Carnival Freedom, March 17 - March 23, 2013
Fort Lauderdale FL, Key West FL, Georgetown Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios Jamaica
We took our first cruise in 2004 with my wife's entire family. My wife's grandparents wanted to take everyone on a cruise, all expenses paid, It was a short cruise on Carnival Fascination which was supposed to cruise from Miami to Key West and Cozumel Mexico. We never made it to Key West that trip due to some work they were doing on the pier there. Traveling with that many people was.. interesting. It was enough however for my wife and I to fall in love with cruising, just never with that many people again. We didn't cruise again until this cruise in 2013. Just me and the wife this time and it was a ball. This time we opted for the 6 night cruise on Carnival Freedom.
Below is an interactive map of our route:
View Carnival Freedom 3/17/13 - 3/23/13 in a larger map
This time we actually made it to Key West! We wanted to get A geocache at the southernmost point so the first thing we did was grab a cab. On the way back we had the cab drop us off on Duval St. We had an hour or so to kill before our excursion started. We opted to do the excursion "Key West Pub Crawl" which we booked through Carnival before we left home. We met our group near the cruise ship and started our excursion. We each got a Key West Pub Crawl T-shirt and they took us to 5 different bars on and around Duval St. We both had a great time on this excursion. After the excursion was over, I was determined to try some Conch. If you didn't already know, Key West is famous for their Conch, as well as Key Lime pie. So I walked "staggered" over to Conch Republic Seafood, which I was told had the best Conch on the island. It was pretty damn good. As I was doing that the wife was off getting some Key Lime Pie. Overall I loved Key West and can't wait to go back.
After leaving Key West we had a day at sea while on our way to Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman is a port where there is no pier for the ships to dock, so you are tendered to shore on small tender boats. Once on shore we found our excursion group and were off. We opted for one of the many Stingray City excursions available. This was by far my wife's favorite part of the whole trip. As you can see in the pictures below, you are taken on boats out to a sand bar on the north side of the island. You step off the boat into waist deep water and the stingrays are swimming all around you. You can feed them, give them a kiss, they will splash you etc. My wife did all of this, while I was happy just walking around the outer circle of people observing from a distance, although I still had stingrays swimming by me. After we returned to town we did some walking around, a little shopping, a visit to Margaritaville (A very expensive Margaritaville), and another geocache. Then it was back to the ship to continue our adventure.
The next day we were in Ocho Rios Jamaica. This could have been my favorite part of the trip, the day started off well enough. Had it not ended with me getting a shot in the buttocks and feeling like crap for the next 24 hours.. more on that later. Because of that I have to rank Key West as my favorite part of the trip.
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I opted to do the Dunn's River Falls excursion on the catamaran Cool Running's. This was once again an excursion purchased through Carnival prior to sailing. The next time we cruise we will not be booking everything through Carnival. Generally they are more expensive if you book through Carnival. The only real advantage is if you happen to get into some trouble, be it medical, or your transportation breaks down etc. you will be left behind if you are not on the ship when it is time to go. If you booked through the cruise line they will wait for you.
We got off the ship and the Cool Running's catamaran was right there next to the cruise dock. We were on board and off in no time at all. Once on the boat we were told that you should not take ANYTHING that you don't want to loose with you up the falls. This included my hat. I don't go anywhere or do anything without my hat, However I didn't want to loose it either. So it stayed on the boat. This is where my troubles started, even if I didn't know it yet.
We got off the ship and the Cool Running's catamaran was right there next to the cruise dock. We were on board and off in no time at all. Once on the boat we were told that you should not take ANYTHING that you don't want to loose with you up the falls. This included my hat. I don't go anywhere or do anything without my hat, However I didn't want to loose it either. So it stayed on the boat. This is where my troubles started, even if I didn't know it yet.
We climbed the fall's.. well I climbed the fall's, by wife bailed out 1/4 of the way up even though she had already made it past the toughest part. There is a trail that goes along the fall's that you can walk. Meanwhile on my forehead, that normally does not see any sun thanks to my hat. The sun is beating down and my face is sucking up the sun like a giant white solar panel starved for vitamin D. Dunn's River Fall's was GREAT, loved it. My wife, not so much. Once you complete the falls you have to walk back down the trail which is swarming with locals trying to trick you into buying there handmade jewelry and such. Once again, this did not bother be near as bad as it did my wife. We made it back down to the Cool Running's boat just fine, even if I more resembled a Red Indian than a Caucasian. Then the party started! Free rum and punch for the trip back to the cruise ship. It does not taste that strong, but it is my friend, it is. Especially when you want to get your money's worth on the short 25 minute ride back to the ship. As you can see in the video below, I was not the only one getting my money's worth!
Once back on the ship I knew I was burnt, but I have been burnt many many times. I have been badly burnt many times. I didn't think anything of it until my forehead started to swell up like Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Luckily this was our last port and the next day was a day at sea before returning to Fort Lauderdale. It continued to get worse and eventually we made our way down into the bowels of the ship to the medical center, where they promptly diagnosed me with sun poisoning and game me a shot in the butt. I mainly took it easy the rest of the trip and tried to stay out of the sun. By the time we arrived back in Florida I was almost good as new. As I was relaxing on our day at sea I shot the video to the right on the Lido deck.
I almost forgot, my wife's favorite part of the trip other than the stingrays.. the Chocolate Bar! Pics below :) |
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