Tokyo Mom

Review of Freedom Cruise ~ March 5 - 12 (I had wanted to post this on the Freedom board but couldn't see the "new thread" icon.)

This was our (my husband and myself) second cruise on Carnival (first on Legend). We have also cruised on RCI, HAL, Celebrity and Oceania. We chose this cruise because we wanted something reasonably priced and easy to get to (we live in Dallas, so it's less than a 5 hour drive away to Galveston). As you can see we are not loyal to any one cruise line - we choose a cruise based on where we want to go, when we want to go and how much we want to spend. I'll try to divide my review into sections - hopefully to make it easier to read/make sense.

Cabin - We had a port side balcony cabin, 7356. In Galveston we were on the water side of the ship and in Roatan and Cozumel we were on the dock side of the ship (and could see all the latecomers returning to the ship). The room was your standard balcony room, not huge but big enough with plenty of storage. The bathroom is rather small but with lots of ledges for your toiletries. The shower area is pretty tiny and I'm not a big person. It does have dispensers for shampoo and shower gel (though we brought our own) - so I can't comment as to what it was like. I also couldn't seem to manage to take a shower without getting quite a bit of water over the shower ledge on the floor. I had read that some Carnival ships had switched to once a day housekeeping, but on Freedom it was still twice a day with a cute towel animal on our bed each night.

Ship itself - I'd say the Freedom had a 70's disco look to it. Not bad, not good - just what it looked like to me. It was very clean and the only wear I noticed was on some of the small couches in the Atrium an and along the Promenade on deck 5. The casino seemed really big to me and always appeared to be fairly full ( we never went in). It was also very smoky in there and the areas right around the casino. There are lots of bars and there seemed to be plenty of areas to sit down around the ship. There are two pool areas - the main one where the outdoor movie screen is and the smaller (more calm) one in the back, which I'm pretty sure was just for adults. Going in the pools on ships isn't important to me (we have a pool in our backyard) but they never looked too crowded and although there were a lot of kids (young and college aged) on the ship (since it's Spring break) it never seemed too crazy. I had read many people comment on the poor layout of the ship and I'd have to agree. Even after a week we never seemed to figure out how to get to the Chic Dining room on Deck 3 without backtracking of some sort. You just couldn't get off the elevator on deck 3 (from our room at least) and walk to the entrance. We always seemed to be trapped.

Food - Although I would describe us as "foodies", I also know that food on a cruise ship is on a different level than what I would expect going out to dinner here in Dallas. We ate breakfast in the Posh dining room twice (on sea brunch days). The orange juice is very good! Service was a bit spotty. The second time we went, we were seated with three other couples. I was sitting in the center on one side of the table. The waiter came and gave everyone water but me. Then we asked for orange juice and he again gave everyone orange juice than me. I looked at the people around me and said, "You do see me, right?" It actually broke the ice and we all started chatting after that. Just a tad odd. I had the eggs benedict once (very good) and chocolate chip pancakes the second time. I was disappointed in those because they had no chocolate chips - they were regular pancakes with chocolate syrup poured over them. Oh - and the two other people who ordered them got syrup with theirs - me? Nope, no syrup. Otherwise for breakfast we ate at the Lido deck buffet. The buffet in general, was just okay. I think on other cruise lines the buffets have been better. Part of it was the layout which seemed to create long lines. But, with that said, I certainly did not go hungry. :) I typically had a hard boiled egg, yogurt, some fruit and half a bagel with peanut butter. You could always have a made to order omelet and there were other choices as well.

Guys burgers, as others have said, were very good. We had those twice for lunch. And surprisingly the lines were never that long and moved very quickly - the fries were very good too. Again, lines at the buffet tended to be long at lunch as well, but it's not like we ever had anything pressing to do or somewhere we had to be. I honestly can't say what things were offered because I only ever ate a salad and the pizza (which was at the back of the ship with very long lines). There was also a nice selection of desserts and I liked the fact that they were small sizes. The cake pops were very moist!

For dinner we ate at the buffet the last night, in the main dining room 4 nights and at the Steakhouse twice. We had chosen "your time dining" because we thought 6:00 was too early and 8:00 too late. Silly us - 6:00 would have been just fine. The YTD section was fairly small so it seemed unless you were there between 5:45 - 6:00, you had to wait for a table. The longest we waited was around 40 minutes - but typically it was much shorter. Service seemed to depend on who was serving you. The woman we had twice was so efficient and did a great job, on another night the guy seemed a lot less organized and everything seemed to take longer. And the other night I'm pretty sure we were seated in the timed seating area because the server seemed to "know" the two couples next to us and we were on the opposite side from where we had eaten the other three times. I thought there was always a nice selection of food to chose from and cannot complain in the least about anything I ever had. My husband didn't like the fish he had picked for his main dish on the last night we ate there and the server suggested he try something else and would have been more than happy to bring him something else but he didn't (and then went and had peanuts in the Sports bar afterwards). I really liked the soups - especially because I was always freezing in the dining room (bring a sweater!) We really liked the Steakhouse and felt it was very reasonable for $35 a person. The shrimp cocktail was huge (especially compared to the main dining room) and I had that twice. My husband had the crab cakes and said they were very good too. I had the Caesar salad both nights and loved the croutons (and I typically do not like them). One night I had the surf and turf and the other night the larger lobster tail. And for dessert both nights I had the chocolate sampler - everything was delicious. Dinner in the main dining room tended to take about an hour and at the Steakhouse it was a little more than an hour and a half.

Ports - We had been to all of the ports before so we didn't do anything terribly interesting. In Roatan we decided to just go to Carnival's man made beach - Mahagony Bay. Because my husband had gotten a tad sunburned during the two sea days prior to going there we had decided to purchase the Carnival's "excursion" which for $45.99 (for two people) included the use of a clam shell (over the lounge chairs), two lounge floaties and the chair lift getting there (you could ride it all you wanted). Well, I typically do quite a bit of research and am more well informed. Please know that there is no need to purchase this at all. It is a fairly short walk there - no need to ride the chair lift (though we did going) and we ditched the clam shell after about an hour because it was so hot - no air got in there. And there are tons of lounge chairs in the shade. The only thing we did use was the floaties. Live and learn. I thought the beach was very nice. It was crowded but not overly so. The water was a little chilly but not too bad - lots of people were in the water - though I stayed on the floatie. We ordered food from one of the guys coming around with a menu. My husband had a BLT wrap and I had some sort of chicken wrap - both pretty good. There is a shopping area at the port but nothing out of the ordinary.

Belize is a tender port and we had just planned on staying on the ship. The last time we were there we did the Carnival excursion to the Mayan Ruins (Altun Ha - or something like that). I typically do not choose ships excursions but because nearly everything is so far in Belize I did. But, like I said we just planned on staying on the ship. Unfortunately, the water was too rough and after many attempts (as we were told), the captain decided it was not safe to get people on and off the ship. I felt bad for all of the people who were looking forward to a day in Belize. What was odd was that the Norwegian ship near us was getting people off their ship. But, better safe than sorry I suppose.

Our final port was Cozumel. We arrived at 7:00 am (an hour earlier because we left Belize in the morning instead of early evening). We went back to Nachi Cocum. I had reserved our spots in advance - you pay a $12 deposit and then pay the remaining $44 when you arrive. It's about a 15 minute drive from the airport and was an $18 taxi ride. We got there at 9:06 (it opens at 9:00) and it was already quite full. What I realized is that Cozumel is an hour ahead but the ships time never changes so they had been open for an hour when we arrived. I realized that when the time on my phone changed but the ships time did not. Even so, we still got two lounge chairs under a palapa. The skies were a mix of clouds and sun and turned out to be a perfect day. Your fee includes all you can drink and eat. They gave us a glass of champagne when we arrived and during the course of our stay I had a pina colada, a coke and a bottle of water. My husband had a beer and a bottle of water. We shared an order of nachos and some chicken tacos (more like taquitos) - both very good. I think they made money on us because we aren't big eaters or drinkers. :) We stayed until about 2:00 and they (actually our waiter) called us a taxi, which arrived in less than 5 minutes. Back at the port we wandered in a few shops and I bought 15 maracas for $1.00 a piece. I teach preschool and was thrilled to get them for our kids to use for instruments. That was all we bought. There seemed to be good deals on liquor and maybe even perfume in the long store that you walk through to get back to the ship but the salespeople were so aggressive, there was no way to just look at something without multiple people pouncing on you.

Entertainment - I typically pay little attention to the cruise director but I have to say that we both found Malcolm to be extremely entertaining and very funny. We went to most of the nightly shows (8:00/8:15). The first all aboard show, the 80's show, the beach show and only part of the heart and soul show. We both felt that the singers voices were best suited to the 80's songs. Oh, we also went to the Hasbro family game show - truly only entertaining (for us) because of Malcolm. The boat was rocking so much during the Heart and Soul production that they had to sit down and only stood up when they were singing. We went to see the comedian on Thursday night. We caught the end of the show where the guy talks to the little kids and makes jokes about their answers. It was pretty funny except that the kids towards the end kept saying, "I don't know." On Friday night we saw him again and I didn't find it as funny. The first little boy who was 6 said his name was "Connel", the comedian make some jokes about odd names - even after asking him to spell his name. When he spelled it, it was obvious (to me standing at the very back of the theater) that his name was "Connor" but he had trouble pronouncing his "r's". It just made me feel bad that he was being fun of. Anyway, the other guy we saw was pretty funny - of course I can't remember his name either. He's worked for Carnival for a long time and at some point in his career opened for Cher. We saw his "R" rated show and thought it was very funny. The venue for all shows was packed. I really liked that they showed (good) movies on the big screen outside each night. Unfortunately, it was a tad chilly out there - but still very nice. Because Friday (our last sea) day was a rather miserable day - lots and lots of rain, Malcolm showed "Jurassic World" in the venue where the comedians preformed at 2:30 - so we watched that. We also really enjoyed the country singer who sang in the Atrium one night.

Embarkation/Disembarkation - We arrived in Galveston at 10:45 and our time to embark was between 11:30 - 12:00. My husband went to park the car (EZ Parking - less than two blocks away for only $48). At 11:20, those with a 11:30 time were able to get in line. The lines were pretty long but we were on the ship in less than an hour. This morning, we went up to get breakfast at 7:30 then came back to get our luggage (we did self assist) and proceeded to deck 5 and sat in the Red Frog bar to wait. Just before 8:30, deck 7 (with self assist) was called to leave the ship. It seemed kind of slow but really wasn't because we were in our car and on our way just after 9:00.

Overall - We enjoyed our week, it was very relaxing, which is what we were looking for - so much so that I read 4 books during the week. But, Carnival just wouldn't be my first choice for a cruise in the future. We preferred the Celebrity ship for the two of us - especially having more choices for speciality restaurants and more of an adult crowd. Of all cruise lines, Oceania is by far our favorite - but I also realize that you can't compare Carnival to Oceania. I like the more understated ships and my husband enjoy when the ships have guest lecturers - that sort of thing.

We love Oceania. We sailed with them for our 25th anniversary 3 summers ago. It was a 10 day Mediterranean cruise that started in Istanbul and ended in Rome. They are all smaller ships (ours, the Regatta, had 600 passengers). There are no formal nights, which we like and the atmosphere is very low key - no pool games, for instance. But, they are priced quite a bit higher, as you might expect. The year following this cruise we took our four kids (well not really kids - they are now 19, 21, 23 and 25) on basically the same route though with RCI and paid almost the same for 6 people on RCI that we did for 2 on Oceania.

I do have pictures but always seem to have trouble posting them on here. Any easy advice on how to do so? If so, I'd be happy to try.

Thanks! Michelle

My husband and I (both 49) just returned from our first cruise on Celebrity. We have previously cruised on Carnival, RCI, HAL and Oceania. Overall, we had a really nice time but as a personal preference we just really like the smaller ships more.

Ship itself: The Reflection is a beautiful ship. It is tastefully decorated and extremely clean and well maintained. There are so many areas to sit and relax (though most attached to a bar). We were in cabin 8240 - it is located midship in the sort of bump out area - just on the other side of the elevators - all in all a great location. I thought the bathroom was a nice size and there were plenty of hangers in the closet. Large suitcases also fit under the bed, which was nice. There are tons of pool side lounge chairs though getting two together at 10:00 is hard to do. We were always in our chairs by 9:30 so we never had a problem. There are shaded areas on deck 15 (just above the pools), which I thought was really nice - especially for a husband that likes the shade. There is also an adult only pool area that's very nice with well cushioned teak lounge chairs. The only problem was that it seemed to get stuffy in there after lunch.

Dining: I had pre-purchased the speciality dining package for $125 a person. This got us reservations for 4 different restaurants. The first night we ate at QSine and thought it was good. You order off an iPad and can choose as many different items as you'd like (tapas size). We chose 5 different things (all from different areas of the world). Our favorites were the Mediterranean selection and the fish and chips. Murano was by far our favorite. It's a beautiful restaurant and the food was delicious. We go out to eat a lot and this was a meal that I would expect to pay upwards of $100 a person. My main dish was lobster cooked table side with a wonderful sauce. Next was The Lawn Club Grille. This restaurant is more casual and was pretty good. They start with flatbread - though it's really a thin crust pizza. There's a salad bar that's okay and my main dish was filet that was very good (along with grilled veggies and a baked potato). Our final restaurant was The Tuscan Grille and this too was very good. The service was probably the best here - a very slow pace that was nice - no rush at all. I loved the chocolate fondue for dessert. We actually never ate in the main dining room for dinner. We ate there once for breakfast and I thought the tables were extremely close together and it was very loud. When I was seated I was pushed very close - too close - into the table to make room behind my chair (and I'm not a big person). We had eggs benedict that were good but I didn't like the atmosphere of the room itself - though it was very pretty. We also ate at the buffet twice for dinner. We always love the Indian food on a ship and this was no exception. The salad bars were very good and always the most crowded areas. For lunch we had burgers from the grille by the pool that were pretty good - with very good fries. We also ate at the buffet for lunch and there were always good choices - and we both loved the pizza - cooked just right. I also enjoyed the soft serve ice cream - though only had it twice.

Entertainment: We went to see the Comedian on the first night and he was very funny! Another night there was some singer called "The Entertainer." He had won some TV show and had been booked at the Hilton in Las Vegas for a year. He had a very good voice but neither of us liked him. He seemed to always be looking for the audience to tell him how great he was. We left after 30 minutes. The only other show we saw was a Cirque du Soleil type show along with rock music. The performers were very talented and it was pretty good. There were also performers all over the ship in all different areas, especially in the evening. Everyone did a good job. Overall we are not much into nightlife and were asleep every night by 11:00 or earlier so I might not be the best person to comment on entertainment. :) We don't go on a ship looking to be entertained.

Ports of call: Our first port of call was Puerto Rico. We ended up getting there two hours later than expected. As a result all excursions were cancelled. We arrived at 5:30 and within an hour it was dark. So, there was not much to see or do. Thankfully, I had a list of recommended restaurants from these boards and we found we were very close to one so we went there for dinner. It was called Marmalade and was outstanding. We got there at 6:00 and nearly everyone who walked in after us were turned away without a reservation. I would highly recommend it if going to San Juan.

Our next stop was St. Thomas and third was St. Maarten. I had reserved a ship's excursion for both stops - something I typically never do. I usually book all independent tours but figured I'd just be lazy and do the ship's tours for this cruise. We took the 5 Star Island tour on St. Thomas. We were put on these open air taxis that had about 5 or 6 benches where they squeezed 5 adults on each bench. Four adults would have been much more comfortable. Our first stop was very brief - just a picture spot to get a photo of our ship as we headed up the mountain. Then we went to the top of the mountain for a good view looking down on Magen's Bay. It was a nice view - attached to an enormous gift shop. Then it was down to Magen's Bay for a two hour stop. We rented lounge chairs and pulled them under the shade of a tree to sit and relax and read. The water was beautiful and crystal clear but the beach was very crowded. There were a lot of kids (with a Disney ship in port) - not that this was a bad thing - just an observation. The lady in the gift shop where we rented the chairs was one of the most unpleasant people I've ever encountered. I don't think she knew how to smile. After that we were brought into town for two hours of shopping. There were more watch and jewelry stores than I would ever want to go in. My husband had been doing research (also on these boards) because he loves and collects watches. He did end up buying a Breitling watch for his 50th birthday so he was thrilled with that. If you aren't looking for a watch or jewelry than there's not much to shop for here or on St. Maarten.

We had some odd weather while on St. Maarten. It was cloudy when we arrived but the sun did come out after a couple hours. Unfortunately it would rain for about 10 minutes about once an hour or two. It would be sunny then all of a sudden the clouds would roll in and it would pour for a short amount of time then the sun would come out again. We asked someone on the island if this was normal and she said no, that it almost never rained on the island. As a result of the bad weather our excursion was cancelled - though we didn't know this until we met off the ship at 11:00. Apparently the earlier tour that was at the beach that we would be spending some time at were complaining about the bad weather and eroded beach so they ended up canceling. I had been hoping to see the French side but at this time, we decided not to try to get ourself to the French side and just took the water taxi ($7 for all day travel) to where the beach and shops were. There is a very long beach with beautiful water and you could rent two chairs and an umbrella for $15. But, because we had gotten off the ship assuming we were going on the excursion and planned on reading in the shade at the beach again, we did not come in bathing suits. When it wasn't raining, it was very hot with hardly any breeze and we both thought we would be too hot sitting on the beach in our shorts. So, we just walked around - with nothing but watch and jewelry stores and ended up having lunch at a restaurant that looked onto the beach. It was just okay.

Sea Days: We had three and a half sea days, which was really nice. We booked this vacation to just relax, read and not do much of anything so the sea days were perfect for that - and napping. We weren't looking to be entertained so I can't really say what was going on during the day in different areas of the ship. I'm guessing if you wanted to do something, there was something to do.

Overall: Getting on and off the ship was very easy and efficient, especially for a larger ship. We were able to get into our rooms right at 1:30 and our luggage was waiting for us when we got to our room. We stayed at the Hilton the night before and it's located very close to the pier. We could see our ship when we woke up on Saturday morning. There is also a Mariott next to the Hilton. I thought the beverage package was really pushed the first few days on the ship. Everyone asked if wanted to buy the package. Finally after a day we asked how much it was and what it included. It was $50 (well - $49.99 or $49.95) a person a day. It included soft drinks (maybe water - can't remember) and most drinks. For us this was in no way a savings. When on the ship for lunch I would have a coke at lunch and at most 1 some days maybe 2 drinks a day - so that would not amount to more than $25 - $30 a day at the very most. If you drink 5 drinks a day, then it's worth it. For us, it didn't make sense. We met quite a few very nice people - usually siting next to us while we ate and had many good conversations. I'm guessing the average age to be around 60 - obviously people younger than that (and us) and many older than that. There were very few kids on the ship - despite it being spring break. Also, I almost always get a facial while on a cruise but this ship didn't really seem to promote their spa. I actually never even knew where it was. But, we did meet two sisters (59 and 61) who loved their spa treatments. Also, for some reason I was always a little lost on this ship. I don't really think this has anything to do with the ship - and more to do with me. :) As I said we had a very relaxing week but I think our next cruise will be on Oceania once again.

Happy sailing! Michelle

Thank you so much for all of your extremely helpful information. We really don't like formal nights (one reason I love Oceania), so I think the speciality dining package is the way to go. I'm really looking forward to our upcoming cruise. Michelle

Hello - this will be our first cruise on Celebrity. We've cruised Carnival, RCI, Holland America and Oceania in the past. I was wondering what people thought of purchasing the Speciality Dining Packages. It will be my husband and I (both 49) and we love good food. Would you recommend purchasing this? We will be on Reflections in early March to the Caribbean. Thanks so much for any suggestions. Michelle

Love the views from the apartment. We, too, stayed in an apartment in Rome - a much better value than hotel with a family of 6. Looking forward to hearing about your final 3 days.

:) Michelle

Looks like lunch was at La Tagliata. We ate there last summer for our 25th anniversary cruise on Oceania. Positano is my husbands favorite place in the whole world. We loved the food and being back in Positano again. Still loving your review and pictures.

Michelle

Still faithfully reading and enjoying every entry. Thank you for sharing. Our family of 6 (myself, husband and four kids 17, 19, 21, 23) were on the Navigator - I believe the week before you boarded. After the cruise we spent 3 nights in Rome and we made it until the final night without a meltdown - so I understand completely. :) Michelle

Love all the pictures from Venice.

Still reading and enjoying your review! My family (myself, husband and four kids - 17, 19, 21 and 23) were on the Navigator June 2 - 9. It's so fun to see your pictures and relive our trip as well. We did many of the same things - though only took the bus into Chania to do a little shopping. I agree that a longer port time would have been nice - then we would have done a boat tour too.

And to answer the previous poster - it is a city bus but that runs about every 20 minutes (more often when people are leaving the ship and wanting to return) and leaves right from the terminal (where the ship docks.) It takes you right downtown - though to get to the shopping area you have to walk through a covered market area and then turn left. You can buy your return ticket when you purchase them as you leave the terminal. I believe they were 1.5 euro each way and it takes about 20 minutes each way.

:) Michelle

We were supposed to have Ali last Thursday but were told he was in the hospital - no other details. Hope he's up and about soon.

Michelle

Enjoying your review - can't wait for the rest. Love the pictures!! We are on the Legend in July and are also booked on the Rays, Reef and Rum Point tour with Nativeways.

Michelle