Carnival First Timer!

[carnivalnewbie2016]

Hi everyone! I will be cruising for the first time on the Carnival Freedom with my family in December. We have a large group (13 including 2 toddlers ages 3and 4). We reserved the captain's suite, the junior suite, and balcony room next door to be close with one another. Any recommendations or advice for newbies traveling with this many people? Will be able to sit together or close to each other in the main dinning room during dinners?

[dmdiver]

Make sure your reservations are all linked & you have set dining & you should be close to each other, if not all seated together. I don't remember how many the largest table seats. If you do anytime dining, there may be quite a wait for that large a group.

Edited September 29, 2016 by dmdiver

[falkcor]

link your bookings together and request a fixed time / assigned dining time (early or late). 13 is too large for a single standard table, they will *most likely* give you two tables adjacent to each other. also note, i said the fixed time, not your time dining. while you are free to do the your time dining and show up whenever you wish, the system does not work as well for large groups and you may have to wait to be seated near each other.

 

if you mean captain suite (9202), junior suite (9206) and balcony (9210) - or the inverse on the starboard side - one thing i wanted to check for you was whether the balconies for jr suite and balcony would connect, but they don't by standard... still though that's a great group of rooms, especially the captains suite.

 

it looks like the carnival hub app is live on freedom - you might consider getting that for at least a few in your party - it will allow you to communicate with each other via a chat type function on your cell phones - it's $5 per cruise per person, and i think would be very useful for you. here's more info about it:

 

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1152/~/carnivals-wi-fi-service-and-hub-app

Edited September 29, 2016 by falkcor