Tony & Bethany's 26th Anniversary Freedom Cruise Review 8/24-9/1 with pics

[Singer4Him]

Another favorite is the Blue Iguana Cantina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Singer4Him]

To accompany the Blue Iguana Cantina, you also have the salsa bar

 

 

 

Here is the Endless Pool which is an adult-only pool located on deck 9 (Lido) aft. It has a retractable roof that can be closed if there is rain. Fortunately for us, I think they only had to close it once during our cruise.

 

 

 

If you're interested in booking another cruise while on this cruise, this is the place to do it. This is located just outside the casino on the Promenade Deck 5.

 

 

[Singer4Him]

I am enjoying your review of the Freedom. I cant wait till I get to cruise on her again in November. Thanks for posting.:)

 

You're very welcome! I'm sure you will fall in love with her just like we did!

 

This time tomorrow we'll be on board the Freedom! Same itinerary as yours but in reverse, Grand Turk first, San Juan, St Kitts & St Maarten. Thanks for taking time to do a review.

 

I'm sure you've already left port by now but I hope you enjoy your cruise just as much as we did!

 

 

[Singer4Him]

Happy Anniversary ! We celebrated our 46th anniversary in May. Our first cruise was only 6 years ago and this makes cruise #6.

 

I can't thank you enough for the details about the Hyatt. My husband and I will staying there prior to and after our 12-13-14 cruise on the Freedom. We have an accessible room booked due to my husband's mobility challenges and the need that both of us have for grab bars. It's good to see what we will have in advance and loved the preview of the breakfast as well. Hmm, we have the $129.00 rate; I may try to get our rate down once we arrive. Even at $129.00 though, I'm happy. We are spending two days pre and two days post cruise there.

 

Although our son lives in Hollywood, FL which is right outside of FLL, we need the safety features of handicapped facilities. He told us that the Hyatt would be a good and convenient place for us and it is not far from his house, either.

 

Your photos are wonderful. I can't wait to read and see more of your review. We have the same itinerary that you had.

 

Congrats of 46 years of marriage! In today's society, that's quite an accomplishment!

 

I'm so glad you're enjoying the review and that the pics of the Hyatt were helpful! We loved the Hyatt and if we sail from FLL again, we will definitely be staying there. We had no complaints whatsoever!

[Singer4Him]

Nice start to your review. Have never sailed the Freedom, on our list. Good pics as well.

 

Thank you! I think you will enjoy sailing on the Freedom.

 

I noticed that you've got a cruise scheduled in February on the Magic. We're planning one at the same time. We will be on the 23rd-28th sailing.

 

[Singer4Him]

Although I didn't get any pics of the inside of Camp Ocean, I did get some of the outside play area.

 

 

 

 

Muster Drill...not the most fun but a necessity

 

 

 

 

[Singer4Him]

Finally it's time for the much anticipated Sail Away Party!!!

 

 

Jen Baxter was our CD as was a lot of fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Have I mentioned that Jen Baxter is a LOT of fun?!?

 

 

 

Sailing away!!!

 

 

 

[Singer4Him]

Here is a time lapse video taken by Tony using the GoPro. He set it up on the balcony and this is the result. I hope you enjoy!

 

[YOUTUBE]JBjnyeEq6UA[/YOUTUBE]

 

[lovestocruise19]

Awesome time lapse video! And it started with my favorite sound, the ship's horn!

[The Canuks]

We will be doing the same itinerary as you did. I can't wait to see more. We have not been to St. Kitts or Grand Turk. We are really interested in seeing pictures from this port and any ideas for exploring the islands.

 

Did you make it to punchliners? What was the crowd like. We loved it on the Dream, and wanted to know if the International Lounge where they host it, accommodates the crowd accordingly.

 

Thanks

The Canuks

[momonthego17]

Love your review and Tony's video! I'm Bethany as well so you go girlie!

 

 

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[strantz1432]

Love the review!! Thank you for taking the time to do this. I was on the Spirit once with Jen as the CD I thought she was great. I'm thinking about getting a GoPro. Does you husband use it a lot? Which one does he have?

[Momofthreeprincesses]

Enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time to do this.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Singer4Him]

Awesome time lapse video! And it started with my favorite sound, the ship's horn!

 

Thanks, lovestocruise19! That's one of our favorite sounds too!

[Singer4Him]

We will be doing the same itinerary as you did. I can't wait to see more. We have not been to St. Kitts or Grand Turk. We are really interested in seeing pictures from this port and any ideas for exploring the islands.

 

Did you make it to punchliners? What was the crowd like. We loved it on the Dream, and wanted to know if the International Lounge where they host it, accommodates the crowd accordingly.

 

We enjoyed all of the ports and learned something about each one that we will probably do differently next time. For St. Kitts, we will book a zip lining excursion. We've wanted to do that for a while but so far we haven't done it.

 

As for Grand Turk, I really wanted to go to Jack's Shack but we also wanted to do a snorkeling excursion. (I'll tell more about it further in the review) Unfortunately when we finished with the snorkeling, neither of us felt like going to Jack's Shack so it will definitely be what we do next time.

 

Tony made it to the Punchliner one night when I wasn't feeling the best and had turned in early. He saw Percy Crews and said that he did great but the room was full! Tony wound up standing close to the front since he was a couple of minutes late arriving. I would certainly suggest that you get there early in order to get a good seat.

 

Hope this helps!

 

[Singer4Him]

Love your review and Tony's video! I'm Bethany as well so you go girlie!

 

Thanks so much, momonthego17! It's always neat to meet another Bethany!

 

 

 

Love the review!! Thank you for taking the time to do this. I was on the Spirit once with Jen as the CD I thought she was great. I'm thinking about getting a GoPro. Does you husband use it a lot? Which one does he have?

 

Thanks, strantz1432! I bought Tony the GoPro for Father's Day/birthday this past year and he LOVES it! He uses it all the time. Everything from motorcycle trips, cruises and even playing around outside with the dogs and grand dog.

 

He has the GoPro Hero 3+ Silver Edition. He said that he would recommend investing in a GoPole to go with it and if you're going to use it for snorkeling, get a Bobber. Another must-have is extra batteries and you can get Smatree batteries on Amazon for quite a bit less than OEM batteries. You can get two batteries for $15 and they are just as good. He recommends two batteries and the charger kit for $20. As for memory cards, he says that Class 10 32GB memory card for it is the way to go.

 

I guess you see that according to your budget, you can spend as much or as little as you'd like on accessories.

 

Hope this helps!

[Singer4Him]

Enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time to do this.

 

You're very welcome, Momofthreeprincesses! Thank you for taking time to read!

 

[Singer4Him]

Leaving FLL

 

 

 

 

Bye Bye, FLL! See ya in eight days!!!

[Singer4Him]

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for our first dinner. As we were returning to our room, we noticed our luggage still on the carts by the elevators. Now, remember that we have FTTF and they all have the orange stickers indicating this. I don't know if the porters are supposed to separate the FTTF luggage or if it's the responsibility of Carnival but someone, somewhere along the line dropped the ball. We always tie brightly colored strips of cloth on the handles of our luggage to make them easier to spot. Tony grabbed our luggage off the carts and we took them to our room. This was my only “beef” with the FTTF, and again, it may not have been an issue with Carnival.

 

At any rate, we weren't going to let this keep us from having an amazing cruise and it was about to get started with the Welcome Aboard Show which was “80's to the Max”. It was a great show! So good that we went to see it again on the last night of the cruise!

 

Victoriana Lounge

 

Before the show, they were roaming through the audience with a camera. Lots of fun seeing faces on the screen along with funny captions from the 80's.

 

 

Let me take this opportunity to talk about the Playlist Productions aboard the Carnival Freedom. I know that a lot of them have gotten a bad rap and perhaps rightly so. I can't speak for all of them, simply because I haven't seen every single one on all of the Carnival ships but I did see all of them on the Freedom and we loved them! We thought that they were great! Our favorite was “80's to the Max” probably because we were both teenagers during that time. The 80's may have had bad hair (enough to make you ask yourself, “What was I thinking?” when you look at old pics) but I can say that we had some GOOD music...and that's what this show was all about!

 

 

[Singer4Him]

We had late dining so as soon as the show was over, we made our way to the Posh MDR. Jerry was our head waiter but since this was the only night that we were there, we really didn't get a chance to know him.

 

 

Now for the part that so many of you (you know who you are) have been waiting for...FOOD! I must say that we have been waiting a year for Carnival's cream of sun ripened tomato soup!! To us, this is the best soup that they offer...and they have some wonderful soups! Tony also had the shrimp cocktail as a starter. We both had the tender braised beef brisket in gravy for our main course and for dessert, we both chose the Vanilla crème Brûlée. Yum! Everything was wonderful and the portions for the main course were HUGE! I couldn't eat it all. Just the beginning of the deliciousness of the MDR. I know that a lot of people don't like the MDR but we eat dinner every evening here. We enjoy not only the food, but the atmosphere and the wait staff, as well.

 

Shrimp Cocktail

 

Cream of Sun Ripened Tomato Soup

 

Tender Braised Beef Brisket in Gravy

 

Vanilla crème Brûlée

 

 

We walked around a bit after supper, trying to walk off some of what we had just consumed and then we turned in for the night.

 

The Lido deck after dark!

 

 

Tomorrow: Our first sea day!

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2014 by Singer4Him

[Singer4Him]

Monday, August 25, 2014

 

We awoke and went to the gym for a pre-breakfast workout. On the first few days of any cruise, the gym is usually busy. It slows down as the days go on. Unfortunately, when we went to the gym we went to work out and neither of us took the camera. Sorry!

 

After finishing at the gym, we returned to our room to shower and get ready for the day. We though we'd grab a bite of lunch @ Fish 'n Chips but they don't open until noon and it was only about 11:20. Since we planned to go to the cooking demo at noon in the Sun King Steakhouse, we opted for a little something from the breakfast buffet.

 

Let me just stop right here and let you in on a little secret...they will feed you a small meal during the free cooking demo at the steakhouse! We didn't realize just how much they would feed us...we probably should have just skipped the breakfast buffet that morning.

 

We really did enjoy the cooking demo but I will say that if you plan to go and would like a good seat, plan on arriving about 20 minutes early! The Sun King Steakhouse is located Deck 10 Mid.

 

 

 

 

The menu for today is: Mushroom Cappuccino, Baby Leaf Spinach & Fresh Mushrooms, Broiled Supreme of Free Range Chicken w/Macaroni & Cheese and Sautéed Mushrooms, and Tiramisu

 

Mushroom Cappuccino

 

Baby Leaf Spinach & Fresh Mushrooms

 

Broiled Supreme of Free Range Chicken with Macaroni & Cheese and Sautéed Mushrooms

 

Tiramisu

 

[Singer4Him]

Saffie is part of the entertainment staff who was in the Sun King for the cooking demonstration

 

 

Here are more pics of the dishes the created during the cooking demo

 

Mushroom Cappuccino

 

Baby Leaf Spinach & Fresh Mushrooms

 

Broiled Supreme of Free Range Chicken with Macaroni & Cheese and Sautéed Mushrooms

 

Tiramisu

 

Watermelon carving by Vijay (you'll see him later at The Taste Bar). This was his first time carving an eagle using a watermelon.

 

[Singer4Him]

After the cooking demo, we decided to go hang out on the Serenity deck. We spent the rest of the afternoon here.

 

Around 5 p.m. we decided to eat a little something to hold us over until supper. Since we didn't want a big meal that would ruin supper for the evening so we opted for the deli. This was our fifth cruise but I believe it was the first time I've gotten anything from the deli. I ordered a corned beef of rye and Tony ordered a Reuben. I also got some pickle spears but I wasn't impressed by them. Loved the corned beef, though. Tony also had the sweet & sour cole slaw which he said was good.

 

Corned Beef on Rye

 

Reuben with sweet & sour cole slaw

 

We returned to our stateroom to get ready for the first elegant night. I had already noticed a bit of movement in the ship.

 

Our new friend, Vijay, (who made the eagle in the watermelon at the steakhouse) is one of the sous chefs on board and took our picture for us in front of The Taste Bar.

 

 

Vijay is on the right. We saw him several times during the cruise including the steakhouse cooking demonstration and the ice carving demonstration.

 

 

The selections offered by The Taste Bar tonight

 

The Taste Bar presents Short Ribs Croquettes and Pumpkin Bisque

[Singer4Him]

After getting ready, we went to the Playlist Production “88 Keys” which was, again, very good. I must say that thus far, I'm pretty impressed with the shows that we've attended.

 

 

 

 

During the show, I was noticing more motion and by the time we got to dinner, I wasn't feeling well. I left early and Tony escorted me back to our cabin where I took some meds and went promptly to sleep!

 

As we were leaving the Chic Restaurant, we stopped to tell our waiter, Tarras, that I was leaving but that Tony would return. He asked us to wait a moment, spoke to the Maitre'd and sent a plate with me to have later.

 

Tony had Mixed Greens Salad

 

Broiled Maine Lobster w/Jumbo Tiger Shrimp

 

Carmelized Apples on Puff Pastry (Tony's dessert)

 

 

Edited September 28, 2014 by Singer4Him

[Singer4Him]

Santhosh (in the suit) was the Maitre'd of the Chic Restaurant and was the one who helped us switch from the Posh (aft) to the Chic (Mid). He very graciously accommodated us. You can also see Tarras, our head waiter in the background of this pic. The young lady was one of his assistants but I don't remember her name.

 

 

Our cabin stewardess, Eva, left this little fellow for us tonight along with our FunTimes for the following day and our tickets to our Behind the Fun excursion that I booked on the first day.

 

 

Tony returned to the Chic Restaurant to finish supper and then went to one of the Punchliner Comedy Club shows featuring Percy Crews. He said that he really enjoyed it but that it was pretty crowded. This was the only time that either of us went to the comedy club. I think we could have spent at least another eight days on board to be able to get to do everything that we missed on the first eight!

 

Percy Crews at the Punchliner Comedy Club

 

Tomorrow: Our second sea day