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

[Petersonfcu]

2 hours ago, exlondoner said:

So why would you want to go on board if you can’t put your things in your stateroom. 

1.  Carnival cruisers generally like to access their food onboard as soon as possible.  I mean, we already paid for it, regardless of its perceived quality.

2.  Some Carnival cruisers like to access the alcohol as soon as possible.  I may or may not be in that category.

3.  As someone already mentioned, many Carnival cruisers travel light, and/or check their luggage to their rooms, reducing the burden of hand baggage.

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, angelsfort said:

 

they make everyone leave their staterooms by like 8:30 am (or so) and the stewards get started on turning them over right away...    once you're out of your stateroom, you can wander the ship - have breakfast (or whatever) until they make you leave (generally around 9:30 / 10 am they start really pushing - in my experience - but every ship could be different)

so it's not REALLY so quick...  they have several hours to get it done by 1:30, when folks are cleared to go to their cabins.

Most people check their luggage, so they don't have a bunch to carry around with them while they wait for their cabins to be ready. 

I was inferring that everyone got access to their cabin on boarding at, say, 11. Of course, if they are not allowed in until1.30, that is plenty of time. 
 

Your suggestion that people may not have much hand luggage does not accord with the picture our hero posted of the queue to check in at Barcelona, nor with his statement that there is hand luggage everywhere.

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, techteach said:

@jam19872016 It only took one cup of coffee today to read through the new posts. 12 hour shift with lots of steps…I’m thinking you work in health care and you certainly will get lots of steps today. Don’t cut yourself too short of calories as you need the energy. Have a good day!

When he said he would be on his feet nearly all the time at work, it struck me for a fleeting moment he might be a ballet dancer, but I dismissed the idea. 😀

[exlondoner]

42 minutes ago, Petersonfcu said:

1.  Carnival cruisers generally like to access their food onboard as soon as possible.  I mean, we already paid for it, regardless of its perceived quality.

2.  Some Carnival cruisers like to access the alcohol as soon as possible.  I may or may not be in that category.

3.  As someone already mentioned, many Carnival cruisers travel light, and/or check their luggage to their rooms, reducing the burden of hand baggage.

Are the MDR are all the food menus open? 
I agree, a (small, of course) glass of wine with the first meal shows the holiday has begun. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by exlondoner

[SenatorsFan]

@jam19872016 another "thank you" for this excellent review. I looked forward to catching up on your journey every morning. I enjoyed your food and port pictures very much. I hope the transition to real life is not too difficult and I look forward to your next cruise review. Thanks. 👍🥂

[Petersonfcu]

3 hours ago, exlondoner said:

When he said he would be on his feet nearly all the time at work, it struck me for a fleeting moment he might be a ballet dancer, but I dismissed the idea. 😀

A ballet dancer who gains 36 pounds on vacation is soon out of work.

[exlondoner]

3 minutes ago, Petersonfcu said:

A ballet dancer who gains 36 pounds on vacation is soon out of work.

Exactly.

[jam19872016]

12 hours ago, techteach said:

@jam19872016 It only took one cup of coffee today to read through the new posts. 12 hour shift with lots of steps…I’m thinking you work in health care and you certainly will get lots of steps today. Don’t cut yourself too short of calories as you need the energy. Have a good day!

I don't have the stomach for health care 🙂. Far less glamorous....retail.

 

11 hours ago, exlondoner said:

When he said he would be on his feet nearly all the time at work, it struck me for a fleeting moment he might be a ballet dancer, but I dismissed the idea. 😀

That's a sight NOBODY wants to see 😄

[jam19872016]

11 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Are the MDR are all the food menus open? 
I agree, a (small, of course) glass of wine with the first meal shows the holiday has begun. 

The MDR does not open. In fact, Carnival does not usually ever open the MDR for lunch, only on Journey's cruises and Alaska cruises, for some reason.

 

All of the other food venues are open however. On the newer ships with more food choices, some of the venues that are only open on sea days are also open on embarkation day, and most people don't know about them so they are a nice quiet place to eat for the first few days of the cruise.

 

9 hours ago, SenatorsFan said:

@jam19872016 another "thank you" for this excellent review. I looked forward to catching up on your journey every morning. I enjoyed your food and port pictures very much. I hope the transition to real life is not too difficult and I look forward to your next cruise review. Thanks. 👍🥂

Thank you! Transition hasn't been too rough, and I don't have too long to deal with it before the next one 🙂

 

[jam19872016]

I so wish I had not fallen behind on my port days. One of the benefits of live, or almost live, is a fresh memory to recall details to go along with the pictures. I'm a year older now than I was when I started this review, and the memory isn't as sharp as it used to be.

 

The next port day was my visit to Ibiza. This was another day for exploring on foot and I had a vauge idea as I set out where I wanted to end up.

 

Walking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not even sure why I took this picture now, but what the heck I'm including it anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Reaching my point of interest, The Castle of Ibiza.

 

 

 

 

Making the climb

 

 

 

Looking down.

 

 

Climing higher.

 

 

The view getting even better now.

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

 

 

I've reached the top and can see down towards the ships in port. With us today is a Virgin.

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Some renovations in progress.

 

 

I just love this view.

 

 

 

 

There is a Queen next to the Virgin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Close up of the two ladies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

I start making my way back down. I decide to follow the path back down instead of simply backtracking, I may have ended up lost as a result once I made my way back down to street level 😄

 

 

 

 

 

I've somehow wandered into a neighborhood instead of coming back out where I expected to.

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

 

 

 

 

I come down these stairs, figuring I have to be getting back on track at least by descending.

 

 

I wander around for a little while with my offline map trying to find my way back where I know where I am. I hear some commotion and a familiar tune....

 

 

This street performer was singing Sweet Caroline...I can't escape it, even here in Ibiza.

 

It's about a half hour of wandering when I am confident I know where I'm at and where I am going again. 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Armed with confidence because I knew where I was at again, I decided to keep exploring some more.

 

Right in the middle of all this city, was a wooded area that felt like being transported right back into the country.

 

 

 

I ended up walking these trails for about an hour before I headed back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

Looking back up at the Castle that I had just come from.

 

 

This was a great day for me with lots of wonderful views of the city and time spent exploring the wooded countryside!

 

[jam19872016]

The next port was Valencia. This would be the only port of call we would visit three times. Honestly, one was more than enough to get everything I needed out of it.

 

I skipped it the first day because I knew I would have two more chances to visit. I made my way off today taking the provided shuttle from Cunard. This was much better than the one Carnival had for us which was simply a means to get to the terminal building outside of the industrial part of the port.

 

I took this picture as a reference point because I was rushed off the ship so fast this morning that I had forgotten to download an offline map and I wanted to make sure I could find my way back easily.

 

 

Our dropoff point was the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias which was very stunning to view.

 

 

 

The buildings here had very interesting shapes.

 

 

The museum.

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

They had a beautiful park nearby that was full of locals enjoying their Sunday.

 

 

 

Then I found a mall which I ended up getting sucked into for about an hour and a half. It was for the wifi mostly. I was able to get a map downloaded, and talked to a friend back home who was in Barcelona getting ready to board her cruise that day. They had a giant Christmas display that looked like it was about to be set up and I was hoping to check it out when I returned on Freedom to see if it was completed, but that did not happen since our shuttle didn't take us this far.

 

With a map downloaded I attempted to wander a little ways instead of sticking nearby so that I could find my way easily.

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

I ended up at another (the same?) park.

 

 

 

 

Heading back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

That ended up being all I got for pictures in this port. I clearly wasn't engaged.

 

The architecture was stunning. The museum was amazing to look at. And the park was very impressive. It seemed like a very nice place.

 

But for tourism? I'm not sure Valencia has a lot to offer. 

 

I'll pick up tomorrow with my day in Naples. 

Edited November 10, 2023 by jam19872016

[exlondoner]

5 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

That ended up being all I got for pictures in this port. I clearly wasn't engaged.

 

The architecture was stunning. The museum was amazing to look at. And the park was very impressive. It seemed like a very nice place.

 

But for tourism? I'm not sure Valencia has a lot to offer. 

 

I'll pick up tomorrow with my day in Naples. 

Try the wonderful covered market.

[princess76021]

Good morning!

Thanks for continuing our cruise!

I hope you keep finding photos to keep this going until you board our next cruise!!

Have a great day!

Hugs from Texas