Our Freedom cruise

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Day 1 of our adventure. We are staying at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Miami. Wifey got us a deal for 80 sumthin a night.

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I hope you have a great time and don't see this message till Saturday.  Good sailing!

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Florence intensified into the second hurricane of the Atlantic season Sunday as it headed for Bermuda.

Hopefully your south and east of this by now.

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  Well, Its Saturday morning at 11. Auto is probably off the ship and headed home. Hope you had a good time.

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We just got home about an hour ago.  Lots to do still etc,as I have to work tomorrow.

Will post about our daily experiences etc(I'll try to upload some pics too) when I get some free time,hopefully tonight.

Was GREAT btw!!

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Question Bill......Do you want me to post pics?  The reason I ask is,the pics I post could potentially ruin it for you as far as the surprise factor for you.  I don't want to spoil the "movie" for ya,if you catch my drift.

I have a ton of pics,that I still have to upload to this puter. If you don't mind the pics,I'll get to it within the next few days,and give a brief narrative with the pics.

Thumbs up or thumbs down bud

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Question Bill......Do you want me to post pics?  The reason I ask is,the pics I post could potentially ruin it for you as far as the surprise factor for you.  I don't want to spoil the "movie" for ya,if you catch my drift.

I have a ton of pics,that I still have to upload to this puter. If you don't mind the pics,I'll get to it within the next few days,and give a brief narrative with the pics.

Thumbs up or thumbs down bud

Post away. I figure having been on the Voyager class, I have some idea of what the Freedom is going to be like, and I've spent a lot of time over in that cruise forum.

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Sorry I've been so long......been busy at work and around the house. My wife has most of the pics grouped and uploaded,will post various pics etc when I can find some free time lol.

Here's 1 pic of me next to the hot-tub.

[drewstar]

My wife and I will be taking off next week for a7 day  bermuda cruise from Boston. It's kinda of a last minute thing, as she decided she needed to get out of town when she found a deal she couldn't refuse...  I'm not thrilled about the possibilities of the weather being bad at this time of year,,,but  a week on a cruise line with all the great food and entertainment, spas, casinos, lounges, etc etc....sounds nice, espcially at a price that's cheaper than just a weekend stay at decent hotel.  If we catch a break in the weather, well I'm considering that all a bonus.  

Auto, I'd love to see some pics.  

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There is a lot of good deals to be found on cruises this time of year. What ship/line?  We expect a hot tub  report.

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Sorry I've been so long......been busy at work and around the house. My wife has most of the pics grouped and uploaded,will post various pics etc when I can find some free time lol.

Here's 1 pic of me next to the hot-tub.

I think this is where I want to be on our next departure.

[drewstar]

There is a lot of good deals to be found on cruises this time of year. What ship/line?  We expect a hot tub  report.

Wm ,

It's the Norwegian line. It's out of Boston,  on an older ship. The name eludes me at the moment.

[drewstar]

Well  I'm back from my cruise. I had a great time. Since a lot of folks here appear to be interested in Cruising, I'll post a bit about my cruise to Bermuda, with a slight critical eye towards reviewing the ship.  

This was my 2nd cruise. My first was a few years ago with Royal Caribian, and this was the 6th cruise for my wife.

We sailed on Norwegian Cruise Lines,  on the Majesty, and left out of Boston.  Leaving out of Boston was great, as we are only about a 45 minute drive from the harbor. Taking a vacation without going to the airport was wonderful.  Airports are such a pain. Being able to drive directly to the ship made a significant difference in travel and stress.  


The ship itself,  The Majesty, is an older ship, (20+ years) and by today's standards, a small ship.  She was showing her age a bit. But overall, it was still nice, clean and acomodating. The ship featered 10 decks, 2  small pools, 2 hot tubs, casino, spa, theater, 3 shops,  and at least 6 resturants and of course bars. (I think I found 7 of them).

Overall, I found the quality of the ships food to be a bit disapointing. Since cruise ships are known for thier fine dining,  I was a bit disapointed to find the 2 main dinning room's food a bit mediocre, as well as the service.  The ship had 2 other "reservation only"  resturants where we found the food and service up to par. One resturant (Le Bistro) charged and additional $15 per person to dine there which was a bit frustrating but the food and service were exceptional by any one's standards.  After trying the main dining room's food, we then dined excluslivey at the two "Reservation only" resturants.

On the main sun decks the buffetts were less than apitizing and offered none of the glamor and glitz that  we expected. In fact it was picked over, messy, and bland.


I think part of our dispointment was that this was a "Budget cruise" at the end of huircane season and the price of $350 per person could not be turned down. (we expected to pay several times that) Unforutantely we realized this also ment a boat load (litteraly!) of low end vacationers, and bargin hunters on board, and it was reflected in the crowd. I had expectations of a classy expereince and found mysleft knee deep in...well some of the scuzziest folks I've ever came across.  I hope that didn't sound stuck up, but I offer it up as a warning to others as something to consider. Cruiseing in my mind should be a relaxing pampering, self indulgent vacation, where elegant dining, top notch service and  lavish atomosphere is supreme.   On this cruise? Eh, not so much. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice, but not what I expected.

Norwegian offers "Free Style Cruising"  This has it's plus's and minus. On the plus side, we had our choice of dining times, and resturants (as opposed to fixed dinner times and seating on some other ships). This was great.

They also have a relaxed dress code. this was bit of a disapointment, as we expected this to mean "Resort Casual Dress" but most of the folks on the ship took it to mean "Dress like a homeless person". Since my wife and I had visions of strolling the sun decks at night, sipping champage, dressed comfortable but elegant. We found ourselves in throngs of folks looking like refugees storming the buffett for the last few cheeseburgers.

The spa was top notch.  My wife and I start every vacation with a massage. It's a great way to start of a vaction. The  spa on the Majesty offered one of the best massages I'd  have ever had. It was pricesy ($155 for an hour), but worth evey single  penny and then some.  

Bartenders were great, although as with any cruise ship, mixed drinks ranged from $6-9 a pop, plus a mandatory 15 % gratuiuty. The wine selection was fine, but then agian, I'm not fussy with my wine.  The ship also included a $10 per day, per person mandatory gratituiy for the room stewards. Once again, I'm not a fan of mandatory gratiuties, but I will say, the room stewards did an excellent job.


Bermuda itself was great. We lucked out with the weater (Sunny 83 degrees). My wife and I enjoyed renting scooters for two days (this was an exciting way to see the island), snorkeling, horse drawn carrage rides, cave tours, the under water museam and roaming around the towns of St. George and Hamiltion. Unfortunatley, much to my wife's disapointment, we only had 4 days on the island, and we didn't fit any beach time in. I made it up to her by taking her to several jewelry stores, and she also found some great deals on french perfume.


Overall the vacation was wonderful. The ship had it's pluses and minus'es, but at a last minute vacation, and considering the price we paid, we are very happy.  

This is longer than I expected, so I'll end it here.  If you have any questions about Bermuda, or the ship, I'd be more than happy to answer them.

 

[drewstar]

Oh and to make my posts hot tub relevant, the Majesty had 2 hot tubs.  They were about 6' x 8' rectangular tubs, with over flow grating around the lip.  They were open seat styles and other than two dinner plate sized intakes on the floor, there were no jets.  Sticking my hand in one, the water temp seemed tepid, about 96 or so? I never saw any steam comming from the tubs.

I did not use them. When I first got on board before anyone used it, they were a bit foamy and the foam had some of the brown sludge slime to it. Yuk. No thanks. I'm spoiled with my onw tub.


The tubs got plenty of use from other passengers and were always full. One tub was dedicated to adults, the other tub was for adults and children, but no one paid attention to this rule.

The water in the tubs were of course cloudy from the dozens of folks sitting in them all day and night, I also noticed the water seemed to have a slight green tint to it.  Having your own hot tub certaininly spoils you.  

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Sorry to hear about your exp Drewstar   We did a few Carnival cruises,prior to RCI,and on all the cruises we've been on,the food has been outstanding!  Our exp on this last cruise as far as dining....Wifey told me we were sitted at a big table etc. The table size turned out to be a 6 seater. First night it was just the wife and I. We figured the other people were doing different thing the first night. Second night was formal night,and once again we sat alone. At that point we figured no company the rest of the trip,and that's how it worked out.  I didn't mind either way,but the wifey was bummed out as she never stops talkin lol....and enjoys company almost 24-7 lol. We did eat at 1 of the 2 elite restaurants. We ate at "Chops" which is a 5 star caliber experience. Each person was 20 bucks,and was well worth it! We invited a newlywed couple to eat with us that night at Chops,which my wife had met online at a "meet and mingle" site. We bought them dinner,and that was our wedding gift if you wanna call it that lol. That was the best dining experience for us as,we had a nice/fun conversation with them,and learned about their county and customs etc,as they are from Ireland.

Gettin sidetracked lol. Anyways,in comparision to what you described Drewstar,the Carnival ships we rode on sounded just like yours. Low budget minded folks. We had fun on the 2 Carnival cruises,as those were/are known as party ships.

RCI in my opinion,is definately a better cruise,as far as the ship.

Question Bill,you have your cruise booked in 500 and some odd days lol.....I'm takin you have your room and room number booked,correct? If so,what room?  Wifey knows the popular rooms,and how to save a buck etc,if you're interested.  And lastly,as she informed me as far as rooms,if you so happen to book a room,and it's a certain room overlooking the royal promenade,and lol,it happens to be the room right above Ben and Jerrys Ice cream,the room with the view of a COWS ARSE,you get free ice-cream for the cruise(no joke)  Just food/ice cream for thought