Having previously sailed on the Carnival Triumph out of New Orleans, my expectations of any Carnival cruise were quite low. I did not select the cruise on the Freedom. Rather, I attended a professional conference held onboard that was already planned.

I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the ship. It was new, clean, possessed of lots of open spaces and easily navigable. The food in the dining room and the upcharge steakhouse was uniformly very good. (The melting chocolate cake dessert is simply not to be missed). The service in general was good and pleasant. Our balcony room was sufficient, though the balcony was smaller than any I have ever experienced on any of the 11 other cruise ships I have sailed on.

However, there are areas where Carnival really missed the mark. The embarkation out of Galveston was a complete zoo; totally disorganized and poorly managed, leaving all passengers standing in long lines for hours. Activities aboard ship were often late getting started and poorly organized. (Whoever thought holding the trivia games in the casino bar was a good idea needs to really re-think that! It was a terrible venue). The smoke from areas where smoking was permitted permeated large non-smoking areas of the ship. And charging $20 for a lobster tail with dinner on formal night was nothing short of tacky. Read more