The World's Longest Carnival Freedom Pictorial Review! Feb. 13-21

[BABSIER]

Nicole,

I just love reading your reviews. It is because of your Miracle blogs that I will be sailing at the end of April out of NY. I am so looking forward to this cruise and feel as if I already know the ship thanks to you. Keep up the great writing.

Barb

[Nicole721]

I love long reviews with lots of pictures. I remember reading one you wrote where you started from NYC.

 

Looking forward to this one.

 

Thanks poptart! :)

 

Thanks, will look for it next time we're there. We usually stay at the Sheraton Suites which is on University.

 

Ohhh yeah. Not too far from there :)

[Nicole721]

I absolutley couldn't wait to get home from work today to read more. I'm addicted - you have to have the best reviews. Can't wait to read more. We will be on the Freedom in May for the 6 night cruise. Keep up the great work!:)

 

Thank you! :D

 

I hope you have a great cruise! The Freedom is a beautiful ship- I can't tell you how many times I just sat in the atrium and watched the lights change color!

 

Great review. I am now going back and reading your other reviews. We live in Orlando, so it's interesting to hear the perspective on Disney from those out of state.

 

Loved the Miracle review too...am almost through it all. That is my fav ship, as it's where I spent my honeymoon!! You have a photo there of you and your sister in formal attire and you have on the most gorgeous black dress. I wondered if you would share where you purchased it...it is really pretty.

 

Thanks again for the blogs. I love to read of others' travels!

 

Glad you're enjoying them! :)

 

Hmmmm. The black bubble dress. I want to say Nordstrom, but I really don't remember because it's a few years old :(

[Nicole721]

Hi,

What do you gals do for a living? Nice that you have so much vacation time

 

That's kind of a personal question, don't you think ;) I've posted my profession before (I'm a writer), but it's not really my place to say what Mom and Steph do. But yeah, I can say we're very lucky to have so much vacation time :)

 

Nicole,

I just love reading your reviews. It is because of your Miracle blogs that I will be sailing at the end of April out of NY. I am so looking forward to this cruise and feel as if I already know the ship thanks to you. Keep up the great writing.

Barb

 

Thank you! :) I'm so glad that you've found my reviews helpful!!! Have a fantastic cruise- I miss the Miracle (and NYC)!

[sailingawaysoon]

Hi Nicole,

 

I always love reading your reviews and when browsing the cc boards I was thrilled to see you are writing another one! You always do an awesome job w/the reviews and I especially love seeing all the food pics. Can't wait to read more. Love it!

[NYGirl1002]

Hey Nicole! I can't wait for embarkation onto the Freedom :)

 

Isn't that Part 4?

[Nicole721]

Hi Nicole,

 

I always love reading your reviews and when browsing the cc boards I was thrilled to see you are writing another one! You always do an awesome job w/the reviews and I especially love seeing all the food pics. Can't wait to read more. Love it!

 

Thank you!!! :)

 

And I'm happy to report that there will be LOTS of food pics ;)

 

Hey Nicole! I can't wait for embarkation onto the Freedom :)

 

Isn't that Part 4?

 

It's actually going to be part five :P

 

We spent an extra day in Fort Lauderdale (which I'm writing up right now, actually). Hopefully tomorrow, I'll start with the actual cruise :D

[Sunmist]

Nicole,

 

I have to ask and I'm sure you've been asked this question before...but how do you remember EVERYTHINGGGGG. It's unreal how detailed your reviews are..it's amazing!!

 

Thanks!

[Chrisp414]

Hi Nicole! I really enjoy your blog and your reviews here on CC. I tried to post on your blog but do not know how. So, I'll ask my ? here, ok?

 

I see you use priceline for hotels sometimes. How do you manage to get the hotel you want? Is there a trick to it? I'm always afraid to use priceline - I get most of the way through then chicken out at the end. Also, where do you get the codes for the car rentals? You certainly are a seasoned traveler. Again, keep up the posting, you are so interesting. Thanks for taking the time to do all of this.

 

We're going on the Dream May 8. Any excursion ideas that you may have for us will be appreciated. (Nassau, St. Maarten, St. Thomas).

 

p.s. how about a side job as a travel agent?

[Nicole721]

Nicole,

 

I have to ask and I'm sure you've been asked this question before...but how do you remember EVERYTHINGGGGG. It's unreal how detailed your reviews are..it's amazing!!

 

Thanks!

 

That's actually why I take so many pictures of random things...to jog my memory :p Food pics? Just to remind me what I ate (and then I realized lots of people like seeing food pics so I started posting them).

 

I actually have a crazy insane memory, though. I can remember random conversations verbatim years later...random facts...random memories. So that helps.

 

When I was last on the Miracle, I actually bought this beautiful journal with linen pages and this time, I used it to jot down my thoughts every night of things we did, things we ate, things we saw, people we met, random things I don't want to forget...things like that :)

 

Hi Nicole! I really enjoy your blog and your reviews here on CC. I tried to post on your blog but do not know how. So, I'll ask my ? here, ok?

 

I see you use priceline for hotels sometimes. How do you manage to get the hotel you want? Is there a trick to it? I'm always afraid to use priceline - I get most of the way through then chicken out at the end. Also, where do you get the codes for the car rentals? You certainly are a seasoned traveler. Again, keep up the posting, you are so interesting. Thanks for taking the time to do all of this.

 

We're going on the Dream May 8. Any excursion ideas that you may have for us will be appreciated. (Nassau, St. Maarten, St. Thomas).

 

p.s. how about a side job as a travel agent?

 

Sure thing!

 

1. Priceline. Sometimes there's a trick to it. There are some Web sites (betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com) you can look at to see what other people are getting and bidding so you can gauge that. I'll look at what hotels people are winning and I'll look into them. If it's hotels that have good reviews on TripAdvisor, I'll go through with it. If not, I'll just book a hotel directly and Google for a discount (like when we stayed at the Gaylord Opryland, I knew I couldn't guarantee that on Priceline and we didn't want to stay anywhere else, so I googled "Gaylord Opryland code" and pulled up a random discount code that worked). For Fort Lauderdale, though, we knew we wanted to stay at the Renaissance and it's just a matter of knowing what to bid and where. It's the only 4* in Plantation on Priceline, I believe, so I knew that's what we would get. I can say this: we use Priceline for almost every trip at least once and that's amounted to dozens of stays and though I can't speak for anyone but us, I've never had a bad stay or a problem really.

 

2. Rental car. Never pay rack rate for a rental car. Google is your friend. There are dozens of codes for every rental car agency. I usually use a Visa code (http://usa.visa.com/personal/discounts/detail/AlamoRentaCar/vro_details.jsp?merchantName=AlamoRentaCar&merchantId=152&pageId=197) or car rental savers (carrentalsavers.com) to find a code. Or if you buy an entertainment book every year, there's always codes in there (here's a hint: always buy your entertainment books after New Years because they get deeply discounted the longer you wait. Buying an entertainment book is actually how I get my Photobucket Pro account for free so I can show y'all all of my pics :p ).

 

3. There's actually zillions of things to do in those ports. If you let me know what kind of stuff you like to do, I can give you some more detailed suggestions, but off the top of my head, my favorite excursion in St. Thomas is the Champagne Catamaran to St. John, the best thing to do in Nassau is tour the Atlantis Resort (we're not fans of Nassau and unless we're seeing the Atlantis or going to Senor Frogs, we don't even get off the boat) and if you're a beach person, I highly suggest grabbing a cab to Orient Beach in St. Maarten :)

 

I'd actually love to be a travel agent. Planning is SO much fun! Who knows...maybe one day :D

 

Please let me know if you have any more questions!!! :) And have a great cruise! I hear the Dream is a beautiful boat! We were considering traveling her in May, but we've switched our sights to something else (if we decide to travel in May at all...it's coming up kind of fast!).

[Nicole721]

Part 4 is up! It's short and kind of dry, but the actual cruise begins in the next part so it was kind of a necessary evil to get through :p So tomorrow (fingers crossed), I'll begin posting the review on the blog and in this thread. We'll see how it works with all the pictures, though LOL. It might get to be a little *too* long for this thread, but we'll see how it goes :)

 

Part 4: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-4.html

 

Part 3: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-3.html

 

Part 2: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-2.html

 

Part 1: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-1.html

[frazzledrazzle16]

My favorite excursion in St. Thomas is the Champagne Catamaran to St. John

 

I agree... that was an awesome excursion. The water & scenery were soo beautiful!

[mr&mrscruiselover]

Nicole, your are a wonderful writer and I look forward to, with great anticipation, to each of your daily entries. The bound you have with your family is so touching. Each time I read about Mom, Grandma, and Steph I think of my own family and how much I miss them, especially the ones that are no longer here. Keep up the good work.

[sailingawaysoon]

Part 4 is up! It's short and kind of dry, but the actual cruise begins in the next part so it was kind of a necessary evil to get through :p So tomorrow (fingers crossed), I'll begin posting the review on the blog and in this thread. We'll see how it works with all the pictures, though LOL. It might get to be a little *too* long for this thread, but we'll see how it goes :)

 

Part 4: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-4.html

 

Part 3: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-3.html

 

Part 2: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-2.html

 

Part 1: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-1.html

 

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for installment #4, I enjoyed it very much. I was so hoping I'd see some wonderful pictures of PF Changs, but oh well, I know you'll make up for it later w/the food pics. I love PF Changs. We have one here in Atlanta, but I never get to it. Can't wait to read more....check back with you on Monday. Have a great weekend!

[Chrisp414]

That's actually why I take so many pictures of random things...to jog my memory :p Food pics? Just to remind me what I ate (and then I realized lots of people like seeing food pics so I started posting them).

 

I actually have a crazy insane memory, though. I can remember random conversations verbatim years later...random facts...random memories. So that helps.

 

When I was last on the Miracle, I actually bought this beautiful journal with linen pages and this time, I used it to jot down my thoughts every night of things we did, things we ate, things we saw, people we met, random things I don't want to forget...things like that :)

 

 

 

Sure thing!

 

1. Priceline. Sometimes there's a trick to it. There are some Web sites (betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com) you can look at to see what other people are getting and bidding so you can gauge that. I'll look at what hotels people are winning and I'll look into them. If it's hotels that have good reviews on TripAdvisor, I'll go through with it. If not, I'll just book a hotel directly and Google for a discount (like when we stayed at the Gaylord Opryland, I knew I couldn't guarantee that on Priceline and we didn't want to stay anywhere else, so I googled "Gaylord Opryland code" and pulled up a random discount code that worked). For Fort Lauderdale, though, we knew we wanted to stay at the Renaissance and it's just a matter of knowing what to bid and where. It's the only 4* in Plantation on Priceline, I believe, so I knew that's what we would get. I can say this: we use Priceline for almost every trip at least once and that's amounted to dozens of stays and though I can't speak for anyone but us, I've never had a bad stay or a problem really.

 

2. Rental car. Never pay rack rate for a rental car. Google is your friend. There are dozens of codes for every rental car agency. I usually use a Visa code (http://usa.visa.com/personal/discounts/detail/AlamoRentaCar/vro_details.jsp?merchantName=AlamoRentaCar&merchantId=152&pageId=197) or car rental savers (carrentalsavers.com) to find a code. Or if you buy an entertainment book every year, there's always codes in there (here's a hint: always buy your entertainment books after New Years because they get deeply discounted the longer you wait. Buying an entertainment book is actually how I get my Photobucket Pro account for free so I can show y'all all of my pics :p ).

 

3. There's actually zillions of things to do in those ports. If you let me know what kind of stuff you like to do, I can give you some more detailed suggestions, but off the top of my head, my favorite excursion in St. Thomas is the Champagne Catamaran to St. John, the best thing to do in Nassau is tour the Atlantis Resort (we're not fans of Nassau and unless we're seeing the Atlantis or going to Senor Frogs, we don't even get off the boat) and if you're a beach person, I highly suggest grabbing a cab to Orient Beach in St. Maarten :)

 

I'd actually love to be a travel agent. Planning is SO much fun! Who knows...maybe one day :D

 

Please let me know if you have any more questions!!! :) And have a great cruise! I hear the Dream is a beautiful boat! We were considering traveling her in May, but we've switched our sights to something else (if we decide to travel in May at all...it's coming up kind of fast!).

 

 

 

I wish I knew how to quote correctly so I can reply to the right thing. Anyway, the Champage Catamaran in St. John sounds good. Is that the one that Carnival offers? or is it offered by someone else? We are beach people so the Orient beach thing in St. Maarten sounds good too. Just take a cab there? Also, Nassau - we would like to see Atlantis - just visit it on our own - don;t want to pay anything. So, maybe take a cab there, and then CC'ers suggest going to the Sheraton for the beach. Maybe that's what we'll do. Thanks for the great suggestions, ie.,visa, hotel picks, etc. Any advice that you give is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

 

Chris

[XCruiseMe17]

I might have missed this answer some place, but what type of camera do you use? Your pictures are beautiful.

[mississauga]

I wish I knew how to quote correctly so I can reply to the right thing. Anyway, the Champage Catamaran in St. John sounds good. Is that the one that Carnival offers? or is it offered by someone else? We are beach people so the Orient beach thing in St. Maarten sounds good too. Just take a cab there? Also, Nassau - we would like to see Atlantis - just visit it on our own - don;t want to pay anything. So, maybe take a cab there, and then CC'ers suggest going to the Sheraton for the beach. Maybe that's what we'll do. Thanks for the great suggestions, ie.,visa, hotel picks, etc. Any advice that you give is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

 

Chris

 

I have not been there myself but you may want to do some research re Cabbage Beach which I understand (from reading on CC) is right beside Atlantis and is a free public beach.

[pcrum]

I agree... that was an awesome excursion. The water & scenery were soo beautiful!

 

Stephanie: I see from your signature that you have also been on Princess. Did your sister blog about that one too? We are considering booking a last minute Princess cruise and wondered how the line compares to Carnival.

 

Thanks.

[Chrisp414]

I have not been there myself but you may want to do some research re Cabbage Beach which I understand (from reading on CC) is right beside Atlantis and is a free public beach.

 

 

 

We went there a couple of years ago - just took a "cab" and it took us to it. I think it stopped by the RIU? Anyway, to make a long story short, we did not care for this beach at all - the water was very rough and very cloudy, lots of seaweed. The beach itself was rather hilly. Maybe the rough, cloudy water was due to a storm or something but it was definately not a very pleasant experience. Oh well - at least we tried.

Thanks for your suggestion though.

[frazzledrazzle16]

Stephanie: I see from your signature that you have also been on Princess. Did your sister blog about that one too? We are considering booking a last minute Princess cruise and wondered how the line compares to Carnival.

 

Thanks.

 

No- She didn't start blogging until last year. Princess was four years ago, and my memory definitely is not as sharp as Nicole's, but there are a few things that stood out to me. First, Princess has GORGEOUS ships compared to Carnival's loud decor. Second, Carnival has much better entertainment in terms of quality and variety. Third, I remember I thought the food in the dining room on Princess was pretty bland, but honestly it could have just been that particular sailing as I have heard that most other people love the food. I think the buffet on Princess had better hours than Carnival, but I don’t really remember any of the food. We did try both of their extra fee restaurants and they were both delicious.

 

We don’t have very good memories of this trip because my mom hurt her back really bad on the second day of the cruise and spent the entire trip in bed/at the infirmary. She had to be taken off the ship by ambulance to a hospital over an hour away…. Princess coordinated the whole thing and did a really bad job of handling it (they could have chosen a hospital closer to the port/airport and the customer service throughout the whole thing was extremely poor). There was also an issue where we caught the ship’s doctor knocking back beers on the pool deck while he was on his break before going back to the infirmary, where my mom was. These things left a very bad taste in our mouths about Princess that we didn’t want to sail with them ever again, but now that time has passed a bit I think we would be willing to give them another shot if the price/itinerary was right (especially since they offer longer cruises and more exotic ports than Carnival).

 

I think you should definitely give them a try sometime and form an opinion of your own, because most likely you won’t face the same extreme circumstances that we did. :)

[poptart]

Please let me know if you have any more questions!!! :) And have a great cruise! I hear the Dream is a beautiful boat! We were considering traveling her in May, but we've switched our sights to something else (if we decide to travel in May at all...it's coming up kind of fast!).

 

Oh please go on the Dream, we're going on her in October and I would love to read your blog about her before we go.

 

BTW..I've tried to "join" your blog but it won't let me. It doesn't like my aol email address.

[pcrum]

Stephanie, sorry to hear of your mom's health problems while on Princess. I hope she has completely recovered. Thanks for the comments on Princess...still debating whether to go for a last minute cruise. We live in FL and the price is almost too good to pass up! Looking forward to more of your sister's Freedom blog and we have the 6 day itinerary booked for June.

[Froufie]

Loving the review and esp the great pics...

 

One more Priceline question (I tried priceline for the 1st time for my recent Valor cruise and was 'very successful). I understood with priceline they would only guarantee double occupancy (so some people avoid it as they are travelling with more than 2 people like you were).

 

Have you ever had any issues with this? Like 4 people showing up and then finding out the room is only for 2? or only one bed (altho I know that is rare nowadays). I understand some people call ahead and ask for 2 doubles/queens but it's just a request and not a guarantee?

 

Off to read installment #4 (just read the others and for some reason I am now craving hot dogs and fries? :D:D)

[Nicole721]

Nicole, your are a wonderful writer and I look forward to, with great anticipation, to each of your daily entries. The bound you have with your family is so touching. Each time I read about Mom, Grandma, and Steph I think of my own family and how much I miss them, especially the ones that are no longer here. Keep up the good work.

 

Thank you so much :) You're too kind!

 

Cruising has become our "family thing," so to speak. The one thing we all enjoy doing together. It's nice to get away together and experience something we all love so much together, you know? :)

 

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for installment #4, I enjoyed it very much. I was so hoping I'd see some wonderful pictures of PF Changs, but oh well, I know you'll make up for it later w/the food pics. I love PF Changs. We have one here in Atlanta, but I never get to it. Can't wait to read more....check back with you on Monday. Have a great weekend!

 

Oh yeah. I've got food pics up the wazoo LOL. I don't usually take food pics in actual restaurants just because I don't want to bother people with the flash (PF Changs are usually pretty dark). In well-lit places, though, I'll whip out the camera ;)

 

Oddly enough, reading through these comments are making me crave some mu-shu pork LOL.

[Nicole721]

I wish I knew how to quote correctly so I can reply to the right thing. Anyway, the Champage Catamaran in St. John sounds good. Is that the one that Carnival offers? or is it offered by someone else? We are beach people so the Orient beach thing in St. Maarten sounds good too. Just take a cab there? Also, Nassau - we would like to see Atlantis - just visit it on our own - don;t want to pay anything. So, maybe take a cab there, and then CC'ers suggest going to the Sheraton for the beach. Maybe that's what we'll do. Thanks for the great suggestions, ie.,visa, hotel picks, etc. Any advice that you give is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

 

Chris

 

We took the excursion through Princess, but yes, Carnival offers the same excursion.

 

Orient Beach- yeah, just catch a cab. If you can find some people onboard or on your roll call to share a cab with, the price will be cheaper (the less people you have, the more they charge for the ride). Orient Beach is pretty big, so you might want to hop over to the Ports of Call board to get some info on it. The beach is broken up into different sections, with each one charging a different price and offering different things. We went to the Kakao section of the beach and we loved it there, but I know a lot of people prefer others.

 

Nassau- We took an excursion to Atlantis through Carnival. You can certainly cab it and do it yourself, but if you'd like to see the Dig (the aquarium area), you'll have to pay an entrance fee for that. But it is free to walk the grounds, I believe, and they are gorgeous :) I have some Atlantis pics in my last Miracle review if you'd like to see them :)

 

I might have missed this answer some place, but what type of camera do you use? Your pictures are beautiful.

 

I've been shooting with a Nikon D60 (with an 18-55 mm lens and a 55-200 mm lens) :)

 

I admittedly don't know much about photography, but I wasn't happy with the pictures I was getting from my digital cameras so I started shooting with a DSLR last year...and the D60 is a pretty dummy-proof entry-level DSLR :)