Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[harryfat1]

Introducing the contestants and explaining the rules

 

 

 

 

With exception of one person too busy working on her tan to care, all eyes around the pool area are focused on this contest

 

 

The contestants coming out strutting their stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This dude turned around and looked right back at us with a gesture (me taking pictures and my son videotaping) so I am giving him extra love with an extra picture of his buns

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Here is the first guy up:

 

 

 

 

Check out his eyes and intensity. Looks like he was going to tackle someone

 

 

 

 

 

 

Houston, we have liftoff

 

 

 

 

Splash

 

 

 

 

[JamesEM]

So do you change your hours while on the cruise? Do you hang out at the dance club at 2 AM on the ship?

 

No, I stay up late, checking out the dance club, casino, and the Diamond Lounge, but no sleeping till noon, and only a short nap after dinner.

[goldgirl2]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. We will be on the 8 night in 6 weeks and the 6 night in February '18. It will be our first time on this particular ship. I love the pictures. Tell your wife she is an excellent photographer. She has a great eye for photography. Thank you for taking the time to write this report. I look forward to reading it every night.

Edited January 6, 2017 by goldgirl2

[harryfat1]

No, I stay up late, checking out the dance club, casino, and the Diamond Lounge, but no sleeping till noon, and only a short nap after dinner.

 

Wow, impressive to have that kind of schedule. I bet you can take pictures of places and scenery I will never get to see.

 

You should write a trip report after your next cruise.

[harryfat1]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. We will be on the 8 night in 6 weeks and the 6 night in February '18. It will be our first time on this particular ship. I love the pictures. Tell your wife she is an excellent photographer. She has a great eye for photography. Thank you for taking the time to write this report. I look forward to reading it every night.

 

Thanks for the compliment. But I took some of the pictures also…

 

You will have plenty of time to research for your upcoming cruises. Have fun.

[harryfat1]

Here’s the second dude that thinks he is Michael Phelps in his swimming impersonation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very high lift off the ground

 

 

 

 

Looks like dude is hang gliding/flying

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

This is what the crowd scoring looks like with people raising their scores on their fingers and the CD with his helper tallies up the score:

 

 

 

 

Next dude up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Camelia-]

Thanks for the compliment.

 

Our first experience with the RP cabins was back on the Mariner years ago sailing out of LA. The kids were smaller back then and I thought it would be easier for them to watch the aorade from the balcony than over some big guy’s shoulders.

 

During our sailing, we saw several families with kids looking out from their RP cabins during the 70’s street party. Good place to be for little ones. They can be in their PJs and go to sleep right after the dance (or during). Depending on where the cabin is, you might hear/feel the bass from the music when they are cranking the music up during the Y-M-C-A party but the party doesn’t last very long or late.

 

They look exactly the way I imagined that they would..cosy and very convenient for watching the action below! I have no fear of the noise at all..in fact I would feel quite at home being raised in the city!! Thanks again and can't wait to see more food pictures!!

 

Camelia

[MiniChunks]

Did you happen to notice where the reserved deck seating for suite guests was? I'm sailing in my first suite on FR in April, and am hoping that its not still above the sky bar.

[jewel825]

Harry, I am truly enjoying your review. I feel like we are living parallel lives a little bit! I also travel with my husband, my parents and two teenage kids (mine are girls though). We did the Allure 4 years ago and loved that cruise! Then we did the Freedom 2 years after that. We are now scheduled for the Harmony in April. We also get a connecting room for the kids now that they are older. I can't imagine all 4 of us in one stateroom now! Then my parents have the room on the other side of them.

 

We also stay at the Gallery One hotel every time we cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. Your experiences were very similar to ours in a lot of ways. It's so fun reading your review and mentally comparing it to our last cruise.

 

Did your boys ever attend any of the teen club activities? Or did they do adventure ocean when they were younger? My kids both loved AO when they were younger and really had a great time in the teen club on our last Freedom cruise.

 

Thanks for taking the time writing such a detailed review with all those gorgeous pictures.

[Namelocg]

Hi Harry,

Your trip report is wonderful, the pictures are awesome and your commentary is hysterical. It's been a while since i've sailed on any Royal ship but I am doing the 14 night Transatlantic on the Freedom on April 23rd so the timing of your report is perfect. I did the TA on Liberty of the Seas in 2014 and from your pictures it looks like the Freedom is almost identical. Can't wait to read more.

 

Gale

[grand isle joe]

.........please no more of those Rubenesk men.......:eek:.......looking at the contestants you see why the ice cream machine was "looted"......;)

[fletch1027]

Hi, Fletch,

 

Good to talk to you again. Glad you made it to my trip report. I also have an eye out for your Freedom report as I know you are on Day 5 already.

 

CC has a special thread on how to deal with various photo uploads, not sure if you are aware of it:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1714741&page=51

 

 

Yeah, this upload picture stuff on CC is a pain. I used to have Photobucket (technically my account is still active) and they have more storage space than Flickr and you can easily use their URL link without trimming it like Flickr.

 

But I know Photobucket has a bandwidth limit per month such that if too many people reads your trip report, Photobucket will stop the view unless you pay them extra for the “pro” version. Don’t think so. As much as I love my fellow CC cruisers here, I am not willing to pay extra for photo upload and bandwidth limits. Flickr has no such issues.

 

However, I think I have a different “cut off” on the URL from Flickr than other people. I cut off all the words BEFORE and AFTER the {IMG} link when I post my pictures.

 

For example, if you move your mouse over any of my pictures, the mouse doesn’t change shape. But on other photos, the shape changes to a finger and people can actually click on the picture and see all the other photos in that album and can download any pictures for their own personal library.

 

It’s everyone’s personal preference on how much privacy they want but for me, as much as I love sharing my vacation pics with the world, I rather they don’t have direct access to my photos via just a quick link. But in theory I have nothing special there as I only use Flickr for the CC pics. I use different service provider for my master photo uploads.

 

 

Harry, I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Linux operating system, but I got so sick and tired of manually removing all of the URL tags from before and after the IMG tags while doing my trip report posts that I wrote a script this morning that will do it for me. If you are interested, I posted details about what I did over on the CC Photo & Camera Discussions board:

 

Trimming Flickr URL BBCode

 

- The other Harry

[goldgirl2]

Thanks for the compliment. But I took some of the pictures also…

 

 

 

You will have plenty of time to research for your upcoming cruises. Have fun.

 

 

My bad! You are both fantastic photographers!

[shazza_h]

Hi Harry. Loving your review! I am enjoying it a lot, along with your legendary Allure review. We are planning a big trip from New Zealand in the next few years and hoping to go on Allure or Oasis along with a Disney cruise. I had a wee chuckle at your comment regarding the Disney forum's and midnight bookers. Those guys are a whole another level of planning!

I totally admire their OCD-ness :)

[marci22]

Thanks for the compliment – I think (hope). Typically when people get a bad haircut or an ugly sweater for Christmas, the feedback is, “Oh, it’ not too bad. It’s unique and different and the orange sweater looks very nice…”

 

 

Yes, it's a compliment. I read a lot and you are a good writer. Enjoying the review.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[harryfat1]

Hi, everyone,

 

Before we start with the typical nightly post replies, I just want to say it was sad and scary to hear about today’s shooting at the FLL airport where at least 5 people are dead and 8 injured per the latest news.

 

I will be the first to admit when I typically hear about shootings, I am only half way interested as it just seem so far away from where I live. I know, it’s bad of me. But since we were just there in FLL less than 2 weeks ago, at the adjacent terminal to today’s tragedy, the news hits home a little closer this time in thinking that crazy dude could have picked our day/flight to start his shooting. Scary thought on how random these violent acts can just pick you or anyone else.

 

Thoughts are with all the folks impacted by this event. What silly and dumb things we say and do with these trip reports are just fun and games within this thread but real world is a sobering place…

[harryfat1]

Did you happen to notice where the reserved deck seating for suite guests was? I'm sailing in my first suite on FR in April, and am hoping that its not still above the sky bar.

 

Sorry, we were not at that section of the area so can’t comment. You can ask a question at the RCI board. I’m sure others will know.

[harryfat1]

Harry, I am truly enjoying your review. I feel like we are living parallel lives a little bit! I also travel with my husband, my parents and two teenage kids (mine are girls though). We did the Allure 4 years ago and loved that cruise! Then we did the Freedom 2 years after that. We are now scheduled for the Harmony in April. We also get a connecting room for the kids now that they are older. I can't imagine all 4 of us in one stateroom now! Then my parents have the room on the other side of them.

 

We also stay at the Gallery One hotel every time we cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. Your experiences were very similar to ours in a lot of ways. It's so fun reading your review and mentally comparing it to our last cruise.

 

Did your boys ever attend any of the teen club activities? Or did they do adventure ocean when they were younger? My kids both loved AO when they were younger and really had a great time in the teen club on our last Freedom cruise.

 

Thanks for taking the time writing such a detailed review with all those gorgeous pictures.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

Yes, it looks like we are about 2 years after you guys on the various cruises. I’m too cheap to be ahead of the curve so I wait until the ship is older and less price premium before I book. So at this rate, expect me to be on the Harmony in 2018 or 2019, after Oasis 4 is out. Then Harmony won’t be as expensive and that’s when the cheapo dads/mom shows up.

 

My boys stopped attending the kids club after 2012. After that, they just hung out with us. When they were younger, we couldn’t pry them away from the camp but nowadays, they are happy to just spend family time together.

 

Also noticed you have sailed on the Jubilee and the Splendor. We have a lot in common...

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry,

Your trip report is wonderful, the pictures are awesome and your commentary is hysterical. It's been a while since i've sailed on any Royal ship but I am doing the 14 night Transatlantic on the Freedom on April 23rd so the timing of your report is perfect. I did the TA on Liberty of the Seas in 2014 and from your pictures it looks like the Freedom is almost identical. Can't wait to read more.

 

Gale

 

Hi, Gale,

 

Happy to hear you like my warped sense of humor. Think you and 5 other people on CC feel the same way.

 

Yes, somehow I happen to pick ships that will go to Europe the following summer. First it was the Allure and now Freedom and my European friends are following this trip as well.

 

Liberty and Freedom are the same class of ship (Freedom class) so they are the same size. I believe Liberty has the water slide and few other enhancements from her recent refurbishment but that’s after our time so from your perspective, it’s going to be very familiar ship.

 

I see you are going on the Glory. We were on her few years back. I love Guy’s burger on the Glory. Better than JR in my opinion.

 

Have a great cruise.

[harryfat1]

Harry, I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Linux operating system, but I got so sick and tired of manually removing all of the URL tags from before and after the IMG tags while doing my trip report posts that I wrote a script this morning that will do it for me. If you are interested, I posted details about what I did over on the CC Photo & Camera Discussions board:

 

Trimming Flickr URL BBCode

 

- The other Harry

 

Hi, Harry,

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I’m not very tech savvy but I will take a look when I get a chance.

 

Yeah, it’s a pain to manually edit out the strings of useless characters. Especially when you load as many pictures as I do, it’s mind numbing work. Think counting beans is more fun than working with Flickr…

[harryfat1]

My bad! You are both fantastic photographers!

 

Just kidding.

 

Just trying to give you a hard time. I take no credits in the quality of the pictures. The work is all done by the cameras and the phones. How well this cell phone take low light pictures is just amazing.

 

It’s like a person taking credit for microwaving a dinner and arranging the food on the plate…

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry. Loving your review! I am enjoying it a lot, along with your legendary Allure review. We are planning a big trip from New Zealand in the next few years and hoping to go on Allure or Oasis along with a Disney cruise. I had a wee chuckle at your comment regarding the Disney forum's and midnight bookers. Those guys are a whole another level of planning!

I totally admire their OCD-ness :)

 

Haha, thanks for the very nice comments. Didn’t think my previous trip report was legendary. It was just special in that it was first Oasis class ship and we were all very happy to be on it and I was just happy to be able to share the fun with everyone.

 

I think part of my aggressive spreadsheet mentality came from the Disney boards. I will never show my Disneyworld schedule here on CC as people will scoff at how anal I am in planning my Disney trips compared to my cruises. The Allure spreadsheet is way tame...

[Namelocg]

Hi Harry,

What a day it's been. I actually live just west of Ft Lauderdale so I don't fly to cruises much or anywhere else for that matter. But today my son had a flight to Las Vegas for a convention. I dropped him off at 10:15 for a noon flight. The airport was already crazy with everyone trying to leave after their winter vacations. I decided to do some errands on the way home so when I got home at 1:30 and turned the TV on I nearly had a heart attack. His flight actually departed at 12:26, only 24 minutes before the shooting. My prayers go out to all those injured and to the families of those that were killed.

 

I was on the Glory in early December and will sail on her again 3 weeks from today. With as many Carnival cruises as i've been on I have only had 1 Guy's burger. I really didn't like it that much but if you say the burgers on the Glory are good I might have to try another one. I've never had one from Johnny Rockets. What I do like is the Mongolian Wok but there isn't one on the Glory. I guess i'll just have to stick to my BLT's from room service. Those are great.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your trip report. Hopefully you will be finished by April.

 

Gale