Carnival Freedom Embarkation Day

I wish I could say I had slept great...but I didn't. The rooms at the Hyatt Place were nice and spacious, but there was a strong, musty smell and the AC roared the whole night. The AC unit is right under the window next to the bed and was so loud I struggled to sleep. On a positive note...it kept us from hearing any outside noise! 😉

Our day began with the free continental breakfast in the hotel lobby. It wasn't anything fancy...fruit, bagels, toast, cereal, juice, yogurt, etc. The best part? Free Starbucks coffee! Knowing I would be eating non-stop for the coming week, it was certainly adequate.

The hotel provided a free shuttle to the port...a plus for cruisers. Around 10:15 am we went down to the lobby and the shuttle driver was loading up luggage for a larger group to go to the port. There was just enough room left for 2 more people (that would be us!) It is a short drive to the port and we arrived a little after 10:30 am. The driver stressed that he was sure that we were arriving too early, but it worked out perfectly.

As we drove up the first person I spotted was Patty that I had corresponded with on our Cruise Critic roll call. We ended up in line right behind her family and immediately started inside the building and up to the second floor. There was a bit of a line winding back and forth through the ropes, but it didn’t take long to get to the desk where we were quickly checked in and given our Sign & Sail cards. We were assigned Zone 2 and told to have a seat until we were called. About 15 or 20 minutes later and we walking onto the ship. We were eating lunch on the Lido shortly after 11:30.

Our first meal was the Mongolian station at the buffet…no line. That was the only time all week we didn’t have to wait. Bob tried it several times and by the end of the week the wait time was close to 45 minutes. With so many other choices I wasn’t about to wait in line that long…but he thought it was worth it. You fill a bowl with raw veggies and then have your choice of 3 kinds of raw meat. I think the meat choices vary from day to day. There are 3 sauce choices as well…mild, medium and spicy hot. Bob had to try the hot one and admitted it really did have a kick. For him to say that makes me believe it must have been VERY hot. I chose the medium one (can’t remember the names) and it was just perfect for me.

Eventually we were allowed to go to our cabins (around 1:30). In our past 3 cruises we have had an inside cabin, a porthole cabin, and a balcony. Bob just wanted the cheapest option for this cruise although I stressed about going back to an inside after experiencing the balcony the last time. He actually loves sleeping in the dark inside rooms. By the time we booked I got one of the last 4A cabins…an inside near the front of the ship on deck 1. We have been in one of the very front cabins before so knew that we would feel the ship movement…and we did…and we loved it!

Our cabin (#1238) seemed much smaller than the inside that we had on the Paradise. The outside cabins across the hall were considerably larger and I was a bit sorry we hadn’t gotten one of those…but we spent very little time in our cabin and the complete darkness did make for some wonderful sleep!

The hallway of Deck 1...it goes on forever!

Muster drill was pretty painless…just something you have to do and then get on with the cruise. At least we were in the shade so it wasn’t beastly hot. They let us just carry our life jackets to the muster station and only had to actually wear them for a short time.

After the drill was over, Bob made a mad dash back to the cabin to stash the life jackets and then joined me at the front of the ship on Deck 6. We had discovered what some people like to call the “secret doors” on our last cruise on the Victory. And…just as it was on that cruise…we were all alone at the front of the ship for sail away! Throughout the cruise we would return to this spot and would joke that we were on a “ghost ship”! Thousands of people onboard yet it felt like we were all alone!

Our previous cruises had been booked through a large, online agency. This time I booked directly with Carnival. When I made the reservation, I asked her to note that we would like to be at a larger table in the dining room as we enjoy getting to know other people on the ship. My heart sank when we found our table in the dining room the first night and realized that it was a booth for 4 people.

Our dining assignment was in the Chic dining room…early seating.

(I think this photo is actually the Posh Dining Room at the back of the ship...but the Chic looked very similar.)

When our table mates arrived we discovered we had almost NOTHING in common and I was afraid that it would be a long week of awkward conversations at dinner.  But you know what…we had a great time! We didn’t end up being close friends for life or anything, but I did look forward to the time we spent with them each night. I did not however enjoy being in a booth. The booths have a “roof” over them and I felt like we were in a “cage”. (I think the roof was actually just the overhang of the upper level...you can just barely see the booths off to the side in the above photograph.) If I had a choice I would much prefer the longer tables by the windows or even a large round table in the center of the dining room.

Our waiters for the week were Dominic (from India) and Supakorn (from the Philippines.) Both were excellent! I asked for lemon slices for my water on the first night and each night after that “Supa” had the lemons on the table when we arrived. She would also remember that I liked coffee with dessert each night without me asking. Our table mate had trouble holding the small coffee cups so she made sure to have a large mug for him each night as well.

I was so excited to find out that John Heald was to be the CD on our cruise. I have read so many good things about him on Cruise Critic and I was not disappointed. Bob never checks the cruise boards, but also agreed he was great.

The first night was the “Welcome Aboard” show...interesting and funny...and even took John by surprise! Let's just say the inebriated gal who came up on stage became the brunt of many jokes during the week and probably came away with some not so good memories of her week. John does mention later on his blog that he spoke with the her and she was totally embarrassed by her behavior. They replayed the Welcome Aboard Show on the cabin TV over and over so she had many opportunities to witness her "performance".

The Carnival website shows the guest capacity at 2,974 for the Freedom. We had slightly over 3,600 guests for our week which means many of the cabins were occupied by more than just two guests! Out of the 3,600 guests, 2,278 were past cruisers with Carnival!