Carnival Freedom Review - 2/26/11-3/6/11

[Mrs.C05]

A little bit of background information:

My husband (31) and I (27) have been married for 6 years and this was originally our anniversary cruise. We originally had this cruise planned for February 2010 but I had to have emergency airway surgery in January 2010 and all involved was unsure of the outcome/recovery time. We canceled 37 days out and thankfully only lost the deposit. This cruise (when we rebooked) has a whole new meaning! I thought this day would never come! Finally it is here!!!!

 

Cruise Embarkation Day!!!!

Saturday February 26, 2011

We left Orlando around 7:30am and arrived to Ft. Lauderdale right at 11am. I researched other options of parking since the pier was charging $15 per day. Well I reserved a rate with Park N Go for $6.99!!!! We decided to see what it looked like and determine if we would park there or not. Their directions on the reservation confirmation was right on. You get off 595 and it's right there in front of you. We got our our parking ticket, parked where he said to go (in lot "K"), and then waited for the Park N Go bus to come around to our car. We waited about 5-10 minutes for that.

Once the shuttle arrived behind our car, we helped load up our luggage and we were off. It was a short 5 minute ride and then were dropped of right in front of the terminal.

 

Quick run through security and check-in, and we were on the boat by 12pm. Took this picture and then got yelled at....

Don't they know people like taking photo's? HAHA!

 

It was a little chaotic with everyone on board all in the same place, but what could you do? We knew it would die down once the rooms opened up.

Part of the atrium....

[Mrs.C05]

home sweet home for the next 8 nights!!

^^^Hubby was tired of taking pictures! I was glad to be in our room and our cruise getting under-weigh.

 

We got into our room right at 1:30, unpacked what we carried on and relaxed for awhile. We received a few little gifts that were waiting for us in the room. I had pre-ordered Malibu Rum (but also snuck on some dark rum for DH) which was in our room and then surprisingly a friend from CC had bought us a Carnival cooler with 6 Coca-cola's and a Carnival glass and a Carnival Hat, and also a free photo ticket. A very nice surprise indeed!!! Thank you Kim McCade!!!!

[Mrs.C05]

This is the view from our balcony while we're still docked in Ft. Lauderdale. We were docked portside right now, with a view of the RCCL Oasis of the Seas, on the left side of the picture. That ship was massive!

 

Everyone laying out before departure....

 

Muster drill was at 3:30 and we pulled out of port right on time at 4pm. We watched the sailaway with drinks in hand and then perused the boat.

 

Tonight was mostly relaxing.

 

Oh, here are a few more pictures of the room.....

Bathroom:

 

Here is the mini-fridge I was talking about earlier! I was sooo excited when I opened this door to find a fridge!!! We have never had one in any of our balcony rooms, only on our honeymoon and a RCCL which both were suites. This room we had now 7358, was just a regular balcony! I'll take it though!

[jolyroger]

So far so good!!! Glad to see you got to finally cruise!!! Waiting for more to come!! We'll be sailing on the Freedom in 25 more days!!!

[jaixrx]

Great job so far...can't wait to hear more! Hurry! Hurry!:D

[grannymae]

Hey! We were on this cruise too! Had a great time!

[Mrs.C05]

Interesting pic....never knew of a ship to have it's own helicopter on deck.

 

Whale Tale!!

 

Statue of Liberty in the the buffet

 

Next up....Day at Sea

[Mrs.C05]

Hey! We were on this cruise too! Had a great time!

 

Nice to see you again! I ran into a few people from CC, but sadly I don't remember their names! They were on the same excursion as us in Tortola and then spoke to us the last night. I think the were from Canada though, because they mentioned they had to drive 24hours home.

[Mrs.C05]

First sunrise from the balcony!

We woke up with a knock at the door for room service around 6am, which is right on time! I wanted to order a continental breakfast so my stomach would be good before we worked out. My husband went to take sunrise pictures while I ate that. When he came back down we decided go to get him a full breakfast. They didn't open everything until 8am, so we waited. They only had the danishes open but DH didn't want that. Their buffet line was set up a bit weird but hey, it's a cruise ship buffet line to serve over 3k people. Breakfast was delicious though - fresh omelet, bacon, sausage and pancakes. Yumm!!!

After that delicious breakfast, we went to go work it off in the gym. We were only allotted 30 minutes, so we left from there and decided to hit the track. Unfortunately, due to high winds it was closed. Oh well. We went back to our balcony to read magazines instead. Lunch was eaten around 1:30, which is late for us, but I had a chicken sandwich, fries, and yogurt ice cream for desert. The chicken was a little sorry looking though since it was half a breast on a whole bun.

Today was mostly a relaxing day; the Lido deck was packed with sunbathers. Went to the purser's desk to tell them to deliver our BV cake to the MDR. One quick email and it was taken care of. Took a nice long nap before getting up to get ready for formal night. A good amount of people were dressed up in formalwear. We walked around to see what backgrounds were available to take pictures. The stairway / atrium was available, so we used that backdrop and then headed off to dinner.

Formal pic

Sadly, the one's we had the ship take, the camera wasn't in focus so when we went to look at them the next night, it was all grainy looking. :( Thankfully, the one's taken at dinner, that says "Captains Dinner" or something, came out very nice. I'll have to scan these in.

 

Dinner was delicious!!!! DH had the lobster tail and shrimp, with mashed potatoes. I had the Minestrone Milanese and Fresh Fruit for the appetizer, and the Spaghetti Carbonera (sp?) for the main entree. Dessert was a cake we had ordered through BV. Unfortunately our waiter forgot DH's 2nd appetizer. Oh well.... Lots of visits to the casino and then off to the Adult Rated R comedy show with Mike Lukas. He was pretty good.

 

Enjoying late night 24-hour pizza!!!

And 24-hour ice cream!

 

[Mrs.C05]

Arrive at 5pm and debark at 12am.

Today is another relaxing day, until we get into port, only I have been feeling a little on the queazy side. Today is a lot rockier than yesterday. One of the pit bosses mentioned it was always rough seas going into San Juan. I am not sure why though. I had a lighter breakfast today, skipping the omelet. We worked out for 30 minutes and grabbed some lunch. Tonight we plan to get off in San Juan to do some walking around and maybe hit Senor Frogs. We'll see what time we get in.

We arrived right on time, only it felt like it took forever to dock.

Getting closer.....

 

[Mrs.C05]

We arrived right on time to San Juan, PR. We got off and went straight to Senor Frogs. We were going to go to Baccharina Restaurant, but there was a storm coming up and we didn't want to be far from the ship. At Senor Frogs we ordered drinks, Senor Frogs Nachos and a Burrito to split. It started raining while we were in there but didn't last for long. We spent about an hour total there and then headed back to the ship.

Here is a picture of our ship at night. Most of it was blocked by the terminal we had to walk through, sorry! The lights up top I thought were neat though.

[Mrs.C05]

If anyone has any questions about anything, please let me know! I'd be glad to answer!

[cruisinbanddirectors]

Like the review so far. We're doing this itinerary (minus San Juan) in June.

 

You don't happen to have the menus you wouldn't mind sharing would you?

[Mrs.C05]

Which would you like the room service menu or the MDR menu?

[navybaby1113]

Great review so far!

[Mrs.C05]

Cruisinbanddirectors, this is what I found for menus. I did not take any pictures though.

http://www.zydecocruiser.com/menus/CarnivalCruiseLineMenus.htm

[Mrs.C05]

Tomorrow I will be doing Day 4, St. Thomas. We did a lot of walking around and picture taking up on Paradise Point! Stay tuned!

[JerseyGirlJen]

Thank you for your review, I'm going on the Freedom in 25 days, probably the same itinerary as you... minus San Juan (which I'm not regretting since you said it always gets rough in that area!).

If you have any Capers I would love to see them too!

[Mrs.C05]

I have never been too fond of San Juan, especially at night. 2 out of the 3 times I've been there, has been at night. :/

I do have capers that I'll have to scan in at work.

[jolyroger]

Thank you for your review, I'm going on the Freedom in 25 days, probably the same itinerary as you... minus San Juan (which I'm not regretting since you said it always gets rough in that area!).

If you have any Capers I would love to see them too!

 

Hay there JerseyGirlJen!!! We'll be crusing with you as well....I'm lovin this review, and love the pics too...Great Combo!!!! Seems I've been trying to read everything about the Freedom, well as much as I can find!!!!

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

Enjoying your review, keep it up!!!

[BarJen]

Thanks for sharing, now I am really getting excited about our upcoming cruise!

 

 

Barry

[Mrs.C05]

More of our room....

 

Wood work my husband really liked.

 

Looking up from Deck 3

[Mrs.C05]

**Duplicate post! Sorry!

[Mrs.C05]

Not sure why the room pictures in the misc. pics of Day 2 are showing up so big. They should be the same size as the others. Weird! If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know!!