Freedom June 18th Review - Long

[MissDebbie]

**Forgive the typo's - I had troubles with the spell checker....

 

Just a brief background: this was my 3rd Carnival Cruise, 4th in total. My husband and I went with our two sons, 12 and 16. Absolutely LOVED this trip and had a great time. P.S. my kids have cruised before with us.

 

I booked through Carnival the cruise itself, and did my own hotel and airline reservations. We stayed at a small hotel in Rome 3 days before the cruise itself. We took the Express train from the airport to the Termini station and then walked to the hotel (yes, lugging the luggage behind us ). It worked out well since the kids could handle their own bags and the walk was only about 5 blocks. I think we paid about 33E for the 4 of us. Many people were doing this so we didn't stand out. In Rome we either walked or took the metro (we bought a 3 day metro pass). We felt we saw more of real Rome this way (plus my husand and 16 year old had a lot of Knowledge of Rome and the history - we basically did our own tours). Hint - stop in some of the little churches that you pass, some of the most little, run down places had some of the most beautiful artwork, statues etc. inside that most tourists just pass by.

 

Hint - for churches - shorts on men/children/women are fine, just keep them knee length. I wore capris the whole trip. If I wore a tank top, I made sure I had a cover top (I usually wrapped it around my waist when I wasn't using it) with me for the churches and had no problems. Many of the churches had these special paper towel type coverings for women to use if they didn't have a covering. No hats though inside. On photos, most places had signs when they didn't want photos (or flash).

 

On the 18th we walked back to the Termini station and bought tickets on the train to Civit. (not going to try and spell it). We hopped the train (2nd class, with all the stops) and had a great trip to the port. No problems and it took about 1 hour 20 minutes or so. We got to the port around 1:00 and walked over to the place where the free shuttles were to the cruise ship. At the most, I would say the walk was about 1/3 to no more than 1/2 a mile. Huge boardwalk style sidewalk, no problems in lugging the luggage there. There was about 20 other people with us on the train that were doing the same thing. I think the cost for 3 (my 12 year old was free) was 15 E in total (going 2nd class with stops).

 

Embarkation - this was the easiet entry that we have ever done! The shuttle drops you off in front of the building, we gave a good tip to the porters there (and saw our bags I might add about 30-45 minutes after getting on the ship). We spent 2 minutes in a line, 10 minutes at the desk and were on the ship in our room not 10 minutes after that. It was SO EASY. Yes, they do take your passports but let me add we didn't need them anywhere we went so it was kind of nice having some else take care of them!

 

Note on Euros. Two days before we left I got about $750 in Euros before we left at a local bank . We used our ATM cards when we needed more cash in Rome and in the different ports. We had no problems at all as there were ATM machines EVERYWHERE (although I made sure I notified my bank before we left that there would be transactions from Italy, Greece and Turkey). I would skip the Carnival currency desk, and use your ATM card. John Herald even came on one night (we were docking some where the next day) on the overhead and suggested this to people, that they would get a better exchange rate etc (apparently there was a line at the desk) using their ATM cards or credit cards. We did not use our credit cards much - we preferred paying with cash in places.

 

The ship itself: most of you have seen the photos so you don't need a discription. I liked it although I wouldn't decorate my own home that way :) .

 

Rooms, we had rooms 8420 and 8422 on the Veranda deck (adjoining rooms). Category 8C. AFT side. Yes, we could hear noise above us from what sounded like chairs sliding around, however it didn't ruin my cruise and it sure was convenient getting up the lido deck for lunch or coffee in the morning! We absolutely loved this side as we had excellent views of most of the ports as we were coming in.

 

Camp Carnival - no opinion as my kids didn't use it.

 

Entertainment - LOVED the Ticket to Ride show (last one) plus the Swing time show, the New Orleans one although I liked it, didn't love it. Would get high marks though to the shows in general. John Herald is very entertaining and doesn't mind making fun of himself (and everyone else!).

 

Food - again high marks, although after 12 days we were bored with the choices for breakfast. It was the same thing each day on the lido buffet line. Dinner, Chic at 5:45. Good selection of choices, was happy with everything we got although my husband had one meal he called medicore (some kind of chinese dish). Lunch if we were on board was either the lido buffet, burgers (great), fish and chips (good), or pizza (my boys loved this and usually went for pizza for a bedtime snack).

 

Shore Excursions: We booked mostly through Carnival as we didn't want any stress in missing ships and have done these before on our other cruises and in general were always satisified.

 

Ship tour -- Pompeii, Sorrento and Positino - LOVED this excursion - had an EXCELELNT guide and had a great day. The lunch was provided in this little restaurant that had the MOST WONDERFUL view of the coast line, plus the lunch itself was EXCELLENT. The champagnee they gave to us was some of the best I have ever had, plus each table got a bottle of white wine. Since my husband and I were the only adults at our table, yikes, I was feeling a bit light headed by the end of that trip. Only complaint was that I didn't get enough time in Sorrento, it was only about 40 minutes of shoppping, I could easily have used another hour - what a beautiful place! I think there was only about 16 people on this tour bus with us.

 

Sea Day - I will lump all of them in here - minature golf, bingo, napping, reading, sunning.

 

Ship tour - Beautiful Lindos - I didn't really get to see Rhodes at all on this excususion as we had about an hours drive to Lindos. Again, very satisified with this tour, and loved our guide. He was greek, cute, and very passionate about what he was telling us. It was HOT that day so the walk up to the hilltop was draining, however I felt I had plenty of time to see everything, plus some time to go through the shops in Lindo's itself. Only complaint was it would have been great to have some extra time to have spent in Rhodes (longer time in port) but you can't have everything! :)

 

Ship tour - Ephesus and Sirince/Ephesus and museum. I went to the Sirince and Ephesus while my husand and kids did Ephesus and the museum. I had a WONDERFUL guide, just loved her and really enjoyed this tour. It was great to see some of the countryside of Turkey and spend time in a place with not a lot of tourists! Lunch was included and it was excellent! Only about 11 people on this tour with me. My husband although he enjoyed what he saw, felt his guide was too rushed

 

Ship tour - Istanbul - I think it was called Grand Istanbul with lunch at the Four Seasons hotel. Again, we hit the jackpot with our guide. Knowledgeable and passionate. This was probably my favorite tour. We hear the call to prayer while we were walking around, spent plenty of time in the mosques, only about an hour in the grand bazaar which either was too much or not enough depending on who you ask:) ! We sat through the short carpet demonstration which I really enjoyed although we had no intent of buying a carpet. It was interesting and it was great to regroup for 15 minutes with the apple tea and bathrooms! We did not get any turkish lire, we only used Eruos or American dollars in the bazaar and it worked out well. The lunch at the Four Seasons was probably the best meal we ate in our whole trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was wonderful.

 

On our own - Athens. It was 100 degrees this day. The ship docked around 2 miles from the metro station. We should have taken a cab but we didn't realize how far away the metro was! I was exhausted (from the heat at 7:00am and the high humidity) before we even got to the metro. We had no problems getting around on the metro to the Acropolis drop off. Of all of the ports, this was my least favorite, and probably the heat had something to do with it. I am glad to have seen the Acropolis but since I was seeing it with the THOUSANDS of other folks who were seeing it with me up at the top in the blazing heat and sun (and smog) it was not as enjoyable as I had hoped. We had plenty of time to shop at the Plaka area and had a great lunch (in an airconditioned place:) ).

 

Ship tour - Katakaloon - Olympia trip. I loved this little town and again, wish there was more time in port to have spent more time there, however my husand really wanted to see Olympia. The place itself was wonderful, and the museum they have there on sight was one of the better ones, however on this expedition we did NOT have a good guide. We ended up leaving her and just walked around olympia on our own and met up with her at the designated spot....

 

Ship tour - Florence on your own - Again, we hit the jackpot with the guide. He gave a good running commentary on the drive to Florence, a good map (plus he put down his suggestions on what to see). Florence was easy to get around, we did see the Ufizzi (we pre bought tickets on line - good ideas as the line was HUGE to get it and see it - we would have been waiting for a couple of hours minimum to see it). With the tickets, we waited maybe 20 minutes at the most. LOVED Florrence, this is someplace that I would come and see again and spend a few days in. Again, make sure you go and see the churches there!

 

Day we were in port in Civit. On our own we took the train to Tarquinia. We had the BEST time doing this. Tarquinia is only about a 20 minute train ride from the port. We got to this itty bitty train stop with nothing in English written. We found a bus with the non English speaking bus driver and rode to town praying we could figure out where to get off (yes, it was obvious). This town was so non touristy it was GREAT. The Etrusician museum was excellent, the town just nice to walk around, a good lunch, found a fabulous spot that overlooked the countryside (the town was on the hill). No beggers, no souvineer shops... It was great. This was one of our favorite spots as it is a bit of real Italy.

 

Debarkation - again it was SO EASY. Wish all ships had this system.

 

Ship tour - Holy Rome and drop off in a central location to get to the metro and our hotel. We goofed up and had thought we had an extra day in Rome to do the Vatican museum at the end of our trip but upon realizing that we didn't and with Sunday the museum being closed (and Saturday is early closing) we bought this excurision on board the day before we got off the ship to see the museum. This was not the excurision that allowed you to skip lines. Just be prepared - we waited 3 HOURS in line to get in the museum, then spent about 2 hours in the museum including seeing the sistine chapel. We then spent maybe 30 minutes in St. Peter's (which was fine as we had seen that on our precruise days). Atlhough it was no fault of Carnivals or the tour guide this was an expensive tour with just a lot of waiting around. We had an excellent tour guide and tried to make the best of it while waiting around.

 

**I must add that we would not have seen the Sistine chapel or the museum if we had not done this tour as that 3 hour wait would have caused us to walk away if we were on our own.

 

Hint - if you do the Vatican museum on your own, pay attention to the closing times and the days they are not open when you are planning your time in Rome! We messed up when planning and really "paid" for it! :)

 

We spent another day and a half in Rome on our own before flying home.

 

It was an excellent trip, excellent cruise and if we had the money I would do it again!

 

Debbie

[Flip2cruise]

Great review! Thanks for sharing, sounds like it was a wonderful cruise.

[MissDebbie]

Thanks Libertycruiser, it WAS a wonderful cruise :) . We felt very fortunate not to have encountered any problems on this vacation. Luggage showed up, no airline delays, tours were wonderful (except the one in Olympia), no illnesses, great food not only at ports, but on the ship, great weather, great ship (even smells new - like a new car)...

 

Debbie

[DaytonCruiser]

I appreciate you taking the time to post your review. What was the name of the hotel you stayed at in Rome?

[MissDebbie]

The name of the hotel when we first arrived in Rome was Hotel Dolomiti. They have their own website plus you can check out the reviews on the Venere website. The staff spoke English (except for the night man) and they had a 24 hour desk. The room was EXCEPTIONALLY clean which was a priority of mine. It definitely was an old building and the room for 4 is small (but this is also standard for Europe). I liked it and would definitely stay there again if ever in Rome. Good breakfast in the morning (although the "American" coffee they serve was not very good at all. However they serve cappacinos and lattes which were top notch. :-)).

 

On our return after the cruise we stayed in Hotel Ascot. I am not going to recommend it although it wasn't bad. There was definitely a big difference in decor etc between the two hotels!

[ItaliaAmerCruzLady]

So glad you posted your review, and hotel recommendations, we will be doing this trip next year, although we will be doing the more Italian one. but very informative, we cant wait! Thanks!:D

[mprucha]

Thanks for the review. We're booked on the freedom for nov 08 and have another cruise planned before that but we're eating up info on the freedom because it's been so new that there just aren't enough reviews to give us a good feel for the ship yet although we're very excited about it. Our last trip was on the Miracle and we LOVE that ship......so much we've booked again in May 2008 so the freedom is a whole new class for us and we're trying to learn about it as much as possible!

 

Thanks again!

[MissDebbie]

I think you will really like the cruise although I am not sure if your stops will be the same as ours were. We encountered the same thing when we first booked, there was no information on the ship searching the internet. We booked in February of this year before the first cruise so we had no idea if we were making a big mistake or not. That was how we found the cruise critic board trying to get some information on the ship. The reviews as they started to trickle in really helped in knowing we made a good decision to taking this European cruise (which is why I posted the review - it was so helpful to me in hearing what others thought of the trip.)

[Flip2cruise]

Thanks Libertycruiser, it WAS a wonderful cruise :) . We felt very fortunate not to have encountered any problems on this vacation. Luggage showed up, no airline delays, tours were wonderful (except the one in Olympia), no illnesses, great food not only at ports, but on the ship, great weather, great ship (even smells new - like a new car)...

 

Debbie

 

:) Sounds perfect...I love the new ship smell!

[stlrboo]

REALLY enjoyed your review...! :) We are considering the Freedom for our "Meandering the Med." CC group cruise in 2009, so your information is very valuable to us! I'm the 'loyal' CCL fan, but we are sifting between the Celebrity Summit, RCI Brilliance and the Freedom!! :p

 

Many thanks for taking the time to post the review! I'm going to forward a link to your review to our 'Leader'.. :D

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I'll add my thanks for the great review! The Freedom is definetly one we'll be considering!:D

[mjohns2]

I'll be doing the same cruise next year so thank you very much for the review. I do have one question though. How many formal nights on a 12 day cruise.

 

Edit:

One more question... When you first check in to the ship since it doesn't set sail till I believe 7PM can you get back off the ship to roam around in Civit. (I won't try to spell it either)?

[lalaxx]

Glad to hear you had a good cruise! Did your kids use camp carnival at all? Mine used the Club02 on the Valor (they absolutley loved it, it was for 15-17 yr olds), and I know they have that on other ships.. but did you hear of it at all? I dont know if they would have it on a European cruise.

[MissDebbie]

Mjohns2,

 

There were 2 formal nights on the cruise. One on the first sea day and the other on the 3rd sea day. Yes, I suppose you could get back off the ship to see Civit... The shuttle buses ran every 30 minutes or so from the entrance of the port to the ship and and then back. It depended on how full the buses were. I can't imagine why not taking the shuttle back to the port and just walking to some of the stores there.

 

 

Debbie

[MissDebbie]

lalaxx,

 

No, my kids just were not intersted in camp carnival (never have been on any of the cruises that we have taken) and so we didn't check it out. There were quite a few kids on this cruise (a few babies, toddlers, and what looked like a lot of youngsters in the 10-15 range). We also saw a lot of young adults (maybe early 20)'s that looked like they were traveling with families. The other family that was at our table had 2 daughters 11 and 13 and they used camp carnival. They seemed to like it and sure had a string of friends that we would see them with. I think there was 15-17 club from what I remember on the cappers.

 

P.S. Build a Bear - just an FYI to everyone, they did have a build a bear at Camp Carnival. I tried hard to get my kids to do it (I did it at Boyds in PA and throughly enjoyed it) but had no takers from my two sons so didn't do this. Looked like fun though!

 

Debbie

[mjohns2]

ok, ok another questions

 

Which airport did you arrive in Fiumicino or Rome Ciampino airport?

 

I've emailed my TA, but In my email to her I just assumed it was The Fiumicino Airport.

[MissDebbie]

mjohns2,

 

We were on Continental Airlines (from San Antonio to Newark, then to Rome) and landed in Fiumicino. We had no problems navigating through the airport, most things are in Italian and English. I am pretty sure it was Terminal C. We took the Leonardo Express train from the airport to the Termini station in Rome (with our suitcases) and then just walked to our hotel from there.

 

Your flight reservations should say which airport you land at. I think Fiumicinio is listed as FCO on the reservation.

 

(FCO) Fiumicino Airport, Rome, IT

 

Debbie

[Jolimont]

Oh, WONDERFUL review! Thank you so much, especially for the escursion info!

[LisaT12]

Sounds wonderful...thanks for the great review.

[sherpasmom]

Hey Debbie ~ I'm newly booked on the Freedom for July 2008 and will be travelling alone to meet a friend coming from another direction....

 

Your info was extremely helpful in calming fears about the airport terminal and getting to port if we do our own pre night hotel ...thank you thank you thank you. Glad y'all had such a super time ~ you answered many questions I had, but I'm sure I'll have more later.

 

Donna

[MissDebbie]

Sherpasmom,

 

Any questions just ask :). We knew only a few Italian phrases and words (courtesy of an Italian phrase book) and had NO problems getting around. The signs in the airport are in Italian and English and most Italians in Rome know some English. We encountered no problems except when we went to Tarquania (a small town outside of Civit.) where we had to be creative in being understood!

 

Debbie

[sandij]

Thanks for the review, we don't go until next May but I need all the info I can gather. I was glad to hear you too do the Carnival excursions and for the same reason, I've read so many reviews of people using private tours I was beginning to think I was out of step. Ane you still had the courage to use the train system and it seemed to work well, I'll have to consider that.