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LIVE attempt...Freedom of the Seas, November 5-11, 2017

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maryhou

maryhou

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Costa Maya has a cool pool that is free for everyone to use if you walk past all the shops. Good cocktails and you get to meet people on the boat.
. Is the pool towards the right where you can see a beach area? We've never been a fan of Costa Maya and look quickly at the shops and then get back onboard.
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bneems

bneems

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so if you go all the way through the shops you'll eventually see it. If you're turned off by the amount of shops and turn around you haven't found it yet- but yes- its near the beached area you can see from the boat. Its actually where they take the people who've paid for the dolphin swimming- so you can just stand there and watch them too.

 

Drinks are $$$ at the swim up bars, so for someone like us who did the drink package on board- it was a change to have to pay money for drinks again!

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bneems

bneems

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Also- the pool is a salt water pool ahaha- so it was a shock when i went under for the first time! They sell you floats and rafts to use for the day too. Would be worth looking into if you're into that sort of thing.

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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Day 4: it's 9:15am and I'm still the only one awake! We don't dock until 11am, so I guess everyone is taking advantage of the time in bed!

 

 

 

 

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I'm double checking everything you say with my friend on the ship, so far your credibility is high ;)

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paramedicduo

paramedicduo

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Oasis is an awesome ship!!

 

 

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We sailed on Oasis with my inlaws a few years ago...it'll be cool for the kids to see it.

I think Allure is in Cozumel with us tomorrow - last time I checked, because of the changes in itineraries, there will be a total of 8 ships in [emoji15]

 

 

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paramedicduo

paramedicduo

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In with today's cruise Compass was the laundry special...all you can stuff in the laundry bag for $34.99. For us, it was easier to pack light than it was to pack something for every day, so I knew I'd be taking advantage of this!

I used the same trick I use when packing the suitcases - everything got rolled. I managed to stuff 17 tshirts, 12 boxers, 12 pairs of socks & 6 pairs of shorts into the bag [emoji847]

 

 

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Beachin2

Beachin2

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In with today's cruise Compass was the laundry special...all you can stuff in the laundry bag for $34.99. For us, it was easier to pack light than it was to pack something for every day, so I knew I'd be taking advantage of this!

I used the same trick I use when packing the suitcases - everything got rolled. I managed to stuff 17 tshirts, 12 boxers, 12 pairs of socks & 6 pairs of shorts into the bag [emoji847]

 

 

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If you really need to pack it in place the wash & fold bag in your stateroom trashcan (empty, of course). You can then stuff it to your heart's content without breaking the bag. Amazing what those things will hold!

 

Excellent review.

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Llonergan3

Llonergan3

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In with today's cruise Compass was the laundry special...all you can stuff in the laundry bag for $34.99. For us, it was easier to pack light than it was to pack something for every day, so I knew I'd be taking advantage of this!

I used the same trick I use when packing the suitcases - everything got rolled. I managed to stuff 17 tshirts, 12 boxers, 12 pairs of socks & 6 pairs of shorts into the bag [emoji847]

 

Smart move, I'll have to remember that!! We especially my husband always packs enough clothes for an extra 2 days "just in case" don't know what but i go with it... he's the diva in my family. Me I just plan out my outfits and mix match each one so I don't have to fill the suitcase with so much clothes but I always manage have enough space for the others (mom and hubby) who don't have room for the tee shirts and other souvenirs, including mine. I collect magnets on all my travels, they don't take so much room... Love to read your blog thanks for sharing.

Linda

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Llonergan3

Llonergan3

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Popped up to WJ for a little lunch...didn't they just finish breakfast?!? And have a pretty cool view of Oasis & the Norwegian ship beside us. Oasis is the last Royal Caribbean ship we sailed on.

bcb96306aeec3beb8ffa5b04faf2d052.jpg

 

d347e038efaf635bd5f395f3446bdc86.jpg

 

 

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Me too, my mom saw the ship in the travel channel and call me to book a cruise. I love it and took me 3 days to find myself around it, I discover my mom had never been on a merry go round, so up she went at age 81, she looked so happy. Love your reviews. Safe travels!!

 

Linda

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paramedicduo

paramedicduo

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Day 3: Grand Cayman...first port stop and the kids were excited to get started - even with the 6:30 wake up call!

We had decided last night that it would work best to order room service & the kids could be eating and getting ready at the same time. I ordered for both rooms for delivery between 6-6:30 and just before 6:30, got a call that the food was on its way...only 2 out of 5 of the orders came...nothing for the second room at all. Meh...no big deal, the teenager and I slipped up to the Windjammer and came back with a couple of plates to split.

After breakie, we made our way to the theatre for our excursion departure. Inlaws we're on tender 2 & us on the 3, once we made it to the port, we were quickly whisked off in a van to Dolphin Cove. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't book this one & had no idea how far the drive would be...our 2 younger boys suffer from motion sickness, so I was happy it was just a short 10-15 minute drive and unlike a few other ports we've been to, the driver wasn't a maniac.

The first part of our excursion would be with the stingrays...which required a boat ride...now this felt like tempting fate after the van ride was uneventful. But, we made it out without issue, grabbed the kids' life jackets & literally peeled the 8yr old off my leg and dragged him into the water...after hearing the safety speech on the way out, he suddenly decided he didn't want to get into the water. He clung to me like a 3rd appendage for the first 10 minutes, then slowly started to get comfortable. What a mean mother eh? It was really windy, with a heavy surf, so I he'd be sick on the boat & I knew if he didn't do it, he'd regret it. He didn't touch any sting rays, but he ended up thinking it was super cool & pointing them out as they swam around.

We only spent about 30 minutes in the water before returning to the boat to head back to the dolphins. The ride back was quite rough & the 3rd time was definitely a charm...the 11yr old started vomited less than 5 minutes into the ride back! But, we always come prepared, we had a stash of vomit bags in our backpack & shoved one in front of him just in time! I know being motion sick sucks, but with this kid being so used to puking - he's mastered doing it without catching the attention of everyone around & once he's emptied his belly...he's pretty much fine. He laid his head on the bench, in the breeze, for the rest of the ride back & was recovered in time hop in the water again, for the dolphin encounter.

Now, I had no idea when this was booked, what we'd actually be doing, and since it was "just" an encounter, they immediately wanted to upsell us because the encounter doesn't include swimming with the dolphins - but I know my kids, at least 2 of them wouldn't have done anything more than we were signed up for...on to our "encounter". This included petting one as it swam by, down the line of us a few times, having it come up and stop to kiss us & be kissed, "dancing" with the dolphin, posing for a photo with it & some "dolphin education" from the trainer. The kids thought it was a pretty cool (but short) experience.

I'm "one of those" that falls for photo packages...these are all things we may never experience again, so to me, it's not a waste (though it certainly qualifies as highway robbery at $150). The process for ordering photos is fairly simply, it reminded me of the photo kiosks you put your SD card into at the pharmacy...the problem with the process is the payment & pick up of the CD. There had to be about 75 people on the excursion, with 1 person running the cash register, the line included those getting little trinkets, drinks & the photo packages...after we paid, we went to the pick up desk...chaos! 2-3 young ladies taking tickets and gathering the finished product, but they lollygagged around there like they had all the time in the world - just very frustrating when there's a bus load of people waiting for you in the parking lot!

Anyhow...back on the bus, back to the port. We were heading out just before 1 and a small group on the bus wanted to head to a beach, so they were dropped off about 10 min from the port at what was referred to as a private beach with a $2 admission fee.

Traffic heading back was quite heavy, not surprising since we were 1 of 4 ships in...Norwegian, Disney & Pull-something - someone on the tender thought it was the old Monarch of the Seas.

We walked across the street to a souvenir shop to buy a Christmas tree ornament (which do in every port) and our teenager wanted to get something for his girlfriend.

The tender line up was huge when we returned...thank God for all the tents for shade and the fact that each tender held more than 200 passengers, so the line moved quickly.

We were back on board, heading to the crowded WJ by about 2:00.

The afternoon's sail away party was to include Alex the Lion & King Julien, so we made our way to the pool deck with stops at the bar for hubs & I and the ice cream machine for the young boys...by this time, the teenager was long gone!

We hung out in the pool to cool off - it was so hot, the kids even decided to ditch the ice cream because it was melting faster than they could eat it.

I swear these kids can't/won't do anything for more than 30 minutes at a time...at the 30min mark, these started talking about what to do next, lol. Another frozen drink for the adults and we were off to mini golf - the kids played while we watched the flowrider folks. Up until this point, I had only ever seen the stand up attempts - which was what made me so nervous (and the reviews of broken collar bones, legs & tailbones that I had come across). Anyhow, these guys were just boogie boarding, so I told dh we'd definitely let the kids try that instead...but when they returned from mini golf they "didn't feel like it"...code for, we're too afraid/nervous. Once we find the teenager again, we'll get him to show them how it's done & I'm sure they'll give it a whirl.

After a short game of ping pong for the kids...we headed back to the cabin to get showered.

The boys horsed around in their cabin for a while...my apologies to the neighbours! And we eventually decided to just make our way to WJ for dinner.

As I mentioned earlier, "I'm one of those people" who buys the photos, so we headed to the photo gallery to purchase their "special" all inclusive package...we wanted to get the CD of photos & purchasing by today meant they'd include all the prints for no extra charge. Now, we just have to be sure to pose for every photographer we come across for the remainder of the trip...sorry boys! Lol

Since the kids refused to return to kids club, they were dragged along with us to the Magic Show at 9:00 - the 8yr old was super pumped about how cool it would be & the 11yr old was bummed that it be "stupid and boring"...turns out the 11yr old was right. The magician was Justino and it was really slow, with nothing exciting. He was flip flopping between telling jokes, doing magic tricks and telling stories/giving advice - it was weird...one minute we were laughing at his silly jokes, the next he was telling a story about not being able to get back time with his dead grandpa.

After the Magic show - it was back to the cabin, with drinks on the balcony for the adults, while the kids watched a tv show to wind down.

Still no sign of the teenager who thought the Teen Lounge was going to be "stupid and boring" (what is it with my kids?!?). I fell asleep waiting for him to return...apparently at about 12:30, hubs thought maybe he should go out and look for him since we literally hadn't heard from or seen him since about 2:15. He had just opened the cabin door to head out when he saw him coming down the hallways...seems the Teen Lounge is anything but stupid & boring.

 

Up next: Day 4 in Costa Maya with no solid plans. We'll head ashore to check out the port area & then likely back to just enjoy the ship.c1b41e71f1119aa259a612ffcc9a1914.jpgabeb9a1a784e7660f8bc86534310fe1b.jpgd29eb1a9f1cfc4605569c23a312728a8.jpg

 

 

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paramedicduo

paramedicduo

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Day 3: Grand Cayman...first port stop and the kids were excited to get started - even with the 6:30 wake up call!

We had decided last night that it would work best to order room service & the kids could be eating and getting ready at the same time. I ordered for both rooms for delivery between 6-6:30 and just before 6:30, got a call that the food was on its way...only 2 out of 5 of the orders came...nothing for the second room at all. Meh...no big deal, the teenager and I slipped up to the Windjammer and came back with a couple of plates to split.

After breakie, we made our way to the theatre for our excursion departure. Inlaws we're on tender 2 & us on the 3, once we made it to the port, we were quickly whisked off in a van to Dolphin Cove. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't book this one & had no idea how far the drive would be...our 2 younger boys suffer from motion sickness, so I was happy it was just a short 10-15 minute drive and unlike a few other ports we've been to, the driver wasn't a maniac.

The first part of our excursion would be with the stingrays...which required a boat ride...now this felt like tempting fate after the van ride was uneventful. But, we made it out without issue, grabbed the kids' life jackets & literally peeled the 8yr old off my leg and dragged him into the water...after hearing the safety speech on the way out, he suddenly decided he didn't want to get into the water. He clung to me like a 3rd appendage for the first 10 minutes, then slowly started to get comfortable. What a mean mother eh? It was really windy, with a heavy surf, so I he'd be sick on the boat & I knew if he didn't do it, he'd regret it. He didn't touch any sting rays, but he ended up thinking it was super cool & pointing them out as they swam around.

We only spent about 30 minutes in the water before returning to the boat to head back to the dolphins. The ride back was quite rough & the 3rd time was definitely a charm...the 11yr old started vomited less than 5 minutes into the ride back! But, we always come prepared, we had a stash of vomit bags in our backpack & shoved one in front of him just in time! I know being motion sick sucks, but with this kid being so used to puking - he's mastered doing it without catching the attention of everyone around & once he's emptied his belly...he's pretty much fine. He laid his head on the bench, in the breeze, for the rest of the ride back & was recovered in time hop in the water again, for the dolphin encounter.

Now, I had no idea when this was booked, what we'd actually be doing, and since it was "just" an encounter, they immediately wanted to upsell us because the encounter doesn't include swimming with the dolphins - but I know my kids, at least 2 of them wouldn't have done anything more than we were signed up for...on to our "encounter". This included petting one as it swam by, down the line of us a few times, having it come up and stop to kiss us & be kissed, "dancing" with the dolphin, posing for a photo with it & some "dolphin education" from the trainer. The kids thought it was a pretty cool (but short) experience.

I'm "one of those" that falls for photo packages...these are all things we may never experience again, so to me, it's not a waste (though it certainly qualifies as highway robbery at $150). The process for ordering photos is fairly simply, it reminded me of the photo kiosks you put your SD card into at the pharmacy...the problem with the process is the payment & pick up of the CD. There had to be about 75 people on the excursion, with 1 person running the cash register, the line included those getting little trinkets, drinks & the photo packages...after we paid, we went to the pick up desk...chaos! 2-3 young ladies taking tickets and gathering the finished product, but they lollygagged around there like they had all the time in the world - just very frustrating when there's a bus load of people waiting for you in the parking lot!

Anyhow...back on the bus, back to the port. We were heading out just before 1 and a small group on the bus wanted to head to a beach, so they were dropped off about 10 min from the port at what was referred to as a private beach with a $2 admission fee.

Traffic heading back was quite heavy, not surprising since we were 1 of 4 ships in...Norwegian, Disney & Pull-something - someone on the tender thought it was the old Monarch of the Seas.

We walked across the street to a souvenir shop to buy a Christmas tree ornament (which do in every port) and our teenager wanted to get something for his girlfriend.

The tender line up was huge when we returned...thank God for all the tents for shade and the fact that each tender held more than 200 passengers, so the line moved quickly.

We were back on board, heading to the crowded WJ by about 2:00.

The afternoon's sail away party was to include Alex the Lion & King Julien, so we made our way to the pool deck with stops at the bar for hubs & I and the ice cream machine for the young boys...by this time, the teenager was long gone!

We hung out in the pool to cool off - it was so hot, the kids even decided to ditch the ice cream because it was melting faster than they could eat it.

I swear these kids can't/won't do anything for more than 30 minutes at a time...at the 30min mark, these started talking about what to do next, lol. Another frozen drink for the adults and we were off to mini golf - the kids played while we watched the flowrider folks. Up until this point, I had only ever seen the stand up attempts - which was what made me so nervous (and the reviews of broken collar bones, legs & tailbones that I had come across). Anyhow, these guys were just boogie boarding, so I told dh we'd definitely let the kids try that instead...but when they returned from mini golf they "didn't feel like it"...code for, we're too afraid/nervous. Once we find the teenager again, we'll get him to show them how it's done & I'm sure they'll give it a whirl.

After a short game of ping pong for the kids...we headed back to the cabin to get showered.

The boys horsed around in their cabin for a while...my apologies to the neighbours! And we eventually decided to just make our way to WJ for dinner.

As I mentioned earlier, "I'm one of those people" who buys the photos, so we headed to the photo gallery to purchase their "special" all inclusive package...we wanted to get the CD of photos & purchasing by today meant they'd include all the prints for no extra charge. Now, we just have to be sure to pose for every photographer we come across for the remainder of the trip...sorry boys! Lol

Since the kids refused to return to kids club, they were dragged along with us to the Magic Show at 9:00 - the 8yr old was super pumped about how cool it would be & the 11yr old was bummed that it be "stupid and boring"...turns out the 11yr old was right. The magician was Justino and it was really slow, with nothing exciting. He was flip flopping between telling jokes, doing magic tricks and telling stories/giving advice - it was weird...one minute we were laughing at his silly jokes, the next he was telling a story about not being able to get back time with his dead grandpa.

After the Magic show - it was back to the cabin, with drinks on the balcony for the adults, while the kids watched a tv show to wind down.

Still no sign of the teenager who thought the Teen Lounge was going to be "stupid and boring" (what is it with my kids?!?). I fell asleep waiting for him to return...apparently at about 12:30, hubs thought maybe he should go out and look for him since we literally hadn't heard from or seen him since about 2:15. He had just opened the cabin door to head out when he saw him coming down the hallways...seems the Teen Lounge is anything but stupid & boring.

 

Up next: Day 4 in Costa Maya with no solid plans. We'll head ashore to check out the port area & then likely back to just enjoy the ship.c1b41e71f1119aa259a612ffcc9a1914.jpgabeb9a1a784e7660f8bc86534310fe1b.jpgd29eb1a9f1cfc4605569c23a312728a8.jpg

 

 

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OOPS - posted the wrong notes!

 

Once their bellies were full again, we wandered off the ship. Originally, the plan was just to wander the shops & head back to the ship, but the teenager wanted to go to a beach.

We walked out of the port area & for $2 per adult, grabbed a 4 min cab ride to a beach - $10 per adult got us a table at to eat at & 2 loungers - we snagged a 3rd for the teenagers.

The water was mostly clear with some bits of seaweed floating around. Biggest problem...the constant peddling of everything imaginable - massages, chips, knit bracelets, cheap jewelry and a few drunken, obnoxious nearby cruisers. I have no idea what the name of the place was...but it was close to port (Freedom was our backdrop).

When we were ready to go, another cabbie brought us back...funny thing...he charged each person, first guy only charged the adults.

Another stroll through the port area to pick up our Christmas tree ornament and we were back on the ship around 4pm.

In hindsight, there was a Dolphin Cove right at the port, we could swapped our Dolphin/beach day and avoided the long commutes yesterday.

We have a late dinner tonight, 8pm, with the kids...so we grabbed them something to hold them over.

The teenager is going to chill out in the room tonight while hubs & I go to the Love & Marriage Show - hoping it'll be entertaining as usual. Then he can catch up with friends afterwards.

For now...looks like the littles want to head to the rock wall before it's time to get ready for dinner.

 

 

 

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