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

[Frenchsnowhite]

Nice review;)

[ncb106]

Hi jmcancruise' date='[/color']

 

Go to www dot hilton dot com. Sorry, you can't post websites on cruise critic unless you spell them out like that.

 

There is a toolbar at the top of the page, just select the Hilton Honors link.

 

Click on the blue Join button at the top of the screen.

 

Enter your information, click on the box that says "Send me a one time enrollment confirmation email with my HHonors account number and pin. You will receive an email shortly that includes this information. Click on Create Account.

 

 

When we received our account # and pin, we booked online directly through the Embassy Suites website. You would need to sign in using your username/HHonors# and your password/pin. After you are logged in and begin to select the hotel of your choice, you will see the discounted rate. If you do not login using your information first, you will see what the regular prices are.

 

I think the key is to book early. You will definitely receive a room at a reduced rate.

 

I hope this helps!

hi i was booked on the but i switch it becouse i never been to grad turk,i will like to know how did you like the ship and it decor

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* St Thomas Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

The water was very choppy and our boat was flying up and smashing back down on the water pretty forcefully. We all seemed to enjoy the ride though. It was like a roller coaster. They offered snorkel gear, but we brought our own mask and snorkel and ended up using their vests and fins. Our first snorkeling spot was Turtle Cove at Buck Island. This is a protected nature sanctuary.

 

Buck Island:

 

 

The water was choppy on top, but calm underneath. It was a beautiful, clear sapphire blue color. You could see all the way to the bottom about 25-30 ft. There were a lot of sea turtles there. There were supposed to be stingrays there as well, but I was mesmerized by the sea turtles, so if they were there I didn’t even notice. We were told that they come up every 10 min or so for air, so if they come up….be really still and they will come right up to you. This happened to me a quite a few times. It was pretty awesome!

 

Sea Turtles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is how close this one came to me: I didnt want to scare it away, so I took a picture the best I could. ;)

 

 

 

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

hi i was booked on the but i switch it becouse i never been to grad turk,i will like to know how did you like the ship and it decor

Hi ncb106,

 

I really enjoyed the ship. They have a lot of activities to keep everyone busy and there was always something going on. I would suggest that you study the layout of the ship because it gets kind of tricky getting to some decks because there are only a few places where you can go from the front of the ship to the back without needing to go up or down to cross over.

 

As far as the decor, I found it to be very nice. I have seen numerous posts where the decor was flamed, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. It's definitely unique and busy, but I liked it because it wasn't monotone and plain. You almost couldn't focus on one thing because your eyes wouldn't let you. It was like a piece of art that some people would appreciate and others don't get it. This was my first cruise and I haven't seen any other ships to compare it to, but I give it a thumbs up!

 

I believe that it was designed by Joe Farcus.

[rudechuck]

There were supposed to be stingrays there as well' date=' but I was mesmerized by the sea turtles, so if they were there I didn’t even notice. [/color']

 

I had a turtle off the south shore of Kauai swim straight up at me from about 30 feet down. He got about 6 feet below me, levelled off and surfaced about two yards behind my feet.

 

I agree 100%. Sea Turtles > Stingrays.

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* St Thomas Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

Next, we moved on to Capella. This is also a protected nature sanctuary and we couldn’t go up on the beach. During the ride over to Capella, we were offered iced tea, water or soda to drink and fruit to get the salt water taste out of our mouths. This place had a nice reef, but not a lot of fish. We spent the rest of our time here. When we were finished, we were offered more drinks, fruit and shrimp cocktail. Rick said that he caught them and cooked them while we snorkeled. He seems to really enjoy doing these tours. We had a great time and I would recommend this excursion to anyone. Beginners and experienced snorkelers would have a great time. We snorkeled a little over an hour at each location and the rest of the time was travel time.

 

Capella:

 

 

Reef pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* St Thomas Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

 

We were taken back to the dock and decided to do some shopping while we waited for our next excursion. The Havensight Shopping Center was packed. I couldn’t imagine how it would be if there were any other ships in port at this time. We bought some souvenirs and went back to the ship to put away our purchases. There were 2 gangways open, but it still took a while to get back on the ship. P.S. I don't know the guy in the photo. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* St Thomas Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

We were off to our next excursion at about 3:15. This was a parasailing excursion booked through Carnival. We got off the ship and immediately saw a sign on the fence that said ‘Parasailing’. We walked up and showed the guy our tickets and he said that we were in the right place. We signed a waiver and waited for a couple more girls that were lost. There was a larger group waiting with us who were doing the Screaming Eagle excursion. That seemed like fun too. Once the girls arrived, we headed on down to the boat. There were 6 of us total - 2 guys, myself and DB from the Freedom and 2 girls from the Dream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed out and the water was still choppy. The sky was getting darker and there was a huge ominous looking cloud over the island.

 

 

See ya Freedom:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2011 by Let'sDoThisCruiseThing

[Loveland2Disney]

:) I am loving your TR!! We did this exact cruise in July of 09 (only we went to San Juan then) on the Freedom as well! It was our first (and only) cruise too. Reading this and looking at your pictures is like a walk down memory lane. Cant wait to read the rest!!:D

Edited September 21, 2011 by Loveland2Disney
put in wrong year!

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* St Thomas Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

One of the parasailing guides, Garren kept pointing out waterspouts that were forming out in the ocean. It was pretty cool. We get tornados in the midwest, waterspouts are like tornados just over the water. The 2 guys went up together and while they were up they were getting DB and I harnessed to go next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were reeled back in and then we got hooked up. We started going up….and then we started coming down again. It was pretty much instantly. We got back down and they asked if we saw the bolt of lightning behind us. We didn’t, we were looking forward because we just started going up. Everyone else back on the boat saw it and they said that it wasn’t safe to keep us up there. We completely understood. We are up in the air with metal clamps all over the harness and closer to the lightning. Yeah, bring us back down! They said that their procedure is to wait 45 minutes with no more lightning before they could put us back up. We were too close to needing to be back on the ship to wait and the weather was obviously not going to stop. There was more lightning and some thunder and they got a call on their radio to bring it back in. This is as high as we got to go before they reeled us back in.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a pic of our chute while we were up there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, we headed back to the dock. We were told that we would get a refund as well as the girls from the Dream. We were ok with that. They took our information and off to the ship we went. It started to drizzle while we were waiting in line, but it wasn’t a full downpour and it was kind of nice. We went through security and were back on the ship. We went back to our cabin, looked outside and it was a full downpour.

 

We went back to the cabin, had a shower, grabbed some dinner at the buffet and then sat on the balcony for a while and called it a night. Next stop…Antigua!

 

 

 

Great tip 1: Since St Thomas is part of the US Virgin Islands, I was able to use my cell phone while in port to call home with NO additional charges. I work for the Sprint world headquarters and I knew that we had retail stores in St Thomas. I checked the Sprint website to double check prior to leaving to make sure. They make it very clear that you will not incur any additional charges for any text or phone usage while in St Thomas. I made calls from my cabin and outside of the ship. Check with your carrier prior to your trip to make sure that they don’t charge you anything, but this is a great way to check in at home without paying the extreme prices on the ship.

 

Great tip 2: Bring various sizes of Ziploc bags with you. They come in handy for several reasons. We used the larger bags to pack all of our liquid health & beauty items to ensure that they did not leak all over our clothes in transit. Your bags are tossed around, dropped, searched & smashed several times. When we got to the hotel, all of the Ziploc bags had liquid that seeped out that could have been all over everything. They also came in handy to bring cookies, fruit & bananas off the ship with us on our excursions. The other use for these bags was very helpful…we wanted to collect sand from the beaches that we went to. Each beach has it’s own type of unique sand and I wanted to put the sand into small corked bottles from the hobby store when I got home and label it with the name of the beach. I also used them to store the shells that I collected. All baggies made it home without leaking and none of the shells were broken….even a large conch shell that I found at the beach at Cooper Island. Note: If you find any conch shells that you want to keep, please make sure that there is not a conch still living inside. You might start to smell a really raunchy odor in your cabin after a few hours!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2011 by Let'sDoThisCruiseThing

[Kokopelli2]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to do this... :)

[Irishlinny]

Loving your review...we'll be on the Freedom in November. Thanks for taking the time to do it:)

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Goodbye St Thomas *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

█▓▒░★ Antigua ★░▒▓█

 

 

 

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

 

 

 

 

Well, hello there Antigua, you look beautiful this morning. I think I love you :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Antigua Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was my hands down favorite port. We arrived at Antigua at 7am and had to be back on the ship at 5:30pm for 6pm sail away. We decided on room service this morning for breakfast. We ordered a couple of bananas to take with us on our excursion. Today was a beautiful sunny day with hardly any clouds in the sky. We ended up going to Valley Church Beach. I am skeptical about telling you all about this place, in hopes that it will stay a beautiful secret hideaway forever, but someone told us about it, so I am obligated to pass it on. Just tell your friends to NOT be there next time I go! LOL. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

DB planned this excursion himself from research on Cruise Critic. We decided to get off the beaten path to a place less populated and we were pleasantly surprised. We took the public bus even though we were solicited by about 200 taxi drivers that wanted to take us on a scenic tour around the island and then to Dickinson’s Bay or Jolly Beach for anywhere between $30 - $50 + tip. We paid $3 total for the public bus. It was a very interesting ride and I was very leery about doing this. It really wasn’t about paying $3 for DB, it was about being adventurous. We walked into town where there were no tourists, only locals.

 

The bus station was about a 10 min walk from the cruise port and was across the street from the fish market. Once you get off the ship, head forward out of the port area until you get to Market St. Make a right (south) and keep walking until you see the fork in the road (fish market on the left, but station on the right) We found the #22 bus and confirmed with the driver that this bus would take us to Valley Church Beach. He said it was and told us to step right on. These busses don’t leave until they are full, so we waited for all of the seats to fill up and then all of the jump seats that were located in between each row of seats.

 

 

 

Once we were full, we were on our way. It was very interesting because this is the first place that we have been where they drive on the other side of the road. Not only were they driving on the left side, the streets were narrow and it seemed like we were driving really fast. LOL. There were pedestrians that would pretty much be walking in the street and we would zoom right past them. There were people riding donkeys and cars passing us constantly. It was a trip. Most of the passengers were students at the state college and thinned the bus out before we got to our stop.

 

It was about a 20 min bus ride with me white knuckling the OH sh*t handle the whole time. :eek: (Pardon my french folks) The bus driver pulls over to this dirt road, looks at us in the rear view mirror and says “this is your stop”. I look at DB and he starts to stand up. At this point, I really don’t want to get off this bus and go down that dirt road. DB assures me that it’s ok, so I go ahead and get off. We get off and paid the driver and the bus drives off.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Great review. Loved this ship and itinerary.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jetta8300]

Great so far, and I am so excited to hear about Valley Church Beach! This is where we are planning on going in a few weeks!

[realtrip]

Wonderful review! Can't wait to hear more about your trip.

[matondo]

Great Review!!! Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!!

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Antigua Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

We start to walk up the dirt road and then I start to see the most beautiful water that I have ever seen in my life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked a bit further and I see the beach with umbrellas set up and beach chairs. I really feel silly right now. Open mouth…insert foot. This place is post card perfect and there are only about 5 other people here. We walk up and we are immediately greeted by a man that introduced himself and said that he was in charge of the umbrellas and chairs. We paid $20 for 2 chairs and an umbrella for the day. He said that he would set it up anywhere we wanted. We chose a spot and started getting unpacked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Antigua Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

There is a bar/restaurant there called The Nest. They were open and ready for business. They had food, drinks and restroom facilities. People started trickling in throughout the day, but it was never busy. The water was the most beautiful color of blue and the sand was sugar soft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were jet skis there and a woman named Pam with a massage table and a private massage area offering massages for a very reasonable price. There were also several jewelry vendors that would walk up to you and ask to show you their jewelry. They weren’t really pushy and kind of laid back. We never turned them away and ended up buying quite a few very nice pieces. After they came by once and you told them no thank you or bought something, they didn’t come back again. We had a great day and time seemed to be very slow there. It was paradise. Nothing like the craziness that we walked into when we first got off of the ship. I had forgotten all about that and the bus ride.

 

I'm just going to show you several pics of this beach....it speaks for it'self!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2011 by Let'sDoThisCruiseThing

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Antigua Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

Here's me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[reeree313]

Wow...that beach is breathtaking....I think I know where I'm going next time. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone;)

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Antigua Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Valley Church Beach! I WILL be back again!

 

 

 

 

 

I think multiple people just changed their screen savers! LOL!

 

 

 

We enjoyed the beach, collecting shells and the tranquil setting for hours. There were other Carnival people that showed up a few at a time. The only way we knew they were from Carnival was because of their towels. There were never more than about 50 people at this beach at one time. At some point we had to talk about going back to the ship. Taking the bus back…not an option. We decided that we were going to start talking to other Carnival people and maybe split a taxi back. There were several taxis there already with their drivers sitting in the shade having a bite to eat. If we didn’t find anyone to share a ride with, we would have definitely gotten a taxi back to the ship with no problem.

[Let'sDoThisCruiseThing]

-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Antigua Continued *•-:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-

 

 

 

As we were packing up, there was a couple and their son that were with Carnival and also packing up to go. We started talking to them and they said that their driver was coming back and he told them that they could pay when he came back for them. We asked if there would be room for 2 more and they said….absolutely! We waited with them and they said that they were quoted $32 for the ride to the beach and back to the ship. We ended up paying our driver Clive $20 for the 2 of us, tip included.

 

 

Here are a few pics of the ride back...