Help please - Freedom vs Breeze

[pfleer]

Hi all! My husband and I are currently booked on the Freedom out of Port Canaveral for the last week of April for our 20th anniversary.  We also looked at Breeze for the same dates out of Galveston. Had the Breeze been sailing out of a different port, we likely would have booked her instead. I’m getting more nervous about the freedom because of the terrible reviews (which I normally take with a grain of salt). The cruises are very close in price (breeze will be $100 more). Airfare is actually slightly less flying in Hobby. Seems like an easy choice to switch but I’m hesitating because we’ve sailed out of canaveral many times so we’re very familiar with flying into MCO, renting a car and driving to the port. Galveston I have no experience with. We currently have one of those balconies on freedom that is the last one before the aft wrap balcony. So it’s the different shape with the long balcony. We don’t care about the itineraries. We’ve done almost all of them in the Caribbean. 
 

Should we switch from freedom to breeze?? Or is the freedom really not as bad as the reviews say it is?  Is Galveston easy to navigate?  I think I would cancel cheers since we can’t use it the first day out of Galveston and we will have drinks in the casino for both of us (on freedom it would have just been for me which is why we bought cheers). 

[jsglow]

Try not to over think it @pfleer. Freedom is a fine ship and was literally just in dry dock where no doubt some work beyond the whale tail was completed. I honestly think there are many factors associated with these two cruises more important than the ship itself.  And while my Texas friends will no doubt disagree, Galveston is my least favorite Carnival port for several reasons. Enjoy.

[groundloop]

I've been on around 20 Carnival cruises and the vast majority have been great.  The least favorite was on Freedom last November.  One issue was a smell of sewage in the hallway, hopefully they fixed whatever was causing that in drydock.  

 

Something else we didn't know about ahead of time was that for debarkation Freedom docked at a different terminal than what we departed from, so we had to be bussed over to the original terminal to pick up our cars.  That was a total mess and added over an hour before we could start driving home.  I'd check the cruise terminal schedules for Port Canaveral and see if that's the case for your cruise.

[mz-s]

I personally prefer Conquest class so I would do Freedom...

[Saint Greg]

I like the Dream class better so all things equal I would pick Breeze. Flying out of Orlando is a nightmare. I would much much much rather Hobby. 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Saint Greg

[Drazil65]

Breeze...no question is you can still do it...