As an avid cruise traveler, I find myself entering cruise vacations with a narrow set of high expectations. After all, I cruise because I truly believe it is the best vacation you can take. Our cruise on Carnival Freedom’s April 7, 2012 voyage was no different in regards to preconceived expectations. First, it was a Carnival cruise, which admittedly is not my most favored cruise line. Second, while the itinerary was unique, it seemed poorly constructed. A brief stop in boring Nassau, a call at La Romana in the Dominican Republic where everyone said there was nothing to do except high priced tours, a late 2pm arrival in Aruba and a final port stop in the unremarkable destination of Curacao left me with much doubt. Oh, did I mention that of all the Carnival ships, this one seemed to have the least feedback from past guests on message boards?
With all these doubts, why then did I find myself packing the family up for this 8-day voyage? The most relevant answer to this question is value. Carnival Cruise Lines, without doubt, offers a tremendous cruise value. In our case, we had an 8 day cruise, during spring break, for a family of 4, in a balcony stateroom. The cost…about $3100, with nearly $300 in shipboard credit from Carnival’s “Early Saver” program. Another contributing factor, despite my doubts, was indeed the itinerary. While St. Thomas, St. Martin, the Cayman Islands and Cozumel are great, it is easy to grow tired of these ports when nearly every Caribbean cruise will take you to these locales. Rare is the occasion where you have the opportunity to visit the Dominican Republic, Aruba and Curacao without the flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. As Florida residents, the easy drive to Fort Lauderdale was indeed appealing.
After an overnight stay at the Sheraton Suites Cypress Creek, where our party of 5 was comfortably situated in a spacious suite, we headed out for the 15 minute drive to Port Everglades. After quickly dropping off luggage, we parked the car at the convenient and value priced Park’N Go, immediately outside the entrance to Port Everglades. At $5.99 per day (prepaid online reservation), this is a great alternative to pricey port parking, with only a minor inconvenience of needing to be shuttled to and from their location. Returning to the port terminal, we found one of the longest lines for boarding we have encountered in our long history of cruising. While Carnival has some opportunities for efficiencies, the lines seemed to be caused by one of the largest populations of passengers arriving early (approximately 10:30 am) in the morning. Once Carnival was able to begin boarding all of the early arrivals, the embarkation process was smooth and efficient.
On board, the Carnival Freedom is not unlike other Carnival vessels, with the overdone, gaudy decor, and questionable design features that simply do no make much sense. Why are the pools small, when there is open deck space to resolve this concern? Why do you have a main theater where a large quantity of seats either have an obstruction or poor site lines? Why do they put the casino (and all of its smoke) along the main traffic pattern of the ship, with few alternatives for those trying to avoid the smoke? Why do they insist on placing 5 photograph stations along this same promenade, leaving little room for the movement of people? Why do they insist on traditional buffet lines that create consistent lines, instead of the more efficient “island” or “station” buffets? Why do they continue to use deck surfaces around certain pools that resembles a sheet of ice when wet?
Setting aside the ill-conceived architecture that I expected, the Carnival Freedom truly did offer an exceptional vacation experience. On board, we found breakfast lunch and dinner to be good to great. The standouts for me were the made to order omelets in the morning, the delicious burgers from the pool side buffet, several unique chicken dishes served on the lunch buffet, the made to order deli sandwiches, the lobster dinner in the main dining room, the crab cakes, the chocolate melting cakes, the amaretto chocolate cake and the chocolate chip cookies (what can I say, desserts are a weak spot). When speaking of food, everyone will have different tastes and preferences, always leaving room for criticism. While there were certainly dishes that were not appealing, including many beef dishes that I found to be dry, tough or poor in taste, there were always alternatives that were quite pleasing.
Entertainment on board was also a pleasant surprise, although they always left me wanting more. The poolside calypso duo, the Latin trio, the DJs, Jay the guitar soloist, the show band, the duo in the lobby and even the table side magicians were all enjoyable. Because they were all great, their limited play times, where there were long breaks every 45 minutes or so, often left me wanting more. However, by far, the best new concept in cruising is the comedy club that Carnival has introduced on their ships. While comedians can often be a mixed bag of quality, each show we saw on board was hilarious.
From a service perspective, we never had a single complaint about any service we received. Special recognition goes to all the personnel in the dining areas. These fine men and women were always outgoing and pleasant, offering great service. Likewise, the Camp Carnival team was always personable in welcoming the kids to activities. Throughout the remainder of the ship, the service was great, just without the outgoing demeanor we have grown accustomed to in our years of cruising. Rare was the occasion that steward, an officer, or any of the deck personnel would say “hello” or “good morning” or “welcome aboard” as you passed them in public areas.
As for the ports of call, the itinerary really does work well. While we would have preferred Grand Turk to the Nassau call, the timing and arrangement of the itinerary really did work well. While we stayed on ship for the brief call in Nassau, we ventured out in La Romana to challenge the idea that the only options were pricey organized shore excursions. Not long after entering the port area, we found a taxi stand offering reasonably priced options to many of the surrounding highlights including the Chavon River Valley, Santo Domingo, Casa de Campo, Puerta Plata and Bayahibe Beach. For $12 per person, round-trip, we elected to take a ride to Bayahibe Beach. While this is not on the “world’s best beaches” list, it was a great way to spend a few hours relaxing before the rain clouds started rolling in. Our taxi driver, Daniel, was waiting to take us back to the port, but only after generously offering to drive us through “city” of La Romana.
With our 2pm arrival in Aruba, we were anxious to hit the beach. Looking to avoid the crowds, we opted for the $2.30 (round trip) per person city bus ride to Eagle Beach. With crystal blue waters, powdery sand and the good fortune of having found two large starfish in the shallow waters, this was a great escape. After returning to the ship for a casual buffet dinner, we headed out into Oranjestad, where we settled on a second floor bar called Mojitos. While the drinks were great, the staff was the true entertainment. Three female bartenders, 2 of which could hardly speak any language aside from Spanish, who had to look at the menu to figure out the ingredients in each drink were entertaining. Congrats to the fellow cruise passenger from Tennessee who ordered a Maker’s Mark with water and ended up with 4 shots of Maker’s Mark on the rocks, where the only water was from the melted ice.
Our port visits concluded with Curacao. With rain on the horizon, we decided to venture into the city of Willemstad, with its unique floating bridge, Dutch colonial architecture and floating market. Eventually, the rain caught up with us, sending us scrambling for shelter. Once we were able to begin our walk back to the port, we made sure to stop at the casino in the Renaissance Curacao Resort. There, we took advantage of the $5.00 free play cards provided upon our arrival. While others in our party had no luck, I took their $5.00, converted it to $40 in winnings and walked out ahead!!!
Back on the ship, we enjoyed 2 days of relaxation sailing back to Fort Lauderdale. Sleeping in, relaxing up on deck listening to the calm ocean, making sure not to miss a meal or some of the great music playing around the ship. Arriving back in Ft. Lauderdale, you are never ready to return to the real world of work and responsibilities. However, we all walked off the ship relaxed and satisfied that we had just had a great 8 days, courtesy of the crew of the Carnival Freedom. Thanks!!!
