Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

If you look back at the scanned pages of the daily compass for day 2, you will see that this show started around 6:45. Then you look down list to see that the chance to meet the captain for photo opts is from 7:10 to 7:40. Given the show itself didn’t end until 7:40 and by time you walk to the RP, there is ZERO CHANCE of you to meet the captain if you have late dining and wants to attend the show. They are forcing you to pick either seeing the show or meet the captain.

 

What dummy came up with this scheduling? They could have easily pushed the pre dinner show up 20+ minutes earlier to have it end by 7:15 such that there’s time for people to get out and still be in line to meet the captain.

 

Now I know the veteran CC who has cruised a gazillion times will scoff at meeting the captain as they have been there and done that. Fine. Don’t go. But for the rest of us newbie’s and newbie’s + 1 crowd, we like to participate in this activity which only happens once per cruise. All they need to do is move things around a bit as to avoid the conflict.

 

Here was the picture of us with the Allure’s Captain Tore from 2 years ago to show that I am not just blowing smoke as this event is important to us. And unlike James and his free pirate pictures, I actually had to pay for this.

 

 

 

 

At any rate, by time we made it to the RP after the show, it was 7:47 and the captain was already doing his spiel and introducing his senior staff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After that, then it’s off to the MDR. Here is pic of MDR with people all dressed up:

 

 

 

 

Here’s one with special effects

 

 

 

 

One of the two bottles of wine we got from FLL

 

 

 

 

Here’s what we had for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nightly shrimp cocktail for the younger one. Not into food adventure. Same order nightly. If you like it also, order it whether it’s on the menu or not. They will have it for you.

 

 

[harryfat1]

I had the escargot. I only get this on cruises so I always associate escargot with MDR/Cruises. Yum. Snails.

 

 

 

 

My wife plugged one from her plate to photo bomb my picture to show what one looks like in case people can’t see what is underneath all the topping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

My mother in law didn’t like what was on the desert menu so she opted to pass. But the waiter said that is not allowed. He said she must have something so he brought her a fruit plate which she liked.

 

So that’s another thing to order off the menu for people that doesn’t want anything heavy late at night.

 

 

 

 

The younger one got the lemon thing

 

 

 

 

Also ice cream as backup in case he didn’t like the pie. So order a backup of whatever in case you want to try something new but not sure if you might like it or not.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Our family is a big fan of the soufflé. Another one of the cruises only dessert we get.

 

 

Here are the pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Say “when”

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After the dinner, we dropped by the various photo stations to do the obligatory photo opts. Or as I call it, visiting the crazy aunt in the basement. Did I ever explain this analogy that I adopted in my previous review? Don’t remember anymore. If not, let me know and I will explain it. If not, I’ll assume people know what I’m talking about when I say visit crazy aunt in basement.

 

Here are the boys working with the ship’s photographer on how to pose.

 

 

 

We love the walkway on the Freedom and can’t seem to get enough pictures from it

 

 

 

 

I like these stacked view of different decks. Every level you have people going about their business on top of someone else

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

We had few photos taken with my wife’s friend’s family at the RP and then we took few more before quitting.

 

 

Good area to have a photo of a big group taken from above

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opposite view

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s time to call it a day as we have to be up early on day 3 to catch the first tender to get off the ship for Grand Caymans.

 

 

Made our way back to the cabins to see our first set of towel animals

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was starting to get windy outside and I can feel the ship’s side by side movement walking around and while sleeping in the cabin, I can hear the hangers banging against each other from the motion but not bad enough to cause motion sickness.

[SthrnCruiser]

Most nights I don't care for the dessert menu (I think I did get the souffle this past time). So I always order chocolate ice cream. It comes with a Lady Finger. Yum!

[TickledBlue]

So what's with the guy one deck up with the turquoise shirt? Looks like he's (a) carrying the top half of a child's body, (b) swinging the child so much that she/he is horizontal, or © carrying the top half of a statue. Hard to tell. I would imagine if it was something nefarious, you'd tell us.

[harryfat1]

So what's with the guy one deck up with the turquoise shirt? Looks like he's (a) carrying the top half of a child's body, (b) swinging the child so much that she/he is horizontal, or © carrying the top half of a statue. Hard to tell. I would imagine if it was something nefarious, you'd tell us.

 

Don’t know what’s happening in the back. Maybe the dude was inspired by the ice skating show earlier in the day and wants to practice on his kid (or someone else’s kid) – look Ma, no hands…

 

 

 

 

You using big words on me? Given I’m illiterate, I had to quickly look up what nefarious means before I reply and sound stupid with a wrong answer…:p

 

Speaking of illiterate, that leads us to next post.

 

Edited January 8, 2017 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

Day 3 – George Town, Grand Cayman

 

I’m sure people don’t care about the Cayman Island’s tax free status but I just want to point out that due to its 0% corporate tax rate, all the US multinational corporations have dummy shell subsidiary corporations located in the Caymans as part of the LEGAL elaborate tax structure. Then they employ tens of thousands bean counters worldwide like yours truly to track the movement of funds. So part reason cheapo dad has money to go on cruise is due to Cayman Island tax system.

 

For the literate crowd, you can read about it in the John Grisham book, the Firm, where they get more into it with the corporate attorneys that set up these deals. Since I’m illiterate, I just watched the Tom Cruise movie instead. (You folks like how I almost seamlessly tie the illiterate concept from one post to another? Almost professional like – pats myself on back and being smug for 5 seconds…)

 

 

Before we get started with details, here is the daily compass for day 3.

 

 

Being anal, I always take a copy of each day's daily compass with me in the back pack at every port. In the last page, there’s always port agent info. God forbid you ever need to contact anyone on that list as that's not a good thing, but in case of emergency, good to have that info nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Now here’s a question that’s been nagging me for the longest time and maybe you smart CC folks can educate me – on page 3 of the daily compass, it says tonight dress code is “smart casual”. Exactly what does that mean?

 

No, no, I don’t mean what RCI suggest you to wear. I know people with fast computer fingers like Bob are already to give me the official link from RCI on what to wear for smart casual (Think Bob must have a top 10 list of FAQ with answers on a page somewhere so he can just copy and paste the answers within 15 seconds after someone posts a question…).

 

What I mean is why is this dress code call ”smart casual”? Is this opposite of “stupid casual”? On day 1 we have “casual” and then the opposite end on day 2 we have “formal”. So those 2 opposites I can understand. So now on day 3, we have smart casual. Just wondering if there’s an opposite to that? Dumb casual?

 

If you really think about it (I know NOBODY is thinking about it as they don’t care), does dressing up in better clothes makes you “smarter”? That can’t be true because if that’s true, then Washington DC would be the genius capital of the world with all the politicians and the workers that support them always dressed up! And we know that’s not true…

 

So the phrase “smart casual” always makes me wonder these “meaning of life” questions. Think about it next time you are on a cruise at the pool having a drink on why they call it a smart casual and what’s the opposite called? Or not..

[Trainer]

In this case, 'smart doesn't mean intelligent. It is more like 'sharp' or upscale, as opposed to just sloppy.

[CaptnG]

Harry, I saw this opportunity and thought of you! RCCL is hiring an "intern" to document their experiences on instagram with photos of the 3 totally free cruises they'll send you on.

 

http://www.cntraveler.com/story/royal-caribbean-internship

 

 

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[h20skibum]

Maybe casual is wearing jeans with holes in them.

 

And Smart Casual, is when you buy the jeans without holes in them. Sometimes we question why someone would buy jeans that look like what we had to throw away when we were growing up.

 

Good photos of your family dressed for formal night. Must be a trick to keep the boys in suits, as fast as they grow.

 

Keep up with the great review.

 

 

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[Carlos A.]

I appear in your photos 4 times now! This is so fun! Loving your report so far.

Since we have both been to Allure and Freedom, I have a question.

 

Was it just me or did I notice the TERRIBLE TV interactive service to check your account, ask for room service, book tours, or anything else? It was almost unusable. I hated the "Waiting for the next interactive session available" message that appeared all the time, that didn't happened on Allure.

 

I remember that the Allure interactive system was great in comparison to the Freedom system.

[twofastdogs]

I am waiting expectantly for the tender report at GC We have an independent excursion that leaves at 1030. Wondering how long it takes to get off?

 

We are doing this cruise on March 26!

[Carlos A.]

I am waiting expectantly for the tender report at GC We have an independent excursion that leaves at 1030. Wondering how long it takes to get off?

 

We are doing this cruise on March 26!

 

If you get to the deck #2 early (8:00 am) you might be on land before 9am with no problem. I read here that there will be tier tickets for the tender but that wasn't the case. You just have to show up and that's it! Easy and painless.

 

Not so much for the tender back to the ship. I had to wait almost 1 1/2 hour to board a tender to get back.

 

Have a great trip!

[cruisinrealtor]

It has taken me all weekend but I am finally all caught up on this awesome review. Only reason though is because we had a snow storm and I have been stuck in the house. Also your writing skills are out of this world and I can't seem to stop reading. I love the girls facial expressions during the belly flop. She was probably just scared of getting wet but she looks like she is terrified. lol

Also you bring up a very good questions... "what is smart casual?" To be honest I have always wondered that but I also never put much thought into it.

thanks for writing this review. Keep the pictures coming.

[harryfat1]

In this case, 'smart doesn't mean intelligent. It is more like 'sharp' or upscale, as opposed to just sloppy.

 

Ahh, I see, said the blind man to the deaf woman.

[1cruise2U]

Hi,

 

Thanks following along.

 

We only ate at the MDR for 5 nights. One night we ate at the WJ as we came back late from the tour so I can’t speak for offering on every night at MDR. Maybe others that were on our roll call can chime in. But I can safely say of the 5 nights we were in the MDR, there were no offerings of prime ribs/ducks or lamb chops.

 

Also worth mentioning is what you see on the big iPad screen by all the staircases where they show you the dinner menu for MDR that night, on couple nights those electronic menus still was the previous version o fthe menu.

 

For example, couple nights they would show shrimp cocktail or escargot on the electronic board but not in the paper menu. No big deal to me but my younger one only likes shrimp cocktail and we would always order it for him regardless it’s on the paper menu or not. They will always have that.

 

Guess that will be your assignment to take pictures of every electronic menu and then take pictures of the paper menu and come back to let us know if indeed they are exactly the same…:p

 

I can confirm that the last night had a lot of choices, there was an area called holiday menu that had prime rib, duck and lamb shank...we ordered escargot every night and it was available not on paper menu

[harryfat1]

Maybe casual is wearing jeans with holes in them.

 

And Smart Casual, is when you buy the jeans without holes in them. Sometimes we question why someone would buy jeans that look like what we had to throw away when we were growing up.

 

Good photos of your family dressed for formal night. Must be a trick to keep the boys in suits, as fast as they grow.

 

Keep up with the great review.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

Yes, fair amount of money spent on clothes that they never wore but outgrew by the time to wear them.

[harryfat1]

I appear in your photos 4 times now! This is so fun! Loving your report so far.

Since we have both been to Allure and Freedom, I have a question.

 

Was it just me or did I notice the TERRIBLE TV interactive service to check your account, ask for room service, book tours, or anything else? It was almost unusable. I hated the "Waiting for the next interactive session available" message that appeared all the time, that didn't happened on Allure.

 

I remember that the Allure interactive system was great in comparison to the Freedom system.

 

Don't tell me you are the guy in the turquoise shirt in post #485 flinging the kid...

 

Yeah, totally frustrating trying to check the balance from the room when you constantly get that "Waiting for next..." message. Very slow just to try to log into the account. I just start it and go do something else and come back to it later.

[harryfat1]

I am waiting expectantly for the tender report at GC We have an independent excursion that leaves at 1030. Wondering how long it takes to get off?

 

We are doing this cruise on March 26!

 

Are you worried that I won't get to day 3 by time you sail in 2 months? I'm uploading the pictures now and typing up the info and checking for errors. You can be sure someone will point out whatever error I post so I need to double check.

[harryfat1]

It has taken me all weekend but I am finally all caught up on this awesome review. Only reason though is because we had a snow storm and I have been stuck in the house. Also your writing skills are out of this world and I can't seem to stop reading. I love the girls facial expressions during the belly flop. She was probably just scared of getting wet but she looks like she is terrified. lol

Also you bring up a very good questions... "what is smart casual?" To be honest I have always wondered that but I also never put much thought into it.

thanks for writing this review. Keep the pictures coming.

 

Thanks again for the kind words. Glad you are in real time - so to speak.

 

Don't think my writing skills are out of this world by any means - think it's just I digress to weird and far flung places that has nothing to do with cruises and some people like the digress segments.

 

I'm like the Howard Stern of CC. You don't know what will come out of his mouth next and you probably think he is the biggest jerk out there but you still listen in just to know what is to come next...