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Christmas on the Freedom 2014


navybaby1113
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Good morning! Life is finally starting to calm down now that the holidays are over, so I thought I would start our cruise review from our Christmas trip on the Carnival Freedom. This will be a long review, with tons of pictures. For those that enjoy it, I have a lot of food porn to share. The majority of the shots were taken with my Canon T3, but some were taken with my husband's Sony Powershot and some with our underwater camera. A few of the pre-cruise pictures were also taken with my iPhone.

 

Please be patient with me as these reviews can take a while (and I'm also training for a half marathon at the same time). Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll answer to the best of my ability.

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A little background information:

 

This is mine and DH’s 7th cruise. We’re both in our late 20’s/early 30’s and we’re from Tallahassee, FL (Go Noles!). This is the 3rd cruise we’ve taken on the Carnival Freedom (and sadly, probably our last since she’s moving to Texas). We have also previously sailed on the Celebration, Inspiration, Dream, and Liberty.

 

We normally book our cruises a year ahead of time using Early Saver. This was a completely unplanned cruise and we booked it about two weeks before Christmas! Totally out of the ordinary for us.

 

I was surprised to see that there were still some FTTF spots left since I booked the cruise so late. I scooped one up immediately. We used it on our past two cruises and loved it!

 

The ports visited during this cruise were:

Key West - Visit to the Hemingway House

Grand Cayman - Native Way Stingray Sandbar, Coral Gardens, & Star Fish Snorkel

Cozumel - Salsa, Salsa, and Margaritas (booked through the ship)

 

 

I know some people don’t like to read long reviews, so before I start I’ll share some general thoughts.

 

Overall Cruise: We enjoyed ourselves, but not sure we would do a Christmas cruise again. There were a lot of kids and teens because they were out of school. I also feel like there weren't as many activities as normal because they were trying to fit in holiday items as well.

 

Overall Thoughts on the Ship: We have sailed on the Freedom 2 times before this, but this is the first time with the 2.0 upgrades. These were a great addition to the ship. Loved having Guys Burgers and the EA Sports Bar is a fun place to hang out.

 

Overall Thoughts on Food & Dining: Mostly enjoyed the food throughout the cruise. We had some not so great service experiences in the dining room (on Christmas morning we waited over an hour for breakfast). Not the best food and service we've ever had, but also not the worst.

 

Overall Thoughts on Entertainment: The new shows on the ship were fabulous. They cut the cast down to only 6 people, but they rotated them in a way where it wasn't bad. I did miss the show band though. The piano bar entertainer was one of the best I've ever seen.

 

Overall Thoughts on FTTF: Great as always. We arrived at the terminal later than normal and walked right through all the lines. Priority tendering was very helpful in Grand Cayman because we had an early excursion that wasn't booked through the ship. Zone 1 debarkation happened about 30 minutes before we were even scheduled to meet in the lounge, so that was a bit of a disaster. But all in all, still highly recommend it.

 

Overall Thoughts on Cruising During Christmas: Probably wouldn't do it again. It was really expensive and overrun with kids. They did a great job with the Christmas shows though. I wish the decorations would have been a little larger (the tree in the atrium was smaller than my tree at home)

 

Key West: Love Key West. It's also really easy to tour on your own since it's a Florida city and you can use your cell phones. We went to the Hemingway House, which was nice. It was a cool place to tour around and play with the cats, but it was a little expensive. Went to Kermit's Key Lime Pie Shop and that was delicious, but again, expensive.

 

Grand Cayman: Booked with Native Way about a week before the trip. One of the ships in port was delayed, so we ended up having a private excursion with just us and another couple. We visited the stingrays, which was nice, but we didn't have as many crowding us as the bigger boats. After that we went and did some snorkeling, but we didn't stay long because the waves were really rough. He then took us out to look at some starfish, which was really cool. Highly recommend this tour!

 

Cozumel: DH decided he wanted to book the Salsa, Salsa, and Margaritas tour through the ship. Way better than I thought it was going to be. You make 6 different types of salsa and 2 different types of margaritas. They keep your glasses full of margaritas the entire time you're there (they have non-alcoholic options for those who don't drink). After you are done cooking, you then get a salsa dancing lesson. Great tour!

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YAY, I am so glad you are posting a new review. Your reviews are very enjoyable. :D :D :D I am considering a cruise on the Freedom but I don't like losing a port since we would sail out of Galveston. However the airfare to Houston is very reasonable.

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I will be on the Freedom repo in 13 days! Looking forward to your review. It seems like you are always on the ship that I'm booked on next! Lol! You are a great resource for me. :)

 

Fun! Are you going to do a review when you get back? I've always wanted to do a repo.

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Saturday, December 20, 2015 - Pre-Cruise

 

We left Tallahassee around 8am. We planned to stop at Disney World to check out some of the Christmas decorations and then head to my mom’s house to celebrate Christmas with her.

 

We got to Disney World around noon and parked at Downtown Disney. I’m not going to bore you with our entire trip around Disney World, so here are the highlights of some of the decorations.

 

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We also stopped to have lunch at Beaches and Creme while we were there. We split a burger and fries and then ordered a Milky Way sundae for dessert.

 

 

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I love everything Disney World. We’re passholders, so we go a lot. It is my favorite place in the world.

 

We left Disney World and headed the hour south to my mom’s house. Had a very enjoyable Christmas with her and her new puppy.

 

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We went to bed at a decent hour since we had to get up early in the morning and drive the rest of the way to Ft. Lauderdale.

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Sunday, December 21, 2014 - Embarkation Day

 

We had about a 2 ½ hour drive from my mom’s house, so we hopped on the road to Ft. Lauderdale around 8:45am.

 

The drive to Ft. Lauderdale was uneventful until we actually got in Ft. Lauderdale. We printed directions off Google Maps and they were missing a step, so we ended up going the wrong way. We ended up finding a spot to turn around though and eventually found the port around 11:45am.

 

When we arrived at the gates of the cruise port, we presented our passports and the agent gave us directions to our ship. As always at Ft. Lauderdale, they sent us on a wild goose chase. It took us about 20 minutes to actually get to a parking lot we were allowed to park in (they said the normal garage was full, so we had to park in a different lot next to the ship). The parking lot was a very short walk to the ship and was actually more convenient than the garage because you didn’t have to cross all that traffic of people dropping off bags.

 

We walked over to the terminal and were greeted by a porter. Gave him our checked bags, made sure he put the FTTF tags on there, tipped him and we were on our way.

 

We walked straight through security. They did not stop us to inspect our drinks. Handed over our illness check sheet and then were directed to a check-in agent.

 

The lady at check-in handed up a priority boarding card and our gold sail and sign cards and we were off to the ship. Took us about 10 minutes to get through all of security and check-in and we were on board by 12:30pm.

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One of the perks of FTTF is that you can get in your rooms immediately. After boarding, we immediately went down to our room to drop off our bags.

 

We normally book an oceanview room, but since the cost of the cruise was already way higher than what we normally pay, we got an interior instead. We were in room 2299 which is located midship on the main deck. I was a little worried about noise because we were directly under the lobby. I was actually shocked by how quiet it was. Even when they were playing really loud music in the atrium, we didn’t hear anything.

 

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Our room steward had left copies of the Fun Times in our room. We glanced them over before heading up to lunch to see if there was anything interesting going on today. I always bring a highlighter to mark what we’re interested in.

 

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We were getting hungry, so we decided to head up to the Lido deck to grab our first (of many!) Guy’s Burger.

 

Ever since we got off the Liberty over a year ago, I’ve been thinking about those delicious burgers. I ordered a Plain Jane with SMC (super melty cheese) and then added some bacon at the topping bar. DH also got a burger.

 

We went to the second floor of the Lido buffet and grabbed our favorite table up there.

 

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DH and I normally share a plate of dessert so we can taste multiple things. I went downstairs and picked us up a couple items. Nothing was very good, which was disappointing because the last time we were on the Freedom we had some of the best desserts we’ve ever had on a Carnival cruise.

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Freedom is my favorite ship to date, and I was om her last cruise before her upgrades. Cant want to read this! Thanks for taking the time to write it! ;)

 

I don't know what it is about the Freedom, but she feels like home. I'm really going to miss the ship.

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After lunch, we walked around the ship to get acquainted with the 2.0 upgrades. It was so weird that last time we sailed on the Freedom, she looked so much different. The upgrades make the ship even better than she was before!

 

I didn’t take too many pictures of the ship since we’ve sailed on her so many times, but here are the ones I did take.

 

Cherry on Top

 

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Casino

 

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Casino Bar

 

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The Taste Bar

 

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After we got done touring the ship, we decided to go back to the room and take a nap. I heard a bang on the door around 3pm when our bags were delivered. After we finished napping, we decided to unpack to get it over with before muster. I also gave our room steward a phone call to ask for a bucket of ice and he said he would bring it when he serviced our room for the night.

 

Shortly before muster was called, I gave my mom a call to say goodbye. We then turned off our cell phones and put them in the safe. There is plenty of room in the safe to store all your belongings. We were able to fit my iPad, a Kindle, two cell phones, two wallets, and our passports without any problems. Safe access is with a card of some sort. We use an old Visa gift card that doesn’t have any money on it anymore.

 

We heard the announcement for muster around 4pm. We waited in the room for a little while because I didn’t to be squished in the back. Muster took forever! There were a good bit of people still strolling up to deck 20 minutes after it had been called.

 

After muster, we went up to the “secret deck” to watch sail away. We officially set sail around 4:50pm.

 

The sail away from Ft. Lauderdale is relatively short, but it’s fun because of all the houses and hotels you pass. A lot of people will go out on their balconies to cheer and wave.

 

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After sail away, we went down to our room to get ready for dinner. Our free drink tickets and past guest pins were waiting for us in our mailbox.

 

Before dining, we stopped in the Fun Shops because they had 15% off all items. We found DH’s favorite flip-flops and a water wallet (which we forgot at home). This was the first time I’ve ever seen them off a discount on everything.

 

We had Anytime Dining this cruise, so we headed to the Chic dining room around 6pm. We got seated immediately at a table for two near the window.

 

For a starter tonight, both myself and DH ordered the chips with salsa and guacamole. This was good, but tasted a lot like store bought items.

 

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For our entrees, DH ordered the linguini and I ordered mac n cheese from the kid’s menu. Both were good, but the linguini was very oily.

 

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For dessert, I had to get a WCMC to start off my cruise. Sadly it was a little underdone. DH ordered the Black Chocolate Gateau, which he said was delicious.

 

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After dinner we went to the Victoriana theater. That’s where the majority of the entertainment for tonight was going to be held.

 

Irish Bob (one of the entertainment staff) hosted Turbo Trivia and Invisible Movie Trivia. We didn’t do too great at either.

 

We wanted to keep our good seats, so we stuck around and watched a round of $500 Bingo.

 

After Bingo was the Welcome Aboard Show. Well, this was really weird. It was supposed to be combined with the 80’s Pop to the Max, but they had a technical difficulty, so that didn’t happen. Well, the Welcome Aboard didn’t really happen either. They didn’t do the fun production show that they normally do. Wee Jimmy (the cruise director) came up on stage and played a couple games and then brought the comedians out to talk. It was really disappointing and I missed the traditional show.

 

After the “Welcome Aboard Show”, we went to a double header of the two comedians, Lester Bibbs and Lenny Schmidt. They were both hilarious!

 

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After the show was over, I was getting a little hungry, so we went up and grabbed a couple slices of pizza. I love the taste of the new pizza, but it takes so long to get. I wish they would make this run a little more efficiently so you don’t have to stand in line for 30 minutes to get a slice of pizza.

 

We took the pizza down to the room to enjoy.

 

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We didn’t have a towel animal to greet us tonight. After pizza, we went to bed because we were still tired from all the traveling.

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Monday, December 22, 2014 - Key West

 

We woke up around 9am and went up to the lido deck for breakfast. DH wanted a burrito, so he stopped at the short line there and I went on to the buffet. The line for the buffet was absolutely ridiculous! I was in line for over 30 minutes waiting to get food. Never seen such a thing before.

 

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After we were finished with breakfast, we decided to go ahead and get off the ship. We set off walking towards the Hemingway House. It's not a very far walk (maybe a mile), but it was hot!

 

We really enjoyed the Hemingway House. The house was very interesting to walk through and the grounds were gorgeous. We both loved playing with all the cats. The next few posts will be pictures from the Hemingway house (since CC only lets you do 6 pictures in a post)

 

They had fans set up all throughout the house because it didn't have central AC. Thankfully it kept it relatively cool.

 

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This was my favorite cat. His name was Walt Disney. :-)

 

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It was really nice because the house is secluded from the rest of Key West, even though it is right in the middle of all the action.

 

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Here are prices if anyone is interested in going.

 

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After we were finished at the Hemingway House, we started our walk back towards the ship to go to Kermits Key Lime Shop.

 

We walked passed Mile Marker 0.

 

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We saw a chicken with some of her babies on the side of the road.

 

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I also saw this cool little library outside a bar.

 

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We finally made it over to Kermits and bought two slices of key lime pie. It was delicious, but a little pricey. They had a ton of other stuff made with key lime too and they have samples of it all. The key lime salsa was yummy!

 

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After we finished our key lime pie, we decided to head back to the ship.

 

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We went up to the lido deck for lunch. I grabbed a couple items from the Comfort Kitchen line and also the Carvery. Nothing was terribly good. DH grabbed Mongolian.

 

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After lunch, we went back to the room for a nap.

 

Woke up to watch sailaway. We had one pier runner.

 

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The hosted sports trivia in the EA Sports Bar. Questions are from all different types of sports, but there were a lot of golf and baseball.

 

After trivia, we decided it was time for dinner. We requested a table for 2 again tonight and got seated immediately.

 

Service was very slow tonight.

 

For our apps I ordered both a shrimp cocktail and caesar salad. I'm addicted to Carnival's caesar salad. I wish I could recreate it at home.

 

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DH ordered the sushi sampler and chicken quesadilla. DH didn't like the sushi too much.

 

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