Review - 1st time cruisers - Freedom 8nt eastern - Feb 29 - March 4, 2012

[lovestocruise19]

 

 

The Spa

 

I couldn't really get any spa treatments - they wouldn't let me have any massages due to being pregnant. So I opted to get the "fire and ice" manicure.

 

This involved a manicure + a hot rock massage on the hands and arms.

 

The manicure was good, the nail tech was really nice and we talked a lot. The nailpolish selection left a lot to be desired. Guys, you probably don't care about this but girls, there literally was maybe 15 colors to choose from - 99% of them either pink or red. I'm non traditional when it comes to polish, I was hoping to find a bit more variety in the color department. I picked a grape-y pink and she did a good job painting my nails.. or so I thought.

 

Two days later they started chipping and by the time I got off the boat I had literally peeled off the polish. It came off like a sticker!! I wasn't in the pool a lot or doing anything that would cause it. I'm kind of a nailpolish junkie and that never happens to me. I know I should've complained but I liked the girl and I didn't want to get her in trouble or anything. I'll just not get a manicure on the ship again. Maybe next time I'll try a massage. It's pricey but hey, it's vacation!

 

I don't have pictures from the spa.

 

Summary: Spa is expensive and my manicure wasn't good.

 

...to be continued

 

Okay, so don't think this is gross or anything, but I got a pedicure on Carnival Pride one year ago tomorrow. And there is still an itty bit of polish on one of my smaller toes. :D Isn't that crazy? It reminded me of the cruise, so I never had the heart to use nail polish remover. So, needless to say, mine didn't chip!

[Ciardasully]

Thanks for sharing. I have never cruised before but will on my honeymoon in Jan. My cousin went on a Western Caribbean Cruise on this ship and I have looked through her albums on Facebook so it is funny to look at your photos. It looks so familiar!!!

 

I am glad you had a good time.

[ejincali]

Thanks for opening up your Picasa album to those of us on the forum as well! The next month (before my first cruise) is going to go by way too slow! Just curious as to what camera you used for your photos--there's some great shots there!

[jdawsonrn]

Thank you so much for the review. I love your writing style!! :D We leave in a month and I just can't wait.

[finoky]

Loved your review. Thanks for sharing.

[SongBirdCruiser]

Great review Katie! We're on the Freedom eastern in May, so it was great to hear your take on it. We're not real big drinkers, so having your sober POV was good too!

[finzup-kt]

Thanks for opening up your Picasa album to those of us on the forum as well! The next month (before my first cruise) is going to go by way too slow! Just curious as to what camera you used for your photos--there's some great shots there!

 

 

Thanks! I have two cameras .. one is the nikon d60 dslr .. the other is the panasonic lumix dmc-ts3 waterproof camera. most of the beach landscapes are the nikon...

 

 

[gelo7]

Outstanding review.

[grammajoy58]

Thank you!I so enjoy a great review with a sense of humor and great pictures and you certainly delivered that.I also appreciate that you didn't dwell on the negatives.Some reviewers,while I'm sure they are trying to be informative and helpful,get lost in the negatives and I find those reviews less than enjoyable to read.I like to read reviews to get myself lost in the feeling of cruising while I'm waiting for my own time to cruise.And it's even better when it makes me laugh.You certainly delivered ,so thanks again.And congratulations on the baby!:)

[SASA13]

Thank you for the awesome review. I loved every word.

I will be doing this cruise in Sept, and can't wait.

Thank you again :)

[finzup-kt]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. I love to write!

 

 

I thought of a few more comments that I didn't include in the above review....

 

Additional comments in random order

 

* Coffee - it's decent but if you want something better there's a coffee shop on the lido deck in the back of the buffet (fee based) and also one on the promenade deck. The one on lido is right inside the buffet if you come up the aft-most elevator. The guy making the coffee was great and he did awesome iced lattes. You can buy a cup for $8 and get it refilled for a bit less. We discovered this only about 1/2 way through the cruise and wish we had known earlier.

 

* Piano bar guy - I mentioned earlier that the guy in Scott's piano bar was a drag but never elaborated on it. He was a drag and didn't sing anything except old sleepy songs. The piano bar would've been great with a more upbeat piano player that sang what people requested. We never stayed in there for more than 10 minutes. We tried to like it, honestly we did :)

 

* Photographers - everywhere near lobby on elegant nights and on other nights they're in random places. We got one pic taken but by the time we remembered to go look for it, it was no longer there. I kind of wish we did more just to see how they came out ... next time!

 

* gift shops / shopping - I didn't find the shopping to be too great on the ship. I love to shop and just expected more. They had a duty free shop for alcohol, tobacco, jewelry, watches, and a limited amount of cosmetics and perfume. Also there was a shop with misc items you may have forgot at home, + the bijoux tener crap, er I mean stuff. Note the Bijoux Tener "special sale" is for $10 per item however, at every Bijoux Tener off the boat, items are always $10. Buyer beware of the quality of those items though! I did buy a scarf/wrap type thing for the dining room as it got a bit chilly. I don't care for $10 if it falls apart in the wash.

 

* Lido deck, chair hogs, pools - We didn't spend much time on the lido deck in the pool area but when we did, we did see the chair hogs out, but there were plenty of other chairs. We didn't want to sit too close to the pool anyway because of all the idiots, er, people that were splashing around and getting the entire area wet. I couldn't go in the hot tubs, but if I wanted to, they were usually pretty crowded. On port days it's much less crowded and you can pretty much find chairs anywhere. We wandered around the serenity area a bit but didn't ever stay there.. I kind of wished the boat had a Serenity pool or something.. it just seemed too far away from the pool or something.

 

* debarkation - we were like zone 32 out of 33 or something crazy like that. I don't know how they assign debark numbers but that was fine for us, we slept until the last minute, went to breakfast, played the stupid cash vault machine for the last time, and then debarked. The only thing was by the time we got off, the taxi line was INSANE. So if you get off late, I'd suggest having transportation pre-arranged.

 

I'm sure I'll think of even more stuff to add as well.

 

 

PS I noticed I made a few spelling errors in my review, and of course I can't edit it anymore. I noticed I did this twice - I typed "are" instead of "area". So, just clarifying that ye all know that I can spell the word 'area'. I blame the pregnancy (haha)

 

 

[Oskial]

Great review Katie. We just finished a cruise of the Western Caribbean and were thinking on a different itinerary for possibly next year. You've helped make up our minds to try yours. Yes, that money thing with the little music thing going on can catch your attention. I only lost about $5 there. Lost more at the tables tho. O well, it helps to keep Carnival afloat. Hope your new baby is healthy and happy.

[2sigs]

Great review! We are on the Freedom for the 4/7/12 sailing. I see you took a 10 am shuttle from your hotel to the port. What time did you get to the port? Did they let you on the ship right away? We were planning on getting there around 11 am but now that I see you went earlier I'm thinking maybe we should move our time up.

[Jdfireman]

Rock on girl awsome review.. I give you credit I wish I could write 1 revew for all the cruises I have been on.

[Sparky2]

Great review, Katie. I enjoyed your Picasa photos. I love the Picasa program.

 

We'll be on this same cruise in 2013 - part of our B2B cruises.

[finzup-kt]

Great review! We are on the Freedom for the 4/7/12 sailing. I see you took a 10 am shuttle from your hotel to the port. What time did you get to the port? Did they let you on the ship right away? We were planning on getting there around 11 am but now that I see you went earlier I'm thinking maybe we should move our time up.

 

they didn't let us on right away - we got a boarding group number. The 10:00 shuttle dropped us off about 10:15, and we were in and through security and got our boarding cards by 10:45. They started boarding a smidge after 11. However, after 11's the passport, security, and sign and sail lines were much longer. Having boarding group 5 I think I would've boarded around 11:15ish. Of course my idiocy and leaving my blackberry in the hotel prevented that and we didn't end up boarding until around 1:00 :(

[silvercrikhix]

Nice review. Thanks for taking the time to post your experience. Congrats on your pregnancy.....your next cruise will be different! :D

[RanchoDeluxe]

Finally, someone else who wonders why people are raving about the bread puddings! They really weren’t very good as a bread pudding goes. More like a cake.

I have a hint for improving many, if not all of the desserts. Order a WCMC along with your orange sponge cake, Bitter-n-Blanc, bread pudding (cake), cheesecake or even the Grand Marnier soufflé. It’s a terrific topping. The first night, when I put my husband’s WCMC on the orange sponge cake I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

 

Actually every night I just stole out of his WCMC bowl for my add-on.

:D

 

And, young parrothead, you are being a very good girl at 15 weeks. I too have cruised while pregnant. Some of the luster is gone, because nothing is ever fuzzy, unless you cannot see from exhaustion. I gave up oysters and drinking (and other good things too, I am sure) but I never cooked my meat medium.

[Vegas Lobster]

 

 

Thanks! I have two cameras .. one is the nikon d60 dslr .. the other is the panasonic lumix dmc-ts3 waterproof camera. most of the beach landscapes are the nikon...

 

 

AWSOME Review!!!!! Thanks for sharing the pics! Can't wait to see them :)

[finzup-kt]

Finally, someone else who wonders why people are raving about the bread puddings! They really weren’t very good as a bread pudding goes. More like a cake.

I have a hint for improving many, if not all of the desserts. Order a WCMC along with your orange sponge cake, Bitter-n-Blanc, bread pudding (cake), cheesecake or even the Grand Marnier soufflé. It’s a terrific topping. The first night, when I put my husband’s WCMC on the orange sponge cake I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

 

Actually every night I just stole out of his WCMC bowl for my add-on.

:D

 

And, young parrothead, you are being a very good girl at 15 weeks. I too have cruised while pregnant. Some of the luster is gone, because nothing is ever fuzzy, unless you cannot see from exhaustion. I gave up oysters and drinking (and other good things too, I am sure) but I never cooked my meat medium.

 

Great idea about using that melting cake.. !

 

and yea giving up tons of stuff -- besides my beloved dirty martinis, gigantic vats of wine with dinner and medium rare steaks, I also really miss my daily 32 oz iced coffee from dunkin donuts - it's been replaced by a 6oz cup of coffee (couldn't give up caffeine completely), sushi - i miss it so much, oysters, yep, miss them dearly as well, tuna in general - how I long for a nice piece of sesame glazed rare-cooked ahi tuna ... :D

 

 

 

[ejincali]

What's WCMC?

[finzup-kt]

What's WCMC?

 

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake... it's on the dessert menu every night and it's really chocolate-y good :D

[maxamuus]

Enjoyed your review. Thanks for taking the time to share with all of us. :)

[Oskial]

What's WCMC?

It's only the BEST desert ever!!!!! I had it (and other stuff) every night.

[texasmelrose2]

Great review, thanks for sharing! I would love to take this itinerary! Glad you enjoyed your first cruise, hope it was just the first of many more to come!