Carnival Freedom Cruise Review
Jim Copeland
Itinerary: Eastern
Mediterranean
Sailing Date: June 15th, 2008
Age: 43
Number of Cruises: 8
Cruise Review – Carnival
Freedom 6/15/08 – 6/27/08 Eastern Mediterranean
This cruise visits Rome (Civitavecchia),
Naples, Livorno , Italy, Marmaris, Izmir and Istanbul,
Turkey , as well as Athens (Piraeus) and Katakolon, Greece.
This is a great cruise but it is exhausting. There are only
3 sea days on the itinerary. So it seems like you are
constantly visiting ports that require a lot of walking.
This is great if you want to get the most ports for you
money, but you can easily over do it trying to see as many
sites as possible. It also gets very hot in these ports.
Being from Texas, we were used to the heat, but northerners
and those not accustomed to high temperatures had trouble.
The ship itself still looks brand new (which it almost is).
The crew keeps her in great shape. The food was fantastic
but several menu selections seemed to be repeated through
the cruise which seemed like they were trying to stretch a 7
day cruise menu into the 12 days. The service was good
overall, our cabin stewards did a great job. The only
complaint I would offer is that the entertainment was
lacking. Definitely not up to Carnival’s standards. Don’t
get me wrong, the ship’s dancers were great in the shows
they performed and the sets and costumes were unbelievable.
But we are used to having comedians, magicians, hypnotists
and singers come on as entertainment. Not on this cruise,
there was one comedian/magician act and 2 singer acts. The 2
singing acts were very average and we left the theater for
better things a couple of minutes into both acts. The
singers on the carnival staff were as good or if not better.
The dancers only did 3 shows. The other 6 nights the
entertainment was game shows and deck parties. So the guests
entertained themselves for half of the cruise. The reason
given for this was that for the European sailings the
corporate planners decided that the entertainment should be
more relaxed than on Caribbean cruises. But in reality I’m
sure the logistics and costs of providing a variety of acts
for one ship half way around the world forces their hand
here. It’s a shame because one of the reasons for choosing a
Carnival ship over the other lines was because we enjoyed
their style of entertainment. But it did not ruin our
cruise.
There is plenty of
entertainment throughout the rest of the ship. The piano bar
was great! Ask Brad to play the beer song. There was karaoke
every night, the lounge singers/bands did a great job. Then
there is always movies under the stars on the pool deck. The
giant screen TV works much better than I would have thought
and it can be seen clearly even under the sun of daylight.
You can even sit in the hot tubs and watch the movie.
Embarkation-
The port of Civitavecchia did a great job here. The Freedom
is a very large ship but yet the embarkation process made
things go very smoothly. We arrived at the port about 1PM
and were on board by 1:30. Carnival provided drinks and
snacks in the waiting area which were greatly appreciated
after a long, warm train ride from Rome. If you do this
cruise, I suggest staying in a hotel in Rome the day before
your cruise. There are hotels to be had in Civitavecchia,
but there is more to see in Rome. We were able to see the
Coliseum and Circus Maximus and part of the Forum area in
the morning before heading to the port. This helped when we
returned to Rome so we did not have so many things on our
list. The ship does not leave Civitavecchia until 7PM but
they were letting people board as early as 12:30PM. If you
stay in Rome the night before, book your train ticket that
night. The IC+ express trains sell out quickly.
First stop Naples-
Naples itself is not the destination. From Naples you can
get to many great places- The Herculaneum, Pompeii, Mt
Vesuvius, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, the Isle of Capri,
etc. The cruise ship will push its tours very hard. If you
are a first time cruiser or are not comfortable with the
idea of going out on your own, then by all means, use the
ships tours. But realize that these are very expensive
compared to what it costs to see the same things on your
own. You can easily get to the train station and get to any
of the areas I mentioned above (except of course Capri). We
took the train to Ercolano and saw the Herculaneum where we
could buy a combination ticket that gets you into Pompeii as
well. Using the train we got there before any of the tours
from the ships did and we had seen a great bit of the ruins
before the first big group arrived. We then continued down
the coast to Pompeii and walked through it and saw about
half of the site before we became “ruined out”. We then
headed down to Sorrento and had a very nice sidewalk café
meal and some gelato (this is a must, it is something you
must experience even if you don’t like ice cream.). We
walked around Sorrento for a bit before heading back to the
ship. We did all of this and still returned to the ship with
an hour to spare. You can do Herculaneum or Pompeii and
still get to the Isle of Capri, but we decided to leave
Capri for another visit (giving us a reason to go back)
Day at sea – lots of fun activities and the first
formal night.
Marmaris Turkey-
Marmaris is a very small port town. There really is not much
to see here. There are a couple tours you can take here. We
took the beach break tour just because there didn’t seem to
be much else. You can take a tour to Rhodes also (the ship
used to port in Rhodes but me thinks someone in Marmaris
offered better incentives). You can also just get off the
ship and negotiate for a tour from one of the local tour
guides. Be prepared for a high price though. We had someone
in our group that could speak the language and managed to
get a tour for a good price, but most people didn’t. The
taxis will charge 7 euro to take you about a mile into town
and drop you off in the shopping district. This reminded me
much of Freeport in the Bahamas. The taxis are the only game
in town to get a ride into town and they know it. Your other
option is to walk along the harbor into town but it is about
a mile walk and it was deathly hot (over 100). We did see
one bus pull into the taxi area and they were offering a
free shuttle to the “Atlantis water park”. This looked like
a decent option. They were charging 20 euro entry to the
water park which had a large wave pool and access to the
beach. So if we didn’t have a tour scheduled we probably
would have done that. Everyone who went into town said that
everyone was very nice. Be prepared to barter heavily
despite their pleas that their children will starve…oh and
try the apple tea. Yummy.
Izmir-
Here we took the ship’s tour to Ephesus. It’s about an hour
bus ride to get to the site and we were not comfortable in
negotiating a taxi or local car to take us there. There
isn’t much of anything else to see in Izmir itself. If you
had a decent size group, you might be able to arrange for a
van to take you and save some money, but I’m not sure it’s
worth the hassle as the price for the tour was not that
high. Many busses including ours were late getting back to
the ship. The ship waited for the tour busses, which I guess
says something for not trying this on your own. However in
saying that, I will say that our tour guide spent way too
much time talking. With an audio guide, we probably could
have seen the entire site in half the time and gotten back
on time. But we had paid for the tour so we mostly stayed
with her.
Istanbul-
This is another port you can do on your own. The ship
provided shuttle busses to the grand bazaar. The bazaar is
in easy walking distance to the major attractions – The Blue
Mosque of Sultan Ahmet, The Hage Sophia museum, and the
Topkapi Palace. We did all three and still had plenty of
time to shop in the bazaar before boarding the shuttle bus
back to the ship.
Before getting off the ship
you need to practice chanting these words- “No thank you I
do not want a carpet…. No thank you I do not want a carpet.”
Show ANY weakness in saying these words and you will own a
carpet before the end of the day. Even if you BUY a carpet,
they will still be after you to buy a second carpet to
“balance you out”
My wife loved the bazaar.
Maybe more for the thrill of the hunt in bartering than the
actual shopping opportunity. They stores seemed to repeat
them selves often. – Carpet store, jewelry store, porcelain
item store, smoking paraphernalia store, leather goods and
handbag knock off store. Rinse, Repeat. The Grand Bazaar is
miles of the these same shops, so pay attention to were you
came in and where you walked to or you can get lost easily.
Be careful of the knock offs. They sell fake purses and fake
watches (and even fake carpets). They will start at a price
that is nearly as pricey as the real thing. Pick a price you
think is too low and then start below that. Then work a
deal. If they won’t except your deal, move on… there are
plenty of stores to try from. Did I mention to, try the
apple tea? Buy some apple tea to take home… yummy.
Athens-
Do this port on your own also. You can walk to the train
station from the port (or grab a taxi if you can find one
that will take you the short distance) Buy the all day metro
ticket and you are good to go. From the metro you can get to
the Acropolis and the plaka I recommend the Thissio station
or the Acropolis station (you will have to change metro
lines to get to the Acropolis station). The Monastiraki stop
is close but you have to walk all the way around the
acropolis to get to an entrance. The acropolis station is
the closest to that entrance to the walk up to the top while
the Thissio station gets you close to the back side near the
temple of Agora and you can work your way up to the
Acropolis…
Katakolon.
Wow… why does this place even have a port. The whole town
can’t be more than about 300 people. When we were there,
there were 3 ships in port. So you can imagine the chaos.
Those that didn’t go into town (there is a nice little beach
there and you could rent a car or scooter and drive up the
coast) took the tour to Olympia. I know this because when
our bus got to Olympia, there were at least twenty busses
parked there already. My advice if you want to see Olympia,
take the tour. Once you get there, find out what time the
tour guide wants to meet back up to leave and then go
explore on your own. There are plenty of signs to tell you
what you are looking at. You really don’t need the guide
unless you are into that sort of thing. Take the picture of
you running on the track… like anyone would really believe
you are an Olympic athlete. See the Olympic flame…watch out
of the gianormous ants…
Livorno-
Livorno allows access to Florence and Pisa and the Tuscany
area. If you want to tour Tuscany, you are probably safe on
a ship’s tour (safer meaning not getting lost and being
assured getting back to the ship) But Florence is beautiful
and there is a lot to see and Pisa gives you the Leaning
Tower of course. We managed to get a taxi to take us to the
train station. You can’t walk to the station, it’s just too
far. The taxi drivers don’t like to make this short trip as
they are trying to sell all day tours for a couple of
hundred Euro. So they overcharge for the trip to the train
station. Its probably 2 miles total and they want 20 euro
for the trip. But we had four couples to share the expense
so it only cost 5 each which was better than trying to take
the busses. The cruise line does provide a shuttle bus out
of the port and down to a central market area where you
could catch the 1R bus route (not sure on the R, the return
route was 1R) to the train station from the market. Ask the
shuttle bus driver which route goes to the train station.
They will know.
From the train station, its
easy to get to Florence (Firenze Stazi). See ftroute’s
Italian train how to guide in the Europe port chat for
details on how to get there. Once you are in Florence, the
Museo Archeologico has the statue of David (the original) is
in walking distance. Head towards the Duomo – from the train
station, head across the Piazza della Stazione towards tge
bascillica, then down Via Panzani this will merge with Via
de Cerretani and once on that you will see the Duomo. When
you get to the Duomo walk about halfway down the side and
you will see directional signs to the Museum. I think we
turned down Via del Servi. Head to the museum first thing to
avoid long lines. Then you can work your way to the other
sites. Obviously the Duomo is one of the popular ones. The
Piazza della Signoria has the replica David and other famous
statues if you don’t want to wait to go in the museum. It is
a good idea to have a good tourist map so you can find the
things you want to see.
On the way back we did a quick stop in Pisa to see the
leaning tower. Watch your time, it’s about a 10 minute train
ride from Pisa to Livorno and then you need to take the bus
to the shuttle stop back to the ship. We were able to walk
to the tower, take pictures, and walk back to the train in
about 90 minutes. It’s about a mile and a half walk, so we
were moving pretty fast. If you want to climb the tower,
allow extra time for that.
Overall, we did the speediest tour of both cities as you
can. There is a lot to see in Florence, there is no way to
see it all in a half a day, so pick and choose your must
see’s and then determine if you will have time to do the
tower.
Last Stop Rome (Civitavecchia again)
The ship docks in Civitavecchia on Thursday and you don’t
disembark until Friday. This allows you to have a day in
Rome and use the ship as a hotel. Several people disembarked
on Thursday, so if you need to or want to leave Thursday,
apparently it can be done. I know that for several people,
the only workable flights required them to leave for a
Thursday evening flight.
You again can do Rome on your own. Get your train tickets
the day before in Livorno to avoid the huge lines that form
from the people who don’t think of doing this. There is a
morning IC+ train (intercity with assigned seats, limited
stops and air conditioning) I recommend getting first class
seating on this train. First because of the air conditioning
and secondly because of the quick trip to Rome. The commuter
trains stop at several stations along the route and they
take at least 15 minutes more to get to Rome. Once in Rome
you are in the Rome Termini station, get an all day
metro/bus combo ticket and then you are free to go see the
sites. Many of the big ticket sites are close to the subway
stations. The Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna) have the
Spagna station within 50 yards of the steps. We chose to see
The Vatican and St Peter’s (be sure to buy a post card
before getting there and you can mail from the Vatican’s
post office ) From there we walked east to the Castle
‘Angilo . From here it was a tough choice. We could walk
about the same distance to either the metro station we
stopped at to get the Vatican or to the Trevi Fountain. From
the fountain we could walk to the Spanish steps. We figured
either way we had to walk to the fountain so we chose the
later route and then finished up by taking the Spagna
station back to the termini station. We SHOULD have
investigated the bus routes before going on the cruise so we
could have taken the busses between sites instead of
walking. If you plan this trip, save yourself and figure out
which bus routes you need before you go. It was very hot and
we were exhausted, so we returned to the ship/ showered and
ate dinner. Then packed up to have our luggage out by 11PM.
After packing we had time for last drinks with our new found
friends and then early to bed.
Disembarkation Day-
Sadly it was time to leave the ship. We had 11:55 AM flights
and had bought the cruise line transfers to the airport. You
could take the train to Rome Termini and then back out to
the airport but that could take a could of hours. Had we
known we were going to be off the ship by 6am, we could have
done this. So we ended up have a couple of free hours in the
airport. |
