Live From The Carnival Freedom: Crossing the Atlantic for a New Whale Tail

[NE John]

4 minutes ago, chryso said:

That is the one we are looking at.  I will mention it on the Cunard board if we book.  The biggest question right now if we book it is, do we bring our youngest daughter, since she will be home from university at that time.

In would imagine she’d love going to Alaska, probably more than a TA on QM2. 

Please sign up for the roll call when you book:

 

[NE John]

6 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Why would you not? Would she ever forgive you?

I’m still waiting for our commission chicks from Cunard’s marketing department!

[chryso]

31 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Why would you not? Would she ever forgive you?

It may depend on if she has an internship over the summer.

[NE John]

58 minutes ago, NE John said:

I’m still waiting for our commission chicks from Cunard’s marketing department!

I meant to say checks, not chicks!!

 

[exlondoner]

2 minutes ago, NE John said:

I meant to say checks, not chicks!!

 

I was going to mention it, but couldn’t think of a witty and original way of drawing it to your attention.

[Von & John]

13 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

The horror - epic fail!! We received NO s&p vessels this morning. DH even asked "what happened to the salt & pepper we used to get?" His eggs were eaten w/o seasoning.😪

 

Total Epic Fail!!!

How do you eat eggs w/out salt & pepper?

[exlondoner]

23 minutes ago, Von & John said:

 

Total Epic Fail!!!

How do you eat eggs w/out salt & pepper?

I don’t eat eggs at all - not an allergy, just extreme dislike - but my husband would never dream of eating them with salt or pepper. 

[Von & John]

Quite possibly a difference in the way we were raised or culture...

However, I have always craved salt & @ the ripe old age of 21 I found out why.

My body is chronically sodium deprived - way below the normal range.

I've been told to listen to my body on the salt cravings - as the amount I crave does fluctuate.

Approx. 4 times I have realized I can taste sodium in Coke (Coca Cola that is)...
The 2nd time it happened I was headed in for blood work - sure enough I had hit the bottom limit for entry into the normal range 🙂 

I took that as a win - unfortunately it does not stay there.

Other than eggs - I taste all food, prior to seasoning...

 

For those who like/love eggs - ENJOY them anyway that makes you happy 🙂

Cheers all  --  Von

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Von & John

[techteach]

Sunday breakfast: Homemade Bloody Mary, homemade biscuits, home made pork breakfast sausage and my famous Omelette with Gruyère cheese. @jam19872016 please note that there is no sign of browning on the omelette and @Von & John putting salt into the eggs while whisking 99 times means they will fluff greater when they hit the hot butter! (I prefer white pepper in my eggs) I love eggs, I will eat them anywhere…

Edited November 7, 2023 by techteach
Insert picture

[jam19872016]

Hello everyone.

 

What a busy and hectic day today was transitioning back into the real world. I spent my day helping my mom get her yard cleaned up as well as unpacking, and other things she needed done around her house.

 

I also had something to take care of, but let me back up to what happened yesterday.

 

I like to wait until last call before I make my way to the gangway, as I've said I hate lines. Last call never came, and I was sitting in Habana lounge away from the masses so did not notice the ship clearing out. I dinged off the ship just before they started paging names to please head to the gangway. I avoided being called, my mom behind me, did not. Ooops.

 

Anyway, there were no lines and we got through CBP easy peasy. One of her suitcases had lost its tag and was sitting randomly in the terminal, but it was obviously very easy to spot at this point.

 

Everything is going easy enough. And here is where things start going downhill.

[jam19872016]

I ordered an Uber to pick us up and take us to where I had parked my car. I did not have a good feeling, all those waiting in the rideshare lot were telling the horror stories of how hard they were struggling and sure enough, once I finally got connected with a driver, he immediately canceled. It was $54 for a mere five minute ride and yet that was I guess not enough surge pricing to get anyone to take my request. Insane.

 

I tried again, just kept circling and the cost was now $10 cheaper so I know I'm getting nobody. I made my way to the taxi stand. They want $35 and it will be about forty minutes. That's crazy that they don't have a steady stream of cabs like in Miami. But what am I going to do? I pay the man and cancel my Uber request.

 

Or so I thought. Apparently hitting cancel and going through three different prompt screens to confirm was not enough and I did not cancel as I got distracted with the cab purchase and I now had a ride coming. I canceled for real this time and supposedly Uber is going to refund the charge, but I have not found Uber to be very customer friendly in these types of cases. Once had a driver cancel on me saying I was not at the pickup location and I got billed a cancel fee. I disputed it, as if Uber can't see that he never showed up. They refunded me the money, then took it back without ever telling me. I only realized it when I went to use the credit and it was gone. I'm honestly getting tired of their scummy business practices and if I lose this credit (which was actually just an actual refund of the hold instead of a credit) I guess I'm done with Uber.

 

Cab finally shows up and the guy is super friendly. He was very helpful and patient with my mother who is struggling with what she has to carry after I've carried as much as I can possibly carry. All around great guy and he was not done going above and beyond.

 

As I mentioned, my car had been sitting for 56 days at this point and I was worried that it would not crank. I pushed the button, and held my breath and....nothing. Car dead as a door nail 😟

 

This is where we press the Oh Crap button 😮

[jam19872016]

I don't have cables on me (dummy) and the taxi driver offers to go knock on some doors to find some and see if he can give me a jump.

 

Of yes, in case you forgot, I parked in a person's driveway that I found on a site called neighbor.com. It's like AirBnB for parking and storing items. It sounds sketchy but I'm happy to report it worked out fine as my issues had nothing to do with where I parked, but how long I parked.

 

Anyway, he comes back with cables and we get hooked up and I try again.

 

Still nothing. Double Oh Crap.

 

I thank him for all his help and made sure that he was taken care of for his effort and we move on to calling the insurance company for roadside assistance. Supposedly my insurance company is like a good neighbor. I'd say like a neighbor that makes you work way too hard to talk to anybody and sends you through a lot of prompts at a time that a person is in a stressful situation. Anyway, finally we got a tow truck dispatched with an ETA of 45-75 minutes. Yikes.

 

So now its me and my diabetic mother sitting outside in the Florida heat waiting upwards of an hour for a tow truck. An hour passes and my mom asks me to call the tow company to see how close they are. Based on their ETA they should be about 15 minutes away tops. I called and was told 30 minutes. Really.

 

At the 80 minute mark, my good neighbor sends a robotext asking if they have arrived yet. I reply no and they robotext me that they will follow up. They called from the escalation department and said the ETA which was supposed to be less than 10 based on their second later ETA they gave when I called, was now another 20.

 

Guess who still wasn't there after another 20 minutes?

 

I called again. They said they would assign a new driver, who will be there in 15-20 minutes.

 

Still nothing, we call StateFarm again. They said ANOTHER 15 and then they will reassign to a different company if they still have shown up.

 

We've now been waiting for OVER two hours in addition to waiting over an hour for a taxi in the sun. I'm starting to get a little sick of it all and call back again. They reassign, and cannot give me an ETA, but the robotext does. We are now looking at a wait of 75-90 minutes. Are you freaking kidding me.

 

I call the first company back to see if they are still coming in "15 minutes" as a hypothetical 15 is still better than a hypothetical 75-90. It goes straight to voicemail, a full voicemail. First company now not even responding.

 

I call new company to plead with them to put me at the front of their line and please come help us as my mom is diabetic and elderly and cannot keep sitting outside in these conditions. They said not to worry a driver was already en route and that ETA was not acccurate. Ten-Twenty minutes. The driver followed up shortly after and assured me he was on his way. Soon, he did in fact finally show up.

 

He said the problem could just be the battery was dead enough that it needed more juice than a jump could provide and he used his portable charger. I held my breath again and gave it a try.

 

Success at last!! 

 

He said I needed a new battery as this would keep happening, but believed it would be fine to drive now. I signed his phone and assume that since no payment information was collected, my good neighbor is at least footing the bill and hopefully not raising my rate. We'll see.

 

Finally, three hours later we made the two hour drive to my mom's house. We didn't run the AC or even play the radio as my mom was worried about the battery giving out. So it was a hot ride with no sound but the wind whipping beside me. Funny how much more calming the wind blown sound is on the Ocean.

 

I bought a new battery today on top of the honey do list my mom had for me and it was such a rude welcome back to the world of responsibility and obligations 🙂 

[techteach]

@jam19872016 Ugh! What a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day. Mom said there’d be days like this…(See book by the same title). I’m so sorry your restful vacation has ended is this ordeal. Tomorrow will be a better day I’m sure. It’s good to hear from you.

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 10:30 AM, five. said:

Not a coffee drinker, but after all your pics I am definitely getting this.

 

You and me both. Let's go!

 

Sad times. Catching up from Friday and was sad to see the end cometh.

 

I don't usually get involved in these threads that fly along. It's not often I want to catch up over 8 pages since Friday. But it's been fun. Thanks so much. Safe travels home.

I prefer energy drinks for my daily caffeine fix, but I do love my Frappuccinos. 

 

Thanks for reading along especially since it did get quite long 🙂 I appreciate it!

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 10:30 AM, techteach said:

@jam19872016 You have been great fun to follow and I hope your trip home continues the fun. I too am looking forward to your next adventure. Take Care —

Thank you for following along 🙂 

 

On 11/6/2023 at 10:48 AM, angelsfort said:

😞  well now that this adventure has come to an end...  what am I gonna read when I'm supposed to be working?!

Reruns? 😅

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 11:26 AM, princess76021 said:

Your permission to use it extends to the next cruise!!!  

Hugs!!

Thanks! I hope not to need it anymore after using it twice on debarkation day.

 

On 11/6/2023 at 12:35 PM, Knights on the Beach said:

 

 

Curious how this went for you. We have a regular driver we call to drop us off or pick us up at the port. When he's not available to pick us up, we just grab a taxi when we get off the ship - and the rates have been very similar but we are super close to the port.

 

I still have several pages to go back and catch up on but just wanted to say thank you for posting your live review - I've really enjoyed following along! I woke up around 4:40 this morning (not on purpose) and saw the Freedom with her lovely new tail just about to enter the channel to the port. Watching the cruise ships come in while I'm still in bed is a sight that never gets old! 🙂 

It didn't go good at all sadly. I had no luck with Uber and at least in Miami they have a ton of Taxis ready and waiting for a fare. That was not the case here.

 

I've always used a parking/shuttle service in this port so this was my first time experiencing this side of the debark process and while the people were still great and things less hectic than Miami, it could still stand a lot of improvement.

[five.]

Definitely get yourself a lithium jump box and keep in the car. Especially if you're gong to sit for that long with no way to trickle charge.

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 12:40 PM, angelsfort said:

 

a couple of months ago my daughter and her friends were on their way to the Miami cruise port (from Orlando) when their car broke down about 45 minutes away...   they called an UBER and the driver understood her assignment!  LOL    

the driver bobbed & weaved their way through the traffic, exceeded the speed limit and got them to the port with LITERALLY minutes to spare.  They were rushing to the terminal just as the doors were closing...  that UBER driver saved the day and got a very VERY generous tip for their dedication to getting there.

I would say that the UBER drivers (at least that one!) do a good job!

Scary! Glad it worked out. I think that's how they all drive in Miami though 😆

 

On 11/6/2023 at 12:43 PM, Von & John said:

Good Morning  --

I have truly been enjoying your review(s) sporadically, as a binge reader...
I started when you were @ 70 pages or so - I am now on page 87 (your final day on QE) & you are currently up to 143.

Looks like I need to find time to binge a "few" more pages - hoping to catch up b/4 your cruise home is over 😎

 

Your review has been Fantabulous & love you & Mom can transition from Carnival to Cunard so seamlessly...

Your enjoyment of cruising & these cruises specifically shines through!

Cheers - Von

Thank you for your kind words and following along! 

 

I binge read most of the reviews myself. At least let them get a few pages in before I read, I hate getting caught up 😅

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 2:00 PM, Haljo1935 said:

@jam19872016 Have thoroughly enjoyed following your journey across the waters and back; hope to read your next one.

Safe travels!!

Thank you for following along! It's been a great trip and I can finally say I've done a TA. Not just one, but two! 

 

On 11/6/2023 at 2:30 PM, Haljo1935 said:

Very respectable numbers; that's almost 1 every day for your mom!!🥇🏆

She really kicked my butt!

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 2:34 PM, Haljo1935 said:

We'll find out tomorrow morning; I think they're the shorties. 🤔

I did not get a picture from the steakhouse, so they cannot be judged.🙄

But do the plates have logos and if so, are they being lined up correctly?

 

On 11/6/2023 at 3:13 PM, LouChamp said:

Aloha.  And we were not a twirl family lol. Regardless as long as the food is great. All the best!

I sure could go for some pasta cooked by someone else right about now 😋

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 5:37 PM, balcony bound said:

I feel like Cruise Critic owes you a special reward 🥇

They gave me that fancy rare sticker on my name 🙂

On 11/6/2023 at 6:00 PM, chryso said:

What is on the Jam19872016 menu for tonight?  I need to know!

 

Last night was pizza and tonight was Popeyes. I'm not doing great getting back on track. But the first couple days are the hardest plus being around my mom triggers bad eating choices. Especially when she's buying 😅

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 7:16 PM, Frank12 said:

Thoroughly enjoyed following along with you.  Thanks for taking the time to entertain us. 

We've sailed on Freedom 4 times ( twice with that hideous, deformed funnel).  Glad to see her back in shape!

Me too! I loved her just the same, but she is so much purrtier with her tail fixed. 

 

Thanks for following along!

 

On 11/6/2023 at 8:02 PM, balcony bound said:

Woohoo - the car started!

Nope 😞

 

[jam19872016]

On 11/6/2023 at 9:14 PM, az4ship said:

My favorite ship is the silhouette.  Enjoy it.  Btw this has been my favorite thing to read each day. 

First time on her, but I've sailed two of her sister ships.

 

Thank you for reading along 🙂

 

23 hours ago, HeyJut said:

Oh Jam say it isn’t so!! Hate that it’s over. And I too enjoyed the crossover banter.

Looking forward to the next adventure.

It is so and after how things have been since leaving, I wanna be back lol. Oh well, it was a great run that I was very fortunate to do 🙂

 

 

[jam19872016]

23 hours ago, Ashpalo said:

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your review! Thanks for taking us along for the journey! 

Thanks for following! 

 

22 hours ago, Von & John said:

Wow  --  Finished my final binge...

I was hoping to finish before you were off the ship!

It appears I missed my goal by hours.

 

Thanks for taking us along on an amazing 5/6 cruises (depending on how you count QE) & your stay in Barcelona...

We LOVE Barcelona & have spent additional time there for our cruises starting & ending in Barcelona.

 

Love you have all this time to enjoy w/ your Mom.

3 of my sisters & I took Mom on her first & only cruise, JAN 2001, on the Celebrity Century. 

We had 2 connecting cabins & my youngest sister had her 10 month old son w/ her.

We created lifelong memories on that cruise!

Unfortunately Mom was never able to go on another cruise & we lost her in 2007.

However, she sure did recall & relive every memory from that cruise!

 

Enjoy the time together while you have it & we ALL are looking forward to living vicariously through you on your future cruises...

Cheers from Talkeetna - Von

 

 

Thanks for following along! I am very lucky to be able to travel with her I just wish that she was able to do more without being in pain. I will treasure however many more trips I can take with her however she is able to take them. A close by and inexpensive place to shop is really all she needs to be happy.

[jam19872016]

19 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

The horror - epic fail!! We received NO s&p vessels this morning. DH even asked "what happened to the salt & pepper we used to get?" His eggs were eaten w/o seasoning.😪

 

13 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Earlier in the summer, I had to have all my meals from room service for six days, because of Covid. As far as I can remember, cruets arrived with lunch and dinner, the glass sort, but not at breakfast. After it was over, despite the joys of choosing from the Grills menus rather than the room service one, I swore I would never eat a meal in the cabin again, even breakfast, unless I had to.

I've never ordered eggs but don't recall ever getting salt and pepper with my room service.

 

I can see why that would make eating in your cabin lose its appeal.