Carnival Freedom Jan 31-Feb 7, 2010 **Newbie Review!**

[serene56]

Hot tub question:

 

Did you ever go to the Gym/spa area to use the hot tub located there?

 

(I am hoping its still there and wasnt removed during the recent dry dock)

now these hot tubs are awesome- less crowded because not many people know they are there.

 

Very WARM-- (its temps up where its supposed to be) one hot and one cool tub- awesome- relaxing etc.

 

Hot tubs out by the pool are not ever HOT-- kids swim there-- it makes me shudder sometimes to watch this.

[LBumb]

we are looking at taking this cruise in may. keep the comments coming.

[hartskys]

We went to SuperTarget as well and made probably our best purchase there.. BUBBA KEGS ! These are large insulated mugs that we filled with our mixed drinks. They were a lot more convenient to use than Carnivals tiny drink cups, and our drinks were always ice cold ! They were about $9 each and came in Pink and Black. They even had built-in bottle openers in the handles. Such a great design!!

 

We all decided to "name" our Bubba Keg !!

 

Now on to CRUISE DAY 1:

We got to the terminal about 10:30am. We didn’t know about luggage tags, but saw a porter handing them out and got ours from him pretty easily. He then took our bags, told us to stand in line and wait to get in, which took about another 30 mins or so. Once the line started moving, we got inside the building quickly and went from one stop to the next, to the next and waited for our Zone to be called to board the ship.

 

Everything moved pretty swiftly, and next thing we knew, our Zone was being called! Yess! Walking down the gangway to the ship was so exciting(for me…J is a play-it-cool type of guy, but aren’t they all?)

We quickly got on the ship, and immediately were awestruck … The decor was like Vegas overload !

 

I kinda knew that cruise ships were over the top and kind of tacky, but this was a new level haha.

We headed straight to the Deli for my REUBEN ! Honestly, I was pretty disappointed in it. Ive never had a reuben before but after many on CC have praised it, I thought Id try it. Oh well, it filled my stomach anyhow. J went thru the buffet and got his lunch. We sat down and people-watched for a while. There were guys walking around with trays of DOD’s so we got a couple of them with souvenier cups (I found out later that you could save the $2.50 from a DOD if you ask for it in a regular cup!)

 

 

After a while we decided to check if our luggage had arrived yet, but it hadn’t. Then we just wandered around the ship a bit to somewhat learn the layout. The rest of our group joined us later around 2 or 3 and when we all finally received our luggage we celebrated ! We were so happy that all of our rumrunners made it ! Between the 6 of us, we had about 12 large rumrunners and a bunch of small ones to carry around in beach bags. We had a pretty impressive hard bar J We had our luggage locked by the way, and everything came to us just as we had left it.

 

 

Did you carry on your booze or packed them in your check in luggage>?

[beachchick24]

Im pretty sure we just grabbed buffet for lunch, and it was formal night for dinner!! I ordered both the lobster and the duck main entrees, with the stuffed mushrooms to start ..everything was fabulous! The duck was, in my and J’s opinion, even better than the lobster.

 

The duck entree ! Melt-in-your-mouth goodness !

 

 

 

Later that night we went to see the show The Big Easy. It was ok…I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the theatre so when I took one with the flash on my camera, a lady came over to our aisle and got mad at me – Boo ! We all agreed that the show would have been much better if it actually had a story line, and just not individual stories to go along with the classic New Orleans songs. Regardless, the ending had some pretty insane costumes and made for a great finish.

 

 

Day 3: Half-day FUN day at Sea

 

Slept in a bit late again this morning, and were a bit groggy after all the sun the day before. I think J and I followed the same routine of grabbing the buffet breakfast and heading outside for some sun. Of course all the good loungers in the main Lido deck pool area were taken by 11am, so we headed back to our secret deck: Empty ! Lovely.

I can’t really tell you what all we did this day(it must not have been that much FUN at sea ! haha)

We were nearing San Juan, Puerto Rico (our first port of call!!) around 4pm, so us 3 ladies decided to shower,and pack up some things to take off the ship with us. After 6 of us were ready to go, we headed up to the top deck to take pictures before getting off the ship.

 

 

 

Goodtoglow getting the perfect shot!

 

[beachchick24]

San Juan cont'd...

 

SO MANY TAXI'S WAITING!

 

Getting off the ship was really quick and easy. We docked at about 430 so the sun was still out but it was disappearing fast. We all found a van cabbie and got in, telling him we wanted to go visit the forts! Visiting the forts (Im sorry I don’t know the name of the one we went to) was pretty much all we had planned for San Juan, so when we arrived and saw the CLOSED sign we were all pretty upset! There was a small area that we could still explore,so we made the best of it, and climbed up to take some pictures.

 

 

J, Myself, and goodtoglow

 

 

 

Jess and I peekin' around the corner

 

J and I

 

Leaving the fort, we decided to walk around town and look at all the architecture of Old San Juan. The buildings were really pretty and there were small shops all along the streets for souvenirs. The sun was going down and some areas were lit up with streetlamps which helped to take some pictures(my camera isn’t the best, sorry!). We also had a monkey spotting in a tree! (aka one of the guys)

 

 

[beachchick24]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[beachchick24]

Hot tub question:

 

Did you ever go to the Gym/spa area to use the hot tub located there?

 

(I am hoping its still there and wasnt removed during the recent dry dock)

now these hot tubs are awesome- less crowded because not many people know they are there.

 

Very WARM-- (its temps up where its supposed to be) one hot and one cool tub- awesome- relaxing etc.

 

Hot tubs out by the pool are not ever HOT-- kids swim there-- it makes me shudder sometimes to watch this.

 

No, I didnt go into the spa/gym area at all sorry (Im a bit of a frugal spender lol)

The hottubs were generally not hot, EXCEPT for one eve which ill get to later in my review!

[beachchick24]

Did you carry on your booze or packed them in your check in luggage>?

 

We checked all our bags with the rumrunners, and I also had one bottle of vodka in my checked bag. We divided all the rumrunners between all of our bags(the 6 of us) so that if one bag got searched and liquor taken away, we'd still have lots in the other bags!

[goodtoglow]

I can’t really tell you what all we did this day(it must not have been that much FUN at sea ! haha)

 

We sat around all day sun tanning on OUR deck, silly!! And of course Jeff went for a job! Then we started shrieking with excitement as we could see San Juan through our room windows!

[beachchick24]

We sat around all day sun tanning on OUR deck, silly!! And of course Jeff went for a job! Then we started shrieking with excitement as we could see San Juan through our room windows!

 

Hahaa.. I was contemplating writing the bit about "incident" the boys had on the deck, but decided that I might get ridiculed on here..it IS a forum after all ! ;)

[goodtoglow]

Hahaa.. I was contemplating writing the bit about "incident" the boys had on the deck, but decided that I might get ridiculed on here..it IS a forum after all ! ;)

 

LMAO!!!! Maybe we should keep that one to ourselves! Haha!

[serene56]

No, I didnt go into the spa/gym area at all sorry (Im a bit of a frugal spender lol)

The hottubs were generally not hot, EXCEPT for one eve which ill get to later in my review!

 

 

spa/gym is free- you only pay for services like massages etc.

Hot tubs, steam rooms and saunas are free- (remember that for the next cruise

[Sarapdot]

waiting for the rest.....looks like you had a good time so far.

[cruzin w chris]

Later that night we went to see the show The Big Easy. It was ok…I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the theatre so when I took one with the flash on my camera, a lady came over to our aisle and got mad at me – Boo ! what is wrong with you people !! why didnt anyone tell her she could not take pics at the shows:D

[beachchick24]

San Juan Continued...

 

All the walking made us hungry so we asked a police officer where the best place for local food and ambiance was, and he told us to go to this restaurant called Raices (Roots). We trekked over there and first impressions were good! There was live music with many of the patrons chanting along. When the food came, however, we were quite underwhelmed. The price was high, and the quantity and quality was low. Live and learn! Overall, I wouldn’t recommend going to this place, and you’ll probably have a better time(and a thicker wallet) at the Senor Frogs along the water.

 

 

 

After dinner, we were getting tired and there wasn’t much left to do in San Juan at night . We looked into a salsa dance bar but it was empty…We were in port on a Monday so things were pretty quiet. J and I headed back to the ship for an early night to get a good nights sleep for ST THOMAS !!!

[beachchick24]

DAY 4: St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

We arrived at the dock at about 7am, but unfortunately J and I were awake MUCH before that…You see, we booked this cruise only 2 months beforehand, and “lucked” out with a room on deck 1(Room 1453) right above the engine area. Therefore, whenever the engine sped up, slowed down, squeeked, clunked, you get the idea, we got to hear and feel it. Im not talking about a little disturbance here and there… The bed actually vibrated and if it weren’t connected to the floor, Im sure it would have danced a little bit across the room. Another live and learn experience!

Our plan for the day was to get off the ship as soon as possible, grab a cab to the Redhook ferry terminal, and get to St John. J and I traveled to the Virgin Islands just over a year ago and fell in love with St John. We found a couple beaches during that trip that absolutely wowed us and we wanted to share them with our 4 friends on this trip. The ferry cost $6 pp/each way and took about 20 minutes.

 

The Redhook Ferry Terminal

 

After finding a small corner store to fill up on some beverages for the beach, we grabbed an open air taxi (the driver pulled up outside the corner store just as we were coming out and says “Oh, there you are, I was looking for you!” Smooth lol)We told the taxi driver that we wanted to go to Gibney’s Beach and away we went!

 

 

 

The beach was BEAUTIFUL! Just as we remembered it! The tide wasn’t cooperating very well, so there was not a lot of beach area, but that didn’t deter us. It DID deter other people that came down the path to the beach, because they looked up and down the beach and then left. We had the beach to ourselves which was great. We snorkelled a bit and I saw a turtle, a large stingray, and tons of spiny urchins, and schools of fish.

We had arranged with the cab driver to pick us up in a few hours and take us to the Coral Bay area for lunch at Skinny Legs. This place has the best blue cheese burgers! Pretty good prices (averaging about $7-$10 for a burger that comes with chips or salad) Also try out Skinny Legs’ drink: The Painkiller. Let me tell ya, it definitely kills the pain *wink* Along the way to Skinny Legs, we passed by the lookout for famous Trunk Bay. Our driver stopped and let us out to take pictures

 

 

Afterlunch, we drove back to Cruz Bay to catch the ferry back to St Thomas. We were a bit early and had a drink on a nearby patio while we waited. We were all very sad when the ferry came and we had to get on it. Goodbye St John !! We’ll be back some day!! We decided to sit on the top deck of the ferry back to St Thomas to take advantage of all the views

 

 

Once back on St Thomas, the two other girls decided to do a bit of shopping in the Havensight mall right at the dock, while the rest of us headed back to the ship as we were exhausted. We had about another hour and a half before the ship was leaving the port.

We hadn’t checked out the serenity area yet, so that was where we went. We found a couple chairs that weren’t occupied *shocker!* and they were really comfy. The sailaway at sunset was just beautiful! One of the girls took a bunch of nice pictures. We found a hottub at the front of the ship that was actually hot!!! And so 4 of us sat in there as we sailed away to the next island.

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

We went to SuperTarget as well and made probably our best purchase there.. BUBBA KEGS ! These are large insulated mugs that we filled with our mixed drinks. They were a lot more convenient to use than Carnivals tiny drink cups, and our drinks were always ice cold ! They were about $9 each and came in Pink and Black. They even had built-in bottle openers in the handles. Such a great design!!

 

We all decided to "name" our Bubba Keg !!

 

So, after reading this part of your review I went to Walmart today and bought two bubba kegs for myself and DBF. Got em on sale for $5.00 each. My question to you is...did you have a hard time getting the lid back on after you take it off? I cant imagine trying to do this inebriated. Either that or I am seriously challenged in this department. :rolleyes:

[goodtoglow]

So, after reading this part of your review I went to Walmart today and bought two bubba kegs for myself and DBF. Got em on sale for $5.00 each. My question to you is...did you have a hard time getting the lid back on after you take it off? I cant imagine trying to do this inebriated. Either that or I am seriously challenged in this department. :rolleyes:

 

LOL!!! I seemed to have the biggest problem putting my lid back on out of our group... I had 2 solutions for this: 1. Hand my lid to one of the guys and ask them to put it on tightly for me 2. Use a straw, that way I don't have to worry if it is on perfectly right!

[pcrum]

Is there more? Anxiously awaiting the rest!!

[sthrnbelle]

I'm guessing "YOUR" deck was actually what is supposed to be the topless deck, am I right? Either way would you kindly post directions on how to get there?:)

[Canada Cruisers]

Hi ... We too are taking this cruise in August. You mentioned that you stayed at the Birch Patio. Do you remember how much it was by taxi to get there and then how much it was to the Port?

Your pictures and commentations are GREAT!!! Thanks ...

CC

[MTemple212]

Yes, I am anxiously awaiting the rest of the review as we are taking this cruise in April! My daughter and her fiance are going with us along with my two step-son's and their significant other's. I'm sure they will enjoy your tips on the booze part though!!

[sds1arm2]

Thanks BeachChick for the review...I am on this same cruise in June and really appreciate the feedback and pictures. Keep them coming!

[beachchick24]

Oh wow, you guys ARE reading this still lol. I kind of left it for a while, not knowing if it was helpful to other cruisers! I will try to pick it up again !

[mlzangel78]

YES KEEP GOING!!!! i love these kind of reviews!!!!! youre doing a great job!