Freedom review 11-14 to 11-29 from a first time cruiser

[TheSailinSOB]

YAY!!! This make me so excited if that even anymore possible! We board Freedom this Saturday

[Talli]

Great start, Talli! Can't wait for more....more....more....please! :D

 

Thank you! I am going to try to finish it by tomorrow evening!

 

Talli

[Talli]

Loved..loved..loved GC! We did stingray city with the crew of the Peter Pan. They were fantastic!

 

Great review and pics! Looking forward to more.

 

Thanks! Glad you had a great time as well! I am hoping to go back someday in the near future but bring the kids this time, so I will have to look into the tour you took.

 

Talli

[Talli]

YAY!!! This make me so excited if that even anymore possible! We board Freedom this Saturday

 

 

You will have the best time! Try to swim with the stingrays when your in GC, this was the highlight of our trip! The Freedom is a wonderful ship and the crew were just fantastic! Make sure you check out the secret decks at least once and just have fun!

 

Let me know if you have any questions as well as I will certainly try to answer them to the best of my knowledge.

 

Talli

[cruzin4our10th]

I love RUM POINT BEACH . . . not many ever go there so the pictures are far and few between. We rented a car and drove there, what a nice place with minimal people around!

[Talli]

I love RUM POINT BEACH . . . not many ever go there so the pictures are far and few between. We rented a car and drove there, what a nice place with minimal people around!

 

 

Me too! I could have spent the whole day there! The place is just paradise. I did get a some other pics that shows it off better but can't post them on her since my SIL and BIL are in them and they don't want their pics posted anywhere on the internet.

 

Talli

[Talli]

Day 5 Ocho Rio's, Jamaica

 

Loved, loved OR! It is sooo beautiful there! I do have to start off the review of OR by saying that Tim and I were very sheltered from most of the people that make Jamaica unenjoyable for most cruisers, since we booked an excursion thru Carnival, they really took care of us. We did this day alone whereas the rest of our group stayed together and just decided to walk around and try to go to the beach and Margaritaville. They had a good day but were constantly hounded on the street and did not stay at the beach long because of the vendors that constantly approached them. They said they never felt unsafe, just annoyed at times but again they were in a group of 10 people.

 

So Tim and I got up early again today, so much for sleeping in on vacation... Our excursion was to meet at 8:45am on the pier. We did decide to skip breakfast this morning but wanted OFF the ship as soon as possible to check things out in the pier area before the tour.

 

Pic of our first view of OR from our balcony

 

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Pics from the pier as we excited the ship

 

 

 

 

 

[Talli]

We had decided to book the Chukka zipline and tubing combo. We were very excited to try ziplining since neither of us had ever done it before. Our tour left the air conditioned building we met in at exactly 9am and everyone crammed into a tour bus. Our driver was great! He did point of many sites of interest and stopped at certain points so we could take pictures as well. Some things we saw were, the local radio station, prison, many resorts, fruit stands, 2 schools, several churches, farms and lots of houses, some nicer than others. Our driver did warn us that the drive takes about 30 minutes to Chukka and about 20-25 minutes of it is on a 1 lane dirt road but traffic goes both ways on it! But don't worry mon, our driver has a PHD which in Jamaica means pot hole dodger. The drive is not for the faint of heart. There were many drop offs with no gaurd rails, and every time there was a slight curve in the road the horn was honked to let anyone else coming from the other direction know we were coming around the curve. It was definetely an experience! Also that was the scariest part of the tour!

 

Pics from the drive

 

 

Fruit stand

 

School (we did get better and closer views but forgot to take pics until the end)

 

Church made from all stone, I think it is a few hundred years old and still is being used today

 

Tree house (yes a tree is growing inside the house)

[Talli]

Well we all made it safely to Chukka! The grounds here are beautifully landscaped and the river is just gorgeous! We took lots of pics before our tour since another group left just a few minutes before us we had time to explore before ziplining.

 

Pics

 

 

 

Someone said "look, ducks!" since the birds were swimming and did kinda resemble ducks, but I don't think they are....

 

Our pics don't do the water justice. It is the White River and the water does look white, but it is very clean and clear.

 

 

 

[Talli]

These lizards were everywhere!

 

 

Time to zipline! I was very excited! We got on our harnesses and had a safety and instruction briefing than the walk to the ziplines. It was a bout a five minute walk across a field which was muddy, than up a flight of stones stairs, someone in our group counted them and she said there were 62 steps! I didn't have any problems with them, but I am always on my feet during the day, and Tim was winded by the time we reached the top. I did hear one lady say that she was too tired to continue but she did end up continueing on.

 

Well, ziplining was fun but way too short. The longest zip was the first one which was alot of fun but the other two were very short. We were glad we did it but would not do it again unless it was alot more and longer zips.

 

We had a short walk back to the buildings where we than went back to the tour bus and had a 10 minute drive to the start of the tubing. There were some vendors at the start of the tubing that did try to sell us water shoes and underwater camera's but were not too bad and did walk away if you said no. The tubing was soooo much fun! Everyone in our group agreed it was the highlight of our day and our guides made it alot of fun! Everyone in our small group got to know each other and we were singing and laughing and just plain enjoying the sights.

 

Pics

 

 

 

 

Spanish bridge built in the 1600's

 

Spanish Bridge

[Fraucruiser]

loving your review! we sail on the freedom in 17 days!

[Talli]

This sign was at the beginning of our tubing adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Talli]

 

Bamboo, it grows 2 1/2 inches per day!

 

 

 

Rapids ahead!

 

 

 

[Talli]

After tubing we were able to change and hang out for awhile at Chukka. You could also buy pics from tubing, shop in the gift shop or do as we did, order a Red Stripe beer! Yah, Mon! When we were supposed to leave it was discovered that one of the couples who were on their honeymoon, could not find their phone, and all their pics were on it. Our driver was very good! He asked everyone to check their bags we all checked the bus and he even helped the couple walk the grounds looking for it. He said we were not leaving until it was found. I should probably note that everyone left all their belongings in the bus, our driver had assured as that he would watch everything and all was 100% safe. He also called the other 2 buses that were also with us but left before us to have them check their passengers as well. Well unfortunately after 45 minutes of searching it was not found and we did ended up going back to the ship. I did find out later, that the phone was found on another bus so the husband had accidentally put it in the wrong bus after ziplining! Honest mistake, but I am very happy with the way the situation was handled, and no one on our bus was upset at all or minded getting a late start back to the ship.

 

Our driver did take some of the ladies on our tour to the grocery store after bringing the rest of us back, since they wanted coffee and it was cheaper at the grocery store than at any of the shops near the pier. Tim and I just did a little bit of shopping before heading back to the ship.

 

Once back we did get a small bite to eat and watch sail away from the Lido deck. After we did go back to our room to shower and get ready for the last formal night.

 

 

After dinner I went to the casino with all the guys in our group while all the girls went to the show. Our plan was to get to the comedy show early so we could get good seats unlike the last time :p. So we ended up seeing 2 1/2 comdey shows (2 different comedians that night) the 1/2 show was the PG rated show with my favorite comedian and I wish we would have made the whole thing cuz it was funny! The first comedian was ok, but the second was the one we saw the other night and yes he did have new material and again he was hilarious! Loved him! Afterwards we did party in our room for a bit and then hit the 70's club yet again. It was a very fun night and we have lots of video that needs to be deleted :D.

 

Up next last Sea Day.

[Talli]

Day 6 last Sea day

 

I am sad. This is our last day of vacation, and tomorrow does not count since we will be traveling all day and heading back to cold, snowy Minnesota. There they have 12 inches of snow on the ground! I want to stay in my bikini in the hot sun!

 

Ok, enough of my rant! We did plan on hanging out on the loungers in the Serenity deck today but the weather had other plans. This was the only day that wasn't perfect and sunny. We did get some sun off and on but also rain, off and on. So we just relaxed, ate, played some miniature golf, got pics from the photo gallery and hung out with everyone, except for one person in our group who was "sea sick" all day. He thought it was really weird that it didn't affect him until the last day, so he spent it sleeping off his "sea sickness" in his room.....

 

Overall it was a good day!

 

We all did decide to go to the farewell party at 5pm and we definetely took advantage of the free drinks! Probably a little too much.... We immediately went to dinner after the party and me, Tim, the bride and groom and the grooms brother and his girlfriend were at the "fun" table that evening. The rest of the group were at a seperate table and pretended they didn't know us..... We had fun and won't elaborate too much except that the other 2 tables behind us/next to us? I think they started it.... Between the 3 tables, and a 4th tried to get into it as well, we just had a GREAT time together! I guess we were a little loud and after a warning did end up getting kicked out of the dining room. So we missed dessert. So anyone that is reading this and was not amused by all of our "fun", SORRY! But we all thought Carnival was the fun ship. And truly we weren't that bad, I honestly think the worst was the clinking of our glasses to have the newlyweds kiss.

 

So we took our fun down to the Havana (cigar) bar, and to the 70's club. It was a fun night! And like Ryan our CD said (we did run into him after the dining room) blame it all on the farewell party.

[Talli]

Debarktation:

 

We planned to sleep in as much as we could and be out of room by 8:30 and then head up to Lido for breakfast and just try to be one of the last off the ship since our flight home wasn't until 1:30.

 

Well that didn't happen. We hit some waves coming in which woke me up so I did get to see the Florida coastline on the way in all lit up, very pretty! I tried to go back to sleep but the vibrations and noise from us docking prevented me from getting anymore sleep. So we got up and headed to the Lido by 7am where we met some of our group. We were going to get breakfast and was standing in line for food, which was a very long line, longest all week by far. When we just were like forget it! Let's just go. We decided to de self assist debarktation and they were making the final call for that, plus we felt like over the half the ship was on the Lido deck and we did not want to wait in line to get off. So we went to our room, grabbed our bags, said good bye to Korny our room steward and off we went. No lines! Yay!

 

Big mistake!

 

Well we were at the airport by 8am with a very long wait ahead of us since our flight doesn't leave until 1:30! Oh, well now we know for next time right? Flight home was smooth but was not happy to be back in the cold but was very excited to see our kids!

 

Final thoughts:

 

Food: Was very good at both the dining room and Lido. Tim said he has never eaten so well! But neither of us cared for most of the desserts, and we both have a big sweat tooth. I also am a chocoholic, but didn't like the warm melting chocolate cake! I thought I would love it and did try it 3 different times just to make sure. The crem brulee was awesome though! My favorite dessert!

 

We were going to go to the steakhouse one night but ended up canceling our reservation since we were happy with the food in the dining room.

 

Service: Everyone was very friendly and willing to help if needed. Couldn't have ask for a better crew.

 

Hmm, I thought I was going to write more but now I can't think of anything that I haven't already said.

 

So thanks for reading, and if you have any questions on anything let me know!

 

Happy cruising everyone!

 

Talli

[Talli]

loving your review! we sail on the freedom in 17 days!

 

 

Thanks! I am so jealous! I want to go back! You are going to have the best time!

 

Happy cruising!

 

Talli

[beach410]

Enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time to write it. Can I ask who was your tour provider in GC? I have done the swim before, but we took a boat out, I would like to try this tour next time and the resort looks nice as well.

[disneyden]

We had thought about going to Rum Point after seeing the

Stingrays when we were on our cruise, but decided not to

go. We will definitely have to do that next time! ;)

Thanks for the great review! :D

[Odelay77]

Thanks so much for the detailed review! Your pictures make everything look awesome!! I'm leaving in 11 days for the exact same vacation (except we're staying an extra day in Ft. Lauderdale after we debark). Can't wait!!

 

The group I'm traveling with are all party people... we sound similar to your group. I'm glad to hear that you all liked the 70s club. One question... what did you think of their music selection? I noticed in some FunTimes that they have 80s/70s/oldies hours which sound like a blast. You mentioned a Michael Jackson night. Did you make it to those "theme hours?" If so, were they fun? We'll be wanting to hit the comedy club, too, but it seems like those shows conflict w/ the theme hours in the disco. Any details would be helpful and fun to hear!

[pcrum]

Great review! We did the same itinerary on the Freedom in June (see review in signature if you are interested) and loved it. Especially loved Ryan as the CD! One question: how hard was it to ride the jet skis to stingray city? We have done stingray city twice, but took excursions which took you out on boats. I think my kids would (twins aged 15) would love the jet skis!

 

Thanks again for your review!

[Talli]

Enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time to write it. Can I ask who was your tour provider in GC? I have done the swim before, but we took a boat out, I would like to try this tour next time and the resort looks nice as well.

 

Thanks! We booked through Island Marketing but the tour was conducted with Action Watersports. One of the reasons we went through IM, was if we didn't make port for any reason or if they canceled the tour they would refund our deposit. All the other companies I looked at would not do the same. We loved the resort and they do have a golf course if anyone in your group golfs. The beach at the resort was rocky so we hung out mostly at the pool but the drinks were great and they do have a restraunt as well. We booked the 9am tour and were the first ones to Stingray City which was awesome, but the stingrays were a little frisky since they hadn't really been fed yet :D. My uSIL and BIL that went with us has done jetski tours before and they said that this was by far the best one they had been on.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Talli

[Talli]

We had thought about going to Rum Point after seeing the

Stingrays when we were on our cruise, but decided not to

go. We will definitely have to do that next time! ;)

Thanks for the great review! :D

 

 

Thanks for reading my review! Yes, definetely check out Rum Point, you won't be dissapointed! It is absolutely gorgeous there and hardly any people so you won't have to fight to get a chair or a hammock....

 

Talli

[Talli]

Thanks so much for the detailed review! Your pictures make everything look awesome!! I'm leaving in 11 days for the exact same vacation (except we're staying an extra day in Ft. Lauderdale after we debark). Can't wait!!

 

The group I'm traveling with are all party people... we sound similar to your group. I'm glad to hear that you all liked the 70s club. One question... what did you think of their music selection? I noticed in some FunTimes that they have 80s/70s/oldies hours which sound like a blast. You mentioned a Michael Jackson night. Did you make it to those "theme hours?" If so, were they fun? We'll be wanting to hit the comedy club, too, but it seems like those shows conflict w/ the theme hours in the disco. Any details would be helpful and fun to hear!

 

Thank you so much! I am so jealous, I want to be back onboard! You are going to have so much fun!

 

Yes, if you are party people than def similiar to my group :D. We did like the 70's club but honestly it was the only option, except for the lounges which played piano music which isn't fun when your partying..... We did end up in our room or the bride and grooms room as well though, just for a change of pace some nights. The music I heard was pop/rap which I like.... The Michael Jackson night was fun, especially watching people do the dance off to see who could dance the most like him. I think they even gave away a bottle of champagne as a prize for that. Could be wrong on that though..... We didn't make it to any of the other theme nights unfortunately. Try to at least hit one comedy show if it's with Carl (can't remember his last name). He is absolutely hilarious! I laughed so hard I cried. The other comedian was so/so.

 

Have fun on your cruise! Let me know if I can answer any other questions.

 

Talli

[Talli]

Great review! We did the same itinerary on the Freedom in June (see review in signature if you are interested) and loved it. Especially loved Ryan as the CD! One question: how hard was it to ride the jet skis to stingray city? We have done stingray city twice, but took excursions which took you out on boats. I think my kids would (twins aged 15) would love the jet skis!

 

Thanks again for your review!

 

Thanks!

 

I didn't think the jetski's were hard to ride at all but we had really nice weather and not choppy at all on the way out to Stingray City. But the faster you go the smoother the ride so we did try to go fast! At times I had to tell Tim to slow down (we rode double) since he was going past our guide :eek:. I drove from Stingray City to Rumpoint and did not have any problems at all, and this was only my 2nd time on a jetski. Tim actually had to tell me to slow down quite a bit, I think he was scared of my driving, but I wanted to go faster.... On the way back to the resort the water was a bit choppy, but not too bad, worst was getting salt water spray in our mouths, yuck! But that only happened on the way back, plus a few storms were passing through the area, off in the distance so not sure if that is what made for a little rougher sea. Anyway no problem riding them, no one fell off, our arms were slightly sore the next day but I did expect that.

 

This excursion was the highlight of our trip! We were so glad we didn't go on a boat, it wouldn't have been as much fun without the jetski's. Your twins will probably love it! I say go for it and book it! Also they did give us the option of snorkling instead of the beaches but I really wanted to check out Rum Point, and find a star fish!

 

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

Talli