Carnival Freedom

[kscruiseaholic]

We just returned from our first 5nt cruise on Carnival Freedom. We were om Cabin 8455 / Premium Vista Balcony or other wise called an aft wrap. (I have 6 prior cruises under my belt on different CCL ships, Royal & Norwegion) This is a trip report based on our experiences, both the good and the bad.....

 

Embarkation / Debarkation:

 

We had Faster to the fun so the process went fairly smooth for us. No real hicup's but there were a LOT of F2F passes issued this cruise. More than we have ever seen in the past.

 

Crew:

 

Always smiling, friendly and ready to help. Not to mention working constantly!!

 

Food:

 

Buffet - OK - offered limited choices and was just plain tiring, White rice & Baked potato, 3 meats, steamed veggies and your usual salad fixings, fruits etc. Desserts were really good.

 

Main Dining room - Food OK. Seating for Two was very cramped, with no privacy.

 

Guys Burgers, Fish & Chips, Burrito/taco bar, deli and room service was actually better than the buffet offerings.

 

Entertainment was Great. We really enjoyed the shows.

 

Alcoholic Drinks were very watered down. Rum & Coke's weak. Was pretty darn gutzy to offer weak rum & cokes when you can barely taste the rum.

 

Excursions - We booked our own excursions and didnt use carnival.

 

Cabin - Our cabin was kept neat and clean. The room steward was a little on the pushy side though, and left us with the impression that we were on his time (cleaning wise) rather than our own time. Pretty much told us what time he would be cleaning our room and was always asking when we would be leaving. It didn't really set well with us.

 

Balcony - NASTY - GRIMEY - OILY - DIRTY......

Railing (top & see through windows) was NOT cleaned when we first had access to our cabin, nor was it cleaned the remainer of the cruise. Top railing was oily, and had black/gray grimey slime type stuff on top. The see through windows were so dirty you could barely see through them. Water stood along the bottom drain the entire cruise. Drains were plugged. 6-10 spots of Left over chewing Gum that had hardened on the bottom window (metal) supports) Rust and grime all over the supports as well. The deck was so dirty it left black marks on my daughters feet. After a rain, white specks of paint were falling onto the deck... Not at all happy with our balcony. When we asked the maintance crew member about this he had the gall to say he cleaned the railing every day. NOT HARDLY!!! Rather than do a bunch of complaining we made do.

 

The rest of the ship also showing lack of maintance. Lots of rust streaks, paint chipping, Windows in the buffet area as well as other windows on the ship etc, also filthy. Now I can understand a little grime, but this was clearly something that had not been cleaned in quite a while due to the build up of it at the very top of the windows that streaked from top to bottom.

 

Anyway, we did enjoy ourself but are disappointed at the same time with the overall maintance issues we encountered.

[kscruiseaholic]

Forgot to add that the sheets in our cabin were yellowed / stained. Beds were comfy. I had no trouble sleeping at nite.

 

Room service was fairly quick and the BLT's were very good.

 

Sorry this report is so mixed, Just jotting down things that might be of some importance to someone.

 

BTW - Will not be sailing carnival again. Its one of those 3x bitten type deals. Kept hoping reviews have been wrong, but they were mostly spot on.

[R&S]

Hi there,

 

We were on the same cruise with a group of people. I agree about the crew, very friendly and super helpful. We were not impressed with the dining room service. It was slow and most nights we were waiting on the dessert when the announcement "the next dining service is in 10 minutes" was made. One night our waiters were so far behind they skipped the soups and brought us our main courses. The food was ok in the dining room but we really enjoyed the fish and chips and other offerings around the Lido area.

 

One other area we did not like was how any alcohol purchases (Duty free or in port) were not brought to our room the night before we disembark. Instead we had to go down the morning of leaving the ship to pick up the package. I did not mind walking to pick it up, but I was not able to pack the bottles in my suitcase since it had already been picked up the night before. This must be a new process.

 

Overall a good cruise.

[wildcatcruzer]

You can blame past cruisers for having to pick up your alcohol the last morning. Out of control drunks on the last night guzzling their deliveries.

[txvballgirl]

I had the same experience with my housekeeping staff. Even though I said no morning service multiple times they were always trying to get in my room. It was very strange.

[MrSnarkyPants]

 

Balcony - NASTY - GRIMEY - OILY - DIRTY......

Railing (top & see through windows) was NOT cleaned when we first had access to our cabin, nor was it cleaned the remainer of the cruise. Top railing was oily, and had black/gray grimey slime type stuff on top. The see through windows were so dirty you could barely see through them.

 

Just off the Freedom. For whatever it's worth, they cleaned the balconies during our first sea day; the note in the room says they can only do it on sea days. Ours did look better after they were through.

 

I have to agree with a lot of what you say. The lido buffet was terrible. The main dining room was terrible. Both put out lukewarm food. The drinks were weak. The steakhouse is excellent, and Guy's burgers are surprisingly good. But other than that I found myself struggling to find things that I wanted to eat. Plus now it's a $20 upcharge for lobster tail even on elegant night.

 

Time to check out RCCL or NCL. I'm done with Carnival.

[smyliecruising]

Just off the Freedom. For whatever it's worth, they cleaned the balconies during our first sea day; the note in the room says they can only do it on sea days. Ours did look better after they were through.

 

 

 

I have to agree with a lot of what you say. The lido buffet was terrible. The main dining room was terrible. Both put out lukewarm food. The drinks were weak. The steakhouse is excellent, and Guy's burgers are surprisingly good. But other than that I found myself struggling to find things that I wanted to eat. Plus now it's a $20 upcharge for lobster tail even on elegant night.

 

 

 

Time to check out RCCL or NCL. I'm done with Carnival.

 

 

If you love the steakhouse why not go every night? It will cost more than that to go on a royal out of Galveston. Of course I am speaking in terms of a couple. I don't bring my family of seven so I am only pricing for a couple of people. I love Carnival's inexpensive rates and I can upgrade my cruise if it fits in my budget for a few hundred bucks by going to the Steakhouse each night or adding the steakhouse menu in the dining room.

Edited February 8, 2016 by smyliecruising

[MrSnarkyPants]

If you love the steakhouse why not go every night? It will cost more than that to go on a royal out of Galveston. Of course I am speaking in terms of a couple. I don't bring my family of seven so I am only pricing for a couple of people. I love Carnival's inexpensive rates and I can upgrade my cruise if it fits in my budget for a few hundred bucks by going to the Steakhouse each night or adding the steakhouse menu in the dining room.

 

Because, honestly, I think my tastes (and my wife's) are starting to diverge from what Carnival is selling. We're not huge drinkers, the night we went into the dance club we didn't know any of the music, we don't gamble... we're just trying to relax. And we just didn't feel like we fit in on the Freedom.

 

Maybe I'm just becoming a cranky old man, but we like to dress up when we go out on land, so we dress up when we go out at sea. And we're seated in the steakhouse next to a bunch of people in Dallas Cowboys T-shirts. Or when you go to tea time and you're seated next to a bunch of loud people that chew with their mouth open. I couldn't act like that at a restaurant on land, yet here we are at sea asking ourselves if we're the odd ones who didn't get the memo that etiquette is now purely optional.

 

Elegant night in the dining room wasn't that elegant, either. And let's not get started on the lobster tail now being a $20 upcharge even on elegant night.

 

We're glad that we took the cruise because we had a lovely day in Cozumel at Nachi Cocom. But going there and coming back wasn't nearly as enjoyable. I don't know where my wife and I fit in, but we both don't feel like it was on the Freedom. YMMV.

[smyliecruising]

Because, honestly, I think my tastes (and my wife's) are starting to diverge from what Carnival is selling. We're not huge drinkers, the night we went into the dance club we didn't know any of the music, we don't gamble... we're just trying to relax. And we just didn't feel like we fit in on the Freedom.

 

 

 

Maybe I'm just becoming a cranky old man, but we like to dress up when we go out on land, so we dress up when we go out at sea. And we're seated in the steakhouse next to a bunch of people in Dallas Cowboys T-shirts. Or when you go to tea time and you're seated next to a bunch of loud people that chew with their mouth open. I couldn't act like that at a restaurant on land, yet here we are at sea asking ourselves if we're the odd ones who didn't get the memo that etiquette is now purely optional.

 

 

 

Elegant night in the dining room wasn't that elegant, either. And let's not get started on the lobster tail now being a $20 upcharge even on elegant night.

 

 

 

We're glad that we took the cruise because we had a lovely day in Cozumel at Nachi Cocom. But going there and coming back wasn't nearly as enjoyable. I don't know where my wife and I fit in, but we both don't feel like it was on the Freedom. YMMV.

 

 

I do know what you mean. We dress up really nice each evening and really try to make it special. Tea time was definitely not classy tea time. Everyone was wearing bathing suits! I guess I watch too much British TV but I feel that tea time should be a bit different than my carnival experience so I didn't ever do that again. I have heard that Princess cruises are very nice and also the river cruises have a classier more intimate feel. I hope you find your perfect ship fit.

Edited February 9, 2016 by smyliecruising