Awesome Christmas Cruise on the Freedom!

[cruisegal11]

First a little background. This was my 8th cruise 6 on Carnival and 2 on Royal Caribbean including the Allure last year. I am 51, DH is 56 and DS is 12. Also traveling with us was my DM who is 77. Western itinerary included Grand Cayman, Montego Bay (switched from Ocho Rios) and Key West. Here are my thoughts:

 

Highlight #1: FTTF - This was by far the best item we purchased. $50 for the 4 of us was money very well spent. We arrived at the pier around 10:30 and were onboard by around 11:30. The rooms were ready and all bags were waiting for us (except my husband’s). Also loved the priority tender line for Grand Cayman.

 

Highlight #2: Steakhouse – We ate there Christmas night. DH had the lamb chops, DM and DS had surf and turf and I had the porterhouse. Everything was delicious! I will never forget how special the evening was for us. Again, money well spent.

 

Highlight #3: Cheers - After reading every review I could find, I decided to purchase it. Since I booked myself in the room with DS, I paid $348 for one person on embarkment day. DH does not drink much at all, so it would have been silly for us to spend over $600 for the plan. As it is, I’m not sure I got my money’s worth and I don’t know if I would purchase it again.

 

Onboard experience: We had a fabulous cruise ! The ship was in great condition IMHO and the staff was very friendly. It was crowded, but not enough to affect my experience one way or another. We did wait in pretty long buffet lines once or twice, but it was because of the time of day that we went. I’m already researching the Breeze or Sunshine for 2015. We can’t beat Carnival for the experience and value IMHO.

 

Pre-Cruise experience: We stayed at the Hyatt Pier Sixty Six on Saturday night. The rooms were very large, however, ours had a musty smell. DM’s room did not have the smell. Overall the hotel and grounds were okay.

 

Island experience: We loved Key West (plan to do a land visit in the future) and Grand Cayman. MoBay was ok.

 

That’s about it. Please feel free to ask any questions.

[Joie]

we are booked on this cruise for March...........why were you changed from Ocho Rios to Mo-BAY? We have an excursion paid for in Ocho-Rios and really hope NOT to have to change it.

[cruisegal11]

Not sure.. received an email from Carnival about a week prior to the cruise notifying us about the change. I had also reserved an excursion in Ocho Rios and was disappointed about the change. We wound up doing a hop on-hop off in MoBay.

[cruz.n.carebear]

We are booked on the Freedom for Christmas of 2014.

 

When did they make the itinerary change to not be in Grand Cayman on Christmas? We are scheduled there again, and the excursion companies are telling me that GC basically shuts down on Christmas day. And did they do it with a reasonable amount of time before sailing so you could change excursions?