Carnival Freedom 9-11 Review with lots of pictures!!

[aly2445]

Carnival Freedom 8 day Eastern Itinerary

San Juan, Saint Thomas, Antigua, Tortola, and Nassua Bahamas

 

A little background on us-I'm Aly and my boyfriend is Dillon (we are 21 and 22). We are from CT, so we decided to extend our vacation by 1 night and stay in NYC with friends the night before our flight. We stayed at the Doubletree Guest Suites TimesSquare (with a timesquare view!). I would definitly recommend this hotel.

We flew into Miami and stayed at The Wave Hotel on Ocean Drive. It was small but nice.. we did have a problem with our toilet when we first arrived (it was leaking). No problem for us though (I know a lot of people would be very unhappy with this), but we just called the front desk and they came up and fixed it for us within the 1/2 hour that I called.

We stayed at the Ramada Ft. Lauderdale Airport/Cruiseport the night before the cruise. Nice Room/Standard with a nice pool area in the middle of the hotel rooms. I recommend it for a night before a cruise out of ft. lauderdale (the hotel is within 10 minutes of the port). After being on vacation for 4 days already, we were so excited to begin our first ever cruise!

 

Beginning of cruise coming up!

[aly2445]

Finally the day had come to hop on board our first cruise! We had gotten our free transportation to port everglades from the hotel. This was on the way to the port-

Also in port with us was the Oasis of the Seas:

Checking in was a breeze! We arrived at the port around 11AM, dropped our bags with the porters and headed inside to do the whole check in process. We hardly had a wait. We even heard another couple saying "Where are all the lines?" We were onboard and eating lunch up at the lido by 11:55AM. After having our first ever lunch on a cruise ship, we went exploring!

The Posh Dining Room (where we ate dinner) The Chic dining room was identical but I believe the Posh was bigger.

The cool glass elevators

[aly2445]

I apologize for that pic of the bf and I, there is some kind of glare coming from his mouth! lol it's a cute pic anyway.

[tking66]

Great Pics!!! Love the review!!! We will be on the Freedom 10-3!!! I can hardly wait!!!!!

[aly2445]

Victoriana Theater-

 

Our room was ready by 1:20ish. We stayed in room 6339 on the upper deck midship starboard (balcony). We loved the room!

The Balcony was definitly well worth the extra money. We found ourselves spending a lot of time out there (watching the waves, the moon and stars at night, the surrounding islands when we were passing, and last but not least all the late arrivers getting back on board!) The beds were super comfy and plenty room for two people who like to move around and kick at night while sleeping.

[marcyjane]

Great pics Thanks for posting them. Hope you had a great cruise.

Will be on Freedom Nov.14th and can't wait. Will check back in later for more info and photo's.

Thanks,

Marcy

[proudpatriot07]

Looks great so far!

[aly2445]

After settling into our room and exploring a bit more, we enjoyed some fish and chips (which we're delicious I must say).

American Flag-

The Monticello Library

Fish and Chips (I took pictures of most of the food we had during our trip)

Miami Vice (mix of strawberry daquiri and pina colada-sooo good!)

We sailed away! Coast Guard leading us out-

Did anybody know that there are hot tubs (i think) at the way front of the ship?? We never got to them though so maybe they are for the crew only?? IDK I'm a newbie!!

[Two-Step]

You are correct that part of the ship is for the crew. Great review and lots of great pics too!

[aly2445]

Now time for some food porn! and There is a ton more from where this comes from!! We had table 372 early dining in the posh dining room (we wanted late dining, but we also wanted a table for two and this is all they had available for table for 2 so we took it! It was actually a booth table for 4 but I guess nobody wanted to eat early dining. I heard that everybody wanted it, but I guess this time everybody wanted the late dining!

For the first night (and for 6 other nights), I had the ceaser salad for my appetizer. It was very good (but just remember throughout this whole review, this is coming from somebody who eats subway very often so all this food was like gourmet for me!)

My boyfriend also had the ceaser salad on night 1-

I don't remember the names of half of the dinners that I ate but I'll just guess. This was a chicken dish with some pasta and lettuce and croutons

Dillon had a steak dinner-

and we both had the warm chocolate melting cake (if you are a chocolate fan and even if you aren't, this was the most delicious thing I have eaten in a long time) I had it almost every night.:)

 

After dinner, feeling so full (since we never ever ever eat this much or often), we went back to the room to relax on the balcony before heading out for the night. I was also feeling a little motion sickness (my mom has really bad motion sickness on any and every kind of transportation so I guess she kinda passed a little bit of that down to me). I took some dramamine so help me a bit.

A close up of the moon and a star from our balcony

[aly2445]

After relaxing, we went down to deck 5, the promenade to try out the casino (I ended up losing $40 the whole trip which probably isn't half as bad as some people but I really don't care much for gambling after losing money). This was my first time going to a casino (I turned 21 in December), but I probably won't return to any casino to do any gambling. After the casino, we went to the Welcome Aboard Show and that was a good time. Ryan Fitzgerald was our cruise director and he was fantastic! He was funny and you could tell he really enjoyed his job.

After the show, the dramamine made me drowsy (supposedly it was the less drowsy formula, but I could barely keep my eyes open (it was 11:15 ish anyways and at home, I'm usually sleeping by 10:30PM. We went back to our cabin and fell asleep.

Early in the morning, Dillon woke up early at about 6:15AM and went to the lido to get a coffee. He came back to the room and laid down and watched tv while I continued to sleep till about 8:30AM. Now, I never sleep late (I am an early riser and tend to be a morning person), but the dramamine really kicked my butt. I suggest getting the patch that goes behind the ear for motion sickness (everybody that I saw with it seemed A-OK). I will definitly be getting one of these next time I cruise.

We explored a bit more the next day after breakfast.

Some paintings-

After exploring, Dillon had to do school work for his classes online, so while he went to the internet cafe to do this, I went back to sleep in the cabin for about an hour (I could not get rid of my tiredness!!) The internet cafe is on deck 4 and you have to walk through the habana cigar bar to get there. Yes, what everybody is saying about the decks is confusing about having to go up a flight of stairs and back down another flight to get to the dining rooms, but it really didn't bother us! We just kind of laughed when we still couldn't figure it out on day 5! It was kind of fun though to go up or down the stairs or take the elevator and see where you end up.

Lunch time! We had the grill (cheeseburgers, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders, etc)

After lunch, we went out onto the lido and the mixologist competition was going on!

The winner's drink was the G'Day Mate (Dillon had bought it and it was not bad!)

 

I will continue my review in a few hours! Coming up is the first elegant night! Thanks for reading -Aly

[SMSACE6]

Great review! I love the photos too. I will be on the Freedom this coming Saturday, so I am very grateful to see your photos and read your review!:)

[cruzin4our10th]

Love your review and pictures . . only 130 days and counting. Wondering if you have the "fun times" and could either attach them or email them to me?

[flyboyswife]

Boarding Saturday for the Western Caribbean. Will be following this post closely in the next few days! Please comment on service - stewards/wait staff/etc. Thanks!!

[pjsgirl]

Loving the review so far. Can't wait to read more and see more pictures.

[remharri]

Love Love Loving your review! We did this cruise last November and it was our favorite yet. Thanks for all the photos and taking me back and keeping me entertained while at work. :D

 

~Regina

[dane225]

Loving your review and all the great pics!!!:)

[TheSailinSOB]

OMG KEEP IT COMING!!! This makes me so excited for our trip in Dec, we are doing the same itin. Cant wait to see port pics :o)

[Name Of The Game]

This is great! I'm sailing on the Freedom next month!

 

In the mixology contest picture do you know if the employee on the left side in sunglasses was nicknamed "Chicken"?

 

Do you know who the assistant cruise director was?

[rocketmom09]

Loving your review! Our cruise on Freedom was 9/5 - 9/11. We were getting off the Freedom when you were getting on!!

 

Seeing your pictures makes me want to go back already!!

[aly2445]

I can't remember what happened after the mixologist competition but we probably just walked around the ship and took a nap. Then we got ready for the first elegant night!

I took this picture of the picture that they took of us (I know, it's illegal!!) haha

Dillon's appetizer (Stuffed Mushrooms)

Dillon's entree (Lobster Tail and Jumbo Shrimp)

My entree (Duck and mashed potatoes and something else on the side with broccoli which was delicious!)

We both got the Carmel Apple in Puff Pastry dessert

 

After dinner we saw in the main lobby, the captain and crew were being announced.

 

We were all thinking "Whose driving the boat?!" lol

[aly2445]

After some activities and shows around the ship, we retired to our room. And this little guy was waiting for us. Lloyd was our room steward and he was fantastic! He knew our names and said hello everytime he saw us. Always gave us new ice (2 times a day)-not terribly important to make or break a cruise but was an extra perk for me! He knew what time we were dining and always gave us a nice towel animal and chocolates next to our funtimes (I do have the funtimes by the way and will have them up by a week from today).

We must have been awake late that night (not that I remember-not cause I was drunk lol, but I think we were just filled with so many activities that I don't remember!) We ended up getting room service.

I had a tuna salad sandwich and Dillon had a grilled cheese

 

The next day I think we woke up early and did many of the activities on board. There was always so much going on. And I'm sure not everybody likes the trivia and everything but we enjoyed it very much! We're the kind of people that like to learn new facts or see how much we already know. We were trying to win a ship on a stick all week! We won the medals though the last day of the cruise (funny story actually that I'll get to later)! Here's so more pics from around the ship.

Scott's Piano Bar

 

We had the mongolian grill for lunch (it was pretty good, but IMO it did not live up to the hype)

[aly2445]

Biggest Loser is about to start so I'll post more later tonight or tomorrow. San Juan is up next. Thanks for reading! -Aly

[hfweather]

Thank you so much for the wonderful review and great pictures. I'm enjoying it a lot!

[BarJen]

Awesome review so far, loving the pics! :)