02/27/2010 Freedom Eastern Caribbean Photo Review

[Cruiser1547228475]

This review just gets better and better .

[kruise66]

I decided to take a tour around the Serenity area.

 

 

 

Great review...love the Serenity photos. Was it empty like that every night? Looks like a good way to watch the sunset!

[Meyer2]

Great pictures & review!

[PaulMedik]

Hi all! This thread will take me a few days to finish, but I figured I'd start it. And I apologize ahead of time for the amount of posts this review will be because of the photo cap. ;)

 

Krissta,

 

Great review. Lovin' the pics! Keep 'em coming.

[mel77gap]

How much did it cost you to do St. John on your own, I wasn't sure if we should book this through the ship or so what you guys did?? Thanks(:

[kenrod]

I am really enjoying your review. Excellent pictures too!

 

I was on the Freedom before the Serenity area was put in. I was looking at your pictures and I assume is on the starboard side. Isn't Camp Carnival just inside that area? Is the Camp Carnival water balloon launcher still on the port side, or is that the Serenity area as well?

 

Just wondering.

 

Looking forward to more installments of your pictorial!

[Krissta]

Great review...love the Serenity photos. Was it empty like that every night? Looks like a good way to watch the sunset!

 

I was pretty empty because of the rough seas and we had late dining, so I think that helped that other people were at dinner. :)

[CruizinMom2c]

Great review!

 

 

 

And Miami Vice is my favorite drink too :)

[Krissta]

How much did it cost you to do St. John on your own, I wasn't sure if we should book this through the ship or so what you guys did?? Thanks(:

 

The ferry from St. Thomas to St. John was something ridiculous like $6 each way. The most money you spend is on taxis, getting to Red Hook, then from the ferry on St. John to Trunk Bay, then of course vice-versa. All I know is it is a LOT cheaper than hopping an excursion. ;)

[Krissta]

I am really enjoying your review. Excellent pictures too!

 

I was on the Freedom before the Serenity area was put in. I was looking at your pictures and I assume is on the starboard side. Isn't Camp Carnival just inside that area? Is the Camp Carnival water balloon launcher still on the port side, or is that the Serenity area as well?

 

Just wondering.

 

Looking forward to more installments of your pictorial!

 

Yes, Camp Carnival is there as well. It is on the starboard side only, as the water balloon launcher is still there. :D Totally didn't realize that's what it was... would have tried to use it! lol

[Krissta]

Thanks to everyone for your nice comments! I'll post some more pics, but probably not going to be like yesterday. Feeling quite crappy post-cruise. Jeff has a major sinus infection and coughing like mad (something we had before we got on the ship) and it seems to have gotten worse. :p

[Krissta]

Alright, back to it! :)

 

Day 5: Antigua

 

So the first impressions are pretty great.

 

 

We got to sleep in late because our Segway tour wasn't until 1:00. After breakfast, Kim and Eric came back from their excursion, ziplining. They said it was basically a joke. They were not impressed at all, and were really hoping that the Segway tour would be good. I got a little worried because I couldn't imagine what could possibly be bad, but there's nothing I could do.

 

So we went on our way... :)

[Krissta]

After gearing up, the tour guides (who were AWESOME, btw) had us stand around in a circle to wait for our Segways.

 

Now, when I first stepped on the Segway, I almost fell on my face. There is a learning curve. But after an exercise of "On! Off! On! Off! On! Off!" we were good to get on and get off without the threat of bodily injury. After that, it is very natural. Those things are insane!! :) So fun!

 

Now what's really great is while you are riding the Segway, you can NOT take pics. You would end up going off road and hurting. ;) So they are awesome enough to take pics for you! They make a recording at the beginning with their digi camera where you say your name, then they take pics of you the whole time, then send you an e-mail with a zip-file of the pics of you. Yay!!!

 

On the learning pad.

 

Jeff rockin'.

[Krissta]

They took us around some non-busy local roads. This is a good thing. ;)

 

They also stopped at a few places, including a Tamarind tree. Tamarinds look like really big peanuts, but on the inside is a gooey fruit. Think about the inside of a raisin. It was very tasty.

 

They had really cool seeds, as well. Here's our group's.

 

We also made another stop and had some fresh sugar cane. Mmmm!

 

We went to a large abandoned fort. It was very neat to see some horseback riders going in and out, then us coming in on our Segways. Perfect juxtaposition. :D

[Krissta]

There's the Freedom!

 

Some pics around the fort:

 

And, of course, we had to get the pic on the beach!

[Krissta]

After that, it was back to a small restaurant/beach where we started for some refreshments.

 

Jeff was digging the local beer.

 

He also flipped out because he found Guiness, but not just ANY Guiness, you see...

 

So he had to get it...

[Krissta]

That night, we went to dinner, where I told our waiters they had to pose for a pic. What good sports! :)

 

 

Day 6: Tortola

 

So this day was to be devoted to hopping a ferry to Virgin Gorda to visit The Baths. Jeff and I have been semi-obsessing over this place for some time. We were so jazzed that the weather was, again, fabulous, so we could really enjoy our time there.

 

The view off the boat was very pretty.

 

Something I have to say about the ferry. BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU DO THIS ON YOUR OWN! Look for Speedy's Ferry. It's like 5 blocks from the cruise port, but people who live/work there will try to get you to take their ferry instead. Honestly, they were RABID! I was not only annoyed, but also somewhat concerned. Call me a Nancy, but it rattled me a bit. The ferry is very nice, but cost a LOT more than I was expecting!! It was $30/pp/RT and then another $6/pp/RT for a cab to get to The Baths. Even so, it was still a lot less expensive than doing a Carnival excursion. ;)

 

So we hopped a cab after the ferry, and less than a mile from The Baths, our cab got a flat tire. :| So, we had to hump it. Luckily, there was a seemingly mediocre landscape made magical by HUNDREDS of small white butterflies. Oooooo!!! :D (I know, they're really hard to see...)

[Krissta]

Hooray! We made it!

 

I figured my fellow CCers would appreciate this info:

 

Getting to The Baths was pretty awesome.

[Krissta]

 

Then, there was this awesome rock that I love so much. I don't know if there are any gamers on here, but it reminds me SO much of the Monkey Island games. :)

 

Shortly after that, we got our first peek at a beach.

 

We decided to keep trekking, on to Devil's Bay. We were not disappointed.

 

I'm kicking myself for not taking more pics of this area, but I was having too much fun soaking it all in.

[Krissta]

That night, we ate at the Sun King because we had to be back on the ship at 3:00.

 

It was an awesome experience, and the steak was SO GOOD. I haven't had steak in a long time, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

We got dressed up early and went out on the Lido to hang out. we were walking back to the room when I saw it: OMG THERE'S THE MONKEY HEAD!!!!! Now, you must understand... I was asking the bar servers every freeking day if they had monkey heads. They would all reply the same: "Tomorrow." Welp, today was that "tomorrow!"

 

 

Jeff got one too. (But mine is *way* cuter.)

 

Some pics from the steak house. (I would have taken more, but I didn't want to be super-touristy. It's supposed to be romantic!!!)

 

Jeff fighting to get the sword.

 

Our deserts:

 

Mine, the first pic, was ok. I wouldn't get it again. Supposedly Jeff's was amazing.

[Krissta]

Day 7: Day at sea

 

I almost forgot to take a pic of my window clings I brought with me.

 

A beautiful sunset (yet again)!

 

That night we had an elephant. It matched ours. :D

[Krissta]

Day 8: Nassau

 

Ok, so I got up pretty early (hah hah) to watch them pull into port. All I can say is I was blown away. Nassau is beautiful. I actually want to go back and spend a week there!

 

 

Look at that water!!!!

[Krissta]

It's a good thing we didn't get into port until noon because the night before, the seas were very rough, and for some reason, the ship was having some... er... trouble. The lights kept flickering, and, much to the behest of my claustrophobic friend, the elevators got STUCK! And, you guessed it, she was on one of them. Alone.

 

I heard a knock on my door and saw her out in the hall. She had a really strange look on her face.

 

"What's up?"

Kim paces the hallway. "I just got stuck in the elevator! And! And! Oh my God, I was flipping out!"

 

So I let her in the room and she told me about how she got on the elevator, and heard someone say, "Hey! Don't get on that!" but she didn't know that they were talking to her. :( So she got stuck and she started to freak out, and was talking to some woman through the intercom. Supposedly their conversation sounded something like this:

 

"I'm stuck! You better get me out of here!!!!"

"Ok, maam, just calm down, we're going to get you out of there. Just breathe."

"@#$(&@&%@*)$*)$@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

So, yeah. She said she was only in there for about 6 minutes, but I'm sure it felt MUCH longer. :( She's fine now, don't worry. :)

[Krissta]

Anyhoo! Back to Nassau...

 

We booked the Seahorse snorkel catamaran. Woo hoo! We wanted to take one catamaran on this trip, and we figured since we weren't going to let Atlantis have $100/pp just to use their damn facilities, we would book the catamaran that went *by* Atlantis. ;)

 

 

Again, the water was so perfect. Disturbing...

 

The catamaran was a bit crowded, but it was a larger boat, so it wasn't too bad.

 

After snorkeling around a beautiful reef we got back on the boat to get tipsy! Woo hoo!

 

I ended up doing some "dancing" (in quotes because I can not dance for the life of me)...

[Krissta]

All the ships lined up!

 

Another pic of the water.

 

And some beautiful sunsets.