The “better late than never, here it is for what it’s worth” Carnival Freedom review

[jhnsnfamily]

So much enjoyed Brad on my Freedom cruise!

 

He was fabulous! Like I said, very funny! Click

for a short video so you can reminisce!

[jhnsnfamily]

I have my Donut Shop Extra Bold in hand ... and I'm ready to charge ahead!

 

Here's the FunTimes for today:

[gelo7]

Loving your review and photos.

[jhnsnfamily]

Day 3/Sea Day – First Elegant Night (June 12): So relaxing. I love sea days! This morning we decided to eat in the formal dining room to see how breakfast was there. Much. more. relaxed. Of course, a much smaller selection of items, but it’s so nice to order your food and have it served rather than standing in line for suspiciously yellow and fluffy scrambled eggs. The menu:

 

 

Fried eggs with turkey bacon

 

Eggs Benedict

 

Bagels and locks (salmon and cream cheese)

 

Fresh fruit ... they even cut it for you!

 

I did not care for the Eggs Benedict but liked the taters and fresh fruit (cuz, really, how can you screw that up?). I had also ordered a side of pancakes, because I LOVE PANCAKES ... I make kick-butt homemade blueberry pancakes if I say so myself! ... I was sooooo looking forward to pancakes! ...... but they weren’t good either. My sister liked her fried eggs but did not like her turkey bacon. My mom really liked her cheese omelet (no pic, sorry!) and my BIL really liked the salmon, cream cheese, and bagels (bagels and locks for the more sophisticated folks!).

[jhnsnfamily]

Loving your review and photos.

 

Good morning gelo7! Welcome and thanks for reading! :D

[jhnsnfamily]

After breakfast, we headed up to the Lido deck for some sun and relaxation. Here are a few pics of the chaos of the Lido deck on a sea day (I think they were doing a drink special or some type of drink demonstration down in front of the hot tubs ... if you look close you can see a table set up):

 

I considered having one of the above pictures as my computer "wallpaper", but honestly, it gave me a headache!

 

That’s why we hung out on the top Serenity deck!!! I took this pic from where I was laying:

… you can see where the kids get on the slide; you can also see that there’s plenty of room for more deck chairs if desired.

 

So peaceful up here!

 

I love this picture of my DM and BIL ... I wonder what they were talking about?

 

At noon, my DM, DH and sons, and BIL headed to the Steakhouse for their cooking demonstration. HIGHLY RECOMMEND DOING THIS. Also highly recommend going a little early if you’re not sure where you are going … :eek: we had trouble finding it and were about ten minutes late. The gal still let us enter and we found random chairs to sit in. We missed the mushroom cappuccino, which was fine with me cuz I hate mushrooms. Everyone in attendance got to sample the salad, the chicken with mac-n-cheese and potatoes, and the tiramisu. The chefs cook everything right in front of you. They explain how they cook it, the ingredients they use, etc. They also give you a little booklet with all the recipes they are serving. There is also another Carnival employee narrating (errrr …. repeating?) everything the chefs say. I did not care for the salad because I don’t like blue cheese, but I loved the chicken/sides and the tiramisu. At the end as everybody was getting up to leave, a gentleman sitting next to my BIL said he should ask if there’s any leftover mushroom cappuccino … he said it was delicious. So, we thought, what the heck. The worst is they’ll tell us no. We asked one of the servers, and she happily when to the kitchen to check. She came out with one, said it was a little cold, but we were welcome to it. My BIL tried it and said even though it was cold, he really liked it. Even if you don’t plan on eating at the Steakhouse, you should definitely participate in the tasting event. It's FREE! It was enough food that we didn’t even need to eat lunch!

 

Afterward, with our bellies full, we went back to lay in the sun. At 3 p.m., I’d had enough and thought it was time to start pressing our clothes for tonight’s Elegant Night. I went back to our cabins and grabbed the boys’ shirts and slacks. I was the first person in the laundry room, but as I thought, a line quickly formed. I was glad that I got our stuff pressed early! I hit the shower and relaxed for a bit before going to dinner. Hindsight being 20/20, we SHOULD HAVE gotten ready early and went down for pictures BEFORE dinner …SMH

[jhnsnfamily]

Smoke stack

 

My beautiful mother ...

 

Ice carving ... anyone want to guess what it will be???

 

I've seen other folks ask about the kids' smoke stack cups ... yes, they have them!

 

The block of ice was slowly but surely transformed into an Indian Chief!

[jhnsnfamily]

Since we didn't have the foresight to get ready early for the posed pictures at all the setups on the ship (the lines were ridiculous!), we snapped a few on our own before dinner:

 

Joe Cool #1 and Joe Cool #2 ...

 

My DS and BIL ... they are such a nice looking couple!

 

Her family on the staircase in the dining room:

 

My DM and DN2:

 

Yours truly! (I've lost almost 20 pounds since these pics were taken ... OIY! Buh bye double chin! I don't miss ya!)

[jhnsnfamily]

Spaghetti Carbonara ... you can order this as an appetizer or dinner (or both!) it was DELICIOUS!

 

Spicy Alligator Fritters

 

Strawberry Bisque (chilled soup) ... very good ... it tasted like melted strawberry ice cream with a hint of yogurt

 

Lobster (I don't eat lobster but the others did, and of course, they loved it!)

 

Steak from the "every day" menu (If you want surf-n-turf, order both this and the lobster!)

 

Chili Rellenos (this was my BIL's second meal ... he's a bottomless pit! ... he said this was very good too and ate it all!) I hope this doesn't show up sideways ... I tried to flip it in Photobucket, and again, it looks fine there but not here ...

[jhnsnfamily]

Grilled fillet of Corvina ... DN1 said this was fabulous

 

Between dinner and dessert, they played music and we did this:

 

and this!

 

Yes, we danced in the dining room!

 

Caramelized apples on puff pastry

 

We also had the WCMC and Cherries Jubilee ... I've already posted a pic of the WCMC and the pic of the Cherries Jubilee was way too blurry!

 

Group shot of our table ... TERRIBLE glare! But the view was worth it!

[jhnsnfamily]

After dinner, we walked around to see all the photo opportunities and again ... we saw all the lines! Wow! Everyone exiting the first dinner seating was in line with everybody waiting to get into the second dinner seating. We again decided to skip the formal pictures, and just took some pictures on the steps going into the theater.

 

Dudes ....

 

 

 

 

 

Me, DM, and DS

 

 

My family ...

 

 

 

We stayed for the show and got seats in the front.

 

(The kids skipped out on the show at their first opportunity … at one point, the crowd was told to stand up, and they high-tailed it out of there!) The show was very good. After the show, we knew we needed to get up early for our Grand Cayman adventure, so we made plans to meet at 8 a.m. in the hallway before heading down to Deck 0. We went back to the cabin, filled out our breakfast room service card, and scheduled our wake up call. Before we turned in for the night, I checked to see if the boys were in their cabin, and they were already in bed. (I also set an alarm on my iPhone, which worked fine even on Airplane Mode.)

 

Up next, Grand Cayman! (My favorite!)

[gambee]

Very cool review, nice pics as well. Do you you will post Grand Cayman today? we leave tomorrow and would love to see that post prior we leave.

[jhnsnfamily]

 

[jhnsnfamily]

Day 4/Grand Cayman (June 13): Up at 7 a.m. and had breakfast scheduled to be delivered between 7 and 7:15 a.m. Got showers, woke the boys up, packed our bag (towels, Lifeproof case/iPhone, sunscreen, etc.) … still no breakfast! Finally, at 7:50, our breakfast showed up. After I sorted everything out (it all came on one tray, all stacked up), we had about 7 minutes to eat it. Heard the family in the hallway, so we stowed the extra milks in the refrigerator and kept the cereal, I threw the banana in my bag, and left everything else. :mad:

 

Grand Cayman is a tender port, which means you don’t dock at a pier. You have to take a tender to the pier, so make sure you schedule extra time for this. I knew we needed to meet our guide from Nativeways Water Sports at 9:15, so I anticipated an hour to get off the ship, to the pier, and to find our guide. GOOD THING TOO! Several in our group forgot their photo I.D.s and had to go back up to their cabins to get them. Finally, we made it off the ship and onto the tender. And we sat ... and sat … and sat. We were the first ones on, and another tender came and went (at the other end of the ship) while we still sat there. I was getting really, really ticked. I convinced everyone to book this particular excursion and I didn’t want to miss the pickup! They kept waiting for stragglers to fill the few remaining seats … we probably waited 20 minutes to actually leave and make our way to the pier.

 

Here we are ... waiting ... at least I had my coffee!

 

When we got off the tender, we were at the end of the pier, so we had to make our way into the area where there are shops, restrooms, etc. WARNING: There are ship photographers here … I think this one was a guy dressed up as a pirate. We finally realized what the hold up was, so we quickly detoured around the photographer and pirate guy and were on our way to find “our guy.” If you WANT your picture made, stay in line … if not, get out of the bottleneck as quickly as you can!

 

There was a bit of chaos here, because there’s one tiny exit/entrance for the ship and everyone spills out into a common area surrounded by shops. There was also another Carnival ship here (the Paradise), so double the amount of passengers!

 

(I can’t imagine what it’d be like with even more ships!) There are people everywhere holding up signs for this tour and that tour … so you have to really, really look for “your” person. We couldn’t find him right away, so we asked another “tour guide” if he knew where the Nativeways person usually stands. He pointed us in the right direction (thank goodness!) and we found Eldon, our driver. He collected us all and parked us under a tent, and then he went to round up/find the others that were on our excursion. It turns out only 2 more from our ship were on our excursion. We headed to the bus, which was air conditioned, and we made a stop at a hotel to pick up four others.

[jhnsnfamily]

Once we got to the boat dock, we were escorted to the “My Way” boat and Andrew #1 and Andrew #2 introduced themselves (don't know if those are their "real" names, but it made it easy to remember!). They realized that 2 others were supposed to join us (they were “on their own” and were supposed to meet us at the dock). So, they waited a few minutes to leave and went ahead with the introductions, information about the boat (yes, there’s a bathroom … yay!), and what to expect during our excursion. Still no sighting of the aforementioned two people. So, we left! The ratio was 16 passengers with 2 guides. Not bad! Plenty of room on the boat to spread out and enjoy the scenery.

 

 

 

As we left the harbor, we went by lots of beautiful homes:

 

 

 

 

and then out into the ocean.

 

 

 

 

It took us about 25-30 minutes to arrive at the sand bar. The water was absolutely breathtaking.

 

Crystal clear and even from a distance you could see the stingray swimming around. It was sooooooooooooooooooooo awesome! Andrew #1 found us a place to “park” and before he let us get off the boat and into the water (only about waste deep), he went over the rules. Which are 1) don’t grab their tails, 2) don’t try to catch them (that’s their job), and 3) watch your footing and don’t step on them. We got into the water and he caught a stingray and gave us the 4-1-1 on them. These stingray are very docile, because they’ve lived there their whole life, they get fed every day, and we “tourists” are not their predators. Unfortunately, one of the little guys had an injury that Andrew #2 said was recent (within the last week) and was due to a boat propeller. He said it would heal, but it was one of the worst injuries he had seen. We all got plenty of opportunities to hold, kiss (yes, KISS!), and feed the stingray. We had LOTS of picture taking opportunities. We saw some groups of 30+ people with only one guide, so I’m glad we had the ratio we had … According to the time stamps on my pictures, we were at the sand bar for 30 minutes.

 

Awesome pics to follow! Remember, I took these with my iPhone in a Lifeproof case ... I have videos that I will link as well!

[jhnsnfamily]

Andrew #1 (drove the boat, acted as the "leader" of the excursion)

 

Andrew #2 (free dove to grab a lobster ... look for pics! ... he was more quiet and reserved, but very nice)

 

You could tell they loved their jobs! They engaged us in conversation while on the boat and were happy to share information about Grand Cayman.

 

Here's Andrew #1 telling us about the stingray ... click

for the video!

 

Here's a pic of our group ... by the looks of them, you'd think that water was freezing! But it wasn't!!!! I promise!

 

This is how you hold them ... this is DN2

 

Click

for a short video on how to feed the stingray. Notice that dark cloud in the background? It followed us to one of our next stops!

 

The audio is a bit muffled due to the Lifeproof case ... but, it's better than nothing!

Edited March 23, 2013 by jhnsnfamily

[jhnsnfamily]

I just couldn't get enough of them. They were AWESOME!

 

 

DN2 getting some action ... LOL ... sorry, was that inappropriate?

 

Here's the little guy with my DH ... you can see part of its injury ...

 

I don't think my boys knew what to think! My youngest wouldn't hold them or kiss them ... he was like, "that's okay Mom! I'm good!"

 

You see how big they are here ... this one LOVED my DH ... she hung out there for a good while ... I think he loved her too!

[jhnsnfamily]

David ... chillin' with the stingray. (side note: we get ornaments for each other and the kids every year for our Christmas stockings that we exchange on Christmas Eve ... we do "loaded" stockings on Christmas Eve because sometimes DH has to work on Christmas [remember ... firefighter]. The idea is to remember something special from that year. So this past Christmas, I got a custom ornament made for David of this picture!)

 

VERY close up pic ... I think it liked his chest hair!

 

My oldest son getting his kiss! I love DN2's expression!

 

All too soon, it was time to leave ...

 

Bye little guys! See you next time!

 

Click

for a video of us feeding the stingray (you can actually hear them "slerping/sucking"!)

 

Click

for a video of my DH and me getting a "stingray massage" and a funny picture ... sorry about the "thumb" ... DS1 = operator error! He moves it in the nick of time!

 

Next stop ... Snorkeling!

Edited March 23, 2013 by jhnsnfamily

[jhnsnfamily]

Once we boarded the boat, we headed just a short distance away to snorkel.

 

 

The Andrews said life vests were our choice. My boys disappeared before I even realized it ... they did NOT put on vests. Now, we have a pool at home, but it's not quite the same as the middle of the flippin' ocean! I was not happy. But, I realized they were with their dad and Andrew #2, so I felt better.

 

They provided snorkel gear, or you could bring your own. Andrew #2 dove down and found a lobster for us … we got to see him crawl out from under the rocks … cool! Meanwhile, Andrew #1 dove down and caught a lobster and brought it back on board for picture taking opportunities before he returned him to the sea.

 

 

 

Here's a few pics from underwater:

 

 

By this point, my momma was turning green and was ready to be on solid ground. She did not snorkel, so she just “bobbed” for 30 minutes, which was enough to *almost* do her in.

[jhnsnfamily]

As we got back on the boat and prepared to head to Rum Point Beach, Andrew #1 distributed menus and told us we could order whatever we wanted, but if we ordered more than one entrée or an entrée with an appetizer, etc., we’d have to pay for the “extras”. I had no problem with that, as I'm sure folks would have taken advantage if they had said, "order whatever you want!".

 

 

This is where we docked ...

 

The food was ready and waiting for us once we docked at the beach.

 

 

 

Sorry, I only got a few pictures because by this time, we were starving since we didn’t get to eat all that much of our breakfast! The food was pretty good and hit the spot. I had the fried grouper BLT (above left).

 

Here's a pic of the bar menu, although we did not indulge (others in our group did though) ... of course, this was extra.

 

The beach was smaller than I thought it would be, but there were plenty of chairs.

 

There was the restaurant, a few shops, and restrooms with showers. Unfortunately, a black cloud seemed to only reside over our little space in Grand Cayman and it sprinkled almost the whole time we were there. (Yeah ... that black cloud I was referring to earlier.) It actually rained for a few minutes, but nothing major. There were jet skis and paddleboards to rent, but we were only there for about an hour and a half, and with eating lunch, I’m not sure we would have had enough time to take advantage of the rentals. My mom skipped lunch and parked herself in a chair, which was where she stayed the entire time. Yes, she took Dramamine, but she still got seasick. We all felt really, really bad for her. Anywho, after we ate, the kids and DH played in the water for a bit (I brought some water toys from home/local Wal-mart purchase, which was a ball that they tossed back and forth with two hand mitts, the others got some “drinks” at the bar, and I took pictures … then, it was already time to leave. (sad face!)

[Granny1]

Wow what a awesome review, I have really enjoyed reading about your adventures during the cruise.. I haven't been on the Freedom but I have been to Grand Cayman..It' a beautiful island..Can't wait til you write the rest of the trip..:)

[jhnsnfamily]

Wow what a awesome review, I have really enjoyed reading about your adventures during the cruise.. I haven't been on the Freedom but I have been to Grand Cayman..It' a beautiful island..Can't wait til you write the rest of the trip..:)

 

Hey Granny1! Thanks for your kind words and thanks for reading! I had to jump off for a bit to take DS1 to a friend's birthday party, but I'm back!

[cherrycokezero]

Loving your review!! Will be on the Freedom in May and can't wait. I especially loved your pictures of Grand Cayman. We will also be doing a stingray excursion and seeing your pictures/videos makes me even more excited for the excursion!!

[jhnsnfamily]

I was disappointed in how the pictures turned out here. Another Cruise Critic reviewer posted awesome pics of this excursion, which included pics of Rum Point Beach. The water just didn't look the same in my pictures.

 

which way again?

 

The boys, playing catch ... I guess my youngest was a little chilly ...

 

 

I took this pic of my nephews ... my boys wouldn't cooperate ... :mad:

 

I wish we could have stayed longer so I could have enjoyed this:

[jhnsnfamily]

After we left Rum Point Beach, we headed back to the harbor. *Momma was feeling better by this point. She was fine if the boat was moving … Yay!

 

Photos along the way ...

Close up of a home in the channel ... yeah, I could live there!

 

Grand Cayman

 

We docked and tipped the Andrews for their awesome hospitality, and then Eldon greeted us and drove us back to the pier to board the ship. We got out of the bus, tipped him, and headed for the line to get on the tender back to the ship.

 

HOLY TOLEDO BATMAN!!!

 

We couldn’t believe the line!!! It wound around and around and around … no joke. We had to ask people in the line several times (as we were walking past them) where the end of the line was … they kept pointing behind them. My mom, who is a cruise veteran with many (14?) cruises under her belt, said she’d never seen a line this long, and she’s been to Grand Cayman before.

 

The line was longer than the line at Best Buy on Black Friday …

 

... longer than the most popular ride at an amusement park on opening day …

 

.... longer than …

 

... well, it was LONG!!!

 

It was long enough to have time to 1) go to the bathroom, 2) peruse several shops, and 3) get some VERY EXPENSIVE ice cream.

 

Carnival reps were actually walking by the line and pulling Paradise passengers out … and that ship sailed while we were still waiting in line! See ... see it there ... that little speck on the horizon? ... we are still waiting in line while that ship sailed!

 

All in all, it took about 45 minutes for our group to get back on the ship. It must have taken quite a while to get everyone back on the ship, because we ended up leaving Grand Cayman later than scheduled.

 

Got another money shot while heading to the ship on the tender … :D (see that red flag ... that's where we were for the sailaway out of Ft. Lauderdale!)

Edited March 23, 2013 by jhnsnfamily