Freedom E.Caribbean Review 10/8-10/16

[TakeMeAway1001]

Freedom Eastern Caribbean 10/8-10/16

 

I unfortunately will not be posting the entire review in one shot so if you are against day to day reviews I apologize up front.

 

I also have the Fun Times and will do my best to get all of them scanned as soon as I can but work will put a slight damper on this for now.

 

This was our anniversary cruise~ This was my 8th cruise and DH’s 7th, all with Carnival.

 

Oct 7th~ We flew from Boston to Fort Lauderdale and arrived just after 10am and rented a car from Avis which was painless since we signed up for Avis Preferred, we skipped the long rental line and just proceeded to the garage to get our car and left. We figured it was way too early to check in to the hotel which was the Westin Beach Resort however we figured we’d give it a shot and drove directly there. We requested an ocean view room and thankfully they had one available but sadly we were given a much older room that appeared to have been closed up for some time. While we could see the ocean it wasn’t like the room we had there the last time we stayed. We realized when calling to have our car brought up that the phones didn’t work and soon noticed that every time the toilet was flushed that there was a pretty bad leak. After many calls and lots of waiting we were finally moved to a nicer, newer room like the one we had in the past. We booked this hotel through Hotwire for $92 and we were happy with our stay.

 

 

Notice no one was on the beach, the weather was crazy

The first room we received

View from the room

Walkway to the beach

New room we were moved to

 

 

Lunch~ We had a yummy lunch at Waxy O’Connors, I had a burger and DH had a delicious Ruben followed by a few ice cold beers.

 

Dinner~ My family drove down from Sarasota to meets us for the day/night and we decided to try Bimini Boatyard for dinner. I signed up on their website for their email club and received an instant coupon for a free entrée which was nice. We arrived there around 6:15 and were seated quickly, the restaurant was busy but there was no wait at that time. They have a nice outdoor seating area however due to the rain we opted to eat inside. They also have a huge bar area where they had live entertainment. Prior to going here a guy we were talking with at our hotel told us not to go here but I am happy to say we didn’t listen, the food was amazing! It was probably one of the best meals we had on this trip.

 

Oct 8th~ Cruise Day

I woke up early and found it to be down pouring with crazy whipping winds, what a bummer! At 6:30am I decided to head to a 24 hour CVS to get a few things I had forgotten, the rain was so bad I could barely see and managed to drive by the CVS and ended up at another one much further away. I was truly bummed out since I was so looking forward to a warm and sunny sail away. We enjoyed breakfast while DH returned the rental car, he was gone for a really long time and when he returned he said that he was informed that the grill was missing from the rental car and Avis made him fill out an incident report. Not really sure what happened since we barely drove the car and we definitely were not in any sort of accident. I anticipated a call or email from Avis but so far we haven’t heard anything.

 

Port bound~ We headed to the Port shortly after 10am and found the whole process to be completely chaotic, it was by far the most unorganized drop off we have had. After about a half hour of being directed around we were able to get out and head to the check in area.

 

For those of you who don’t know I received an up-sell call a few weeks prior to my cruise and took the offer to move from a balcony to a Grand Suite, my goal was to keep this a surprise from DH and I am happy to say I succeeded. However when we were heading to the check in line I attempted to go in the VIP line since that was one perk of booking a suite and DH questioned me but since the Rep working that area told us to check in around the corner DH didn’t say much after that. Once in line he asked me why I was trying to get in that line and I showed him the paperwork said VIP but told him I had no idea why, he took that answer and didn’t ask anymore questions.

 

This is where it got crazy, we wove our way through the line only to see others walking right in the door where I attempted to get in the VIP line, oh well we just decided to stay put. Where were standing we had VIP/Wedding/Special Event boarding to our left, along with the security scanning. We had to wait for all of the above to get upstairs before we were allowed to begin our check-in process. While standing there watching a wedding party check-in in we witnessed an interesting group coming on-board as visitors for a wedding and what seemed to be a routine thing turned into a fiasco. One of the couples visiting went through the security scanning line with their two very young children, once they were through the line and organizing their belongings the female started freaking out because her wallet was missing. This fiasco went on for about 45 minutes, during this time she accused security of stealing her wallet, her male partner as well as a few others who were in this group decided to get involved and it was like a scene from Jerry Springer. Finally the Sheriffs Department was called in and after grilling our group about potentially picking up her wallet by mistake he was informed we had yet to go through security. The whole scene was annoying and finally the group was moved to another area and we were allowed to head upstairs. Once upstairs we continued to hear announcements over the PA asking if anyone had seen her wallet. Not sure what happened but my guess was it was accidentally picked up by someone in her party.

 

Once we were upstairs we were finally directed to an area where they sat VIP passengers and we gave our names to a rep and were told to take a seat, we sat for maybe fifteen minutes before being called up to give our passports and credit card info. I was pretty convinced my suite secret would get blown at this point but it wasn’t and we were directed to the ship. Once we went through security we were directed to an area where they made DH take out the 12 pack of Pepsi he had in his back pack for inspection. Before putting it in his backpack he split the 12 pack in half so it was pretty easy for security to inspect the cans and we were cleared and sent on our way. Security had large tables set aside for inspection and every single table was full of items being inspected. We stopped for the first of many photos and headed up the ramp to board the Freedom. I am not sure what time we finally boarded by my guess it was just after noon time.

[TakeMeAway1001]

 

Once on-board we headed to the Lido for our first drink and lunch, at this point it was raining out but we were still thrilled to be on board.

 

 

 

We didn’t have much time after eating before it was time to go check out our cabin, we were on the Empress Deck Cabin # 7306 which was Port Side and pretty close to the elevators. The time has come for DH’s surprise! DH put the key card in and opened the door and just stood there like he wasn’t sure if we were in the right cabin, he turned and said “what did you do” and I explained I called that rep back a few weeks ago and took the offer. DH spent the next few minutes looking around the cabin which was very nice! I loved the huge balcony but I think my favorite part was the bathroom, a real shower and a Jacuzzi tub, it was a nice treat and I am glad we had an opportunity to experience a suite.

 

 

 

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More pics~

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More pics~

 

 

 

 

 

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More pics~

 

Stormy Sailaway

 

 

 

 

Once we were done exploring we heard a knock on the door and it was our room steward Hartanto, Tanto for short. He turned out to be a great steward, very attentive and friendly and always around if we needed him. We unloaded our soda and headed out to see what the Freedom had to offer. One of our stops was the Internet Café to sign up for a plan so we could keep in touch with the kids back home. We opted for the 120 minute plan for $59 plus the free 20 minutes if you signed up on the first day. We realized later on that we could have definitely gotten fewer minutes since we probably only signed on a few times and no credit is given for unused time.

 

After getting our bearings we went back to our cabin and found our luggage waiting so we unpacked and got ready for muster and sail away, muster was painless and was by far the easiest and quickest one to date. Sailaway was fun and after that we decided to get ready for dinner since DH was once again hungry. We chose Anytime Dining and had no wait at all when we went which was probably just about 6pm. The last time we tried ATD they asked us if we would mind sitting with others, this time they always asked us if we wanted a table for two which we opted for. We were in the Chic Dining Room on the lower level and had Sunita as our Head Waitress, what a sweet person!

 

 

That night we were alone and for those of you who know the table setup you know what I mean by alone…they didn’t seat someone six inches away at another table for two.

 

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More pics~ Be forewarned I did not get the menu for every night, I believe I missed one night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner we changed and headed to watch some Karaoke which was ok but the same two people sang so we opted to head down the the Habana Bar and listen to some “Rock Music” which was pretty good and we hung out here for a little while and had a few drinks.

 

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Shortly after we headed up to Scott’s Piano Bar to listen to Marty, he was a nice guy and was enjoyable and made us laugh.

 

 

We stuck around until DH decided he wanted some pizza before we headed to the Adult Comedy Show with Frank Del Pizzo at 11:45, these shows fill up fast and we learned we needed to get there earlier if we wanted a decent seat.

 

I apologize I do not remember his name but he introduced the comedians and was very entertaining

Me and the comedian

 

Franks show was good, however we were exhausted and headed up to bed after the show. Our first day was great and we slept so well.

[TakeMeAway1001]

Some additional photos~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up next day two~ First Fun Day at Sea

[kcparrothead]

Thanks for the review! We'll be back on her in June!! I'm not remembering the area with white chairs on the yellow floor with the canopied covered water feature (??) May I ask what that is? A Serenity area??

[navybaby1113]

Loving the review!

[gail811]

Awesome surprise for your DH! From one Marine wife to another, please thank him for his service! He deserved to be pampered!

[TakeMeAway1001]

Thanks for the review! We'll be back on her in June!! I'm not remembering the area with white chairs on the yellow floor with the canopied covered water feature (??) May I ask what that is? A Serenity area??

 

You are welcome~ I do know that area was on the opposite side of the Serenity, not sure however if it was the opposite of the lower or upper area of the Serenity but on the deck plans it was listed as Childrens Pool.

[TakeMeAway1001]

Awesome surprise for your DH! From one Marine wife to another, please thank him for his service! He deserved to be pampered!

 

It was a great surprise, I am so glad I was able to pull it off. Thanks to your husband as well :)

[TakeMeAway1001]

Loving the review!

 

Thanks, I wish I could get it done faster but it takes so long. The first two days have taken me hours to do but I just finished day two, only six more to go :)

[TakeMeAway1001]

Sunday~ Sea Day & Elegant Night

 

DH and I woke up very well rested, we actually both had an amazing night of sleep. DH is a big breakfast person and I am not so he got ready and headed to the buffet and came back to meet me so we could head to the Timeless Pool. DH had an omelet everyday and said they were very good, I like how they changed up the morning potatoes on many of the days so if I ate that is usually what I had. We packed up our books and towels and headed off to find a seat around 8am, we did check out the Serenity Deck and all of the chairs were saved by mainly objects not humans so we ended up settling a few rows up from the Timeless Pool which was fine for us. The sun was hot and we only last a few hours. We had a great view of the big screen TV which played the “Morning Show” which featured the CD Jacques De Lange and the ACD George, this show in my opinion is crazy annoying and loud. Later on they played some news and ended up with some music which was ok. Around 12 we decided we had enough sun and grabbed some lunch, DH had a Reuben and said it was very good, I had salad and some rice which was also pretty good.

 

Here is a picture DH took while getting breakfast

 

Here is a picture of the new non trays, trays were not available on this cruise as previously mentioned

 

For the tea lovers

Pool time

 

Crowded

 

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After lunch we decided to walk up to the Serenity again and found two regular chairs to sit in and ordered some drinks, sadly many of the chairs were still reserved with no occupants in site while we stayed up there.

 

 

 

A shameless Bruins plug

 

The Serenity Deck was very relaxing but definitely had a lot of foot traffic and you could hear the big screen TV pretty well. We headed back to the cabin around 4 to get ready for dinner, tonight was Cruise Elegant Night but we had booked the Sun King Steakhouse for this evening and had reservations for 6pm so we needed to get ready.

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Here are the dining room menus for this evening

 

 

 

 

 

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Before our dinner at the Sun King we stopped by the Exotic Martini display in the Casino to have a drink. The selections were pretty extensive, at least 20 and they had a carved ice block they poured the drinks through

 

 

Off to the Sun King

 

 

 

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Courtesy of the Chef

 

 

 

Butter and spreads for the bread

 

 

Our starter choices

 

 

 

Salads

 

 

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Dinner

 

 

 

Dessert

 

 

DH ordered Ice Cream for dessert when I was sure he would have ordered the Cheesecake

 

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After an amazing dinner, well worth the $60 we headed off see the show The Big Easy followed by some time in the Piano Bar and ending the night with some pizza, I ordered my favorite with mushrooms and goat cheese, however it looked oddly different than I am used to but it was still good.

 

 

DH ordered Pepperoni which looked like a normal slice of pizza, unlike mine. We both had Caesar Salad which was good too. It was a long day and we were getting tired so we headed to bed.

 

 

Tonight was also the Captain’s Celebration from 5-6 and 7-8 outside the Casino and it was also Happy Hour Bar Prices from 5-8 on Deck 3 and 5.

 

Next up Monday another Fun Day at Sea

[poffles]

Thanks, I wish I could get it done faster but it takes so long. The first two days have taken me hours to do but I just finished day two, only six more to go :)

 

Appreciate all the time you are taking to do this review. Taking all the effort to add all the pictures is very much enjoyed!!!! Feels like we are there with you.

[ginnyanne]

Your review is great! I don't think I have the patience to do one. I am pretty sure we saw you guys several times. Did you do the tour with Gordon in Antigua? I thought we were spoiled with the size of the bathroom in our OS, but the bathroom is the GS is awesome!

[TakeMeAway1001]

Appreciate all the time you are taking to do this review. Taking all the effort to add all the pictures is very much enjoyed!!!! Feels like we are there with you.

 

Thanks, it definitely helps with the post cruise depression that is setting in :)

[TakeMeAway1001]

Your review is great! I don't think I have the patience to do one. I am pretty sure we saw you guys several times. Did you do the tour with Gordon in Antigua? I thought we were spoiled with the size of the bathroom in our OS, but the bathroom is the GS is awesome!

 

 

Thanks~ It definitely takes patience, I wrote a bunch last night and lost it all for some reason so I was pretty discouraged. We did do the tour with Gordon, we met quite a few people from the Roll Call. I have to agree the bathroom was awesome!