This was our third and final Carnival Cruise. The first two cruises were on Carnival Paradise and we had a decent time. Not so on Carnival Freedom. Some of the problems seemed to be specific to this ship, soe were just that the line feels like it is in a service standard tailspin. Let me try to paint the picture.

1) The Lido deck layout – Not sure who decided to put a jumbotron on the lido deck and compromise traffic flow and deck space just to support the concept. The idea feels ridiculous when 90% of the time nothing was playing on the dreadful thing and when it was, the quality was so bad it was hard to enjoy. Believe all the other reviews that complain about deck space. There is a huge shortage of space for deck chairs if you want to be close to the pool or the bars. There is also a very limited area where kids are allowed, basically they have to be in and around the most crowded traffic choked part of the boat. The music was constantly blairing so loud you could not have a conversation. There is a quieter area behind the buffet restaurant with a pool and a sliding roof, but the genius that set up the deck plan, decided to exclude kids from the pool and hot tub in that area. Please not that this exclusion is in addition to the Serenity decks which I will get to in a minute. The upshot is that if you have kids, you have to fight for limited deck space while they play in one of only two small pools they are allowed in while acquire permanent hearing loss from the ridiculously loud music. There are some quieter areas aft and above the jumbotron, but there are no pools in those areas.

2) The food in the sit down restaurants. Each year we felt the food and service was getting a bit worse, This trio did nothing to reverse that trend. All three hostesses that greeted us were surly, borderline rude and looked and acted absolutely miserable. Most of the restaurant wait staff had the same dour look on their faces. As a rule the food arrived cold. Quality is way down, most of it tasted bland or stale and was not appealing. They are obviously cutting back on quality or ingredients and preparation. Even the omnipresent upsell was ratcheted up this year. It was hard to go more than 10 minutes in the dining area without being hit up to have your picture taken with some poor carnival slave dresses up as a pirate, or be hit up to buy a shot or bottled water. Honestly I would rather pay more for my cruise and be left in peace a quiet to enjoy my family and my time away from work. Now if you are the kind of passenger that doesn’t mind spending your next three paychecks on you alcohol tab, you are going to have a different perspective. Read more