Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

Harry, I love your trip reports so much that I am reading your Allure report for the second time in advance of my March 12, 2017 Allure sailing.

 

 

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Hi,

 

I just replied on your other post on the Allure report. Thanks for the compliment.

 

You are the first person I know of that wants to re-read my trip report. Your anal scale is on the max border...

 

Have a wonderful cruise. I have always said, anyone that can slog through one of my overly long trip reports needs to go on a vacation. You, my friend, is way overdue for one. Allure is a my favorite ship - I like them big and round...

[harryfat1]

[emoji26]Sad to see your great review come to an end.However I guess it's just about time to get packing for our Feb 12th Adventure on The Freedom. We leave here on the 9 th so it's coming fast.Thanks for taking the time to write this fun review.I really appreciate all your advice.Take care and happy planning for your next adventure.

 

 

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Thanks for the kind words. Hope the info I provides will be useful on your cruise next weekend. Feel free to drop by afterward and provide what info you like to share.

 

Have a great cruise.

[harryfat1]

As for disembarkation, we like to do the self assist, i.e. bag draggier routine because you can depart the ship anytime your are ready to roll. Great observations about the folks eating on the floor below, I'll add the lady at the 7 O'clock position had the stuff on her side of the table (butter dish, salt and pepper shakers, etc) lined up in front of her. Also, I would like to add I'm not a happy camper about this new format.

 

Can you wake up that early to do self assist? I thought you are a late night sleeper?

 

yeah, new format is too white of background and hard to find the "sort by ship" as I only want to read about the info on the ship I will be sailing on

[harryfat1]

Kindly explain self assist vs non self assist Harry or another kind person please.

 

 

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Self assist is when you take your own suitcase off the ship with you very early in the morning. You will be the first ones off. You do not put your suit case out the night before.

 

Too early for me and too lazy to drag our suitcases all the way down.

 

I am copying the “as you depart” again. Making it very big so you can read it on the computer. Look at the upper right hand side for RCI’s explanation.

 

 

[956wenbrook]

Merci beaucoup monsieur.

 

 

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[wilmingtech]

 

Sadness. Pictures like this shouldn't be allowed. :D

 

-Sean

[MrFunInTheSun]

Nice report and pictures.

 

 

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[CruisinCrow]

yeah, new format is too white of background and hard to find the "sort by ship" as I only want to read about the info on the ship I will be sailing on

 

I finally found the sort by ship feature. It's lost over on the right hand side under the ads. And it's so squashed together that it's barely readable, even when I view it on my super-wide screen monitor. What a mess.

 

[harryfat1]

In your picture of your waiters, the African-American man is, I believe, Donovan. If that's Donovan, he is one of our favorite waiters on RCI. He was our assistant waiter on the Mariner in 2008. When we went for our 20th anniversary cruise, he was the assistant waiter at the table next to us. We talked to him for a few minutes after dinner the first night. We ended up getting switched to his table so we could enjoy him for the rest of the cruise.

 

I don't know that many people switch tables to enjoy the assistant waiter, but we did. We, of course, also gave him great comments on the evaluations. If we find ourselves on a ship where Donovan is a server, we always try to get to one of his tables.

 

I think Donovan snuck in between our 2 waiters in the picture. Glad you know him and he can provide good service. I know that’s important as just having “our waiter” at WJ and downstairs at MDR during other times on the cruise.

[harryfat1]

Wow Harry...never thought I would see these words come out of your mouth (or your fingers??, your keyboard??). Be careful or you may lose your Cheapo crown. :D

 

Even though you are not done yet (not on the plane!), this was another fantastic review. You are one of my top favorite reviewers here. With 142K+ views for this review, it seems that others agree. Looking forward to your next cruise.

 

Haha, not sure I own the cheapo crown here on CC. Many other people are probably cheaper than me. It’s just that I am more vocal about being cheap. I’m “cheapo dad”, not the “cheapest dad”…

 

I don’t cram 4 adults into the cheapest inside cabin available like sardines and I splurged on the RCI tour to the Mayans. Think I might need to attend “Cheapo Anonymous” next meeting to have more group support to stay true to the cause (cost).

 

Thanks for the compliment. Appreciate you hanging around this entire trip report and the previous one as well.

 

One more day of trip reporting left. Fat lady on the stage singing away but she’s not done yet.

 

Guess it’s the engineer in you in tracking the viewership count. Not as if CC pays me for a higher viewership count. At least on YouTube, I can ask people to subscribe to my channel and maybe get some money out of this deal…

[harryfat1]

Sadness. Pictures like this shouldn't be allowed. :D

 

-Sean

 

Yes, it’s sad to end any cruise vacation but then if I never got off the ship, you all won’t be reading this report in the first lace, right? You know I don’t do “live” cruise reports, so you do want me to exit the ship ASAP to start on the report.

[harryfat1]

I finally found the sort by ship feature. It's lost over on the right hand side under the ads. And it's so squashed together that it's barely readable, even when I view it on my super-wide screen monitor. What a mess.

 

 

Yes, that’s what I am experiencing also. It’s so hard to find the hips you want in the jumbo blob of mess. I think it's worst on my end as I have bigger fonts to help with my aging eyesight and the words are closer together on my screen.

 

New and not so improved...

[harryfat1]

(Onward with the final day of the trip report)

 

So we just sat around and rested with other families in the lounge area . Within 10 minutes of sitting, some RCI lady came by and asked people what they were doing there as it was 9:00 AM and they had called all the luggage tags already so she wanted people OFF of the ship. Someone said they are waiting for friends and family so the lady let everyone in the area stayed.

 

 

 

Sure enough, less than 10 minutes later, another lady came by and asked why everyone are still sitting there. This lady won’t accept “we are waiting for friends” as an excuse. She wanted everyone to call their friends and family to get there within next 5 minutes as she wants everyone off the ship.

 

Dang, lady, chill out. It’s not even 9:15 AM. You guys are WAY AHEAD of the 10:30 all off schedule for tag #38 on the list. There is still a long line of people outside the promenade deck standing there to be “ding” off the ship. Why can’t we sit here and wait in AC instead of standing outside and wait? Not like we are making a mess you have to clean after we walk out.

 

The classic "hurry up and wait" situation where you are hurry to go outside and then stand in line with 150+ people ahead of you to be ding out. I rather sit and relax in AC and go out when the line is much shorter.

 

 

The previous cruise didn’t clear everyone out until 11 AM when we were downstairs waiting. At 9:15, she wants our butts off the ship. She must not like the cheapo riff raffs. I can see her kicking us off if it was 10:15 for the 10:30 tag time but at 9:15 she wants everyone off? Really?

 

All right, fine. We get the message,. All riff raff cheapo passengers must exit NOW to make space for higher paying Christmas sailing folks. Not the “later now” but the “now now”.

[dani negreanu]

sadness. Pictures like this shouldn't be allowed. :d

 

-sean

 

like :):):)

[harryfat1]

So we went outside and stood in line to be ding out and walked out the ramp. Make sure you don’t trip on the gangway ramp on the way off the ship as RCI’s liability insurance won’t cover you if you are hurt while on the FLL terminal side. Big difference in feeling and happiness level from just 7 days ago when we were boarding the ship versus getting off.

 

 

So went downstairs and got our luggage from tag area 38. Seems like a lot more customs people working that day versus on the Allure terminal 18 from 2 years ago. The lines went fast and we made it out by 9:45. Found the taxi/shuttle stand. As mentioned previously, we don’t like to break up the family into 2 taxis so we opted for the shuttle instead. Costs a tad more but it is what it is.

 

No wait to speak of to get the shuttle. Just walked up and was directed to an empty waiting shuttle. They took another couple and a baby that were sitting near us at the lounge earlier as they were also kicked out the same time by the non-so friendly lady.

 

 

 

 

 

People sitting around waiting for someone to pick them up. None look too happy

 

 

 

 

 

(To BobMac – another reason for not having a pre-set pick up van is we don’t have to sit and wait. On the Allure, the other driver couldn’t find us and I had problem finding him. The picture below is from previous cruise picture from the Allure as I was trying to talk to the driver of the van to tell him where we were. Easier if you just get the van at the dockside and go instead of of waiting. Of course, you have to pay few dollars more per head and go to cheapo anonymous afterward)

 

 

 

 

 

Typical busy scene at the terminal

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So off to the airport. Got there after 10 AM.

 

 

 

 

Our flight isn’t until 6 PM and the check in time can’t be more than 3+ hours prior to the flight so are we stuck at the airport all day long? Nope. FLL airport has a storage area that you can store your luggage there for $7 per bag. I read about these guys online many months ago so I knew this would be the final backup option as we go full circle on what we were going to do. That’s the thing about being anal - you read about enough options during your research such that if you will have backups if needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here is the storage area. You have to go downstairs to the bottom level if you are on terminal 1, which was where we were. I believe they are on every terminal so if you plan to use these guys, check ahead of time where your terminal is and find out where they are located in your terminal.

 

 

 

 

Note that $7 per bag is CASH ONLY. Make sure you have enough cash left post cruise if you want to do this. As we still had our sleep clothes from the ship from last night along with various toiletries items in our backpack walking off the ship, we wanted to open up the suit case at the airport to drop all that stuff into the luggage and put those in.

 

Another tip is that if you are cruising in the cold winter months and you are going back home to a colder climate, put your jacket on the very top of the suitcase such that it’ll be easier to grab when you get to your final destination if you don’t feel like wearing anything heavy in the 80+ degrees of FLL heat.

 

 

 

 

The dude at the luggage area storage wasn’t the friendliest type. He also wanted a hard copy of our flight plan and a photo ID for him to make a photo copy for his records. I guess if you are the non-paper carrying type for your itinerary, he will need to make a photo copy of your phone display instead.

 

Also note they open every suitcase and make you take out your clothes to inspect the content as if you are going through customs in coming back from another country. So if you have some embarrassing contents in your suitcase, packing according in the zipper area or don’t leave it there until you pick up your suitcase later on.

[harryfat1]

OK, dropped off the luggage at the airport. Now what? How about A FREE trolley ride to downtown? Ehh? Yes, they offer a free trolley ride to downtown from FLL airport on an hourly basis on weekends. So now the question is – how do you find it? What do you think my answer is? Get the free App!

 

Yeap, just like the water taxi ride from day 0, get the app. Except their app is not as fancy as the water taxi app and the Verizon 4G connection outside of terminal 1 was HORRIBLE. It wasn’t even 4G. It was more like 1G. Remember I showed at SFO airport that I was get 98+ Mbps on Verizon? Well, at FLL, it was down to 0.21 Mbps. WTH? Trying to get that app to run in that snail pace is impossible.

 

Neither my phone nor my wife’s phone was able to get any decent signal outside of terminal 1 area where we are supposed to wait for the trolley to show up. We were ready to give up and walked over to a taxi stand to get a large 6 people taxi to take us there instead but then since it was Saturday morning and all the cruisers are going to port, they had no large taxi vans available. The lady said at minimum 20+ minute wait as there’s another family ahead of us with their suitcase from getting off the plane and wanting to catch their cruise.

 

Well, that’s just great. So forget the taxi idea. Walked back to the trolley waiting area and I tried to call the trolley people to see if they can tell me when the trolley was going to arrive and I was on hold before finally seeing the red and gold trolley coming our way. Halleluiah!

 

So we all piled onto the trolley as it went to other terminals to pick up the passengers over there before taking us to downtown. Like I said before, this is a free trolley ride. It’s sponsored by someone to get people out of the FLL airport to g downtown and spend some money there instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we are out of the crappy airport connection area, here’s what the app would have shown you if you had good connection. Real time GPS on where the trolley would be.

 

 

[harryfat1]

So we are dropped off at the downtown area and the driver said she comes by every hour to pick people up. Now with a better 4G connection, I can track the whereabouts of trolley, I felt much better as that’s our ride back to the airport – don’t want to be late for the plane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[windjamming]

Haha, not sure I own the cheapo crown here on CC. Many other people are probably cheaper than me. It’s just that I am more vocal about being cheap. I’m “cheapo dad”, not the “cheapest dad”…

 

I don’t cram 4 adults into the cheapest inside cabin available like sardines and I splurged on the RCI tour to the Mayans. Think I might need to attend “Cheapo Anonymous” next meeting to have more group support to stay true to the cause (cost).

 

With all due respect, I never got the impression you owned the cheapo crown. You're more like the ROI king, though admittedly, "ROI dad's trip report" doesn't have the same ring.

 

This has been one of the very few reviews I've followed in "real-time", and you've done a magnificent job bringing us along with the full experience. When you posted the pictures of the officers on stage at the farewell show, I could imagine that "till we see you again" song and felt a twinge of sadness that the cruise (report) was ending soon. (Seriously. I wasn't even on this cruise but felt sad that a family from California was finishing their vacation. 2 months ago.)

 

Wherever and whenever your next cruise may be, I hope you let us know on this thread when the next sequel is out!

 

Thanks again.

[harryfat1]

With all due respect, I never got the impression you owned the cheapo crown. You're more like the ROI king, though admittedly, "ROI dad's trip report" doesn't have the same ring.

 

This has been one of the very few reviews I've followed in "real-time", and you've done a magnificent job bringing us along with the full experience. When you posted the pictures of the officers on stage at the farewell show, I could imagine that "till we see you again" song and felt a twinge of sadness that the cruise (report) was ending soon. (Seriously. I wasn't even on this cruise but felt sad that a family from California was finishing their vacation. 2 months ago.)

 

Wherever and whenever your next cruise may be, I hope you let us know on this thread when the next sequel is out!

 

Thanks again.

 

Thanks for the high praise.

 

Glad I am able to share our vacation with everyone here. When you share your cruise vacation with family and friends who are not into cruises, you can tell they are only half way paying attention out of politeness. When you share the info with CC folks, everyone is much more interested in what you have to say so it’s a different experience.

 

We are scheduled to cruise again in December this year – sailing either December 16 or 17, depending on which cruise we end up choosing. That would mean I should be back home around Christmas and the next trip report, hopefully there will be one, should be sometime between Christmas and New Year. But my joke writing team (of one) will need to think of new jokes between now and then…

[harryfat1]

OK, let’s walk around town again. It’s basically the same downtown FLL area we were walking around prior to the cruise when we were riding the water taxi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So as we are walking around the area, guess who came out to greet us?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was on the front sampler page. I believe this was the last one from the sampler page I haven’t shown yet as part of the storyline.

 

 

 

 

Everyone is excited to see the local resident

 

 

[harryfat1]

After walking around and taking few pictures of the water area and more drawbridges, then it’s time to grab some lunch. I know from looking at the map of the area previously that there’s a Cheese Cake Factory in the area. So that’s where we’re headed for lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Free water ride to go across the river in the limited downtown area. Go to their web site to check out where they can go