Freedom 6 day review

My husband and I were on the July 26 Freedom. Background: We are early 50s, love to travel, but this was only our 2nd cruise. Our first was on the "maiden voyage" of the NCL Pride of America from San Francisco to the Hawaiian Islands, which happens to be one of both of our top 2 vacations.

Day 1:

We got up early and flew from DFW to FLL. We had a smooth flight arriving on time at 12:29. This was with much anxiety and trepidation due to all the warnings of flying in a day early. Granted that would have been easier, but it wasn't doable on this trip! We were at the port by 1:10 standing in line and on the ship by 1:40. We whizzed through the terminal and lucked out and got in all the short lines. After getting on the ship, we made our way to our aft balcony room: 7451.

The room was beautiful, the balcony was great, and the bathroom was much larger than we expected or had on the Pride. After dropping off our luggage, we made our way to the Maitre D and requested and received a table for 2 in the Posh dining room. We hit the Mongolian Grill and I got a Funship Special. The food was good, not great. The drink was a bit sweet, but grew on me and was quite strong. We explored the ship a bit, reported for Muster Drill and then bought a bottle of bubbly for sailaway.

Fort Lauderdale was extremely hot and humid! I am from Dallas and am used to hot weather, but that was stifling from the humidity! It was very hazy and you really couldn't see the shoreline, buildings, etc. About the aft balcony, it would be great on an Alaska cruise or somewhere not so hot. We really didn't use it! It was too hot to enjoy in July due to the extreme heat and humidity. My DH was of the definite opinion he prefers a side balcony because a) he likes the breeze and we needed it on this cruise and b) he likes to watch the water go by. On the Pride we ate at a little table by the adult pool at the back of the ship most lunches and watched the wake, so I thought we'd love the aft balcony, but due to the heat and lack of breeze, we really didn't get to try it out much!

We had a wonderful meal in the DR that night. Mine was better than DHs. I had tomato bisque soup!!! Yum. Sweet n' Sour shrimp that was good and Creme Brulee! We had been up late the night before packing and got up really early to get to the airport so we hit the sack pretty early!

By the way, I forgot to mention, we hailed a taxi from the airport to the terminal and it took all of 15 minutes max. It is cheaper than the carnival transfers and cheaper, too, which I had read on these boards. Thank you very much!

My recommendation on food in the DR: Stay away from the Carnival items that don't change, EXCEPT warm chocolate melting cake. They weren't as good, IMHO, as the items that changed nightly. Now the Warm Choc. Melting Cake is a definite exception. My husband had the Tiger Prawns appetizer, and Snapper from that menu the first night and it was not near as good as what I had!

One other thing, our room was extremely hot! We called housekeeping the first night, they sent someone to check and agreed and sent someone from maintenance who fixed it immediately. So Carnival did a great job of taking care of the problem. If your room is warm, let them know. We did keep our curtains shut during the day most of the time to help keep our room cool!

After a great night's sleep, I woke early and went and sat on the balcony and watched the buoys go by. I figured we must be pulling into Key West. The bed was very comfortable! The walls are paper thin. Trust me, you can hear your neighbors so use a pillow!ha I was tired enough I went back to sleep for awhile.

We ate breakfast in Posh DR with a nice young couple. We then set off with our snorkel gear to explore and maybe find a spot to snorkel. Again, Key West was very warm and humid. We walked around and found the area we were in to be a bit too touristy for our tastes. We aren't real big into shopping on a cruise. We'd rather experience a place and definitely hit the beaches and snorkeling. We stopped in at Margaritaville for a drink. I had a Coco Cabana which was nice and refreshing. DH had a beer. We then headed to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. I was very hot and tired from carrying my bag by the time we made it there. The beach was pretty, but very rocky. You definitely need water shoes! There was a storm coming in and the current was strong and the water was cloudy. Not much to see - a small fish or 2 and DH saw some small squid. We caught a pedicab back. Much better - there was a breeze! We had some Key Lime Pie at the Blonde Giraffe and went back to the ship. We weren't overly impressed with Key West. Too hot and commercial!

We cleaned up, found a quiet spot in the Swingtime Lounge to read for awhile and then up on deck for sailaway. We ate at the Fish and Chips which was good. Of course, fried is always good - just not good for you! Up on deck you could see Sunset Key and lots of sail boats. Sunset Key is a place I have considered for vacation, so it was cool to see it.

We hit the Sushi Bar. DH loved it. I'm not a big fan of sushi. He enjoyed it daily, I think!

For dinner that night I had Black Bean Soup which was very good! I also had jerked pork loin and Warm chocolate melting cake - all good. My DH enjoyed his sushi, chilled cucumber soup, salmon and a cheese plate. We both enjoyed tonight's meal. Last night he was wishin' for mine! We peeked in the piano bar, but it was sooo smokey. We found all the entertainment too smokey for us to enjoy. We must be snobs, because we weren't taken with the talent, either. There was a girl, Julie, I think in the atrium who had a nice voice and Alex who sang outside the Casino had a beautiful voice. Some of the others sounded very amateur, in our opinions. Again, we turned in early.

We slept in and that was great! I slept like a baby every night. We ate breakfast in Posh again. We just generally took it easy on this day. We were sailing around Cuba and I could see land with my binoculars. It was still quite hot and humid, but better. I did sit on the balcony for awhile and journal. It was still too hot out there for my DH.We wandered around, took a nap, went up to the very top deck where there was a nice breeze and laid out and read. We got cleaned up and had massages in the spa and mine was awesome! Antonia did a great job. I had a massage on Pride of America and thought it was overpriced and not great. We got a special for $99 if you went between 6 and 10 since it was elegant night. Since we were eating at 8:15, we scheduled our massage at 6 and I was very impressed! Total relaxation! We then got ready for dinner and walked around a bit. We had delicious pumkin soup, lobster tail that was pretty good, and cherries jubilee. We then listened to Alex outside the casino and turned in so we would be ready for Grand Cayman toomorrow.

Thank you for your post!!! Do you happen to have the Capers? Thanks, and I can't wait to read more!

Sorry, no capers! I am technologically impaired and wouldn't know how to post them if I had them! LOL

texascat - go to our roll call, we have capers posted there.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=934383&page=8

This was the HIGHLIGHT of our trip! We anchored at 7 and it was HARD to get up, but we did and made it to the Victoriana Lounge between 7:20 and 7:30 to get our tender sticker. We waited 45 minutes or more and I was worried we'd be late. I had booked with Stingray Sailing before we left. By the way, everyone on the boards told me the ship was not on the same time as GC. On our cruise they were. We changed our clocks the night before to match GC's time. So FYI! Anyway, we saw a Stingray Sailing sign and Chip met us, loaded us up in a nice, new AC van and we stopped at the Westin and Ritz to pick up 2 families. We headed to the boat which wasn't too far and loaded up. His crew, Captain Bert and Mark were waiting. They pointed out iguanas and were very friendly. It took 45 minutes to an hour, I would guess to get to Stingray SandBar. You could see the rays perfectly. Mark got in the water first with food and here they came. I was very nervous about this, but loved it. The water was about 4 foot deep or a little less, but the waves were pretty high that day. I could stand easily and I'm 5'3. The rays swam all around you and touched you. You really couldn't avoid them. After about 15 minutes or so, I got more comfortable and even held one. Their underside feels like velvet!

Then we motored about 5 minutes away to a reef. They had vests if you wanted one. Captain Bert and Chip coaxed an eel out of its home. It was green with reddish eyes and beautiful. I got a new underwater camera and forgot to put it on underwater setting for the rays and the eel, so my color wasn't great. Then I remembered to change the setting and got awesome pics. The coral was very nice and we saw lots of nice fish snorkeling. I could've stayed longer. The water in Cayman was so clear and beautiful!

We put up the sail and had a nice peaceful sail back to shore. Stingray Sailing did an awesome job and I was so glad I wasn't packed on the other boats I saw like sardines. I would highly recommend them. They dropped us off at Royal Palms on the way in. DH and I had a drink and enjoyed the scenery . I turned around and Bert showed up and said that had been his hangout for years. We then walked the 2 miles back to the boat.

We took it easy the rest of the afternoon and evening until dinner. Neither of us liked our dinner choice and Eva (who did a great job) brought us Filet Mignon. It was delicious and we were shocked that the steak on the ship would be so good! We shared Warm Chocolate Melting Cake and called it a night!

More pics.

snorkeling

coral and fish

7 mile beach

I'm new at the picture thing so I don't know what I'm doing! I forgot to mention that as we sailed from GC to Jamaica the seas got rough. Our TV was wobbling, the Do NOt Disturb sign was swinging back and forth and I had to take a mezacline the night before which definitely knocks me out!

We booked a private excursion with Marva Shaw and Knowjamaica. We disembarked and were pointed to a spot to wait. Her son showed up and off we went to the van. We had communicated back and forth, but somehow the issue of cash only had not come up. We didn't have enough cash so we started off with some anxiety and worry! We paid him the $100 private tour fee and he handed us off to our guide, Cool Maroon. I had read on here not to worry, but I did a bit! Cool took us to our tubing adventure (another $20 pp which we knew going in) and handed us off to our guide. He sang Bob Marley songs all the way. It was nice and peaceful and very pretty lush plants, but really not worth the $ in our opinion. Plus, we would have preferred to tube it alone! The water was nice and cool! About 2/3 of the way down you stop and they have pics you can buy and "stuff" you can buy. The pictures were actually quite good, but we knew we were running short on cash, so we declined. We tipped our guide and got back in the van. We told Cool we needed to go back to ship for $, but he said he'd cover Reggae Beach until we returned. We got to Reggae Beach and they had gone up $5 pp from the price we had been quoted, evidently to cover a lounger. The beach was beautiful, but rough! We had taken snorkel gear and wanted to snorkel, but the conditions weren't good. DH didn't really want to stay there, much to my disappointment because it was a beautiful, clean and quiet beach. So we rinsed off and headed back to the van. Cool dropped me off so I could get on the ship and get $ to take care of him,while he and DH went and had a Red Stripe. He was so nice and friendly. We enjoyed our day with him. I would recommend him as a guide. Jamaica is beautiful with its hills, but we felt we spent far more than our day was worth. I would like it better if I went there and stayed awhile, not as a cruise ship passenger, I think!

We cleaned up and ate lunch at the Mongolian Grill because the line wasn't bad and nothing else really appealed to us. It was good again, but not GREAT! As we sailed away we could see Dunn's River Falls.

This was our 2nd formal night. We dressed up and had dinner. We were rocking and rolling some again and obviously I have seasickness issues! Evidently we went through a squall with 55mph winds according to John Heald. For dinner we had broccoli soup, escargot, sushi, Chateau Briand, Warm Choc. Melting Cake and Baked Alaska. We both liked what we got with the exception of the Baked Alaska! We went and listened to Alex play for awhile and then hit the sack!

We slept in and could see Cuba from the ship pretty much all day. We were still doing some rocking and since I had to take mezacline I slept most of this day away. :( Part of my napping was done on deck and part of it in our bed, but nap I did! We ate lunch in Posh and dinner and that was about the extent of our day!

We had set our alarm for 6:30 since we were doing self disembarking. I couldn't get up, but at 6:50 I heard them announce they would be starting soon. Luckily, we had pretty much packed up the night before. I hopped into the shower, dressed and we headed up to the buffet. We got through eating and returned to our room a little after 8, just in time to hear them call our floor (7) for self assist. Perfect timing! We were the last floor called. We headed off the ship and it took much longer gettiing off than getting on. We got a cab and checked in at the airport around 9:40 for our 11:45 flight. Perfect again!We flew Continental to Houston (we had a direct flight on American arriving) and changed planes. I was impressed. Continental actually served lunch and pretzels on the next flight. We got on our flight from Houston to Dallas and sat awhile and taxiied out. There were storms and we didn't have enough fuel for the flight west to avoid the storms so we went back to the gate for more fuel, got back in the line to take off and flew extra miles to avoid the storm. Thank goodness this was our return flight because we were 3 hours late arriving back in Dallas!

Our final thoughts on the cruise: the ship's decor was strange. The Pride of America was much prettier. We did like our room and bathroom better on Carnival and we thought overall the food was better on Carnival. On both cruises by about day 4 we were tiring of the food. My DH wanted to just rest since he's had a lot of deadlines at work. My personality won't let me dock at an island I've never been to and not explore! We felt like we were hurrying somewhere a lot. We also felt "scheduled" too much (get off the ship, dinner, etc.). We decided we may not be real "cruise people". We have never had a vacation we didn't enjoy, but this was not near the top of the list. Our Hawaii cruise was. Of course, we had 5 seadays at the beginning and he got to rest and we rented cars at each place and did our own thing - snorkeled at every port, but Hilo. So maybe the ports were the difference, the snorkeliing, or being on our own without the crowds. Obviously, we didn't take advantage of all the shows, etc, but that isn't really "us". Well, unless Jimmy Buffet's performing, or the Eagles or someone like that! I also don't like that seasick feeling or sleeping all the time from the meds. We might like to try again on a repositioning cruise through the Panama Canal, Alaska or the Paul Gauguin (when we're rich) around the Society Islands, but we'll stick to land based vacations for our next couple of vacations. No real complaints, just differences in personalities!

Enjoyed reading your review. Thanks for posting.

Enjoyed your review and pics!! Thank you so much for posting. We're doing the same itinerary in November and was wondering about Stingray Sailing.

Loved reading this! Going on freedom in 62 days - not really counting :-)

Thanks for taking your time to post such a good review. I just booked this cruise for March, and it's nice to know that it's pretty much what I am expecting. We're planning on doing Hemingway's house in Key West, the Turtle Farm and dolphin swim in Grand Cayman, and the tram/zipline/Jamaica Bob Sled excursion in Jamaica.

I've been to Grand Cayman before--it's by far my favorite island of those I've visited--so I'm excited. Plus, oddly enough, I think it's pretty cool to see Cuba. I was born in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis, so Cuba's been off-limits all my life. It will be cool to be able to say I've seen it.

Take good care,

Thank you for your post!!! Do you happen to have the Capers? Thanks, and I can't wait to read more!

I have them! You can email me at otowncutie2006@aol.com if you would like me to forward them to you!

Liz

I have them! You can email me at otowncutie2006@aol.com if you would like me to forward them to you!

 

Liz

Hi Liz - I sent you an email as well - would love to take a look at the Capers! We leave September 6th - I am so excited!!

Thanks!

Karin

texascat - go to our roll call, we have capers posted there.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=934383&page=8

Thank you so much for the critics!!! I am having trouble reading, but I will try to print!

Thanks,

I know this is an old thread - but any chance if you recall if Cabin 7451 had a sofa or a chair? Thanks so much!