Carnival Freedom Review- Eastern Caribbean

[gail811]

I have had several corner afts, and while they do not offer privacy, they are still well worth it to me! You can sit in your bathrobe and not be seen if you sit closer to the back of the balcony. And usually your neighbors value their privacy and don't spend time peaking around. The most activity we notice from neighbors above and below are as we leave ports, then we chat to those above, below and beside us IF they care too. All in all, IMO, they are the best cabins on the Conquest class ships!

[ellenmb]

Thanks for the extremely detailed review and great pictures.

It is greatly appreciated by all of us awaiting our upcoming Freedom cruises.

 

Bill

 

And appreciated even by us who will be going on a different ship soon!...thank you so much!

[PaulMedik]

I love your review and pictures! I am shocked by the porter's behavior at the Miami cruise terminal. Did the rest of your luggage arrive intact? I think I will just wheel the luggage on myself if I get that kind of attitude when I board the Freedom next week.

 

 

seaweed5,

 

The last of our luggage arrived around 11:00PM on the first night. The luggage had some kind of white sticky substance on it and the bags were wet. None of the clothing inside was wet and we were able to clean the white stuff off.

 

I am sure the porters were 'feeling their oats' and that they are to blame for our luggage condition and arrival timing. I'm not sure what the thug was expecting after his speech. He had no clue what my tip amount was; he was just expecting me to add more to it and I did not. I'll have him in mind when I board in June and I plan to get more pictures of him and dedicate a website to him if it happens again. Granted he's a big beefy fellow, but I have a bit of redneck left in me that I need to exorcise from time to time. :D

 

I don't think his behavior was an isolated incident. I also need to add that it was more amusing to me than bothersome. While I value my possessions and like to see them treated well, it is something that adds an aspect to the cruise that is memorable.

 

I did have the pleasure of seeing his cohort try to direct traffic on the last day and the SUV taxi I requested went by him to pick us up. I yelled at him to go mind his luggage and leave my ride alone. He was stomping mad and I stood there and laughed at him.

[PaulMedik]

 

HA HA! Are you talking about us Paul ;) Glad you loved the cabin. .............!

 

 

Gail,

 

Yes that would be you! I fully understand now. We didn't really spend much time in the room, but the balcony had too much space and too much of a view to leave unused.

 

 

 

gypsyrose,

 

I went out on the balcony each morning in my boxer briefs and I know nobody saw me because I didn't hear any screams! :eek: My wife also went out in her robe each day.

 

If you stand right at the rail, then people from above can see your upper body. If you go down the corner area, then you have a wide area to sit or lay where nobody can see you from above or from the side without leaning way out over the rail. That area of the 9A is likely the most private deck on the ship.

 

 

Hurricane Girl,

 

My son got pics of the chocolate buffet and he and my DW brought me some back to the cabin. I was too sunburnt by that time to navigate the ship too much. The tops of my feet caused too much pain. :o Luckily I didn't need to go anywhere with that balcony! :)

[PaulMedik]

Our first sea day was beautiful;

 

 

We started our day with the breakfast buffet and sat up on Panorama deck above the buffet;

 

 

I had the standard a little of everything....;

 

 

After breakfast I explored the ship. Check out the horn;

 

 

The water wars cage was up on deck 12 by Camp Carnival. It was so windy that if they used the cage on day one or day two they would have soaked the aft decks!

 

 

The weather was beautiful and as you can see there were chairs available everywhere. My wife commented every day that she was able to get chairs by the pool with no problem when she took Britt up there;

 

[PaulMedik]

I don't know if the chair hogs were seasick or what, but there were empty chairs everywhere. The seas were very rough so that may be what kept them off the deck;

 

 

 

 

For lunch I ate at the Mexican buffet which replaced the Oriental buffet;

 

 

Karen also had some Mexican and some other items;

 

 

Britt had pizza, pie, cookies, and jello;

 

[PaulMedik]

I didn't see anyone playing ping pong the first few days. Ping pong balls wouldn't have stayed in play with the wind up on deck 12;

 

 

The Camp Carnival pool is shielded from the wind, but I didn't see them using it the first few days either;

 

 

The view from the adult (funnel deck) deck over the big screen;

 

 

The only people on the adult deck were these three under 12 girls. (They had muster station bracelets so I knew they were waaaay underage for the adult deck);

 

 

The mini golf was fun to watch with all the wind;

 

 

The slide was fully operational;

 

[4kidsplusty]

paul keep it coming between you and fred i am getting more excited about our families first cruise with 4 kids-18,16,15,8 i can't wait for them to experience the fun your family seems to be having

[PaulMedik]

Formal or 'cruise elegant' dinner was great. We sat at the Captains table in the POSH dinning room;

 

 

Martina from Czeck Republic was our Lead waitress and she did an excellent job of keeping us well fed throughout the cruise;

 

 

Martina took pics of us on the stairs by our table (I don't know what had Spencer laughing so hard);

 

 

And I don't recall why Karen was wringing Britt's neck;

 

 

This is Dino our Posh dinning room Maitre D (sp?) Dino kept us entertained all week;

 

 

Here we are all stuffed to the gills after lobster and all the fixins;

 

 

 

We have to switch hotels now. We're leaving the Intercontinental and going to the Royal Palm for tonight. I'll post more later this evening after baking some more in the South Beach sun. I see it's supposed to snow tomorrow in WV so we need to get all the warmth we can.

[gail811]

Another AWESOME review Paul! I leave in 10 days for my Legend cruise (visiting with my dad a few days in Tampa before we leave) I will try my best to take better notes and try to do a review when I get back. Won't be on the aft this time :( , but have the great huge balcony cabin next to my sister's handicap cabin. We will have plenty of deck space, but I will miss the aft views. It also means I will have to go up on deck when we sail under the bridge leaving Tampa; I want some good pictures of that.

Weather here in VA has been beautiful the last few days, in the 80's, but it did not last long, we are back in the 50's and cloudy today.

[crusinpsychRN]

Great pictures! You should at least get a 45 day letter! I think between you and Fred Carnival might want to perk you some!

 

What was the cost of the limo from FLL to South Beach? I can't get the site to give me a rate.

[jrmende63]

jrmende63,

 

6442 was the noisy cabin. It's an 8A with an extra long balcony. The noise wasn't so bad as the vibration that went along with it. My boys room had no vibration and the noise was considerably less than 6442. The noise in my boys cabin didn't warrant asking for an OBC.

 

My guess is that the stairwell adjacent to 6442 allowed the noise and vibration to permeate more. The folks next to us in 6450 didn't mention it so their's must have been better insulated.

 

The next cabin up may be over a different area and may be less noisy.

 

 

Paul,

Thanks for answering my question. I have just read another reveiw that said they were in 6434, right next to ours and they did have noise but only until 1230 am. I can handle that as we have late dinner and go the shows. I just did not want 6 nights of no sleep as this is the first leg of a sorta B2B. We get right off of the Freedom and Walk to the Splendor and board her! I also appreciate the deck plan. You and Fred have made me really anxious for our trip!

Julie

[jrmende63]

Paul,

I was so excited to see the picture Of Martina. She is a absolute sweetheart! She is our favorite Carnival employee. She was our lead servor for our very first cruise, our cruise to Alaska on the Carnival Spirit.

Julie

[PaulMedik]

Great pictures! You should at least get a 45 day letter! I think between you and Fred Carnival might want to perk you some!

 

What was the cost of the limo from FLL to South Beach? I can't get the site to give me a rate.

 

 

crusinpsychRN,

 

As I recall it was either $109 or $119 including tip. I'll check and make sure after we get home.

 

 

Jrmende63,

 

Yes Martina was great. You'll see some more pics of her later in the trip. :)

 

 

Gail,

 

You'll have more time to get out and about not having the aft. ;) Right now I'm in the lobby of the Royal Palm waiting to check in. I was sitting outside, but got too hot! Imagine that! Karen is laying out on the beach and the boys are playing in the pool. After I get checked in I plan to hit the ocean and then head down the beach to get pics of the ships.

[duck512]

So enjoying your fabulous photo review. The boys look so handsome in their tuxes (you and Karen too) and I am loving all of the food pics!! I will be so so ready by November. Doing B2B!! Keep them coming please.

 

Pat

[tha sista]

Great pictures! You should at least get a 45 day letter! I think between you and Fred Carnival might want to perk you some!

 

What was the cost of the limo from FLL to South Beach? I can't get the site to give me a rate.

 

I sent an email asking for a quote for a 7 person limo from fll to south beach, south beach to POM and POM to FLL....here's the response.

 

Thank you for your inquiry. A lincoln sedan will be 65.00 plus 20% gratuity for the driver.The transfer from the hotel to the port would be 55.00 plus the 20% gratuity. Return service from the port to fll will be 75.00 plus the gratuity. For any further information or to make a reservation please contact us at 1-800-611-6631. Thanks Again.

[Tara&Jas]

Thanks so much for your fabulous picture review... my kids are absolutely LOVING it! It is really helping them envision their upcoming first cruise in November.

[poptart]

Paul--loving it to the max! Thanks for sharing. I'll check back tomorrow.

[mainer208]

Fabulous review!!! Thanks for sharing your photos and experiences. Your family is lovely. The week you sailed seemed to be a good one...I was suprised how empty the photo was at SB but the one you took from the ship sail away was packed. We experienced the same thing while on SB...very quiet in the morning but packed in the afternoon.

 

Also, the deck didn't look mobbed as it usually does which is a good thing. Did the wind and seas let up?

 

We are all anxious for more. Thanks!

[luv2travelgrrl]

Thank you for your very detailed trip review! This is the best one EVER!!:D

[PaulMedik]

.......

 

 

Did the wind and seas let up?

 

.......!

 

 

mainer208,

 

After we left San Juan on Monday evening the wind and seas were perfect. Prior to then, it was rough.

 

 

 

Sorry for the delay in posting yesterday evening. We didn't get to check in to Royal Palm until right at 4:00PM and then I got side tracked laying on the beach then going around South Beach sampling the local foods and DW shopping. We had to get up at 4:30 this morning to catch the limo to FLL for our 7:00AM flight to WV. We just got home and it is COLD. :(

[gail811]

Welcome back Paul....I know what you mean...it is a whopping 54 degrees here today! Just look at your pictures and you will feel better....been trying to finish uploading all of mine to webshots today.

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

[Rstamper]

You will love Miami, if you can get there a day or 2 ahead, check out South Beach and also Bayside Market.

 

To me the best spot to see the beautiful homes as the ship leaves and also South Beach is the Port side, extreme aft on Deck 10. So go way back on Lido Deck and then take the stairs up on the left side.

 

They had the Chocolate Buffet on Saturday around 3pm or so, it was right next to the Mongolian Grill.

 

 

Fred

 

 

Do they also have a Gala buffet one of the nights also? (6-7 night cruise)

[PaulMedik]

I got our Carnival photos scanned in so to catch up I'll post the ones I've missed so far.

 

Here's our embarkation photo;

 

 

You'll notice that our first casual dinner photos are similar to our embarkation photo thanks for porter 150;

 

 

 

Captains Dinner on the first day at sea (Sunday);

 

 

Formal photos after Captains dinner;

 

 

No I don't normally stand like this;

[PaulMedik]

The boys at the Captains Dinner;

 

 

Titanic steps after Captains Dinner;

 

 

The boys at Titanic steps. Notice Britt's shoes? We had to buy him new ones in St Martin for the second elegant dinner. (The one thing we forgot to pack!);

 

 

Here's the Carnival Freedom photos that come with the albums;

 

8 x 11:

 

 

5 x 7 or 6 x 9 ?:

 

 

 

And the final 'catch up' photo is a casual (I think it was actually taken latet in the week when my feet were too crispy to walk far);