Carnival Freedom 10/2-10/8 Very detailed & lots of pictures!

[flgatormom29]

Please bear with me… this is my first review…and I LOVE details. Oh, I also LOVE pictures…. So I anticipate this to be long! Sorry, there is no food porn… but lots of pictures of our time! I anticipate a page or two for each day of the week. Also, I went to NO shows…so no reviews on those either.

I’ll start my introducing my family. I’m Kim (26), My new husband is Josh (30) and we have 2 kids, Kaylee (7) and Rylee (2). We went on a 6 night cruise with 12 other friends and family members (my mother and her boyfriend, my brother, my aunt and 2 cousins, my grandparents, Josh’s parents and my best friend with her boyfriend). Josh and I got married on board while ported in Key West on day 2 of the cruise.

 

My family

 

We left Saturday morning for our 3.5 hour drive down to Ft. Lauderdale. We stayed at Springhill Marriott. Wouldn’t say it’s a 5 star hotel, but it was just fine for one night. We got the hotel for $100 for the night and it included free parking for up to 14 days, continental breakfast and free shuttle to the port. We also paid the $10 for the return shuttle when we checked in.

Right across the street from the hotel was a Kmart, burger King, Wendys and a Dave and Buster. We ate at this cute little diner in the plaza. Kids ate for free, so that was nice since we had 2 of them! That night at the hotel, I gave out the first of many gifts for our wedding guests. They were matching t-shirts for our wedding celebration.

 

Here is our group

 

Back of Josh and my shirts

 

We got up early for our free breakfast and headed to the shuttle at 10. Shuttle was running late because Freedom was 2 hours late coming into pier due to a passenger emergency. We got to the pier around 1130ish. We had 5 carry-ons including a really heavy wedding dress. It was so chaotic. Luckily we had a ton of people there to help up!

 

Waiting to get on the ship-yes that’s me with the thumbs up

 

Josh, me and the girls went into the VIP line while the rest of our group went into the regular line. We were on board at 1215!

 

Embarkment photo

 

Our door decoration

[flgatormom29]

First thing we did was go to the room to see if we could drop the dress off. Our steward was right there.

 

(Side note-Wanna take this time to tell you how amazing our room steward is! His name was Andre and he was expecting to only have me and Josh since we booked the girls in a different room. We didn’t expect to have the girls how often as we did either. He made up their bed every night, and most days we had 2 towel animals-one in the morning and one at turn down. He greeted us every day and knew the girls names even though they weren’t on his list! He was amazing and we didn’t want to leave him. We gave him a few extra tips during the week for making the girl’s bed and also gave him a nice tip at the end of the cruise-in addition to the tips we already pre-paid)

 

We didn’t even tell him what room we were in, he knew right away and told us it was ready and let us drop our dress off. There was also 2 fun ship Freddys on the desk waiting for my girls. It was great. Then we just went to explore while we waited for the rest of our group to get onboard.

 

Dining room

 

 

Waterslide

 

 

Elevators

 

Once everyone was onboard, everyone ate lunch. My cousin and I went to do some wedding stuff while everyone else ate. We had to make salon appointments and deliver welcome bags to each cabin. So once we were done everyone was going to their rooms and we grabbed a cheeseburger and fries to share, and of course our first DOD and an ice cream cone! I’m sorry to say, I never even went to the dessert area of the lido deck, because I ate ice cream after every lunch! And even after some breakfasts. Hehe.

 

After eating we went back to the room for a little while. Everyone wanted to see our room since we booked a suite. I have to say, the bathroom is amazing! A nice size tub and TWO sinks! Was so nice! No idea how we are going to survive in December when we aren’t in a suite!

 

 

Our view from our balcony-Allure of the Seas

 

 

Since the boat was late this morning, the muster was about half an hour late. We went to our stations, listened to the painless speech and were on our way. We walked back to the room to see if any of our luggage was there, and walked out the balcony to see we were moving! No idea we were leaving!

 

 

Bye Bye Ft. Lauderdale!

 

 

After sail away, I went to the camp orientation from 5-530, then my girls and I had a consultation at the salon for my hair appt the next morning. Then I met everyone at the dining room at 6. We usually have late dining, but with the 2 young kids, we decided to try early dinner. I will say that early dinner is not my favorite. Only night I was hungry for dinner at 6 was in Grand Cayman cuz we skipped lunch. Next cruise, we are trying your time dining.

 

Our waiter was George. He was amazing! We all fell in love with him! The Matre’d was great, he came and checked on us every night and remembered our names every night.

 

I don’t remember what was on the menu or what I ate, but I do remember Josh had a classic burger. I also remember I tried the classic ceasar salad and wasn’t fond of it. There are anchovies pureed in the dressing and it wasn’t my favorite thing….

 

After dinner, I believe we went back to unpack and pack Josh back up to stay in his parents room. My cousin stayed with me and the girls. Since our wedding was the next day, I wanted Josh to stay somewhere else. He planned on getting off in Key West to walk around, and the girls would do wedding stuff all day J We retired pretty early, but only after going to the lido deck to get an ice cream cone before bed!

 

 

The Pirate came to our table!

[flgatormom29]

DAY TWO-KEY WEST

 

Our plan was for all the girls to meet at my room around 730, with room service to be delivered around 8. I got up around 7 and everyone was still sleeping. So I snuck out to the balcony and hung out for about 30 mins. Was so peaceful and I needed that time to think. My last 6 hours as (technically) a single woman!

 

 

Relaxing on the balcony

 

 

My girls were still sleeping

 

 

A little island-view from my balcony

 

 

People below us were feeding the birds

 

 

While we were getting ready for the salon

 

 

I wont bore you with my wedding review…. But it was a fantastic day! Flew by!!!!

[flgatormom29]

Just a few pictures from the day

 

My family

 

Group shot

 

 

We finished with pictures about 545, so just enough time for us to get to dinner. The Matre’d announced us to the whole dining room, which was really nice.

 

At dinner

 

Josh’s parents took the girls for the night, so we went back to our room to find that my 2 bridesmaides did this to our room

 

Room decorated

 

We hung out and watched the bucs game on the lido deck…. We went to the “Grown up Game Night” at 1130. It was a lot of fun. We were still dressed up, so of course Jacque pulled us up to play the balloon game. It was a hoot! Lot of fun. After the game show, I wasn’t ready to go back to my room because I wanted to show off my dress some more, so we went to the disco for a little while. Just watched everyone dance… We weren’t in there too long though. Then we went back to our room to retire.

[flgatormom29]

DAY THREE-SEA DAY

 

I’m used to my kids waking up at 7am, so I slept in until 8:45. Was very nice! I got up and showered while Josh was still asleep. Then my wonderful MIL called the room at 9am. UGGH. Woke Josh up. We didn’t answer. It was the night after our wedding! So he got up and all I wanted to do was have breakfast kidless. We went to the lido deck and as we were finishing, my FIL with the kids walked by! So funny how we ran into each other so often on board! We took the girls back to our room to get swimsuits on.

 

Kaylee going down waterslide

 

I didn’t bring a ring for my 7 year old. She can swim, but wont swim if she can’t reach the bottom. All the pools are too deep for her, so we didn’t last very long by the pool. We went to the kiddie pool for a little while, but I was disappointed that all they had for the lil ones was a really tiny 1ft pool. Kaylee cut her foot so the water was burning her boo-boo and she didnt like the salt water splashing her face, so we were only outside for about an hour and a half.

 

Rylee playing in pool

 

We headed back to the room to give the girls baths and they went to the camp. There was only about 45 mins until they closed for lunch, but we wanted to give it a shot. Josh and I went to the Serenity Deck for that half an hour and hung out.

 

Josh and I on Serenity Deck

 

We picked the girls up. Unfortunately, they are in 2 separate clubs. Rylee has never been in daycare, so we were very unsure how she was going to do at camp. We went to get the kids and Kaylee was sitting in the 2-5 group with a crying Rylee. No idea why they didn’t call me-I had their phone! I told them that I want Kaylee to enjoy HER group, and I’d rather just pick up Ry. When we got them, neither of them wanted to go back after lunch. We went and had lunch and ran into my mom and aunt eating as well! So we joined them. I had cheeseburger and French fries. Found out Kaylee didn’t want to go back because Fun Ship Freddy was there and she is terrified of mascots. Always has been. No idea why. So we went back to camp after and they put a sticker on her name badge that said he is not allowed near her. She was very happy with that, so away she went. I tried for 20 mins to get Ry to go back to her camp, she wouldn’t go and I couldn’t leave her there crying. My mom took her back to her room for a nap and Josh and I went to the Whodunit show. Tyson was the host and he’s so fun! Full of energy and really had us laughing. So we got our sheets for that and made our way to the Sports Trivia. All I wanted was a ship on a stick! Josh almost won me one…but no such luck. After the trivia we headed back to shower and get ready for dinner. We got both kids (Kaylee from camp and Ry from my mom) and got them ready. It was our first formal night. Josh got the lobster tail and steak. I got the prime rib. It was SOOO good! I believe we both had left over wedding cake for dessert.

 

My hubby and I

 

Family formal night-love Ry-Ry’s face!

 

Girls on stairs

 

After dinner, no one wanted to keep the girls for us, so we decided to get them to bed and we sat on the balcony and went to bed early.

[flgatormom29]

DAY 4- GRAND CAYMAN

 

We had an excursion planned today through carnival. Stingray city and Turtle Farm. There were 9 of us going on this excursion. So our meeting time was 7am at the lido deck since we needed to be on the tender by 7:45. I was very proud of us all meeting on time! We got on the tender around 7:30 and away we went!

 

Our boat from the tender-Love this! Freedom on the right and Ecstasy on the right (our next ship!)

 

Hanging out while we were waiting for the bus...

 

Me and my new husband

 

My mom, my brother, my girls and I

 

We met the group and away we went to the buses. It was about a 10-15 min ride to the little boat we rode over to stingray city.

 

Half our group on the boat

 

My little family on the boat

 

It was about a 25 min boat ride to stingray city. It was really nice. Once we got there the stingrays were all around. It was so neat to see this massive rays. Once I got to the front of the line to get in the water, I got really nervous! It was kinda scary when you thought about it. But then I went in and it wasn’t so bad. Kaylee decided to stay in the boat. We tried to coax her in and even offered to keep her on our shoulders, but she wouldn’t do it. She was too scared. Ry was very scared too, but she got over it really fast. We had our turn with the stingrays and then kinda went back away from the group where the boys snorkeled. We got back on the ship after maybe an hour and a half and it started raining. Was kinda a rocky boat ride back to the bus.

 

Stingray Pictures

[flgatormom29]

 

 

Then we went to Turtle Farm. Now, I am obsessed with turtles. Have been since I was little. I collect figurines and everything. So going to the turtle farm was amazing to me. I couldn’t go to Grand Cayman and not go to the turtle farm! We got to hold 2 week old, 4 month, 18 month and even 6 year old turtles. Then we got to go into the aviary and see the predator tank. We could then snorkel, but we only had a little time and the sun wasn’t out, so we all opted out of it. We went in the shops and just walked around until it was time to leave

 

2 week old

 

4 month old

 

18 Month old

 

6 year old. This turtle was over 120lbs!

 

Once they dropped us off at the port, we walked around and did a little shopping. We got in line to get back on the tender around 2:30 and got on a tender around 3ish. Luckily, Josh and my cousin let me sit in the shade with the kids while they waited in line. The girls were exhausted! Once we got back on the boat, Ry was asleep, so we went back to the room to let her sleep and shower. Josh went to the lido deck with Kaylee to get her an ice cream cone and brought me back from fries. We needed a small snack before dinner. (Can you tell I love their fries?!). Once Rylee woke up, we went to look at the pictures and walked around until dinner at 6.

 

After dinner my mom agreed to keep the girls until 10pm (she wanted to go to the 10:15 show), so we went to the Gender Showdown. Josh got to be a team captain, it was so much fun. He’s usually very reserved, so it was awesome to see him be fun and get out of his shell. Then we went to Superstar live until 10. Went back to our room to get the kids and hung out on the balcony a little bit before going to sleep.

 

Tonight was the first night we ordered dessert from room service. I’ve heard great things about the cheesecake from there, so had to try it. I wasn’t impressed honestly. I didn’t even eat half of it.

[CRUISING71]

Congrat!!!! your wedding dress is so pretty....

[ginjer2911]

Thanks so much for the wonderful review. I am really enjoying hearing about your wedding cruise. Such beautiful girls! Oh, and I loved your dress.

[PirateGal]

Fantastic review. Congrats to you and your family! Your wedding gown is gorgeous!

[flgatormom29]

THURSDAY- OCHO RIOS

We had no excursions planned. Most of us met at 830 at the posh restaurant. We wanted to try the dining room for the first time. There were 10 of us there. It was so nice! Little bit slow, but probably because we had so many people!

 

Kim and Jenny at breakfast (my cousin and MOH)

 

Rylee eating-she never looks at the camera when taking pictures...and she looks weird here!

 

Kaylee eating her froot loops...she LOVES the camera

 

We went to take Kaylee to the camp, knowing that Ry probably wouldn’t go. Well, surprise…they put the 2-5 age group with the 6-9 age group until 2pm! So when I told Rylee that her sister would be able to stay with her, she was so excited and more than willing to stay at camp! And I was so excited that I could shop in Jamaica without any kids!

 

Getting off the boat in Ocho Rios

 

Josh at Margaritaville

 

So I knew that 2pm was my deadline, cuz I knew Ry wouldn’t be OK once they split the group off. We got off the boat and did some shopping. They are very high pressure there. “Hey pretty lady”…it was nice hearing that all day, but OMG…stressful! We got really good at saying “no thanks” and kept walking….We did buy some goodies for the girls and for people at work, then we headed back on the ship around 1pm.

 

Beautiful picture from the mountain

[flgatormom29]

We went to have lunch and then headed back to the room. I called the camp at around 2:10 to see how Rylee was doing, she wouldn’t let Kaylee go to her camp and Kaylee wanted to go make a volcano…so I went to pick her up.

 

We walked around the ship with her and headed back to the room around 4:30. I started showering while Josh took her to get Kaylee from camp. It was another formal night and my friend was picking the girls up at 6 to have dinner in the lido deck so Josh and I could go to the steakhouse. From there they were dropping them off at 9:30 with my in-laws to have another slumber party.

 

Amazing Sunset from our balcony before going to dinner

 

We left our room around 6:45 to go get some pictures and pick my cousin up to go to the steakhouse. It was AMAZING!!!! So good. Josh and my cousin had the porterhouse, and I had the filet. I tried the poterhouse and it was good, but my filet was so tender. It was so amazing!!!

 

For dessert, my cousin and I had the chocolate sampler and Josh had the caramelized apples. The sampler was good, but too rich for me! We ate a few bites of each and called it quits. We were hoping to make it to the first comedy show at 9:45, but that didn’t happen since we didn’t even get our dessert menus until 930! But it was so worth it!

 

Formal Night picture

 

After dinner, we went to the Lounge for the comedy shows. The 10:45 show was Eddie Capone. He was OK….very vulgar but I didn’t think he was that great. But then the 11:45 show was JR McCollom. He was HILARIOUS! It was great. After the show we headed to bed. We were a little sad, only one more day of vacation!

[flgatormom29]

FRIDAY- SEA DAY

 

Even though we didn’t have the kids, we didn’t want to sleep in all day! We made plans with my cousin to meet in the dining room at 8:30am. We had an appt at 10 with the photographer to go over the wedding pictures. Josh didn’t want to wait in the dining room again, so he ate in the lido deck and then met us at the dining room. It was much faster this day because there was only two of us this time. It was great.

 

Of course, on the last day, I found the hot chocolate! It was so yummy! I’m ALWAYS cold, so it was perfect for my mornings and even at lunch! LOVED IT!!! Can’t wait to get on the ecstasy in December and have more!

 

After breakfast we went to the gallery to get all the pictures from all week and went to met Mikulas, our wedding photographer. That took until about noon. Then Josh’s parents brought Rylee to us. They had taken Kaylee to camp. Then we went back to the room to look through the pictures with family. After that, we picked up Kaylee from camp and went to lunch.

 

Kaylee after camp

 

We ran into everyone on the lido deck and were scattered around tables all over together. We hung out there until about 2pm, then we headed to the Victoriana Lounge for dancing with George-the assistant cruise director. He was AMAZING. Cutest thing in the world! We fell in love with him! Wish I could have brought him home with me!

 

After that show was the “game of love” game. Josh and I got on it….We only got 2 answers right. We sucked, but it was so much fun! We won yet another bottle of champagne-still no stick on a ship! (as George called it “chateau d’walmart”). Well, Josh and I aren’t big drinkers so we asked if we could switch for a ship. He said we could have both! We gave the champagne to another couple who were married 2 days before us and wanted to be on the show. I was so happy to have my stick on the ship!

Funny story-Josh had to remember what I was wearing on stage. He remembered the color of my underwear, but he said i was wearing a GREEN dress. Now, i wore this dress because it's his favorite!!! Does this look green?

 

 

 

Jenny and I with George-so fricken adorable!

 

After the game of love, we all separated. Rylee fell asleep during the game, so we took her back to the room to sleep and we started packing up. Then Josh’s mom came to our room so we could look at the 2 for $20 t-shirts and I wanted a freedom magnet. I had also been promising Kaylee an Inch Of Gold bracelet all week. After we got all that, we went back to the room, finished packing and got ready for our last dinner.

 

2 sad kids during dinner-They usually go to bed at 7:30 everynight and they were going to bed at 10 and 11pm everynight but still waking up at 7am. So they were exhausted. I was just mocking them :-)

 

Ry wearing her Uncle Kyle’s hat from Jamaica

 

We said our goodbyes to George and he sang “happy honeymoon” to Josh and I with a piece of our leftover wedding cake. It was really cute

 

Happy Honeymoon

 

After dinner, we went to the last Gender Showdown. This time, my cousin got to be a team leader. It was a lot of fun. Then they did this game where they had to stick a quarter in their butt crack and walk to the front of the stage and drop it in a cup. There were 5 boys and 5 girls that had to try it and of course, my husband was the only one who did it! I was proud, but also embarrassed for him! Haha.

 

Then after the gender showdown they did the “Game Show Mania.” Josh got to be on that show too. He came in 2nd out of 3. Didn’t win another ship on the stick, but won me a medal! So I was happy about that.

 

Then it was time to get the kids to bed-it was already like 9:30. We got the girls in bed, put our suitcases out and then Josh laid in bed while I went to get Kaylee’s inch of Gold and go see “Showcase of the Stars”. I missed half of it, but what I did see, was pretty good. Then bed time to get ready for our 6:45 wake up call!

[flgatormom29]

SATURDAY-DISEMBARKMENT

 

We got up really early to a super rainy morning.

 

View from our balcony-Oasis of the Seas

 

We left our room at 7:15 and was eating breakfast by 7:30. We were zone 1 so as soon as they called it, we grabbed our stuff and our last ice cream cone and headed off. We were sad to leave, but kinda ready. Since this was our honeymoon, we expected a little more help from our family, but we had our kids 5 out of 7 nights. So we were ready to go home and start our countdown to our kid free weekend on the ecstasy! We got back to the hotel around 9:15ish and pulled into our driveway at 1:45.

 

Was a great great week!!! I got to marry my best friend, have a great week with my kids and family. Got to kiss a stingray and sit on a balcony to enjoy the water. It was AMAZING. Took so long to get here and went by way too fast!!!! But just 49 more days until our voyage on the ecstasy!!!!!!

 

Hope you enjoyed this. I didn't realize how long this thing would take...but it took like 7 or 8 hours! Geez!

 

Any questions..feel free to ask! I love remembering this and looking through all the pictures! Esp the wedding ones. Was very hard for me to only pick a few to share :D

[flgatormom29]

Congrat!!!! your wedding dress is so pretty....

 

Thank you!

[flgatormom29]

Thanks so much for the wonderful review. I am really enjoying hearing about your wedding cruise. Such beautiful girls! Oh, and I loved your dress.

 

Thanks! I agree that I have beautiful girls :rolleyes: They are pretty amazing!

[flgatormom29]

Fantastic review. Congrats to you and your family! Your wedding gown is gorgeous!

 

Thanks! I fell in love with it the moment i put it on. Made me look so skinny :D

[sunsetme]

loved the review, your dress was gorgeous. congrats!

[flgatormom29]

loved the review, your dress was gorgeous. congrats!

 

Thanks so much!!!

[theneals4]

Wonderful Review!!

 

And Congrats on your very awesome Cruise ship wedding!

 

Very pretty dress too!

 

I dont blame you about not being able to wait for your " kid free trip"

 

Me and my husband were married five years and two kids later before we got a TRUE vacation! And we went on the Dream and LOVED IT! Loved it so much we are going back in May.

 

We are pretty lucky his family lives 25 minutes from the port and can take our kids while we go. And being that his family doesnt get to see the kids but a couple times a year. It makes it easier for us ;)

 

Im glad you guys had a wonderful time. And Congrats again!

[gelo7]

Nice review and congratulations on your marriage.

[Kentucky60]

Just a few pictures from the day

 

My family

 

Group shot

 

 

We finished with pictures about 545, so just enough time for us to get to dinner. The Matre’d announced us to the whole dining room, which was really nice.

 

At dinner

 

Josh’s parents took the girls for the night, so we went back to our room to find that my 2 bridesmaides did this to our room

 

Room decorated

 

We hung out and watched the bucs game on the lido deck…. We went to the “Grown up Game Night” at 1130. It was a lot of fun. We were still dressed up, so of course Jacque pulled us up to play the balloon game. It was a hoot! Lot of fun. After the game show, I wasn’t ready to go back to my room because I wanted to show off my dress some more, so we went to the disco for a little while. Just watched everyone dance… We weren’t in there too long though. Then we went back to our room to retire.

 

Was this room a balcony or suite?

[flgatormom29]

Was this room a balcony or suite?

 

We got a junior suite. Idk how we are going to ever not get one again! That bathroom made it completely worth it! Huge tub and 2 sinks and lots of room!!

[Prairie_Gal]

Great review, thanks for taking the time to post it.

 

Your wedding pictures are beautiful.

[FlaGrl4Evr]

Congratulations to you both. You are a beautiful bride.

I loved reading your review and seeing all of the great pics. So glad you had a great cruise with your family. I just have a quick question about your "Just Married" door decoration. We are getting married this evening and going on our honeymoon cruise next week. We would really like to decorate our door too and I just wanted to know if you had any problems with having that sign on your door? I posted a question asking about wedding door decorations and someone responded to me not put up the Just Married decoration as he said lots of folks like to walk by and knock on the door at all hours, call your room etc.......We were just curious if you had any incidents like this?

 

Thanks. Cari :)

 

PS: I'm originally from St.Pete and knew that was a pic of the Gulf when I first started reading your review. :D