PHOTO REVIEW~Freedom, the 4th, and my 40th!

[MikeMA]

Thanks so much for the response. I decided to email LFK and ask about the children 3 and under. I got an email today from a rep named Larissa and she assured me they were free of charge.

With that said I am fairly certain we will be giving it a try in January.

 

Cannot wait for our cruise!!

 

You're welcome! I could definitely see taking small kids there. The water was clear, without waves, shallow and no drop offs in the water. They would also enjoy the zoo area with monkeys, birds, etc. We bought the mid level package because it included food and drinks. You could always do the base package for the kids and just purchase whatever they wanted to eat at the time. I think that deal was about $55 per person. I don't know if they discount for kids. You can also snorkel with them or go horseback riding right there in the water. Most of the pics I posted are from one small area of the island, put favorite part, but there are several other areas.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Martini Mom]

Thanks so much for the response. I decided to email LFK and ask about the children 3 and under. I got an email today from a rep named Larissa and she assured me they were free of charge.

With that said I am fairly certain we will be giving it a try in January.

 

Cannot wait for our cruise!!

 

Double win!! :D

[VitaminDLover]

We just decided on a Freedom sailing for next April! We are doing the Bahamas and Key West itinerary this time as we just got back from the Dream this past April doing this itinerary. I'm loving hearing about your experience on the Freedom!

[Singer4Him]

Can you tell me how long the trip from the port to LFK is? Also, is it a straight shot or are there a lot of curves? Someone in our group deals with car sickness so I try to make sure before we commit to something but this has definitely piqued my interest!

[The4Cruisers]

Great review so far, Martini Mom! Looking forward to the rest.

 

Happy Belated Birthday as well... :D

[turboteacher]

Enjoying your review thus far MartiniMom! Thanks for all the work you've done to post this...it's been great to see all the photos. We've got a long way to go...but it's exciting nonetheless ;)

[NightOne]

Ok, where was I? Belize, post cavetubing!

 

...

 

We got back to the port and got in the long tender line. It moved quickly though. As the tenders bunched up at the Freedom, waiting to offload everyone, a group of cruisers partied on their 2 story yacht next to us. I guess that excursion basically tenders itself. They were dancing, yelling, drinking and having a great spring break style time. Again, hubby gave me the look. Ok ok, we'll do that next time.

 

 

We have pretty much the exact same excursions scheduled for our April 2016 cruise on Carnival Dream ... that is until I read your review.

 

After reading about cavetubing.bz it sounds like they are a solid outfit and you had no issues with them and they gave you exactly what was promised. However, I think my expectation your expectation are exactly the same in regards to the tubing part. I don't want to be pulled down a super shallow waterway at super slow speed connected to 7 other tubes. I am glad I saw your review or I would have been disappointed about the same as you seem to be.

 

Like you I have read tons of good reviews about the experience and cavetubing.bz which is why I booked them. However, the whole thing just doesn't seem like a lot of fun once you get the details.

 

1. Wait a good while for everyone to show up and fill a large bus

2. Long ride to site

3. Long walk to caves

4. Sleepy pull down still water

5. Small portions of mediocre food

5. Long ride back

 

Did I get that right? :)

 

Also, I can see how it would be anti-climatic following Little French Key.

 

That double decker boat sounds like the ones that do the Starfish Island excursions and I am going to investigate those excursions.

 

Great thanks for your posting on this excursion. (and the others of course)

[Martini Mom]

We have pretty much the exact same excursions scheduled for our April 2016 cruise on Carnival Dream ... that is until I read your review.

 

After reading about cavetubing.bz it sounds like they are a solid outfit and you had no issues with them and they gave you exactly what was promised. However, I think my expectation your expectation are exactly the same in regards to the tubing part. I don't want to be pulled down a super shallow waterway at super slow speed connected to 7 other tubes. I am glad I saw your review or I would have been disappointed about the same as you seem to be.

 

Like you I have read tons of good reviews about the experience and cavetubing.bz which is why I booked them. However, the whole thing just doesn't seem like a lot of fun once you get the details.

 

1. Wait a good while for everyone to show up and fill a large bus

2. Long ride to site

3. Long walk to caves

4. Sleepy pull down still water

5. Small portions of mediocre food

5. Long ride back

 

Did I get that right? :)

 

Also, I can see how it would be anti-climatic following Little French Key.

 

That double decker boat sounds like the ones that do the Starfish Island excursions and I am going to investigate those excursions.

 

Great thanks for your posting on this excursion. (and the others of course)

Exactly! They didn't do anything wrong, but it was just kind of a snooze. You're also right that it was even worse following our awesome day at LFK. The cavetubing water is SO shallow in fact, that we had to lift our butts up quite often so we wouldn't scrape them. I think my expectations were also too high because people raved about this excursion and even called it the "best excursion they've ever done."

 

I'm glad we saw the "interior" of Belize, it's nice to see how the locals live, but it seems like their crown jewel is their beautiful water and great snorkeling. Next time :)

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[micmacmissy]

5. Small portions of mediocre food

 

If the food is mediocre, why would you want bigger portions???? :)

[Martini Mom]

If the food is mediocre, why would you want bigger portions???? :)

Because I was super hungry ;)

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[turboteacher]

Anymore MartiniMom? Looking forward to more pics :)

[Martini Mom]

Here's more for you turboteacher :)

Cozumel continued!

 

You can eat your lunch at your lounge chair, in this 3 table bar area or in the main open air restaurant. We chose the small bar area. Lunch was included in our package and served whenever we wanted it. There were a ton of options (see menu pic in next post). All we had to do was choose something from each course.

 

 

Outside the main restaurant

 

Inside

 

View from our table :)

[Martini Mom]

Our little table for lunch :)

 

View from our table

 

The whole place

 

Just our style

[Martini Mom]

FOOD! :)

 

The menu

 

 

Like I said, you get an appetizer, salad course, entree and dessert. (We ended up skipping dessert).

 

Mike chose the chicken wings (very overdone and dry, but who gets those on a Mexican beach anyway? ;))

 

I got the guacamole and chips (excellent)

 

We both got the "assorted vegetables salad", but it was more like a veggie plate with ranch type dip (still good)

 

We both ordered the mouniere shrimp (excellent!)

 

SO. MUCH. FOOD!

 

 

[Martini Mom]

 

 

[watermelonqueen99]

I am absolutely loving your review! We're going on this itinerary in October on the Magic, and we're going to be visiting LFK and also Nachi for the second time. And I love your screen name, martinis are my thing! LOL I had an embarrassing number of them on our April cruise (Cheers program), so much that the waiter in the Ocean Plaza knew exactly what to keep bringing me every night. LOL Looking forward to more!

[Martini Mom]

I am absolutely loving your review! We're going on this itinerary in October on the Magic, and we're going to be visiting LFK and also Nachi for the second time. And I love your screen name, martinis are my thing! LOL I had an embarrassing number of them on our April cruise (Cheers program), so much that the waiter in the Ocean Plaza knew exactly what to keep bringing me every night. LOL Looking forward to more!

 

Thanks so much! :) When I first signed up with CC, Mike and I were really into appletinis, hence the screen name ;). Now I prefer white wine and his new obsession is a Side Car because of the Alchemy Bar.

[Martini Mom]

Don't want to get up? No worries. Plenty of people had their food brought right to them on the beach :)

 

 

Feeling lazy after lunch and decided to check out the pool and swim up bar (attached to the main restaurant). At first I didn't get why someone would want to get in a pool, when you have a beautiful ocean steps away, but it was nice to roll our overstuffed bodies into the pool, sit in the shade at the swim up bar, and grab another "free" drink.

 

 

Did you know that a Corona commercial was filmed at this beach club?

 

 

[Martini Mom]

A couple more pool pics. No kids with us on this cruise ;)

 

 

 

Time to take a cab back to the port and walk the pier back to the ship. The Paradise is right next door :) We've sailed on her to Mexico before (out of CA).

 

 

[skittl1321]

We saw long lines of people in the hallways, waiting for regular tendering. Many later told us they waited 2-3 hours!

 

 

Loving your review! It looks like a fabulous cruise.

 

We are booked with cavetubing.bz off the Magic- and this comment has me terrified. We've tendered before, but never waited more than 30 minutes. 2-3 hours and I assume we wouldn't be able to do the excursion at all.

 

Do you think these people were exaggerating- or were there really 3 hour waits to get off the ship? Can other people chime in if this is typical?

[Martini Mom]

Loving your review! It looks like a fabulous cruise.

 

We are booked with cavetubing.bz off the Magic- and this comment has me terrified. We've tendered before, but never waited more than 30 minutes. 2-3 hours and I assume we wouldn't be able to do the excursion at all.

 

Do you think these people were exaggerating- or were there really 3 hour waits to get off the ship? Can other people chime in if this is typical?

I think part of the problem is the length of the tender ride, it's long!

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Martini Mom]

Some random ship pix in Cozumel, for my cruise addict friends :)

 

 

 

 

[mareed]

Time to kayak around the island, literally! :) Included in our package.

 

[/url]

 

 

 

Glad to see what looks like new paddles! When we were there at the end of May, they all seemed to be cut in half so that you had a short paddle which didn't really work. I'm pretty sure they allow more than 100 guests, and it was quite crowded the day we were there with 2 ships at port, but your pictures look very nicely un-crowded! I think it's a good option with 1 ship in port, but the place loses much of its appeal when it's over-crowded.

[Martini Mom]

Glad to see what looks like new paddles! When we were there at the end of May, they all seemed to be cut in half so that you had a short paddle which didn't really work. I'm pretty sure they allow more than 100 guests, and it was quite crowded the day we were there with 2 ships at port, but your pictures look very nicely un-crowded! I think it's a good option with 1 ship in port, but the place loses much of its appeal when it's over-crowded.

 

I've only been there when it's not crowded at all, but I would still love it with more people. I'm just a super fan after our visit :)

[turboteacher]

Keep the the photos coming!! Love it MartiniMom!!