Freedom 12/26/15-01/02/16

[bradysmom]

Hi everyone,

Just off the Freedom, sitting in the airport waiting for our 4pm flight home. I thought I would start a thread to share some thoughts about the Freedom and answer any questions anyone might have.

There did not seemake to be a ton of info on the Freedom as we were planning, so I'm happy to help if I can.

About us, we are a family of 3, myself and my husband are both mid thirties and we have an 11y/o son. This was our 3rd Carnival cruise, we have previously sailed on the Legend when it was in Tampa (summer cruise), the Magic, also out of Galveston (spring break cruise) and now the Freedom.

 

First some thoughts on Galveston, we rented a car and stayed at the San Luis Resort for 2 days before the cruise. I would recommend this, the hotel was nice, and lots to do within walking distance. Very nice heated pool, and you could self park behind the hotel for free.

I believe they also have free cruise parking and a shuttle to the pier, but we had used ez cruise parking when we sailed on the magic and we're very happy with their service, so we paid the $50ish and used them again.

We did buy FTTF, and we probably did not need to, but it did allow us to zoom through all the lines at the terminal both at embarkation and debarkation literally without stopping, so that was nice.

[bradysmom]

Once on board I found the ship really easy to find my way around. Much easier than I got used to either of the other ships

We had a balcony cabin on deck 7 midship. From our door you could see all the way forward as well as all the way aft. No winding hallways. Easy.

We have always had balconies and this room seemed the same inside, but the balcony seemed tiny, and one of the dividers made an awful rattling noise in the wind...which there was plenty of on this cruise. A small annoyance, but it did bother me.

[bradysmom]

Before I go any further I would like to say that we had a great week and really enjoyed our vacation.

A lot of things as we reflect back on them were not as good as they had been on previous cruises, and you might think by reading my thoughts it was a bad trip, but it really wasn't, we still had fun despite things that could have been better.

We live in Central New York, not having snow for a week is awesome for us.

[bradysmom]

Cruise Director-Jase-- Now before this cruise I would have told you that a cruise director had no impact on my cruise. They were pretty much a Britt is accented background noise that I would hear now and then. We aren't the type to be out partying or playing games on lido, and don't really do trivia or bingo or a lot of the ship activities. We are very content to sit in the sun relaxing with a book.

That was part of the problem with this ship though, the only deck areas we really had to sit were around the lido activity pool. The aft pool is adult only, and even though our son acts more adult than a lot of the "adults"on the cruise we couldn't use that area or the serenity area.

So off to the loud lido area it was, which meant we saw Jase on the big screen for the morning show, and several times during the day for hairy chest contests,etc.

Jase to me came off as rude, uninterested, and condescending.

These are not traits I would associate with having a good time.

He never seemed fun or engaging, he just seemed like he didn't want to be there and could care less if anyone was actually having a good time.

He also was not the least bit funny, although he made sure to point out his father had owned comedy clubs and he had spent so much time there that he had heard every joke, so good luck trying to make him laugh.

[bradysmom]

American Table Menu---please make it go away. It's not even that it's bad, the old menu was just soooooo much better.

I could care less about the table cloths, I know some people are hung up on that, but not us.

There just seems to be a lot less choices, and the meals are nowe pretty much just whatever the entree is. The sides they come with are usually some pitiful whipped potatoes and maybe 2 pieces of broccoli. I used to love soe.thing on the menu everyday, and then it would co.e with something amazing like the sesame eggplant...I don't even really like eggplant but I loved that.

Now, I was never all that impressed with the choices. I ended up with the chicken breast once and the steak once, (both of which were actually bad enough that I didn't eat them) because I couldn't find any other choice on theach menu I wanted.

The bread now has 2-3 varieties of breads in the basket, but if you want white bread you might be out of luck. Most nights I let my son have the Italian bread and I ended up with something with cranberries in it. It was fine, but the old system was better for us.

The dessert selections have also gone way down hill. I ordered something different every night on the old menu, now I had all melting cakes and 1 stores parfait, which was good.

The meals just take soooooo long in the dinning room , we averaged 1 hrs 15mins, and for it not to be great that's disappointing.

We also had your time dining which was pointless on this ship. You had to get in line at 5:30 to get a seat in the first "wave" of seating each night, otherwise you could be waiting over an hour and have to wander around with a pager waiting for your table.

If we went again we would just get assigned early dining.

Even with getting there that early we were then running our of there to make the beginning of the 7pm dive in movies.

 

Also it didn't affect us, but I found it odd that a lot of things for entertainment started at 7, 7:30,8,8:30

If you had late dining you were pretty much out of luck. There was nothing early before your dinner and nothing after.

[dhaza]

We had back surgery in 30 Oct and my only concern is the amount time standing in lines during the boarding process. We do have FTTF so that should help avoid the long lines. How long did it take you to get from the entrance to the waiting area? Were there enough seats in the waiting area for the majority of people to have a place to sit? Any hints on where the FTTF entrance is since I have read it is not marked well?

 

Thanks in advance!!

 

NOTE: I know I can pull the handicap card and get wheel chair but I don't like doing that if I don't have to. To those that say you can't get on the boat before it ready I do understand that also. I don't mind waiting as long as I have a place to sit.

Edited January 2, 2016 by dhaza

[bradysmom]

Dhaza--

We arrived at the terminal at around 11:15. We dropped off our baggage and then started walking along the side of the builiding. Now that there is staggered check in for Galveston there are Carnival people along the walkway ever 20-30 ft checking to make sure you are there at the right time and directing you where to go.

As long as you have FTTF you can arrive at any time. You follow the lane marked priority and it is all fairly well marked. As I said before we literally did not stop walking from the time we dropped off the bags until.we were on the ship (other than to get our picture taken for our S&S cards), they whisk you through the lines to securoty, up the escalators, to get your cards and then you are at the waiting area.

We did not have to sit and wait this time as FTTF was boarding when we got there, so we just walked through and onto the ship.

We have had to wait there in the past, it is a very large room with plenty of seats

There isn't a separate seating area for FTTF you sit with everyone else and just listen for them to call for boarding for FTTF.

I would say if you arrive between 11:15 and 11:30 there is a good chance you won't have to wait.

It is overall probably a good half mile hike from where you drop the bags off until you are on the ship, just to be aware. No stairs. Not much standing, but a decent amount of walking.

[Cruisegirl6]

Thank you for writing this review and looking forward to more. I agree, the menu has gone downhill...between lack of variety/selection to the lack of quality its even worse now I agree, but what we found ourselves doing, since our last ship didn't have a steakhouse (that we ate 7 out of 8 nights on the Valor this past May) but we up charged our food and tried all three available one each night, the 14 oz ny strip, the full lobster tail and the surf and turf which was very good and so much worth the extra charge...I noticed what others ate around us and honestly most people left their meals and that prime rib didn't look good at all pretty much all fat and just horrible and sickly eating so I agree with what you saying about the food. You are correct a tiny slab of mashed potatoes and about 4-5 small pieces of veggies ugh!

 

We also always get FTTF although this past december cruise none of us received our luggage until after everybody else did and I had to call to ask where ours was...we had two cabins and the same thing happened on the Valor but it was nice boarding asap and having our cabins ready to leave our carry on bags.

 

Can't wait to hear about more lol

Edited January 2, 2016 by lyndamr

[bradysmom]

Lyndamr

I'm sure the steak house and/or the steak house options on the menu probably are "worth the money", but it's just really disappointing to me that the MDR used to be really good without paying extra.

Honestly we stopped a a Mexican place--Mi Rancho, 10 minutes from the Houston Airport both before and after the cruise, and they were our favorite 2 meals of the trip...that is just sad...But hey if you get the chance check out MI Rancho, outstanding food and amazing service!!!

[Cruisegirl6]

Thanks for the advice on the mexican restaurant I will keep that on my must go list for sure! You have my mouth watering here haha

[bradysmom]

Another frustrating aspect of this cruise, we'll pretty much every cruise was the towel game.

You know where people put their towel or 1 flip flop on a prime lounge chair to save it......then leave for the next 3 hours.

There would be plenty of seats if people would just sit in chairs when they are going to use them and give them up when they are not.

We are early risers and stay out all day once we are out, so it didn't really bother us much, but there were a lot of unhappy people wandering around looking for a place to sit while tons of towels were getting some sun.

The Freedom in general felt the most crowded of any of the ships we have been on.

Line, lines, and more, lines, everywhere. Lido buffet--line, towel hut--line, bars--lines, bathrooms--lines, your time dining --lines, getting on or off ship--lines, you get the idea.

[bradysmom]

Pools

So there is the aft pool and hot tubs which are adult only as I mentioned and confidently also have a retractable roof for inclement weather.......someday, someday.

 

Then there is the midship region with the big pool 3 hot tubs and 1 small dip pool. The big pool was closed at least a portion of each day because it turned into a giant wave pool (this was also the most "bumpy/wavy" cruise we have been on, constantly rocking ). It also would get over taken by kids each day and become cannon ball alley. I really can't deal with the parents who go on a cruise and no longer feel the need to supervise their children.

This would make the pool pretty much unusable for adults or kids like our son who don't enjoy running around like animals.

[rgmacm]

I'm now officially wondering if I want to go on the Freedom in 3 wks....or come up with some excuse to use insurance and get out of it...

This is depressing!!

 

I know you said you enjoyed your cruise...but...... help me out here...I'm just not seeing any 'enjoyment'.....

[bradysmom]

1 of the hot tubs would generally remain fairly calm until the big pool closed then all.of the kids would take that over as a swimming pool too.

 

This was also a problem on our cruise on the Magic, however on the Legend there was an aft pool which was much quieter which we really enjoyed.

[bradysmom]

I'm now officially wondering if I want to go on the Freedom in 3 wks....or come up with some excuse to use insurance and get out of it...

This is depressing!!

 

I know you said you enjoyed your cruise...but...... help me out here...I'm just not seeing any 'enjoyment'.....

 

Sorry to bring you down!! Any trip is ultimately what you make of it. We had read some not so great reviews ahead of time too, but we were in the unfortunate situation of legitimately having to cancel our trip to Mexico over the summer due to an emergency surgery and cashing in on the insurance policy, so we were determined to get away and have a good time this time.

Nothing was breaking point bad, just nothing was as good as it had been in the past

If we hadn't had our previous experiencestudies we might have had a totally different opinion.

 

Which ports are you going to? There are some great excursions out there!

 

Gotta get on the plane...I'll check back soon!

[thephillykid]

My son and I spent 12 days on the Freedom Last February and had a great time.

Don't let 1 negative or somewhat negative review sway your vacation plans.

[Cruisegirl6]

You know, what I am about to say some people will get annoyed with me but hearing how this ship was rocky, along with others saying the same thing about other Carnival ships and the fact I been on an abundant of Carnival ships that really hardly ever rocked but noticed this May (perfect weather) on the Valor and on the Fascination last month that the ships rock so very much....I also read another post about a month ago somebody stating that the captains of the Carnival ships are not using the stabilizers to save fuel...I beginning to wonder this does indeed have truth to it.

[RedDraw]

Were you able to make it to a Dive-in-Movie? If so, was there the same problem with getting chairs for it? Did you use the Carnival Hub app for your phone? I read they were having problems with the Android version earlier and am wondering if that issue has been cleared up yet.

 

TIA

[bradysmom]

Were you able to make it to a Dive-in-Movie? If so, was there the same problem with getting chairs for it? Did you use the Carnival Hub app for your phone? I read they were having problems with the Android version earlier and am wondering if that issue has been cleared up yet.

 

TIA

Yes we did watch 2 of the dive in movies and there was the same problem with chairs, at least for the 7pm movies, we never made it to the 10pm. People seemed to save chairs before going to dinner.

You could find chairs on the upper deck, but it was soooooo windy, it wasn't very enjoyable up there.

They did have blankets available, so that was nice. Several of the rows of chairs have obstructed views due to railings, so seating is somewhat limited to begin with.

I walked through around 11 pm a couple of nights, there seemed to be plenty of open seats during the 10pm movies.

 

I also did use the carnival hub app. I used it on my old phone (Samsung Galaxy s5) which I also used as my camera for the trip, mainly because the memory card could be switched out of that phone and into my waterproof camera.

The app itself always worked well for me. I didn't buy the chat feature, I signed up for the social plan for $25 for the week which let me have Facebook and Facebook messenger, which seemed like a good deal to me.

The 2nd day Facebook would not refresh all day, I restarted my phone nothing. I finally called guest services and they told me to open chrome, go to logout.com, then login.com to reset my connection. This solved the problem and I used this reset many times during the week.

The only disappointing thing on the app was I though I read you could get the MDR menu on there, but I never saw it.

Everything else worked really well.

I liked having the fun times on there as well as the ship maps.

[bradysmom]

I can't comment on the theory of stabilizers not being used to save fuel.

I can say that this ship rocked considerably more frequently (like most of the time we were sailing) than our previous sailings.

It was very windy, and in turn somewhat rough seas at times. I think the largest swells they ever announced were 9ft. That means nothing to me , but maybe it will to someone else. Most times it was 3-4 ft swells when they announced it.

Every time we laid in bed we were being rocked from side to side. It doesn't bother my husband or son, and I wear the wrist bands and take bonine, and don't get sea sick.....but 3 nights on this cruise I had horrible acid reflux, finally figured out it was probably from all the sloshing around shoot the stomach acid back up. I got a bunch of extra pillows from the steward and slept propped up for the rest of the cruise and the problem went away.

 

The cabin stewards by the way were Awesome...Best we have ever had, and made incredible towel animals every night!! (See not everything is negative)

 

The staff as a whole was great lots of smiles everywhere, always seem happy, and happy to help. (This is also why Jase stood out as such a contrast in a bad way)

[springs741]

Thank you for your review. I have sailed the Freedom twice. The first was the repo in February of 2015 and the most recent was December 2015. They were very different trips.

 

For the most part I agree with you about the American Table. I actually liked the bread with the cranberry. There were a few nights my meal was an assortment of appetizers. I too miss the old menu. We had YTD and never had to wait for a table and were able to request the same wait team each night. ( Jigson)

 

I didn't find the ship to be crowded but I was sailing the first week in December and you were in a more prime time between Christmas and New Years. I am sure your trip was heavy with children too.

 

I do disagree with you about Jase. Every time I saw him he was his happy self. I like that he doesn't go on and on over the loudspeaker. For those that are about to sail the Freedom, Jase was just filling in for Malcom Burns who should be returning very soon.

 

Again that you for your honest opinion of the Freedom.

[High Seas Texan]

I am enjoying reading your review and appreciate that it is honest and not all glossed over. You did state you enjoyed the cruise, which is good, and I like to know what is going on so as not to be "let down". I sailed the Freedom in August and was quite put off at first about a couple of things. One being the American Table menu. This was my first exposure to it. Just not for me, so we took all of our meals in the Steakhouse. Yes, we had to pay a little extra, but we were happy, and got to try so many things on that menu. Going just once or twice, I have a difficult time deciding what to treat myself too. Going everynight, I just get what I want and know I can try something different the next night.

 

I too always stay at The San Luis! I use their service to get to and from th ship, and they do not charge for leaving your car there.

 

Sounds like the staggered check in is working better now than some comments I have rea here. That had/has me nervous. I am Platinum so I guess I can arrive anytime like you did with FTTF?

 

How were the show? Did you see anything in the main lounge?

How was the temperature in the cabins? In August it was too hot. I sail the 25th of this month.

Did you go to the Piano Bar? Bob was the playere last time and just was not my favorite. I love the piano bar if there is a good entertainer there who can play with the crowd. No big deal however as I spend a lot of time in the neighboring Alchemy bar after dinner.

Room service: Do they have the new pay options? I would like to try those.

 

Again, thank you for taking time to review.

[LovetheTXsun]

We are taking our first ever cruise on the Freedom in May. While it's nice to hear 'rainbows and butterflies', it's also good to be prepared for the little things that aren't so wonderful.

About the pool-side towel saving ~ can say I would find that fairly irritating. Wonder what keeps others from just, well, sitting in them? Unless they are personal (not cruise-owned) towels?

[freedomcruiser891]

We are taking our first ever cruise on the Freedom in May. While it's nice to hear 'rainbows and butterflies', it's also good to be prepared for the little things that aren't so wonderful.

 

About the pool-side towel saving ~ can say I would find that fairly irritating. Wonder what keeps others from just, well, sitting in them? Unless they are personal (not cruise-owned) towels?

 

 

In March of last year a group of 10-15 left their towels on chairs during breakfast. After about 2 hours a couple people moved their stuff because come on now you can't save chairs while you eat breakfast that's cheating LOL. But the people came back and didn't make too big of a deal about it. I don't know if it's Texans or what but I've never seen people too upset after moving their stuff. I absolutely love the freedom and like hearing the review. Although she isn't 100% im still looking forward to sailing her in March and May of this year!

[notyours75]

I think I would wait about 5 minutes then cast the towels and stuff far aside then when/if the owners return claim complete ignorance of it. "oh your stuff was here? I'm sorry maybe the cleaners came and got it." :D