We embarked on January 10th for our 8 night cruise on the Carnival Freedom. The ship, like most Carnival ships, was nothing different than what we were used to. This was my 13th cruise and 8th with Carnival. If you are familiar with cruising Carnival, I doubt you'd have an issue navigating around this ship. The ship was very clean and I like the 2.0 upgrades. Service at Alchemy Bar and Posh Dining room were stellar. What surprised me most about this trip was the ports. Overall, I found myself disappointed. Our first port was San Juan, where we walked around. Second port, we stopped in Antigua. I was very much looking forward to experiencing the beaches, but the second we walked off of the ship, we got hassled by the locals. Many others we spoke to did not have this same experience, but we found that it annoyed us enough to warrant us getting back on board. St. Thomas was beautiful, as usual, and we went to Magen's Bay. We did not get off of the ship in Nassau, as we have been there before and the ship was docked from 1-7 only. I prefer to have my last day of the cruise remain a sea-day, and docking in Nassau for 6 hours was, to me, a little odd. Not my cup of tea.

We thought the food was okay. I think there needs to be a greater selection. Some food was good, some was fair. I really think this is one area in which Carnival can improve upon. We went to the VIFP party and some bar waiters were very rude to us when we asked for a drink. We have never had this experience before.