***LIVE*** From the Carnival Freedom

[ScootsMom]

I agree with jkeller527 have the meet and greet either earlier or the next day. Ours was set for right after muster and unfortunately that's when my dinner was so I missed out on meeting our group.:mad:

 

Did you locate your rings?

[jkeller527]

Hello

 

This is unbelievable. I just got an email from the CD John. THey went to the cabin and looked in the safe and there were the rings. THat is service for sure. They are sending them to Carnival in Miami.

 

I wish that we had set the meet and greet for the next day because it did interfere with dinner and we couldnt figure out a way to get a hold of everyone again, Well maybe next time. Read the previous review and I guess we all see thru different eyes. We had private tours and that may have been the difference. Except for the soups being a spot below Celebrity everything was fine. The buffet in the Lido at dinner is moderate, they really want you to eat in the dining room. We did get run over by the Asian contingent.

 

Another thing happened that shows the greatness of people today. As usuall when you are about to sail they announce a couple of names for the people who have not boarded. Low and behold my name is announced and I know that I am on the ship. They tell me to go to deck 0 and there is the military police from Katakalon with my CC that I had left at the jewelry store,Ship couldnt sail until it was returned with photo ID. The store certainly could have kept it so the Greek people are very honest.

[richcrow]

Hello

 

This is unbelievable. I just got an email from the CD John. THey went to the cabin and looked in the safe and there were the rings. THat is service for sure. They are sending them to Carnival in Miami.

 

I wish that we had set the meet and greet for the next day because it did interfere with dinner and we couldnt figure out a way to get a hold of everyone again, Well maybe next time. Read the previous review and I guess we all see thru different eyes. We had private tours and that may have been the difference. Except for the soups being a spot below Celebrity everything was fine. The buffet in the Lido at dinner is moderate, they really want you to eat in the dining room. We did get run over by the Asian contingent.

 

Another thing happened that shows the greatness of people today. As usuall when you are about to sail they announce a couple of names for the people who have not boarded. Low and behold my name is announced and I know that I am on the ship. They tell me to go to deck 0 and there is the military police from Katakalon with my CC that I had left at the jewelry store,Ship couldnt sail until it was returned with photo ID. The store certainly could have kept it so the Greek people are very honest.

 

I'm glad you are going to get your rings. I'm not sure I had anything to do with it, but I did post it on his blog site where he takes questions and such.

 

Richard

[bing2]

Thanks for the info on the departure from Rome. We are on the 12 Day cruise. We are also planning a meet and great for departure day. Looks like our docs say 7pm departure. Will muster happen after departure and prior to dinner? Are both dinner seatings scheduled for post departure on the embarkation day?

 

Thanks again for any additional details.

 

Leo & Ronda

[SitkaGal]

Thanks for the info on the departure from Rome. We are on the 12 Day cruise. We are also planning a meet and great for departure day. Looks like our docs say 7pm departure. Will muster happen after departure and prior to dinner? Are both dinner seatings scheduled for post departure on the embarkation day?

 

Thanks again for any additional details.

 

Leo & Ronda

 

Leo & Ronda,

 

We were on the April 7th sailing and had read somewhere earlier that there wouldn't be any main dining the night of embarkation but much to our surprise, we heard them call over the ship's intercom the last call for early dining seating so go figure. Also, the ship didn't depart until 8PM (there were some late arrivals at the airport) so the advertised 7PM departure time is not written in stone.

[Rosstu]

Thanks for the info on the departure from Rome. We are on the 12 Day cruise. We are also planning a meet and great for departure day. Looks like our docs say 7pm departure. Will muster happen after departure and prior to dinner? Are both dinner seatings scheduled for post departure on the embarkation day?

 

Thanks again for any additional details.

 

Leo & Ronda

 

Muster is scheduled for 8 in the middle of the early and late dinner seatings. The early seatings were pushed up about half an hour (around 5:30 and 6:00)and the late seatings were pushed back half an hour (8:30 and 9:00).

[SitkaGal]

Fellow Cruise Critic members,

 

Below you’ll find our review of the April 7th Freedom sailing that Rachel and I recently experienced. It’s a little long winded and if you’re only interested in our review of the ship then you can skip to the end where we jotted down some of our perspectives along with our top-5 and low-5 comments. The day-by-day accounting does have some ship info along with the tours we took (Carnival and private). We have gleaned a lot of helpful information from Cruise Critic and felt that we should give something back that might be helpful to future cruisers. As for our 12-day cruise to Italy, Greece and Turkey? Priceless!!!

 

April 4th – Our flight was originally scheduled to depart Colorado Springs at 1:20 P.M. and Rachel’s daughter called us on our way to the airport to let us know that there was a 2 hour delay (weather related) that would affect our connection out of Chicago so right off the bat our itinerary changed; instead of Colorado Springs to Chicago to Munich to Rome we were able to get Colorado Springs to Denver to Frankfurt to Rome and our arrival time would be only 90 minutes later than originally planned. We had Rachel’s daughter e-mail our hotel in Rome to let them know that we were coming in later than planned in order that they could contact the limo service that was to take us from the airport to the hotel. By the time we got to Denver, the hotel had already e-mailed back to Rachel’s daughter to let us know that the driver had been notified. Hopefully this would be the only hiccup of the trip.

 

April 5th – Arrived in Rome at 1:30 P.M. and all of our luggage made it. Our limo driver met us at the arrival gate and helped us load our luggage into the car for our drive to the hotel. We arrived at our hotel (Hotel Modigliani) about an hour later, which is located right off Via Veneto and is about a five-minute walk to the Spanish Steps. We found the hotel through Trip Advisor and we specifically requested room 602 and all we can say is Wow! The hotel only has 20 rooms and our room was on the top floor with one other room. Our balcony overlooked downtown Rome with the Emmanuelle II memorial to the Southwest and the Vatican to the Northwest. The room was very spacious with an oversized queen bed. The only minus was the size of the shower which is comparable to being in a coffin. We booked four private tours in Rome with a tour company called “Through Eternity” and planned the first one, “Rome at Twilight: Renaissance and Baroque Rome” for 5PM that night. Our tour guide Nicky, arrived 10 minutes early in our hotel lobby and took us on a wonderful walking tour of Rome. The weather was being finicky and we had a light drizzle for about an hour but that did not take away from the tour. One of the reasons that we wanted to take this tour was to keep us out of our hotel so that we wouldn’t go to bed early and mess up our adjustment to the time change.

 

April 6th – Woke up to a gorgeous dawn after getting a solid eight hours sleep. We have two tours scheduled for today; “Rome Through the Eyes of J. Caesar: Roman Forum and Coliseum” and “Borghese Gallery: The Never-ending Experience of Art”. Robert, our tour guide for the day met us in the hotel lobby at 10 AM and we took the subway to the Coliseum to start our first tour. Both Robert and Nicky are Americans living in Rome and both have art backgrounds. Robert is working on his doctorate and his thesis is on the Italian artist Raphael so he was a wealth of information when it came to the Borgehese Gallery tour. The line for tickets at the Coliseum seemed endless but Robert took us over to the ticket window at the Palatine Hill where there may have been ten people in line. If you want to save time, go there to buy your Coliseum ticket. We came back to the Coliseum and the entrance line was not moving (metal detectors were down due to a power outage) so we went on to the Forum and spent 90 minutes there before returning to the Coliseum. By then, the power had been restored and we went inside. Spent about an hour there and then we had about two hours before our next tour so we took a taxi to the Spanish Steps and had lunch there. We then walked over to Villa Borghese where the gallery is located. Rachel kept looking for Prince Lorenzo but he wasn’t to be found. The gallery requires that reservations are made and Through Eternity handled this for us. If you’re a fan of Bernini or Caravaggio then this gallery is a must. After the tour, we walked back to the hotel by way of Via Veneto of “La Dolce Vita“ fame. That night, we went to a restaurant that Nicky recommended the night before. It was a challenge finding the place as I took a picture of the street name and it was a matter of looking at the pictures that we took along the way in trying to recreate our route. We eventually found the place and had a wonderful meal. Walking back to the hotel, we bought some gelato and stopped off at the Trevi fountain and as tradition dictates, tossed our coins from our left hands over our right shoulders into the fountain in hopes that we too shall return one day.

 

April 7th – Embarkation day! We looked into taking the Carnival transfer from Rome to the ship but we would have to take a taxi from our hotel to another hotel in Rome and then wait around for about two hours (10 to noon) for the bus. Since we paid all of this money to be in Rome, it didn’t make sense to cut the day short so we made arrangements through our hotel to have a private limo pick us up at 2 PM to take us to the ship and it only cost about $50 more then what Carnival was asking thus gaining 5 more hours in Rome and a direct ride to the ship. We spent the morning tracking down some stores that Rachel wanted to shop at and then ended up around Via Condotti for some window shopping. We had lunch at a pizzeria and then got back to the hotel for a ride to the ship. We bought two bottles of wine from the hotel’s wine cellar to be brought on to the ship along with about 20 mini-bottles of various shots. With all of the talk on Cruise Critic about Carnival’s new beverage policy, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get them on board. Alas, we had nothing to worry about and got all of our alcohol on board with no problems. Embarkation was not that bad. Our driver had dropped us and our luggage off at the building that you process through though I had to take the checked baggage to a white tent that was about a quarter mile down the road. Carnival had buses running back and forth between the two locations so I loaded up the luggage and rode the bus down to the tent and dropped the luggage off and then rode the bus back. We had gotten there about 4PM and based on previous comments on this thread, we had expected to breeze through the embarkation process but that wasn’t the case this day. It took about an hour to get through the line and through the Italian customs (x-ray & metal detectors only). Got our “Welcome Aboard” picture taken and then we were on the ship. We went directly to our cabin and to our surprise our luggage had already been delivered so we spent a few minutes unpacking the delicates and we then overheard on the ship’s intercom that the early dining was having its last call which surprised us as we had read that there was no main dining the first night so we headed off to the dining room and had our first meal. Sail away was supposed to be 7PM but the ship didn’t actually depart until 8PM this being due to late arrivals. Muster drill was at 8PM as well and then we headed down to the Piano bar where we were to meet some of our fellow Cruise Critic members. With that out of the way, we finished unpacking and settled in for the night. One note, I ordered a dozen roses through Bon Voyage for Rachel and they were there in the room when we arrived but I have to say that we were not overly impressed with them and they had charged us $75 dollars vice the normal $48 since this was a European cruise. This will be one of the things I’ll be discussing with Past Guest Relations.

 

April 8th – Naples. Rachel and I hooked up with six other Cruise Critic members and took a private tour with Salvatore Lucibello of Drive Amalfi (*****) and we highly recommend him to anyone who wants a memorable experience in Naples. Salvatore, who can trace his lineage back a thousand years in Amalfi, promptly met us at the pier and whisked us off on a drive that took us through Sorrento and Positano and then on to his home city of Amalfi where we spent an hour walking and shopping in the town square. There were about 5 stops along the drive to Amalfi that allowed you to stretch your legs and soak in the magnificent coastal views and sample some lemoncello which I have to say is an acquired taste! After Amalfi, we headed up into the hills to a town called Ravello where Salvatore had arranged for us to eat lunch at a local restaurant that overlooks the Amalfi region. The lunch was excellent though based on comments from the two that ordered the sampler platter, it was delicious but not worth the money that it cost. The owner of the restaurant treated everyone to a free shot of lemoncello and then it was off to Pompeii where Salvatore arraigned for us to have a private tour guide name Vinny (Vincenzo) who provided us with a very informative tour in the two hours that we spent there. Salvatore got us back to the ship with plenty of time to spare and everyone in our group were in agreement that this had been a wonderful day. I had rented a tuxedo through Bon Voyage and had expected it to be delivered to the room on the embarkation day, which it wasn’t so we stopped off at the Formalities shop on deck 5 and enquired about my tux. They didn’t have a tux ready for me nor did they have the measurements that I had gotten earlier and given to the Bon Voyage department in Florida so they had to retake my measurements and they had the tux delivered to our room about an hour later. That’s now two strikes against Bon Voyage.

 

April 9th – Day at Sea. Woke up early and I felt a chest cold coming on…hopefully it was going to be the 24 hour variety and I wouldn’t be down for the count during a port visit. I decided to try on the tux to make sure everything was there and I’m glad I did. I asked Rachel what was wrong with this picture as I modeled my tux for her. Where are your pants? She asked. Also, the two shirts that came with the tux were not pressed and I had both a black and white dinner jacket and the white one had a stain around the lapel area so it was back to Formalities with the two shirts and the white jacket. They sent the shirts off to be pressed and said that it would be a couple of days to have the jacket cleaned. They also found a pair of pants for me much to our relief for I don’t think Captain Alito would have appreciated me showing up at his party in my boxer shorts! With it being a sea day, we did our first laundry load of the trip early in the morning to beat the rush and then spent time doing the onboard activities that Carnival has to offer. I like participating in the slot tournaments but never get close to making the finals. Today, lady luck was with me as I made it into the finals only to finish in 2nd place (lost by 170 points)…anything is better than 2nd but I had a great time. We also partook of the free champagne at the art auction which took us to about 5PM and time to start getting ready for the Captain’s cocktail party / 1st formal night. Rachel had bought some nice jewelry earlier and was looking stunning as usual as we headed to the party. Formalities had delivered the pressed shirts earlier so I had everything I needed to be presentable. By this time my cold was getting worse so I was feeling miserable and then to top things off, while reaching for a drink from the waiter’s tray, I tipped another glass that had the unfortunate luck of spilling on the back of Rachel’s pants. Later, when we went to dinner, we noticed some very underdressed people in the dining room. Rachel and I aren’t the fashion police but blue jeans, sweat shirts and coveralls??? We found out later that there were quite a few folks whose luggage never made it from their flights and that some of them even missed the departure from Rome and gotten aboard at Naples. One couple didn’t receive their luggage until we got to Katakolon…imagine that! Tonight was the first night that there would be a live show “Ticket to Ride” at the Victoriana lounge. We had seen it last September when we were on the Miracle so I decided to call it a night and hope my cold got better. Rachel went by herself and told me later that the show was just as good as we saw last year and that the two lead singers sounded even better.

 

April 10th – Rhodes. Rachel and I originally scheduled a Carnival shore excursion here but after considering all of our other activities that we had planned, we decided to cancel the shore excursions for Rhodes and for Katakolon and just take it easy at these two ports. Looking back now, we did the right thing. Rachel started off her day with the two Spa appointments that she had booked while we were in Naples and I spent the morning trying to shake off the chest cold that I developed the day before. Once Rachel was done at the Spa, we headed off the ship and walked into what they call old Rhodes and that’s the part of the city enclosed by the walls. We did some shopping and then had lunch atop this old building that had a fantastic view of the surrounding area. After lunch, we walked around some of the streets that were off the main path and soaked in the local flavor. On our way back to the ship, Rachel bought some seashells to remind her of this lovely city. I was starting to feel better by day’s end but Rachel was at the beginning of starting her cold.

 

April 11th – Izmir. In Izmir, we again hooked up with some of our Cruise Critic brethren for a private tour (House of the Virgin Mary and Ancient Ephesus) with Sinan Tortum. The schedule was kind of tight so we were on our way promptly and it took about an hour to reach the House of the Virgin Mary which is probably about five miles from Ephesus. Right away, the terrain seemed different with all of the trees and the location had a tranquil feel to it. The house itself is not that large but once you get inside, it seems immense and I overheard others talking about the powerful presence they felt as they walked through the house. On a lower terrace we found the three fountains that you are to drink from and to the left of them is a fence to leave written prayers. From there, it’s a short bus ride down the hill to the top entrance of Ephesus. Our tour guide was a little long winded so Rachel and I just walked among the ruins and took a lot of pictures. At the bottom entrance, there are rest rooms that cost .50 euros if you’re not part of a Carnival tour so have some loose change on you if you’re on a private tour. Outside the entrance, there are places to buy souvenirs and some food stands. On our way back to the ship, we stopped off at a local ceramic factory and we bought a couple of tiles for our house. Sinan got us back to the ship with plenty of time to spare prior to sailing.

 

April 12th – Istanbul. This is the first group tour of the two Carnival shore excursions that we booked and we decided on the “Grand Istanbul with Lunch” tour. Rachel’s cold pretty much peaked today and she was feeling miserable but she made the best of it. As can be expected with Carnival tours, we were all herded down to the Victoriana lounge and tagged with a color sticker with a number on it and then told to be seated and wait for our number to be called. About 45 minutes later, “Green 3” was called and we proceeded off the ship to our bus and we were on our way. First stop was the Chora Museum, which faired better than the St. Sophia Museum when its mosaic tile pictures were restored back in the 1950s. Next stop was the Blue Mosque, which is quite impressive. From there, we walked to the Four Seasons hotel for lunch. The night before, I had the filet mignon for dinner and it wasn’t anything to write home about but the lunch they served at the Four Seasons; Wow! And to top things off, the folks that took the same tour but had lunch at the Topkapi Palace were at the Shore Excursion desk that night complaining on how foul their meal was there. Since both tours are pretty much the same, for those who haven’t decided on which one to take, my recommendation would be the one that stops at the Four Seasons. After lunch, we walked over to the St. Sophia Museum for some more impressive architectural viewing. After seeing these buildings that were built way back when, why can’t the architects of today build something just as impressive? Back onto the bus and it was off to the Grand Bazaar for a little shopping and a rug sales pitch. Rachel was able to buy some nice silk scarves and made a killing on a leather jacket. Next we were off to the Hippodrome to see the old racetrack and there’s an Egyptian obelisk there as well as the bronze serpent column, which if I understood our tour guide are the bronze items collected by the Greeks against the defeated Persian army in the 5th century BC (as depicted in 300). A short bus ride dropped us off at the underground cistern, which was a lot more interesting than I first thought of and I was able to take some great pictures even with the dark lighting conditions. From there we walked to the Topkapi Palace and tooled around for a bit getting some great pictures of the palace and the view of the bridge that connects Europe to Asia. That was the last stop on our tour and it was back to the ship. As the ship was pulling away from the pier, the evening call to prayer started from all of minaret towers of the mosques and I found it quite memorizing for a memorial day.

 

April 13th – Day at Sea. The ship is taking its time sailing to Athens this day. I guess the ship traffic in the Dardanelles slows things down. Rachel is feeling better but isn’t 100 percent and I’m feeling about 90 percent. It’s funny what you remember at times but that morning, Rachel was in the jewelry store returning something and I was standing in the perfume section by the window looking out on a sunny warm day as we were leaving the Dardanelles and the cruise director got on the intercom and remarked how much a difference makes in 12 days since they came through this same passage and it was snowing then. It made me think on how marvelous the weather has been for us so far. Anyway, as it was another day at sea, I had to go take another chance at the slot tourney to see if I could improve my last standing but it seems that lady luck was to shine on me only once this cruise as I donate $20 to the eventual winner. More champagne at the art auction and then we had to get ready for dinner at the Sun King supper club. On the previous three ships we sailed on, we have always made reservations at the supper club for it has always been money well spent. As such, we had planned for this night as we sailed into the Aegean Sea and had requested a table on the stern side, as that would be the side where the sunset would be visible. Our reservation was for 6 PM with sunset to occur at 7:54 PM. We showed up and our lovely hostess Barbara led us to our seats. All of the signs were pointing towards a wonderful evening. At 6:10 PM our worst nightmare arrived; a party of seven with the 7th being a 4–month old child whose mother assured Barbara that her child is the perfect angel and doesn’t make any noise. At 6:11 PM, the angel showed its true colors and went into a crying fit. We complained to our waiter, as did everyone else sitting within three decks of “angel”. Barbara offered to move us to the other side of the dining room, which would ruin the whole purpose of having a lovely sunset during dinner. Well I guess enough people complained that angel kept up the crying that Barbara finally asked the party of seven to leave. After their departure, our dinner was back on course to be a memorable one. One thought -- we were always under the impression the supper club was adults-only dining but Carnival’s policy for the host/hostesses is that they can only highly discouraged and not deny infants/toddlers when guests make reservations with this being due to the fact that they can be affected by the comment cards that guests fill out at the end of the cruise of which Carnival uses for promotions and raises. Carnival needs to address this issue and this will be part of my feedback to past guest relations when dealing with our other issues.

 

April 14th – Athens. This was our second of two tours book through Carnival and we opted for the “Best of Athens”. Per the normal drill, we all met down at the Victoriana lounge to be tagged and waited for our color/number to be called. The bus ride from the port to Athens wasn’t that bad since it was a Saturday thus the traffic wasn’t that bad. Our first stop was at the arena used for the 1896 Olympic games and we were there for about 15 minutes (not much to see). From there, it was off to the national museum for about an hour and then it was off to the Acropolis. The walk up wasn’t that bad and was well worth it for both of what’s up there and the views that you command of all of Athens. We had about an hour there before we walked down towards the Plaka area where we were to have lunch. Lunch wasn’t anything special and we skipped the last two courses and headed off to the shopping area in the Plaka and did some shopping. Everyone was to meet at Constitutional Square (in front of McDonalds) at a pre-arraigned time and then it was back to the ship. With that being said, I would recommend that you would be better off to make your own arrangements and skip the arena and museum and just do the Acropolis and Plaka on your own. Rachel thoroughly enjoyed seeing Athens as her grandfather had immigrated to America from Athens so for her it was sort of like a homecoming.

 

April 15th – Katakolon. Like Rhodes, we had cancelled the shore excursion that we had previously booked and by this time we had seen enough ancient ruins to last a lifetime! Katakolon is a small town that’s probably about a 10-minute walk from the ship with no hills or stairs to climb. Their main street is chocked full of stores to buy all of your souvenirs and they do have some high-end stores for those inclined. We first stopped off at an indoor café and had some heavenly baklava that the owner’s mother had prepared the night before along with some coffee. With the caffeine coursing through our veins, we braved the stores along main street and proceeded to fatten the wallets of the local merchants. After a few hours of shopping, we decided to grab some lunch at one of the several outdoor cafes lining the shoreline and just relax, enjoy some wonderful Greek cuisine and people watch. Katakolon is one of the shortest dock times that the Freedom has so the time came where we settled our bill and headed back to the ship. Though we didn’t see some ancient wonder we were in total agreement that this was probably our favorite stop to date.

 

April 16th – Day at Sea. Tonight was to be the 2nd formal night and Formalities was to deliver my cleaned white tux jacket along with a boutonniere and corsage (the boutonniere was to hide the stain that they couldn’t remove). We were still feeling under the weather so our routine for the day was to get the laundry out of the way, donate $20 for the slot tournament (yes, the glass is half empty) and then get ready for dinner early in order to hit all of the formal photo booths that Carnival had set up on decks 3 and 5. Dinner was uneventful and afterwards we caught the third and last live entertainment show (a tribute to New Orleans), which was fantastic! Since we had a full day planned for tomorrow, we made it an early night and got some much needed sleep.

 

April 17th – Livorno. Originally we had booked a Carnival shore excursion to Tuscany but some fellow cruise critic members had planned a trip to Cinque Terre (5 villages) and after reading Rick Steve’s description of it we promptly cancelled Tuscany and signed up for it. Our driver Roberto of Papillon Service met us promptly at the dock and shortly the six of us in our group and Roberto were on our way to Portevenere to catch the boat that would take us to the first village of Riomaggiore. We had about a 30 minute wait in Portovenere prior to the next boat leaving and this town has some shops and cafes that you can kill some time while waiting and there’s an old castle on the point that is quite photogenic. If you never heard of Cinque Terre I would recommend that you at least read up on it (an easy Google query) and consider this as a very doable shore excursion…you won’t be disappointed! We spent the next several hours exploring these “frozen in time” villages – shopping, dining, snapping a gazillion pictures and discussing not if but when we’ll be back to spend some more time here in this idyllic bit of heaven. I mentioned earlier that Katakolon had been our highlight of highlights but Cinque Terre far surpassed it! With it being too soon to leave, we were back on the road to Livorno and on the way back we had an added bonus as the town of Pisa was visible to our left and we were able to see the tower albeit at 80 miles an hour. All in all, a fantastic day!

 

April 18th – Civitavecchia. Slept in this morning for our last tour that we booked with Through Eternity wasn’t until 12 noon. Got up and had some coffee as we reluctantly did some packing for our oh, so soon departure the next day. We headed to the train station about 9:30 AM and bought our tickets to get to St Pietro station and from there, have a ten minute walk to the Vatican. The train ride was uneventful except for the fact that I didn’t time-stamp the tickets in the yellow-box at the station and the next thing you know the ticket checker is writing me up for a 5 Euro fine! The kicker was once he told me about the box my brain called up the nice review that someone posted at www.EuropePortReviews.com that I had bookmarked on the home computer and yes, it does say to have your ticket validated. Once we got to the Vatican, we were to meet our tour guide at a store in front of St Marks Square. I had a map and found the store with ten minutes to spare. Rachel popped in for some shopping while I canvassed the area outside looking for our guide who was to be wearing a button with the company’s name on it. What made this even more difficult is that the Pope decided that today was his 80th birthday and that he would hold mass in St Mark’s square at 12 noon (the same time we were supposed to meet our guide). Seems that all of Italy and a few other countries decided to wish the Pontiff a happy birthday so it was pretty much a sea of humanity in this part of Rome so unfortunately we never met up with our guide and thus our tour of the Vatican never happened. As disappointed as Rachel and I were, we decided to put a spin on our misfortune and use it as an excuse to have to return to the Eternal city. As such, we ate some lunch and did some walking around and then headed back to the ship (and this time I validated our tickets though the ticket guy never materialized!). Back at the ship we did some more packing and then grabbed some pizza for dinner. After that, we went to the photo gallery and purchased our photos and DVDs and then it was back to the cabin for final packing and getting our bags outside our door prior to the 11 PM deadline.

 

April 19th – Debarkation. Argh! The saddest day of all. The ship started calling out debarkation colors/numbers promptly at 6 AM and ours was finally called at 8:30 AM. Got off the ship and found our luggage in the staging area and had a porter wheel them over to the bus. The ride to the airport took about 45 minutes and it took about 30 minutes to check in with Lufthansa. Since our flight wasn’t until 1:20 PM we had a snack at one of the restaurants upstairs and then went to the VAT office to have our paperwork stamped in order to get a VAT refund. The lady we spoke with was very rude and unhelpful and she basically told us that we had to get it stamped in Frankfurt Germany since that would be our exit port from the EU. No problem we thought. Well, our flight took off on time and we arrived in Frankfurt and proceeded to our gate. We saw a sign that said the VAT office was located behind gate A61 so we went there and they told us that we needed to show them the unopened merchandise before they would stamp the letter. Well, the unopened merchandise was packed in our checked luggage that we didn’t have access to. Their response was that we had up to three months to bring the “unopened” merchandise to the German Embassy (in Washington D.C) where they would be glad to stamp our letter! I had a few choice words forming in my head by this time to say the least. Since our flight was due to depart shortly, we walked to our gate where we encountered another security checkpoint where they disposed of the two beverages I just purchased right around the corner and then we were patted down, quite thoroughly, before being allowed to proceed to our gate. The flight to Chicago was quite uneventful except for the two small children sitting across from us that the mother seemed not to care to control them. Customs and immigration in Chicago was a breeze and rechecked all of our luggage for the last leg and got into Colorado Springs about 18 hours after starting our journey that morning. As luck would have it, only three of our four bags made it to the Springs and the fourth showed up the next day. Everything has been unpacked and none of souvenirs/keepsakes got broken!

 

Ship Review – Rachel and I have been on three previous cruises with Carnival and they were all on the Spirit-class type ship so this was our first introduction to the Conquest-class of ship. Our first impressions were that it didn’t seem any bigger though there’s a 30-ton difference between the two classes. With this being the fourth cruise for the Freedom we were expecting a spotless, not lived in ship and for the most part that held out to be true but that wasn’t the case in a couple instances. It was most noticeable in the elevators where Carnival had trimmed out the door portals with brass casings and it seemed that someone had gone along with a hammer and conducted a drum solo on most of the casings. If Carnival had gone with a thicker gauge of metal then the dings and scrapes would not have been as noticeable but when you use paper thin metal just about anything bumping against them will leave a mark. To top it off, someone decided to do some creative graffiti on one of the inner elevator doors (mid ship elevators) and carve into the door a very large phallic symbol along with their initials. Our second observation was how the Chic dining room, which is located mid-ship on decks three and four, blocks off the hallway in that you have to go to deck two or five and then back to three or four to bypass it. It was frustrating at first but once you’re aware of it and you know your destination you can then plan on which elevator to use to bypass it. As for the rest of the ship, Carnival did a wonderful job and the jumbo-tron on the Lido deck is something not to miss and the bar there serves popcorn!.

 

Top 5 Port Highlights:

1. Cinque Terre tour (Livorno)

2. Katakolon (Shopping and Relaxing)

3. Amalfi Coast / Pompeii (Naples)

4. Rome (pre-cruise)

5. Athens

 

Top 5 Ship Highlights:

1. The three variety entertainment shows

2. The supper club (after wailing infant left)

3. Room Service!

4. Sunsets (and Sunrises) on the Mediterranean from your balcony

5. Gift store and Spa (according to Rachel)

 

Bottom 3 Port Lowlights: (could only come up with 3 with this great itinerary)

1. Waiting in the Victoriana lounge for your Carnival shore excursion

2. Katakolon (too short there)

3. Turkish toilets (any country)

 

Bottom 5 Ship Lowlights:

1. Wailing infant in the supper club

2. Only three variety entertainment shows

3. Fish & Chips hours of operation (Noon – 3:30 PM)

4. The food

5. Having to leave on debarkation day:(

 

Bon Voyage!

 

Rick and Rachel

[Snoopsmom]

SitkaGal,

 

What a wonderfully written review. You are informative about your experiences, and I especially like how you both plugged along despite your colds, tuxedo mishap, Coloseum situation, etc., etc. We fly to Rome tomorrow and begin the Grand Mediterranean tour on May 1. Even though we won't go to all the same ports, you brought those you visited to life. My husband is renting a tux and this is the first time he is using this particular rental company. So if he ends up with the same tux situation, we will laugh as we know he isn't alone. Right now we are working on the Peter Principle...so we know where you are coming from.

[raynvic]

Monday April 23rd - Izmir. We did the House of the Virgin Mary and Ancient Ephesus through Carnival. Awesome. Our guide was a Turkish female. She spoke excellent English and was very knowledgeable. We were one of the first groups which was a good thing, because it was extremely crowded and already HOT, around 75 degrees, so those who cruise after us, it will only get worse. Inside the house of the Virgin Mary it was very moving or humbling. You basically line up and walk through, you have the opportunity to light a candle or say a short prayer. After walking through, you then have the opportunity to drink from the 3 fountains, use the facilities, shop for souvenirs and then get back on the bus, to the Ancient City. I am amazed by the sophistication of this civilization. I did not realize that Pauls letters to the Ephesians was to the citizens of Ephesus. A very interesting and education stop. The tour was from 9:30 to 2:30 and the walking was on very uneven surfaces, so you must be careful.

 

For those of you who are Filet Mignon fans, this is the night. It was excellent. We spent some time talking with the Karoake hostess and the participation on this itinerary is pretty poor. It is because after these long day tours, dinner and a show, you are pretty tired. Highlights of this day: The tour definitely. Our CC friends did a private tour here and were very satisfied, so if you can book with Kagan (?) I would probably do that to avoid the big bus.

 

Tuesday April 24th - Istanbul. We had the highlights of Istanbul with lunch at the Topkapi palace today. Very long tour with much walking. A good value for a quick overview of the Mosque, St. Sophia, the Palace, and the Bazaar. The Bazaar is humongous and can be overwhelming. I am sure we looked like Deer in the Headlights. We bought spices, coffee, pashminas, and souvenirs. I think those who have been here before me are correct that Istanbul deserves a longer visit. Tomorrow is a sea day and then Athens. The tours get back late today, so I am sure we will have a lot of company in the buffet. The highlight for me today was the St. Sophia.

[raynvic]

Responses: Janet, I am sorry I did not read your e-mail until today as I would have gone to the concierge’s desk about the rings, but I am so glad they are on their way to you, or will be.

 

Jim, It was my understanding that Verizon would not work on the ship without a new chip, so I have not tried. I will tell you that I could not get a call out at the Chicago airport (we are from Phoenix)

 

We will be doing self assist at 5:45 on the day of debarkation, so I will let you all know how that works.

 

The muster drill is at 8 p.m. The early seating dinners are as scheduled. We had 5:45 and wanted 6:15. This is our first platinum so when we asked the Maitre’D to change us he told us it was fine to keep our table and show up at 6:15. We told our server who was fine with it. One day we showed up at 5:45 and it seemed our server was more rushed, so it has worked out fine for us. Anyway back to the Muster. Those with later seatings had their time pushed back and our friends told us their table of 10 did not finish until after 11 p.m. Our CC group held the meet and greet at 4 p.m. at the Aft bar on the Lido deck and most everyone made it. I think there was another meet and greet on the first sea day, but we did not make it.

 

Internet. We are using our own laptop which already has a wireless card in it. However we have Windows Vista and the IT guy told us that sometimes they can’t get the laptop to work on the Carnival website. We got lucky and ours has worked fine. I type all of my responses in a Work/Works document and then log onto the internet and copy and paste. (learned that trick on the Boards, thanks Bekah) I had some trouble last night and could not get the CC website to respond, but it is now 5:30 ship time and it was moving pretty fast. So I will try this post and hopefully it will work as fast again. Ciao Vicky

[24butterfly]

Sitka Gal:

 

Can u pls tell me more about your Cinqueterre excursion??? Thanks!

[bekah]

raynvic - Glad I was able to be of some assistance! Sounds like you're enjoying you're trip - thanks for posting while you're gone. Even though I've been home almost a month I still like to read these boards when I get the chance! :rolleyes:

 

Hope you're enjoying your day at sea! Can't wait to hear more about your cruise!

[terri910]

I can't remember if anyone asked/answered this.....

 

In Rhodes....is there an ATM (or maybe the wording should be "are there ATM's") either near the ship or easily located once you've walked into town?

[SitkaGal]

I can't remember if anyone asked/answered this.....

 

In Rhodes....is there an ATM (or maybe the wording should be "are there ATM's") either near the ship or easily located once you've walked into town?

 

When your walking from the ship to old town you will be walking along the walled portion of the city and when you come up to the first opening go ahead and enter and then look to your right about 30 feet ahead and there you will find an ATM machine. We had no problem using it to withdrawl euros.

[jolin68]

Wow, SitkaGal – Thank you for such a great review – Sounds like you and your wife had an unbelievable time. Although most of our ports will be different (June 30th Grand Mediterranean Voyage) you had some extremely helpful information in here. As far as Livorno – I don’t know if this was your first time to Italy, we were planning on going to Florence – do you think that Cinque Terre is a better choice?

 

Raynvic – Thank you for the information on the internet. We first considered bringing our laptop, but I am concerned about leaving it in our hotel room prior to and after the cruise. I have read some reviews from other travelers saying that they had items stolen from rooms. However, typing in word and then logging on quickly is a great idea if we choose to pay at the onboard internet café. Thank you and bekah for the tip. :)

[terri910]

When your walking from the ship to old town you will be walking along the walled portion of the city and when you come up to the first opening go ahead and enter and then look to your right about 30 feet ahead and there you will find an ATM machine. We had no problem using it to withdrawl euros.

Excellent! Thank you!!!

[SitkaGal]

Excellent! Thank you!!!

 

Just pulled up our pictures from Rhodes and I saw that there is an earlier entrance (foot traffic only)...when you see the statue of the four dolphins along the water front you should see the entrance and there is a sign to the right that calls the entrance "Gate of the Virgin". The Ceramic House is to the left and the ATM machine is to the right. Just wanted to ensure I didn't get you lost.:p

 

Rick

[kaleighsgram]

Rick and Rachel, Glad you had a great time. Your review was wonderful.

Pat

[micro yaya 13]

Hello

 

This is unbelievable. I just got an email from the CD John. THey went to the cabin and looked in the safe and there were the rings. THat is service for sure. They are sending them to Carnival in Miami.

 

I wish that we had set the meet and greet for the next day because it did interfere with dinner and we couldnt figure out a way to get a hold of everyone again, Well maybe next time. Read the previous review and I guess we all see thru different eyes. We had private tours and that may have been the difference. Except for the soups being a spot below Celebrity everything was fine. The buffet in the Lido at dinner is moderate, they really want you to eat in the dining room. We did get run over by the Asian contingent.

 

Another thing happened that shows the greatness of people today. As usuall when you are about to sail they announce a couple of names for the people who have not boarded. Low and behold my name is announced and I know that I am on the ship. They tell me to go to deck 0 and there is the military police from Katakalon with my CC that I had left at the jewelry store,Ship couldnt sail until it was returned with photo ID. The store certainly could have kept it so the Greek people are very honest.

from you greek friends on may 13,th freedom(ef had e sto) thats thanks in greek:D

[terri910]

Just pulled up our pictures from Rhodes and I saw that there is an earlier entrance (foot traffic only)...when you see the statue of the four dolphins along the water front you should see the entrance and there is a sign to the right that calls the entrance "Gate of the Virgin". The Ceramic House is to the left and the ATM machine is to the right. Just wanted to ensure I didn't get you lost.:p

 

Rick

I should be able to remember "Gate of the Virgin"!!

 

But, since you've given such excellent directions for an ATM in Rhodes....I might as well bug you about other places: Civitavecchia, Athens & Katakolon. Also, I assume there are ATMs at FCO airport, hopefully they will be easy to find.

 

I probably need to learn how to say ATM in Italian, Turkish and Greek! *L*

[okteach_61]

I should be able to remember "Gate of the Virgin"!!

 

But, since you've given such excellent directions for an ATM in Rhodes....I might as well bug you about other places: Civitavecchia, Athens & Katakolon. Also, I assume there are ATMs at FCO airport, hopefully they will be easy to find.

 

I probably need to learn how to say ATM in Italian, Turkish and Greek! *L*

 

I'll add to Terri's list....ATM in Livorno....:)

[kaperino]

BREAKING NEWS…………………….Janet (jkeller527 Cruise Critic . WE FOUND YOUR RINGS…………THEY WERE STILL IN THE SAFE TUCKED IN THE FAR CORNER. THEY WILL BE SENT TO THE MIAMI OFFICE AND THEN ONTO YOU. NOW, HOW ABOUT THAT FOR THE POWER OF THE BLOG! Hope this cheers you up and I am very happy that you will have them back soon.

 

I knew they would find them and return them!

[jkeller527]

There are ATMs at every corner. You will not have trouble. Naples was the only place that time was short and they were a little harder to find but there was one at Pompeii.

[ETHS1965]

Just a few words because the internet cafe is so expensive and so slow!!! Having a wonderful time, weather is beautiful. the OV cabins are really quite spacious with a tremendous amount of storage room. Laundry is easy to do, but you will have to wait if it is a sea day. Food is pretty good, the only thing that we did not like were the hamburgers on the lido deck by the pool. Have won some money at Babylon, just enough to keep us about even. The staff has all been wonderful. The ship is large and we keep getting lost. Have enjoyed the scheduled activities for the days at sea. Everything is set up for the convenience of the passengers. There are plenty of deck chairs. You learn to ignore some of the most outrageous decorating and some of it is really all right. It does get cool at night, so if you are sailing soon, bring some sweaters. I need to close to go back to the casino. P. S. the two shows, Beatles and Jump, Jive and Wail were terrific!

[richcrow]

Just a few words because the internet cafe is so expensive and so slow!!! Having a wonderful time, weather is beautiful. the OV cabins are really quite spacious with a tremendous amount of storage room. Laundry is easy to do, but you will have to wait if it is a sea day. Food is pretty good, the only thing that we did not like were the hamburgers on the lido deck by the pool. Have won some money at Babylon, just enough to keep us about even. The staff has all been wonderful. The ship is large and we keep getting lost. Have enjoyed the scheduled activities for the days at sea. Everything is set up for the convenience of the passengers. There are plenty of deck chairs. You learn to ignore some of the most outrageous decorating and some of it is really all right. It does get cool at night, so if you are sailing soon, bring some sweaters. I need to close to go back to the casino. P. S. the two shows, Beatles and Jump, Jive and Wail were terrific!

 

Queen Mimi,

 

Thanks so much for the short but very informative report. BTW if you happen to see Joyce and Les (queenslander), please let her know that we have rescheduled our Meet-and-Greet on May 1st from after the lifeboat muster to 5:00 pm. It will be at trhe same location, the aft Lido Deck Bar.

 

Thanks,

Richard