JLMoran

BUMMER ? I used to do a special “spell” when hubby was on call as we went to bed to try to ward off late night calls - it usually worked ? So shoot me a message the next time and I will see if I can’t abracadabra something up for you! ??
Lynn

Dining reservations are typically available pretty far in advance of sail date. If it’s not visible yet in your Cruise Planner, keep checking once a week.
No shows on Freedom require reservations, and all are timed around the traditional dining hours. Figure one show each night at 7 or 7:30, and a second performance at 10 or 10:30. Plan on 90 minutes minimum for specialty restaurants, more likely two hours since all food is typically cooked to order;  you might be able to eat in less than that on your My Time Dining nights, but better to err on the longer side, even with a heads-up to your waiter.

Day 6 - Curaçao
Sorry for taking so long to post. The WiFi got so bad, that it wouldn’t even load this website. I’m back on dry land now, though so I can catch up.
We had already planned to get off the ship after the initial horde of people, so I slept in until 10:00 and didn’t meet my mom at the Windjammer until 10:30. We were done with breakfast and in Curaçao by 11:30. It was a pretty long walk from the ship, so we waited for a golf cart to to help the elderly ladies in our group.


Then we walked through Rif Fort and walked through a couple of the shops. They were pretty expensive, but that’s what I would’ve expected with how nice the area was. While my parents kept shopping, I took the opportunity to take some pictures from the top walls of the fort.





After shoppping in the Rif Fort area, we went out to some of the vendors right outside. The prices got significantly better and they had a better variety of items in my opinion. All it was missing that Rif Fort had was fine jewelery.
While we were looking through the vendors, my grandmother started to not feel very well, so my parents sent me across the floating bridge with her friend while they tended to my grandmother. Before crossing, I took a few more pictures.



When we got to the other side I was surprised at how many shops there were. And they weren’t just your run of the mill souvenir shops - they were actual clothing stores that I’m sure the locals shopped at. They had great prices and great items. My grandmother’s friend and I had more than enough stores to all around in and waste an hour (that was with half of the stores being closed for Boxing Day).
My grandmother started to feel better, so my mom, my dad, and her met us over the bridge at about 1:30. They wanted to look around the stores too, so I went with my parents while my grandmother and her friend went off together. My parents and I ended up buying for pairs of really nice shoes for an awesome price.
After shopping, my grandmother and her friend decided they were tired and wanted to go back to the ship, so we walked them back. By the time we got back it was 3:00, so we decided to try to find a tour.
Long story short, we never found a tour. The taxi drivers were expensive and seemed uninterested and all the tour buses had already left. When we couldn’t find a tour we decided to just head back to the ship. Before going back, though, I grabbed a quick ice cream and my mom grabbed a frozen drink. Both were good.

When we got back on the ship, we all took a quick nap then got ready for dinner. We were glad to be back with our normal waiters tonight.
I could’ve sworn I took a picture of the menu, but I can’t seem to find it. None of us can remember what we ate either. When you’re eating that much food, all of the meals seem to run together lol. So no dinner details from night 7. Sorry about that. I know one of the best parts of live blogs is hearing about the food. I’ll have the menus from the other nights, though.
After dinner, we were off to the top tier party at 7:15 in Studio B. The captain was unable to attend (I’m guessing he couldn’t come because we were leaving Curaçao at 7:30), so the hotel director, Steven ran things. My parents had met him before the top tier party and said he was incredibly nice.
He started off by telling everyone that he would have a surprise for everyone at the end. It was pretty easy to guess what that surprise was considering where we were. They passed out free champagne and mimosas while all the officers were introduced. Then the crown and anchor society head recognized the top 3 cruisers. All three of them had more than 5 years of nights accumulated. I told my parents to forget about law school; my new goal in life was to be recognized as a top cruiser.
Then came the surprise we had all been waiting for; a special ice show. I almost liked this show better than the actual one. It seemed as if the ice cast had choreographed it themselves, chose their favorite songs, and tried to do as many stunts as possible.





After the top tier party, it was pretty much time for the 8:30 show, so we just headed to the theater. Bill Cook, a magician, was performing and he was spectacular. He was super funny and his tricks still have me confused. He also had an awesome story. He said that his dream of becoming a magician started when he was 16 and watched a magician perform while he was on a cruise ship. He told his dad that’s what he wanted to do one day and his dad told him that if he works hard enough he could make that dream come true, and so he did.

After the show I just spent the rest of the night with my friends in the teen club.

Hi @Jason! My personal feeling is that once you have more than half your nights booked with specialty dining or some other venue like Coastal Kitchen, it makes more sense to just be on My Time Dining. You won’t really be seeing any table mates you’d have with Traditional Dining, and it open up the seats for anyone who’s been wait listed.

8+ ships in port today. Here are some shots taken this am from my boat. Enjoy!

So glad you are doing such an awesome job blogging this cruise.  Now I don't need to in 3 weeks on Indy.  ??

Can’t get over those on-board prices for the Deluxe ($63) and Refreshment ($26) packages! Makes me really glad I caught the Refreshment package at $17 on Black Friday!

Random observations so far:
Boarding Day quick guide also available on Indy.



On board VOOM and Drink package prices:


 

Good Morning! Day 2:
Mornings are way better in the Diamond Lounge. Sitting here in peace and quiet (without WJ madness as I write this). Love the espresso machine and not sure if it’s in my head or not, but the standard continental breakfast offerings seem to be a bit higher quality than WJ or Cafe Promenade. 







A few notes from last night. Not sure if it was the weather or our room location but motion was more noticeable compared to our forward cabin on Mariner.  Still not bad enough to deter me from booking a forward cabin though. Will keep you all updated on how this continues to progress throughout the cruise. 
Today is a sea day. No set plans for today. ?

So yesterday, having thought we'd be waiting a good bit longer for this to happen, we ended up with a new addition to our family. Everyone say hello to Cece!


She's still getting used to being in a home with four hoo-mans and two kats, so she looks understandably nervous. But we're hoping in a few more days she'll be showing us more of her regular personality.
Still need time to figure out how this impacts the future cruise budget. ?? At least we have nearby family with dogs of their own who can watch her when we travel, so no need for kennel expenses. Sorry, Cece, but no cruising for you!

Hi @JasonL, welcome to the boards!
If your TA is on vacation, I don’t think you can really expect any kind of rapid response time. It’s not unreasonable to hope she’ll see it and be able to act quickly, but I would never expect it after getting the notice and disclaimer that email and phone will be checked “as much as possible”.
If she’s on a long flight with her family that day, or you emailed when she’s not in ready access to the internet, or she’s in some location with a big time zone difference that makes it impractical for her to follow up, you could be waiting a couple of days or even several. She could even be dealing with an unexpected emergency that puts doing anything work-related to the far back of her mind.
Does she have any listed secondary contacts in her out of office notice? I know my TA always lists at least one for any urgent matters like yours, but she’s part of a larger agency. If your TA is working solo and runs her own shop, you might just be out of luck until she can check for your message.

Hi @JasonL, welcome to the boards!
If your TA is on vacation, I don’t think you can really expect any kind of rapid response time. It’s not unreasonable to hope she’ll see it and be able to act quickly, but I would never expect it after getting the notice and disclaimer that email and phone will be checked “as much as possible”.
If she’s on a long flight with her family that day, or you emailed when she’s not in ready access to the internet, or she’s in some location with a big time zone difference that makes it impractical for her to follow up, you could be waiting a couple of days or even several. She could even be dealing with an unexpected emergency that puts doing anything work-related to the far back of her mind.
Does she have any listed secondary contacts in her out of office notice? I know my TA always lists at least one for any urgent matters like yours, but she’s part of a larger agency. If your TA is working solo and runs her own shop, you might just be out of luck until she can check for your message.

Dinner Night 1:
Dinner was slow tonight. Even though we ate at 5:30pm and asked to hurry so we could make the 7:15pm Welcome Aboard show, it still moved at snail’s pace. We were a few minutes late for the show. Nothing special to report. It was the standard MDR fare.

Caesar Salad:

They had savoury bites!

@Matt‘s favourite...Spaghetti Bolognese:

Fish, Seafood, and Mash:
Just need to vent on this one. We had this dish on Mariner and it was ok. Tonight on Indy, the breaded shrimp was barely edible. It was so dry and almost chewy. 

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake:

After dinner we went to see the Welcome Aboard show, mainly because I have heard many good things about the CD, Jamie Fentiman, and I wanted to see if what I had heard was true. He’s good. Lots of energy. Quite comedic. 
After the show, D10 wanted to check out Sugar Beach. The prices there are ridiculous. However, as luck would have it, we got stuck in there while they were filming the morning show. Both girls ended up on it! And they got some free candy too! Win-win! ?
?D10 with Jamie (CD; right) and Daniel (AM; left).

Going to call it a night now as we are all quite tired. Goodnight all ?
 

So yesterday, having thought we'd be waiting a good bit longer for this to happen, we ended up with a new addition to our family. Everyone say hello to Cece!


She's still getting used to being in a home with four hoo-mans and two kats, so she looks understandably nervous. But we're hoping in a few more days she'll be showing us more of her regular personality.
Still need time to figure out how this impacts the future cruise budget. ?? At least we have nearby family with dogs of their own who can watch her when we travel, so no need for kennel expenses. Sorry, Cece, but no cruising for you!

Here’s a few photos from this afternoon on the water. I went through the port & saw Indy as well as Holland America Oosterdam. Enjoy. This represents basically every normal weekend here in East Fort Lauderdale...
#endlesssummer
#FLL

Sorry I have to chime in on this.
I love cruising.  
I love roller coasters.  
But sorry they don’t really go together for me.  
Cruising is for relaxing and roller coasters are for thrills.  A roller coaster doesn’t add to my cruise experience and limiting the scope of the coaster to fit on a cruise ship, probably makes it not very exciting.  Water slides and flo-rider rides sure but not coasters, keep the coasters at Cedar Point.

Therapy Chicken. I believe that is in a red wine mushroom sauce.

Room Tour: 
Surprise! It’s an Ultra Spacious Oceanview. Still roughing it but at least the kids get a bunk. There are only 2 with this configuration on Freedom class ships. The rest are more like the standard JS with the bunks in the walk in closet area. This setup allows for more separation between the living spaces. I found this room about two months ago. It just randomly popped up one day and it was $200 to upgrade from our original 1L. This is a Cat. 1K. It sleeps up to 6. I kept it it a surprise from the kids until 1pm today. They love it! I still desperately miss the decor of the newer ships. And the bathroom is small!  For those of you wondering, the suite snob in me is still struggling. 















 

Boarding started at 11:30am. Standard suites/pinnacles first then by C&A status. 
Finishing up in the WJ now. It is a complete madhouse here. There are people standing to eat. 
Indy WJ looks identical to Mariner.


 

Greetings from Terminal 18!
Lyft Plus to Terminal 18: $11.83
Noted that at terminal 18 there is a separate security line for Diamond and above. 
They still took our pictures at check in even though we uploaded ours already. 
Currently waiting to board. 10:43pm. No one has boarded yet.

Good morning! Out of dry dock! 
This hotel provides a hot breakfast selection: the usual, sausages, pancakes, waffles, omelettes, etc. Nothing photo worthy. Snapped a few pics of the dining area. 


Would I stay here again? Yes. For the price, value, and proximity to Port Everglades it is decent for a one night pre-cruise stay. Just know that you won’t be getting the Renaissance or Conrad and it’s all good.
Just finished with breakfast. Going to pack up the room and headed over to the port. It’s cruise time!
 

Well, just leave any sappy romantic stuff about the cute girl you met out of it. We're all old and past those days, all that matters to us are the port photos, the sunsets, and the food pics. ??

Arrived in FLL after a bumpy flight. The Holiday Inn Express Cruise Port hotel is your typical Holiday Inn. Functional for a pre-cruise stay. 

Off to La Bamba! ?

Have an uneventful flight! And let us know if the margaritas at La Bamba are still tasty! ? ?

Poutine, of course.