Lengthy Freedom Transatlantic Review

[winewanderer]

Here is my review of Carnival’s 14 night Transatlantic aboard the Freedom. Dates, Oct. 28th-Nov.11th.

 

We’ll be doing the reverse Miami to Rome on April 26th, 2008 as well.

 

Hubby, 58, me, 45, we’ve sailed Carnival many times.

 

Hubby and I flew to Rome on Oct. 22nd. We flew US Air from San Francisco to Philly to Rome, Italy. We really lucked out on the Philly to Rome flight, it was half empty which made my 6’5” tall hubby very happy. We took a row of 4 seats so we could spread out. We flew without any delays.

 

A note about my suitcase. I have a 22” that I love dearly. Well, loved. I didn’t spend a lot on it and it has travelled well for 5 years.

 

Between SFO and Rome, some of the material was torn and framing broken. Carnival bent the wheels so it no longer rolled and when I pulled my luggage off the conveyer at SFO once we returned one wheel was totally gone. Oh well, time for new luggage.

 

Once we landed in Rome we took the train to the Termini station and rented a car.

 

Yes, we’re crazy or adventurous, we rented a car in Rome.

 

My husband is a great driver and has driven in many areas in Europe. Driving in Rome was, well, interesting, but he got us through it.

 

We spent several days in an area called Abruzzo, 3 hours east of Rome. I won’t go into this part of the trip unless someone wants the details. Briefly it’s full of hilltop towns, much like in Tuscany. Only problem is language. Most people there don’t speak English. We were confident in our Italian and got along just fine.

 

It’s actually a wonderful area. We went to this little visited area of Italy because we had been learning Italian and wanted to use it in addition to losing ourselves in the culture and wanted to be somewhere with fewer tourists. I think we were the only 2. We had a wonderful time.

 

To the Ship: We returned our rental car at the Termini station, bought 2 tickets to Civit. Wow, it’s amazing the amount of luggage people bring on the train.

 

We went a little heavier than we usually would for train travel because we were travelling for 3 weeks and needed a range of cool and warm clothing. Hubby brought a large 26” suitcase plus his computer case. I had a 22” plus a 17”. In the 17” we packed 2 outfits each plus hubby’s CPAP (anti-snoring) machine just in case our luggage didn’t make it. Flying to Rome these days, you just never know. Fortunately our luggage did make it. We also cross pack so that we each have a few things in each suit case. If one bag is lost at least we have a few things in the other bag.

 

We came across several people on the cruise with missing luggage. One lady we spoke to had only the clothes she flew in. Her bag was lost, her husband’s was not. They don’t cross pack so she was miserable. When we last spoke to her right before our last port of Funchal she still didn’t have her bag. My opinion….if you’re going all that way at least take a small backpack on the plane with one pair of pants, top and a change of underwear. I’ve never had lost luggage but know many who have. It’s miserable.

 

The Cruise:

 

Platinum: Hubby and I are Platinum so we went through VIP check-in. We arrived at about 1:30pm, showed our document that said proceed to VIP check-in and 5 minutes later were boarding the ship.

 

Our room: We had an inside cabin # 8415, aft, on Veranda deck. We loved this location and only 30 seconds to the nearest frozen yogurt machine!

 

I thought the room were very quiet. I rarely heard anything from the neighbors. And no noise whatsoever from the Lido restaurant above. Although we were under the carpeted area.

 

One annoying thing was that I was given a Platinum card and hubby got a gold one eventhough he’s been on more Carnival cruises than me. This happened to him last cruise as well. One day they’ll get it right. When they checked his past guest number on their computer it lised all his Carnival cruises, way more than 10. They don’t know why it happens to him but they gave him a Platinum card. We also were not on the Platinum guest list our room steward had so we spoke to the purser’s desk to get that straightened out. Not sure why this happened as they knew we were Platinum at check-in.

 

They had it right on the Liberty last year, I guess we just fell through the cracks this time.

 

Our room steward was ok but sometimes service was hit and miss. We had no laundry bags for the free laundry. I asked him to bring a stack as we would be doing a bag everyday. He didn’t want to and left one bag the first day then no bags the next couple of days. I would have asked one of the other workers but just didn’t bump into anyone.

 

He gave me a hard time about it. I reminded him that Platinum guests are allowed 1 bag each day. He finally gave us a stack. If we were in the room when he wanted to fill our ice, he would not come in. We then would not get ice that day. If there was a lot of garbage in the garbage can at the end of the day, it stayed there. Little things like that.

 

Also we had no blue beach towels in our room. I mentioned we had no blue towels and didn’t those need to be in the room when we depart so Carnival doesn’t charge us for them? No, no, he says. I didn’t want to chance it. I spoke to the purser’s desk. Still no towels. I left a message for the floor supervisor. Still no towels. I reminded our steward. Still no towels. The floor supervisor eventually visited our room. Finally 2 days before we departed the ship the towels showed up. If they hadn’t I would have next spoken to a manager. But really, how stupid.

 

The Ship:

 

Overall we enjoyed the ship. Some of the color schemes and designs really clash with each other but didn’t bother me.

 

My one big complaint (not just me, many others too) was they really had a difficult time controlling the temperature during the crossing. Even before the crossing though the dining room was incredibly warm (and no I’m not having my own personal summers) (we had 8:30pm Chic room late seating).

 

It seemed in the evening when people started gathering in the main areas such as the promenade deck, the dining rooms and the main show lounge, those areas were just too warm. Several evenings, hubby and I went back to the room to shower before the show. One of our tablemates and I were saying that we’re the first ones to be cold (I’m always cold) and we’d been so hot on the ship. Several times I asked personnel if it was me and they said no the ship is warm. Things weren’t too bad until the crossing. I think they just couldn’t get a handle on having 3000 people on a ship for 7 days.

 

Well, we brought this up to the purser’s desk and things finally were a little better 2 days before the end of the cruise.

 

I had far too many warm clothes which we needed for Abruzzo but not for the cruise. In April I’ll leave the warm items at home. A light jacket, 1 pair of long pants is all the warm clothing I’ll bring plus an umbrella.

 

Food: We think Carnival’s food is very good. Is it like eating at the Ritz? Of course not. It’s a cruise ship that must prepare 3 meals a deal and then some for 3000 people. I’m amazed they do so well feeding 3000 people.

 

Breakfast didn’t change although I did find a new favorite. French toast and blueberry sauce. I didn’t see the blueberry sauce everyday in the Lido but I believe its available in the dining room. I noticed breakfast is much better if you eat in the Lido by 8:00am. The omelet stations and cooked to order eggs are very good. Everyone at our dinner table agreed Carnival gets very good quality eggs.

 

Lunch in the Lido always provided something good. The tandoori grill was new which was pretty good but sadly they had pretty much the same thing there everyday. The vegetable salad was excellent, very spicy and tasty. They had one new item it seemed every few days. We only ate the food from there twice.

 

Hubby tried the fish and chips on deck 10 but it too was the same thing the whole trip. Maybe a new item here and there. I was coming down with a cold and had the bouillbase (sp?) without the seafood, it was very tasty. I had that several times.

 

They had a very good pumpkin soup one day in the Lido and a moroccan lamb one day that was incredibly good.

 

One day we had a very late lunch, around 3:30pm and had a steak sandwich from the grill. It was very good, even better with the mushrooms at that station.

 

We varied our breakfast between the Lido and dining room. On sea days the Lido was a zoo at breakfast and lunch. Hard to get a seat, etc. If we were there by 8:00am it wasn’t too bad or by 11:45am for lunch. Otherwise if we were later we ate in the dining room.

 

By the way, hats off to Carnival for the hand wipe stations all over the lido and in front of the dining rooms. We certainly used these a lot and washed our hands a lot too.

 

Some days by 5:00 or 6:00pm I was starving so the sushi was nice until 8:30pm dinner time. A couple of times they had not sushibut tapas. Nice to have that change and everything was good especially the one towards the end with the brie and out-of-this-world blue cheeses. Hubby had to pull me away from there. I was liable to go into cheese shock. I love blue cheese.

 

Favorites for me at dinner were prime rib, the filet mignon one night was outstanding, mushroom soup, warm chocolate melting cake), cappuccino pie, lamb chops, lobster thermador a couple of nights after lobster night was excellent and a beautiful presentation, duck pate (same night as lobster thermador), jerk pork, lamb chops, lots of others.

 

Formal Nights: There were 2 formal nights. The Captain’s cocktail party was different. I don’t know if they’re doing this on every ship but the cocktail party was not in the show lounge but sort of in a couple of places on the Promenade deck.

 

IMO it was a mess. We went into the disco just to get out of the mass of people in the hall. There we ran into our tablemates and they invited us to sit with them.

 

These areas are not big enough for the crowd that attends, again, IMO.

 

Past Guest Party: We went but a bit disappointing. They had 2 appetizers, one whicg was something with salmon. They had far too much salmon on this cruise. We got free drinks, which is all I really care about. We danced a little. We also got our past guest pins.

 

Gym: On sea days this cruise the gym was packed in the mornings. One morning I was there at 6:45am and still had to wait for a machine to free up.

 

There were something like 12-15 treadmills, 4 stationary bikes, 4 other machines that I forget what they’re called and 1 stair stepper. Lots of free weights and enough weight machines.

 

Some days I skipped the gym and walked around the jogging track. If I was up at the crack of dawn and the gym packed sometimes I would walk around the ship and go up and down stairs.

 

The jogging track was often very windy, didn’t bother me too much though.

 

We did go to the gym one afternoon at 2:00pm and there were only about 5 people there. I’ll keep that in mind.

 

I used the sauna and showers in the gym post workout. That was great. I told my husband the morning we were cruising to Malaga, Spain what a nice view the ladies sauna has and how a watched the Spain coastline go by. Hubby said the men’s has no view. Too bad.

 

Activities during the crossing: They had a lot of trivia, sometimes general, other times topics like geography, famous people, tv, movies, etc.

 

Seems like they had arts and crafts everyday but I never made it there.

 

They had two cooking demonstrations in the supper club, call early to make reservations. They gave samples of what they made. They made ceasar salad which had far too many anchovies, I like hubby’s better. They made chicken parmesan, very good. They made a stuffed mushroom which I didn’t eat because I though it sounded odd, it had spinach and broccoli in the stuffing. Dessert was black forest cake, that was excellent.

 

There was a wine tasting once. It was a $10pp charge. We went to see what they were doing. It was 5 wines, a 1 oz. pour and they served some cheese and I think salami. We decided not to based on the wines they were serving.

 

My hubby gave a technology seminar that he arranged through Todd, the cruise director. Another guest gave a seminar on self hypnosis and another on getting published.

 

They did 2 dance lessons each day. Hubby and I dance a lot and didn’t think much of the instructor but people seemed to be having fun. That’s all that matters really.

 

As far as dance music they had a lot of fox trot type music by a duo in the Swingtime lounge. There was a nice singer in the Atrium, waltzes mostly but some other music too. The disco did a latin night.

 

There were art auctions every other day or so. They had the usual pool games, ship building contest, survivor, knobby knees.

 

If you like puzzles the library I discovered has some. We wandered in there by accident and I saw word search puzzles and soduko puzzles, there for the taking. In April I’ll need to bring my own. I had 2 books but sometimes wanted something else to do other than read or read other things, like a magazine.

 

Shows: We didn’t go to all the shows as I had a sore throat and was getting a cold early in the cruise. A majority of them though. There was a singer who was getting over bronchitis or larengitis, not very good but not his fault. There was a comedian who had me on stage, he wasn’t funny. They cancelled a magician because the airline lost his bag of tricks.

 

Highlights for me: the juggler, Grunway, hysterical. I hope I see him in the future. The ventriloquist and the Beatles shows were very good. Also, there was some very good talent in the guest talent show and the Legend’s show was great. There was a very good Aretha Franklin, Elton John and the Garth Brooks was sensational.

 

We often went to the showroom 30-45 minutes early to get a front row seat. Usually before the show they do bingo so the room can be fairly full, then people stay for the show.

 

Weather and seas:

 

We had very good weather and seas. I brought too many warm clothes. We needed the warm items in Abruzzo as there was snow in the mountains but after that didn’t use most of it. I think I wore my jeans and a ¾ sleeve top one sea day after Livorno, after that it was too warm.

 

Rome/Civit. Oct. 28th was warm. We were hot on the train. After we boarded the ship we got off for a little while and I changed into capris and a t-shirt beforehand.

 

Livorno was our only port that was not great weather. Rainy and chilly.

 

Malaga, Spain and Funchal, Portugal were around 70. Really perfect. Hubby wore shorts and short sleeved shirts, me capris and short sleeved top.

 

We had good seas except for when we left Malaga. We were bumping around about a day and a half until Funchal. The crossing was smoother than I thought. For a couple of days we had 8-10 foot swells. I was feeling a little nausea so I took the ship provided medication and felt better in a couple of hours. Didn’t need it before or after.

 

Attire: People for the most part dressed well. Did see jeans in the dining room at dinner and some people dressed liked they were going out for their morning jog in sweatpants, tennis shoes and t-shirts. They were in the minority though and I don’t care. Personally I like to dress for dinner so generally I wear a skirt or slacks and nice top to dinner. The evening is an event for me with pre-dinner dancing, dinner then show. It’s a night out and so I dress for it.

 

The ports:

 

Civitavecchia:

 

We didn’t spend any time in Rome. Had been there before and really didn’t want to go back. We overnighted in Civit. On the 28th. On the 29th we were going to go to Tarquinia, a hilltown that is a 15 min. train ride from Civit. However, it was a Monday and the ruins are closed on Mondays and we had just been to so many hilltowns in Abruzzo so we didn’t go to Tarquinia.

 

Instead we wandered around Civit. When you take the port bus to the port entrance, get off and walk to your left there is some high end shopping believe it or not. We had a very nice day. Went to a market and bought some goodies, walked along the waterfront.

 

At the market we bought a bottle of cream of Meloncello (melon not lemon), very good. We bought a couple of bottles of wine. No one said boo when we brought them onto the ship.

 

Livorno:

 

We took a ship excursion, Wines of Tuscany. I haven’t taken a ship’s excursion in 15 years. It was ok but we won’t be doing another one anytime soon. We just really like being on our own.

 

The only reason we booked it was I couldn’t find others on the roll call who wanted to do a wine tasting trip to Tuscany. At $59 for a 4 hour tour this seemed like a good substitute.

 

The drive to the winery was an hour each way, it was near Lucca. This was the day it rained and was chilly, not too bad though. The winery was very muddy. We had a short tour then they took us in a sort of restaurant type setting with several long tables.

 

I should say I’m in the wine industry so I probably was expecting too much. Basically we sat down at a communal table. There were 6 wines we tried. One of bottle of each on each table to sahe. Each table probably had 15 people.

 

They brought us salami, prosciutto, cheese, bread, garlic. What bummed me was the lady told us the wines, then left. I thought someone would lead us through the tasting, the wine characteristics, etc. ‘Twas not to be.

 

On the return TA in April we’ve decided we’ll probably take the train to Pisa and Lucca or a wine tour in Tuscany if that work out.

 

There were shuttle buses from the port to the main part of Livorno for 1 euro each way in case anyone needs to know that.

 

Malaga, Spain:

 

We walked from the ship to the town. Todd said it was a ¼ mile. No. It was at least a mile, not a big dea, but would be if you couldn’t walk far. It was a good walk if you like to walk. If not, there were shuttle buses, I believe 4 or 5 euros. Why so much, I don’t know.

 

It was a holiday so many things were closed like Picasso’s museum. There were stores and restaurants open. Malaga has a nice park like area great for walking.

 

There is a hop on hop off bus for 20 euros but you can also take the city bus #2 that does the same route for 1 euro.

 

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal: Ah, the gem of the entire trip. What a beautiful island. Very clean, graffiti not allowed. We saw very little down some side streets. Very lush and green. From the ship to the main area is walkable. The water front is gorgeous.

 

We booked a 3 hour tour 9:00am to noon for Nun’s Valley through Strawberry World Tours. It was 19 euors pp. Many people booked this company’s all day Best of the East or Best of the West Tours. We were the only people on our tour.

 

We were taken to a couple of “view” stops, the Nun’s Valley, some spectacular views. We were given time to wander at a couple of small towns. If you take any of these tours that have altitude, like this one, take a sweater. It was warm in Funchal when we left the ship and quite chilly at the top of Nun’s Valley. We enjoyed our driver very much and gave him a 15% tip.

 

If you have a cough like I did be sure to buy the eucalyptus candy that’s available everywhere. You can get a decent sized bag for 1 euro.

 

It was nice and we wanted the afternoon to explore.

 

A fellow cruiser told us later about a 2 euro bus pass he got. So you can ride the city buses all day. We may do that next trip.

 

We went back to the ship for lunch then went back off. We wanted to buy some liquer to take home. We found a market and bought 1 bottle each cherry liquer, passion fruit liquer and 5 year old Madeira wine. We brought these home.

 

Disembarkation:

 

Because we’re Platinum we were offered priority disembarkation. The purser’s desk called our room a couple of days before the end and asked if we wanted that. We were told to be ready to leave at 7:30am and to make sure our cabin steward gave us #1 luggage tags. He did.

 

Before the #1 group, there was a self-assist that started leaving at 7:00am. Right around around 7:20am the #1 group was called. We got our luggage, went through immigration and customs. Once outside the terminal we were going to get a cab to the airport but there was a company offering rides to the airport for 10 per person and was ready to leaving so did that.

 

If you’re going through the Miami airport get there early. What a zoo. The security line was 45 minutes. We hadn’t been though the Miami airport in a couple of years. We don’t remember it being that bad.

 

In closing we had a great vacation and are looking forward to the Freedom again in April. If anyone has any questions, let me know. I’ll be happy to respond.

 

Happy Cruising…..

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for the review, winewanderer. One of these days before I day I would love to do a Trans Atlantic crossing.

[jimbo5544]

I would love to so a transatlantic crossing some day as well. How rough were the seas? My wife has reservations bout mid ocean rough seas.

[sea_u_onboard]

Did you do round trip airfare with the return after at the end of your April cruise? I hear that's the way to do it as it costs so much for the one way air.

[winewanderer]

Jimbo: the seas were fairly calm. We only had rough seas 1 day when we left Malaga. The ship swaying didn't make me nauseous but the swaying woke me up several times during the night.

 

During the crossing we had 8-10 foot swells for 2 days. The swaying then really was not bad. Normally those seas have no effect on me but I think with the cold I had, I was sort of feeling "blah" and so was feeling a bit nauseous.

 

The medicine they hand out at the purser's desk works well.

 

Sea_u_onboard, yes we booked round trip airfare and using the reverse portions in April. We met a lot of people on board who do that.

[sea_u_onboard]

Sea_u_onboard, yes we booked round trip airfare and using the reverse portions in April. We met a lot of people on board who do that.

I hope we can do that someday. I had read about others doing this and think it's a great idea. The money you save on the ticket can be used towards the second cruise so it makes it a very inexpensive second cruise. Enjoy the next one.

[JaneBP]

>"Between SFO and Rome, some of the material was torn and framing broken. Carnival bent the wheels so it no longer rolled and when I pulled my luggage off the conveyer at SFO once we returned one wheel was totally gone. Oh well, time for new luggage."

 

Try the Eagle Creek line, a bit expensive but it's worth it. It comes with a lifetime guarantee, no matter what. Easy to find on the Internet.

[Wennfred]

Thanks for your review, its good that they still have the Minute Steak sandwich at the grille, I guess they don't have these on 4 day cruises. Also, Im reading other reviews that some ships are not using the Self Assist Disembarkation but they did on your cruise before they called group #1. Hope they keep Self Assist.

 

 

Fred

[njmelis24]

What a helpful review. Thanks for all the information. We too hope one day to be able to do a transatlantic crossing.

 

And thanks for the tip about the round trip airfare. I would have never thought to do that. ;)

[rdytocruz]

We are doing the Freedom in the Med in May and I have a couple of questions. Did you have any trouble with your luggage on the train to the port? Did you have anything bigger than a carry on 22 inch? Do they have that green bar soap that I loved while on the Liberty last year? That's three questions. Thanks for the wonderful review.

[PINEVIEW01]

Thanks for the Review. I did this on the Liberty and for those asking; This southern crossing is not bad at all. I did the Northern route this September and it got really bad.

[winewanderer]

rdytocruz, yes, they had the green bar soap. I like it to. Our room steward gave us an extra 2 bars. I think he saw we liked it and put some more in the little sample bowl.

 

Luggage on the train. I deally for train travel a 21 or 22" suitecase and a shoulder bag is generally all I try to manage. However, due to our trip length I had a 22" plus a 17 inch. Hubby had the 26" plus his rolling computer case.

 

It was somewhat of a pain fir me having both bags but not bad. The worst part of train travel is the inevitable long walk to the track and hoisting your lugage and yourself up the first step of the train.

 

Hubby had no trouble with his bags. Also, if the train cars are full and you have to walk back or forward to find a seat it's a pain with a lot of bags.

 

Last year we did the 12 day Liberty. We each brought a carron sized bag and a shoulder bag. Really that's perfect for train travel.

[SheriNtexas]

Yes, we’re crazy or adventurous, we rented a car in Rome.

 

My husband is a great driver and has driven in many areas in Europe. Driving in Rome was, well, interesting, but he got us through it.

 

 

 

I saw a lot of "interesting" driving while we were on our EFtour in Rome this summer!! :eek: Your husband HAS to be a good driver to attempt to drive THERE!:D We only saw one wreck while in Rome, and we all joked that it was probably 2 Americans whose cars hit each other!:D We even saw several men attempting to "lift" a woman's Smart car out of a parking spot!!:eek: Parallel parking was literally bumper to bumper there, lol!! Thanks for the great review!!:)

[Flip2cruise]

Great review!

[KandCsailing]

Thanks for the review. A transatlantic would be a very cool way to get to Rome or Venice whenever we decide to go to Italy. My In-laws are from the Abruzzo region and the family still has a house in the mountains and a few relatives by the coastline.

[AdrenalineRush]

Saw there was some chatter on the boards re:transatlantic cruises. This review might be helpful.