Live from the Carnival Freedom !!!

[jonsmom]

Thanks for your updates Fred. Sounds like you are having perfect weather as well.

[PaulMedik]

Thanks for your updates Fred. Sounds like you are having perfect weather as well.

 

 

jonsmom,

 

The weather is perfect!

 

 

Fred,

 

I keep missing you! I was just on deck taking pictures as Triumph came in. Everywhere I read about you going, I've just been there or am going there. :D

 

 

How cool! Do you request that or is it a random thing? We got the Captains table on the Glory last year for the entire week, but he never sat with us :p

What deck are you on Paul?

 

Gail,

 

Must be random. I didn't request it. They may be doing it to keep an eye on my boys!

 

We're on deck 6, 6452.

[gail811]

Great cabin Paul! Any noise issues for you? We had none, but my friend a few cabins down could hear the noise from the clubs below. We only heard it as we walked down the hall.

[copper6606]

Just wanted to say a big Thank You ! We just booked on the Freedom for Feb22/09!!!! It seems so far away- but you are getting us so excited with your blog that you'd think we were going tomorrow!

Enjoy!

[Huey]

Sounds like you're having some great weather.

 

We also stayed in St. Thomas late (til 10pm) on the 03/22 sailing. It was great not to have to hurry. Although, unfortunately on that day it was cloudy and raining! We were very bummed.

[CarnivalCruiseLover]

Were you able to get Todd's email address? I need to send him so me pics from the Liberty last year, and I can't find his email address. Let me know, I can provide mine as well.

:)

[Vettebuf]

Fred,

 

Thanks so much for the day by day description. I'll be on the ship with pe4all and jonsmom in 11 days AND I have your room, 2462, booked through Carnival!

 

We also have 3 other cabins booked with group rates near the bow and I just realized that I never made sure that we're all going to be at the same table. Hope I can work it out.

 

BTW, jonsmom, I'm another Jon's Mom. Jon will be in 2462.

[kapeavey]

Too, too much fun with the tenders thread! Two out of three threads have already gone poof! I would post the thread here but I don't want to jeopardize your "live from post" by causing trouble. Over 230 posts in under 1/2 hour for the second thread - you should have seen it! :D

 

Anyhoo... how exciting that you get to stay in St. Thomas late into the evening!! :p

 

Glad you all are having a great time.

 

What are tender threads?

[jonsmom]

Fred,

 

Thanks so much for the day by day description. I'll be on the ship with pe4all and jonsmom in 11 days AND I have your room, 2462, booked through Carnival!

 

We also have 3 other cabins booked with group rates near the bow and I just realized that I never made sure that we're all going to be at the same table. Hope I can work it out.

 

BTW, jonsmom, I'm another Jon's Mom. Jon will be in 2462.

 

Sounds like your Jon maybe a bit older - mine is 10.

 

Have a great time! Let's hope we get to stay in St. Thomas longer!!!

[mics pics]

What are tender threads?

 

Someone posted last night saying he was charged to use the tender for the tender ports on Valor. He was as close as you can get to illiterate (IMO) and got jumped on. The more he talked/wrote the worse it got.

Got to be pretty ridiculous and funny at the same time.

Ultimately, he had no proof and did comment that he saw the story about the Conquest schmuck before he came here so you can imagine what kind of attitude he had.

 

Fred, we're not really getting charged for tenders, this guy just didn't know what he was talking about.

[trudle]

Love your review each day, we are sailing the Freedom on 11/22/08. This is our Anniversary Cruise so we are doing the JS, hope I can go back to sail the Balcony after this. :D or window room from time to time. We will have different cruise ports in Nov. But, I will keep notes for when I go back to St. Thomas and St. Martin.

 

Happy Cruising for those that are leaving in the next few weeks----I can't wait to go. We are leaving out of Ft. Lauderdale.

[Wennfred]

Freedom Day 4 St. Thomas Cont.

 

Returned from Godfrey Tours adventures, we pretty much circled the island. First we went shopping for 2 hours,

readlly 1 hour 30 minutes, then we got back in the safari truck and headed to the highest point in St. Thomas, its

called Mountain Top, up there is where you get the Worlds Greatest Banana Daquire, its was very good, although they

poured and poured the rum, it wasn't strong at all and not one got a buzz from it, so the rum was probably watered

down.

 

During this tour we stopped at about 5 locations to take some really nice pictures of the ship and the rest of the

Islands, Although it was alittle cloudy further out in the distance, you can still see Puerto Rico. Then we dropped

off a family at Coki Beach and then headed to Sapphire Beach. We have been to Coki beach many times before,its a

small crowded beach and when we went there to drop this family off it reminded us of how small and crowded it was

there. Sapphire beach is a beautiful beach, I was able to take some pictures but since Wendy was close to having a

heat stroke we figured it was time to had back to the ship. Everyone else got to spend 2 hours at the beach, We

spent 5 minutes. Godfrey takes you back to the ship and that ride took about 20 minutes, again another beautiful

island, I would love to return on my own and spend some quality time here.

 

If you are into those Green Large Lizards, this is the place to see them, they are all over the place even right on

the sand on the beach.

 

We did see Sonny Liston Tours driving around with his customers, they were cheery and loud. I prefer Godfrey

because we were on the Safari truck and we would be there to enjoy the scenery and listen to the sounds of the

island and also listen to what he has to say about the areas where we are at.

 

St. Thomas cruise terminal has alot of little gift ships and jewelry shops nearby. St. Thomas used to be the place

to shop for Jewelry and gold, not any more. With the Gold rate at $1000.00 an ounce, everything is now over the

top. When we haggled and I can Haggle, they were dropping the already inflated price down $200.00 and as I said no

and headed out the door they would drop what ever we were looking at another 100.00. The same Gold Cross with the

Diamonds in it, and I mean tiny was 250.00 at one of those Carnival Authorized stores a few years ago was now 750.00, the same

cross we got back in 2001 for 70.00, also forget about dealing in the side streets like the Onyx store their rates

are now inflated big time. I also noticed that these Jewelry stores have been taken over by Middle Eastern People,

one of the vendors at the open market (Flee Market) told me to just buy your stuff in St. Marteen, should be alot

cheaper in price there.

 

Anyways for those looking for a private tour, for online 25.00 this trip is well worth the price, you go to alot of

nice places, shopping downtown and then 2 more hours at the beach. The whole tour was 6 hours.

 

We are back on the ship, I had my Mongolian grill stir fry but this time they didnt have the main ingredients like

Bean Sprause, Spinish and or lettuce. Also the wait was very long, I say around 20 minutes.

 

Time for nap, we have a show later tonight at 7pm before we go to dinner.

 

Have a good day.

 

 

Fred

[deborahjo]

Hey Fred how was your driver. We were there in October and got the same tour and beach but we went to Megans Bay beach. On the way back she drove like a bat out of hell. Then we came upon a wreck in the middle of town and everyone just stopped and got out of their vehicles and walked up to the wreck. We just sat there wondering what the heck was going on. She drove about 5 miles down the wrong side of the road and just blew her horn. Scary but alot of fun. Sound like your ride at all.

 

Love your review so far. Makes me think I am there with you.

[JXR]

I think that what might be confusing to some as to them being the last Eastern sailing, is that we do not have the same Eastern Itinerary. We do not go to St Maarten (wish that we were). We've got St Thomas, Half Moon Cay, San Juan and Grand Turk.

 

Joanne

[spartn91]

jonsmom,

 

The weather is perfect!

 

 

Fred,

 

I keep missing you! I was just on deck taking pictures as Triumph came in. Everywhere I read about you going, I've just been there or am going there. :D

 

 

 

 

Gail,

 

Must be random. I didn't request it. They may be doing it to keep an eye on my boys!

 

We're on deck 6, 6452.

 

 

Paul,

We have cabin 6454 booked for the Freedom thanksgiving cruise (11/22-30). I was wondering do you hear much noise coming from the lounge below? Also is there much noise/vibration from the thrusters? This will be our first Aft cabin, hence all the questions.

 

thanks to you and fred for keeping us on the edge of our seats with your posts.

[Wennfred]

Freedom Day 4 St. Thomas Cont.

 

After a nice 2.5 hour nap, we got up and headed for the 7pm Main Show called Jump, Jive & Wail, another 45 minutes

of high impact pace musical action, very very nice, don't miss this show either. I used to not go to the shows as

I have seen the same ones over and over but these are new and very well done. Also I get to go with Cathy. We can't

wait for the Beatles Tribute.

 

Very Important Information here:

 

Well I found out some good info tonight during dinner, I had a new dish that they just started serving this week

called, Spring Ranch Chicken Sicilian Style, this was by far one of the most tastiest dishes I have ever had on

Carnval. My waiter Leo told me that we have a new Carnival chef, his name is Andreo Desosa, he is from India and he

has been revamping the dishes on all Carnival ships. I told him that George Blanc food sucked and that it was

getting bland. I knew something was different when I told you guys that the food is very good now. Totally

different from my previous cruises. I was also told by someone else that Carnival paid alot of money for George

Blanc, they were glad to get rid of him and intoduce a newer better line up. Also alot of the crew agree, the new

Chef is way better and the food is alot tastier.

 

I will be getting a copy of tonights menu tomorrow so I can list these 2 dishes that I had which took me by

surprise, the Spring Ranch Chicken Sicillian style is one not to be missed and also the Braised Ribs, thats all of

the name of the Ribs I could remember, I will have a copy and post the names correctly tomorrow.

 

Wendy and Cathy also are truely loving the food onboard, they haven't tasted anything they havent liked yet.

 

Tonight we got our Past Guest invitations for Thursday (tomorrow) night from 5:15pm - 6pm for Late Seating which is

us. The dress code is smart casual. We also got our 2 Carnival Freedom Pins yeah !!! This event is held in the

Victoriana Lounge which is the Theater. There are 2000 Past Guest onboard Freedom this week.

 

Tomorrow we will have another exciting day in ST. Maarten, the Capers say we are arriving at 7am but have to be

back onboard at 4:30pm. Our excursion is St. Maarten Beach Break, We head down to the pier at 10:30am. This is a

Carnival booked tour.

 

Guess what!!! we got a Comedian named Phat Kat and Ventriloquist Jerry Goodspeed, its going to be a fun night

tomorrow night. We will be going first at 7pm for late seaters again. I've been telling Cathy all week about this

guy.

 

We are now pulling out of St. Thomas, 10pm.

 

Well, thats all I have for now, Im going to enjoy the bed and catch some ZZZZ's as we are getting up earily again.

 

 

 

 

Fred

[Wennfred]

Q & A's

Deborahjo,

We had that same black female driver, I never did find out if she was related to Godfrey, but she drove very well and also gave us alot of info about the island, I tipped her very well at the end.

 

JXR,

The Truimph was inport with us today, they got to go to HMC, I which I would go there instead of St. Marteen, I love St. Marteen but I haven't been to HMC yet and I know that its very beautiful there, I would rent one of those Cabanas in a heart beat.

 

We didnt have to go through Immigration inspection because we just came from San Juan, so that was a Plus, the Triumph had to go though it because they were at HMC first.

 

Guys I was so worried about the Weather this week, as Paul can tell you we have been so lucky, today at St. Thomas, Sunshine all day, hot but nice.

 

I haven't been able to get Todd Wittmers Email yet, he is hard to track down, the only places I see him is at the Shows.

 

Fred

[emmysmommy]

Glad to hear that they have some new, tasty, dishes coming to the dining room. ;)

[seaweed5]

Thank you, Fred. I love your posts! I will be on the Freedom for my first cruise on April 19. I get more and more excited with each of your updates. Hopefully your pictures will be up before we leave. :D

[PaulMedik]

Great cabin Paul! Any noise issues for you? We had none, but my friend a few cabins down could hear the noise from the clubs below. We only heard it as we walked down the hall.

 

I haven't heard a thing other than the ocean. :) We've slept with the balcony door open every night.

 

 

 

 

Paul,

We have cabin 6454 booked for the Freedom thanksgiving cruise (11/22-30). I was wondering do you hear much noise coming from the lounge below? Also is there much noise/vibration from the thrusters? This will be our first Aft cabin, hence all the questions.

 

thanks to you and fred for keeping us on the edge of our seats with your posts.

 

 

spartn91,

 

I haven't heard any noise at all from the lounge.

 

There has been quite a bit of vibration from the thrusters. It seems to be worse in the bathroom I guess because of the hard floor. This is also my first aft, but I've been in the aft lounge on other ships when the thrusters were in use and the vibration was the same then as now.

 

This evening has been the first time we haven't had heavy seas and it's a lot smoother now than before. The movement we've had up until now has been all over the ship and not just aft. I haven't taken any pics or vids of the waves we're hitting, but they were going quite high on the bow.

 

Fred is the man when it comes to live reviews. :) I'll be posting mine when we get back home and I hope Fred joins me. Mine tend to be photo intensive and the internet here isn't up to that. :o

 

 

 

 

 

Fred,

 

We're going to Orient Beach tomorrow and you're welcome to join us if you like.

[pe4all]

Fred- thanks for the menu updates. We thought the food was okay to pretty good. Glad to see there are some new items on the menu. Will be sure to try them. (we are not food "mavens", so for us anything better than Friendlys/Dennys/IHOP kinds of foods is "gourmet"!! - lol)

[Wennfred]

Freedom Day 5, St. Marteen

 

Its 7am and we just tied up to the pier, on the other side of the pier is a massive Princess ship called the

Carribbean, they would be pulling up and dropping the first mooring line in 5 minutes.

 

A bit cloudy but very nice, the waters are also the Aqua blue waters here by the pier. Im already up because the

aft thrusters woke me up and then I could see the Freedom do a 360 on the T.V., we are pointing out towards the

ocean. The Carribbean Princess is pulling straight in.

 

By the way, how long does it take to get the laundry back? We left 2 bags yesterday morning when we pulled into St.

Thomas, we still havent received them, I thought they are usually be back by 6pm the same day?

 

 

Fred

[Wennfred]

Q & A's

 

Seaweed5,

 

I would love to post pictures but as Paul stated, the internet is way too slow for that so when I get home I start threads with specific topics and thats where I post the pictures.

 

I will be starting a new Cat. 1a thread since the last one is now closed.

 

PaulMedik,

 

Paul, I would love to join you guys there at Orient Beach as we only spent 5 minutes over at Sapphire Beach yesterday, not sure what beach the Beach Break will takes us, they will be providing lunch like Ribs etc. If it sucks, I will take a cab over to Orient to show Cathy and will be looking for you guys.

Give me a call at 2462 tomorrow while at sea or leave me a message so we can hook up somewhere and have a final going home drink.

 

Pe4all,

 

I'm with you on the food, I like Dennys, IHOP, Carrows, CoCo's also so for us this is Gourmet LOL. The food today is much better then even last years April Spirit and Novembers Elation Cruises.

 

For those interested in Internet use, I have 120 minutes left as of right now. I got the 250 Minute plan and used up 1/2 the minutes by typing what I need to say on Wordpad or Notepad and then logging on and Copy/Pasting what I wrote and then logging off immediately. This Live Freedom Thread is always on, I do not turn off the laptop nor close out this page so when I log on using another page, I click right over to this page and click on Post Reply.

Today from 4pm - 6pm you can log on and only be charged 50 percent of your online usage. Check your capers for those hours. Towards the end if I have alot of time left, I will upload some Pics.

 

 

Fred

[Wennfred]

Vickey,

 

The Cabin we were in was 8265, cat 4e inside cabin on the Spirit, very noisy, do a search for that review. We got your email but I cant send a reply from here for some reason, you have a cute doggie, will show Wendy the pics when she gets up.

 

 

Fred

[nomoredyess]

Fred,

 

This may seem like a silly question, but what kind of bodywash/shampoo/conditioner are in the rooms???? Its for my wife!!

 

John