Cruising Tips for the Freedom of the Seas

cindy_k

Hi Everyone,

While I have never been on a JoCo cruise before, I have sailed twice on the Freedom of the Seas. Once on the same itinerary we are doing for 6.

So I thought I would start a thread for Cruising tips.

COFFEE - I am a coffee-holic. To make my multiple trips to the coffee station easier, I always bring my own travel mugs with a handle and lid

      Note: you can not put your mug under the coffee urn dispenser, because of contamination fears. You take one of the disposable cups provided and fill that, and use that to fill your mug.

       My own mug is bigger than the cups provided, better insulated and with the handle, I can carry two or three with one hand and use the other to bring back a snack too .

      example; http://dads-blog.dadsguidetowdw.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/refillable-mugs.jpg

      I live in Florida, so I have a collection of these mugs.

    

   The coffee station is open pretty much 24/7 in the promenade area. it has a coffee bar that sells starbucks too, but there is free coffee is in the back of the shop. The pastry and treats in the window are included at no extra charge. You will pay extra if you want a frappachino though. 

What other tips do people have?

   

Sparky1961

Freedom looks identical to the Independence of the Seas in many respects--how is it different?

Tkael

On the Independence of the Seas, there was a "secret" dinner menu item each night - an nice Indian dish (most of the cooks were Indian). I ended up ordering two entrees on more than one evening.

Not sure if the same'll be true for the Freedom, but there's a pretty good chance there will be something similar.

isildur42

Major difference is the soda selection.  Independence of the Seas, for reasons of european nation, does not have the Coke Freestyle machines.  The Freedom does.  For those unfamiliar with these marvels of soda related technolgy, they let you make flavored versions of various coke brand soft drinks.  For example, you can get Grape Ginger Ale or Orange Mellow Yellow or Cherry Coke Zero.  It uses what are essentially ink cartridges full of flavor or syrup and combines it with soda water and then dispenses it into your cup on the fly.  As it uses a hopper like mechanism, I personally like to run my selection for a moment outside my cup before I let it enter the cup to prevent whatever the last person made to be mixed into what I am drinking.

The secret indian food item on the dinner menu will likely still exist as it was there on JCCC3 too.

SapphireMind

Also, they say you have to use their special cup because it has an RFID tag in it that has to be near the machine for it to work.

You can remove the RFID tag and place it onto a card or similar so you can have a clean cup every time and not have to reuse/wash your "souvenir" cup. 

TigerB99

Isildur42, I was good there for the moment, and then I got to "ink cartridges" and totally lost it. Thanks.

Fizzgig

SapphireMind: I can't find the RFID tag on our 3 Pepsi cups from previous cruises. Where is that?

TigerB99: In horrific pseudocode, just for giggles (it's a slow work day):

10 APPROACH massive red soda machine in back of buffet with fancy_dancy_RFID_cup;

20 GET ice;

30 CHOOSE {caffeinated, carbonated, or flavored};

40 CHOOSE soda_type;

50 DEPRESS big_button_PUSH

60 WHILE {cup is not sufficiently full or flavored} GOTO 30;

60 END

martinbogo

The RFID tag is located at the bottom of your cup.  ( It's also in your SeaPass )  Until recently, this has always been a sticker.   Freedom of the Seas is the first boat in 2015 to have the RFID chip directly molded into the cup... so this trick of moving a sticker may not last that much longer.

That said, these are -cheap- RFID tags, and the tech is the same as the one in the cheap programmable tags from China.    Soooo... it should be possible to clone the RFID tag from the cup to something more convenient like a wristband or keyfob tag ... or an arduino.