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Carnival Freedom


joetrucker
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We leave on the Freedom on Saturday. 1st time sailing on the Freedom. We have sailed all three Dream class ships and almost all of the Conquest class ships and we have enjoyed each one.

 

Any day on a cruise ship is better than a day at work!

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Freedom is a nice ship. The newest of the Conquest class with all the bells and whistles. Those that tell you to only sail on a Dream or Vista class ship miss 4/5ths of the fleet.

 

And while I'm not a cruise director type guy, Malcolm is great if he's aboard.

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We sailed just the two of us, usually go as a family of 5, on the Freedom in November and loved it! I think the food and service was better than our June & Dec family cruises on the Breeze. We did email and ask for a private table for 2 by the window and loved our table, late seating. It is a smaller ship than the Breeze so that means less people and lines which we like. I do like the layout of the lido/pool decks better on the Breeze as we like to sit higher up and be able to watch the action/entertainment/big screen and love the thalassotherapy pool and saunas at the cloud 9 spa on the Breeze so much we pretty much only want to sail on one of the 4 ships that have a thalassotherapy pool. We are sailing on the Breeze again jus the two of us in 2 weeks and can't wait!

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I agree freedom is great and although I don’t cruise for the cruise director, Malcom is awesome and makes the cruise tons of fun. I like the freedom too because they have the nice gym facilities with the ocean view sauna that is free for everyone. Some of the newer ships like the breeze have changed their sauna.

 

 

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We really liked the Freedom when we cruised on her last year. It was $1000 cheaper than the Breeze, so it let us cruise with the family. We are looking for economical family vacations, so we end up on the older ships and still have a great time. I liked the games that they had on the deck. The giant chess board near the kids club and the shuffle board. My one complaint was that they closed the sports cage in the evening as it was right above the steak house.

 

Dining was great and the kids really enjoyed the shows, although they were almost all the same from the ones we saw on the Pride the year before.

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We just returned on Feb 3rd from a one week cruise to Key West, Freeport and Nassau. We've been on over 20 cruises with various lines, and have sailed Carnival about 6 of those. This was, by far, the best Carnival cruise we have taken. We were in an outside cabin, 1379, that we booked at the last minute. The cabin was in great shape, had a large amount of closet, drawers, and storage bins. The cabin had a great mattress, always fresh linens, fluffy towels, and the cabin, overall, it was in excellent shape. The crew was constantly cleaning the public areas, railings, public bathrooms etc. and there was Purex accessible all over the ship. Hot water was an acceptable temp, and we never experienced drain back-up or odors, although I recommend bringing bathroom spray. Suggestions: if you do not have bathrobes in the closets when you arrive, ask your cabin steward. They are free to use, but, unless you are in a suite, they may not already be there. Pick up a few magnetized cups/notepad holders, the kind kids apply to their locker doors, to place your glasses/sunglasses, pens etc on the metal walls, especially by the bed. Magnets, and magnetized clips are also a god-send. Bring a clock to hang off the wall hooks, as there are none in the cabin and you would have to rely on your phone or watch. Our CD said that Carnival has decided to cease printing the daily Fun Times, and passengers would only have their APP to rely on, and was meeting on an implementation date, so I would certainly plan to use my phone, even if you want to only set it operative in the airplane mode...just please, don't use it walking the decks, as we saw people bumping each other and some falling down as their eyes were focused on their phones. Easy enough to fall over the low rails. They sell various options for phone use starting at $5. The food was EXCELLENT in main dining room, Lido buffet, Guys Burgers and the Pizza. We didn't feel we needed to use the $$$ dining experiences. They even prepared tasting steaks/prime rib, to perfection, in the main dining room. We were delightfully surprised. This was some of the best food we have had at sea in years!!! The TV has about six Carnival channels, CNN, cartoons, a few foreign channels, and one with old movies. The newer movies you will only see on the outside deck at night, so, especially if you are bringing kids, you may want to download some movies before you go, or bring along dvds. Drinks are pricey and with a 20% tip, so if you have an addiction to a particular soft drink, bring a few 12 packs (cans only). Best way to get from AFT to Forward is via passenger decks 1 (Riviera) or deck 2 (Main) where you can straight line through, then take the stairs/elevators, otherwise you may find the deck stops half-way because of a restaurant/theater etc, and you will get all messed up.

You will love this ship...enjoy!!!

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Just back from week on Freedom on the Jamaica/Cayman/Cozumel route. It was OK, but having previously been on Magic it seemed like a comedown. The cabin was standard and the attendant was very good, although came only once per day. We had to tell him what time we wanted the service. MDR service was spotty (we had anytime) depending on which table you were put on. Guy's Burgers and Blue Iguana were very good and lines there and at the main Lido buffet were not very long. Pizza was standard, as was BBQ and deli sandwiches. Did not try sushi. Fish & Chips at Seafood Shack was the worst I have ever had in my life. Chips overcooked, fish undercooked and a $6 charge with a 20 minute wait?! Theatre shows were very basic, canned music, no orchestra, consisting of 8 dancer/singers. Some people thought even the singing was recorded and they were lip-synching. The other music shows were OK, consisting of a pop group, a male-female duet and a solo folk/pop guitarist/singer and a Rod Stewart "impersonator" in the piano bar.

The comedy shows were variable, we heard three, one was good, one so-so and one just pathetic. We did not attend the adult-rated late night ones, multiple f-bombs and mouth noises not to our amusement, but if you enjoy them, you could find them fun.

 

Alchemy Bar and Red Frog Pub seemed sparsly used, but Atrium, Casino and deck bars were always busy.

 

 

As on all cruises, there are continual efforts to get you to part with your money, such as bingo, over-priced photos, art sales, various items for sale, spa treatments with mystery liquids for sale and of course the casino.

They allow smoking in there which gets the smokers in to gamble, but the ventilation is not good and the place is full of 2nd hand smoke and associated smells.

Malcolm the C-D was good, being informative without being intrusive, and was very visible at the events. This was an unusual cruise because it had both Mardi Gras and Valentines theme events in the same week and both were great fun. The marriage game was very funny as usual, and Malcolm did a great job on it. Embarkation was very efficient this time, straight on board with no waiting. The new system is much better. Disembarkation was the usual procedure, with waiting around for your number to be called.It was only delayed an hour or so due to some technical issue with the ground personnel. In summary, it was OK, but in future we will stick to the Dream or Vista class ships.

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Forgot to mention one thing in my post yesterday.

The safety briefing was the strangest I have ever experienced. Everyone is lined up outside on the boat deck (4?) in 4 or 5 long rows

for 20-30 minutes to listen to the procedures and watch the demo of the life jackets. Then everyone left at the same time creating huge crowding at the elevators!

On all previous cruises, the muster stations were in lounges or the theatre with seating, and spread out over the entire ship.

Is this the way it is done on all Carnival ships now?

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We just returned on Feb 3rd from a one week cruise to Key West, Freeport and Nassau. We've been on over 20 cruises with various lines, and have sailed Carnival about 6 of those. This was, by far, the best Carnival cruise we have taken. We were in an outside cabin, 1379, that we booked at the last minute. The cabin was in great shape, had a large amount of closet, drawers, and storage bins. The cabin had a great mattress, always fresh linens, fluffy towels, and the cabin, overall, it was in excellent shape. The crew was constantly cleaning the public areas, railings, public bathrooms etc. and there was Purex accessible all over the ship. Hot water was an acceptable temp, and we never experienced drain back-up or odors, although I recommend bringing bathroom spray. Suggestions: if you do not have bathrobes in the closets when you arrive, ask your cabin steward. They are free to use, but, unless you are in a suite, they may not already be there. Pick up a few magnetized cups/notepad holders, the kind kids apply to their locker doors, to place your glasses/sunglasses, pens etc on the metal walls, especially by the bed. Magnets, and magnetized clips are also a god-send. Bring a clock to hang off the wall hooks, as there are none in the cabin and you would have to rely on your phone or watch. Our CD said that Carnival has decided to cease printing the daily Fun Times, and passengers would only have their APP to rely on, and was meeting on an implementation date, so I would certainly plan to use my phone, even if you want to only set it operative in the airplane mode...just please, don't use it walking the decks, as we saw people bumping each other and some falling down as their eyes were focused on their phones. Easy enough to fall over the low rails. They sell various options for phone use starting at $5. The food was EXCELLENT in main dining room, Lido buffet, Guys Burgers and the Pizza. We didn't feel we needed to use the $$$ dining experiences. They even prepared tasting steaks/prime rib, to perfection, in the main dining room. We were delightfully surprised. This was some of the best food we have had at sea in years!!! The TV has about six Carnival channels, CNN, cartoons, a few foreign channels, and one with old movies. The newer movies you will only see on the outside deck at night, so, especially if you are bringing kids, you may want to download some movies before you go, or bring along dvds. Drinks are pricey and with a 20% tip, so if you have an addiction to a particular soft drink, bring a few 12 packs (cans only). Best way to get from AFT to Forward is via passenger decks 1 (Riviera) or deck 2 (Main) where you can straight line through, then take the stairs/elevators, otherwise you may find the deck stops half-way because of a restaurant/theater etc, and you will get all messed up.

You will love this ship...enjoy!!!

 

We are doing this exact cruise on April 21st, thank you for all the info! This will be my first Carnival Cruise....so excited!!!

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I was on the Freedom in june. It an older ship but still nice. The crew was awesome we liked it but would likely stick to the newer ships but only because they are a bit bigger. Dont get me wrong crowds wjere not in issue but the public space size diffence is noticable to me.

 

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I agree freedom is great and although I don’t cruise for the cruise director, Malcom is awesome and makes the cruise tons of fun. I like the freedom too because they have the nice gym facilities with the ocean view sauna that is free for everyone. Some of the newer ships like the breeze have changed their sauna.

 

 

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Untill I cruised on freedom i never really cared about the CD but you are right Malcom is awesome. I was hoping he would be on our next cruise on the Breeze but it doesn't look like thats going to happen.

 

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We booked this cruise less than 30 days from sailing. There was limited cabin selections available, and we ended up with an outside cabin mid-ship on Deck 1. There were a few times that the sea had some sizable swells, but we never felt much of anything on this low deck in the middle of the ship, but we did feel a slight sway a few times while on the public, upper, decks. A few people we talked with in cabins in the FORWARD (front) section of the ship told us the movement was a bit heavier, and they could hear the crashing of the waves. It was nothing serious, though. This is a heavy ship, with stabilizers, so you should not feel much of any sway, unless you are in a storm ,on a transatlantic itinerary. or cruising seas known for their active conditions. If you have had problems in the past you should probably think about a "patch" (get it through your doctor), or bringing along some Dramamine.

BTW, we were on The Liberty of the Seas, as well, last April, and we found the movement on that ship comparable to the Freedom.

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Did this ship before in the cabin most forward on the lido above the bridge and not much movement JS 9203 or something like that, going next month with a Suite midship on her and can’t wait. Loved the Lido deck room though (walk down the hall get your food and bring it back) but now it’s like an Captains suite or something,so way to expensive. Fun ship though and look forward to seeing her again.

Edited by CaFireCaptain
wrong room number
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