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***LIVE*** From the Carnival Freedom


blackegg

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Well, I have been thinking about this for a couple of days, trying to be objective and after having a couple of people send me requests for info, decided it was time to post.

 

Our private shuttle experience was not great. I think we could have done a couple of things to avoid problems but it never ocurred to any of us that there would be an issue.

 

Taxi's and Shuttles:

 

We were traveling with two other couples and had arranged for private shuttles with Rome Shuttle : Rome Shuttle [mailto:info@rome-shuttle.com] .

 

Here were our arrangements:

 

Our party of 6, with luggage, arrives at Rome airport (FCO) on June 2, 2007 and we need transportation to a hotel in Rome. 68 euros by minivan (Hotel Arenula in the Jewish Ghetto area ~ was great!)

 

On June 6, we need transportation from hotel to cruise ship in Civitavecchia. 140 euro by mini van

 

On June 18, we need transportation from Civitavecchia to a hotel in Rome. 135 euro by minivan

 

On June 19, we need transportation from hotel to airport. 62 euro by minivan (one couple was traveling earlier so I think this was the price for 2 couples)

 

On June 2nd, the shuttle was not at the airport to meet us. After waiting 15 minutes or so, we called the number she had given us. The excuse given was that there had been a military parade that day, traffic was a mess and they would be there soon. The driver did show up, was professional and delivered us to our hotel.

 

On June 6th, the shuttle was on time. The driver was dressed very casually and was talking on three cell phones as he drove us to the port. Was kind of unsettling with the high speeds and crazy traffic.

 

On June 18th, the shuttle did not show up. We tried to call the number but got no answer. After waiting well over 1 hour, another shuttle driver assisted us in calling a van for us however we paid 180 euro.

 

I emailed the company when we got to the hotel and received a "very sorry" reply back saying that she had accidently filed us under July not June. She would be happy to give us a discount (55 euro instead of 62 ~ big deal) and still provide service for us from the hotel to the airport. She also said that she had lost her cell phone and that was why the phone number wasn't working, however she didn't give us a new number to call.

 

I emailed her back, saying that we would use her again the next morning but would expect a better discount as we had paid considerably more the previous day and been delayed over 2 hours. I also asked her to please call and leave a message at our hotel advising the price and confirming the pickup at 8am.

 

We never heard back from her, and when the shuttle didn't show by 810am, we called a taxi - which was there in about 5 minutes. We did need one cab per couple tho because of the luggage and it cost us 40 euro per couple.

 

Afterwards, it ocurred to us that we should have either called or emailed them a day or two before each service to confirm. That would have resolved our problem on June 18th.

 

Also based on a question I received regarding exchanging travelers checks at the American Express at the bottom of the Spanish Steps: the travelers checks were from American Express and in US dollars. The exchange rate was about 1.40 with zero fees. We also took money out of ATMs using our debit card and the exchange rate was 1.33 with 1.50 fee. The Am Ex office does limit the exchange to 900 euro per day.

 

Janet

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Hello Janet and all fellow travelers,

Janet, sorry to hear about your transfer problems!. We were a party of 8 and used Rome Cabs for all our transfers. The transfers were from the airport to Rome Hotel, Rome Hotel to the ship and ship to airport hotel. The drivers were all on time and waiting for us. All drivers spoke English with the exception of the driver from the ship to the airport hotel. Price was within a few euros of what I was quoted from about 3-4 companies.

 

Contact Rome Cabs at www.romecabs.com

 

Hope all my fellow shipmates and future travelers the best of times!

 

Jerry (Caneguy)

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Thanks for your note. Yes, the bedding was a little below par, but overall a very nice hotel. You would think they would give better pillows!

 

BTW, will be in CA over Labor Day weekend, San Diego and Orange County

 

Take Care,

 

Jerry (Caneguy)

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Did all the folks who posted on cruise critic meet on the first day of your cruise? If so, was it just a casual get together by the bar or did Carnival give you a private space with some sort of service?

 

Some of us met at the bottom of the Spanish Steps the night before the cruise which was fun.

 

Once on the ship, we met at the Endless Pool around 5pm the first day. It was not hosted altho there is bar there. The lifeboat drill is between the two dinner seatings around 8pm.

 

We also set an evening to meet in Scott's with Ron the Piano Man. It was fun.

 

Seems CD John said he would post something in the Capers if we asked. Didn't see anything however not sure if we ever asked. He is holding blogger get togethers and will send an invite to anyone who leaves him a note at the pursers desk that they are onboard. You can get to the blog from the carnival site. They did serve mimosas at the bloggers meeting.

 

Janet

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PART 1- Review of Freedom 6-6-07 grand Mediterranean Cruise- Family of 4, traveling with two young children

 

We are a family of 4, ages 38, 36, 8 (boy) and 5 (girl). We were a part of CC's roll call, also, which added a wonderful element that we'd not experienced in any of our 9 cruises before (this was our children's 7th cruise). I am going to write this review from a different perspective than many of the other reviews, since we were traveling with young children. During the planning of this vacation, it was often difficult finding info pertaining to young children, so hopefully this will be helpful to others like us. I am going to try to be thorough, so that means it will be LONG!

 

I feel the need to add that we are a very active family and also travel a lot together. Our children usually do abnormally well with long days that require walking, so our plans were probably a lot more ambitious than typical for their ages. I found throughout the trip, though, that even for my children, certain days were just too much for them and we would adapt based on the previous days.

 

To prepare the kids for this trip, I checked out several children's books from the library on the various places we would be visiting, both fiction and non-fiction. The children's chapter book series, The Magic Treehouse, has several books set in locations throughout Europe that introduces them to the areas. We read the ones about Pompeii, Venice and London. I also made a matching memory card game for them on index cards with photos off the internet of the different things we'd see and visit. They loved this game and because of it, they knew a lot more about the places we'd be visiting than my husband! We also played an ongoing game of answering European Trivia questions whenever we traveled in the car. I feel certain that their prior knowledge of the sights really enhanced their experience, as they would be so excited to point out something and say, "Look, there's _____!" or "That was sculpted by ____!"

 

As far as cruises go, the reason we cruise so much with the children is because of the kid's programs. We love having the family vacations, but we also love to be able to let them go do their thing while we do ours. Our two children LOVE "KID'S CAMP" and once they are onboard, that is always all they want to do. We often have to pull them out to come spend time with us! It works well for us all and gives us a nice balance.

 

JUNE 3rd/4th- We flew out of Atlanta on Delta, leaving at 9:15pm, arriving in London at 10:45am and then had a British Airways flight leaving at 2pm, arriving in Rome at 5:30. Both flights were on time. If we were to do this again, we would definitely fly non-stop, especially with children. We had booked two separate flights on purpose because originally we were booked to take the Disney Cruise out of Barcelona on the same date and had planned for a 3 night stay post-cruise in London since that cruise was only 10 days. Once we switched to Carnival, we had to go ahead and use our roundtrip Atlanta to London, so no non-stop to Rome.

 

The Delta flight had originally been scheduled to leave at 8:30pm, which would have been better, because by the time we took off, the drink and dinner carts had come around, and we'd all eaten, it was already after 11 when the kids tried to settle down to go to sleep. They both slept fairly well, one of them tossed and turned some, but I had purchased blow up travel pillows that fit around the neck for them and they seemed to help with their comfort level. They both got about 5 hours sleep this way, a big goal of mine so that we could do a little sightseeing on our first night in Rome. My husband and I both got a little less sleep, but not much of an issue since neither of us sleep much anyway! Neither child took medication to help them sleep.

 

We arrived in Rome around 6pm and our private driver (arranged through the hotel) transported the four of us by minivan to our hotel, Hotel Golden for 60 euros. Hotel Golden is in the northeast area of Rome, basically next to Villa Borghese. I had chosen this hotel after reading reviews on Trip Advisor. The hotel supposedly was a palace long ago and they had turned one of the floors into 14 guest rooms. We found a complimentary bottle of champagne waiting for us. The room was a quad room, one queen bed and one small double bed for the kids. There was a small frig with waters, soda and beer you could buy and this turned out to be convenient. The room was small, but nicely decorated and it had a very nice, large, new bath with beautiful tile, large shower, etc. They also had provided nice cushy towels, robes and slippers. One thing the kids enjoyed were the shuttered windows that opened out to watch the street life. The little time we were actually in our room, both kids would perch themselves on the little luggage table by the window and watch the passerbys. The bathroom also had a smaller window like this as we were the corner room.

 

Our rate was 230 euros a night, for two nights. The hotel is run by a family, two brothers, sister and parents and the 3 grown children all spoke very good English to help us with our questions. The hotel was VERY clean and they had a nice little breakfast set up each morning with breads, pasteries, hard boiled eggs, cold meats, yogurts, fruits, cheeses, cereals, juices, milk and DELICIOUS coffee! A cute little Italian lady kept everything replenished.

 

We would not stay here again strictly because of the location. The hotel was great, especially for the price, but for us only being in Rome for a short time, it wasn't as convenient a location as many others I had researched. IF we had had more days in Rome, this might have been a great location with the kids, because of Villa Borghese being literally around the corner. Villa Borghese is a LARGE park that supposedly has many great things that would entertain children, including a zoo. We only had time to walk through the edge of it on the way to the subway.

 

Our first night we decided to walk towards the center of Rome to try and find a pizza place that had received glowing recommendations. We didn't leave our hotel room until around 9pm though! On the walk over, we passed King Tritone's Fountain in Barberini Square and stopped at the Trevi Fountain for the kids to throw their coins. By the time we reached the Pantheon, our children were toast! (So were we, for that matter) so we ditched our pizza restaurant idea and chose one of the outdoor restaurants right in the Pantheon's Square. We were SO glad we did this! Maybe the prices were steeper than in more side-streeted restaurants, but the view of the Pantheon and the obelisk made us feel like we were in a story. To add to the atmosphere, during our dinner, some guy started singing opera in the square for a good twenty minutes or so and also prior to him, a woman's choir had set up and sung in front of the Pantheon, too.

 

Our dinner consisted of one lasagna, one cannoloni, one margharita pizza, water and a bottle of chianti for 60 euros. Bread came with the meal (we learned to ask if the bread was included since friends of ours got charged 8 euros at the end of their meal for their bread basket). Parents of picky eaters: Apparently, according to my 5 year old, the Italian pizza tastes TOTALLY different than in the states! The question from this point on when ordering pizza was, "Mom, is it thin?". Also, most of the pizzas have a hint of burnt crust, just on the ends, which in her book, black tastes bad. I personally LOVED the pizza, but from then on, her order of choice became spaghetti, pasta, lasagna or cannolini.

 

We had our first gelato this night at the gelateria right on the square, too! Scrumptious! In our house, ice cream solves everything, so this stop for gelato was the perfect answer to their growing tiredness! Now that we were all fat and happy, we walked back to the hotel, a good 25 minute walk. We didn't get to bed until after midnight, so needless to say the kids konked out.

 

 

June 5th- Rome

 

After starting with breakfast in our hotel, we walked to Santa Maria della Vittoria to see Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa and then on to the Piazza della Republica, back to the hotel for more water and a bathroom break, then to the metro by Villa Borghese. I had planned to spend some time in the park for the kids, but we ran out of time with just this little bit of walking. Rome is VERY spread out, more than I figured. We had an Angel Tours of the Vatican at 12:30 and it took WAY longer than I had planned to get there first by metro and then at least a 10 minute walk to St. Peter's Square.

 

We ended up taking two Angel Tours, the Vatican Tour this day and the Coloseum and Imperial Forum the next day. Angel Tours does not charge for children and our fees were $25 each, not including admission fares. Children under 6 our free at many of the museums and sights throughout Italy, so we had to only pay for 3 tickets to the Vatican Museum. Our eight year old's ticket was the same price as ours. The Angel guide knocked off $5 for each person in our Vatican tour because it was an unusually large tour. Angel tours advertise small numbers and native speaking guides which is the main reason we chose them with the kids. Unfortunately for our kids, the guided tour went right over their heads. Since we had such a large group, our guide wore a mic and we each wore a receiver with earplugs. My kids tuned out after the first 5 minutes, but they still enjoyed seeing some of the things they saw in the Vatican Museum. The tour lasted about 3 hours and went through the Sistine Chapel, part of the museums and St. Peter's.

 

We knew going into this vacation there were going to be things that the kids enjoyed and then things that bored them to tears. We were prepared knowing that the Vatican would probably fall under the "bored to tears" category and we were right! But, they were still very well behaved during this tour. Anything that I thought was entertaining, I'd pass on to them myself which definitely was needed.

 

At this point I should have realized that the kids had reached their limit, but I really wanted to see Castel Sant Angelo, so I made a poor decision for us to walk over to it. By the time we got there, we were all cooked again! We had plans to meet up with our Cruisecritics group at the Spanish Steps at 5:45. We headed over to that area, stepped into a deli and bought different breads, cheeses, proscuito, olives, drinks with the plan to eat a little picnic on the steps before the others arrived. However, again, misjudging the time, we got there to find us some of the last to arrive! The kids and my husband took a seat and ate the first food since breakfast, while I met all of our online friends. The food was incredible from the deli, though! For about 13 euros, there was enough food and wine for 4 people and it was all so fresh and delicious!

 

We had had reservations to do the night walking tour, Heart of Rome(hahahaha) with Angel Tours that began at 6pm, but obviously we scratched those plans! We walked over to Piazza Navona area and had dinner in a great off-the-beaten-path pizzaria with another family from CC. This time the dinner came with Limoncello at the end of the meal and the whole meal for the four of us was only 25 euros!!!! (still didn't regret our dinner from the night before with the incredible view we had, but it was a nice change to eat in this quiet little side-street location). After dinner we got gelato and coffee and then headed back to the hotel, this time using a cab. It wasn't that expensive, maybe 7 euros for the four of us.

 

*LESSON LEARNED THIS FIRST TOURING DAY- IF we will be walking to see sights, we must keep the sights limited. If using transportation, then we can squeeze in more. I knew Rome would be the hardest physical days for us because of all the walking we had planned and that was certainly true!

 

 

June 6th- Rome and embarkation

 

Had breakfast at the hotel, checked out and the hotel allowed us to store our luggage in a quiet hallway. We caught a taxi (learned the lesson from the first day!) to the colosseum. Our hotel had told us to just walk to the taxi stand and we'd catch a taxi that way. It was not as easy as we thought. We must have waited at least 15 minutes for one. Our Angel Tour had only about 10 of us in it this day, which was nice. We had a nice, young Irish woman for our guide. She seemed to be new at it, though, since she would stop and think often about what she was going to say. Still, it was a nice tour. First we started in the Forum. The kids enjoyed this part. It started at 9am, so it wasn't that hot yet and it was practically empty except for our group and a few other wanderers. The kids were able to climb all over parts of ancient ruins which made them happy as clams! Being with the tour allowed us to zip right in without any lines again. I don't remember the ticket price for the coloseum. The guide's narrative of the colosseum unfortunately didn't again keep the kids' attention, but they did enjoy seeing it. We had done a bunch of reading on gladiators, the coloseum and the fights that went on here earlier on, so I think this was kind of neat for them to see.

 

After the tour, we caught another cab ride back to the hotel, to find our private shuttle there and waiting for us, actually 20 minutes earlier than scheduled! We had arranged the transfer to the ship along with another family of three from our roll call. We used Roma Shuttle and the charge was 160 euros for the trip to the ship. All 7 of us fell asleep on the ride to the port!!!

 

We arrived to the ship around 1:30, maybe a little earlier, to find NO LINES to check in and embark. This was the smoothest, easiest boarding we have ever had for a cruise and it spoiled us! We were so ready to get on our beautiful ship! Our room was ready for us. It was a family room on the spa deck, cabin #1107. GREAT room for families! I can't stress this enough! We had booked an inside cabin and got miraculously bumped to this room. The room has the space of a balcony, but enclosed instead, with a giant floor to ceiling, wall to wall window! It's location was the closest room to the stairway to Camp Carnival, a service we use daily with our kids! This was perfect because at night the kids would attend the camps activities and then stay for the "slumber parties" (movies in the PJ's with blankets and pillows) while we would have time to do some things on our own. At night when we'd pick them up, they'd usually be sleeping and it was a 30 second walk to the room to carry them back.

 

For those that are not that familiar with Camp Carnival, all the kid's activities are included in your cruise fare except for the after hours sessions, from 10pm-3am. During these hours the price is $6 an hour for the first child and $4 for each child after in the same family. Twice during this cruise they have what they call "Late Night Party" from 10pm until 12 for ages 6-11. Same prices apply, but instead of having them calm down to fall asleep to a movie, it is a night of games, prizes, contests, water activities and my kids LIVE for these nights! My youngest is almost 6, so they let her be in the 6-8 group this time and it was perfect for her.

 

My husband and I also used the gym each sea day and again, our room was the closest to the spa. Also this deck opens up to the top level of the main pool area and a quick walk to the Lido Windjammer restaurant. The extra space that normally would be the balcony was used for us to sometimes eat breakfast in the morning before early tours while we all watched the views. My husband has never felt comfortable getting a balcony with the kids and their ages yet, so this was ideal for us. We were so spoiled that we just booked the same type room again for next summer (the Greece/Turkey itinerary)! After having all that extra room where a balcony would be, we realized for such a long trip, it was such a nice addition for us.

 

That afternoon was spent exploring the ship, the kid's camp, meeting up with our roll call again and the kids swimming. We opted for the buffet that night since we were not feeling like dressing for dinner. Later, we let the kids go to their first night of Camp Carnival while we went to the Welcome Aboard Show. Perfect first day onboard!

 

 

June 7th- Naples

 

We had arranged a private tour with another family through the roll call. The other family also has two young children, ages 7 and 5, and this worked WONDERFULLY because the children definitely entertained each other! We used DriveSorrento and had Guiseppe. The charge was 450 euros and we had him from 8:30-5:30. He was pleasant, professional and very knowledgeable of the area. He provided us with two car seats which was very accomodating, I thought.

 

Our tour consisted first of a drive to Sorrento with a walk around, then along the Amalfi Coast to Positano, where we had our lunch and then to Pompeii. In Sorrento, we stopped for about an hour and a half to walk around and do a little shopping. We got capucinos here, which were marvelous. The side streets are charming. The ride along the Amalfi Coast was breathtaking. We stopped at a roadside stand to sample the large lemons, olives and spices. The kids enjoyed this!! Positano was great also, with a long, steep winding walk down to the water. The flowers are amazing! By recommendation of our guide, we had lunch at Chez Black, supposedly a restaurant many celebrities visit (the wall was covered with all their photos). The restaurant was right along the beach under a large awning and we all really enjoyed the food. We had a few different types of pizzas, calamari (prepared differently than I've ever had it before- excellent!), and great Italian wine. The bill was again around 60 euros a family.

 

We let the kids put their feet in the water and play on the beach for about 15 minutes before heading back up to meet the guide. We then took off to Pompeii. At this point we were a little off schedule, so we only had one instead of two hours at Pompeii. We had paid for a private tour guide (100 euros split between the two families). Having to limit Pompeii to an hour was a downer to me. I had wanted to go to Pompeii first, but Guiseppe had recommended we go last since usually it is less crowded in the afternoon. If it was less crowded then, it must have been jam packed in the morning! It was really hot by the end of the day and if I were to do it again, I think I would insist that we go to Pompeii first when the kids were most rested and it was coolest. We had to practically run through Pompeii, only seeing the main points and then scramble back to the ship to make sure we made it. Although, we had discussed this later and if we had stayed longer in Pompeii we would have needed to cut out something else, all of which was great. Honestly, for the four kids, one hour was a good amount of time. Personally the adults would have preferred more time there, but with the time restrictions, there really wasn't much else we could have done with wanting to see all three locations anyway. All in all it was a great day, seeing 3 really neat places with a great guide.

 

We made it to dinner, but late, since we had been given the 5:45 dinner time. On dinner times: we had initially requested the 6:15 dinner time. We usually always ask for late seatings on cruises, letting the kids eat with Camp Carnival often and then we go have an adult dinner. But since it was our first time going to the med with such an intensive port schedule, I didn't know if the kids would be able to have enough energy to go to kid's camp at nights, so we opted for the early seating. This was a big mistake!!! On many of the port days, we would again have to scramble to make it to dinner, and then we would be really late. Also on the second formal night, Camp Carnival does not provide the children's dinner and their camp doesn't open until 7pm that night so those with early dinner seatings have to bring the kids to formal dinner. My son HATES dressing up and it just proved an unrelaxing dinner for all of us. I certainly didn't mind that they didn't provide children's dinners a night, I just wish it had been a non-formal night! Out of the 12 nights, we ate in the dining room 10 nights and three of those were with the kids.

 

 

June 8th- Sea day

 

It was overcast for the morning, the only day of the whole cruise. The kids attended camp from 9-12, were out with us from 12-2 for lunch and pool/ slide time and then begged to go back to camp from 2-5. The slide on the Freedom is GREAT since it does not end in a pool. It just ends in it's chute so they have no deep water to contend with! The slide was a highlight of the cruise for the kids. My daughter who is not a strong swimmer yet, was completely independent with it this time. My husband and I actually could just lounge in the chairs with a view of the slide and watch them go up and down, over and over. Turst me, this was fabulous! The pools were over my youngest's head (46 inches tall), so supervision was necessary here.

 

That night we all attended "Ticket to Ride", the show using all music of the Beatles. I loved this show. The kids attended the show with the camp and we watched them across the way from our couple seat for two!

 

 

June 9th- Venice

 

We awoke later today, knowing we'd have a late night that night. WE all watched the entrance into Venice, which was as great as we'd heard it would be. After we arrived, we first had lunch (with all the other 3,000 passengers it seemed) in the Freedom Restaurant and then hit Venice on our own. We walked to Piazza Roma, bought 24 hour vaporetto passes for the four of us (15 euros each, 60 euros- no discount for children) and then took the vaporetto. The kids enjoyed this, but it was very crowded. The vaporetto for some reason stopped at Rialto for this particular boat run and we would have had to transfer to a massive line waiting to get on the next vaporetto so we chose to walk to St. Mark's square from there. It actually was a nice walk, but many turns and twists to follow the signs to get there! The streets are all so very narrow, so plenty of shade. So many mask and glass stores! The kids liked looking at the masks in the window displays. We used our first atm of the trip here. No problems. However, our fees were $5 each time we used the machines and a 1% fee of what we took out.

 

St. Mark's square was great! We had a reservation time of 3:45 to enter. The reservations gave us no line, which is so helpful with the children. NOTE- if you are carrying a large bag or backpack (which both adults always had a bag), before entering St. Mark's, you must first go to another church, located only a few minutes away, and check your bag. Not a big deal, but if we had known, we probably would have just skipped bringing the big bags for the afternoon.

 

After walking through St. Mark's, the kids had a turn sitting on the two lion statues. Then onto the pigeons! Another highlight of their trip was the pigeons in St. Mark's square! You can buy a bag of corn kernels for 1 euro and then let them go! At first mine were excited but a little freaked out. But by the end of the bag of feed, they were seasoned pros! They had them on their heads, shoulders, arms and hands. Take lots of antibacterial wipes and cleanser!!!!!

 

After the pigeons, we had a gelato stop and then it was time to buy our Venetian masks. The kids had fun picking out masks. They were walking around the streets of Venice wearing their masks and eating gelato. Too funny!

 

We headed back to the ship at 5:30 to take them to camp carnival's dinner. All along we had planned to let the kids stay onboard this night so we could have a nice dinner for two while the kids were in the kid's program. We changed clothes and went back into Venice for dinner and a gondola ride. This time we took the shuttle bus for 5 euros each round trip. The last shuttle was at midnight which we knew we would miss, but the ride in was worth it to us to maximize our time. The kid's camp had our cell number to reach us if necessary.

 

First, to find a restaurant. We took the Vaporeto to Rialto, crossed the bridge, took the first left turn after the bridge and went to an outdoor restaurant on the Grande Canal. It was late, we were hungry and there was a great table off to its own that was available. The name of the restaurant had River in its name, and I can't for the life of me remember it. We ordered mozarella and tomatoes to share and seafood risotto for two. We had a great bottle of wine and then dinner came with bread. I believe this dinner came to around 50 euros.

 

After dinner we went for a lovely walk and by now it was nearly midnight. Many of the gondoliers had already covered their gondolas so we were thinking we'd wait until the next morning and take our ride then. As we were crossing a small, quiet bridge close to Rialto bridge, we came across a gondolier and his empty gondola. When we asked the price, he told us 100 euros for about 25 minutes. We said we'd wait until the next day and we walked off. He approached us a few minutes later and said it would be his last ride of the night and he'd do it for 90 euros. We took it. I will tell you that taking a gondola ride after midnight was incredible!!!! Not only were most the tourists gone for the day, but many of the lights were going out. He took us through the back canals and at times it was totally silent! What a magical experience! We couldn't even hear the paddling most the time. It was perfect and we're so glad we didn't wait until the next day for a cheaper price. We had no problems with being able to cuddle together, like some of the other posters have written.

 

We got gelato again and walked to the vaporetto stand. After taking the vaporeto, we walked back to the ship. We obviously missed the last shuttle back, but we had planned on that. We picked up the children sleeping soundly at 1:30 am and took them back to the room.

 

 

June 10th- Venice

 

Our original plans had been to take the kids in with us this day and go on the Doge's Palace Secret Itineraries Tour which we had prepaid for. However, when we gave them the option to stay onboard or come back in with us, they chose to stay on and since I didn't want to push it, we decided to eat the extra tickets to Doge's and the 2 day vaporetto passes for the kids and just go ourselves. This also gave us a chance to actually do some shopping, which was virtually impossible with them given the nature of most the stores- all glass, all breakable! The more relaxed outcome of the day was worth the cost of the unused tickets!

 

First was the Secret Itineraries Tour. Our tour time was 9:55 am and we left the ship at 8:30 sharp. Caught the shuttle bus a few minutes later and were at Piazza Roma by 8:45. This is where our problems began! Maybe because it was a Sunday, I'm not sure, but it took FOREVER for us to catch the vaporetto. Once we did, we made the mistake of taking the #1 vaporetto, which we had yet to take. It took FOREVER to get to St. Mark's!!!!! Then we had to wait in line to show our vouchers for the tour. By the time we got to the rep, it was 10:10. She told us sorry, the tour had already left and there was no way to join them. I was heartbroken! She gave us regular tickets to tour ourselves. We ended up purchasing the audio guide for two for 8 euros and began forlornly wandering around the ground floor of the palace.

 

Then we got lucky! We saw other Cruisecritics who were scheduled for the 10:45 tour waiting to begin. After we told them what had happened to us, they told us that one of the other families scheduled for their time was not there yet either. When the guide showed up, I decided to explain our situation. She told us that it was a full tour, but if the other family did not show up, then we could take their place. The other family DID show up, but she was kind enough to let us go with them anyway! I will say (and this is NOT because she let us slip in) that she was the best guide we had for our entire trip! Not only was she knowledgeable with the info, but she presented in such an engaging, entertaining, passionate way that most of us were hanging on her every word. I simply loved this tour, much of it due to our guide.

 

My husband and I discussed later, that although there were parts of the tour that would have entertained the kids, there were more parts that WOULDN'T have! There were other kids on this tour and I think they were fine with it, but they were also older than ours. Nevertheless, we didn't regret our decision to let them stay and hang out on the ship. This was the only other time that they did not accompany us into the ports.

 

After the tour, we did our shopping, but didn't have as long since we had caught that later tour. Again, it was much nicer having this time by ourselves. Getting back to the ship was again quite an endeavor, but this time we walked to the Rialto stop and caught the vaporetto there.

 

The afternoon was nice with the deck party leaving Venice and everyone in masks. Made for good photos!

 

 

-I'll continue later, the kids are calling!!! :)

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I love reading all the posts from the Freedom. I am all packed for my cruise but still have two weeks to go. I assume most of the beginning glitches have been ironed out...at least i hope so.

 

I hope to meet some CCmembers on the boat ! We are a group of 5 couples, mostly teachers.......so excited.

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Fendere - thank you for the review. I have learned some valuable information from all of you past cruisers.

 

I do have one question for post-cruisers or current cruisers. How chilly are the nights and/or sea days? I am trying to decide how heavy of a sweater or jacket to bring. I was hoping to get away with just a light summer sweater, but my DH believes I should bring something heavier. -- Other than this, I'm pretty much done with my packing :D - 2 1/2 more days until take-off.

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Fendere, Great review! I will be on the July 12th cruise with my 5 year old son, actually turning 6 on the cruise. It is nice to read a review from the perspective of a family, even if your itinerary is different from ours. I can't wait to read the next part of your review.

 

Mrkcruiser, I too will be on the July 12th cruise, and I am also a teacher. It seems that there are many teachers on our cruise. Maybe we should try and set up a meet and greet on our roll call!

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Fendere - thank you for the review. I have learned some valuable information from all of you past cruisers.

 

I do have one question for post-cruisers or current cruisers. How chilly are the nights and/or sea days? I am trying to decide how heavy of a sweater or jacket to bring. I was hoping to get away with just a light summer sweater, but my DH believes I should bring something heavier. -- Other than this, I'm pretty much done with my packing :D - 2 1/2 more days until take-off.

 

I never used the lightweight jacket or long sleeved shirt that I brought. I did wear a nice overshirt with one or two of my dresses in the dining room and Victoriana during shows. Even at night it was comfortable on our balcony with just a tank top.

 

Renee, I would agree with you about Rome! Even without little ones, it took much longer to get around from one site to another. We saw a fraction of what we had planned or expected to see. Guess it's good we threw those coins into the Trevi Fountain because we need to go back!!

 

Janet

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Dear Fendere: Thank you for the wonderful details regarding the kids. Our 8 year old and 12 year old will be with us for the July 24th sailing. Do you remember the name of the restaurant by Piazza Navona for 25 euros for a family of four?

Look forward to your Part 2...

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Hi, everyone!

 

Thanks for the comments on my review so far. I will work on the second half tomorrow.

 

Kali4- You are going to have a great time with your son! Our favorite port days with the kids were the days we incorportated the beach along with sightseeing, which we did in Dubrovnik and Taormina. I know you have the alternate itinerary, but I also have started researching that itinerary in the last few days since we plan on doing it next June and I know that a few of the days are conducive to finding the beach, also. I am hoping you will post a review when you return from your trip, with what worked with your son in Greece and Turkey. As you probably found too, there certainly aren't THAT many reviews out there from parents with young children in tow (at least there weren't before the Freedom started it's cruises).

 

Jolin68- I have a different answer to your sweater question than Janet (but again, Janet is from Washington and we live in Georgia! :D Janet, my blood is so thin, after moving to Atlanta from Boston 8 years ago!!) I had packed one long t-shirt, one pair of jeans and a velour, long-sleeved hoodie sweatshirt. By midway through the cruise, I was wishing I had brought another pair of pants, long-sleeve and another sweatshirt! The only time I needed these, though, was when we'd be out for a prolonged period of time on the deck at night. I hadn't thought we'd partake much in the outdoor movies, but on certain nights, it was the perfect answer after a long day of walking and touring. We watched Harry Potter, the Goblet of Fire, the Phantom of the Opera, and Chicago. The ship DOES provide great plaid, soft, wool blankets for you to sign out for these movie nights, but I still was cold on two of the nights wearing the long-sleeved t, another short sleeved t over that, my hoodie AND using the blanket!

 

Along the movie-night line, the last night of the cruise, the DaVinci Code was shown. I really wish that it had been shown earlier in the cruise- what a PERFECT movie to watch while cruising around Europe (even though it IS set in a different part of Europe!), but instead, we had to spend all evening on the last night repacking all of the family's luggage with all the NEWLY required purchases! If I were going to be going on an upcoming sailing, I'd writed to John H. on the blog and ask him to play it earlier in the line up!

 

Also-if you plan on purchasing masks in Venice, think about how you are going to get them home BEFORE purchasing them! We actually DID think about this while picking ours out, but in the heat of the moment, you start to throw caution to the wind-haha. We bought four of them, mine with feathers pluming on the top (very bright of me) and my husband's mask, very huge. In the end, we had to designate one full carry-on backpack to JUST the masks to make sure they didn't break or crush! Just something to think about when picking out shapes, types- ours wouldn't nest together very well and many of them would have been much better.

 

Jerry- I read your review AFTER posting the first part of mine. I need to go back now to JUST eat in all of your restaurants! I'm seriously going to print out your review for next summer for the few days we hit the same ports to try some of them, definitely in our stay in Rome! Your dining experiences sounds amazing! What is frustrating is that I spent countless hours researching restaurants before the trip, I had all the info with me, but when in the moment, often we just ran out of time with the internal clocks to search for some of the places I'd researched or we just weren't at the location when I thought we might be at a meal time. Your plans seemed to work out better in this area than ours. Granted, we still had some great food, but I'm sure the prices could have been much lower for us at times.

 

Renee

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Travel 888- I'm so sorry, but I never got the name of that restaurant. We followed the other family we met on roll call from the Spanish Steps who had eaten there just the night before and I don't think I ever even SAW the name! I'll email them and see if they remember and if so, will post it here later for you. Are you on the grand med or the Greece/ Turkey itin? If on the grand med like us, the second part of my review will have the beaches which made for WONDERFUL days for us, even the adults!

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PART 2- Review of Freedom 6-6-07 grand Mediterranean Cruise- Family of 4, traveling with two young children

June 11- Dubrovnik, Croatia, Day 6 of cruise

 

This was a wonderful day for us! We did this on our own, starting with the transportation to the Old City. When exiting the ship, the first line you come to is the line for the shuttle bus, $10 US roundtrip per person. Pass that line and you come to the taxi stand line for 10 euros one way. For a family of four that's 20 euros vs. $40 US roundtrip, saving a little. We prefer the taxi route personally. We had to wait in line for about 10-15 minutes for the taxi going and NO wait to return. Our taxi driver to the Old City spoke excellent English and gave us a great tour on the way over, which was an unexpected surprise! Our friends' taxi drivers both ways spoke no English, though, so obviously this is not a gaurantee.

 

We were dropped off right in front of the entrance to the walled city. WE walked in, and right there on the left is the staircase going up to walk the wall. I had talked this up big with the kids and they were excited to do it. I want to say my youngest was free for this, but they are all starting to blend together, what was and wasn't free for her, so I'm not sure- I'm sorry! Regardless, the fees were nominal for such a fun, spectacular experience!

 

We started out first thing in the morning from the ship and this was definitely key for a less crowded walk. It STILL was VERY hot and increasingly became more crowded as the walk continued. Make sure you wear cool clothes, hats and PLENTY of sunscreen for this, plus have water bottles! We had brought one with us that was gone in a matter of minutes. There are a few stops along the way that sell drinks, which we stopped and bought another drink.

 

I took so many photos on this walk. It is truly beautiful. We did not purchase audio guides. There are a few spots, that made me nervous with the kids where there were little windows or openings that technically they could have fallen, so just keep an eye on them and keep them close to you! Pretty soon on the walk, we came upon a terraced, shaded area where a local artist was seated, painting and selling his watercolors and pen and inks. I bought a beautiful watercolor for 10 euros. I'm SO glad I did!!!!! It is beautiful, a great size and painting for the price, and although I ended up carrying it by hand for fear of it getting crushed in our backpacks, it was very worth it to me! I never found any original artwork this inexpensive after Dubrovnik.

 

We walked only one half of the wall. We could have made it around the whole wall, but the kids were hot and starting to get hungry for lunch, so we stopped while ahead (great decision, really!) and came off the wall on the other side. I really don't think we missed anything by doing this and it gave us more time for the beach later.

 

We stopped for lunch, again at an outside restaurant in a little square directly across from a church with long rows of stairs going up. The church had green doors and a sign that said "Relikvijar", Treasury on it. Perfect location, because the church was only about 10 feet from the tables and the kids could play on the steps in close range to us while we waited for the food to come and while we finished up our meal. I will say that some of the little restaurants we passed first, though, on the walk out from exiting the wall, had cooler temperatures because they were situated on smaller cobbled streets, with more shade. Personally, this was MY least favorite meal of our port meals, but my husband LOVED it. I decided to get the sea bass, cooked whole of course, to try the local cuisine. It was just ok. I wish I would have stuck with my favorite seafoods, which looked beautiful as the dishes were delivered to other tables. It might have also had something to do with the fact I was really hot and something cold would have been better. My husband got the mussels which are also considered one of Dubrovnik's local bests. He LOVED them! LOTS of garlic and a large bowl of them. We both got the local beer which was excellent, light and perfect on such a hot day. A basket of bread was brought out to us first. We ordered a chicken dish for the kids to split, which was less than exciting. For the food mentioned, plus sodas for the kids, the bill was exactly 48 euros.

 

After we ate, we stopped for a little souvenir shopping and to buy a bottle of local wine to bring back onboard. There was a little wine shop on the way out of the city to the beach. My husband asked the shop employee what was a good local wine and we ended up buying a bottle for 7.5 euros that was very good.

 

We then walked to Banje Beach. This is truly one of our favorite memories of our trip! It is such a short walk to this beach, less than 5 minutes probably. This beach has a beach club where you can purchase the use of chairs and umbrellas. There is a cool bar set up with flowing white curtains, couches and pillows. We didn't end up getting anything to drink here. We chose not to rent chairs (8 euros each) also and it turned out to be fine without for us. We had brought two beach towels from the ship, our beach bag and had worn our bathing suits under our clothes. The beach is small and pebbled. I read so many reviews saying beware of the beaches made of rocks. Well, we LOVED it! The rocks were just pebbles where we were, small and smooth. - not uncomfortable at all to lay on with just towels. The water was CRYSTAL CLEAR and although cold, we all went in it. It wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be and I'm a wimp when it comes to cold water.

 

The best part for us was all the sea glass mixed through the pebbles! I realized on this trip that many people are not familiar with this term, sea glass. Sea glass is just broken glass that has been tossed in with the rocks/ pebbles of the seas/oceans to make smooth glass pebbles. It is rare to find along the beaches close to home for us, but here, we could sit in one spot and fill up a baggie full of it! The kids spent the two hours swimming and collecting sea glass. I brought it back with us and plan to make a picture frame border with it. There were very low ripple waves, perfect for children. It truly was wonderful. Also, my husband found a beautiful sterling silver ring out in the sea. He felt it under his feet, under the rocks, out quite deep in the water. He had on one of the masks we had brought and with the water being completely clear, was able to get it, no problem!

 

We then walked back through the main street of the walled city and walked right up to a taxi that brought us back to the ship for 10 euros again. We made it back in time to shower for dinner! This was a WONDERFUL day! We were able to use euros everywhere we spent money here.

 

 

June 12- Sea Day

 

We had beautiful weather again this day. It was a true lounge day for us. Again the kid's participated in Camp Carnival until noon and then joined us outside for lunch and pool time. I believe this was the day they had the trivia game on movie clips, all family, children movies. My 8 yr old son LOVED this!!! I hadn't gotten a paper to participate, thinking it would not be something he'd be interested in, nor it would have movies for children, but I was obviously wrong! I did laundry this day on the 9th floor, but found two of the dryers broken, so I ended up hauling my wet laundry down a few floors to the other side of the ship to dry it, so as to avoid the backed-up wait for the remaining dryers.

 

Used the gym again this day. For those that are gym-goers, it is a nice facility. One thing I was disappointed about though, was there was not a separate group fitness room. They did provide both spinning and yoga classes, but they were done in the main gym room. I am a fitness instructor and I always bring my music and go through my workouts on my own in the group fitness rooms on our cruises when they are not holding classes. This is the first cruise ship I have been on (including three different cruise lines) that didn't have a room with steps and barbells with changeable weights. I struck up a conversation with the fitness instructor/coordinator for the gym there and he said the ship rules and regulations do not allow for barbells with changeable weights because of safety and liability in case the ship was rocking and someone dropped the bars, but that other Carnival ships don't have to follow the same rules. Oh, well.

 

 

June 13- Messina

 

This was the day we took our Cruisecritics bus of 53 people to Taormina. It worked out to only 10 euros a person, round trip, opposed to the $65 a person Carnival charged. We left a little after 8am and began our return back to the ship at 2:30. The ride was around an hour and when we arrived, the town was still quiet! It was really cute and quaint, especially with no one around! We got a great free map on an outside stand in front of a travel agency, and continued down the main street to a little bakery for capucino and a canoli! Hey, we're on vacation, right? Nothing like a canoli for breakfast! (The four of us split one). The cream was simply DELICIOUS! My kids don't like pastry, though, so weren't interested in the outer part- good, more for me! For one canoli, very large, one capucino and one bottle of Sprite, the cost was 5 euros.

 

About this time, we could tell that the other tour busses had started to arrive, because droves of people started heading down the street, all headed in the same direction, for the Greek theatre. We stopped in a few shops on the way to the theater, then bought tickets for the theater(6 euros an adult, both children were free). We didn't stay long here. There were great views from the top. Either an event was being ready to be held or had just been held because the big part of the theatre wall that is open to view the sea, was covered by a giant movie screen, so we didn't have the view I had previously seen in other photos. Still was neat though. We only stayed here a short while and then headed to the cable car to take us down to the beaches.

 

The cable car, funnicula, down to the beach was 3 euros a person, for the children, also. It was a fun ride down, still another fun memory for the kids. Once we got to the bottom, there were restrooms right in the exit of the cable cars. We used these to change into bathing suits and then proceeded to walk to the beach. Now I had done a bunch of research on the beaches here and we were on a mission to find Isola Bella, an island connected to the beach by sandbar. When you get off the cable car, walk straight to the water and turn right. The first beach access you come to is the beach that most of the other cruisecritics went to, I believe. Continue walking along the drive up a hill, about another 5 minutes or so and you will come to a sign saying Isola Bella. Walk down the many steps (we counted going back up and I believe it was close to a hundred). As soon as you get to the beach, you will see the little island. Along the beach are a few beach clubs renting chairs and umbrellas, but we continued walking along the sand bar and then set up our towels right there, close to the island. What a cool setting! The island had gates and we noticed that a few people were let in while we were there, I believe they must give tours. We never bothered even going over there, though, because the kids were having such a blast walking from boulder to boulder in the water. The water is shallow, completely calm since it is totally a protected inlet and it is GREAT for exploring. If you google Isola Bella, Taormina, you will get several hits with photos of this great little place. Even if you don't plan to stay, I believe the neat setting is worth the trip down to view.

 

After we had stayed for a while, we started to walk back to the cable car and decided to go down to the other main beach right there, at the foot of the cable car exit. As you walk down, you will be asked if you want to rent a chair, just decline politely if you aren't interested and you can go down to the water. We weren't planning to stay here but a little while or we probably would have rented a chair here since there is not much open beach. The kids enjoyed playing in the mild waves while I went up and bought us proscuito sandwiches and gelato. We watched people jumping into the water from at least 20 feet up off this giant boulder. Then we headed back to the cable car entrance, changed again out of our wet suits in the restrooms and then went to wait for the cable car.

 

Something that made us panic just a little, when we arrived at the cable car entrance the motors were turned off and one of the turnstiles was wrapped up, out of order. We started thinking that the cable car might have closed down early for the day or something, but then right at 1:30, the operator showed up, turned on the motors and within seconds we were on a car and up the hill! It runs every half hour, something which we had not checked the frequency, only how late it runs.

 

We stopped and bought a lemon granita (spelling?) to share, which is basically an Italian ice. On the walk back to the ship we stopped once again for gelato at Gelatomania. This was by far our favorite gelato stop the whole vacation!!!! It was so, so good! We had both mango and pineapple and they were both excellent. So many flavors at this one to pick from. Another family we had met from the ship, also agreed that this was their favorite gelato stop of their trip.

 

We made it back to the bus at 2:25, the last family showed up at 2:30 on the dot and we were on our way back to the ship! It was a great day again, and we loved that we still had a few hours once returning to the ship before our 5:45 dining time.

 

 

June 14- Sea Day

 

This was our last sea day, which we were truly sad about. We knew that the last 3 days were going to be long and exhausting back to back like they were, so we really tried to savour this last day. The trivia game by the pool was famous places, which again, my son enjoyed playing since many of the locations were places we had been or were still going to be visiting during the next 3 ports.

 

This was the day the kids have their talent show. My kids always participate in these, but this one only had 4 "acts". My son always plays the piano, but there wasn't a piano where the talent show was held, so he chose not to do it this time. My daughter had planned to do her little gymnastics floor routine, but also, was told she wasn't allowed to do gymnastics, again in case the ship was experiencing movement. She and another little girl made up a hula-hoop routine instead and did that to music. It was cute and the kids each get a medal and a certificate of participation which they always enjoy. This was held at 4:15 pm I believe.

 

This was our 2nd formal night, but for whatever reason, Camp Carnival was closed down from 1pm-7pm this day. I didn't understand why they would pick the formal night not to provide the kid's dinner. I would much rather have had a few of the other nights without kid's dinner, to provide the service on the formal night. On some other cruiselines, it is the exact opposite with kid's dinners being held only on formal nights.

 

This night was the show about New Orleans (I believe the name was the Big Easy). This was our favorite show, especially for the kids. Especially at the end of it, the costumes are so elaborate during the Mardi Gras finale, that my kids were mesmorized. I thought the two big shows on the two formal nights were fantastic. We also had fun at the Welcome Aboard Show and the Magic/Comedy show- we thought this was hilarious. The only other show we went to was Jump, Jive and Wail, which was still good, but not nearly as entertaining for me as the other two sing and dance shows.

 

June 15- Barcelona

 

I had originally planned for us to leave the ship first thing at 7am and then after talking to friends of ours and discussing that most things wouldn't be open that early, chose to wait until about 9am to disembark. In hindsight I would have gotten off earlier. There were many things about this day I would do differently knowing what we know now. We chose to take a cab from the ship to the Christopher Columbus monument which cost us 6.60 euro. We got there nice and early and began our walk down Las Ramblas. This was definitely the highlight of Barcelona for the kids. First we walked through La Boqueria, the large produce, fish and meat market on the left side of Las Ramblas coming from the direction we started. Our kids love fruit so we decided to buy some here for them. We found that most of the vendors had no English and it took us a little time to realize that you had to buy the fruit by the kilo, not by the piece. We bought a kilo of oranges and a kilo of peaches for just 1.50 euro. Then we had to carry the fruit around in our backpack! *HINT* Ripe peaches don't travel well in backpacks!

 

After that, we proceeded down the street, keeping our eyes open for the pickpocketers. There were so many of the live statues up and down the street which my children loved throwing coins in their buckets and seeing them come to life. Some of them gave out candy or small prizes when they were "activated". Also, the kids were fascinated by all the pet stands and enjoyed at looking at all the animals.

 

I realized after reaching the end of the street, that I had wanted us to deviate into the Gothic Quarter to see the cathedral, so we took side streets using one of my maps and made it over to this area. For whatever reason, we had difficulty following maps here. I'm not quite sure why this was. We spent much too long trying to figure out where we were with maps and probably should have just wandered around. After viewing the cathedral, which was really neat to see for me, we started making our way back to Las Ramblas.

 

The kids were getting hungry so we stopped at a little deli for sandwiches and sangria on one of the side roads back to La Rambla. They also had tappas, but the sandwiches and pastries looked so good that we decided if we were still hungry after some sandwiches, we'd get a few tappas to share. We ordered 4 sandwiches, two desserts, a large bottle of soda and two sangrias for 15 euros. This was one of our cheapest meals of the trip and really good! We were too full to sample the tappas, but were satisfied with our meal without. The employee who helped us was extremely pleasant and spoke very good English. Of all the ports, we had the most difficulty communicating with the people here. I thought it would have been more difficult in Italy for some reason.

 

After lunch we walked back to the end of La Rambla to Placa de Catalunya (for a 2nd time!) to catch the hop-on, hop off bus. With the time we had left, we never should have done this. We paid 60 euros for the passes, waited in line for probably a half our, so by the time we boarded our bus, it was probably 2pm and we needed to be back on the ship by 4:30. Before getting to Barcelona, my hopes had been to make it to Sagrada Familia, Park Guell and either Gaudi's Casa Mila or Caso Batlo. After realizing this was not all going to happen I still had hopes for Sagrada and the park.

 

I think the kids did like being on top of the double decker bus. The narrative was pretty good and gave a good overview of what we were seeing. We got off at the Sagrada Familia, but once we saw the lines to reboard the bus, we also realized we'd not have time to go inside. This was another downer for the trip for me. Thank goodness we didn't, because after taking just a few photos from the park across the street, we got back in a CRAZY line for the bus and ended up waiting in line for a good 25-30 minutes.

 

We again got off at the stop to see Park Guell, but there was still a ten minute, uphill walk to its entrance. By the time we got there, we only had 15-20 minutes to have a speed look at the park. Of course we could only see a few things, the neat lizard in the front and the curved serpant bench that runs along the viewing area were so neat to see. The views from this benched area had great views of Barcelona. A large, outdoor event was being set up for in this area, so it didn't have it's regular atmosphere. The mosaics were fabulous and even though we only got a short glimpse, it was still worth it to me.

 

Then we walked back down the hill to the bus stop and realized we better nix the bus and get a cab back to the ship. The price of a cab from this point to our ship was 12.50 euros.

 

If I were to do it again, we'd still take a cab to Christopher Columbus Monument, walk Las Ramblas, stopping again at la Boqueria and leisurely walk the street to view the performers and the pet shops. We'd skip the gothic area and save it for the end if we still had time. Then we'd take a cab to Sagrada Familia, go inside and then take another cab to Park Guell. Our friends with two sons spent 2.5 hours here and had a blast. It would have been a totally different experience for us to not be stressed from point to point, worrying about whether or not we were going to make it back to the ship in time. If time allowed we might try to take in one of the other Gaudi houses I had originally wanted to see. Things I had not planned on were spending so much time in the Gothic area and the long lines for the hop-on buses. Because of these things, our day was probably our least favorite of the trip. Others we spoke with simply LOVED Barcelona and I'm sure if we had not tried to pack so much into the day, it would have been great.

 

June 16- Cannes

 

This was probably our favorite day of the vacation. We had a private tour with Sylvie. We were sharing this tour with the same family of four that we had done the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii with. Sylvie's charge was the most expensive of our trip, at 100 euros a person (that was based on a van of 8 people- it was more a person with less in the van). I had read several glowing recommendations of her, so I was really looking forward to this day and we were not disappointed.

 

We met with the other family at 9:15 and then proceeded down to the Victoria Lounge to get in line for the tenders. You must have your whole group together before you are given a number for your tender and then you wait together in the lounge for your number to be called. I'm not sure what time we actually left the ship, but I know we got off the tender at 10:05. We had had a meet time of 10:00 with Sylvie, who walked up to the area at 10:10. I had forgotten we were to come through the parking lot and we would find her. She had brought 3 children seats for the van, which again, we really appreciated. After discussing our itinerary in the van for a few minutes, we were on our way by 10:15. Sylvie is a lovely woman with a great vibrancy about her. She was so pleasant to listen to and be with and she was wonderful with the children. She is married with two teenage boys of her own, speaks French, English, Italian, and Spanish and has been a guide for close to twenty years.

 

First we drove through Cannes and along the coast through little towns. Our first stop was at a little walkway down to a small beach with four other people on it. The views were amazing. The kids took their shoes off, walked around the water for a few minutes and climbed some of the neat boulders. Sylvie did such a good job throughout the day of finding things that would not only interest us, but the children as well. After our little beach stop, she drove us through a gated area where the largest yachts are docked. This was fun to see.

 

Next we were off to Cagnes su mar. We had originally had plans to visit Eze and St. Paul de Vence. After talking with Sylvie, we changed our plan to visit this medieval village instead. Sylvie said that it was just as charming as Eze and St. Paul de Vence, but not commercialized or touristy at all. She was right! This was the highlight of the day. Here we were walking through these old cobblestoned streets filled with flowers and buildings out of a fairy tale, but with no other tourists other than ourselves! In fact, the village almost appeared evacuated!!!! I took so many photos here, and the great part was there are no people in the photos!!! We had lunch at a great little restaurant, with an outdoor patio and an incredible view. It was situated on a courtyard with a bocce ball court. Hardly anyone was here. This again was wonderful for the kids, because after they ate, they went and played in this large courtyard/square area and they were the only ones! Sylvie ate with us and suggested several items on the menu. Our main courses here were a beef dish topped in a sauce made of wine and shallots and also grilled fish, served with ratatouille. Our kids had a type of linguini with red sauce and a pizza. We had a WONDERFUL bottle of local red wine to share and this time had dessert- our family shared an amazing piece of lemon merrengue pie and also fresh strawberries and cream. Great coffee, too. Both desserts were heavenly! Sylvie had ordered a goat cheese and bread appetizer which she shared with us (wonderful) and for dessert she had a cold dessert I'd never heard of before, but she described as a boiled sour cream. It tasted like a delicious custard and I wanted more! The whole lunch was wonderful and we must have spent an hour and a half here. With the fast pace of all the other port days, this was such a welcome addition.

 

One of the reasons she thought this village would be good for us is because it has a castle here, the Grimaldi Castle. When the kids heard they were going to a real castle, you should have seen them! Again, there was almost no one, visiting. We practically had it to ourselves. It is a small castle, but does look like something out of a Medieval fairy tale. This was fun for them to run around, exploring different rooms.

 

Next, we drove to Nice. I had wanted my daughter to see the flower market here because she loves flowers! I was underwhelmed by it. It was no different than most large city flower markets. I don't know why I was under the impression that it was huge. We still had a nice time walking through Nice. Sylvie took us inside a beautiful church and then we went and got gelato. Both families wanted to pick up a local bottle of wine for the ship, so Sylvie took us to this great wine shop where she knew the people and had them take us down to the wine cellar. This was a treat because the barrels were 300-400 years old and they still stored wine in them! The cellar was old and very musty, but fun to see.

We then walked over to the brand new fountain that had just been completed , in fact the celebration to commemorate the fountain was that evening and there were many people already gathering for the festivities. The fountain's spray changes heights and everytime it went high in the air, all the kids including ours, would run away, getting wet from the spray, giggling and screaming. Lastly, we took the kids on a very old, French double decker carousel (2 euros a ride). It was simply beautiful! The kids loved this, as they had never seen a two-story carousel before! Around the top were painted scenes of the area. What a great way to end the day! We arrived back at the tender station at 7:10 and caught the 7:15 tender back to the ship. We didn't get to visit Monaco, but with such a perfect day, we didn't care.

 

 

June 17- Livorno

 

This day we had arranged for a private taxi for the day to be shared with another cruisecritics' family of three to go to Pisa and Florence. The charge for the 7 of us in a van was 400 euros. Our driver Alex, from Tuscany by Taxi, was at the gate waiting for us for pick up at 7:30. Even though he wasn't hired as a "tour guide" he was great. He spoke good English and offered any info we wanted. He said he used to do tours through Florence.

 

First we went to Pisa. We were only here for 30 minutes. This was plenty. You have to be 8 to climb the tower and since our youngest isn't, we all just took photos and did some quick shopping at the little booths along the street. Next was the longer drive to Florence. We first stopped at Piazza Michelangelo with a very beautiful view of the city and one of the copies of David. Next Alex took us to the Academia for our 10:30 reservations to see the real David. The lines were the worst lines we'd seen anywhere on the trip, but Alex just walked us to the front and we went right in! Our tickets were 13 euros a piece (under 6 was free) and David was as magnificient as we had hoped he'd be. We didn't spend long here. After our family exited, we decided to walk down to a little pastiserie where we bought excellent capucino again, some cookies for the kids and a small prosciuto sandwich to share. When talking about our trip after we returned home, he told someone this was his favorite meal of the trip! It wasn't even a meal, but the bread was SO fresh (it was also a bakery) and the cheese REALLY good.

 

Once the other family returned, Alex drove us to Santa Croce, the church where Michelangelo and many other famous people are buried. Mass was being said when we were there (we were here on a Sunday), but we were still allowed in to the back section of the church. After this, Alex, once again drove us to the area in front of the Duomo and dropped us off with plans to pick us up at 3:30. After viewing the Baptistry doors, we climbed the 414 steps off Giotto's tower, another memorable experience for the kids. They loved this. It is such a narrow walkway so that often you must wait for others to pass you going the other direction. There were a few landings where you could stop and rest. The price was 6 euros a person, no discount for children. Of course the views from the top were spectacular.

 

After this, the two families split off to do various things. We first went to lunch in Signoria Square. Lunch was ok, but were charged 7 euros a piece for the kid's cokes!!!! Ouch! Of course, one time we don't ask..... This was one of our most expensive lunches and one of the least memorable.

 

We then walked down to the Ponte Vecchio. Most of the shops were open. I was glad that some of them weren't though, because we were able to view those shops' doors, which I read were special to see alone. It was true- heavy wood planked doors, with iron hardware made them charming. We got gelato for the last time and then did some shopping. My husband bought an Italian tie and I found a great Furla purse (cheaper than in the states since Furla is Italian).

 

It was another nice day for us and we were able to relax on the hour or so ride back to the port.

 

That night was spent packing. We had bought a bunch of things and had already had our luggage overpacked to begin with when arriving. I hated that we spent the whole last evening doing this. I would have loved watching the Da Vinci code on the big screen poolside. The kids at least got to have a farewell party in Camp Carnival and received really nice Carnival backpacks with pencil cases. They also color Carnival t-shirts this last night, so this is always a good night for the kids to attend.

 

 

June 19- Disembarkation, flight to London

 

We had pre-ordered continental breakfast the night before which arrived around 6:45. I forgot to mention that two other port days when we had early departure times, we had ordered the breakfast to the room which definitely sped up our getting ready time. Our Roma Shuttle was scheduled for pick-up at 7:45 and we were sharing it with two other couples, again from the boards. The cab arrived late at 8am, but we quickly boarded and sped off for the airport. We made it to the airport in good time. Once there, the check-in process wasn't nearly as long as many of the other Freedom passengers flying directly to the states had. Since we were flying to London, I think that helped expedite the process.

 

We had plenty of time so we ate some sandwiches. Little did we know that our flight would be cancelled after sitting on the tarmac for 1.5 hours. We had to disembark and weren't able to catch another flight out until 7:30 that evening. This had nothing to do with Rome, but one of the pilots apparently had fallen, hit his head, and was not allowed to fly. This really botched up our plans, since we had only had one afternoon and evening in London planned before our flight home left early the next morning. Our non-transferrable, non-refundable tickets for the London Eye (Huge sightseeing ferris wheel owned/operated by British Airways) were useless for us, not to mention the disappointed children to contend with who had been looking forward to the "giant ferris wheel" all vacation. After a quick night in London with a quick sightseeing tour of our taxi we basically called it a night.

 

 

June 19- flight home from London

 

We flew out of London the next morning and arrived back in Atlanta around 4pm.

 

 

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:

 

Dinner in the dining room was wonderful. It was definitely the best food we'd had on the Carnival cruise line so far. The chocolate melting cake was as good as everyone says! We ordered it nearly every night!

 

Fish and Chips in the Freedom dining room has other things besides fish and chips! It had some beautiful sashimi, some salads, calamari and some other selections.

 

We had no trouble taking out cash from ATMs, which we ended up doing 4 times.

 

We loved our guides we'd hired. We felt that they definitely enhanced the trip for us. Sharing guides was much cheaper than the Carnival tours and obviously much more flexible, a key component when traveling with children. Also, the guides took out the element of possible backtracking or getting lost, which was our biggest challenge in both Rome and Barcelona. This might not have been as much of an issue without children.

 

We'd definitely chose to do Venice the same again, with letting the kids stay onboard for some of the time. While they still got to see the main points of interest, we still had some time to do more adult things, like shopping and a quiet dinner!

 

I hope this review helps others, especially those getting ready to take this with children. Please post if there are any questions you have and I will try my best to answer!

 

Renee

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Thanks, Simone! I wish I had gotten it all down sooner, realizing I'd already forgotten many of the details!

 

The muster drill was held AFTER the ship began sailing. I want to say around 8pm, or at least that is what my Capers says.

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There was a refigerator in our Oceanview Cabin on the Riviera Deck, and that is as low as you can get so there would most probably be a 'fridge in every cabin if I am not mistaken.

 

How was it being so low? We've been low before - Emerald Deck on CB and it was fine. We can only do OV Riviera because we need two 4 person cabins across the hall for the kids.

 

Thanks!:)

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PART 1- Review of Freedom 6-6-07 grand Mediterranean Cruise- Family of 4, traveling with two young children

 

We are a family of 4, ages 38, 36, 8 (boy) and 5 (girl). We were a part of CC's roll call, also, which added a wonderful element that we'd not experienced in any of our 9 cruises before (this was our children's 7th cruise). I am going to write this review from a different perspective than many of the other reviews, since we were traveling with young children. During the planning of this vacation, it was often difficult finding info pertaining to young children, so hopefully this will be helpful to others like us. I am going to try to be thorough, so that means it will be LONG!

 

I feel the need to add that we are a very active family and also travel a lot together. Our children usually do abnormally well with long days that require walking, so our plans were probably a lot more ambitious than typical for their ages. I found throughout the trip, though, that even for my children, certain days were just too much for them and we would adapt based on the previous days.

 

To prepare the kids for this trip, I checked out several children's books from the library on the various places we would be visiting, both fiction and non-fiction. The children's chapter book series, The Magic Treehouse, has several books set in locations throughout Europe that introduces them to the areas. We read the ones about Pompeii, Venice and London. I also made a matching memory card game for them on index cards with photos off the internet of the different things we'd see and visit. They loved this game and because of it, they knew a lot more about the places we'd be visiting than my husband! We also played an ongoing game of answering European Trivia questions whenever we traveled in the car. I feel certain that their prior knowledge of the sights really enhanced their experience, as they would be so excited to point out something and say, "Look, there's _____!" or "That was sculpted by ____!"

 

As far as cruises go, the reason we cruise so much with the children is because of the kid's programs. We love having the family vacations, but we also love to be able to let them go do their thing while we do ours. Our two children LOVE "KID'S CAMP" and once they are onboard, that is always all they want to do. We often have to pull them out to come spend time with us! It works well for us all and gives us a nice balance.

 

JUNE 3rd/4th- We flew out of Atlanta on Delta, leaving at 9:15pm, arriving in London at 10:45am and then had a British Airways flight leaving at 2pm, arriving in Rome at 5:30. Both flights were on time. If we were to do this again, we would definitely fly non-stop, especially with children. We had booked two separate flights on purpose because originally we were booked to take the Disney Cruise out of Barcelona on the same date and had planned for a 3 night stay post-cruise in London since that cruise was only 10 days. Once we switched to Carnival, we had to go ahead and use our roundtrip Atlanta to London, so no non-stop to Rome.

 

The Delta flight had originally been scheduled to leave at 8:30pm, which would have been better, because by the time we took off, the drink and dinner carts had come around, and we'd all eaten, it was already after 11 when the kids tried to settle down to go to sleep. They both slept fairly well, one of them tossed and turned some, but I had purchased blow up travel pillows that fit around the neck for them and they seemed to help with their comfort level. They both got about 5 hours sleep this way, a big goal of mine so that we could do a little sightseeing on our first night in Rome. My husband and I both got a little less sleep, but not much of an issue since neither of us sleep much anyway! Neither child took medication to help them sleep.

 

We arrived in Rome around 6pm and our private driver (arranged through the hotel) transported the four of us by minivan to our hotel, Hotel Golden for 60 euros. Hotel Golden is in the northeast area of Rome, basically next to Villa Borghese. I had chosen this hotel after reading reviews on Trip Advisor. The hotel supposedly was a palace long ago and they had turned one of the floors into 14 guest rooms. We found a complimentary bottle of champagne waiting for us. The room was a quad room, one queen bed and one small double bed for the kids. There was a small frig with waters, soda and beer you could buy and this turned out to be convenient. The room was small, but nicely decorated and it had a very nice, large, new bath with beautiful tile, large shower, etc. They also had provided nice cushy towels, robes and slippers. One thing the kids enjoyed were the shuttered windows that opened out to watch the street life. The little time we were actually in our room, both kids would perch themselves on the little luggage table by the window and watch the passerbys. The bathroom also had a smaller window like this as we were the corner room.

 

Our rate was 230 euros a night, for two nights. The hotel is run by a family, two brothers, sister and parents and the 3 grown children all spoke very good English to help us with our questions. The hotel was VERY clean and they had a nice little breakfast set up each morning with breads, pasteries, hard boiled eggs, cold meats, yogurts, fruits, cheeses, cereals, juices, milk and DELICIOUS coffee! A cute little Italian lady kept everything replenished.

 

We would not stay here again strictly because of the location. The hotel was great, especially for the price, but for us only being in Rome for a short time, it wasn't as convenient a location as many others I had researched. IF we had had more days in Rome, this might have been a great location with the kids, because of Villa Borghese being literally around the corner. Villa Borghese is a LARGE park that supposedly has many great things that would entertain children, including a zoo. We only had time to walk through the edge of it on the way to the subway.

 

Our first night we decided to walk towards the center of Rome to try and find a pizza place that had received glowing recommendations. We didn't leave our hotel room until around 9pm though! On the walk over, we passed King Tritone's Fountain in Barberini Square and stopped at the Trevi Fountain for the kids to throw their coins. By the time we reached the Pantheon, our children were toast! (So were we, for that matter) so we ditched our pizza restaurant idea and chose one of the outdoor restaurants right in the Pantheon's Square. We were SO glad we did this! Maybe the prices were steeper than in more side-streeted restaurants, but the view of the Pantheon and the obelisk made us feel like we were in a story. To add to the atmosphere, during our dinner, some guy started singing opera in the square for a good twenty minutes or so and also prior to him, a woman's choir had set up and sung in front of the Pantheon, too.

 

Our dinner consisted of one lasagna, one cannoloni, one margharita pizza, water and a bottle of chianti for 60 euros. Bread came with the meal (we learned to ask if the bread was included since friends of ours got charged 8 euros at the end of their meal for their bread basket). Parents of picky eaters: Apparently, according to my 5 year old, the Italian pizza tastes TOTALLY different than in the states! The question from this point on when ordering pizza was, "Mom, is it thin?". Also, most of the pizzas have a hint of burnt crust, just on the ends, which in her book, black tastes bad. I personally LOVED the pizza, but from then on, her order of choice became spaghetti, pasta, lasagna or cannolini.

 

We had our first gelato this night at the gelateria right on the square, too! Scrumptious! In our house, ice cream solves everything, so this stop for gelato was the perfect answer to their growing tiredness! Now that we were all fat and happy, we walked back to the hotel, a good 25 minute walk. We didn't get to bed until after midnight, so needless to say the kids konked out.

 

 

June 5th- Rome

 

After starting with breakfast in our hotel, we walked to Santa Maria della Vittoria to see Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa and then on to the Piazza della Republica, back to the hotel for more water and a bathroom break, then to the metro by Villa Borghese. I had planned to spend some time in the park for the kids, but we ran out of time with just this little bit of walking. Rome is VERY spread out, more than I figured. We had an Angel Tours of the Vatican at 12:30 and it took WAY longer than I had planned to get there first by metro and then at least a 10 minute walk to St. Peter's Square.

 

We ended up taking two Angel Tours, the Vatican Tour this day and the Coloseum and Imperial Forum the next day. Angel Tours does not charge for children and our fees were $25 each, not including admission fares. Children under 6 our free at many of the museums and sights throughout Italy, so we had to only pay for 3 tickets to the Vatican Museum. Our eight year old's ticket was the same price as ours. The Angel guide knocked off $5 for each person in our Vatican tour because it was an unusually large tour. Angel tours advertise small numbers and native speaking guides which is the main reason we chose them with the kids. Unfortunately for our kids, the guided tour went right over their heads. Since we had such a large group, our guide wore a mic and we each wore a receiver with earplugs. My kids tuned out after the first 5 minutes, but they still enjoyed seeing some of the things they saw in the Vatican Museum. The tour lasted about 3 hours and went through the Sistine Chapel, part of the museums and St. Peter's.

 

We knew going into this vacation there were going to be things that the kids enjoyed and then things that bored them to tears. We were prepared knowing that the Vatican would probably fall under the "bored to tears" category and we were right! But, they were still very well behaved during this tour. Anything that I thought was entertaining, I'd pass on to them myself which definitely was needed.

 

At this point I should have realized that the kids had reached their limit, but I really wanted to see Castel Sant Angelo, so I made a poor decision for us to walk over to it. By the time we got there, we were all cooked again! We had plans to meet up with our Cruisecritics group at the Spanish Steps at 5:45. We headed over to that area, stepped into a deli and bought different breads, cheeses, proscuito, olives, drinks with the plan to eat a little picnic on the steps before the others arrived. However, again, misjudging the time, we got there to find us some of the last to arrive! The kids and my husband took a seat and ate the first food since breakfast, while I met all of our online friends. The food was incredible from the deli, though! For about 13 euros, there was enough food and wine for 4 people and it was all so fresh and delicious!

 

We had had reservations to do the night walking tour, Heart of Rome(hahahaha) with Angel Tours that began at 6pm, but obviously we scratched those plans! We walked over to Piazza Navona area and had dinner in a great off-the-beaten-path pizzaria with another family from CC. This time the dinner came with Limoncello at the end of the meal and the whole meal for the four of us was only 25 euros!!!! (still didn't regret our dinner from the night before with the incredible view we had, but it was a nice change to eat in this quiet little side-street location). After dinner we got gelato and coffee and then headed back to the hotel, this time using a cab. It wasn't that expensive, maybe 7 euros for the four of us.

 

*LESSON LEARNED THIS FIRST TOURING DAY- IF we will be walking to see sights, we must keep the sights limited. If using transportation, then we can squeeze in more. I knew Rome would be the hardest physical days for us because of all the walking we had planned and that was certainly true!

 

 

June 6th- Rome and embarkation

 

Had breakfast at the hotel, checked out and the hotel allowed us to store our luggage in a quiet hallway. We caught a taxi (learned the lesson from the first day!) to the colosseum. Our hotel had told us to just walk to the taxi stand and we'd catch a taxi that way. It was not as easy as we thought. We must have waited at least 15 minutes for one. Our Angel Tour had only about 10 of us in it this day, which was nice. We had a nice, young Irish woman for our guide. She seemed to be new at it, though, since she would stop and think often about what she was going to say. Still, it was a nice tour. First we started in the Forum. The kids enjoyed this part. It started at 9am, so it wasn't that hot yet and it was practically empty except for our group and a few other wanderers. The kids were able to climb all over parts of ancient ruins which made them happy as clams! Being with the tour allowed us to zip right in without any lines again. I don't remember the ticket price for the coloseum. The guide's narrative of the colosseum unfortunately didn't again keep the kids' attention, but they did enjoy seeing it. We had done a bunch of reading on gladiators, the coloseum and the fights that went on here earlier on, so I think this was kind of neat for them to see.

 

After the tour, we caught another cab ride back to the hotel, to find our private shuttle there and waiting for us, actually 20 minutes earlier than scheduled! We had arranged the transfer to the ship along with another family of three from our roll call. We used Roma Shuttle and the charge was 160 euros for the trip to the ship. All 7 of us fell asleep on the ride to the port!!!

 

We arrived to the ship around 1:30, maybe a little earlier, to find NO LINES to check in and embark. This was the smoothest, easiest boarding we have ever had for a cruise and it spoiled us! We were so ready to get on our beautiful ship! Our room was ready for us. It was a family room on the spa deck, cabin #1107. GREAT room for families! I can't stress this enough! We had booked an inside cabin and got miraculously bumped to this room. The room has the space of a balcony, but enclosed instead, with a giant floor to ceiling, wall to wall window! It's location was the closest room to the stairway to Camp Carnival, a service we use daily with our kids! This was perfect because at night the kids would attend the camps activities and then stay for the "slumber parties" (movies in the PJ's with blankets and pillows) while we would have time to do some things on our own. At night when we'd pick them up, they'd usually be sleeping and it was a 30 second walk to the room to carry them back.

 

For those that are not that familiar with Camp Carnival, all the kid's activities are included in your cruise fare except for the after hours sessions, from 10pm-3am. During these hours the price is $6 an hour for the first child and $4 for each child after in the same family. Twice during this cruise they have what they call "Late Night Party" from 10pm until 12 for ages 6-11. Same prices apply, but instead of having them calm down to fall asleep to a movie, it is a night of games, prizes, contests, water activities and my kids LIVE for these nights! My youngest is almost 6, so they let her be in the 6-8 group this time and it was perfect for her.

 

My husband and I also used the gym each sea day and again, our room was the closest to the spa. Also this deck opens up to the top level of the main pool area and a quick walk to the Lido Windjammer restaurant. The extra space that normally would be the balcony was used for us to sometimes eat breakfast in the morning before early tours while we all watched the views. My husband has never felt comfortable getting a balcony with the kids and their ages yet, so this was ideal for us. We were so spoiled that we just booked the same type room again for next summer (the Greece/Turkey itinerary)! After having all that extra room where a balcony would be, we realized for such a long trip, it was such a nice addition for us.

 

That afternoon was spent exploring the ship, the kid's camp, meeting up with our roll call again and the kids swimming. We opted for the buffet that night since we were not feeling like dressing for dinner. Later, we let the kids go to their first night of Camp Carnival while we went to the Welcome Aboard Show. Perfect first day onboard!

 

 

June 7th- Naples

 

We had arranged a private tour with another family through the roll call. The other family also has two young children, ages 7 and 5, and this worked WONDERFULLY because the children definitely entertained each other! We used DriveSorrento and had Guiseppe. The charge was 450 euros and we had him from 8:30-5:30. He was pleasant, professional and very knowledgeable of the area. He provided us with two car seats which was very accomodating, I thought.

 

Our tour consisted first of a drive to Sorrento with a walk around, then along the Amalfi Coast to Positano, where we had our lunch and then to Pompeii. In Sorrento, we stopped for about an hour and a half to walk around and do a little shopping. We got capucinos here, which were marvelous. The side streets are charming. The ride along the Amalfi Coast was breathtaking. We stopped at a roadside stand to sample the large lemons, olives and spices. The kids enjoyed this!! Positano was great also, with a long, steep winding walk down to the water. The flowers are amazing! By recommendation of our guide, we had lunch at Chez Black, supposedly a restaurant many celebrities visit (the wall was covered with all their photos). The restaurant was right along the beach under a large awning and we all really enjoyed the food. We had a few different types of pizzas, calamari (prepared differently than I've ever had it before- excellent!), and great Italian wine. The bill was again around 60 euros a family.

 

We let the kids put their feet in the water and play on the beach for about 15 minutes before heading back up to meet the guide. We then took off to Pompeii. At this point we were a little off schedule, so we only had one instead of two hours at Pompeii. We had paid for a private tour guide (100 euros split between the two families). Having to limit Pompeii to an hour was a downer to me. I had wanted to go to Pompeii first, but Guiseppe had recommended we go last since usually it is less crowded in the afternoon. If it was less crowded then, it must have been jam packed in the morning! It was really hot by the end of the day and if I were to do it again, I think I would insist that we go to Pompeii first when the kids were most rested and it was coolest. We had to practically run through Pompeii, only seeing the main points and then scramble back to the ship to make sure we made it. Although, we had discussed this later and if we had stayed longer in Pompeii we would have needed to cut out something else, all of which was great. Honestly, for the four kids, one hour was a good amount of time. Personally the adults would have preferred more time there, but with the time restrictions, there really wasn't much else we could have done with wanting to see all three locations anyway. All in all it was a great day, seeing 3 really neat places with a great guide.

 

We made it to dinner, but late, since we had been given the 5:45 dinner time. On dinner times: we had initially requested the 6:15 dinner time. We usually always ask for late seatings on cruises, letting the kids eat with Camp Carnival often and then we go have an adult dinner. But since it was our first time going to the med with such an intensive port schedule, I didn't know if the kids would be able to have enough energy to go to kid's camp at nights, so we opted for the early seating. This was a big mistake!!! On many of the port days, we would again have to scramble to make it to dinner, and then we would be really late. Also on the second formal night, Camp Carnival does not provide the children's dinner and their camp doesn't open until 7pm that night so those with early dinner seatings have to bring the kids to formal dinner. My son HATES dressing up and it just proved an unrelaxing dinner for all of us. I certainly didn't mind that they didn't provide children's dinners a night, I just wish it had been a non-formal night! Out of the 12 nights, we ate in the dining room 10 nights and three of those were with the kids.

 

 

June 8th- Sea day

 

It was overcast for the morning, the only day of the whole cruise. The kids attended camp from 9-12, were out with us from 12-2 for lunch and pool/ slide time and then begged to go back to camp from 2-5. The slide on the Freedom is GREAT since it does not end in a pool. It just ends in it's chute so they have no deep water to contend with! The slide was a highlight of the cruise for the kids. My daughter who is not a strong swimmer yet, was completely independent with it this time. My husband and I actually could just lounge in the chairs with a view of the slide and watch them go up and down, over and over. Turst me, this was fabulous! The pools were over my youngest's head (46 inches tall), so supervision was necessary here.

 

That night we all attended "Ticket to Ride", the show using all music of the Beatles. I loved this show. The kids attended the show with the camp and we watched them across the way from our couple seat for two!

 

 

June 9th- Venice

 

We awoke later today, knowing we'd have a late night that night. WE all watched the entrance into Venice, which was as great as we'd heard it would be. After we arrived, we first had lunch (with all the other 3,000 passengers it seemed) in the Freedom Restaurant and then hit Venice on our own. We walked to Piazza Roma, bought 24 hour vaporetto passes for the four of us (15 euros each, 60 euros- no discount for children) and then took the vaporetto. The kids enjoyed this, but it was very crowded. The vaporetto for some reason stopped at Rialto for this particular boat run and we would have had to transfer to a massive line waiting to get on the next vaporetto so we chose to walk to St. Mark's square from there. It actually was a nice walk, but many turns and twists to follow the signs to get there! The streets are all so very narrow, so plenty of shade. So many mask and glass stores! The kids liked looking at the masks in the window displays. We used our first atm of the trip here. No problems. However, our fees were $5 each time we used the machines and a 1% fee of what we took out.

 

St. Mark's square was great! We had a reservation time of 3:45 to enter. The reservations gave us no line, which is so helpful with the children. NOTE- if you are carrying a large bag or backpack (which both adults always had a bag), before entering St. Mark's, you must first go to another church, located only a few minutes away, and check your bag. Not a big deal, but if we had known, we probably would have just skipped bringing the big bags for the afternoon.

 

After walking through St. Mark's, the kids had a turn sitting on the two lion statues. Then onto the pigeons! Another highlight of their trip was the pigeons in St. Mark's square! You can buy a bag of corn kernels for 1 euro and then let them go! At first mine were excited but a little freaked out. But by the end of the bag of feed, they were seasoned pros! They had them on their heads, shoulders, arms and hands. Take lots of antibacterial wipes and cleanser!!!!!

 

After the pigeons, we had a gelato stop and then it was time to buy our Venetian masks. The kids had fun picking out masks. They were walking around the streets of Venice wearing their masks and eating gelato. Too funny!

 

We headed back to the ship at 5:30 to take them to camp carnival's dinner. All along we had planned to let the kids stay onboard this night so we could have a nice dinner for two while the kids were in the kid's program. We changed clothes and went back into Venice for dinner and a gondola ride. This time we took the shuttle bus for 5 euros each round trip. The last shuttle was at midnight which we knew we would miss, but the ride in was worth it to us to maximize our time. The kid's camp had our cell number to reach us if necessary.

 

First, to find a restaurant. We took the Vaporeto to Rialto, crossed the bridge, took the first left turn after the bridge and went to an outdoor restaurant on the Grande Canal. It was late, we were hungry and there was a great table off to its own that was available. The name of the restaurant had River in its name, and I can't for the life of me remember it. We ordered mozarella and tomatoes to share and seafood risotto for two. We had a great bottle of wine and then dinner came with bread. I believe this dinner came to around 50 euros.

 

After dinner we went for a lovely walk and by now it was nearly midnight. Many of the gondoliers had already covered their gondolas so we were thinking we'd wait until the next morning and take our ride then. As we were crossing a small, quiet bridge close to Rialto bridge, we came across a gondolier and his empty gondola. When we asked the price, he told us 100 euros for about 25 minutes. We said we'd wait until the next day and we walked off. He approached us a few minutes later and said it would be his last ride of the night and he'd do it for 90 euros. We took it. I will tell you that taking a gondola ride after midnight was incredible!!!! Not only were most the tourists gone for the day, but many of the lights were going out. He took us through the back canals and at times it was totally silent! What a magical experience! We couldn't even hear the paddling most the time. It was perfect and we're so glad we didn't wait until the next day for a cheaper price. We had no problems with being able to cuddle together, like some of the other posters have written.

 

We got gelato again and walked to the vaporetto stand. After taking the vaporeto, we walked back to the ship. We obviously missed the last shuttle back, but we had planned on that. We picked up the children sleeping soundly at 1:30 am and took them back to the room.

 

 

June 10th- Venice

 

Our original plans had been to take the kids in with us this day and go on the Doge's Palace Secret Itineraries Tour which we had prepaid for. However, when we gave them the option to stay onboard or come back in with us, they chose to stay on and since I didn't want to push it, we decided to eat the extra tickets to Doge's and the 2 day vaporetto passes for the kids and just go ourselves. This also gave us a chance to actually do some shopping, which was virtually impossible with them given the nature of most the stores- all glass, all breakable! The more relaxed outcome of the day was worth the cost of the unused tickets!

 

First was the Secret Itineraries Tour. Our tour time was 9:55 am and we left the ship at 8:30 sharp. Caught the shuttle bus a few minutes later and were at Piazza Roma by 8:45. This is where our problems began! Maybe because it was a Sunday, I'm not sure, but it took FOREVER for us to catch the vaporetto. Once we did, we made the mistake of taking the #1 vaporetto, which we had yet to take. It took FOREVER to get to St. Mark's!!!!! Then we had to wait in line to show our vouchers for the tour. By the time we got to the rep, it was 10:10. She told us sorry, the tour had already left and there was no way to join them. I was heartbroken! She gave us regular tickets to tour ourselves. We ended up purchasing the audio guide for two for 8 euros and began forlornly wandering around the ground floor of the palace.

 

Then we got lucky! We saw other Cruisecritics who were scheduled for the 10:45 tour waiting to begin. After we told them what had happened to us, they told us that one of the other families scheduled for their time was not there yet either. When the guide showed up, I decided to explain our situation. She told us that it was a full tour, but if the other family did not show up, then we could take their place. The other family DID show up, but she was kind enough to let us go with them anyway! I will say (and this is NOT because she let us slip in) that she was the best guide we had for our entire trip! Not only was she knowledgeable with the info, but she presented in such an engaging, entertaining, passionate way that most of us were hanging on her every word. I simply loved this tour, much of it due to our guide.

 

My husband and I discussed later, that although there were parts of the tour that would have entertained the kids, there were more parts that WOULDN'T have! There were other kids on this tour and I think they were fine with it, but they were also older than ours. Nevertheless, we didn't regret our decision to let them stay and hang out on the ship. This was the only other time that they did not accompany us into the ports.

 

After the tour, we did our shopping, but didn't have as long since we had caught that later tour. Again, it was much nicer having this time by ourselves. Getting back to the ship was again quite an endeavor, but this time we walked to the Rialto stop and caught the vaporetto there.

 

The afternoon was nice with the deck party leaving Venice and everyone in masks. Made for good photos!

 

 

-I'll continue later, the kids are calling!!! :)

 

 

Love the review - can you remember the names of the restaurants - where you Loved the Pizza and the deli - I'll be in Rome 2 days after our Oct 16th cruise - thanks

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Freedom cruisers, thanks for the great reviews. I do have some questions about the Sun King Supper Club. How do I make a reservation and does it get booked up quickly?

 

Kelly

 

Kelly;

 

You make reservations at the resturant, after you board the ship. So, if you have a very specific date or time you may want to do this first thing. I have heard the sailing days can book quickly. We enjoyed the Sun King Supper club during our recent cruise, it was awsome! Go and enjoy!

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Hi, Travelady,

 

I am so sad that I cannot tell you the names of the restaurants in Rome. My head was spinning around backwards these first two days and I didn' think to write down the names. The deli we just stumbled upon walking to the Spanish Steps. I just looked at my Rome map and I DO remember the route we took to get there though. The deli must have been on via condotti on the right hand side traveling east to the Spanish Steps. There are only 3 blocks it appears on my map that we travelled this street, since we went from Castel Sant Angelo down V. Tomacelli to via Condotti. All the pizza was good that we had in Rome, but the one restaurant we REALLY wanted to go to that supposedly is the BEST pizza in Rome, is called Pizza Baffetto. This was recommended to me by a Roman I met working in the EPCOT Italy pavilion the week before we left who said, "You have to eat and the best pizzaria in Rome!" Also, it received glowing recs from an American family who lived a year recently in Rome.

 

I hope this helps! Next summer I will definitely record the names of the restaurants!!!!

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Hi, Travelady,

 

I am so sad that I cannot tell you the names of the restaurants in Rome. My head was spinning around backwards these first two days and I didn' think to write down the names. The deli we just stumbled upon walking to the Spanish Steps. I just looked at my Rome map and I DO remember the route we took to get there though. The deli must have been on via condotti on the right hand side traveling east to the Spanish Steps. There are only 3 blocks it appears on my map that we travelled this street, since we went from Castel Sant Angelo down V. Tomacelli to via Condotti. All the pizza was good that we had in Rome, but the one restaurant we REALLY wanted to go to that supposedly is the BEST pizza in Rome, is called Pizza Baffetto. This was recommended to me by a Roman I met working in the EPCOT Italy pavilion the week before we left who said, "You have to eat and the best pizzaria in Rome!" Also, it received glowing recs from an American family who lived a year recently in Rome.

 

I hope this helps! Next summer I will definitely record the names of the restaurants!!!!

 

I am making my notes, thanks to all who have traveled before me - Thanks for the directions!!;) I just can't wait to sink my teeth into a good dish of pasta and pizza - The best meal I had in Italy was in Capri - excellent pasta - I can't remember the name of the place :(

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