mmbrad02

We rented a golf cart and toured around. For us, that was nice, but also will be a once and done. There are some beautiful views to be seen, but you will also see a lot of local life as well. Lots of donkeys! The beaches are beautiful though. I personally would at least get off and walk over to the area right off the ship with the shops and such. and see the ship from that view, it's nice!

We rented from Paradise Carts. We chose them because we needed two six seaters and when we booked, that was the only company we could find that had that availability for our day. We didn't have any issues - when we showed up they had a hand written list and both of our parties names were right there. They found us our two carts and said "this one is low on gas. You will need to get some". Thought that was kind of odd, but as a trade out we did not have to have it filled back up when our day was over. It made me nervous cause we had no idea where the nearest gas station was, but we found it and lucked out that they sold inexpensive (for the area) cold sodas and bottled water. If there was any issues at all, its that one of our two was fairly low on power.... had to keep the pedal to the floor. But we just laughed and thought it was funny, etc.

We were on the Freedom in July and had assigned dining in Posh, so my guess is it's still Chic

We sailed the Freedom this July, and I can confirm that the ship WiFi does not work on the island. I didn't find any free Wifi on the island but I wasn't looking for it either.

This may or may not help but here is our experience.... We rented a Golf Cart in July and toured the island. While I have no regrets, it wasn't quite what I expected (I can't really say what I expected though). Definitely get a map, we got turned around a lot. I think I ignorantly anticipated like a race track like loop around the island but it's not... you definitely have to figure out what roads to turn on and such. We left the cruise port and immediately had to stop for fuel in our golfcart (we were told this up front and did not have to refuel at the end). Fuel is $7.50 a gallon but we got two bottles of water and a can of diet coke for $4 which I didn't think was bad for drinks. We then headed to the lighthouse, paid to enter that area, bought some souvenirs, bought water (it was HOT!), and then bought some carrots from a local in the parking lot to feed some wild donkeys. There are bathrooms inside the paid area here if that is of concern. Then we left the northern tip and headed back.... we stopped on the roadside from some water pics, but not really a beach accessible area. We stopped at the local grocery store on the island for more drinks and got to visit up close and personal with the donkeys, and then stopped to take flamingo pics. We then went to the Grand Turk sign and took photos, and then stopped at the John Glenn area. We then made our way to Governors beach for a bit but we were hot, tired, and HUNGRY. As we were a group of 9 and didn't plan very well on food. My DH thought about buying a sandwich from a local stand at the beach but it was $15 and we were headed back to the cruise terminal so he opted not to. The beach was beautiful though. We returned our golf carts, and re entered the cruise terminal where my DD and I got starbucks drinks and she got a cakepop. She and my DH headed back to the ship and I did a little shopping before I returned. Then we all headed to Guy's Burgers 🙂

We rented golf carts to cruise around/tour the island with. We don't necessarily want to spend our day in swimsuits under our clothing - but with the beautiful beaches we see in photos, we may want to stop for a while at a beach. Not positive we would need to change (we may just go in knee deep or just view it from the beach but if we opted to swim, is there any places to change into a swimsuit?

Okay let me back up 🙂 For what it's worth this is our fourth cruise so not total newbies; however, our last cruise was 2014 on Carnival so I have forgotten all of the rules and some of the embarkation processes (the last two were other cruise lines) We are flying Allegiant (first time) and have purchased a checked in suitcase, a carry on bag, and a of course we can have a personal item, for the flight. We did this because we would rather have a little extra luggage than not enough. I have not started packing for my family of 3, but there are also 7 others coming in our party, with the same purchased amount of luggage. So while I did say we would all have a carry on suitcase, that may change just depending on what things look like when we actually start packing. It may end up being a full size suitcase, a backpack, and purse for some, while a few families may have some people who do indeed have the two suitcase situation. I just kind of went with the worst case scenario when I posted my question I guess. Regardless of our size of bags, after our flight (coming in the day before), my family of 3 would prefer to only carry a backpack or something onboard ourselves, so we would still be checking two bags for two of us, potentially. They just might not be actual suitcases. I will say, we do dress up for formal night, and some of us like to change out for dinner (still casual clothes, but less sweaty and fresh), etc. However like many of you stated, the cabin does get small and I loathe the packing up at the end, so I do try to keep everything within reason. I do truly appreciate your responses and help! If we *do* have two bags each to check in, can I print our current tag twice or do I have to get a new tag from the porter for the second bag, anyone know?

Tis is a copy and paste from the PDF sheet with our luggage tag. I bolded the part that caught my attention and prompted this post.... Your Carnival Luggage Tag Instructions Please print your name on each luggage tag and fold along the lines with the information facing out (ship's name, etc., should be visible). Once folded, staple or tape the tag around your luggage handle BEFORE you arrive at the cruise terminal. Please limit checked luggage to no more than two bags per person for cruises of six days or more and a maximum of one suitcase per person for cruises of five days or less. Each bag must not weigh more than 50 pounds . Checked luggage service is only available until two hours before the ship's published departure time. Guests arriving after this time will be responsible for taking their bags on board. Bon Voyage! Our cruise is 5 days.

I forgot to mention that yes we will keep one bag for our party with all those things you mentioned 🙂 We just didn't really want to tote around 3 airplane carry ons if we could avoid it. So just use our same luggage tag, printed multiple times?

We sail on the Freedom in 12 days - so excited. We are flying in, and plan for each of us to have (by airline standards) one checked suitcase and one carry on size suitcase. We planned to check all of these bags in at the cruise terminal. However, upon check in this weekend for our cruise, the luggage tags indicate we can only check in 1 bag each. Is this enforced? Can we print double tags and check them all in, or should we plan to each tote our carry on suitcase around with us? Thanks!

This is great. Question though - can we all wait on our drivers to return to check in and board? We would prefer to group at least with those in our cabin and not get too separated.

Sorry, I worded it incorrectly about the cabins. We have already assigned cabins and know our cabin number already. What I was attempting to say is we are hoping to get the same or close to the same arrival check in time. We are unfortunately not on the same booking - 4 cabins, 3 bookings. I will have two devices going on midnight to check in 2 of the 3 simultaneously and my sister will do the other booking, at the same time, from her home. We will definitely start our online check in at midnight.

Good morning, We are boarding the Carnival Freedom on July 22. There are 10 of us, a range of ages from 12 to 73, some repeat cruisers and some newbies. We are flying in the day before and will have a 12 passenger rental van (through Budget) for transportation. Can anyone offer tidbits/advice/process for how Embarkation day will work? I know that we check in on July 8 and I assume we will be provided an arrival time then? We plan to do our check in (from home) at the same time, so hopefully all of our cabins (4 total) are assigned the same time, but if they vary, how does that work? Can we pull up to the port and drop off our luggage and passengers while 1-2 members of our party return the van and wait for a shuttle back to the port? Or is there a different way for this to work? Also, one cabin has Faster to the Fun - That doesn't mean our check in time is earlier, just that we have a specific line waiting for us inside, right? Anything else you can offer would be great! My husband, daughter and myself have cruised 4 times but on different lines and never with a larger group, and I've somehow become the "go to person" for all the planning and details so I'm just trying to get my ducks in a row! Thank you!

This is probably a silly question for most, but this will be my fourth cruise (1 prior Carnival one, 2 Disney) and I have always skipped Bingo cause I didn't know what exactly to do. Do I need to buy my card ahead of time or is there an at the door sale when it's time for Bingo to start? Are cards sold individually to play or is it a package type situation? Will I need to purchase anything other than a card(s) to play? For what it's worth we are sailing the Freedom in July. Thanks!

This is perfect information. For what it's worth we used Disney's app for our cruise this past July and it sounds very similar - and we managed okay 🙂 And I think $15 for the week seems better than us all buying the social media plan - plus we can disconnect more!