7/31 Freedom – Rude People, Cows and Bears! Oh My!

[luv2gonow]

Great review....Keep it coming:D

[BSQ]

thank you all for your kind comments on my sense of humor and writing style.

 

A college professor once compared my writing to Hemingway. Least I hope it was my writing style and not the fact that he saw me in the beer bar on campus all the time. But that's a whole bunch of other stories to tell. :eek:

 

On to Costa Rica we go.

[BSQ]

On the sea day between Cozumel and Costa Rica they reversed the show times in the theater, so the late diner saw the show first and the early diner saw the show last. They explanation was because of the early day in Costa Rica. Yet for the night after we’d been in Costa Rica all day and had an even early Port time in panama, the shows went back to the original times with late seating seeing the last show. The first night I had to choose between our Cocktail Club meeting and a show … well … if you’ve looked through my photo album of this trip you can guess the Cocktail Club won out. As for the night before arriving in Panama … sleep won out. This I thought could have been scheduled better Carnival.

 

A peaceful morning as we sail into Costa Rica

 

I mentioned at the start of this my brain was in vacation mode. With that said, I had no clue the difference between port time and ship time. I actually had a watch set to ship time and just went with the flow.

 

Since we didn’t hear any announcements when we arrived in Cozumel, we made it a point to have some breakfast and linger in the lobby before our debark time. Eventually we wandered down to deck 1 and quietly waited with a few other people … leaving all passageways and stairwells open like good little polite cruisers.

 

This paid off as we were among the first off the ship and it was quick n easy. We weren’t off that early since nearly everyone else on our tour was already in the van. And here we thought we were so cool. Apparently we’re not.

 

We don’t like going on big tours with busloads of people. We like small, more intimate settings. For that reason we went with Greenway Tours. We booked their Rainforest Wagon Expedition and Banana Tour. Though the title doesn’t state it, the description does mention it includes a canal tour. This was $75 each, and charged to our credit card ahead of time. (totally refundable if we missed port ... HELLO SPLENDOR)

 

Here’s our Rock Star tour bus errr winnebago…

[BSQ]

We stopped at a few lookouts along the way … and what struck me about Costa Rica was the amount of trash every where. BubbaQ took pictures of it.

 

Here’s our very knowledgeable and good tour guide. Once again I don‘t remember his name … which is bad since we bonded over Earth Quake stories.

 

I was the only Californian on the tour and totally related to the 7.9 he talked about. I think people on the bus were a little surprised by the number of earthquakes the area has. I smiled when our guide said “pffft” to anything below a 5.0. I turned to BubbaQ with a see I’m tellin the truth look on my face. (a 5.0 just feels like the dog has jumped on your bed. Which I guess is bad if you don’t have a dog).

 

 

The first part of our tour was a canal boat ride through the Tortuguero Canal Region. Simply beautiful. Our guide and boat driver pointed out lots of wildlife up in the trees … much of which BubbaQ and I with our bad eyesight just took pictures hoping there’d be something in them when we zoomed in at home. I need my glasses to see far, but can’t see squat (aka my camera view screen) with them on upclose. This occasionally makes for picture roulette as I never know what I’m gonna get. (you should see my underwater shots).

 

Imagine our surprise when we spotted this rare wild bovine pezius

 

Sorry hope you weren’t drinking anything.

 

Here’s a two-toed sloth in the trees to make up for that one.

[bcs819]

great review - thanks!

[BSQ]

After the canal ride we were treated to some fresh fruit. Yum!

 

Next stop Del Monte Banana Plantation

 

I found this portion interesting though being a FoodTV addict and loving Alton Brown, I’d kinda already had the total rundown on Bananas. BubbaQ had picked this tour cause he thought this part would be neat. It was. I’ll give him that.

 

Next stop Wagon Expedition through the rain forest.

 

Part of the group did zip lining and part did the wagon thing. We saw a lot of wild life up close and personal. Some of it a bit too upclose.

 

This is the first time either of us had ever gone through a rainforest. BubbaQ is really into houseplants so he was in heaven. I’d commented that it was like being among houseplants on steroids. I found the whole ride fascinating.

 

 

At one point we get off the wagon and walk across a platform that is suspended in the forest. In the description this is called a suspended bridge. Excitedly I was thinking it was like a wood suspension bridge so I could be all Indiana jones-ish … it was a mesh grate walk way. So if you take this tour know that some walking is involved, but it’s very very very easy.

 

When this part was done we had to wait around for the zipliners. We had some fruit and coffee samples, and there was a little bar here to buy cold sodas or beers. Cokes were $2 a bottle (I live in the south, “Coke” translates to all sodas).

 

Tired we arrived back at the port. We had a little bit of time to roam the port area shops. we picked up a few bags of coffee, but wished we would have had enough time to go outside the port complex. We would have loved to fins some sort of spot for local food, and to hit up the Wal-Mart (whatever the store was called that Wal-Mart just took over). What can I say You can take the redneck BubbaQ out of Atlanta, but ya can't keep him away from Wal-Mart. XOXO BubbaQ I know you're lurking. :cool:

[BSQ]

 

In all we thoroughly enjoyed our Greenway tour. It was perfect for us. The weather was overcast and perfect. Okay, it was hot and humid, but I live in Florida and BubbaQ is in Georgia, we’re used to heat and humidity. It was actually cooler than we had anticipated. We did take some Cliff Bars in a back pack which was a good move. There were no stops for food other than fruit, on this tour. I should have brought a couple bottles of water with me, but at both stops drinks were available for purchase. Oh, and since I griped about it with Cozumel ... there were actually announcements on when we could get off the ship in Costa Rica.

 

On to Panama

[zachnlucy]

I absolutely love your review, Keep it comin'.

[BSQ]

Panama is actually the first tour we both decided on for this trip. Hands down we were going to the canal and that’s that. I booked us on My Friend Mario’s CL001 – Rainforest, Colonial Fort and Canal tour. All though their website listed a range for pricing, when I contacted them, the only price they gave me was the lowest one. Ill say up front this was the best $55 bucks we’d spend (per person).

 

We had a very early arrival in Panama, which isn’t a bad thing since it tends to get a little on the hot side here. Prior to our trip I’d been checking out accuweather and saw the days had a real feel of 120 degrees. :eek: Much like Costa Rica though, turned out the weather wasn’t too bad … though it was very humid I thank goodness for technical underwear. Possibly TMI, but you’ll thank me for that little tip later. We brought with us some water bottles off the ship this time, and I had some packets of G2 gatorade mix. We knew we’d be sweating. A LOT. The G2 was probably the best thing I brought with me. Through out the tour snacks were provided, and once again I had some Cliff bars just incase. (another good move on my part). In our backpack we both had extra shirts. Water, soda and beer were also provided.

 

Our guide was Rey … don’t ask me how I remember his name and just about no others from this trip.

[BSQ]

We boarded our little touring van, very similar in size to the one we had in Costa Rica … nearly got t-boned by a Taxi Cab … the driver spoke the international language of FU with hand gestures and made out way to the Gatun Locks.

 

 

We started out in the upper enclosed viewing area, but I overheard one of the workers say there was a better viewing area below. Off we went. We ended up on an outdoor platform right smack next to the ship passing through the locks. NEARLYSOCLOSEYOUCOULDREACHOUTANDTOUCHIT.

 

 

See, I wasn’t kidding.

 

Our time here seemed to go by too quickly. 30-40 minutes is all we had. I snagged a brochure that had a lot of information about the locks and such … it’s all in Spanish. I’ll take to translating it later. I’m odd in that I have pretty good Spanish reading comprehension but can’t really speak the language fluently. Don’t even get my Mom started on this, okay? (ella habla muy bien, me not so much).

[BSQ]

Next we made our way to a spot in the rainforest for a hike. Along the way we saw a lot of the old Military housing, and Rey was a great blend of humor, information, history, and on n on I could go.

 

This Rainforest part was way different from our last expedition. I really liked walking right there down through it. Again, the trash in some spots surprised us both.

 

 

BubbaQ and I saw many places in the old military housing complexes where we would not mind taking over an ocean front building and calling it home. I’d probably be complaining about the humidity and bad hair days … but it’s nice to imagine, right?

 

[BSQ]

Our last stop was Fort San Lorenzo. If I haven’t mentioned it, two thirds of this tour was totally a guy thing. Whatever, he put up with packing a suit and dressing up for dinner, I can put up with seeing a fort, right? Hmmmm.

 

 

 

We had some time to explore the fort on our own. I imagine every man on the tour was secretly playing pirate in his head. The heat of the day started to catch up to us. When it was time to leave, I handed BubbaQ his extra shirt. Smart man, didn’t even hesitate to change. On our ride back we talked about how this tour was a perfect blend of being in the air conditioned van and being out side. Seeing natural wonders and manmade.

 

The snacks we had on the tour were some little empanada like things, one filled with a spicy meat the other plaintains. Packets of cookies and doritos, water, cokes and beers. (we’ve already discussed what Cokes means). We saw a lot in what felt like a short time. This tour was money well spent.

 

At port we took a little bit of time to browse through the grocery store and picked up one souvenir from a little shop (a nativity). I’m not big on souvenirs. For me it has to be something a little different. BubbaQ contemplated a Panama hat, and probably should have got one … but he complained about not knowing his hat size and the one he did try on … didn’t look quite right on him. Probably a good decision as he couldn't have worn it on the ship with out crushing it ... against the freaking ceiling.

We concluded our day in Panama watching folks rush back to the ship.

 

 

The man in the hat was waiting for his wife ... as were we all.

[BSQ]

and that concluded our expeditions on land. Two sea days were a head of us.

 

I can't remember when the past guest reception thing was, but my invitation was to the first one at something like 4pm ... we'd barely gotten back on the ship ... so the scheduling of that could have been better.

 

The Big Easy was the show - after our day in Costa Rica)we didn't get to see and would have liked to. I've seen it before, I knew BubbaQ would have enjoyed it. Although the Funtimes had the late and evening dining people switched, the times didn't make sense. It had the 8:30pm show listed for Late Seating (which late seating started at 8:15pm) ... and the 10:30 show was too late given our early arrival in Panama.

 

These were the two scheduling blips that stood out to me, though I think there were some others.

 

I mentioned I'd booked my first balcony cabin. When we go on our land vacations we enjoy starting the mornings with our coffee and sitting out on our lanai. On the ship, we barely used our balcony. After discussing it, we've decided we should stick with an inside room. It might be cooler too. The temperature of our room was a bit on the warm side, yet all the public areas on the ship were kept pretty cold.

 

I've eluded to it a couple of times. BubbaQ is on the VERY tall side. Often it looked like his head all but grazed some of the ceilings. I was worried that the ship might get claustrophobic for him, but in all he said it wasn't too bad. I usually walked in front of him and often repeated the words "watch your head ...." So gentlemen above 6'10? prepare to stoop ... a lot.

[oncruisecontrol]

Our guide and boat driver pointed out lots of wildlife up in the trees … much of which BubbaQ and I with our bad eyesight just took pictures hoping there’d be something in them when we zoomed in at home. I need my glasses to see far, but can’t see squat (aka my camera view screen) with them on upclose. This occasionally makes for picture roulette as I never know what I’m gonna get. (you should see my underwater shots).

 

Imagine our surprise when we spotted this rare wild bovine pezius

 

 

I love it when people include photos and captions like this in their reviews!

[BSQ]

Instead of a debarkation talk they had a video playing on the TV, and a hand out with all the necessary details was given to us. I liked this change.

 

BubbaQ had an 8pm flight and I didn't need to be on the road until 4pm. Many in our group had late flights so we had a leisurely visit at the lido buffet. We were among the very last people off the ship. Customs went quickly.

 

I think that covers just about everything on our Freedom Cruise. We had decent weather, only one rainy day, and saw some really cool things in the ports, made new friends, and did a whole lot of nothing.

 

In all, a perfect vacation. My full photo album and the FunTime are linked in my signature. If you have any questions, ask away ... but I can't promise you'll I'll remember. Two words, WINE BAR.

[Indiansbaseball]

OMG.... "wild bovine pezius" ....I wasn't drinking anything ...but I peed myself laughing so hard !! Most excellent review and I echo the earlier poster...would love to see you guys on one of my cruises sometime.

 

Jen

[stay_or_go]

Great review, have been to only one of the ports so it was good to see the others.

[Jeffy294]

What a great review. Now didn't Cathrine the bear get sunburned in Panama and she missed dinner that night cause she required a bubble bath. Lots of fun, I am sure the guys that brought Cathrine had as much fun laughing at us trying to figure out why they had it. Great cruise with great friends, best dinner mates we could possibly ask for. We hope we can do it again one day, but we know deep down that the two empty chairs at dinner were meant for Vacruizer and Mr. Vacruizer, which were not able to join us this time. We really missed you guys.

 

I will touch on what BSQ said about rude people. This was the worst I have ever seen it, and not just kids. We seen a couple doing the Rumpy Pumpy in port side hot tub on the Serenity deck while we were docked in Costa Rica, there were only a handful of people on the ship at this time. People are just not considerate anymore. I even noticed the kids sitting in the stairwells on this cruise, they blocked the whole thing I guess just to be smart arse's. Where did this trend start? I must have missed it. I am 6"7 325lbs so I just walked though them and never stopped, it was no need for me to say excuse me cause they were in the damn way, it was like parting of the red sea when I stomped my size 14's right through the center of them. If only BubbaQ had been with me we would have really done some damage.

 

For those sailing on the Freedom anytime soon, please check out Maria in the wine bar. She is really one of the best, she has been with Carnival for 18 years, her and Tommy on the Liberty are the most pleasant and enjoyable crew members to be around. And they really have nothing bad to say about Carnival, they love what they do and they put that passion to work in the drinks they make you. Both are from the Philippines, they produce some great bartenders and some great friends, I hope to sail with one of these again. The Freedom is a great ship with a great crew.

[mamalicious]

I am loving your review!! No napping here! I am at work and you got me laughing out loud! Thanks for sharing!

[BubbaQ]

Cokes were $2 a bottle (I live in the south, “Coke” translates to all sodas).

 

What can I say You can take the redneck BubbaQ out of Atlanta, but ya can't keep him away from Wal-Mart. XOXO BubbaQ I know you're lurking. :cool:

Best thing about a Coke outside the USA is the use of real sugar in it. YUM!! And yes, of course I am lurking....oh wait, I just made myself public. ACK!!

 

I am 6"7 325lbs so I just walked though them and never stopped, it was no need for me to say excuse me cause they were in the damn way, it was like parting of the red sea when I stomped my size 14's right through the center of them. If only BubbaQ had been with me we would have really done some damage.

Now that would have been funny. You know, with me being 6'9", 277lbs (at the start of the cruise, I won't say now :( ). One evening BSQ made me do my best Mike Alstott and pave the way to the Bar Nouveau. Remember how he used to do that, BSQ? Especially in Super Bowl XXXVII. :cool:

 

I have pics from the eastern side of Cozumel. Don't know if I can post them with only this post under my belt though.

[vacruizer]

Aww, Jeffy & BSQ, the empty chairs thing got me! :o Dinners have not been the same on any cruise since the one with you guys! Keep me posted when everyone is getting together again.

 

Mike ended up finally having that darn shoulder surgery the day before you sailed so it's a good thing we cancelled but we still missed everyone!

[SweetpeaOne]

Very nice pictures. Love the review. And love the cows!!!!!!!!

[BSQ]

One evening BSQ made me do my best Mike Alstott and pave the way to the Bar Nouveau. Remember how he used to do that, BSQ? Especially in Super Bowl XXXVII. :cool:

 

That's just wrong.

[ebonniekins]

Very, very funny review. I loved it. I do hope I get the privilege (sp) of cruising with you both soon.

[KFinTx]

I love this review, and the wild bovine pezius made me really LOL!!

 

And I've also traveled with stuffed animals, carted them around, took pictures of them too, like the guys with Catherine. It's fun, especially when people go along with the gag. Somewhere, I've got a shot of my cousin's daughter's classroom toy (a frog of all things) dowsing for ley lines in Avebury. :p