Carnival Freedom Review with Pictures June 18-26 2011

[brickergirl]

Yay! More please! I've got 81 days until it's my turn on the Freedom. I've got to feed my addiction somehow!

[gobucks_43228]

Loving your review! We have something planned for each stop but my husband was kind of wondering if there was a port where we could just wing it and tax a taxi to the beach instead if the tours that include the beach.

If you have any input that would be great. I'm thinking maybe St Thomas or Antiqua as we really are set on the Bath's in Tortola.

Thanks

[hoosiergirl34787]

Loving your review! We have something planned for each stop but my husband was kind of wondering if there was a port where we could just wing it and tax a taxi to the beach instead if the tours that include the beach.

If you have any input that would be great. I'm thinking maybe St Thomas or Antiqua as we really are set on the Bath's in Tortola.

Thanks

 

I personally wouldn't pay the ship to take me to the beach. It is so easy to just grab a taxi and do it on your own. I loved Secret Harbor Beach in St. Thomas. There were rentals and facilities to use. I didn't think the beach was as nice in Antigua, but it was still a pretty good beach. The sand was very hot. Also people would drive up on waver runners and ask if you wanted to rent them, but they weren't aggressive. The snorkeling was much better in St. Thomas than in Antigua.

[gobucks_43228]

I personally wouldn't pay the ship to take me to the beach. It is so easy to just grab a taxi and do it on your own. I loved Secret Harbor Beach in St. Thomas. There were rentals and facilities to use. I didn't think the beach was as nice in Antigua, but it was still a pretty good beach. The sand was very hot. Also people would drive up on waver runners and ask if you wanted to rent them, but they weren't aggressive. The snorkeling was much better in St. Thomas than in Antigua.

 

Sorry I guess I should have clarified. We have Sunny Liston booked for St Thomas and Gordons for Antiqua. Initially we thought we would just take a taxi to Megen's Bay or any other preferred beach in St. Thomas but having not been to the Eastern side, thought maybe the best bang for our buck would be a tour. I'll also check out Secret Harbor on travel sites. Thank you

[hoosiergirl34787]

Sorry I guess I should have clarified. We have Sunny Liston booked for St Thomas and Gordons for Antiqua. Initially we thought we would just take a taxi to Megen's Bay or any other preferred beach in St. Thomas but having not been to the Eastern side, thought maybe the best bang for our buck would be a tour. I'll also check out Secret Harbor on travel sites. Thank you

 

I have heard great things about both tours, but we wanted to scuba dive in St. Thomas and do the zipline in Antigua so neither one of those tours was feasible for us.

[gobucks_43228]

I have heard great things about both tours, but we wanted to scuba dive in St. Thomas and do the zipline in Antigua so neither one of those tours was feasible for us.

 

Gotcha!! Thanks so much. Your review is awesome. I'm totally trying a kiss on the lips first thing upon boarding!!!

[Dall]

Loving your review:D 2 questions, I've heard of kiss on the lips but don't know whats in it, do you remember? Also, where did you find coupons for Bushwackers?

[hoosiergirl34787]

Day 6—Tortola

 

This was the day that I had been waiting for. For months I had been so excited to go to The Baths on Virgin Gorda. I had done all the research on CC to take Speedy’s Ferry over on our own. So again, I woke up early to hit the gym. It was off to breakfast on the Lido before we set off to the ferry terminal. We got off the boat at 8am. We wanted to get to the ferry terminal and get our tickets by 8:30. The ferry didn’t leave until 9, but a lot of people on the ship were talking about doing this excursion on their own. We saved almost $80.00 by doing this on our own. Carnival wanted $80.00 a person and they only spend like two hours at The Baths.

 

The walk to the ferry terminal was about 10 minutes. It was very easy to find. We waited in line for about ten minutes to buy our round trip tickets and bus tickets. It cost $37.00 a person. We boarded the ferry and sat up top in the open area that had some shade. We didn’t leave until about 9:10am and arrived about 9:40am at Virgin Gorda. From there, we boarded an open air taxi and spent about five minutes riding to The Baths. The ride was very, very bumpy. I had to hold on the entire time so I wouldn’t fly out of the taxi. The taxi dropped us off at the top of The Baths. There was a restaurant at the top but we did not use it. We proceeded to walk down the path to the beach. The walk was shaded, but somewhat rugged at times. I had no problem on the path, but I was glad I wore my water shoes with rubber soles. I think flip flops would have been hard to navigate with. We reached the beginning of the cave trail but decided to take our things with us. We brought a backpack with towels, lunch, the camera, and sunscreen. It was a little bulky, but Geoff managed with it with little problem. I carried the snorkeling gear. There were lockers at the beginning of the trail, but we decided just to take our stuff with us. You really do need your hands free for some parts of the trail, but we managed. I was under the impression that there was water throughout the entire trail, but there were only a few pools of it. It was very easy to keep our things dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ratherBcruizin']

Enjoying the review and pictures. Thanks!

[travelgarn]

Loving your review:D 2 questions, I've heard of kiss on the lips but don't know whats in it, do you remember? Also, where did you find coupons for Bushwackers?

 

A Kiss on the Lips is a mango drink! It's fabulous. Everyone I've had to try it, absolutely loved it!

 

DJ

[hoosiergirl34787]

Tortola Continued

 

After crouching, climbing, splashing, and picking our way through the trail, we finally arrived at Devil’s Bay Beach. It was this lovely little beach nestled among giant boulders. The beach is very small so where the catamarans and sail boats dropped off their tour groups it felt very crowded, but within an hour most people had cleared out. Geoff was dying to go explore the water so we donned out snorkel masks and swam out. We wove among the rocks checking out coral and so many fish. Again, sea urchins were everywhere we looked. We snorkeled for an hour before going back to check on our stuff.

 

By this point I was getting hungry so we pulled out our turkey sandwiches we smuggled on land from the ship and enjoyed a little lunch in the sand. Then if was back to snorkeling. We had explored the left side of the water now it was time to explore the right side. By now all the catamarans and sail boats had left for the day and the beach felt less crowded. As we snorkeled the second time we wound up in the middle of a school of blue fish. We followed them around as the fed off the coral.

 

We swam back to shore. It was already 12:30pm at this point and we needed to head back so that we could catch the 1:45pm ferry. The taxi driver told us to be back at the top area by 1:15pm to catch the bus. The best thing about this trip was that we got to stay later than the ship excursions. We thought that we were going to have to leave at 12:30pm on the ferry back to Tortola, but because the ship was in port, the ferry company added an extra trip at 1:45. We knew the trek back though the caves might take a little while since it the path was narrow and there was a lot of waiting to go down the stairs. We made it back to the other beach and spent a little bit of time at the snack hut getting some drinks. Then we snapped a few more pictures and made a visit to Albert who was selling hand made jewelry. I bought two pairs of conch shell earnings before we made the journey back to the top of The Baths. There we grabbed the taxi and waited and waited and waited until he finally drove us back to the ferry dock. At 1:50 the ferry was on its way back to Tortola.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hoosiergirl34787]

Loving your review:D 2 questions, I've heard of kiss on the lips but don't know whats in it, do you remember? Also, where did you find coupons for Bushwackers?

 

 

Dall--Type in Paradise Point Tramway Bushwacker Coupon and you should be able to find it through google. The Kiss on the Lips is with mango and peach schnapps I think. I can't drink rum or citrus drinks because they give me the worst heartburn. These were perfect didn't bother me at all.

[hoosiergirl34787]

Tortola--Continued

 

We got back to the ferry terminal about 2:20 so that gave us just enough time to stop at Pusser’s Outpost to grab a famous painkiller. I ordered a #2 which I assume means it has two shots of rum while Geoff ordered the #4. Geoff ordered them in the mugs thinking that we saved money since we wouldn’t be keeping the mugs. The menu said save $3.00 when you order in a mug. What he didn’t read was that was if you already owned a mug. So after we chugged our drinks so we could make it back to the ship by 3pm we asked for the bill. I nearly choked when the server told us $30.00 for the two drinks. I must have given her a look because she explained that the mugs cost $10 a piece. We said we misunderstood and they could keep the mugs. She adjusted our bill, we paid, and began the 10 minute walk back to the ship. About half way back to the ship the painkiller started to hit me and I was glad to get back to the air conditioning.

 

 

After we hit the room Geoff suggested that we get ready for the early past guest party. Neither one of us were really tired so we showered and got ready. We were one of the first people to enter the Victoriana Theater and there were dozens of servers with trays of drinks. We ran into the girl that was our bar server at dinner. She gave us each several drinks and made sure that we were never without one for the entire party. There were also servers walking around with appetizers which were delicious.

 

We noticed that there were about 75 people or so that made it to the first past guest party. We never had a problem getting a drink or appetizers. Then the cruise director called people to go up on stage for a contest. Geoff went up and the cruise director asked several questions and you went to the side of the stage that you thought was the correct side. Geoff got the first two questions correct with many other people. One the third questions only three people were on Geoff’s side including Geoff. Well that side was the correct side so the contest was nearly over. The last question was how many passengers do you think are on the ship. A little kid about 10 or 11 guessed 33,000. Can you imagine the line at the buffet if there were that many people on the ship J The other lady guess 3057 and I motioned to Geoff to guess 3200. There were actually 3600 something people on the ship so Geoff won. He won a bottle of champagne and 20 raffle tickets for the win a free cruise that would be announced on the last night.

 

After the party I wasn’t feeling too well from too many rum based drinks. I laid down for an hour and then was ready to go. We looked at the dinner menu on our cabin TV and wasn’t really impressed with anything. We decided that we would do the Lido Deck for dinner that night and attend some of the activities on board. After dinner we went to a game called Freedom Squares Gender Showdown. Basically it is a trivia game where you win a chance to select a space on a tic tac toe board if you answer the question correctly. There were three rounds. Geoff participated in the first round and won the round and left with a ship on a stick. I participated in the second round and lost miserably. They did give me a Carnival medal though.

 

This night was also the Mega Deck Party. We killed some time by the pool waiting for the deck party to begin. That night they were serving shots in flashing shot glasses. We of course needed to have one. So we did a little drinking to kill the time before the deck party began. Then they started the music and I did a couple of the line dances like the Electric Slide and Cupid Shuffle. Then there was the giant conga line contest which our team, the red team, won. Finally it was time for the bead throwing. We ended up catching a bunch. Before we knew it, it was midnight and I was starting to get a little tired. Back in the room we watching a little bit of Harry Potter before going to sleep.

 

 

[RaiderFaninNM]

GREAT review so far!

 

DECK PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

 

So looking forward to the Freedom next summer!

 

Have any pictures of the inside of the ship?

[brickergirl]

What fun! You are a good reviewer, I can't wait for more! What was your favorite thing you did on Freedom?

[Dall]

Yes, it is a great review and pics!! This may seem like a silly question, but was your cabin on port or starboard side? How many times was your cabin facing the town when docked?

[TakeMeAway1001]

Still loving the review, do you mind sharing who you used for your tour in Antigua? I am also feeling a little more confident about doing the Bath's on our own after reading your review :)

[navybaby1113]

Loving the review. We're going on the Freedom in January (not this itinerary) and I'm very excited!

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

Thanks for the review -- looking forward to the rest. I'm thinking about sailing Freedom next year :)

[Kangapong]

Excellent review! Thank you. :) - Now I really can't wait to sail her in October!

[CasinoQueen]

Day 1--Embarkation

Well, my husband Geoff and I just returned from a fantastic 8 day cruise on the Freedom. We booked this cruise to celebrate our fifth anniversary. This was our third Carnival Cruise since 2006. We live in Orlando so we really enjoy cruising since we don’t have to pay for airfare. As we drove home we both commented on how this was probably the best or at least second best cruise we have ever taken. It all started on Saturday, June 18th. Geoff and I drove from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale. We had arranged earlier to park near the cruise port. After quickly unloading the car and loading up the shuttle we were on our way to the cruise terminal where we were quickly able to see the Freedom.

 

 

Where did you arrange to park and how much did it cost? We are driving down from Tampa and need a good place to park.

PS LOving the review

[RaiderFaninNM]

Once again thanks for the review, one more question, I know you did not travel with a child but did you happen to see or hear about the Club O2 for the teens? We are taking our 15 year old again this year and he LOVED the teen club on the Allure this past June, any info would be wonderful!

[hoosiergirl34787]

Yes, it is a great review and pics!! This may seem like a silly question, but was your cabin on port or starboard side? How many times was your cabin facing the town when docked?

 

We were on the port side. In St. Thomas we faced the water, in Antigua I can't remember. In Tortola we faced the dock and in the Bahamas we faced another ship.

[hoosiergirl34787]

Still loving the review, do you mind sharing who you used for your tour in Antigua? I am also feeling a little more confident about doing the Bath's on our own after reading your review :)

 

We used Antigua Rain Forest Company. On the home page is the Zip Line and Beach Combo that we used. If you decide to do it ask for Bernard to be your driver; he was fantastic!

[hoosiergirl34787]

Where did you arrange to park and how much did it cost? We are driving down from Tampa and need a good place to park.

PS LOving the review

 

We parked at Park and Go which is right by the cruise terminal. I booked online at it was like $78.00 it was cheaper to pre-pay online. They shuttled us to the terminal and we were able to pick up a shuttle back to the car upon walking out of the terminal. If there isn't a shuttle there you call them and they come to get you. I'm glad you are enjoying the review. I will try to post the rest of it after the holiday weekend.