Blue Collar Diamond + tries Carnival Freedom

[perfect match]

Bill, Gina looks fantastic! No wonder she’s posing for pictures! You look like you’ve lost some weight too. 😀

[jean87510]

2 hours ago, perfect match said:

Are you planning on doing a review? I’d love to hear about that Sun Cay sunken sculpture snorkel and iguanas tour. I’ll go check out the Nassau forum. Maybe there’s info on it there. I’ve snorkeled around Pearl Island but never saw any sunken sculpture there. Maybe something they’ve added recently.  

Yes.  We will be there in December. I usually review on the ports pages instead of here.  I did some reviews last month about Freeport, Nassau, Coco Cay and Bimini on the Bahamas forum.

 

Haven't seen much about Sun Cay but excursion is supposedly a small group which is good

[BillOh]

When our boat ride back to Nassau happened I saw that Carnival Freedom was the last ship still in port, so we did get to stay awhile at Blue Lagoon.  Frequently when there are 5 or 6 ships in port, getting back through Port Security can take a while, but I think ours is one of the last excursions to get back and there was no line.  

 

When I was last in Nassau in 2022 they were just finishing a new area on the south side of the ships were excursions can return. Its a nice area, great for the ferries and a shorter walk through less traffic to get to the ship.  They could use a few THIS WAY TO SHIP signs, but I think that would distract people from the vendors area, but since we were the last ship they were all gone!  Back on the ship and we watched the sailaway from Nassau and then a few senset and cloud pics.

[BillOh]

I don't think I have any pictures from the rest of Day 2, so I'll plod on.  After returning to the ship, we went back to the Burger place again and had a snack to hold us over to dinner.  We went back to the Posh Dining room for the 2nd time hoping to have some one to talk to at our table for 12.  Yes, I'm the last hold out for traditional dining and meeting new people.    The wait staff did start taking out order from what I though was an uninspired menu, I think I ordered the chicken, but I honestly don't remember.  I do remember the appetizer was BBQ meatballs, which was 3 marble sized meatballs in a small bowl.   I got the same lava cake for dessert. I'd love to see this on Royal, and their Creme Brule come to Carnival   Another couple did arrive 20 minutes after seating and did sit somewhat closed to us, but with them being at a different point ordering and eating they didn't seem interested in more than short polite conversations. The next night was "elegant night" and we didn't like what was on the menu, so we wouldn't return to the MDR.(Royal term?)  

 

The rest of the night wasn't bad however.   We had a good time at the sailaway party and tonight on day 2 they did have a pool deck dance party.  Both of these events did remind me of the early days of Royal.  Royal, especially on the bigger ships has gotten away from the sail away party. I don't miss them that much, but my wife loves to dance.    I've done a few pool parties at night on Royal and they use to serve some food, but I haven't seen that in awhile.    I was starting to feel pretty buzzed and relaxed so I relented and went with Gina to the event. (I don't dance)  I will say that the stadium style seating around the main pool does make for a nice place for me to sit and enjoy the music and watch people.  They had cameras and showed it on the big screen.  I mainly laid back in a pool chair, watched the screen and enjoyed the music.  I will admit to an old man, DJ's are annoying.  Just shut up, intro the music, play it and shut up. The turn table scratching is not a skill.  Playing "DJ Fresh Jeff" every 5 minutes is not needed.   /end old man rant.  

 

Next up Day 3 and Princess Cay

[BillOh]

Day 3 was another beautiful day and I did my morning ritual of a mile walk on the track and then Gina and I had a light breakfast in the Lido buffet.   We mainly had cold cereal, some fruit and juice.  I've had much better, but food just isn't that important to us.   Quick comment on the juice. They had a dispenser that dispensed water, lemonade and orange juice. It was good, but such low pressure I think it took more than a minute to fill a small cup.   Petty gripe and I'm always in a good mood on a cruise, so I'll move on.

 

One other slight disappointment with Carnival, I think my feeble memory said part of the QUICKER TO THE FUN that I purchased, we were supposed to have priority tender access. I didn't see anything about it on the CD's morning show and we were ushered back to the back of the line outside of someone's cabin on deck 0.   What might be a dissapointment for some is Carnival's drink package is not honored on the island.   So that makes Royal a big winner in the private island business.   Speaking of that, the simplicity of this beach reminded me of Coco Cay back in 2007.  I love Coco Cay now, but this was fun. I learned later Carnival's version of Today's Coco Cay is now accepting ships in 2025. Someone buy me a cruise to there!

 

This was our only tender port on this trip. At this point, I will go back and look at when the last cruise was that I got on a tender for.  I'm glad I don't have to use them much.  They were a big pain on Majesty back in 2007 and a real pain in Belize in 2009.  My last time on a tender was probably in Grand Caymen on Freedom in 2015!

 

The wait wasn't terrible and we were quickly crammed into a good size tender. They had at least 3 or 4 running, so it went well. 

 

Below, I am one of the last thousand people or so to see Freedom without her  tail.  

 

 I know Princess Cay belongs to Carnival and Princess is a Carnival company, do they come to this port more than Carnival? I don't know!   Anyway, in my research for Coco Cay, I did watch a couple of youtube videos about the place. 

 

I tend to get annoyed with social media and people reply "Google it" or "search youtube" If you don't have anything useful, must move on!  I belong to a group on facebook called I WAS ONLINE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN.   Rant over, but in this case, I did find one youtube video very helpful.  

 

 

My big take away from this video was early on when he shows where everyone gets off the tender and heads to the left.  There is a lot of nice looking beach that way, but this guy tells  you to go the right into what looks like a vendor marketplace, but there is a somewhat hidden beach over there that is less crowded, and has a easy to get to lunch/buffet area.     Look for this bridge.

 

We arrived at was a nice small beach and lunch area. 

 

As we arrived at the beach a very nice moment happened that made me feel good.   I think Gina made some comment "This looks nice" and a lady spoke up and said, "yes, it does, my friend Bill told us about it"  I kind of smiled at first not being sure, but asked, "Are you talking about the Bill on the XXXXX roll call"   She says, "Yes, did you read that"  Gina then said, "This is him, pointing to me.
 It turned out it was Patrica and her husband from Georia I think. 

 

That made me feel good, helping someone out with my excessive pre cruise research even for a place I have never been. Glad it worked out.   The picture above is from Quest night, another Royal/Carnvial comparison coming up!  Gina is the queen of selfies, I managed to work up enough energy to photo bomb.

 

It was another great beach day with decent food and drink we had easy access to. We had a good day. 

 

 

[stobe1]

Great review so far! I am a Carnival loyalist and always enjoy reading the perspectives of others, good or bad, that have never or rarely sail Carnival. 

 

One small correction though. Freedom isn't the only whale tail-less ship. Recently, they have acquired 2 ships from their sister brand, Costa, the Luminosa and Venezia, which do not, and will not, sport the whale tail. In fact, Venezia will be keeping the Costa logo on her funnel instead of being repainted into the Carnival logo. Starting next year, Carnival will be acquiring a 3rd ship from Costa, the Firenze, which also will not have a whale tail nor a Carnival re-branded funnel.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, BillOh said:

I'd love to see this on Royal, and their Creme Brule come to Carnival   

 

 

Carnival vista class has JiJis which has their own version of cream brule ... I thought it was fabulous. Much better than the free Mdr version. Unfortunately not on many ships with that menu. 

 

[Tatka]

32 minutes ago, stobe1 said:

Great review so far! I am a Carnival loyalist and always enjoy reading the perspectives of others, good or bad, that have never or rarely sail Carnival. 

 

One small correction though. Freedom isn't the only whale tail-less ship. Recently, they have acquired 2 ships from their sister brand, Costa, the Luminosa and Venezia, which do not, and will not, sport the whale tail. In fact, Venezia will be keeping the Costa logo on her funnel instead of being repainted into the Carnival logo. Starting next year, Carnival will be acquiring a 3rd ship from Costa, the Firenze, which also will not have a whale tail nor a Carnival re-branded funnel.

 

Costa ships never had tails, but what happened to Freedom?

 

To OP - I am enjoying your review A LOT. Thank you!

[stobe1]

5 minutes ago, Tatka said:

 

Costa ships never had tails, but what happened to Freedom?

 

To OP - I am enjoying your review A LOT. Thank you!

 

Thats exactly what I said about Costa ships.

 

The Freedom had a funnel fire last year. You can view the video on YouTube if you search Carnival Freedom funnel fire.

Edited September 29, 2023 by stobe1

[RedIguana]

4 minutes ago, Tatka said:

Costa ships never had tails, but what happened to Freedom?

Funnel fire in the Turks and Caicos.

 

 

[BillOh]

The tender back to the ship was a bit more tense, but not more than I have had before.  The local crew for that tender seemed disorganized and almost over loaded the boat (IMO), but the supervisor stepped in and we were underway.   There was the usual quick boarding upon return. 

 

Tonight was formal night, or elegant night as they called it. The dining room menu didn't look too appealing and the closest thing we brought to nice clothes was  the khakis and polo shirt that I wore in the picture above with our new cruise friends.  (one of several)  I think we did Pirate Pizza and maybe even a stop in the Lido Buffet for a light snack.   I think this was the night we found out they had a Love and Marriage show on Carnival, so we decided to go check it out. 

 

Royal Does a Love and Marriage show and has since we started cruising. It has evolved somewhat and varies a little from ship to ship.  We did get on Love and Marriage on Oasis back in 2015 and took 2nd place.  We went to this show, as our first Carnival show in the theater and saw it looked very similar to what we knew. We didn't plan to audtion, but when at first nobody that was married more than 40 years stood up we did.  Later a couple married 50 years was selected.  A couple married a week was also selected.  For the middle couple, just like on Royal, they made them audtion to be on stage. I told Gina, Carnival has never seen our audtion, so lets try it. We shocked the audience, and were selected.

 

This first picture shows that 50 year married couple and Andy the cruise director.

 

Andy was about 27 I think he said, a former stand up comic. He seemed good at his job, he maybe the youngest cruise director we have had, or am I just getting old?

 

Photo number two shows them on the left, us in the middle (I have my back to you. ) and I was facing the newlywed bride.

 

 

On Royal, sometimes they take the men and then women off stage for the question/answer, but other times they stay on stage and you are given a paper to write your answers down on paper to compare later.    Of the 10 questions maybe 3 we had heard before and we only got 2 of those right!  The other 7 we did get more than anyone else, ended up with 6 right and won!  I think we warmed the hearts of the audience with the answer to the question,   (speaking to the husbands) If your mother in law was an animal, what would it be.     My mother in law, RIP, was a wonderful woman, I have no bad words about her. However this question was an easy one for us.    I stated that she loved Monarch Butterflies and we have  picture her husband took that is famous in our family. They were visiting a place in Ohio called "The Sorrowful Mother Shrine" and a monarch butterfly landed on her nose and stayed there a long time.  So we both picked that. When Gina revealed her answer, we got thundering applause. At least I remember it that way.   Well winning or not, we won a Trophy with the Carnival freedom on it (with funnel 🙂 )  and the same bottle of Chinese Champaign.  We had a good time and were recognized on the ship the rest of the cruise and made lots of new friends.

 

[lazydayz]

10 hours ago, BillOh said:

The tender back to the ship was a bit more tense, but not more than I have had before.  The local crew for that tender seemed disorganized and almost over loaded the boat (IMO), but the supervisor stepped in and we were underway.   There was the usual quick boarding upon return. 

 

Tonight was formal night, or elegant night as they called it. The dining room menu didn't look too appealing and the closest thing we brought to nice clothes was  the khakis and polo shirt that I wore in the picture above with our new cruise friends.  (one of several)  I think we did Pirate Pizza and maybe even a stop in the Lido Buffet for a light snack.   I think this was the night we found out they had a Love and Marriage show on Carnival, so we decided to go check it out. 

 

Royal Does a Love and Marriage show and has since we started cruising. It has evolved somewhat and varies a little from ship to ship.  We did get on Love and Marriage on Oasis back in 2015 and took 2nd place.  We went to this show, as our first Carnival show in the theater and saw it looked very similar to what we knew. We didn't plan to audtion, but when at first nobody that was married more than 40 years stood up we did.  Later a couple married 50 years was selected.  A couple married a week was also selected.  For the middle couple, just like on Royal, they made them audtion to be on stage. I told Gina, Carnival has never seen our audtion, so lets try it. We shocked the audience, and were selected.

 

This first picture shows that 50 year married couple and Andy the cruise director.

 

Andy was about 27 I think he said, a former stand up comic. He seemed good at his job, he maybe the youngest cruise director we have had, or am I just getting old?

 

Photo number two shows them on the left, us in the middle (I have my back to you. ) and I was facing the newlywed bride.

 

 

On Royal, sometimes they take the men and then women off stage for the question/answer, but other times they stay on stage and you are given a paper to write your answers down on paper to compare later.    Of the 10 questions maybe 3 we had heard before and we only got 2 of those right!  The other 7 we did get more than anyone else, ended up with 6 right and won!  I think we warmed the hearts of the audience with the answer to the question,   (speaking to the husbands) If your mother in law was an animal, what would it be.     My mother in law, RIP, was a wonderful woman, I have no bad words about her. However this question was an easy one for us.    I stated that she loved Monarch Butterflies and we have  picture her husband took that is famous in our family. They were visiting a place in Ohio called "The Sorrowful Mother Shrine" and a monarch butterfly landed on her nose and stayed there a long time.  So we both picked that. When Gina revealed her answer, we got thundering applause. At least I remember it that way.   Well winning or not, we won a Trophy with the Carnival freedom on it (with funnel 🙂 )  and the same bottle of Chinese Champaign.  We had a good time and were recognized on the ship the rest of the cruise and made lots of new friends.

 

Congrats on your first 24 karat plastic ship on a stick!  Carnival does deliver the fun. 

[perfect match]

18 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Yes.  We will be there in December. I usually review on the ports pages instead of here.  I did some reviews last month about Freeport, Nassau, Coco Cay and Bimini on the Bahamas forum.

 

Haven't seen much about Sun Cay but excursion is supposedly a small group which is good

Thanks, I’ll be looking on the Bahamas forum in December. I’ll be full blown trip planning mode for our Allure cruise by then!

[perfect match]

Bill, I’m not at all surprised that you and Gina won the Love & Marriage game. You and Gina are definitely operating on the same wavelength. 
 

It must have been fun running into that couple from your roll. Sadly, the roll calls I’ve been on since cruising restarted have been totally dead or nonexistent. I miss the roll call that we had for Symphony back in 2019. I don’t belong to that other social media site and have no interest in joining there since I already spend way too much time online anyway. Like you said in a couple of posts, I guess I’m getting old! 😱😂

[BillOh]

Day 4 was Grand Turk, an Island that I had never been to and part of the reason I picked this particular cruise.    The people in the roll call and a few other places  gave some good recommendations, but we stuck with a theme for this cruise.  When summer is fading fast here in Ohio, we tend to get beach days for our fall cruises, and this made the 4th beach visit on this vacation, counting Playa Linda in Titusville the day before boarding freedom.

 

The beach stop we picked off of Carnival's site was billed as an adults only excursion that included drinks and lunch.   It was nice, we had a great time, pictures below.  A quick point about the adult beaches we picked.  Yes, we are retirement age empty nesters  and we tend to cruise at times where there is less kids.    We don't hate kids, I've never had a bad cruise experience because of someone else's kids, its just a preference.  I write this as we just got back from taking our grandkids to their bowling leagues.  I have been on some Royal ships with lots of kids and we are just fine.  

 

In this picture below, I think the Grand Turk Tourism Dept could have done this sign better.   We weren't the first people off the ship, so there wasn't any place or time to take this photo! (Ok, hopefully this is my only trivial whining for this review.

 

 

Now a couple of pictures, of our last beach day of 2023.  Bring on my favorite beach with Wonder of the Seas in St Maarten next year.  

 

 

I'll try to wrap this up very soon.  Tomorrow, Sunday, I work a full day on my 2nd job, the one that is helping me retire on time at 65.    A few more fun things to discuss. 

[BillOh]

Last minute addition.  In the above posts I mentioned booking excursions on Carnival's website. Remembering, I have been doing that on Royal's site since 2006 and things have changed there too, my quick perception is the Carnival site is a little better. I can't justify that, its just a perception at that point.  If I have a least favorite thing about Royal, it has been the excursion group.  In the last few years, we rarely do Royal Excursions, private is a better value and usually less crowded.  BTW, don't reach for the send and tell me about missing the ship, hasn't happened yet!

 

[BillOh]

Welcome back, I just checked the location of Carnival Freedom, she is nearing Spain and will arrive in Barcelona Wednesday I think. I will be keeping my obsession with following this ship just a few more weeks.  When I finally realized that Enchantment was going to be my first post covid shutdown cruise I followed her around for months including her dry dock in Cadiz Spain, where I think Freedom is headed.  Once I get a shot of her returning to Port Canaveral with her tail, I will be willing to let this cruise go and bear down for winter. 

 

At this moment I am up early on a Sunday getting ready for my 2nd job, the one that is helping me retire and also buy me a few cruises.  and we have been back home for 2 weeks.  My memory is starting to get a little fuzzy, so I am going to throw out the final details and photos and it is POSSIBLE, I may get the day wrong in this post, but everything here did happen!

 

After returning from our beach day at Grand Turk, we did sandwiches at the Deli in the Lido area and I had a decent Buffalo Chicken sandwich and Gina had a club sandwich that she said was good. 

 

I think this night they had a 2nd pool deck party with music and dancing.  A 2nd one on a 5 day cruise. (evidence of validating the Fun ship claim? )The rain did slow but not cancel the event, but we didn't hang around too long.   We did hear that there would be a "Quest" show on this ship on this ship.  They did call it Quest and ran it like many of the ones on Royal.  

 

A bit of quick Quest history.    On Royal, on Voyager and Freedom class ships they have the Quest in the central area where the ice shows go on.  On ships like Majesty and Enchantment they had it in night club areas of the ship.   IMO and Royal's on the bigger ships they need to use the larger venues because Quest draws a crowd.   Although one of my favorite quests was a a small venue on the smaller Majesty of the Seas.  There I walked in and a team of 12 women decided they had to have a man on their team.  I will tell you being the only man on a team of that many women can be fun, but I got drug into every challenge that required a man. (No complaints, I was younger then)

 

With this Quest being held late (11:30pm) and a Cruise Director who was 27 this one was a wild one, similar to some of the better ones on Royal.   My only complaint was that they held it in this night club.  They did an event for a group that was the size of a Royal Voyager or Freedom class ship and it was held in a Majesty sized night club.  Maybe it was only a disadvantage for the Voyeuristic people watcher that I am 🙂   The only photo allowed or taken was the photo I will now repeat of part of our team.  

 

I can't remember the last time I had a really fun Quest on Royal.   My last really good one was 2016 on OASIS I think, but we missed the event on our only 2 post covid cruises.   The worst one I ever had was on Jewel of the Seas with a British lady named Carly, I think.  She held it in the afternoon of a port day right after all back on board and it was severely G rated.   I can't give the better Quest to either Carnival or Royal without more research!

 

Basically all we have left if a sea day.  I will relate that, probably tomorrow as I head off to work, but I will throw in a few more pics of the massive towel animal display the crew did early in the morning for people waking up and coming to the pool deck.  Lots of people loved it, including my wife. I looked at it like  waste of resources and could have done without it. But that might be the old boring Royal cruiser in me talking  🙂  

 

 

 

 

Our final sea day was not this sunny and warm, and the order of my photos on my camera was this happened earlier in the cruise, but I don't remember which day.

 

 

 

[BillOh]

I just remembered that in addition to Quest, we went to two of our 3 comedy shows that night.  It was done in a large night club area that held most of the comedy events.  Carnival very clearly labeled PG or adult and we made it to 3 good shows in this 5 day cruise!  I've gone to comedy shows in the theaters on Royal ships and the Comedy clubs on the Oasis class.   I might give a slight comedy edge to Carnival.   

 

Oh, I didn't get any photos, but this venue had the weirdest swivel couches that 3 people could sit on and face their table mates, or swivel around and face the comedian.  I think I was too, under the influence that night to sit in them. When they were empty this tended to swirl around like a ride on a kids playgound!

[BillOh]

On 9/28/2023 at 10:44 PM, lazydayz said:

 

 

Carnival does have printed Fun Times.  Just have to tell your steward you want it or pick it up at Guest Services.

 

That reminds me, we never saw our room stewart till the last sea day.  She did a great job, we just didn't see her.  I had this happen on my last Royal cruise and I just assemed since covid they are trying to elimiate some passenger/crew interaction to keep people healthy. *Pure speculation

[BillOh]

That final sea day was a bit rainy and cool  I thought I was back in Ohio when I went for my morning walk.   We usually don't do bingo on a ship because we don't want to be inside an auditorium for very long when the weather is nice.   Since it wasn't nice, we decided to go ahead and try Carnival Bingo.  I'm glad we did. We had fun.  I did come close on the last game. In this game it was a COVER ALL and I was down to 1 last number needed.  O-71 I think.   It was 5 turns before anyone else got to 1 left.  My number never came up!

 

Before Bingo an interesting thing happened. On the Carnival App, I saw mention of a DEAL OR NO DEAL GAME show in the theater. They may have done it two times, but for whatever reason, we didn't go.  That is a regret now.  From my questionable memory I think they had this show right before Bingo with a 20 minute ASK THE CD question and answer period.  We got there early and saw the last round of the Deal or No Deal.  It was a fun time I would like to see come to Royal!  It looked to me like a licensed product made for such environments.  Players could win up to $1000 and the audience could win up to a 5 day cruise, which I believe someone did before we came in.  

 

While I normally avoid the internet on a cruise, being Diamond we were getting 1 day of free internet and we have gotten use to that.  So I did get the internet and catch up on the world while relaxing.  A good friend and also occasional cruise mate IM'd me and asked me to put $20 on black 22 for him.  He wired me the $20, so off to the casino we headed.  My friend, a more frequent gambler, knows I hate casinos.  Well at least I use to, maybe us old people like them more?   

 

I went into the casino and bought $20 in chips and set them all on black 22.  They spun the wheel and the ball dropped right into back 22!  And then in jumped next door to red 5.  Pretty much sums up my lifetime of Casino experiences!    My wife is a responsible gambler and will take a specific amount, and quit when its gone.     While in the casino we checked out the roll call slot pull.  Gina has done that before, but this ne got really big, something like 75 people and we didn't want to give up several hours of our last sea day, so we/she passed.  The group did have one person hit for $1500, but the group ended breaking even.  

 

[BillOh]

As is my ritual I tend to drag these reviews out as I struggle to get caught up  at work and then I get tired and finish off with quick facts off the top of my memory and what ever pics I have left, so here goes! (This is the last cruise I will ever review and struggle to get caught up after work.  Next cruise is May of next year and when I return I will have one month of work left and work won't be a priority!

 

I'll start with one more of me, not that I think you are interested, but this is a new thing to me Mrs BCD+ almost never takes any cruise pictures, but retirement is suiting her well. I don't know what I am doing here other than walking around on deck 10. 

 

Yes, we did get towel animals in our room. 

 

Mrs BCD+ is enjoying retirement.

 

 

This pic just says I'm on an island somewhere!

 

Ok, I left off on the last Sea Day and I mentioned Bingo and DEAL OR NO deal games.  We skipped dinner in the MDR again, only went the first 2 nights out of 5.  Is this a reflection of the quality of food in a Carnival dining room?  Probably not, I think part of it is us eating less and food becoming less important.  Below is us on our first cruse in 2006.

 

 

So after our walking around getting some last snacks and seeing new friends we went back to our room. I had already learned that Carnival does offer the carry off your own bags as an option.  We prefer to do that on road trips home.    I did get a note in our room that QUICKER TO THE FUN has one final "perk"  of being able to sit in the theater until you are called off the ship with the suites and higher cruiser status.  

 

We were directed to deck 3 at the theater and a crew member jumped out to say, "This is for suite guests!" I guess I really look blue collar inside cabin-ish.   I was about to show my sign and sail card. (Nobody calls it that, its just your room key) showing I had the right to be there when security came up and took down the rope and left people leave, so for the first time in 22 cruises we were the first off the ship!   We were now Carnival Cruise Vets and our 2023 cruise was over.

 

Getting off the ship first is even easier!  A pretty easy walk out with one of the terminal workers helping, unsolicited, for a bit on the ramp and then breezing through customs.   I've mentioned the Radisson shuttle we took when we stayed/parked there. It worked as well as always, I find it makes the trip easier.  When we were dropped off, Dianne of CocoBeach Shuttle told us when we returned we would be the only ship in port and she would be on duty so we told us where to meet her and sure enough she was there waiting.   A very nice end to a very nice cruise and 1000 mile drive waiting for us.  We were gassed and underway be 8am, arriving in our Columbus, Ohio home at 2am.  We had big plans for the day we got back (Thanks Ohio State for beating Notre Dame for the 11th time out of the last 12!)

 

CARNIVAL/ROYAL COMPARISONS

 

All cruise people get asking me what I thought of the two lines.  I really kept an open mind and enjoyed examining things in the process.   I do realize I am comparing one Carnival cruise with 21 Royal cruises.  I decided to stick to generalities, this cruise would have compared favorably with some and not others.

 

PRE CRUISE - I found Carnival's website for picking the cruise and their website for pre cruise planning better.  I think that goes for the app as well, but I will accept arguments on that 🙂 

 

Boarding - Boarding was very easy with the QUICKER TO THE FUN, the equiv of THE KEY. One of my weaknesses is getting on the ship at the first possible minute.  Some features of QTTF weren't available, but I think it was worth the $40 bucks I think I paid.   Royal's app is not showing my cruise countdown today, so it is having minor issues that I have 235 days to figure out.

 

Ship - I've only been on this 2008 released ship (I think that is right)  It was in good shape, clean, the layout just a bit odd, but we got used to it.   It felt like a Voyager class crowd and size.    The pools and hot tubs were about a draw, at least if I compared to anything other than on Oasis or newer class ship. (Not been on the Quantum class)  

 

Excursions, we mainly do private or just explore on our own any more, but I found the excursions easier to find and read through on Carnival.  Other than that they were similar.  We picked an excursion in Nassua that was offered on both lines and we have done both.  In Princes Cay we jus walked off the ship the way we might in Labadee or Coco Cay.   Grand Turk we took one of their beach excursions and found it nice.

 

Speaking of private islands, as mentioned a few posts ago, Princess Cay reminds me of Coco Cay of 16 years ago.  We stuck to our little corner of it, food and drink were adequate, but Royal does a better job here I think and Carnival doesn't extend their drink package to the island.

 

Smoking. - I think, at least on this ship, Carnival had more limited smoking area, but they made a nice one where lots of sunsets were seen and it had bar service. Even though neither of us have had nicotine, we did spend a little bit of time there. Its side location near the top kept the air clean. 

 

Food- Buffet and dining room - Royal wins - Maybe if I was on their newest biggest ship I might feel different.  For food that is no extra charge and above the standard buffet Carnival wins, but that comparison would fare differnet to Enchantment vs as on Oasis class.    Either way, i will not go hungry.

 

We never went to guest services or spoke with out cabin attendant, so I will need further research. I'll set up a ***** page so you guys can fund my next review, I'll let  you pick the ship and itinerary. 

 

THE FUN SHIP. - I think there may not be that much difference, but some of the things we did on this cruise reminded me of the early days of cruising for us when there was more sail away and pool parties.  That was fun, I can live with out it.  I'll let Carnival keep their Fun ship slogan.

 

 

 

 

[BillOh]

 

 

CLIENTELE -   I know I wouldn't compare a 3 day spring break cruise on Royal with a 7 day Christmas cruise on one of Carnival's best/new ships and vice versa.   Our Carnival cruise was a 5 day cruise after school has started. I'm hoping my comparison to my Mariner/Enchantment/Majesty fall cruises from Florida holds some merit.     

 

I've been on other cruises where Geography and time of year effect the demographics somewhat.  Trying to be objective most 5 day cruises from Florida this time of year tend to be Americans. There are obviously others, but that seems to characterize these cruises, Mostly English speaking Americans.

If I had to guess, the Carnival population seemed a little younger with a higher than average young 20's crowd.  There is no fact to base this on, just observation

 

Keeping in mind I use the BLUE COLLAR Moniker and I am more comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans than a tux, the Carnival crowd did seem a little more blue collar. I saw more men in sleeveless white t-shirts walking through the ship than all of my other cruises combined. I also think, and expect to take some heat for this, I saw more butt implants on this cruise than I have seen in my life.  I may be wrong, but that isn't natural! If you were on the dance floor you always had a place to put your drink, you could put it on the back porch of the woman next to you!   Overall the casual dress was more casual on Carnival.    

 

One of the responders in this review said,  "Its different, but fun" I think that summarizes my experience. We have another Royal cruise scheduled and my loyalty will remain there.  We have achieved Diamond + on Royal and for now that still means something.   Now if we had a group of friends outside of cruising, or family, that wanted to cruise and the majority wanted Carnival we would do it!  We will never make Pinnacle  so the motivation to move up is gone. 

 

I just learned of a new banned word on Cruise critic  you can't say gofindme page  (You know what I mean)  I understand that logic and I am not making any moderation comments here!  I just found this out when I JOKINGLY asked for donations to continue my Carnival research!

 

I'll keeps my notification for this thread going and come back to respond/read responses. I'll also come back and post pics of C-Freedom in her dry dock if I can get them and then pics of her return to Florida with her funnel!

 

Otherwise, stay tuned for BLUE COLLAR D+ RETURNS TO WONDER FOR THE FIRST TIME coming next June.    (We had to cancel Wonder for April 23)

[Tatka]

   Great review!!!

 

  I agree about different Fun. I was actually evaluating this moniker Fun Ship on our first Carnival ship. By that time we sailed with Royal once, Celerity 2 times and Holland. I am not a snob by any means, and  there was a Fun.. but at times very weird. Like Gross foods context (who barfs the latest) or Hairy chest context (all lines have some sort of Hairy context... but older blindfolded lady feeling chests of men sitting on her lap?!). It was brand new Carnival Liberty in 2005... but back then Carnival did not have large kids/teens areas away from pool areas, so most kids were watching this Fun too. I felt awkward!

Edited October 3, 2023 by Tatka

[BillOh]

58 minutes ago, BillOh said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, in reading my own thread, I am not sure why I picked the picture above, I think I meant to pick another.   When I selected it from the thumbnail menu I might have thought this was Pirate pizza at the back of deck 9, but it is actually the smoking area on Deck 10 aft.    This might be a good time for me to divert the topic and add another comparison and a controversial topic.

 

I mentioned retiring, I can't wait to get out of my dreary job with the faceless corporate Giant, but I am keeping my part time job in the Medical Marijuana industry. Its a fun job and it will help pay for my future cruises after our income drops 60% next year.   

 

Being in the industry I am confident I know more about the cannabis industry that most of you.  Please save yourself the time, I know what Federal laws, cruise rules, and maybe I know more about the cannabis laws in your area.    Speaking about me, besides having spinal issues with chronic pain, I am epileptic and have seizures.  I have had zero seizures since getting my medical card and I am currently on no prescribed seizure medications that come from a pharmacy.   I am probably ok for 5 days, but it might be a risk. I chose a way to medicate enough to keep me alive and out of danger.  I was discrete and nobody was the wiser.  This is the way it should be, but I know as well or better than most of you, that isn't the case.

 

Now as far as cannabis and cruising, my observational experience is several times I have smelled people "smoking weed".on Royal Balconies.   On my last Mariner cruise in 2022, everyone got  a real strong smell of it coming from the over the water cabanas at Coco Cay, they didn't hide it.   On this Carnival cruise I saw or smelled several people light quick bowls, or "one hitters" in indoor public places on this Carnival cruise.   Even I am appalled on this one. The most notable time was in the very crowded QUEST show in a small night club.  That drew the wrath of the CD who at that time and venue could use his best profanity.  Another  time while we were hanging around the deck 10 smoking area someone lit up a blunt, or at least cannabis infused mini cigar . (My nose knows)  At least in a couple of instances, people were less discrete.

 

I mentioned earlier upon boarding we had to stop before going up the gangway to let a dog smell our carry-ons.   I make the assumption these dogs are trained to detect cannabis in plant material.  Some agencies are not teaching cannabis detection any more, but I assume TSA and the  dogs in federal control still do. (assumption)   Anyway, I didn't bring any plant material on board in carry on or checked luggage. I am assuming the people mentioned above did check theirs.  There was nothing illegal in my carryon, but I was still worried because I work in the industry and my stuff is exposed to the smell quite a bit.  While I would have been tempted to ask for a hit from the guy next to me, I don't smoke uncontrolled street cannabis that I don't know the origin of.   Finally, on Royal, I have seen it written that the cruise line prohibits the use of cannabis by passengers who are ashore where it is legal.  That goes a bit too far to me and its one rule I may consider breaking in a discrete way.  (I'm highly interested in partaking at  Orient beach in the future) 

 

Stopping now and getting my popcorn ready!

 

[BillOh]

My last post in this thread will be to post this picture. Its been about 6 weeks since we got off the ship.  Freedom is on her way back to Port Canaveral sporting her new paint job and whale tail funnel.