Review: Freedom Eastern - May 19-26

This will my my first in-depth cruise review. I'll be posting this in pieces, hopefully completing it within the next few days. Sorry, there will be no photos. I am basically going to stick with my impressions and experiences onboard. Please no flaming :o I want to emphasize that I did have a good time, but it will be a bit before I cruise again.

Saturday, May 18

BF (38) and I (29) left about 9:30am from Georgia to drive down to Cocoa Beach. We made a few stops along the way and took a longer route as we wanted to avoid toll roads.

We were at our hotel (Comfort Inn & Suites) at approximately 4:30pm. Check in was a little hectic. There was a lot of congestion at the front entrance with lots of people being dropped off, picked up, and also checking in. We had a brief wait 5-10 minutes and were then politely greeted by the desk staff. Clearly most of their business (at least on Saturday) was for the Stay & Cruise people. The clerk had a well-rehearsed instructions of how to get to our room, offered us the choice of a 9 or 9:30am shuttle to port, directors of where to park our car the next day, gave us some detailed maps of the parking lots and hotel layout, tickets for breakfast the following morning, as well as two free drink tickets to the bar that evening.

Our room was amazing! I as not expecting much as the rate was $110 (including taxes) for a one night stay and a shuttle to/from port. The exterior of the rooms are slightly shabby. The doors open to the exterior of the building, however inside the room was recently renovated. There was nice hardwood (faux?) flooring, a generous separate sitting room area w/a 32 inch flatscreen TV and sofabed, a walk-through galley-style kitchenette, a standard bathroom, and a sleeping area with two Queen size beds. In the bedroom, there was a door to a balcony. Thankfully we were not in front of the pool but we were directly overlooking the shuffle board court.

We ate possibly our best meal of the entire trip (yes, I said it!) at Thai Fuku. This was literally right across the street from the hotel, directly next to a beach junk store. I had Thai softshell crab and BF had curried salmon. We walked from there a couple of blocks to Walgreens and picked up water, wine, and soda. Back to the room we went, packed our sodas and case of water in a rolling suitcase w/our snorkel gear, then walked to the bar for our free baby cups of beer. After our beers, we went to the beach briefly (it was pitch black by this time) and then back to our room to go to sleep early. BF was able to use the hotel's free WiFi to finish his homework so he was excited to turn it in before setting sail (he recently began a Masters degree in Software Systems).

Sunday, May 19

We awoke around 8am. BF headed to get breakfast while I showered (I was too excited to eat). We headed to the waiting area for our shuttle around 9:15. I left the luggage with the BF, then drove my car a block over to the cruise parking area of the hotel. There was ONE spot left, I got it and quickly dismissed the thoughts of what we'd have done if there were no vacant spaces. :eek: I walked back to the shuttle area. Despite having a 9:30am shuttle, I was surprised to see our luggage was loaded and we were in by 9:20. We waited a few minutes to the shuttle to get very full. Three people had to stand. Unfortunately, BF and I were in the very back under the dripped A/C (but hey, at least there was A/C).

We went directly to the port and were off the shuttle, bags handed over to porters, and in line to board before 10:20. We waited outside for about 20 minutes before security began letting people in. I was a Gold member and BF and I were able to go directly to the front. Security was a breeze. I had carried on 2 bottles of wine, no problem. BF had to take out his laptop and run it through the X-Ray machine by itself.

When then went up 1 or 2 escalators to the chilly check-in area. Again, since I was Gold, BF and I were immediately able to check-in and bypass everyone else in the waiting area. The woman at the desk was friendly, established our Sea Pass accounts quickly, but did not have a camera at her station. She put a red sticker on our Sea Passes and told us later we'd have to take our photo. We were then escorted into a roped off seating area. We were probably the 15th people to check in. By this time, it was about 10:40. We waited here for a very long time. A staff member with a walkie talkie came out and said two of the Sea Pass reading machines were down and that was causing the delay. We waited and waited, I was okay but BF grew anxious. The group of people checking in before us got very irate. We were finally let onboard at about 11:40. We were among the first onboard. It was an awesome feeling!

First we went to try and get our internet package. We went to the internet lounge where I swiped my card. I was given an error that the system could not access my SeaPass account, to visit guest services. We went to guest services (there was no line at this point, which was nice) and told them I wanted to sign up for an Internet package. The desk clerk said I would have to do this in the Internet lounge. I told her I had just tried to do so, but received an error when trying to purchase a package. She looked up my account and said there was no issue, to try again in the lounge. So back up to the lounge we went. After trying multiple computers, I was finally able to purchase a package. :rolleyes:

With this out of the way, we went to the Cafe Promenade for a few sandwiches. I had tuna and BF had brie and tomato. He drank coffee from the Cafe Promenade, I opted for water. There were hardly any pax around during this time. We sat at a table where the day's newspaper was thoughtfully laid out. After eating, we kind of dinked around, checking out the ship. We made our way to the Squeeze Bar. I ordered a Torched Cherry Sangria (yum!). We then walked about some more, and made our way to a empty area (partially covered) near Adventure Ocean and the Flowrider. I called my parents to get a kitty checkup (we left them with our fur babies), told them I loved them and that I'd talk to them in a week!

By this time, it was 1pm so we decided to head to see if our cabin was ready. Typical us, the elevator we took was at the opposite end of where our stateroom was. We decided to take a long walk down the hallway to our cabin. The door to the hallway was open, so we made the trek towards our cabin. When we were in eyesight of our cabin door, an Indian staff member in a yellow and blue shirt (not one of the room attendants) shouted out, "Excuse me! You cannot go to your room yet. They are not ready." I turned around, and said "Pardon?" He shook his head and said, we couldn't just open the door to the hallway to go to our rooms. He made us walk back, through a hallway door that was closed that my BF and I did not see (remember, we went through the other end of the hall and no doors were closed along the way). We went out, he continued to scold us, and several dozen passengers were laughing at us. It was VERY EMBARRASSING. :mad: We waited out here for about 3 minutes (the time was now 1:15), when the Indian man opened the door and shook his head at us again. I am a sensitive person and very aware of my surroundings. I would never have knowingly opened the closed hallway door to go to my room and was very annoyed that this staff member publicly chastised us in front of other guests.

The Cabin

When we got to our room, we tried to forget about the incident. We had cabin 8376, a superior oceanview room. This was our first balcony and we were beyond excited. There were two chairs and a small table.

The room was really large. The mini fridge was cool at best. We took some snacks out and laid them on the dresser to make room for our sodas/water. In the room was a long sofa (that could turn into a bed). Overall, the room was in great shape. The bathroom was tight, of course, and at dinner time sometimes transitioning from the closet to the bathroom was tricky with the doors opening towards each other.

The bed was super comfortable. The pillows were a little flat. We asked for extras and this was an improvement. The room could have been a bit cooler. We had it on the coldest setting (w/the balcony door closed and latched) but still was a bit too warm for me a night (or maybe I was sunburned). :p

We experienced some ricketing of the balcony dividers (at times the wind was quite strong and the doors rattled around loudly). A cardboard coffee sleeve did the trick at quieting the noise! We were pleased that none of our neighbors were smokers. We were not pleased that our neighbors below (who had their balcony divider opened) were drunk and yelling f-bombs at 2am the second night. They quieted down and we didn't hear anything out of them after this night.

I don't know if I am just unlucky or what, but I also flooded out the bathroom floor three times while showering. I'm not sure what happened, but after my shower (which were no longer than 15 minutes), the floor of the bathroom was soaked! :( We had to sacrifice a few towel creatures to aid in the cleanup.

On the last night, the BF clogged the toilet around 10pm. We called the number for maintenance on the phone, told them of the situation, they said they'd send someone up to check it out. We then fell asleep waiting for someone to come. I woke up around 11:30, no one had come, so BF called Guest Services this time. They assured us someone would come. We never had anyone come visit us but did hear the toilet automatically flush twice so I guess maintenance did something remotely?

It was an odd experience that kind of undid the relaxation of the week-long cruise.

Food & Beverage

BF and I ordered room service each morning. BF typically had coffee and eggs, I had pastries and jam. BF was so excited because he'd never used room service before! We tipped $2 each morning.

One day we had used up all of our room service menus and our cabin attendant did not replenish. We called Guest Services and asked if they had breakfast room service door hangers. They said yes, we went down to get a few, and the woman at the desk gave us a regular room service menu. She said they did not have the breakfast hangers. That night we called and placed our breakfast order for the next day. We discovered later that we could have also booked room service through the interactive TV.

One day, we ordered room service in the late afternoon for our dinner. We requested spinach dip, a steak sandwich, a bistro burger, coffee, a Midori lemonade, and a pear tart. We ordered through the TV and were called within a minute of placing our order. We basically had to repeat everything we ordered through the TV and were told there would be a 45 minute wait. About 40 minutes later room service arrived. The attendant brought the food in on trays and even placed a straw in my drink! We tipped $3.

For dinner, we had My Time Dining. We did not make a reservation on day one. We just showed up at 5:30 or so and the hostess told us we had to wait until after 8pm since we did not call ahead. We told her no thanks, turned and started to walk away, when she said she could make special arrangements for us THIS time, but for us to call ahead in the future if we wished to eat in the main dining room. We were given awesome seats (in between the 4th and 5th deck, overlooking the Captain's table) and great waiters this night.

Each other night BF called to make reservations, no ideal times were available so we typically reserved seating around 5:30 since the next available times were after 8pm. We gave all the information (our names, cabin number, preference of eating at a table for 2) each time we called yet each night we showed up, they were unable to find our reservations and questioned if we had called.

We managed to make it to the main dining room 4 times. We were sat in different areas each night. On our last night, the waiter asked us if this was our first night in the dining room. We said no, he said, "oh, you're sure?" And gave us truly awful service. He brought things out quickly, did not refill glasses, and seemed genuinely bothered by us being there. We were in and out in an hour this night.

The food in the main dining room was quite good. The appetizers were teeny, but we could have multiples if we wanted. I got shrimp cocktail each night (pretty good) along with another appetizer. The first night I had Fish Rillettes (awesome!) and prime rib (too overdone) and the Chocolate Sensation (fine). Another night I had crab cake (moist, good, but a little too loose) the beef duo (OMG, best thing ever), and the cherries jubilee (fine). Another night I had strawberry kiwi panacotta (best dessert ever). Forgettable items were the chorizo scallop appetizer (way small) and the seafood mash.

I did notice that the menus were slightly different from the ones posted on the CC board; two items really I noticed: the miso brushed cod was listed as "cilantro brushed" for us and also some entrees were swapped up on different menus. And of note, I was a little surprised at how dirty and grimy the menus were (particularly the dessert ones).

We ate in the Windjammer the other nights. The later the night, the more intimate it seemed w/dinned lighting and great beverage service. Many of the items were available in here that were in the main dining room (roasted duck, chilled soups, etc.). Dinner was better in the Windjammer than lunch.

We tried to get in for lunch before noon. It was odd that only half of the Windjammer was opened. There were few seats as time crept towards 12:30 and generally by 1pm they began to open the other side of the Windjammer, while trying to close the other side. I got a salad each day. One day there was a beetle crawling through my lettuce. :eek: People were really rude in the Windjammer, would step all over you, jump in line, etc. We did not make it to breakfast in the Windjammer nor did we eat breakfast or lunch in the main dining room.

Sorrentos had good pizza. Check the side case for other things besides pizza. BF got some quiche and I had a delish shrimp salad w/crostinis here. Cafe Promenade had coffee and yummy (but tiny) sandwiches. We noticed that food-wise, while there was a lot of it, the portions were small but you could get multiples of things (you really almost had to).

We were dead-set on getting the Premium Alcohol Package before the cruise but decided against it at the last minute. I am glad we did because we did not come near the total for two pp with the premium package. We did not limit ourselves either. Most nights we had drinks before dinner in the Champagne Bar. I would have champagne cocktails, BF would have various coffee-liquor mixed drinks. We would often drink beers in the Bull & Bear pub (sometimes grab a slice of pizza from Sorrentos to eat w/our beers). The bar waiters at the Bull & Bear were amazing! Very attentive. The bartenders at Squeeze and the Solarium bar were great too. The Sky and Pool Bars were rushed and sloppy with unfriendly bartenders. The pool bar staff seemed friendly. There were 2-for-1 cocktails in the promenade one morning so I took advantage of that, there were also margarita specials in the On-Air Bar some afternoons. Beer coolers were available but I don't know if discounts were offered with these.

We were disappointed on Cococay. There were only beers and the Coco Loco to choose from. I am allergic to pineapple and orange juices so I could not drink this. One bartender sent my BF around to another bar when he asked for a strawberry daiquiri for me. When he got to the other bar, they told him to check at the bar he was just at! :rolleyes: When he finally made it back, he spoke to the same female bartender who told him they only have Coco Locos on the island, they are premade on the ship and no other frozen drinks are available (don't know why this chick did not tell him this before). Then BF just asked for a beer instead and they made him purchase the Coco Loco cup since he was taking the beer away from the bar. I saw others w/beers in their hands so I don't get what happened.

We avoided the BBQ (long lines and flies) and also did not make it to the Freedom Fest or the Dance Party.

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share your experience with us!!!

I'm sad that Coco Cay was disappointing to you. We actually look forward to this part of the trip and always have been able to get different drinks. Hopefully this will be remedied by July when we go! :confused:

Enjoying the detail. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for your review!:)

I was on this cruise too and we were rather disappointed in our dining room servers. Our head waiter was kind of rude & by night 5 we had a new head waiter who was super nice. (we never complained, don't know what happened but he almost bullied us about our wine package & got mad when I wanted to take the rest of the bottle with me)

You should have tried the ribs at Cocoa Cay, they were amazing!! I didn't drink during the day so that wasn't an issue for me. I wanted to stay at Cocoa Cay for the week!!

Overall we had a great time. 7 days was enough though & I was glad to get home to my kitties!

Thanks for the report. Not sure the room incident was handled properly by the steward.

As for the toilets on Freedom, we too had an issue with it not flushing. We informed our cabin steward & she said that there was a clog in the main line and that mtnc was working it ... She also said that it would flush once service was restored since we'd depressed the button. Sure enough when we returned later it had flushed ...

Entertainment

BF and I only attended one show, Drew Thomas' magic show. It was incredible! We had towards the side, a level up from the floor and were pretty much level with the stage. I've seen magic shows before on television but never live and I honestly have no clue how he pulled off his tricks. I highly recommend it! I will note there was some cheese to the show (the singers and such) which is why BF and I didn't attend other shows (we just aren't the singing/dancing show types).

We made reservations beforehand but there was no one checking when we entered the theater. We got lucky and decided to just check the theater 35 minutes before the show and saw it was already filling up so we decided to go ahead and get seats. The bar service was fair for this. The bar waiters seemed more attentive on the floor area directly in front of the stage. If you had been sitting towards the middle of the row, I don't know how'd you get drink service.

Pools & Open Decks

The main pool was pretty much a madhouse. It backs up to the kids' pool/waterpark area (which is also pretty busy too). There weren't many kids on this sailing (I didn't see them, at least). The Solarium was pretty congested too, especially the loungers around the pool. I was surprised to find that on Deck 12, the deck overlooking the pools, had a fair amount of loungers opened. I don't know if it was because this was an especially windy trip or what, but even on sea days there were open areas.

It got tricky when BF and I wanted to find an area of shade for him but near a sunny spot for me. The Adventure Ocean area near the back a few steps down from the Flowrider was a nice spot, however by the end of the week others had discovered this spot. There was also no bar service here.

One spot we didn't visit until our last night was deck 4 (I think), where there is a small walkaround of the dining room to the back of the ship. We could see the wake and were very close to the water here. Our last night, the moon was full (or near-full), big, bright, and yellowish and just beautiful.

Other Common Spaces

We visited the Royal Promenade a lot. Each night there were 1 or 2 different jewelry or watch kiosks. I was disappointed there wasn't more Swarovski. There also wasn't a lot of the costume jewelry rings that I remember from my last Enchantment cruise. The liquor store wasn't as stocked as I had remembered from my Liberty cruise a few years ago. Still, there was a fair collection and the prices were awesome. Towards the end of the cruise I broke down and bought Bacardi Torched Cherry rum (which I had discovered through my many Torched Cherry Sangrias ;)) as well as a Bacardi Mojito for mom. Both were 750 mls (I think, possibly 1 liter) and together were just $19! T-shirts were on sale on many days, not just the last day, for 2 for $20. The Britto collection was interesting, but overpriced. I Googled several of the pieces when I got home and found the figurines $20 cheaper on Amazon (specifically we had been eyeballing the Royal Cat).

The casino was pretty smokey. There were a few nonsmoking areas but many did not respect those areas. BF and I managed to find a little nook towards the Schooner Bar and the bathrooms where we pretty much fed the quarter pusher. We did try and make drop-ins in this area often on our way through the casino as the machine would periodically spit out quarters as the ship moved. The tables were intimidating. BF considered playing Blackjack but decided against it. We struggled a bit with the slots. We thought we could play them with just our Sea Passes but ended up feeding them cash. We didn't win anything but had fun. The slots had double points each morning from 9-11am.

As for the toilets on Freedom, we too had an issue with it not flushing. We informed our cabin steward & she said that there was a clog in the main line and that mtnc was working it ... She also said that it would flush once service was restored since we'd depressed the button. Sure enough when we returned later it had flushed ...

Thanks for the info. It happened so late in the evening, we contacted both Guest Services and Maintenance rather than our Room Steward. We did not know they would not need to get into our room to address the issue or we'd have gone to bed! It kind of irked us as it was our last night, our things were packed, we were sleepy, and ended up falling asleep on top of the covers in our clothes thinking someone would need to enter our cabin. :rolleyes:

I was on this cruise too and we were rather disappointed in our dining room servers. Our head waiter was kind of rude & by night 5 we had a new head waiter who was super nice. (we never complained, don't know what happened but he almost bullied us about our wine package & got mad when I wanted to take the rest of the bottle with me)

 

You should have tried the ribs at Cocoa Cay, they were amazing!! I didn't drink during the day so that wasn't an issue for me. I wanted to stay at Cocoa Cay for the week!!

 

Overall we had a great time. 7 days was enough though & I was glad to get home to my kitties!

Coco Cay was kind of "meh" for us. We made it to Barefoot Beach and sat in some loungers on the top of a little hill. Behind us was a lot of trash and broken loungers (it looked kinda sketchy). I missed waves in the ocean as the water was pretty still. We snorkeled a bit (didn't see much) and both got stung by something on the way back in. There was a lot of slimy seagrass and we think maybe a rogue jellyfish tentacle was hanging out there and got us.

The general feeling I got from the head waiters were that they felt almost bothered by us. We didn't make any special requests and just drank water, but still felt like we were slightly unwelcomed. The assistant waiters all seemed very nice, though.

And yes, I was glad to make it back to my kitties too! BF and I have 4 (:eek:), two with special needs (one has seizures, the other asthma) and the other two cats are just plain needy. They certainly are acting much more loving since our coming home. :) BF said the one cat yowled incessantly at the front door the day we got back when I stepped out of the house for a minute to take out the garbage.

So sorry to read that you had problems showing up for MTD and not getting a table. I have never had this problem on Freedom before. We always walked up and were seated right away or within 15 mins.

I didn't book reservations online because everything left was after 8:00-8:30pm. I didn't want this! I hope this isn't what we will encounter.

Excursions & Ports

Cocoay for us was a beach day. The tender was fine although there was an annoying incident when waiting to tender in. Either the port/aft side (I don't know which was which) of the stairwell was blocked off. People should have taken the other side stairwell to get to the gangway. There was a long line back towards the elevator and at some point, people just started coming down the roped off stairwell area (which was at the front of the line). So they jumped ahead of many people who had been waiting. The crew saw this and didn't do anything. When we got to the island, we walked around a bit and saw some amazing peacocks near the kids' racetrack. There were roosters around too. There were a lot of hammocks spread out, too. Loungers were plentiful.

St. Thomas, we walked around the Havensight Mall shops. BF got a Caribbean beer in one of the souvenir shops and he felt weird being able to walk around drinking it. We had our GPS with us and saw it was only a 25 minute walk to town. So after Havensight, we followed the sidewalk through the Yacht Club (which was beautifully maintained). There were some upscale shops in this area too. We passed by a rocky area and spied an Iguana who blended in with the rocks well.

After the rocky area, away from the Yacht Club, the landscape became somewhat unkempt. We walked past a fort (I think?) and several little tents where the locals were selling similar things (figurines, jewelry, linens). This area the sellers were somewhat aggressive. We made out way to the Royal Dane mall area and stumbled upon Gladys' Cafe. The restaurant is in the middle of a stone corridor, really beautiful, but you would never have found it if it weren't for the signs. BF had curried goat and I had the lemon conch. We have a few local beers here too. The service was excellent as well as the hot sauce. BF bought some to take back. My only negative is the food was not cheap! More than $20 an entree for lunch but the experience and cuisine you just can't find anywhere else. We found a small convenience store and bought some sodas to take back on the ship, as well as some more local beers. Again, it felt odd walking around the town with beers. We made our way back to Havensight along the same walkway, through the Yacht Club. We had to tell about 10 drivers that we were not interested in a taxi. We found a grocery store in Havensight on I bought some of the Caribbean coconut patties there were selling in the souvenir shops for much less. We got some snacks here too. The price for sodas was much cheaper here. We were back on the ship by 5:15pm.

St. Maarten was another beach day. We took a taxi to Dawn Beach. Some other people rode with us but were going to downtown instead. I had to look away during the drive as it was truly terrifying! Traffic downtown was insane and the roads to Dawn Beach were narrow. If you want to go downtown, take the water taxi as it is cheaper. At Dawn Beach our taxi driver escorted us to another local who was selling beach chairs. She told us to get him when we were ready to go back to the ship. We declined the beach loungers and instead laid out on towels and a beach mat I brought. BF got us some beers from Mr. Busbys (it was not even 11am yet :o). They were less expensive than on the ship but still not cheap. We didn't read the signs or we would have seen that from 11am-4pm Amstel Bright was $1 a piece. :eek: We laid out, watching the water, until 11:30. We went back to Mr. Busby's for lunch and $1 Amstel Brights. BF had a jerk chicken baguette and I had a crab baguette. BF's sandwich was fine, small. My crab baguette was disappointing as it was imitation crab and like $10. The service was shoddy, BF had to go to the bar to get more beers. After lunch, we made our way back to the beach. We swam in the ocean, which was rather choppy. We tried to snorkel but the visibility was just terrible. A fellow beachgoer swam towards me thinking I needed help (I got my mask tangled in my hair and I guess I looked like I was drowning :o) I came back in. BF and I intended to re-lather sunscreen but instead (damn you $1 Amstels) we fell asleep. I woke up thinking a bug was on my leg but nope, it was just my lobster legs beginning to itch. I didn't know it then but I ended up with the worst sunburn on my legs ever. My ankles even swelled up.

I liked the Eastern Caribbean better than the Western, as it was more low key and the locals were less aggressive.

So sorry to read that you had problems showing up for MTD and not getting a table. I have never had this problem on Freedom before. We always walked up and were seated right away or within 15 mins.

 

I didn't book reservations online because everything left was after 8:00-8:30pm. I didn't want this! I hope this isn't what we will encounter.

We didn't book online either but we did call each day between 2-4pm to make reservations. Don't know what the issue was. Maybe because we weren't calling from our room phone? By BF did give them our cabin #.

And to clarify, we were able to get a table. And we did not have to wait, but they never could find us listed and questioned if we really made reservations. And we were only seated w/the same waiters once.

We sailed on the Freedom May 5-12th. We had absolutely no problems with our bathroom toilet or shower. Sorry you had this issue.

Drew Thomas was awesome, but I think that if you would have seen all the production shows you would have enjoyed them as well. We were definitely not disappointed on this cruise when it came to the entertainment!

I love reading other reviews of the Freedom even more so now that I have sailed her because I like to compare everyone's opinions! We are actually sailing on her again for Valentine's Day next year.

Miscellaneous

Richard Spacey is awesome. He is my new crush. He is just so silly and seems really happy and genuine. His morning shows with Jaime were too cute.

On the first night we kept waiting for one of our pieces of luggage. The room steward checked around, even contacted security for us, but no luck. After dinner we came back and there was a message to come to deck 1 to retrieve it. :eek: Oh no, the naught room?!?! BF made his way to deck 1 but apparently went to the wrong side. He got fussed at and security was called to escort him to the correct area. BF was embarrassed and a little ticked because there was no signage this was a crew only area. When he made it to the naughty room, he was asked to open the suitcase. He showed them we only had water and soda and they him go w/the drinks. BF reported there was a tremendous amount of confiscated alcohol in the room.

The condition of the ship is pretty good. The carpets looked nice, things were relatively clean, and the art work was interesting too (I particularly liked the quartz display in one of the stairwells). The elevators could use some work (they were a bit banged up, on one inside door someone had carved their name, and one one elevator a few of the button on one side wouldn't work). I have never sailed on Carnival, but whenever we were in view of a Carnival ship, it just looked really shabby next to the Freedom. I am amazed the exterior of the ship looks so crisp and white.

The crew, especially the housekeeping staff, were generally very upbeat and happy. The bar staff were fantastic too (with the exception of the Sky, Pool, and Cococay bartenders). I was disappointed with many of the dining staff in the main dining room as they were short with us on many occasions. The Guest Services people were a little of a let down too. BF lost his SeaPass (left it in a slot machine) and after determining no surprise charges had been made to the card, went to Guest Services to get a new one. They did not ask for ID and printed off a new one which was scary because anyone could have done the same thing! :eek:

The C&A coupons were electronically applied to my card. I am a Gold member and did have a few perks. Either upon entering my cabin at first or possibly it was later that night after turndown, there was a handout of my discounts. There was no way (that I could find out, anyway) to see which coupons I had used and which I hadn't. And the by-one-get-one beer/wine coupon (which was supposed to be applied automatically) was not even mentioned by any of the bar staff until our final day. I should have paid more attention and realized it had not been applied, but it wasn't until a pool bar waiter applied it and told me of the discount afterwards. The internet coupon was a paper slip for either $5 off or %10 off a package. BF bout a $99 internet package as he works in IT and needed to check in at work. Luckily there were not work problems and we ended up with way too many minutes. The internet was fast. He used the Wifi on his own laptop.

There were LOTS of paper handouts each day and night in the room. It was really a waste. One day they made a mistake and said Gold people had access to the Diamond Lounge. The following day they issued an apology and clarification on that matter.

Miscellaneous

 

 

There were LOTS of paper handouts each day and night in the room. It was really a waste. One day they made a mistake and said Gold people had access to the Diamond Lounge. The following day they issued an apology and clarification on that matter.

Richard Spacey is totally my new crush too! He was just so happy all the time & funny!!! All week he made me smile, I came home just wanting to have more fun every day. I know it has to get tiring but he seemed genuine.