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My review (with pics) of our recent B2B on Carnival Freedom! Long & picture intensive

Ykgorbie

By Ykgorbie,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Ykgorbie

Ykgorbie

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ANTIGUA, Oct. 13/10

My husband loves fishing and our friends love snorkeling, so we decided to book an excursion online, through Carnival, before the cruise. I noticed that when booking an excursion online, the prices fluctuated from day to day so you may save some $$ pre-booking like this.

We chose the excursion called " Fish, Snorkel and Swim Adventure " and it was $ 99.95 per person for 3-1/2 hours. We were met promptly by a rep on the dock and given wristbands. We walked a short distance and boarded a nice boat where we were seated and taken on a ride to a fishing reef. There were quite a few fish caught, although the fish were all quite small in comparison to the same fish we caught off of Fort Lauderdale. Some of the rods were older and not well maintained; my friend's was all rusty and she ended up staining her t-shirt; mine had the tip broken off of it....anyway, equipment aside, the fishing was fun and we did that for about 45 minutes I'd say. Then off we went to another area and although the beautifully colored water was a bit choppy, everyone but me went snorkeling. (I am almost blind without my glasses and haven't found a way to snorkel and wear my glasses yet; contact aren't an option for me anymore). Ok, time for a picture or two:

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Heard a few people complain about the masks - that they were loose-fitting and let water in. My husband had to wait for someone to finish snorkeling so that he would have fins - they had none left in his size (a 9 or 10). The captain of the boat cut up some small squid and threw it overboard, so everyone saw fish ! My friends said that it was ok, but not as good as the previous snorkel excursion they went on.

 

We finished the snorkel part of the excursion and continued on, past Dickenson's Bay beach, the Sandals Resort beach, and then back to the pier. No swimming, I guess we ran out of time. I wouldn't say this was the best "bang-for-your-buck" excursion we've ever done, it was just "ok". We felt that the captain of the boat was quite young and inexperienced and his only helper onboard was the same. She didn't even know that the boat had a bathroom onboard - maybe it was her first day.

 

We grabbed a taxi driver and headed to Dickenson's Bay beach, about a 10 min. drive from the pier. Nice beach. We rented some beach chairs and umbrella-thingies, grabbed some beer from the bar and plunked ourselves down. There were quite a few vendors on this beach, selling everything and anything. Compared to Cane garden Bay on Tortola or Magen's Bay on St. Thomas, the vendors were much more present and in your face here.

 

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Next up : Tortola !

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dst

dst

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Love the picture of the two of you on the back of the boat :)

 

Did you feel like Antigua was safe, this is the one Island we have not been to yet. We have booked a private Island tour and a beach stop.....

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Crusin Karen

Crusin Karen

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Never heard of the free drink card and we spend a LOT of time in the casino! :eek: Is this new?

Hey, hill6, you were on the cruise after us on the Miracle last May and you'll be on after us on the Miracle NEXT May. We are repeaters too! ;)

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Ykgorbie

Ykgorbie

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Never heard of the free drink card and we spend a LOT of time in the casino! :eek: Is this new?

Hey, hill6, you were on the cruise after us on the Miracle last May and you'll be on after us on the Miracle NEXT May. We are repeaters too! ;)

 

The Casino host explained that this was something Carnival was trying out, only on select cruises (I rec'd one on the 6 day Western, but not the 8 day Eastern) and only on 4 ships, one of which was the Freedom. It certainly made MY day !Thisonesonus0001.jpg

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Ykgorbie

Ykgorbie

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Great review! I would love to do a b2b someday!

Do you have any pictures of 7439? Our friends have that cabin booked on our cruise in April.

 

No, I'm sorry, I didn't think to get any pics of #7439. Basically, the balcony is a LOT longer, I believe the total square footage of the balcony was 75 sq.ft.

The room has the bed facing the balcony with the bathroom off to the right of the bed (as you face the balcony); there is no sofa, but it was fine for the two of us for the 6 days.

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Ykgorbie

Ykgorbie

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Love the picture of the two of you on the back of the boat :)

 

Did you feel like Antigua was safe, this is the one Island we have not been to yet. We have booked a private Island tour and a beach stop.....

 

We had an excursion booked through Carnival, so weren't really venturing out anywhere on our own. Like I said in one of my previous posts, the beach area was full of vendors and locals trying to sell drugs and everything else. It wasn't the safest feeling beach we had been to in the Caribbean.

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SMSACE6

SMSACE6

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The Casino host explained that this was something Carnival was trying out, only on select cruises (I rec'd one on the 6 day Western, but not the 8 day Eastern) and only on 4 ships, one of which was the Freedom. It certainly made MY day !Thisonesonus0001.jpg

 

That is the same kind of card I got on the Freedom last month, but I had to "work" for it:D I mean I had to do some gambling to reach 1500 pts, and then I got the card. It happened on the 3rd or 4th day.:)

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Ykgorbie

Ykgorbie

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That is the same kind of card I got on the Freedom last month, but I had to "work" for it:D I mean I had to do some gambling to reach 1500 pts, and then I got the card. It happened on the 3rd or 4th day.:)

 

Well what surprised me, was that my friend had called the Carnival Players Club and she rec'd nothing. I hadn't called anybody and rec'd this on the first night of the 1st cruise !

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Ykgorbie

Ykgorbie

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TORTOLA, Oct. 14/10

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The four of us had been to Tortola once before (Miracle cruise in Jan. of 2009), so we knew what we wanted to do: head back to Cane Garden Bay! We hadn't booked anything with Carnival and went out on a limb and grabbed a cab, actually shared it with a very nice couple from Tennessee and off we went. I think the pre-arranged price was $7 per person each way. Our cab driver, Keith, went on to explain that the island had had some damage and flooding from the recent impact of Hurricane Otto. He drove us through an area of downtown and showed us where the streets had been flooded from the storm surge. Then we continued up the twisty, steep, road that takes you over the mountain to Cane Garden Bay. The road had sustained quite a bit of damage (really large potholes/sinkholes),

as had some property in the area. And for a fleeting moment (which I didn't share with anyone) I had visions of those sinkholes opening up more and making the road impassible and us missing the ship and.......sorry, just a moment of paranoia; nothing lilke that happened. We were forwarned by Keith that the beach may not be the way we remembered it. Indeed, there was some damage around there and the water wasn't quite as clear as it was on our previous visit. Still a fantastic beach though. We rented some beach chairs, swam, basked in the sun....it was wonderful.

 

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The area to the left of the beach.

 

 

 

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Looking at the island of Jost Van Dyke from our spot on the beach. The beach was relatively uncrowded when we arrived, around 10am. Filled up as the day went on (we were only in port from 7am to 3:30pm), but wasn't overcrowded by any means. No vendors at all to hassle you either.

Missed the pretty sailboats in the water like last time, but it was still gorgeous.

 

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Leaving Cane Garden Bay and heading back to the ship....

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Ykgorbie

Ykgorbie

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NASSAU, Oct. 16/10

The last day of our cruise. :( We docked in Nassau at noon and instantly saw that we were far from being the only ship in port ! There must have been 7 in port and we heard that it was because of the threat of Paula that caused some itinerary changes with some of the other cruiselines.

Anyway, for there being thousands upon thousands of extra people in Nassau that day, it didn't cause us any problems. We headed over to the Atlantis Resort via water taxi and then on foot. We paid $45 (not through Carnival) to get admission to the aquarium area of the resort. It was really amazing and I felt worth the admission.

 

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We spent a good part of the afternoon at Atlantis, including a little bit of time in the casino. There is a little lounge off of the casino and our friends spent something like $5.50 each for a large glass of pop. Yikes. Slots there were ok, at least a change from the ones on the Freedom. Didn't play them long enough or enough of them to determine if the payouts were any good. Did a bit of shopping back around the pier - just a few trinkets. Some stores were better than others, but most everybody had the same stuff.

 

The evening was spent having a few drinks and some more time in the casino (on the ship). Stayed up way too late as our friends and us had to part ways the next morning. We love a considerable distance apart and won't likely see them until the next cruise.

 

The next morning - the Freedom back in Fort Lauderdale.

 

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Disembarkation was a breeze. We were assigned number 8 and we deliberately waited a long time after they had called our number so we could enjoy breakfast and not rush. We didn't have flights back to Canada until 2:00 and 2:30pm. As it was, we were still off of the ship and at the airport by 10am. I know this isn't the case all of the time and I always prefer to have an afternoon flight back (or the next day) "just in case".

 

Thank you to all who took the time to read this review. I took the time to do it because of all the help I have rec'd on these boards over the years.

Many of you were immensely helpful when we were planning our cruises. And I, of course, am undergoing extreme withdrawal now. But how lucky am I to have nothing much to worry about except where to cruise on my next vacation??? Life is good.

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yvqchick

yvqchick

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Looks like you had a wonderful time. Nice that you got to enjoy some vacation time with friends from Southern Alberta (I know how difficult it can be when you are living in the far North!).

I am curious about disembarkation and whether you had to gather early in the morning for passport review? I seem to recall doing something like that the last time we cruised out of/into FLL....just those of us not US citizens.

 

Haven't spent much time in YZF since my daughter was born there over 16 years ago...I am sure MUCH has changed!

Thanks again for the review and the beautiful pictures.

Take care,

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Ykgorbie

Ykgorbie

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Looks like you had a wonderful time. Nice that you got to enjoy some vacation time with friends from Southern Alberta (I know how difficult it can be when you are living in the far North!).

I am curious about disembarkation and whether you had to gather early in the morning for passport review? I seem to recall doing something like that the last time we cruised out of/into FLL....just those of us not US citizens.

 

Haven't spent much time in YZF since my daughter was born there over 16 years ago...I am sure MUCH has changed!

Thanks again for the review and the beautiful pictures.

Take care,

 

Between the 2 cruises, everyone doing a b2b had to meet at 10am in a meeting room and we were all given our new Sail and Sign Cards there, then taken down to the Customs guy to show him our passports and our new cards.

 

After both cruises were over, we just disembarked the same way everyone else did. Down to get our luggage, then to the Customs agent, then done.

 

And yes, a lot has changed here. You wouldn't recognize it I'm sure !

 

Take care.

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