tejmar

8 day cruise 1/11-1/19 –St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola, and Nasau. This was my family’s second Carnival cruise. The first was on the Sensation in 2000. For my wife and I this was our 12th cruise. We’ve sailed all the major lines. We usually choose cruises based on price and itinerary.

Embarkation: We arrived at Fll at 11:10AM and were eating lunch in the Lido at 12:20PM. We didn’t have FTTF and when we arrived there were no lines at all, in fact there were many agents waiting for cruisers to sign in. There was a line at Priority boarding. I was glad I didn’t spend the money for FTTF. Our cabins were ready at 1:15PM shortly after we finished lunch.

Cabins: My wife, youngest daughter and myself had a balcony (7396) and my oldest daughter, son-in-law and 3 year old granddaughter were in an inside (7394). Both cabins were in good shape. You could tell they weren’t new looking but were in good shape and clean. I’ve read of people saying that the upper cabins were hot, but that wasn’t the case with these cabins. Both were overly cool. I had to keep raising the thermostat because it was cold. BTW, my wife usually is hot most of the time. That wasn’t the case in our cabin. There was some noticeable creaking when traveling at a fast speed.

Steward: He was very good. He always kept the cabin tidy and we never saw him cleaning our cabin. He kind of snuck in and out. The only problem I had with him was that he always seemed to be pushing us right before dinner. We had the early seating so I couldn’t understand why he would knock on our door at 5:55PM. He should have known to wait until after 6 PM.

Main Dining: We were in the Posh. It looked nice but we were seated in an area without a window in view. We had some type of weird fake window with a huge frame around it which angled inward. Everyone of us that took a turn sitting next to it would but our heads on it. The dining staff was excellent from the assistants to the Maitre De. We had Wilbur, Supanee, and Ace. All provided excellent service and were enamored with our granddaughter. Supanee took a special liking to her and would always come over to get a kiss and hug from her. Our dinners never exceeded 1.5 hours. The food was very good. We would rank it at the top for any of our cruises right up there with our previous Carnival cruise. I only had two entrees that I didn’t like. The Jerk pork was tough, and the red snapper was a bit dry and tasteless. Of course Wilbur made sure to bring me something else immediately.

We tried the Brunch one day for breakfast and found it to be OK, but not as good as other lines food and the selection on the menu was small.

Lido Dining: We weren’t as impressed with the food here. I would rank it near the bottom for all of our cruises. It wasn’t bad, we always found something that we liked, but unlike other cruises where we wanted to try just about everything. Tried the Mongolian Wok and found it was tasty but spicy and the pork was tough. The chicken and mussels were good though. I tried what they called a pizza and was not impressed at all. It was more of a thin cracker with a thin layer of cheese and toppings on it. We tried the deli the first day and like it but like the Wok there was always a line there so we nevertried it again. Even though we really weren’t that impressed with the food we ate all but one breakfast there and all of our lunches so it wasn’t too bad. We all gained weight. We liked the soft serve ice cream that was always available.

Entertainment: We went to all but two shows. Some were very good. We didn’t like the hypnotist show at all and didn’t think that the one comedian was very funny. We tried to get into the Punchliner just about every night but were always turned away. We were able to get in the last night but didn’t care for the comedy at the family friendly show.

Ship: Yes Freedom could use some freshening up. There is obvious wear in high traffic areas, but this didn’t bother us at all because we go a great price on this cruise. As for the ship itself we really didn’t care for the layout and I would rank it near the bottom for us. We didn’t like that there were very little shady spots and the volume of the music was deafening. As for the pools and surrounding areas, note to Carnival, time to move out of the 80’s cruise ship design. The gym was well equipped, but it was irritating that you had to get to it by going through the spa and locker rooms. When we went to look at it the first day all the women in our group had to go their separate way and we all met up in the gym. Pretty inconvenient layout as was the case for other areas of the ship. It seemed like not much thought for traffic flow was put into the design of this ship. We also didn’t like that there was no place to walk around the ship other than the top deck. No real promenade deck where you could walk in the evening. We went to the Serenity area which wasn’t very serene since it was located near huge air vents that were very loud. We didn’t spend much time there at all since most of the time it was in the sun and blazing hot.

Although this would never be our favorite there was nothing that would keep us from sailing her again if the price and itinerary were right.

Ports: St. Thomas, my wife and I have been there and done that too many times. My daughter and her husband snorkeled at St. Johns and had a great time. The rest of us walked into town and shopped for a couple hours.

Antigua: We toured with Gordon’s privately. We had Valentine as the driver and he took good care of us. We did the budget Long Bay Beach tour which was very nice and Valentine gave us much latitude during the tour. The only thing we didn’t care for was the market tour. Nothing but beat up buildings and unsanitary food conditions.

Tortola: We did the Land and Sea tour through Carnival because we weren’t there very long. It was very nice but somewhat expensive.

Nassau: My daughter and her family took the glass bottomed boat tour and the rest of us went into town to shop a little. It was a bit cool there that day.

Despite some nit picking gripes above, we had another great cruise. We’ve always had great vacations on cruises and this was no exception. We’ve always had some gripe about various cruise lines and there were always things that we liked and disliked on all of our cruises, but nothing ever kept us from enjoying ourselves as we did on this cruise. We’ve always had a special time for different reasons on all of our 12 cruises and will always be looking forward to our next one.

FTTF=Faster to the Fun. Priority boarding, priority tenders etc.

 

By the way, your screen name caught my eye, my first name is Jamison.

Don't waste your money on FTTF. We arrived at FLL on 1/11 at 11:10AM and were on the ship Lido eating lunch at 12:20PM. When we got to the port there was no line at all except for Priority boarding. Our cabin was ready at 1:15PM shortly after we finished with lunch. Saved $100 for our cabins.

I have a cheap pair from Vox. They are over 10 years old and still work fine. They have a 1 mile range which is more than enough for any ship. As mentioned by others, there can be problems within the ship, but you can get around that somewhat by being on the same side when talking. We used to have our daughters check in with us at specified times and tried to be on the same side of the ship. Not a perfect system, but better than nothing. Wife and I still use them when we sail.

Thank you for your comments and I am glad you found our experience with Gordon helpful. The title of the song I used in the video is called: "One Particular Harbor". I am not sure of the name of the group who performed this, but it is from the Carnival Steel Drum Island Collection CD, Volume 2.

 

Enjoy your day in Antigua with Gordon!

Thank you for the information. We are anxiously waiting for our cruise which is not until January. It's a cold day today which is making wish it was sooner.

Here is the link to Gordon's website:

http://www.tourguidegordon.com/

 

..and this is the link for Lawrence:

http://www.lawrenceofantigua.com/

 

 

Although not recent, we toured with Gordon in 2009 on his "Best of Paradise" Island Tour. This tour offered us insight into some of the main highlights Antigua has to offer. We saw the historic St. Barnabus Church in Liberta, Nelsons Dockyard, the Blockhouse, Shirley Heights (which offered us a panoramic view of English Harbour), beach time at Long Bay Beach and a final stop along the rugged east coast where Devils Bridge is located. Gordon was informative and friendly and we enjoyed our day with him. If you are interested to learn more details about our tour, check out my review with photos in this link:

 

(Posts #138-#143)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1038334&page=7

 

I have also put together a YouTube video of our day with Gordon. You can view this by clicking on the link below:

dz63,

I just read your review of a Gordon's tour and watched the video today. Very nicely done btw. I am a fan of steel drum music and really like the song in the video. If it's not too much bother, I would appreciate the title and the name of the group that performed the music. Also, after reading your review and watching the video we decided to book the tour with Gordon.