CARNIVAL CRUISE REVIEW
Back in July we went on our first cruise ever and I feel like I have SO much to share as a first-time cruiser.. (is that even a word? haha). We went on a Carnival Cruise line because we didn’t want to spend a ton of money on something that we 1. didn't know if we would like and 2. didn’t know if one of us would be sick the whole time. But we actually ended up loving it and spent a lot of time on that cruise looking for the next cruise to go on! We definitely want to try out a ton of different cruise lines but this was a good one to start out with!
GETTING ON THE SHIP
We went on Carnival Freedom Ship! This was a four-day cruise where we had one day in the Bahamas, one at their private island, Princess Cay, and then a day at sea! If you are going on your first cruise this felt like the perfect amount of time. You definitely get a feel for what cruising is like plus you get to visit a couple of places.
For checking in we needed to have a negative covid test (this could change at any time), and then we brought passports, driver’s licenses, and our vaccination card, and that was it! Check-in was so easy, we chose the 10:30 AM slot so we had more time on the ship and I am so happy we did that!
One thing I recommend doing is to make sure you have a few things that you might need in a backpack for the first day. We were able to go into our rooms at 1:00 PM and then we didn’t get our suitcases until around 4:00 PM. In a backpack or like a beach/pool bag I would be things like medicines (prescriptions or Dramamine), tampons, cash, maybe a bathing suit, etc. I wish I would have known this or maybe just have worn my swimsuit onto the ship because we were in street clothes for a while before being able to change.
SHIP REVIEW
Like I said before I had never been on a cruise before this so I had no idea what to expect. Let’s start with our room, I really liked our room and felt that we had plenty of space and room for our clothes. there were three closets with tons of hanging room and hangers, and shelves and there were a lot of drawers. The bathroom had plenty of shelves to take our stuff out and actually have a place for everything. The couch was since to have because it didn’t feel like we had to sit on the bed the whole time. We were on the 10th floor with a balcony and I don’t think I will ever cruise again without being at least on the 9th or 10th floor and having a balcony because it was a nice place to escape the business of always doing something on the ship!
As for boat activities, I thought that what they had was good but I do feel like there could have maybe been more. We loved the piano bar and the Love and Marriage comedy show but there weren't THAT many things to do at night. We obviously had fun with what we had but I think a larger variety of shows would have been nice. Our cruise director, Christian, was absolutely hilarious and seemed to be EVERYWHERE and in every show. I would be interested to see what kinds of things there are to do on different cruise lines.
Amenities might have been my least favorite or the thing that I was less impressed with. We had a great spa and gym. I got a 90-minute massage on the day in the Bahamas and it was great! The gym looked really nice as well. Other things were just really outdated like the mini-golf area and the slides that really didn’t slide for lack of better words. Another thing that is a great concept is the serenity deck which was adults only, it had a private bar and two hot tubs but it was completely enclosed by glass so we were basically just in a sauna the entire time we were up there. A pool on the serenity deck would have been a nice way to cool off! The two pools that were on the ship were FULL to the brim with people the entire time they were open. Like there was ABSOLUTELY no way any of us were getting into that because EW, nobody ever got out. *insert puke emoji* It ended up being okay though because it felt like there wasn’t really time to be in the pool.
They did play movies on the deck each night and they were good ones like Uncharted with Tom Holland and Dune, The Lost City, The Matrix Resurrections, and some others! There was never a shortage of live music which we loved! The casino was actually a lot of fun and we found ourselves there quite a bit. I will also say that there were a ton of things that we didn’t make it to like a bunch of mixers (LGBTQ+, 40+, Singles, etc.), we never went to the club but they had different themes which were cool, there was a comedy show each night (in addition of the Love and Marriage one). There was a lot to do and maybe we were overwhelmed and didn’t know where to begin? I feel like we will be more willing to try new things on the next cruise!
FOOD + MY ALLERGY
The first thing I did when I got to the food court-type place was I went up to the lady that was working at the allergy desk and she sort of gave me an overview of the things that I could and couldn’t have. She told me I could always come to ask her questions or if I had any problems she said to let her know. There was always someone working at that desk which was nice just in case I needed anything extra!
Apparently, this is the ONLY picture I took of my food the entire time I was on the cruise…
I was pleasantly surprised by the options that they had for my gluten allergy. For breakfast and lunch, there were always food options for me. They had about 5 different restaurants in the main lunch area and there was only one that had no options for me which were Guy’s Burgers. And really there were options it was just a bunless burger and there were better options at other places so I just never ate there.
My favorite was the sandwich place, I was able to customize my sandwiches quite a bit because of my allergy and they always changed their gloves and made mine in the back. My favorite was the turkey wrap that I made into a sandwich and it was DELISH. I couldn’t have the fries there but that was okay, I would just go get a salad from the salad bar as my side.
Another really good option was the pizza place. They also changed gloves, cooked mine to order in the back, and had like 6 options for different kinds of pizzas for me to have. My favorite was the white sauce pizza and then I had them add mushrooms to it! It took about 5 extra minutes but it was so good and so worth the wait.
On one of the days for a snack, I got the California roll from the sushi bar but and it was VERY good, but it wasn’t included and cost $6 per roll. They also had sushi bowls but I never ended up trying that one. The last place was a Mongolian grill place and I had that on the first day. I could really only have the rice noodles and one sauce but it was good!
As for dinners, we sat in the same spot every night and got to know our waiter really well! We had about 3 people waiting on us and they were seriously the best. Each night for my allergy I would pick what I was going to have for dinner the following night. I was so impressed with all of my food options and they took such great care of me to make sure I wasn’t going to get sick. I had things like short ribs, grilled chicken, seafood pasta, bread, and butter special for me, appetizers like salads, soups, shrimp cocktail, and so many others! They would also surprise me with special things here and there like an extra appetizer that I didn’t order or a dessert that I was able to have that I didn’t know about. I LOVED their molten lava cake with ice cream and one night they surprised me with an apple streusel that was SO good!
LOOKS I BROUGHT
DAY AT THE BAHAMAS
The first full day at sea was our stop in the Bahamas. Getting off of the boat was super easy, we just scanned our cards, and off we went. It didn’t take long at all and when you got off the boat we walked up the dock and were right in the middle of all the action pretty much right away.
A few things to note, be prepared to be bombarded with offers to be taken to the beach, offers to have your hair braided, rides to Atlantis, and offers to buy pretty much anything under the sun. We didn’t get an excursion this day because none of us had been to the island before. We all agreed that we wish we would have gotten an excursion because getting off of the ship we had so much freedom to do whatever we wanted and not a lot of direction of where to go.
We ended up walking to the beach that was next to Margaritaville and the waterpark. When we got there, there were a couple of people selling beach chairs for $10 a chair and an umbrella for $15. We got two chairs, and an umbrella and decided to get in the water! The water was crystal clear and absolutely gorgeous, not to mention all of the fish that were around us! It was so pretty! There were a ton of people though who seemed like they might have been in our boat of not knowing where to go so we all ended up at the first beach we found. But even though there were a ton of people it wasn’t that crowded in the actual water.
After being at the beach we decided to head back to the boat for lunch but stopped and did some shopping along the way to get a few souvenirs. I was a bit nervous about eating on the island with my allergy because I had no way of knowing where I could eat or where to even start. To get back on the boat, again, was a super easy process. We gave the people at the border patrol area our driver’s licenses and our ID cards from the ship. Then we walked back up the dock to the ship and went through a security sensor, scanned our ID cards and that was it! Getting back to the ship was even faster than getting off because when we were leaving SO many people were leaving but when we were coming back, people were just sort of trickling back at different times.
When we all got back to the boat we went up to the room and got changed to head down for lunch! When we were sitting there at lunch we were talking with my parents about how it might have been easier to prebook an excursion and that it might have felt a bit less chaotic trying to figure out what we were doing. Which was totally our fault and not the cruise lines at all. But now I feel more prepared going forward! After lunch, I was absolutely exhausted so I took a nap and read on the balcony a bit before dinner festivities started.
After dinner, we went to this comedy show called Love and Marriage where they brought couples up on stage and asked them both the same question and then compared answers. It was hilarious! After that, we went to the piano bar which is where we ended all but one of our evenings. It was a blast and Felicia, the singer, was absolutely amazing and the atmosphere was so much fun!
DAY AT THEIR PRIVATE ISLAND
This was a much more calm day. We had an excursion planned and everything went pretty smoothly. We had breakfast and then headed down to the small boats that were taking us over to the island. Once we were over there we waited for the boat driver and then got on their boat which took us to an area to scuba dive. I cannot stress this enough, TAKE DRAMAMINE before you get off the cruise ship. The smaller boats are really hard to be on for a long time. Also if you do get seasick and you are on an excursion, my advice is to stay in the water and float- DO NOT get back on the boat, you will feel AWFUL. The snorkeling was really cool and we saw SO many fish!
After we were done with the snorkeling excursion we headed back to the boat to have lunch and layout on the Serenity deck! We read and relaxed and I napped in one of the canopy things that they had. After that, it was time to go shower and get ready for dinner. Dinner was great as usual and then we decided to go to the casino for a while and then we listened to some live music that was in the Red Frog Pub. We came here a few times for different periods of time for the music and the games. It was usually pretty chill in there!
After going on this cruise we would and will 100000% be going on more cruises! For starters, it is SO easy to go on them very affordably living here in Orlando. We would be able to do last-minute cruises at a discounted price and that is so nice! Another thing is that we like the ability to see a lot of different places in one trip. We spent so much time on this cruise planning and searching for new cruises to go on. We want to try ALLL of the cruise lines though, we want to know which ones we like and don’t like. Obviously, a Disney Cruise would be a dream as well. We can’t wait for the next one and I will share all the things with that one as well! If you have any questions or feel like I left something out, PLEASE don’t hesitate to ask! You can comment below or email me at tarynintotravel@gmail.com and I will get back to you there if that is better for you!
