn’t make it to MDR for dinner. We went back to the cabin, freshen up and headed for WJ as they opened up at 6 PM.

[harryfat1]

Sunset at 6:15 from WJ window. Not the best sunset by any means but hunger was a bigger concern than taking better pictures at the moment.

 

 

 

 

There were a lot of people there at 6:15, just right after they opened. Only one side of the WJ was opened for dinner that night. We typically don’t eat dinner at WJ so I can’t compare the crowd level versus a typical day. Given there were several hundred of us at the Mayan tour and had to alter their meal time that night, s I don’t know how many of the WJ crowd were there as an alternative to MDR that night or they are just regular WJ folks.

 

 

 

 

Another option is just get a slice of pizza to tie you over until the regular 8 PM dinner at MDR if you really like to eat there. We just opted for the simplest way of 1 stop eating at WJ and be done. As it turned out, it was a very good dinner. In some ways, it was better than MDR. That’s not an easy admission on my part as I am part of the MDR snob crowd that thumbs my nose at WJ dinners but with the various food option cutbacks at MDR, the WJ dinner is not a bad alterative anymore on RCI.

 

They have really nice tasting ox tail if you like that stuff. There’s also a sushi line at the Jade section. But the line was pretty long at the beginning. When we were leaving, there were zero people in line. So it’s somewhat luck of the draw on when there’s a line – maybe a strategy would be is to go there around 7:15 as the first wave of early eaters at 6 PM will have blown by and you are still ahead of the curve before the late eaters come in at 8 PM. Would appreciate any WJ dinner veterans input on best time to eat at WJ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

My younger son was concerned that he wouldn’t get to drink his nightly chilled soup in skipping MDR. No worries. They have a whole batch of chilled strawberry soup available at the buffet so he was all happy to pour himself a big bowl.

 

For the ice cream crowd, they had a worker there to scoop ice cream for you from 2 large tubs and you can add whatever personalized toppings you like. To top it off, if you like crepes, they have a crepes station that you can custom order crepes. But the line was pretty long and I was full enough from all the ox tail and the ice cream and whatever else so I passed as if you assume every person in line takes 2 minutes to order and get their personalized crepe, with approx. 15 people in lie, that’s almost a 30 minute wait. Nah. That’s OK.

 

Food is totally subject and one can debate endlessly on what is good. For us, we really enjoyed the dinner that night at WJ with their offerings. I will no longer hesitate next time we have to eat dinner at WJ. I think others in previous posting would agree with me. The ambience and surrounding at MDR is obviously better and you don’t have to fight to get a table there and my wife likes the fact people serves you for dinner instead of you getting up to get your own food or even have to wait in line like the sushi or the crepe lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Crepe makers

 

 

 

Here’s the long line. Is it me or almost everyone here is young?

 

 

 

 

Sushi area

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamesEM]

On our cruise we found that going to the Windjammer after 7 p.m. worked out great, not that crowded. As far as food goes, I liked the Windjammer better than the MDR because it enabled me to sample a lot of different foods, albeit some were mystery meat stuff. The chefs cooking the crepes prepared different dishes each night i.e., Mexican, Italian, Chinese, my favorite was Mongolian night.

 

As far as the pool goes, it is free and has a nice swim up bar.

[harryfat1]

On our cruise we found that going to the Windjammer after 7 p.m. worked out great, not that crowded. As far as food goes, I liked the Windjammer better than the MDR because it enabled me to sample a lot of different foods, albeit some were mystery meat stuff. The chefs cooking the crepes prepared different dishes each night i.e., Mexican, Italian, Chinese, my favorite was Mongolian night.

 

As far as the pool goes, it is free and has a nice swim up bar.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Yeah, I was thinking after 7 would be a good time as it's in-between the two traditional MDR time slots and should still get you to the 9 PM shows.

 

Oh, I didn't know crepes station is a nightly thing at WJ. We only went once so I thought we were lucky that night. Didn't see the crepe thing mentioned at other trip reports. Another plus for WJ at dinner.

[wilmingtech]

Good point. I forgot to mention the manager’s dinner reception at these hotels. Homewood Suites also have the similar weeknight freebie dinner items.

 

If you don’t need a kitchen, there’s also Embassy Suites with their breakfast and night time snacks.

 

Depends on what states you live in, some people are lucky to have Drury hotel in their area. They are great for dollar value given what you pay in giving you free breakfast and night time drinks and snacks.

 

Staybridge also have free uses of their washer and dryers in the laundry room so you can wash your clothes there 24/7 for free. Just bring some laundry stuff in the car. Makes packing easier if you can do laundry half way through your vacation.

 

Residence Inn by Portland Oregon in 2016. They have an upstairs loft bedroom bed for the boys and we have ours on the main floor. They love having their own bed and space and separate bathroom upstairs. Nice kitchen also.

 

This is the largest hotel room I have ever stayed in at the coast of Oregon. All 1,400 square feet of it. Huge kitchen and look all the space to fit the family of 4 in 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Has fire place and balcony with ocean view of Pacific ocean. They called this the grand suite and cost less than $230 per night with AAA discount for our stay.

 

 

Harry - Thank you so much for posting this! We are in Portland quite a bit and when we are not driving the motorcoach to stay in overnight we always struggle trying to find a hotel room as there are 6 of us.

 

Being a semi-cheapo dad myself (Grasshopper over here still learning the trade) I have found it very difficult to priceline or even buy a room online as they rarely offer suites or rooms that sleep more than 4.

 

In the past year or two its gotten easier to find this information online (Rooms that sleep 6) but it will still narrow your search quite a bit (like from 50 hotels down to 3) without calling each hotel and asking if they have a suite that sleeos 6 and is priced less than 2 regular rooms.

 

So Residence Inn Portland goes to the books...

 

-Sean

[harryfat1]

Harry - Thank you so much for posting this! We are in Portland quite a bit and when we are not driving the motorcoach to stay in overnight we always struggle trying to find a hotel room as there are 6 of us.

 

Being a semi-cheapo dad myself (Grasshopper over here still learning the trade) I have found it very difficult to priceline or even buy a room online as they rarely offer suites or rooms that sleep more than 4.

 

In the past year or two its gotten easier to find this information online (Rooms that sleep 6) but it will still narrow your search quite a bit (like from 50 hotels down to 3) without calling each hotel and asking if they have a suite that sleeos 6 and is priced less than 2 regular rooms.

 

So Residence Inn Portland goes to the books...

 

-Sean

 

The technical name of the place is Marriott Residence Inn Portland North/Vancouver as it's actually on the other side of the bridge on the Washington side but it's not too far from Portland. They are cheaper than Portland's Marriott. Drive a little, save a lot.

 

 

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-rooms/vanwa-residence-inn-portland-north-vancouver/

 

 

Get the bi level loft where you get 860 square feet of space. Plenty of space to stretch out for big family and has kitchen and all the fun stuff.

[SquishTheWhale]

Hey Cheapo dad!

 

I'm an NCL cruiser who's taken a meander over to these boards to learn a little about the Royal experience as we are considering trying a RCI cruise in 2018. I've got my eye on the 'probably-to-be-named-Symphony-Of-The-Seas-previously-known-as-Oasis-4' (catchy name) if she sails a maiden season in Europe like Harmony did.

 

Your review has been not only entertaining but also helped me see a little of what sailing on Royal would be like, so thanks for all the info and pictures! Your comments about the Epic did amuse me- she may have a square butt but she's a charmer really, I promise! :p

 

Now I've spent the last few days reading through this review, I need to go and read your Allure one too!

[dani negreanu]

This is for all the overseas friends that may never go to Oregon so here is your one chance to see it.

 

Thanks, Harry. Since I'm also "over the oceans", I think I qualify :)

 

About ropes ....

 

DH is a high tech guy (has over 15 US patents in his name), but his is fascinated by the high tech ship meets low tech ropes -- they still tie the ship with ropes, and of course, I'm getting my fair share of ropes pic.

 

Since I'm myself a low tech gal ...

[956wenbrook]

Similar to the Cozumel pier where they drop you off way on the far side of the shops and you must walk past all the shops just to be on the road back to the ship. All part of the not so subtle way to try to get you to buy things last minute on way back to the ship.

 

 

 

I believe the cruise shopping guy said people can swim for free at the pool as they are for cruise ship passenger’s usage, but obviously we didn’t try it. Somebody with firsthand knowledge can confirm or deny that claim. Guess this would be a cheap way to spend some time off the ship if you don’t feel like venturing too far but that’s not my style. I didn’t fly all the way there and spent thousands of dollars just to swim here – although the view is nice. I want to venture off to see more of the local sites.

 

 

 

Harry, question. At the costa maya port my wife and two teen girls are doing the dolphin swim. Bucket list for wife. I also have a three year old girl. Her and I were just going to hang out in the area and swim in the pool(5000 dollar swim lol). My question is, was there a sandy beach area near also? I am kind of limited as to what to do for a dad and 3 yr old girl. The dolphin swim is about an hour so not sure.

 

Unless I missed a few pages your cruise went to costa maya first then Cozumel? We leave April 9 and ours is Cozumel them costa maya.

 

Nice review sir!

 

 

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[956wenbrook]

Sorry my quote editing didn't work

 

 

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[AmyJA]

The technical name of the place is Marriott Residence Inn Portland North/Vancouver as it's actually on the other side of the bridge on the Washington side but it's not too far from Portland. They are cheaper than Portland's Marriott. Drive a little, save a lot.

 

 

My hometown!

 

Can you help me with where you stayed in that big room on the Oregon coast?

 

Headed there in the fall this year.