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

[RedRam99V8]

Ok so I am now caught up... I wonder why I have never recived any updates that you have updated this??? Oh well I must check back more often now :rolleyes:. OH well I love it so far as usual... Oh who is the hottie in the black bikini top there in one photo:D.. Ok so a few things missing here.. first the hillariousness of the emergency cord in the bathroom? I think now you should be required to have those cabins... Second I think you should have your mom on board your stories about her had me rolling on the floor espically as you banged your head against the wall :o

[LBumb]

fantastic review

[sunshinecruiser62]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! I've been scouring the Internet looking for pix of cabin 1220 on the Freedom since we booked this cruise!! And just when I was about to give up, BAM! there they are!

 

Loving your review style along with lots of pix, I must go back and read your other reviews.....again, thanks so much!:)

[PunkinsDad]

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 were on the same cruise!! Had a blast!! My DW collects those ornaments too, but I did find one of the gold-plated ones on a clearance table on one of the last days. Score some goof husband points for me!!! :D

[Lady_Jag]

fantastic review

Thank you.

I had to take a little hiatus because I thought I had a broken elbow (it was NOT broken, thankfully!), but will post more tonight after work.

 

Ok so I am now caught up... I wonder why I have never recived any updates that you have updated this??? Oh well I must check back more often now :rolleyes:. OH well I love it so far as usual... Oh who is the hottie in the black bikini top there in one photo:D.. Ok so a few things missing here.. first the hillariousness of the emergency cord in the bathroom? I think now you should be required to have those cabins... Second I think you should have your mom on board your stories about her had me rolling on the floor espically as you banged your head against the wall :o

 

Sometimes I don't get my notifications either. It's weird. I agree that my mom should come along on every cruise for comic relief. :D

 

We were on the same cruise!! Had a blast!! My DW collects those ornaments too, but I did find one of the gold-plated ones on a clearance table on one of the last days. Score some goof husband points for me!!! :D

 

Glad you had a great cruise. Lucky you for finding that ornament! I can't imagine why Carnival is discontinuing them. :confused:

[lissa42886]

i love the review already simply cus your daughter is named Alyssa :) ( as am i )

[AutumnBM]

Always enjoy your reviews! Your Legend review has been bookmarked in my "Cruise 2012" favorites folder for a while now!!!

[kittycrusin08]

Really enjoying your review. You really should try to write a book sometime since the words seems to flow and tell the story of your family's wonderful cruise. My daughter, her daughter, their cousin and I are considering this cruise for my daughter's 50th birthday. The ports sound great so far. Looking forward to the remainder of your review and thank you for taking the time to share. ;)

[KrystalWaters]

wonderful review. Thanks for helping me past the time until my cruise. Good mix of pictures and editorial.:D

[grima625]

Sorry to hear that you hurt your elbow. Glad there was no break. Looking forward to the rest of the review. Take care.

[Lady_Jag]

Thank you all for your patience. Besides my dual injuries (elbow and foot), I had some craziness happen at work that got so bad, I thought I was going to hear Donald Trump's catch phrase. :eek:

 

Anyway, all is well, and I have just enough time this evening to continue with our story. On to Curacao...

[Lady_Jag]

It was another great day, despite the rough waves and the bit of seasickness I was feeling. This morning we were up early enough to give the main dining room another try for breakfast. This time, Alex wore a short sleeved shirt instead of a tank top so that he wouldn’t be turned away at the door. Mmmmm! Hashbrowns!

We were seated at a table for 4, and Alyssa promptly asked if there were any chocolate muffins. (I guess the 3 she had from room service just weren’t filling enough!) Right away, “princess Alyssa” got her request…times two!

I was feeling a little green thanks to the rough seas, so I thought it would be best if I skipped the made-to-order eggs (which I would have gladly taken over the Lido deck’s “egg product” any other morning) and just order a croissant with some hot tea and some of my favorite hashbrowns. Our waiter raised his eyebrows, “that’s all?” I smiled sheepishly and said that the hashbrowns were my only mission that morning. He nodded, and later after I finished my first order of the yummy fried rounds, he automatically brought me another order, as if reading my mind.

I felt a little better now that there were some good ol’ carbs in my stomach, and the three of us returned to our cabin to get ready for our day. Alex decided that since we were roughly at the midpoint of our cruise, he would put a load of laundry in before we took Alyssa up to the Lido deck to play. I handed him a roll of quarters, our dollar store individual box of detergent and fabric softener, and the mesh laundry bag filled with our dirty clothes and [personal cheapo] towels. Then I changed Alyssa into her swimsuit while he started up one of the washing machines in the self-serve laundry room.

A little side note about the laundry room on the Riviera deck: It is located on the starboard side, aft, not far from the aft elevator bay. It’s $3 to wash and $3 to dry, and there are vending machines for detergent and fabric softener as well. The room is very small and holds 3-4 washers and 3-4 dryers, an ironing board and iron. It is HOT in there, especially when people are doing laundry! There are laundry rooms…er, laundry closets…on other decks as well, but I couldn’t tell you where.

So when Alex returned, we made our way to the Lido deck to scope out some chairs for me and Alex while Alyssa played in the pool and enjoyed no lines at the slide. Finding chairs was an easy task today, as there weren’t many sun worshippers around. Still, I wasn’t ready to bake in the sun just yet, so I didn’t really plan to stay more than 20-30 minutes. Lucky me, I spotted two empty chaise chairs all to themselves on one of the upper platforms right behind the pool by the slide. I pointed them out to Alex, and started to walk over to them. As I reached the last 3-4 stairs in front of the chairs, some little girl about 12 or 13 years old ran past me at top speed and plopped her butt in the chair before I got there. Then she waved her mom over from some chairs near the railing of the ship. Whatever. I had sunscreen and a book on my iPad at the ready.

(Running girl and her mom.)

I grabbed the two chairs on the end across the aisle from my original destination and read. After a little while, I applied sunscreen so that I wouldn’t burn if I lost track of the time. I glanced up in time to see the running girl giving me a dirty look. I couldn’t figure out why she was mad at me, so I just gave her my sweetest “your problem, not mine” smile and shrugged. It finally occurred to me when I sprayed sunscreen on my neck why the girl was giving me the stink-eye. There was a very strong crosswind across the deck, and it was taking the overspray from my aerosol sunscreen right across the aisle and into the semi-enclosed area where the girl and her mom were! Ooops! I had checked that there was no one to my left or behind me, but didn’t consider that maybe the wind would blow the stuff across the aisle!

So not only was my sunscreen blowing into the little enclave with Running Girl and her mom, but within 10 minutes, the two were being pelted by sheets of paper from some crew member’s clipboard! Yep! One of the crew had a clipboard resting on a cart or something one deck up, and the wind ripped all 10-20 pages off the clipboard and swirled them down and across the deck, one after the other, into the little enclave, and then eventually around the corner, under the slide, and out to sea!

 

("I'm going to slide AGAIN!")

 

(No lines, no waiting!)

I chuckled at the sudden paper attack (again, Lola has a bit of a mean streak!) and turned back to my iPad. The screen had a gone blank, save for some error message; something along the lines of “Too hot to function! Shutting down.” I agreed with my iPad, and after letting Alex know where I was going, headed to the laundry room to get out of the sun and check on our clothes.

All the washing machines were running when I walked in, and there were 2 people standing in the room waiting for their clothes to finish. I looked at the time on the dryer where our clothes tumbled and saw we had about 30 minutes left. I had plenty of time to walk back to the cabin, drop off my towel, read a little more of my book, grab our mesh laundry bag to retrieve the clothes, and return to the laundry room.

Time out for a few observations from my time in the laundry room. (Skip this part if you don’t plan to use the laundry facility.)

1. The machines have a “whites and colors” setting on them if you don’t want to spend the money on separating your clothes into two small loads. Just be prepared for some of your whites to become pink if you use this setting!

2. The machines are bigger on the inside than they appear on the outside. However, there are multiple signs posted begging people to please not overfill the machines, so I guess there are still people who try to wash a week’s worth of clothes in just one load.

3. You can open the door of the washer or dryer and check on your clothes without losing the remaining time on the machine. If you interrupt the cycle and the clothes aren’t dry (or you want to add a piece to the washer) and there’s still time left, you can just close the door and push the button for the original setting to resume the cycle.

4. The coolest spot in the room is in the back. I mentioned that the laundry room was overly warm, but with the machines running and the extra bodies standing there, it was even worse. I stood by the door, hoping to catch some of the air from the hallway, but it didn’t help. Then I looked up and saw that the A/C vent was in the back corner of the room, so I moved to the back wall by the ironing board. Wow! It must have been a good 5 degrees cooler there at least and plenty comfortable enough to stand there reading my book while the rest of the time ran out on the dryer.

So once our clothes were dry, I folded them up neatly, placed them in the laundry bag, and carried them back to our cabin to pack away in one of the suitcases. Alyssa and Alex returned not long afterwards. Around 1:00 or so, I asked if they wanted to join me in the Posh dining room for lunch, but Alyssa wanted to nap (WHA?!?) and Alex said he wasn’t very hungry. So I went it alone.

I was seated at a table for 10 in the back by the windows. There was a family of 5 and an older couple already seated on either ends of the table, so I sat in the seat between the two parties and struck up some conversation with everyone. The family to my left were on their very first cruise and were having a wonderful time. The couple to my right were also having a good time, and they had been on so many cruises they had lost count.

I placed my order (my favorite, BBQ ribs – score!) and we all talked about our various adventures in the 2 ports we visited thus far, and what we had planned for the next 2 days. At one point I mentioned that I wanted to cruise to Alaska in the near future, and the couple to my right perked up and told me that had been twice and it was their favorite cruises to date. I picked their brains for tips and hints, and suddenly my plate started to dance on the table in front of me. We were arriving in Curacao:

I finished up and went back to the cabin, past the stairwell and elevator bays on our floor where people were already piled up waiting to leave the ship, despite Brad’s pleas on the PA system not to crowd the stairwells. Alex and Alyssa (who never DID take a nap because the TV was on) were having lunch from room service. Well, Alex was having lunch from room service. He forgot to request that they leave the jelly off Alyssa’s PBJ sandwich, and she wouldn’t eat it, no matter how much Alex begged, threatened, or otherwise tried to convince Alyssa that the sandwich was not “yucky.” To avoid a meltdown from both of them, I handed Alyssa a couple of boxes of cereal from our previous room service orders, and she was content to eat dry Fruit Loops and one or two potato chips. Not the most nutritious meal by far, but at least she was eating something!

[Lady_Jag]

After lunch, we checked Alyssa into Camp Carnival so she could hang out with her friends while Alex and I went shopping in port. I had only one main goal for Curacao: Find “Mr. Tablecloth” and spend a small fortune on beautiful linens.

Curacao is beautiful! My new friends from lunch had told me that the mayor had everyone paint their building different bright colors for aesthetics. I’m not sure about the mayoral proclamation, but the various colors on the buildings really did make for a beautiful town. This place is an amateur photographer’s dream! Okay, I’m far from being even an “amateur” photographer, but I absolutely loved the numerous possible scenes and compositions throughout the town!

(Lovely ocean spray in front of our lovely ship.)

 

Alex and I strolled through Rif Fort and across the pontoon bridge, which was really neat. It is for pedestrian traffic only, and as I walked across, I remembered previous reviews here on cruise critic informing me that the bridge opens even when pedestrians are on it. So I told Alex, “If you hear any horns or sirens and see people running off the bridge, follow them!” and I explained that anyone left on the bridge after it opens stand to wait a VERY long time.

We wandered around a while and poked into a few shops and checked out the wares of a few street vendors. I guess we were some of the first tourists across the bridge, because the vendors asked us hopefully, “are you from the cruise ship?” then smiled excitedly when we said, “yes.” I bought Alyssa a cute wooden box carved in the shape of a turtle for just $3, perused a few other items, then continued on my quest to find Mr. Tablecloth.

I guess I should explain that when we cruised on the Glory years ago, we discovered a shop in St. Martin called “Mr. Tablecloth” which sold beautiful and cheap linens of all sorts. When I discovered a few weeks before our cruise that there was another “Mr. Tablecloth” in Curacao, I was thrilled. We entered the store and didn’t leave until I had spent all my cash. Oops! Well, at least I got some of my Christmas shopping done! The saleslady was so happy, instead of giving us the standard plastic bags all the other customers walked out with, she put my purchases in a thick canvas zippered shopping bag that had the “Mr. Tablecloth” name and logo embroidered on the front.

After spending all our money, we walked back across the pontoon bridge and explored the side closest to the port, wandering aimlessly through the various streets. We wound up in a rather seedy-looking, somewhat deserted back alley, however, and quickly booked it back to the ship. Safely on board, we dropped off our purchases at the cabin and then went to get Alyssa from Camp Carnival. We invited her to go out into town to look around with us, and after only a moment's hesitation (and some encouragement from one of the camp counselors), she accepted.

We left the ship as at least a hundred other passengers were reboarding. I had traded my heavy SRS camera back at our cabin for a small pocket digital point and shoot one and my iPad so that I could still take a few more pictures and then maybe find a wifi hotspot so we could brag to our friends on Facebook. Here again, though, my expectations fell short of the reality. From reading previous comments here on Cruise Critic about Curacao and the abundance of wifi hotspots, I expected to step off the ship and be online almost instantly. In reality, though, I couldn’t access the internet at all. There were plenty of hotspots around for sure, but I think each one was encrypted, and you needed the appropriate security code from the bar or restaurant that hosted the wifi to access it. Oh well! Alyssa enjoyed exploring the Rif Fort with us and watching more cargo ships go past.

We crossed the pontoon bridge again and thought maybe we would take the passenger ferry back across. Except the ferries don’t run when the bridge is closed, or at least no ferry was running during the 15-20 minutes we were waiting to board. So back to the pontoon bridge for us! On our way back, I looked up and saw a ginormous cargo ship crossing the street! Okay, it wasn’t exactly crossing the street, but from that angle, it looked like traffic had stopped at an intersection so that the ship could pass through from a side street. It was really cool!

We waited for the pontoon bridge to close and walked back over to the side by Rif Fort. Just a few yards from that side of the bridge, Alyssa spotted a playground and begged us to let her play. Sure, no problem, so she ran to the playground, went down a couple of slides, then hopped onto the merry-go-round. Alex grabbed one of the bars and began to spin Alyssa. “Faster! Faster!” she squealed, gripping the bars and laughing. Alex spun the merry-go-round so fast, I thought she might just fly off, but Alyssa held tight and continued to giggle and shout “faster!”

The sun was about to set and we were getting hungry, so we headed back to the ship and went straight to dinner. We requested Mr. Suki's section again, and were seated immediately. Mr. Suki was very happy to see Alyssa and kept making her laugh with his various “talking food” antics. Then he made Alyssa an origami piece that she absolutely adored! If you held it one way, it was an airplane, but if you flipped the airplane over, it became a crane. It was really cool!

Tonight’s menu included beef carpaccio as a starter. Yes! Even though I had pretty much written off beef after my carnivorous feast, the carpaccio was so good at the steakhouse a few nights prior, I thought it HAD to be at least decent in the MDR, right? Wrong! Do you remember how I was hesitant to order the carpaccio in the steakhouse because I thought it’d be slimy and gross? Well, I was pleasantly surprised in the steakhouse (it was delish!), but my fear came to fruition in the main dining room! The beef carpaccio tonight was almost swimming in oil, sliced really thin, and had the consistency of a cold slug. ICK! I looked over at Alex, and the look on his face told me he thought the same. “Serves me right for ordering beef again!” I thought.

After dinner, we all went back to our cabin to curl up and watch the in-cabin movie, "We Bought A Zoo." There were no chocolates tonight, although we did have a towel animal waiting for us. Towards the end of the movie, our cabin started to rumble, and I looked out our porthole windows to see we were moving. Wow, we were leaving Curacao earlier than scheduled! We were scheduled to arrive in our next port, Aruba, at 8:00am, but I wondered if we would arrive earlier.

[Lady_Jag]

(An iguana friend greeted us as we went ashore.)

 

("Check out the cannon on THAT guy!")

(Cannons everywhere!)

 

(There are signs around this fountains stating something like "enter at your own risk." I guess there were a lot of slips and falls here.)

 

(These stairs are carved into the wall of the fort and lead to an upper level of offices and observation points.)

[Lady_Jag]

("Mommy! Take my picture!")

 

(In the center of it all.)

 

(Such a ham!)

 

(One of my favorite shots.)

[Lady_Jag]

i love the review already simply cus your daughter is named Alyssa :) ( as am i )

 

LOL! Great name! Thanks for reading! :D

 

Always enjoy your reviews! Your Legend review has been bookmarked in my "Cruise 2012" favorites folder for a while now!!!

Aw! Thank you so much! I'm glad you are enjoying it!

 

Really enjoying your review. You really should try to write a book sometime since the words seems to flow and tell the story of your family's wonderful cruise. My daughter, her daughter, their cousin and I are considering this cruise for my daughter's 50th birthday. The ports sound great so far. Looking forward to the remainder of your review and thank you for taking the time to share. ;)

Thank you. You really should give this cruise a try. It's an excellent itinerary and a great ship for families. I highly recommend it!

[Lady_Jag]

wonderful review. Thanks for helping me past the time until my cruise. Good mix of pictures and editorial.:D

 

Thank you! I'm envious of your upcoming cruise. You're going to have a great time!

 

Sorry to hear that you hurt your elbow. Glad there was no break. Looking forward to the rest of the review. Take care.

Thank you. We thought I had also broken the heel of my left foot, so I was doubly relieved that the x-rays showed no broken bones! :)

[RedRam99V8]

I still think we need some references to an emergency pull cord, LOL :D

[Lady_Jag]

I still think we need some references to an emergency pull cord, LOL :D

 

LOL! Yes, that was definitely not one of my finer moments, and an interesting start to our Dream cruise. Combine that with my iguana lunch and the giant hill in Roatan, and that cruise stands to be our most...uh...unforgettable one! :o

[RedRam99V8]

DOn't forget... Im missing updates to your allways awesome reviews :(

[emelvee]

Fantastic review...thanks so much for posting. We're considering this itinerary in July 2013. We're looking for some new ports to visit, and this itinerary would have 3 new ones for us.

[RN25]

Hi!

 

This is an awesome review! My sister and I are going to be on the Valor doing this itinerary in August so it's great to see pictures and get information ahead of time!

 

Thanks a bunch :)

[KroozFoolz]

"Curacao is beautiful! My new friends from lunch had told me that the mayor had everyone paint their building different bright colors for aesthetics. I’m not sure about the mayoral proclamation, but the various colors on the buildings really did make for a beautiful town."

When we were there (in 2001), our tour guide told us that the mayor (or governor or whoever ordered the painting the buildings in different colors) owned the paint company!

Looking forward to more!

[jakeHOU97]

hoping theres more! :)

[RedRam99V8]

All Stations, All Stations, this is Search and Rescue we are currently looking for Lady Jag. Advise if you find her :D