Live From The Carnival Freedom: Crossing the Atlantic for a New Whale Tail

[JandPB]

44 minutes ago, chryso said:

I discovered that Roku Live Tv has a channel of nothing but reruns of the Great British Bake Off.  I watched all evening yesterday.  So many "celebrity" bake offs, I haven't seen.

Nothing wrong with a good patisserie week episode with Paul, Pru, Noel and Matt. 

[jam19872016]

1 hour ago, jam19872016 said:

Off to the sauna. There was a giant crack in the window in there but it has been fixed. I wonder how they decided which to correct as there are still a number of cracked windows, including the steakhouse which I would have thought would be a high priority. 

Casino already 70% full.

 

Number of machines turned on 0%

 

I was wrong about the window in the sauna being fixed. I need new peepers because I didn't notice it yesterday. 

 

I was also mistaken about the laundry room on 6. It is open, however there are no card readers on any of the machines. So the whole ship who isn't platinum or diamond has one laundry room available. 

 

If anybody needs their laundry done I will send it out for you for the low, low price of just $5! 

[exlondoner]

6 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Casino already 70% full.

 

Number of machines turned on 0%

 

I was wrong about the window in the sauna being fixed. I need new peepers because I didn't notice it yesterday. 

 

I was also mistaken about the laundry room on 6. It is open, however there are no card readers on any of the machines. So the whole ship who isn't platinum or diamond has one laundry room available. 

 

If anybody needs their laundry done I will send it out for you for the low, low price of just $5! 

Plats and diamond get what? Access to more machines?

[jam19872016]

Wi-Fi is struggling. If I disappear assume the Wi-Fi got too frustrating to use.

[Petersonfcu]

20 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Plats and diamond get what? Access to more machines?

If you are plat or diamond the crew will do your laundry for free.  So you don't need the self serve washers and dryers.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Petersonfcu

[jam19872016]

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

Well, it is usually quite expensive. And, as well as age and decrepitude leading to reduced appetites, you yourself suggested, I think, that the better quality food left you feeling fuller. They have also considerably reduced the choices over the years, leading, I assume, to less waste.

Yes it did leave me more satsified. It also left me more likely to eat when I wasn't hungry just so that I would not miss out. Carnival sort of hits a sweet spot in that I don't really eat out of FOMO. The problem, though, is that they use fattier sauces I think to mask cheaper ingredients. That is also probably contributing to the gloopy look.

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

Is it your choice to have it all on the same plate or is it how they do it? Different things on different plates would make it look much nicer. I’m just wondering whether the problem is simply that I’m living in the wrong century.

 

Unlike on Cunard, the desserts are not preplated. Makes it much easier to carry multiple desserts. I could have handed her two separate plates but would have made it harder to carry back and many times they will ask if it is okay to put them together so that you can chose to keep them seperated. I've never been one to mind, in fact when I eat from a buffet, I pretty much take a bite of one item and another item at the same time. Food's mingling don't phase me at all.

 

They also don't usually give such generous portions of the cake where they have to stack like that. As you noted, they are "homemade" and once they run out they run out. So they tend to ration the portions to last through meal service. As it was later in the meal time, and many were in port, they felt a little more comfortable giving real slices instead of the thin slices that tend to fall apart during plating.

[exlondoner]

10 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Wi-Fi is struggling. If I disappear assume the Wi-Fi got too frustrating to use.

Are you sure you aren’t on a Cunard ship?

[exlondoner]

2 minutes ago, Petersonfcu said:

If you are plat or diamond the crew will do your laundry for free.  So you don't need the self serve washers and dryers.

Coo. On Cunard it is a mere 20% off when you’ve used up your obc, though prices are quite reasonable. It is the only time our clothes are ever ironed. 🙂

[jam19872016]

1 hour ago, chryso said:

I believe in the buffet, you get your own plate and fill it up.  I don't remember any trays being available so I suppose piling it on is the simplest method.

Yes, exactly this. Plus the elimination of trays is Carnival's version of fat shaming. Seems to backfire as many just pile it on higher and then waste food. I don't believe in wasting food and take only what I can eat and very seldom won't eat something just because I don't like it. 

 

I was reminded today of the dish I wasted last week. A couple passing by the sushi place and the man asks hey want some fish bait? She was not amused by his comment, but it reminded me of the time I was served ACTUAL fish bait. Bleh.

 

58 minutes ago, LargeNegroni said:

Phew finally caught up! Thank you so much for sharing your adventures with us.

Happy travels and please keep us posted on further culinary cruise capers. 👏🏻🥃

Thanks for following along! Plenty of further culinary adventures ahead 🙂

 

[jam19872016]

30 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Plats and diamond get what? Access to more machines?

Platinum get a certain number of free bags of laundry based on the length of the sailing. Diamond get unlimited free laundry. Turn around time is slow due to the large number of high level pax on this sailing, but at least we don't have to fight the mob in the one available laundry room.

 

Ooops, see if it was already answered. I'm a little slow 🙂

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by jam19872016

[jam19872016]

9 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Are you sure you aren’t on a Cunard ship?

Internet was excellent on QE with the newly installed Starlink. Expensive, but it worked 99% of the time.

 

So far I'd say this ship is still at above 95% availability, and so far its just been late at night (when the crew are sharing the bandwidth) that it seems to be slow until whatever just happened now. Seems to be back to normal.

[jam19872016]

Andy said we will be cruising the straights of Gibraltar around 8 tonight. Not sure if we will be able to see anything but I may try to take in the sights. On the way in they said visibility was good, but it was around 1AM and no way I was staying up for that for a "maybe".

[exlondoner]

11 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Yes, exactly this. Plus the elimination of trays is Carnival's version of fat shaming. Seems to backfire as many just pile it on higher and then waste food. 

 

 

Didn’t all the lines abolish trays on the grounds Covid might be spread by contact with surfaces, which doesn’t seem to be the case. Has Cunard reinstated them?

[jam19872016]

Just now, exlondoner said:

Didn’t all the lines abolish trays on the grounds Covid might be spread by contact with surfaces, which doesn’t seem to be the case. Has Cunard reinstated them?

I don't recall seeing them out but saw a number of people with them, but perhaps they were supplied upon request or were kept from a room service delivery. I don't believe Carnival even supplies them any longer on request, but will carry your plates for you on request for those with mobility issues.

[jam19872016]

Got a little downtime since my mom wants to do a late dinner tonight. So let's do some catching up on port days My memory is already getting fuzzy but I will do the best I can to accurately articulate my time in port.

 

My first port of call with the QE was a stop in Toulon, France.

 

We were docked, but there was nothing in the immediate area so Cunard provided a water shuttle to take us into the city proper.

 

 

This was at 9:45, nearly two hours after arriving in port, and the line strechted almost back to the ship.

 

 

 

The lady in charge of the line was quite aggressive about keeping the line tight and didn't seem to understand when people started arguing with her that they can't keep moving forward if the people ahead were not moving forward. She just kept repeating to move forward.

 

The beautiful QE.

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

The line moved significantly once a boat pulled up. The trouble was the wait time between shuttles. It seemed like there were only two running in the morning based on the wait time and the fact that we did not pass any other boats during our transit. In the afternoon, however, we saw many so I am not sure if they hired more when they saw how slow things were going or some didn't show up until later but things definitely improved later in the day.

 

It was 10:43 when I took this picture, so just under an hour from start to finish arriving in Toulon, but about 30 minutes of that was sitting waiting for the shuttle to fill and the travel over.

 

 

There were lots of little shops for my mom to peak into right along the area we were dropped off.

 

 

There were also a lot of pretty boats for me to look at.

 

 

I'm not sure I knew what any of the interesting buildings were when I took pictures of them, and I certainly don't recall at this point.

 

 

A local square with lots of merchants set up selling their wares, although this was more for the locals and not souvenir stands

 

 

Walking

 

 

 

 

 

[Host Hattie]

30 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Andy said we will be cruising the straights of Gibraltar around 8 tonight. Not sure if we will be able to see anything but I may try to take in the sights. On the way in they said visibility was good, but it was around 1AM and no way I was staying up for that for a "maybe".

You will be able to see lights at least on both sides

[jam19872016]

We found a large shopping center for my mom and we wandered around that for a little while. Again, it wasn't really a souvenir shop but she still found some items to purchase. The store employees were less than friendly, and did not speak English. Fair enough, I don't speak French, it was just unexpected as usually between my broken language skills, and their broken English, we can usually converse. But all I got was angry yelling in French. I know that's the stereotype of the French behavior towards Americans, but that was not at all true in Paris when I spend three days there last year. 

 

Still, she found some items she liked and she was happy so I was happy. I got her back to the pick up spot and set off to explore the city on my own.

 

There was a giant ferris wheel nearby but it was not running at the moment. Perhaps at night?

 

 

This is my version of shopping, seeing the beautiful streets and buildings of these old European cities. 

 

 

 

 

 

[exlondoner]

Toulon looks really nice, apart from the shuttle wait, and the rude woman.

[jam19872016]

Continued.

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering the great view I got in Malaga at the top of the mountain I set out to see how far I could ascend before it got too steep for me.

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Like most of the cities I would visit in Europe, Toulon was very walkable.

 

 

 

Not too steep as I head towards the mountains.

 

 

 

 

French kitty

 

 

 

Climb getting steeper.

 

 

[jam19872016]

After I climbed the steps that was as far as I figured I could go. It started to appear to be far too steep to safely go any further.

 

 

The closest view I could get looking back down towards the harbor.

 

 

The mountain side seemed fenced off and inaccessible at this point.

 

 

I nearly blinded myself for this picture and I don't even remember what it was now. I am thinking it was an opera house but I might be misremembering now.

 

 

Almost back to the pickup stop now.

 

 

 

 

I grew less excited by my aimless wandering as the cruise wore on, but at this point I still really enjoyed my day exploring and seeing the sights of a foreign city and culture that was different than my own. 

Edited October 26, 2023 by jam19872016

[jam19872016]

17 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Toulon looks really nice, apart from the shuttle wait, and the rude woman.

It was very nice and like most days the weather was perfect.

[jam19872016]

Guess that groove with Andy. Theater is mostly dark tonight, no production shows. It's this, bingo, and love and marriage. 

 

[exlondoner]

Does love and marry have anything to do with pineapples?