Carnival Freedom Review- Eastern Caribbean

[PaulMedik]

The water was clear and beautiful so Britt couldn't resist walking in the gentle surf;

 

 

I had to remind him that he was still carrying his backpack and that he didn't want to get it wet;

 

 

After we found a place mid way down the beach, I asked the lifeguard how to go about getting chairs. He said the rental place was back up at the entrance and that the guys there would carry the chairs to wherever I wanted to go. I walked back up the beach and rented two chairs and a float for $50 with a $20 deposit returned upon return of the chairs and float. Suffices to say the guys there simply pointed to two chairs and pointed to a float by them and said there ya go;

 

 

The boys had been sunscreened up and had hit the water when I returned;

 

 

We found and cracked a small coconut;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

 

Spencer was determined to smash the coconut open;

 

 

I was chosen to finish ripping the coconut open;

 

 

I had to work on the crack a little more. (All the while thinking of Tom Hanks trying to open the coconut in that movie...?);

 

 

No, I do not have a mohawk hair cut. Prying on a coconut will cause that appearance!;

 

 

 

After I got it split in two, the boys tried to talk Karen into wearing the halves. This is as close as she would come to wearing them;

 

[beach410]

I am really enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time to share, the pictures are really nice and you have a lovely family. We have 3 boys too!

[PaulMedik]

I am really enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time to share, the pictures are really nice and you have a lovely family. We have 3 boys too!

 

 

 

beach410,

 

Thank you.

 

Three boys sure are a handful eh?

 

 

The boys saw this pose going on down the beach and decided we should have it too;

 

 

My panorama mode practice was starting to pay off;

 

 

 

Megan's Bay is so long it took three panorama shots to get it all;

 

 

We met this lovely Penn State teacher and her husband who were condo vacationing on St Thomas. I think we convinced them to try a cruise. We also gave them Cruise Critic's URL and advised them to read read read;

 

 

The boys then insisted they were big enough to pick their mother up;

 

[readboat]

Your pictures are great and you look like you are having a great time.

It is to bad your bus driver was miserable. We had one like that in Spain and I left her tour and asked for my money back from the cruise line.

We will be sailing on the Freedom in May cabin 2457. I have asked on the cc cabin questions if anyone had stayed in it or seen a picture but no one responded.

Have a great time.

[PaulMedik]

They finally worked together to pick her up;

 

 

Then Bryson decided he could lift her on his own;

 

 

While Bryson recovered Spencer tried, but he couldn't get her up;

 

 

The lifeguard came down and complimented Bryson on his lift and snapped a pic of all of us;

 

 

After the boys muscle display I pulled our chairs and float back down the beach to the rental place and had to walk inside the garage area to have the boys mark my receipt as returned. I then walked inside for my $20 refund and the terse clerk asked if I planned to tip her boys outside. I advised her the best tip I could offer them was to actually provide a service instead of relaxing. She said they depend on people to leave the chairs on the beach so they can collect the deposits. I told her that may have worked if they had bothered to deliver the chairs to begin with. Some people are amazing in that they expect something for nothing.

 

Our return taxi driver was the exact opposite of the porter's cousin. He was friendly, talkative, and well informed about the area we were traveling. He kept us enthralled with stories of people we passed and the history of his home. He was everything one hopes for when spending time with someone in their country.

 

I got a few pics on the way back;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

Your pictures are great and you look like you are having a great time.

It is to bad your bus driver was miserable. We had one like that in Spain and I left her tour and asked for my money back from the cruise line.

We will be sailing on the Freedom in May cabin 2457. I have asked on the cc cabin questions if anyone had stayed in it or seen a picture but no one responded.

Have a great time.

 

 

readboat,

 

Thank you. We did have a great time. The miserable taxi driver just added to our memory of St Thomas. I can't really say it's a negative memory because we were able to witness behavior that we didn't expect and that in and of itself makes for a lasting memory.

 

Cabin 2457 is a 6B ocean view cabin on the Main deck starboard aft and should be a standard twin bed configuration similar to what my boys had, but with a large window in between. If I run across any pics of a similar cabin, I'll be sure and post them here.

 

 

 

 

Our return taxi driver mentioned that this was his favorite view with the US flag and the ships in the background;

 

 

After we returned to the port area, we did some shopping and took the boys back on board. They said they'd had too much sun and they were tired. We took Britt to Camp Carnival to spend the evening and Karen and I went back ashore to try and find Britt some dress shoes and to ride the aerial tram;

 

 

 

I forgot to mention earlier that our stay in St Thomas had been extended until 10:30 so they could perform some maintenance prior to the Atlantic crossing in two weeks. The extra time allowed us to have a full sea day and then a shopping evening for Karen and I. Here's the view from the aerial tram platform;

 

[PaulMedik]

As the tram ride began I realized just how beautiful the area was;

 

The ride was $18 per person for cruise pax. Locals pay $4 per person.

 

 

The view was well worth the price;

 

 

As you approach the top, there's a bar / restaurant with live entertainment (Animals and a band);

 

 

The view over the roof of the bar was awesome at sunset even with the cloud cover. It didn't make for the most ideal picture, but was impressive to see;

 

 

I had to try another panorama shot;

 

[PaulMedik]

The ships were all lit up and the bay area was ablaze with twinkling lights from the houses and boats. I got a lot of fuzzy pics before managing to steady the camera enough for one that was almost clear;

 

 

The folks up there said that in daylight when it is clear they can see San Juan and St Thomas among other islands;

 

 

Even though it was dark the tram was still busy bring folks up and down;

 

 

We had to experiment with the camera settings for this one;

 

 

It's amazing how cameras can turn night in to day;

 

 

The boys would have liked to be in this pic;

 

[PaulMedik]

They had several areas for photo ops;

 

 

After we rode the tram back down we visited the local K-Mart and some other stores and couldn't find shoes for Britt. The K-Mart there is a decade or two behind the times.

 

When we got back to the port shops we planned to shop because we were told they would stay open late since the ship was staying late. Apparently nobody told the shop owners we were staying because they were almost all closed;

 

 

Diamonds International was open, but I didn't find any other stores not boarded up tight.

 

Since it was an unscheduled stay in port they opened the ships stores and the casino back up at 6:00PM. We found our pics from the previous day and Karen waited in line to pay;

 

 

She's actually in this pic, but I never did catch her with her head up so I could see her;

 

The classical music band was playing in the lobby while several people danced.

 

 

The bar was doing good business too;

 

[PaulMedik]

We picked Britt up from Camp Carnival and he appeared to have been on the winning side of the pirate war this time;

 

 

Before going to bed I tried out the panorama mode on our cabin. We only have one Britt, but he wanted to be in the picture twice so he ran over to Karen in between shots;

 

 

During our sail away from St Thomas I made note of a shamrock or four leaf clover looking area made by an absense of lights on the hill to the left of the port. I thought to myself that it would be a while before I see this sight again; I was wrong! We returned to St Thomas again the next evening after our day in St Martin. I'll get the pics uploaded and fill in the details on that later. Those who read WennFred's live Freedom review already know those details so I'll fill in the pics to go along with them. :)

[vacruizer]

This is great - love your pics!! We are visiting St. Thomas and San Juan for the first time this summer and can't wait! I actually just bought a camera with a panorama mode last week so it's neat to see how your shots turned out.

 

Glad you had a great trip and looking forward to more!

[deborahjo]

Thanks for the beautiful pictures from St Thomas and Megans Bay. We love it there. Do you know if they have sold the island that is stright out from Megans Bay yet. The owner bought it for 1 mil and has it up for 5 mil now. I would love to own it.

 

Paradise Point is a beautiful place to take pictures from as you showed. It was so nice to look out over everything up there.

[RLG1023]

If you dont mind what kind of camera were you using?

[smurfm69]

Great review and love all the pics. St. Thomas is our favorite port and the pictures as great as they are, don't do justice to the sights at Paradise Point. Did y'all try a Bushwhacker drink up there?(yummy) We have always been beach lovers and I would have to say that Megan's Bay is by far our favorite beach. The water is calm and clear like a swimming pool and the scenery is beautiful. It's killing me not to be going on a cruise this year but hoping to go on another in May 2009. Glad you guys had a good time and nice weather.

[PaulMedik]

If you dont mind what kind of camera were you using?

 

 

 

RLG1023,

 

Most were taken with a Kodak Z1285. It's a 12 Mega Pixel camera that is handy for point and shoot. Some were taken with a Kodak DX7590.

 

I bought myself the Z1285 after buying one for Bryson and noticing how clear the pics were and for the built in panorama mode. It also lasts a long time on rechargeable batteries. I took three extra batteries for the trip and never used more than one per day.

 

 

 

smurfm69,

 

Amen to that. Paradise Point is beautiful. I wish we had went there ealier in the day because it was cloudy at sunset yet still awesome.

 

 

deborahjo,

 

I never heard anyone speaking about whether the island had been sold. I would suspect it's worth every penny of five million though.

 

 

vacruizer,

 

Thank you. I planned to practice with panorama mode before we went, but I only tried it enough to realize it's not good for close up or interior pics. It does real well with scenery pics though.

[RLG1023]

Thanks we have pretty good camera Canon S3..but was looking for a small point and shoot camera for the ports, your pics are really clear!!!

 

I am enjoying the review keep it coming. Thanks for taking the time to do one. I know they are hard work I did one with pics when I was on the Glory last year and plan to do another this May.

[4kidsplusty]

we are visiting st thomas in the summer how far is that ride you took from the piers?seeing your pictures is getting me soooooo excited for our first cruise. keep the post coming:o

[jonsmom]

Paul

 

Thanks for your review - I am leaving on the Freedom on Saturday and just loving the great pictures that you took, especially San Juan.

 

Do you have a link for your webshots website.

 

Thanks.

 

Joanne

[PaulMedik]

Thanks we have pretty good camera Canon S3..but was looking for a small point and shoot camera for the ports, your pics are really clear!!!

 

I am enjoying the review keep it coming. Thanks for taking the time to do one. I know they are hard work I did one with pics when I was on the Glory last year and plan to do another this May.

 

 

RLG1023,

 

Thank you.

 

 

4kidsplusty,

 

I would describe it as being within very easy walking distance. I would say it's less than half a mile. You can see the tram from the ship. I'll see if I have a photo of it from the ship and upload it.

 

 

jonsmom,

 

You are welcome.

 

There's a link to our webshot albums in my signature or you can also CLICK HERE.

[jonsmom]

Thanks - great pictures of San Juan. Did you say you took the trolley to the forts? If so, where do you pick the trolley up?

[PaulMedik]

Thanks - great pictures of San Juan. Did you say you took the trolley to the forts? If so, where do you pick the trolley up?

 

 

jonsmom,

 

No. The trolley runs between the forts and may also go elsewhere I'm not sure. Other than the horse drawn carriage, we did all our traveling by foot.

[pe4all]

Paul- thanks for the anwer about the carriage. We are definitely going to look into that next week. (man, does that sound good to say!!) I think our 6/7 year old niece and nephew will love that, as will my teens. We were just gonna hang on the ship that day - now have a reason to get off! (plus, we may go kite flying at El Morro - heard that was fun)

[PaulMedik]

We arrived in St Martin for our 7:00A - 5:00P port day some time before I woke up. I love watching us sail in to ports and I was sleeping through some of the best parts of our cruise. Oh well, I'm sure my dreams were about what we were doing so all was well.

 

When I looked out our balcony door, the bright sun had the port at St Thomas fully illuminated;

 

 

I immediately noticed some pier construction off to our left;

 

 

I was thinking it sure would be nice to have a few loads of that sand under my chair..........;

 

 

After checking out the pier construction, I tried out the panorama mode on the Caribbean Princess docked beside us (I managed to mangle the ship pretty bad);

 

 

While taking pics of the Caribbean Princess, I noticed that Karen and I were also on board the Princess!;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

View between the two ships;

 

 

Our normally private balcony now had plenty of folks with a view;

 

 

We made our way up to our customary spot on Panorama for breakfast;

 

 

 

After breakfast we walked to the front of our ship to see if we could see the back of the Princess ship, but it was a little too long for us to see;