cruisinqt

The pool area will stay the same on the Freedom, no upgrades there. :( I haven't heard anything about new rooms but people might be talking about newly remodeled rooms. The rooms will have all new linens, bedspreads, decor etc. :)

As for coffee they can order it through room service for free any time they like (you should tip of course). They have a variety of creamers too. Sounds like she insists on having her particular creamer though. You could call carnival and ask. That's probably your best bet. I'm thinking if it's new and unopened she has a much better chance of getting it on. We had 12 packs of soda in both of our carry ons and no one asked anything or opened them up or anything. Good luck. They will love cruising. :)

Well if I booked through Carnival it would have costed me the same as what my travel agent charged except I wouldn't get the extras. That's why I chose the travel agent. He charged the same as Carnival did but threw in prepaid gratuities for 4 people on an 8 day cruise plus $200 OBC. That's a total of $568 in freebies. :D But he says if it's a normal sale that doesn't cut his commissions like the kids sail free promo then he will be glad to let us keep our extras and honor the sale. So I'll keep an eye on things and hope for the best.

Yes it's correct. My agent told me the same thing. If you book under a new sales promo you can't keep the freebies from the previous sales promo. :(

Carnivals new ships have Dr. Seuss themes now.:) They offer character breakfasts, crafts, and other activities with the Dr. Seuss characters. They even have a free Dr. Seuss library. The Dream class has large waterparks with several slides including one that's toilet bowl flush styled, and there's water jets and other stuff to play with. Our kids loved that. :) There's also a large game room area called the warehouse and an 18 hole mini golf course. The Dream class would be the Dream, the Breeze, and the Magic. Of course Royal has the surfing, ice skating, and rock climbing. Either of these two lines have a younger age group and caters to families.

Our girls are 15 and 17. We've done numerous cruise lines and they prefer Royal Caribbean and Carnival because these two cruise lines have a much younger age group on board. The Carnival Breeze has the new waterpark on board with several cool water slides including one that is the toilet bowl flush style. There's also an 18 hole mini golf course and a huge game room area called The Warehouse. We cruised the Breezes sister ship the Dream last year and it was our girls favorite cruise so far. Of course Royal will have the rock climbing wall or ice skating. But either of these two lines would be best for teens. :)

Well I talked to my travel agent. The great deal we were looking at was a kids fly free sale so he would lose his commissions on both of our kids. With such a big loss in commissions he couldn't allow us to keep our prepaid gratuities and $200 on board credit. So it would cost us $342 plus the gratuities for 4 people and the $200 on board credit. That's just too much. :( I guess we aren't doing it. So bummed. :(

mz Miami, we are going have a blast on this cruise. Join our roll call.

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'll call my travel agent tomorrow morning and see what he can do for me. I'm so excited. Btw, I researched it and it looks like the kids would get to share a 2 person sofa bed. Has anyone tried it? Is it comfortable?

It's $342 total, not per person. I was thinking about paying the difference without anyone's knowledge and surprising my family. It's on the same deck. I have one of those pre loadable credit cards that you can get at walmart. It already has $250 on it from a rather lucky trip to Las Vegas. :D

We are currently booked on the Freedom this August in a balcony cabin on Empress deck 7. There's a sale going and I can get us into an ocean suite on the same deck for $342 more. This is an 8 day cruise and includes 4 of us in the cabin. Is this a good deal?

We did a Segway tour for $69 pp through a highly recommended local tour operator. There are two local Segway tour operators that are recommended on the Nassau boards. We did the one that drives you out to a ranch and let's you tour the countryside with your Segway. We even took our segways to the beach and got free cold drinks served to us while we played in the ocean. It was one of our favorite excursions of all time. :)

The couch was almost identical to the bed on our Dream cruise last year.

I do laundry midway through our 7 day cruises because we all pack lightly with one small suitcase each and a small carry on bag that we take straight onto the plane with us. With a family of four paying for the bigger suitcases really adds up. I have the laundry thing down to a science. Lol. ;) I put the clothes in the washer the moment I wake up. Then after I'm showered and ready to eat I throw the clothes into the dryer on the way to breakfast. After breakfast I usually like to go back to the room to use the bathroom and freshen up. So swinging by and getting my clean clothes on the way back to the room is no biggie. If you work it around your schedule you're really not spending too much time on it or going out of your way much.

We stop by a store and get drinks before our cruise. Carnival lets you walk right on with a bottle of wine, a 12 pack of soda, or a case of water. Each of us had our personal preference with us when we boarded since Carnival doesn't serve our favorite beverages. Glad you took your stuff right on and enjoyed it. :)

Don't listen to the naysayers, FTTF is definitely worth the money. We tried it for the first time on our Dream cruise last summer and loved it so much that we purchased it for our Freedom cruise this summer. :) Enjoy!

1. I did ithe hot stone massage in August and it was great!

2. Port day discounts are the best deals. You will get info on it during the week.

3. The discounts are pretty good. Can't remember the % though.

4. Port day discounts fill up fast so as soon as you get an ad/flyer with your evening fun times call up the spa and book it.

5. Day passes are $35 (not positive but it's around that amount). Couple passes are $249 a week. Single week long passes are $149.

6. Nothing else is included except the showers, locker room, and gym.

7. Loved it! Nice and warm with lots of bubbles. :D It has a bench in the water that's shaped like a lounger so you can lay back and enjoy yourself. It really helped my arthritis and sore knee.

We have done over 10 cruises on numerous lines. Of all of our cruises, we loved the Dream the most. Our second favorite was the Rhapsody of the seas followed by the Conquest. My vote would be for the Dream. It is the largest ship out of all of your choices. It also has an upgraded pool/slide area with a cool new water park. It has numerous slides but we liked the toilet bowl flush styled one the best. There's water spray things, dueling slides, etc. Then there's my favorite, the huge new spa. :D It has a bubbly mineral water pool, saunas, steam rooms, it's amazing!

We loved FTTF on our Dream cruise last summer and got it for our upcoming Freedom cruise. It was nice being walked past all the long lines and right on to the ship during the boarding process. :) And we could go straight to our cabin and drop our luggage off. But what we really loved was skipping the long long lines at the pursers desk. We always end up needing to go to the pursers desk and it's so nice walking up to the platinum/FTTF line which is almost always empty while the normal line has like a dozen people in it. :D I want to have fun, not sit in line all day. And the priority tendering and debarkation was just the icing on the cake. Even my cheap tightwad husband agreed to getting it again this cruise. And that's saying a lot. Lol. ;)

We used them and had an awesome time. Very reliable and reasonably priced. Check your junk mail that's where my emails from him were.

We've never used the bungee cord because we like the air conditioned cabin, it's too humid when you keep it open. Our favorite thing to bring for the balcony is wine. We love sipping on wine out on the balcony. :)

We did it on the Dream last summer and loved it. We were escorted past long crowded lines and onto the ship rather quickly.:) While on the ship I loved having access to the platinum/FTTF line at the pursers desk. There was usually ten or more in the normal line (most of the time many many more). But the platinum/FTTF line was usually empty or maybe just one person in it. We always have issues with our account or have questions or want to regulate our kids account on their S&S cards. It's nice to walk up and get it done quickly and skip the normal lines that are huge. Priority tendering was nice too. We liked it so much that we purchased it again for our upcoming Freedom cruise.

No both of you don't have to get the soda package. And your drink server will remember your soda preference and have it waiting for you at dinner every night if you ask. We order two items all the time and often share them. :D Both outfits are fine and neither would stick out.

Not sure about which dining rooms are which as I've never sailed on that particular ship. When you get on the ship go to the main dining room and you can find out your seating assignment then and change it if you need to. You are allowed one 12 pack of soda per person but it has to be in your carry on. You can also have one bottle of wine per person and it needs to be in your carry on too. :) The sodas are coca cola products but I don't know the price as we get the drink package for our teens and bring on a 12 pack each of our favorite diet drinks since carnival doesn't carry our preferred diet sodas. :( Yes there will be an elegant night not sure which night though. Carnival adds gratuities onto your bill automatically but you can go to any kiosk and adjust it according to your preferences. We hand out additional tips to our favorite staff members who go out of their way for us. We have always boarded around 10-11 am in many ports without a problem. Hope this helps. Enjoy your cruise. :)

I agree with the poster above. Carnival and Royal have a young fun crowd with bars, sing a long karaoke and late night shows into the wee hours. And if you avoid summer time and holidays when schools out there shouldn't be too many kids. When I went on Princess and Norwegian everything started closing down not long after ten pm. :( I loved the laid back relaxed feel and was very rested after that trip, but I missed the younger funner crowd on Carnival and Royal. ;)

The Dream class which includes the Magic and the Breeze, and also the Splendor (it's not the dream class but it's new and has it.) Other ships have upgraded spas but they're not the huge spas with the thalasso therapy pool with multiple saunas and huge walk in marble showers. Only the Dream class and the splendor has cloud 9 spas with all of the upgraded amenities. Hope this helps. :)