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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:49 PM  
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#11
carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 11

As we were getting ready for dinner, we were lucky enough to see one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen. This was worth spending the extra on a balcony alone.





Tonight was ‘Smart Casual’ which I thought they had done away with, but it was nice to see many people dressed nicely again. There was a great guitar player on the promenade bridge tonight.





Dinner was OK, but not fantastic for Christmas Day. I had the turkey. It was not a ‘usual’ menu, and to be honest, I would say it was the poorest of all the menu’s BUT the food was excellent, and I did enjoy it.
I especially felt sorry for our waiting staff this evening who were all fantastic (and I can’t believe I have forgotten their names, apart from our main waiter – Ajith from India), as it must have been hard for them being so far from their families.

Not too sure what else we did this evening, but I’m sure it included another trip to the Champagne Bar and The promenade café for coffee and a bun before bed!




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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:51 PM  
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#12
carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 12

Boxing day – Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

We didn’t chose this cruise because of the itinerary, but for the ship itself, and Jamaica has never been a ‘must-see’ destination. Because of this, we decided to have a quick look at the shopping, and then get back on board.

First stop was breakfast, after our juice and hot tea from Room Service first. We decided to try the Windjammer this morning, and although there were a lot of people, it wasn’t too crowded and we could find a seat easily.

The breakfast choice was great, and I especially love the grape jelly, and the apple cinnamon jelly.

It was great watching us pull into dock, but nothing would compare to Christmas Day in Labadee.





It was also nice not to tender, and just be able to stroll off the ship. After all the obligatory photos (which I have to say we purchased quite a lot of), we found a taxi and made our way to a shopping area. I can’t remember the actual name, but it was to the left of the port, and not the ‘Taj’ one if that helps. The taxi charged us a return rate and asked when we wanted picking up. As we were not too sure how long we would be, we made arrangements to call the cab driver from a shop to come and collect us. Not an ideal situation but we had to go along with it.





The shopping area was filled with the usual Caribbean stores selling jewellery and watches. This was ideal for us as Tony is really into his watches and I love diamonds (well, which girl doesn’t). I had already got a ring from the onboard store (Thanks Tony), but as I could change it at any time, I just wanted to see if there was anything better ashore.

As we wondered around, Tony saw a watch in a window so in we went. This was to be the start of a few hours haggling and weighing up the odds on a beautiful Ulysse Nardin watch. In the end we got it down to about £700-£800 less than it would have been in the UK (but it was still a LOT of money). The one Tony wanted didn’t have the correct strap on it, so they offered to swap the strap over with one that did. Now we both knew that you shouldn’t really do that, esp on a watch that expensive, but let them carry on anyway. We could tell they were struggling in the back, and when they came back out with it, the metal strap had been ever so slightly damaged. Well that made the decision for us, and we said our goodbyes minus the watch. It was a shame though, as we saw the watch again in Grand Cayman, and is was a lot more money, and they couldn’t believe we had got it offered for so low a price.

I did get to try on some beautiful pieces though whilst Tony was mulling over the watch, one was even a ring worth over $100k, but it was just a bit too bling for me LOL!

Anyway, we had now spend much longer here than we had wanted to, so went to call our taxi driver to take us back to the ship. The store owner said he was on his way, but after 15 mins he still hadn’t turned up. In the end, we paid another couple of dollars and got another taxi to take us back. Again, this wasn’t ideal, but it was a really hot day and we just wanted to get back onboard.

When we finally got back, we decided to try Johnny Rockets for lunch. OMG – how good was that!




After a couple of burgers, fries and onions rings each, and a rootbeer for me and malt for Tony, we were close to bursting, but our waitress insisted we try a couple of the deserts.



How amazing was that Oreo Sundae. I hate to admit it but we polished off the lot, although Tony did eat most of it! Honest!
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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:51 PM  
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#13
carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 13

For the rest of the day we just chilled out by the pool in the Solarium, and in the hot tubs which were still as warm as ever.

Before too long it was time to get ready for our Chops reservation. I can’t believe we were going to eat again, but no way was I going to miss this as I had been looking forward to trying Chops for a long time.



Then it was into Chops. We both thought this restaurant was very beautiful inside, and it was only about ½ full. Very peaceful.



The meal was amazing, and yet again we definitely overindulged, but what the hell – we are on holiday!

Even though we had definitely eaten more than out fair share that day, we both had to get desert, even if it was just for the photos…..





We also got given a tray of chocolate covered strawberries (which I enjoyed more than the desert, which I didn’t really eat) and some small fondant cakes. Definitely food overload.

Not too sure what we did that evening, although I know the Champagne Bar and Casino featured a great deal of the cruise.

I don’t think it was too late a night (surprise, surprise) as we had an early start the next day as we were doing Stingray City with my sister.
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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:52 PM  
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#14
carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 14

Next morning we got up early and enjoyed some room service breakfast. I had learnt by now that even though they don’t list ‘toast’ on the form, you could hand write it in and get as much toast as you wanted – excellent.

We met up with my sister in the Arcadia Theatre, and made our way out to the tender for our tour. I know there are lots of advantages to booking this independently not through RCI, but as this was our first excursion, and we were looking after my 15 year old sister, we felt more comfortable doing the RCI tour.

As we took the tender, it was great to see all the ‘pirate ships’ and other cruises all around. Freedom looked far the best though!




Once we got off the tender, we were bussed out to the boat that would be taking us to Stingray City. This only took about 10 mins, but I was very surprised to see us being dropped off in quite a residential area.

We then boarded another 2-storey boat – very large. I was expecting this to be very busy and packed on like sardines, but there was loads of space. There was a toilet and shower onboard, and it was great to get some sun on deck. We seemed to be sailing down a residential canal out to sea, and we passed some amazing apartments and houses, as well as a lovely golf course. What a fabulous place to live.



After about 45 minutes, we finally arrived at the sandbar. You couldn’t miss it for the amount of boats that were moored up. Very busy, but there were about 4-5 cruises in port today, and it was another beautiful hot day.





We had decided to invest in an aquapac for an old digital camera for today, and so we made sure that was all sealed up and got off the boat.

The water was quite shallow, only about waist deep, but not too cold, thank god. I was really lucky because as soon as I got off there was a guide with a huge stingray that let it swim all up and around me. This wasn’t a totally new experience for me, as Tony and myself had done something similar in Mexico a few years back, albeit not in natural surroundings.



This is where having the aquapac really came into its own as we managed to take loads of pictures ourselves, even underwater. We were really impressed with the results so it was a good investment.

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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:53 PM  
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carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 15

I have to say, it was getting very busy, and it was only really possible to interact with the stingrays when the tour guides were taking your pictures. I know they were catering for a lot of people, and everyone wanted a picture, but this was a bit of a disappointment. You were not allowed to feed the rays at all, and to be honest, I don’t think our guide fed them either, he was just more interested in holding the rays for the pictures.

It was still good fun though, don’t get me wrong, but if I was to do it again (which I probably wouldn’t), then I would not do it on a day when there were as many ships in port, or with RCI.

We did all get our pictures taken with the rays though, and we also managed to get our ‘own’ pictures at the same time.

My sister, Olivia……….



Tony and the guide……..


After about 30-45mins in the water, it was time to leave.

Our boat, the biggest there……….



It was a lot quicker to get back to land, and it was lovely drying off on the sun deck. I did go and have a look on board at the pics that the tour guides took but I didn’t think they were as good as ours, and you had to order them and then they got posted out to you.

When the boat got back, we opted to go back into George Town for a bit of shopping (surprise, surprise). Olivia decided she wanted to get back onto Freedom, so luckily, when we walked her back to the pier, one of her newly made friends was going back also, so we felt better leaving her with a friend rather than letting her go off on her own.

TBH, she would have been fine anyway, as she had been off doing her own thing most of the time anyway. She had met up with some girls from NY and we hadn’t really seen much of her. The curfew for teens was meant to be 1am, but my mum did say she did not get back to the cabin till 2am one morning – naughty naughty!

Anyway, we had a wander around the shops and priced up a few watches, including the Ulysse Nardin Tony had already seen, and a few Breitlings. Unfortunately, they were a few hundred dollars more expensive than in Jamaica, although much cheaper than back in the UK.







It was very busy in port, and we couldn’t wait to get back onto the ship, empty handed unfortunately.
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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:53 PM  
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#16
carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 15

That evening, before we had dinner, we went and saw the Ice Show. This was absolutely fabulous and a must see activity. There was a Russian skater who kept doing tricks within a hoop which was spectacular. It was quite cool in the theatre though, so I was glad I had taken a fleece.





That evening was Formal night again, so on with the glad rags. Now Tony had brought 2 dress shirts, but because he preferred the one he had worn to the previous formal evening, he decided to get it laundered for tonight. Unfortunately, it had come back with the black enamel buttons all broken. Luckily, he had his other shirt, but still it wasn’t great….. We mentioned it to Cathy, our room steward, who took it away, but then came back and said me must go down to guest relations to fill in a form.

This we did, and luckily an Irish girl (Fenoula sp?) was on, who we had started to get on really well with – we also had another dispute of extra drinks being added to our seapass which she was dealing with. Thankfully, the drink situation had been resolved, but the shirt would not be sorted on board and we would have to phone RCI when we got home, after filling in the form. This was a bit of a faff, and TBH, we still haven’t done it, but we will. She even said the same thing had happened with her uniform, it had come back from laundry without buttons, so maybe next cruise we would give this a miss……….

Anyway, once all dressed up, we went for the obligatory photos, before heading to the Champagne bar.



This evening we had a great evening at dinner. My mum had brought some crackers with her which we had not used on Christmas day, so our waiter, assistant waiter and head waiter (who always came round every meal for a chat and who was lovely) fought over those for the gifts inside – very funny.



Unfortunately the watch wasn’t in the cracker, but Tony enjoyed showing off his collection of watches every night, as most of the waiters and crew seemed to be into them also.



Dinner that evening was lobster (fishermans plate) and I thought it was lovely. So good in fact I had two, and I really had to stop the waiter bringing me another out.

Now on a previous evening when we had eaten at Chops I was disappointed to learn I had missed the Crème Brule for desert, as this is my most favorite of all time. My mum must have mentioned it to the waiter, because this evening he was insistent that I have the desert sampler – most insistent.

When the desert sampler came, it was in fact 2 huge crème brules. How about that for service. I was very touched and thought it was a lovely thing to do. I have to also admit to eating both (with a bit of help from Tony) as it was delicious!

That evening we went to the late production show – I think it was called ‘Once upon a time’. As good as it was, I unfortunately fell asleep after 5 mins, but luckily Tony took photos and video to see what I missed. The first and last 5 minutes that I saw though was excellent.

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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:54 PM  
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carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 16

Next day found us at Cozumel. Both me and Tony were really looking forward to this as we had previously spent a glorious couple of weeks in Playa del Carmen a few years back.

We were very lucky and had another glorious hot day ahead of us. I really hadn’t expected the weather to be so great, so this was an added bonus.

Again, walking off the ship was good, and it was great to see another RCI Voyager class ship next to us at the pier. You could really see the size difference, but what made the most difference we thought were the glass balconies vs the old metal ones. It gave Freedom a much better look.









After looking at some watches, we realized they were more expensive again than any of the other ports, so we decided to concentrate on another ring for myself.

In the end I found a lovely one in Diamonds International, and decided to take the plunge. Their appraisal was quite good, ie good colour and quality, as well as being a carat in weight, but I will be getting another appraisal done here at home before the 30-day money back guarantee is us, just to be sure.

I did have to get it resized though, and while we were waiting we were shown some amazing diamonds from the safe. Wow. Now if only I could win that lottery.

We were then going to head back to the ship, but as we had bought something from DI, we were entered into a free draw for $500, to be drawn in a couple of hours.

Because of that, we decided to wait it our and had some lunch in the Hard Rock Café. A pretty safe choice, I know, but it was good.

I would love to say we won the draw, but it was not to be, although there were only about 20 entries.

We went back to the ship, but at least this time I had my gorgeous ring.

We did a bit more exploring once back onboard, and saw some amazing wipeouts on the Flowrider. I have to say we saw many people in casts and crutches as the week went on, so maybe the Flowrider was taking a few victims with it…….



Because of this, we decided to give it a miss, and settled down in the solarium again, with a nice ice-cream from Sprinkles for company.

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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:54 PM  
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carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 17

That evening, we were again treated to an amazing sunset. How glad am I that we got a balcony.



It was also nice to see the other RCI ship pull away, all lit up.



That evening we were eating in Portofino’s, so off we headed. I thought the restaurant was lovely, but not as nice as Chops. It was much brighter and I didn’t think the decorations were as nice.



What was really off putting though was the heard of elephants running over our heads. We spoke to the waiter about it and apparently Adventure Ocean Club is situated right overhead. This is a major design flaw in my books. I know there were over 1,200 children onboard, but it felt like each and every one of them were jumping and running overhead.

As well as that, as the far end of the room where the dishes etc are cleared away, was another din. Instead of clearing and stacking them away quietly, they were being clashed about, and even dropped every few minutes. This was really not good, and I can’t believe the head of the restaurant who was clearly visible did not say or do anything.

That aside, the food was excellent, it was just a shame about the ambiance. I would do Portofino’s again, but in my mind Chops was much better.





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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:55 PM  
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carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 18

The next day (last sea day) was unfortunately a bit cooler and slightly choppy at sea, so we spend most of the day taking a few last photos, and doing a bit of Ice-skating. Tony really loved this, although I was a bit more cautious about falling since I have a bad knee, so gave up quite quickly.

We checked out some of the pictures to be auctioned, but nothing really appealed.



We then hit the casino for a while, and I’m glad to say that overall on the cruise I probably came out evens, whilst Tony came out higher.





We also tried to watch some of the belly flop competition, but it was very crowed, in fact the most people we had seem all cruise.



After a bit of lunch at the Windjammer, it was time to do some packing – what do you mean we have to leave? It was very sad.



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Old 4 Jan 08, 05:55 PM  
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#20
carolynn38
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Join Date: Jun 05
Part 19

We then headed out onto the promenade for a nice cup of tea, and slice of cake.



We also had a quick look at the onboard shops to make sure there was nothing we had forgotten to buy. Over the week, we had got on really well with the retail manager of the Jewelry shop, Stuart from Ireland, so we caught up with him for a bit.

We did discuss the fact that the staff Christmas Party had been canceled a few nights earlier. We had heard this from quite a few crew as the Norovisrus had reared its ugly head. Luckily it had only been 40 pax and 2 crew, but the captain had still thought it prudent to cancel the crew party. I have to say I thought the hand sanitation onboard was excellent. There were crew at every dining venue handing out wipes, and they were continually cleaning banisters etc. I also heard they were even de-fumigating parts of deck 6 at one point, around certain cabins.

As we had missed the earlier parade in the week, as well as the Carol Singing on Christmas Eve (which I was very annoyed about), I was determined not to miss the circus parade, which was excellent.







We then finished our packing, put the cases in the hall and headed to the Champagne bar to say our goodbyes to Claudia and Hersson (sp?) who we had got to know quite well.



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