Carnival Freedom 9/1/14 Review

[thetuk]

Would like to start off by saying this is my 11th cruise with Carnival and my first time on the Freedom. Will try to be as detailed as possible as even though I have cruised alot I still get a little of useful advise from reviews and forums.

Flew in from St.Louis to Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise. Stayed at Hyatt Pier 66 on 17th St, luckily I won't have to base the whole trip on this hotel. Started out great as the front desk staff was very friendly and pleasant. They were able to move us to a King room with a "marina view". All I will say is that the parking lot was what seemed to be a mile walk from the room, we walked into the room appeared decent at first until my wife walked in to use the restroom and there was urine on the seat and a dirty towel laying on the sink that had what appeared to be dried up blood on it. The patio table, chairs and patio itself were disgusting and didnt appear to have been cleaned for quite sometime. As we checked out front desk asked how stay was and I mentioned the above concerns and the reply was, "well thank you for staying with us".

Onto the cruise itself. Embarkation, we arrived at the port around 10:45 or so dropped off bags and into the terminal for check in. Wasnt very crowded yet at any of the lines, Platinum check we walked right up and were in the VIP lounge within about 10 minutes. Waited for about an hour and we were proceeding onboard.

Cabin, I surpised the wife with a balcony cabin after booking oceanview there was a price drop that was reasonable enough to do an upgrade. Did a to be assinged balcony GTY and couldnt have been more pleased we were on cabin 1035 on the Panorama deck. Called room service and ordered a bottle of vodka for the room, luggage showed up around 3:00 or so. Cabin is close to the front of the ship but we had no issues with movement at all. I have to say this cabin was perfectly located, down the hall a bit from walking right out to the pool area. Elevators just a short walk from the cabin and just go straight down to pretty much every area that you need to get to. Loved the location and the cabin itself. Had a very friendly and accomodating room steward, only thing was after about a a day he got names mixed up and started calling my wife by Joyce, we just let it slide and had some fun with it.

Next part is going to be a general review of the rest of the week including the ship, ports, food etc.

Overall we loved the ship and the layout of it, never seemed overly crowded in any area despite 3000 + guests. Loved the new choices for dining, Guys Burgers seemed to be the biggest draw of people and well worth the wait. Lido buffett was typical as it has been in the past alot of varities some good some bad, Fish and Chips was the least favortite very greasy and almost soggy fried fish. Dining was average to put it quite frankly we had great service just wasnt really overly impressed with any of the menu items. All seemed to lack flavor and creativity. We did have dinner in the Steakhouse ( another surprise for the wife). Food and service there was outstanding, would forsure suggest trying it out well worth the money.

The casino, we booked based on a casino offer that we had both gotten. Reduced rate with $50.00 cash for me and $25.00 for the wife. We go to the casino to redeem my got hers, they looked up mine and said "We see you are eligible for something but we dont have the amount listed please check back tomorrow". No biggie, well tomorrow came and went back to claim the cash and she says " we dont show that you are eligible for anything". Excuse me, suppose my fault for not bringing what I had gotten the mail. I will be addressing that with Ocean Players Club I suppose.

First port was Nassau, not one of our favorite places so we just walked around a bit then decided to take a water taxi over to Atlantis to walk around check it out and the casino. It was ok at best nothing to exciting to really get into.

Next we were supposed to be at Half Moon Cay, one of our favorite places but mother nature decided to drop some pretty nasty thunderstorms and due to tendering it was deemed unsafe to stay there so we had a bonus day at sea. We were compensated a whopping .13cents for port charges. I felt like a won the lottery *hint sarcasm*. Next day was our second favorite place Grand Turk, had outstanding weather spent the day at Jacks Shack love the atmosphere the beach the water the people all of it.. We are looking into going back and spending a few days there.

Final day at sea we did alot of relaxing, hanging out at the pool etc.

Overall mostly pleased with the trip, like I mentioned before we loved the cabin and the ship itself and at least one of the ports we were able to visit. Crew was accomodating and friendly, the shows we were not overly pleased with seemed to lack excitement.

If I can answer any questions feel free to ask.

[Lovefuninthesun]

Thanks for the review!

 

Questions re: Nassau, water taxis

• Where do you catch the water taxis?
  
• How much?
  
• How often do they run?
  

Thanks -- we have been to Nassau several times but have never checked out Atlantis, so that might be interesting.

[thetuk]

They were $8.00 round trip per person, when you walk through the welcome center there is a booth just to the right I think they were running every 30 minutes to and back.

[Lovefuninthesun]

They were $8.00 round trip per person, when you walk through the welcome center there is a booth just to the right I think they were running every 30 minutes to and back.

 

Thanks! :)

[Ltcsquad]

Thanks for the review, we Cruise in 2 weeks

[winddawn]

I was on this cruise too. My previous stay pre-cruise in Fort Lauderdale was at the Hyatt Place on 17th. That stay was miserable and I swore off Hyatt for good after that trip. I stay at the Hilton on the marina now and love it there. The staff and rooms are much better at Hilton than at Hyatt in Fort Lauderdale.

 

I was surprised at how crowded the VIP lounge was for embarkation. It seemed there were as many people standing as there were seated. Since they separated the FTTF into another area, this was all diamond, platinum, and suite guests in the lounge. I thought embarkation was late, starting after noon. My last few Carnival cruises at other ports, I have been onboard by 11 AM. The staff didn't provide a single update on why we were delayed, and it seemed chaotic out in the main holding area where my friends were waiting. They said none of the staff knew what was going on. I did receive my luggage very quickly once on board.

 

I had a balcony cabin on Lido deck and heard noise from the Lobby deck below in the evenings. I had a great cabin steward and the cabin otherwise was good. The temperature was cool enough to sleep well which is an improvement over my past few cruises.

 

I was disappointed too that Half Moon Cay was cancelled. What a bummer. I think this is the third time in a row for me that this port was cancelled.

 

Service in the dining room (ATD) was pretty slow. The steakhouse was great though. Overall, the food was pretty good. I noticed that the fish at the fish and chips place was too greasy too. The cooking oil must not have been hot enough.

 

Everything else to me was enjoyable although I missed the calypso band on Lido deck. I don't think I will consider Fort Lauderdale again anytime soon though based on the embarkation. Debarkation was pretty smooth though. I was at the airport by 7:30 AM.

[Mrs.C05]

Thanks for the review! Can you tell me anything about the Dr. Suess Land or whatever they call it? We'll be cruising with our 2.5yr old son in about 5 weeks. Can't wait!

[thetuk]

Sorry I really dont have any info on that~

[linanles]

Called room service and ordered a bottle of vodka for the room

 

Can you recall how much they charged for a bottle of vodka and what size it was?

[thetuk]

We ordered Skyy Vodka, 1.4 Litre bottle I am pretty sure.. It was $75.00

[WAHMto5]

Thanks for the review! We sail on the Freedom in a few weeks;)

[beachbratt]

do you know if you could look at the MDR menus on your tv?

[thetuk]

Yes you can see the MDR menu, as well as check account balance, book excursions and order movies

[beachbratt]

Yes you can see the MDR menu, as well as check account balance, book excursions and order movies

 

Thank you :)

[SMSACE6]

Thanks for your review! Im looking forward to revisiting the Freedom in Nov. I appreciate your info on the water taxi in Nassau. Was not sure what to do there, and now I know:)

[Kreader]

Hi, I am going on a back to back Freedom cruise starting Sept. 27th. A couple of questions: Did you have the new American menu and did you have tablecloths every night? Did they have a live band that played rock'n'roll,and if so where did they play at night? If you heard them,were they any good? Did they have a lot of trivia games aboard the ship? Thanks,for any answers! I turn platinum at the end of my 2nd cruise. A Carnival person connected my two cruises and now my 2 boarding passes show I am a platinum! Great news! Bye for now,Kendra P.S. Did you go to any of the shows in the main theater? Which ones were really good?

[soxfanattic]

Hi. Great review. Did they offer the steakhouse steaks in the MDR for an additional fee?

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review.

[momof3cruisers]

Yes you can see the MDR menu, as well as check account balance, book excursions and order movies

 

Oh yay! I had been wondering about this too! Thanks, OP.

[guemmerzeng]

I think they were running every 30 minutes to and back.

[thetuk]

Yes tablecloths and the "American" menu didnt seem to be in play. Still had some new varities from past cruises. Have the "Didja" ever want to try food, comfort food as well as a daily offering chicken, steak fish etc.

You can order steakhouses steaks and other entrees I believe, if memory is correct it was an additional $20.00

 

The best band for Rock music seemed to be the one the played out front of the casino bar. Only show that we went to was the 80s Pop to the Max. It was ok, none of the others really interested us.

[Ontario_Cruiser]

Hi, I am going on a back to back Freedom cruise starting Sept. 27th. A couple of questions: Did you have the new American menu and did you have tablecloths every night? Did they have a live band that played rock'n'roll,and if so where did they play at night? If you heard them,were they any good? Did they have a lot of trivia games aboard the ship? Thanks,for any answers! I turn platinum at the end of my 2nd cruise. A Carnival person connected my two cruises and now my 2 boarding passes show I am a platinum! Great news! Bye for now,Kendra P.S. Did you go to any of the shows in the main theater? Which ones were really good?

 

I was on the Freedom for the 8/16 sailing. No new American Table menu, and yes tablecloths every night.

 

Live musicians played by the pool each afternoon and again in the evenings in the Red Frog Pub - I really enjoyed them. Others played on the promenade by the casino and the atrium buy we did not really stop to listen.

 

There was frequent trivia with various themes. It was easy to find if you enjoy it, and also easy to miss if you don't.

 

The shows in the main theatre were not so good - certainly no where near like what we enjoyed last year on the Liberty. I found them to be boring.

 

I found the CD (Jen) to be energetic and entertaining. However, the scheduling of the shows seemed to be a bit off. Many started at 7:15 which were too early for our early seating. As well, Hasbro was scheduled at the exact same time as sing along Frozen as well as the family friendly comedy. Since all of these would appeal to those with kids, it seemed to be an odd choice. We did the comedy, and were glad we did.

[Kreader]

Thanks for all the replies/info. Kendra