Rockee4055

I looked through the boards and couldn't find anything on this. We are going down the day before and staying at the Sheraton. What time can you board the ship? We kind of wanted to get on, get settled then go out and check OSJ for a while.

Any help would be appreciated.

The pier is right across the street from the Sheraton. You should not have a problem walking there.

So those 2 other ports I mentioned are not an issue? The Valor does not go out of those ports?

I know there is the pier across the street but read that those ports are for visiting ships?

We are sailing out of San Juan in September. We decided to stay at the Sheraton OSJ and it appears to be directly across the street from the port. I have just read that any ships originating from there leave from the Pan American Pier or the SJ Navy frontier port.

My question: Where does the Valor depart from? If it does depart from the port by the Sheraton can you walk there and what is that distance?

Any help would be appreciated.

Is it true that in Curaco the shops close at 6pm?

 

Thanks!

Barb

Yes, they do close at 6 p.m. I thought it was rather odd to be in port that late when everything shuts down at 6. But, I understand it's only a few short hours to Aruba, so....

Got confused when you said Dominica, cuz didn't u mean la romana Dominican Republic. Carnival doesn't go to Dominica. I did the same itinerary on the miracle in 2011 and we also went to grand Turk. Best cruise so far!!

Yes, la Ramona, my mistake....finger check.

We were dead center! We were the table not right by the window, but the one next to it! [ATTACH]275258[/ATTACH]

This is my hubby and I the first elegant night

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

I think I do remember seeing you guys. That is so weird.

Hi thx for the info. Quick question did they have any poker games / tables in the casino on Freedom?

 

ty

Yes, they did. All the normal tables games. I also saw Caribbean poker, 3 card and Texas holdem. I dumped about $60 into those dang blasted vault games and always close but no cigar. Love those penny machines. :)

The only issue we had was with embarkation which was terrible. We had zone 1 tags being platinum and it took one and a half hours. Absolutely ridiculous!

Wow, that's amazing. We were on so quick. They sat us in a special room being platinum and about 20 minutes after we arrived in the room they boarded us. Must have been the timing.

We used J&R Shuttle to get us back to the airport and it was painless. They charge $7.00 per person, very professional and safe. They are on mu list to repeat our next cruise out of FLL.

 

Thanks for your great review. We are going to be sailing the Freedom, August 10. Out ports are differents than the one you did but other than Tortola we've been to all of them.

We have sailed out of Ft Lauderdale many times but usually have just taken a cab to the airport . Do you happen to have info for J&R Shuttle. There are 12 of us who will be flying home after our cruise and this sounds like what we may want to use.

You can find it on the web but their number is 352-345-9073.

We were on the 2nd level aft! We must have walked right past you every evening! C

 

 

Send from device_name using Cruise Critic your_app_name App

That's funny! You probably did walk by us every evening. Funny! Were you dead center? to the right? to the left?

Thanks for your review. This is wonderful news for us. Starting June 29th we will be spending the next 22 days on the Freedom.

Now THAT'S nice! Enjoy your cruise. Hoping next year to do the same thing. I assume you are doing a B2B2B?

We just returned home after our cruise on the Freedom, we were very pleased by everything and everyone on the ship. All of the workers on the ship worked their tails off! The dining staff were excellent! I can not recall their names, (I'm bad with rememmbering names), but we were at table 530, they were awesome and took the time to remember our names, (there were 8 of us), as well as our preferences regarding different foods! The ports of call were great except for the Dominican Republic, a local there tried to steal my son's iPhone, at that port of call, I would just stay on the ship and enjoy the empty hot-tub!

 

 

Send from device_name using Cruise Critic your_app_name App

Yes, Dominica was not warm and fuzzy to me. Spent the day onboard.

We were at table 538. I know they scatter the table numbers but were you on the 2nd level aft? As you walk in to the dining room we were all the way back by the railing overlooking the 1st floor. We were on the right side as you walked back.

Nice review! Glad you had a good time! We are going on Freedom in July and can't wait!!!

Did you go to the brunch at all? Just wondering how it is. Also, what were the main shows in the lounge?

We didn't go to any of the brunches, too many other things to do.

The main shows were the Ticket to Ride (Beatles), Motown, Legends and the Big Easy. All of the shows had my attention throughout.

I noticed I never really touched on the cabin steward.

For the life of me I can't remember his name and always forgot throughout the cruise. How is it they can remember many names and I can't remember one of them? :o

Cabin steward was very good. It was rare when we saw him but we knew he was doing his job. Everything was perfect!

Always has turn down and pick up and ice bucket was always full and ready to chill.

He was very accommodating with everything we asked of him, although very minor things they were always taken care of.

I have always said, any cabin steward who is invisible and always gets the job done gets a 10 in my book.

To add to my review....they now are in the process of having HR people on each and every ship. Their job is to ensure the workers are not over worked and they work the allowable hours they are required and nothing more. They are also there to work on employee issues, obviously and to ensure they are working in the best environment possible. They also do training sessions if someone is lacking in one area.

The HR person who did our behind the fun tour said if they get a complaint about an employee they immediately take that person in for additional training to make them better for the guests experience.

I really think CCL is stepping up to offer the best possible experience for their guests through training and personal correction in their work ethics. I really think this is a positive and going in the right direction.

It appears to me just by certain comments I've heard or certain questions I've asked that they are seriously trying to get back the consumer confidence and trying to bring their image back to where it should be.

I really found a lot of positives with things I've seen and heard. I know there has been a lot of negative things written on here and that's fine but I am seeing an upturn in service based on those negatives. With all the garbage the past 8 months this does not seem to me to be a company that follows those less then perfect standards.

Everyone and I mean everyone went out of their way for us no matter how trivial it may have been. I was always greeted with a smile, I was always addressed as Mr. or by my first name.

It was quite a pleasant surprise as I kind of went with the expectation of so much less from them and I received so much more.

There was also an issue with someone in our party where somehow they hadn't cleared his folio from the previous cruise. He went to charge a drink the first day and the card was denied because someone who had debarked that day was still showing up. It seemed to have been a minor glitch where they hadn't cleared the folio. With that said, they did immediately correct it and from then on all was good.

I noticed I never really touched on the cabin steward.

Foe the life of me I can't remember his name and always forgot throughout the cruise. How is it they can remember many names and I can't remember one of them? :o

Cabin steward was very good. It was rare when we saw him but we knew he was doing his job. Everything was perfect!

Always has turn down and pick up and ice bucket was always full and ready to chill.

He was very accommodating with everything we asked of him, although very minor things they were always taken care of.

I have always said, any cabin steward who is invisible and always gets the job done gets a 10 in my book.

We were on the Freedom a few weeks ago and also had Marko and Daniel. There was an assistant waiter whose last day on the Freedom was the day we debarked. He flew back to the Phillipines to visit his family for 3 months. Marko was outstanding. Always stopped by to chat for a few minutes. Your assassment matched ours. Latest I can recall being in there was 7:30-7:45, but that was only because we were chatting with one of the waiters.

I was telling Marko how I lived for the chilled soups, Peach, mango, bing cherry etc. One night I came to dinner and he had the recipes sitting on my service plate waiting for me. Marko was tipped VERY WELL!

good news!!!

Yes, definitely good news. I was a little concerned about what type of music we would have but it was awesome. Like I said, they can keep the live bands in exchange for the DJ.

They played 60's through 90's and current stuff. Nothing over the top.

They also played concert videos on the big screen throughout the cruise. I believe there was Chicago, Cher and many other ones that seemed well received by everyone. The Lido was packed when they were playing and everyone was tuned in to the screen.

So you liked it? We are doing the 6 day in 69 days! First time on this ship and this port. So your cabin was not ready when you boarded? You had to wait a little while? We got the FTTF and am fully expecting the cabins to be ready when we board, which we plan to around the same time as you.

No, our cabin was ready very early as platinum guests. The other family with us was not ready early. They do all the FTTF and Platinum guests first.

Our cabin steward told us our cabin was the first one he got ready because of platinum status. We were the only rated or FTTF guests he had this cruise.

Thanks for the review. We're doing the 8 day next April. We've never cruised on the Freedom or out of FL and we're really looking forward to it

If you have any questions let me know. Always nice to have some additional info before you go.

Welcome home.

Thanks Cruisin. Not happy to be back but reality needs to set in at some point.

We had t-shirts made up that said "Freedom from Reality - 2013" and wore them the first day. It was freedom from reality, for sure.

The POC's -

Turk has become one of our favorite islands. We did the CCl excursion doing the dune buggies. We had an absolute blast. If you do it watch out for the donkey piles that are left along the way. If you hit one of them the person behind you will certainly get some of it...ask my DS and DD, They were not happy with me. <snicker> The helmets we used were not sweaty wet like some have said. You can certainly tell they were used but they were dry. I would def do it again.

Dominica - Won't do that again. First of all we did not feel warm and fuzzy there. We all got off the ship and were going to the tour desk on the island to get transportation. There was one person and about 200 people waiting to get to the tour person there. We all decided to go back and enjoy the ship for the day since none of us felt safe. We had a few small children with us and one of them being 2 years old. We did not want to take the chance of something happening.

Curacao - All we did was cruise around town and we had a ball. We walked from the ship and went across the bridge to town. Had a great time shopping and talking to the locals. Great island and really enjoyed it. The bridge going to town was fun to watch. It just kind of floated out of the way to let the boats go through then just floated back out to connect up to the other side again.

Aruba - We did the North Coast jeep tour. The tour was about 5 hours and was a lot of fun. Got to see some of the back country, along the beach, learn some great history and ended up at a beach for about an hour.

I think these islands were the most fund and yet the most relaxing.

Casinos - The first night they were HOt as he**. I hit $400 on a wheel of fortune machine and was hitting like crazy on the penny slots. Everything I touched turned to gold. I think in total between my DW and I we were up about $1500 for the week. I did get my 1500 points and Saturday got my "drinks on us card" attached to my S&S card. Keep in mind when you get that perk from the casino it is only good while you're playing and has to be ordered from a casino bar waiter.

One night my DW's machine jammed when she put money in it. It took about 25 minutes for someone to come and service it. The following night the service person who fixes them saw my DW and called her by name and apologized for it taking so long the night before. He offered to buy her a drink because of the wait. I thought that was a nice thing to do.

I thought the shows were very good. We enjoyed each and every one of them. The comedians were extremely funny except for one of them. One night they had 3 in a row performing and we enjoyed them a lot.

DW and I finally did something we had always wanted to do. We did the behind the fun tour. It was a little pricey, $95 but after we knew it was well worth it. The tour was about 3 hours and I would suggest you do it if it interests you. We finished up on the bridge and spent a lot of time there. Had a great 10 minutes talk with the captain about the bridge and how it operates. They took pictures of each of us with the Captain, a group shot on the bridge and also a group shot on the bow where the crew goes to relax.

Had a little scare on debarkation. WE had our friends son with us he wanted to fly down and back instead of drive. His parents got off the ship then called us to let us know they had his birth certificate. I almost had heart failure as none of us thought about it. They contacted a CCl agent and they brought it back on the ship for us.

Debarkation was an absolute breeze. They called the first self assist at 6:25 a.m....I was shocked. We were off the ship and at the airport by 8:15.

The immigrations line was long but we got through it in about 25 minutes, start to finish. There were 4 or 5 agents clearing people so it was smooth.

We used J&R Shuttle to get us back to the airport and it was painless. They charge $7.00 per person, very professional and safe. They are on mu list to repeat our next cruise out of FLL.

If anyone has any questions I'd be glad to answer.

First of all we loved the ship, probably one of our favorites.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites about a mile from the port. We arrived the day before and it was a great experience.

The Embassy has free transportation from the airport then again to the port. I called as soon as we had out luggage and we were checked into the hotel within 30 minutes of being picked up. The Embassy has happy hour from 5:30 7:30 and tons of free food, snacky kind of stuff but plenty of it. The price was $179.00 for the night but the value was well worth it.

We arrived at the terminal at 10:20 and boarded by 11:15 or so. The embarkation process was quick and painless. I think our cabin was ready by noon. We turned Platinum this cruise so we had priority for our cabin being ready. Our luggage arrived by 2. Our friends who had the suite right next to us wasn't ready until about 1:30 - 2:00. Their luggage arrived about 5:00

The service in the dining room was over the top. We had Marko and Daniel at table 538. The first night is seemed to be a little disorganized and in disarray. By the second night they knew everyone's names and addressed us by that every time they spoke to us. We had 2 large tables in our group. The service on the second night was right on target and it only got better as the week went on. There were a few minor bumps, ordering starters and not getting them but they always responded immediately and fixed it. We had early seating and I think the latest we were out of the MDR was 7:40 but we took time to chat with the waters so that slowed them a bit.

The food was better then I can remember it being. I don't really think the portions were smaller as some have stated. Nobody in our group had any complaints about anything they ordered. Everything we ordered was exactly like we all liked it.

The Lido buffet was up to par with out last 9 Carnival cruises. There was a different variety from past cruises and always good. The ethnic food stations always seemed to have a line but other then that easy sailing.

Music on Lido - They can keep the kettle drums etc. They had DJ's playing up there and it was awesome. They hit every genre of music and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The music was over the top and very enjoyable sitting up there,

The bar service - Well, I think they are lacking a little bit on that. There were some days when it would take 20 minutes to get a return on our drink order. It seemed people were getting a little irritated at the service. I don't know if people were complaining but by the 3rd day it seemed to get better. We didn't have the cheers program because we only have a few drinks per day. The bar service in the show lounge was on par with the past cruises. The comedy club back in the International lounge was over the top lousey. I only saw 3 people taking drink orders and it was half way through the act when we finally got our drinks. Wasn't a big issue but a little disappointing at times.

We used the laundry service because of being platinum. My DW and I both had 3 bags each since it was an 8 day. We took the advice of CC posts and strategically rolled and placed the dirty cloths in the bags. We got them back the same day, folded and returned in 3 bags for each one we sent them. That was a great perk and so glad we had it.

More to come...........

What a letdown! I got to the end and no more! :(

Hurry, please I'm waiting for more. :)

Very nice review. You have a beautiful family and that little one is so cute!

I'm still trying to figure out the picture thing and getting them posted into a thread. <sigh> :rolleyes:

If you are going from Port Everglades to Ft Lauderdale airport, the far better, easier and cheaper way to do it is taxi. $15 for the taxi.

I was checking the rates for the shuttle and it was $9.00 per person. We have 9 people so is that $15 per person or for the taxi?

We'll also have about 11 pcs of luggage and that would not fit in 2 taxis.