Freedom OTS Trip Review - 2/16/14 (Western) - Playing “Clue” in the Caribbean!

[Mrs_Tiki]

Thanks, Fletch, for the great review. DD and I are taking this cruise in August. Can't wait to hear about your day in Cozumel.

[melk71]

Your trip report is fantastic! We just booked this cruise for January to celebrate our 25th anniversary. You've given some really useful info here, thank you!

[mickev99]

Fletch, Fletch, Fleth.....

 

Bueller, Bueller, Bueller......

[Choozin Croozin]

I'm a little late to the party. I can't wait to catch up.

[mbrownferrier]

Wonderful review!! Taking lots of notes for our thanksgiving cruise!!

 

Thank you

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[NYGirl1002]

I hope he comes back before I leave on this exact same cruise!!

 

I'm enjoying this review.

[Pacificlander]

What no end to this review, how disappointing. :-(

 

 

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk

[beccaewert]

SAME DATE for my DD and her BF! That is too funny. Looking forward to more of your cruise review. The same DD and I are doing FOS eastern in October. She is one lucky daughter!!!!

 

This is the cruise that I am going on for our 10th Anniversary!!!

[10th Anniversary]

I have spent hours sitting here reading this GREAT Trip Review... only to find out there is no end. :( I hope Fletch comes back and finishes it. We are doing B2B cruises on FOS in August 2015. We've been on FOS once before and loved it. Such a great ship.

[Badgertr]

Yeah, really! I think the biggest part of her fear is that she is spoiled because on her first and only cruise back in December, her best friend got to go with her, so she had an automatic buddy when they got on board. And her friend is very outgoing. I'm sure she will be just fine, but convincing her is another thing. She has until April to make a decision so we don't lose the deposit.

 

It's a plot to get you to invite the friend. She thinks if she sounds miserable enough, you are not going to want to ruin YOUR vacation with a pouty child....so...why don't you invite your friend? = happy child = it worked! :op

[cpyne1414]

My wife and I are doing this itinerary in Sept for our honeymoon! Great review so far..... very anxious to see the last couple days of it! Thank you Fletch

[mickev99]

It's a plot to get you to invite the friend. She thinks if she sounds miserable enough, you are not going to want to ruin YOUR vacation with a pouty child....so...why don't you invite your friend? = happy child = it worked! :op

 

Sure, as long as YOU pay for the friend, because I don't have the extra money. That's why I had three kids, they keep each other entertained. It's my brother's fault for having an only child that he spoils! LOL!

[fletch1027]

Apologies!! I’m pretty sure everyone I have let down by not finishing my review are long since unsubscribed. :-(

 

Holy crap, I can’t believe that I totally fell off the grid for way over two years and left my cruise review lingering unfinished!

 

I am especially sorry to those of you that were reading to prepare for your own cruises in 2014/2015! I hope you had a great time!

 

For those of you that are reading through this review for the first time, proceed as if nothing has happened… :-)

 

I promise to get it finished up in the next few days, because there were some very cool things done the last couple of days!

 

To be continued… Again... For real this time...

 

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Edited December 28, 2015 by fletch1027

[fletch1027]

Morning comes as we are pulling into Cozumel, which is easily the busiest of the ports of call that we visit on the western Caribbean itinerary. Once again the Navigator beat us to port!

 

 

 

From the deck before we got off the ship, I balanced my camera on the rail, maxed out my zoom and could barely get a glimpse of Playa del Carmen across the bay. Good news was that it was a beautiful clear day!

 

 

 

Now, this is a good point to again mention ship purchased vs. private tours, especially somewhere like Cozumel where the jet ferry from Cozumel from Playa del Carmen plays a huge role. As I have read and experienced firsthand, private tours offer a much better and in most cases less expensive tour, but the trade is the security that comes from not being left behind if you run late.

 

That being said, this was our second Western Caribbean cruise in 11 months. The first one we went to visit Tulum we booked the tour through RCI, and with that comes the chartered jet ferry from the pier we docked at and a chartered jet ferry back to the dock, as well as a large tour bus full of people and a much less personal experience.

 

On this cruise, we decided to go to Tulum again because our daughter was along with us. This time we decided to go it on our own which was “riskier” but more rewarding, but with that comes a little more work and planning. There are many threads which discuss the details of navigating the jet ferry boats so I won’t go into much detail, except to say that doing it yourself involves grabbing a taxi from the port over to the dock where the jet ferry terminals are, buying a one way ticket from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen, once on the other side buying another one way ticket back (to insure you get back to Cozumel with plenty of time to get back to the ship), meeting up with tour guide, getting back to Cozumel in time, and getting a taxi back to the port in time to get back on the ship. That sounds like a ton of work, but if you plan ahead it is easier than it sounds. For example, we had tickets going back for the 3pm ferry and we told our tour guide that we needed to be back at the Playa del Carmen dock (adjacent to Sr. Frogs) before 2:30 to make sure we had plenty of time and no stress.

 

So we were then off to Tulum. Driving down in a large van is a much nicer experience than a large tour bus, and for this trip we used a company called Alma Tours. We are members of the LDS church and Alma Tours is a company that mainly specializes in tours for Mormons, but the guides are great for anyone! Most of their guides are locals in their early 20’s, but since most of them served LDS missions in the states, they all speak fluent English.

 

Anyway, the rest of this post and the next couple will have mostly photos from around Tulum.

 

 

“Tree of Life” @ Tulum entrance

 

 

 

A few of many Iguanas making their home among the ruins

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

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[fletch1027]

Tulum border wall entrance (built for short people like me!)

 

 

 

 

Ruins in Tulum

 

 

 

God of Winds Temple

 

 

 

Temple of the Descending God

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

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[fletch1027]

 

Close up of Pyramid El Castillo (The Castle)

 

 

 

Farther back view of El Castillo (Spanish for "The Castillo") :-)

 

 

 

Our daughter with our Alma Tours guide – as you can see, Tulum is built on a cliff overlooking an awesome view of the water

 

 

 

Cozumel jet ferry

 

 

 

Back at port – they really pack the ships in here at Cozumel… :-)

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

 

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[fletch1027]

 

OK, so we are now back from our busy day scurrying around the Yucatan and seeing some awesome sights in Tulum, and our last view as we pulled away from Cozumel was a beautiful sunset!

 

 

 

That night at dinner in the MDR, the staff put on a fun little show that we could peek down from our MTD dining room to see down on the bottom level:

 

 

 

 

While at dinner, we were given the opportunity to book a cool backstage tour of the kitchen areas that came with a nice cookbook. This was a great experience that I will go into detail on in my next post.

 

That evening when we returned to our room, we found our daily towel animal wearing my sunglasses and reading that dreaded document – the disembark information… :-(

 

 

 

 

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Edited December 28, 2015 by fletch1027

[CanadaRob]

It is funny I just started this review today wondering why it would be bumped from 2014 and instead of starting at the last page, I waded through the whole review. Which was great BTW!

 

Loved Stingray city pics, by doing ruins again in Cozumel was there anything that struck you differently from 11 months previous?

[fletch1027]

It is funny I just started this review today wondering why it would be bumped from 2014 and instead of starting at the last page, I waded through the whole review. Which was great BTW!

 

Loved Stingray city pics, by doing ruins again in Cozumel was there anything that struck you differently from 11 months previous?

 

 

Hey Rob,

 

Thinking back and comparing the same itineraries on the same ship there wasn't a lot of differences between the two times. Here's what I can think of off hand:

 

• The weather was virtually the same (March vs. February)
  
• We got to see some different stuff this time on our private tour in Jamaica.
  
• We skipped the turtle zoo this time in Grand Cayman and it was better cause it felt less rushed
  
• We did our own Tulum tour this time which was better
  
• We got to do the kitchen tour on Day 7 which I will be posting about shortly
  
• On the flip side, I had to keep track of our 16 yr. old daughter this cruise which is hard to do on a big ship without a cell phone. :eek:
  

 

I saw the Quantum in your signature - how was that?

 

Thanks for reading my "old" trip review! :)

[fletch1027]

I am a sucker for any “behind the scenes” stuff. If it’s on the Discovery or History Channel, I’m there. I wanted very badly to sign up for the full blown behind the scenes tour that is offered on Freedom, but the cost was pretty prohibitive for this time around. However, like I had mentioned in my previous post, there was an announcement at dinner on Day 6 of a behind the scenes tour of the main kitchen and food storage areas. The cost was only (I believe) $30 or $40 per person which also included an RCI cookbook. That was too good of a price to pass up so I signed up my wife and I – our teenage daughter for some reason was less excited about it so she passed. :-)

 

The tour was set up for early afternoon, so we headed to to the Windjammer for breakfast. Upon returning back to the cabin after breakfast, we found our room to be overrun with animals! All I can say is that while our cabin steward had been going above and beyond all week, he really pulled out all of the stops on Day 7. There were animals everywhere and each one was busy with something to do:

 

 

Elephant crushing our luggage tags – Goose making my pillow hot – Falmouth impulse turtle purchase

 

 

 

Swan asking for tips & Rabbit (I think) grilling us about customs

 

 

 

Even towel bats freak me out…

 

 

 

Now apologies in advance because the next few posts will be about me geeking out in regards to all of the stuff I saw. Combining my Foodie habit with behind the scenes stuff is like my perfect storm (probably a bad analogy for a cruise ship because of the documentary I just watched about rouge waves) but anyway…

 

We went down for the tour. They were taking us in small groups of 10-12, each one going with one of the Freedom’s executive chefs. Ours was Barry Wilkinson who is the Executive Sous Chef. He was from the UK, so I cant help but picture him in full Gordon Ramsey mode in the middle of dinner rush! :-)

 

Some quick photos of them before the main tour action begins:

 

 

Chef Barry

 

 

 

One of the other chefs. I don’t recall his name, but he and Barry signed our cookbooks:

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

 

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[CanadaRob]

Fletch, how did the announcement for the behind the scenes come up? Was it initially in the compass?

I would go for 30 or 40 too!

You asked about Quantum? It was like nothing else I loved dynamic dining and the ship was different than anything else RCL has. I would do Quantim class again after some of my bucket list cruises (Panama canal, Australia reposition, Mediterranean )

[fletch1027]

Fletch, how did the announcement for the behind the scenes come up? Was it initially in the compass?

I would go for 30 or 40 too!

You asked about Quantum? It was like nothing else I loved dynamic dining and the ship was different than anything else RCL has. I would do Quantim class again after some of my bucket list cruises (Panama canal, Australia reposition, Mediterranean )

 

Hey Rob,

 

It was announced the night before at dinner in the MDR. I can't remember if the announcement came over the PA system or if the wait staff told everyone at the tables, but it wasn't advertised in the compass. I'm not sure if it was a spur of the moment unplanned thing or why it wasn't more heavily advertised?

[fletch1027]

 

On to the Galley Tour!

 

The Galley tour begins at one of the MDR entry points to the kitchen, and time wise, they were cleaning up from lunch and starting dinner preparations.

 

I worked as a cook in a restaurant many years ago. At first glance, a lot of it looks familiar, but the sheer size and sea of stainless steel put me in awe right away at the magnitude of this operation!

 

First view into the galley

 

 

 

Looking to the left after entering

 

 

 

The tour was designed to make a broad loop of the MDR galley area, and our first stop was the soup prep area. I know one of the soups they were prepping for was French Onion and if memory serves, one of the others was potato I believe. These next two photos show the soup cookers. Each of the blue panels controls the pot on either side of it. When I use the term “pot” it is relative. To see them, they reminded me of the whirlpool tubs that pro sport teams have in the locker rooms for the players to rehab in after games. :-) Each pot had lids and a stirring device that I’m pretty sure could be used as a lifeboat oar if needed!

 

 

 

A more zoomed in shot of the soup “pots”

 

 

 

This action shot (aka blurry) photo is what reminded me of what the other soup may have been… :-)

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

 

 

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[fletch1027]

 

Well, the last post got us through the soup prep, but since we all know that soup isn’t a meal, we will move on to the rest of the galley!

 

 

Chef Barry leading his awesome tour group:

 

 

 

The dreaded dish room – and you think you have a lot to clean up after Thanksgiving dinner!

 

 

 

Storage bins full of ingredients – they have much more sugar than I keep at home!

 

 

 

French Onion soup or pasta rigatoni for 100 anyone? It is impressive to see not only the scale of these kinds of recipes, but also the detail involved with each serving (even gluten free option)!

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

 

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[CanadaRob]

How long was the kitchen tour?