***LIVE*** From the Carnival Freedom

[Maryutah]

Fantastic pictures, i'd seen this site before, thanks for letting us know that the Freedom has been added!

[terri910]

The current cruise is almost over, and that means the next group is soon to be embarking!

 

Oh my goodness! The April 19th group has our itinerary, then there's the May 1st group with the Grand Med itinerary....and then US!!!!!

 

Wooo hooo!!! Yee-haw!!!! and Whooop-de-doo!!!!

[renebfl]

Don't rush us May 1st group through too fast, we're looking to have a very looong cruise !!!

[terri910]

Don't rush us May 1st group through too fast, we're looking to have a very looong cruise !!!

I hope time goes slowly for you while you're on the cruise, and passes quickly for us while we're waiting!

 

I wonder if someone on either (or each) of those cruises will pick up the "Live from..."......?

[queenslander]

Hi everyone,

 

Just arrived in Rome and the weather has been lovely and warm except for a brief but heavy hail shower in the afternoon.

Had lunch at a restaurant in Trastevere called Carlo Menta. Only 10 euros for a four course meal and nice food too! You cross the bridge into Trastevere and take the first right into Via della Lungaretta - the place is the first one you will see.

Our room at the Best B & B Pantheon is lovely and in a great location! Must say goodnight now as we are both tired after all the walking.

 

Joyce

[micro yaya 13]

Hi everyone,

 

Just arrived in Rome and the weather has been lovely and warm except for a brief but heavy hail shower in the afternoon.

Had lunch at a restaurant in Trastevere called Carlo Menta. Only 10 euros for a four course meal and nice food too! You cross the bridge into Trastevere and take the first right into Via della Lungaretta - the place is the first one you will see.

Our room at the Best B & B Pantheon is lovely and in a great location! Must say goodnight now as we are both tired after all the walking.

 

Joyce

you are so kind to give us a live feed we mellow yellows say thank you:D

[mamawg]

Hi everyone,

 

Just arrived in Rome and the weather has been lovely and warm except for a brief but heavy hail shower in the afternoon.

Had lunch at a restaurant in Trastevere called Carlo Menta. Only 10 euros for a four course meal and nice food too! You cross the bridge into Trastevere and take the first right into Via della Lungaretta - the place is the first one you will see.

Our room at the Best B & B Pantheon is lovely and in a great location! Must say goodnight now as we are both tired after all the walking.

 

Joyce

 

Joyce,

 

Glad to see you and Les have arrived safely and are having a great time. I'll have to keep the restaurant recommendation in mind when we go to Rome.

 

Happy and safe travels.

[okteach_61]

Wow, this seems to be the longest without a post from someone on the ship, sniff... I miss the reports.:(

[Valp41]

Wow, this seems to be the longest without a post from someone on the ship, sniff... I miss the reports.:(

 

 

Even though I did the inaugural cruise on the Freedom still like to get the reports from the ship and the reviews. :)

[Snoopsmom]

Can anyone explain how I can post a comment to CD John Heald's blog? Thanks.

[cruising and boozing]

here's the link just in case:

http://johnheald.wordpress.com/

 

click on that, his lastest blog for yesterday is two lips from amsterdam,

go all the way down just before monday april 16th and you see a thing says 14 comments as of this second click on that and scroll to bottom where you may leave a comment.

 

 

liberty 2/06

freedom 12/1/07

[okteach_61]

snoppsmom, you have to signon to wordpress, the site that runs his blog thingy. Just go to the main site, it's easy.

[Snoopsmom]

Thanks so much.

[SitkaGal]

Hi everyone,

 

We just got back from the April 7th sailing late last night and had a

wonderful time while on the ship! Looking back at the last 12 days

of postings, it's not too hard to understand why no one on the ship

posted to the live thread during the cruise for the weather was what

everyone would wish for during a vacation and must have been too

enthralled by it to take time away and get on the internet. I'm an

avid reader and the only reading I accomplished was what was on

menu :D . If you have any questions feel free to ask and we will be

posting a review later on this weekend.

 

Cheers!

[jkeller527]

Hello

 

Just back from the Carnival April 7 sailing. Just to answer a couple of things. First the internet was absolutely the worst. Slower than before there were computers and it isnt cheap. You are on excursions alll day and seldom can find an internet cafe. That is why there are no postings. .

 

Second regarding the beverage policy. Carnival was wonderful . Everyone bought Italian wine and there was no issue bringing it back on ship , They didnt even charge us corkage fees to have the wine at dinner. We had brought rum for cocktails and carried it on no issue at all. Other than the internet everything on the cruise was very well run and ended too soon. Would go back in a heart beat.

 

If you are going to try and do meet and greet would recomend the next day as muster and dinner messed ours up and then we never found each other.I will certainly answer any questions/

 

If you are a shopper do your shoppoing in Rhodes. We didnt and regretted it

 

Janet

[sharonsorlie]

When you brought wine back onto the ship was that the first day when you embarked or when you came in from Naples. Was it in your napsack or did you carry it on. Love wine - don't like carnival prices.

[caneguy]

Thank you all for your post cruise reviews. I am on the June 6th cruise and most of it is in Italy. Did you have any problems with the ATM machines while you were in Italy. I have a Bank Of America debit/ATM card.

Thanks,

 

Jerry (caneguy)

[pinecove]

When you brought wine back onto the ship was that the first day when you embarked or when you came in from Naples. Was it in your knapsack or did you carry it on. Love wine - don't like carnival prices.

 

Hi Sharon I'm with you....I'm also hoping we can bring a bottle or two of wine onboard.We love to have a glass in the room while were getting ready for dinner.Sounds like it hasn't been a problem for anyone yet......see you soon.

[Moo_Cruiser]

Second regarding the beverage policy. Carnival was wonderful . Everyone bought Italian wine and there was no issue bringing it back on ship , They didnt even charge us corkage fees to have the wine at dinner. We had brought rum for cocktails and carried it on no issue at all. Other than the internet everything on the cruise was very well run and ended too soon. Would go back in a heart beat.

 

If you are going to try and do meet and greet would recomend the next day as muster and dinner messed ours up and then we never found each other.I will certainly answer any questions/

 

Hi Janet

 

Thanks so much for the info..it really helps those of us that are following!!

 

Just a couple of questions, re bringing wine and liquor on board, were they strict when you were embarking, ie did they scan or search your bags for wine or liquor?? I have also heard that they are cracking down on bringing water onboard - did you notice if they let people bring water or soft drink on?

 

Also re organising a meet and greet - we have organised ours for the Mellow Yellows for between 3-5pm. Do you think this would work? What time was muster?

 

Thanks again Janet.

 

Cheers

 

Amanda:)

[okteach_61]

Moo Cruiser,

 

I read here on cruise critic just a day or two ago that they've lifted the water and soft drink ban. They've gone back to the original policy and are just going to try and crack down on people bring more than the policy allows.

[Soccerfan]

Hi everyone,

 

Just arrived in Rome and the weather has been lovely and warm except for a brief but heavy hail shower in the afternoon.

Had lunch at a restaurant in Trastevere called Carlo Menta. Only 10 euros for a four course meal and nice food too! You cross the bridge into Trastevere and take the first right into Via della Lungaretta - the place is the first one you will see.

Our room at the Best B & B Pantheon is lovely and in a great location! Must say goodnight now as we are both tired after all the walking.

 

Joyce

 

Hi Joyce and Les,

 

Hope your having a fabulous time, just wanted you to know that I was thinking of you on the 19th. I was thinking "bet that they are ready to board now in Chivitavecchia etc..etc..

 

Can't wait to read your reviews when you get the time, (which should be still a few weeks away yet)

 

All the best :D I'm jelous and can't wait until June 2nd to leave for our Freedom trip. Going on the Valor in 2 weeks, so when I return from there I will only have to wait for another 2 weeks to head off to Rome!

 

Great trip!

[raynvic]

Live from the April 19th Freedom. Below are my coments on the first two days:

Arrival in Roma - Arrived at Rome airport about 20 minutes late (8:08 a.m.) We had arranged for a private driver with Stefano at Allagrande. I chose Stefano because when contacting others such as Limo in Rome, the prices were much higher and for 2 people would it would have been more cost effective to take the Carnival transport at $75 per person. By luck another poster recommended Stefano and his drive was able to take us for 120E for 2 people. We travel with 2 large suitcases, a garment bag and we each have a backpack. The luggage fit by putting one suitcase in the front seat and the rest in the trunk. After getting off the plane, you go through some halls to “immigration”, where they stamp your passport. Then on to the baggage claim. It takes a fairly long time on American to get our bags, but at least they arrived. Once we got our luggage, we went through the exit doors, which I was not sure about, but the exit doors put you out into the main ticketing area and where people are being met. Our driver was right there with our name on a sign. The driver service was what I expected and the drive from the airport to Civiteveccia was relaxing, though in truth, only about 45 minutes or less. We arrived at the port at about 9:20.

 

Once at the port, there were probably around 200 people still waiting to get on buses to leave. I did see the port shuttle go back and forth several time and sometimes with only a few people on it. It was a little confusing here as the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. We were first directed to the end where a large white tent was and then directed to the building at the other end where the check in was. We walked from the tents to the building which was one end of the ship to the other, sat for awhile until DH was directed to take the luggage back to the tent. In the building you are directed to two areas, one for decks 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 the other is for decks 1, 2, and 6. Or something similar. In our area, there were less than 20 people waiting in the seating area for the check in to open. Very promptly at 11 they began checking people in. This was our platinum cruise so we went to the VIP checkin. There was only one clerk there so I commented to the person directing people that I could have checked in faster by using the regular line. She didn’t really understand and said yes but this was the VIP line. Whatever, we did get checkin faster than I am sure many did later. On this Eastern Med cruise they take your passport when you check in and give you a receipt. This is done by hand and takes some time, so the checkin process is longer. Once checked in we went through the scan area and then onto the ship. Something different that I had not seen before is that the cabin areas were locked off to keep early arrivals from getting to their rooms until 1:30. No problem. We went up to the lido deck grabbed a lounger and snoozed until a bar server woke us up about an hour later. We ate lunch and then proceeded about the business of making a spa appointment, getting our dinner assignment changed and window shopping. At 1:30 we went to our room and left the carryons. Our Cruise Critic group was to meet at 4 at the Aft bar on the Lido deck. We went up early and started happy hour. The group was fairly well attended. At 4:30 we went out to the area next to the Teletron and waved to Richcrow for about half an hour hoping that he would see us from the webcam. Dinner went well and then the muster drill was at 8 p.m. After that we hit the bed, since it had been more than 24 hours since we left home. The highlights of day one were the private driver in Rome, great choice and many of the staff onboard welcomed us back when they saw our platinum status.

 

NAPLES - we joined 2 other couples we met thru CC and had a private tour with Salvatore from Drive Amalfi. Each couple paid 200 Euros for the tour and that included a tip which we felt he deserved. It was a long day but well worth the private trip. We saw many bus tours from the trip and were glad to be with just the six of us. We stopped for photos a couple of times and then stopped for about 45 minutes in I think it was Positano. We tasted lemoncello, hit the ATM and bought our Christmas tree ornament, a lemon. Back on the drive for about 20 minutes or so to a restaurant in Ravello at the top of a hill. Lunch was 20 Euro each and we had antipasto, pizza, 3 different kinds of pasta, dessert and wine. It was a nice taste of the local cuisine. After lunch we loaded back into our van and headed to Pompei through the countryside. It was fairly quiet and I think most of us nodded off for a few minutes during the drive. Salvatore had arranged for us to have a private guide at Pompei. His name was Franco and his background was in architecture.

If you have not been to Pompei it is a do not miss in my book. It seems that our generations have created nothing new other than technology to help us accomplish what those before us already new how to do The tour of Pompei was about 2 hours and moved pretty quickly. I asked Franco what his ideal length of a tour was and he said 2 and ½ hours because you can only comprehend so much. We were gone from 8 a.m. to just after 5 p.m. The cost for the day for the 2 of us was 200 Euro for Salvatore, 40 Euro for lunch, 22 Euro for entrance to Pompei and 35 Euro for the private guide. Each couple spent 297 Euro for this day plus whatever shopping. This is the most expensive day we will have but part of the reason is that 2 of the CC people had to cancel just before the cruise and being the first day we did not have time to fill the spots. Highlights of the tour: our own driver, small group, great knowledgeable guide in Pompei and wonderful company.

[raynvic]

To answer the carryon bottle questions: We bought a bottle of wine in Naples yesterday put it in the backpack which went through the scanner, no problem. Another cc member checked in in Civi then went back into town and bought Vodka and wine and carried it on with no problem. DH bought a bottle of Jack Daniels duty free on the flight, we put it in the luggage when arriving in Rome and it arrived to our room no problem. They are pretty reasonable about the wine carried on in different ports. Ciao Vicky

[funat55]

Thank you rayvic for the update and wonderful review of what you've done so far. I am on the June 30th cruise and can hardly wait. It has been so much fun reading this "live" post. I am trying to budget, or at least figure out how much I'll really be spending, so all the info is very helpful i.e. the cost of the entrance fee to Pompeii, guide, etc. All those little things add up and this is one cruise where we will be eating a lot of meals off the ship, so that is an extra expense. My sister said "you don't need to be on a budget, you're on vacation" but I just want to have an idea of what to expect so I can plan accordingly. Our family of 8 has booked private drivers for most of the ports from recommendations found on Cruise Critic. I'm getting a little nervous because the only port where nothing is planned is Sicily? Ideas anyone?? And, thank you to everyone currently cruising who keeps this post up to date. I can hardly wait to "tune in for the next episode".

[terri910]

raynvic, thanks so much for that first-portion review!!! I can't wait to read more!