March 26- April 3, 2011 Carnival Freedom 8 Night Eastern Caribbean Review!

[Midwestgal]

Can you tell me what time you were able to get off the ship?? Do you think 11:35 am is too early of a flight home?

[navybaby1113]

What is that pink drink that you bought?

[tlcs]

It is a small world! I know what your saying about sensitive NY skin...I think we bought stock in sunscreen!! We managed to come home with a decent tan, but now that we're back in NY weather, it's quickly fading.:(

[AndrewD65]

Excellent review, I can't wait to see more. I am taking this same cruise in 59 days.

[thormx64]

Can you tell me what time you were able to get off the ship?? Do you think 11:35 am is too early of a flight home?

 

We did the self assist debarkation and were off the ship by 7am. If carrying your belongings does not present an issue to you, I highly recommend it. We waited in zero lines all the way from the ship thru customs. Best debarkation I've had. As far as your flight, I would think 11:35 is okay, but its a matter of personal comfortability.

[thormx64]

What is that pink drink that you bought?

 

I wish I could tell you the name of it, but Courtney had the pink one. Something peachy with rum if i remember correctly. The chocolate mocha getaway is the other one and was delish!!!

[boaterette]

Very nice. Thank you for posting. Looking forward to more.

[thormx64]

We woke up at 9am again on Tuesday, which was late compared to the rest of the ship. We ate at relatively quiet Freedom Restaurant which was a very pleasant experience after the 2 days of fighting for seats. We also took a picture of this from our seat.

 

 

We did not have an excursion planned for St. Thomas and were free do whatever we liked until 5:30pm when we had to be back on board. We got off the ship around 10:15 and headed to the pier looking for a cab. Our first sight when exiting the gangway?

 

Senor Frogs!

 

The second view?

 

The Carnival Dream

 

After about 3 minutes waiting for our cab to fill, we headed to Magen's Bay which cost $8/person one way. After dropping a few folks off in downtown, we kept on trucking to Magen's Bay and took a couple pics of the port and the beautiful view

 

 

Later today, Magen's Bay....

[DVC Sadie]

Great cruise report! Look forward to reading about the rest of your cruise.:D

[Perfect Stranger]

Good report so far, Jimmy! Do you get asked if you're still in high school? You look very young...but cute! ;)

[thormx64]

Good report so far, Jimmy! Do you get asked if you're still in high school? You look very young...but cute! ;)

 

LOL..funny you should ask. The answer is yes! I get ID'd for everything here at home. Even some rated R movies. I've gotten used to it ;)

[cruisingsthebest]

Loving your review!! We are leaving on the Freedom this Saturday and can't wait! Hope to get to read more of your review before we head out. :)

[jetsfan]

Love the picture of St. Thomas, one of my favorite ports.

[thormx64]

We arrived at Magens Bay and were welcomed by this...

 

 

We were early to get here and I didnt have much trouble finding some swim space :)

 

 

About an hour later, the beach looked this,

 

 

I love St. Thomas but specifically I love Magen's Bay. The water was warm, the weather was great, and the beer was reasonable! $4 Coors Lights. I went thru a few of these and Courtney had a couple margaritas for like $6/each or so. Oh, by the way the cost was $4/person to access the beach, and about $20 for 2 chairs and a towel, plus refundable deposits for both. We met a very nice couple from Canada who were sailing on the RCCL Oasis of the Seas. They sat next to us on the beach and provided us great conversation. They also took this picture for us,

 

[thormx64]

After spending a few hours at Magen's Bay, we took another $8/person cab ride into the downtown area of Charlotte Amalie. Neither of us had ever done any been here and we were definitely excited about the prospect. I bought a pair of aviators for cheap at some local beach store but other than that we just walked around, checked what seemed like each store atleast once. We tried out the highly recommended Diamonds International, which was very nice, but unfortunately out of my budget. Here is a picture of the shopping area in St. Thomas,

 

 

Many alleys with stores branching off the side. Very cool atmosphere. We both enjoyed the town for a little longer before we headed back to the pier and stopped at Senor Frogs. We wanted to try one of their specialty drinks in a "yard" souvenier cup. $33. Yup. $33. Very tasty drinks and GREAT atmosphere at Senor Frogs, even a nice pool, but $33 is high. Anyhow, we had a good time here as party is always on the agenda! We took our drinks in the pool and really enjoyed ourselves.

[thormx64]

Once we got back on the ship is when we realized we were both pretty drunk. We took the next hour and half cleaning up and shedding the buzz. We went to dinner that night and without remembering exactly what I had, I can tell you it was amazing. We went back to the cabin to switch clothes and somewhere between meeting our towel dog and reading Antigua's Fun Times, we were both passed out. Yeah, I know, real pathetic. It was 8pm and we were both conked out. I woke up around midnight and went for some pizza, but that was the extent of our night. After our day in the sun and larger than usual booze intake, we sorta needed it. Antigua was only 11 hours away and we had a Carnival beach excursion scheduled early. I will go into detail further tomorrow.

 

Animal Friend

[jolyroger]

Once we got back on the ship is when we realized we were both pretty drunk. We took the next hour and half cleaning up and shedding the buzz. We went to dinner that night and without remembering exactly what I had, I can tell you it was amazing. We went back to the cabin to switch clothes and somewhere between meeting our towel dog and reading Antigua's Fun Times, we were both passed out. Yeah, I know, real pathetic. It was 8pm and we were both conked out. I woke up around midnight and went for some pizza, but that was the extent of our night. After our day in the sun and larger than usual booze intake, we sorta needed it. Antigua was only 11 hours away and we had a Carnival beach excursion scheduled early. I will go into detail further tomorrow.

 

Animal Friend

 

LOL!! Almost spit my coffee out!! Love it! And love your honesty of this post, great review and great pics!

[Cyndi03]

Love your review! Please keep it coming. We will be in St. Thomas in June, somewhere I read that there is a Harley Store there, do you remember seeing it? My DS rides and I would love to be able to get him something from there but we have a pretty long excursion planned so I am wondering if it is possible to make it to the store.

[thormx64]

Love your review! Please keep it coming. We will be in St. Thomas in June, somewhere I read that there is a Harley Store there, do you remember seeing it? My DS rides and I would love to be able to get him something from there but we have a pretty long excursion planned so I am wondering if it is possible to make it to the store.

 

Cyndi, yes they definitely have a Harley Store. It was located right next to the alley I showed above. Right in downtown. We went inside and checked it out. Very nice store. I'm sure you will be able to find your DS something there!

[thormx64]

LOL!! Almost spit my coffee out!! Love it! And love your honesty of this post, great review and great pics!

 

Jolyroger, Thank you!

[thormx64]

Wednesday morning rolled around and we were up and off the ship by 9am. We had booked the "Beach Escape" excursion thru Carnival for $39/each. Our tickets said to be at the pier 15 minutes early for a 9:30am departure. We showed up and found our line already forming at 9:15am. As we waited in line, we were entertained by these 4 gents who were fantastic!

 

 

We didn't really know what to expect with this excursion. All we knew was that a beach awaited us with free Rum Punch. As 9:30 came we boarded a nice van that brought us about 15 minutes away to the beautiful Antigua Sandals Resort. Once we were escorted to the rear part of the resort, (beach) we were shown "our" section of the beach and told that all of the pay-for toys were available to us. (jet-skis, paddle boats, etc.) Once we took our seats I went and found the nice lady whom would be providing me the complimentary rum punch. Ugh. Not so good. The rum punch, that is. The woman was very nice :p

 

Now, I did not see any signs or anything, but I was told that we were at Dickensen Beach Bay or something like that. It was gorgeous. One of the best views we've seen. I would rate it above Magen's Bay in terms of overall beauty.

 

Here is a quick picture of the ocean from Dickensen Beach

 

And a picture of our view to the left

[thormx64]

This beach/resort was wonderful. Very little to complain about. However, I will mention that the number of people trying to sell you stuff is overwhelming. Whether it be jet-ski's, bottled water or hair braids, I'd say someone was around every 3 minutes trying to sell something. Now, although annoying, I've become accustomed to this type of behavior from my past trips to the Caribbean. Hardly anything to get overly upset about. After soaking in some of the sun we decided to test the waters and stroll the beach. Here are some of our pictures,

 

 

 

[thormx64]

I was getting pretty thirsty from all the walking so I went in search of some relief in the form of beer. The rum punch was just putrid and I could not bear another. It was at a very small bar on the far end of the beach that I found a very nice local woman selling drinks. She had all of our domestic US beer such as Coors and Miller Lite, but she highly recommended the local Antiguan beer called Wadadli.

 

 

Needless to say, I had several. Very, very good. We enjoyed the rest of our stay and at 2:30 our shuttle van was loading us up for our trip back to the pier. 15 minutes later, we were boarding the ship and heading to the cabin for some R & R before dinner. More to come later...

[AndrewD65]

Loving the review.

[thormx64]

Loving the review.

 

Thanks Andrew