On May 10th, my wife and I sailed on the BREEZE for eight nights out of Miami, and then went to the Lauderdale airport to pick up our 19 year old son and his friend, and then sailed on the FREEDOM for six nights. The following is the review for the trip on the FREEDOM.

Embarkation – Well, I’d like to say that checking in and boarding was as seamless as the BREEZE, but, no go. When we went up to the guy checking passports and birth certificates, he told me that, because of the deck our cabin was on, Deck 2, we needed to get into line number 1. He wrote a 2 on our Funpass – I assumed for Deck 2 – and we went upstairs to check in. We were thrilled that there were only about five people in line 1 and we started to get in line. Just then a lady from Carnival walked up and asked to see our Funpass. She saw the number 2 that the guy had written on it and then told us we were in the wrong line, and that we should be in line 2 – which had about 300 people in it. So, we moved to line 2. Just then I noticed a sign on a post that listed what line to get into based on your deck….and it said that people on Deck 2 should get into line 1. So, I went back to the lady and, very politely, said that I think there was a mistake. She cut me off, point-blank, yelling, “Sir, you are supposed to be in line 2, your Funpass has a 2 on it, THAT’s your line!” So, we went back to line 2 and waited….for over an hour. After the lady at the counter checked all our paperwork, etc., she said, “OK, now you’ll have to follow me to the other side of the room because your boarding cards are over in line 1…you got in the wrong line.” I was livid. I told her what went down with the other lady and she apologized profusely. I explained that it wasn’t her fault, but that someone should talk to the other lady about procedures and customer service. She agreed.

When we went to board the ship, there was a problem with my boarding card – the machine wouldn’t take it. The guy did something on the screen that allowed me to board, but he said that I would need to go to the Guest Service desk before we stop at Key West the following day and they would issue me a new card. Read more