Carnival Freedom
Nov 29-Dec 5
Not much pre-cruise hype about this cruise, because
publically on the social network we chose to keep everything quiet after the
mailbox bandit struck in our neighborhood; better safe than sorry!
Carnival ran a promotion a few months ago for loyal
travel agents and opened a few cruises for “free” to agents on a very limited
first come-first serve basis. It was supposed to be open for two to three days,
but was sold out in thirty-five minutes; not before I snagged a nice one though
J Ft Lauderdale to Grand Cayman and Cozumel;
Five (5) glorious nights in the Caribbean.
Travel Day – Nov 29
Someone at Delta loves us because we got special
frequent flyer attention through
security. Laptop could stay in the bag and we got to keep our shoes on!!
Impressed Dennis and now he doesn’t mind the whole airport hassle, not bad at
all. We were pre-cleared; nice touch for
Delta Frequent flyers. Kristi brought us to the airport and had to head back
home for a birthday party for her niece, so we arrived at the airport a little
early. Once at the gate with two hours
to spare, we just relaxed ( a strange concept that I am not sure what to do
with) and then took turns watching luggage and going to find a bite for dinner.
Dennis opted for a Boars Head Sandwich, and I had
Asian chicken and rice. Not great, but certainly satisfied with airport fast
food. We were ready to go now, and boarded at 7:00 p.m. for an on-time 7:30
p.m. departure for Ft. Lauderdale. The
seats were extremely close together and I felt a little like Queen Latima in
“Last Holiday” on her flight to the Hotel Poup. The plane we were on at just arrived into
Atlanta from Honolulu… I cannot imagine
seating the seat I was in for a nine hour flight from Honolulu – my legs would
be numb. I now know how they added extra
leg room for the billable “economy comfort seats”, they took it from all the other seats. Not impressed L
We landed around 9:20 and made it to the hotel,
Crown Plaza Cruise Port, by 10:30ish. Time to crash!
Cruise Day 1 – Nov 30th
We awoke to bright sunshine and a warm day in
southern Florida. Ate a quick breakfast in the hotel restaurant and loaded the
shuttle to the pier. There were five
ships in port that day, and as we pulled up to the first stop in the cruise
terminal, we saw a familiar sight, The Crown Princess, that we had sailed on
last year (April 2012) with the Wamsley crew.
We love “Princess” and although I was looking forward to this cruise
with Carnival, I always long for a Princess cruise – there is just something
about that whole experience that makes it special.
By 11:00 a.m. we were in our room, with the Faster
to the Fun package, - Room 7417 (Empress Deck) with a nice balcony and view of
the other four ships in port, waiting to depart later that afternoon; Thank You
Carnival, nice! We could see the Crown
Princess straight ahead, on our right, the Holland America Rotterdam and the
Celebrity and pulled up close on our left, the ship my granddaughter Kayna is
begging to go on, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.
We went to the buffet to grab a bite to eat then
back to the room to unpack and get settled in for the next five nights. Except,
we have no luggage. Hmm, as a part of Faster to the Fun, not only is your room
ready immediately upon boarding, but your luggage should meet you in your room.
It’s been over an hour since we boarded at this point, and no luggage. We met
our room steward, Tao (that’s short for something much longer, but he said call
him Tao- so, suits us) and set out to explore this ship. I love the layout. It’s big and plenty of room. Never seemed
like it has almost 3000 passengers. This
may well be one of my favorite ships. After
a call to Guest Services, our luggage showed up, around 3:30 p.m. I unpacked, we explored more, took part in
the mandatory safety drill, then came
back to the balcony to watch the other ships begin to depart. We were the next
to the last one out of port, with the Oasis following us.
Dinner in the Posh Dining Room landed us at a table
for 10. A little bigger that I like when
you are with strangers, because it is a little hard to talk across such a big
table. It didn’t take us long to realize
that everyone at our table were travel agents. We had a private welcome aboard
party for travel agents before dinner and several of us recognized one another
now at our table,from the earlier party. One couple beside us hails from
Lilburn, Ga. where she owns her own small Travel Agency. Two other husband /
wife couples and then two sisters from California. A bit of an oddity here that we were not too
happy with is that our server at dinner has very little, if any, help. On most cruises there are three people
serving each table. The head waiter, the assistant, and the bar steward. Three’
(his nickname) works it alone, as do all the waiters. It is slow, no way around it, but he is
working hard and doing a good job. No
time to interact and get to know him though – we kind of miss that.
After dinner we went to the Welcome Aboard Show in
the Theatre, and then outside to finish the night at the Seaside Theatre (aka
Movies Under the Stars on Princess, or just a humongous poolside outside movie
screen). We watched “ The Experiment” with Drew Barrymore, a movie about saving
whales in Barrow, Alaska – very good!
Then I tackled a little homework before calling it a night. It had been
a long day.
Day Two – Sunday: A little sun and Spa.
Headed to Grand Cayman, it is getting WARM (very
welcome after the nasty cold weather we left in Atlanta). We had Sunday Brunch
in the Dining Room – the usual omelet for me and eggs, bacon and toast for
Dennis (and no Bacon police, Dan – Dennis had a whole bowl full of bacon).
After brunch, we went to the Serenity Deck and read for a while and relaxed in
sun loungers until lunch time. Not much
going on today – just relaxing and looking around the ship. A little before 4:00 I headed to the Spa and
Gym. I worked out for about 20 minutes,
swam in the Spa pool, took a shower and then dried off in the Eucalyptus Sauna
– very nice. Wow, it’s only 4:30, I thought I had been here longer than that –
but it’s just me, so maybe time is passing slowly. I went by the gift shop on
my way back to the room to pick up a couple of things then get ready for Formal
night.
I walked into the room and Dennis was standing by
the door with this startled look on this face, asking “Do you know what time it
is? ”. “Sure, it’s about 5:00 p.m.” I
said. “ Try, 5:45 p.m !” “What?” the clock in the spa had been wrong, or
wasn’t working. I had to jump into turbo
mode, but I did – quickly, and we made it to dinner right on time – 6:00
p.m. It helps that the Dining room is
just a couple of floors beneath us – Aft, and our room is all the way Aft. Formal night Dinner is always good, Lobster!
We hurried from dinner, skipping dessert ( If I don’t stay for it, I won’t eat
it – good plan, right?) We had split a
milkshake earlier in the day, so that was my indulgence for the day. We went to the 7:30 p.m. comedy show and it
was very good. We love Carnival’s Family
Comedy shows. After the comedy show, we
were waiting for the elevator to walk all the way FORWARD to the Theatre to
catch the 8:30 live show of “The Big Easy”.
While we were waiting in a very crowded room waiting
on the elevators, carefully watching both sides to see which door would open,
Dennis called my name from across the room, and pointed – it took me a minute
to realize he wasn’t pointing at a door, but to friends we hadn’t seen since
the late 80’s; preacher friend of ours, Terry and Gail Elsner. Wow, we are in the Caribbean in an odd time
of year for a vacation and we run into old friends – too cool! We hugged, and chatted briefly, swapped
stateroom numbers and have a plan to get together on Wednesday (Our last full
sea day).
Monday December 1– Grand Cayman
We had originally planned to go to the Turtle Farm,
but after discussing, neither of us really were into turtles and decided to
just go to one of the world famous beaches on Seven Mile Beach. We took a Taxi
bus straight from the pier – easy and a good deal. Not as exciting as the
Nassau Jitney Bus we rode in September, but it did the trick. It was early, but HOT in Grand Cayman today.
We arrived at Calico Jack’s at Sea-Grape Beach and grabbed a couple of chairs pulled
under a Grape Leaf Tree; good shade.
The beach was pretty white sand, until you got into the ocean, and then
it became very rocky and a pretty steep drop off – not great for just playing
the shallow ocean. I ventured out some,
but it hurt my feet, and was hard to climb back up the steep embankment so we
just layed out for a while. I walked up the beach for a while and back. Pulled
my chair into the water and sat and people watched for a while. A nice young man, traveling by himself,
rented the chair beside us, and after a brief chat, asked us to watch his
backpack while he snorkeled. After about three hours (that’s a long time at the
beach for Dennis, for any of you who do not know) we headed back to the ship
for lunch, more serenity deck hot tub time, and a trip down the big Twister
slide for me (are you proud of me, grandchildren?????). It was fun, and if the pavement hadn’t been
so hot upon exiting, I would have given it another go. A little time in the hammock to dry off and
then it was reading and nap time (yeah, Uncle Si isn’t the only one that likes
naps) in the room.
We decided to splurge tonight and to the Upscale
Steak house for dinner. Dennis had been watching a cooking show the other day
while I was at the Spa, and this was the result J WOW – just about sums it up. It really is worth the Hype for a steak
out. Dennis’ at home are as good (as long as the meat is top grade),
but nothing at our local Texas Roadhouse, Logans, or Longhorn’s comes
close. Dennis had the large Filet Mignon,
Crabcake and Caesar Salad with fresh fruit and sherbet for dessert. I had the small Filet Mignon and Lobster Tail
(Surf and Turf), Crab Cake and French Onion Soup, with Caramelized Apples and
Ice Cream for dessert. Let me just say once again – YUM, elegant, superb
service…. Top Notch, Carnival.
I talked to Gail again this afternoon and we are
making plans to meet on Wednesday for a while. We went to the show after dinner
tonight in the theatre, Carnival dancers
and singers – the 40’s era and WWII. Wasn’t
bad, wasn’t all that great – or maybe I’m just a little tired tonight. We are in the room resting right now (except
I am blogging, so I don’t know how much rest I am getting) and then going out
by the pool at 11:00 to watch the movie, Lincoln. Looking forward to that – I have heard it
was great!
Tuesday – December 2, Cozumel
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