8/31/05 - The events for today all started with a mysterious e-mail I received from Royal Caribbean announcing a media event to unveil the biggest thing to come to the open seas. I did some research and knew it had to do with Freedom of the Seas. But my question kept remaining - "what could this big announcement be?" Freedom of the Seas isn't going to be ready until May 2006, so they couldn't have been showing the ship. Once finished, Freedom of the Seas will surpass the Queen Mary II as the largest cruise ship in the world.



With many questions on my mind of what was going on, Laura, a friend of mine, and I headed up to Port Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne. I was also curious as to how much work they had completed on the old military terminal where the cruise port now resides. To be honest, not much has changed on the terminal, but it seems to be only a matter of time before we really see some progress.

Gathering before the big announcement and unveiling.

Once there and walking through the event gates, I noticed some people sitting at a table - with bathing suits, wet hair and eating. The eating part wasn't odd, since the event had a brunch and later even had a wet bar. But I kept thinking, why are these people's hair wet and why are they wearing bathing suits? There was no pool around and there was no way anyone could swim off the pier in NY Harbor, so that couldn't be it. There was Beach Boys music playing from the loudspeakers, and Royal Caribbean had the place decorated with surf boards. So how is this all related to the announcement?

Laura and I got something to eat and then walked around. Durng our walk we passed by a large blue ramp thing that looked like a skating ramp. Then it hit me what they were announcing, but I didn't say anything. If I was right, then this was one of the most amazing things that any cruise ship could offer.

The Secret Revealed
Then it was time to go inside for the big announcement. The president and chairman were onstage and said a few words, still being rather vague on why we were all there. They talked about how it was incredibly difficult to have kept this a secret for a full year and that the president hadn't even told his children until Sunday. Finally - they said instead of them telling us what it was, they were going to show a commercial which will start airing that day and it will show us what they were talking about.

So the commercial started, with the words "Longboard", "Shortboard", "Boogie Board" flashing on the screen. Then came what we were all waiting for. People SURFING ONBOARD. It was incredible. There was an incredulous gasp of awe from the people watching. I knew it! That blue thing I had seen outside, sprayed a sheet of water up the ramp at 30,000 gallons per minute and it was just powerful enough to surf on. What an awesome thing to offer on the ship.

A surfer demonstrating the new FlowRider® for Royal Caribbean's newest ship, Freedom of the Seas.

Now it was time to go back outside, where they had a live demonstration going on. That's why the people were in bathing suits and had wet hair. They were the surfers! It was truly incredible to see it live right there, with the Statue of Liberty in the background. I could just picture the lines of teenagers waiting to get a chance to surf onboard Freedom of the Seas. I must say, I was a bit jealous. I wish Freedom of the Seas would be docked in Bayonne, but sadly it's homeport will be Miami.

After quite a while, we decided we would head out. I had run out of film anyway while filming the surfers, so I picked up my gift basket which contained an image CD (I'm rather disappointed it doesn't include the commercial - otherwise, I would have posted it here for people to see), descriptions of the "FlowRider®" and Freedom of the Seas, and a little carved wooden surfboard with "Freedom of the Seas" printed on it (to be honest I was hoping it was going to be a model of the ship).

Exploring 13A
Next on our list was to explore Turnpike Exit 13A in Elizabeth where we would check out Ikea and Jersey Gardens. This is the largest Ikea in North America and only has 3% sales tax since it's in the UEZ zone (Urban Enterprise Zone). I've always wanted to see it, since I have a friend who lives in Sweden. One of the cool things I noticed was the cafe/restaurant on the second floor. It contains a floor to ceiling, wrap around window overlooking Newark Liberty International Airport, so you can eat and watch the planes taking off and landing. I know the kids love this. It's only 5 minutes from the airport, on the other side of the Turnpike.

After spending some time there, we headed over to the Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall. Now I had never been there, but I know they always advertise themselves as a "tourist destination". It was huge, with over 200 stores, such as PacSun, Quicksilver, Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Mikasa and so much more (Remember, unlike NY, NJ has ZERO percent sales tax on clothes and with this being in a UEZ, only 3% tax on everything else).

Jersey Gardens includes an indoor amusement park area for kids to keep them occupied and several restaurants as well as a food court. I was impressed with it, however I do wish they would work on beautifying the area around the mall. It's in an industrial area with warehousing, but there is no reason why they can't do landscaping along the streets, repave the roads and improve the signs. The mall area has all that of course, but it just looks like an island in the middle of industry; the same goes for Ikea which is only a block away.

After exploring Jersey Gardens, which Laura had no idea existed even though she had been to Ikea many times, we headed back to the Turnpike to go back home.

Robert Rosetta
President & Founder
AboutNewJersey.com