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Carnival Freedom Review - August 24 - September 1

Mspokertn

By Mspokertn,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Mspokertn

Mspokertn

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We departed out of Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday, August 24th for an 8 day cruise. In

advanced we purchased the Faster To The Fun and we do My Time Dining. We are both

in our early 40's.

Upon arrival; we always say at the Crown Plaza very close to the port and in the

past we have booked the shuttle service from the hotel to the port from the hotel.

We did the same this time, although it will be out last time. The cost is $8 per

person. In the past, this has always been very smooth process and easy. Not the

case this time. There were so many people and so many pieces of lugguge standing

in the hot garage that we decided to just get a cab after about 15 minutes of

waiting for the shuttle to actually arrive. Cost was $10 - cheaper then the $16

total, so next time we will just take a cab and avoide the crowds.

We arrived at the port around 11:30 and immediately went to the check in and

within 5 minutes we were waiting to board, EXCEPT customs hadn't cleared the boat.

We ended up waiting about 1.5 - 2 hours to get on the ship. So the Faster To The

Fun wasn't really fast BUT the room was ready when we did get onboard and our

luggage was delivered within 2 hours so we were happy about that.

In regards to Faster To The Fun, it did come in handy when we needed to go to

customer service and didn't have to stand in the long lines. Well worth it from

that point of view.

Ship: We stayed in room 8204 forward ship balcony. We loved our room. We loved

our room stewart. We found the ship with the new upgrades 2.0 to be GREAT. This

was our first time on this ship so we really didn't have anything to compare it to

except other reviews. Once we arrived we immeidately went to the lido deck to get

soem lunch and had the Blue Iguana for lunch and we were pretty pleased with it.

We ate here maybe 3 times during our 8 days. The party on the Lido deck had

started and we were ejoying peple watching.

This cruise was a week before the kids go back to school for those in the East but

overall there were very few kids on the boat and in fact, we felt like the ship

was prety empty. Never felt crowed at all.

Dining Room: We had MyTime in the lower Chic dining room and typically went around

6:15ish each night. On previous reviews I read a lot of people talk about the two

seater tables are to close to have a personal conversation. The first night we

were seated in at table 219 and had a great serving staff / team. Every day after

that we asked for the same team and always had table 219 or 218 where we tables

alone for only two. Had a wonderful experience in the dining room. With that all

said, the food was not always the best. But I am not a food complainer so I just

take it for what it is.

The shows: I have read so many bad reviews on here about the new production shows on Freedom. I honestly have no idea what people are complaining about. It's Carnvial for one. Yes these shows were not as "Broadway" style as that of Royal Carribean Allure of the Seas but they are better, MUCH, better than a high school drama performance. If you haven't been on Freedom before and have only read reviews like me, go in with a complete open mind and enjoy yourself. The comedy shows were pretty funny. They had 4 different comedians throughout the week.

Bars: we really didn't go to too may bars when the first night they had a bar crawl, highly recommend this. You start in the lobby bar and follow Jen the CD around to each bar were you can learn about the place, have a drink and it's your first chance to try and win your ship on the stick. We had a great time.

Ports: we went to St. Maartin, St. Kitts, Grand Turk, and San Juan Puerto Rico. We did a snorkle beach trip in St. Kitts and had a blast. We did our own thing in the other three ports. I will say we arrived in San Juan at 8am and nothing opened until 10am. I wish the ship would have told us that and maybe they did if we would have attended the shopping talk but we didn't. So we go up early and headed up just to find out we had to waste 2 hours before we could really do anything. We ended up going back on the ship, relaxed and little bit and then enjoy the pool to ourselved and ended up not getting back off the boat. Grand Turk is by far my favorite port of call. This was my first time there and boy or boy is it just gorgeous.

Casino: we both like spend some time in the casino. We felt like we really didn't spend a lot of money in the casino but we did end up getting a plate of cookies delivered from the casino host thanking us for playing and then on the last night I got a letter from the host saying I was being offered a few cruise. I have booked that cruise and looking forward to going again!

 

Overall: overall we had a great cruise and everyone we met was nice from follow cruisers to staff. We loved the shipped. We thought it was not to big and not to small. We can't wait to go back.

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Mspokertn

Mspokertn

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Not sure if you'll have it or not, but do you have any information on the Dr. Suess Land or whatever they're calling it? We'll be on the Freedom in 5 weeks or so, so I'm looking forward to seeing her again.

Thanks!

 

 

I do not have information although we seen the breakfast and picture taking with characters the kids seems to LOVE it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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CleveCruiser

CleveCruiser

Posted
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Not sure if you'll have it or not, but do you have any information on the Dr. Suess Land or whatever they're calling it? We'll be on the Freedom in 5 weeks or so, so I'm looking forward to seeing her again.

Thanks!

 

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2089072

 

Maybe some of this info will help? Hope you did not sail yet :confused:

 

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