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

[Lady_Jag]

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

 

You're welcome. Thank you for reading my ramblings!

 

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.

 

Wish I was still there, too! While it would have been nice to have done a sunset cruise or something in Aruba, I'm kind of glad we had such a long evening stay in Curacao. I LOVED seeing the ship all lit up at the Curacao pier with the last remnants of the sunset in the background.

 

Good tip about the sunscreen. We made sure to have plenty on us whenever we were out in the sun.

[ComeSailWithME]

Ugh, I am very perturbed by the children in the hot tub situation. I know that always seems to be the case, but a baby?! Please tell me this baby was not young enough to be in a swim diaper?

[Lady_Jag]

Ugh, I am very perturbed by the children in the hot tub situation. I know that always seems to be the case, but a baby?! Please tell me this baby was not young enough to be in a swim diaper?

 

No, she wasn't in a swim diaper...just a regular one. :rolleyes:

If I were to guess, I'd say she was around 15-18 months old.

[ComeSailWithME]

No, she wasn't in a swim diaper...just a regular one. :rolleyes:

If I were to guess, I'd say she was around 15-18 months old.

 

Excuse me while I refrain from throwing things!

[Lady_Jag]

Today was a pretty uneventful, yet relaxing day at sea. This ship moves through the water VERY smoothly. I noted that even though we were out at sea, it was the least motion I've ever felt on a ship, and I was thankful for the very calm water today.

We slept in bit this morning...well, as much as we could until our loud and chatty neighbors woke us up. I know the walls on this ship aren't that thick, but seriously! These people were LOUD! No matter. I was sure we'd have (unintentional) moments when we're not very quiet either, especially when Alyssa gets all riled up!

Alyssa always looks forward to room service for breakfast on a cruise, and she was not disappointed today. Our standard order came with 3 chocolate muffins for Alyssa, which she scarfed down in NO time! I enjoyed a hot cup of decaf tea while we all got ready for our day.

Before we could leave the room, though, our phone rang. “Who would be calling us?” I wondered. It was a follow-up call from the Maintenance department to see if the non-working toilet issue we called in the previous day was resolved to our satisfaction. I was impressed with the follow-up, and told them all was well.

We pretty much let Alyssa run the schedule this morning. She wanted to go to the kiddie pool, the regular pool and hot tubs, mini golf, and to Camp Carnival. We decided to start with the kiddie pool. Alex and I went through the buffet for our own breakfast, so we could carry it up to deck 11, where the kiddie pool was. It was a good idea to begin with, but MAN, was it a long trek with these heavy plate/tray/platter things they have on board!

Side rant – I really don’t like the giant oval plate/platter things that replaced the trays on the Lido deck! They make it impossible to comfortably carry food, drink and utensils anywhere! I mean, the platters by themselves have some weight to them, and then if you want to carry a drink, you have to try to carry this elongated thing with one hand and your cup with the other. And how about the eating utensils that are in those linen napkin rolls? You have two choices – stick it in your pocket or on the platter so that the platter is even heavier and now your napkin is absorbing any food that’s even slightly moist, runny, buttery, sticky or greasy. Bleh!

Anyway, I had just placed a croissant from the buffet onto my giant platter when another woman decided she would cut in line in front of me so that she could lean in and grab a box of cereal. When she did this, because she was standing so far back (it’s not line cutting unless you actually place your whole body in front of someone, right?!?) she basically parked her right breast onto the left side of my plate! “Excuse you,” I said, “I don’t want your milk!” She muttered an insincere apology and ran off, not noticing that the part of her shirt that covered her right nip now looked like she was lactating egg product. I smiled to myself, thinking it was worth losing my gross powdered eggs for the spectacle she gave other passengers on the way across the Lido deck! (Yeah, Lola can been mean and petty!)

As I slowly shuffled along doing my best juggling act, one of the crew members came over and offered to help me. I thanked him, but explained that we were going upstairs and that I wouldn’t want to put him out. He nodded and moved on, and I carefully climbed the stairs to the kiddie pool so we could watch Alyssa play.

 

(4-5 of those giant white chairs were wedged into the little overflow ring against the pool. I don't know why.)

 

At first Alyssa wanted me to climb in and play with her, but then a little boy and his baby sister joined her, so she was happy. She adored the little baby and did everything she could to make that baby laugh or smile! Eventually, Alyssa and her new friend came over to ask if they could go to the "regular" pool, which was fine by me. Again, it was a good excuse to get Alyssa out of a non-filtered pool where a baby’s diaper soaked up much of the water.

First, though, Alyssa decided that she wanted to ride the water slide. So Alex showed her where the slide entrance was and how to get there from the bottom of the slide. Then Alex and I scoped out a couple of chairs by the pool next to the slide exit so that we could keep an eye on Alyssa. She LOVED it and wanted to go again and again!

I saw people vacating 4 loungers with a better view of the slide, pool, and hot tub, so I swooped in… as did another lady. I grabbed 1 on one end, and she plopped stuff on the remaining 3 chairs. I asked if she was taking all 3, and she said yeah. Drat! I asked if they were in the pool, and she said yeah. Double-drat. Oh well. I got up to leave, but then the lady said they could share, so I thanked her and called Alex over.

I saw Alyssa at the slide entrance, very expressively chatting up the attendant. When it was her turn, she slide down and walked towards us so that she could get in line to slide again. At the bottom of the steps closest to our lounge chairs, she disappeared. “I’m okay!” I heard her little voice call out, and immediately she popped back up from where she had slipped on the deck. I smiled, and kissed her as she walked by on her way to the top of the slide.

A couple of minutes went by, and at one point I couldn’t see where in the line Alyssa was. As I was watching for her to show up at the slide entrance, I heard a very high-pitched, terrified, “yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!” from the slide. I worried that maybe the scream was from my 6-year-old little girl. Ah, nope! A macho-looking dude in his 20s popped out of the bottom of the slide with a big SPLASH! I looked over at Alex, and we both cracked up!

My Alyssa soon made her appearance at the top of the slide. Again, she was chatting with an adult, this time a guy in the line behind her. I could see from how animated she was that she was having a blast! She saw me watching her and waved enthusiastically before climbing into the tube.

Once she landed at the bottom of the slide, Alyssa decided she would spend a little time in the hot tub. (It is just under the middle part of the slide.) Alex said he was baking, so he walked over to the pool just in front of the hot tub and stuck his foot in. Immediately, he pulled his foot out and went straight to the hot tub. Guess it was too cold! LOL! After a little while, I joined him and Alyssa and a few other people in the spa.

We watched the big screen a while and then a little redhead girl about 9 or 10 years old came over and sat down in the hot tub with a bowl of ice cream. As she spooned each bite into her snarling mouth, I saw the woman next to her giving her the stink eye, and Alex next to me watching her with disapproval. She wrinkled her nose, thrusted her head forward, and all but DARED Alex to say anything to her. I rolled my eyes and ignored her, and when she was done with her bowl of ice cream, she left. Weird. Moments later, I spotted the same redheaded girl in the pool in front of the hot tub. This time, she was working on an ice cream cone and giving a lady in the pool the same challenging glare.

Alyssa quickly grew tired of the hot tub and decided she’d rather swim in the pool. Then she was off to the water slide again. I saw her talking to some more people in line at the top of the slide before it was her turn. This time when she came out of the bottom of the slide, she hung out by the slide exit. I thought maybe she had lost something, but then a bald middle-age man came out of the slide exit. Alyssa gave him a thumbs-up and said something to him (I think I saw her lips form the words, “see? It wasn’t that bad!” or something like that.) The guy just sort of nodded sheepishly at Alyssa and left.

Back in the hot tub, our personal space was becoming smaller and smaller. A little boy got in and started diving and swimming and kicking in the hot tub. At one point he jumped on my side. I “OW!” I said, then asked Alex to move over a bit so I could distance myself. Not long after that, the boy’s dad dragged him out.

After a good bit of fun in the water and sun, I thought I'd take Alyssa back to the cabin to clean her up. Tonight was formal night, and Alex and I had steakhouse reservations, plus I wanted to be sure we got pictures taken before we dropped Alyssa off at Camp Carnival. I called room service and ordered lunch for just the two of us, and was told it'd be a 30-45 minute wait. Perfect! Just enough time for us both to shower and clean up.

Room service came and the roast beef and cheese sandwich I ordered was oh so yummy! The guy who delivered our lunch asked if he could come in and set the tray down, so I stepped aside and let him place the tray on the coffee table. He proceeded to give us a “tour” of our meal, lifting covers, and naming off all the items on our tray: beef and cheddar, plain peanut butter sandwich (untoasted, no jelly), milk, chips, pretzels, etc. Um… okay. To Alyssa’s delight, her plate included 2 chocolate chip cookies too! I thanked and tipped our deliverer, and Alyssa and I sat down to a yummy lunch. Less than half-way through our meal, our phone rang. It was room service, asking if our order was okay. Love it!

Alyssa and I hung out in the cabin a bit after lunch, and then we met up with Alex to play some mini golf on the upper deck. We made a quick stop in route at shore excursion desk to make sure the 3 tickets we received for our dune buggy excursion in Grand Turk could be used by all 3 of us, since my name was on all them and all 3 read “adult” on the tickets. The guy at the desk said it would be no problem, then seeing Alyssa, got a concerned look on his face. “How old is she?” he asked, reaching for his shore excursion book.

“She’s 6,” I replied, “She’s at the minimum age for this tour, so I was able to sign her up online.” Then after a pause, I laughed and said, “She’s won’t be driving.”

Unconvinced, the guy riffled through the shore excursion book until he found the page on “Dune Buggy Adventure.” “She’s 6?” he asked. I nodded. “Alright. She’s okay.”

I smiled as I saw Alyssa’s big sigh of relief, and we made our way to the mini golf course. The course seemed nice, but boy was it crowded and WINDY! The line at the equipment kiosk was really long, and there were no golf balls left to rent out, so we explored the upper decks a little. When we returned to the kiosk, there were 3 golf balls waiting just for us, so we signed them out.

We had a fun time on the golf course. We didn't keep score, fortunately, but suffice it to say I stunk. I was so bad, at one point Alyssa looked at me sympathetically and asked, "Would you like me to help you out, Mommy?" Yikes!

I need to point out that the access to the mini golf course is crazy, and maybe even a little dangerous. You enter through a chain link gate at the top of a flight of stairs behind one end of the volleyball court. Here, the volleyball court takes up the entire right side of the fenced area and the basketball court covers the left side. Between the two courts is a large glass paneled enclosure that looks down to the main atrium in the interior of the ship. The sharp points of the metal panel edges are covered with a foam bumper that sticks out a couple of inches, and a sign on a glass panel warns people not to sit on the glass.

(View from the mini golf course, looking down at the entrance to the Sports deck. The gate is on the far right. Check out how tight the squeeze is on the right between the glass and the volleyball pole!)

To get to the stairs that lead to the mini golf, you have to walk across the volleyball court and “squeeze” between the glass enclosure and the pole support of the volleyball net. Coming back from our round of golf, I managed to make it ALMOST to the exit. Rounding the back of the court, I looked up in time to see a rogue volleyball that was served too high on a direct trajectory towards my head. I ducked in time for the ball to pass over me, but it landed hard on the court to my right, bounced up and came back to hit my elbow. Ouch! Yeah, it stung a bit, but not for long, and it was better than a knock to the head, I guess!

Tea time was at 3:00 in the Posh dining room, deck 4, and that's where we went to meet some of our roll call. Not everyone was there, but the folks we met were very nice! Alyssa seemed a bit bored until the dessert cart rolled around. Then she was all chocolaty smiles! We talked a very long time, and finally at 4:00 I had to excuse us so we could get ready for pictures and dinner.

We returned to our cabin, dressed in our formal attire, then hit the long line of picture venues. I was hoping that at least one would turn out, but I wasn’t too pleased with the work of the photographers this cruise. (Slanted pictures, bad angles, shadows on faces, etc.)

(Ready to party!)

Finally, after listening to Alyssa’s begging after each photo session, we brought her to Camp Carnival, where she could play, have dinner with her friends, and even have a special camp "cocktail celebration," where they served the kids soda. (She had a ball!)

After we dropped Alyssa off, we had 2 hours to kill, so we walked around the ship looking for stuff to do. We spied on Alyssa at the fish & chips station as the Camp Carnival dinner was wrapping up. Then we went to Guest Services for a copy of the Fun Times and a Room Service menu. Afterwards, we sat on one of the loveseats in a back corner of the main atrium to people watch and listen to the music. When the main atrium cleared, we visited the Fun Shops for an ornament of the ship, but they sold only the cheesy resin ones that look like every other ship in the fleet. (I asked for the gold plated ornaments, and the clerk said they didn’t sell them anymore. Boo!)

We then explored all the lounges on the ship plus the main show lounge, and went to the aft lido, where I noticed that the dome was closed and covered the adult-only pool. We moved across the ship to check out the Serenity area (unlike other ships, Serenity is on the forward part of the spa deck), but was too hot and muggy in our formal attire. Went visited the piano bar, but not much was happening, so we left. Finally, we wound up on deck 10 next to the bandstand above the main pool and watched 5 people (3 adults, 1 teen, and 1 tween) play marco polo. It was too funny!

Time for the steakhouse, for a delicious meal, of which I ate WAY too much! The compliment of the chef was adorable and quite yummy. It was some sort of savory roasted red pepper/tomato soup with a mozzarella cheese in a teeny little baby doll bowl and matching spoon. (Okay, Lola is not that sophisticated and has no idea what the correct terminology is for the dinnerware!)

Alex and I both ordered the beef Carpaccio, which neither of us had ever tried before. Wow! So delicious! I thought for sure the texture would creep me out, but oh my! I had found a new starter to love. We also both ordered the prime rib steak, cooked medium, at the waiter’s recommendation. My steak was more medium-rare than medium, but it was very VERY yummy! It was also a HUGE 18 ounce steak. We really enjoyed the steaks and sides and stuffed ourselves silly. After all that beef, however, I STILL can’t bear the thought of eating any beef (other than hamburger) 4 weeks later!

What really put me over the edge was the "chocolate sampler" dessert, which had 4 different chocolate desserts on one plate. Alex ordered strawberry cheesecake, which was no less than 6 inches tall and just about as wide! No kidding, it was a HUGE chunk of cake! Neither of us could put much of a dent in our desserts, though, and both servings went mostly unfinished.

The check arrived, and there was a line that read “Gratuity (optional)” under the $35/pp fee. We were confused by this, so I asked one of the servers if gratuity was included, and he answered, “it is optional.” Umm…yeah, that didn’t really answer my question. I mean technically, ALL restaurant gratuities are “optional,” right? So we paid our bill and waddled out the door.

Stuffed to the point that I thought my slinky little red dress was going to blow apart, we walked over to Camp Carnival to pick up Alyssa. She saw us, smiled, waved, then realized why we were there. Immediately her face fell and she wailed, "Mommy! Daddy! Nooooooo!" and ran to the Camp Carnival gate with a pitifully pouty lip and those big doe eyes again. She started to cry, claiming that she "didn't even get a chance to PLAY yet!" (“So what have you been doing all this time?!?” we wondered.)

Anyway, we agreed to let her play 30 minutes more, and she happily skipped off back to her friends. The people at Camp Carnival who were in line behind us to pick up their kids laughed. “So cute!” I heard the lady behind me say. Yeah, more like “so manipulative,” I thought!

We walked back to our room where we busted our housekeeping team cleaning up the bathroom. No worries, we told them. We can wander a little. Before we were even down the hall, though, they were ready for us, so we thanked them and walked back into the cabin. We DID get a towel animal tonight, though I’m not sure what it was supposed to be. There were also Carnival chocolates waiting for us, as well as a sweet strawberry surprise from John Heald. I couldn’t stand to look at another piece of dessert, so I cleared out space in our mini fridge to stash the strawberries inside, but the plate was too big. Uh-oh!

We changed into more comfortable clothes before we went to Camp Carnival for Alyssa. Unfortunately, Alex couldn’t find his card, so we called the steakhouse. Sure enough, it was there! So Alex schlepped back to the steakhouse for his card (and a maybe a regular sized plate that would fit our fridge and hold the strawberries), then all the way to the forward part of the ship again to get Alyssa. Alyssa was thrilled and wired from all the fun she had, and chattered on rapidly about her new friend named Kaylee and how she got to go to a cocktail party, where she got a Sprite.

It took a little while for Alyssa to settle down, even though I tried my best to calm her. The next day would be a busy one in Grand Turk, where we were scheduled to ride dune buggies around the island. It's also the day of the past guest party, which Alyssa has loved on every previous cruise because she got to dance on the big stage.

[Lady_Jag]

Remember I mentioned that the Serenity area was at the front of the ship, not the back? Well, I think I failed to mention that it also right by Camp Carnival and the kiddie pool.

 

Here's the wooden divider that blocks access to Serenity from the kiddie pool. (I held my camera up around the side for this shot.)

 

And here's the upper area of the Serenity deck (which is next to the slide entrance), as seen from the kiddie pool:

 

Our strawberry surprise:

 

Mystery towel animal:

[dapaddo]

Loving your reveiw we are sailing on her in Nov.

 

A question about your hotel is there any where close to pick up pop and supplies?

[Lady_Jag]

Loving your reveiw we are sailing on her in Nov.

 

A question about your hotel is there any where close to pick up pop and supplies?

 

Yes, there is a Target nearby and CVS and/or Walgreens. I think there's a Publix grocery store, too, but don't remember the exact distance. Also, the shopping mall is right across the street (we could see it from our window) if you forgot swimwear/clothing/etc.

[jacksmom09]

Great Review! Love the details!

[ComeSailWithME]

Haha, Lola is a funny lady!

[Coolcruise02]

Great review and pictures!

[Lady_Jag]

Skip this part if you're not interested in my backstory...

 

When I first booked this cruise, I wasn’t all that excited about Grand Turk. I mean, we were scheduled to be there from 7:00am-2:00pm…what could we POSSIBLY do in such a short time, especially when we’re not exactly “morning” people?

At first, I figured we’d take our sweet time getting off the ship and hang out at the beach or the pool at Margaritaville or something. Now Alex and Alyssa are always happy to have a relaxing “beach day.” But truth be told…and please keep this between you and me and the “handful” of other people on the world wide web…I am NOT a beach person! There! I said it! I’ve lived in Florida my entire life, and I don’t like going to the beach! There are a number of reasons why, including the fact that I can hardly swim and nearly drowned in the ocean when I was in college.

Back to Grand Turk – a couple of months before our cruise, I decided I would book a cabana by the pool at Margaritaville. I figured it would make a good base of operations for us, and I could chill out with my iPad in the privacy of an air conditioned room now and again, while Alex and Alyssa could play at the beach and/or pool for as long as they wanted. (And thank you again, Cruise Critic members, for sharing your discount promo code for Carnival’s shore excursions, as I was able to reserve a cabana at a 10% discount. Yay!)

Right after I reserved the cabana on the Carnival web site, I started looking around at the other Carnival excursions in Grand Turk and saw “Dune Buggy Adventure” in the list. Alyssa was just old enough to meet the minimum age requirements, and there were still plenty of tickets available for the earliest departure of 7:30am.

I knew Alex and Alyssa, being cut from the same thrill-seeking cloth, would be more than happy to ride around in a dune buggy, but for the price I wanted to be sure that Alex was on board with spending the money on a expensive 2-hour excursion in addition to having our cabana. I explained to him and Alyssa my plan of doing the early dune buggy tour at 7:30am, then coming back to our cabana around 9:30am to cool off, hang out by the pool, have some lunch, and maybe even rest a little before our 2:00pm departure. I cautioned them both that we would have to get up early in the morning to follow this plan, and both agreed.

So I went back to the Carnival web site (still armed with my 10% off promo code) to book the 3 of us on a dune buggy adventure at 7:30am. Except the Carnival web site didn’t want me to go! Because I booked the cabana in my name, and the “excursion time” listed for the cabana was 8:00am-2:00pm, only Alex and Alyssa had the [select this Guest] link. Next to MY name were the words “Time conflicts with another purchase.” Grrrr!

Not to be defeated by a stupid glitch in their web site, I called Carnival and asked to speak with someone in Shore Excursions. I spoke to a very nice lady, Shaneka, who told me she couldn’t fix the system, but that she would email someone who might be able to help, and she CC’d me on the email. Super.

Within 24 hours after Shaneka sent the email, I received the following response:

“Dear Guest,

Thank you for getting in touch with the Shore Excursion Department.

You will be able to do both tours, the Cabana rental is the Full day and you will be able to check in at any time from 7:00am onwards. Depending on what time you check in that will determine how much time you have in the Cabana itself.

Please go ahead and book the Dune Buggy’s online.

We value your business and appreciate this opportunity to assist.

Best regards,

Tour Operations

Carnival Cruise Lines”

Yeah, only the online booking system was still screwed up, and besides, I wasn’t asking if I could DO both excursions, but if they would fix their stupid system so that I could book both online! So I nicely replied to the email, thanking them for their response and explaining that as Shaneka indicated, and as the screen shot I attached showed, the online system needed a little love. Here is their reply:

“Good Afternoon Shaneka C***-W****,

We are looking into your request, if possible we will hold tickets for your family onboard the Carnival Freedom. We will confirm as soon as the tickets have been removed.

Once you board, please proceed to the shore excursions desk to purchase the tickets.

We value your business and appreciate this opportunity to assist.

Best regards,

Tour Operations

Carnival Cruise Lines”

Sigh! I emailed a response right away, telling them never mind, I would just cancel the cabana rental and book the dune buggy tickets instead. Then I asked them to please not save any tickets for their rep, Shaneka, and her family, as they would not be sailing on the Carnival Freedom with us.

I was surprised that Alyssa was actually disappointed about the cabana when I told her, and said, “Awwww! You cancelled the resting place?!?” But being 6 and excited about dune buggies, she quickly got over it.

Anyway, not only would I save some money by not renting a cabana, but also, I was able to reserve a later, 9:30am dune buggy tour so that we wouldn’t have to get up at the crack just to be on time for our shore excursion. The new plan was to get up early, but not TOO early, have a leisure breakfast on board while the crowd rushed off the ship, do our dune buggy tour, then return to Margaritaville for a bite to eat and a dip in the pool or even some time at the beach (blah!) until we had to be back on board the ship.

Aside - I noted the day after I cancelled our cabana online that the number of tickets for the 7:30am dune buggy tour had decreased by 3 (there were 4 tickets left when I first tried to book, and only 1 left after the debacle with the Shore Excursion department) even though I asked that they NOT save the tickets for me…or rather, for Shaneka. A day or two after that, I saw that the 9:30am tour had sold out.

 

Now back to our regular programming…

[Lady_Jag]

I awoke in the early morning as we were pulling into Grand Turk. Our entire cabin and everything in it was vibrating and rattling as the ship docked. From the sound, I easily imagined metal panels on the hull outside our cabin shaking loose and being ripped from the outside of the ship. Wow! What a wake-up call!

Room service arrived not long afterwards with Alyssa order of chocolate muffins. Since we were up early anyway, I wanted to have breakfast in the MDR this morning before leaving the ship.

We dressed in our old grungy “paint clothes,” because I heard that the dune buggy excursion could get you VERY dirty and I remembered how dirty Alex and I got on our ATV excursion in Cozumel years ago. We wore our bathing suits underneath so that we could cool off in the ocean or at the pool in Margaritaville after our excursion.

The night before, I had packed our excursion backpack with sunscreen, towels, bug spray, etc. To it I added a few pouches of chilled CapriSun Roarin’ Waters for Alyssa so she would stay hydrated. All packed and ready, we headed off to the Posh dining room. I was really, REALLY looking forward to the little round hashbrowns they serve there. (The Lido buffet has them only on debarkation day.)

Alex, in his YMCA tank top, led the way to the dining room, but was soon stopped by the hostess outside the doors. She told him, “I’m sorry sir, but you need a coat to enter.” Wha??!?? We both looked at him confused, and she repeated that he wasn’t allowed into the MDR in a tank top and needed to put on a coat. Now, I understand there’s a dress code for the MDR at dinner, and we gladly abide by it. But just the previous day, someone from our CC group was wearing a bathing suit top in the MDR for tea time and there was no problem whatsoever. Needless to say, Alex was PO’d by this ridiculous double-standard.

(Alex's "risque" attire)

“You guys go ahead,” he told me and Alyssa, “Enjoy your hasbrowns – I’m going up to the Lido deck.” And he started to walk away.

Alyssa and I turned to follow, because as much as I wanted those hasbrowns, I wanted to hang out with my husband more, and I agreed that telling him to “put on a coat” was just stupid. “Thanks anyway,” I told the hostess and I started to leave. “Are you sure?” she asked, surprised that I wasn’t staying. I nodded, and she looked embarrassed as she said, “sorry!”

So up to the Lido buffet we went for some cold diced potatoes with bits of soggy red bell pepper mixed in, and a croissant. A word about that croissant…I BURNED my hand on the serving tongs! All the pastries were under heating lamps, and the croissants were on a tray way in the back. Of course, the serving tongs that went along with that tray of croissants were ALSO way in the back, under the 3-4 heating lamps. So when I grabbed the metal tongs, the hot metal seared my palm, and I quickly dropped them! “OUCH!” I yelled.

“Are they hot?” asked the lady behind me. (DUH! I thought.) When I nodded, she reached across and grabbed the hot tongs herself, then just as quickly dropped them. (Seriously?!? Why on earth would I lie about something like that?!?) I grabbed one of the serving tongs from a tray in the front and helped myself to a croissant, giving the lady my are-you-really-that-stupid? look, then walked away, thinking how I would have an excellent political career ahead of me now that I didn’t have any fingerprints.

Needless to say, breakfast was disappointing, but the disappointment was pushed aside by our anticipation of our dune buggy adventure. Alyssa chattered on and on about how much fun it would be, and how she and I would have a “girls’ buggy!” (She said “girls’buggy” in a higher octave and would flip both her wrists in the air when she said this. LOL!)

We left the ship, said “no thank you” a few times to the ship photographers, and walked down the pier, through the standard overpriced shop, and into the courtyard area where the dune buggy kiosk was. I signed us in, and we sat down on the edge of one of the planters nearby. Finally, it was time for us all to walk out to the line of dune buggies and begin our “Dune Buggy Adventure” shore excursion.

First, I need to mention that this is NOT a "water activity," as stated in the description/overview on the Carnival web site. There is no beach stop (much to Alyssa's disappointment) and no swimming. Unless it rains, the only water you will experience is from the sweat-soaked helmet from the previous tour participants. I thought the term “adventure” in the title of this shore excursion was actually a misnomer.

We stood around the lead buggy, from which our guide gave us all the necessary hand signals and laid down the rules: drive on the left side of the road, no fishtailing, no spin-outs, no passing, no donuts, keep your visor down so you don’t get poop in your face, and keep up with the buggy in front of you. The 12 people in our group were then told to find a buggy, one passenger and one driver per buggy. Since there was at least one person in the other 5 buggies, Alyssa and I hopped into the last buggy. Alex moved towards the buggy in front of us, where a lady was sitting in the driver’s seat. “Would you like to drive?” she asked Alex, getting up to move over, “After all those instructions he just gave us, I’m a little afraid to!”

So Alex lucked out and got the driver’s seat. Meanwhile, I helped Alyssa to buckle up and strapped her helmet onto her head. Then I put on my own helmet. SQUISH! The inside padded lining was cold and very wet. YUCK! We were the second of three tours that day, and I guess with the tours running consecutively, the helmets don’t get a chance to dry out from the sweat of the previous tour participants. Blech!

Trying not to think about the squishy helmet strapped to my head, I followed Alex’s buggy out of the parking lot and down the road. The drive was okay, but it was at a pretty moderate speed, probably not much faster than 40-45mph. We drove through sandy trails and over rocky paths, but even though the buggy’s back end pitched a little a couple of times and I took a bump a little faster than necessary to try to catch a little air, Alyssa remained quiet and with a blank expression on her face.

After just a few minutes of the sandy trails, our line of buggies came to a stop. We’d already reached the first stop of our tour. “Can I just wait in the buggy?” Alyssa asked, looking down at her feet. I told her that no, everyone had to go and we would come back and ride some more in a little while. She sighed and reluctantly took my hand. I grabbed a CapriSun out of our bag and got her to sip at it so she wouldn’t dehydrate.

We climbed a dirt path up a steep hill (and around various pile of horse/donkey droppings) to the top, where we saw the remnants of an old fort and a nice view of the ship. We took a few pictures, and listened to a history lesson from our guide, which was interesting for most of the adults. Alyssa, however, was visibly bored and very restless.

(That's the Freedom in the background)

When our guide asked, “any questions?” Alyssa raised her hand.

“When are we were going to the beach?” she asked. Our guide laughed and told her in about an hour and 40 minutes, when the tour was over. Alyssa sighed, and I tried my best to talk up the rest of the buggy experience.

We carefully descended the hill, trying not to step in or slip on any of the “piles,” and climbed back into our buggies. Once everyone was ready, the guide and the first 3 buggies took off on the next segment. Our three buggies in the back went nowhere, though. The guy driving in front of Alex was shouting, “Hey! Hey! It won’t start! It’s stalled!”

We all sat there for a while until one of our guides returned to repair the broken down buggy. He got it running again, and we all drove off, one behind the other, until we caught up with the rest of the group. That same buggy broke down again a little while later, so again, those of us in the buggies behind him had to wait. I felt sorry for the driver of that buggy, as he was clearly frustrated (and I think maybe a little embarrassed?) with the situation.

Finally, we were all traveling along at our 40-45mph clip across an empty, open, dusty area. Alyssa still had yet to whoop, cheer, or even smile. (At one point, I even asked her if she was having fun, and she just gave me an unconvincing, unenthusiastic “yeah.”) Here, I thought, maybe we would take it up a notch and maybe hit 60mph. Unfortunately for me, though, instead of speeding up, my buggy was slowing down. I had the gas pedal all the way to the floor, but the engine just died.

We rolled to a stop and watched the rest of the group leave us behind in the dust, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. “Wait! Wait!” I yelled, waving my arms to get someone’s attention, but we were the last buggy in the line, sitting in a cloud of dust kicked up by all the other buggies, and no one noticed. Alyssa looked at me with a bit of panic on her face. “Let’s go, Mommy! Why aren’t we going?”

I smiled at her and told her that the buggy won’t start, but that someone will be along to fix it in a little while. Then I crossed my fingers, hoping I was right! I will give credit to our guides for keeping track of everyone on the tour, however, as we didn't have to wait too long to be "rescued." Maybe 5-7 minutes. As he did with the previous broken down buggy, the guide pulled the driver’s seat out, messed with the engine, and finally managed to get the buggy started so that I could join the group now waiting for us down the road.

The next stop was the lighthouse, where we were given a bottle of water and a bathroom break. Alyssa wanted to pet the donkeys roaming around in the area, but I didn’t think that was such a good idea. Meanwhile, Alex got in line for the restroom. When it was his turn, her grabbed the door handle, and some jerk walked right in, like Alex was opening the door for him! Then we the jerk came out, he looked at Alex and said, “I’ll let YOU flush!” When Alex came out of the bathroom, the jerk then suddenly tried to make nice-nice with Alex and chat him up like they were old pals. What a freak!

I snapped a few pictures while Alyssa whined about not getting to pet the donkeys:

In no time, it was time to get back to the buggies. We all climbed in, but the guy in front of Alex couldn’t get his buggy to start again. Two of the guide worked on the buggy for a long time. Finally, one of the guides used the metal part of the seatbelt to somehow hotwire/jumpstart the buggy! Yikes! Everyone climbed back in.

“Hey Alex!” I called out, “Is your buggy running? ‘Cause mine isn’t!” Alex flagged down the two guides who were just repairing the other buggy and sent them my way.

Alyssa and I both had to climb out again, while the guides pulled both seats out of the buggy to mess with the engine. Wrrrr! Wrrrr! Wrrrr! Wrrr! Bleeeehhhh! Again and again they tried to start the buggy, but nothing was happening. I walked Alyssa a little further away from the exhaust in the back and tried to keep her distracted.

(Not amused...and oh so dirty!)

Finally, after another 10+ minutes or so, the engine started and Alyssa and I were back in the buggy. We cruised along the island back to our starting point, where I would leave my sweat-soaked squishy helmet in the seat for some other unsuspecting someone on the third tour of the day. To Alyssa’s great delight, it was time to hit the beach!

[Lady_Jag]

It was a little after 11:30 when we walked over to Margaritaville. We asked Alyssa if she wanted to cool off in the pool or in the ocean, and she chose the ocean. (Drat!) Alex and I had no trouble finding a couple of loungers on the beach where we could watch Alyssa swim and chill out for a little while. Alex jumped in with Alyssa, and the two of them played in the water a while.

I’ll admit it – even though I’m not a beach person, the beach in Grand Turk was wonderful! I loved that we could swim in the ocean so close to the ship and in such clear blue water you could see the fish without a snorkel or mask! Alyssa started a little rock pile on the beach, then chose a few sea shells to take home with her. She also found a piece of sea glass, which she thought was really neat, and tucked it safely into our excursion backpack.

Alyssa collection of sea shells reminded me of the “conch graveyard” I wanted to visit, so after I had cooled down a bit, I made sure Alex was going to be hanging out with Alyssa for a while, then went in search of a nice conch shell or two. There were big signs posted on the pier warning people not to walk under the dock, so I walked through the tourist plaza to the beach on the other side of the pier and followed the rocky shoreline, keeping my eye on the ground for conch shells.

Now here’s where Cruise Critic let me down. Okay, not really, but I so misunderstood all the descriptions of the “conch graveyard” in Grand Turk! From previous reviews and postings, I was under the impression that you walk along the beach, and suddenly you come across this massive area just litter with beautiful conch shells, ready for the taking. WRONG!

The reality was, you walk through very soft sand and over several rocks, and then you think you’ve found a good shell, but when you manage to pry it out of the sand, you see that it’s only half or a third of a shell. There were indeed TONS of conch shells, but none of them were in very good condition. I kept walking and looking, and suddenly noticed that there were several other people walking along the beach with the same goal and about the same bad luck. One guy I saw painstakingly chiseling away at the crusted solidified sand around one conch shell. It was like he was trying to retrieve a rare specimen from a fossil, and he was so into his task that his face was beet red and the sweat poured down his face.

I walked on, trying not to fall on a rock or drop my camera into the water, and made it to what looked like the tip of the island (although I’m sure it was just the end of the beach). There were several conch shells around, all broken, or with multiple holes in them. Bummer. Then I remembered a photo I saw of a live conch in one review, and wasn’t sure I wanted to find a “pristine” shell anymore. It may sound silly, but what if I found a nice shell, and there was still something LIVING in it? Ack! I would totally freak out if something reached out of the shell and touched me!

I spotted one shell that had just one small hole in it near the top, and rinsed it of in the ocean. Nearby was another shell with a small hole in the same spot but otherwise in good condition. I grabbed that one two, gave it a rinse, then started the journey back to Margaritaville. Ugh! It was really HOT in the noontime sun, and I wished I had taken a bottle of water with me on my walk along the beach. I trudged on, back over rocks and across slippery soft sand.

(My two finds)

A man saw me carrying the 2 shells, smiled at me and nodded his hello. I returned the greeting, and we talked a little bit. “I wonder how many shells the ships carry out to see with them when they pull out,” he mused.

“ALL of them,” I joked, “judging from the slim pickings!” He laughed and said that they found some nice ones, but they had to swim out a ways and snorkel for them. I looked out into the ocean, and sure enough, two young men were out there with snorkel gear, holding their shells up for the guy to see. Ah well! Time to get back to my own family before I had a heat stroke.

I said my goodbyes and walked back to the main plaza, snapping a couple of pictures as I went. I reached our loungers and collapsed into one, out of breath and thirsty. Alex saw me come back and said, “hey, I was just about to move our stuff over there to those chairs in the shade.”

“Sounds good to me!” I said, and helped him move our towels and bag and shoes. Alex said if I was going to stay at the beach with Alyssa, he was going to go look around. I was fine with that. I grabbed another CapriSun from the bag and brought it to Alyssa to drink, then all but dove into the marvelously cool water. Ah! I could feel my body’s temperature returning to normal as I effortlessly floated along, welcoming Alyssa’s splashes. I wasn’t going to die from the heat after all!

(LOVED swimming so close to the ship! Also note the line forming to re-board on the left)

I helped Alyssa with her rock pile on the beach, pointed out several schools of fish in the water, and had a great time playing with my little girl. When Alyssa decided to build a sand castle, I remembered the conch shells and went back to the chairs to retrieve them. I brought them to the water and waved them in front of Alyssa, but she was too much “in the zone” to notice. Oh well! I washed both shells off in the water, and as I was crossing the beach back to the chairs to put them away, I heard Alyssa exclaim, “Hey! What’s that?!?”

I showed her the shells, and she thought they were just perfect. She was so excited about them! (I saw more excitement on her face over these shells than I did the entire 2-horu dune buggy excursion!) I wrapped each shell in a plastic bag so that they wouldn’t stink up our excursion backpack, then carefully wrapped them in two of our towels for extra padding. Alex returned as I was placing the shells into the backpack, and he handed me a cold bottle of Diet Coke. God bless that man!

We lounged in the chairs with our drinks, watching Alyssa alternate between swimming in the water and piling up her rocks on the beach. The music at Margaritaville was distant enough to provide a good background without being too loud. We were supposed to be back on board at 1:30 for our 2:00 departure, and that time was fast approaching. Already, the line to board the ship was really long and at least half way down the pier, so we decided we’d wait until the last possible moment and hope the crowd to board would die down.

("See Mom? The beach isn't THAT bad!)

The line was still there when we packed up our things and called Alyssa in, but it was much shorter than before. Alyssa didn’t want to leave (who could blame her!) and walked super slow to where we were waiting. She spotted the swinging chairs hanging along the back of Margaritaville and wanted to sit in them. I did too, so I told her that we could try them out for just a minute or two but then had to get back to the ship. (The chairs were comfortable enough, but it was really hard to pull ourselves out of them because of how deep the seats were.)

We walked over to a spigot to rinse off our feet, crossed the plaza, then walked back through the shop at the entrance to the pier. In front of us was a chain of 3 people linked arm-in-arm, marching towards the ship. Okay, the two people on the end were marching, while the drunen woman in the middle was sort of being dragged along. Her companions were the only things holding her up, and at one point, the guy on the right lost his grip a bit, and she slid down, almost hitting the concrete of the pier!

Sure enough, they were directly in front of us in the line. The drunken woman boasted loudly about how much she drank and how much fun she had. Then she turned to the teenage girl in front of her and, slurring, asked something like, “you know how when you drink sssssshho mussssh EVERYTHING just gets sssssshho mussssh funner?!?”

“I wouldn’t know,” the girl answered, with a pitying smile on her face, “I don’t drink.”

“You ssssshould!” the woman told her, “you don’t know what you’re misssssshing!” Then she talked about how she spent almost all her time drinking and peeing in the pool, and mentioned a few other disgusting things she did there that made me glad Alyssa chose to cool off in the ocean instead of the pool!

("Sometimes in our lives...we all need somebody to lean on!")

[Lady_Jag]

(Entrance from the pier)

 

(Splashdown!)

 

(Little hut I encountered along my journey to the graveyard.)

 

(A whale of a tale!)

 

(Margaritaville)

 

(This beach might turn me into a "beach person" after all!)

 

Day 3 continues tomorrow, with a recap of the past guest party and the rest of our evening. Goodnight!

[Lady_Jag]

Great Review! Love the details!

Thank you!

 

Haha, Lola is a funny lady!

:D Thanks! Lola is a bit of a whack job, that's for sure!

 

Great review and pictures!

Thank you! More tomorrow.

[bajangoddess82]

Loving the in-depth review and pics so far :) Will be on the Freedom for Halloween this year for the 6-day and I can't wait!!! Living vicariously through you for now :)

[Csh2145]

I am truly lovin your review. As you know, my family was also on this cruise. We rented a golf cart in Grand Turk and really enjoyed exploring the island on our own. We found a beach called, Columbus National Park, I think. We were all alone for a couple of hours, with a pink flamingo, on this beach. Absolutely georgeous beach. View of the light house in the back ground. Shallow water out to a small island. Hundreds of conch shells. Small and huge, perfect and not so perfect, lovely pink ones and grey and white ones. We were in conch shell heaven. Thougt I would post for the future conch shell hunters.

[ncbeachteacher]

Great review! We are doing a B2B starting next Saturday on the Freedom! Can't wait to read the rest of your review!

[Palmist]

How expensive was the golf cart and how long did you get to use it?

We are on this cruise July 28- Aug. 5. Having never been to Grand Turk

we would love to explore it. The dune buggies are expensive and not too well

maintained so a golf cart could be doable.

Myrna

[cruisebarbie]

And thank you again, Cruise Critic members, for sharing your discount promo code for Carnival’s shore excursions, as I was able to reserve a cabana at a 10% discount. Yay!)

 

I was wondering about the discount? We are thinking of booking a cabana with Carnival in an upcoming cruise.

 

Thanks for your awesome review!

Vicki

[diamondgirl54]

Loving the in-depth review and pics so far :) Will be on the Freedom for Halloween this year for the 6-day and I can't wait!!! Living vicariously through you for now :)

 

 

 

We will be on the freedom for the halloween cruise also. I was also on this cruise on june 2. We were also on the freedom last year for halloween. The freedom is a great ship you will love it. Have you been to the roll call for the 10/28/12 cruise. We are from ft lauderdale....If you have any questions about the freedom please ask....Mary

[grima625]

Enjoying your review! We were on Freedom in Feb of this year, and will be on it next Feb, so it reminds me of how nice it was and will be. Also read your review of the Fascination since we will be on her in Sept. You have a gift for capturing details. Keep it up.

[lovestocruise19]

(Entrance from the pier)

 

(Splashdown!)

 

(Little hut I encountered along my journey to the graveyard.)

 

(A whale of a tale!)

 

(Margaritaville)

 

(This beach might turn me into a "beach person" after all!)

 

Day 3 continues tomorrow, with a recap of the past guest party and the rest of our evening. Goodnight!

 

I got off the Freedom the same day you were getting on (June 2). I'm planning on going on the Liberty next year with my SIL, her husband and my DH. I have a question about Grand Turk. Is the beach area free and it is on the same grounds as Margaritaville? I know the pool is attached to Margaritaville and you have to buy at least one drink in order to use it.

[Scottee25]

Really enjoying the review. I am taking my wife on this cruise in October for her 40th birthday though she doesn't know about the trip yet :) Looking forward to reading more of your review as you post it.

 

A couple of things... after a bad experience in Miami, I will NEVER use a hotel shuttle ever again. We will always drop a dime and pay for a cab to get us to/from the port.

 

And with the conch shells, they have those holes in them because that is how people remove the conch from the shell. They pop a hole in the shell and then pull the conch out through the hole. Just an FYI why the ones you found were broken or had holes in them. They are the remains after the living conch has been removed.