Carnival Freedom 6 Day Review with Pictures 01/22/2012

[koolforkatz]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a great review and post all the pics - we sail on the Freedom 3 weeks Saturday so am getting really pumped reading this :D:D:D

 

If you get a chance, can you let me know - is there a Indian/Curry station on the Lido? I've read different things about this. The Splendor has an amazing one.....

[Cupcrazy]

Fantastic review! I can't wait to read & see more. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this.

[RaiderFaninNM]

Awesome review!! Cannot wait for the rest. We are going on the 8 day, Southern Carribean tour at the beginning of June and can't wait! Can't wait to eat the fish and chips, while my wife and daughters love the mongolian! Thanks for the awesome review and I'm waited with baited breath for the rest!:D

 

NICE!!!!!

 

We are on the same sailing! Looking forward in meeting you!!

[navybaby1113]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a great review and post all the pics - we sail on the Freedom 3 weeks Saturday so am getting really pumped reading this :D:D:D

 

If you get a chance, can you let me know - is there a Indian/Curry station on the Lido? I've read different things about this. The Splendor has an amazing one.....

 

I don't remember seeing an Indian/Curry station, but I don't really like Indian food, so I wasn't really looking for it. Sorry!

[pcrum]

I loved reading your review before we left!

 

I'm so glad it helped. Gosh, you said the the walk to the southernmost point was hot in January!! We about died doing it in the summer. I'd love to do it on a brisk fall day, if there is such a thing in Key West!!!

 

I love your spacious room! How did you find out about that particular room?

[Lady_Jag]

Great review. Thanks for sharing! I can't wait to sail in June!

[navybaby1113]

I'm so glad it helped. Gosh, you said the the walk to the southernmost point was hot in January!! We about died doing it in the summer. I'd love to do it on a brisk fall day, if there is such a thing in Key West!!!

 

I love your spacious room! How did you find out about that particular room?

 

I could not even imagine doing that walk in the middle of the summer. And we live in Florida so we're used to the weather!

 

I just happened to be looking at the deck plans and noticed that room was drastically bigger. I did some googling and saw someone post some pictures on Cruise Critic. I confirmed it wasn't a handicapped room and booked it! It was awesome!

[njmomof2]

I'm enjoying your review. Glad you guys had such a nice time.

 

Looking at the menus you've posted from Zydeco Cruiser's website, I notice that the nightly indian selection is not there. When we cruised Glory in August, I was able to order Indian each night (sometimes I also tried one of the standard entree choices). I love Indian and no one will go with me at home so it was a real treat.

 

Did they do away with that, or was it just on some other page of the menu? Since you mentioned you don't like Indian, maybe you didn't notice.

[lovestocruise19]

Can't wait for more of the review! Will you be posting more tonight? :)

[navybaby1113]

I'm enjoying your review. Glad you guys had such a nice time.

 

Looking at the menus you've posted from Zydeco Cruiser's website, I notice that the nightly indian selection is not there. When we cruised Glory in August, I was able to order Indian each night (sometimes I also tried one of the standard entree choices). I love Indian and no one will go with me at home so it was a real treat.

 

Did they do away with that, or was it just on some other page of the menu? Since you mentioned you don't like Indian, maybe you didn't notice.

 

It's on the Everyday part of the menu. I didn't bother pulling those from Zydeco Cruiser's website since they're the same every night. But don't worry, the Indian meals are still there!

[navybaby1113]

Sorry I didn't post anything last night. I came home from work with a horrible headache and went straight to bed.

 

Let's get started back up with the first sea day.

[navybaby1113]

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

 

Today was our first day at sea. I was glad to have it the day after Key West since we did so much physical activity and were worn out.

 

We slept in today and got up around 10:30am and went to the lido deck buffet for breakfast. DH loved the made to order omelettes in the middle of the buffet line.

 

 

 

After breakfast, we walked around the ship for a little while. They had a steel drum player on the lido deck. He was pretty good!

 

 

At 11:30am, the lido deck was pretty full!

 

 

At this point, DH and I split up. He went to do some trivia and towel folding in the lobby and I went to the cooking demonstration in the steakhouse.

[navybaby1113]

I got to the steakhouse around 11:45am and it was already starting to fill up. The layout of the room made it a little hard to see what was going on. They had a member of the cooking staff repeating everything the chef said during the demonstration so that we were able to understand. I would have preferred actually hearing the chef talk.

 

The dishes were the exact same that they made when I attended the cooking demonstration on the Carnival Dream, but they are so delicious that I didn't care.

 

The first item they made was a mushroom cappuccino, which is essentially just a mushroom soup made out of like 5 mushrooms and then topped with a milk foam. I'm not a big fan of mushrooms, but this is pretty delicious. It was served with a piece of bread.

 

I forgot to take a picture of the sample of that. I do have a picture of the presentation, which I will show you in a little while.

 

The second item was a spinach salad with blue cheese and bacon. I do not like blue cheese at all, so I didn't really care for this dish.

 

 

The next item was the main dish, which was a delicious chicken breast with roasted potatoes and mac n' cheese. Everything was amazing!

 

 

For dessert, they made tiramisu. This is by far the best tiramisu that I have ever eaten in my life.

 

 

I recommend going to the cooking demonstration just to try the food. It will be some of the best food you will taste on the entire cruise.

[navybaby1113]

Here are a few pictures from the cooking demonstration. They also had someone there making a watermelon carving.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

And last, but not least, here are the pictures of the finished dishes, as presented by the chef.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SMSACE6]

Is there a charge for the cooking demonstration? or do you have to reserve a place? Looks like something I would enjoy.:)

[navybaby1113]

Is there a charge for the cooking demonstration? or do you have to reserve a place? Looks like something I would enjoy.:)

 

No charge and no reservation. Just make sure to show up early to make sure you get a decent seat. I've been on two different ships and highly recommend it.

[lovestocruise19]

The cooking demonstration seems really cool! I have that on my list of stuff not to miss. I also don't want to miss the chocolate buffet because I missed it on my first cruise. I'm also looking forward to the past guest party. Did you get to go to that?

[navybaby1113]

After the cooking demonstration, I met up with DH and we went to lunch on the lido deck. The lunch buffet today was American. I was still full from the cooking demonstration, so I just kind of picked at a couple things on my plate. I grabbed some stuffed cornbread, baked fish in citrus sauce, mashed potatoes, and some ham. DH just had a salad.

 

 

 

I was pretty disappointed in the option for salads and fruit on this cruise. On the Inspiration, they had a dedicated salad bar that had a lot of options. On the Freedom they just had a small area before you got to the main buffet.

 

For dessert, we tried a slice of banana cream pie, tiramisu cheesecake, and some raspberry spice cake thing. I wasn't really a fan of any of them. They let their cheesecake get way too warm and it's not terribly good anymore.

 

 

Went back to the room after lunch to take a short nap.

[navybaby1113]

The cooking demonstration seems really cool! I have that on my list of stuff not to miss. I also don't want to miss the chocolate buffet because I missed it on my first cruise. I'm also looking forward to the past guest party. Did you get to go to that?

 

Yes, we did go to the past guest party.

[SMSACE6]

No charge and no reservation. Just make sure to show up early to make sure you get a decent seat. I've been on two different ships and highly recommend it.

 

 

Thanks, I am definitely going to do this on my next cruise! Cant wait!:)

[navybaby1113]

We woke to go to the murder mystery. We had never seen anything like that hosted on a ship, so we knew we had to go. It wasn't as interesting as we thought it was going to be. They tell you about the murder and bring out all the suspects. Then they give you a clue sheet and send you on your way. You have to talk to each suspect to get a clue and decipher cryptograms in the Fun Times. We had until Ocho Rios day to figure out the killer and the weapon. On Ocho Rios day, Brad drew a clue sheet during the morning show and gave the winner a prize.

 

Tonight was elegant night, so we got ready and headed to dinner around 6:50pm.

 

 

 

When we arrived at the dining room, they gave us a beeper and asked us to wait in the lobby for a table. Our beeper finally went off around 7:30pm.

 

We were seated in Richard's section for dinner tonight. He ended up being our favorite waiter of the cruise.

 

 

Here are the menus for tonight's dinner, borrowed from Zydeco Cruiser.

 

 

[koolforkatz]

I am all over that cooking demo -looks fabulous!

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

[navybaby1113]

I apologize for the bad lighting in the pictures again tonight.

 

For an appetizer, I ordered the spaghetti carbonara. It is one of my favorite dishes on Carnival. The portion they give you as an appetizer is huge! I barely was able to eat half of it.

 

DH ordered the Greek Farmer's Salad. He mentioned that it wasn't as good on this cruise as he has had in the past.

 

 

 

For entrees, I ordered both the lobster and prime rib. The prime rib was cooked perfectly!

 

DH ordered the spaghetti carbonara. If you thought the appetizer portion was huge, the entree portion is even bigger! Sadly I didn't get a picture to show you the comparison.

 

 

 

For desserts, we both ordered warm chocolate melting cake and it was cooked perfectly again!

 

[navybaby1113]

After dinner, we went back to the room to change and found our first towel animal of the cruise. A lobster! That was a first for us.

 

 

Went and saw the comedian John Rothborn. He was pretty funny.

 

After we watched the comedian, we headed to bed.