Is the Freedom ready for prime time?
Short answer: No.
To be fair though, this is not prime time. This is a very inexpensive repositioning cruise that most paid almost nothing for or were comped entirely by the casino.
What follows is a long and negative post. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea feel free to skip this one 🙂
First let me say my experience has been great and most of these have not impacted me, but there are some problems with the ship that in the interest of being fair, I want to discuss.
Some of the complaints I've seen on our FB group are ridiculous. There are quite a few people upset about us sailing in circles off the coast of Spain on the way to Malaga. One said she even went to guest services to ask how we could have a captain who didn't know what he was doing. My goodness. Please sit down.
Some are legitimate, somewhat, but at some point you need to move on. Embarkation was a mess. Some try to say it was people not showing up at their correct time causing the problem. I can't speak for later in the day, but at 12:30 they were checking times. They only allowed me through because my mom needed assistance. If it had been just me, I would have been waiting another 30 minutes.
There was seating inside, there was no reason why the early people could not be allowed in until the terminal was at capacity. We were fortunate that we were able to sit since we were so early. There were not many places to sit outside, the rest had to stand and were not even allowed to stand in the shaded part. Once check in did begin, they had to take our pictures, and collect our passports, and give us a receipt for them. It was a slow process and so it took a very long time to process people. It had nothing to do with people coming early.
I did see Carnival passing out water to those in the line later in the day when I went through duty free. They did the best they could and I think a lot of the problem was with the port authority and the fact that Carnival does not have priority in Barcelona.
Speaking of priority, a lot of diamonds were upset they did not get priority. While I think they could have done so with 319 diamonds, they didn't and stated the wouldn't from the start. Don't act surprised now.
It was not a perfect situation by any means. But at some point, let's move on and stop complaining about it constantly to anyone who will listen. The mood onboard is pretty sour and is contributing to the feeling that the cruise is a little off.
The next issue is the smells onboard. On day 1 I noticed in the hall by my room on deck 7 a smell I would describe as a chemical cleaner smell lingering in the air. Nothing unpleasant, but I suppose if you have breathing problems it may effect you negatively. I heard others describing a smell of cat urine. One man boasting of yelling at the crew who said she didn't smell it to "go love yourself". He didn't say love. He wonders why he didn't get any further help on the matter. Me, I would have helped by packing his bags and giving him the boot at the next port. They have the right per the cruise contract.
After a day or two the smell dissipated, and I noticed the smell that remained did begin to smell more and more like cat urine. It obviously wasn't but that was what it smelled like as it got more faint. It is nearly gone now, thankfully, and the crew have been spraying, but it is a little unplesant.
Other reported smells include the poop smells that are common on cruise ships. I have not noticed that but I have noticed A LOT of closed off public bathrooms. I personally witnessed a bathroom that was in need of being closed off that hadn't been yet. It would remain closed for the next two days.
I've heard of many instances of showers not draining, toilets not flushing, and no hot water. My own hot water issue was fixed pretty quick.
There is only one working laundry room for the entire ship.
I've heard of many flooded areas around this ship and seen sections blocked off with the blowers out.
The plumbing issues seem strange coming out of dry dock but they are widespread and I am sure inconvenient to those impacted. Also not great when your in public and need to use a bathroom only to discover it is out of order. Even worse when the next one is also out of order.
Many areas that were in disrepair are still in disrepair. Things like cracked glass, damage to the fixtures. Mostly minor cosmetic issues, but strange to see fresh out of dry dock.
A lot are complaining to John Heald and there are some merits to some of the issues, especially the plumbing problems, but I do feel like you are taking a risk when booking a cruise right out of dry dock. Hopefully they will get most of the kinks worked out before Port Canaveral but as of right now, yes this ship is having some problems and needs some more repairs done to it to be ready for service again.
Knowing this, I would not hesitate to book another trip like this. I've already been checking out both Valor and Mardi Gras in 2025. The thing I'm most concerned about would be as bad as embarking 3k on here was, how are they going to handle a ship the size or Mardi Gras?