Review - FOS, Western

[spanner14]

Here's a link to my member review. For some reason the port reviews didn't publish but I'm working on it! http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=59478

 

Any questions about Freedom just ask! :)

[PattyG12]

We had Milton as our head waiter last month. Actually we sent a comment that he was the most visible and friendliest head waiter EVER!!!

[Chester & Brewster]

Great review Spanner, thanks for that. Look forward to reading the port one once you get it posted. Only 6 months to wait until we are on Freedom......

[tneah]

I was on this cruise, too! I loved Richard Spacey. He was one of the highlights in my families vacation.

 

I agree that the Flowrider and Ice Rink need to be open during some the day on port days.

 

My DD was in the Adventure Ocean in the same group as your DD. Would you DD name be Lucy? She met several girls, but loved the girls with an accent.;)

 

I can't wait to go back!

 

 

ETA: The Thriller Micheal Jackson performance was great!

[CHOPPERTESTER]

Can't wait to read your port review. We will be sailing in January on a back to back cruise on the Freedom. Our son is in a wheelchair and we are still undecided as to what to do on shore for the Western portion of the cruise. Did you go on any shore excursions? Accessible transportation at any of the ports? Any info would be very helpful.

[Qtypie617]

I was on Freedom too same time you were and we had Hansen or "Handsome" as I nicknamed him as our cabin steward as well. I have to say he was the absolute best! I miss him already. He has been by far the most attentive and outgoing room steward ever.

[spanner14]

Thanks everyone, I'm missing Freedom so much now we're back! Milton was a fantastic headwaiter, SO chatty and had a great sense of humour. I keep meaning to email RCI and tell them how good Milton, Hansen, and two of our waiters were.

 

I have no idea what happened, but although I wrote my port reviews on the same form as the review and at the same time, they didn't get published; very bizarre. But I can help with Labadee and Grand Cayman; we didn't get off anywhere else but rather made the most of the fabulously quiet ship!

 

I'll post two more posts shortly; one with a review of Labadee and one of Grand Cayman, with some pics if I can add them (!). I have info which may certainly help from a disability point of view but if there's anything else you want to know afterwards, just ask. Posts coming shortly!.......:)

[spanner14]

I was on this cruise, too! I loved Richard Spacey. He was one of the highlights in my families vacation.

 

I agree that the Flowrider and Ice Rink need to be open during some the day on port days.

 

My DD was in the Adventure Ocean in the same group as your DD. Would you DD name be Lucy? She met several girls, but loved the girls with an accent.;)

 

I can't wait to go back!

 

 

ETA: The Thriller Micheal Jackson performance was great!

 

Hi, no she's called Elizabeth; blonde hair, English accent! What's your DD called? :)

[spanner14]

Can't wait to read your port review. We will be sailing in January on a back to back cruise on the Freedom. Our son is in a wheelchair and we are still undecided as to what to do on shore for the Western portion of the cruise. Did you go on any shore excursions? Accessible transportation at any of the ports? Any info would be very helpful.

 

Choppertester, I LOVE your avatar!!! I'll post reviews of Labadee and GC on this thread shortly and I have some info re. wheelchairs on Labadee which should help! :)

[MAZANDSTEVE]

Lovely review, thanks for taking the time.:)

[spanner14]

OK; as promised, here's my review of Labadee:

 

On the Labadee day, as on Grand Cayman day, we decided to order room service breakfast rather than fight for a table in Windjammer, so the evening before we did as advised by CC members, and ordered room service via the interactive TV menu (apparently, if you write out an order and hang it on your door, it can get "mislaid" by passing pranksters).

 

Room service breakfast is extremely efficient; firstly someone phones to confirm your order, and then a little while later you get a phone call to tell you breakfast is on the way. We tipped a dollar per person each time we had room service and the waiter seemed happy with that so hopefully it was OK!

 

After breakfast, we gathered our things and headed down to Deck 1. I remember that in the Compass it said that only people needing assistance were allowed to use the elevators all the way down to Deck 1; everyone else should get out at Deck 3 and walk the two remaining flights of stairs. (Choppertester, I *think* it was the aft portside elevators only, but the compass specifies which ones to use).

 

Well, as always with me in a wheelchair, we had a wait for an elevator, but eventually got one and it stayed full all the way down to Deck 1. When the elevator doors opened on Deck 1, a lady (I think she was called Kacy; she has a partially missing arm and leg) greeted us and said to the elevator in general "I can only take the wheelchair and family; everyone else should go back up to Deck 3 and walk down because Deck 3 is where the queue starts (!)".

 

Even though the Compass had said that only wheelchairs etc. should use the elevator to Deck 1, needless to say there was a LOT of grumbling about this, and a lot of complaining that people had to go back to Deck 3. The lady was not overly sympathetic to the grumbling people but despite reading on other posts about a lot of people complaining about this lady, I have to say she was perfectly nice to us every time we saw her. We were polite to her and she was absolutely fine with us, and most helpful.

 

She undid a rope for us and directed us to the front of the line; mostly I think to avoid the corners and obstructions but we were certainly grateful.

 

The only tender experience we had had prior to Freedom was a very small tender off Ocean Village which I never could have got into in my wheelchair, so I was expecting to have to get out of my wheelchair (I can walk a few steps with my walking stick; it's just very slow and very painful) and get onto the tender that way, with some help. Thankfully, the tender to Labadee is a whole different ballgame. It's a BIG boat! It has a ramp/walkway onto it and a flat deck for wheelchairs. So the very helpful deck attendants wheeled me backwards down the ramp and carefully onto the tender boat. My husband and daughter weren't allowed to stay up on the flat deck with me but had to go and take seats, but that was fine. (Choppertester, I'm pretty sure you'd be allowed to stay with your son though).

 

It's not a very long tender crossing to Labadee and you have a wonderful view of the ship from the tender boat; great chance to video the ship and get a perspective of her height! You can get a good view of the pier which is still under construction too; it's coming along well. When we got to Labadee my husband and daughter were allowed to join me and then the attendants kindly wheeled me off. Here's where the fun started.....

 

 

......In the Compass, you are advised that everything on Labadee - with the exception of the local artisan/flea market - is chargeable to your Seapass card, and there is no need for cash. Great, we thought. We weren't planning on visiting the artisan market; we had prepaid for the excursions (zipline ride for my husband; waterpark for my daughter), so we didn't want the bother of taking any cash with us. The other piece of advice in the Compass said simply that beach wheelchairs are available at the pier, as Labadee is mostly sandy. Now we had been given one of these beach wheelchairs (giant inflatable rubber wheels) at Discovery Cove. We had left my wheelchair at reception as advised, and my husband had just pushed me in the beach one all day instead, which was fine. So we expected the same system on Labadee.

 

Not so. When we got off the tender, we were approached by a man pushing a beach wheelchair. We were told I must transfer from my wheelchair into a beach wheelchair - so far so good. The man took my wheelchair and put it next to another one, under a tree. Then he asked where we wanted to go. We had decided to base ourselves at the beach by the water park, so that I could lay down and still be able to see my daughter in the waterpark, and then my husband could go off at his appointed time for the zipline.

 

So we told the man that we needed to find the beach at the Waterpark. "Columbus Beach", he said, so my husband said thank you, and made to push me in the wheelchair. Anyway, the man insisted on pushing the wheelchair, despite my husband's assurances that he could do it. So we set off, not realising that it was about a 15 minute walk, often uphill, right through the middle of the artisan market, with people trying to stop my daughter and call her over to show her things. My husband had to be quite firm with them and my daughter didn't like the whole experience very much, being only 10. After the artisan market, my husband kept saying that he could push the wheelchair.

 

Then the attendant said "No, I need to push because we only have two of these wheelchairs, so I need to take it back to the pier". This meant he was going to deliver us to Columbus beach, put me on a sunbed, then leave with the wheelchair. We hadn't realised this! Also, when we got to Columbus beach and I was on a sunbed, the attendant stood there waiting for a tip - and of course we didn't have any cash with us at all, which was SO embarrassing. We had to explain to him that we didn't realise he was going to push us all that way and also that we only had our seapass cards with us. He was NOT happy. We apologised but what else could we do? So that was a very uncomfortable experience.

 

We found sunbeds easily and as we had been advised that sunbeds etc. were just as they are on board - i.e. no charge at all - that was fine. Shortly after we had settled on sunbeds right near the sea, the bartenders (all in RC uniform with badges) started coming round selling the famous Labaduzee drinks. We had one a little later but I have to say they were DELICIOUS. You could have them with added rum, or "Virgin" and they were frozen, fruity and yummy. My daughter had a virgin one and loved it. I had one rum one and later a virgin one. They're not cheap though (I think it was $10 or so for the rum one) but you do get to keep your souvenir cup - but they're well worth trying.

 

Next installment coming shortly.......

[mamathilde]

We were on FOS last march and we had Milton as our assistant waiter. He was amazing!!! I'm so pleased to see that he is now head waiter!

 

Good review and I can't wait to go back on Freedom. This year we are trying Explorer 9 days.

[It'sRC4ME]

We were on this cruise, and it was a great time. The only thing that we didn't like was Richard Spacey! I feel like we're the only ones. We actually got up and left the Love and Marriage show after an hour (the show was only half over) because we got so sick of his schtick. Usually that show is one of the highlights of the cruise, but with Richard it was ALL ABOUT HIM! Never mind that some of the participants responses might be funny, he barely let them talk, it was just an endless stream of little jokes from him. It got so boring. Didn't "ruin" our cruise, but we did avoid other shows/activities that he was leading.

[spanner14]

We were on this cruise' date=' and it was a great time. The only thing that we didn't like was Richard Spacey! I feel like we're the only ones. We actually got up and left the Love and Marriage show after an hour (the show was only half over) because we got so sick of his schtick. Usually that show is one of the highlights of the cruise, but with Richard it was ALL ABOUT HIM! Never mind that some of the participants responses might be funny, he barely let them talk, it was just an endless stream of little jokes from him. It got so boring. Didn't "ruin" our cruise, but we did avoid other shows/activities that he was leading.[/quote']

 

He is certainly very extrovert! I think you'd have to be to do that job though. The good thing is there are enough quiet spaces on board to get away from all that stuff if it's not your cup of tea. We liked the schooner bar before dinner because it was lovely and quiet and comfortable, playing quiet music.

 

I have to say I usually hate overly loud stuff, so I avoided the "Men's sexy legs" contest and watched the Love & Marriage show on the TV in our room! It's like everything on a cruise; there's always going to be something you're not keen on but each to their own and all that....and thank goodness Freedom's big enough that you can find your own quiet spot to relax...:)

 

I typed the rest of the Labadee review yesterday; left it to cook & eat dinner etc. and when I came back and tried to post it, CC came up with a message saying "Token expired" :confused: and I lost the whole thing!

 

Anyway, I'll finish it tomorrow and try to include some Labadee pics for those who haven't been there yet.

[CHOPPERTESTER]

Thanks for the update on Labadee. We thought that there would be paths and walkways. Did you have to use the beach wheelchair? Is there no way we could use the manual wheelchair to get close enough to the beach? How did you get back to your wheelchair? Did you arrange a certain time for the attendant to come back and get you? We were planning on using the beach wheelchair to get our son into the water so he could swim a bit and then tour around. I guess that might be a problem. (unless we bring alot of cash)

[spanner14]

Hi Choppertester,

 

as promised, more on the wheelchair fiasco (and the rest of the Labadee review - if it doesn't get lost in the ether this time!)....

 

Well the wheelchair attendant plus his beach wheelchair had gone away with no clue on how to call him, arrange a time to get back etc. so instead of transferring over to Dragon's Breath Beach to try to watch my DH come down the zipline, I was stuck at Columbus Beach - not ideal.

 

Anyway. With the help of my DH I managed the few steps down to the water, which was lovely and warm; not very clear, but a beautiful temperature and with a great view of the Waterpark which was marked off with buoys, and a great view of Freedom, looking beautiful some distance away.

 

There had been some talk of jellyfish but we hadn't seen any, so stayed in the water until it was time for my DD to check in at the water park. We were really near the check in cabana so once my DH had completed the waiver form for DD, she got her lifejacket (everyone has to wear one for the waterpark) and in she went. DH went off to do the zipline and I stayed to watch DD in the waterpark.

 

The waterpark itself is great; you wouldn't want more than an hour playing on it but it looked great fun. The only problem was that the lifeguard kept having to go back and forth in his canoe, fishing out jellyfish. At one point it seems that he told everyone to get out of the waterpark and go back to the beach as he felt there were too many jellyfish. This led to some confusion and discussion as the shorebased staff felt that it was fine for people to go back in, so my DD and the other folks missed about 10 minutes while all that was going on.

 

When she'd finished in the waterpark, she came back in the water with me, which was fine until my legs got stung by a jellyfish. DD helped me out of the water and I had 4 stings, so the Water Park staff gave me this scrub lotion stuff which you scrub on the stings until the pain goes (it was pretty good).

 

After that, DD and I didn't want to go back in the water so we lay in the shade on oursunbeds and waited for DH to get back from his zipline (which he LOVED).

 

More in a minute......

[spanner14]

.....when DH returned, we thought we'd look for lunch. An advantage of Columbus Beach is that the Columbus Beach Bar (where the lunch is) is a lot quieter than the other lunch stops (which DH walked past on his way back from ziplining). You go through the bar area (the restrooms are near there too) and the BBQ lunch is all laid out under a covered area.

 

There was plenty of food and it was pretty tasty. We saw burgers, hot dogs, jerk chicken, pork (I think it was jerk pork ribs or something like that), potato salad, french fries, and salad. For dessert (which we didn't have) there were cookies, cakes and fruit. The only let-down with the lunch (which is buffet style and there are hand sanitisers) was the "fruit punch" which was so weak that it was literally pink water! There were tables by the bar though so you could sit there and if you wanted a different drink or an alcoholic drink then you could get those with your seapass (food was free).

 

After lunch we were hot and I was tired, so we decided to head back to the ship. I was really worried about how to get back as it was about a 15-20 minute walk but luckily the land-train came along and stopped right by the bar, so we decided to get on that.

 

If you had a fold-up wheelchair with you then it would probably have fitted on the land-train but you'd need to hold onto it.

 

The land-train dropped us back near the queue to get through a sort of security checkpoint cabana, before they let you back on the tender. We had no clue at this point where my wheelchair was (turned out it was under the tree still, but the tree was the other side of the security checkpoint and couldn't be seen).

 

Now (great timing) that we'd made our way back, who should appear but the guy with the beach wheelchair! "I will take you back to your chair", he said. My husband said "thanks, but don't forget - and I'm sorry - that we have no cash". So away walked the wheelchair attendant!

 

The line for the security checkpoint was really long at this point and I couldn't have stood for much longer, so we asked the security guard what we should do and if he knew where our wheelchair might be. He let us in at the front of the line and said that he was pretty sure the wheelchair was on the other side of the security checkpoint shed. We thanked him and went through security, and - phew - on the other side was the tree, with my wheelchair sitting under it.

 

I was glad to get back in it! My DH wheeled me onto the tender and a little while later we were back on board; cooler, and happy to be back!

 

So here's my thoughts on Labadee:

 

Choppertester - take tip money and I'm sure if you tip the guy, he will tell you how to arrange for him to come back at an allotted time with the wheelchair. I did actually see a lady with her own wheelchair and I think on most of the paths you'd be fine; it's just getting it onto the deeper sand that's difficult. You can get the land-train back but you have to be able to get out of a wheelchair to do that.

 

I hated the fact that they insisted on putting you in a beach wheelchair but then that you couldn't use it for the day - if I'd know that, I think I'd have probably tried to use my own wheelchair. But who knows; if we'd have had cash with us I expect he'd have been more helpful! Hope that helps somewhat!

 

With regards to swimming, the water at Columbus Beach is warm and very calm - but has jellyfish. The water over the other side of the peninsula by the Dragon's Breath rock seems a lot clearer; not as calm and with some surf but I doubt they have the same amount of jellyfish over there.

 

One final point - they cancelled the zipline about an hour after my DH had done it, due to high wind. I'd recommend doing it mid-morning just in case they cancel it in the afternoon.

 

So that was Labadee! I'll *try* to post some pictures and then do my review of GC later.

 

As always, any questions - just ask! :)

[spanner14]

If it works - here are some pictures from Labadee:

 

1. is a bit of the waterpark from Columbus Beach

 

2. is the big waterslide in the water park, with Freedom behind

 

3. is the beach near Dragon's Breath and the zipline.

[spanner14]

OK; here's my final port review, this one is of Grand Cayman.

 

We had room service breakfast again and were at the tender point down on Deck 1 by about 9.15am, having already been fired upon once by the Pirate Ship excursion (looked great fun for younger children!).

 

After much research and help from our fellow CC-ers, we'd decided to go it alone and take a taxi to the Reef Grill at Royal Palms, and just have a "beach morning". I was worried about getting the wheelchair into a taxi (actually it wouldn't have been a problem but I'll know for next time) so I used it to go down to Deck 1 and then the Medical Centre staff let me store it in the reception area of the Medical Centre so I could use it when I got back on board.

 

So this time I walked (well, shuffled, but you know what I mean) onto the tender using my walking stick. The GC tender is smaller than the Labadee one but the tender guys are lovely; they help you on and off and find a seat for you if you look like you'd have trouble with the stairs (it's like a two deck tender).

 

It's only a few minutes' tender ride to the pier but you get a lovely view of GC and the beautiful, crystal clear, turquoise-blue water, which makes you want to instantly get in and swim.

 

By the way, take plenty of good sunscreen if you're doing a beach break at GC; the sun is REALLY strong. People who had had braids and cornrows put in their hair at Labadee and Jamaica were being advised to put sunscreen on their heads, between the braids, by the RC staff at Deck 1.

 

The tender drops you off at the pier and literally as soon as you get on land you see men and ladies wearing blue shirts with "Tourism Ambassador" embroidered on their chests, holding up signs saying "Taxi". We found a lady whose sign said "Taxi to Royal Palms $4" so we asked if she could take us there. She was a lovely lady called Evadne who took us over to a mini-bus where there were some more people waiting.

 

(Apparently you can get the public bus for a lot less but to be honest I just wanted to walk the littlest way possible and get to the beach as quickly as we could so we didn't try to find it).

 

Evadne drove us in her taxi-bus straight to Royal Palms. We loved the fact that the GC folks drive on the left; it made us feel very at-home! It took about 10 minutes and on the way we saw Cemetery Beach, lots of hotels, restaurants and some shops, so plenty to see. Evadne said that whenever we were ready to leave Royal Palms there would be plenty of taxis waiting (there weren't at the moment but it was still early, before 10am). We paid her and gave her a couple of dollars tip as well as she'd been so nice.

 

Next installment coming in a second.....

[spanner14]

When you arrive at Royal Palms, everything is signposted. We walked past "Da Shop" (!) and you get to the bar area; in front of you are tables and chairs with umbrellas, then a little wall, then beautiful Seven Mile Beach. We grabbed some (virgin) fruit punches from the friendly bar staff, then rented three sunbeds ($7 each) from the RP sunbed man; you can't miss him, he's at the bottom of the three steps onto the beach.

 

As we'd got there so early there were plenty of sunbeds to be found. The place filled up though and almost all of the sunbeds, and all the tables, were full by midday.

 

At RP you can also rent jet-skis but they have marked off a safe (jet-ski-free) swimming area which is great. We put our drinks down by our sunbeds and walked the few steps into the sea.

 

No jellyfish here! The water is BEAUTIFUL. Warm, clear, clean (bad snorkelling here though as it's a smooth sand seabed). There is a sudden small dip when walking into the sea so look out for that. I'd recommend pool shoes even though it's sandy because at the dip there are a lot of shells; after that it becomes smooth sand again. I think few people actually sunbathed that morning because the sun was so hot; my DD and I literally spent 3 hours in the water. Sunscreen your head and shoulders though!

 

When we'd spent enough time in the water we showered the sand off at RP's outdoor showers, and found a table (thankfully under a parasol) for lunch. Food at RP is delicious. It seems a little expensive but you have to remember that the menu is in Grand Cayman dollars, not US dollars (I think one GC dollar is about 80 cents). Plus the service is great, the location is second-to-none, and they have lovely clean restrooms, outdoor showers, etc.

 

We had 3 non-alcoholic fruit punches, my DD had a cheeseburger (enormous), and my DH and I had the grilled chicken breast sandwich. All these came with lots of fries and were served in baskets. I couldn't even finish all my fries but the food was really delicious. I think for the three of us it all came to about $43 plus tip. We'd researched prices beforehand though so had budgeted for that which was fine.

 

After lunch we decided to beat the rush back to ship (Freedom sails at about 3.30pm on GC day) as it was already 1.15. We stopped off at "Da Shop" and got some good quality t-shirts, then made our way to the car park where as promised there were the "tourism ambassadors" with the taxi-buses. We had to wait about 15 minutes as the taxi drivers like to fill their minibuses before heading back to pier, but the bus was air conditioned so the wait was no problem. When the bus was full we headed back to the pier.

 

There was a lot more traffic on the way back so don't leave the journey until 3pm! The US folks on the bus with us really didn't like driving on the left and seemed quite alarmed by it which made me chuckle as I felt completely at home (it was a bit like driving in London but with much nicer scenery!). We were dropped back right by the pier and decided to look in the little shops there.

 

I got some pretty, very reasonably priced, child-friendly souvenirs and we walked the few yards back to the tender boat.

 

Now here I'm not sure what I'd have done if I'd have been in my wheelchair. You get on and off at GC at the *bottom* deck of the tender, and you get on and off at the ship at the *top* deck. So I had to negotiate stairs (very slowly and carefully) both times at the GC end.

 

Having said that, I have a feeling the other tender was wheel-chair friendly (one goes from the aft of the ship; one goes from forward) so if you got to the tender line still in your wheelchair I think you'd just wait for the other tender. So Choppertester, your son should be OK. When you get to the tender point on Deck 1 I'm pretty sure they were directing wheelchairs to the aft tender point (I'd left my w/c in the Medical Centre by this time).

 

Anyway, 5 minutes later we were sailing over the beautiful blue sea, past the Pirate Ship (where by this time some brave Dads had walked the plank and were swimming), back on board by 1.45pm in plenty of time.

 

We LOVED Grand Cayman. Loved Royal Palms and would go there again, loved the beach, loved the water. Lots of people had stopped off at the Tortuga Rum shop and were coming back on board with lots of rum and rum cakes (but if you missed the shop, you could buy them on board Freedom anyway!). It was a really easy, hassle free day and destination. Perfect.

[spanner14]

Beautiful Seven Mile Beach and Freedom off in the distance.

[Samira0207]

Great port review! Thanks for the info-sailing on FOS this Sunday!

[sailingawaysoon]

Here's a link to my member review. For some reason the port reviews didn't publish but I'm working on it! http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=59478

 

Any questions about Freedom just ask! :)

Thanks for the great review! I always love reading about the Freedom. She is our favorite ship to date! Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Happy future cruising.

[spanner14]

Great port review! Thanks for the info-sailing on FOS this Sunday!

 

Thanks! Have a wonderful time - I'm SO jealous! :)

[spanner14]

Thanks for the great review! I always love reading about the Freedom. She is our favorite ship to date! Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Happy future cruising.

 

Thanks and you're welcome! We really did have a wonderful time and absolutely adored Freedom.....I'm still missing her now :(