My sister and I took our mother on the Carnival Freedom as a present for her 70th birthday. The Freedom departed from Ft. Lauderdale and visited the ports of Key West, Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios. This was my 10th Carnival cruise, my sister's 5th and my mother's 1st.

Saturday February 7, 2009 - Arrived in Ft. Lauderdale My mom and I flew into FLL on Saturday morning. I work for an airline, so mom and I were flying standby. No problems getting there. I always recommend to ANYONE to fly in a day early though. Working in an airport, I've seen too many people miss their ship because of airline delays and flying in the day of the cruise. My sister was coming from Montana and was scheduled to arrive that evening. Upon arriving in FLL, we picked up our luggage and took the shuttle over to the Avis Rent-A-Car airport location. The wait to pick up our reserved rental car was over an hour (sign up for their rewards program in advance to avoid the wait). Once we got the car, we headed to our hotel which was the Plantation Renaissance. A friend works for Marriott and got us a Friends & Family deal. I would recommend this hotel. It was very nice and clean and the rooms were spacious and comfortable. The hotel was also in a nice location about 10 minutes from the airport. There was a nice sports bar & grill within walking distance and grocery store about 5 minutes away. Spent the day being lazy before picking up sis at the airport.

Sunday February 8, 2009 - Embarkation We checked out of the hotel at 9:30 AM and headed back to the airport to return the rental car. I had asked the previous day what time their shuttle to the Port started running in the morning and was told it runs all the time. After returning the car, we found that the shuttles were only bringing people from the port to the rental place until 11:30. At this time is was about 10:00 AM. The driver was really great though and took us to the port anyway (for a generous tip). We got to the Port by 10:15 and were through security and checked in by 10:30. I asked about VIP boarding since I was now Platinum on Carnival. The lobby agent sat us in a special section of the waiting room and said we would board first. They started boarding at 11:15 and we were literally the 3rd, 4th , & 5th people to board the ship. Took the embarkation photo and was on the Lido deck with a Fun Ship Special by 11:30 AM. Spent the afternoon people watching. Weather was a little cool when the sun dipped behind the clouds, but overall not too bad. We had 2nd seating in the Posh Dining Room (aft). Our dining room waiter, Dip, was fantastic!!! Read more