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

Nicole721

By Nicole721,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Nicole721

Nicole721

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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 :( I do have some pictures somewhere, though.

 

I pretty much agree with what Stephanie said, though. The food wasn't great, but that could have just been an off-week. The activities are geared towards an older crowd and aren't as abundant as Carnivals. The entertainment is a bit different, too (live shows aren't nearly as grand, but they had a lot of great live entertainment throughout the boat).

 

The ship, though, was gorgeous. We had a suite and Carnival doesn't even come close to Princess in terms of suite perks or even the size and layout of the room. The specialty restaurants were amazing.

 

If the price is right, you can't really go wrong :)

 

 

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.

 

We're being tempted by the Miracle...again LOL. But we'll see. Nothing is set in stone :D

 

Hmmm. I look into the joining thing.

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Nicole721

Nicole721

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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)

 

Glad you're enjoying the review! :D

 

We've never had a problem with Priceline in terms of getting two beds. As soon as we book, we call the hotel to confirm and note a request for two beds and we've never had a problem. One hotel (the JW Marriott in Buckhead) has given us "problems" on the phone, but when we checked in, it wasn't a problem :)

 

have you been to kokomo? It is in Indiana.

 

Never been to Kokomo, IN, but it doesn't count for me since the Kokomo in the song refers to a private island in Jamaica :P

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Nicole721

Nicole721

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I have read all your trip reviews and just LOVE them! Keep this one coming since I will probably have to live vicariously through you for awhile. The Panama Canal cruise is on my bucket list for sure :D

 

Thanks! The Panama Canal is gorgeous...certainly an experience worthy of your bucket list! :)

 

...waiting..patiently.....for the cruise review...:rolleyes:

 

Sorry...I've had a migraine :( I hope to have it up tonight.

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Chrisp414

Chrisp414

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Me too - I'm waiting and checking. Hope you feel better soon,Nicole. Thanks for all of your advice thus far. (I also am a fan of your blog).

p.s. I like the way your sister is commenting on this thread. You too seem like a lot of fun!

 

Chris

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Nicole721

Nicole721

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Nicole,

 

Your reviews are "literary crack"...and I'm 'jonesing' bad!!!

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post your reviews!

 

Ashley :)

 

Awww thanks, Ashley! I hope the next part sates your craving! :D

 

Hi Nicole,

 

I hope your migrane goes away. I'm waiting anxiously for the next installment, but we understand if you aren't feeling well. I'll check back tomorrow!

 

Ahh thanks. Yeah. March migraines are not my friend. Feeling a bit better today, though :)

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Nicole721

Nicole721

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Me too - I'm waiting and checking. Hope you feel better soon,Nicole. Thanks for all of your advice thus far. (I also am a fan of your blog).

p.s. I like the way your sister is commenting on this thread. You too seem like a lot of fun!

 

Chris

 

Thank you! (And please let me know if you have any more questions now or along the way!).

 

I think Stephanie just comments to keep me in check :P She actually has a lot of...strong...opinions on some things and I know she's going to want to put her two cents in, too :)

 

Check Nicole's blog. She has part 5.1 up. :D

 

:P

 

Yes I do. I fell asleep before I could post it here. It's a bit long, so I'm splitting it into two parts.

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Nicole721

Nicole721

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Yay, I have been checking every day 5 or 6 times a day ... she is a great writer and I love her reviews.

 

Awww thanks! Hope you like it! :)

 

Okay guys: part 5.1 is up at the blog. I'm going to attempt to post it here, as well, for those who don't want to click over to another site.

 

Part 5.1: http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/worlds-longest-freedom-review-part-51.html

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

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Nicole721

Nicole721

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You're getting close! How exciting!!! :)

 

The ports are gorgeous and we really had so much fun in them! If you have any questions, I may or may not have grabbed every single available shore excursion pamphlet from the desk (not the price packets...the actual pamphlets for the individual tours) ;) What? I like to be prepared for future trips :P

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Nicole721

Nicole721

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Alright...let's see how this in-thread posting goes!

 

A note- I've had issues before with people stealing my pics and posting them as their own and as such, I had to tag my pictures. I didn't tag them this time because it distracts from the picture and I have some really gorgeous ones, but please don't steal my pics without my permission.

 

Okay. Onto the review :D

 

So we woke up around 8:00 am. It was pretty early considering the port is only, like, ten minutes from the hotel but we like to get an early start. We had a quick breakfast of something or another in the room (I want to say Vitamin Water and mini muffins, or something like that) and got our luggage all together. For whatever reason, there were no bellhops at the hotel and we had to bring the luggage down ourselves. No biggie. We borrowed a luggage cart from the front desk, loaded it up, brought it down and loaded up the car. We noticed that it was absolutely FRIGID outside. Much colder than I can ever remember being in Florida (except for maybe the time I went to Magic Music Days at Disney World with my high school choir...night time in Orlando in late-February is downright chilly). By 9:15 am, we were on our way to the pier.

 

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One of the reasons we like staying in Plantation is its proximity to the pier. It's far enough away from Fort Lauderdale to be a bit quieter, but still so close to the pier. The ride from the hotel to the pier was literally less than 10 minutes. And, of course, we were looking for that first whale tail sighting the entire drive.

 

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Port Everglades was actually having a pretty busy day. There were many ships in port, including the Oasis of the Seas. Thankfully, because we arrived early, we didn't encounter much of a line a the first security check point and we were quickly on our way to the parking garage and seeing our first up-close view of the boat.

 

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The downfall, of course, of arriving early is that the ship is still disembarking. There weren't any porters to take our luggage and we didn't want to be those first people who drop off their luggage and risk it getting lost. So instead, we circled a few times and then parked in one of the corporate lots for about a half-hour before dropping off our luggage and parking.

 

We dropped Mom off with the luggage and Stephanie, me and grandma went to park the car. Stephanie and I got everything situated with the car, helped grandma into her chair and went down to meet up with Mom. From there on in, check in was pretty flawless. Because grandma is special assistance, they put us through the VIP line (as they have in every other port). In this port, though, after we went through security, we were escorted into a special assistance lounge, which was actually a large room separate from the main room with seating and a desk of helpful people who checked us in and got our keys for us. Since we were so early, we actually sat there for a good while, which was fine because it was pretty comfortable. Around 11:45, they called us and someone wheeled grandma onboard for us. We got our S&S pics taken, took our family pic and we were up on the Lido deck by noon. Not bad, eh?

 

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