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Carnival Freedom Post Drydock?

marshalltp

By marshalltp,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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BeachlvgMom

BeachlvgMom

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We were on the March 9 sailing post dry dock.  This was our 11th Carnival Cruise on 7 different ships. We were on Freedom about 2 1/2 years ago.  Here goes my take on the upgrades and changes I observed since our last visit.

 

Cabins

DH DD and I were in a balcony cabin deck 7.  Our cabin was not redone.  TV was still older...ah very old.  Couch was old but comfortable and clean.  The linens and pillows seemed extra fresh and perky.  The shower curtain seemed new.  The carpet wasn't new but looked freshly steam-cleaned.  The balcony looked like it was freshly painted.  

 

Waterworks upgrade.

The deck 10-11 smaller pool was consumed in the water works upgrade.  There is now an additional twister tube slide, splash pad with water dumping bucket and two mini racer slides for smaller kids.  I went down both slides with my daughter and enjoyed this upgrade a time or two.  :-)

 

The lido deck 9 decking was upgraded to the faux decking that isn't actually interlocking wood.  Decks 10 and/or 11 still have some of the older wooden decking in places.  

 

Camp Ocean:

The large open room on the older kids side was sectioned off.  There is now a craft area with hard surfaced floors.  There were a few other minor upgrades and touches but basically the area was the same.

 

Common Area Restrooms:

In general restrooms seemed to be still an upgrade in progress.  Ex. The Deck 5 women's restroom near the international lounge had one working hand dryer mounted directly over a paper trash bin when all paper towel dispensers had been removed.  Then there was bolting on the wall for either another dryer or removed bin. The sinks were clearly new with motion sensor activation.  

Lido restrooms mid ship and aft were still malfunctioning off an on.  A few times the entire men's restroom by Guy's Burgers was out of order waiting for a white jump-suited repair crew.

None of these works-in-progress hampered our enjoyment of the ship.  Just something to note and work around.  They will probably be fixed soon.

 

New Restaurants:

Bonsai Sushi Express.  This was a nice addition. My family had sushi one night for dinner in lido.  They give you a pager to let you know when to pick up your order. The menu is not as extensive as Bonsai on Vista or other newer ships.  Still a nice alternative. 

Deli, the deli was upgraded to the new menu somewhat.  The panini presses are out and the toaster ovens are in.  I miss the panini-pressed sandwiches but had a Ruben the new way and it wasn't bad.  The menu is a bit more like the Vista menu in that they offer fries and truffle fries, and those chocolate sea salt cookies. 

555 Steak house  - not sure if this was a new upgrade but they have the Wagyu beef and smoked oysters that appear in the newer menus.  Ate there one night....excellent.  By the way the only bar to carry Blantons Bourbon or Remy Martin Cognac is 555 steakhouse.  Get ya Cheers package ready!

 

Red frog had an annoying short in the audio system. It would short out and drove a few of us to other venues a time or two because you couldn't hear the performer or the sound would be too loud.   The bartender remarked that coming out of dry dock  some things that worked before don't work right after.. referring to the audio issue.  I'm sure they'll get that fixed.  Different people were working on the issue off and on without resolution.

 

External

Pretty much every outer surface I observed had a fresh coat of paint.  Very spiffy.  Oh and she can move it move it - Freedom that is... I'm not sure but I think they opened her up on our trip back to Galveston the last couple of sea days.  Early Friday morning I observed several lazy circles being cut in the gulf until about 10 or 11 am.  We must have made great time coming from Roatan. 

 

We are back on her in May.  Loved the trip.  The crew seemed very refreshed and friendly.  Hope you enjoy her. 

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BeachlvgMom

BeachlvgMom

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Oh the internet....

IMHO, Not upgraded.  In fact it wasn't until the 1st full seaday - Sunday morning - that the chat feature started working on the hub app. We visited guest services because of this and they were going to give us a refund of the chat charges if they couldn't get it fixed.  We had Andriod phones but Iphone users had the same connection issues.  I didn't see any evidence that they boosted the speed or added wifi repeaters/boosters to the cabin areas.

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Newe08

Newe08

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9 minutes ago, BeachlvgMom said:

Cabins

DH DD and I were in a balcony cabin deck 7.  Our cabin was not redone.  TV was still older...ah very old.  Couch was old but comfortable and clean.  The linens and pillows seemed extra fresh and perky.  The shower curtain seemed new.  The carpet wasn't new but looked freshly steam-cleaned.  The balcony looked like it was freshly painted. 

 

Just curious, what room number were you?   We'll have a balcony on deck 7 as well and were hoping those were upgraded....especially with the USB ports next to the bed.  

 

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BeachlvgMom

BeachlvgMom

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2 hours ago, Newe08 said:

 

Just curious, what room number were you?   We'll have a balcony on deck 7 as well and were hoping those were upgraded....especially with the USB ports next to the bed.  

 

We were in cabin 7375. There were no additional plugs added to the room that we could tell. Nothing added to the bed area.  Just the one plug over the vanity/desk area.

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BeachlvgMom

BeachlvgMom

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2 hours ago, princess76021 said:

Thanks for your review. Does the hub work? Can you view your photos on the hub? Or TV?  Looking forward to hearing more. Will be on her for two weeks and want to be prepared!!!    :classic_biggrin:

 

You're welcome!  Yes, Hub did work.  The what's happening, open times, food and drink options with menu features all worked on Freedom as they did on Vista and Dream class ships.  I did notice that if we selected a favorite activity, the reminder notification only gave about a 7 minute warning.  On Vista it was double that at about 15 minutes.  It didn't impact us that much because there were very few long lines or full venues.  We could not make specialty dining reservations or check in for your time dining through the app.  These features were not critical because we there were not the lines we've experienced on Vista  or Dream class ships.  We could view sign and sail account charges in real time.

 

Regarding photos, they were still the paper hunt and find near the Pixels Gallery.  There were some tablet kiosks near Red Frog that I think one could use to view photos, but I never tried them out.  I didn't see that I could view photos on the phone app on Freedom.

The TV features were very limited or not upgraded at all. There were no on-demand movies like on Vista.  That was a bit of a bummer.  You could not use your TV to view your sign and sail account etc like on Dream and Vista class ships.  Download or bring your own movies if that's your thing.

Another point on the TV, the channels are very limited.  When you're missing Teen Titans and Gumball because that's better than anything else on the TV, it's kind of telling.  My daughter and I got very sunburned one port day and we stayed in the room the next sea day. We ended up just listening to audio books and watching Netflix downloads instead of TV.

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BeachlvgMom

BeachlvgMom

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1 hour ago, Lottacruises said:

Looks like an outside elevator was added from deck 9 to 10....

Yes, there was an elevator that was kind of Plexiglas enclosed for mobility impaired guests to access the aft area of deck 10.  The aft elevators only go to deck 9.  There was also some Plexiglas shielding around the aft starboard stairwell from deck 9 to 10 added.  Great for keeping your umbrella in your drink from blowing away. LOL  If the weather is a bit gusty that wind in the aft area of deck 10 is almost impossible.  

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princess76021

princess76021

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10 hours ago, BeachlvgMom said:

You're welcome!  Yes, Hub did work.  The what's happening, open times, food and drink options with menu features all worked on Freedom as they did on Vista and Dream class ships.  I did notice that if we selected a favorite activity, the reminder notification only gave about a 7 minute warning.  On Vista it was double that at about 15 minutes.  It didn't impact us that much because there were very few long lines or full venues.  We could not make specialty dining reservations or check in for your time dining through the app.  These features were not critical because we there were not the lines we've experienced on Vista  or Dream class ships.  We could view sign and sail account charges in real time.

 

Regarding photos, they were still the paper hunt and find near the Pixels Gallery.  There were some tablet kiosks near Red Frog that I think one could use to view photos, but I never tried them out.  I didn't see that I could view photos on the phone app on Freedom.

The TV features were very limited or not upgraded at all. There were no on-demand movies like on Vista.  That was a bit of a bummer.  You could not use your TV to view your sign and sail account etc like on Dream and Vista class ships.  Download or bring your own movies if that's your thing.

Another point on the TV, the channels are very limited.  When you're missing Teen Titans and Gumball because that's better than anything else on the TV, it's kind of telling.  My daughter and I got very sunburned one port day and we stayed in the room the next sea day. We ended up just listening to audio books and watching Netflix downloads instead of TV.

Thank you. This has been very helpful, especially since we just got off the Vista! Will have to download some videos. We were really hoping we didn't have to hunt for pictures!   One more question please, was the muster drill still held outdoors???? Thanks again!!!

 

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ObstructedView2

ObstructedView2

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Renovations completed during dry dock:

2/13/19-3/08/19

 

1) WaterWorks (replaced Twister waterslide)

2) Bonsai Sushi Express (added to Lido Restaurant)

3) 324 berths added

4) Expanded retail space

5) Mini Golf Course moved to Deck 11 aft

6) Solarium added to Deck 12 aft

7) ADA updates

 

Info located @:

https://help.goccl.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1471/~/carnival-freedom-(fd)-fact-sheet

 

🚢

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roundrockhorn

roundrockhorn

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Curious to know how the room temps were. I've read elsewhere, that even post dry dock, some of the rooms were still pretty hot. My wife and I will be sailing on 4/20 and will be in a balcony cabin on Deck 8. If these reports are accurate, I'm thinking I should bring a fan. 

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Cafedumonde

Cafedumonde

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1 hour ago, ObstructedView2 said:

Renovations completed during dry dock:

2/13/19-3/08/19

 

1) WaterWorks (replaced Twister waterslide)

2) Bonsai Sushi Express (added to Lido Restaurant)

3) 324 berths added

4) Expanded retail space

5) Mini Golf Course moved to Deck 11 aft

6) Solarium added to Deck 12 aft

7) ADA updates

 

Info located @:

https://help.goccl.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1471/~/carnival-freedom-(fd)-fact-sheet

 

🚢

Ugh, does that mean new cabins?

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BeachlvgMom

BeachlvgMom

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On 3/20/2019 at 8:43 AM, roundrockhorn said:

Curious to know how the room temps were. I've read elsewhere, that even post dry dock, some of the rooms were still pretty hot. My wife and I will be sailing on 4/20 and will be in a balcony cabin on Deck 8. If these reports are accurate, I'm thinking I should bring a fan. 

Our room on deck 7 was very cool.  We kept the thermostat set at the lowest setting the entire time, and we were never uncomfortable.  At home we keep our thermostat set at 73 in the summer (in Texas) so that tells you of our tolerance level.  I was actually chilly at times.  When we were in Roatan with outside temp  at its warmest, the room stayed cool through the afternoon.

 

On that note, a lot of the doors leading to the outside on deck 9 had a touch pad added to the sidewall so the motion sensor doors would not be continually tripped to stay open. Someone on either side of the door had to tap the wall pad to open the sliding doors. This helped the lido dining area to stay considerably cooler throughout the warmer days. The new touch pads had many people standing in front of the glass doors waving their hands in the air until they figured out the door operation.   

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roundrockhorn

roundrockhorn

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20 minutes ago, BeachlvgMom said:

Our room on deck 7 was very cool.  We kept the thermostat set at the lowest setting the entire time, and we were never uncomfortable.  At home we keep our thermostat set at 73 in the summer (in Texas) so that tells you of our tolerance level.  I was actually chilly at times.  When we were in Roatan with outside temp  at its warmest, the room stayed cool through the afternoon.

 

On that note, a lot of the doors leading to the outside on deck 9 had a touch pad added to the sidewall so the motion sensor doors would not be continually tripped to stay open. Someone on either side of the door had to tap the wall pad to open the sliding doors. This helped the lido dining area to stay considerably cooler throughout the warmer days. The new touch pads had many people standing in front of the glass doors waving their hands in the air until they figured out the door operation.   

Thanks for the info. We're from Texas as well, so we know all about the heat. At times during the "winter," even with the heater going, my wife will turn on the ceiling fan in our bedroom at night. I may still bring a fan for her, just in case. 

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