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Monday 4 November 2013

Freedom 2013 - St Thomas

We did not arrive in St Thomas until after lunch, so we enjoyed a leisurely morning around the ship. Our plan today was strictly to get off the ship, and wander around Charlotte Amalie. We are not shoppers, so really it was just to soak up some atmosphere.

Ships already in port


It is quite the hike from the ship at the end of the pier to the taxi stand, so we contemplated the SeƱor Frog's.  It was, however, quite noisy. Instead, we happened upon a lovely little place playing island music. I was charmed, and just on the off chance, asked the bar tender if he could make a lime daiquiri. He asked if I wanted it frozen, or on the rocks. Rocks, please! As a side note, I do not understand this obsession with frozen daiquiris to the exclusion of real ones. A finely crafted daiquiri, is infinitely superior to a rum slushee, and I wish they would find another name for those frozen things. My daiquiri was tart, and refreshing, and a colour found in nature. Thus endeth the sermon. The World's Greatest Husband enjoyed a Red Stripe.


After that, we took a taxi into town. It should be noted that taxis here are shared, with the prices per person, and scaled depending upon the number of passengers, and are usually vans instead of small cars. The route is established, and we were dropped off at a standard drop off point. From there, we wandered around. We looked in a pirate store, and then randomly wandered through various malls and walk ways. Eventually we came upon a sign advertising a Beer Garden with free Wi-Fi. Since we were both feeling a bit out of touch, this seemed ideal.


We went up a garden path (really), and found a lovely outdoor bar, which was quite homey, with reasonably priced beer, and the aforementioned contact with the outside world. We enjoyed cheap beverages, and caught up with our friends. Then we wandered again.

A gentleman noticed TWGH's necklace, which he got in Kenya, and dragged us to a store selling African style artefacts. It was awkward, because we buy African style artefacts in Africa, not the US Virgin Islands. We made our escape, and did some more exploring.



Finally, we decided we could do with another beverage, and found Greengo's. It was a lovely place with a Day of the Dead decor, and Dos Equis Amber. We also decided on a little snack, and shared some pork nachos. Very nice. 


After this, we returned to the ship in a purple taxi van. We were late leaving St. Thomas, so we got a beautiful view of it all lit up at night.


We spent a leisurely evening, and hung around the champagne bar, since it had terrific service, and properly measured pours, instead of the 5-1 ratio of alcohol to mix you normally get in cruise ship bars.


Wednesday 16 October 2013

Freedom 2013 - First Sea Day

We didn't really do much for either the sea day or St. Thomas. The first sea day we were a little tired from all the dancing on formal night, so we took it easy.

The helipad, at the front of the ship.

We did wander around the ship a bit. This is a great ship, with lots of indoor and outdoor spaces.

Hanging out at the Pub
The promenade is a great place to watch the world go buy, so we did a little of that.

Crown and Anchor Party
The Crown and Anchor party is ostensibly a thank you to returning cruisers, but they use it as an opportunity to shill their next project. I don't mind. There is entertainment, meetings and greetings from ship's officers, and, this time, a sneak peek at the new ship Royal Caribbean is building: The Quantum of the Seas. Oh, and free cocktails or soft drinks.

Towel Animal
We really just had a relaxing day, with a lot of reading, and some hanging out in the hot tub, and when we got back to our room, the above creation was waiting for us.

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Freedom 2013 - Coco Cay and First Formal Night

We woke up in the morning to a view of the Bahamas. We had been a little late departing the night before, so we were a little late arriving at Coco Cay. It was a little rainy to begin with, but promised to clear shortly.


One small thing I really enjoy about the Freedom of the Seas is the Day of the Week carpet tile on the elevators. I tried to take a picture every day to help me place my pictures.


Once the rain ended, the water was beautifully clear, and not horrifically frigid. I was told there was a stingray at the beach, although I missed it. I did catch a glimpse of the 3 foot sand shark swimming around while I was in the water. He was cute. Sadly, I did not have my camera at the time. I did get some shots of other wildlife, both in the water and out.




I have normally gone to the snorkel beach, but we left our gear at home this time, so we tried a different beach. The water was nicer, with less reads.


After we had our fill of fun and sun, we tendered back to the ship to get ready for formal night.

The View of the Ship

Sailors Beware!
 We love getting dressed up for formal night, and so here we are. We had a lovely evening, and ended up dancing the night away in the Crypt. I did change into less formal clothes half way through the dancing.

I am a very lucky woman.


Monday 30 September 2013

Freedom 2013 - Embarkation Day



We woke early, and had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. It was okay, although it was nice eating poolside. Afterwards, we went for a walk around the grounds, and enjoyed looking at the turtles in the pond.

The World's Greatest Husband with Breakfast Al Fresco

We decided to leave around 11:00am, so we got everything ready and checked out. The front desk kindly called us a cab. In my last post, I think I mentioned the new flat rate system. It worked out to our advantage, kind of, this time. The cited price was $15 (usually the metered fare from slightly more distant port is around $12). Okay, it's not worth the hassle to argue, and it turned out the drawbridge was up when we got there, so the wait would have probable made the fare over $15. However, I handed her a $20, and she left immediately, without any pretence of making change. I know what you're thinking, but she didn't help with the bags, so a 33% tip was definitely not warranted. On the other hand, you have to give credit for big ones to someone who can rack up a $750 bar bill by herself on a 4 day cruise and is willing to admit it. I certainly couldn't do it and wouldn't brag about it if I could.

Our first look for this cruise at our Beautiful Ship
The line to go through security was very long. It took more than a half an hour. Of course, after we had gotten through, we noticed a second shorter screening area around the corner of the building. Once that was out of the way, it was smooth sailing, so to speak, through check in, and onto the ship.

We wandered a little, and then made our way to Sorrento's for the no-crush lunch. The pizza there is good, and it is never as busy as the Windjammer.

Sorrento's was not busy
We wandered about a bit, and stopped at Bolero's for a beverage, and then went up to the pool deck to walk around outside. Soon, it was time for our stateroom to be ready, so off we went to have a look.

The sofa is large

The bed is large, and comfortable.

The front Balcony cabins have an extra bubble on the balcony

The theme for this trip seems to have been wildlife, for me. While I was looking down from the balcony, I saw a manatee. Later, looking down, I saw a sea turtle and a jellyfish. Sadly, I couldn't get my camera up quickly enough to catch the turtle.



We hung out in the Solarium for a while, and then got dressed in time for muster drill. Our station was in Pharaoh's Palace.


At sail away, we were supposed to meet people from our Facebook cruise group, but we only met a few. They were nice, though. After this, was dinner. We went to the main dining room, and discovered that our table was for two. We don't mind table mates, but this was okay, too. The service was a little rough the first night, but we believe it was because there were latecomers in our section who weren't sure they wanted to be there, and kind of threw things into an uproar.

We spent a relaxing evening, and enjoyed the sunset and moonrise from our balcony.



Friday 27 September 2013

Freedom of the Seas 2013 - Day 1 (Travel)

We flew WestJet to Orlando. I did the upgrade to nicer seats and "free" meals. It is not very expensive to do so on WestJet, but the seats aren't as nice as first class on other airlines, and don't have the fancy meals and unlimited drinks. The luggage service was fairly efficient, and we didn't have to wait long after we landed to find our bags.

At Baggage Claim

Our driver, from Spaceport Transport, met us at the luggage area, and things went fairly smoothly to the hotel (Country Inn & Suites near the port). We got a whirlpool suite, since they are not expensive.

The Whirlpool

Window View
The hotel is not expensive, and includes a free hot breakfast, but it does not have some of the amenities we are accustomed to, such as a bar, and onsite restaurant. Both of which we would have had if we had stayed at our normal Radisson. But, the pool area was under renovation, so we decided to try something different. I believe we will go back to the Radisson in the future.

I had done some research before this trip, and decided to try one of the restaurants which face the port and ships sailing out. I chose Rusty's because it has a "pirate" theme, and outdoor seating. It is nice enough, and we had a good view of the ships du jour. We arrived during happy hour and treated ourselves to some cheap, but tasty, raw oysters.

Rusty's

Suitable for Happy Hour
We spent some time here, relaxing and watching the ships sailing out.  There was a Carnival ship, and the Disney Fantasy. We were just on the Fantasy last December, but none of the pictures we took of it this time turned out very well.

Carnival ship sailing away

There were a lot of birds at Rusty's, and almost as many signs admonishing you not to feed them. This is very important, since feeding them causes them to become a nuisance instead of an entertaining guest.

Pelican 
We had dinner at Rusty's, and I would have to rate the food as fair to good. Andrew's mahi mahi sandwich was very nice, but the Cajun scallops were small and disappointing. Next time, I think I will have the fish.

There is one thing we found kind of annoying this time. The taxis seem to have instituted a flat rate system, instead of metered fares around the port. They did not have this two weeks prior when I was there to go to the Bahamas. Also, some of the cab drivers seem to be taking advantage of this. The driver to the restaurant wanted to charge us $10 for the 2 minute ride. When we protested, he knocked it down to 8, which is still too much. The driver on the way back charged us $6.  I am not a fan of this. More about cabs tomorrow though.

Thursday 29 August 2013

2013 Girls' Weekend - Part III

The next morning, we slept in a bit, and awoke with Coco Cay off the starboard bow. When we were ready, we headed off on the tender. After carefully selecting our home-base on the snorkel beach, we did our various equipment rentals, and headed into the water. There were a lot of fish.





My goggles kept fogging up, so I decided to take a break at this point.  I divested myself of my gear, and decided to go back in since the water temperature wasn't terrible. The only problem with the snorkel beach is that it is very weedy- so I was in for no more than 5 minutes when I was stung by a sea louse. I can take a hint. The first aid hut has a spray bottle of vinegar for these little mishaps, so you can just grab it and self serve. They also have seasick pills, ibuprofen, acetaminophen and antacids, that you can help yourself too.

After this, I decided on a nice read, so I rented an umbrella for our encampment. A lovely young gentleman put it up for us, which was good since we were almost decapitating people with the thing.



We headed back in good time, and got cleaned up. Dinner was good as always, and the late night comedy show was entertaining. We got our suitcases sorted, and sent them out in the hall after being notified that our debarkation tour had been cancelled. Pro-tip: the notification that you have voicemail on this ship sounds like someone is dialling your room and quickly hanging up.

We did not have to get up that early in the morning, since we had the second-last luggage tag number. It was still before 9:00am that we were off the ship though.  I'll spare you the details of the transportation comedy. We still managed to get to the airport in plenty of time to get checked in and have a leisurely lunch at On the Border. Dos Equis Amber on draft -- yum!

And back to Canada. Thanks for reading, here are a few bonus pictures:




2013 Girls' Weekend - Part II

Day 2's port of call was Nassau, but we didn't get there until noon, so the morning seemed to call for a leisurely breakfast, and visit to the Solarium. We did find the Wind Jammer was hideously crowded, in spite of the on-deck barbecue (huge lines). I mentioned later to our head waiter that a sit-down option would be nice. He said there would be one the next day (we were on Coco Cay then).

Nassau is not my favourite port of call, and I didn't really care if we got off the ship or not, but the others were game, and it never hurts to get the value for those port fees. We did stumble into the really loud section, though. There was some sort of parade going on for the candidates for Miss Nassau, and they seemed to feel victory would go to the loudest. But, just up the street from Senor Frog's, we found a lovely little bar that I would recommend to anyone. They even had free wifi.



I had underpacked, and Amary was looking for souvenirs for the grandkids, so we went into a few stores, but it wasn't long before we were back to the ship.


We had a bit of a rest, and then began to get ready for formal night. Disclaimer: I love formal night, I even bought a new gown recently for this and my upcoming cruise on the Freedom of the Seas.




After the Captain's reception, we went to the Schooner Bar again for the piano player, and had a hoot. Then off to the room, a little earlier for me, and a change into something less... elegant.