Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas Cruise Day 5

This trip report is from our Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruise onboard the Freedom of the Seas. If you’re just joining us, start from Day 1 by clicking here: Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas Cruise Day 1.

 

Today, we tendered in Grand Cayman and woke up to the beginning of some sort of competition.

 

We had breakfast in the Windjammer buffet again, where this guy enthusiastically greeted us every morning. Actually, enthusiastic is an understatement.

 

After breakfast in the Windjammer, we walked around the town a little bit since our excursion wasn’t for 2 hours. We heard this guy from a few blocks away and we finally spotted him.

 

Grand Cayman is so colorful and there was so much action in the pier area. Brett was a kid in a candy store with photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had been to Grand Cayman before and loved it, mostly because of the excursion we picked, which was taking a two person speedboat to snorkel and then to swim with and feed the stingrays. This time, we booked a helicopter tour through Cayman Islands Helicopters. We were picked up at the pier by the tour company and taken to the local airport, where we joined the other 4 people in our tour. We did the 20 minute tour that went over Stingray City, 7 mile beach and our cruise ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was our first time being on a helicopter. The pilot started out by doing a few tricks, like going straight up, spinning around and doing a free fall, which were fun…in theory. I tend to get motion sickness during certain activities and now I can pretty much add “helicopter ride” to that list. There were barf bags available and I seriously contemplated busting out one of those bad boys, but I didn’t want to freak out the people next to us. Luckily, I made it to the end without an accident…but I sure was worried the entire time.

 

 

I was a little hesitant to book an excursion that wasn’t through the cruise ship. They say if you don’t book an excursion through the ship and happen to run late, that the ship will not wait for you at departure time. But since this excursion was relatively short, allowing us plenty of time until the ship departed, we took a chance and saved at least $100 by booking on our own. However, this was the only thing we booked independently from the cruise offerings, since we didn’t want to risk anything and wanted to feel confident in the tour company.

They dropped us back off at the pier and then we went to buy some rum, which was the only thing we bought off the ship during the entire trip. We just don’t need souvenir type stuff and neither of us collects anything, so unless we can drink it or eat it or if it doesn’t serve a real purpose, we usually don’t buy it. There’s always a use for rum! Especially run CAKES! Rum + cake – now I’M the kid in a candy store!

 

 

Since we didn’t have anything else left on the itinerary, we went back on the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

We had lunch at the Windjammer and then played in the pool area. We were like big kids. We started out in the cantilevered hot tubs that hang over the side of the ship.

 

 

 

Then we hung out in the kiddie pool area, which became our preferred pool location when we would go while everyone else was in port. We basically had the place to ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

After playtime, it was time for dinner. For the appetizer, I had a mushroom pastry and a chilled seafood platter and Brett had chilled peach soup. Chilled peach soup? I hadn’t heard of it either. It was almost like a smoothie, but still weird to have in a bowl for an appetizer.

 

 

 

For dinner, we both had the lobster and shrimp…BALLERS! The lobster is such a popular dinner that they assume that many people will want seconds and they keep asking if you want more. We opted not to have seconds and instead just asked for dessert, which we both chose the dessert sampler trio.

 

 

 

The ship was so pretty at night. All the colors are so beautiful. If there wasn’t an event to go to, I loved just walking around the uncrowded areas and taking it all in. And naps, too, naps on a cruise ship rock my world.

 

 

 

 

 

The main show tonight was “Once Upon a Time” which was a comedy musical. I was a little worried Brett would fall asleep again, but he didn’t. The show took fairy tales and mocked them by singing popular songs that were relevant to the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After midnight was Graham’s late night adult comedy show and the place was packed. I was skeptical of just how “adult” the show would be, seeing as most people/companies try not to offend people and tend to stick to the PG rated jokes. However, within 30 seconds and after an f-word and some air-humping, I knew this was going to be great.

 

 

He was hilarious, like tears-in-my-eyes hilarious. Anything Graham hosted was always great and a highlight of the trip. Kudos to Royal Caribbean for allowing a true adult comedy show.

After a long day, we headed back to the room to prepare for our last port day coming up.

 

Next up: Day 6 Cozumel, Mexico.

 

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