roundrockhorn

Ship -Freedom

Deck -8

Stateroom # -8244

Stateroom Category –Balcony

Starboard or Port Side -Port

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Quiet, for the most part. We were surrounded by families with small\loud children though, and the kiddos did make a lot of noise a few times.  

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - no

Balcony View - The view was great! We were able to watch as we pulled into Cozumel, watch as the tenders pulled up in Belize, and watch as we docked in Roatan. All occurred on the Port side, giving us a great view of everything. 

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? -Normal

Was wind a problem? - Only when arriving to and leaving from Roatan.

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? - No problems. You're only a short set of stairs from the Lido Deck, food, and fun. No waiting for an elevator to get you there. 

My mom is returning to NOLA on the Glory tomorrow (4/18/19). I'm very concerned about the weather there tomorrow morning. I'm wondering if the Glory will even be able to transit the Mississippi. My question is, would the ship possibly steam and return early, or will it wait until it's safe to make the transit and dock (even if that isn't until tomorrow evening)? I'm worried about their arrival, because 1.) It's my 70 yr old mom and my aunt, and 2.) They are supposed to drive straight back to Texas so that my mom can stay with my kids while my wife and I leave out of Galveston on the Freedom on Saturday. 

Any info on how NOLA arrivals are handled, would be greatly appreciated. 

Interested in the OP's take on Starfish Island and the snorkeling. I'll be there on the 23rd and hoping the snorkeling is good. I've heard mixed reviews. I've also heard mixed reviews on Starfish Island itself. Any insight would be awesome!! TIA.

I think there is a limit to how much you can get for the Cruise Bar Cash with your fun points. I want to say it's like $200. We aren't big drinkers, but my wife likes that specialty coffee's, so we used our fun points and got $150 in cruise bar cash, plus our $50obc. We figure that this should be enough for us. 

17 minutes ago, AdGuyMG said:

 

Here's what I think most likely is happening.

 

Today's 3/30/19 Freedom sailing is the the 1st after just coming out of a 3 week extensive dry dock. As often happens after a dry dock some things are not 100% ready and there are Contractors still onboard that anticipated being finished by 3/30 but need to stay on for the next week.

 

The contractors count as persons on board against the lifeboat seat count, hence the "overbooking" and the move over offer to the Vista.

 

Roundrockhorn's PVP is correct that "overbooking" does not & should not happen to paying customers thru the reservation system.

 

 

It's not the 1st sailing after dry dock though. This is, I believe, the 3rd sailing. In any event, between my PVP and John Heald, I'm comfortable enough to believe that my cruise in 3 weeks, will be fine. 

I asked John Heald, and he had not heard about it either. 

Just spoke to my PVP, whom I trust completely, and was told that this does not/should not happen. I feel better about my cruise now. 

2 minutes ago, bury me at sea said:

 

We have two cabins booked for next week, departing 4/6.  Two people are in your same situation regarding work, and the other two most definitely want to sail when all can together.

We both work for the state, so it wouldn't be much to cancel the leave request last minute, but finding time later on to be able to schedule leave would be difficult. Besides, when you book a cruise, you circle a date on your calendar. You plan for that date, you use that date to keep you going when work\life gets you down. To have it stripped away from you at nearly the last minute, would be unforgivable as the cruise line could have avoided the "overbooking."  

Interesting. I hope it's just the one for this weekend, and not more than that. My cruise on the Freedom is for 4/20, and my wife and I have already submitted our leave requests at work. A reschedule due to overbooking, when we booked it back in September, would not sit well with me at all. 

Thank you all for the responses! We don't have a color printer anymore either, but can get access to one if needed. As for the tags, we have some plastic tag holders that were specifically designed for cruise tags. They are like a really heavy duty zip-lock style and have a wire cable that you can run through a metal eyelet on the tag holder. The wire has a locking mechanism on it to keep it from coming off unless you actually unscrew it. My mother bought them for us when we booked our cruise in September. Now, in just 24 short days, we'll test them out. We will also be taking the suggestion to put a copy of the tags, inside our luggage as well, just in case. 

I know this is probably a silly question, but does it matter if you print out your boarding passes/luggage tags in color or not? 

20 minutes ago, BeachlvgMom said:

Our room on deck 7 was very cool.  We kept the thermostat set at the lowest setting the entire time, and we were never uncomfortable.  At home we keep our thermostat set at 73 in the summer (in Texas) so that tells you of our tolerance level.  I was actually chilly at times.  When we were in Roatan with outside temp  at its warmest, the room stayed cool through the afternoon.

 

On that note, a lot of the doors leading to the outside on deck 9 had a touch pad added to the sidewall so the motion sensor doors would not be continually tripped to stay open. Someone on either side of the door had to tap the wall pad to open the sliding doors. This helped the lido dining area to stay considerably cooler throughout the warmer days. The new touch pads had many people standing in front of the glass doors waving their hands in the air until they figured out the door operation.   

Thanks for the info. We're from Texas as well, so we know all about the heat. At times during the "winter," even with the heater going, my wife will turn on the ceiling fan in our bedroom at night. I may still bring a fan for her, just in case. 

Curious to know how the room temps were. I've read elsewhere, that even post dry dock, some of the rooms were still pretty hot. My wife and I will be sailing on 4/20 and will be in a balcony cabin on Deck 8. If these reports are accurate, I'm thinking I should bring a fan. 

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

The shipping fairways are not straight into the mouth of Galveston, I don't remember what the headings are.  There are two fairway junctions with the inshore and offshore coastwise fairways, and I seem to recall that there is a direction jog in there somewhere.  The ship will start to slow down probably an hour or so before picking up the pilot, around the inner Galveston Fairway anchorage, so that they can complete the necessary safety tests (steering/propulsion), and be down to "maneuvering speed" (about 12 knots) when nearing the pilot station.

 

They may also "stooge" around, killing time, until the assigned pilot time.

Thanks for the info. Maneuvering speed is 12 knots? Is that to compensate for tides? I would have guessed a bit slower, like under 10.  Still, it's knowledge I didn't have before, and quite interesting too. Thanks again!

45 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Neither marinetraffic nor vesselfinder, and certainly not cruisemapper are "accurate" when ships are outside of land based AIS range (about 30 miles from a land station).  Marinetraffic and vesselfinder will show the last reported position when out of range, but cruisemapper will extrapolate a position from the voyage plan (heading, speed), which has produced some comical results when a ship diverts for any reason.  Both vesselfinder and marinetraffic use the ETA that is input by the ship's navigating officer, so some may have picked up an update from the ship when a satellite AIS signal is picked up by the website.  You can pay to get these satellite AIS positions, but the updates are limited to a couple of times a day, so they are not real accurate either.

Thanks Cheng! Old salts like you and me, understand how that stuff works, how to calculate Kn to MPH, etc. I think the best explanation, is to say that these sites give last reported position and are based on available data at the time. Looking at the last course and speed reported, one could reasonably extrapolate an estimated ETA or a change therein, based on what was reported and what some of us know based on experience. I'd like to think that I predicted it pretty close to the mark, give or take an hour. 

Question though. Do the Cruise ships get close, such as off the coast of Galveston, and jog for a bit before getting clearance to enter the channel? I've always wondered about that. 

Welcome Home Freedom!! Just watched her dock in Galveston. 

She's moving now...At this rate, she'll be jogging off the coast by this evening, and then enter the ship channel early tomorrow morning, as scheduled and weather permitting. 

Most up to date info is in this thread:

From John Heald:

"She received a brand new water works with new amazing slides and loads of fun for the family. There is also a brand new deli, a new Bonzai sushi express. There was some cabin upgrades with USB chargers and lots of new carpet’s and decking. She is going to look fantastic and ready to give you the best of times."

Latest position (racing the Valor back to Galveston):

As of 8:40 UTC (8:40am EST), Freedom was nearing the center of the Gulf. 

51 minutes ago, PlanoDebbie said:

Found cruisemapper now too.  

 

According to this website our ship is well past Key West and currently located at:

 

N 24° 86' 51"

 

W 83° 37' 31"

 

This site doesnt give an ETA.

She's moving at 17kn or roughly 19.6mph (divide knots by .86898 to get speed in mph) according to cruise mapper. As she gets further into the Gulf, she should pick up a tail wind and some speed too. Not sure how far, exactly, it is from her current position to Galveston, but it's only a day's sailing from Galveston to Key West if they're "steaming" or not "taking their time" like they would on a normal cruise. At her present course and speed, I think she will arrive in Galveston sometime Saturday morning with time to spare before she sails again that night. 

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:460110/zoom:10

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:460110/mmsi:371154000/imo:9333149/vessel:CARNIVAL_FREEDOM

Looks like she is doing 2.8kn and her projected course appears to be a zig zag of sorts. She's projected to arrive in Galveston at 1:32pm on Saturday if her course and speed remain constant.

When y'all get back, please post in this thread and tell us what your impressions were. Pics would be nice too. 🙂 I'm sure there will still be some minor things they are still working on, but I know I'd be very interested to see what all has changed. 

Ok. I'll wade in to this uptight discussion. No offense meant to anyone that has a different point of view. As a sailor myself, we used to do a few things to "welcome" the new guys on board. First, take her up on deck at sunset. Have her watch for "the green flash." It happens at the exact moment the sun dips below the horizon. It's an optical illusion and is a real thing, but the chances of actually seeing it, are astronomical. 

Next, another bit of fun we had with the noobs, was sending them somewhere to find 100' of waterline. Perhaps Guest Services might be able to help with that?

Finally, have her ask your steward for a bulkhead remover. Explain to her that you can adjust things in the cabin to make it a bit roomier, but it takes a bulkhead remover to do it. 

Just some old gags, courtesy of The United States Navy. 🙂 

found a couple more on IG. Wondering if that interior shot, is from the promenade or one of the MDR's?? I can't quite place it.