Carnival Freedom 3/10-3/18-a different perspective

[Jules~Marie]

Sorry for the delay, busy weekend. Will be back to finish this puppy up tomorrow. Thanks for sticking with me!

[sharecruises]

Thanks so much :)

 

 

Maybe the 8 night cruises are "older" >>. well me and my group will fit right in LOL>> and we love love the Beatles

 

did they have any good "cover" band??

 

I had to laugh..so much for those who claim Carnival is a "party party" ship...maybe not so much on the 8 nights??

 

Just a thought...>Liberty might be more fun for younger peeps....with the new Red Frog Pub , Blue Iquana, and the new Irie DJ stuff?

7 nights might be more party time

 

Another idea for your brothers would be the Epic ...NCL...they are the ONLY ship that seems to have stuff for singles and solos, they have a mingle area for those in the "solo" cabins but all the singles on board can go there nightly....they have a whiteboard where singles put up notes like "let's meet for dinner at Italian restaurant tonight" ..or "lets meet at the Disco" etc

 

NCL is a party ship even on the 3 night ones that I was on....they have a White Hot Party on deck that goes for hours, lots of DJ music and dancing

 

Looking forward to rest of your revew thanks again

[Jules~Marie]

I am so mad right now. I just had the entire post ready, and I hit the backspace and another button and it deleted everything!!!!!! Ugh, it's been a Monday, that's for sure.

 

La Romana- Dominican Republic-

 

On Tuesday, we stopped at La Romana, DR. I had reservations about this port seeing as so many people on cruise critic had complained about stopping here. I read that it wasn't safe and there was nothing to do, etc. Someone on our roll call got a group together to do the Seavis Eco tour. Not wanting to spend the entire day on the ship, we decided to book it.

 

The closer we got to the excursion, the more nervous I was. Brad, the cruise director, had made a point of telling us to make sure we either booked an excursion or stayed on the boat. I wondered what was so wrong with the port that people couldn't just go off on their own? I was nervous about being robbed, I had silly thoughts that since this was such an abnormally big group going (seavis normally takes out 2 boats with 24 people each, this time they had 5 full boats) I thought that made us a "target". I was nervous about getting back to the ship late. I've never taken a non Carnival sponsored tour before. There was a lot going on in my head. But I also didn't want to disappoint my husband, who was really looking forward to this tour.

 

The day before the tour, my sister and brother in law dropped out. They decided they just didn't feel like chancing anything and wanted a relaxing day on the boat. My brothers and husband still wanted to go on the tour, so ultimately that's what we did. Since we got a group rate, for the tour & taxi we paid $73.50 each, payable in cash at the excursion desk in Bayahibe.

 

We arrived into port late. This to me was a bad sign. People are right, it's a very industrial port. Not very tropical at all. I made sure my brothers had their passports and room keys on them, I didn't want to take any chances. Too bad I didn't make sure they were carrying their cash with them! Of course, they had forgotten that. There was no turning back. When we realized they forgot their cash, we were already almost a half hour late for our tour, and people were just packed into the stairwells trying to get off the ship. We couldn't get back on. We decided to just find the taxi area and see if we could find an ATM. The taxi area was very hectic. People yelling all over the place. We found the man in the Seavis t-shirt and asked him what we should do. He put us in a taxi and said they'd figure it out at the excursion desk.

 

We took a very enjoyable 20 minute ride to the boats. The driving was much more calm than any of the other countries I've been to. Once we arrived, we went straight to the counter to pay and tell them of my brothers situation. The woman said there was no way we could get to an ATM in time, since we were already late. At first, she wasn't going to let us on, but when she found out my husband and I had our cash, she let all 4 of us on with the condition that we'd go to the ATM with her after the tour. Perfect!

 

We met up with our group (boat 3!), and listened to our tour guide, Carol, tell us what would be happening for the day. The more adventurous people were told to sit in the front of the boat. Me, the girl with the terrible fear of small boats, was forced to sit in the front. How nice. You are crammed on that boat, there's not much room really. I felt like we were going very fast, but my husband said it really wasn't that bad. I wouldn't know, I had my head down, eyes squeezed shut and hand clamped down on his knee the entire time (did I mention I'm afraid of boats!?!).

 

Our first stop was at the Taino Indian caves. Carol was from Scotland and you could understand every word she said. I loved it! She gave us a history of the island. It was very beautiful. From there we passed by the mangroves. We couldn't go in since it was mating season for the birds. We continued on to the beach. We had about 2 hours there. It was pretty crowded, and hot! We all touched the water, you couldn't really snorkel since the boats were all tied up right on the beach. They made us a local lunch, pork and rice and such. It was tasty. The beer was available for free during lunch only, but the rum and coke was free all day. They accidentally were giving the beer out for a while before they realized they were wrong. The bathroom was nasty. We parked ourselves right in front of the little military base they had on the beach. It was very nice and relaxing.

 

At 1:30, we boarded the boat and made our way through the maze of other boats and strings. We then went to the sandbar to see the starfish. I don't like boats and I really hate fish, so I stayed on the boat (happily) and took tons of photos of my brothers and husband in the water. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this. Jake was enlisted by the co captain to help pass out the free rum and coke. Jake poured the coke while Chocolate (the co captain) poured the rum. While Joe was getting off the boat, Chocolate took his hat and never gave it back. He really liked Joe's hat, so much so that he had Carol translate to Joe asking to keep it. Joe, being the good kid that he is, broke down and let him keep his brand new, $40 hat! It was nice of him, but I think this wasn't the first time Chocolate has done that to someone.

 

We spent a long time at the starfish area. We then got back in the boat and headed back to shore. We had some engine trouble (I think we were out of gas?), but we still made it back in plenty of time. Carol told us all that she would be passing around a tip jar the she would split with the captain and co captain. Chocolate then went around holding out a can and we all stuffed it with money. 2 minutes later Carol started walking around with her jar. We explained that we already handed in our money to Chocolate. She went storming to the back and took the money from his can, but a few of us think he had already pocketed some of it. That made me really not like the guy.

 

When we were off the boat, these little kids came running up to us pouring water from coke bottles on our feet. I guess they wanted a tip? We just shooed them away and walked quickly to the excursion desk. The woman got in a taxi with us and some others from the tour, and we made a detour into town to the nearest ATM. My brother was able to withdraw $5700 pesos, thank goodness! He handed the money to her and off she went. We then were back on our way to port. We got back to the ship around 3:45.

 

I was so happy that everything worked out. We had such a nice day. I really felt that Kristyl and Jim would have liked the tour, but everyone has to do what they feel comfortable with. I went out of my comfort zone and I'm glad I did. Eddie and I went to our balcony after the tour, and watched us pull out of port. It was so nice, all of the locals were on the pier cheering and waving goodbye to us! It was awesome! They started doing a mini wave, people were running from the rocks to wave. It was a very good send off. People in port were much nicer than I was expecting. You could tell they really appreciated us being there.

 

The sea was very rocky when we left port. I took some bonine and we headed to dinner. Poor Joe and Jake. They refused to use my sunscreen at the beach, and they were paying for it at dinner. Jake was discreetly holding his burned hand against his water. Joe was not so discreetly holding his water glass against his face. LOL! Chaz the magic man came by and showed us some more amazing magic (we really loved him!). I was simply exhausted after dinner. I think it was a combination of the fun/stressful day and the motion sickness meds. I went to bed at 8 while everyone else hung out on the secret deck. They kept trying to wake me to join them, apparently the stars were amazing, but I was very content having the bed to myself for once, hah!

 

Up next, Curacao!

 

 

I have TONS of pictures from the beach, so I'll post the ones that I think give a good example of our day:

 

Bus ride to the boats:

 

 

On the boat:

 

 

Palm tree on the beach:

 

 

Paradise:

 

 

The boys with Chocolate (who is wearing my brothers hat!):

 

 

Carol showing them a starfish:

 

 

 

 

 

[Jules~Marie]

2 more pictures from Dominican Republic:

 

My husband with the gorgeous background behind him. You can see how shallow the water is:

 

 

Jake passing out drinks:

 

[Emmabelle]

that stinks that you had to type it all over again, hate when that happens! :)

[txgolfergrl]

Monday March 12th-Grand Turk

 

 

" After we were settled in our chairs, people started dragging their chairs around and positioned them right in front of my husband. Eddie's toes were practically touching the kids head that was in front of him! I looked at the kid and I said "you're kidding me right?! you're not staying there". I guess I could have been kinder, but I was so shocked at this family. They couldn't care less that they were intruding on our personal space. The whole beach was open but they had to sit right on top of us. That same family also didn't care that they were stepping in some poor kids hole that he had been digging for a long time. We got to watch them do a photo session right in front of us for a good 15 minutes. They were so annoying!"

 

I wish the ingrates that do this sort of thing would post on here explaining their thought process. I have always been the type of person who is respectful of others (ESPECIALLY when out in a 'touristy' situation). I can not fathom what people are thinking when they do this sort of thing and I really would like to know.

[Lady_Jag]

I wish the ingrates that do this sort of thing would post on here explaining their thought process. I have always been the type of person who is respectful of others (ESPECIALLY when out in a 'touristy' situation). I can not fathom what people are thinking when they do this sort of thing and I really would like to know.

 

LOL! I know EXACTLY what they're thinking:

"It's all about me! First ME, and then ME!"

[Jdfireman]

Awsome review. Stick to the 4 and 5 day trips. Party is on.

 

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

[nathand95]

Great review so far! I can't wait to read more!

[myfamilyluvs2cruise]

GREAT REVIEW! I love the pics too!

 

We are doing an 8 day in June, but with 50 people. I would LOVE the Funtimes so I can plan a few things- or at least have an idea of a schedule since I am the ringleader! Thank you!

 

sweston@phlyins.com

[bluecruisin]

I sure would like a copy of the fun times. Please email me at bluecruisindiane at yahoo.com Thanks so much for your time!!

[RaiderFaninNM]

Just caught up on your review, we are on the June 2nd Freedom with the same itinerary, so looking forward to this. We have also booked the Seavis tour, I am glad you liked it as it does indeed sound like fun, PLEASE oh please post more pics of this tour.........Great job and looking forward to the rest!

[2manyBagsLady]

Love your detailed review and pictures (thanks for taking the time to retype when your one post disappeared!)

 

We're taking the Freedom/same itinerary this summer, would you please send me the Funtimes at mappam@earthlink dot net. Thanks so much!

[teletubbymom]

March 9th-

 

We booked Park N Go prior to the cruise. This was great!!! It was $69.78 total for 8 days. We had 2 cars that we parked there. We arrived at 10:30, they were busy but hustling to get everyone to the port. We had a TON of luggage between all of us. We parked and a van came up and the driver loaded all of our luggage onto the van and off we were to the port. This took a few minutes to get everything situated. We tipped him when we got to the port, and then tipped the porters that took our luggage from him.

 

 

 

 

 

Was this the facility on Eller Drive?

[CharmedMom]

GREAT REVIEW! I love the pics too!

 

We are doing an 8 day in June, but with 50 people. I would LOVE the Funtimes so I can plan a few things- or at least have an idea of a schedule since I am the ringleader! Thank you!

 

sweston@phlyins.com

 

June when?

 

Just caught up on your review, we are on the June 2nd Freedom with the same itinerary, so looking forward to this. We have also booked the Seavis tour, I am glad you liked it as it does indeed sound like fun, PLEASE oh please post more pics of this tour.........Great job and looking forward to the rest!

 

Lady Jag and I are also doing this cruise (June 2nd Freedom) - not together, we haven't officially met yet (just on the roll call and the Facebook group that was put together - are you part of either?)

[ktravel]

Is it possible to get a copy emailed? sixtytwofairlane@aol.com

Thanks

[Jules~Marie]

Was this the facility on Eller Drive?

 

Yes, it was.

[Jules~Marie]

Thank you everyone for the kind remarks! This review is much harder than I thought it would be, I never thought it'd take me this long to complete it!

 

Wednesday-March 14-Curacao

 

We were set to arrive in Curacao at 2pm. This gave us all a chance to sleep in a little. It was my sisters birthday, so Kristyl, Jim, Eddie and I went to breakfast in the MDR to start the celebration off right. This was the first time I've had breakfast in the main dining room. It was pretty good! A lot better than the buffet (at least to me, I hate soggy scrambled eggs.). A bar waiter passed by with a cart offering "vitamins". At first we all said no, but then thought about it and decided to celebrate her birthday with some mimosas. They were kind of strong, but tasty. Our bar credits covered the full amount of the mimosa.

 

After breakfast, Kristyl and Jim went to take a nap while Eddie and I went looking through the ship pictures and stores. We spent some time on Lido deck, went to Serenity to try and find a place to lay out (it was packed and when we went to the back of the ship the wind almost blew us over!) and then went to our room to get ready for Curacao.

 

We all decided to just walk around the city and save some money. I was surprised to see so many smoke stacks (or whatever they're called) on fire when we came into port. It reminded me of La Romana, DR. There was already a shipped docked closer to the floating bridge, so we were kind of on the "outskirts" of the port. It was very pretty, and the floating bridge was a 5-10 minute walk away. There's a fort after you get off the ship. There's some stores set up in there, along with some bars and free wifi. We did a little shopping, but it was VERY hot. We were all getting a little agitated with the heat, so after crossing the floating bridge, we looked around a little more and then went back to the ship.

 

We didn't want to eat in Curacao since our food was already paid for on the ship, so we all got dressed for dinner and met up at 6. I brought some gifts for Kristyl to the table. Our waiters noticed this and brought out a cake for her and sang "happy birthday" to her, then we followed them by singing it in Swedish (family tradition). Chaz the magic man graced us with his presence again! Did I mention we liked him?! lol

 

After dinner, we went to Joe's room to have some "shampoo shots" and then we went out into town in search of a bar. The nightlife in Curacao was so disappointing! We were really looking for a fun atmosphere. Somewhere similar to Senor Frogs. I had never been to a place like that, so I was really looking forward to it. We didn't cross the floating bridge because when we ventured outside of the fort, some old scary man approached us and was trying to get money. He made me nervous. We went back to the comfort of the fort and got some drinks at the "Sopranos Piano Bar". The bartender was really nice, Joe bought 6 shots and he gave us 6 more for free. There really wasn't anyone in there though except for some locals, so we went in search of a new place. We hit up the Chihuahua Cantina, and that was even more dead! We decided to try our chances again and leave the fort, and this time we heard a lot of commotion from across the street. There seemed to be this hole in the wall type of bar blasting music with people from our cruise ship dancing outside. I immediately felt comfortable when I noticed the older man dancing there. We saw this guy ALL over the ship dancing wherever there was music. It was a running joke with us that the man was everywhere. We partied with him for some time and then decided to head back to the ship before the rush at 10pm.

 

Once back on the ship, we went up to Lido so the guys could grab some pizza. Kristyl and I got a "kiss on the lips" from the aft bar. This place was always so quiet at night, I'm surprised they had a bartender there. He didn't charge us for the drinks! I thought that was so nice of him. We wandered around for a while and then eventually just called it a night. Carnival had no fun activities for us since we were in port so late.

 

Curacao photos:

 

Breakfast mimosas:

 

 

MDR Breakfast-french toast, sausage, bacon, hash browns:

 

 

Windy Serenity:

 

 

Sopranos Piano Bar:

 

We found WIFI-quick update your Facebook status!:

 

 

Continued in next post...

[Jules~Marie]

Pretty Buildings:

 

 

 

The floating bridge:

 

 

The birthday girl:

 

 

Chaz doing a trick for Kristyl:

 

 

My brothers "smuggled" booze (I don't recommend using shampoo bottles! lol):

 

 

[Jules~Marie]

Night view:

 

 

 

Kristyl dancing:

 

 

Domingo, the dancing man!:

 

 

 

Free drinks!:

 

[mikelaw11017]

Great reviews. We are really interested since our cruise in July also has Curacao with the 2pm arrival. Can you e-mail me the funtimes at

mikelaw11017@sbcglobal.net. Thanks:)

[PathfinderEss]

Great review, your pictures of food made me hungry.

[CharmedMom]

I LOVE the night time pictures in Curacao - makes me excited about taking some night time pictures (definitely want one of the town and the ship).

[RaiderFaninNM]

June when?

 

 

 

Lady Jag and I are also doing this cruise (June 2nd Freedom) - not together, we haven't officially met yet (just on the roll call and the Facebook group that was put together - are you part of either?)

 

Hello, no not a part of that group, first I have heard of it, sounds like fun...

[Jules~Marie]

We decided to do our own thing again in Aruba. I spent some time on cruise critic and planned on going to Eagle Beach using the local bus.

 

We got off the ship at 9:30 with everyone and walked around town for a bit. Right at the pier there's a building with a lot of shops in it. It also had an ATM that dispensed the local currency, so my husband was happy with that.

 

We walked into town and pretty much just window shopped for some time. I was sort of nervous about using the local bus. When we had passed the bus depot, it looked deserted. I didn't know what to think. After shopping we decided to pass by the buses again. This time we saw people we recognized from the cruise ship waiting in line, so we got in line with them. I get nervous when I'm not exactly sure of what I'm doing, but this turned out to be very simple. We all had our cash on us, and paid the $2.30 each for a round trip ticket. I asked the bus driver if he would be stopping at Eagle Beach and he said yes (the sign outside of the bus also showed it stopped there, but I wanted to be certain.). There weren't too many locals on this bus, mostly just ship tourists going to beaches.

 

I have to say, it did get confusing. The stops weren't clearly marked, so we had no idea where we were. We completely missed Eagle Beach, and my group started getting angry with me since it seemed we were riding the bus for nothing. I saw that the bus stop was marked "Eagle Beach", but I didn't see the beach and didn't want to get off! I chickened out. I decided to just wait til we got to the more popular Palm Beach. This stop was better marked, and you could see the beach with the huts from the road. More people got off here, and we all decided that even though it's more "touristy", we were definitely ok with that.

 

The beach was very pretty. Going to so many beaches on this cruise, and living in Florida where there's beautiful beaches around every corner, it kind of blinds you to the beauty of every single beach you go to. But this beach was nice. We were all sunned out, so we sat up at the bar under the shade for the day. It was extremely windy out. None of us felt like snorkeling, so we just had a lazy few hours at the bar. We were all sick of drinking as well (can you imagine that?!), so it was a very inexpensive day. Kristyl, Joe and Jim found free WIFI at the bar, so they were content.

 

Jim & I were paying attention to the bus (the stop is right outside the bar). It seemed to stop sort of irregularly. About every 30 minutes our bus would stop. At 12:30 we decided to go wait at the bus stop. The bus arrived at 1. It was standing room only, poor Jake had to stand by the door and the bus driver would just leave it open! Luckily Jake held on and there were no casualties, lol. The bus ride was about 10 minutes from Palm Beach to the Port. Once we were back at the port, we split up. I bought some souvenirs for my mom and step-dad (couple of t-shirts) at the center by the ship. The big thing in Curacao and Aruba seemed to be old license plates. Both stops sold them for around $3. Of course, my husband just HAD to have them!

 

We went back to the ship and showered. I noticed we hadn't left yet, we were scheduled to leave at 4 and we hadn't moved at all. Kristyl came knocking on our door, telling us that while they were on the secret deck, they saw a Carnival boat excursion pull into port. Apparently, the guests were all just slowly walking to the boat, so everyone that saw them from the ship started booing them. I guess it was turning into a scene since Kristyl woke us up for it! We were about an hour late leaving. When we did pull out of port, I was lying on bed and felt the entire boat tilt. It wasn't a slight tilt at all. Stuff fell off of our dressers and when I looked outside, I couldn't see the port, all I could see was sky! I was so panicked! But moments later I felt the boat even out again. I think the strong winds were really causing some problems for us. It was a VERY rocky night.

 

We had dinner at the MDR as usual and then Eddie and I went down to watch some Karaoke. I was so disappointed in Carnival. I felt that there was really no karaoke this entire cruise. I don't like to participate, but I do like to watch. This was the first night that they had karaoke after 2pm. At 8:30, Kristyl & Jim joined Eddie & I and we went to the state nickname trivia. We were SO close to winning a ship on a stick! We were one behind the people that won. Oh well! After the trivia, we went to see the new comedian on board. Oh man, he was awful! So bad, we walked out after 5 minutes. I couldn't take it!

 

The mega deck party was starting at 11, and Joe was very excited for this. On past cruises, they made it into a big spectacle. The would have different floors be different colors (floor 6-blue, etc.). I guess Joe always participated and really enjoyed it. After the parade around the floor, the teams would meet on Lido and there would be dancing and fun. This time, everyone just gathered on Lido, and they played the same dance music that we heard the entire cruise. YMCA, Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide, Conga Line, we even did the Macarena! Lame. But we still managed to have a good time, of course! Eddie and I got some "flashing" shots in a light up shot glass. After the deck party, Joe, Jake, Eddie & I went to the 70s disco. There were some people in there dancing, so it was a little more lively than the other nights. The DJ finally played Dubstep for Joe! He was so happy. We stayed there until around 2am, and then called it a night.

 

Kristyl in the shade at Palm Beach:

 

 

Jake at Palm Beach:

 

 

Eddie..Oops, guess we did drink a little! LOL:

 

 

The Beach:

 

 

This bird came right to our table and stole a packet of sugar!:

 

 

Kristyl at the bus stop. If you look closely, right behind her is the bar we were sitting at: