Freedom 4-11-09 easter review

[SuzieQK]

My Freedom Easter Review. It is bit long-sorry.

Sailing was myself 52 and hubby 53.

 

Embarkation, at dock by 10:30 am, on ship at 11am. First time Platinum we just followed the signs for VIP. Even though this is only hubbys 9th Carnival Criuse-he tagged along with me(lol).Our room was ready by 1pm we had cabin 9264 on the Lido deck-it was very convienent come food lunch time and right across from the laundry room, however the room really sucked. We had a constant rushing of water behind one wall all day and into the night. Sounded like a jet engine taking off. It was very annoying, and being that the ship was full no other cabin for us to change to Our room steward Made was excellent. This is the first time that I could use the free lauder and folding of our clothes, gave Made a 4-5 loads and all came back clean and nicely folded. That is a very nice perk for Patinum members.Our bags were delivered by 3pm. Muster Drill was fast and easy only thing I really hate doing.

Before the Muster drill we met up with our fellow Cruise Critic cruiser at the bar at back of the ship. It was really nice matching faces to names and exchanging info. Throughout the cruise we would see many of the same faces and chat about how our cruise was going.

Shore tours. None at Cozumel. We have been to Cozumel many, many times-we were going to catch a cab to go snorkeling but time got away from us. We shopped around for blankets-love them and at $5 a piece brought home another few. Bought two bottles of Kaluha in a downtown store at 2 for $18-what a steal! Costa Rica was the best port-both Jim and I want to go back to explore more of that country. Before the cruise I made arrangements with Charlie Soto from Okeydokey tours. I did my homework before the cruise reading up on the ports of call at http://www.cruisecritic.com. We wanted to zip line at Brisas,do the Torturgo Canal excursion and stop by a grocery to buy some coffee. He quoted me $79 a person and he delivered big time!! We met Charlie right at the port with our names on a board and since we didn’t want the normal tour with the banana plantation and lunch at Playa Bonita, Charlie rented out a cab for just the two of us for the day. We had Ernesto as our driver. What a great guy, he’s 74 years old and very knowledgable about his country. He took us to Las Brisas and we were fitted with our harnesses. Being a big boned lady and man(that was the polite way the Brisas people call overweight) we were outfitted with an extra shoulder harness. We were teamed up with another foursome from the ship and off we sailed! Ziplining was a blast! We did all 13 ziplines and I got to see a sloth hanging in the tree. When we were done Ernesto was right there waiting for us. Another 10 minute ride to the canal and again we got our own canopied covered boat(which normally holds about 8 people). Our driver was Juan(I think) He was great!!! We saw the boats that the cruise ship used-there were about 50 people on each boat and no way could they stop and get in close to the shore to see the things that Juan showed us.He kept apologizing because his English wasn’t too good-WE SHOULD BE THE ONES APOLOGIZING because we as Americans think everyone should cater to us and our language. Juan referred to the canal as the “Amazon of Costa Rica”, he would spot an animal and show us on a card or a book he had just what we were looking at. At times he would see something like a lizard or a caiman(modest-sized relative of the crocodile .One of the smallest of western crocodilians--no more than two meters long), right in front of our noses and still have to point them out to us. We were on the canal for an hour long tour one way the 30 minutes of a high speed boatride back. On the way back we met up with a guy and his son who caught a turtle and a caiman. Juan pulled along side of their boat and I got to hold the caiman which was about 1 1/2 feet long. I gave the boy a few bucks for letting me hold it. WE saw sloths, a group of monkeys one with her baby, tons of birds,a Jesus Christ lizard( cuz it runs on top of the water) bats, caimans,and other lizards. At one point Juan got out of the boat and ran up a hill. He brought back with him a handful of fragrant leaves called Ylang Ylang-which is used to make Chanel No.5. Again after our boattrip Ernesto was patiently waiting for us. Going back to the cruiseship he showed us Playa Bonita beach and we stopped at two grocery stores so I could buy coffee and vanilla. What a wonderful day we had!! Ernesto let us off at the dock and we paid him the $79 for each of us plus a nice tip for taking good care of us.

In Panama we booked the Panama Canal tour thru the cruiseship. The only reason I did that was because time was so short in Panama and I didn’t want to risk booking with someone online in fear of getting back late to the ship.Traffic is a real bear in Panama. As it was, our tour buses were already a half an hour late getting back to the ship. We had no time to peruse the little shopping area near the dock. Our group met in the designated lounge at 6:45 am for the tour. We were divided into 7 groups and each group boarded an air-conditioned bus for the 1 1/2 ride to the Panama Canal. We then all boarded a ferry which had chairs on two decks-some in the sun and some not. There was a small area which was enclosed and air-conditioned-that’s where they laid out a buffet lunch of small sandwiches, pasta some kind of hot meat(think it was pork) and very good banana muffins. We were also welcomed to get waters and sodas throughout our tour. Going thru the first lock was really cool, but it got to be a long hot day and once you’ve gone thru one lock you’ve seen it all. We also could buy a picture of us on the ferry saying we passed thru the Panama Canal-that was $10 for one picture. We passed thru a total of 3 locks. Then we boarded our buses again and headed back to the ship. All in all it was an ok tour-not worth the $380ish dollars for the two of us. But we probably will never have the chance to say we went thru the Panama Canal again.

 

Food on the ship was good to very good. Our dinner meals were always great. I loved loved loved the Mongolian station. Carnival should incorporate that on every ship.I waited to taste the fish and chips again on this ship. They were excellent on a previous ship and I was looking forward to having it for lunch again. Well the fish were very very greasy this time around. I only had it once on the first day, and my husband tried it again a few days later and it was still very very greasy-what a disappointment! We ate in the Supper Club one night and the food was good. Cant say it was the best filet we have ever had. I had the surf and turf and the 4oz lobster wasn’t that great. I also asked that mine was med rare, Jim asked that his filet be butterflied and done med. Well. Well when our steaks were served mine was just barely pink and Jims was charred and dry throughout. I asked that mine be redone –yes I could have eaten it or given it to Jim since it was more med well than anything. But the waitress couldn’t understand the concept of Med rare. That totally baffeled us, you would think when I explained not twice but three times that I wanted my steak hot on the outside but almost bloody on the inside they would understand. The chef had to be brought out to our table to get it cooked right. They deal with these terms every night-but it was like talking martian talk to the waitress. Over at the next table two guys watched what was happening and also ordered the filet. They also gave explicit instructions so their steaks weren’t done wrong. I just didn’t get what the deal was that night. Everything else was outstanding.

Shows-I did not go to any a/c saw all the shows on other ships Saw Marvin Bell (comedy act) was just ok not really funny. The Casino was very good to me I put a total of $10 in quarter slots and walked off the ship almost $500 richer! Hubby spent around $30 on slots and donated it all .

 

Disembarkation was very smooth. We wanted to use the Onboard Luggage Express Program, the service of paying for our bags to go directly to the airrport but the cost of it would have been Carnivals charge of $20 per person and $15 per bag thru Airtran for a total of $70. We decided to use our Platinum status and be in group #1. We were off the ship by 8:15 am. At FLL by 8:45am. Unfortunately our flight wasn’t until 1:50 so we had to sit with our bags until 10:50. We originally were going to have a friend who lives in FLL pick us up and visit with him for a few hours, but that fell thru at the last minute.

All in all-loved the ship, loved the extra day at sea and loved cruising in general. Already looking at ships to book next Easter.

Hope this helped.

[SuzieQK]

bump

[richbum]

Great review thanks for posting. Do you have pix that you can share?

THX:D

[cruisegal58]

thanks for the review. we sail in may, one of our critic pals has cabin 9264!! i hope they do not have your problems. shame the fish was so greasy!! i read that somewhere else too.

was the adults only pool enforced?? cruisegal.