jam19872016

It's cruise day!!! Getting the last minute stuff together now and then I'm Miami bound.

Packing is done. I succeeded in packing COO. It helps that I have free laundry. The plan is to be on the road tomorrow around 8, and no later than 830. See everyone for tomorrow for cruise day!!

Just checked port of Miami website, we got Terminal D and Celebration got stuck with F which makes no sense as D is set up to handle larger crowds than F. Lucky us! We will be docked facing downtown which means we will also get to sail towards the Miami skyline to turn around and sail out. We will get the full Miami sail away experience. Double lucky us!

Happy to do it 😊.

Thanks for following along! I'll have a lot of pics for a good sneak peak at the ship 🚢 It might be listed at the port of Miami website. Carnival uses Terminals D-F but they are all in a row so if you plug D into your navigation it will lead you where you need to be and if it's not there, keep going down the line. There will be excellent signage telling you where to go. Terminal F is a nightmare, so let's cross our fingers for D or E.

Time to head into work I'll finish catching up tonight! Check in is done and by some miracle there was a 10-1030 slot still available! That was unexpected.

I'll be spending about 15 minutes on packing and most of that will be rechecking to make sure I didn't forget anything. See you soon! I will probably buy a wine package onboard. I hope to not need it after week one, the plan is to see if I can buy a couple bottles from the duty free shop last night of first cruise. I'm hoping to be able to carry them over since they won't be checking if I am B2B.

Thanks for following along. I'll be sure to explore all over the ship since I won't be doing a lot of port exploring 🙂 Me too!

Thanks for joining me again! I look forward to showing you around. Me too! Glad to be heading out to do it again. Thanks for joining me for another one.

I have three less kids than you, that helps 😆. My 2023 trips were mostly booked in 2022 when cruise lines were still giving cabins away. Next year is not nearly as cruise heavy and u doubt any year will ever surpass 2022. Thanks for riding along! Thank you! Dream class is my favorite and I enjoyed both my previous cruises on Magic and can't wait to sail her again!

See yall onboard!

I did 15 days in Celebration last December and agree, it was extra special with all thr decorations and Christmas spirit. I can't wait to experience it again. Thank you for joining me again 😀

Good morning everyone. One day until cruise day!! Car us loaded down and I'm making the three hour trip home from mom's. It got quite chilly, by Florida standards, I hope it follows me south. Sleep comes so much easier when you can bundle under the covers and I know the building excitement will make it difficult to sleep tonight.

Thanks for joining me. I have the Oh crap! button in the suitcase still. I hope to use it sparingly!

Two things are knocked off the check list. I've purchased Wifi. I tried to purchase a ridiculously marked up bottle of alcohol for the room but it is not an option. I though it was six day sailings that could purchase them? Maybe I am mistaken. Maybe they took away the option again. I feel like it was there just a couple weeks ago when I was checking prices. I ended up buying two bottles of off brand sparkling wine and I will buy some more onboard at an even higher markup. Still safer than potentially wasting my money on Cheers! again. Cheaper too as I don't really feel like drinking everyday, sometimes I just want one or two for a night cap and that doesn't really work with Cheers. I will also have free drinks in the casino, hoping this is not an event cruise and I will be able to get a server's attention easily. I can also buy a few as I go and still come out cheaper than $60 a day (plus 18%). I've got a long day tomorrow driving from my mom's back home and then working a nine hour day followed by packing and finishing off the rest of my to do list but I tend to be a last minute planner by nature. The packing is always night before or morning of, the rest I am cutting it a little close but I should be ok.

Thanks! Here are some more items still on my to do list, pitch in wherever Check-in Buy Wifi Buy a bottle for the room Pack Book parking Cruise leaves in two days so any help is appreciated 😅 I've literally done nothing to get ready yet.

Touché 😅

The Carnival Legend will be in the Med next year, mostly out of Dover. It will feel very familiar in layout to the both QE and QV as they are essentially the same class of ship, just different ship yards and obviously spaces that cater to a different market. There is no Golden Lion and Queen's Room, that is all casino space! We love our gambling and Carnival fills their ships with gamblers! It would be a much quieter crowd than a typical Carnival cruise and more like a Cunard voyage than a cruise in the Caribbean. You would need to go in with a very very open mind about the differences, I think you could enjoy yourself I just don't think for most Cunarders Carnival would be a good fit. I think the perception of the food quality just from pictures alone is a huge red flag. If you do ever decide to do it, I would love to hear your thoughts as well as objective reasoning why you did or did not like it.

I wonder if this is recent then? There was a spot on the room steward's cart that said "chocolates" but when I peeked inside, it was empty. Nobody in my section was getting them. Thanks for reading along, and thanks again for introducing the threat to the Cunard folks it was great having everyone join 😁

Was that a Freudian slip? I assume that was hope and not nope 🙂 I did not experience the restaraunt breakfast personally so you could very well be correct. My mom is usually hard to please so I take what she says with a grain of salt, but I have never known her to be displeased enough to stop going. I'm sure the chocolates weren't good its just a nice treat, as if I have not had enough to eat already. I did not miss them, just thought it strange.

I seem to always be in the minority. I don't like Cousin Cookie and add me to the list of one (now two yay) who found his catchphrase to be like nails on a chalkboard. I also think that yes, this is cancel culture out of control. It was an off color remark, but it was one incident that led to someone with a lengthy and distinguished career being ended overnight. Sad. Maybe there is more to the story and this was a pattern of behavior. Maybe it had nothing to do with what we are speculating. But if this was all it takes to get someone fired, no wonder entertainers are so scared to offend. I don't find it funny, but I don't it offensive in any way and would never think "hey this is offensive and I should not say it.". It's clearly not meant to be taken seriously. Again, I don't find it funny, but I don't find it offensive either. If you do take it seriously, and find it offensive, that is your protected free speech. I wish comedians still had theirs.

Thanks so much to each and every one of you who contributed to this review! It was a blast sharing in this journey with all of you. I am getting ready to head out again on Sunday and I hope you all will join me for another one.

Hello everyone! I'm getting ready to sail out for another adventure on Sunday and I plan to do a live review of my time on board. This time I will be sailing on the Carnival Magic for 26 days from November 26 until December 22. I am not sure where I am going, nowhere too terribly exciting just around the Caribbean but I am excited to be on a ship for the Holidays and seeing the wonderful decorations and being around the festive cheer. Magic is also one of my favorite ships in the Carnival fleet. I will be sailing solo this trip as my mom was not ready to go on another cruise so soon after our wonderful two month adventure across the Atlantic and back. You can read that review here: Warning: its quite long! This review will mostly be 26 days of me eating and drinking too much and wondering why I am gaining weight. I will also be happy to answer any questions that you may have along the way. I won't be focusing too much on the ports like I said, I am not even sure where I am going. I hope you will come along with me for this adventure on the Magic!

Andy: I had to think long and hard about this one. I really enjoyed many things about Andy. He does not make very many announcements. That is a huge plus for me. He is funny, engaging, and seemed to be everywhere while not being in your face. He has a sort of "British" humour (spelled the British way :D) about him that reminds me of John Heald. Some of those are not things I like. The sarcasm mostly. He seems to be very negative towards "complainers" and dismissive (and in JH's case I think they are embellished to make him seem like the victim of unreasonable Karens) of genuine issues. Sometimes the dismissiveness came across as not caring about his role. His deck parties are a great example, I've never encountered a CD that let the DJ be the hype man while he was just sort of there. As I studied him more and tried to get a read on him, he really grew on me. Turns out he can't dance, that's why he doesn't get super into the deck parties. His sarcasm that comes across sometimes as uninterested I think is just humour lost in translation as listening to him talk during our Walk a Mile With Andy sessions I could tell he was genuinely passionate about his career and traveling and just seemed like an all around great guy. I also liked that he was just himself. He wasn't trying to oversell anything on the PA like so many CDs. He wasn't a fake and often annoying character. I can't stand Cousin Cookie (who I see today has abuptly quit) and found him to be pandering to a certain audience and if I was that demographic I would be insulted at the stereotype that he portrayed me as. Johnathan Adams is a different person than Cousin Cookie, the same as Tyler Perry is not Madea. It's a character invented for entertainment, and in this case an annoying one. Andy is just Andy. And I like it. He has expressed interest in doing the Panorama next year for the TP's and if you are lucky enough to get him, he is a great fit as he his entertaining and engaging, while being low key and unobtrusive.

Freedom: Dining: Dining post pandemic on Carnival has been a bit of a struggle. At first I would say the decline was mostly on the bigger ships. I could sail the smaller ships and find the food to still be enjoyable. By 2022, the food quality was mostly garbage even when sailing on the smaller ships. Then in 2023 I sailed Carnival Freedom, with very low expectations. I was very surprised by how good it all turned out to be. The only misses were the BBQ, and the Steakhouse (where I paid money to dine). My 2023 booking habits were influenced by 2022's shortcomings and of course higher prices and less (no) last minute deals so I would not sail again from January until now so I am not sure if it is an overall improvement, or just this ship, but the food was still much better than it was last year. The dining room food was delicious and served quickly. I almost expected with a new menu rolling out in November that the care to execute this one would have slipped, but it was mostly very well executed each night. A few misses of course, but for the most part I was happy with my dinner each time. Brunch is still average at best and I am sad by what they've done to the brunch menu. At least the hacksaw to the menu has stopped. I don't eat soup, so the return of the tomato soup does nothing to pacify me. The buffet was the first time I've dared a Carnival buffet in a long time. Usually it gets a guaranteed pass, but this one was acceptable. That's still the best adjective I can give it 🙂 The cakes were still excellent. I love Mongolian Wok, although with this many sea days I did not get to enjoy it often as the line is far too long. The deli tends to be hit or miss but when it's good its amazing and that was the case on Freedom. Almost every sandwich was great and it seems to be better staffed as I never really encountered a long wait, even on the short cruises which tend to have more people out late when deli is one of the few options. Guy's and Blue Iguana were as good as ever. Pizza was ok. It's drunk food and it serves its purpose. It is also better staffed, because even that long line I posted was not nearly as long as it used to be when it took 45 minutes in line for your pie. The late night snacks is a welcome addition and helps provide some relief to the pizza station at night. It's also drunk food, and not great, but it serves its purpose. I would recommend judging the line at both places, don't be tempted to jump in the buffet line because its empty because by the end of the night the food is dried out and not worth it unless you really just need something quick to soak up some alcohol. It's nice to not have to squirl away food anymore to have something after a night of drinking. Dining on Carnival is still my favorite after Cunard just for the variety alone! As a side note, after my four day trip on Celebrity, I did see some great improvement and an reconsidering placing them ahead of Carnival. I need more data points on the subject to be sure 🙂 Public Spaces and Cabin: I love the quirky design on older Carnival ships. Love, love, love it! Freedom is very subdued compared to other ships built in the era. It is just kinda meh to me. Give me giant pink donuts everywhere any day of the week! The ship is clean and like Cunard, the crew took great care at keeping things clean and spotless (except turning over tables in the buffet quickly, I had to bus a table a couple times) but it could have used some more love during the dry dock. A lot of the cosmetic damage and wear and tear that contribute to a "tired" feeling were not addressed in dry dock. In my opinion, that is why Carnival ships don't age as well as their competitor's ships. I've been on much older ships on other cruise lines, and they just seem to be holding up better than Carnival ships. Nothing terrible, just noticeable. She also has some AC and plumbing issues. The AC issues seemed to be fixed during the dry dock, the plumbing issues seemed improved, but I'm not sure they have been completely fixed. The cabin and bathroom were standard for Carnival and are the best sized standard inside cabins in the industry. The soundproofing is the worst in the industry (that I have experienced). Conversations (or announcements) in the hall might as well be in your room, and is one of the reasons I bring a fan when I'm sleeping. The ship rarely felt crowded even on the Caribbean cruises which sailed over capacity. There were exceptions, like boarding day, or lunch on sea days, but in general this class of ship has enough room for everyone to spread out. Entertainment: This was only my second journey cruise but I felt the team did a much better job at keeping the entertainment going sea day after sea day on this trip than last year. Last year it was like a marathon of trivia and ball room dancing all day every day. This year there was a much more diverse set of options and no lounge was left empty for long (to my dismay at times 🙂). One example that comes to mind, the basketball court. Last year it sat empty for two weeks except for the evening, when crew got off work and came to enjoy it. This year, after day two of sitting empty it was converted into a pickleball court and stayed full and even had some organized tournaments after the crew got some lessons from the guests. They responded to the demand and even learned it on the fly. Impressive. BTW, QE has a basketball court but it is only accessible via a stairway marked "crew only". Unless you can get to it from the grills area. Again a basketball court would be lost on this crowd, but I bet they would enjoy pickleball (or is that just a US thing?) The comedy shows were easier to get into on the Journeys cruise if you went to the 1030 show (since most are in bed by then, or the casino). One thing I noticed, that I've seen before but as a quick mention, was the comedians (and Andy in his show) begging, pleading, for several minutes, that if you were offended to please not complain. They all seemed genuinely worried about being canceled. How sad. Quest was a great example. I went three times. The first on a five day cruise. It was pretty wild, but nothing that I felt was out of hand. I sometimes feel like I am missing something when I hear people talk about how raunchy Quest gets. I've never seen it. Maybe I am too desensitized to raunchiness, but Quest is a solid R rating, but not X or NC-17. The second time was the Journey cruise and it was toned down considerably but still a good time. The last one, after Andy said he got in trouble for his performance on the last Journey cruise, was barely an R rating. R rating for the sake of getting that R and really just kind of sad. The crowd wasn't into either, only five teams were formed. I'll give Andy his own post. The theater only has two shows so there were many fly on entertainers for the trip. Not really my thing, but they seemed to all be enjoyed by the others who saw them. The Freedom Rockband was good. Like really, really, good. Be sure to check them out if you are onboard with them. The female vocalist especially was amazing and they all did a great job working the room. Al Holbrook in the Piano Bar I would love to see him again after he has some time to develop his act. He has potential and was a great singer I am just not sure if PBE is a great fit for him. Service: The shining star for Carnival. The crew. We were greeted with so many happy "welcome back" from the crew upon our return. They knew us, and called us by name. The happy and excited energy radiated from so many of the crew in every part of the ship. It was such a great feeling being back home and treated like family. Carnival crew is really something special and to me the best part of the Carnival product and Freedom is one of the best examples of that with so many happy and caring crew that go out of their way to make every body feel like the most important person onboard. Seriously an A+++ to so many of the wonderful hardworking crew on the the Freedom! My mom can be a grumpy person and always sees the negative before the positive, but even she was happy with most of the service and formed a wonderful relationship with two of the servers. Alexandar, Headwaiter, and Sunil, Assistant Team Server, were the best servers we have ever encountered and I truly hope that we get the chance to sail with them again someday. Overall: Overall I think the Freedom is a great example of what I enjoy about Carnival Cruise Lines. The problem I have with the product is the consistency from ship to ship, and the demographic onboard has gotten a bit rowdy in recent times. I think steps are being taken that are making improvements like increased security and drug dogs at embarkation, but I worry its too little too late. I'm taking a wait and see approach in 2024 but I think I'm mostly interested in Journeys cruises for now. The downside to that, is by eliminating the party crowd, you have eliminated the party crowd and the ship sure is too quiet when I'm still ready to party. There isn't really a happy middle ground. I would not recommend Carnival to the Cunard crowd. But I would absolutely recommend Freedom to the Carnival crowd and a TA to those looking for a more mature crowd with most of the "Fun Ship" elements without all the riff raff running amok. Carnival will have round trip TAs in 2025 in both the Valor in the Spring, and Mardi Gras in the Fall, and I would love to be able to do this again on one or both of those ships. A Cunard cruise in-between would certainly be a consideration as well 🙂