FREEDOM AT LAST!! Semi-live Report 5/26-6/2

[EeyoreRN]

May 26 continued

 

So I left off the narrative with us running to the room to check out the balcony, which we loved.  I did mention that the room is a 5D category.  It's a bit on the small side for 3 adults we thought. It wasn't a problem because we spent our time on the balcony, even in the rain, as it was covered. The only issue was that the 3rd berth pulls down from the ceiling over the bed, and according to Joey, it is not comfortable. I can't believe I never took a picture of it.  The couch is just a little loveseat, definitely not big enough for an adult to sleep on. Better sleeping was done on the balcony lounges than on that pull down cot.

 

Really comfy king with loveseat in the background.

 

Television and desk across from the loveseat

 

Bathroom...old design but clean. Tube shower got very hot and had great pressure. Never a problem with the toilet. They were replacing mirrors one by one on our deck and that's a good thing, they need replacing

 

 

[Biker19]

23 minutes ago, EeyoreRN said:

When I booked the reservation for the cruise a little less than a year out, I mentioned to my TA that we wanted My Time Dining. When I was switching rooms around 8 months out, I noticed that my confirmation said early seating on it, so I asked Bruno to switch us to My Time Dining. He said no problem, done. When we checked in and received our Sea Pass cards, they said 6pm and a table #, which I understood was traditional dining.

For others reading this, one of the reasons to make MTD reservations is to discover issues like this well before trying to fix it onboard.

[EeyoreRN]

3 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

For others reading this, one of the reasons to make MTD reservations is to discover issues like this well before trying to fix it onboard.

Can you please explain how this is done? I never could figure it out before boarding. Thanks!

 

[Biker19]

Just now, EeyoreRN said:

Can you please explain how this is done? I never could figure it out before boarding. 

As soon as your TA said "it was done" you should have tried to make MTD reservations - when you didn't have access to MTD bookings, a check with RCI would have revealed that it was NOT "done" - at least not at RCI's end. A few calls later you would have eventually had MTD or would have been told that it was already full and they placed you into early traditional. But, you would have known that 8 months out and perhaps made other arrangements, instead of finding out when you got your Seapass card.

[mchin]

1 hour ago, EeyoreRN said:

May 26, Embarkation Day continued

 

When we finished our lunch it was right around 1:30, and the announcement was made that our cabins were ready. We headed straight down to Deck 7, starboard, corner aft # 7408. We couldn't wait to get into our room! It was worth the long walk.

 

For those who do not know, the corner aft cabins on Freedom Class ships have unbelievably large balconies, but are sold for the price of 5D category, because they are considered "obstructed view." I did not initially book this cabin, but booked a 5D port-side unobstructed ocean view balcony. I later learned about these corner afts in my research here on CC, and decided to find out if there was one available on our sailing. To find out the availability, I went to Royal Caribbean UK site, which offers a much more comprehensive list of available cabins than the US site. The cabin directly above it was available, as was this one, and initially I thought I wanted to one above it because it would be less obstructed. So I called my TA and had us switched to cabin 8410. Later, in looking at pictures, I realized that cabin 8410 has only a single door with an upper window pane, as opposed to full wall to ceiling double slider. I thought we'd prefer the sliders, so I called the TA and again switched us, this time to room 7408. TA Bruno was concerned about this switch, double-ensuring that I was aware that the view is "obstructed." I told him yes I am well aware, and I REALLY want this balcony. So, done! No additional cost. To clarify, this was all done well before our final payment date, when changes were still flexible. And FYI, these rooms are technically for 3 persons, and can only be booked for parties of 3, unless, I've read, very close to sail date if still available. I have read of many people booking a phantom 3rd passenger and making that passenger a no-show (yes eating the cost of the 3rd passenger) just to get this balcony.

 

We LOVED our balcony!

 

 

 

Lookin' back at ya, you wonderful ol' Condado Plaza!

 

And I could see that church with which I'm still obsessed from here too, through the porthole!

We are in cabin 6414, in two weeks.  Awesome to see the view of the balcony from yours.  🙂

[EeyoreRN]

10 minutes ago, mchin said:

We are in cabin 6414, in two weeks.  Awesome to see the view of the balcony from yours.  🙂

Lucky duck!! Enjoy your cruise!

 

21 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

As soon as your TA said "it was done" you should have tried to make MTD reservations - when you didn't have access to MTD bookings, a check with RCI would have revealed that it was NOT "done" - at least not at RCI's end. A few calls later you would have eventually had MTD or would have been told that it was already full and they placed you into early traditional. But, you would have known that 8 months out and perhaps made other arrangements, instead of finding out when you got your Seapass card.

Thanks for this. I was trying to do it on line and it kept saying unavailable. I just thought I was supposed to do it onboard. It ddn't occur to me I needed to call.

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, EeyoreRN said:

Thanks for this. I was trying to do it on line and it kept saying unavailable. I just thought I was supposed to do it onboard. It didn't occur to me I needed to call.

A request for the invoice from RCI (after the switch) may have also shown that you had traditional and not MTD.

[EeyoreRN]

May 26 continued

Of course, the day 1 Compass was in the room when we arrived and available everywhere about the ship. Here it is again

 

CC Day 1 0526001 (1).pdf

 

We spent some time enjoying the balcony and perusing the day 1 compass and thinking about the rest of the day.  Decided to go get some drinks and lounge chairs on deck 12 and enjoy the partially sunny skies and breeze.

Looking down at the Solarium

 

Not too sure exactly where we were here

 

Plenty of lounge chairs today on deck 12

 

Went back to the room to freshen up before muster at 5:45 and dinner at 6:30.  Our bags had been delivered and look what Emma brought!

 

 

We found our muster station right on time and to avoid the crowds flocking to the elevators afterward, we headed forward and up to the helipad to watch the Fascination sail away.

 

That ship has sailed!  Time for our dinner at Giovanni's Table.

Edited June 10, 2019 by EeyoreRN
added PDF

[EeyoreRN]

May 26 continue Giovanni's Table

 

A festive dance was going on with the staff in the Windjammer. They were in the fun party mode whenever we went in there, with funky glasses and silly hats.  So cut, we loved this.

 

 

Our server was Henry and he is an extremely attentive and expert server.  He got off on the wrong foot with Joey and made Joey nervous because he didn't understand the family style nature of how things would be served.  Joey was worried he wouldn't get the pasta he wanted when Henry said don't worry I've got you covered.  All was more than resolved in the end!

 

I took a photo of this so I must have thought it was cool, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is since there's no context.  The outside of the menu, maybe?  A tile in the floor?  Anyone please feel free to explain.

 

One page of the menu, the rice, pasta and mains. You are allowed to have as many as you want of most sections of the menu except the mare e terre section.  You can only choose one from there.

 

A toast to Embarkation day with prosecco, and Henry made sure our glasses were never empty!

 

Bread service included delicious roasted garlic, olive oil and olives. Emma had to ask for GF bread, which eventually came and was the same bread that was on the lunch buffet.

 

We shared the meat and cheese plank

 

And for personal starters I got the mussels in white wine (delicious), Joey chose the pork belly (least favorite dish of the night, a little rubbery and more Asian BBQ spices than Italian.  It wasn't bad, just not to our liking.  Emma went with the mozzarella and tomato with pesto, which was not noted as GF on the menu and we were utterly confused as to why.  We thought maybe it's served with bread on the plate and when we asked Henry to clarify he said it was because of the pesto.  Pesto?  I've never made pesto with any glutenful ingredients, but when Henry showed up a few minutes later with the dish, we asked him to reconfirm with the chef that this was GF pesto and safe for Emma to consume. He confirmed it was fine, and so she went for it and it turned out, it was fine and also very good. She loves pesto!

 

 

 

Next I believe our mains and pastas all came out at the same time.  Forgive me, but this was more than 2 weeks ago now and I was several proseccos in by then, which was entirely Henry's fault.  Granted, it wasn't his fault I had started drinking at 11:30 and pretty much continued all day. 

 

But anyway, the man came through in a big way when he showed up with a plate of GF carbonara, glutenful carbonara (so, so good), gnocchi with gorgonzola (omg, delectable) and even threw in some mushroom risotto (which was great, reminded us of the mushroom soup we had at lunch...but way too much food!). Wait, that's just the family-style side dishes. I haven't even told you yet about the mains!  Emma ordered grilled shrimp, I got fillet mignon and Joey opted for veal ossobuco.  We were all exceptionally pleased and so full!

GF carbonara

 

Glutenful carbonara

 

Henry somehow served the pasta up with one hand, using the two utensils almost like chopsticks. And didn't make a mess!  It was pretty impressive.

 

Gnocchi, one of the winning dishes

 

Risotto

 

Grilled shrimp

 

Filet

 

Ossobuco

 

We were ridiculously full but who can say no to dessert?  It's vacation.  So Emma went with what I believe was her only option, the pana cotta. I wasn't intrigued by anything else so I got the same.  Joey, I have recently come to learn, is a big fan of tiramisu.  So when he saw the big tray of it he couldn't resist. We also ordered a round of cappuccinos.

 

Pana cotta, very meh.  Consistency more like white jello. Actually it's a good thing it wasn't delicious, it was not needed!

 

Tiramisu, Joey loved it

 

And that wraps up our wonderful first dinner on Freedom.  Great food, great service. I was considering cancelling dinner at Chops on our last night to come back to Giovanni's.  We had almost a week to mull it over. But in the meantime, it was time to head up to the upper decks for sail away.

 

[puertorican]

On 11/9/2018 at 9:16 PM, tweetylori said:

By now, the pink meds I'd picked up at CVS earlier had taken effect and I was finally hungry, so we did what one must always do at Sloppy Joe's...the nachos with Sloppy Joe added!

 

 

 

On 5/24/2019 at 9:55 AM, EeyoreRN said:

Lots of things to do around the property!  Relax your body and soul:

 

Challenge your mind:

 

Toes in the sand (and the protected...cove? Inlet?)

 

Aha!  It's a lagoon!  

 



 

The way this sign is positioned I can't tell which is the salt water pool.  No worries, I'll just taste them later haha!

 

 

And near the salt or not salt pool there's also corn hole!! When my kids wake up we are on that!

Also, ya gotta know what NOT to do...

 

Some not so gorgeous aspects of the hotel I noticed:

 

 

 

Stuff like this doesn't bother me too much but probably plays a large roll in recent negative reviews.  So this is the ocean side of the hotel.  Will post on lagoon side a little later.  Gonna close my eyes...

What you see unfortunately was caused by hurricane Maria, they suffered a lot, and problems with the insurances after that.

[EeyoreRN]

26 minutes ago, puertorican said:

 

What you see unfortunately was caused by hurricane Maria, they suffered a lot, and problems with the insurances after that.

Yes, I know.  I think it is so sad that Hilton has continued to let this beautiful hotel suffer so long. They should fix it! 

[puertorican]

On 6/9/2019 at 6:06 PM, EeyoreRN said:

Continuing with May 25...

 

We took our delicious Pina Colada on the road.  It didn't last long. We should have bought three!  I was worried now.  We couldn't get a table at Barrachina, and we were starting to get pretty hungry. I knew there would be good food and drinks at the Hotel Milano's rooftop restaurant Punta de Vista, but I was a little concerned because the place wasn't on Emma's GF friendly list. We walked back the way we had come to at least get ourselves on the waitlist for a table.  By this time it was close to 6 pm and the host told us to come back at 7:30.  No problem, time to wander around the beautiful neighborhood!

 

The umbrellas on Fortaleza were all camouflaged instead of colored (don't tell Barbados). I was disappointed, I didn't think it looked as pretty as the photos I had seen, but it was still cool. Maybe this was for Memorial Day?

 

 

La Fortaleza, governor's residence

 

 

 

And from a different angle

 

El Convention hotel

 

And the church across the street

 

Old San Juan Cathedral, Second Oldest of the Americas!!!

[EeyoreRN]

1 minute ago, puertorican said:

Old San Juan Cathedral, Second Oldest of the Americas!!!

Thanks so much for identifying it!

[puertorican]

5 minutes ago, EeyoreRN said:

Thanks so much for identifying it!

 

Your welcome,  the umbrellas, were like that for a period of time in celebration of the national guard 100 anniversary.

 

About your safety, you were right, that part of the town is not very safe after dark, it is recommendable take an Uber or a taxi.

[fungirl28]

A friend and I decided to book this cruise this afternoon for December 2020. I am so happy to find this thread to get an idea of what to expect! Love your review!

Edited June 11, 2019 by fungirl28

[Missusdubbya]

Great review! Looking forward to the rest of it 😀

Edited June 11, 2019 by Missusdubbya

[ScubaCat3]

11 hours ago, EeyoreRN said:

May 26 continue Giovanni's Table

 

I took a photo of this so I must have thought it was cool, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is since there's no context.  The outside of the menu, maybe?  A tile in the floor?  Anyone please feel free to explain.

 

 

 

 

Yep, that's the outside of Giovanni's menu.

Edited June 11, 2019 by ScubaCat3

[Beav1279]

I'm enjoying your review. Thanks for sharing!

[hrmkr]

Great review.  We will be on the FOS December 1, 2019.

[EeyoreRN]

17 hours ago, fungirl28 said:

A friend and I decided to book this cruise this afternoon for December 2020. I am so happy to find this thread to get an idea of what to expect! Love your review!

Great choice!  You will have a blast!  Thanks for reading.

 

9 hours ago, Missusdubbya said:

Great review! Looking forward to the rest of it 😀

Thank you and thanks for reading.

 

8 hours ago, ScubaCat3 said:

 

 

Yep, that's the outside of Giovanni's menu.

Lol yeah I thought so, thanks.

 

4 hours ago, Beav1279 said:

I'm enjoying your review. Thanks for sharing!

You're so welcome!  Thanks for reading!

 

4 hours ago, hrmkr said:

Great review.  We will be on the FOS December 1, 2019.

Lucky!! Thanks for reading!

[skidawg79]

Just saw this. Reading through now. It’s making me upset.  I want to go back. Lol.   Sitting at the Houston airport.  Back to reality of work.   Going back to reading about your trip!   

[EeyoreRN]

May 26, sail away

 

We went up to the 12th deck for sail away at about 8:25, and starboard side railing was lined with people, no place for the 3 of us to squeeze in...so we went forward and up the stairs to deck 13 where there was plenty of railing space, except we had to climb over the lounge chairs which seemed tightly spaced and stacked. In the process I found a pretty ring under a chair and held on to it to bring to guest services.  I hope it found it's rightful home.

 

Sail away from San Juan was so pretty, but there were only a few lights on around the forts.  It was already full dark out and we couldn't see as much as we would have liked.

 

After turning in the ring and having the previously described conversation with guest services and Rama about dining, we headed to the Arcadia Theatre for the main event, the Welcome Aboard Comedy Show with comedian Tom Foss. There were also some "guest entertainers," aerialists Jimmy and Anna.  There we also "met" our cruise director, Patricio.  He is great with just the right amount of enthusiasm. We enjoyed the show a lot, especially the aerialists, and while I can't remember the comedian specifically, I know we laughed a lot. Not sure if it was the talent of Tom Foss or the all-day drinking, or simply being giddy from finally being on the ship?

 

I'm sorry to say this is the only photo I took that night.  I guess we grabbed some drinks at the sky bar to enjoy for sail away and I'm pretty sure this is Emma's dark and stormy. You'd probably rather see our view of the forts, lol.  I didn't even try to capture it, I thought it would be too dark.  Wishing now I had tried.  Oh well...next time!😄

 

 

[EeyoreRN]

7 minutes ago, skidawg79 said:

Just saw this. Reading through now. It’s making me upset.  I want to go back. Lol.   Sitting at the Houston airport.  Back to reality of work.   Going back to reading about your trip!   

I'm sooooo sorry I missed the slot pull and the meet and mingle!!  Hope they were fun!

 

I also want to go back.  It was incredible, right?!

Edited June 11, 2019 by EeyoreRN

[skidawg79]

On 6/9/2019 at 12:21 PM, EeyoreRN said:

I'm BACK!  Quick update before I backtrack into the details...the cruise was AWESOME!!! 

 

The ship is GORGEOUS and has something for everyone, and fellow passengers were just as fun/respectful as we have encountered on any of our other vacations (we had read many reports and reviews that the ship is old and tired and the passengers are loud and rude), but we did not encounter any of this. Did the carpet in our hallway (deck 7 aft) and some furniture in public areas need replacing? Yes! Did we hear an occasional boom box? Yes! But these were minor issues and in no way affected our enjoyment of our vacation.

 

Food was fine to outstanding, depending on the venue. Windjammer was fine, dining room very good, specialty restaurants in many cases much exceeded our expectations! Bar service was exceptional, drinks were delicious and prompt (except in dining room, but I will get to that in the detailed analysis).

 

Entertainment was good, varied and plentiful, we often had to make choices what to do because so much was going on. Every event we attended was at least somewhat entertaining if not great.

 

The ports, what can I say? I have to go back to them all.

 

Finally, the SERVICE on this ship was so over the top exceptional I barely know what to say. Every individual we encountered at each level of service bent over backward to ensure that every passenger had the best vacation possible. We were blown away by the smiles and service! 

 

I will get to my full report over the next few days/weeks but please feel free to ask questions!

 

Dina

We encountered the same.   We had such a great time on this cruise.  The only complaints I heard were of people complaining about the weather.   Did I spend 10 days in the Caribbean and still go back with a little bit of a sock tan....unfortunately yes lol  But the rain did not hamper our trip at all.  We had an amazing cruise.  I had to laugh at one person that said...”I didn’t come to the tropics for rain”.    Tropical literally refers to warm and hot and moist lol.  

[skidawg79]

On 6/10/2019 at 2:41 PM, EeyoreRN said:

May 26 continued

Of course, the day 1 Compass was in the room when we arrived and available everywhere about the ship. Here it is again

 

CC Day 1 0526001 (1).pdf 12.55 MB · 5 downloads

 

We spent some time enjoying the balcony and perusing the day 1 compass and thinking about the rest of the day.  Decided to go get some drinks and lounge chairs on deck 12 and enjoy the partially sunny skies and breeze.

Looking down at the Solarium

 

Not too sure exactly where we were here

 

Plenty of lounge chairs today on deck 12

 

Went back to the room to freshen up before muster at 5:45 and dinner at 6:30.  Our bags had been delivered and look what Emma brought!

 

 

We found our muster station right on time and to avoid the crowds flocking to the elevators afterward, we headed forward and up to the helipad to watch the Fascination sail away.

 

That ship has sailed!  Time for our dinner at Giovanni's Table.

 

I’m in your picture!!! Lol.  The picture of the solarium pool, I’m the guy with the sunglasses just to the left of the giant colorful bird (my head is just above the railing to get in to the pool. Haha. That’s funny.