Freedom Panama Review with pictures

[hobbyhrs97]

Hi all fellow cruisers. I will try to do the best I am able to give you a detailed review of my families experience while on the Carnival Freedom.

Jan 13, 2011

We were up @ 6am to start heading out to for our vacation. Off to Detroit airport for our 3:25pm flight. This was our DD’s first time flying and she was full of mixed emotions (happy to be leaving the cold behind and looking forward to her second cruise, scared, never flown before). Got to the airport with time to spare. Zones for boarding were called out, on the plane settled in our seats and off we go. DD was so scared going through security and petrified with take-off. We flew Delta and had a smooth take-off, flight and landing.

Called the La Qunita Inn & Suites Airport Fort Lauderdale for the shuttle and headed out. I am sorry I did not think to take pictures of our room, but the rooms are very clean (no bed bugs seem and I checked for them), beds are comfy. I would recommend this hotel to anyone going out of Port Everglades only about a 10 minute shuttle ride from the terminal; they offer a decent breakfast and reasonable rates.

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We had a visitor eating breakfast

Jan 14,2011

This was a lazy day for us , we spent the day starting with a walk to the Oakwood Plaza to grab a few things we forgot and hanging out by the heated pool and hot tub.That evening we have made arrangements with the roll call to do a meet and greet supper @ Dave & Busters. The shuttle gave us a ride over and we walked back(the walk is only 5 minutes or so). Dave and Buster’s was a fun place to eat and had great service.

 

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Jan 15,2011

We had signed up for the 10:30am shuttle to the pier with KSA Tours,this will be the last time I ever use them:mad:,I will get into that a bit later. The group was ready for 10:15 so off we went. All I can say about FLL is wow traffic is scary compared to my small town. I was so excited to get my first glimpse of my new home for the next 8 days! The Oasis and Queen Mary were in port… The Oasis is huge. Handed our luggage to a porter, tipped him and into the terminal. Embarkation was quick and easy. The longest we had to wait was to get through security roughly 45 minutes. We were sitting and eating lunch by 12pm. We were late leaving port due to some computer issues. Finally sail away @ 5ishpm(after the Oasis and Queen Mary. After sail away we headed back to the room to freshen up and to the Chic Dining Room. We opted for the anytime dining and never had to wait more than 10 minutes in line, our first night we had a group table and were able to meet some more people. We then headed to the Welcome Aboard Show , Liquor tasting and Name that Tune in the Piano Bar( I spent a far bit in time here),Dave was great and we really enjoyed him..

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078 by hobbyhrs97, on Flickr

[spideyfam]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Love the Freedom (X2) and had a great time in Panama ourselves.

[hobbyhrs97]

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Roll call Meet and Greet

 

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DD & DH at Muster Drill

 

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Scott's Piano Bar

 

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Veiw looking up

 

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Our cabin 8374

 

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Ivanhoe(room steward)

[maplo]

Thank you so much for doing this review. I will be on this ship going to Panama in May. I see reviews for other ports with Freedom but so far, this is the first Panama one I have seen. I am looking forward to seeing lots of pictures and hearing what you did in the ports.

Yes, Oasis is big. I was on that one a couple months ago.

Thanks again for doing this review. You have made my day!

Pam

[hobbyhrs97]

Jan 16,2011

This was a sea day..more of a day for R&R(soaking up the sun) and to meet some new friends(cruise critic) and get to explore and learn our new home. This was also the first elegant night(Captains Celebration). We were able to have our photos taken with the captain (Thanks again Ryan) and get a chance to meet Ryan the cruise director. I knew once we met Ryan this was going to be a great week.

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DD,DH and Me with our Captain Giuseppe Giusa

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Ryan doing his GQ pose

This was also the night we met Sarmite, Mihajlo and Eduardo. We made sure to get them for the remainder of the cruise.

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DD with Sarmite

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Wait staff singing

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Of course no review is complete without this!

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This was also the first night we heard the code operation bright star, the first of 2. I know someone else posted this on their review and also commented about if you have heart issues to please stay home or get medical clearance prior to travelling, but bearing that in mind we were on a veterans cruise(please no flaming). The second operation bright star was on the last sea day and heading home from Panama we had a lady fall out of the pool and break her arm, they also requested any staff with O+ blood to donate(this was our emergency stop in Grand Caymans). If the lady this happened is reading this, I hope you are home and doing ok!

Ok enough emergency stuff. Freedom had a Deck colours competition (points were given to red, white and blue teams for various trivia’s and games) as well as a murder mystery all week. This was the Big Easy night and Ryan’s 30th birthday party. My goal was to win a plastic 24 carat gold coated ship on a stick) and I would have refused to go home without one.

[hobbyhrs97]

Thank you so much for doing this review. I will be on this ship going to Panama in May. I see reviews for other ports with Freedom but so far, this is the first Panama one I have seen. I am looking forward to seeing lots of pictures and hearing what you did in the ports.

Yes, Oasis is big. I was on that one a couple months ago.

Thanks again for doing this review. You have made my day!

Pam

 

Pam I am glad to hear you are on this vessel..it is beautiful and the staff worked so hard non stop to keep it clean. I hope you have Ryan and Ty on your cruise they made the cruise,we had a blast with them.

I will be posting a very detailed review for Costa Rica and Panama when I get to those ports so keep your eye open.

[nathand95]

Great review so far. I would love to go on this cruise itinerary, but the dates never seem to work out:(. I'm excited to hear about your time in Costa Rica and Panama. I will be going to Costa Rica over the summer (not on a cruise) and would like an idea of what to expect. Great start so far though.

[Andrew Bowden]

Ryan is absolutley the BEST!!! I would love to cruise with him again as the Cruise Director! We are looking at a Panama Canal cruise but didn't realize that the Freedom went there. I need to review the sailings. Thanks for a great review and keep it coming!

[Crusin Hogs]

Doing great Shawna ! Hope you guys are doing good and

I miss our nights in the piano bar. Tell my son hello !!

You guys made this the best cruise we have ever done!

Charles and Frances!

[boaterette]

Really good so far thank you.

[hobbyhrs97]

Doing great Shawna ! Hope you guys are doing good and

I miss our nights in the piano bar. Tell my son hello !!

You guys made this the best cruise we have ever done!

Charles and Frances!

 

We miss you as well:(..this was the best cruise for us as well. I hope to experience may more like this one,with my new family.:D

[hobbyhrs97]

Jan 17, 2011

We arrived in Cozumel around 3-3:30ish am…way before schedule due to the first operation bright star, DH was up and watched us dock; there was a ambulance waiting on the dock to rush the person to the hospital.I was up prior to sunrise and was able to take some pictures of the sun rising over Cozumel.

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We had been to Cozumel before on the Triumph and decided to just do some shopping and head to the beach! There have been some changes made in Cozumel from when were there in 2005.We stopped at Senor Frogs for a quick drink then we headed to Mr. Sancho’s to enjoy some drinks, food and sun, then headed back “home”.

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DD with the frog

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Us @ Senor Frogs

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Looking out from our table @ Senor frogs

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Mr. Sancho's Beach

[hobbyhrs97]

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Taken from our balcony(looking onto Libery)

 

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[mosaic_mom]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shauna, what an awesome photo. Love it !!! Can't wait to hear the rest of your review.

[SweetpeaOne]

Very nice review. Love the pictures. Can't wait to read more.

[hobbyhrs97]

Jan 18, 2011

This was another fun day at sea and I was still trying to win the ship on a stick (went to name that tune and nope no ship on a stick, but had a blast trying. Today was the hairy chest contest and the game of Love. Tonight’s show was Jump, Jive and Wail. I stayed out of the sun due to a getting a wee bit of a burn in Cozumel.

Jan 19, 2011

This was the day I most looking forward to. Costa Rica!!!! Our roll call had booked A-1 excursion with Okey Dokey Tours. Charlie Soto was quick to answer any emails with requests and lived up to the promises of the tour. We headed out of the fenced area to meet up with Carlos; he was standing with a sign waiting for us (just like promised), directed to an air conditioned bus.

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Our bus

The tour included water, soda and beer. Carlos told us about life in Costa Rica as we drove along the coastline into the jungle, as we drove up we saw a sloth in the tree then we then had a walking tour in the jungle as they explained what the various plants and trees were to us. We saw touched and smelled fresh ginger, lemon grass, basil and a few other herbs and fruits. Carlos explained to us that all the flowers are wild in Costa Rica and not planted. We arrived back to a small shelter that had fresh coconut, star fruit, sweet lemon and of course banana’s for us to eat as well as a few other fruits.

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Pineapple

The guide Jose had gone up into the tree while we were on the walk and brought the sloth down for us to hold and see up close. I really enjoyed holding the sloth and learning about them.

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me holding the sloth

While we were on route to the Del Monte banana processing plant and Tortugero Canal we detoured to find howler monkeys.

 

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We had a quick stop at Del Monte, a walk in to the field and processing area where Carlos explained about the growing of banana’s and how they make it to our stores.

 

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Off to go for the boat ride down the canal where we saw a baby Cayman,

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Jesus lizard and numerous birds and some bats. I was shocked to discover lunch (chicken, rice, beans, grilled plantation banana’s) was included at Playa Bonita Beach and more beer! Carlos took us to the market where the locals shop and helped us get Costa Rican coffee and vanilla. I got 2 bags of ground coffee, 1 bag of coffee beans and lots of vanilla for just over $20.00 U.S. Carlos had promised us we would return to the ship with time to spare and he was true to his word, we arrived back at the ship with a good hour to spare, time to shop in the market at the pier. If you ever visit Costa Rica I highly recommend Okeydokey tours as they are very proud of their country and offer you a great tour for your dollar. We skipped heading down to the dining room and opted to eat up on lido, the hot dogs were yelling at me to try them out. The only thing I have to say is I think the set up for the grill is backwards. My personal opinion is you should get your burger, hotdog and fries first then have the toppings after that.

That night was a lazy night for us as we had to be ready for the Panama Canal tour for 6:45am. We went to the Gender showdown and had a blast with our new friends. The show for the night was Superstar live and this just did not interest us at all. We did go for the trivia challenge and this was the night I finally won my ship on a stick, Thanks Ty and Karen!

[hobbyhrs97]

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Love this picture

 

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Hill top view

 

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wish I had this view out my back door

 

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Our lunch

 

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Our group(some of them)

 

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So cute!

[hobbyhrs97]

Next stop Panama!

Jan 20, 2011

Today was the earliest day I have ever done on holidays. We were up at 5am to get ready for a long day ahead of us. Breakfast was served earlier, but it was mass chaos, hard to find a table and lines were longer. I think next time I will just order room service.

We were to be down in the lounge for 6:45am to head out for the canal..there were 700 people booked for this tour on 18 buses. I do have to warn people I was not happy with this tour and found it a huge waste of time and money, just my thought.

Here is my review of this tour….. This is part of the letter I wrote to Carnival about our fun filled tour. I was asked by the excursion desk to write down my thoughts and comments along with everyone else that was standing in line that day to vent their thoughts.

After leaving the ship for our buses (yes that’s right 18 of them in fact) we boarded the bus (opps I mean death trap, the bus we were on had air dryer issues and I thought the window I was sitting beside was going to rattle it’s way out and land in my lap at any given time) and headed out. Hit a traffic jam (which I understand is beyond Carnival’s control) we finally made it one hour late to the dock to catch our ferry. This was udder chaos…to small of an area to safely unload the 700 people from the 18 buses! We then walked down a very steep gang plank( I am in fairly good shape and it hurt my knees going down, I did however feel sorry for the lady ahead of me in the wheel chair that they took down backwards,this lady was almost on the point of tears ) to get aboard the second ferry.. Once on board the ferry we tried to find a seat. The seats were able to find was on the 3 deck right behind the souvenir shop, guess how much we saw on the canal? Not much, mind you the sides of the ferry are open but they had people in sitting there. The crew on the ferry added more chairs as required; we were crammed in like sardines. I never knew where any life vests were or life rafts. Mind you they do have caymans in the water(this never really concerned me, do you happen to detect a little sarcasm there?)! What happened to safety first? On the other ferry they had a total of 18 lifeboats (imagine a rubber dingy); I think we had roughly 300-350 on our ferry!

After we started out they explained to us that the port side of the ferry was for them to take pictures which we could buy and the starboard side was for anyone to take a picture, we were to go up take our pictures and return to our seats. Allowing everyone a chance to get photo opportunities. There were the same people up there the whole time down the canal and most times I tried to go up I was told there were to many people up there I had to wait my turn! Bearing in mind when you tried to get up to the front of the ferry there was a narrow walk way because they had added chairs for people to sit. When they pointed out something on the port or starboard side and people would go to that side of the ferry to take pictures it would list to one side, we went down the canal listing for most of the time. The black cloud of fumes that followed us was the highlight of the tour! They even had people sitting on the floor in front of the bridge!

Ok enough about the canal ride from hell. I will let you know about the staff onboard the ferry. They were rude and inconsiderate of their passengers. I found them very pushy. My youngest daughter really appreciated the fact that someone tried to rip her belly button ring out. A few times I was trying to take a picture and they would step out in front of me to take theirs first? Hmm…. let me see, they see this all the time and therefore one would think they have gotten photos in the past so why do they require them now? If you would like I can forward you the copies of the staff in front of me as I was taking the pictures. Next time you are doing a cruise make sure your staff step in front of the camera, see how quickly you can tick your passengers off! The souvenir shop has one price posted but you pay the price of the day which in turn is higher than on the board (this was usually about $2-5 higher depending on the item). They know you have no time to shop so they make sure your trip is full of memories.

They did however offer us free water and soda, you had to pay $2 for a beer (which our ferry ran out of and people were buying beer from the other ferry), we were offered a lunch of wieners in some red sauce, fruit and a banana muffin on a dessert plate! Our tour operators were serving the lunch. I was speaking with another lady and she told me that she tried to use the bathroom on the second deck (which is in the air conditioning) and was told this was for staff only? We however got to use the bathrooms on the first deck at the rear of the ferry; this was crowded with extra chairs they had added for people to sit. Well worth the $189.99 we paid in my opinion! I am not too sure what the capacity of our ferry was, but we were well over the limit. I do not know

We knew people on the first ferry (she had a walker and would not have been able to move on our ferry, but had ample room to manoeuvre around the one she was on) and they were not crowed and really enjoyed the trip. They did however enjoy watching us go down the canal on a lean! We finally boarded the Freedom @ 5:30pm,bearing in mind we were supposed to be back on board @ 3:30pm.

I allowed myself sometime to cool down and the following day went down to talk to the shore excursion desk. As I was standing in line I discovered the line was full of other passengers that were not impressed. I felt sorry for the girls behind the desk as I am sure they listened to issues (regarding the canal tour) from open to close.We met other passengers that went on the Panama City tour and they really enjoyed it. I wish I known then what I know now. I had also chatted with a lady on the veterans group and they had a private yacht with 65 people, better lunch and made the vessel on time.

Please note if you decide to take this tour there is no shopping time, we got on and off the bus right at the duty free and were not allowed to go in even though there were still 15 other buses behind us yet to have returned.

This was also the night they had the past guest party..too bad we missed all but the last 10 minutes of this,they did however extend the time by 15 minutes due to the late canal tour, glad they did or I would have missed it altogether, it was hard to get one drink let alone some of the snacks. I think they should offer this on another night knowing that the canal tour usually runs late!

That evening we were too tired to do much and called it an early night. The show tonight was you, you & you and they had the Jive for St. Jude’s and the colors deck party.

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Red Devil

 

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Panama City skyline(very hazy that day and humid)

 

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Freighter ahead of us going through the canal

 

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Waiting to get in the canal

 

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In a lock(note the staff member(hair net) with the camera)

 

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The first less crowded ferry

[hobbyhrs97]

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NCL ship going through the locks

 

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Building of the new part of the canal

 

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continental divide bridge

 

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Panama Jail

 

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[hobbyhrs97]

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Canal wall

 

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[SMSACE6]

Very nice review, I did this same itinerary on the Freedom last September and had a great cruise. Thanks for sharing your photos!:)

[hobbyhrs97]

Jan 21,2011

Today was a full day at sea and we took full advantage of the serenity deck. Tonight was Ticket to Ride (this is not to be missed) and second elegant night. This was the night we headed to Grand Cayman..yet again without my camera. We went to the see one of the comedian John Knight,he had a great time picking on DD and was good for a few laughs.

Jan 22, 2011.

This was our last sea day and the reality of our last night aboard the Freedom hit me like a slap in the face. I knew I was getting closer to having to say good bye to my new friends and head back to the reality of winter. We had booked the behind the fun tour, if you are able to take this tour I highly recommend it.

The tour takes you to places within the ship you would never get to see just walking around. The tour included crews quarters and hot tub, behind the stage, galley (for the steak house as well), engine control room, bridge and laundry area, there were also many other areas on this tour. I thought it was well worth the money spent, tour included group photo at the front of the ship with the extra anchor, picture of you and the captain on the bridge and group on the bridge. When we arrived back in our cabin they had some special goodies waiting for us (white and dark chocolate covered strawberries) also got a cute flower made from carrots and a swan carved from soap, hat, backpack and lanyard. Just wish they allowed you to take your camera.

We watched the Legends show (Ryan you made a great Dolly!) and I totally forgot about the farewell party. We spend most of the night again in the Piano bar with Dave and our new “family”. This was the night we also had to say so long to our new friends and tears were shed.

Jan 23,2011

Disembark went quickly and as far as I saw fairly smooth. It was sad to hear my last beep as I left. We had choose to book the return shuttle with KSA tours from the lobby of La Quinta,$30.00 for 3 to go back to the hotel, they said they would be waiting for us when we got off the vessel and had to wear a ugly orange sticker to help identify those using the shuttle service. We were off the ship at roughly 9am, found our luggage and headed for the door, with a quick stop at customs. Once outside we found a group sporting the same orange stickers and waited for our shuttle. Saw one orange shuttle pull up and was informed they were taking a private group to the airport and another shuttle would be along shortly. I saw All Star shuttles every 5 minutes or so,11:30am and still no signs of the shuttle, had tried to call the number on the receipt and got busy signals..finally when someone answered the phone hubby explained about the 100+ waiting for a shuttle and they hung up on him! Way to run a business and keep customers happy,a few had got fed up and were going to miss flights so they jumped in a taxi(tons there waiting for fares). Once finally back to the hotel I spoke with Shaun from KSA and informed him I was not impressed and would be sure to include this in my review on cruise critic,he really did not seem to care! Long story short stay away from KSA Tours…Allstar seemed much more dependable and offered shuttle services,not to sure of the difference in price!

My Final thoughts

I took advantage of the serenity deck a few days while on this cruise…got my best burn there! I found the food to be good and the staff very friendly and willing to help you if required. I got lost more times then I care to count ,but had fun exploring and seeing new sights. I truly enjoyed my home away from home, we tried many new activities and cuisine. I liked the warm melting cake but fell in love with the Grand Marnier soufflé. This was something I am glad I did not miss. I did not take a lot of food porn as when I needed my camera I did not have it with me. I have to give my compliments to staff and crew onboard for all the hard work they do and to the captain for keeping us on time even with some huge delays. Where to next?

Please feel free to ask any questions you have.. I do have a copy of all funtime,but I think John was uploading them!

[hobbyhrs97]

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Behind the fun treats

 

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Had to take this..she is wearing flannel p.j's

 

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Carrot flowers

 

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Ryan as Dolly

 

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[mosaic_mom]

Great review, Shauna. We sure had a great time getting to know you and your family. Hopefully, more cruises for us all in the future together.