Mic & Family - August 2007

Who: Anderson family, Mic & Jeff, Sean (12) and Sarah (9)
When: August 2007
Trip: Cocoa Beach and Kennedy Space Center, 5 nights at Disney, followed by a 7 night Magic for Less group cruise out of Miami, and then 3 nights of free dining at Disney.

DAY 16:
Today's report: Freedom of the Seas Day 7, Debarkation

This was the day to leave the beautiful ship. We had chosen the 9-9:30 debarkation time, you are given tags the night before or you can pick up different ones at guest services if you do not have enough or need a different time to put on our luggage. Luggage was to be place outside your cabin between 7pm-11pm. There was also an option to take your bags with you and leave the ship at 6:30am. I believe this is what Binnie's family did so hopefully she can give some feedback on this option.

We were up at 7, finished up our last little bit of packing and headed down to meet Jill for breakfast at 8am. They had already called our "color" for debarking. Over an hour early, hmmm things must be going pretty smoothly. Our breakfast in the dining room was the same as before and not any better, we all are pretty sure the scrambled eggs and the eggs in the omelet came from powdered eggs (this determination was made by two military personal, and if anyone would know powdered eggs they would!). Service was lacking even more then usual this morning, forget getting anything to drink with your meal, although the people sitting with us got juice. We ate quickly and headed down to the deck for debarking. Only to be stopped by a very long and slow moving line.

Once we got off the stairways and into the main stream we were all slowly shuffling outside. Where we sat and waited, again. There was noone who seemed to know what was going on or telling people what was going on, I think that was the most frustrating part of it. Then a crew member came through trying to push someone in a wheelchair, now I would think that they would have some sort of system for people need extra assistance such as debarking them before everyone else, after everyone else, or taking them out of a different exit. It was just plain stupid to try to get a wchr through all these people who had been standing in line now for about 45 minutes with no information and thinking the seas were going to just part open. After another 10-15 minutes we were allowed to click our seapass in the machine and moved further down the deck, so we could wait again.

Eventually we were taken down a gangplank and entered into the port building. Customs was quick and painless once you got through the line, although it seems they might have thought to have separated US citizens from non US like they do at airport customs, just to make it quicker. Once we were allowed back into the country we located which carousel our bags were coming down, and Jill found her's down further. A skycap/porter came up and started chatting with me, as there were no luggage carts to rent anywhere I could see I decided that he could most certainly haul our bags out for us. It took quite a while for all our bags to arrive, I would say we were there for 25 minutes waiting, at which point the porter and Jeff took off and headed out before I had a chance to go and check on Jill. While trying to catch up with Jeff to tell him I was going to go and find Jill, we exited the area, and I was not allowed back in. Crap. It's a MADHOUSE out here, too small of an area, not properly marked what is happening where, and people with massive cruise bags going everywhere. I got back to the door area to see if I can find Jill coming out and start trying to call her cel phone. I inquired of one of the customs officials if there was anyway to page anyone inside and he curtly told me no and to move out of the way. SIGH. So I keep trying to call her and not get run over by luggage. I assume Jill is waiting inside for us as there is no way her luggage could have taken longer than ours, since it was called an hour before we even got in line to get off the ship, right ? Well turns out she was in there, still waiting for her bags, they took over an hour after she arrived. I was starting to panic, and asked one of the porters to look for her by carousel #1. Shortly after that here comes Jill, whew. So we go to find Jeff and the kids who had moved further down in an attempt to hail one of the Alamo buses, and missed it anyways by the time all the luggage was moved down there.

Did I mention the reason I rented with Alamo ? It was because they had an office at the cruise port. HOWEVER, it's not open on Sundays. How stupid is that ? So we had to take a bus to their airport terminal where they have separate check in machines for people coming from the port and people coming from the airport, but they are of course NOT MARKED. It was a continuation of the clustercluck at the port. We finally get our vehicle, Jeff pulls up to the little opening in the fence so we can load our bags and gets yelled at by an employee for blocking the lane leading to the (slow moving) exit. Whatever.

So a synopsis of my experience on RC Freedom of the Seas. It is a gorgeous ship and has a lot to offer. It also is a HUGE ship, and that makes for big big crowds and long waits at the elevators when it's a busy time. The food in the dining room left a lot to be desired, both from the point of selection as well as taste. And so did our service from our waitstaff, they seemed much more interested in the nearby table of single young girls. The food was okay, just not up to the level I was expecting on a ship. The food in Portofino's was excellent as was the service. The food in Windjammers was good, in some ways it was better than what I had in the dining room. The dessert buffet was incredible, and the carvings they did out of fruit were spectacular. I was disappointed that the flowrider and rock climbing wall were closed when we were in port. For many of us, the ship was our main destination, and I know there were other's that planned on staying on a less crowded ship on port days and using the amenities. The kids club was probably what irritated me the most. We were supposed to pick our kids up at noon, then could check them back in at 2pm, pick up again at 5, I believe the evening hours were from 7-10, although with late dining we never used them. I am on a cruise and don't want to be held to a rigid schedule of when I can or can't have my kids in the club and when they have to be picked up. There was the formal nights when the kids club went to Johnny Rockets, but you had to have your child signed up by noon to go with them. Also, the kids club to me appeared as a big empty room, with a few tv's or computers. I didn't really see anything that would make me want to spend time there, and you had to walk through a huge arcade to get to the check in areas. DD went there twice with Jessica and Deanna, but that was it and none of the girls seemed very anxious to return. They refused to let Jessica move up to be with Sarah and Deanna, but did allow Sarah and Deanna to move down to be with Jessica. Sean never did go to the Living room or Fuel to do any of the activities but I did hear from some of the other teens in our group that things seemed a bit unorganized when they did show up, that it was like no one was in charge and they would just wait until they had a big enough group of kids before beginning or organizing things. I think if we sail on RC again I would like to try a Mariner class ship as I have heard so many people having great experiences on them. Perhaps the crew of Freedom just need more time to learn to mesh and work as a team, and they will be up to the caliber of the Mariner class ships. However, there is no flowrider on the Mariner ships and that was a big highlight for Jeff and the kids. (even our adopted big kid Jill!)

So we head out, somewhere after Fort Lauderdale we find a Checkers, ahhh my last Checkers Burger for awhile. Then we hop on the turnpike and are off. We got to WDW, dropped Jill off at Old Key West so I could have a quick peek at it (I didn't see nearly enough), and then to Pop Century to drop the kids and I off. Jeff had to head back home to go to work L. Jeff returned the car to the airport and got on his flight on time although it was a bit delayed due to storms back home. He shortly takes off and is on his way home.

The kids and I get checked in and rest for a bit. We have dinner reservations tonight at The Whispering Canyon with Jill and Deb (Deb from TMFL). The earliest I could get was 9pm. The kids and I headed over a bit early and I showed them the common areas in the villas section of Wilderness Lodge. As it was raining and we were a bit chilled, we pulled some rocking chairs up to the fireplace and warmed up. Next we moved into the game room and played a game of Chinese checkers. (I won, LOL!). I really do love the common area in VWL, it's beautiful. Next we headed up to the gift shop, where I instructed DD NO SHOPPING tonight. Well unless I find something I want. LOL. And I did, I found the cutest little Christmas lanterns that you can put a tea light in, had to get one for me and 2 for gifts. DS wanted to get some muffins for breakfast and DD found another set for her polly pocketlike Cinderella set she had bought (this one was furniture and clothing). We headed out to check out the pool and then waited for Deb and Jill by the fireplace for a bit. This is the type of lobby you can just hang around and relax in.

We found our friends and got checked in at Whispering Canyon. Now I had heard a lot about this restaurant but have never eaten there. Our waiter started off good with his spiel and throwing napkins and straws at us, but I was a little irritated when he refused to let DS order off the kids menu (we would be paying with an adult TS credit so what difference did it make to them?). So we ended up having DS order for Jill (who was paying cash) and Jill ordered for DS (since his was cheaper) and they switched out. I am sure the waiter saw this but his service had gone way down hill by this point and we didn't care. The adults got the skillet and there was a lot to eat, chicken, pulled pork, ribs, corn on the cob, mashed potatos, green beans, salad, and it was all tasty. Our waiter never tried to involve my kids in any of the goings on although we did see them around us. We also saw the Ketchup thing going on although none of us had ordered anything requiring ketchp. We were never offered water or refills on our sodas, Jill was never offered a desert, and when we asked to get ours to go, the waiter insisted that they would not box DS up with ice cream (DS wanted the ice cream and planned on eating it while waiting for our bus). Since there was no ice cream we decided to wait til we got back to the room to eat our deserts, and guess what ? Yep there was the melty mush ice cream in DS that pretty much ruined his cinnamon crisps that came with it. In addition to all this "non Disney service" the waiter automatically added 18% tip to Jill's bill even though she was paying separately and paying cash. So all in all, this guy totally struck out in our review, I will try the restaurant again but will try to go when I am not so tired and can get more into the fun, rather than being irritated by the noise. We took the boat to MK, then transferred to our bus back to Pop.

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