Carnival Freedom 10/13/14 Review....toddler in tow & pics

I have my review typed up and ready to go, just need to upload the pictures to go along with it. I am not a very good story-teller like some of you are on here, however it's still a review that could help some of y'all.

Please bare with me on getting the review up.

Here are some cliff notes on the ship, the ports, and cruise director....

The ship is just how I remembered it and didn't take long to reacclimated. It had the full upgrades: seaside theater, Dr. Suess at Sea, Blue Iguana Bar & Cantina, Red Frog Pub and Red Frog Bar, and Guys Burger Joint. The ship was very clean, didn't seem to age.

Our room 6467 which was an interior for 4 people was kinda tight with the 3 of us. The 3rd and 4th bed pulled out of the ceiling, so that was a no go for our toddler son. We ended up making his bed under the vanity with a folded up comforter and pillows. That ended up being "his space" and he loved it. The room steward Waylan was very quiet and soft spoken, but was very good and always greeted us with a smile and "Good morning/afternoon/evening" and his assistant Septan was good too. We hardly saw Septan though.

The cruise director Jen Baker wasn't "horrible" but she wasn't the most awesome and wonderful cruise director we've had. She really dropped the ball on disembarkation day though. I feel this was due to a large private party booking that was on our cruise, in which many did not follow the rules of where to go and wait, or self-disembark. More on this later.....

If anyone has any questions please ask and I'll do my best to answer.

The itinerary for this cruise was:

Carnival Freedom out of Ft. Lauderdale, going to Nassau on Tuesday, HMC on Wednesday, Grand Turk on Thursday, Sea Day on Friday, and "get kicked off" a/k/a Disembark on Saturday morning.

I will be on the Freedom in February and looking forward to hearing all about the ship. Thank you for taking the time to write about your adventure. I always say I will do a review and in 8 cruises I still haven't done it!!!

I think your CD's name is Jen Baxter, not Baker, hehe. We had her on the Triumph. We loved her.

Looking forward to the review. We are going on her in June after she comes to Texas. There are not a lot of reviews with pictures of the Freedom since the dry dock out there so this will be nice!

I'll be sailing on the Freedom with my (almost) 2 year old toddler in December. Can't wait to hear your experiences and tips. He'll be too young for Camp Ocean and not potty trained, so no pools. I'd love any advice on things to do with him. Thanks!!!

I'll be sailing on the Freedom with my (almost) 2 year old toddler in December. Can't wait to hear your experiences and tips. He'll be too young for Camp Ocean and not potty trained, so no pools. I'd love any advice on things to do with him. Thanks!!!

Well on my previous cruises with our toddler, we just wandered around the ship, letting him walk around and do whatever he wanted. I know on previous cruises they had special times for parents to come in with the "younger than 2 year old" kids to play, read, etc. I do not know if this is true or not for Camp Ocean. This article I found on Cruise Critic was very helpful for me.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/blog/index.php/2014/07/14/a-closer-look-5-things-to-know-about-carnivals-new-kids-program-camp-ocean/

I think your CD's name is Jen Baxter, not Baker, hehe. We had her on the Triumph. We loved her.

Opps!!! I will double check my Fun Times when I get home and start writing the review.

Looking forward to your review as we were on this same cruise. I cannot say we were overly impressed with Jen and found her voice to be irritating at times. Having said that, the CD doesn't make or break our cruise.

Cant wait to read more and see if your experience was the same as mine. I did not like Jen at all! I did not like her before either. Yes she really dropped the ball on disembarkation. So much that my friends missed there flight and had to stay an extra night in FL and spend another $600 they did not have to spend. WE barley caught our flight at 315.

I've been debating writing a review myself but I don't know if I want to put myself through it as I'm sure I will get flamed left and right as we had many mis-adventures even though we made it a good time all the same. Thanks for being so brave!

First off, my biggest worry is going to be the weather conditions due to Tropical Storm / Hurricane Gonzalo, the rocking and rolling, and if we make it to Grand Turk or not…..more to come on that……

Introductions: Traveling on this cruise is Me, Kimberly, my husband Tommy, and our little man, Ethan who is 31 months old (2.5yrs). We have had this cruise planned for almost a year, and booked it because of the itinerary and having to take off 1 less day of work since we’re closed for Columbus Day.

Embarkation day—Port Everglades…..

Today 10/13/14, started off at 7:30am leaving our house and driving down to Ft. Lauderdale. It took us right at 3.5hours with no traffic and 2 pee stops for our little man. We made reservations at Park & Go which is an off-site parking place across from the FLL airport, and not far from the port. We have parked here plenty of times and feel safe leaving our car here. Parking here for 5 nights was $43 and change when we paid on Saturday (disembarkation day). Totally worth it for half the price!!! We pull in, give the man our reservation, he gives us a dashboard confirmation, and then we pull up under an overhang and unload our car. We’re quickly whisked away on “the school bus” as my son called it, and was at the port within 5 minutes. There was a little bit of a wait for us to pull up and unload, but not bad.

Once we get our stuff, walk inside and go through security, check-in was a breeze, took about 15 minutes total before we were onboard at 11:45-12noon. Since we’re platinum we went straight to our room to drop off the stroller, cooler bag, and backpack we were carrying. Our room steward is IWayan and his assistant is Septa, which we ran into briefly. We inquired about the 3rd bed for our son, since all we saw was a king bed, but come to find out the bunk beds pull out of the ceiling.

More to come later on my son’s sleeping arrangements……

Side note: Our interior room was 6467, which come to find out later, is located directly over the 70’s lounge. It wasn’t too bad but we did hear some music and DJing til the wee-hours of the morning.

We head down to scope out the food. Tommy is dying to try Guys Burger. Guys Burger really smelled good, so we hopped in line. It went pretty quickly since they had some already made (the bun, 2 patties and cheese). I got the Plain Jane and DH got the Chili one. It came with fries and then you went to the toppings bar to put whatever else you wanted on it. I threw some sautéed onions and ketchup on it and we grabbed a bar table at Red Frog Bar. A bartender quickly came around while we ate, and we ordered drinks. Antoine was fabulous with drink recommendations. I cannot remember what Tommy ordered, nor can he, haha, and I got red painkiller. Ethan ate off mine, but was more interested in the guitarist that was playing some good tunes.

After eating we perused the ship, and then went to the Cat in the Hat “filming”. That was a little fun, but I could not take acting class, going through 1 scene for 30 minutes -1 hour or more. Haha!!! It was fun though being introduced to Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and Sam I am.

We headed down to the room around 2pm to relax a bit since Ethan was acting tired. Our luggage had arrived yay! We finished unpacking, and had to get the lock cut off since the key was on my car keys, which was with my car at Park & Go. Opps!!!

Muster drill was started right at 4pm, and it was hot!!! It was quick and painless (for us that is, not for some apparently), and before we knew it, it was over and we were headed up to the top deck for sail-away.

Whale Tail.......

Tommy & Ethan.....

Tommy and I......

Side note: On this cruise with us was a large group party hosted by Jadakiss, which was sold out. I heard it was close to 900 people. I only had 2 issues with them. First was here at the muster drill. Some ladies that were near us, were playing with their phones and complaining of the heat and how they couldn’t understand the captain when he spoke or Jen the cruise director. The lady working on the ship did not give a care and called someone else over to coax them. The 2nd issue will come later at Margaritaville.

Once we were released from muster drill, we head up to the aft lido pool bar and grabbed drinks, and then went up top on the back. Royal Caribbean pulled out first, and then we followed. The beaches of Ft. Lauderdale are much nicer compared to Daytona or Cocoa, in my opinion.

Once we were out to sea, we headed to the room to see what was for dinner.

Side note: You can look at the dinner menu on your TV from the “Menu” guide.

Sorry I don't know why it's spacing my paragraphs like that.....

Good start so far, looking forward to the rest! Loved the Freedom too, even before 2.0. Glad you had a good time!

like how it spaced them, was wondering how you were doing it. will be on board in two weeks. glad you enjoyed your cruise. yeah we have had Jen before but that doesnt make a cruise.

Enjoying the review! Will be on her December 7 and can't wait!

Jane

We were also on this cruise so excited to see your thoughts, we had a great time, a few bumps but still great:)

But debarking the ship was awful for us too..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am enjoying your review and photos. I can't wait till my turn in three weeks. Looking forward to more of your review:)

I LOVE reading cruise reviews, esp. with pictures, even if I never have nor ever will be on that particular ship! ;):p Great start. You have such a cute little boy!

I'll be on the Freedom in 100 days! Great review so far!

I'll be on the Freedom in 100 days! Great review so far!

You will be surprised to know that those 100 days come up fast!:D

I remember when I booked back in Jan, I thought...oh my...it will take forever, but now I am three weeks away, and cant believe where the time went. Before you know it your cruise day will be here:)

Jen Baxter is my least favorite Cruise Director. She really messed up our Debarkation as well several years ago on the Legend in Tampa. I have since check the cruise director calendar to make sure she would not be on a ship I wanted to book. I would not book a cruise knowing she was the CD. I know people enjoy her and think she is great and that is a wonderful thing, if we all liked the same things it would be a boring world.

Thank you for taking the time to do this review. I would like to do the repositioning cruise. Just haven't figured out how to fit it into our work schedule.

We headed down to the room around 2pm to relax a bit since Ethan was acting tired. Our luggage had arrived yay! We finished unpacking, and had to get the lock cut off since the key was on my car keys, which was with my car at Park & Go. Opps!!!

Muster drill was started right at 4pm, and it was hot!!! It was quick and painless (for us that is, not for some apparently), and before we knew it, it was over and we were headed up to the top deck for sail-away.

Side note: On this cruise with us was a large group party hosted by Jadakiss, which was sold out. I heard it was close to 900 people. I only had 2 issues. First was here at the muster drill. Some ladies that were near us, were playing with their phones and complaining of the heat and how they couldn’t understand the captain when he spoke or Jen the cruise director. The 2nd issue will come later at Margaritaville.

Once we were released from muster drill, we head up to the aft lido pool bar and grabbed drinks, and then went up top on the back. Royal Caribbean pulled out first, and then we followed. The beaches of Ft. Lauderdale are much nicer compared to Daytona or Cocoa, in my opinion. Once we were out to sea, we headed to the room to see what was for dinner.

Side note: You can look at the dinner menu on your TV from the “Menu” guide.

We have anytime dining which is in the lower part of the Chic Restaurant. At 5:45 we headed down there and were seated right away. Now, on our previous cruise, it was quite a chore to get Ethan to eat but he’s been very good since then about eating. Tonight he wanted pizza so we let him have it. For an appetizer, I order the spring rolls, and cocktail shrimp, and for dinner I ordered a pesto chicken pasta dish that had a red sauce to it. Kind of a weird combo in my opinion, so I didn’t eat it all. It was good, but just not something I pictured going together. Tommy ordered the beef & barley soup and salad for an appetizer, and the entrée he got was beef brisket with gravy. He said it was excellent. Of course we had to order dessert which was orange cake for Tommy and WCMC for me. It was pretty good, but was a lot sweeter than I had remembered. Sorry no food pics.

After dinner we walked through the casino, and then stopped at the Red Frog Pub for a drink. Delphia was a very nice lady that loved Ethan. She gave him the fried peas and plantains that he enjoyed on the last cruise. Tommy ordered the Red Painkiller for me without the dark rum, and him one how it comes. It was pretty good. I really should have taken a picture with how many of these Red Painkillers I had, lol!

Once we were done we came back to the room to see about the sleeping arrangements. IWayan hadn’t set up Ethan’s bed, so I asked him, but he said for safety reasons he couldn’t put a mat down without a frame. I thought this was bizarre since I’d rather him roll around on the floor than off a bed. Plus, this has not been an issue on the 3 other cruises with him. Ethan and I watched Frozen on the laptop, while Tommy went to the casino.

When Tommy returned, I went down to customer service, but they took a while to tell me that they didn’t have any trundle beds left available. I told him if he could just bring me a comforter tomorrow for tomorrow night that’d be great. I headed back to the room where Tommy and I made him a bed with our comforter off the bed and some pillows, under the vanity area which of course Ethan thought was awesome and “his own place”. We fell asleep around 10pm.

Next up....Nassau, Bahamas. In port from 8am-5pm, onboard by 4:30pm.

Alarm went off at 6am for me to go to the gym. I jogged a mile and then did an arm workout machine. I know we’ll be walking around a lot today, so I didn’t hit it as hard. I was only there 30 minutes. I headed back to the room to shower and wait for the boys to wake up.

At 7:30 they got up, and changed and we all went to breakfast. As we walked upstairs we saw we were already docked in Nassau, with 4 other boats. We grabbed some omelets and other items from the buffet to eat. Ethan ate pretty well again thankfully. Once we were done, we went to the room to pack up and get off the boat. We’ll be using the stroller today since it is quite a walk from the ship to the welcome center. Our plan is to get off the boat and head to Atlantis for Tommy to play craps, and me and Ethan to walk around, maybe grab Starbucks and shop. After that we *may* walk over the bridge to Daffny’s for some fresh fish. We don’t plan to get off until 10am though.

Ethan was getting antsy so we went ahead and go off around 9:30am and there was no line. We were the last boat so we had the longest walk. They are renovating the Welcome center so we were re-routed but it wasn’t bad. We quickly grabbed a cab and headed to Atlantis. It was $4/person and once we got there we paid and went in. Tommy went to the craps table, and Ethan and I went to the shops and Starbucks. We got him a hat for the beach days since we forgot his. Once we were done, we went to find Tommy, and then went outside to look at the beach and waterfall.

Tommy was done shortly after finding him, and we headed out. After cashing in $10 we walked around the marina and looked at the large yachts. Man I would love to have one, to be able to go to any island I wanted at any time!!!

We grabbed Ben & Jerry’s ice cream before grabbing a taxi back to the ship around 11am.