CleveCruiser

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Roast turkey (the stuffed dark meat; not so good...very garlic-y)

Petite filet mignon

Lasagna bolognese

I do not know what happened to dessert... either we skipped or I didn't take pics? weird...

7:15 – Victoriana Theater. Seth opens the show with some talk and requests, they have papers to “vote” on the final song of the show; Manilow, Croce, and someone else. We stuffed the ballot box with Croce and Manilow won (later…we learn something about this at the Behind the Fun tour). Another smash Playlist Production show. The stage is spinning, pianos are elevating, backgrounds are flashing; impressive.

8:00 – Stateroom; chatting with family. Everyone is burned out from four port days in a row and activities in Aruba. Some folks are ready for bed…DH and I are not.

10:00 – International Lounge for comedians Joe Marloti and Mark Hawkins. Some very funny comedians. Can’t relate much of the humor here (just know that a lot of it involved the oldest profession in the world), but funny.

10:50 – Guess where….Scotts Piano bar. Hey, it is just 10 steps away from comedy lounge! Seth is playing “All of me” by John Legend, and playing it very well. All the dancers from the show are in the room. On the nights they do the “88 Keys” show, they come here after the show and continue the fun. It was great, they added a whole new spin to the piano bar. I love this idea. It was very crowded though! This show was supposed to be earlier in the week, and I am sure more people would have been at the piano bar earlier in the cruise, and after this, it was more crowded each evening.

Ask dreamy Seth and his “adult act.” Ask him to sing the “Cougar” song, and “Dear pen, I don’t think I like you anymore.”

11:30 – leaving Seth for bed. He was sad.

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Yummy...

5:30 – fun walk to stateroom “woops” to get ready for dinner.

5:45 – Chic dining Room, boy Alex seemed exshtra, really funny tonight! Everyone is used to being forced to wait again while I snapped food shots…

Chicken tenders marinated in thai spice

Vine ripe beefsteak tomatoes and mozzarella

Cinnamon pumpkin, squash, yam, and cheddar cheese pie

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Oops; forgot this one. This is in the terminal building. It looks like it might have been a float, now on display.

4:15 – everyone showered/ready for past guest party! This was our first, as this cruise made us Gold level. Many, many yummy drinks, okay…I got a little tipsy. We definitely had more than our fair share. We sat to the right of the stage (conveniently right by the door to the bar-Super Free Inebriated tip #1). No show by the Captain. Skip, announced the VIP staffers, shook the hand of Diamond guests.

They called this "cheesecake". It was a spicy thing, not a sweet thing; good.

Salmon

Tuna?

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2:20 – Bus. 2:00 we decided to head back, as the buses run every 30 minutes. So easy, again. Used our pass to return (got to keep it as a souvenir).

On the bus back, we got some shots of Eagle Beach, obviously much quieter. And also a beautiful choice for a beach in Aruba.

2:40 – Dock. A whole row of shops at port, next to bus terminal. Mostly all the same items seen elsewhere, but prices were better. Some creative tin art. Inexpensive embroidered bags. T-shirts and saris. Not pushy people, very pleasant.

3:10 – Gangway. Short line to get back on board, thankfully in the shade. No cold water out for drinking, perhaps it has to be 99 degrees before that bring out that delicious brown cooler of ice water.

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1-1:30 – Hyatt pool. Scuttled on over to the Hyatt Regency pool. Very nice. A three-tiered pool with waterfalls and a slide. At the top there was the path from the hotel and parrots in cages along the walkway; and at the bottom a swim up bar. Very swanky! They had many Palapas and canopies on the beach for their guests. Security was noticeable and polite.

Not sure that is the best place for a baby seat! A restaurant at the Hyatt.

Sorry I didn't get a better snap, we were having too much fun here!

Parrots on the walkway to hotel.

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DH loves jet skis. He doesn't ask for much out of vacation, a cold beer, and a jet ski ride...It's the least 6 fellow (women) travelers can do for him!

12:30 – Palm Beach; came back to the others who were sipping on yummy margaritas made with rum instead of tequila from the “Beach Bar,” happy hour- called Caipirinah. Headed over there for a one of my own! And a local beer called “Chill.” Learned that Dushi=sweet, and bon bini=welcome.

That is a beautiful place to have a cold drink...

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What? a tie in my photo? I hoped you wouldn't notice.

That was placed there to protect the identity of a certain family member who will disown me if I post certain pics of her! :)

This location is right by Pete’s Pier with a bar, concession stand, and water sports-- including a Water jet pack- very cool. There are some bars here, and Sandra told us that the Dairy Queen across the street had the best smoothies! She let the girls use any beach toys she had.

The beach is lovely, soft white sand and palm trees. There was a light, steady breeze that kept it cool. Relatively cool-for the Caribbean! The snorkeling is poor as the water is so stirred up. Quite a bit of seaweed grass. It is a crowded area, but not so crowded that you could not enjoy the view and relax.

11/11:30 – Sandra set us up with a jet ski ride. I think it was $60 for single and $70 for double jet ski for 30 minutes. Half of the fun was the boat ride to the bay where the jet skis were! An extra thrill for your money. Hubby had a single and I took the two younger girls with me on a double (everyone else just chilled at the beach). I took turns letting the girls drive (scary! But fun). They didn’t seem too happy that I was switching out girls, but they dealt with it.

Gorgeous Aruba; one be happy island!

There were little snails and shells to explore while we waited for the return ride.

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Day 6: June 27- Aruba

8:30 – Docking.

A picture of the starboard side of the ship as we docked.

Deck 10 with my niece, and then we got a bit of breakfast on the Lido. Omelet station, very good.

Lido Buffet Breakfast. I must agree with other cruisers.. The scrambled eggs are not the best ..

But there is something for everyone..

9:30 – Everyone is up, and ready to leave.

10:00 – Bus terminal. The Arubus public bus terminal is right at the end of the street that the pier is on. It is very, very easy to use. There is a kiosk right there that will sell you an “Out and Back” pass. For $US 4 they will take you out to the beach and take you back to the terminal. You can pay the driver, but then you have to deal with change and it is $US 2.30 each way. We wanted to save that 60 cents and bought the pass. We told the driver when we got on that we wanted Palm beach and he called out “Palm beach”! Was worried about this, but it was so very easy.

The shops in the background are just at the end of the block that the pier is on. Very close.

We were dropped off across from the Hyatt Regency Aruba (there are two stops for Palm Beach). There is a driveway to the left of the Hyatt that leads to Palm Beach. At the end of the driveway there were a couple of locals trying to sell tours and activities (and I mean like….two people!). But we spotted Sandra (Sondra ?sp) from a review by Paul Medic (thanks Paul!) and headed right over to her. We told her she was just the lady we needed! She has a large canopy, Marcel’s Watersports. We rented 4 chairs at $5 each - free on the palapa (should have been $15) but she was tickled we told her she was famous.

The more food porn the better I say!!:D

 

Great review and pics...keep them coming (food pics too);)

Thanks... I love the food porn too, but man...It was overload when I was looking through it! I will add a bit more in though! Thx.

I am loving your review. One of the best I have read. Really appreciate all the 2.0 pics. There's not much out there yet and I've been dying to see pics as we sail the Freedom in adec. Thank you!

Thanks...Had not been on Freedom before; but I knew what was new on the ship for 2.0 . What I don't know is .. What else did the change, carpeting here.... statue there? IDK! Would be curious to get some feedback on that. It sure was in good shape, I'll tell you that. :)

Did you take this picture from the Queen Juliana Bridge?

Yes, the driver (Sylvan) was nice enough to go slow for many photo ops!

LOVING your review!!! Thanks for taking the time to do it!

 

I can't stop laughing at your Robert(o) pics, because in my head I hear Bobby Bouche from the Waterboy talking about his daddy- Roberto! He even looks like him!!! He's going to get the dehydration!!!

 

Thanks again!

Thank you...I really did think his name was Roberto for half the day ! My sister had to correct me; to late by then!

Thanks for the great review and pictures. We are sailing the Freedom in September can't wait.

 

 

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Thank you; Jealous yours is still coming up. Have a great time!

Can't wait for you to finish!! Loving this. My fiancé and I are sailing Freedom September 6th, different ports but love to see pictures of the new upgrades!!

 

 

P.S. If anyone is on the September 6th Sailing Eastern Caribbean join the roll call!

Thanks.... going to tear into another day right now!

Looking forward to more of this review! Hurry back;)

Here it comes; had a pesky graduation party to plan and attend! LOL

We went to the "secret deck" for the first time on this cruise. I told my husband I was going to show him the secret door. A couple of the workers copied that. We were there as we were coming into a port.

 

The dive in blankets were at the same place that you get extra towels. (The little shack by the pool).

 

It's nice to see what other people did on our cruise.

 

Doesn't it seem like a long time ago since we cruised?

 

I never met you on the cruise but I am enjoying your review now.

Hey! Nice to hear from you!.

I should have tried harder to find the blankets.... We just used towels!

Remembering it on this review is fun, and I still have to scrapbook it!

Keep in touch!

Hi. Loving your review and all your photos! Not sure if you know this or if it's just me but I cannot see the pics in posts 115, 116, and 131 - 135. Can't wait to read the rest and look at all your beautiful pics!

 

 

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I think I got it fixed, try again?!

We are sailing on the freedom in december and i am just wondering where this secret deck is...and how do i get to it?

At the front of the ship, on deck 10...it looks like it ends in a room, but the hallway splits off and there is a door to .... beautiful vistas! Enjoy.

Guess I exceeded the free bandwith!!! Pocketbook is a little lighter now....

Try again now, if it was messed before :(

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MDR day 5 dessert menu

white chocolate bread pudding

almond date cake

chocolate cake

Our towel monkey

9:00 – off ship again for night shots.

Had to try to take a night shot; it is pretty unique for me to be at a night port:

9:30 – Pixel gallery. Review/choose pictures w/photographer Ivaylo.

10:00 – Victoriana. Hypnotist show with Peter Gross. Some things he told the “victims” were to only count by saying 1-3-5-6-7-8-9-10; then he asked them to count their fingers and they could not understand why they had 12 fingers. He had them forget their name every time they stood up, but remember it when they sat down. To act like they were in a gunfight and dying a slow death. Very funny stuff.

11:30 – Victoriana lounge. Had a hilarious conversation with one of our party who was hypnotized. Then off to Lido for snack!

Wouldn’t you know it…a certain waiter ( you know who ) was busing the Lido deck. He came over to talk for a minute and regaled again with some stories of when he is at home drinking with friends, he pretends it is water and then he does not get drunk.

12:40 – Stateroom. In bed.

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Grilled new york strip steak from aged american beef

Vegetarian lasagna

Blackened fillet of tilapia

Chicken pot pie

Barbequed whole Cornish hen

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5:30 – Port. Back on ship. Showers (spa again). Requested the towel monkey from Andreas…must have been hard for him because we found the towel folding book left on the bed, so sweet that he did it for us. We gave him an extra tip for that.

Walked around for a bit on “secret deck” on 10.

6:45 – Chic Dining Room. Dinner. The steak knives ARE magnetic. Guess what…I forced everyone to wait again while I snapped food shots…

Fire roasted chicken in sesame dressing; this was soooo good, it should be a main dish.

Gaspacho blanco

Beef Carpaccio

Magnetic steak knives (the one on the left)

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Back on the bus, heading toward the pier. More drink passed around freely.

5:15 - They dropped us off at the Rift Fort area with plenty of time to shop at the pier. (FYI: We found many of the items sold here on Aruba for less money.)

The path from Rift Fort to the dock is the perfect picture taking spot....

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Here are some things we learned on the tour....Skim over if you want :D ! It was an interesting tour.

>Each resident learns four languages; Papiamento, Dutch, English, and Spanish.

>Yubi Kirindongo is a world wide known artist who lives in Curaçao who creates art out of car bumpers.

>There was a large Jewish influence in Curaçao .

>No new construction is allowed in town; only renovation.

>Government helps to cover cost of restoration; as much as 70%.

>Wall or salt cancer is the white scaly stuff on buildings. The “concrete” was made from sea rocks and sea sand; and the salt leaches out. They need to repaint every two years to cover it up.

>Why is Curaçao so colorful? The Governor claimed all the sun bouncing off white paint aggravated his headaches so he mandated people paint their homes colors; turned out the governor was a major shareholder in the paint factory!

>So long ago slaves came through Curaçao via the West Indian trading company.

>The “wedding cake house” has the face of the builders bride in the posts.

>Curaçao liqueur is the result of fermenting the laraha fruit, which was brought to curacao to be eaten, like a Valencia orange, but did not do well, and tasted too bitter.

>White stone quarry is mined for construction

>Many Dutch retired here

>$100-$300,000 homes are for sale in upcoming the Jan Theil area.

>There is only a 0.3% chance of hurricane hitting Curaçao; so many people with sailboats like to live/retire here.

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4:15 - The Sea Aquarium Beach was crowded, we were on the late tour. There is a bar about every 10 feet, if you want! The beach was nice with a diving platform in the middle. We did not plan on swimming and caught up on things with the free wi-fi, home, romantic interests, and the world cup, from shaded seating. We never did figure out just where the actual Sea Aquarium was, but there was enough things to do in the time we had. There is a lot of construction going on. If I was going to Curaçao just for a beach, I would not go to this one, too crowded; unless you enjoy the bar/music scene. We are more of a nature loving, gorgeous vista viewing, family.

The diving platform

It is a narrow, populated beach...

A dreamy choco-carmo-moca-y kind of drink...

These little birds were everywhere; can you spot it?

A different part of the beach, you can see the wall which protects the bay

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Cemetary, with some beautiful carvings.

A sculpture by Yubi Kirindongo at the art museum (unique for his use of car bumpers in his artwork).

The shopping district that everyone likes to photograph!

Queen Emma Bridge

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Colorful retirement homes.

The beautiful detailing of the "Wedding cake house"

So many beautiful homes....

What we learned was Salt/Wall cancer; the leaching out of salt from the sand/sea stone that was used to build these beautiful homes.

We learned that there is no new construction of these homes in the city, that the government will help subsidize renovation, as much as 70% of cost.

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Looking out the tour bus window to the channel that separates the Punda side from the Otrabanda side. You can see the Queen Emma bridge in the distance.

Colorful school building.

I personally did not care too much about the distillery, but it is informative and I learned some things about the making of Curacao liqueur and the island’s history. Sylvan made it clear we would be there 15-20 minutes, one couple did not come out for 40 minutes and we all had to wait (not his fault). Even after we left, we had to stop because two MORE people were even later (their fellow travelers had told Sylvan to go on, that they had met up with someone else). An FYI, Prices for the Curacao liqueur were cheaper here than anywhere else we saw.

Heading into the sampling area and gift shop.

Friendly distillery staff

Our tour guide: Sylvan

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2:00 – Tour Bus. Easy to find Irie tours. They are right at the end of the pier. There were two people waving signs and a few people with Irie shirts on. Waited a bit for some for some stragglers! Our guide was Sylvian or Sylvan(sp?). A genuinely friendly, and nice person; and a knowledgeable guide. He speaks four languages. He spoke English and Spanish for guests, about 27 on this bus. He provided us with drinks as we waited for the rest of the tour bus to fill.

For the price, Irie is an amazing deal. An informative tour of the east side; Sylvan would slow down or pause for photo opportunities (even if cars behind him beeped/honked!). He knew the area very well, I think he knew someone at every street corner and beeped and waved! He went out of his way to ensure we had an enjoyable, informative tour.

This is taken from the tour bus, looking back at ship. Very easy to book Irie, very easy to find.

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