Cheapo dad's trip report on Freedom of the Seas

[Agavegirl1]

Harry, please thank your wife for the well composed photos. I am really enjoying your review. I know you are in CA and the time stamp for me will be eastern and I am on central. However, I am here and awake.

 

We do our family Christmas on the first Sunday after New Year's day which is this weekend. Tax season 2017 is on and I worked nine hours, then wrapped three or four dozen gifts, then checked out CC. I'm afraid some of my posts may show up late at night as well.

 

BTW, my daughter just moved out of the bay area, can't afford the rent. Actually quit her job when she got married. He got a job in Ojai and she went to freelance work.

 

Love the way you write and the detailed tips are very helpful for my March sailing. Keep going. I'll be following albeit later at night.

[harryfat1]

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

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Hi,

 

I know you meant it as a compliment. Just a little late night sarcasm on my end. Thanks for confirming it.

 

Although I appreciate your comments given that English is not my first language and I struggled forever with my grammatical structure as Chinese has different usages of pronouns and tenses. I still have run-on and fragment sentences but MS Word has helped clean that up a bit so at least I sound semi coherent in my report.

[harryfat1]

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

 

Hi, Gale,

 

Thank goodness your son departed before all hell broke loose.

 

I like soft mushy burgers but maybe you don’t. So perhaps you can try something else on the Glory.

 

If I’m still writing this by April, you have permission to hit me to knock some sense into me. I don’t that that many pictures left but given what’s happened tonight and watching TV, hard to get into the cruise mood but I will at least try few picture uploads as I know people are looking forward to it.

[harryfat1]

Harry, please thank your wife for the well composed photos. I am really enjoying your review. I know you are in CA and the time stamp for me will be eastern and I am on central. However, I am here and awake.

 

We do our family Christmas on the first Sunday after New Year's day which is this weekend. Tax season 2017 is on and I worked nine hours, then wrapped three or four dozen gifts, then checked out CC. I'm afraid some of my posts may show up late at night as well.

 

BTW, my daughter just moved out of the bay area, can't afford the rent. Actually quit her job when she got married. He got a job in Ojai and she went to freelance work.

 

Love the way you write and the detailed tips are very helpful for my March sailing. Keep going. I'll be following albeit later at night.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

I do uploads at night as I have work during the day myself and you know as a parent, when you come home, you have real life issues to deal with daily so the only time I have to upload pictures are either night time or weekends.

 

I’ll try to make some headway into the report this weekend as it’s supposed to be raining buckets this weekend so it’s good time to be indoors talking cruises.

[harryfat1]

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

 

Haha, a critic on male physiques, eh? But maybe other people reading this report likes them big and round…

 

Well, I can’t edit or control who shows up on these belly flopping contests. I forgot to mention that the rules are they only accepted 2 people in each weight category. I wasn’t really paying attention, but I think they wanted 2 people from 150 to 200 range. 2 from 200 to 250. Then 2 from 250+. Or something like that. They don’t want Pee Wee Herman’s of the world to jump. Idea is to get big old belly to splash as much water as possible.

 

With that being said, perfect lead in for more pics – we now are up to contestant number 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Landing feet first, not good

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

For #5, I was trying to do present a different perspective by using more of the audience but as I was trying to find the right zoom, he started his jump too early. So this is all you get:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So seeing I was zooming out too far in the previous jumper and screwed up, you KNOW where I am going with the next person, right?

 

 

I’m sure there are some of you that are wondering what would one of these big boys look like close up? Well, wonder no more. You are very welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Here is the dude jumping:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s a lot of water splashing. Check out the background of the RCI worker peeling away

 

 

[harryfat1]

So that’s the end of the first round of flopping. They took a little break by bringing out the hurt box. While waiting, I took few shots of the audience using the miniature feature on the camera. I like the feel and looks of the miniature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

Hi,

I’ll try to make some headway into the report this weekend as it’s supposed to be raining buckets this weekend so it’s good time to be indoors talking cruises.

 

We sailed on Jubilee. Once. There was a hurricane (Nora) in the Mexican Riviera where we were supposed to go. We sailed from LA back to San Francisco and then back to LA so we could fly home to San Francisco.

 

We are going to stay home this weekend and watch the Pacifica apartment building <possibly> fall in to the ocean. Sorry to interrupt the belly flop contest.

 

http://kron4.com/2016/12/15/video-pacifica-set-to-demolish-vacant-apartment-building-at-edge-of-crumbling-cliff/

Edited January 7, 2017 by Coralc

[harryfat1]

We sailed on Jubilee. Once. There was a hurricane (Nora) in the Mexican Riviera where we were supposed to go. We sailed from LA back to San Francisco and then back to LA so we could fly home to San Francisco.

 

We are going to stay home this weekend and watch the Pacifica apartment building <possibly> fall in to the ocean. Sorry to interrupt the belly flop contest.

 

http://kron4.com/2016/12/15/video-pacifica-set-to-demolish-vacant-apartment-building-at-edge-of-crumbling-cliff/

 

Hi, Patti,

 

The Pacifica region makes me nervous everytime there's a big rain storm. That place is just a disaster waiting to happen.

[harryfat1]

As this is the second time around, I will just upload few highlight pics in the interest of moving things along:

 

 

 

 

It’s Superman or Super belly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the water splash and the worker’s opened mouth

 

 

[harryfat1]

This is not swimming where you go in head first

 

 

 

 

The CD wanted to hear a big thump sound coming from the water hitting the belly

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whole lot of water splashing on this one

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Flying high – this guy is the eventual winner. Most water splashing as he had good form and since he jumped so high, he displaced the most water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As they tally the numbers to announce the winner, there is the group dive

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not exactly synchronized diving here

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As you can tell, our family really enjoyed this event. Lots of fun watching and then voting for a winner and taking pictures with the zoom to focus in. Make sure to check your daily cruise compass to see when your cruise will have this event.

 

 

As it’s midnight here and the whole house is asleep except dummy me trying to upload one last set of pictures setting here in the cold. So I’m done also.

 

 

Until tomorrow in the same bat channel…

[dizneydawn]

Harry, thanks so much for your AWESOME review! We sail on the Freedom in 4 weeks [emoji41]!!

 

 

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[Glitch1928]

Harry,

 

I would not have guessed English was a second language from your writing. You use slang and colloquial phrases like a pro!

 

I received a new Canon Powershot SX530 for Christmas. Much to my delight, it has the miniature effect! I can't wait to try it out in one week on the Freedom!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[cruisinrealtor]

Hi Harry I'm so happy to be reading your review even though I'm only on page 8. Your reviews are the best on here. Thanks for being so detailed. I loved your review of the Allure and will need to read it again since I just booked the Allure last night for 2018.

[harryfat1]

Harry,

 

I would not have guessed English was a second language from your writing. You use slang and colloquial phrases like a pro!

 

I received a new Canon Powershot SX530 for Christmas. Much to my delight, it has the miniature effect! I can't wait to try it out in one week on the Freedom!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Well, I’ve been in the US since grammar school so I know the culture and slang, but my basic English foundation is more mixture of the two cultures and I still have issues with tenses and pronouns occasionally.

 

That’s great. You will have lots of fun on the miniature mode. For those with just regular smart cameras, just download the many free apps out there and play with it.

 

From my experience, it works best when you are on the high ground and taking pictures of small repetitive objects. Here is couple of my favorites from the previous cruise:

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry I'm so happy to be reading your review even though I'm only on page 8. Your reviews are the best on here. Thanks for being so detailed. I loved your review of the Allure and will need to read it again since I just booked the Allure last night for 2018.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

No hurry on what page you are on. This is like reading a book, matters not when you start as long as you are not looking for immediate info for your upcoming cruise.

 

How exciting to be on the Allure for the 20th anniversary. Have fun on your cruise planning.

Edited January 7, 2017 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

As it’s around 1 PM that must mean it’s time to eat gain. It’s like the GEICO commercial – it’s what you do on a cruise. So off to the WJ.

 

The first plate is mine. I like the shrimp chips. Can’t get those at home as they are fried and we tried to cut back on all fried food – except on vacation, we are less restrictive for few days.

 

 

 

 

Don’t remember whose plate this is. Maybe my older one's plate.

 

 

 

 

This one is easy. No veggies. Bread and pasta only. Only 1 person on the family eats like this…

 

 

 

 

Another mystery one. Probably my wife’s.

 

 

 

 

The soup and salad is mine as well. For the most part, I don’t comment on what I think of the food as it’s very subjective. You eat whatever you eat.

 

However, I realize on the Freedom, they salt the heck out of many of the soups. Either RCI has major ownership in a salt mine company or the cook in the back has a measurement issue. Some of the soups are very high on the sodium count. Keep that in mind if you are on low sodium diet.

 

 

 

 

My dessert

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

In my previous trip report, I called shopping on cruise ships is same as having an uncle that is in prison. We all know he exist but we don’t talk about him as if he was never part of the family since he is in prison. I feel that way about shopping on the cruise. It’s a huge part of the cruise experience for many and you see tons of people in line daily buying stuff but it’s seldom reported on the by others on CC.

 

In theory there are many family members that are seldom mentioned in trip reports – such as art auctions/casinos/spa treatments. Sure, scoff at them all you want. But SOMEBDOY is using them on every cruise, but they seldom show up on trip reports. So there are many members of the tainted family tree that we know they exists but don’t want to acknowledge them.

 

So while My wife and the in laws went to visit “Uncle Bob in prison” (aka shopping at RP) I got my afternoon coffee and just chilled out at one of the chairs. Not too crowded that time of the day as many people are on top deck worshiping the sun.

 

More RCI ad trying to sell you packages

 

 

 

 

Grabbed a next cruise flyer to read while drinking my coffee

 

 

 

 

As I have space here, time to drop in few odds and end pics that I forgot to attach previously (or maybe I have already). Whatever. Like I said on post 1, not a professional reviewer. You get what you paid for…

 

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2017 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

On our sailing, the ice show was performed 4 times. Twice on 2 days. We went to the afternoon showing on day 2 as we had nothing else planned that afternoon. And here you think I am so anal I had every minute of the cruise planned. Ha. Nope.

 

So here is the major spoiler alert disclaimer off the top. I will be showing many pictures from the show itself. In some ways it could spoil the show for you if you plan to sail on the Freedom soon. Thus if you don’t want to ruin your cruise experience by seeing the pictures ahead of time, just scroll way down past the pictures.

 

The second show started at 3:30.

 

As always, you have bad people trying to reserve seats for their family and friends. There’s one lady (see her in the first picture with all the empty chairs she is reserving) that blocked off a prime mid section block of seats just for her family. Many people came to try and sit down only to be turned away because “they are saved”. Technically there are no saving seats at the theater for the ice shows but we all know RCI will never enforce that policy.

 

I can understand a person saving a seat for the spouse as they make a rest room stop but 1 person saving for 7+ is excessive. For the record, that lady’ family saunters in at 3:28 for the 3:30 show. Yeap, zero consideration other fellow passengers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course there’s the middle section that is roped off such that you must be the privileged “gold card” people (meaning not cheapo dads) to sit there. They do open it up around 5 to 10 minutes prior to the show so you might luck out and sit there if you get there just before the show or else you will be off to the side.

 

Unlike tennis matches or football games where you want to be in the mid court/50 yard line, for ice shows, be sure to sit at the ends zone area as that’s where the performers will be coming straight at you.

 

The show is called Freedom ice.com. Don’t bother trying to find that URL. It doesn’t exist. Some anal person already looked for it online and it doesn’t exist.

 

Here’s a test to see how anal you are – if you are tempted to double check the claim or proof me wrong, add 1 to your anal scale. Add 2 to your scale if you are giddy in finding a valid link and can’t wait to post the result on CC to show you have the correct answer…

[harryfat1]

As for the show itself, it started slow and picked up its pace as time went on. The first 2 songs were songs I heard when I was young with one from the Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall”. Here’s another digression point – you know you are getting older when cruise ships play songs from your younger days.

 

Many years ago, when my wife and I cruised on HAL (one comedian called them the cruise ship for old people and their parents), they had a live band performing on formal night. The conductor told the audience they were going to play some “real music” for the folks that night – he asked “how many people remember the big band era?” There was a big roar and many people in the theater applauded. Ehhh? Big band music. Sorry, I’m not into big band music. For me, the music era starts with the Beatles. Before that time, haven't got a clue. That’s for the OLD folks.

 

So now with RCI playing Pink Floyd, I am sure my kids are thinking “What? What’s this Pink Floyd stuff? That’s my old man’s music.”

 

Now to really lose the 1% of the younger crowd reading this trip report, to show that I am truly old, I not only have heard of some of these songs, I have them in the old school black vinyl albums or even the 45 RPM mini singles that you need a little yellow adapter ring to plop down the 45 in order to play it on the needle. Such concept totally lost on the modern day Pandora crowd.

 

Some of the pictures didn’t turn out so well. Fast moving objects in dark theaters and no tripod makes for bad picture combo but we work with what we have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pink Floyd

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Rare occasion where the place is super white and you can take a solid picture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spin move