REVIEW of Carnival Freedom 8 Day Western to Panama 1/15 to 1/23

[cricketts]

Keep the posts coming! This is great reading - we're on this cruise in 5 weeks:)

[mosaic_mom]

Great review so far Nancy.. I still have to finish mine , but can not find it. Your Panama tour review is way different from mine! I was on the over crowded secong ferry and hated every second of it!:mad:

 

Thanks, Shauna. I'm anxious to hear what your review of the canal is. Sorry it wasn't as nice as ours.

[saturnsc]

Can't wait to hear more! We're going on the same canal excursion in May. Great review! Keep it coming.

[jolyroger]

Great review and great pics, we'll be sailing on that beauty In April for our 15th Anniversary...Looks like I'm gonna have to order up a package from the Bon voy Department, love those glasses!!!!

[mosaic_mom]

Thursday 1-20-11 (continued)

I felt it was more exciting to see the canal this way because it gave us an up-close view of the workings of the canal. We got to see the walls up close…

 

 

 

And the back sides of the gates when the lock was empty…

 

 

 

Soon, the gates behind us closed and the water started filling the lock. It didn’t take long before we were rising up, eventually 27 ft higher than when we got into the lock…

 

 

 

 

When almost to the top, we started to see the top side of the canal including the mules used to move large ships through the canal.

 

 

 

[mosaic_mom]

Can't wait to hear more! We're going on the same canal excursion in May. Great review! Keep it coming.

 

Thank you.

 

Great review and great pics, we'll be sailing on that beauty In April for our 15th Anniversary...Looks like I'm gonna have to order up a package from the Bon voy Department, love those glasses!!!!

 

Thanks. The glasses are great. Very pretty.

[mosaic_mom]

Thursday 1-20-11 (continued)

Soon, we could see the lock gates opening and the next step in our path through the canal. We travelled a little further and soon came upon the Pedro Miguel locks of the Panama Canal. We could see in the distance that we were going to be lucky and see a huge cruise ship coming through the locks. It was the Norwegian Star. Once we got closer and got into the lock, the cruise ship looked massive from us being down the bottom of the lock and the ship in the other shipping lane at the top of the lock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After passing through the Pedro Miguel locks, we eventually came into the Gallard Cut. Our tour guide continued to explain things about the canal and about the Gallard Cut and many other interesting bits of Panama Canal information. We passed through the cut and saw how they tier the hillsides to prevent mudslides into the canal area.

 

 

After traveling a ways through the cut, we came to our final destination at a lake in Gamboa and had to debark our ferry. It was an amazing adventure through the canal. While on the ferry, we were served a light lunch and drinks. Soda and water were free, while there was a small charge for beer. Souvenirs were sold on the ferry, and they had a woman taking pictures of passengers for a fee.

 

After debarking the ferry, we boarded the buses and headed back to the ship. It was just over an hour ride back to the ship. The Freedom was supposed to leave Panama at 4 pm, but we were just starting our journey back to the ship around that time. This is a good reason why we chose to stick with a Carnival excursion for this port. We got back on the ship around 5:15 pm and the Freedom ended up pulling out of Panama after 6 pm. It was a long day and we were very tired.

 

We got supper at the Lido buffet again and walked around the ship for a while and sat out on the open deck where we ran into quite a few friends from our roll call and had a great time talking with all of them. We headed up to get our nightly slice of pizza and headed back to our cabin for our nightly sit on the balcony and then off to sleep.

[mosaic_mom]

Friday 1-21-11

This was a sea day. We were so exhausted from our last 2 full days of excursions that we slept until almost 8 am, which is really late for us. We had breakfast on the Lido deck and went to a few trivia sessions. After one of the trivia sessions in the lobby area, we stayed for a Q&A session with Ryan and a few other crew members on life on a cruise ship. It was quite interesting. We later headed up to the Lido for lunch, as I had to have another of those delicious hamburgers. Of course, the travel babies had to join us.

 

 

 

After lunch we headed up to the open deck to look around and watch people and the water. While watching the water, something caught my eye that looked like something skimming across the water. When I tried to show it to DH, it disappeared. So after a short time of thinking I was entirely losing my mind, he finally saw it – flying fish. Now, trying to get a picture or video of a flying fish was nearly impossible for us. But it was really exciting to see them. After a while, there were a lot of them.

 

We went to Tea Time at 3 pm in the Posh dining room and really enjoyed that.

 

 

 

We left to go back to our cabin to sit on the balcony and relax and then get ready for dinner. It was elegant night once again, and we were eager to get dressed up and back to eating supper in the dining room, after missing 2 nights due to late excursions and being exhausted.

 

As we were leaving our cabin around 5:30 pm and headed to the Chic dining room, an announcement was made ship-wide that the ship was off course and headed to Grand Cayman due to a medical emergency. We later learned that a woman had fallen during an excursion in Panama and what they thought were minor injuries turned out to be more serious the next day. If this person or her family is reading this, we hope that she is doing well now and is recovering. Our prayers were with her.

 

After an awesome dinner we walked around the ship for a while and then went to get an early seat for the show in the Victoriana Lounge. Tonight was the Beatles show, and we knew it would be crowded. Now, I am a huge Beatles fan and was eager to see the show. We got there at 8 pm for the 8:30 pm show and it was over half full already. The show was amazing. It was the best show on a Carnival ship that I’ve ever seen. It was awesome.

 

After the show, we went to the outside deck to see if we were close to Grand Cayman yet. We weren’t far from there. We could see the lights from the island already. We stayed out there off and on until we got to Grand Cayman. Never having been to a tender port, I was eager to see how that worked. We watched the little tender bridge being lowered from the ship and watched as the ferry approached the ship. Now, this was happening after 10 pm, so we were wondering if the tender driver was a regular driver or if he happened to be drafted to drive after all the regular drivers had gone home for the night. He came in really fast and sideswiped the tender ramp of the ship. Eventually, he got tied off to the ramp and they loaded the injured passenger and her family onto the tender. They got her safely to a waiting ambulance and to a local hospital and returned ship personnel to the ship and we were soon on our way once again.

 

 

We left Grand Cayman around 11 pm and were already 7 hours behind schedule and were not sure if we could make up all that time, even though we did have one more sea day left before returning to Fort Lauderdale.

[mosaic_mom]

Saturday 1-22-11

This was our last sea day and final day onboard the Carnival Freedom. It was a lazy day. We made a final trip to leave some money at the casino, walked around the ship, sat on Promenade deck for quite a while, and had quite an enjoyable time. DH had to have another piece of that delicious black forest cake from the Viennese Café and I enjoyed a ham and cheese sandwich from the deli.

 

We returned to our cabin mid-afternoon and started packing our things. When we went to the dining room, we wanted to say goodbye to our waiters Wira, Gilbert, and Nilo, as well as our favorite Maitre’d Jogi. They made our trip quite special and we tipped them well.

 

Sometime on this day, another “Operation Brighstar” was called, but we never heard any more about it after that.

 

We took a walk up on the open deck and noticed that the temperatures were really starting to drop. When we left Fort Lauderdale it was in the 50s and all week we were in the upper 80s, so now that we were headed back home, the temperatures were starting to drop again. We went back to the cabin to finish packing and talk about the fantastic week we had.

 

Sunday 1-23-11

It was time to go, but we didn’t want to go. We wanted to stay another week. We encountered something different to us on the Freedom on debarkation day. Either this was something new, something unique to the Freedom, or something we never paid attention to before. Since we were doing self-assist to get off the ship, we were allowed to go down early and wait in the Victoriana Lounge. I thought this was a fantastic idea, especially having to use a walker. We made our way down to the lounge at 6:15 am when the elevators were not being used much yet and sat in the lounge for a while.

 

At 7:05 am, the ship was cleared and they were ready to start debarkation. At 7:20 am, we were called to debark, went off the ship, through customs, and outside to a waiting van from Park N Go, and were taken back to our car, had the luggage loaded in the car, and were back on I-95 headed towards home by 7:50 am. It was a very easy and painless process. It went even more smoothly than we anticipated.

 

All in all, we had a wonderful time. We had a great time celebrating our anniversary, had great weather, fantastic excursions, had a lot of laughs and fun, and most of all met some really wonderful and amazing people from our CC roll call who we will probably be friends with for life.

 

To all those on our roll call, thanks for making our trip so much more fun and enjoyable.

[mississauga]

Did the ship itself go through the locks? We were on a cruise 7 yrs ago that just went through the locks without doing a canal crossing. Wondering if the Freedom does the same thing on this particular itinerary.

 

Mosiac Mom - I really enjoyed your review. Well written and entertaining.:)

Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[mosaic_mom]

Did the ship itself go through the locks? We were on a cruise 7 yrs ago that just went through the locks without doing a canal crossing. Wondering if the Freedom does the same thing on this particular itinerary.

 

Mosiac Mom - I really enjoyed your review. Well written and entertaining.:)

Thanks for sharing your pictures.

 

Thank you very much.

 

The ship did not go through the locks. None of the Carnival ships go through the locks unless they are doing a repositioning. We took the Panama Canal excursion where they take you on a 1.5 hour bus ride from Colon to the Pacific side of the canal and you board a small ferry and go through the locks about halfway through the canal and then an hour bus ride back to the ship.

[luv2gonow]

great review....thanks for all the awesome pics.

 

The Okeydokey tour....do you think it would be safe for 2 women and a child to walk to the guide out of the gate. Also how much time were you on the bus....was the ride scenic?

Thanks

Kerri

[mosaic_mom]

great review....thanks for all the awesome pics.

 

The Okeydokey tour....do you think it would be safe for 2 women and a child to walk to the guide out of the gate. Also how much time were you on the bus....was the ride scenic?

Thanks

Kerri

 

I think it would be safe for you. The walk from the ship is all out in the open, across a parking lot where a walkway is marked off, then through a small flea market type place and a small air-conditioned building. It sounds far, but I use a walker and had no trouble walking it. Once you step outside the air-conditioned building you will see a fence and if you have pre-booked with Okeydokey, the tour guide will be there holding a sign with your name on it. I felt the tour was scenic and the driver really explained a lot. Not a formal narration, more like a conversation, which I enjoyed a lot.

[mississauga]

Thank you very much.

 

The ship did not go through the locks. None of the Carnival ships go through the locks unless they are doing a repositioning. We took the Panama Canal excursion where they take you on a 1.5 hour bus ride from Colon to the Pacific side of the canal and you board a small ferry and go through the locks about halfway through the canal and then an hour bus ride back to the ship.

 

Yes, from your pictures, it looks like you got to see more than we did from the ship. It was exciting nevertheless to go through the locks. Too bad the Freedom doesn't. Maybe it's too wide to go through:eek:

[mosaic_mom]

Yes, from your pictures, it looks like you got to see more than we did from the ship. It was exciting nevertheless to go through the locks. Too bad the Freedom doesn't. Maybe it's too wide to go through:eek:

 

You're exactly right. The Freedom is too wide by 6 ft. They explained that to us on the excursion. However, when the new part of the canal is finished, it should fit just fine in there. But it costs the cruise company a fortune to go through the Panama Canal.

[Prphan2]

Thanks Nancy for taking the time to post your review and pictures...very informative! Based on your review and a couple of others I read, I think that we'll book our Panama excursion through CCL. I've read a couple of stories of a downpour of rain delaying the return to the ship, and how close some people have cut it in getting back. Thanks again!

[cricketts]

Fantastic review. Thank you very much!! Quick question, when you're on the ferry coming through the locks, where is the best vantage point? It somewhat looks like it should be the top level, but not sure... also, is port or starboard better?
Thanks,
Deedee

[mosaic_mom]

[quote name='Prphan2']Thanks Nancy for taking the time to post your review and pictures...very informative! Based on your review and a couple of others I read, I think that we'll book our Panama excursion through CCL. I've read a couple of stories of a downpour of rain delaying the return to the ship, and how close some people have cut it in getting back. Thanks again![/quote]


Thank you for your kind words. Before we cruised, we read that it was better to take a ship sponsored excursion and we were sure glad we did. We should have been back onboard at 3:30 but it was around 5:15 when we actually got back. We were fortunate not to get any rain, but we went when it was not rainy season there.

[mosaic_mom]

[quote name='cricketts']Fantastic review. Thank you very much!! Quick question, when you're on the ferry coming through the locks, where is the best vantage point? It somewhat looks like it should be the top level, but not sure... also, is port or starboard better?
Thanks,
Deedee[/quote]

Thank you. The ferry wasn't that large and you were free to walk around and go upstairs and downstairs and on either side if you chose. Being that it's so small, either side is good. I imagine the people up on the top level may have seen better, but I'm disabled and unable to get up the stairs, so I couldn't honestly tell you.

[luv2gonow]

[quote name='mosaic_mom']I think it would be safe for you. The walk from the ship is all out in the open, across a parking lot where a walkway is marked off, then through a small flea market type place and a small air-conditioned building. It sounds far, but I use a walker and had no trouble walking it. Once you step outside the air-conditioned building you will see a fence and if you have pre-booked with Okeydokey, the tour guide will be there holding a sign with your name on it. I felt the tour was scenic and the driver really explained a lot. Not a formal narration, more like a conversation, which I enjoyed a lot.[/quote]
Thanks....sounds totally doable.
[quote name='mosaic_mom']Thank you very much.

The ship did not go through the locks. None of the Carnival ships go through the locks unless they are doing a repositioning. We took the Panama Canal excursion where they take you on a 1.5 hour bus ride from Colon to the Pacific side of the canal and you board a small ferry and go through the locks about halfway through the canal and then an hour bus ride back to the ship.[/quote]
How long is the trip on the ferry....and I'm scared to find out what the "other" ferry dealt with to have 2 different experiences.
Also.....did you notice any kids on board or on excursions?
Thanks
kerri

[mosaic_mom]

[quote name='luv2gonow']How long is the trip on the ferry....and I'm scared to find out what the "other" ferry dealt with to have 2 different experiences.
Also.....did you notice any kids on board or on excursions?
Thanks
kerri[/quote]

Friends of ours who were on the other ferry are supposed to be writing a review. Hopefully, they will do that. I don't know exactly what all happended on their part of the tour, but I know that ours was amazing.

The ferry trip was I think about 4 hours. I didn't notice many kids on the excursion. There weren't really that many kids on the ship either, but school was in when we went and it tended to be a little older crowd on this cruise. Our friends did have their 16 year old daughter with them.

[tree.critter]

Loved your review!! Was fun to read through someone else's eyes that was on the same ship.

I'm in St. Augustine FL and my returning flight wasn't until later that evening so we just waited to debark the old way, I was in group 20 so got a chance to hang out a little bit more at the end of the cruise. This wound up being very interesting because we had a chance to learn about our "medical emergencies" and Operation Brightstar, etc. I am pleased with the discreet manner that Carnival handles medical emergencies and was surprised to hear that we actually had 1 death, 2 heart attacks, and one medical transplant patient whose luggage was "lost" and had to be offloaded (the one in Cozumel) so that they could get necessary treatment.

It didn't stop there though..... on my way down the escalators to Customs an older gentleman fell directly in front of me and couldn't get up until someone came and slammed on the emergency brake (only a few seconds later)... when he got to his feet I could see the huge goose egg on his arm and an awful lot of tissue ripped away. I wonder about his legs, the stairs kept hitting them:(..... I know that they called 911 and just as I was getting outside and clearing customs the ambulance arrived for him.

I have since learned that medical emergencies are fairly common on board, this was news to me, my 6th cruise and the first time I was made aware of any. The upside though is that I truly LOVED this cruise also and have not a single negative comment about any of it except that at the end.... I had to get off the ship too.

Kudos to the Captain for keeping us on time through it all, bet the staff was a little stressed at the change of plans a couple times but you surely couldn't tell it as a passenger.

I was with the Pet Pro Group, we had 97 people on board and our private seminars were excellent also, made some great friends and networking is always a bonus.

Lastly..... had to share, I DID see you on board..... I know because we saw your traveling companions!! LOL, personally as an animal person I thought it was great that you brought some critters with you, it was very hard to leave our critters behind but we made the best out of our towel critters and saved them all throughout the cruise and had quite an animal house by the time we got off:)

[Prairie_Gal]

Excellent review! Thanks for taking the time to post it. We also took the Panama Canal ferry excursion on our Miracle crusie and thought it was awesome.

[mosaic_mom]

[quote name='Prairie_Gal']Excellent review! Thanks for taking the time to post it. We also took the Panama Canal ferry excursion on our Miracle crusie and thought it was awesome.[/quote]

Thank you. We really enjoyed this cruise and the excursions.

[luv2gonow]

[quote name='mosaic_mom']Friends of ours who were on the other ferry are supposed to be writing a review. Hopefully, they will do that. I don't know exactly what all happended on their part of the tour, but I know that ours was amazing.

The ferry trip was I think about 4 hours. I didn't notice many kids on the excursion. There weren't really that many kids on the ship either, but school was in when we went and it tended to be a little older crowd on this cruise. Our friends did have their 16 year old daughter with them.[/quote]
Thanks:)