Carnival Freedom June 5th, 2010 We did the 8 day Western Caribbean. The ports were Cozumel, Mexico; Limon, Costa Rica and Colon, Panama. This cruise was for my 40th Birthday from my husband!!!
We stayed at The Sheraton on the Beach (also called "The Clipper"). OMG what a GREAT hotel!! It was WONDERFUL! If you ever need a hotel we would highly recommend it! There are several places within walking distance. We ate at Bubba Gumps! There were several places to choose from and lots of shops. We also did the Water Taxi and enjoyed that as well. It is $15pp and it runs all day, you can get off and on as much as you want.
Boarding was a breeze. We know they say don't go early, but we did and we were there around 10:30am -10:45am and on board by 11:30am. We like to roam around and look at the ship and take photos of it before the crowds get on board. Carnival by far is the best at boarding. They give you a "Zone" number and then call by "Zones". It is so easy.
Our room was just fine. There was plenty of room and space. We had 3 closest doors and lots of drawers. The thing I did miss was a night stand with a drawer. We were almost to the front on the odd side. We also had the "secret" door to the front deck. No one was ever out there, so we could go out and look without a bunch of people or kids around. We were right by the elevators and that was nice. There was a hall between us and the rooms on the other side so we did not hear a lot of stuff. Our room number was 1037 on deck 10. The spa was above us and we never heard a thing. We were close to mid ship so that was nice as well.