Thanksgiving Freedom Cruise 2017...Lots of Pics

For those of you interested in seeing the first day Texas has a different drink menu on Carnival. It is below.

I suspect the different drink menu is because they don't pay the tax on all the alcohol onboard, so they can only serve that which has been taxed until they are outside the statutory limits.

I suspect the different drink menu is because they don't pay the tax on all the alcohol onboard, so they can only serve that which has been taxed until they are outside the statutory limits.

You are correct same reason cheers package doesn't kick in until day 2 if you get it when sailing from Galveston

We dropped the kids off at Camp Ocean as we had a Slot Pull to get ready for. I organized one through our social media group. From the sounds of it there was going to be a lot of people involved so I said I was going to limit it to 40 people. We did not have a problem as I believe we ended up having about 17 people which was fun. We each put in $20 and headed to the Wheel of Fortune machine. Everyone got their 5 pulls and we went all the way through and our total came out that we each were getting $21 back.....awesome we all made $1. Some people wanted to do it again so I cashed out paid everyone and then said we would sign up again if you wanted to go again. Turned out everyone wanted back in again and we headed back to the machine. This time we didn't do quite as good but we all got back $12 dollars I believe it was. All in all we had a fun time and in the end only lost $7 a piece.

After all that hard work we went to get the girls and then off to one of our favorite locations on the cruise ship the Deli. I love getting the corned beef and pastrami with swiss cheese and thousand island dressing

We also got a hot ham n cheese and a hot dog. So we had never got hot dogs before cuz it seems like a kid thing right and now that we have a kid with get a hot dog. Wow the hot dogs are super good at the deli and will get them in the future even without kids.

Makenna decided she wanted a wrap

Everyone enjoyed their food and looking out at the water.

Back to the room for some rest time and then to get ready for formal night.

Everyone was all dressed and looking their best. Took a little more planning with 4 of us getting ready in a room. Off to the taste bar for a bite to eat on our way to dinner.

The meatballs are delicious and go perfect with a glass of wine as we always bring a glass with us from the room on formal night.

Sitting down to dinner

Tonight's menu:

The girls started with some mushroom soup

I had some fried oysters which were very tasty

I also had a ceasar salad which I wasn't that impressed with

The girls each had spaghetti carbonara

DW and I both had the lobster and the prime rib. I must say the lobster was delicious and I may have had 3 of them but who's counting.

Next up the dessert menu

Ainsley knew what she wanted before even seeing a menu the chocolate melting cake...Makenna went that route tonight as well

DW got the creme brulee as that is her favorite....we ordered two of them just in case the kids wanted some too

I had the hazelnut chocolate cake which was too much chocolate for me.

Good thing I got butter pecan ice cream as well

As we were eating our dessert the moment came and "Chubby" the maitre de announced "Showtime".....this was the first time the girls got to experience this and were excited every night waiting to see if it would happen

Here is a quick video of the dancing

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I am enjoying your review and following. We have cruised the freedom many times, one of my favorites. Your family is so adorable !

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After dinner we went back to our room to change into some comfy clothes before heading to the show. When we arrived our towel animal was waiting

We also got our invitation to the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle.

Right before heading off to the show took a picture of our door banner. Many people wonder why to get them but we find it nice to spot our room easily.

The girls posing by the door

I am enjoying your review and following. We have cruised the freedom many times, one of my favorites. Your family is so adorable !

 

 

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Thank you so much and glad you are enjoying!

We headed up to the Lido deck to grab some drinks before heading to the show....while up there the dessert bar looked pretty good so we decided to try a few things.

I am a huge fan of their cubed cheese and meat at the buffet all the time

Relaxing and enjoying the evening

Hot chocolate yes please...

As we were waiting for them to open the doors to the show...there is a display of when the Freedom first set sail

Just a few more minutes

We got our seats and enjoyed the pre show of piano playing

Here is a video clip of the piano playing

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The piano show is always a good one

DW took the girls back to the room to rest up for the next day....I went to go check out one of the comedy shows. It was ok but nothing great. After the comedy show I went up to the pizza place to get some lasagna off the late night menu....the bad news is that doesn't start until 11:30 and it was only 11:00. I went back down to the room to relax for a bit and then back up at 11:30. It was definitely worth it the lasagna is so good and I highly recommend it.

Well that is it for that night....need to rest up for a big day in Key West tomorrow!

We woke up and were still on our way to Key West as we were not set to arrive until 10:00. Below is the Fun Times for the day

We headed down to the main dining room for breakfast.

Since today was a port day the menu is a little different

We started off with some cinnamon rolls and apple juice

The oldest decided she needed cereal, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal....oh and she got mad when I got yogurt and she forgot to order that

I enjoyed some eggs benedict and some sausage

DW had eggs benedict as well with some bacon and corned beef hash

The little one enjoyed some oatmeal at breakfast

Did I mention don't ever take your kids with you on your first cruise...enjoy the experience. So at breakfast we got to experience our first meltdown of the trip. The older one would not listen as she continued to play with a toy she made at Camp Ocean resulting in her crying

I take that back that was the first meltdown for the oldest one...I just remembered the little one had a meltdown within the first few hours of getting on the boat. While visiting Camp Ocean someone decided to take their sunglasses off inside the penquin igloo and then cried when she didn't have sunglasses. Needless to say Dad got to do an across the ship hike to search for sunglasses and did find them.

Enough of that time for Key West....we got off the boat and had the hop on hop off trolley for our excursion. This is a great way to get around town and enjoy all the sights.

They were in the process of rebuilding all of the boat docks from the Hurricane damage

The girls taking a photo in front of the boat

There is Key Lime Pie at almost every corner in Key West

They were busy putting up Christmas lights in the port area

The girls took some photos with the cool statues right by the pier

In case you noticed we all had to represent our World Series Champion Houston Astros on our day in Key West. The girls thought the statues were cool and then they turned the corner to see this.

This is the huge statue. We made our way over to the trolley and hopped on....we had to wait a little while as they stagger the trolleys but it was good we were one of the first people on and scored the back seat which is the best

First sight you see on the tour is Sloppy Joe's bar...we did not stop there this time around

Below is some pictures as we made our way to the first place we wanted to get off at

These houses are crazy expensive to rent

Mile Marker 0

More photos on the trolley tour

The trees are very cool in Key West

This is the weather center

We got off the trolley at stop #4 which includes the Pier and Higgs beach....we walked out on the pier

There was many military helicopters flying around aiding with hurricane relief still

Kinda hard to see in the pictures but there was a bunch of fish swimming around

The girls thought the water was so clear and we hadn't even made it to the amazing water in the Bahamas yet.

We saw some people out parasailing

There is roosters all over Key West walking around

While walking over towards Higgs Beach we came along a Garden Club

They had some cool information inside

They had received some damage from the Hurricane

This was a very beautiful place and nice little stop

While stopping at the restrooms we noticed a bunch of chrysalis waiting to become beautiful butterflies