Carnival Freedom May 23-31 2009

zebra · June 10, 2009

Loving this Donna - loved James' necklace on Elegant Night!! :biggrin:

rollerdonna · June 10, 2009

To be honest, the "Elegant Night" photos were taken on the 2nd Elegant Night (I didn't have my camera with me for the 1st one!) The 2nd night followed the Mardi Gras Deck party the night before, so there were a lot of beads left over, which made their way to our tables as decorations for the 2nd Elegant Night. That's why we're all wearing beads!

donna

cruisingcats · June 10, 2009

Donna all I can say is WOW. You know how to do a review. Love the pictures. Can't wait for the next one.

eaststandbaggie · June 10, 2009

Wonderful review Donna, cant wait to read the rest of it.

JoeyandDavid · June 10, 2009

Part 3:

Carnival Freedom Monday May 25San Juan, Puerto Rico

Today was essentially another Sea Day, since we weren't due into San Juan until 5 p.m., however, the captain somehow managed a 3 p.m. Arrival!

The day was warm, with a mix of sun and cloud, and a light breeze, with temperatures in the high 80's.

Since I hadn't made it to Pilates yesterday due to illness, I went to a class this morning instead. There were only 3 of us, a set of 20-something twins, and myself!

The Pilates, Stretch and Yoga classes are held in the main Gym area, surrounded by people on stationary bikes, treadmills, and weight machines, and bombarded by loud techno-pop music designed to make you work out hard and fast. Not exactly the "Zen" relaxing atmosphere that Pilates or Yoga should be.

I would certainly like to see these classes held in a separate area, quieter and more private, with soothing relaxation music.

However, we made do with what we had, and part of that was Daniel, a handsome, body-builder type from London England, who put us through our paces. He was demanding and challenging, with many repetitions and near impossible poses, but it was a good workout just the same.

Following Pilates, I enjoyed some sun-on-the-pool-deck time, before Trivia at 10:30. This one was TV Show trivia and I scored 13/20; passable, but not good enough to win.

I did however, manage to win a later Trivia, this one with music sound-bytes. With 19/20 correct, I won a Carnival medal on a ribbon.

For lunch this day, we ventured up the stairs past Lady Liberty, to the second level of the Lido dining area, a well hidden secret!

Up there on Deck 10 is the Fish'n Chip station, and an excellent meal to be found. Unfortunately, the "chips" were more like McDonald's skinny fries than real English chunky fries, but they were good anyway, and we really enjoyed the fish.

The rest of the afternoon was spent up on the outdoor deck in the sun and wind, and I awoke from a hazy nap to see land off the port side of our ship!

We were sailing just alongside Fort Morro at the tip of San Juan.

We could see people climbing the rocks around the old Fort, and they waved at us as we waved at them.

Our early arrival in San Juan surprised a lot of people, and it seemed everyone rushed off the ship as soon as we were docked, because we were left virtually alone on the pool deck, to enjoy the rest of the afternoon by the pool.

Since our scheduled arrival time in port was 5 p.m., plans had been made to open only 1 dining room this evening, with open seating, since most passengers were already onshore.

We decided to eat a little earlier, so we could also go ashore for awhile after dinner.

We arrived at the Chic dining room around 6 p.m. To see hordes of waiters standing around, waiting for someone to serve! We were seated off to one side, in an area completely unpopulated by anyone else, and we had the full attention of every waiter in the vacinity.

I took the time to appreciate some of the detail in our dining room decor.

There were multiple panels such as this, which continuously changed colour as you watched them.

We enjoyed an excellent meal, served quickly and with much attention to detail (water-filling, bread refills, and anything else our hearts desired!).

I decided to make notes of what we ate, just to satisfy the curiosity of our VTJen:

I had a delicious Petite Marmite soup (vegetables, barley and beef), and the most scrumptious Australian Lamb dish I've ever tasted, followed by a to-die-for dessert of Almond Phyllo pastry with cream. Yum!

James chose a wonderful Pea soup, and Lasagne Boulanaise, with a White Chocolate Bread Pudding for dessert that he said was "out of this world!"

Once again, our tastebuds were not disappointed!

After dinner, we had a nice long chat with our main waitress Harlene from the Philippines, about her life and her work on the ship. It was nice to be able to spend some time getting to know the staff, as usually dinners are so rushed.

Following dinner, we decided to go ashore in San Juan and have a look around.

Basically all we did was wander a little ways from the ship, take some photos, pass back through the port building where most of the shops were closed, and then came back onboard. It was very hot and humid and we were glad to get back in the air conditioning!

Once onboard, we just relaxed until showtime at 10:30. This evening's featured entertainer was "Puck", a hypnotist, who's show was fairly entertaining, but certainly not as much fun as the hypnotist Fernando who we saw on Princess earlier this year.

The show was followed by a midnight sailaway party up on Lido deck, with live Latin music, dancing, a Mexican food buffet, flavoured Margaritas, a limbo contest, and a conga line, which of course, I just had to join!

The party was well attended and a lot of fun, but we were exhausted and headed off to bed around 1 a.m.

Goodbye to San Juan, and goodnight to Doggy!

to be continued.....tomorrow, St. Thomas......

donna

KeithnRita · June 10, 2009

Wow, what a great review! Looking forward to the next part. :thumbup:

zebra · June 10, 2009

OK... I'm hooked - I hope this cruise never ends.

JoeyandDavid · June 10, 2009

Carnival Freedom Part 4

Tuesday May 26, 09

St. Thomas U.S.V.I.

When I awoke at 7 a.m. We had already docked in St. Thomas, and after a quick breakfast, we were off the ship by 8:30.

On the dock we looked for our online, pre-booked tour with Sunny Liston Tours. One bus took a group of people downtown shopping, and another bus took us (alone) to Coki Beach.

This was our first visit to Coki Beach, and it won't be our last. It was a beautiful beach, clean, clear, calm water, and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

Beach chairs were only $5 as opposed to the $10 charged at some other beaches, and Bailey's Bushwackers were $8 but worth every penny, they were so good!

Beach waiters, most apparently ex-pats, wandered the beach taking drink and food orders all day. They also brought us free samples of drinks to try, which was nice.

Food was expensive, with cheeseburgers and chicken wraps at $10, but they were delicious!

It was a very pleasant beach day, with little bother from vendors, and low music playing in the bar/snackbar, which was unobtrusive, not like the blaring rap and reggae at some beaches!

This was the beach where I decided to write a message to Cruise Crazies in the sand!

Back at the pier, I had a quick shopping spree at the Havensight Mall. Who would have believed that on a Caribbean island like St. Thomas, it would be so hard to find a bathing suit?!

I wandered from shop to shop to shop, and all I could find were teeny tiny crocheted bikinis, or men's board shorts.

I searched and searched for a simple 1-piece bathing suit, or preferably, a 2-piece tankini, but no luck.

Of course I had brought 2 bathing suits with me on the cruise, but once I got in the water I realized how terribly worn and stretched out of shape they were, and I spent time in each port looking for replacements - to no avail!

Back onboard, I found a little time to enjoy a swim and hot tub, and of course some frozen yogurt/ice cream.

Would somebody please explain to me why Carnival paints their hot tubs yellow? They look like tubs full of bubbling pee!

Around this time, I also noticed a broken window by the aft pool and hot tub. I don't know how long it had been broken, but it was cordonned off with yellow danger tape and some pylons. There appeared to be a small hole (bullet?) low in the window, while the rest of the window was completely shattered in a million little pieces. I'm surprised it did not fall out, and it was still there on our last morning when we docked in Fort Lauderdale.

It was an early shower, clean up and dress this evening, as we were to attend a 5:15 Repeat Passenger party.

At least that's what we thought it was, but it turned out to be more of a sales pitch for booking future cruises.

There was free wine and champagne served, but no h'or d'oeuvres or fancy cocktails.

Carnival does have some good deals for putting a down payment onboard and booking future cruises within the next 4 years.

Dinner this evening was again, very very good. We both enjoyed French Onion Soup, and I had a pretty tasty steak, while James tried the Jerk Pork.

My only complaint was that they just can't make Cheesecake like they do in Montreal, but I was so full I couldn't finish it anyway!

The Big Show tonight was called "Ticket to Ride", a salute to the Beatles.

We arrived early to get good seats, and enjoyed a 1/4 hour of old Beatles tunes, then a 1/4 hour of old film clips, facts and music on the big screen, very enjoyable to us. My husband, who lived in the U.K. In his youth, had actually attended many of the Beatles' early shows at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, and it was fun for him to revisit those memories.

The show itself was outstanding, the song choices, the sets, costumes, and the performances excellent.

At the end, wait staff handed out Glow Sticks in the audience and there was a glowing standing ovation for the final number, Hey Jude. Total audience participation!

After the show, we headed back to our cabin, always easy to find at the bottom of the aft staircase, because on Verandah Deck 8, there was a large piece of abstract art depicting the Beatles and their music.

We always knew that when we found George and John on the right hand side, we were on the right side of the ship to find our cabin!

Good Night George, Goodnight John!

to be continued......tomorrow in Antigua.....

donna