MITSUGIRLYS FREEDOM OF THE SEAS REVIEW & PICTORIAL

[bettyboop16]

On ‎5‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 9:33 AM, mitsugirly said:

On our way back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We could see her off in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always laugh when I see fast food at places in the Caribbean...I don't know why.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it back around so it was definitely a short ride since we were packing up to leave the beach AT 3pm, which means we left after that time.   It now gives me an idea of how close that string of beaches is and next time I might just hit up Jolly Beach. 

 

We had a lovely day of seeing several different beaches and some of Antigua along the way. It would definitely be a place I'd like to head back to but next time, I think I will just pick a beach and stay there. All this running around beach hoping is nice to see the various beaches and sites, but you just don't feel like you've got your "fair share" of being at a beach. This place is definitely a place I need to come and STAY on the island to explore those 365 beaches. LOL

 

I would recommend Lawrence of Antigua tours. For $50 taking you all over the island...well you can't beat that. Mr NotLawrence was nice (despite the misunderstanding at the beginning about "staying 10 minutes"). He provided drinks during our rides and let us stay where we wanted for the amount of time we wanted with no issues. Lawrence himself was nice, although we didn't get to talk much at the beach because we were on limited time there and wanted to experience the place. I'm not sure if he had a group of his own. I do believe that I saw 2 Lawrence of Antigua buses in the parking lot because I remember walking out and was like...wait, which is ours?

 

I don't know how much a taxi to the furthest area (Long Bay Beach) is, but if you have a large group, need a van, and wanted to go that far, it might even be worth it to just hire Lawrence to get you all there together (like a private tour) even if you was to stay there all day. But anyhow...very nice company.

We took a taxi to Jolly Beach this past Feb. cost was $6.00pp each way. Nice beach & wasn't crowded.

[mitsugirly]

Then she joked about seeing some turtles...and said "yep, we seen them". I thought she was joking. SHE WAS NOT!!! UGH! We didn't see ANY turtles and that was what I was hoping to see!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

She also managed to see a stingray but most of it was buried in the sand and when I did her pictures, I couldn't hardly tell it was even there. 

 

 

AND THEN THIS!!! OH MY GOSH I'M SO MAD!!!

 

She got to see a lot of Garden Eels!!!! UGH! I didn't see anything like that. She was describing how they were all sticking up and when you got close they'd duck under the sand. I love these things (and we had one in our tank for awhile and it was so interesting to watch). I specifically went diving at West Bay in Roatan just to see the garden of eels but the weather was too bad to dive there that time and we went to another side of the island. So, I have yet to see them!

 

 

Then the hubby would tell me..."we seen them!" Um what???? He said they were there and he had seen them...but yet no one told me about it???? UGH! He said I was back taking pictures and he had no idea I hadn't seen them. 

 

 

Trunk fish

 

 

 

So, that was the extent of Kendra's photo's and I'm honestly not sure she's my daughter at this point. Or, she did not inherit my love for photography. 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok, onto my beautiful pictures. 😉

 

Down the ropes we go to the bottom of the ocean floor. 

 

 

 

 

 

I do have to mention that our awesome instructor also told us of another way to clear our ears that no one has ever mentioned before and IT WORKS FOR SAKARI!! We know the pinching of the nose, tilting the head, swallowing but she mentioned to swallow WITH your tongue at the roof of your mouth while holding your nose and IT WORKS FOR SAKARI! She struggles off and on with clearing her ears and goes up and down over and over until she can clear them and sometimes they don't clear and she'll have to stay in about 12-15' of water and that's it. Well, this time it worked. She had learned something new and it even works out of water for her...which had never happened before. 

 

 

 

Off we went with our newly learned way to clear ears. 

 

 

 

Now I want to mention, we had the awesome instructor we liked. I think her name was Keira? Maybe Kia will remember. I know it was a K name. Kia had the mean girl, Ashley. Then Kendra's group had a guy. 

 

 

 

Are you all noticing a pattern here...and I'm talking about the pictures themselves. 

 

 

 

BLUE!! ALL BLUE!! WHAT THE HECK??? Somehow I also managed to get my settings on blue. UGH  It's a bad day. 

 

 

 

 

 

We had already made it down past 20' at this point and I was feeling good about the dive. No anxiety, no panic, no nuttin!

 

 

 

I absolutely love these fish! They are so unique. 

 

 

 

 

 

[ABQrobin]

☺️  I am watching!

 

BTW - backroll is way easier and more fun than giant stride.  

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by ABQrobin

[bobmacliberty]

27 minutes ago, Tiggerontheseas said:

I just wanted to let you know that, no, this is not the Star Lounge.  I am stumped though.  I have NO clue what it is so big help that I am.

 

Looks like it might be the sitting area in the back of Sorento's, or maybe the back of the Promenade Café???  I need another cruise on Freedom to be sure (in 6 days!).

[mitsugirly]

EDIT

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

Then something caught my eye...slithering on the ocean floor...woo hoo. I scored an eel

 

 

Now just to let you know...there's 2 videos above and they were at different times. That's why they looked that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the point that I discovered it was on the wrong setting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I do want to mention...when we first started, I was having some buoyancy issues.  I kept sinking to the ocean floor. With each dive company, they have different rules. No one is ever consistent. Some say "DO NOT TOUCH your bcd and we will control it". Others will tell you "It's all on you and you control it". Well, this was one of those companies that said no-no! I kept having to push myself off the floor and tried controlling it with my breathing but it was just too much. I flagged her down and told her what was going on. She adjusted it and we were off again.

 

It wasn't much longer that I was going too high and she adjusted it again. Then too low. Well, I finally gave up and waited until she wasn't looking and did it myself. I understand why some don't trust "new divers" on a discover dive to do it themselves, but it's not the first nor last time we have dove and I knew how to do it. I'm not going to shoot myself up out of the water and get decompression sickness. Little by little I balanced myself and didn't have another problem the rest of the dive.

 

Trumpet fish...doo da loo doo

 

 

 

Now notice my pictures went from green-blue to a blue tint? I have no idea what was going on at this point and my apologies because my pictures sucked this time. I'm so disappointed in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok Robin.... HERE YA GO....GET A LOAD OF THESE!!!!

 

Did someone say is Spring blooming season? hehe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, at this point we were down to a little over 30' and I was still feeling confident and good about this dive. No worries at all, controlling my breathing, aware of my surroundings and not scared at all. I'm definitely improving! I have always said I'm most comfortable around 25' but this time at 30' I felt like going just a little deeper would not be bad.

 

 

Off in the distance, I saw Kia and Michaela with their group. 

 

 

Sakari was not having any issues at all and so far no stings from anything. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

The ships were pretty amazing to see and not at all what I had pictured for this dive. I think of Barbados and I think of sandy bottom, not much coral but I was pleasantly surprised at the things we saw. Plenty of coral and plenty of fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheGirlNextDoor]

4 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

 

 

 

Glad you are enjoying the review. Thanks for such kind words. It means a lot to me. 

 

When you say that your family hasn't "made it as far down as I go" meaning in the Caribbean?

 

 

 

I meant that when I snorkel, I am really only able to dip below the water. You seem to go deep down and get up close. Do you hold your breath? I know Sakari can hold her breath forever. Just amazes me. I love snorkeling but I get very anxious at first. I despise the salt water in my tube. Once I calm down and enjoy myself... tour is over.

Edited May 14, 2019 by TheGirlNextDoor

[ABQrobin]

Woo Hoo!  Orange Cup Coral bouquet!  Or are those star coral?  Not sure.  Nice job!

Aren't they gorgeous?

 

ha... luckily my coral ID book is sitting on bookcase next to me.  They are Orange Cup Coral.  Woot!

Edited May 14, 2019 by ABQrobin

[mitsugirly]

Ok, so remember those garden eels that Kendra's group seen and I was so mad that we didn't only for my hubby to tell me him and Sakari saw them?

 

Well, here they were staring at them all over the place:

 

 

 

 

Now I'm going to zoom in to show you...

 

(Sorry for the terrible picture but see all the little black things sticking up?)

 

 

 

 

The next picture I have is one that made no sense to me until now. I saw Sakari and daddy pointing at something and I snapped a picture of....no idea what. Then I saw Sakari move her fins. (Now I have attempted to lighten these pics to be able to see better...but I suck and really don't know how to make them look good).  Look directly below my name stamp..

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a zoomed in picture of the above picture and lightened a lot to be able to see them...

 

 

 

 

I guess they were just everywhere....truly a garden of eels, hence their name garden eels. The hubby said they were super long (and shows me about 18" on his hands) and he thought it was seaweed. Then the closer they got the shorter they got. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. LOL Then they would disappear or barely be sticking up. He definitely knew something was up. Of course, Sakari knew right away because we had one of these in our aquarium but she couldn't communicate this to him under water.

 

 

Here's our "Ellie"

 

 

 

 

 

I'm still very disappointed that I didn't really get to see this with my own eyes instead of my camera. I'm definitely going to keep my eyes open for shrinking seaweed next time.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok moving on. I'm over it (not really, but we'll pretend).

 

Now I will admit that I was dealing with something else during this eel event. My watch was not looking like itself! Hmmm, my watch states it's rated for 100 meters and we were only down 40' at this point. I have been down around this far before and never an issue. I have had this exact same watch since 2010 and have done dives and snorkels multiple times per year with no issues. My 2010 watch finally broke (the strap only) a few cruises ago and I went out and bought the same exact watch (which is the watch in question here). I have dove with it before as well. But this time...it would not make it out alive.

 

 

 

 

The other weird thing I noticed was my camera looked weird. The color of the pictures showing up on the screen had a rose color to it. I tried changing settings and no matter what, it was this weird color. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I had no idea what was happening. Then my watch looked that color as well. Am I ready to pass out or something? What's going on? I felt perfectly fine. 

 

I continued on and hoped for the best.

 

 

I spotted a sea cucumber.

 

 

 

 

Trunk fish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

I think my camera having a funny color to it was throwing me off and my close up pictures really sucked today as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Our instructor made a fist and put it in her hand. I knew what that meant...stone fish (only she would later say it was a scorpion fish).

 

 

 

 

RING RING....It's for you,...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BuzzBuzzen]

I am loving your review , it is amazing , thank you. I think all the photos are great but I do have senior eyes , cheers Buzz.

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pair of trumpet fish

 

 

 

 

 

Trunkfish

 

 

 

 

 

Another scorpion fish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queen Angelfish. She was huge and checking me out and came really close.

 

 

 

 

 

Another trunkfish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Another eel spotted. I guess I can spot them if they are big...just not small and hiding in the sand (not getting over this any time soon I tell ya).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So much color and so beautiful. I love these mushrooms. I have a bunch in my tank and they just multiply like crazy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More trumpet fish

 

''''

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

I wonder where that hole goes to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I can't remember what she said the following fish were. I thought they were high hats but when I said that, she said something else.   These were little babies and you really had to look for them.

 

 

 

 

Then I spotted a goby. I love gobies. They are so much fun to watch in a tank. They take huge gulps of sand and sift it and it comes back out of their gills on the side. (It's in the middle of the picture). 

 

 

 

This is our goby at work....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas tree worms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here comes Kia's group.

 

 

I guess our fun dive was about to end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kendra and Shawna made it to the surface

 

 

 

 

And Brayden popped up from the side.

 

 

 

I'm glad I was seeing a smile on her face

 

 

 

 

Shawna looked happy too. I honestly can't believe Shawna wasn't freaking out. I mean she did freak out over a small harmless sea urchin the other day at the beach. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that tank heavy Kendra? lol

 

 

 

 

 

We all compared notes on what we had seen and everyone had a good time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

So here is a Carlisle Bay Marine Park map. There are 6 shipwrecks located there. We went to 4 of them plus the barge.

 

 

 

 

We went to Bajan Queen, Eillon, Cornwallis, Berwind and the Barge. According to our instructor, we went down 40' but it says the Eillon is in 55 feet of water so I don't know. She wouldn't give an "exact" amount.  She said we dove for 30 minutes. According to my pictures, it was more like 45 minutes. The water was 82 degrees and said visibility was 50 feet. 

 

 

I "think" this was maybe our 7th dive we've done and I'm feeling more and more comfortable with it and I can't wait to go again!!!!

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Now when we pulled up in the boat, the instructors go "Oh my! Yuck" and we looked at the beach and it was covered in seaweed. So weird how much came in while we were out there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Back at the dive shop, we waited for quite some time for our instructor to finish what she was doing (the other people that dove had left already) and I was waiting to have my book filled out. They actually paged her several times. She didn't fill it out but gave me the info to do it myself and she stamped it.

 

 

 

 

The dive shop

 

 

 

I wanted to mention the lady at the counter is very rude. After checking in she handed us our books to fill out. We've done this enough times to know what all goes on it and so on. Then on the page beside it was the "test" you have to fill out and sign. Well, I filled out my book and did the test and she started yelling at me "You have to read the book. Did you read the book?" I told her I've done this test enough times and know the answers that I don't need to read a book to know the answers. She had a fit and told me to go outside and read the book and THEN take the test. She sent everyone out with books and said: "go read". At this point, the entire group was agitated about her attitude. I came back in and gave her my book and she said: "are you sure you are ready for the test?" ....Um, lady I've already filled it out but the last 2 questions, what do you think?

 

Then Sakari came in looking for me and she started to do her test. Well, Sakari has a reading disability and I knew it would take her a while to do without help. So, I read her the questions and the lady started screaming at me "THIS IS A TEST! YOU CAN NOT HELP HER! SHE HAS TO PASS THIS ON HER OWN!" Oh my god! At this point I was sick of her attitude and I said "She has a hard time reading and I'm not telling her the answers and I'm not doing anything but reading it to her and if you have a problem with this then I'm done with this place and we won't dive at all!!!!" She finally backed down. There were some other issues when we first got there so that lady was already on my bad side to begin with.

 

Now I have to say that this is the first place that has ever had us take the test before doing the class. Normally they do the class and go over everything, then you take the test, then you go to the water for skills. Just plain weird.

 

 

Here's the Hilton

 

 

The diveshop from the beach

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

After that, we headed to the beach for a while.

 

 

 

We were all a little hungry after the dive and walked down to a little place for some food.

 

 

 

 

The kids had found a coconut and were determined to break into it and eat it...and they succeeded.

 

 

 

The food hit the spot and then we walked back to the dive shop to gather our things and head back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked into the dive shop to let them know we were ready to go back and they looked at us like we were crazy. They say "you can go across the street to catch a taxi". Wait what? We were told you provided the transportation. They said no, we'd have to go on our own. But that's not what we were told in the email. Then the story changed to "we looked for you and couldn't find you". Um no, we were sitting right in front of the dive shop where we were before the dive too! They knew this!!

 

We pretty much argued back and forth and she made a call to someone and said she'd get an "override" and then got off the phone and said, "No, he said he would not pay for it because our driver is already gone".

Now wait a minute, we told them in the email over and over that our ship leaves late and we had planned on staying before and after the dive to enjoy the beach. They were more than aware of this. We were told we could get a ride back from them and was INCLUDED in the price as long as we booked ahead of time, which we did. I told her I had it all in email. They told me to PROVE IT. So I did!!!!!!!!! They said if I could show them the convo about staying at the beach after and the convo that promised us a ride back then she would "override" it and pay for a taxi. I showed her...then she refused. Now THAT pissed me off because I took the time to go over every email I had between them (which is a lot) and prove that this occurred only for her to go back on her word.  Yea, we were all a little pissed. But ....they called us a taxi. How nice of them! Ugh

 

 

 

So the taxi arrived and took us back to port where we would later discover that Kendra was completely ripped off by the first taxi driver by about  $20. At $7.50 pp, she should have paid $37.50 plus tip. He ended up charging them $58 I think she said...or maybe it was $68.00 and Billy also gave him a tip. We thought maybe it was Barbados $$ and they just paid that US $$ or something. Either way she was pissed at this point. 

 

It only cost us $40 to take all 11 of us back to port.

 

 

What a day. Such a great dive, but yet rude people. We all agreed that the people in Barbados needs an attitude adjustment. They are always so rude when we are there. I had always thought it would be a nice place to do a land vacation at or land vacation and cruise out of there...but now, there's just no way I'd want to.