My Review of Carnival Freedom 9/06/14 to 9/14/14

[indiaksue]

My DH (49) and myself (50) sailed on the Freedom on Sept. 6th to the 14th. This was our 18th cruise overall and 12th on Carnival. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale the day before and chose The Hilton Marina hotel on 17th street. I researched ahead of time at length and was a little apprehensive about staying here since the reviews I have read haven’t all been very good. I do try to take a lot of comments with a grain of salt and form my own opinion. I am so glad we tried it because now we will always stay here before a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, it was wonderful. Keep in mind we are Hilton Honor members and we booked a tower room so we had the newest updated rooms and the highest floor, this might make a huge difference. We had a balcony overlooking the port, perfect!

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening we ate at Bimini Boatyard which was just a couple of blocks from the hotel. Being from Kansas we don’t get a lot of opportunities to eat dockside so this was a lovely place to eat outside and enjoy the live music. The food was a bit pricey but for a splurge it was wonderful fresh seafood, something we never get either.

 

 

We also stopped at the Walgreens Pharmacy that was just a block from the hotel. It is very handy to grab snacks, breakfast, pop or beer for the evening or morning.

 

The next morning we got up really early to watch the ships come in. I know it is ridiculous but we are die-hard cruise fans and sometimes watch the Web Cams on Saturday or Sunday mornings when we need a cruise-fix. In person was so much better!

 

For breakfast the hotel offers a buffet for $22 per person. We won’t pay that much so we always walk down a few blocks to the Harbor View Café in the Harbor Shopping Center. It is nothing special but a good breakfast for a lot cheaper. They have redecorated since the last time we were there; it looks nice.

 

 

I will apologize now to everyone that I will be sharing some pictures that aren't a very good quality. I took more movies this trip and they don't make good still shots. I will try to post some everyday.

[YB Nrml]

Looking forward to more. We leave Saturday on the Freedom and lived in Topeka until 2 years ago. Decided to move to Florida to be closer to friends, cruise ports and water! Best decision ever!!!

[hlb76]

YAY another new Freedom review to wet my whistle. Hope you had a great trip!

[NCTribeFan]

Looking forward to more! I sail her on 11/29.

[dallas52]

we sail on her in a little over a month.

[indiaksue]

Looking forward to more. We leave Saturday on the Freedom and lived in Topeka until 2 years ago. Decided to move to Florida to be closer to friends, cruise ports and water! Best decision ever!!!

 

It is our dream to someday move to Florida. It would be great to be able to hop on a cruise anytime and not have the expense to fly in.

[strantz1432]

Yeah! Can't wait to hear about your cruise. We will be on the Freedom in April when it's repositioned in Galveston.

[PathfinderEss]

So far so good, looking forward to more. Nice photo's.

[momof3cruisers]

Great info so far! Looking forward to the rest of it. Thank you for taking the time to do the review for all of us.

[ch27088]

Thanks for sharing your review with us, can't wait to read more!

[SMSACE6]

Nice start to your review. thanks for the photos and info on Hilton Marina, I am staying there after my cruise in Nov.

 

Looking forward to more of your review.:)

[indiaksue]

Embarkation

We hopped in a taxi at 10:30 to head over to the ship. My DH always wants to go sooner but I won’t go a minute before 10:30. That may have to change, because we arrived and went right in to process as VIP and walked into the VIP lounge and it was completely full. I got a chair and my DH ended up standing by the back wall. I have never seen anything like it, we are usually among the first but this time there were at least 75 people in that room. When they did call us around 11:40 it was a mad dash for the door. They did not differentiate between FFTF and Platinum, Diamond. I was a little frustrated, what good is our loyalty if the same thing can be bought, at least call us first, then FTTF, that, would have been sufficient for us.

 

Here was the view from our balcony the morning of embarkation.

 

Our Room & Ship

We got on and dropped our bags off at the room right away. We had cabin 6452 which is an aft wrap balcony. This was our first time with a balcony like this, what a balcony it was. The room was awesome too, with a different configuration than usual, it seemed so much larger.

We did determine though that this room was a splurge but not worth the extra money. We spent early morning and late night on the balcony but it was hot during the day if the sun was out, not a lot of air flow, at least when in port. The views were spectacular though, seems like we saw so many more ships passing us during the night, than we normally see. I guess we have always had a balcony on the wrong side or something.

This ship’s decor we thought was a little more subdued then some of the Joe Farcas ships. With the exception of the Lido “statue of liberty” theme it was not too bad. The only real complaint was the railings in the dining rooms could hardly be seen through so we didn’t get to see the waiters dance and sing unless we stood up. The colors were better than some ships for sure.

 

We loved the layout of this room, it seemed so much more spacious than a normal room.

 

 

[indiaksue]

Service

No complaints about service at all. My Dh has an easy name to remember and after the first day, the bar staff, all know his name, what he drinks and sometimes his folio number. The wait staff, Alex and Norman we had for the first two days at Sea Day Brunch, would seek us out every day after that in the MDR for dinner. They were relief staff and didn’t have an assigned area but they would always come over and say hi, from where ever they were. We had Anytime Dining and sat in several different areas but always had good wait staff. Our room steward was IWayan and after the second day he moved to maintenance crew. We were bummed to get a new steward but Mushi was good also. We requested an ice bucket and there was a full one twice a day after that.

 

Alex and Norman were great!

 

Sorry I am going to drag this out a little, this is my last post until Monday when I am back to my work computer.

[Arizonagirl14]

I love watching g the ships come in too. When we were in Seward Alaska I got up really early(May e4 am) to see our ship come in from our balcony hotel room.It means you are ALMOST on the ship!

 

 

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[Ms. Fun Bunch]

My Fun Group was on this cruise and I am looking forward to your review!

[indiaksue]

I love watching g the ships come in too. When we were in Seward Alaska I got up really early(May e4 am) to see our ship come in from our balcony hotel room.It means you are ALMOST on the ship!

 

 

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It is one of my favorite things about cruising. It's like a kid at Christmas, we have our hotels mapped out for Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and Tampa and we get up way before the dawn and watch from our room or balcony. Embarkation day is the best day of the cruise!

[HollandAvery]

So so SO happy for a Freedom review...we will be going when it comes to Galveston but I like to read the reviews to get excited!

[WAHMto5]

Thanks for the review, heading out tomorrow!

[indiaksue]

Food

I know food is very subjective. I am usually not picky as long as I don’t have to cook or clean up, I am happy. I love the pizza but I wish they would keep more around during peak times. Sometimes it takes a long time to get and I just give up and go get something else. I love Guy’s Burgers but a lot of fat so I don’t eat them very often. Same with Fish & Chips, good fries but I don’t eat the fish, it really soaks up the fat. The Lido buffet breakfast got really boring, with basically the same thing every day. I know there was an omelet station somewhere but I never went around looking for it. We did love the sea day brunch, so 3 days we did that and thought maybe we should start eating in the MDR for breakfast. On the next cruise we will try that. The lunch Buffet was okay, there was a lot to choose from but we don’t really care for buffet food that much. Except for the salad bar, which had a lot of choices, I had one most everyday. The MDR was good, I have gotten to the point I know what I don’t like from many previous cruises so tried some new items. Everything I had was good, except the NY Strip steak, which was pretty bad. I should have known better than to get that but the filet I had at the brunch was really good so thought I would try it. That was a mistake, very tough and grisly but prepared the way I asked, Dh on the other hand asked for medium and got at least medium well to well done. I am tired of this menu and wish they would try something new.

 

 

 

My best meal was the Petite Filet and boneless Shortribs.

 

My favorite meal on the ship.

 

Dh's favorite meal on the ship.

 

My other favorites in the MDR:

Greek Farmers Salad (believe it or not)

Eggrolls from the everyday menu

Onion Soup

Tom Ka Gai Soup

Boneless Pork Steak

From the Vegetarian Menu: Spanakopita

Baked Herb Polenta with Mushroom Ragout (both of these I order

a chicken breast or steak with them)

Edited September 29, 2014 by indiaksue

[indiaksue]

Entertainment

The best thing Carnival did was hire an entertainment director. Our cruise director Jen, who was pretty quirky and energetic, was just all over the place, for everything. She was out there so much, which we appreciated, compared to some other cruises where we never really saw our Cruise Director. She wasn’t our favorite CD but enthusiasm does mean a lot. The staff was also fun; Dan, Ginger, and Saffy were all over the ship too.

The deck party was one of the best we have seen, and there were some things we hadn’t seen before, like the Live Morning Show in the Lounge. The shows were okay, were not really into the Broadway sing and dance shows but it was something to do so we went. The playlist production shows we have heard so many negative comments about. I can see what people’s complaints are but I thought it was a clever way to disguise the fact that there are only 8 people up on stage. We liked the Ventriloquist a lot; he was really funny in a dry sort of way. Also Marcus Monroe the juggler & comedian was hilarious. I think it took a certain personality to like him; he was just so awkward on stage which made him funny. We only saw one punchliner show because the times never worked for us. That was really the biggest complaint we had. All activities were geared around early seating or late seating and we were always done eating around 7:30 to 8:00 with Anytime Dining. There wasn’t anything going on after we left the MDR, the shows, movies, comedy, etc. already would have started so we just wandered the ship from space to space until 9:15 or 9:30. They should space out the shows and things going on a little more because this got old night after night.

 

This picture is a little fuzzy but you can see there were a lot of people at the deck party having a lot of fun!

 

The Live Morning Show with Ginger, Dan, Jen & Saffy.

 

The Dr. Suess Parade looked like a lot of fun for families.

[SMSACE6]

Thanks for the update, enjoying your review:)

[cruisingbajan]

Thanks for sharing.

[momof3cruisers]

What is that that you have pictured as your favorite meal? I never thought to order a steak or chicken breast with the vegetarian option. That's a really good idea!

 

Also, is the petite filet and short ribs, the one you mentioned from the brunch?

Edited September 30, 2014 by momof3cruisers

[indiaksue]

What is that that you have pictured as your favorite meal? I never thought to order a steak or chicken breast with the vegetarian option. That's a really good idea!

 

Also, is the petite filet and short ribs, the one you mentioned from the brunch?

 

It is the petite Filet and the boneless short ribs. The filet was surprisingly good for being in the MDR and I love ribs. The sweet potato puree also is one of my favorites.

 

I started doing the vegetarian meals last cruise. I have always liked some of the options but I am a meat eater and never found it to be satisfying enough by itself. I have found new favorites by doing this.

[Handsome58]

on this cruise. I like your review!