Just off the Freedom!

[letsgocruz1]

I just finished a 6 night cruise on the Freedom and I have to say that out of 9 cruises, this one is my favorite!

 

Some say the ship is gaudy, but I loved the decor. It reminded me of Vegas with the bright colors, and to me it just adds to the excitement of a cruise.

 

The staff and crew were terrific, and we met some very interesting people. We had a very eclectic group of people at our dinner table, and it was so much fun. We were all so different but we all clicked and had great conversations every evening. Our waiter did tell us that he had no one in his section for the second seating which I found sad.

 

My advice for others is to get involved. Do the pub crawls even if you don't drink. They do lots of fun activities. Go to the deck party, act silly, it doesn't matter because you don't know these people!!

 

If you like inside cabins (or inside prices! :) ) try out the square shaped interior cabins located in the center of the upper deck. This was my first time in one and I am the type that loves the balconies, but these rooms are terrific. They feel so much larger than the typical insides and also have a longer vanity area than the others. Not to mention being in a great central location...you can't go wrong IMO.

 

I noticed some extra things at lunch, like the "Mexican corner" at the grill, and some other foods. The only cut back that I noticed is that they did not do the Midnight Gala Buffet (which I did NOT miss at all) and they did not open the grill at 11:30 pm like on my previous cruises. We were always in the disco at this time so it wasn't an issue but may be to others.

 

There are some new sandwiches at the deli station as well.

 

They had purell stations set up at the buffet which are accompanied by signs saying it is only effective if used along with proper handwashing. But its good to know they are trying.

 

If you are looking for a quiet place to lounge, try deck 3. There are doors that lead outside, and hardly anyone goes out there. We didn't realize this until the last sea day. This would have been a great place to nap every afternoon!!

 

Any questions, just ask!!

[lds26]

I just finished a 6 night cruise on the Freedom and I have to say that out of 9 cruises, this one is my favorite!

 

Some say the ship is gaudy, but I loved the decor. It reminded me of Vegas with the bright colors, and to me it just adds to the excitement of a cruise.

 

The staff and crew were terrific, and we met some very interesting people. We had a very eclectic group of people at our dinner table, and it was so much fun. We were all so different but we all clicked and had great conversations every evening. Our waiter did tell us that he had no one in his section for the second seating which I found sad.

 

My advice for others is to get involved. Do the pub crawls even if you don't drink. They do lots of fun activities. Go to the deck party, act silly, it doesn't matter because you don't know these people!!

 

If you like inside cabins (or inside prices! :) ) try out the square shaped interior cabins located in the center of the upper deck. This was my first time in one and I am the type that loves the balconies, but these rooms are terrific. They feel so much larger than the typical insides and also have a longer vanity area than the others. Not to mention being in a great central location...you can't go wrong IMO.

 

I noticed some extra things at lunch, like the "Mexican corner" at the grill, and some other foods. The only cut back that I noticed is that they did not do the Midnight Gala Buffet (which I did NOT miss at all) and they did not open the grill at 11:30 pm like on my previous cruises. We were always in the disco at this time so it wasn't an issue but may be to others.

 

There are some new sandwiches at the deli station as well.

 

They had purell stations set up at the buffet which are accompanied by signs saying it is only effective if used along with proper handwashing. But its good to know they are trying.

 

If you are looking for a quiet place to lounge, try deck 3. There are doors that lead outside, and hardly anyone goes out there. We didn't realize this until the last sea day. This would have been a great place to nap every afternoon!!

 

Any questions, just ask!!

 

 

Will you be posting a complete review????? We are going on her in November and I want to make sure that I know everything just to get me more into the excitement mode!!!! We are taking our 5 children and booking 2 cabins one inside and one oceanview. If I have any other questions I will be sure to post on this thread.

[sam1148]

We're booked for Oct and I'm loving the planing. Did you speak with your room steward? I was wondering what nationality most of the steward staff are on the Freedom. I want to bring some red 'gift' envelopes for the tip..which are popular in Indonesia.

[letsgocruz1]

We're booked for Oct and I'm loving the planing. Did you speak with your room steward? I was wondering what nationality most of the steward staff are on the Freedom. I want to bring some red 'gift' envelopes for the tip..which are popular in Indonesia.

 

So sorry, I don't remember his nationality. I only spoke with him twice and that is unusual for me. I do know he was very busy, and we were rarely in the room as well.

 

I think planning is half the fun! Have a great cruise.

[letsgocruz1]

Will you be posting a complete review????? We are going on her in November and I want to make sure that I know everything just to get me more into the excitement mode!!!! We are taking our 5 children and booking 2 cabins one inside and one oceanview. If I have any other questions I will be sure to post on this thread.

 

I doubt I will post a full review, but who knows..I may get around to it. :) You will love the Freedom!! I think a cruise vacation is much more enjoyable than a land based when you have children, because it means less work for Mom. :D Have a great time!!!

[peter78]

I just finished a 6 night cruise on the Freedom and I have to say that out of 9 cruises, this one is my favorite!

 

I have been on one cruise so far (Inspiration in 2005) and I liked it. I booked my family for April 5th on the Freedom and quite frankly I have been reading a lot of negative reviews. I am glad you liked your cruise, kind of makes me feel better.

 

If you have more good things to say, please post away, so I can feel even better. :)

 

Just kidding, but I would like to hear more, both positive or negative. Your cruise sounds like the one I will take, Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica, maybe???

[JXR]

I just finished a 6 night cruise on the Freedom and I have to say that out of 9 cruises, this one is my favorite!

 

Some say the ship is gaudy, but I loved the decor. It reminded me of Vegas with the bright colors, and to me it just adds to the excitement of a cruise.

 

The staff and crew were terrific, and we met some very interesting people. We had a very eclectic group of people at our dinner table, and it was so much fun. We were all so different but we all clicked and had great conversations every evening. Our waiter did tell us that he had no one in his section for the second seating which I found sad.

 

My advice for others is to get involved. Do the pub crawls even if you don't drink. They do lots of fun activities. Go to the deck party, act silly, it doesn't matter because you don't know these people!!

 

If you like inside cabins (or inside prices! :) ) try out the square shaped interior cabins located in the center of the upper deck. This was my first time in one and I am the type that loves the balconies, but these rooms are terrific. They feel so much larger than the typical insides and also have a longer vanity area than the others. Not to mention being in a great central location...you can't go wrong IMO.

 

I noticed some extra things at lunch, like the "Mexican corner" at the grill, and some other foods. The only cut back that I noticed is that they did not do the Midnight Gala Buffet (which I did NOT miss at all) and they did not open the grill at 11:30 pm like on my previous cruises. We were always in the disco at this time so it wasn't an issue but may be to others.

 

There are some new sandwiches at the deli station as well.

 

They had purell stations set up at the buffet which are accompanied by signs saying it is only effective if used along with proper handwashing. But its good to know they are trying.

 

If you are looking for a quiet place to lounge, try deck 3. There are doors that lead outside, and hardly anyone goes out there. We didn't realize this until the last sea day. This would have been a great place to nap every afternoon!!

 

Any questions, just ask!!

 

Thanks for the small review.

 

Do you know if they had the "Rotisserie" on the Freedom ????

 

Can't wait, I'll be doing this itinerary in about 7 weeks.

 

Joanne

[Peg_S]

I hadn't noticed those square interior cabins. Nice to hear the good report on them. Did you hear noise from the bar below you?

 

Thanks for the comments. We're going in January...a loooong time from now.

 

Peg

[jbroons]

I have been on one cruise so far (Inspiration in 2005) and I liked it. I booked my family for April 5th on the Freedom and quite frankly I have been reading a lot of negative reviews. I am glad you liked your cruise, kind of makes me feel better.

 

If you have more good things to say, please post away, so I can feel even better. :)

 

Just kidding, but I would like to hear more, both positive or negative. Your cruise sounds like the one I will take, Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica, maybe???

 

Peter - I posted you on another thread but I'll do it again here. I will also be on the 4/5 Freedom cruise with daughters 15 & 17. We are getting psyched!! Check out this site!!

 

https://www.bookccl.com/irman/

[letsgocruz1]

I have been on one cruise so far (Inspiration in 2005) and I liked it. I booked my family for April 5th on the Freedom and quite frankly I have been reading a lot of negative reviews. I am glad you liked your cruise, kind of makes me feel better.

 

If you have more good things to say, please post away, so I can feel even better. :)

 

Just kidding, but I would like to hear more, both positive or negative. Your cruise sounds like the one I will take, Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica, maybe???

 

Peter, no worries, you will have a great time. Yes we did that itinerary. But this cruise for me wasn't about the ports as much as just taking a cruise and enjoying the ship.

 

We did a self guided walking tour in Key West, walked for about 3 hrs, took lots of photos. We had planned on going to the beach as well but it was a bit too cool for that. Make sure you go into the Hog's Breath bar and call your friends to have then look online at you waving at the webcam they have there. My Dh thought it was pretty cool when I called him.

 

In GC, having been there several times, we just shopped by the pier and decided to go back to the ship and enjoy the peace and quiet.

 

IMO you need to book an excursion in Ocho or stay on the ship. It was just my friend and I and we decided to sleep in and then hang out by the pool (which was a good idea given we stayed up til 4 am and shut the disco down) . If I had my family with me, I would have done more in Ocho.

 

You will be surprised at how large the ship is compared to the other cruise you took. And the Freedom's food was a lot better than other carnival cruises I've taken. And if there is a hypnotist show, make sure you attend. The R rated one was the funniest!

 

All in all, it was just a great cruise!!

[DaveOKC]

Several in our group last week had those square inside cabins and I thought they were very nice compared to other lines. One thing - be careful where they are on the Upper Deck. Some of the cabins are right below the casino and a couple of nights they had loud music playing near the casino bar area that kept our friends awake. If you are up late anyway this obviously is not a problem though.

[sunlover5]

We just got off the same cruise too!! We had a riot! Ship, staff, food, everything was great!

 

The disco was a lot of fun, wasn't it?

 

We completely forgot about the hypnotist show. We did the same thing at Ocho Rios. Slept late, went out for a little while then went back on and enjoyed the ship!!

 

You will love the freedom. She is a great ship!

[lgerrish]

I have been on one cruise so far (Inspiration in 2005) and I liked it. I booked my family for April 5th on the Freedom and quite frankly I have been reading a lot of negative reviews. I am glad you liked your cruise, kind of makes me feel better.

 

If you have more good things to say, please post away, so I can feel even better. :)

 

Just kidding, but I would like to hear more, both positive or negative. Your cruise sounds like the one I will take, Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica, maybe???

 

We cruised on the Freedom last April and are going again in 7 weeks. I can't say enough GREAT about the Freedom. We had a wonderful time - the rooms were clean, stewards awesome, food delicious, lots of sun and fun! And this year we are taking our adult children and grandson along, that's how much we loved the Freedom.

 

Have a great time and remember...you are on vacation so enjoy!

[GatorGirl13]

We too were on the ship last week and loved most of it. We had the late seating (which was bad because our 5 year old had to nap at 4 pm every day or somebody, meaning me, would miss dinner -- but she just couldn't make it that late and be pleasant :mad:) BUT our wait staff was so excellent it was worth the wait for the most part. We never found the Mexican corner, granted we didn't look too hard (we tried to actually avoid the buffet at the Lido as much as we could for a variety of reasons) but frequented the deli section alot for a late afternoon lunch since we were eating dinner so late. They declined our request to move to the early seating and we felt that was the biggest negative :( of our trip since we booked almost a year ago and have always requested early seating and never had an issue before.

 

We loved the food in the dinning room, our wait staff especially, and the disco as well. The wine tasting (although an extra $10 pp) was excellent, as well as the cooking demo in the Sun King supper club and the tea was also very nice and we went both times it was offered (sea days). The art action was lame the two times we went compared to the other 3 Carnival cruises we have taken prior and we were disappointed in that. We missed the hypnotist completely but caught the comedian and he was pretty good.

 

Ports -- (none of which we had been too ourselves although others in our group have) Key West we did our own walking thing and ended up drinking at Margaritaville which of course we loved. Grand Cayman was pretty disappointing, they cancelled the sting ray portion of our tour so we went to Hell and the Turtle Farm, which both were okay but nothing special in and of themselves. We were quite let down about that port but I guess there was nothing to be done about it.

 

Jamaica was great, we climbed the Dunns River falls (although Mom, who is 65, took a nasty tumble under the bridge and had to be escorted out) and that was terrific. We went to the beach and took the "party" boat back and had a fantastic time.

 

Camp Carnival was okay for DD although they kept her in the 2-5 (she turns six tomorrow so she was a week away while we were gone) which was a bit of a bummer but she met two girls she seemed to really like so she was relatively happy. She would have probably had more fun with the 6-8 year olds but they were unwilling to move her even though we politely requested it several times.

 

All and all it was an above average trip, although we did notice several cutbacks from years prior (we have taken one Carnival cruise every year since 2004 definitely not as many as most on here) and our room was nice and quiet which did allow us to sleep when we needed too, even in the late afternoons.

[lgerrish]

We too were on the ship last week and loved most of it.

 

Camp Carnival was okay for DD although they kept her in the 2-5 (she turns six tomorrow so she was a week away while we were gone) which was a bit of a bummer but she met two girls she seemed to really like so she was relatively happy. She would have probably had more fun with the 6-8 year olds but they were unwilling to move her even though we politely requested it several times.

 

Our grandson will be cruising with us in April and he will be in the 2-5 age range for Camp Carnival. Could you email me: lgerrish at gmail dot com with any suggestions, comments, for Camp Carnival? We were wondering about the activities, times, etc. during the evening for the kids while we're attending the shows. Thanks!

Lynn

[lettienets]

..........The only cut back that I noticed is that they did not do the Midnight Gala Buffet (which I did NOT miss at all) and they did not open the grill at 11:30 pm like on my previous cruises......

So what could you find to eat late at night besides room service? Or is it just the extravaganza buffet that is gone, not the regular buffet? Thanks

[GatorGirl13]

So what could you find to eat late at night besides room service? Or is it just the extravaganza buffet that is gone, not the regular buffet? Thanks

 

They had, somebody correct if my thinking is fuzzy and it might be, a midnight bites buffet from 11:30 pm - 1:00 am and of course pizza is also open 24 hours. Since we never made it to the buffet late I have no idea what was on it.........but I think there was some kind of food other than pizza offered during the late evening early morning hours.

 

Lynn, I cannot promise when but sometime this week I will try to scan and email you the Camp Carnival capers so you can see exactly what activities were planned when. I teach school so between trying to get caught up at school, DD's birthday (tomorrow) and Girl Scouts, soccer and other assorted stuff we have going on it might be later in the week but I will get to it for you.

[scrappinannie]

I hadn't noticed those square interior cabins. Nice to hear the good report on them. Did you hear noise from the bar below you?

 

Thanks for the comments. We're going in January...a loooong time from now.

 

Peg

We're going in January, too, Peg! And I totally agree that that is a looooong time from now. Glad to see a positive review...there have been a few negatives here lately. But I guess when you have as much time between now and our cruise as we do, there's plenty of time for all the kinks to get worked out, right?:rolleyes:

[cruisebie]

Great reviews! DH & I are doing this itinerary in June and are really looking forward to it! It looks like the Freedom will be lots of fun!

 

 

Anyone know if the Freedom has a "secret" door? I think I remember there was one on the Glory, so I thought the Freedom might have one also.

 

We're looking for a place to stay one night pre-cruise. Any recommendations?

[LizaMM]

They had, somebody correct if my thinking is fuzzy and it might be, a midnight bites buffet from 11:30 pm - 1:00 am and of course pizza is also open 24 hours. Since we never made it to the buffet late I have no idea what was on it.........but I think there was some kind of food other than pizza offered during the late evening early morning hours.

 

.

 

I was on the 2/14 Sailing.

 

What they had Late was called "Midnight Bites" from 11:30PM - 1:00AM in the Capers. It was actually held on the Promenade Deck where the shushi bar is. I never got anything so I am not sure what they served. My DD's got cookies and brownies one night.

[GatorGirl13]

Great reviews! DH & I are doing this itinerary in June and are really looking forward to it! It looks like the Freedom will be lots of fun!

 

 

Anyone know if the Freedom has a "secret" door? I think I remember there was one on the Glory, so I thought the Freedom might have one also.

 

We're looking for a place to stay one night pre-cruise. Any recommendations?

 

LOL! About 3 days into our cruise last week DH asked me the same thing! We went on the Glory in 2004 and found the "secret" door, it was fun. But we never did find out if the Freedom has one :rolleyes: Hopefully somebody here knows.........we stayed at the Courtyard pre-cruise, it was nice, reasonable for Ft. Lauderdale and we were on board the ship by noon the day we sailed...........it was good!

[DGP1111]

I just finished a 6 night cruise on the Freedom and I have to say that out of 9 cruises, this one is my favorite!

 

Here's another popping in who was also on this sailing.

This was CCL cruise #20, and although not my overall fave on that line, 'twas definitely near the top o' the list. :)

 

The weather was remarkable. I felt sorry for those who had the stingray excursions cancelled due to windy conditions on the North side, but I was glad that it didn't affect our tendering on the South side.

 

Dining room food (Posh - Late) was very good, with superb service. Cabin stewards have more rooms assigned to them now, and mine (who was excellent) was glad that he didn't have to do much at all with mine daily.

 

Enjoyed the evening shows, and Assad (the hypnotist) was very convincing.

 

I'd done this exact sailing (same ship, itinerary, & cabin) the first week in December, and this cruise last week was certainly the better of the two.

[LizaMM]

Here's another popping in who was also on this sailing.

This was CCL cruise #20, and although not my overall fave on that line, 'twas definitely near the top o' the list. :)

 

The weather was remarkable. I felt sorry for those who had the stingray excursions cancelled due to windy conditions on the North side, but I was glad that it didn't affect our tendering on the South side.

 

Dining room food (Posh - Late) was very good, with superb service. Cabin stewards have more rooms assigned to them now, and mine (who was excellent) was glad that he didn't have to do much at all with mine daily.

 

Enjoyed the evening shows, and Assad (the hypnotist) was very convincing.

 

I'd done this exact sailing (same ship, itinerary, & cabin) the first week in December, and this cruise last week was certainly the better of the two.

 

I was looking forward to you posting something....I suppose you did not find Tom & Cheryl anywhere hiding out since they have posted on our Roll Call (2/14 sailing) about their return :cool: We did not have the hypnotist and I did miss that since I had read good things! Guess I'll have to sail the 6 day itin on the Freedom to get that!

[lgerrish]

 

Lynn, I cannot promise when but sometime this week I will try to scan and email you the Camp Carnival capers so you can see exactly what activities were planned when. I teach school so between trying to get caught up at school, DD's birthday (tomorrow) and Girl Scouts, soccer and other assorted stuff we have going on it might be later in the week but I will get to it for you.

 

Thanks for taking the time to fill me in on Camp Carnival - we do not cruise for another 48 days! I teach school too, but we are having a snow day today, so I can play on Cruise Critic all day (well, maybe not ALL day).

[DJ Eddy]

the DJ who replaced me has now told me that Carnival have placed volume limiters fleetwide in the discos. I understand there are cabins above on deck 6 (destiny & conquest class ships) and Carnival wont spend the money to soundproof but the music in the disco is now really quiet.

 

Did anyone notice this, as it has been a recent move?