Freedom Jan 1-9 Review Fresh of the ship! Enjoy

[Hot Nail]

:DCruise Review 1/1/2010-1/9/2010….Carnival Freedom (Eastern/Southern 8 day Caribbean)

Our 18th cruise overall and 3rd with Carnival…….we are an active married couple in our mid 30’s

Day 1

We boarded the ship with little wait. We arrived at the pier at 10:45 am and were on board by 12:00 noon. Our rooms did not open until 1:30 pm which was a bit later than we were previously used to. Come to find out this was because of the late party night from New Years Eve the night before. We arrived at our balcony room (6404) at 1:30. We unfortunately found it to be very dusty and nowhere near as clean as we have been used to on our previous cruises with Carnival and other lines. I initially was very upset but found out soon later from our room steward that he had not yet finished our room because they were very backed up from the late cruiser festivities from the night before. We wrote it off and decided not to make a big deal of it as long as it was taken care of. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch and average dinner and then retired to our stateroom at about 10pm.

Day 2-Sea Day

We usually book inside rooms because of the value but decided to book a balcony. It has been years since our last balcony……I must say it has been TOO LONG! I guess you forget how nice it is to have to open air and private view and sound of the ocean just outside your door. I’m already finding that we spend much more time in our room when the ocean is just outside. So far, the balcony price is paying off imo. The weather today started out sunny but soon turned cloudy with a high of 78 with fairly high winds. We lay out on deck until 12pm and then the clouds won out! We did notice the Serenity adult area but no chairs were available…..I’m assuming you need to get up pretty early to snag a chair if you want one. Serenity was a nice addition to the Carnival ships imo. This cruises crowd is proving to be very docile and friendly in nature with relatively few children for a Carnival Cruise. The breakfast and lunch options once again proved to have wonderful choices and great taste. Tonight was the Captains Gala dinner and unfortunately it was similar to the first night and service was slow, poor, inattentive, and cold food to boot….very similar to the night before. We did have a different waiter but still had the same results. We actually felt we had superior food choices, taste, and service in the buffet….odd for sure. The evening entertainment consisted of comedians and a Las Vegas type show. The show was New Orleans themed and I must say it was the BEST show that I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. The cast was awesome. The comedian was average. It was overall a good day.

Day 3-Sea Day/San Juan Evening Stop

Morning started with party cloudy skies, smooth seas, and temps in the low 80’s. By afternoon it was in the low to mid 80’s with PERFECT sea day conditions. I’ve seen chatter on CC and Cruise Mates about cut backs in entertainment on Carnival….I’ve found this NOT to be true on Carnival Freedom as the music/entertainment has been what you would expect and more out of a Caribbean cruise imo. The day ended with a stop at the pizza bar on board and a quiet evening in San Juan.

Day 4-St. Thomas/St. John

The morning started out with cloudy skies and a few drops of rain. The daytime temps reached a comfortable 83 F. We decided to head over to St. Johns and enjoy Cinnamon Bay for the day. We enjoyed our time at the beach very much even though the sun barely broke through all day. I’ve heard wonderful things about St. Johns on CC and it was very nice……but I will say that I think you can have just as nice of a beach experience staying at St. Thomas and not spending all the extra time and money to go to St. Johns. Between my wife and me, we had $92 wrapped up in cab and ferry fees. Very nice day but probably would just stay at St. Thomas like we have in times past. Overall a nice day with decent weather. We were hoping the dining room service/quality is better tonight than the previous nights…..unfortunately it was more of the same. The dining room is the only area on our cruise that is blatantly out of sort’s imo.

Day 5-Antigua

Our morning started out with mostly cloudy skies once again with the temps around 80F. Today we had a tour with Eli’s Eco Adventure. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication about meeting time and we missed the tour. Instead we went to Valley Church Beach and I must say that it was one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever been to……defiantly much nicer than the beaches on St. Johns imo. Even though we missed our tour, we ended up really enjoying our day in Antigua. Our dinner seating proved to be more of the same…..slow and unorganized in every way. Tonight our dining experience took exactly 2 hours to complete. We have yet to have our table served all together. Food comes at all different times. In 17 cruises, we have never seen anything like it. The evening show was a singing and dance tribute to military veterans and I must say it was very good.

Day 6-Tortola

This is our last day of ports with the exception of Nassau (we typical don’t do much there). We have decided to head back to Virgin Gorda and go down to the Bathes. The Bathes are in my opinion one of the most beautiful places on earth. It’s a definite must see if you have never been there. The Bathes were as beautiful as usual but unfortunately there were 3 ships in Tortola today which made for very large crowds at the Bathes. Overall it was a very beautiful day with near perfect weather in the mid 80’s. The boat ride over to Virgin Gorda was almost as beautiful as the Bathes themselves. There is no doubt this is my favorite part of the Caribbean. Well, we hoped for better service in the dining room and we got it, finally everything went smooth with service that you should expect from the dining room…better late than never I guess! Overall it was a wonderful day at Virgin Gorda and on board the Carnival Freedom.

Day 7-Sea Day

Day 7 started out with mostly cloudy skies. The plans are to just relax, soak up some more sun and enjoy our last day at sea. The temps reached about 84F today with partly to mostly cloudy skies with fairly strong winds. Overall today was a very nice afternoon of relaxation, great entertainment and great food. Day seven was formal night and most people were dressed smart casual to mildly formal. Service was once again better tonight than it was the first 5 days. The Carnival singers and dancers performed a nice show and then we headed to the comedy club for a night cap!

Day 7-Nassau

The temps today are supposed to be much cooler than we have come to enjoy and are only supposed to be in the lower 70’s. Nassau is not a port we usually take much part in. We’ve been to Atlantis several times and the port side vendors always seem to be a bit pushy for our tastes. We decided after 4 great ports that we would get off the ship for a short time and then enjoy our last day on the Carnival Freedom.

***CRUISE SUMMARY***

We were overall very pleased with our vacation on the Carnival Freedom, she was a very beautiful ship with very comfortable decor. The itinerary was superb with amazing port of calls. The weather was near perfect! The fellow Carnival cruisers had fun, awesome attitudes that you come to expect from people that cruise Carnival. The entertainment was very good from top to bottom. The “chatter” about Carnival making cut-backs in entertainment was not evident on this cruise (not to say it is not happening elsewhere). ….it was everything we would expect the entertainment to be and more. The staff was very organized. We would have to say the food was about average at best (not great but defiantly not bad). It is important to note that we are not overly picky about food. Imo, there is only so many ways to “skin a cat” when it comes to food. The only real downer on this cruise was the dining room wait staff. From my experience and others we talked to, it was fair at best. I’ve noticed over the years that as soon as they went to automatic tipping being charged to your ship account, the service has suffered greatly in the dining room on all cruise lines…..just my opinion. The disemabarkation process was the fastest that I have ever seen. We were cleared to disembark by 6:30am. Overall a wonderful vacation and our 3rd Carnival cruise and 18th overall. Did we enjoy our trip? We very much enjoyed it. Will we cruise Carnival again? Probably, but we will defiantly consider revisiting other cruise line options also. I will note that we loved the 8 day option and wish more cruises were offered at 8 days.

[Mary Ellen]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[firefly333]

Sounds good overall.

 

Cabins on Carnival are never ready until after 1:30 pm .. not in all my carnival cruises have they opened the doors earlier, and sometimes not on time... I guess if you asked why, they just made up a reason .. but thats a standard time on Carnival.

 

Sounds like you enjoyed your balcony.

[cruisetexas]

Thanks for the review! We did this itinerary two years ago and loved not only the ship/ports, but the eight day option. You might want to consider the two other eight days we've loved, the Miracle doing St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Maarten, (which we did three years ago) and the Miracle doing Grand Turk, Curacao and Aruba, which we're doing in February.

 

Did you choose the any time dining option, or was the early/late with poor service?

 

We missed our excursion in St. Thomas with a time miscommunication. Not sure where the fault was with this one, but ended up spending the day at Magen's Bay Beach which was wonderful.

 

Thanks again. LOVE your attitude....sounds like you're our kind of cruiser...any vacation is better than no vacation.....don't sweat the small stuff!

Susan

[Hot Nail]

We chose the early seating ad we prefer a structured time and like to have the same waiter all week.

[dst]

Nail - thanks so much for the review we will be boarding the Freedom in just 19 days.....

 

How did you get over to The Baths, did you go about it on your own or through a tour guide? We have booked a tour for The Baths and you are correct in saying one of the most beautiful places in the World.

 

Which dining room where you in, did you have the same server every night. I wonder why the sudden improvement

 

Thanks again for a great review

[deeluvs2cruise]

Thanks for the review. It sounds like an itinerary I would enjoy.

[jolyroger]

Great review!! We'll be sailing on the Freedom Come April and with the same Ports of call...Minus San Juan which they just took off.....But we're doing the Baths as well in Virgin gorda.....It just looks amazing!... Any pics up yet?/

[Hot Nail]

Nail - thanks so much for the review we will be boarding the Freedom in just 19 days.....

 

How did you get over to The Baths, did you go about it on your own or through a tour guide? We have booked a tour for The Baths and you are correct in saying one of the most beautiful places in the World.

 

Which dining room where you in, did you have the same server every night. I wonder why the sudden improvement

 

Thanks again for a great review

 

We took the ferry just outside the pier. The total price was $38 pp roundtrip which includes the trolly over to the Bathes. Please do yourself a favor a get the 9am ferry. DO NOT WAIT on the 10am ferry. You will be cut short on time and be overrun by big tour groups which takes away from the beauty of the Bathes imo.

 

I think we were in the Posh...I think;) Yes, we had the same server every night!

 

Also, we were next to the Disney Dream in Nassau and let me tell ya.....WOW what a beauty!

[skittl1321]

We are just off this cruise as well, and had a fantastic time. I hope to post a very long review in the next few days, but for now I'll say- the ports were amazing, we had tons of fun on the ship- the cruise director did a good job, not too many annoying announcements and we enjoyed Nate and Ryan the third on the entertainment staff, they made the cruise very fun.

 

My complaints: Our (late seating) dining was painfully slow (always more than 2 hours) with waitstaff who never really talked to us at all (but our table's bar waitress was amazing- so much fun. I don't ever buy drinks and I bought them from her because I liked her so much). It also seemed like many activities we wanted to do were scheduled during late seating, but nothing was during early seating.

 

The ship's layout is a pain- not sure I'd sail this class again.

[OntarioTraveller]

Hotnail,

We were planning on going to Valley Church Beach in Antiqua when we do the same route in February.

Was it crowded? Chairs and umbrellas to rent?

Any other information you can give about your experience there would be great!

Many thanks for sharing!

[Hot Nail]

We are just off this cruise as well, and had a fantastic time. I hope to post a very long review in the next few days, but for now I'll say- the ports were amazing, we had tons of fun on the ship- the cruise director did a good job, not too many annoying announcements and we enjoyed Nate and Ryan the third on the entertainment staff, they made the cruise very fun.

 

My complaints: Our (late seating) dining was painfully slow (always more than 2 hours) with waitstaff who never really talked to us at all (but our table's bar waitress was amazing- so much fun. I don't ever buy drinks and I bought them from her because I liked her so much). It also seemed like many activities we wanted to do were scheduled during late seating, but nothing was during early seating.

 

The ship's layout is a pain- not sure I'd sail this class again.

 

I actually agree with alot of what you said. Even though we had a wonderful cruise, I would say the dining room service (early seating) was probably the worst service we have ever had on a cruise. Our dining time ranged between 1 hr 10min all the way to 2 hr 15min. Even though the food was pretty good, I never felt that "fine dining" experience that Ive come to enjoy from dining on a cruise ship.

 

I had early seating and the timing for evening entertainment was perfect for us. We saw most shows and all the comedians.

[Hot Nail]

Hotnail,

We were planning on going to Valley Church Beach in Antiqua when we do the same route in February.

Was it crowded? Chairs and umbrellas to rent?

Any other information you can give about your experience there would be great!

Many thanks for sharing!

 

Nope, not crowded at all....AWESOME! Chairs and umbrellas were $5. Im pretty sure the cab fare was $8 pp each way. The beach was a crushed sea shell type sand which I thought was pretty cool.

[WendyJo]

Nail - thanks so much for the review we will be boarding the Freedom in just 19 days.....

 

How did you get over to The Baths, did you go about it on your own or through a tour guide? We have booked a tour for The Baths and you are correct in saying one of the most beautiful places in the World.

 

Which dining room where you in, did you have the same server every night. I wonder why the sudden improvement

 

Thanks again for a great review

 

Several years ago we booked our own excursion to the Baths and we were very pleased. I know it involved a short boat ride and then they had land transportation for us to the site. My husband noted that we had much more time there than the people who did the ship's excursion. It was less expensive too. Can't remember the name of the company but we used a CC recommendation. Snorkeling was really good.

[act]

Thank you for your review. We are scheduled to leave this Saturday (1/15) on the Freedom for an eight night western Caribbean cruise. This will be our first Carnival cruise and only our second cruise ever. Our first cruise was this summer on the Disney Magic Baltic cruise. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to try this one.

 

I have a question or two that I hope you don't mind answering.

Luggage storage - is there room in a balcony room to store 4 large suitcases?

Is there somewhere else to store luggage onboard other than in our stateroom?

 

Which dinning room were you assigned to? Disney rotates dinning rooms, does Carnival? Or are you stuck with only one option? Could you have requested to change your dinning table to get better service?

 

Does the balcony door open in or out? Do they stay open if desired?

 

I read that there is a stocked refrigerator in the stateroom. Is this complementary or is it like a regular hotel room with high priced items?

 

Thank you again. I'm now looking forward to the shows. We are from Louisiana and they sound great. Anything else you could share with me would be greatly appreciated.

 

ACT

[crazy cajun]

We did the freedom 8 day western in apr. 09 and i had the same complaints back then. We are both cooks and foodies so we knew going in not to be excited about the food. It was good but not anything to make an impression on us.

The service at ou table was awful. we had to ask for everything we wanted . Bread was not delivered to our tablewhile we watched other waitstaff deliver it to their tables once we got our drinks and food we never saw the waiter again .His asst. maybe would stop by once.

I did notice thet the waiter and his asst seemed to be having problems w/ each other?

As we have both worked the front and back ends of resturants we saw tables not in our section getting superb service.

I will not except either of these waiters at our table again.

i did not remove the standard tip ,But they did not get extra like they normally would have . I did report the problems to the md and in writing on my comment card.

Overall i enjoyed the freedom and the cruise . This was really the only blemish on the whole 8 days.

[bccruiser2007]

We were on he Freedom in 08 and had similar concerns on the food and service. It was mediocore at best and some nights not very good at all.

We are leaving on Carnival Victory in 7 days and hopefully the food and service will be better this time around.

[skittl1321]

I have a question or two that I hope you don't mind answering.

Luggage storage - is there room in a balcony room to store 4 large suitcases?

Is there somewhere else to store luggage onboard other than in our stateroom?

 

Which dinning room were you assigned to? Disney rotates dinning rooms, does Carnival? Or are you stuck with only one option? Could you have requested to change your dinning table to get better service?

 

Does the balcony door open in or out? Do they stay open if desired?

 

I read that there is a stocked refrigerator in the stateroom. Is this complementary or is it like a regular hotel room with high priced items?

 

 

There was plenty of room for us to store 2 large pieces of luggage under the bed... 4 might fit under there, but if they could nest it would be a huge bonus. I don't think there is anywhere else on the ship you can store it, but I've never asked.

 

There isn't any dining rotation- but it's because Carnival doesn't do multiple restaraunts like Disney. The Freedom has the Posh and the Chic dining room, but one is set seating and the other is for my time dining- the food is the same in both. I suppose if you had a bum server like I did, you could ask the maitre'd to change your seat, but we just didn't feel like complaining. Other options are the Lido buffet, 24-hour pizza, or the upscale steakhouse for a fee. Despite the slow service, we all enjoyed the food.

 

I didn't have a balcony on the freedom, but on the spirit I believe the doors opened in (could be wrong) and would not stay open easily. They asked that you didn't leave them open, but they can be propped open.

 

The mini fridge is fee based, we opt to keep ours locked.

 

From what I hear, you should not go in with Disney expectations- but Carnival is a fantastic experience, IMO. And it doesn't have the Disney price tag!

[Hot Nail]

We did the freedom 8 day western in apr. 09 and i had the same complaints back then. We are both cooks and foodies so we knew going in not to be excited about the food. It was good but not anything to make an impression on us.

The service at ou table was awful. we had to ask for everything we wanted . Bread was not delivered to our tablewhile we watched other waitstaff deliver it to their tables once we got our drinks and food we never saw the waiter again .His asst. maybe would stop by once.

I did notice thet the waiter and his asst seemed to be having problems w/ each other?

As we have both worked the front and back ends of resturants we saw tables not in our section getting superb service.

I will not except either of these waiters at our table again.

i did not remove the standard tip ,But they did not get extra like they normally would have . I did report the problems to the md and in writing on my comment card.

Overall i enjoyed the freedom and the cruise . This was really the only blemish on the whole 8 days.

 

Sounds like its a manegment problem and not a staff prob imo.:rolleyes:

[Hot Nail]

There was plenty of room for us to store 2 large pieces of luggage under the bed... 4 might fit under there, but if they could nest it would be a huge bonus. I don't think there is anywhere else on the ship you can store it, but I've never asked.

 

There isn't any dining rotation- but it's because Carnival doesn't do multiple restaraunts like Disney. The Freedom has the Posh and the Chic dining room, but one is set seating and the other is for my time dining- the food is the same in both. I suppose if you had a bum server like I did, you could ask the maitre'd to change your seat, but we just didn't feel like complaining. Other options are the Lido buffet, 24-hour pizza, or the upscale steakhouse for a fee. Despite the slow service, we all enjoyed the food.

 

I didn't have a balcony on the freedom, but on the spirit I believe the doors opened in (could be wrong) and would not stay open easily. They asked that you didn't leave them open, but they can be propped open.

 

The mini fridge is fee based, we opt to keep ours locked.

 

From what I hear, you should not go in with Disney expectations- but Carnival is a fantastic experience, IMO. And it doesn't have the Disney price tag!

 

I agree with you for the most part. I checked on the Disney Dream when we came home and you will spend more for a 4 day Disney than an 8 day Carnival etc. Prob a bit better but......

 

The balcony room swings out. Its not supposed to be left open but we left ours open all the time we were in the room by using a chair to hold it open.

[Hot Nail]

I did notice something else significant on this cruise. The did NOT hand out cruise survey forms that have been given out to us on EVERY cruise that we have ever been on. Interesting to say the least.

[jdenn4]

We were on that cruise with you, my DH did a "Live From the Freedom" running post and if anyone else read that one...yeah I'm the "woman to blame". If you read those posts you'll see we also had not only poor but very bad waitstaff the first 5 or 6 nights and I think you probably were at a table with the same waiters that we had lol. We looked around and saw many tables getting the usual good service but our group was usually the last to be served. We did complain to the maitre "di and the next night service improved dramatically and for the next two nights. If you're unhappy with your waitstaff, be sure to let your Maitre 'd know!

[jolyroger]

I agree with you for the most part. I checked on the Disney Dream when we came home and you will spend more for a 4 day Disney than an 8 day Carnival etc. Prob a bit better but......

 

The balcony room swings out. Its not supposed to be left open but we left ours open all the time we were in the room by using a chair to hold it open.

 

We did the Disney Cruise as well couple years ago as well for a 5 day it was $5,000....For a family of 4 (ocean view no Balcony) Last year we did Carnival dream us 4 with a balcony $3,200....Big difference in price and both were in April. But yes Try not to compare the two because there is no comparison....But gotta say our girls enjoyed the Dream more than the disney cruise.......and we're a disney -nut family!!!

[agavin]

:DCruise Review 1/1/2010-1/9/2010….Carnival Freedom (Eastern/Southern 8 day Caribbean)

Our 18th cruise overall and 3rd with Carnival…….we are an active married couple in our mid 30’s

 

I thought this was a great sailing, and agree with most of this.... will post a review and pics to my blog sometime this week...

 

Nail - I think we met you (possibly sat beside you at one of the comedians and then talked to you in the hallway coming back from Antigua? Your husband had a walking cast? I could be wrong of course... big ship and all that :)

[Clairescurtains]

Thank you for your review. We are scheduled to leave this Saturday (1/15) on the Freedom for an eight night western Caribbean cruise. ACT

 

We have a pretty active roll call and be glad to have you join in. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1022300