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Let FREEDOM ring! A picture review of our 2/25/17 cruise!

watermelonqueen99
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watermelonqueen99

watermelonqueen99

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So when I left ya'll, I was sashaying down the jetway, making everyone jealous with my singeing-hot, frizzy-headed, Carrot Top realness. C and I made our way down to baggage claim, and much to our surprise, our bags were waiting on us. With all of our bags in tow, we headed outside to call our hotel shuttle. Turns out, their shuttle was down, so the hotel clerk that C talked to on the phone told us to take a taxi, and they would reimburse us for it when we checked in. So we hailed a taxi, got in, and immediately wondered if we would make it there in one piece. We did and we arrived very shortly to the Comfort Suites Hobby Airport. The front desk clerk, Miguel, was absolutely fantastic! Probably one of the most professional, respectful, and friendly young men we’ve ever encountered. Here's the lobby of the hotel:

 

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We got all checked in and decided we were a little hungry, but didn’t want a big meal. So we hit up the little market they had in the lobby, and put together a meal fit for royalty.*

 

*Disclaimer: When I say "royalty," I mean the beer pong king at a dormitory at a random university, but still.

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Let me just say, I would never eat this way at home, but hey, it’s vacation, right? The whole time I was eating this, Jim Gaffigan’s Hot Pocket routine was playing in my head. If you understand that reference, we're friends already. After we ate this mess and hosed off the grease in the shower, we were pretty tired. I didn't bother getting any pictures of the actual room. I was too anxious to get to bed, since I knew that when we woke up, it would be embarkation day. Also, I knew from staying at this hotel previously, there would be biscuits and gravy awaiting us in the morning.....or would there?

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bell2012

bell2012

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I'm looking forward to this review! I like your writing style, it seems more fun than "just got back from the freedom, it was good... the end". Excited to see what you say, we will be aboard the freedom in 219 days, 4 hours, and 32 minutes... but who's counting?!

186 days 21 hrs 18 mins. for me

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watermelonqueen99

watermelonqueen99

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Saturday, February 25th, 2017

Embark day! I sprang out of bed, opened the curtains and started singing.* Finally, the day had arrived that we were boarding the Carnival Freedom! We got ourselves presentable (I put on the classiest t-shirt in my suitcase: “Oklahoma: Teabagging Texas since 1907”) and we headed downstairs. Being from Oklahoma, biscuits and gravy is practically a food group. I make them from scratch quite often. I remembered from our stay at this hotel in 2014 that they not only served biscuits and gravy, but they also had salsa packets to go with it. I stepped into the dining area, and as I did, wind started blowing, and Adele started playing: “Hello…..it’s me.....” Then everything went south. I glanced over at the counter and realized they no longer served biscuits and gravy. Everything then started happening in slow motion. (No it didn’t.) My knees buckled, and I started a slow descent to the ground. (That never happened.) C had to rush to my side and dramatically save me from crashing to the floor. (No he didn’t.) I somehow made my way to a table. As an act of rebellion, I decided not to eat anything for breakfast. I pouted while C ate his sad little eggs and toast. I decided that as soon as I got home, I was taking this missing biscuits and gravy issue all the way to Corporate. (Not really.)

 

*Disclaimer: That is a complete fabrication. I looked more like this as I dragged myself out of bed:

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C finished up his poor excuse for breakfast, and we headed outside to grab the hotel shuttle back to the airport. We (I) decided to use Galveston Express this time, because I’m basically the female, 2017 version of Ebeneezer Scrooge, and we would save $20 round trip by using GE vs the Carnival Shuttle. We get back to Hobby and make our way to the shuttle. It’s 95% full, so C and I have to sit apart. We had a brief Jack and Rose moment, and I promised him I'd never let go. We sat there in the parking lot for what seemed like forever, apparently waiting for another couple. I was trying to figure out where in the world they would put these people. Strap them to the top of the van? Were they gonna sit on our lap? Ride in the back with the luggage? Anyway, our driver eventually gave up waiting on them, and we were finally Galveston bound. Traffic was fairly light, so we got to port in about 45 minutes. The whole mood on the shuttle shifted when this hot chick came into our view:

 

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By 10:00, we had dropped our luggage with the porters, and found a bench to wait for our 10:30 check-in time. Eventually, we made our way to check-in, and were seated in the terminal by 10:45. Apparently, the ship was 30 minutes late getting back to port that morning, and had also visited Belize, which equals extra clearance time for the coast guard. We didn’t start boarding until after 12:00. But, by 12:30, we were onboard and in line for a Guy’s Burger. We find the food on Carnival to be mostly inedible, but we do love us a Guy's Burger. We had one every single day of the cruise. By day 3, I asked C if he would go ahead and contact TLC and ask them if I could audition for "My 600 Lb Life." I'm a certified Zumba instructor, ya'll, so I know better. But I can't help myself when it comes to Guy's Burgers. I bring shame to my family name. But that didn't stop me from shoving this into my mouth on the daily:

 

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After we had consumed all 38948594385 calories fr***** that burger, we decided to keep with our cruise tradition (in case you haven't caught on by now, we are not the poster children for good decisions) of getting a FunShip from the Atrium bar and people watching. (Side note-We do not cruise without the Cheers package. One major downfall of cruising out of Galveston is that you cannot start using Cheers until day 2. This is a major turn-off for us, and I'll touch on that more later.) Well, hello, gorgeous:

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I don't know about ya'll, but we love to sit in the lobby on embark day and watch our fellow passengers board:

 

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To be continued....

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LuvtheBeach10

LuvtheBeach10

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Enjoying your review! We are sailing on this ship in September, do you know how early you got to choose your check in time? It's still not showing up on our booking as an option and FTTF is sold out so I wanted to reserve our time as soon as possible unless the Freedom does not do the staggered boarding.:confused:

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watermelonqueen99

watermelonqueen99

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Saturday, February 25th, 2017

(I put on the classiest t-shirt in my suitcase: “Oklahoma: Teabagging Texas since 1907”)

 

 

hehehe this made me LOL this morning :') Oklahomans unite!

 

Lol, glad I could give you a chuckle! We Okies gotta keep Texas in their place. :D:D

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