RCCL trip report! Freedom in Eastern Car Jan 26-Feb 2, 2014

[annmarieda]

Love your pictures from around the ship.

They sure give you a lot of planning information of daily events. I imagine that is helpful!

I feel that same way going into DQ!

Love the pictures of the beach/cay. It looks like you had an amazingly relaxing day.

And the zoomed in pictures of the ship are awesome!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

They do give you pretty much all the info you need to know! The trick is to read AND comprehend it in time for it to be of help.

Oh Disney Quest is the worst! I think I mentioned I had to wear my earplugs there, yes? So noisy.

If we could have gotten to the island from the ship earlier in the morning it would have been more relaxing, but yeah, it was good.

 

[ilovetexas]

Really, really enjoying your review and photos, thanks! Your son looks so pleased about his ice cream; that's cute.

I thought Coco Cay was very pretty and liked it as much as Castaway. Half Moon Cay beat them both, hands down. But that's a story for a different time and thread.

There is a plane submerged off the beach at Coco for people to snorkel around. I was unable to go out there due to a timid teen, another story for another time! Others said it was pretty interesting/fun. Anyone who likes to snorkel and wants to view it can search on Youtube for videos.

Thanks again for the review, I'm looking forward to more.

 

[annmarieda]

Oh Disney Quest is the worst! I think I mentioned I had to wear my earplugs there, yes? So noisy.

I couldn't even brave it this last time when my family went. I guess earplugs might have helped!

 

[bumbershoot]

Really, really enjoying your review and photos, thanks! Your son looks so pleased about his ice cream; that's cute.

I thought Coco Cay was very pretty and liked it as much as Castaway. Half Moon Cay beat them both, hands down. But that's a story for a different time and thread.

There is a plane submerged off the beach at Coco for people to snorkel around. I was unable to go out there due to a timid teen, another story for another time! Others said it was pretty interesting/fun. Anyone who likes to snorkel and wants to view it can search on Youtube for videos.

Thanks again for the review, I'm looking forward to more.

Thanks!

He was so happy about his ice cream. We were dealing with a really blunted set of tastebuds b/c of the January plague, and for some reason chocolate was one food we could both consistently taste.

Half Moon...that's HAL?

I couldn't even brave it this last time when my family went. I guess earplugs might have helped!

Lucky there are others in your family to go.

 

[bumbershoot]

Realized I had never finished the work of putting photos on photobucket. Silly me.

Here are two, of the water, taken from our balcony when we got back from CocoCay. That night was our first formal night, and we all took awhile to get ready, so I was able to ogle the view a little bit.

Looking down

Looking out

 

[ilovetexas]

Half Moon...that's HAL?

Yes, HAL and Carnival share it. The island is beautiful, very little of it is developed as most of it has been designated as a wild bird preserve. While I enjoyed both Castaway and Coco (seriously, an island in the Bahamas, what's not to enjoy!), I thought HMC was incredibly beautiful.

Here's some info on the island, if you ever find yourself looking to book a trip on HAL or Carnival.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/newport.cfm?ID=531

 

[bumbershoot]

Yes, HAL and Carnival share it. The island is beautiful, very little of it is developed as most of it has been designated as a wild bird preserve. While I enjoyed both Castaway and Coco (seriously, an island in the Bahamas, what's not to enjoy!), I thought HMC was incredibly beautiful.

Here's some info on the island, if you ever find yourself looking to book a trip on HAL or Carnival.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/newport.cfm?ID=531

I was thinking that was the one we could see from Coco, but that seems to be Great Stirrup, which is NCL's island.

I want to own an island in the Bahamas.

 

[annmarieda]

That water is so blue!!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

I know. It's mind-boggling how blue it is. I could have stayed there forever.

 

[bumbershoot]

Day 2 continued.



So we got all ready for dinner (formal night) and whatever we ate was probably good and whatever we talked about with our tablemates was probably fun, and then dinner was done.

By chance we found out about the Family Disco. Now, if you've gotten out your magnifying glasses and read the Compass, you would see that this was clearly on the schedule. But we (I) had missed it. Glad we found out, though, because it was fun.

Back at WDW when the kiddo and I did the 5K, before the start the DJ was playing music. And one of the songs was The Wobble. Everyone was doing a dance to it, and we didn't know it. Well at the Family Disco we learned it.

E and I were still a bit tired, so we didn't dance the whole time, but we did have some fun.

The weird part it was at The Crypt. Oh wait, that doesn't look right. The Crypt.

This is an adult nightclub that's rather Goth-themed and creepy. I'm not *quite* sure why they decided to have a FAMILY disco there, but they did.

Here was E, taking a break while wearing his suit. He LOVES his suit. LOVES IT.

At the end of the Disco time, they gave out Adventure Ocean medals on ribbons for participating.

The entrance to this place involves glass (probably plexiglas) steps. That are clear. I was wearing heels and was a bit teetery. Scary!


Here's the door to the place.

If Eamon had felt like going to AO, we could have gone to the big show, dancing, karaoke, "late night adult comedy", etc....but that wasn't in the cards.

We wandered for a short bit.

And went back to the room for needed sleep.

Oh and here was my dress. With me in it. With closed eyes but oh well.

I love that dress. You can't see it in the pictures (it's a well known fact in our household that DH takes really bad pictures, LOL) but it's purple gauzey fabric with a black dress underneath and the purple has sparkles on it and it feels lovely. I nearly slept in it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Our SEA day!

It gets a little confusing, because they are advertising for the next days, on the current day's pages. Rest assured, THIS day we were at sea. They just wanted us to be prepared!

On that page you might notice something. A mention of WATCHES. Holy heck, RCCL really loves their watches! They had tables out in the middle of the promenade most nights (it seemed) hawking their watches. For several nights it was bright yellow boxes of HUGE ginormous astonishingly large Invicta watches.

But they also had a variety of other watches, depending on the night.

If you're into watches, or can get peer-pressured into buying things you didn't think you needed or wanted, just...do your research. Know your Tag Heuers, your Invictas, your Casios, etc etc. Know what a good price is. Know what a good watch is. Same as jewelry. Know what stones are, don't get taken. I mean, if you LIKE something and it's worth the money to you that's fine, but don't just take their word for it that it's an amazing deal, etc. OK? OK.

More typos, help me...

The front of that page mentions the "caribbean port & shopping talk". That's the one with Ian. Mentioned him up front. "Each person attending will receive a free diamond charm bracelet"... OK. In other words, get the opportunity to get the paper to bring to Diamonds International to pick up their charm bracelet that has a diamond so small we don't know where we put it.

Again, if you like it you like it. But don't get crazy over it.


Again, Happy Hour! The casino is truly the place to be between 5 and 8pm if you want half price drinks. I really should have gone there.


And I really wish that the "exclusive behind the scenes tour" were not $150 per person. Why? Why is it that expensive?

We were supposed to do the Dreamworks character breakfast this morning. We knew it wasn't going to work, so the night before we called to cancel. They told us to just not show up, no big deal.

Now, of course, they have decided to charge $10 per person for the character breakfast. Some assume it's to keep people from not showing up. You know, like they told people to do. I swear it's just like Disney. Do people just not TALK to each other????

And suddenly, after reading the second to last image up there, I want a Paradise Punch: Bacardi superior rum, coconut rum, peach schnapps, and pineapple and cranberry juices. Yum. 6.75, keep the glass. Why thank you, I will. If I had been in the mood for more than the occasional beer, that is.

Read your compasses! It has vital information like the Paradise Punch in it. Vital!

 

[bumbershoot]

Ah, the sea day. Relax relax relax....


I *think* this was the day that was supposed to be the cruisecritic "Meet & Mingle". I had signed up for it and was psyched for it.

But I had the port and shopping talk to go to. It started at 10, and I believe the M&M started at 10:45? I had Robert and Eamon promise that they would go to the M&M at 10:45 (or whatever time it started) so that I could make it out of the talk and all the way to the M&M but have my guys there, making friends and ingratiating themselves so people didn't just go "oh, it's THAT person with all the opinions..." So they had a chance to like me more, LOL. (Yes I'm well aware that I don't say things correctly and I could be a little less opinionated and brusque...when people meet me in person they say things like "oh you're a lot nicer than you are online"...aw, bless your heart, thanks so much for letting that be said out loud instead of keeping it in your head and saying instead "oh you're so nice"....) Anyway, they said they would be there at the time it started!

I went to the port and shopping talk, it was a huge sales pitch, it was enjoyable, it was amusing, it was nice to be there. It was a sales pitch. Ooh let me show you the "crown of light" cut on a diamond, ooh, sparkly, go get one at whatever store in St Maarten and tell them Ian sent you. Ooh, soft bamboo sheets, go get these in San Juan and tell 'em Ian sent you. etc. I'm not saying we wuldn't end up with bamboo sheets (and towels), but I know a "I'm going to get commission" sales pitch when I hear one.

I had to leave early, I rushed up to the lounge, and it was almost empty. My guys were there and two other people, one of whom had a gift basket. And a bartender. I got there when the M&M should have still been going on. What? The guys got there late. They said there was no one extra there when they got there. They had their invitations and asked the bartender, and he said no one was there. Did my extrovert, outgoing, not shy husband ask the lady with the gift basket if there had been an event? Why no he did not. Le sigh.

I asked about it on my cruisecritic meet thread, but never went back to find out the answer. Why should I? A group of people that talked for nearly a year and then didn't even stay the full time of the m&m...why would I WANT to know what happened? What difference would it make in my life now? Harumph.

I'd been excited to meet those people.



But I couldn't pout long. We must have gotten some lunch, and then had to get bundled up for the ice show. I had scheduled it for 2:30. What that means, it turns out, is that we should have shown up around 1:45! Wowzers do people arrive early! And that place gets packed. It's a neat show. GO TO IT. But go EARLY.

And there are all sorts of reserved areas. An issue with RCCL is that there are reserved areas that you don't really realize are reserved until you go right up to them. And hope that you're going right up to them at the spot where there's a sign, because otherwise you think you can go there, until you are told that you cannot. This was getting VERY frustrating for DH. He wants to be one of the "haves", and whenever he finds out that he is a "have not" it bothers him. I offered to leave because it was really bugging him that we couldn't find seats (and when you're the travel agent for the family and something goes wrong, you feel guilty), but he redoubled his efforts to find something for us. Since he's the tallest, he led on.

The ONLY reason we got to see it, despite having reservations, is because there was one seat that Robert could easily get to (on the end), and two seats that someone was saving for someone else and then saw our distress and offered them to me and E. Thank you kind people!

When I realize where we were sitting, I can't help but wonder if we were offered seats in some spot we shouldn't have been, but who knows? Not going to worry about it now. I am, however, going to get there EARLY, next time we're on a ship with an ice show.

They had all sorts of shortish skate-dances (does that make sense?), with different costumes and themes. A lot of it seemed to be decade-related, but then they had a whole pirate thing. That was neat. The whole thing was neat. Talented. There were a couple falls, but they always happened when the ship moved to a side.

pirates.

Next up on the schedule was the Crown&Anchor Society Member Recognition Event in the Arcadia Theater. I don't remember what they had going on, but my guys didn't go to that. They might have had some serious videogame playing to be done? I went to it to see what it was about. It was about booze, really.

Here's my glass of bad champagne in the drink holder in the armrest in the theater. Now THAT is convenient.

They had the comedian from the night before out to give about 20 minutes of ADULT themed standup. I don't think he was supposed to get that adult themed, but he was getting slightly heckled and he kind of got lost there. Funny, but wow was I glad DS wasn't there.

I wanted to go, because let's remember we had 5:30 dining and it takes us longer to get ready than it does other people, but I was NOT NOT NOT going to get up and leave with a comedian like that on stage. I wasn't up front, but I was up front in the first balcony, which was just about on his level, and I was wearing an orange dress, so I probably stood out. I was NOT getting up. So I waited until he was finally done and then I fled.

Met up with the guys, dinner, conversation, done. That was it for what I remember of our first sea day on Freedom. (honestly I think there was some laze in the sun time, some listen to reggae time...but I don't really remember)

 

[annmarieda]

Family disco night sounds fun!

You look very pretty in your dress. While the picture isn't maybe perfect, you can definitely tell it is a very flattering dress!

Your comment about people saying you are nice in person made me giggle... kinda like the tsa agent telling me that I look so mean in my picture, but in real life I look like a nice person.

Sorry you didn't get to meet the people you had looked forward to meeting.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thank you Ann.


What the heck was the TSA person thinking? Though I'm actually astonished no official has commented on my passport pic yet. I barely even look like current-me in it.

My driver's license on the other hand, does. Why? Have you gotten to experience the WA thing where they say you can keep using your old photo? I have. So my photo was actually taken when the kidlet was ONE year old. Had it taken in '05 when I had dropped all but 5 of the baby *pounds* (but in reality was thinner b/c the weight was ALL in the milk factory, LOL...not that I could see that at the time). I think we're on a 5 year DL cycle? I think so. So in 2010 I got a new DL, and they said I could keep using that photo. Why thank you very much! So as of this year it finally looks like me again. I assume I'll have to take a new picture next year, though. Oh sure, just as I start aging!

 

[annmarieda]

My driver's license on the other hand, does. Why? Have you gotten to experience the WA thing where they say you can keep using your old photo? I have. So my photo was actually taken when the kidlet was ONE year old. Had it taken in '05 when I had dropped all but 5 of the baby *pounds* (but in reality was thinner b/c the weight was ALL in the milk factory, LOL...not that I could see that at the time). I think we're on a 5 year DL cycle? I think so. So in 2010 I got a new DL, and they said I could keep using that photo. Why thank you very much! So as of this year it finally looks like me again. I assume I'll have to take a new picture next year, though. Oh sure, just as I start aging!

I am not sure if I was offered to keep my old one...I just get a new one each time. Unlike my profile pic that is far to old to be keeping. I need to take the time to change it!

 

[debsters41]

Your updates are so informative and honest, thanks again

 

[kaoden39]

 

[nancy drew]

Checking in!!!

I have really been looking forward to this, and now have something to compare it to!

To add to the DL conversation, though (and I keep reading "DL" as "Disneyland", which makes this confusing), I will share my DL story. I had to get a new DL when I changed my name back to my maiden name after getting divorced. So that involved going to the DL place (not the one where you have to take the driving test, but just the renewal office). So I go through the line, and talk to Person A, then am sent to the line for Person B, and all that jazz until I finally end up in the photo area (AKA the "You Are Finally Almost Done Here" area). I'm waiting for them to call me for my photo, fixing my hair, and making sure I look OK, and they finally call me. I go up there and Person ZZZ hands me my new DL. "What? But surely you must be mistaken, Person ZZZ, because I haven't taken my photo yet." "Oh no," I am told, "we just used an old one." I thought about that for a few seconds, mentally reviewing all of my previous DL photos on some sort of virtual rolodex type album in my head, wondering which one they used, afraid to look, and still processing that they let some random person at the DMV decide what photo is going to be staring back at everyone I buy alcohol from. So finally I look, and it is one of the first photos I ever took there, when I was about 20. I was in my mid to late thirties when they decided to use THAT photo on my license again. Luckily it was a sort of flattering photo, although there was some weirdness where there was a rainbowish prismish thing happening on one side of my hair. But I still don't get when they chose THAT photo.

 

[bumbershoot]

I am not sure if I was offered to keep my old one...I just get a new one each time. Unlike my profile pic that is far to old to be keeping. I need to take the time to change it!

Your profile pic reminds me of one of my first college friends. She lives in Yakima.

Your updates are so informative and honest, thanks again

Thanks!

Hi hi hi!

Checking in!!!

I have really been looking forward to this, and now have something to compare it to!

To add to the DL conversation, though (and I keep reading "DL" as "Disneyland", which makes this confusing), I will share my DL story. I had to get a new DL when I changed my name back to my maiden name after getting divorced. So that involved going to the DL place (not the one where you have to take the driving test, but just the renewal office). So I go through the line, and talk to Person A, then am sent to the line for Person B, and all that jazz until I finally end up in the photo area (AKA the "You Are Finally Almost Done Here" area). I'm waiting for them to call me for my photo, fixing my hair, and making sure I look OK, and they finally call me. I go up there and Person ZZZ hands me my new DL. "What? But surely you must be mistaken, Person ZZZ, because I haven't taken my photo yet." "Oh no," I am told, "we just used an old one." I thought about that for a few seconds, mentally reviewing all of my previous DL photos on some sort of virtual rolodex type album in my head, wondering which one they used, afraid to look, and still processing that they let some random person at the DMV decide what photo is going to be staring back at everyone I buy alcohol from. So finally I look, and it is one of the first photos I ever took there, when I was about 20. I was in my mid to late thirties when they decided to use THAT photo on my license again. Luckily it was a sort of flattering photo, although there was some weirdness where there was a rainbowish prismish thing happening on one side of my hair. But I still don't get when they chose THAT photo.

Sorry about the abbreviation confusion!

That's crazy that they would use a photo from that early! Flattering photos are good. I can't even look my passport photo straight on. Kind of have to look at it from the side when flipping to the photo page to determine which is mine and which is E's (Robert's gets used far more often and is therefore obvious).