Live From The Carnival Freedom: Crossing the Atlantic for a New Whale Tail

[jam19872016]

Bacon caramel donut ($4)

 

[exlondoner]

You would choose to eat such a thing? Eeeeek.

[jam19872016]

2 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

You would choose to eat such a thing? Eeeeek.

It's obscene how much they charge but its so good. I blame Cunard, their donuts left me with a craving.

[exlondoner]

2 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

It's obscene how much they charge but its so good. I blame Cunard, their donuts left me with a craving.

I can feel my teeth twingeing just from looking at it. And I realise nice bacon improves almost anything, but not this. Again I can only say eeeeeeek, with more es, because not only are you eating it, but you were willing to pay for it. Why is that by the way?

[chryso]

You have to pay for food?

[exlondoner]

5 minutes ago, chryso said:

You have to pay for food?

Seems rather harsh.

[Host Hattie]

I love a bacon sandwich but not wrapped round Steak and definitely not on a doughnut !

[jam19872016]

15 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I can feel my teeth twingeing just from looking at it. And I realise nice bacon improves almost anything, but not this. Again I can only say eeeeeeek, with more es, because not only are you eating it, but you were willing to pay for it. Why is that by the way?

If I want it, I have to pay for it 🙂

 

13 minutes ago, chryso said:

You have to pay for food?

Yes, unfortunately some items come with an upcharge. Most of the food is included but there are a few things that come with an extra fee. Most are reasonable and there are far fewer upcharges than RCL and the like. This one is not a reasonable upcharge, but for an occasional treat I help Carnival pay down their debt.

[exlondoner]

So what’s the system? Are they available in a special place or just in the buffet with other stuff. Please tell me those promising looking lunchtime cakes were included? Do Carnival do something equivalent to afternoon tea?

[jam19872016]

9 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

I love a bacon sandwich but not wrapped round Steak and definitely not on a doughnut !

The first time I ever heard of it on a donut was at a trendy place in South Beach about ten years ago. It was $6 (so probably $9-$10 today) and seemed absolutely outrageous both in price and what it was. I tried it and other than the price tag had no regrets. 

 

For years my former job used to provide donuts on Fridays and one of the offerings was this and I admit to indulging every Friday for years.

 

Now it is just an occasional treat but quite good.

 

Think of it like bacon with a plate of pancakes and syrup. It's pretty much the same thing but in handheld form.

 

The steak, well maybe that's a cultural thing because while the donut gets some weird looks in America too, bacon wrapped steak is a delicacy 😁

[exlondoner]

We used to have jam doughnuts for Friday break at boarding school. I’ve never liked them since.

[jam19872016]

1 minute ago, exlondoner said:

So what’s the system? Are they available in a special place or just in the buffet with other stuff. Please tell me those promising looking lunchtime cakes were included? Do Carnival do something equivalent to afternoon tea?

Those lunchtime cakes are included. The donuts are in a display case at the coffee shop along with some other upcharge items.

 

They do a tea time but I won't even begin to suggest it is anywhere near the same league as Cunard's afternoon tea. It's nice that its an option, on sea days only, while other mainstream lines no longer offer it, but it really is a tea time in name only.

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, jam19872016 said:

Those lunchtime cakes are included. The donuts are in a display case at the coffee shop along with some other upcharge items.

 

They do a tea time but I won't even begin to suggest it is anywhere near the same league as Cunard's afternoon tea. It's nice that its an option, on sea days only, while other mainstream lines no longer offer it, but it really is a tea time in name only.

Well, a cup of tea and just a cake is nice to fill the gap until dinner. On Cunard all I usually have is tea and a scone, especially since smoked salmon sandwiches seem to have vanished. I hope the Carnival tea is free.

[chryso]

4 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

The donuts are in a display case at the coffee shop along with some other upcharge items.

That doesn't sound so bad.  I would not like them in the line along with the included items so you were having to determine what was included and what was not as you walked through for meals.

[jam19872016]

1 minute ago, exlondoner said:

Well, a cup of tea and just a cake is nice to fill the gap until dinner. On Cunard all I usually have is tea and a scone, especially since smoked salmon sandwiches seem to have vanished. I hope the Carnival tea is free.

Carnival tea is free however....they don't come around with it for several minutes and instead come around with an upcharge tea option and present it as the only option if you don't know better. The free tea takes a while to arrive.

 

I don't recall the last time scones were served without asking. They are dreadful, and do not come with cream or jam although I suppose you could ask for it. I don't bother asking for them because I know I won't eat them. They are pretty consistently bad.

 

The cakes are hit or miss. Some are very good, you just don't know which ones.

 

The smoked salmon is readily available though and always quite nice.

[jam19872016]

4 minutes ago, chryso said:

That doesn't sound so bad.  I would not like them in the line along with the included items so you were having to determine what was included and what was not as you walked through for meals.

Yes, all pay items are separated. There are two areas in the buffet with pay for items. The sushi place, and a seafood place. There are no free items at these two stands although sometimes in the morning they will use the space for an overflow omelet line. 

[exlondoner]

Can I thank you for being so patient with all my questions. It won’t win me over to Carnival, I don’t think, but always available smoked salmon sandwiches make it a close thing. 🙂

[jam19872016]

1 minute ago, exlondoner said:

Can I thank you for being so patient with all my questions. It won’t win me over to Carnival, I don’t think, but always available smoked salmon sandwiches make it a close thing. 🙂

Always available but...only offered on sea days. On this long cruise with many sea days, only select sea days. It's also very poorly advertised, you have to know where to look to find it..

 

I love answering questions, especially when I know the answers...makes me feel smart 😄

 

 

[chryso]

4 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

 It's also very poorly advertised, you have to know where to look to find it..

I doubt that is by accident.  Salmon is not cheap.

[jam19872016]

28 minutes ago, chryso said:

I doubt that is by accident.  Salmon is not cheap.

No doubt. And Carnival has a track record of under promoting something, and then claiming to eliminate it due to low demand.

[exlondoner]

2 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

No doubt. And Carnival has a track record of under promoting something, and then claiming to eliminate it due to low demand.

Have you heard of Dr. Beeching? One of the techniques of his rail closure programme was to count passengers using a particular line. If it was a branch line to a seaside resort, he would tend to get the count done on a wet evening in February. That sort of thing.

[jam19872016]

Is the Freedom ready for prime time?

 

 

Short answer: No.

 

To be fair though, this is not prime time. This is a very inexpensive repositioning cruise that most paid almost nothing for or were comped entirely by the casino. 

 

What follows is a long and negative post. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea feel free to skip this one 🙂 

 

First let me say my experience has been great and most of these have not impacted me, but there are some problems with the ship that in the interest of being fair, I want to discuss.

 

Some of the complaints I've seen on our FB group are ridiculous. There are quite a few people upset about us sailing in circles off the coast of Spain on the way to Malaga. One said she even went to guest services to ask how we could have a captain who didn't know what he was doing. My goodness. Please sit down.

 

Some are legitimate, somewhat, but at some point you need to move on. Embarkation was a mess. Some try to say it was people not showing up at their correct time causing the problem. I can't speak for later in the day, but at 12:30 they were checking times. They only allowed me through because my mom needed assistance. If it had been just me, I would have been waiting another 30 minutes. 

There was seating inside, there was no reason why the early people could not be allowed in until the terminal was at capacity. We were fortunate that we were able to sit since we were so early. There were not many places to sit outside, the rest had to stand and were not even allowed to stand in the shaded part. Once check in did begin, they had to take our pictures, and collect our passports, and give us a receipt for them. It was a slow process and so it took a very long time to process people. It had nothing to do with people coming early.

 

I did see Carnival passing out water to those in the line later in the day when I went through duty free. They did the best they could and I think a lot of the problem was with the port authority and the fact that Carnival does not have priority in Barcelona. 

 

Speaking of priority, a lot of diamonds were upset they did not get priority. While I think they could have done so with 319 diamonds, they didn't and stated the wouldn't from the start. Don't act surprised now.

 

It was not a perfect situation by any means. But at some point, let's move on and stop complaining about it constantly to anyone who will listen. The mood onboard is pretty sour and is contributing to the feeling that the cruise is a little off.

 

The next issue is the smells onboard. On day 1 I noticed in the hall by my room on deck 7 a smell I would describe as a chemical cleaner smell lingering in the air. Nothing unpleasant, but I suppose if you have breathing problems it may effect you negatively. I heard others describing a smell of cat urine. One man boasting of yelling at the crew who said she didn't smell it to "go love yourself". He didn't say love. He wonders why he didn't get any further help on the matter. Me, I would have helped by packing his bags and giving him the boot at the next port. They have the right per the cruise contract.

 

After a day or two the smell dissipated, and I noticed the smell that remained did begin to smell more and more like cat urine. It obviously wasn't but that was what it smelled like as it got more faint. It is nearly gone now, thankfully, and the crew have been spraying, but it is a little unplesant.

 

Other reported smells include the poop smells that are common on cruise ships. I have not noticed that but I have noticed A LOT of closed off public bathrooms. I personally witnessed a bathroom that was in need of being closed off that hadn't been yet. It would remain closed for the next two days. 

I've heard of many instances of showers not draining, toilets not flushing, and no hot water. My own hot water issue was fixed pretty quick.

 

There is only one working laundry room for the entire ship.

 

I've heard of many flooded areas around this ship and seen sections blocked off with the blowers out.

 

The plumbing issues seem strange coming out of dry dock but they are widespread and I am sure inconvenient to those impacted. Also not great when your in public and need to use a bathroom only to discover it is out of order. Even worse when the next one is also out of order.

 

Many areas that were in disrepair are still in disrepair. Things like cracked glass, damage to the fixtures. Mostly minor cosmetic issues, but strange to see fresh out of dry dock.

 

A lot are complaining to John Heald and there are some merits to some of the issues, especially the plumbing problems, but I do feel like you are taking a risk when booking a cruise right out of dry dock. Hopefully they will get most of the kinks worked out before Port Canaveral but as of right now, yes this ship is having some problems and needs some more repairs done to it to be ready for service again.

 

Knowing this, I would not hesitate to book another trip like this. I've already been checking out both Valor and Mardi Gras in 2025. The thing I'm most concerned about would be as bad as embarking 3k on here was, how are they going to handle a ship the size or Mardi Gras?
 

[jam19872016]

4 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Have you heard of Dr. Beeching? One of the techniques of his rail closure programme was to count passengers using a particular line. If it was a branch line to a seaside resort, he would tend to get the count done on a wet evening in February. That sort of thing.

Sounds like at least one of the bean counters has heard of him.

 

The good news is it was briefly eliminated during post covid staffing crisis times and there was enough uproar it got reinstated so maybe it will remain safe.

[jam19872016]

Checked in at 5:52 with a 30-40 minute wait.

[chryso]

10 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Checked in at 5:52 with a 30-40 minute wait.

I am surprised there is that much wait so early.