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Carnival Freedom Review, It was Amazing !!!

l8cruiser

By l8cruiser,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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l8cruiser

l8cruiser

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Our cruise departed on 09/16/2012 from Ft. Lauderdale. Our ports were Key West , Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios Jamaica. I have always wanted to go on a cruise for years. I am going to try and write a good review for people thinking about cruising with Carnival or The Freedom.

 

Let me first give a little background about me and my gf Teresa. I am 51 and Teresa is 47. We used to be teenage sweethearts and reconnected after 30 years on Face book. My ex wife would not go on a cruise with me. Before I reconnected with Teresa, I would go on cruise websites and dream of going a cruise. Teresa said it was time for me to take my first cruise. "I should have married Teresa" lol.

 

We planned this cruise back in March. I looked at the prices and destinations and chose September because it was cheaper,cooler and kids back in school. I did not realize that it was peak hurricane season in September. As our cruise approached, I was getting nervous about the weather. As it turned out, the weather was beautiful with very smooth sailing.

 

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday, the day before our cruise. We chose to stay at The Alhambra Beach Resort. It is a small mom and pop motel. It looks like a throwback motel from the sixties. I chose it because it was the number one hotel on Trip Adviser with not one bad review. It only has 10 rooms and very personable service. It is located across the street from the beach and next door to very good dining at The Casablanca. There is a CVS drug store a couple of blocks away. We had coupons for the water taxi one block away. The water taxi was a beautiful way to see Ft Lauderdale. It is a hop on and off ride in Ft. Lauderdale. You will see beautiful homes and yachts of millionaires. We stopped off at Los Olas Blvd. We had dinner at Mango's. It was very good. Los Olas Blvd is the place to go for dinner and people watching. Another reason we chose The Alhambra was there was not a big rush of people Sunday morning trying to catch a cab or shuttle. It was just us. After having a Continental breakfast out by the pool, it was time to head to the port and lose my cruiseginity. I will take breaks and continue this review over a couple days.

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FreezingInMichigan

FreezingInMichigan

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"I should have married Teresa"

 

I love it! lol My husband and I are both second marriages. Neither of our first spouses enjoyed traveling unless (his) it involved casinos or (mine) it didn't involve planes and we'd been there at least a dozen other times. We've traveled far and wide together... more in our seven years of marriage than in the lifetime that came before. I'm pretty sure he had me at, "Do you like to travel?"... :D

 

~ Sheryl

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SMSACE6

SMSACE6

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Looking forward to your review! So far sounds great! I loved the Freedom. In fact, two years ago today I was on board, ( different itin ), but loved the ship, and had a great cruise! Weather was iffy to start with, and we were supposed to switch from western to eastern itin due to a tropical storm, but after boarding, the announcement was made that we were going on original itin. So many folks were happy about that. I was too, but would have been ok with the proposed change, as Im always prepared for that when cruising this season. So...looking forward to the rest of your review, and thanks for sharing.:)

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l8cruiser

l8cruiser

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Sorry for the delay in continuing my Freedom review. I had trouble with uploading photos and had to work today. I am still trying to get the hang of pasting photos. I will post some photos of Fort Lauderdale and if things work ok, I will continue with my review.DSCF0078-1_zps1b077597.jpg

 

 

 

Margarita's at Casablanca

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l8cruiser

l8cruiser

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Ok, The day that I have been waiting months for has finally arrived. The hotel manager called us a cab to take us to the port. I got an email a few days ago telling us not to arrive to the port until 1:30. After waiting months for my first cruise, we left the Alahambra at 10:15. We had gone early that morning to CVS for wine, cokes and last minute needs. It was raining as we returned back to the hotel. We were excited as little kids on Christmas morning. The cab ride from the airport to the Alahamra was 20.00 The cab ride to the port was 14.00

 

The cab ride was another first for me. It was like riding the scream machine at Six Flags :eek:. I couldn't wait to see the ship for the first time. When we crossed over a bridge, I laid eyes on The Freedom for the first time. I thought it was huge and beautiful. I could not see all of it out of the cab window. When we pulled up to the curb, we were greeted by porters. They took our 3 bags of luggage and we carried our two bags of drinks into the port terminal.

 

We walked in to this big building. Btw, we arrived at 10:30. There were rope lines winding through the building, but there was not many people in the lines. We walked right up to a booth and a lady checked our boarding pass. There were carnival employees showing us where to go next. We basicaly walked right in without stopping. I could not believe how fast it was. We walked up the walkway to the ship. There was a lift on the outside of the ship with two men and they were touching up the ship with paint. We step foot onto The Freedom for the first time. Our cruise had begun.

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l8cruiser

l8cruiser

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We followed the people in front of us since we had no idea where we were going. Everyone was smiling and happy to be there. Every Carnival employee greeted us with smiles and welcomed us. We came out of the elevator and stepped foot onto the Lido deck. We looked around in awe. It was beautiful. It had guit raining and the sun was starting to peek out. We found a seat where we could set our bags down. Instead of the DOD, we ordered a Miami Vice and Kiss On The Lips. I have read that they were really good. I used one of my drink coupons and the total price for the two drinks was 11.50. The drinks were ok, Teresa liked them. I thought they were two sweet. I like long island ice tea, margarita and corona's.

 

We just sat there enjoying our drinks and people watching. After an hour, we made our way to the lido food area. I did not know where to start first. Everybody that past us with a plate of food, had something that looked great. Teresa got an order of fish and chips. I got a reuben sandwich from the grill. Both were really good. We went for dessert next. I got cheese cake and Teresa got chocolate chip cookies. The cheese cake was the jello fluffy type. It was just ok. The chocolate chip cookies were great. Teresa would kill me if she new I told this. She looked for those cookies every day lol.

 

After lunch we walked around some checking out the lido deck. We still had our carry on bags filled with wine and cokes that were heavy. We found us a good seat to wait on our rooms. When our rooms were ready around 1:30, we dropped off our bags. We checked out our room and balcony. We were pleased that it was roomy and spotless. We found our Bon Voyage Tequila and Corona had been delivered. There was plenty of room and storage for two people.

 

We dropped off out bags and went exploring the ship. We new that muster drill would be coming up soon. We also were supposed to meet roll call members after muster at sail away. We settled back down in the outside lido area to wait on muster. We ordered a couple more drinks and made a toast to our upcoming cruise. I ordered a L I tea and Teresa ordered a dod. The drinks were strong and good.

 

It was 3:00 and I was starting to worry about muster drill. I had read that on some cruises that muster carried over into sailaway. Being my first cruise, I didn't want to miss sailaway. Finally at 3:30 they called for muster. We went to our station. They packed us in really tight on the deck. It took about 20 minutes. It got very hot with everybody packed in like sardines. One ederly lady passed out. She was taken back inside for cool air. Finally we were released and headed to the aft lido bar for our meet and greet. We met some nice folks that we had been chatting with for months. It was nice to put a face with the names. We said our hello's and broke away for sailaway.

 

We went up to the top deck and waited. At about 4:10, the big beautiful Freedom sounded it's horn. We could see the dock ropes being hauled in. Everybody was happy , singing, smiling and dancing. After my stong drinks, I had a permanent smile on my face. I watched as Freedoms side propulsion churned up the water. Slowly Freedom began inching away from the pier. We were off on our journey. The big ship backed up into the channel and then started out to sea. Our first day was off to a great start. All of our planning and worrying had paid off. Our vacation had started with no problems. We were on "cloud nine" because we had the whole week ahead of us.

 

Well I have to take a break now. I type slow with two fingers. I am sorry that it is taking so long to write this review. I had written some last night but accidentaly erased it. I got flustered and went to bed. I will add some more tomorrow after work. Good Night

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