Freedom Review ~ March 5 - 12

[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.

[turboteacher]

Thank you for your review. We leave in a week, for the Freedom...getting excited!

[ColoCruze]

How crazy! I'm sitting on the Freedom right now on the balcony in room 7356! :)

My husband and I have cruised 12 times, but this is our first time in Carnival, so thank you for the review! We're just about to leave the dock and are excited for the week!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Tokyo Mom]

ColoCruze - that's amazing that you are in the same cabin! Have a wonderful trip.

[Tokyo Mom]

I also forgot to mention two other things. I thought the internet package was very reasonable - $99 for the week. You could also switch it out between different devices - we switched ours from my husband's phone to my phone to my iPad. And the second or third night we came back to our cabin to find a "Happy Birthday" message to my husband (his birthday is this month) written in blue and red marker on the mirror. There was also a $25 gift card towards any bottle of wine and a $50 gift card to the spa. This was completely unexpected and very appreciated.

[IPlayWithString]

We were on this cruise too and weren't too bummed about missing Belize. Not our favorite port.

 

We saw most of the shows also and the only one we felt was overrated was the magician in the comedy lounge on the last Sea Day. It was packed to standing room only but we left within about 10-15 min because he just wasn't that good of a magician. The tricks he were doing might have entertained a 5 year old..but not us. So we hightailed it out of there.

 

And I was so hoping something would happen and Malcolm would be (at least for this cruise) replaced with somebody...ANYBODY..else. I didn't care for Malcolm that much before when we'd cruised with him and this time I found him downright irritating. A CD may not make or break a cruise for us..but it sure helps to have one who doesn't irritate the living daylights outta me! :)

 

Also..we were down the hall from you..7341. :) First time with a balcony and I LOVED it.

Edited March 13, 2016 by IPlayWithString

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed your review.

 

Keith

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[Mytime2014]

Thanks for your review - we sail on April 9th and it's my first Carnival cruise,so I love reading the reviews of Freedom. We have no firm plans but have tentative plans for Little French Key at Roatan.

[VitaminDLover]

Thanks for you review! We board in a few weeks and there don't seem to be many recent Freedom reviews!

[LaCal]

Thanks for your review

[cruise-kat]

Thank-you for your review.

[JaniceB]

Thanks for your review. Our friends cruise on Oceania, too. They have asked us to go the last 2 times but found the price so high we passed. I guess one day we will have to try them.

[Clarea]

Thank-you for posting the review.

[cruzkitty]

Thanks for posting your Review. We will be sailing on her for the first time in October.

[murfturf]

Thanks for this review! We sail on Liberty in a few weeks, and it's our first Carnival cruise - so any reviews out of Galveston with comparable itineraries I love to read to get a better idea of what to expect!