Beagle’s Fun-Filled Freedom Cruise – A Review That Just Won’t End

[Beagleluv6107]

Hello CC Family!!!

 

Welcome back to another Beagle Review! Ordinarily, my anxious fans must wait 2 years for another installment of fun. However, our December 2020 cruise was pushed all the way to Dec 2021 and that put us 4 months between cruises. It typically takes 2 years for us to cruise because of money… or lack thereof. Let’s hope we’ve made some new life choices and improve on that timeframe. I would love to Cruise at least once a year!!! 

 

***Quick PSA – I WILL make a long story… longer so please jump ahead to the actual review if this bores you to pieces! Spoiler Alert - This trip report gets an unwanted extension.

 

A quick background… DH and I were married on the Destiny in 2008. I’ve been on 6 Carnival Cruises since then and 1 Norwegian cruise, but we won’t talk about that here on the Carnival Page. Hehe

 

I found this pic on the internet and it since it looks just like us, I had to insert it here!

 

 

This cruise came about while we were searching for options to do the Sailabration 50^th Birthday timeline. Most of the ships were full and prices were outrageous when I was researching. Eventually, I found this 8 Day sailing from Miami on the Freedom departing 3/26. I certainly thought flights to Miami would be cheap and numerous. That wasn’t the case and the only fit to our schedule and budget was with Spirit Airlines. I was a nervous wreck about flying Spirit so I cannot wait to report on that. The total cost after getting gauged for seats and luggage was $356.00 per person. Ouch!

 

The cruise was 8 days, so we opted not to fly in the day before because of limited vacation time. One day I’d like to know the feeling of being able to come and go whenever I want but for now, I gotta squeeze in what I can. We had no options on a Spirit return flight except 10:15am or 10:15pm. Well, the PM option would require another vacation day and we couldn’t do that. I guess we are going to have to gamble and go for the 10:15am flight.

 

Once we picked this amazing 8-day journey, it was time to invite some friends. We ended up with 14 joining us, ages 4 to 81. Wow, yep, I said 81. My dear MIL. She and my niece are traveling with us, so they were forced into gambling on their return flight. I encouraged all others to please be more responsible and abide by the rules of no flights before noon.

 

We learned from the Mardi Gras cruise in December not to share the Wi-Fi package. The Chat option is great in theory, but it doesn’t alert you to a new message unless you are actively staring at your phone... with the App on... waiting for a message. We will bite the bullet and pay for Wi-Fi for both of us if only to text back and forth. We are also insisting the MIL get the Wi-Fi. For a lady that doesn’t move that fast, she is elusive. We will lose her quick if there is any shopping nearby. At least she is quite tech savvy and knows her way around an iPhone.

 

We have 4 stops on this itinerary:

St. Maarten

St. Kitts

San Juan

Grand Turk

 

We had no excursions planned until about 30 days to go, we decided to book the Carnival Catamaran trip to Nevis from St. Kitts. It was a little pricy at $124.99 per person but I exhausted all efforts to find a private tour to Nevis. I understand there is a ferry you can take but I like the security of a ship sponsored excursion until things are back to normal. (Or should I say, the new normal)

 

I was really getting excited now!

 

 

The next item to decide was to pay for an at home Covid test or go to the local Walgreens. They offer PCR testing but do not provide Rapid “Antigen” testing. The problem would be not getting the PCR results back in time. Another “roll the dice” decision. We decided to try our luck with the Walgreens PCR. If I do not have our results back by Friday late afternoon, I’ll hit the panic button and find a Plan B.

 

3/10/22 - I can finally check in online!! This was the weather outside at the time. Wow, this really makes ya wanna go to the Caribbean! 

 

 

DH is Platinum so we get to do the check in 2 days ahead of everyone. The rest of the gang was able to check in on Saturday 3/12. By then, they did not get an early boarding time. However, we were using the Carnival transfers from Miami airport to the port. According to the fine print … when you book a Carnival transfer, you can get in line to board the ship as soon as the bus drops you off. That was a big relief. My goal was to keep all my newbies together until we get on board and have everyone do their Muster Drill first! After that, they were free to do whatever they pleased.

 

3/16/22 – Today I was able to make appointments for myself, The Hubs and the Momma in Law for the PCR tests. Now… to just avoid anyone with “the Covid” for a whole week! Fingers Crossed!!

 

[Beagleluv6107]

There is something to be said for over researching and belonging to too many social media groups. I don’t social media, you guys are all I’ve got! But I did suggest to my newbies that they join any online groups they see. Then came the odd ball questions and some miss information. It was a little frustrating. I also fell victim to my own research. I had a plan of going to Maho Beach in St. Maarten. I read 1… just 1 review… that someone said they got bit by Sea Lice. I have never heard of Sea Lice but now I don’t even want to dip a Big Toe in that water!! If there is a biting bug of any sort, it will find me and it will feast! I was once bitten by a fire ant in St. Thomas and itched for the rest of the cruise and for over a week after I was home. I can’t wait to update you about my shear panic about bugs I just found out about after cruising for 15 years. Ignorance is bliss folks!!!

 

Does anyone else get annoyed with the Pre-Cruise bombardment of emails? On 3/21 we both received 4 emails about using VeriFly. Then I received another 4 on 3/22 and again on 3/23. That was in addition to the various emails about downloading the HUB App and all the other stuff. I really got annoyed with all of it this time.

 

 

Wednesday finally came and we could test. Remember I decided to roll the dice and go for the PCR test? Almost everyone in the group did a rapid test which was much smarter. 4 of us took the PCR test at 4:30pm on Wednesday. 2 had their results by 8:30pm on Thursday night.

 

By 10:30am that Friday, the Hubby and I were still waiting.

 

 

Ut-Oh, I did read from another poster doing a live report from Port Canaveral that she doesn’t know why all the fuss about VeriFly because she had to show all the paperwork at the port. That’s interesting after the barrage of emails all week.

 

We also received an email about how busy Miami will be on Saturday. 

 

 

 

By 5pm, we still had not received our test results, so off to the Urgent Care we went. That didn’t take long and we were home by 6pm and started packing the hubby’s clothes. I told him to grab his black dress pants and he pulled them out and showed me. I said "Yup, that pair." He turned around and hung them back in the closet. That’s going to be a problem later but neither of us were paying attention at that moment.

 

Of course … at 6:20pm Walgreens finally emailed our negative results. Humph! I had already uploaded everything to VeriFly and that went through right away. We were all set. Time to start this vacation!!!

 

Before I finally get to the point and start my review, I always like to give a shout out to all the CC members that do reviews. Especially our favorites that do “Live” Reviews. That’s very time consuming and frustrating when that darn Wi-Fi acts up!!  Thank you reviewers, we all appreciate you!!

 

Up Next – Day 1 – Departing for Miami!

[TeresaJ]

Following! We are on the Freedom in July. Hope it was a great trip!

[Joe817]

Oh my gosh! This is an incredibly fascinating review! You Go Beagle! Thanks. Can't wait to read more! 👍

[d-lite-n-cruisin]

Thanks for this review, Beagle.  Can't wait to hear more.  Well done and hope your trip was amazing.

[dayday]

Can't wait to read your review.   

Beautiful Beagle picture.  I have a beagle named Tuesday.  

[jimbri]

Looking forward to reading your review.

[EllieinNJ]

Great review so far.

[Beagleluv6107]

Day 1 – Departing for Miami

 

 

 

We were up at 2:15am and picked up the MIL and arrived at our parking place at 4am. Checking our bags and going through the TSA Line was a breeze. All 16 of our gang was on this flight. The internet lied and said that Chickie and Pete’s at the PHL airport would be open, but they were NOT! Boarding was fast and we took off on time.

 

Forget Chickie and Pete’s… Look at this gloriousness… Yum, I think it taste better up here!

 

 

We did have a medical issue with another passenger on board. We thought the plane may need to make an emergency landing, but they took him to the back of the plane, and he must have been ok.

 

Once the plane landed, we lost the crowd going to baggage claim and it felt like we walked the entire length of the Miami Airport. We had to drop off the MIL because the walk got to be too much. Once we finally found our bags, we had to back track to get her, and then onto the Carnival desk to get checked in for the shuttle, it was 9:30am. I had hoped for all 16 of us to stay together but only 6 of us made the first bus.  Things went fast after that. We arrived at the ship at 10:20am. We had an early boarding time of 10:30am but the other 4 had 12:30pm. The nice thing about using the Carnival transfer is this…

 

“You'll also gain access to the cruise terminal as soon as the transfer gets you there, regardless of your arrival appointment time — a small thing that's surprisingly nice on embarkation day!” 

 

We all showed our VeriFly and breezed through to the holding tank, I mean the sitting area. When we were called to go, we all walked in as a group. I had to explain to several employees that we took the transfer and were allowed to go together. The last lady, at the last check point, grabbed my friends arm and squeezed and forcefully pulled her out of line. It was hard enough for my friend to say ouch. The lady said you cannot go in, and my friend said that’s fine, but you better get your hands off me. The employee felt bad and just shook her head and said "fine just go but you will never make it past the next check point." Um, that was weird, but there was no other check point. The next stop was facial recognition and no one asked or cared about the time. 

 

I took my first step on board at 11am!

 

 

 

[Beagleluv6107]

Our remaining 12 friends were stuck waiting at the airport for the next bus until 10:45am. One of our couples has a 4-yr-old son and he had to test at the port so they were delayed for awhile. I think everyone else boarded very easily. They said there were no lines.

 

We went to our Muster Station and got that over with as soon as we boarded. After that, we found the first bar! It was called the Pool Bar and conveniently located right next to the pizza place. Our tradition is that the first drink on board is a Fun Ship but... they didn’t have any pre-made or the supplies to make them.  I’m sorry What??? I took a quick walk to the Red Frog and the Blue Iguana and NOPE, no Fun Ship for me. I had to settle for my 1^st DOD being a Coor’s Light.

 

 

Oh well, I’m easy to please. I looked at my watch and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was only 11:20am – Wow, how wonderful, we have the entire day ahead of us.

 

After a while the bartenders were able to make the Fun Ships from scratch. I think I had one around 1pm.

 

 

This drink is called a Green Iguana.

 

 

 

We befriended the bartender Philip AKA Linda – I still don’t know how or why we started calling him Linda but it stuck all week.

 

Eventually, it was time to go check out our room. I had this cabin booked for 14 months and I could not wait to see the layout. Cabin #6473 and WE WERE THRILLED. It had so much extra room. If ever I wished I was doing a B2B it was in this cabin. We brought the MIL and my niece (I’ll just refer to as "the girls" from now on) over to show off our cabin.

 

 

I should have taken a picture of the hallway that had room to store our 2 huge suitcases

 

 

Our nice extra long balcony!❤️

[Beagleluv6107]

Then it was time to head to the Lido. We found a great table in between the Red Frog and Guys.

 

Burger Time!!!

 

 

 

 

We stayed there until sail away. Miami is my favorite port for a Sail Away Party!!

 

I thought all the walking and the long day exhausted the MIL but there she was... out on the dance floor for almost the entire sail away party. She had no idea the boat was moving for awhile.

 

 

The rest of us went up to deck 10 and took tons of pictures. I took the majority of scenery shots from my waterproof camera. (this is important for later).

 

 

I took special note of the crowd. We could not have been sailing at full capacity. This was heaven!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

About 5:30, I went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner and spotted my friends on their balcony a few cabins down. Shout out to the adorable Red Head that ran interference for us and conveyed all of our messages that day. Thank you for not getting mad and going along with us. 

 

 

[Beagleluv6107]

We went to collect the girls and walk down to the dining room but, the MIL was fast asleep in her bed. I guess all that dancing etc… got the best of her. But she rallied to join us for dinner. A little begrudgingly… kinda like waking up a 5-year-old but she came. 😁

 

We made a quick pit stop for a pre-dinner drink in the Havana Bar. It wasn't planned... we were on the wrong deck. Oops! Deck 4 is the Anytime Dining. That was the first and the last time we were at the Havana Bar the entire week, at least I got to see it.

 

Our early seating dinner was in the Posh Dining Room Deck 3. Our party of 16 was broken into 2 tables of 8 and both by the windows. I was so excited. I made sure to sit where I could see the water every single night. 

 

 

 

The water did appear rougher outside but I couldn’t feel a thing. My friend Lee did feel slightly seasick but she put on a sea sick patch and felt better. She and her husband had a hard time getting to the dining room because you can’t just walk from one end to the other.  They texted they were skipping dinner. DH went to their room and brought them to our table. We were glad they didn’t miss out on dinner and miss that view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight, I had the Quesadilla, Smoked Poblano and Corn Soup and CMC.

 

 

 

 

DH had the Shrimp Cocktail, Salmon, and Braised Beef Brisket. I only captured a pic of the brisket.

 

 

I noticed the food was very off. The quesadilla was like a hockey puck. It was the same thing I’ve ordered in the past, but I just felt the quality was not there.

[Beagleluv6107]

After dinner we ended up at the Alchemy Bar. It was not crowded at all. Lee ordered the Cucumber Sunrise.

 

I tried it on the Mardi Gras and did not like it. I tried hers and it was better. This was a theme all week. Everyone was trying The Cucumber Sunrise and each time they said it tasted different. I guess it depends on who makes the drink.

 

We walked Lee back to her cabin on Deck 1 and headed off to the Red Frog Pub on deck 5. Wow… almost no one was in there… hello is this ship full???  I made it a mission to find out exactly how many passengers were on board this week. Spoiler Alert… I failed. I never actually asked anyone from Carnival. BUT… the rumor was 85%. I would have guessed lower.

 

There was a guy playing guitar and singing in the Pub. His name was Teo.

 

 

He wasn’t bad but I was getting a headache, so I went back to the cabin for Advil. Our beloved steward, Rohmadi (AKA – ROH) had come in and did turn down service in our cabin. Wow, the room looked so cozy and it had been such a long day. I was tempted to stay right there but I couldn’t let the gang down.

 

 

 

 

 

When I got back to the Pub my friend K was busy doing Car Bombs. She said she needed to prepare to go to the Singles Mingle. I never noticed that they had single meet ups on the ships before. I don't know if it was the Advil or this drink but I started to feel better. 

 

 

We left the Pub by 10pm because there wasn’t another passenger in the room. We went to comedy in the International Lounge as it was called and it was only ½ full before the comedian came on.

 

 

 

K found a lady from Arkansas whose friends had left her and went to bed. She was hilarious. I’d say much funnier than the comedian. She made a joke that at her age, dating guys she is either a “cougar” or “care giver” with no eligible men in between. She had me in stitches.

 

We left the group around 11 to head out for Midnight Pizza… although it wasn’t quite midnight yet. The line was pretty long. 

 

 

I didn’t eat the pizza until Midnight and then drifted off to sleep. 

 

 

Up Next – A Fabulous Day at Sea!!!

[Beagleluv6107]

On 5/2/2022 at 8:14 PM, TeresaJ said:

Following! We are on the Freedom in July. Hope it was a great trip!

 

Hey TeresaJ,

Thanks for following along. We loved the Freedom! I hope you have a great time in July!!

[Beagleluv6107]

21 hours ago, Joe817 said:

Oh my gosh! This is an incredibly fascinating review! You Go Beagle! Thanks. Can't wait to read more! 👍

Thanks Joe,

This becomes quite the Epic Trip!! 

[Beagleluv6107]

18 hours ago, d-lite-n-cruisin said:

Thanks for this review, Beagle.  Can't wait to hear more.  Well done and hope your trip was amazing.

 

Hey d-lite-n-cruisin,

Thank you for following along. This is gonna be quite the tale to tell!!! 

[Beagleluv6107]

13 hours ago, dayday said:

Can't wait to read your review.   

Beautiful Beagle picture.  I have a beagle named Tuesday.  

 

Hi dayday,

Tuesday is beautiful!!! ❤️ Those Beagles... those eyes. So hard to train but ya just can't get mad at that face. lol!!! Thank you for reading along!

[Knights on the Beach]

1 hour ago, Beagleluv6107 said:

Tonight, I had the Quesadilla, Smoked Poblano and Corn Soup and CMC.

 

 

I noticed the food was very off. The quesadilla was like a hockey puck. It was the same thing I’ve ordered in the past, but I just felt the quality was not there.

 

That doesn't look good at all - I hope the food got better!

 

[Beagleluv6107]

On 5/3/2022 at 7:21 AM, jimbri said:

Looking forward to reading your review.

Hey Jimbri,

Thanks for following along!! 

[Beagleluv6107]

On 5/3/2022 at 8:57 AM, EllieinNJ said:

Great review so far.

Hey EllieinNJ,

Thank you so much. It's about to get more interesting. 🙂

[Beagleluv6107]

20 hours ago, cruisemom2 said:

 

That doesn't look good at all - I hope the food got better!

 

Hi Cruisemom2, 

Yes, wasn't that quesadilla sad? I'd say things were hit or miss the whole cruise. My newbies didn't complain because they didn't know any better. I certainly didn't go hungry but it was enough of a difference that I noticed. 

[Beagleluv6107]

22 hours ago, Beagleluv6107 said:

We made a quick pit stop for a pre-dinner drink in the Havana Bar.

I just realized I had a typo here. This bar was called the Habana Bar, not Havana. They had karaoke in there most nights. I really wished we had stopped back in, it's a huge room and a very nice bar. 

[Beagleluv6107]

Day 2 – Sea Day

 

 

 

Good Morning and Happy Sea Day!

 

 

I was awake at 6am. I never sleep the first few days of vacation. I hopped in the shower and sprinted off to the Red Frog for a Bloody Mary. I asked for Absolute but the bartender said if I get the drink that’s on special, I would get the big glass for the same price. It’s made with Belvedere. Big Cup… ok I’m sold. Wow, that mix was spectacular. Best Bloody I’ve had on a ship lately. I wonder what has changed.

 

 

My friend Lee took these pictures. She and her husband were up catching the sunrise every single day. She’s a part time Photog and that is very important for the story later. We were already having major Wi-Fi issues so these were the only pictures she was able to send to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Beagleluv6107]

While we were just chilling at the Red Frog, this little guy around 7 or 8 years old came up and sat down. He was waiting to get a soda from the bartender. Someone asked him if he was there to get a Bloody Mary and this little dude said “would if I could” without missing a beat. 😳 I think I was still laughing hysterically after he got his soda and walked off. It wouldn’t be our last time with little dude.

 

Around 9:30am, I used the Hub app to book a table for Sea Day Brunch. The table was ready 1 minute or less after I booked it. This was the case every day, we never had to wait! I ordered the Salmon Super Food Salad, Chia Seed Pudding, and the Banana Crème Pie.

 

 

Not sure if you can tell by the picture but it looked like this Salmon was sitting out for awhile. 

 

 

 

 

I’ve learned to tell them to bring dessert with my meal when we are in the dining room for brunch. Otherwise, I usually wait so long, I no longer want it.

 

We were back in our room by 10:30am and my main man ROH had us all cleaned up and looking good again! I love ROH!

 

 

 

 

 

I could have stayed here all day but I'm too nibby and wanted to see what everyone else was doing. 

 

 

[Beagleluv6107]

The girls had snagged some chairs earlier but didn’t exactly show me where they were. I found DH and friends in the pool, but they didn’t know where the girls were. I texted but no one replied. I finally went to the back of the ship and found a lounger.

 

 

Eventually, someone found me and showed me where the group was. I couldn’t have been missing for more than a half an hour. DH walks up and said “you missed out, we all did the slides, it was a blast”. I thought hmmm, we paid 160 bucks so you could text me... only for you not to bother, and I missed out on the slides. Ok, money well spent! In his defense, if he would have text me, it probably wouldn’t have gone through. I didn’t stay annoyed for long. 😉

 

We hung out watching the activities around the pool. I really miss the fun stuff like the hairy chest contest and the mixology contest. These new pool games are very boring. The whole “It’s Covid’s Fault” doesn’t make sense to me.

 

We went in search of the Mongolian Wok. DH loved this on the Breeze in 2019 but I never tried it. It was fantastic. I had chicken with the spicy Szechuan sauce. If I ever go back again, I just need to tell the cook more sauce.

 

 

Sometime around 2:30, a few of us were at the back Pool Bar and I was messing with my camera. The pics were dark, and I was trying to switch to auto mode. I have no idea what I clicked on, but I lost every photo on the memory card. Oh no…no, no, no. I had at least 30 pictures that were solely for this review. I was sick over it. Like someone quickly order me another drink, I am devastated over here.

 

 

My friends tried to console me. I only had 5 pics with friends and family on the camera and the rest was just scenery. Of course, Lee was going to share every pic she took. Ok true. I tried to move past this and not let it get me down.

 

Here's the picture I took right after and you can see how dark it was. I did eventually find my auto focus.