Carnival Freedom Review

Carnival 2.0 The Freedom Vs The Conquest

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Freedom
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Boris and Natasha
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jan 2015
Cabin: Interior

The Freedom was the first ship we have been on since Carnival has upgraded to 2.0. Some improvements they are trying are great, others leave me longing for the old days. We cruised back to back, 8 Days on the Freedom followed by 6 days on the Conquest. Although the ships are virtually identical in design, there is a vast difference in features and service.

Let's start with features. Both ships have the 1.2 Million Dollar interactive video screen in the show lounge. These new screens have lead to the development of spectacular new shows. The shows were different on the 2 ships, which was refreshing, having suffered the same shows on different ships in the past. The problem was that the singers on the Conquest were not very good, which took away, for me,from the outstanding choreography and visual effects. On the Freedom the singers were excellent, but the dancers not quite as good. The shows were all excellent, but the quality of the cast gives a clear win to the Freedom.

Both ships have the same Dinning options but the Conquest is experimenting with a Pizza Pirate Plus late night eating, while the Freedom has just 24 hour pizza. Pirate plus means that an extra item (such as a meatball sandwich) is added to the pizza menu between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am. On the Freedom there is a late night snack buffet Aft opposite the pizza restaurant. This buffet has fruit, cookies sandwiches, hot dogs fries and potato chips to snack on. Again for me the Freedom is the clear winner. Not just because of the extra snack but because of the service in the any time dinning room. We never spent 2 to 21/2 hours eating on the Freedom, but service was so slow on the Conquest that that happened twice.Also my food on the Freedom was always hot. Both meals where we had long waits were cold.

Cabin Review

Interior

Cabin 4H

The cabins was fine. Being on deck 10, however, we noticed much more movement and creaking. This did not bother us but should be a consideration to those who suffer motion sickness. On the Conquest we had another inside cabin but on deck 2. The room was a little bigger, even though it was a lower category.(4c)The cabin (2314) was beside a mechanical room where banging occurred an a regular basis (especially early in the morning.) Never choose this cabin if you have the choice. It was not a big concern to us. The location of this cabin was such that we felt little or no motion throughout the cruise.

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