Freedom Review: 10/28/12 by FunInTheSun1964

[ferfoodle]

Thanks, the drill was held by the lifeboats. At least our group was. I think they all are now. I remember a couple of years ago, we were set up to meet at various lounge areas on the ship.

 

Have a great time! We will be on Liberty on Feb. 23!!

 

I saw your countdown clock and said to myself "her last ship, Freedom is my next ship and my last ship, is Liberty her next ship - and both on 2/23/13." Of course, now I have said it more than just to myself.:o Great Review - and we are looking at doing the Everglades tour as we have a late flight. Sure hope you review that as well.

 

You have a great time too! Ten more days and we'll be down to two digits!

 

Tomorrow we get to do our single digit dance for our double digit dance.;)

[welshcorgie]

Can't wait for more!!

[funinthesun1964]

I saw your countdown clock and said to myself "her last ship, Freedom is my next ship and my last ship, is Liberty her next ship - and both on 2/23/13." Of course, now I have said it more than just to myself.:o Great Review - and we are looking at doing the Everglades tour as we have a late flight. Sure hope you review that as well.

 

Yep, I have TONS of photos from the Everglades tour to share!!

 

 

Tomorrow we get to do our single digit dance for our double digit dance.;)

 

LOL like this!

[funinthesun1964]

Can't wait for more!!

 

Will work on this more later, thanks.

[deedle7544]

Thanks, I'll pass your message on! I know I'd have a great time and so would he as he's very social and enjoys being with other people. My last cruise was with our daughter and I think after we left he was sorry that he hadn't gone instead, but of course would never admit to it - lol. Keep up the good work, your review is excellent!

 

 

Hey Dar, my SO had never been on one until this year, and like your DH, he's a very social and fun guy. He LOVED the cruis and we are now planning another one.

 

OP, we are the same age, I am looking at this one for my 50th bday cruise - love your review!

[funinthesun1964]

Hey Dar, my SO had never been on one until this year, and like your DH, he's a very social and fun guy. He LOVED the cruis and we are now planning another one.

 

OP, we are the same age, I am looking at this one for my 50th bday cruise - love your review!

 

Thanks! This would be fun for a 50th birthday cruise! I am not sure which cruise I will do for my 50th, but for my 49th in February we are doing the Liberty!

 

I hope if you do the Freedom, you will have a great time!!!

[funinthesun1964]

Monday morning we were docking at Key West fairly early. We heard all of the sounds associated with pulling up to the dock.

 

DH announced that he was going to the gym. I was lazy again :o I didn't get a good night's sleep - again :mad:

 

So, I tried to sleep and maybe dozed for another ten minutes and that was it. I then got up and got dressed for breakfast, and we went to the MDR. We were seated with some nice people and had nice conversations.

 

We didn't have any excursions planned, but I had in my mind what I wanted to do - go to the Hemmingway house. I will admit that I just wanted to see the cats (I am an animal lover).

 

So we got off the ship, and I took photos. It was another windy day, but warm.

[funinthesun1964]

[funinthesun1964]

I wanted to walk down Duval Street, and then head for the southernmost point. I really didn't know where I was going, just walked and took in the scenery.

 

 

 

 

We walked down and I turned the wrong way! We asked someone and got back on the right track. I feel like we got in at least 3 miles walking this day.

 

 

 

[NS-Cruiser]

Thanks! This would be fun for a 50th birthday cruise! I am not sure which cruise I will do for my 50th, but for my 49th in February we are doing the Liberty!

 

I hope if you do the Freedom, you will have a great time!!!

 

We did this itinerary for our very first cruise, and loved it....

 

Our most recent cruise was for my 50th birthday, and we went on the Victory from San Juan doing the southern itinerary... Spent my Birthday in Barbados, touring a chocolate factory, and then on the beach at the "Boatyard" beach club... lots of fun.

 

Our NEXT cruise will be back on Freedon in April doing the Exotic Southern Itinerary, so I am really enjoying your review, having done this itinerary, and having another look at the ship we will be on next...

[LOVECRUISING100%]

Loving the Pic's and Review ...Glad to hear you guys had a great time... We'll be Cruising on the Freedom in Dec.. My hubby isn't looking forward to the Everglades tour but our flight isn't until 3:00 so he's stuck.. How was the Plantation Tour??

[Swampbaby]

So nice to see the Port like this. When we went last year we boarded during a heavy, heavy rain. That finally stopped but windy wasn't the word for it. Kinda a dismal day but oh what fun we had inside the ship.

 

More photos from our wandering around:

 

 

 

 

 

[mssensaulone]

So it seems we waited forever to get on the ship! It was getting very crowded in the cruise terminal. Some people starting singing, and I remember someone starting row, row, row your boat, and it general people were very excited to board. Finally - they started with a wedding party, followed by the "silver or white" cards. Then - Zones 1 and 2. About ten minutes later - zones 3 and 4. It was time to go!

 

Off we went, could not wait to hear the first "ding" - and we were in! We looked around the atrium. I found Mike, the person who organized our meet and greet, and went over and said hello.

 

Afterwards, we headed up to the Lido for lunch. We boarded sometime around 12:15, because when we were on the Lido eating our lunch it was 12:30.

 

Here is our lunch! We went to Lido, then went upstairs for the fish and chips!!:D

 

 

I normally do not take pictures of the food, but I did get a couple on this cruise.

 

DH loved the fish and chips. It was a bit too greasy for me, and I thought it would bother my stomach, so I only had half of my portion. We had iced tea to drink. No DOD's yet.

 

 

 

I see some other people went for the fish and chips right away also.

 

 

 

Another view of the upstairs seating area

 

Hey, that's me (black shirt) in your pic. I read about the Fish n Chips here on CC and had to try it out, delicious. We were also at the CC Meet & Greet party in the 70's club.

[funinthesun1964]

We did this itinerary for our very first cruise, and loved it....

 

Our most recent cruise was for my 50th birthday, and we went on the Victory from San Juan doing the southern itinerary... Spent my Birthday in Barbados, touring a chocolate factory, and then on the beach at the "Boatyard" beach club... lots of fun.

 

Our NEXT cruise will be back on Freedon in April doing the Exotic Southern Itinerary, so I am really enjoying your review, having done this itinerary, and having another look at the ship we will be on next...

 

Glad you are enjoying the review. I went on the Victory from San Jan this past February for my 48th! That was a nice cruise, I loved it.

 

I really want to do the cruise you are doing next, that sounds so nice! That is the 8 day, right? Hopefully one of these days we can fit that into our schedules.

[funinthesun1964]

Loving the Pic's and Review ...Glad to hear you guys had a great time... We'll be Cruising on the Freedom in Dec.. My hubby isn't looking forward to the Everglades tour but our flight isn't until 3:00 so he's stuck.. How was the Plantation Tour??

 

The plantation tour was nice, too bad it was raining so hard :(. I have lots of photos from that to post later in the review. Beautiful scenery, a great tour guide, and just interesting. If it would not have been raining, we would have had the opportunity to explore some of the grounds on foot, take a camel ride, see some of the animals up close, etc.

[funinthesun1964]

Hey, that's me (black shirt) in your pic. I read about the Fish n Chips here on CC and had to try it out, delicious. We were also at the CC Meet & Greet party in the 70's club.

 

Hey, I remember seeing you! That is funny that I got you in a random picture! Hope you enjoyed your cruise as much as we did!

[funinthesun1964]

Now it was time to find the Hemmingway House. We asked someone for directions and we weren't too far from it. So we walked the few blocks up the road and paid our admission fee (think it was $16 pp). As I said before, I was in it for the cats. As soon as we entered the house and went to the room on the right, waiting for our tour to begin, I spotted one:

 

 

The tour guide explained that some of the cats have six fingers (most people call them toes, but since they are on the front paws, I call them fingers - LOL) The ones with six are descendants of Hemmingway. He brought one into the house way back when, because he was superstitious and thought these special cats were good luck.

 

 

Here is a precious one taking in some fresh air from the upstairs porch

 

 

Looking down from the upstairs porch, to the front of the house

 

 

We were told that sometimes weddings take place here, to the side of the house

 

 

[funinthesun1964]

The pool in directly behind the house. The tour guide explained that this pool was bought and installed while he was away, to surprise Hemmingway. I think he said she paid $20,000, which was quite a bit of moolah back in those days (20's)

 

 

The pool was huge

 

 

Some other decorative items

 

 

 

Well thats all for the Hemingway House. I realize that I didn't get any of the actual house, that's crazy I know, but I was really paying attention to the tour guide (and the cats).

[funinthesun1964]

We headed over to Duval Street. I wanted to try a drink at a couple of places, so first we came to one that I had in mind - Flying Monkey. I had a 'grain train'. Here is the view from directly in front of the bar.

 

 

 

 

Next we went to Sloppy Joes. I don't remember the name of the drink I had, but DH had something with Captain Morgan in it and he said it was very good.

 

They had some entertainment there (sorry its blurry)

 

 

[funinthesun1964]

Next, DH said he wanted to try some conch, so we walked up the street a little way and found a place. I found a place to sit and he did the ordering

 

 

 

[funinthesun1964]

Then we headed back to the ship

 

 

 

We then decided to change into our swimsuits and get some sunshine. We tried a couple of different spots. Unfortunately, I discovered that I had lost my S&S card somewhere between one spot to the other. I told DH to go retrace my steps, but he never found it. So, then we headed down to Guest Services and they issued another card.

[reerun25]

Thanks for taking time to write such a great review!

[lego7191]

Great review! Always makes me "homesick" to see pics and read reviews of ships or itineraries we've been on. Keep up the nice work! Am enjoying it!

[DarB58]

Hey Dar, my SO had never been on one until this year, and like your DH, he's a very social and fun guy. He LOVED the cruis and we are now planning another one.

 

OP, we are the same age, I am looking at this one for my 50th bday cruise - love your review!

 

I'm working on DH slowly... I show him pictures of other DH's having fun and talk about excurisions. He recently had lung surgery and his recovery is slow, but I'm using our future cruise as my motivation to keep things fun and light! He's got a little bit longer to get "on board"!

[deedle7544]

SO was worried that the crowds would be too much and that he might get bored. IF those are your DH's concerns, he has nothing to worry about - there are ways to avoid the crowds and for us, just spending time together was an unbeleiveable luxury. Haviing a balcony was definitely a plus!