Just back from the Freedom 3/26 - 4/03

[SanKay]

This was my first Carnival cruise (7th overall I think). Didn't really know what to expect after reading so many different opinions, but we had a great time! My son (16) and I (47) went with a group for spring break and since my husband couldn't go, another Mom roomed with me while our sons roomed together. I think all together our group had 14 rooms booked. This was my roommates first cruise. She has said for years that she would never cruise - we started referring to this trip as the Spring Break of Nevers;)

 

Beginning - arrived at Port Everglades around 1:30 to board with no problems. We booked a suite so embarkation was a breeze. Regular lines were long, but seemed to be constantly moving. We purposely waited to arrive later so that we could board and go straight to our stateroom - which we did. Our steward was Clarence who was FANTASTIC!! He took very good care of us. I'll admit though that we were as low maintenance as they come.

 

Middle - San Juan was removed from our itinerary so we had two sea days in a row. We spent the days enjoying the sun, casino, and just relaxing. The NCAA tournament games were on the big screen so it was great to relax on deck in the sunshine and watch the games. My roommate graduated from Butler and most of our group lives in Indiana so watching them was a blast! By the third day, however, we were ready to get off of the ship. We all had a great day at Magens Bay in St. Thomas. The side of the beach by the bar was packed, but if you walked down a bit, it was almost empty. We grilled out, had some drinks, played in the water and enjoyed the day.

 

Antigua was another great day. The kids wanted to stay on the ship and play basketball so my roomy and I slept in a bit, had room service deliver some breakfast and a pot of coffee, then we got ready to hit the beach. We had no set plans for the week so we decided to ask our taxi driver to just take us to a good beach with a bar. I think the name of the beach was Runaway Beach or something. It was close to the port so the cab ride was short. Total cost for the whole cab (there were 3 of us) was $12. It was a beautiful beach! Bar drinks were good although we noticed by our third drink that instead of coconut rum they were putting whiskey into our pineapple juice. We took that as a sign that we had had enough to drink;) Our taxi driver was back when we told him to be and we had a quick trip back to the ship. We had some extra time so we shopped a bit and then went to Kings Casino. I put $20 into a quarter machine and left with $79 and my roomy turned $10 into $30. We had a good laugh and got back onto the ship to get cleaned up.

 

Tortola - Not much to say about this day. Our group was enjoying karaoke, the 70s Club, and the casino so much the night before that we were too tired to do much. Some in the group did do some shopping and one family went swimming with the dolphins and enjoyed that, but the day was short as the ship leaves port at 3:30. I would like to go back to Tortola though and spend some time there. It was the most beautiful sail-a-way that I have ever seen.

 

Our last sea day was fun. The roomy got a spot in the penny slot tournament which was really fun to watch. She didn't win, but still had a blast! This was our second formal night (first was on Sunday) and we had dinner reservations at the Sun King Steakhouse. Most in our group went there earlier in the week, but we (the roomy and her son and myself and my son) decided to go with just the four of us. The food was very good and the service was excellent. I recommend doing this for dinner at least one night. The $30 per person is well worth it.

 

Nassau was a good day. We took the boys to the Atlantis for the day and played on the water slides. I think the adults had more fun than the kids!:D The boys decided that they want to go back to the Atlantis for spring break next year. I've stayed there before and loved it, but with four ships in port the place was PACKED!! I'll have to give the whole spring break thing a good deal of thought...

 

Debarkation was easy. We did self assist and had no problems. We left the ship around 9:00 a.m. and we were at the airport by 9:45. Our flights were at 11:30 and we had plenty of time.

 

I have to admit that I was fully prepared for anything on this trip. I didn't know what to expect so I was ready for anything. I did know that I wasn't going to nit pick and that I was ready to enjoy some time away. What I experienced was a very friendly staff, a clean ship, and good service. Some of the food was great (i.e. pizza, steak, ice tea) and some was just okay - kind of like my cooking at home:D.

 

The only complaint I had to make was regarding the boys room steward. I didn't expect much to get cleaned in their room (four 16 year old boys to a room:o), but when clean towels were never delivered, used towels left in the bathroom floor for several days and their room smelled like cigarette smoke after the steward left, well...I had to call guest services towards the end of the week. I guess all the stewards can't be like our Clarence. The boys did say that after I made the call, they had clean towels and the dirty ones were removed. The Moms made several trips to the boys rooms to keep them in check. If we had it to do over, we would have only put two boys to a room. There just wasn't enough storage space for four people and the floor was a massive pile of tennis shoes.

 

It was a great trip and we all had a great time. An 8 day cruise is a bit too long for me, but I still enjoyed it. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to try to answer them for you. I heard someone say this and thought I would share - don't sweat the petty stuff, pet the sweaty stuff:D

[hfweather]

Thanks for sharing your review with us. Did your roommate enjoy her first cruise?

[SanKay]

She did enjoy it!! We met some really interesting people on this trip and had so much fun. We didn't do any excursions because we decided before we went that we would just "wing it". Atlantis was a last minute decision and we had no problem arranging it. It was great to do what we wanted when we wanted. We looked at it as an adventure:D This cruise was one of the most relaxing trips I have ever taken.

[lroche_nf]

I'm just back from the same cruise! It was a great week and the weather was fantastic.