View the slide show below. I don’t say this a lot, but Good Job CC!

(scroll right to see their commentary)

Naturally, passengers flock to the closest media medium to post about it: CruiseCritic I’ve been incredibly vocal in my absolute revulsion for the site and in cases like this my views are confirmed. They just posted the article: Why Did Freedom of the Seas Sail Into a Storm Two Other Cruise Ships Avoided?

Yes CruiseCritic, RCI and their extremely experienced crew decided to forego passenger safety and sail into a storm on purpose. Obviously its sarcasm here (I don’t want RCI upset with me.)

Their argument in the article mostly focuses around the following:

“two other vessels — Disney Dream and Carnival Sensation — delayed their departures until weather conditions calmed”.

RCI fired back via their spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez:

“Freedom of the Seas was the first ship scheduled to leave Port Canaveral on Sunday — making it something of a guinea pig. ‘When Freedom of the Seas departed Port Canaveral, the port was still open and the pilots were still taking ships out’ ”

I think its also important to note that Freedom has further to go  has a significantly deeper draft [7.9m vs 8.53m]. Besides, if the port is open, its captains decision. He knows his ship better and knows what she can and cant handle.

Carnival’s take was the following:

"We felt it was best to keep the ship in port until conditions improved for the comfort of the guests and crew," explains spokeswoman Jennifer De La Cruz.

As any experienced mariner will tell you, the most dangerous place to be in, in a storm is along the pier. There is so much that can snap, break, and objects the ship can slam into. Why do you think that when a hurricane is approaching, ports close down and ships flee for open water?

Anyways, here are photos of the inside of the Freedom. You’re on a ship. IT MOVES. That’s what they do!

UPDATE: We got video. Notice how the ships railing tends not to move in relation to the horizon. Freedom is 4 wave lengths in, well, length. This helps minimize the total movement of the ship. Stabilizers help too, but I doubt they were deployed in this rough of weather.

This morning, Good Morning America sent two correspondents to the ship to report from there. I got up early to watch this and did a play-by-play of their broadcast.

After Good Morning America wrapped up, she arrived back in port.

Here is her track from this morning.

You can get the sense that I wasn’t too pleased by their lack of coverage of the event. After watching how CruiseCritic handled their introduction of the vessel, I wouldn’t have needed to wake up early.

This afternoon she embarked additional media, travel agents, and invited guests. Cruise Critic was among those that were there. Their Editor in Chief, Carolyn Spencer Brown, and Managing Editor Melissa Paloti held a live walkthrough this afternoon. This was streamed live over the wifi on the ship. Its nice to see people in the industry finally use the internet for things like this. Very web 2.0ish!

In case you missed it, I have included it below. Its just over an hour long. If you have the time its worth a watch but like I said its an hour. An hour of them walking around the windjamer, central park, and boardwalk. But they do a thorough job of it.

Part One (49 Minutes)

Part 2 (5 Minutes)