Cactus527

Atlanta!

Let's talk about stateroom attendants and service for a moment. In the past few years, I've done a number of RC cruises on a few different ships of varying sizes. Each time, service has been fine; in fact, my attendant on Indy was superb. This cruise, however, was just...off. I met N almost instantly when I showed up to my room on Day 1, and he wanted to know all my particulars, requests, etc. I told him: I needed drinking glasses (they were missing), a robe, and evening service. I didn't think I was asking for too much. He found the drinking glasses for me right away, and then brought the robe by about 30 minutes later. N never serviced the room on Day 1. On Day 2, at PDCC, I came back to my room around 3pm to find it serviced. Um, okay, not evening, but whatever. On Day 3, during a bathroom break from my casita around 1pm, I came back to find the room serviced. Um......? It was weird at this point. On the last day, Day 4, our sea day, I popped up to lunch from 11:45-1:00. I came back and the room had been serviced. I never saw N in person after Day 1, so I could never say anything to him about the weird service time. I really do prefer evening service because then I can nap and have the bed fixed before night time. Also, I mentioned about the bathroom hairs earlier. There were just various touches around the room that screamed "not clean!" throughout the cruise. There were clothing tags from someone else under the couch, random hairs (mostly head) all over, and the balcony had a thin layer of sand on it. This CAN'T be standard for this ship! I'm seriously considering saying something on the post-cruise survey sitting in my inbox, but I also don't want N to suffer negatively for being, well, a ghost cleaner! Anyone else have this kind of issue on Freedom or another ship? Or am I just picky?

You guys are so kind! Thank you for following along. I'll post randomly as I remember things, but I wanted to put my thoughts here before I forget. I got picked up by The Key crew member promptly at 7:45am to debark the ship. Almost no line at that point, so I was off the ship within 5 minutes. Luggage was a bit wonky to get - you enter the luggage area with the last numbers there. You have to go aaaaalll the way through to get to the lowest numbers. The Key luggage was way up near the passport/birth certificate area in the section with suite baggage. Grabbed my bags, got scanned in 5 seconds (if that) because there was no line, and then was out the door of the terminal at 7:57am. What is UP with the aggressive shuttle people right at the exit doors?!? I was a bit taken aback to step out and have 4-5 of them suddenly start shouting at me about going to the airport. Looked for a RC employee, asked him about my RC airport transfer to MIA, and he pointed me into the middle island where two green buses were. Both were for the airport. The luggage is divided up into American Airlines and then Everyone Else. Since I was doing Southwest, I put my luggage there and got on the bus. It was now promptly 8:00, which is when the bus/transfer had its meeting time. Once the bus filled, we were off to the airport at 8:20. Dropped off the AA people, then dropped me (and everyone else there) off at 8:50. We would probably have been there at 8:40 without the extra stop, but it still worked just fine for my 10:50 flight. The RC recommendation was to only do this transfer if you have a flight after 12pm. So, there you have it. The $24 I spent to have a 100% assured, no-cancelling-my-request ride provided by RC was fast, efficient, and worth it. I would 100% do the transfer this way again. They also offered other times to MIA (8:30, 9:00, 9:30, maybe a 10:00?), and then transfers to FLL. I remember the FLL one says flights no earlier than 1:30pm for some reason. That one was $30. Did airport stuff, flew, transferred to my conference hotel (that's a whole other story), and am now safely ensconced in my room for a few days. Wishing I was still on a cruise ship though.

Good morning from Miami! I got to listen to a balcony party from 12-12:30am complete with yelling and loud music. Someone from RC must have come to talk to them because it was very abruptly silent. I woke up on time to see us come into the port and do the full turn around to come back to Terminal A. We fully docked at 6:32am. And now, it's time for one final meal in board: The Key breakfast. I forgot to snap a shot of the menu, but it's your standard MDR breakfast menu. I'm taking the RC shuttle to the airport at 8am. I'll probably update with some more random thoughts as the day progresses. It's sad that this cruise is done! My next one isn't until September on Allure (also out of Miami).

I imagine with collecting bags from all over the ship it takes awhile. If the bags can't even get off until after 6am, 3am still send like plenty of leeway.

I procrastinated all day about packing, and then I had to throw everything together really quickly after sunset. I managed to get the suitcases out there at 9:58 p.m. Whew! I realize they don't usually pick them up until after 11:00 p.m., but I wanted to make sure I met the deadline on the piece of paper they gave. OMG THEY LITERALLY JUST TOOK THEM. 11:04pm. Do I have to go? Do you think if I just stay in my room and refuse to leave they'll let me stay?

Have you ever checked under your bed to see what's there? After last month's news about the RC employee getting arrested who hid under people's beds, I decided to get down on my hands and knees and check out how much room there actually is under there. Yes, a person could hide under there. What's actually down there on a regular basis though? I discovered blankets and towels! So if you're ever needing either, look under your bed.

Sunset was AMAZING tonight. If you zoom in kind of close, you can actually see the Miami skyline underneath the sunset.

It was good! I swear I have seen the same buildings all day from my balcony!!!!!

That's a great idea. Maybe future me will do this!

I also saw the stew pots brimming over with people. Pretty sure I counted 25 in this one...

This is for all you ELF fans out there. I managed to get there right before they closed at 6pm. I then took the contents of my chicken burrito and dumped it on my nachos. It was DIVINE. And a Painkiller to sit with now for sunset!

I actually had that thought too after I got the towels down. The yoga mat would totally fit out there!

Balcony hack (if you have one): it's big enough to make into your own private sun lounging area.

DAMN STRAIGHT!

I actually even had it on the side table last night while I was laying in bed. It keeps the top of the side table clear!

Brilliant! I may go do that.

Noooooooooo not yet

Lunch at Izumi. I showed up 15 minutes before they open to ensure that I could get a seat at the sushi counter. I probably didn't need to, based on how slowly people trickled in to the counter, but I'm glad I did. Pork gyoza, miso ramen, and vegetable rolls. It was mostly delicious, though the gyoza was pretty mediocre. I could definitely have had better service, but they were slammed with three of the four hibachi tables being filled. I was never able to place a drink order and only had water the entire time. At least I was in and out in under an hour.

YOU GUYS. I went and did my free play in the casino and I WON BIG! It's so big that the machine said it would be applied to my account and I couldn't cash out with the cashier. In all seriousness, is there something I need to do in order to get the 35¢ applied to my account? Is there something I need to do with this ticket? If I really wanted to, I mean.

Made my way down to the logo shop already this morning and got my keychain. I collect keychains from each of the ships I've been on. The Royal Promenade was oddly empty for 9:30 in the morning. Even Sorrento's wasn't open yet.

I can confirm that spacious balcony rooms have more than enough room for a yoga mat and doing yoga. In fact, I've done this in interior rooms too, but bumped into things. I'm happy that I didn't bump into anything today.

Haiti is just a crap show. I really feel for the people there. I'm with you - hoping things get better sooner rather than later.

I DID 2!!!! EDIT: "Whoa, how much can you bench, bro?" "15 lbs, but I can do 8 crepes in one sitting." (the conversations in my head are amazing)

YOU ARE SO RIGHT but I am still traveling after I get off the ship, so it doesn't feel quite as bad.