Carnival Freedom 6 Day Review with Pictures 01/22/2012

[koolforkatz]

Also, I asked at the station for fresh coriander which I love sprinkled over my curry, no problem, the chefs are really good!

 

Thank you for confirming the Tandoori station - that is where I will be every day for lunch. I enjoyed it on embarkation day on the Splendor and planned on eating there every day but um.... unfortunately, the ship experienced a fire, lost power, we drifted powerless the rest of the cruise and I had to content myself with weird sandwiches day and night. No more curry :(

 

And no problem with the fresh coriander???? Be still my beating heart :D

[Blondie008]

Thank you for confirming the Tandoori station - that is where I will be every day for lunch. I enjoyed it on embarkation day on the Splendor and planned on eating there every day but um.... unfortunately, the ship experienced a fire, lost power, we drifted powerless the rest of the cruise and I had to content myself with weird sandwiches day and night. No more curry :(

 

And no problem with the fresh coriander???? Be still my beating heart :D

 

There's the "mint sauce" manouvre" to learn - but its worth it (you'll see what I mean when you try first time;) )

My little starter, mint sauce, tzaiki, pineapple chutney, lime pickle (think they call it veg pickle) poppadoms and a sauce (I think Tamarind)..

Then, rice, and a choice of at least three to four mains each day

LOVE IT!!!! And its never as busy as the main buffet lines. First day on boarding yes, but after that, its probably the calmest, cleanest, queue less station on board! Sssssssssssssshhhhhh :)

My husband loves hummous, which although not Indian is at that station too!

[koolforkatz]

My little starter, mint sauce, tzaiki, pineapple chutney, lime pickle (think they call it veg pickle) poppadoms and a sauce (I think Tamarind)..

Then, rice, and a choice of at least three to four mains each day

LOVE IT!!!!

 

Oh, yum...... that sounds amazing - three weeks today, right about now, that's what I'll be eating!!!!! can't wait!

[navybaby1113]

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

 

Today was Grand Cayman day. We booked a Carnival excursion called Explore Cayman by Land and Sea.

 

We woke up at 6:30am and went to the lido buffet to grab breakfast. Had a gorgeous view to look at while we were eating.

 

 

 

After breakfast, we went back to the room to pack a bag to take with us on our excursion. Our tickets told us to meet our tour at the pier at 8:45am and said we needed to catch a tender 45 minutes before the meet up time. We decided to head down to deck 0 to catch a tender at 7:45am. Rather be early than too late! We were able to walk right on the tender and waited about 15 more minutes for everyone else to board.

 

We were at the pier at about 8:15am, so sat around and took some pictures while we waited for our excursion to leave at 8:45am.

 

[navybaby1113]

Finally, our excursion was called and we walked about a block to the bus pick-up area. The bus took us on an island tour. Sadly, we were sitting on the wrong side of the bus to get good pictures.

 

He pointed out the Governer's house as we passed.

 

 

He pulled over to the side of the road when we reached the oldest house on the island so that we could get some pictures.

 

 

I also caught a quick picture of the gas prices as we were driving. It was around $5.50 in Cayman dollars. The driver said that was around $7/gallon in American dollars. Ridiculous!

 

[navybaby1113]

Our driver was very knowledgeable about the island and pointed out a lot of things along the way.

 

When we reached the end of 7 mile beach, the driver stopped and let us out for 5 minutes to take some pictures. It was gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was also able to get a picture of the 3 Carnival ships in port.

 

[navybaby1113]

Sadly, our 5 minutes were up pretty quickly and we had to be back on the bus.

 

The driver then took us to the Turtle Farm. He showed us the clock on the bus and made sure we all had the same time on our watches. Then, he told us what time we had to be back on the bus. He gave us our wrist bands and then walked us over to the Turtle Farm (the parking lot is across the street).

 

Our guide gave us a small tour and then let us walk around on our own.

 

The Turtle Farm was by far one of the coolest places I've been. We had the opportunity to hold a larger turtle and then also a 12 week old turtle. That is something you don't get to experience in too many places. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes animals.

 

The first thing you see when you walk into the park is the breeding area. The beach area is where they lay their eggs.

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

After we were done at the breeding area, we headed over to the area where we could hold the turtles.

 

First up was the larger turtles.

 

 

 

Then, we were able to hold a 12 week old turtle. So cute!

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

After we were done in the turtle holding area, we headed over to the touch tanks. They break the tanks up by age. You can reach in and touch the turtles, but be careful because they bite.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

We also saw some other wildlife while were at the Turtle Farm.

 

Chickens!

 

 

 

Iguanas!

 

[navybaby1113]

Sadly, our time was up pretty quickly (we spent about 45 minutes total at the Turtle Farm), so we started walking back to the bus.

 

Buh bye Turtle Farm!

 

 

 

Remember when crossing the street back to your bus that the cars drive on the opposite side of the road than they do in America.

 

The bus area is right by the ocean, so we got some gorgeous pictures while waiting on the rest of our group.

 

[calex1976]

We thought about going to the Turtle Farm, but decided on Eden Rock instead. Looks like y'all had a great time.

[SASA13]

Turtle farm looks great. I will have to do that next trip. Thanks for the review and pics.

[margie1221]

Great review... we had a wonderful time on this cruise too!! I am tempted to do a quick review and share our experience. Looking forward to your overview of your day in Jamaica and the final day at sea.

 

Oh, and GO PATS!!!

[lissvarna]

Loving this review, we'll be on the Freedom doing the same itinerary in 1.5 months. I cannot wait!!

 

I'm torn between doing the Swim with the Stingrays excursion or the Turtle Farm. Hmmmm

[bar10der421]

We swam with the stingrays several years ago and loved it! One of the best excursions we have ever taken.

[navybaby1113]

Loving this review, we'll be on the Freedom doing the same itinerary in 1.5 months. I cannot wait!!

 

I'm torn between doing the Swim with the Stingrays excursion or the Turtle Farm. Hmmmm

 

We've done both and they were both great experiences. I'm pretty sure you can find an excursion that does both. I definitely recommend you swim with the stingrays though.

[navybaby1113]

After everyone boarded the bus, they drove us a couple buildings down to the Tortuga Rum Cake store. This place was packed! We shoved in, grabbed samples, and then shoved back out. I love Tortuga rum and their cake, but that was ridiculous!

 

 

We spent the remaining 10 minutes of our time at the store taking pictures of the ocean.

 

 

After our 15 minutes at the store was up, we all boarded the bus to go to Hell.

[navybaby1113]

Hell wasn't something that I was too interested in, but almost all the tours go there. There are many different gift shops and posted offices in a row, so your bus might not stop at the same place that our tour stopped at.

 

 

You need to walk behind the building to see the limestone formations.

 

 

 

 

It was pretty cool to see, but nothing that I ever need to go back to.

[navybaby1113]

We had 15 minutes to spend at Hell, so that you had time to see the formations as well as send post cards.

 

We boarded the bus one more time to head to the last stop of our tour. We were going on a semi-submarine. We were very excited about this part of the tour!

 

The bus driver dropped us off at Nautilus Watersports and said that he had to leave for the day, but someone else would make sure we got back to the cruise port. Our driver was fantastic! Sadly I didn't get his name. The company who did the bus tour though was Majestic Tours. I highly recommend them!

 

We stood around on the dock for about 15 minutes while we waited for the semi-sub to dock and all the previous passengers get off.

 

 

 

I got a nice picture of the Carnival Freedom while we were waiting.

 

[navybaby1113]

As we were boarding the semi-sub, they told us we had to sit two to a bench because they were at capacity. When we boarded, we noticed that it was quite warm inside of the sub and the air was pretty stagnant. From the excursion listing, it said the semi-sub was supposed to be air conditioned.

 

We took our seat and I figured out the best settings for my camera so that I would be able to take pictures. Sadly, I didn't get it perfect because I didn't get the best pictures during this part of the tour.

 

The first place we went was the shipwreck of the Cali.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Throughout the tour, the tour guide was describing different things to us. He was very loud and the tour would have been much more enjoyable without him.

 

After we were done with the Cali shipwreck, we headed over to the shipwreck of the Balboa.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

After we were done looking at the Balboa shipwreck, we headed over to Cheeseburger Reef, which is located behind the local Burger King.

 

At this point, I started feeling seasick (this is not uncommon for me). I looked over at DH though and he didn't look so good. He said he was starting to get really hot and nauseous.

 

Finally, we reached Hamburger Reef. There were a lot of fish swimming around.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2012 by navybaby1113

[navybaby1113]

Then, the tour guide mentioned that the captain was going to dive down and swim around the boat while feeding the fish.

 

This was really cool to see, but we were both feeling so sick at that point that all we wanted to do was get back to the ship. There were a couple times I actually debating on asking if I could go up and get some fresh air.

 

I did get some really cool pictures of the fish feeding though.

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

After the feeding, we headed back to the dock.

 

As we were getting off the boat, we felt some cool air on us. So apparently the semi-sub was air conditioned, but not throughout. So, it looks like we just got a bad seat.

 

The semi-sub was a cool experience, but not something either of us would ever do again. It was uncomfortable and it just made it hard to enjoy what we were watching.

 

We caught a bus back to the pier. We had originally planned on walking around the port area after our excursion, but neither of us were feeling to good, so we decided to just take a tender back. It was starting to look like rain anyways.