Felipe, CD on the Freedom

[Eddington910]

Hi all

 

DH and I recently enjoyed 8 days on the Carnival Freedom, Feb 13-21. Felipe Cuoto was our CD. I wanted to write a message regarding the near-universally negative or indifferent posts about his performance, in hopes that upcoming Freedom cruisers aren't too worried about him as CD.

 

I realize that tastes vary and that everyone's experience is unique, but out of my five cruises on Carnival, I found Felipe to be the best CD I've ever encountered.

 

His announcements were short and to-the-point, and conveyed all of the information that I needed. Many CD's drone on and on and on. Not this one. His morning show was pretty funny and also informative. He was energetic and "fun", so to speak, without being overbearing.

 

Once again, I'm not disputing anyone else's experience or tastes. I was not at all offended that his girlfriend was allegedly onboard. Many employees have significant others or spouses on board. Felipe mingled with passengers at the martini bar and disco one night, and these same passengers complained that he was "non-existent" during the cruise. I really can't equate those two things in my mind. I do wish that he could have stopped by at our private function, but it's a big ship.

 

The cruise director has an extremely limited effect on my enjoyment of my vacation, and perhaps that is why I wasn't all in a tizzy over his girlfriend being on board, or his recorded announcements at the shows. Maybe I'm alone, but in my experience Felipe was an adequate and promising CD.

 

Just my $0.02. If you're slated on the Freedom, or any other ship, ENJOY YOUR CRUISE! We just rebooked the Freedom for September, and we're looking at another one for January '11.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

-Sam

[bamaphotopro]

I've about decided that a person's opinion of Felipe depends a great deal on their age. My wife and I both are on the backside of 55, so I don't discount for a minute that perhaps Felipe is geared to a somewhat younger crowd.

 

He certainly didn't do anything to take away from our cruise experience ... but he didn't do anything to add to it, either. To each his own ... and congrats on your future bookings! The Freedom is a beautiful ship! I have booked our entire family on the Fascination in January '11 ... already counting the days. :)

[Elaine515]

Like you said.. a CD will not ruin my cruise... BUT they can make it better... There are 3 CDs that if I had a choice between 2 ships and either John, Butch or Malcolm were CD on one of them... thats the one I would book... None others to date have stood out like those 3 have....

 

I have never cruised with Felipe and he will be off the Freedom when I get on, but I thank you for posting the positive things you liked about him because I have only read negative things about him and his girlfriend... And I'm hoping that if someone in the future gets Felipe as their CD, they will also look at the positive....

[Eddington910]

Thanks, and enjoy the Freedom! She's a beautiful ship! If you are a Supper Club type, we enjoyed the Sun King Steakhouse a great deal.

 

I've heard that Malcolm and Butch are both very good at what they do, and I'll be on the lookout for them in the future. Not that a CD would make me more or less likely to sail a particular cruise...but it's nice to know... :)

 

-Sam

[golfadj]

Sam this is Stu from the roll call and lets agree to disagree about the behavior of the CD.

 

I really did not care that his GF was on the ship all week.

 

What I did care about is most nights he did not bother to introduce the acts but did it by recorded announcements.

 

He did make quite a few announcements and several times had to make extra announcements because he "forgot" to say a few things he was supposed to say. Obviously his mind was not on the ship.

 

He must have known that his asst CD was not going to be working that week as he was doing a show one night in the main lounge.

 

You are younger and stay up later than me and saw him one night but this is the first time in 12 Carnival cruises that I never saw the CD around the ship and did not have the opportunity to talk to him.

 

Tried to talk to him at the farewell party and past guest party but he could not get out of both functions fast enough.

 

He is an acting CD and should be working hard to move up to permanent status. Instead if I was his boss he would be lucky to still be employed

 

Lucky for the Freedom the next CD is one we have sailed with twice and was excellent and very much accessible to passengers.

 

In spite of this had an excellent cruise.

 

You should have asked one of the other social hosts for their opinion on what was going on that week.

 

Stu

[Eddington910]

That's interesting Stu. What time do I go to sleep?

[Th3BuffetAssassin]

Is Felipe the CD who likes to yell Wooooo Hooooo? I think we had him on the fascination back in nov and he wasn't that bad.

[Eddington910]

Yes, must be the same one. Every announcement from him ended in Woohoo. I didn't know if that was his deal, or if it was a fleet-wide thing. It was the first time I had heard it.

 

He was one of the positives of the cruise for me, and I just wanted to share.

[golfadj]

That's interesting Stu. What time do I go to sleep?

 

As I said lets agree to disagree.

[Tenga1899]

I think he is substituting for Big Tex on the Valor in April when we sail, I'll try to remember to form an opinion for you guys on a ship where he is just a "temp." :)

[tjmaher]

Sam,

 

I am glad to see that you returned home from your 8 days of "freedom." What a great cruise we had. Too bad, it was just so short. Steve is finally feeling human again. Whatever hit him took him out big time. I heard that over 400 folks were sick on Saturday.

 

I agree with you about a CD. As you can see, the CD does not stop me or anyone from making there own fun. However, having been on several Carnival cruise, he was certainly not as public as others. Whether it was from his girlfriend being on or maybe that is his style or even possibly fighting whatever bug was on the ship. In the past we have always seen the CD out and about on the ship.

 

Our group did run into him in the disco one night and we did chat with him. However, that was close to 3:30 a.m. We did chat about our group party for Friday. Unfortunately, neither he nor another representative appear for our event.....and that was fine as it did not effect the great time we all had.

 

On a personal level, Felipe as well as his girlfriend were certainly a pleasure to chat with, but I think most folks, including me are use to see the CD around the ship more and certainly at a more reasonable time.

 

We need to cruise again!!! Reunion Reunion!!! Tell Casey I said hello.

 

Nancy (steve too)

[Eddington910]

Thanks Nancy. It's great to hear that Steve is feeling better. Casey and I are overjoyed by the new friends that we made, including you and Steve. I'm hopeful that your dreadful winter will mean a great summer, weather-wise! :)

 

In terms of reunions and future cruises, Casey and I are looking at the January sailings of the Valor. Suites and aft-wraps are quite affordable at that time, and we're interested in Belize as well as Roatan. We are normally inside people (and happy that way), but we might try the aft-wrap or oceanview suite, just to see what the difference is. We've had balconies and enjoyed it, and insides and enjoyed it!

 

We're also on the Freedom again in September. This will be our third sailing on that ship. Sept. 11th, 2010 sailing.

 

Thanks for contributing to this thread. It's always nice to see your posts. I was dismayed to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews of a CD whom I believed - all in all - was pretty good.

 

Say hi to Steve for us, and stay in touch :P

 

Cheers

 

-Sam

[tjmaher]

Sam,

 

You are going to love Belize and Rotan Island. They are both wonder posts. We went to Brassiter Island (Ithink that was the name in Belize). Would go back to these post in a heart beat.

 

I understand what you mean about the cost factor of Jan vs Feb, unfortunately, with my job I can only take of certainly weeks at certain times. I am on the Congressional schedule, which of course, is always the expensive weeks.

 

You will love the Jr. suite with or the aft. Jon had one and it was something I could easily live with and we are usually inside folks as well.

Pat/Penny had the aft balcony and it was unreal. Another one I can easily get use to.

 

Even though we would be crusing together anytime soon, let me know if you make it this way. You both always have a place to stay.

 

Chat with you soon.

 

Nancy

[Sol y Mar]

I "think" he was on Fascination last September. I say "think" because I still have no idea what the heck our CD's name was, and when he did appear, I didn't know it was him! I think he was a cute, short, latino guy.........but he was NOT memorable. On the flip side, I've encountered CDs who were always there, loud and in your face (so to speak) and they WERE memorable (for the wrong reasons). I guess a happy medium is lucky to find, and we have had them, too.

 

Sol y Mar

(about to be platinum and know enough to form an opinion about such things):o

[mistyinca]

I cruised with Felipe on the Paradise last May, and IMO, he's one of the best I've encountered.

[WES143]

thanks, and enjoy the freedom! She's a beautiful ship! If you are a supper club type, we enjoyed the sun king steakhouse a great deal.

 

I've heard that malcolm and butch are both very good at what they do, and i'll be on the lookout for them in the future. Not that a cd would make me more or less likely to sail a particular cruise...but it's nice to know... :)

 

-sam

yes, malcolm is a very good cd and he is very personable.

[chixfila]

My husband and I cruised 2/7-2/13 on the Freedom and thought Felipe was great. Like another poster mentioned, he was short and to the point with his announcements and we enjoyed his humor.

[kcbryan]

We were on the Freedom 1/30-2/7. Personally a CD has almost no impact on my cruise. He was upbeat and we saw him a lot - not that I was looking for him. MUCH BETTER than Jen on the Legend last year. I can still hear her annoying bingo announcements. We loved the Freedom and the Legend and would book either again. If I knew Jen was going to be the CD, I would probably pick a different cruise.

[gsu_paintballer]

We were on the Freedom 1/30-2/7. Personally a CD has almost no impact on my cruise. He was upbeat and we saw him a lot - not that I was looking for him. MUCH BETTER than Jen on the Legend last year. I can still hear her annoying bingo announcements. We loved the Freedom and the Legend and would book either again. If I knew Jen was going to be the CD, I would probably pick a different cruise.

 

This. I'd been on one cruise with RCCL before trying Carnival, and I didn't even know what a CD was. I saw all this talk about how one would make or break some people's cruise and thought it was ridiculous as I couldn't imagine ever even seeing the person.

 

Felipe was around on our Fascination cruise in August, though. I still wouldn't book a cruise based on the CD (crazy thought to me), but I thought he was really cool.

 

Then again, we (fiance and I) are in our early 20s.

[TahoeBob]

I cruised with Felipe on the Paradise last May, and IMO, he's one of the best I've encountered.

I was also on the paradise last may and I thought he was very good. with the exception of his disembarking talk. he kept talking about not being allowed to bring any cuban cigars back into teh USA, the funny thing is that week was one of the cruises that we only stopped in catalina , we cut out Ensenada because of the swine flu. No chance of anyone buying a cuban cigar.

[frazzledrazzle16]

I certainly hope that Filipe was just having an "off" week when we were aboard. In my opinion he was majorly slacking (as was the majority of the entertainment staff). I don't really think its a bad thing when a cruise director isn't visible... there is a lot of work they do 'behind the scenes', but there is a distinct difference between a CD who isn't visible and one who is absent. The few times that we saw Filipe, he might as well have just been any other passenger with his girlfriend. In no way did it affect our overall enjoyment of our cruise, as we had a fantastic time, but it was definitely something we made note of on the comment card.

 

 

(BTW I am 23 for those who think that age is a factor)

[golfadj]

I thought the entertainment staff did fine especially considering all the things dumped off on them.

 

BTW did anyone else have a problem understanding Levi? Not sure if it was his accent but very hard for us to understand.

[asaberan]

He seemed fine to me. In the past the cruise director has seemed to be "more accessible" but that was on different cruise lines. I didn't see him on the ship other than in the Victoriana Lounge, which is what I mean by "more accessible."

 

My wife and I are in our late 20's, but then again, it wouldn't make or break our cruise for a good or bad cruise director.