REVIEW: Carnival Freedom, October 14, 2012, Western Carribbean

[sweetcurves]

First I must say this was my first cruise, and I am now hooked! I will include as many pictures as possible, but to be honest, I forgot about my camera most of the time! I also took NO food pictures.

 

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Sunday, October 14th—Embarkation Day

 

We left our hotel (Hampton Inn Airport North Cruise Port) on the 12 pm shuttle (free, as well as the airport shuttle). We had stayed there for 2 nights prior. The hotel itself is alright, nothing fancy. It's literally a 2 minute walk from a strip mall that has Big Lots, Dollar Tree, Winn Dixie, Citi Trends, McDonalds, Wendys, Dunkin Donuts and a few other places (including a sports bar and some kind of Asian restaurant). The pool at the hotel was kind of small and needed a good skimming but was good for a dip or two. We missed breakfast on our first day but managed to catch it on the day of embarkation. It was a madhouse. Just insane. I don't know if I am that desperate for a free breakfast. But it was convenient not to have to leave the hotel on the morning of embarkation.

 

Anyway, took the shuttle to the port. Thank God that we did because I was totally overwhelmed and would have had no idea how to get to the proper dock. We drove by the Oasis of the Seas, and wow, is it huge. I was really excited to pull up to the Freedom and everything finally felt real.

 

We left our luggage with a porter and headed inside. I was foolish and decided to carry on my backpack and my smaller suitcase. The suitcase has 4 wheels so I thought it would be easy but I ended up regretting it. We ended up packing 6 bottles of soda each and we brought on about 50 packets of Crystal Light and a big reusable cooler cup each. This came in very handy as we could just fill it with ice, a bit of water, mix a drink and be good for a few hours.

 

Anyway, on to the embarkation. It was pretty organized and moved pretty quickly. I was worried about having trouble with my insulin and ice pack but security didn't say anything. We got on board about 12:45 pm. We knew we couldn't get in to our cabin until 1:30 so we decided to try and get some lunch.

 

We hung out in the main lobby (3rd deck) for a few minutes and watched DJ Jessen spin some tunes. He was asking people where they were from (over the mic), so we yelled out Canada when he pointed to us. We made our way up to Lido and fought our way around the crowds to get some food. It was nearly impossible to find somewhere to sit and I found myself VERY overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people. Once I sat and took a breath I felt better. We each had a few things from the buffet and then headed down to our cabin. We were almost all the way aft in 1444. My sister's large suitcase had already arrived so she unpacked entirely and I unpacked my backpack and smaller bag. We found there to be more than enough storage space and easily put away everything we'd brought on board. I will post some pics of the cabin below.

 

After we unpacked, we walked around the ship quite a bit, trying to get the lay of the land, so to speak. Here's a tip for those of you have never been on the Freedom. Walk a bit forward before taking the elevators up to the 3rd or 4th deck. The aft elevators basically go to nowhere. We learned that the hard way a few times and had to dipsy doodle all over the ship to get to somewhere we could have gotten to by walking forward on deck 1 and then going up.

 

We went up to Lido to look around and watch sail away. It was there that I nearly knocked over my soon to be favorite server, Milan. I apologized 40987 times and he just smiled *swoon*.

 

Sail away ended up being more than an hour late because of a medical emergency. We could see two fire trucks and an ambulance on the dock and eventually saw a man brought off the ship on a stretcher. I never found out what happened but I hope he was ok.

 

We left around 5:20 or so, just as some poor weather was headed in to Ft Lauderdale. It got VERY windy and dark and tarted to rain. We stayed up top as long as possible but then headed to our cabin for a rest. My big bag had arrived so I unpacked and then had a nap. I slept for a couple hours and we woke up around 8 pm. We got dressed and just went to Lido for some food. I was feeling super picky and just had some bread and a baked potato loaded with toppings. I also had some dessert but I don't remember what specifically.

 

After dinner we changed clothes and headed to the night club to dance for a bit. I have to say, DJ Jessen is such a sweet guy and played great sets. He even called us out during “Sexy And I Know It”, the part where they sing “wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle, yeah”, he said, “wiggle it, Canada!”. We thought it was awesome that he recognized us.

 

After dancing up a storm, we headed to the international lounge for some comedy. It was packed so we stood in the door way for a few minutes and decided we'd go see a full show on another night.

 

We grabbed a few snacks from the “sushi bar” by the night club and then a slice of pizza up on Lido.

 

We were in bed by 1 am with our breakfast menu door hanger out so we could be up and ready bright and early for our parasailing appointment in Key West!

[mj]

Looking forward to hearing the rest. Keep it coming.

[sweetcurves]

First up close view of the ship!

 

 

View of the beach from Lido deck

 

 

My sister in the window of 1444

 

 

Me in the window of 1444

 

 

First cabin photo

 

[SMSACE6]

Your review is off to a great start! and Im looking forward to more. I had a great cruise on the Freedom two years ago. Thanks so much for sharing your cruise experience.:)

[alreadypacked]

Great start, thanks! :) Was on the sailing prior to yours--still putting my review together... Thanks for promptly posting yours!

 

BTW, did you go to the piano bar? If so, what did you think of Martin?

[sweetcurves]

Cabin

 

 

Cabin

 

 

Deck 10

 

 

Waterslide

 

 

Oasis of the Seas

 

[sweetcurves]

Great start, thanks! :) Was on the sailing prior to yours--still putting my review together... Thanks for promptly posting yours!

 

BTW, did you go to the piano bar? If so, what did you think of Martin?

 

 

LOL honestly, we walked by and heard him singing Adele, and it turned me off ever going in there.

[Mrsfabo]

Being that it was your first cruise?

[sweetcurves]

I think one of the Princess ships?

 

 

Our favorite spot: hammocks on Serenity

 

 

The reason we left close to 90 minutes late. I hope the guy was ok.

 

 

My sister up on Lido, at sail away

 

 

Me on Lido at sail away

 

[MrFunInTheSun]

Great review and pictures. Thanks for sharing your first cruise experience with us. Welcome to your new addiction!

[TNDeb]

*subscribes*

I'll be losing my cruise virginity on the Freedom next June, so I'm very much looking forward to your review!

:)~ Deb

[sweetcurves]

All the suckers we left behind at sail away

 

 

Gorgeous view

 

 

Miami skyline with storm clouds

 

 

It was windy during sail away

 

 

REAL windy

 

[funinthesun1964]

Please hurry and finish this review by Friday. I leave Saturday, lol.

 

Oh, and thanks very much for taking the time to do this. :)

[sweetcurves]

DAY TWO: Key West

 

We ordered room service for 7-7:15 am since we were able to get off the boat by 8 and we had parasailing scheduled for 9 am.

 

We ordered a bunch of stuff but I had written something in (a grilled cheese sandwich), thinking I'd read somewhere on here that they would do that for me. I think I was wrong and it was a BLT that you could order. Anyway, I got apple juice and a bagel. My sister ordered cereal and fruit. The apple juice was watery but everything else was fine. I'm more of a protein for breakfast kind of person so that was the last time we ordered it to the room.

 

We left the boat right at 8 am with no problems. Our parasailing was pre-booked with Fury Water Adventures. Their site is fury.com. We got a fabulous deal using an online discount and paid less than $35 each. The desk to check in is right there on Front Street, just a few minutes walk from the boat. So we walked there, and we were way too early so we walked down to the CVS and picked up a few things. We checked in at 8:45 am and then walked down to the boat. Jumah was our guy (I don't remember the boat driver's name). He was hilarious and a little flirty (which usually puts me at ease). We had 3 others on our boat who were going to parasail together. We went first and the whole thing was a lot of fun. It was very easy, it was beautiful, but it was SHORT (we were back at the dock by 9:30!) Anyway, Jumah took video and pictures of us on a mini disc that cost us $20. Not a bad investment to have something more professional than what my little Kodak would be able to do. Plus I didn't have to worry about my camera getting wet or broken. So we didn't get any pics from the air but I have pics and video of our adventure.

 

After the parasail, we started on a long walking adventure of Key West. We stopped at a little indoor “mall” just on the other side of that red house that you can see from the pier. On the top floor there was a man who ran a not for profit bird rescue. He had three gorgeous birds out and we got to pet and take pictures with the peach one. Her name was Peaches (super original) and she was a total suck. I have a crazy fear of birds but this one was amazing. She loved to be pet and massaged and just sat on my shoulder like it was no big deal. It was nice to get over that fear and not to get my face pecked out or my ear bit off. I would have taken her home with me. I left the guy a couple bucks since he didn't charge for anyone to take pictures with the birds and they are not cheap to own and take care of.

 

We then started the long walk down Duval Street. Tip: bring water. It was hot as hell that day, although the locals would say it was nice and mild. I'm from Canada...anything over 80F is HOT. And the sun was VERY intense. We walked down to Kinos and picked up sandals (I will post a pic of mine below). Mine came to $15. Where on earth can you get handmade leather sandals for less than $20? I am kicking myself for not buying more as I wore them on disembarkation day, on the airplane home, and then ran some errands in them and they are the most comfortable sandals I've ever owned.

 

We did go in a few jewelry stores but we were on a budget this cruise so we didn't buy anything. We kept seeing people with these big foam cups full of fountain drinks and at that point we were sweating our brains out. We were directed to walk almost all the way down Duval and there was a Circle K that had huge fountain drinks for 59 cents! Great deal and so refreshing after a couple of hours of walking. We paid attention to the architecture, etc, but didn't go to any of the typical tourist spots. When we got to the bottom of Duval street, we walked a block in the wrong direction (to go to Southernmost point) so we bought a $21 ticket for the hop on hop off trolley (City Tours—the silver trolley). It has 8 stops and comes fairly frequently. So we didn't get off at Southernmost point, just took some photos from the trolley. In the trolley pamphlet there was a coupon for a free slice of key lime pie at a few restaurants. The driver recommended Fogarty's so we rode the trolley to the stop closest to there and had lunch. We did also stop at the Butterly Museum but only went in the store. We spoke to some other people who said it was really pretty.

 

Fogarty's was GREAT. Great food, great prices. I had the fish sandwich which was fries and a huge fried filet of swai fish (it was probably 5 inches by 8 inches). The fish was white, thick, and flaky. The fries were fresh and crispy. I ended up pulling the fish off the bun because it was just so big and I would have rather had the protein than the carbs. I didn't even finish my fries and I had shared half of them with my sister who had a blackened chicken quesadilla off the appetizer menu. We sat inside in the AC and enjoyed a couple glasses of ice water.

 

After lunch we walked back toward the pier and picked up a few souvenirs. We like to buy small things that don't take up a lot of space which ends up being keychains. And that's totally ok with me. Memories and photos are the best souvenirs, in my opinion.

 

Back on the ship by 2:30 and chilled on a hammock on Serenity. I was stupid and ran down some steps with no shoes on and burned the soles of my feet. It hurt. A lot. We did notice that the aft pool (adults only) roof was open which made that whole area much more tolerable. It's like a SAUNA with the roof closed. The pools are saltwater and there are showers (with much cooler fresh water) right next to all of them. We got into the habit of staying on Serenity and just having a quick shower when we needed to cool down.

 

Later we had a long nap and then showered and got dressed and went to the Victoriana lounge to watch them teach the “Thriller” choreography. There was going to be a Michael Jackson dance off in the nighclub later on. After that we grabbed some food at Lido again as both of us weren't feeling great due to so much sun and I was still pretty full from my lunch.

 

We went over the International Lounge where my sister talked me into singing karaoke. So, I lost my karaoke virginity to New Kids On The Block “Step By Step”. It was in the lounge where I ran into Milan again and my crush was confirmed. :)

 

After that, we did a little more dancing in the night club and after midnight, DJ Jessen announced my birthday!!!

 

We grabbed some snacks at the sushi bar and a slice of pizza on Lido.

 

I think we were in bed around 2 am or so. I didn't care as I had planned on sleeping in as late as possible on my birthday and our first full day at sea!

Edited October 21, 2012 by sweetcurves

[sweetcurves]

Please hurry and finish this review by Friday. I leave Saturday, lol.

 

Oh, and thanks very much for taking the time to do this. :)

 

I will do my best, but if you have questions, feel free to ask me and I will make answering them my priority! :D

 

Also, I must ask you to go see Milan in the International Lounge and tell him I still love him. LOL. Omg I have to get over this ridiculous crush!!!

[sweetcurves]

Key West at Sunrise!

 

 

More sunrise

 

 

The ship from the pier

 

 

Peaches and my sister

 

 

Peaches and I! I am so in love with that bird!

 

[sweetcurves]

Being that it was your first cruise?

 

Noisy at times (the engines etc). But I sleep like the dead when I am sleeping well so it really didn't bother me.

 

Sure it took longer to get to things but not so long that we missed out on anything.

 

I would stay on deck 1 again no problem.

[LOVECRUISING100%]

Great pic's !! Thanks for posting !!

[basebare]

Curious what you did in Jamaica. I noticed on the ports of call boards you were considering Phil Lafayette. We are on the same cruise in December and considering using him to do the falls. Can't wait to keep reading.

 

Another question for you....do you remember the types of sushi that were served? Were there certain times it was available or all day?

thanks,

patti

[sweetcurves]

Curious what you did in Jamaica. I noticed on the ports of call boards you were considering Phil Lafayette. We are on the same cruise in December and considering using him to do the falls. Can't wait to keep reading.

 

Another question for you....do you remember the types of sushi that were served? Were there certain times it was available or all day?

thanks,

patti

 

I will post a full review of my Jamaica experience. But we did book with Phil Lafayette and all we did was Dunn's River Falls.

 

Sushi, I have no idea as I don't like it so I didn't pay attention at all, sorry.

[Crusin Karen]

[

Love your OPPOSITE matching outfits! :D:cool::D

 

 

My sister in the window of 1444

 

 

Me in the window of 1444

 

 

First cabin photo

 

[sweetcurves]

LOL matching except for color. She was navy and white and I was black and beige. But I do see what you're talking about.

 

Tinypic is currently being a pain in my rear end so I don't know how much else I'm going to get done tonight.

[browneyedwoman]

I am enjoying your review. I was looking into the Freedom for a fall trip but it had to be postponed. I'm still reading reviews in case it might work out for next year.

 

I also like your signature. ~The fact that you don't find me amazing doesn't reflect poorly on me, it just means you have bad taste~

sweetcurvesView Public ProfileFind all posts by sweetcurves

[sweetcurves]

These are all the parasailing pics I can seem to upload. Tinypic is freezing my computer anytime I try and upload anymore from the minidisc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sweetcurves]

Day 3: Day at Sea!

 

It's my birthday!!!

 

I slept until 11:30 or so. We got up and managed to grab some real breakfast up at the Lido. I had eggs, bacon, toast, cottage cheese, cereal and french toast. No, I didn't eat all of it, just a bit of everything. The bacon was very thin and therefore very greasy so I didn't eat much of it at all. The eggs were alright, the toast was cold, but the french toast was good and the Raisin Bran was, well, Raisin Bran.

 

We got into swimsuits, got some drinks and headed up to Serenity. We stayed on a hammock for about 3 hours. I wasn't sure if there was any sort of policy about hammock hogging but I didn't care because it was my birthday. I really don't know what I would have done without the hammocks. To me, they were worth every penny I paid for my cruise. So relaxing, so quiet, so...vacation-y!

 

We did go down to Lido to grab a snack later on. It was “American” food day so I did try a piece of fried chicken but ended up having a turkey sandwich from the deli.

 

I had already decided I was going to dress up for formal night, since it was my birthday. We headed to the Chic Restaurant at around 7:45. This was one of those times that we had to dipsy doodle all over the ship because we were supposed to enter on the 3rd deck but had to go down to midship to get there. We didn't do that so we ended up going up to 5, walking across, and going down to 3. Pain in the butt!!! I understand though that there needs to be space for a galley etc. I think it would just be helfpul if there was a sign that said “no entry to midship from aft elevator on decks 3 and 4” or something like that.

 

We ended up having to wait for about 15 minutes for a table. They gave us a pager so we went and had some formal photos taken during the wait.

 

We really enjoyed our dinner. My sister ordered the strawberry bisque (cold soup) and the caesar salad. I had the stuffed mushrooms. I like that bread is brought to the table as I'm not much for appetizers but man was I hungry! We were seated at a 2 person table near the window and a couple was seated next to us (literally like 6 inches beside us), a few minutes after. We did end up chatting with them and they turned out to be great fun!

 

We both had spaghetti carbonara for our entree. It was delicious, but huge. I did end up eating most of it though.

 

For dessert, a good friend of mine had ordered a cake so that was brought out and a few of the wait staff sang Happy Birthday. Our table neighbours were celebrating their first anniversary so I happily shared my cake with them.

 

After dinner we headed to the 10 pm comedy show. It was very funny and we enjoyed ourselves.

 

I am not much of a gambler but I thought playing the slots would be a fun time. I played the 2 cent slots and won $102 in about 15 minutes...so I quit while I was ahead!

 

We then went to the 11:45 pm comedy show but it wasn't nearly as funny! We left as soon as it was over and headed to the night club. The club was very full but almost no one was dancing!

 

We managed to get in a few dances and then headed back to the cabin for a good night's sleep since Grand Cayman was going to come early!