Carnival Freedom 8 Day Eastern Caribbean Review 09/10/11 - 09/18/11 LOTS of PICS

[Disconnections]

Hello

 

We are sailing on the Freedom on 9/24

 

Can you tell me who the entertainment staff and the assistant cruise director is?

 

Also do you have the Fun Times or any comments on cruise director Jacques DeLange? I haven't seen his name before.

 

Thanks!

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* The Balcony/View *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

The balcony was large enough to accommodate 2 lounge chairs, 2 upright chairs and a small table. There was still enough room to walk around.

 

 

Priceless….

 

 

 

 

 

If you are standing on your balcony at the rail, you can see anyone else standing on their balcony at the rail. If you are sitting, it's private although anyone above at the Aft Endless Pool can look down at you. We were up there having some pizza and we heard a lady ask her husband..."I wonder how we get down to that deck?" LOL

 

 

 

Here's some perspective of privacy

 

 

 

 

 

Looking down

 

 

 

[TakeMeAway1001]

What a great start, thanks so much for taking the time to share your first cruise with us!

[nhraformula00]

Very nice review. Sorry to hear your eastern turned into a western. We are on this ship Dec 3 for a 8 day eastern as well. Looking forward to the rest of you review.

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

Hello

 

We are sailing on the Freedom on 9/24

 

Can you tell me who the entertainment staff and the assistant cruise director is?

 

Also do you have the Fun Times or any comments on cruise director Jacques DeLange? I haven't seen his name before.

 

Thanks!

Hi Disconnections,

 

 

We are sailing on the Freedom on 9/24 - Congratulations! I hope you have a blast!

 

Can you tell me who the entertainment staff and the assistant cruise director is? - By entertainment staff, do you mean the singers, comedians etc? Also, I am not sure who the assistant cruise director was, Jacques was the only one that made a presence.

 

 

Also do you have the Fun Times or any comments on cruise director Jacques DeLange? I haven't seen his name before. - Yes, I have all of my Fun Times. I plan on scanning them as soon as I can. I will post them in my review. Jacques was great, although he is no John Heald...Just kidding :-) He was very nice when you bumped into him and would always smile and speak. He was very entertaining at the shows where he interacted with the passengers. I think you will enjoy him!

[Disconnections]

Hi Disconnections' date='

 

 

We are sailing on the Freedom on 9/24 - Congratulations! I hope you have a blast!

 

Can you tell me who the entertainment staff and the assistant cruise director is? - By entertainment staff, do you mean the singers, comedians etc? Also, I am not sure who the assistant cruise director was, Jacques was the only one that made a presence.

 

 

Also do you have the Fun Times or any comments on cruise director Jacques DeLange? I haven't seen his name before. - Yes, I have all of my Fun Times. I plan on scanning them as soon as I can. I will post them in my review. Jacques was great, although he is no John Heald...Just kidding :-) He was very nice when you bumped into him and would always smile and speak. He was very entertaining at the shows where he interacted with the passengers. I think you will enjoy him!

 

By entertainment staff, I meant the people hosting events such as trivia throughout the ship. Do you remember any of their names by any chance?

 

Thanks for the information!

[BoardwalkBabe]

Great review - can't wait to read the rest of it. We're sailing on the Eastern itinerary in November and are looking forward to it.

[gapearl]

Great review and pictures! The Freedom is an awesome ship. I'm glad you all made the best out of the itinerary change. I can't believe some people just left! Looking forward to reading more.

[navybaby1113]

Loving the review. Looking forward to more.

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* HAPPY DANCE TIME!!! *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

 

 

:D Something wonderful happened just before muster! At about 2:45 Cruise Director Jacques came on the speaker in the cabin, hall, outside...everywhere! He made an announcement that said that Hurricane Maria weakened. She changed course and wasn't as strong as expected. This meant that WE WERE GOING BACK TO THE ORIGINAL PLAN OF DOING THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN ITINERARY. It seemed like you could hear all of the passengers doing a collective WOO HOO!

 

 

I hope the people that left had a wonderful time in Ft. Lauderdale :D

[raylene5]

:D Something wonderful happened just before muster! At about 2:45 Cruise Director Jacques came on the speaker in the cabin, hall, outside...everywhere! He made an announcement that said that Hurricane Maria weakened. She changed course and wasn't as strong as expected. This meant that WE WERE GOING BACK TO THE ORIGINAL PLAN OF DOING THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN ITINERARY. It seemed like you could hear all of the passengers doing a collective WOO HOO!

 

 

I hope the people that left had a wonderful time in Ft. Lauderdale :D

 

Ha ha...yeah, I can't imagine giving up a paid vacation because the itinerary changed. I mean, would they have gotten their money back? I can understand being disappointed but walking away from a paid trip just doesn't make much sense to me.

 

Great review so far!

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•*Muster Drill*•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

Muster was at 3:30. We went down to the drill and luckily we didn't have to wear the life jackets. I checked our cabinet just to make sure that we had them and they smelled pretty bad. :eek: Plus, it was pretty hot and with us all tightly packed together...it could have been pretty bad. The drill lasted 15-20 minutes and then we went back up to the cabin for sail away.

 

We got back to the cabin and there was a knock at the door. I thought it was our luggage, but it was our cabin steward Ray. He was delivering this. It was very yummy!

 

[Catrin]

Loving your review so far!

 

Did you hear a lot of noise from the Lido deck above you? Chairs, Music, etc?

 

Catrin

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•*Sailaway!*•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

Off we go....I think it's a good time to pop the bubbly. It was still chilled from being in the mini-fridge at the hotel. Perfect :p We didn't have champagne glasses, but these worked just fine.

 

 

 

 

The coast guard led us out. Look at that gun!

 

 

 

 

This beach looked pretty nice

 

 

 

Here's our path out of Port Everglades

 

 

 

Here's a better look at the Oasis of the Seas. That ship is HUGE!

 

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

Loving your review so far!

 

Did you hear a lot of noise from the Lido deck above you? Chairs, Music, etc?

 

Catrin

Hi Catrin,

 

Actually, no. Sometimes late at night you could hear a few chairs scraping, but not enough to bother us. I never heard any music or noise. I don't know if the sound of the wake drowned out some of the noise. Noise level on a scale from 1-10. I would say a 1.

 

Thank you for enjoying my review :-)

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•*Interlude*•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

Before I continue on with my review of the ports and excursions, I would like to take a small break to let you know how the rest of my review will go.

 

 

Now that we have actually been on a cruise, I can say that we are definitely destination cruisers. Our fun was defined by the different ports of call and getting as much out of them as possible. We did not do a lot of the activities that were offered on the ship, we did not hang out at any of the pools and we did not go to any of the shows. Actually, we only went to the main dining room once even though we brought formal clothes! As I stated before, we are mainly destination focused. I will speak on odds and ends about the ship, but my next posts will be about the ports.

 

 

We liked the trivia games, the casino and we really enjoyed the movies at the seaside theatre. I feel that cruising is vacation "your way". We loved sitting on our balcony and listening to the wake and enjoying each other. We liked exploring the ship and just relaxing. We treated the Carnival Freedom as our own personal floating hotel that was just taking us to the places that we really wanted to go without the hassle of worrying about anything.

 

 

I'm sorry that I won't be able to answer a lot of your questions about the shows or the hairy chest contest, but as you can see...I will provide you guys with as many details as I can remember ;)

Edited September 20, 2011 by Let'sDoThisCruiseThing

[jkloni]

We are sailing the same Eastern itinerary in 46 days! And also staying at the Embassy Suites. Thanks so much for the detailed pictures. Very helpful!!

 

I can only hope that being Platinum will help with the long lines at embarkation.

 

We are actually 'the ship is our destination' cruisers. We love the ports but love the sea days more. We generally cruise with friends/family - many of which are from different parts of the country that we don't see except during our planned cruises. The cruise is one big reunion and we love the time on the ship relaxing and enjoying seeing each other again.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review and pictures!

[aml3679]

I love your review. After sailing on Celebrity, I was a little hesitant to book Carnival. We are sailing in January - West Caribbean. We have a balcony but not an aft one. Please continue. We are so looking forward to our first cruise on Carnival.

[gail811]

No apologies necessary for not having information about everything! I am still loving your review! We too are destination cruisers and spend most of our time on board with the people we travel with, on our balcony and in the casino. Rarely do we take in the shows, and I can count on one hand the number of times we have spent the day at the pool.....that is the beauty of cruising!

[Quincella]

I want more! I want more! (Hoping the chanting will prompt you to blow off work or whatever you're doing today and post again! :D )

 

We leave on this same ship, same itinerary in 17 days, we're staying at the Embassy Suites and we're in the cabin next to yours! I can't wait for the next installment....

 

Love love love the details and the photos. Thanks so much for the time and effort!

[PirateGal]

Loving your review so far!

 

My heart totally sank when I read that your itinerary changed!

 

Good on you for forging ahead with a positive attitude! I totally agree - a week at sea would be much better than a week on land!

 

And I did a little happy dance in my chair when I read that your itinerary was changed back!

[jetta8300]

So excited to hear about the destinations! We are on this itinerary in 17 days, and so excited! Hopefully you went to some beaches and took pics there :D

[Quincella]

So excited to hear about the destinations! We are on this itinerary in 17 days, and so excited! Hopefully you went to some beaches and took pics there :D

 

Hey.....so are we! It's getting close!

[paper1122]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•*Interlude*•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

Before I continue on with my review of the ports and excursions' date=' I would like to take a small break to let you know how the rest of my review will go.[/color']

 

 

Now that we have actually been on a cruise, I can say that we are definitely destination cruisers. Our fun was defined by the different ports of call and getting as much out of them as possible. We did not do a lot of the activities that were offered on the ship, we did not hang out at any of the pools and we did not go to any of the shows. Actually, we only went to the main dining room once even though we brought formal clothes! As I stated before, we are mainly destination focused. I will speak on odds and ends about the ship, but my next posts will be about the ports.

 

 

We liked the trivia games, the casino and we really enjoyed the movies at the seaside theatre. I feel that cruising is vacation "your way". We loved sitting on our balcony and listening to the wake and enjoying each other. We liked exploring the ship and just relaxing. We treated the Carnival Freedom as our own personal floating hotel that was just taking us to the places that we really wanted to go without the hassle of worrying about anything.

 

 

I'm sorry that I won't be able to answer a lot of your questions about the shows or the hairy chest contest, but as you can see...I will provide you guys with as many details as I can remember ;)

 

I can relate, although we do go to the MDR every night and typically go to the comedy shows we do little else on the ship. I could care less about Harry Potter trivia or underwater basket weaving... though I am glad they offer activities to appeal to a wide range of people.

There is nothing better than doing nothing on a ship!:)

[KenyaCruise]

Your review is very detailed and the pictures are great!! Loving every aspect of it!!!