Carnival Freedom Review w/ Pictures (January 2014)

[navybaby1113]

Freedom looks so big compared to the ship next to her.

 

What is a Bright Star call?

 

Also, the beach picture that I mentioned. The color of the water looks different. Is there rocks under the water close to the beach?

 

Bright Star is a medical emergency call.

 

Are you talking about Grand Turk? If so, I've heard it's a little rocky right by the beach, but not too bad. Wear water shoes and I'm sure you'll be fine.

[navybaby1113]

I wasn't feeling so good (I think I got a little too much sun), so I went back to the room and took a nap.

 

I woke up for sailaway. San Juan is gorgeous at night.

 

 

The menu in the dining room didn't sound too interesting tonight and I still wasn't feeling 100%, so we decided to eat at the buffet. I'm glad we did because the food was much better up there than what was on the menu. There were similar items, but they have lamb at the carving station which was wonderful.

 

I grabbed some lamb from the carving station, broccoli, ceasar salad (which was not very good), and bread (which was hard).

 

 

DH grabbed a salad and some pizza.

 

 

We grabbed some coconut cake, pumpkin bread, and tiramisu for dessert. The tiramisu was extremely strong! Barely ate any at all.

 

 

 

There wasn't much going on for the rest of the night, so we just went back to the room and watched a movie. There was a dinosaur waiting for us this evening.

 

[parttimr]

Looking at the Freedom next February and following your review closely. Thanks for all the great pics

[Delta Dear]

I can't thank you enough for your pictures. The ones of the Port at San Juan made my day. We are going on the 12-13-14 sailing which includes SJ. My husband has mobility challenges so whenever we are going to a new port, I am never sure what to expect. If the distance is too great for him to manage, he stays on the ship. Seeing where the terminal is shows me that he can manage. He really wants to see San Juan so we'll probably grab one of the many taxis. We know that the streets of Old San Juan are not good for those with challenges, but we do want to see whatever we can from a taxi or van.

 

We've been to St. Kitts and St. Maarten so we know what to expect. We have not been to Grand Turk, but our son warned us of the distance so he maybe we will stay onboard.

 

I'm enjoying your review. This will be our first time on the Freedom.

[lovestocruise19]

It was getting really hot and I was tired, so we decided to head back to the ship. We went to the trolley stop, but there was no shade and there were a ton of people waiting. We decided it might just be quicker to walk back to the ship. It didn't take long at all. Maybe about 15 minutes.

 

When we got back to the main street in front of the cruise terminal, there was crime scene tape, fire trucks, and police cars all along. Not sure what happened.

 

We got back on board, showered, and then decided to grab some lunch. Nothing at the buffet looked good so I grabbed some fish and chips and DH got mongolian.

 

 

 

We also shared a few desserts.

 

 

 

 

What's that first dessert? I've never seen anything like that before.

[navybaby1113]

What's that first dessert? I've never seen anything like that before.

 

Oh gosh, I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. It's kind of like a cream puff type thing, but not.

[gapearl]

Hey Ashley! Happy to see another review from you! Great pictures as always. I had the exact same experience as you with ATD on the Breeze. Service was sooooo slow and not that great the first 2 nights. It eventually got better, but I'm going back to fixed dining from now on. Looking forward to reading the rest! :)

[navybaby1113]

Hey Ashley! Happy to see another review from you! Great pictures as always. I had the exact same experience as you with ATD on the Breeze. Service was sooooo slow and not that great the first 2 nights. It eventually got better, but I'm going back to fixed dining from now on. Looking forward to reading the rest! :)

 

Thanks! Yea, our dining thankfully got better. It was absurd!

[brimstone1414]

Love your review!!! We are going on Feb 22! Less than a week, I cant wait. I have 4 more days of work, I am completely useless there lol. Keep posting more pics!! Hey, do you remember what movies they are playing at the big outdoor screen? My kids are wondering :D Thanks!

[hancogran]

Great review! We were on the Freedom 8 day cruise which came back to Fort Lauderdale January 19th. Our itinerary was St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua and Nassau! Would have loved your itinerary since we love San Juan.

 

We also had ATD but never once had to wait and always got a table for 2 in Aleksander's section! He was a great waiter and so were his assistants. We used to get there about 6:15 and even if there was a line, we always got a table right away..never had a beeper at all. Guess we were just lucky :)

[navybaby1113]

Let's move on to St. Maarten!

 

Wednesday, January 29th (St. Maarten)

 

On this cruise, St. Maarten was the only port we hadn't been to, so we were very excited. We woke up around 6:30am and then went up to the buffet for breakfast.

 

DH got eggs benedict (he said these were horrible and dry), bacon, pastry, and eggs. I grabbed some bacon, french toast, and bubble and squeak (again, really dry).

 

After we were done eating, we went out on deck to take a look at the other ships docked with us. We were joined by the Westerdam, Celebrity Reflection, Norwegian Sun, Oasis of the Seas, and Carnival Dream.

 

 

 

 

 

You could barely see the Carnival Dream at all over the Oasis of the Seas.

 

[navybaby1113]

When looking for excursions, I wasn't happy with any of the choices offered through Carnival. I really wanted to go on an island tour that included Maho beach and none of them included that. Someone on the St. Maarten board recommended Bernard's Tours so I decided to book them.

 

We booked tour 1 since we didn't want any beach time and it was $40 per person. You are supposed to put down a $5 deposit, but we never did and they just charged us $40 at arrival.

 

We got off the ship at 7:45am because we were scheduled to meet our tour at 8:30am. I wanted to make sure we knew where we were going. Bernard said to meet at the building right next to the info desk. We didn't see anyone, so we asked the info desk. The tour was standing right to the left of it.

 

We checked in, paid our money, and they gave us a sticker that said tour 1. We stepped over to the side with the rest of people in our group. Glad we got there when we did because we actually left at 8:20am.

 

We got paired with tour guide Terry. We hopped on to the bus and went on our way. Fair warning, the aisle between the seats are very tight. You had to squeeze through there!

 

The first stop was the iguana farm. Terry told us there was $1 entry. We were not notified about this before the trip and did not have singles on us. We slipped through without paying, but not sure if we were just lucky or not. So, make sure to bring some singles because you do need to pay $1 to get into the iguana far.

 

They had some other animals at the iguana farm including monkeys, snakes, and a donkey.

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

After we were done at the iguana farm, Terry took us to an ocean area on the dutch side of the island. There was a man down by the water who had conch for sale and to look at. We did not visit the man, just walked around and took pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mrs.C05]

Love your review! Keep it coming!

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Forums mobile app

[lovestocruise19]

Can't wait to hear about Maho Beach! DH and I want to go there someday to experience the low flying planes!

[Sun4Me2Please]

Enjoying your review! We are going on the Freedom in March, but with a different itinerary. We were at St Maarten a couple years ago and took a Bernards tour, very enjoyable and saw many parts of the island... Maho Beach was amazing with the planes coming in overhead :)

[navybaby1113]

I forgot to mention that after we got done at the iguana farm, Terry started handing out his happy juice. Boy was that stuff strong! Tasty, but strong! I had one shot and then drank coke and water for the rest of the day.

 

Our next stop was Paradise Lookout. Terry mentioned they had public restrooms here. DH decided to go and then came back saying they were disgusting. There was some gorgeous views from this area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2014 by navybaby1113

[navybaby1113]

After we were done at Paradise Lookout, we started on our way towards Marigot. As we were driving through the island, Terry would tell us stories and information about the island. We actually drove through his area of the island and he showed us where each of his family lived.

 

Marigot is actually the capitol of the french side of the island. There are ton of shops here to check out. We didn't have much time at this stop (I think a total of 30-ish minutes) and I knew I wanted to check out Serafinas. Thankfully our bus stopped right across the street, so we dashed over there as soon as we parked.

 

 

Thankfully the line was short. There are so many choices. Make sure to take a look at the entire cart before you make your decision. There are not just sweet items. The sandwiches and pizza looked delicious!

 

 

 

 

I ordered a strawberry tart, DH ordered a strawberry-passionfruit thingy, and then we got vanilla and lemon macarons to share. The total for all of this was $16.

 

 

 

Everything was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend you stop at Serafinas if you go to Marigot.

[navybaby1113]

We actually got back to the bus a few minutes before it was time to leave, so we had a chance to take some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

The next part of the tour was the whole reason I booked with Bernards, Maho Beach! Terry parked in a back parking lot and then we had to walk over to the beach area. It was packed!

 

As we were walking up, a larger plane was taking off.

 

 

 

We knew a Delta plan would be landing soon, so we hung around and took a few pictures.

 

 

[navybaby1113]

While we were waiting for the Delta plane to come in, a smaller plane decided to land.

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Finally, it was time for the Delta plane to land.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

The bar that is located on the beach has a surfboard that lists when the bigger planes would be coming in. I sent DH over there to take a look and see if we would get to see any more planes before we had to leave.

 

 

He said there was another large plane that would be landing soon, so we stuck around to watch it come in.

 

 

 

 

 

After we were done at Maho Beach, it was time for our tour to end. We dropped some people off at Phillipsburg who wanted to shop and the rest of us were taken back to the ship.

 

We were back on board by 1pm.

 

It was a fabulous tour and I highly recommend it to anyone wanted to see the island.

[GabbyCooks]

I'm enjoying your review, thanks so much for posting it.

 

Approximately how long did you get to spend at Maho Beach? We are going in December and trying to decide if we should book a tour or head there on our own. I did notice Bernard's has a Maho Beach only tour on their website for $25, not sure if that's new or not, but it sounds like you took a different tour.

[navybaby1113]

I'm enjoying your review, thanks so much for posting it.

 

Approximately how long did you get to spend at Maho Beach? We are going in December and trying to decide if we should book a tour or head there on our own. I did notice Bernard's has a Maho Beach only tour on their website for $25, not sure if that's new or not, but it sounds like you took a different tour.

 

I'd say we spent a total of 45-ish minutes at Maho Beach. That was plenty of time for me. It was cool seeing the planes come in, but the beach was ridiculously crowded.