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Just off Freedom

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By cruiser fanatic,
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cruiser fanatic

cruiser fanatic

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I'm going on the Freedom to the Western Carib in July. Would love to hear your thoughts on the ship and ports :)

 

The ship itself was fine. I thought the decor was a little tacky but didn't let that bother me.

 

Ports:

Montego Bay: Doctors Cave Beach. It was my first time going to this beach and I highly recommend it. Beautiful water. The chairs and umbrellas were reasonably priced. The drinks were a bit pricey.

 

Grand Cayman: We went to Calico Jacks Beach bar on Sea Grape Beach. I do NOT recommend this place. There was way too many people there. The chairs were rotted and umbrellas were worn out. I will go somewhere else next time.

 

Cozumel: We did the Dolphin Swin and Ride with unlimited food and drink through Carnival. This is done at Dolphinaris. The experience was great with the dolphins. It was a bit unorganized in the beginning. The food and drinks were not that great. The pictures are pricey, 3 for $75!! You are not allowed to take your own pictures. If I do the dolphin experience again I will go to Chankanabb.

 

Do yo have any specific questions?

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IPlayWithString

IPlayWithString

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We were on this cruise too and all 3 of us were disappointed at the lack of activities during the day. There was a lot going on at night, especially in the later hours (after 10) but not a whole lot to appeal to us during the day.

 

We enjoyed the new menu and I tried some things that I'd never had before like Shrimp Ceviche (which I thought was delicious) although I missed the Bitter N Blanc dessert on elegant night. The Seuss at Sea breakfast was really cool....DS had a blast, as did I. :D

 

We liked the ports fine...Jamaica was a little scary (though that was more the taxi driver than anything else) and we LOVED the bobsledding at Mystic Mountain. That excursion also included climbing Dunns River Falls which was not quite what we expected but still fun. When we read "Climb the falls" we thought, oh it'll be a nice little hike BESIDE the falls. We didn't expect that we'd have to get IN the water. :eek: But once DS saw it, he didn't want to do the drier walk up the side..he insisted on getting in (he's part fish..he'd swim even if the water was sub zero temps and there was snow falling outside:D). The two hour ride there and two hour ride back was also not exactly what we expected, but again...we put that down to the crazy driver who kept darting in and out of the lanes of traffic, almost hitting at least half a dozen cars and there was a guy on the side of the road who waved to us as he stood there peeing. :eek:

 

Grand Cayman was HORRIBLY unorganized (at least in our opinion) at the port. But once we found our guide and got on the bus, everything went smoothly. We got to the turtle farm alright and we had a blast feeding the turtles, getting to play with the baby turtles and we even did a bit of snorkeling in their salt water pond/pool. The food was ok..not great but not terrible either. They ran out of punch before we even sat down but they did have water so it was OK anyway.

 

When we got to Cozumel, we went to Isla Pasion by Twister boat, which is something we've done several times before and we love it. :D The day was warm enough that you could swim without freezing your butt off and the only bad thing was that I got pretty badly sunburned.

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basor

basor

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We will be on the Freedom late July with our 2 - 9 year old grand daughters...any suggestions on fun things to do with them would be appreciated.

 

They both have traveled a lot and are open to anything. We have signed up for the Dolphin Swim and Snorkel in Rotan since dolphins are there favorite animal.

 

Also, can you let us know the cost, etc. for WIFI/Internet?

 

Any info on how the beverage package work when sailing out of Galveston...I think you can not purchase for a few days....

 

We are in an OS - is it worth getting FTTF too?

 

 

Thanks in advance for all your advice

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IPlayWithString

IPlayWithString

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Texasl8dy--not very much and what there was of it, it got very seeeeriously competitive. We did the Disney trivia one afternoon and I thought a fight was going to break out between some of those kids.:eek:

 

wild hogs--deck 5. Most of the pubs/bars/clubs are on deck 5.

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cruiser fanatic

cruiser fanatic

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We will be on the Freedom late July with our 2 - 9 year old grand daughters...any suggestions on fun things to do with them would be appreciated.

 

They both have traveled a lot and are open to anything. We have signed up for the Dolphin Swim and Snorkel in Rotan since dolphins are there favorite animal.

 

Also, can you let us know the cost, etc. for WIFI/Internet?

 

Any info on how the beverage package work when sailing out of Galveston...I think you can not purchase for a few days....

 

We are in an OS - is it worth getting FTTF too?

 

 

Thanks in advance for all your advice

 

Hi,

The Freedom has the new Camp Ocean so I am sure your grand daughters would enjoy that.

 

I got the Premium WiFi/Internet package. It was $99 for the whole cruise. It was well worth it. Zydeocruiser has the prices on his website. http://www.zydecocruiser.net/CarnivalFreedomRepo/scan1/wifi2.jpg

 

You cannot purchase the CHEERS program until the first sea day when sailing out of Galveston. I did not get it this cruise.

 

If you are sailing to Belize I would strongly recommend getting FTTF since it is a tender port. There is a LONG tender ride to Belize and it is easier getting on a tender first.

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cruiser fanatic

cruiser fanatic

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Going out of Galveston in a few weeks. How was embarkation and debarkation?

 

Very easy. Platinum boarding started around 11:20 and FTTF started shortly after. Debarkation was very easy since we got a porter. 15 minutes from getting off the ship to getting in the car.

Edited by cruiser fanatic
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cruiser fanatic

cruiser fanatic

Posted
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We were on this cruise too and all 3 of us were disappointed at the lack of activities during the day. There was a lot going on at night, especially in the later hours (after 10) but not a whole lot to appeal to us during the day.

 

We enjoyed the new menu and I tried some things that I'd never had before like Shrimp Ceviche (which I thought was delicious) although I missed the Bitter N Blanc dessert on elegant night. The Seuss at Sea breakfast was really cool....DS had a blast, as did I. :D

 

We liked the ports fine...Jamaica was a little scary (though that was more the taxi driver than anything else) and we LOVED the bobsledding at Mystic Mountain. That excursion also included climbing Dunns River Falls which was not quite what we expected but still fun. When we read "Climb the falls" we thought, oh it'll be a nice little hike BESIDE the falls. We didn't expect that we'd have to get IN the water. :eek: But once DS saw it, he didn't want to do the drier walk up the side..he insisted on getting in (he's part fish..he'd swim even if the water was sub zero temps and there was snow falling outside:D). The two hour ride there and two hour ride back was also not exactly what we expected, but again...we put that down to the crazy driver who kept darting in and out of the lanes of traffic, almost hitting at least half a dozen cars and there was a guy on the side of the road who waved to us as he stood there peeing. :eek:

 

Grand Cayman was HORRIBLY unorganized (at least in our opinion) at the port. But once we found our guide and got on the bus, everything went smoothly. We got to the turtle farm alright and we had a blast feeding the turtles, getting to play with the baby turtles and we even did a bit of snorkeling in their salt water pond/pool. The food was ok..not great but not terrible either. They ran out of punch before we even sat down but they did have water so it was OK anyway.

 

When we got to Cozumel, we went to Isla Pasion by Twister boat, which is something we've done several times before and we love it. :D The day was warm enough that you could swim without freezing your butt off and the only bad thing was that I got pretty badly sunburned.

 

I agree. There needs to be more activities during the day. I was disappointed in Grand Cayman. It was very unorganized and crowded. Normally they tell you to get a tender sticker and they call you to the tenders by the sticker number. This time they told everyone to go to the gangway when they were ready to leave! This made it very crowded. This is usually one of my favorite ports but I was disappointed this time. Hopefully next time it is better.

Edited by cruiser fanatic
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