Freedom 6/2/2012 review: 8 days of Southern Caribbean fun, sun, and photos

[Lady_Jag]

Alright, well I'm finally posting my recap of our 8-day cruise aboard the Carnival Freedom. We left out of Fort Lauderdale and visited Grand Turk, La Romana, Curacao, and Aruba. It was a great time, and I plan to go into a lot of details!

 

Before I continue, though, I'd like to ask three favors:

1. Please be patient with me as I post this in segments. I work a full-time job as a technical writer while trying to raise a 6-year-old, and it takes me time to get all my thoughts and descriptions down.

I always come home with hundreds of photos, so it also takes me a while to sort and upload them so that I can post them. And since I make a living writing and editing 40-50 hours a week, sometimes powering up my personal laptop and writing in my leisure time isn't really at the top of my to-do list.

 

2. Keep in mind this is a recap of my personal experience and opinions. I understand that not everyone will share my opinions and may disagree with me, and that is okay. But please don't take it personally if I comment that.. oh.. the warm chocolate melting cake was not that great or that the cruise director's, Brad's, morning show was annoying. They're just my opinions and not a personal attack on anyone who loves WCMC or on Brad's character.

 

3. Please get my permission before re-posting any of my photos to other web sites. I realize that this is a public forum, and I'm not asking for astronomical royalties, just this simple courtesy. I love to see photos in reviews and am happy to share pictures in mine, but it kind of creeped me out when I found my photos of our Dream cabin, 11203, posted to cruiseline rooms . com soon after I posted my review and without my permission or knowledge!

 

Now that I made my requests, here we go...

[FL Naturelover]

Alright, well I'm finally posting my recap of our 8-day cruise aboard the Carnival Freedom. We left out of Fort Lauderdale and visited Grand Turk, La Romana, Curacao, and Aruba. It was a great time, and I plan to go into a lot of details!

 

Before I continue, though, I'd like to ask three favors:

1. Please be patient with me as I post this in segments. I work a full-time job as a technical writer while trying to raise a 6-year-old, and it takes me time to get all my thoughts and descriptions down.

I always come home with hundreds of photos, so it also takes me a while to sort and upload them so that I can post them. And since I make a living writing and editing 40-50 hours a week, sometimes powering up my personal laptop and writing in my leisure time isn't really at the top of my to-do list.

 

2. Keep in mind this is a recap of my personal experience and opinions. I understand that not everyone will share my opinions and may disagree with me, and that is okay. But please don't take it personally if I comment that.. oh.. the warm chocolate melting cake was not that great or that the cruise director's, Brad's, morning show was annoying. They're just my opinions and not a personal attack on anyone who loves WCMC or on Brad's character.

 

3. Please get my permission before re-posting any of my photos to other web sites. I realize that this is a public forum, and I'm not asking for astronomical royalties, just this simple courtesy. I love to see photos in reviews and am happy to share pictures in mine, but it kind of creeped me out when I found my photos of our Dream cabin, 11203, posted to cruiseline rooms . com soon after I posted my review and without my permission or knowledge!

 

Now that I made my requests, here we go...

 

Can't wait for your review and photo. We are considering this itinerary for our next cruise.

[Lady_Jag]

Here’s a little background info before I get started on my recap. [skip this part if you want just the cruise details.]

My name is Laura, I’m in my late 30s and this was my 9th cruise with Carnival (10th cruise overall). My hubby, Alex, is in his early 40s, and this would be his 8th Carnival cruise (9th overall). Our daughter, Alyssa is 6 years old and this is her 6th cruise (all Carnival).

 

 

 

Last year, after our Spring Break cruise on the Carnival Legend, I spoke to one of my good friends about our families cruising together this year. I researched a few cruises out of various Florida ports (Dream Eastern, Freedom Southern, Liberty, Valor, etc.) and sent the list to her. I emailed her something like, “Check out these cruises. Any of them seem good to you? I'm good with any of them, as long as we don't have to deal with the Western itinerary again. I'm sort of sick of that route."

 

"OOoo!” my friend replied, “The Carnival Freedom looks great! Not bad for an 8-day. Pretty reasonable rate."

 

Me: "Are you sure? It'll be a 5-hour drive..."

 

Friend: "Yeah! Yeah! Let's do it! I say we book it now."

 

Me: "OK, I just booked my cabin. I got #1220 because it was a reasonable rate and has a connecting door to a quad cabin so that you guys can be right next to us if you want."

 

Friend: Silence.

 

Months went by, and no response. Then in March, our families were having dinner together and Alex called them out on it. “Hey! Weren’t you guys supposed to be cruising WITH us this time?” he teased.

 

My friend’s excuse was that her husband “is a Disney cruise snob and won’t sail anything but Disney.”

 

Ummmm…riiiight.

 

Oh well. This was sort of expected behavior, as we’ve been dissed by them many times in the last 13 years or so that we’ve been friends. So before I booked this cruise, I asked myself if I would be happy doing it with just the three of us and not with our friends. Well, we’d never been to any of the ports (sooo happy not to be going to Mexico for the 7th+ time!) and that 8th day could only be a bonus. Plus, it would be our first porthole cabin and I really enjoy the layout and amenities of the Conquest class ships.

 

The only problem was that I had to wait over a year from the time I booked this cruise in May 2011 until I actually set foot on board.

 

 

[Lady_Jag]

Here’s the itinerary for this cruise:

6/2/2012 Ft Lauderdale (Pt Evrglds), FL ---- 4:00 PM

6/3/2012 Fun Day at Sea

6/4/2012 Grand Turk 7:00 AM 2:00 PM

6/5/2012 La Romana, DR 9:00 AM 5:00 PM

6/6/2012 Curacao 2:00 PM 11:00 PM

6/7/2012 Aruba 8:00 AM 4:00 PM

6/8/2012 Fun Day at Sea

6/9/2012 Fun Day at Sea

6/10/2012 Ft Lauderdale (Pt Evrglds), FL 8:00 AM ----

As I mentioned above, we had never been to any of these ports before, and were excited to be taking our very first 8 day cruise!

For those who don’t care about detailed personal accounts, here is my overall evaluation of the various aspects of the ship:

Embarkation:

Once we made it into the terminal, embarkation was smooth as butter. However, passenger loading/unloading was a nightmare. We sat in the shuttle van, waiting for our turn to be dropped off for a very long time. The traffic through the port area was not fluid at all. It very seemed disorganized and chaotic - not even stop-and go, just stop-and-sit-there-a-while. Of the four ports I’ve sailed from (Jax, FLL, Tampa, Canaveral), this one ranks as my least favorites.

 

Ship/ship layout/public areas:

The ship was clean and well maintained for the most part. I was disappointed, however, in the poor quality of the big screen on the Lido deck. Several pixels/blocks were blacked out, others flickered constantly, and on the rest of the screen, if a bright, light-colored image was on the screen, I could clearly make out the black lines around each and every pixel/block up there.

Some of the forward/mid elevators had graffiti etched into the inner panels. The button for deck 7 in one elevator in particular was constantly backlit, making it glow even no one pressed it. When someone DID press that button, it would light up normally.

Otherwise, the lounges, outer decks, pools, spas, and other public areas were fine. Not a day went by when I didn’t see crew members cleaning the various areas of the ship, and even the public restrooms seemed better maintained than the ones on some of the ships I’ve sailed in the past.

Food:

I had my very first steakhouse experience this cruise. It was DELICIOUS, but there was so much, I STILL can’t even look at a steak or any type of sliced beef, much less order it. My nightly Gregorian chant at dinner would always be, “No beef, no beef, dominum, no beef!”

MDR food was standard. I’m really not a fan of the revised menus, and have always been disappointed in the dessert menu. I LOVE desserts, especially chocolate, but I confess that WCMC doesn’t do much for me. I would either skip dessert in the MDR or eat just a few bites.

I ate in the MDR once for breakfast and once for lunch. I LOVE the little round hashbrown discs Carnival has, but they serve them only in the MDR for breakfast during the cruise, except on debarkation day, when they’re served on the Lido. So my single breakfast in the MDR consisted mostly of multiple orders of hasbrowns. For lunch, I ordered my favorite Carnival entrée: BBQ ribs! I think it’s ridiculous that Carnival serves BBQ ribs and corn on the cob for dinner only on the first Elegant Evening when we’re all dressed up. So as a workaround, I made it a point to have lunch in the MDR at least once, because I knew ribs were often on the lunch menu. No corn on the cob, but I was satisfied with my meal.

Room service food was good. My Alyssa always looks forward to her morning chocolate muffins. She also loved getting a peanut butter sandwich (just PB), untoasted, and chocolate chip cookies. I order the steak and cheddar sandwich for lunch early on, and it was very good…not as good as the beef and brie sandwich it replaced, but still very good.

Let’s talk Lido food, since that’s where we had most of our meals. My hubby thought the Tandoori was the bomb, and ate there frequently. I enjoyed the Grill the most this cruise (hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken tenders were hot and cooked just right), and I found the international buffet just mediocre. We saw the fish & chips station, but I’m not much of a seafood fan, and hubby was too in love with the Tandoori food to give the basket of fried grease a try. The pizza was okay, but nothing noteworthy. I will say, though, that Alyssa liked the cheese pizza on the Lido deck MUCH better than what they served in the MDR. (Aside – I just don’t understand why Carnival doesn’t serve the same pizza in the MDR as they do at the pizzeria. Those processed, frozen mini discs they heat and serve to the kiddos in the dining room are not very good at all.) I didn’t get around to the deli station this time, but know from previous experience that the turkey wrap is yummy and the grilled cheese is usually an Alyssa-pleaser.

As for the breakfast foods, I found the powdered “scrambled” eggs they serve on the buffet disgusting. It tasted like someone took the yolks out of overcooked hard boiled eggs, pulverized them into little bits and chunks, and then microwaved them before putting them out to sit and get lukewarm. Ew! No wonder why the omelet station always had such a long line! The hashbrowns on the Lido were greasy diced potatoes with bits of red pepper and onion. Had they been hot and had all the potatoes been cooked, they might have been passable. Bacon police were in full force, as was the French fry police. No, you can no longer help yourself to French fries, but the chips are there for the grabbing. More on that later…

Service:

When I first booked this cruise, I requested Early Seating, seeing that we would need to be back on board for most ports well before the 6:00 dinner hour. However, after our horrible dining experience with Early Seating on our last cruise (Fascination, Nov. 2011), I decided to give Anytime Dining another try. I’m so glad I did! We discovered the most fantastic waiter, Mr. Suki, our 3rd night and requested his section every night thereafter! He was so phenomenal, one of the ship’s officers had a booth reserved in Mr. Suki’s section a few nights in a row! Our hostesses were most accommodating, too. One night, Mr. Suki’s section was full, so they re-allocated a table to Mr. Suki just so were could benefit from his service.

Service in the steakhouse, of course, was wonderful. Exactly what you would expect from a more upscale restaurant, but without the obnoxious arrogance.

The room service employees were incredibly nice, but our orders were not correct almost half the time. (They were fast to fix it, though!) Around the ship, the crew members were friendly and always quick to return a smile and a “hello.” It was heartening how some of the crew members’ faces would light up if I just acknowledged them by smiling and made eye contact.

Our cabin steward did a decent job. He wasn’t the most spectacular steward we ever had (we were spoiled on the Dream), but he did what was expected – ice in the ice bucket (upon request), clean towels, towel animals (except the first night), and chocolates…well, for the first 2 nights we had chocolates anyway. After night 2, we had none, but we didn’t blame him for that and Alyssa hates mint anyway. He was friendly and worked hard.

Guest Service Associates were friendly and attentive. We had to call for maintenance on embarkation day (toilet was not working) and they sent someone very quickly and he fixed the problem even faster. We also had to have someone reset the lock on our safe, and again, the response was fast and issue easily resolved. Later in the week, I would make an in-person request for a couple items, and the GSA was very nice and accommodating.

Cabin:

We had a 3-person porthole cabin, 1220, on the Riviera deck. It had the standard 3 closets, small bathroom with shower, mini bar, desk, 2 twin beds pushed together to form a California King, and a sofa, which was made into a third bed for our daughter. Our cabin also included a coffee table in front of the sofa, a four-legged stool that fit neatly under the desk, and two night stands (one on either side of the bed) with cabinet storage in each night stand. This cabin also has a connecting door leading to a four-person oceanview stateroom, 1224. I hung our shoe organizer on the back of this door, which gave us more than enough storage for all our things.

With all the drawer, closet, and under-bed space, our cabin stayed pretty neat and organized, which is a HUGE feat when sharing a room with a messy 6-year-old. We never had to search for items, as everything had its place, and we were able to keep the coffee table cleared so that we always had a place for our room service trays.

As for the location of the cabin, there were pros and cons. I loved being on deck 1, forward, during this port-intensive cruise, as it was just a quick jot down or up one flight of stairs nearby to embark/debark. Because of the portholes and the huge ledge in front of them, our cabin seemed very roomy. The portholes gave us the natural light we enjoyed, as well as a decent enough view for our purposes.

The downside is that in rough seas, the waves crashing against the hull sounded like the ship was equipped with cannons and we were at war with pirates. (Fortunately, though, we had only one such day of choppy waves.) Also, when we would dock, every square inch of our cabin would shimmy and shudder, as if the panels on the wall and hull would explode and fly out into the ocean at any second. Our bed would shake like a “Magic Fingers” bed in a cheap motel, but hey – some people pay money for that! LOL! Seriously, though, the shuddering and shaking didn’t bother us in the least, and with the exception of Grand Turk and our return to FLL, our arrival into the ports were well after we were already awake and getting ready for our daily adventure.

Shows:

Ummmm…I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t see a single show in the main showroom. In fact, the only time I think I was in the main showroom was during the (now defunct) past guest party. However, we had seen all the main shows offered on board, and none of them, including “Ticket To Ride” (which we saw on the Miracle in 2004!) were worthy of an encore. Don’t get me wrong – they were entertaining the first time around, but not something I would sit through again, no matter how many years had passed. We wanted to attend some of the comedy shows, but never made it to any of them.

Camp Carnival:

My daughter, as I said, is 6 years old, and was very excited to be grouped with the “older” Camp Carnival kids for the first time. (She complained the last few cruises that “the babies were boring” in the 2-5 year old section.) She had a wonderful time and often begged us to let her stay “just a little longer” when we would pick her up. The counselors were very nice and seemed to ensure that the kids had a great time. As much as we love spending time with Alyssa, my hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed having so many evening and sea day hours to ourselves because we felt so confident that Alyssa was having a great time with her new friends in camp. We never felt like Alyssa would be missing us so much that we would have to cut our time in the Serenity area short or that we couldn’t stick around for the later movie. The last sea day, Alyssa also participated in the Camp Carnival talent show, which was a lot of fun to watch.

Casino:

Yeah, we played a little and lost a little more. Most of our gambling fund was snatched from our hands by the oh-so-tantalizing Money Vault machine. Alex was convinced that if he just stood there playing $50 worth in one shot, he would unlock the iPad and $500 slot. I like to spread my money around though, so we played $5 here and $10 there, with a few bucks going to the greedy poker machines. The smoking area of the casino was very noticeable, even when passing alongside it on the promenade, so we didn’t stay long when we did make our contributions.

Ports:

I would definitely want to do this itinerary again! My favorite port was La Romana, because of the fun excursion we did through Seavis tours, and my least favorite was Aruba. Grand Turk was neat, even though our dune buggy excursion was sort of a rip-off, and I would have loved to have we spent more time there. Curacao was very good for shopping, but more importantly was a photographic paradise for someone like me who loves to take pictures. Aruba – meh! So many people told me I would just LOVE Aruba, so maybe my expectations were too high. Or maybe it was because I wasn’t feeling that great so we didn’t get to go very far past the terminal. I don’t know, but I wasn’t impressed. Prices were high and people were rude, so I was rather disappointed.

Debarkation:

We did self-assist again this trip, but this time I regretted it. We had to exit the ship from deck 0, then haul all our luggage down a long strip of blacktop before reaching Customs. Once through customs, we had to schlep all the way down another strip of blacktop back to the main terminal area for shuttle/taxi pick-up. I honestly thought my arms were going to fall off! Fortunately, the pick-up process was less chaotic than the drop-off mayhem.

[Lady_Jag]

Can't wait for your review and photo. We are considering this itinerary for our next cruise.

 

I highly recommend this itinerary! Granted, we've done only Bahamas, Eastern Carib, and Western Carib itineraries before this one, but it was one of our favorite cruises! That extra day at sea really makes a difference, too!

[Lady_Jag]

Well, I'm not sure why a few of those pictures came out so HUGE, as I did resize them before posting the URL, but oh well.

 

It's past my bedtime, so I will have to continue tomorrow with the blow-by-blow portion of my recap.

 

Goodnight!

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for posting a review of your crusie, great pictures, sounds like you had a good time.

[momof4boys]

Thanks for posting. We are on the Freedom, July 14, same itinerary.

 

What did you do in Aruba?

 

We are on Seavis Tour in DR, too. Glad you enjoyed it!!

[erewhon]

Thank you for taking time to write and post your great review and photos.

[Lady_Jag]

Thanks for posting. We are on the Freedom, July 14, same itinerary.

 

What did you do in Aruba?

 

We are on Seavis Tour in DR, too. Glad you enjoyed it!!

 

We took the submarine tour by Atlantis submarine. Seavis was wonderful! I highly recommend them!

 

Thank you for taking time to write and post your great review and photos.

 

Thank you for reading. More to come soon...

[boaterette]

Looking forward to the blow by blow.

[Lady_Jag]

Well, it's way past my bed time, so I won't be able to post our embarkation day recap tonight. Here is our pre-cruise journey to Fort Lauderdale, though:

 

Within a month of booking, I was scouring these boards and other sites for a park-and-stay package. We live in Florida, and we always drive to our departure ports, but if the drive takes more than 2-3 hours, I prefer to arrive the night before. Fort Lauderdale definitely qualifies, as it’s about 5 hours away from our home.

Now the last few cruises where we’ve stayed overnight prior to sailing, I bid and booked a cheap rate through price line. However, I’d never been to Fort Lauderdale before and knew nothing about the area, so I thought it best not to roll the dice in this case. Instead, I found information about www.stay123.com (thank you, CC!), which included a single night stay at the Hampton Inn Plantation, shuttle to and from the port, parking for up to 30 days, and breakfast the morning of our embarkation for just under a hundred bucks. A very good rate, especially when factoring in the daily parking fee at the port for 8 days!

So bright and early Friday morning, we piled into my SUV and headed south. My goal was to arrive at the hotel by 4:00 so as not to encounter any Friday rush hour traffic and so that we would have a good shot at signing up for the first shuttle to Port Everglades before it filled up. We left around 9 and arrived around 3:00pm, with several stops for potty breaks and lunch. It also rained on us almost the entire trip to Fort Lauderdale and during most of our stay that evening.

The Hampton Inn seemed nice enough. We were given room 524, a non-smoking room on the 5th floor. This floor was weird, however, as ½ the rooms are smoking and have are non-smoking, so the entire floor smells of cigarettes the minute you step off the elevator. Not very smart, I think, but at least our room was clean and smoke-free.

Speaking of not very smart, I had brought along my laptop so that I could keep notes for my review, keep in touch with friends and family via Funville on Carnival’s web site, and most importantly, store my pictures from the SD card in my digital camera. I planned on downloading them onto my machine from the card each night, just in case something terrible happened to my camera or card. Well guess what? I had my laptop, but forgot to pack the darned power cord! Drat!

So we looked up the address of a nearby Best Buy, got back into the car and headed out. (Did I mention how happy I was we had a car?) Well, Alex was navigating while I drove, using a Yellow Pages app on his phone. He told me to turn left onto a residential street, so I did. “Are you sure we’re supposed to be going through this neighborhood?” I asked.

“That’s what it says here on the map,” he answered.

As we wove through street after street of Florida homes with not a business or main road in sight, it was time to accept the fact that we were being led astray. So I pulled over and dialed Best Buy’s number on my phone, got an address (different than what Alex had on his crazy phone app) and directions, and left the neighborhood. We finally arrived at Best Buy, and since all they had were universal laptop charging cables, I grudgingly shelled out the money while scolding myself under my breath.

We decided to get an early dinner at a Cuban restaurant we heard about not far from our hotel. YUMMY! It was a very good and inexpensive choice. Alex ordered pollo Rosado and I ordered a sort of chicken and rice dish, and Alyssa asked for chicken fingers. All our food was quite delicious. Mine, however, was not happy with me:

“Alex,” I said, “I think I’m going to need some Tums or something. I mean, if my dinner disagrees with me before I’ve taken my first bite, what is it going to do to me AFTER I eat it?”

We left the restaurant with full bellies and Alex said he wanted to buy a hat for the trip. We looked everywhere, and even searched the mall that was across the street from our hotel. Nothing. So back to the hotel for me and Alyssa while Alex checked the Target nearby.

(Alyssa found a hat!)

I played a game of Uno Moo with Alyssa, gave her a bath, then got her ready for bed. She really wanted to check out the pool at the hotel, but given the nasty weather, we never got a chance. Oh well! We were going to have a busy day in the morning, so she needed to get some sleep.

While I waited for Alex’s return and Alyssa to fall asleep, I tried to shuffle a few things around so that all the carry-on bags we had wouldn’t be so darned heavy! I didn’t have too much success, but at least one of our bags was lighter. I can’t believe after all the cruises we’ve taken, we still haven’t gotten this packing thing down yet!

 

Segment 1 of Cruise Day 1 will be posted tomorrow.

Goodnight!

[erewhon]

Thank you for posting your pre-cruise update.

[vivavegas]

Thanks for posting a review! Great pictures, sounds like you had a good time.:)

[RedRam99V8]

As allways amazing reviews!!! I think you should start doing this for lauraka too. Rememebr next cruise needs to be GLORY march 24th next year!!! I've got a BIGGGG Connection remember!! :D

[jakeHOU97]

Great job! I enjoy reading your reviews, so I'm staying tuned for more!

[ComeSailWithME]

Looking forward to reading more, thanks for taking the time to do this!

[Lady_Jag]

We had a bit of a snafu this morning at the hotel. We signed up for the first shuttle to port, which was 11:00am. Our names were first on the list. I confirmed it the night before, and they said we needed to be in the lobby by 10:45am for the shuttle.

Being there early was no problem. Heck, we were there by 10:30. However, getting the shuttle was a nightmare! Even though we were first on the list Hampton Inn Plantation BUMPED us so they could fill their shuttle van with two other parties! Worse, they said they had two shuttles, and we would be on the next one. Guess what? Shuttle #2 didn't arrive until 11:40!!

While we waited, I was able to meet Celeste from CC and her party. She lucked out and was called for the shuttle for which we were denied. I kept checking our roll call’s Facebook page on my phone, and grew more and more anxious as I saw messages of the people already on board the ship while we wait.... and waited…and WAITED for a shuttle that didn’t show up until nearly an hour later! Alyssa was a pretty good sport for being only 6, though. We played Uno, and then she sat by our pile of luggage, watching longingly for our really late shuttle.

 

 

(Waffles! It's what's for breakfast!)

Finally, after we had been waiting over an hour, a shuttle van pulled up. I made SURE we were on it, but I told Alex to hang back a little first while another large party loaded up their stuff into the pull-behind trailer. That way, our bags would be closest to the trailer door. The hotel rep who had bumped us said that the shuttle also had to take 2 people to the airport so that they could catch a flight to Miami and sail out on the Liberty. She said those 2 people needed to sit up front. Well, after the large party of 6-7 piled into the van, there was only 1 bench seat that sat 3 left, plus the passenger seat next to the driver and one seat on the end of the row behind us near the van’s sliding door.

I helped Alyssa into the first row and sat her near the window, then sat next to her, with Alex sitting next to me. The woman from the hotel ushered the 2 airport passengers around to the front and told Alex he needed to move so they could sit next to the door. Alex moved back a row to the empty seat by the door. The woman then looked at me, like I should move too, and I glared back. Forcing a smile, I nodded towards Alyssa and told the woman, “I’d rather she not sit by herself.”

The woman hesitated, then finally said, “I understand, mom” and then got the man going to the airport to sit up front with the shuttle driver.

We started our crazy journey to the airport, and I do mean CRAZY! My view out the front windshield of the shuttle was, unfortunately, unblocked. Yikes! I closed my eyes more than once as the van zipped around at high speeds through the traffic and around corners. At one point, the driver just about PUSHED a taxi cab out of the way with the van’s front bumper, as he muttered, “you better get outta my way before I BUMP you outta my way!” I laughed nervously at his remarks. Realizing he had an audience, the shuttle driver told us that the local cab drivers are always “cheating” for their fares. The driver said local cabbies go slower and take longer routes when they have passengers and a running meter and then when they have an empty cab. I’m not sure how true that is, but something to note for anyone considering a cab ride to or from the cruise terminal.

We arrived at the airport miraculously intact and dropped off the couple bound for the Carnival Liberty. I could almost hear the tires screech as we flew towards the drop-off area of the cruise terminal. That’s when everything came to a halt. Then the drop-off situation was an absolute nightmare!

We made it to the security check-point, but not much farther. We sat in the shuttle, waiting to reach the cruise port drop-off spot for a good 20 minutes or so. There were cops letting 1-2 vehicles into the drop-off area at a time, and unfortunately, the big motor coach bus already ahead of us took what seemed like an eternity to unload! As we waited, the driver complained about how disorganized Port Everglades was and that no one at the port cared that it was run so inefficiently; that it was always terribly slow, especially if there were multiple buses there, etc., etc. His “insight” certainly did not help my mood, especially since I was still a bit cranky over the Hampton Inn Plantation’s own inefficiently run shuttle operation.

Finally, the driver was given the okay to pull into a drop-off bay. We quickly jumped out of the van and hurried to the trailer to retrieve our luggage. Only the shuttle driver stood there at the trailer door, holding his hand on the handle, keeping the door closed, as if the trailer contained some wild beast that would rip us to shreds if he unleashed it. We all looked at him like, “WELL?!?”

Then along came a porter, who told us that there’s a new “no luggage on the ground” rule. He said that it rained a couple of weeks ago and people’s stuff got wet because it was on the ground, and now they’re dealing with a bunch of lawsuits, so all checked luggage has to be put on a cart and wheeled off. It sounded like a bunch of baloney to me, and apparently Alex shared my suspicion. He looked at the porter and said, “Hmmm…Sounds to me like an excuse to MAKE people use porters.” Our shuttle driver smiled at this and told us that we could retrieve our carry-ons, and he would make sure our checked bags made it onto the ship. So we got our bags and I tipped the driver, then we made our way to the terminal, hoping Alex’s comment didn’t sentence our bags to a watery grave.

The good news was that we pretty much checked in, did security stuff, and walked right on board without a wait. I don’t remember ever being in a situation where I just walked right up to the check-in counter without any wait before or after, and I have to say – I kind of liked it!

We were up at the Lido deck around 1:00pm, scouring the place for a table and some lunch. The Lido restaurant was crowded, of course, but not certainly not lacking food. Alex got his first taste of Tandoori for the week, Alyssa got some cheese pizza, and I got some chicken fingers and a bun from the grill so I could make my own chicken tender sandwich. (I totally confused the guy at the grill by asking for just a bun with the fixings!)

The grill station was set up kind of wonky. The French fries were not available for you to help yourself with tongs. Instead, the guy behind the counter had to scoop them out for you… with his hand! Granted, he wore gloves, but seriously, couldn’t they give the guy a pair of tongs at least? I found it ridiculous that the fries had to be “policed,” but the nacho chips were out for all to grab, not even behind a sneeze guard!

Speaking of sneeze guard, the sneeze guard at the grill (and, we discovered, in other places at the buffet) became a running joke for me and Alex. The glass was very long and came down to only a few inches above the counter at hardly any angle (read: the glass was almost like a picture window in front of the food). Okay, so the food is well-protected from rogue loogies, right? Except things like nacho cheese sauce was nearly impossible to get! You see, the sauce was in a standard warming pan behind the sneeze guard, but the serving utensil was a non-standard ladle that had one of the longest handles and smallest spoon areas I’d ever seen! So the physical challenge here was to use the long-handled ladle to scoop out the cheese, then somehow maneuver that 8- or 10-inch handle under the bottom of the extra-long, barely-angled sneeze guard WITHOUT spilling said cheese out of the shallow spoon end of the ladle before it reached the plate of chips. Needless to say, there was a constant puddle of cheese on the counter just in front of the cheese pan!

Back at our table, Alex said he would really like to try the steakhouse this cruise. I was surprised, as he never mentioned “steakhouse” on any previous cruise, but I was game. He suggested we go on formal night, since we’d have to dress nicely anyway, and since we’re both allergic to shellfish, missing out on lobster was no great sorrow. I asked Alyssa if she thought she might want to have dinner with her Camp Carnival friends the next night, and she was all for it. I told her she could wear her pretty dress and that they’d probably have a little party before dinner she could enjoy.

Alyssa’s face got serious, and she started expressing concern about getting food on her pretty dress, and maybe she could wear a white t-shirt or something over it, just in case. I smiled and told her that it’s no big deal if she gets food on her dress, that we would just wash it and she shouldn’t worry about anything but having a good cruise.

Now I have to interrupt my story for a moment to explain that I have an entirely different cruise personality than when I’m going about my normal somewhat reserved, introverted life. When I’m on a cruise, I will try things I wouldn’t dare try on land, eat exotic foods like iguana, and even enter (and win!) stupid contests, like hog-calling contests. I call this cruise personality “Lola.”

So when Alyssa looked at me suspiciously after I told her that getting messy in formal attire was perfectly okay, Alex leaned in and in a stage whisper said, “Psst! Alyssa, you need to take advantage of Mommy Lola while you can!” I laughed, and Alyssa seeing me laugh, joined in (even though she didn’t quite get the joke.)

When Alyssa was finished with her pizza, “Mommy Lola” took her to get cake and ice cream. At the dessert station, a crew member was cutting and serving a most delicious looking chocolate-chocolate cake. I could see the excitement on Alyssa’s face as she zoned in on the dessert. Turning on the charm, Alyssa looked up at the lady with the cake cutter, and with her big brown doe eyes sparking, smiled sweetly and said, “Excuse me, may I please have some chocolate cake please?”

It paid off. “Aw, why certainly, sweetie!” the lady answered, “How many pieces would you like?”

Alyssa gasp at the thought of getting more than one piece and looked at me, hopeful. I laughed, “I think one piece is enough to start. Especially since we’re getting ice cream to go with it!” The lady smiled, and with a wink at Alyssa, gave her a big hunk of cake.

 

Our room was ready well before we finished lunch. We had our very first porthole room,1220, which has a connecting door to the room next to ours...which stayed closed and locked for most of the cruise. The only time I opened the door was to hang our shoe organizer on it on embarkation day, and to take the shoe organizer down the last night of the cruise.

 

 

 

(A view of the opposite side of the room...Alyssa's bed.)

 

We unloaded our carry-ons, and then had to call Guest Services to reset our safe, since it wasn’t locking. Ugh! They must have been super busy, because I was on hold for a very VERY long time! In fact, I had to call 3 times, because I would be on hold so long I’d get disconnected. Ah well! When I finally DID get through, someone from the Maintenance department was at our door almost immediately, and he fixed the safe in an instant.

We didn’t have much time before the muster drill, so we decided to go to Camp Carnival to check it out. Alyssa was thrilled to be in the “older” group this time, and she LOVED the 6-8 year-old room. I turned in my online registration (something the counselors on previous ships wouldn’t let me do before the evening orientation session) and got a schedule. Alyssa wanted to play (so did Alex), so I asked the counselor if it was okay that I take pictures. He said, “Sure! Pictures are fine as long as you have a kid here.” Ha! We played until a few minutes before the muster drill (Alyssa still didn’t want to leave!), then went back to our room to drop off my camera.

 

 

 

(Camp Carnival - fun for all ages!)

We still had not met our cabin steward by this time, but since the calls to our muster stations were being broadcast, I figured we’d meet him that evening. Alex was ready to go right away, but I told him to wait a few minutes before we slowly…very slowly… walked to our station on deck 4, forward (outside by life boats boats). We were assigned station B but wound up following people to station D, so we turned around and slowly made our way back to station B, gladly yielding to the people who were trying to pass us to get to station D and beyond.

We stopped one last time so that Alyssa could be fitted with her green muster station wristband by one of the crew members. Lucky us, our long, slow journey to muster station B paid off! Not only were we in the front row and didn’t have to be squished against the back wall, but we were RIGHT BY THE DOORS to the ship, which meant we got the cool air from inside AND, since our station was one of the first dismissed, we were the first ones through the doors and down the stairs to our cabin after the drill was over! Score!

(...continued)

[Lady_Jag]

Our luggage arrived safe and sound not long after the muster drill, but this was the first cruise I didn't feel the need to unpack right away. Instead, the three of us went upstairs to the pool and the hot tub and enjoyed the music. Alyssa danced about, but mostly enjoyed hanging out with the kids in one of the two hot tubs by the main pool, were these young boys were climbing up onto a bar and diving into the pool, right next to “no diving” sign, no parents in sight. Sigh!

During sail away, I accidentally discovered the solution to the too-many-kids-in-the-hot-tub issue – just add 2 adults! Alex and I got in to one of the hot tubs and snuggled close, and in seconds, all the kids relocated to the other spa. We had the whole thing to ourselves, along with a great view out the windows of our departure, a view of the action on the deck in front of the pool, and a straight-on view of Alyssa in the other hot tub. Sweet!

 

Eventually, though, even the kids got sick of the abundance of kids in the other hot tub, and 3-4 of them came over to where Alex and I were. One boy stood on the edge of the spa, arms outstretched, back to us, and threw himself backward into the hot tub with a huge SPLASH. I said, “No sir! You do NOT dive into this hot tub like that!” His sister then jumped in cannonball style, and I calmly but firmly corrected her too. After that, they moved back to the other hot tub, and us two old fogy kill-joys were alone once again.

As the party continued and the other hot tub became more and more crowded, I watched a mother unceremoniously drop her diapered toddler (wearing arm bands) into the other hot tub with the other kids. Sigh! I was very glad we weren’t in that cluster of a spa! Only the mom didn’t want to stay there because of all the kids splashing around, so she came over to where we were with her baby. To my relief, the baby wanted to be around the other kids instead of old fuddy duddies, so the woman took her back over to the other hot tub.

This back-and-forth went on for some time. At one point, the mom made another trip back to where Alex and I were, and the baby’s older brother joined them, trying to swim “laps” across the hot tub with his baby sister clinging to his back. I was tempted to lean in and give Alex and great big old kiss on the mouth to see if maybe that would send them scurrying to the other hot tub, but I didn’t. Instead, I decided we needed to get ready for dinner anyway, so we vacated the spa, I told Alyssa it was time to dry off, and we went back to our cabin to change.

While Alex and Alyssa changed for dinner, I called the steakhouse and made reservations for the next evening. A woman named “Sonja” answered the phone. When I made our reservations, Sonja reminded me that it would be formal night, indicated the dress code, said it would be “$30…no, $35 per person…” (yes, the price of the steakhouse has increased) and that formal night was the only night this cruise in which lobster would be served in the MDR.

“That’s all right,” I said, “we’re allergic to shellfish anyway!”

Sonja confirmed our time, asked if both of us were allergic to shellfish (yes we are!) and thanked me for letting her know. I hung up the phone, and we were off to the MDR for dinner.

As I mentioned, we had Your Time Dining, so we weren’t tied to a dining schedule, which was nice. We walked right up to the hostess stand without any wait and were seated at a booth. Alyssa was offered an adult menu, but she politely asked for a kid’s menu instead. Then she not so politely let out a huge BURP! “Excuse me!” Alyssa said, clearly embarrassed. The hostess thought it was hilarious, told Alyssa it was okay, and walked off still laughing.

 

(My "dainty" little princess!)

Our wait team was super nice, and Alyssa asked up front if she could have strawberries to start. Then she said if not, her second choice, she said, was grapes. The waiter gave her both! Our assistant waiter stood by Alyssa for a while to watch us play tic-tac-toe. He asked who was winning, and I said Alyssa was a Tic-Tac-Toe shark! He chatted with Alyssa for a while, pointing out the shark and some of the sillier fish on the coloring pages inside the kids’ menu.

As we waited for our main course, Alyssa complained of being cold. “If only I had some hot chocolate,” she said wistfully. I put my arm around her, trying to warm her. A few minutes later, a waitress came over and said, “did you need something, princess?”

I was just about to say, “no, but thanks for checking,” when I realized she was talking to Alyssa. Yes, Alyssa had managed to flag this waitress down from across the room so that she could again turn on the doe eyes and ask sweetly for some hot chocolate, please. The waitress smiled and told her of course, it would be no problem. Lightning quick, Alexander, our team head waiter was setting a cup of hot chocolate in front of Alyssa, who thanked him very politely.

We skipped dessert (shocking, I know!) so that we could make it to the Camp Carnival dance party in the disco. Alyssa just LOVES the Welcome Aboard dance party and had a wonderful time! Funship Freddy made an appearance, too. Only Alyssa didn’t want to dance or join in any of the games. Instead, she preferred to play with one of the balloons on the dance floor…a purple one. Well, at least she was having a good time!

After dinner, we checked out the Funship shops. I bought a ship pin for my collection. (I had forgotten to get a Fascination pin on our last cruise until the last day of the cruise, and by then they were sold out. So I made sure to buy a pin first thing this time.) Alyssa asked if she could go back to the cabin because she was tired. Wow! That’s a first. We found Alex, who said he wanted to check out the shops across the hall, which made Alyssa suddenly changed her mind.

I leaned in and whispered, “If you come back to the cabin with me, we’ll order some milk and cookies from room service!” Yep! That’s all it took. A simple bribe from Mommy Lola. I had no room service menu, but didn’t need one to call and asked for 3 skim milks and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. The delivery was very quick, but there was only one carton of milk on the tray. The receipt indicated that I ordered three, so I mentioned we were missing two milks to our delivery person. She said she’d bring us some more right away.

Well, I was thirsty and several minutes went by, but still no milk. So I called room service again and explained. She apologized, and sent some out right away. I had to take the tray with the milk and 2 mugs. Minutes later, the lady who delivered our original order came by with 2 more milk and another tray I had to take. Oops!

Alex made it back to the cabin shortly after I got Alyssa to brush her teeth and climb into bed. He had some sort of chocolate delight mousse dessert from the dessert bar and said it was very good. Then he spotted the stack of trays, and said, “umm…were you guys hungry or what?!?” So I explained the mix-up.

There were no towel animals or chocolates in our room tonight. (Boo!) I felt so bad for Alyssa. She just wouldn’t believe that there was no towel animal at all in the room, and started crawling around, peering under the bed. “I know it’s here,” she said, picking up the bed skirt, “I just have to look for it!”

[Lady_Jag]

Looking forward to the blow by blow.

 

Day 1 has been posted.

 

Thank you for posting your pre-cruise update.

 

You're welcome!

 

Thanks for posting a review! Great pictures, sounds like you had a good time.:)

 

Thank you! We really did have a wonderful time, despite a few minor injuries (more on that later...)

:)

[Lady_Jag]

As allways amazing reviews!!! I think you should start doing this for lauraka too. Rememebr next cruise needs to be GLORY march 24th next year!!! I've got a BIGGGG Connection remember!! :D

 

Thanks, Frank! I'm not making any promises on a review for my birthday cruise in Jan. It might turn out to be a "what happens on the ship stays on the ship" kind of trip! :eek:

 

Great job! I enjoy reading your reviews, so I'm staying tuned for more!

Thank you! Hope you enjoy the next segment!

 

Looking forward to reading more, thanks for taking the time to do this!

Thank you! I hope you find it helpful.

[finoky]

Enjoying your review so far. We were on the Freedom for the cruise where the porters mentioned to you that a lot of people's belongings got soaked. It's true. It was raining buckets on embarkation day starting around 1230. Heard of many passengers having their stuff ruined. I understand your skepticism regarding the porters but in this case they were telling the truth.

 

We also stayed at the same hotel but had a better shuttle experience. We got there at 3pm with 8 people and they put us on the first shuttle. We were actually loaded and on our way by 1045. I can tell you that had I been given the first shuttle reservation and then bumped I would have been p friggin o'ed!

 

Anyway, loving your review and look forward to the rest.

[dwaterhouse]

Thank you for taking the time to write such a fantastic review

[mizLORInj]

We were on Freedom in May and we must've had Aruba and Curacao flipped because we were in Aruba 2-11 which was just weird--to be in a port that late! This was a really good itinerary.

We did the trip with Seavis in the DR and enjoyed it too. People who've not yet sailed: make sure you re-sunscreen up when you leave Saona; you will be at the sandbar for quite awhile and that's where I got a little pinker than I like!

Odd about the fry police; I don't see what handing out fries does while having people still touch the other food. (eyeroll).

I also agree the walk off the ship at this terminal seemed like miles!

Glad you had fun. I wish I was still onboard.

[Lady_Jag]

Enjoying your review so far. We were on the Freedom for the cruise where the porters mentioned to you that a lot of people's belongings got soaked. It's true. It was raining buckets on embarkation day starting around 1230. Heard of many passengers having their stuff ruined. I understand your skepticism regarding the porters but in this case they were telling the truth.

 

We also stayed at the same hotel but had a better shuttle experience. We got there at 3pm with 8 people and they put us on the first shuttle. We were actually loaded and on our way by 1045. I can tell you that had I been given the first shuttle reservation and then bumped I would have been p friggin o'ed!

 

Anyway, loving your review and look forward to the rest.

 

Yes, I did a few review about people and their stuff getting rained on, so I have no doubt the bags got soaked. However, I mentioned this "no bags on the ground" rule to other people from our roll call, and they said they never heard that at all, and their bags were on the ground handled like any typical embarkation. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe this particular porter misunderstood something his supers told him or didn't hear the "if it is RAINING" clause of that new rule. :rolleyes:

 

And yes, I was quiet angry at being bumped from our slot. I think it was because we were only 3 people, as opposed to a large group, and the lady at the desk figured she could just squeeze us in on a different shuttle. After we got the boot, I kept bugging her about when we would be on the shuttle:

"We ARE signed up for the 11:00 shuttle, right?"

"I thought we were supposed to be on the 11:00 shuttle."

"I did confirm last night that we would be on the 11:00 shuttle."

"We were here early for the 11:00 shuttle."

"When does the 11:00 shuttle ACTUALLY run?"

etc., etc.