Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

Harry - I just spent the last two days binge-reading your report. Thanks for the amazing photos and narrative.

 

I'm also a finance person (bank examiner specializing in AML/BSA), so I was giddy when I saw the KPMG / EY buildings in Grand Cayman. One can dream, right?

 

I loved seeing the photos from Cozumel - I vacationed in Playa del Carmen in a private villa years ago, and have very fond memories of the island.

 

Here's to the financially conscious (aka "cheapos")!

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment. Welcome to cruise critics as I see this is only your 5th post.

 

Wow, two days of binge report to finish the trip report of 1,400+posts. You must have a lot of stamina to slog through all that blah blah stuff on a ship you are not even sailing on. Then I looked down at your signature and smiled when I saw the 4 years of Disneyworld visit.

 

The Disney fans are the more fanatical and organized set of travel folks compared to an average cruiser – which is just a politically correct way of saying you must rank pretty high on the anal scale.

 

On top of that, being a finance person, you like to pre-plan your trip so you can budget accordingly. So now I understand how you can do it in two days, but still quite a feat.

 

Have fun on your cruise. How exciting to go to Cuba at the early stages of their tourism development.

[harryfat1]

Knee deep in cruise planning mode, soaking in the stories of fellow travelers, when I happened upon your trip report. So engaging and fun to read! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your adventures and commentary!! You've brought a smile to my face and my heart.

 

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Glad the trip report was entertaining for you. I ran out of good jokes by day 4 so the end wasn’t as funny as the beginning.

 

Yes, I see with your 2 upcoming cruises how you can be knee(or even chest deep) in trip report reading. Planning is always fun as it is always perfect world as nothing ever goes wrong in the planning stages.

 

 

Have fun on your upcoming cruises.

Edited February 25, 2017 by harryfat1
The new format is combining two words together when I copy and paste them from MS Word

[cruisequeen4ever]

I just love your writing style and perspective! I'm only on Day 2, but already I have some fav quotes...you talking about the anality scale and Cruise Critic members. ☺ Then, your son referring to the MDR as being where poor people go to feel rich. So funny! Can't wait to continue reading tomorrow! Keep cruising and writing!

 

 

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[Tigers2]

WOW!!! GREAT job and very informative!

 

Where did you place the compass again? My ADD is kicking in and I have no patience to locate the post numbers! LOL!

 

Thanks Again!

Chuck

[juliea344]

After walking around RP for few minutes, we headed up to WJ for breakfast. Just the 4 of us. The in-laws are the early risers so they do their own thing until we meet up with them later in the morning.

 

Not too crowded before 9 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

As reported elsewhere, another cost cutting measure is lack of salmon at WJ on a regular basis. You will need to ask the workers behind the salad area and give them your plate and they will plop few on there. Again, another one of secret CC info that if you are a newbie cruiser and never read these boards, you will have no clue to ask for them. Things shouldn’t be this way – everyone should have equal access to all the food and info if there’s not extra charges involved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Harry,

 

I'm loving your review as I just returned from a fabulous week on Allure and I booked my next cruise for next year in Indy. (Loved Allure but Indy was soooo much cheaper). I'm assuming Indy/Freedom are quite similar.

 

On Allure shrimp cocktail was on the MDR menu as well as the suites room service menu. I also ate smoked salmon every day from WJ and the solarium buffets. It was plentiful and included cucumber, red onion and capers. Do you think the cutting back is only for Freedom class ships and lower?

[AF-1]

Funny review already. some really cool pics.

[harryfat1]

I just love your writing style and perspective! I'm only on Day 2, but already I have some fav quotes...you talking about the anality scale and Cruise Critic members. ☺ Then, your son referring to the MDR as being where poor people go to feel rich. So funny! Can't wait to continue reading tomorrow! Keep cruising and writing!

 

 

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Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment. Glad you enjoy reading the trip report.

 

I ran out of jokes toward the end but at least you still have pictures to view. We’re still undecided on the next cruise – won’t know for sure until we are done with the summer road trip.

[harryfat1]

WOW!!! GREAT job and very informative!

 

Where did you place the compass again? My ADD is kicking in and I have no patience to locate the post numbers! LOL!

 

Thanks Again!

Chuck

 

 

Hi, Chuck,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Good to know the info is informative.

 

Sorry, I was too tired/too lazy to re-scan the daily compass into PDF at the end of the trip report. You’ll have to just go to the beginning of every day to find them. I see there are many recent trip reports on the Freedom from cruisers that just came back, maybe those folks can upload theirs as their info is more recent anyway.

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry,

 

I'm loving your review as I just returned from a fabulous week on Allure and I booked my next cruise for next year in Indy. (Loved Allure but Indy was soooo much cheaper). I'm assuming Indy/Freedom are quite similar.

 

On Allure shrimp cocktail was on the MDR menu as well as the suites room service menu. I also ate smoked salmon every day from WJ and the solarium buffets. It was plentiful and included cucumber, red onion and capers. Do you think the cutting back is only for Freedom class ships and lower?

 

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

If you read further down the trip report, you will see that they brought out the salmon at WJ. As for the shrimp cocktail, even if it’s not on the menu, you can always ask for it. I believe others have reported that RCI brought back some of the previously missing menu items. Maybe after all the negative feedback, RCI realized that wasn’t a good move to cut that far back.

 

Yes, there’s a price premium for the Oasis class ships. The Freedom class ships offer a good value for the price they charge, just know you won’t have some venues from the Oasis class ships such as aqua theater on the Freedom. And a smaller butt...

[aubreyc1988]

 

Without getting too political in these boards – just call this my “alternative fact calculations”…

 

 

I appreciate this post and laughed haha!

 

In other news, I booked on the Freedom! Wasn't planning it, but decided to do the Med as my next cruise and RCI had the best deal on airfare sooooo....I'm doing the Freedom, I may have to re-read some parts about the ship now!

[Tigers2]

OK!!! I'm on it!

 

Thanks Again!

Chuck

[CatchaWave42]

Good luck to you Chuck.

[legion]

We sure enjoyed our cruise Feb.12. Was everything you described it to be.Found myself saying over and over again I seen that on your review.Hard to believe it's herd and gone. Will have to start another wish list.Tge use show was amazing. Shore excursions included-Grand Caymen-Stingrays. Cozomul-dunr buggy tour around island which we loved. Costa Maya-ruins tour.

 

 

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[legion]

Our panoramic room 1826 on deck 12 was incredible.

 

 

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[smarcbie]

Hi Legion.....please tell me what dune buggy tour company you used in Cozumel. Our group did the island tour a few years ago but I cannot find the company. What a great buggy picture.

[legion]

I booked it through an app on iPad called Shore excursions.. Think company was actually Cozumal excursions..The young couple in front were actually travelling in a jeep.My husband and me were the only buggy,,although they had more.Everyone else choose the Jeep's.This young couple thought our dune buggy looked more fun so after our first stop they asked could they ride with us.He was thrilled when hubby asked him if he'd like to try driving it.This excursions was well worth the 55$ each we paid.5.5 hrs around the island,,hr and half stop at a beach with lunch included.

 

 

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[harryfat1]

I appreciate this post and laughed haha!

 

In other news, I booked on the Freedom! Wasn't planning it, but decided to do the Med as my next cruise and RCI had the best deal on airfare sooooo....I'm doing the Freedom, I may have to re-read some parts about the ship now!

 

 

Hi,

 

How goes?

 

I was following your trip report awhile back up to the point where you almost missed the ship coming back from the delayed excursion but then CC changed its format and I couldn’t find some of the posts so I just focused on my road trip planning instead. Too hard to try to plan a cruise and road trip the same time so I wil do my cruise research after the summer road trip and finish reading your trip report then.

 

I don’t think there’s that much of a difference between Adventure of the Seas versus Freedom, just slightly bigger and few extra things that you may not care to use. Similar to your Southern Caribbean cruise where you didn’t experience much of the ship as it’s port intensive cruise, the Med cruise is the exact same with only one sea day where you have to pack on the last day so I think it’ll be a similar experience for you.

 

Have a great cruise in September but I’m sure we’ll talk again in the summer when I dig into your trip report and ask you questions about San Juan.

[harryfat1]

We sure enjoyed our cruise Feb.12. Was everything you described it to be.Found myself saying over and over again I seen that on your review.Hard to believe it's herd and gone. Will have to start another wish list.Tge use show was amazing. Shore excursions included-Grand Caymen-Stingrays. Cozomul-dunr buggy tour around island which we loved. Costa Maya-ruins tour.

 

 

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Hi,

 

Thanks for checking back and good to know some of the info was helpful.

 

Sounds like you folks had a great time on your cruise. Yes,after you come back, it’s time to plan for the next cruise.

[Pug Lady]

Hi Harry,

 

I just wanted to drop a line and thank you for all your hard work putting together this review. I followed your Allure review and was very excited to see one for the Freedom. We sailed on the Freedom last year, for Memorial Day. We also had 1,000 kids on board, which we really didn't notice except during dinner. They had some issues getting the kid's plates out in time. Also, we did have Gloria the Hippo in our parade back in May, so I'm not sure where she ran off to during your cruise.

 

But I can appreciate your attention to detail. I know the secret of "cheap" people. The only way to get your money's worth is to plan, much to the chagrin of my family. (I am already planning our 2019 Grand Canyon vacation!) We are booked on the Oasis for May 2018 and we are looking forward to that. I may have to revisit your Allure review to get some tips for that class of ships.

 

Thank you again! :D

[JDCCruiser6]

Thank you so much for all of the information! Your review is extremely helpful for first timers with RCL and on FOS (and new to CC). I have only made it to page 35 on the thread and this has probably been answered but I personally could use another explanation.

 

Now that we have "sprung ahead", what time should I tell our private tour on Grand Cayman to meet us (March 26 Sailing)? Cruise itinerary says 8-4pm in port, with being a private tour, we probably won't get off the ship until 9, right?

 

But my main concern is the "ship time versus island time". I organized this private tour and don't want to be responsible for 12 people not getting their money's worth for the private boat we rented (OR for missing the return tender as I am cheap and don't want to pay the airfare to get to the next port).

 

We have 5 hours for our 1/2 day rental from when we start but I want to make sure that I am communicating correctly with the tour operator.

 

thank you everyone! I really appreciate it!

[JDCCruiser6]

Thank you so much for all of the information! Your review is extremely helpful for first timers with RCL and on FOS (and new to CC). I have only made it to page 35 on the thread and this has probably been answered but I personally could use another explanation.

 

Now that we have "sprung ahead", what time should I tell our private tour on Grand Cayman to meet us (March 26 Sailing)? Cruise itinerary says 8-4pm in port, with being a private tour, we probably won't get off the ship until 9, right?

 

But my main concern is the "ship time versus island time". I organized this private tour and don't want to be responsible for 12 people not getting their money's worth for the private boat we rented (OR for missing the return tender as I am cheap and don't want to pay the airfare to get to the next port).

 

We have 5 hours for our 1/2 day rental from when we start but I want to make sure that I am communicating correctly with the tour operator.

 

thank you everyone! I really appreciate it!

 

One other question - For the Dolphin excursion in Cozumel, we need to get "observer tickets" (kids are doing it, we are not) - are they hard to get the observer tickets? Does anyone know what they cost OR if they sell out? The RCL customer service couldn't give me any of that information and I really don't want my two 13 year olds going on the excursion without me and I couldn't book the observer tickets online - you can only get them onboard????? Thanks!

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry,

 

I just wanted to drop a line and thank you for all your hard work putting together this review. I followed your Allure review and was very excited to see one for the Freedom. We sailed on the Freedom last year, for Memorial Day. We also had 1,000 kids on board, which we really didn't notice except during dinner. They had some issues getting the kid's plates out in time. Also, we did have Gloria the Hippo in our parade back in May, so I'm not sure where she ran off to during your cruise.

 

But I can appreciate your attention to detail. I know the secret of "cheap" people. The only way to get your money's worth is to plan, much to the chagrin of my family. (I am already planning our 2019 Grand Canyon vacation!) We are booked on the Oasis for May 2018 and we are looking forward to that. I may have to revisit your Allure review to get some tips for that class of ships.

 

Thank you again! :D

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment and reading both of my trip reports.

 

Impressive in planning your Grand Canyon trip two years out. But it doesn’t hurt especially some of the hotels in the area are booked up to a year in advance. We were originally planning to go to Grand Canyon this summer but after tinkering with the schedule,we are heading slightly more north to other parts of Arizona and Utah instead.

 

That’s the pros and cons of doing the road trip on your own versus a cruise. The pro is that you get to plan things just the way you want, the con is that it takes a lot of time and can be a never ending project as there are too many options to choose from in terms of where to go and sleep and eat daily.

 

Have fun on your Oasis cruise next May – looks like that is your cruising month. Not sure how much my outdated Allure trip report will help but guess you can look at it for eye candy purposes.

[harryfat1]

Thank you so much for all of the information! Your review is extremely helpful for first timers with RCL and on FOS (and new to CC). I have only made it to page 35 on the thread and this has probably been answered but I personally could use another explanation.

 

Now that we have "sprung ahead", what time should I tell our private tour on Grand Cayman to meet us (March 26 Sailing)? Cruise itinerary says 8-4pm in port, with being a private tour, we probably won't get off the ship until 9, right?

 

But my main concern is the "ship time versus island time". I organized this private tour and don't want to be responsible for 12 people not getting their money's worth for the private boat we rented (OR for missing the return tender as I am cheap and don't want to pay the airfare to get to the next port).

 

We have 5 hours for our 1/2 day rental from when we start but I want to make sure that I am communicating correctly with the tour operator.

 

thank you everyone! I really appreciate it!

 

One other question - For the Dolphin excursion in Cozumel, we need to get "observer tickets" (kids are doing it, we are not) - are they hard to get the observer tickets? Does anyone know what they cost OR if they sell out? The RCL customer service couldn't give me any of that information and I really don't want my two 13 year olds going on the excursion without me and I couldn't book the observer tickets online - you can only get them onboard????? Thanks!

 

Hi,

 

Welcome to cruise critics. Thanks for the kind words and glad the trip info is helpful. I associate myself more with newbie cruisers than a veteran one so I try to mention info that is useful for the first timers.

 

If you want to know what time any port is, just go to Google and type in “what time is it now in Grand Caymans” and you should have many hits.

 

Here is the first link on the list:

 

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/uk/georgetown

 

As you can see, even though technically they are in EST, because they don’t observe daylight savings, they are now one hour behind Florida time. So when the Freedom arrives at 8 AM ship time, local time is now 7 AM as the rest of the time zone sprung forward but not Cayman.

 

On our sailing, we had to fight really hard to get off the ship on the first tender and we didn’t get to the port until 8:40 ship time (but on your sailing that would be 7:40 local time). Now keep in mind that the last tender back to the ship is 3:15 ship time or 2:15 local time for your sailing so you need to make sure you get back in time for that. Be sure to account for commute time to get to/from the boat on top of the 5 hours on the boat.

 

Also bring a watch and don't rely on the cell phone for time as it might switch to local time and then you will miss the tender.

 

You might find yourself cutting it a little too close with the 5 hour boat trip, especially if the boat has issues in coming back on time due to mechanical issues. But I'm anal and paranoid...

 

Sorry, can't help you on the Dolphin thing as we didn't do that. You can ask this question on the Cayman port of call forum as someone can help you there.

 

Have a great cruise on the Freedom.

[TickledBlue]

I haven't been back to this thread since it was finished back in February in post #1337 (or so I thought). :D

 

I came back because I think I'm a Harry wannabee...

 

First of all I bought a Canon Powershot SX60 HS camera because I was impressed with the pictures. Now as a novice, I'll have to learn how to use it more than just the 'auto' mode. Thank goodness that there's youtube for people like me.

 

Secondly, I'm going on the same ship/agenda in January. Just booked it last night. The decision for this cruise was more complex than 'just because Harry did it'. The timing, ship size and length of cruise were primary reasons. Now I can let my analality (spelling from post 44, you think that this anal person forgets?) in the planning process flourish.

 

So if, as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, consider yourself flattered (or stalked:eek:)

[harryfat1]

I haven't been back to this thread since it was finished back in February in post #1337 (or so I thought). :D

 

I came back because I think I'm a Harry wannabee...

 

First of all I bought a Canon Powershot SX60 HS camera because I was impressed with the pictures. Now as a novice, I'll have to learn how to use it more than just the 'auto' mode. Thank goodness that there's youtube for people like me.

 

Secondly, I'm going on the same ship/agenda in January. Just booked it last night. The decision for this cruise was more complex than 'just because Harry did it'. The timing, ship size and length of cruise were primary reasons. Now I can let my analality (spelling from post 44, you think that this anal person forgets?) in the planning process flourish.

 

So if, as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, consider yourself flattered (or stalked:eek:)

 

Haha, no, you don’t want to be me. If you were me, you are now neck deep over at Trip Advisor and other web sites planning for the 2,000 mile summer road trip. A lot more work to plan a road trip than a cruise.

 

As for the trip report, not everyone reads it in real time as people only research for a cruise after they book it so there will be people reading this later on after my official post – I had to go back to post #1337 to what I wrote. In my Allure trip report, I had people post comments up to two years afterward so I’m always around to chat with other cruisers.

 

I bought my SX60 less than one month prior to my cruise on the Black Friday sale so I didn’t have any time to really dig into the menu/operations. Canon changed some settings since my older SX30 model so at times during the cruise, I was cursing at the camera trying to find what I wanted within the menu and just gave up and put it on auto mode. It’s a nice bridge camera, just know it has limitations indoors with low lights. Use your cell phone instead.

 

Speaking of YouTube, check out this lady’s tutorial on the SX40. It’s slightly older model but she has like 20+separate videos on what you can do with the SX camera. Really cool to learn the basics this way as I watched them when I had the SX30 – the menu placement might be different but the basic concepts are the same.

 

 

You can even take moon shots from these mega zoom cameras. Here is a picture taken from the older SX30. The SX60 has even better zoom. Hard part is trying to keep it sturdy on the max zoom level.

 

 

 

 

The Freedom is a solid value selection. There will always be a price premium on the Oasis class ships so you can get a better value on the Freedom/Voyager class ships if you are willing to forego some of the Oasis class amenities.

 

Assuming we go on the Adventure of the Seas in December (I check Kayak price weekly but frowns every time I see the 11 hour flights necessary to get to San Juan), I might have the next installment of the trip report prior to your sailing for you to read. But looking at your signature, it’s not as if you need any guidance from me as you will be on 3 RCI cruises this year.

 

Have fun on your cruises and post some of your cruise pics from the SX60 to share afterward.