2013 Dec. mother/daughter Carnival Freedom 4 nt Bahamas cruise

Since Angie was coming back to St. Louis for her cousin's wedding on Nov. 23rd, staying for Thanksgiving week, she decided to drive up from Ft. Lauderdale with her 2 dogs.  Josh was smart and flew up and back over Thanksgiving.  Having nothing better to do, I asked if she wanted company for the long ride back (other then the company of the 2 dogs).  She said sure, so I did.   With 20 hours driving time to their home in Coral Springs (by Ft. Lauderdale), it was an exhausting drive/ride for all of us.

About 2 weeks before her trip out, we were joking about going on a short cruise during the week I would be there.  Joking turned to  checking out cruises.  We found 1 that fit perfectly and went to 2 Bahamas islands.  So we booked it.  Not a bad deal at $198@ for 4 nights (about $235 with the port taxes for the 2 ports we went to---Nassau and Grand Bahamas), plus I was able to get a $50 onboard credit for owning CCL stock and cruising on Carnival.  So we pretty much rested up the day after we got to her home.  The next day, we met Josh for lunch.  He dropped us off at the port, and away we went. 

2013-12-2 and 3  Travel days:

2013-12-5 embarkation day for our Carnival Freedom cruise:

2013-12-6 Nassau:

2013-12-7 Grand Bahamas:

2013-12-8  Sea Day:

 

On Dec. 9th, we did the self debarkation since we only had carry on luggage and Josh picked us up.  Amazing how tired we were after only 4 days on the cruise!  We slept most of that afternoon and the next day I flew back to St. Louis.  It was a fast week with a lot of stuff packed into it.  But I love these mother/daughter vacations.  They're fewer and farther between now that she's married and lives so far away. 

2013-12-8  Sea Day:

One more day.  This one was a sea day.   Hung out at a couple lounges.

The main event today was in the atrium----Christmas carols and snow (soap bubbles). 

2013-12-7 Grand Bahamas:

The next morning we were excited to wake up to another beautiful day and our much anticipated return to Paradise Cove to snorkel Deadman's Reef.  Angie, Tim, FAith and I had actually stayed here for 3 nights back in June of 1999.  We all LOVED it!  We were the only ones there when none of the cruise ships were in town.  In 1999 there were 2 old 2 bedroom villas, 2  old 1 bedroom condos, and 2 brand new 2 bedroom villas not quite finished.  Now the old villas and condos are gone (blown down by a hurricane), but the 2 newer villas look great.  Looks like they also rebuilt the Red Bar area and check in area shown here.  I had reserved our trip through their website for $35 @ (which included snorkel gear and rt transportation) instead of the $80 the ship charged.   We also rented a locker for $5, 2 chairs for $3@, and prepaid for lunch $7@. 

 It was as beautiful as I remembered! 

2013-12-6 Nassau:

Day 2 dawned with us docked at Nassau.  I had been here with my Dad on a Disney cruise back in 2004.  That was actually the first cruise for either of us.  I remembered taking the boat excursion to Atlantis and loving the aquariums, but I didn't remember how expensive that was (most likely Dad paid for it---he was very generous that way!)  But other than Atlantis, I wasn't too impressed with the rest of Nassau.  So I was surprised when Angie and I went to breakfast in the Lido and saw this line of beautiful beaches.  I was commenting to Angie that I wondered if they were public beaches and a couple sitting next to us chimed in with the answer---yes, Junkanoo, the large beach to the far right, was indeed public and free.  He also said it was only about a mile walk away, so Angie and I had our plans for the day made right then---we were going to the beach.  Until then we had contemplated trying to take a taxi to the Atlantis and wandering around to see what we could see for free.  I had read that to go through the aquariums by ourselves now would be $40.  It was $80+ by ship excursion!

 As we wandered around the deck taking in Nassau from the boat, we got a kick out of this sign Carnival had up.  While we were docked, they had these up all over the place and Carnival employees painting rails and such.

 Soon we were on our way off the ship and on our way to Junkanoo. 

 Strategically Senior Frog's seem to be close to all the ports.  We turned left there and had to go inland about a block and on around the hotel with the first really nice beach (Hilton I think?). 

 Along the way we saw this interesting "graffiti"?

 Eventually we came to Junkanoo.  It was a quite a long beach, so we continued on a ways to less crowds.

 All along the beach we passed hut after hut of little bars, masseuses, bar b q joints, chair rentals, ... .

 The jerk chicken being bar b qued here smelled so good we had to try it out after we played in the water and sat on the beach for awhile.  It, and the pina collada we got, were very good!

 Our perch on the beach.  We brought our beach towels from the ship and enjoyed the beautiful day.

 The ships look deceptively close here.

 Another bar on the beach.

 Walking back to the ship.

 The entrance to the building leading back to the ship.

 Loved all the colorfully painted buildings along the way.

 After about 5 hours on shore, we were ready for a late lunch in the Lido. 

 It was nearing dusk when we were sailing off.  That's when Angie noticed the hotel in the distance with all the cranes.  Turned out to be the one she was working on the rock work for when she worked at PGAV in St. Louis a couple years before.  That was about the time the market crashed and the hotel construction got put on hold.  She was excited to see how much of it was done now.

 Looking the other way, we could see the Atlantis.

WAlking through the Lido we got a kick out of the napkin folded on the silverware pile.

 Later we also decided to try out the pizza.  It was actually pretty good.  No restaurant food tonight.

 Then we explored the ship some more.  Here is where the kids' area is.

 Another lounge---I believe this one is called Decades.

 And Swingtime lounge.

 This was the lounge where we went to watch the comedian and some karaoke. 

 We also had a drink here one night.

 Back in our room, we were greeted by a towel animal. 

  I'll have to admit I was much more impressed with Nassau this time around.  Seemed a lot prettier then I remembered.

2013-12-5 embarkation day for our Carnival Freedom cruise:

The first day was spent exploring the Carnival Freedom ship.  We had booked the cheapest category room at the very front of the ship (interior upper/lower which meant bunk beds) as a guarantee, but were  fortunately upgraded to an interior cabin with 2 lower beds and located in the middle of the ship--cabin 1291.  It wasn't the suites I'd been getting accustomed to and I missed the verandah, but we didn't spend much time in the room and it was quiet and very little motion was felt there.

 Weird bathroom picture!

We did some exploring before the muster drill.
The water slide.

 Looking towards the large outdoor theatre screen.  They played a couple movies and concerts on this screen.

 the 24 hour pizzeria

 the Freedom Café (lido buffet)

 one of the 3 or 4 - 24hr ice cream/hot drinks stations.

 patio seating.

 yummy!

Then it was time for the infamous muster drill.  We got there way too early and it lasted way too long, but fortunately we didn't have to use what we "learned"!

Back to exploring the Carnival Freedom.  It's another large ship (passenger capacity of 2970 and crew of 1150), but really didn't seem all that big.  Maybe it was because of our cabin location in the middle of the ship.  A lot of reviews complained about the dark décor around the ship, but I thought it was very nice.  
Aft pool area (adult pool)

 inside the elevator

 one of the bars along the walk through area

 Some of the interesting lighted art along the hall way

 Lounging area along walkway.

 Lots of areas to get away from the crowds and chill out.  Hard to believe there's over 4000 people on board!!!

 display by sampling bar (where they make an appetizer in the evening)

 Viennese Café.  These desserts had an upcharge for them, but it was only about $2 and the portions were huge.

 entrance to the casino

 tempting!!!!!!

 atrium area.  Lots of the ships Ken and I cruise on now don't have these grand atriums anymore.  I rather like it.

 one of the dessert bars in the Freedom café.  There was a fish and chips restaurant above this part of the Lido, but it wasn't opened many hours.

We were even treated to a pretty sunset as we sailed away from Fort Lauderdale!

 Looking down the atrium from a couple floors up.  There was very good nightly entertainment here.  This was a talented band called something like the 3rd Degree.

 the library where you can check out books and games or just enjoy the quiet.  There were also daily crossword puzzles and Sudoku games for interested cruisers.

 the Havana Bar---note the cigar bar stools!  There were great shows in here, too.  You would think it would be smokey, but I think this is one of the rooms that doesn't allow smoking.  The casino still allows smoking.  There's also smoking on private lanais, but that may be it.

 We took the late assigned dining.  We really loved our wait staff, but our dinner mates were somewhat strange.  Or should I say one was.  The 1st night we went and only 2 other people were at our table for 8.  The one gal was probably on something which didn't mix well with alcohol.  She definitely was entertaining.  Her travel companion was a very nice gal, but hardly got a word in.  We didn't go to the main restaurant the 2nd night since it was formal night and we didn't want to dress up.   The 3rd night we met 2 more of our dinner mates and they were a really interesting gay couple.  The last night, we went to the restaurant at the early seating and asked our servers if we could dine then and they were happy to oblige.  Seems a lot of people don't go to their assigned dining times anymore.  With the lido food being basically the same food as in the restaurant and there also being a burger bar and pizza bar, it makes it easy to avoid the restaurant and dressing up.  But we did make it there 3 nights and enjoyed most of our food.  This was probably the best thing I had---brisket.  It was very tasty.   The boneless braised ribs were great, too.  Surprisingly, the filet mignon was only so-so.

 The entertainment on the Carnival cruises we've been on have been very good---much better then HAL, I hate to admit.  This ship even had a live band.  We were told they are only 1 of 2 ship bands left on Carnival now.  They were excellent.  So were the Carnival singer and dancers.

The ship was already decorated for Christmas.  It was really neat seeing all the decorations.

They even had a mailbox for letters to SAnta!



 The tree in the atrium had to be at least 25' tall.

 I think we even saw Santa napping on the deck!

 the 3rd Degree playing in the atrium.

 another sitting area.

 From inside, it looked like it was light outside when it was really dark.  So we went out to see why.  The blue lighting gave it an interesting appearance.

 The atrium again.

 Listening to the band from a couple floors up.

 Bar Nouveau.

So far, so good!  I really like the ship.