Carnival Freedom Review- Eastern Caribbean

April 5 - 12 2008 billed as a 'Past Guest Reunion Cruise.'

Traveling with me; DW Karen, DS13, DS11, DS7. For the most part during the trip, the 'D' stands for darling. At times the D had other meanings.

Right now I'm sitting in the Intercontinental hotel in Miami Beach which is just across the bay from the cruise terminals. I have a lot of pics to upload that I plan to include in the review and the internet service here in the hotel is less than stellar so it may be slow. My four Ds are now at the pool after a jaunt through the Bayside Market.

Our cruise vacation began Friday April 4 with an early morning light snack at home followed by breakfast at Huntington Tristate Airport which is about an hour and fifteen minute drive from our house. It was 38 degrees when we left home and everyone was ready for some sun.

Our flight was uneventful. We took off in heavy cloud cover and after a bumpy take off we were soon in blue skys;

It wasn't long before we were all dreaming of better weather;

Our dreams eventually came true;

We landed at FLL and gathered our NINE bags of luggage. When we first landed I received a call from 'Victor' our driver for larrys Limo. Victor asked where I would like to meet and advised me to call him when we had our luggage. I followed his instructions and called him when we exited the terming with our luggage;

Paul...Can't wait to get your whole review! However, your pictures didn't download for me. Is it me? Is anyone else having trouble seeing the pics?:(

Can you tell they were a little excited when the bus they were expecting turned out to be a stretch Limo?

The boys still weren't sure whether they were supposed to get in or not;

After they got in, they forgot how to sit down. I've never seen a vehicle inspected so completely. They checked out everything;

They cleaned out the soft drink bar in no time;

Pics loaded fine.

Paul, if your sons are anything like my sons they're still talking about the limo ride - even after a week on the ship! Love the pictures!

cruiselover999,

Webshots is slow sometimes. Let me know if you get it to work for you.

Victor gave us a very smooth ride from FLL to our hotel Royal Palm on South Beach;

Check in at Royal Palm wasn't until 3:00PM and we were a few hours early so we had the bellmen hold our luggage while we checked out the immediate area of the hotel.

Great so far!! Limo looks fabulous.

After a nice lunch at Jerry's Famous Deli, we were able to check in to our room.

Here's our view of the beach from our balcony;

Here's our view of Miami from our balcony;

Our view straight out of the window;

And our view straight down;

It suffices to say our room was nice for a precruise night, but I wouldn't want to spend too long in that room.

Our two older DS decided they'd rather sleep so we left them in the hotel room and hit the beach (We also went to the beach after leaving Jerry's so I guess they can only take so much...)

It was a beautiful day on South Beach;

Pics are great, keep em coming. You are lucky your weather was so nice! We had a lot of rain and clouds before our cruise.

Thanks for starting a review of your cruise! I love all the pics.

It was late afternoon and I was hoping we would see some ships going out of Government Cut;

We went all the way to the rocks by Government Cut and waited there for a while, but with the contruction going on there now we couldn't see much and couldn't see if any ships were left in port so we headed back up South Beach to our hotel;

We passed an area with linen covered chaise lounges (Beach chairs with sheets and padding) where a wedding was in progress off to the side of the hotel, motel or condo? Britt decided it was a nice place for a nap;

Aa we were walking up South Beach through the open air restaurant area we looked back and saw an RCCL ship heading out of the cut;

When we got back to the hotel I bought some ice cream for each of us from the hotel gift shop. We were thinking of going out to a restaurant but when we got to the room our oldest was asleep, and our middle son was still in bed ready to go to sleep and our youngest was all walked out from the walk down to the cut and back so we ate our ice cream and turned in. I had to eat my oldest son's ice cream too....had to practice my eating for the cruise!

On embarkation day we got up and showered at 8:00AM. At 8:50 I called the bellman to come for our luggage and at 8:55 Victor called and said he was pulling in to the hotel. We went down stairs and the boys had no problem climbing in the limo this time. I tried to get a picture of them getting in and my camera fogged up as I walked outside. They were a little more subdued for this ride;

Britt was up front again talking with Victor the whole way;

It wasn't long before the Carnival Freedom was in sight;

It's amazing how spotting a ship can wake sleepy boys up;

Victor dropped us off in front of the terminal as the previous weeks passengers were still coming out. We walked around to the side and found a porter to take our luggage;

We were busy stapling our luggage tags to all of our bags;

When all of our luggage was safely loaded on the FIRST luggage cart we were confident we'd have our luggage early. The porter came over and introduced himself and gave me his porter number (150) and explained that he was responsible for my bags and that their arrival time and condition was totally up to him. I then handed him the standard $1 per bag (9 bags = $9) and he didn't even look at it. He said 'this is what you're giving me when I'm responsible for all of your belongings?' I said yes and thank you. He then walked over to a fellow porter and handed him the money. I could tell he was disgusted at that point, but I wasn't sure. Nine dollars is more than enough given that we loaded half the luggage in the cart and he didn't have to walk anywhere.

I'll let you know more details later, but it suffices to say that if you see the porter on the right, don't allow him near your bags.

After leaving our bags we were walking back around to the front of the terminal when a very nice Carnival employee asked if were coming or going. I told her coming and she took us straight in to the VIP area just inside the terminal. It is roped off as VIP and is used only for guests arriving very early. The only difference is that the VIP area has seats and the later arrivals have to stand.

When security opened we were first through and headed up to the second floor to sign in and get our S&S cards. After that was complete we were assigned Zone 1 for boarding and were seated near the escalator.

We entered the terminal at 9:43 and were on board at 11:40. The lobby area was very crowded with VIP and crew so we headed up to Lido;

They had a great spread of food hot and ready for us;

The stir fry station was also open and busy;

I don't recall all the names, but the food was even better than before;

Our two older boys found the burger grill and ate the first of ~one hundred burgers;

And as you can see, Spencer also found the ice cream machine;

After we ate we went to the aft panorama deck and got our first look of our balcony;

Great review so far, love the pics! 70 more days for us.argggggggg, tell me though, which limmo service did you use, and what all did you have to go through to arrange it? Thanks in advance:)

Great review so far, love the pics! 70 more days for us.argggggggg, tell me though, which limmo service did you use, and what all did you have to go through to arrange it? Thanks in advance:)

bubbles1209,

We used Larry's Limo. I registered on the site a few months ago and made the reservation. Later on the same day I made the reservation they called and confirmed everything and confirmed contact details. I opted to have them call me when we landed and Victor called as soon as our plane pulled in to the gate. He said to call him back once we were ready to leave and he'd pull up. He asked whether we wanted to be met inside or out and I chose outside for convenience.

A standard taxi is $90 from FLL to South Beach and we'd need a large taxi for the five of us and our luggage so Larry's was way better than cramming into a taxi. You have the option to pay with cash or have it put on your CC after the trip is complete. The drivers tip is included in the price and I confirmed this with Victor.

A taxi is cheaper to travel from South Beach to the port, but it was worth every penny for my boys to ride the limo. Victor was very prompt and more than courteous. He was a personable fellow who appeared to really enjoy his job which makes a difference in the level of service regardless of the job.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, for sharing your vacation with us. This is great!:D

We really enjoyed reading yours and Fred's comments while on the Freedom, and now having pictures completes the story.

I am patiently waiting for more. Keep it coming!!

PS...enjoy your stay at the IC. I loved it there!!

Great review so far. We tried to keep the Freedom intact for you. We were getting off as you were getting on!

Did you have any problem getting all your luggage in the Limo? When I reserved transportation for my cruise they told me a limo would not have enough space for 4 people with luggage. I know we won't have 9 pieces. So they suggested a 10 passenger van.

.........As we were walking up South Beach through the open air restaurant area we looked back and saw an RCCL ship heading out of the cut;

 

 

I'm definately still in vacation mode! The picture I meant to post was this;

Fred was on the Pirate Ship excursion in Miami and got to see all the ships leaving.

Awesome photo review thus far. Looking forward to the other 6 1/2 days!! :)

Did you have any problem getting all your luggage in the Limo? When I reserved transportation for my cruise they told me a limo would not have enough space for 4 people with luggage. I know we won't have 9 pieces. So they suggested a 10 passenger van.

Quench,

We didn't have any problems. It didn't all fit in the trunk, but Victor put some up front and we had one in the back with us I think.

When we booked they offered an upgrade to a 7 pax SUV so the luggage would fit. I declined the upgrade and told them we wanted the stretch limo only. There was a note on the confirmation online that stated stretch limo only, no SUV upgrade. I told them it was for my boys and I wanted them to experience a limo and they understood.

My wife's Ford Expedition EL is nine pax with all the options and my boys ride it every day so an SUV wouldn't have been an upgrade for us.

Paul,

I am lovin every minute of this!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!;)

Carmel

While we were waiting for 1:30 to go to our room, we strolled the decks and took in some sights around our ship. Celebrity Galaxy was docked behind us and was taking on fuel;

I was curious as to when we'd take on fuel so I looked down the port side and sure enough we were taking on fuel too;

They had many of the chairs out already and there were no chair hogs in sight;

When 1:30 rolled around we went down to check out our cabins. We had 6452 a 9A wrap and two of our sons had an inerior down the hall;

We had a flat screen TV and a DVD / VCR combo;

The main thing we had was the huge balcony;

We have been on cruises with fellow CC members that booked 9A cabins who were active in the roll call before the cruise and then we never saw them at all. We now know why we never saw them! The wrap balcony is too hard to stay away from. We normally book balcony cabins on Panorama because it's convenient to everything, but with our aft wrap, we didn't go to nearly as many things as we used to. Our balcony made this cruise totally different from our other cruises.

We had no noise at all from the lounge downstairs nor from our neighbors. On the last night I talked with folks in the 8A two doors down from us on the side and their room was very loud. I went in and listened to the lounge music from below and it was so loud it vibrated their room. They received a $300 OBC due to the noise and I'd say they were owed more. I would have had to sleep on my balcony if it was that loud in my room.

We had no trash on our balcony from the open decks above nor did we have any soot or ash from the engines.

It was really a little too nice back there; so nice that we spent most of our time back there instead of on the ship like normal!

Here's a pic up the port side from our balcony. We have the first 8A along with the 9A for our B2B cruise on Liberty in June. The second balcony up would be where the noise was bad. I really have to add that our balcony was so well insulated that we didn't even hear any of the announcements.

There are two doors between our cabin and the hallway which is why we can't hear announcements (I didn't miss hearing them);

Here's a pic of the balcony divider key hole. Anything that will fit in the square will be able to open the lock. I have used my Ford truck key in the past;

Here's a pic looking back across our balcony;

Here's pic of the couch which became Britt's bed;

After we checked out our cabin and looked everything over we received one of our 9 pieces of luggage. It was a bit scuffed on the outside and wet on the inside. Given that it wasn't raining we wondered about the moisture. We cleaned the bag and dried everything out. Luckily it was our swimsuit bag and nothing was stained.