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Itineraries and Ports of Call: Caribbean - Eastern • Caribbean - Western
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Carnival Freedom Review
It may not be the SS Poseidon, but our expectations for the ship were turned completely upside down.
First, there's the matter of decor. Carnival Freedom -- the fifth and final incarnation of Carnival Cruise Lines' highly successful Conquest class -- was built for summering in the Mediterranean, taking over where Carnival Liberty left off. When we sailed sister ship Carnival Valor, which spends its life in the more youthful, higher energy Caribbean, we found it amazingly subdued having been designed by Joe Farcus (known for glitz and kitsch). We expected that Freedom would bear a similar patina of elegance and sophistication befitting its annual six-month sojourn in Europe. What we found instead was a hodgepodge of design choices that had us scratching our heads, wondering how they came up with an ambience that was at the same time dark and gaudy.
Metallic accents are generally in copper rather then the brighter choice of brass. Lighter colors -- beiges, creams and whites -- appear seldom, and then only as accents. Lighting sconces throughout the Freedom Restaurant, the ship's buffet venue, are fashioned from disembodied heads of the Statue of Liberty casting eerie watery light through their translucent blue fiberglass faces. And all over the ship there are banks of pulsating lights that constantly change color.
Patterns from nature are used as major background elements, but as if seen through a distorting filter. For example, in the Millennium Atrium and throughout the public decks, wood paneling with hyper-emphasized grain patterns in bright orange, black and gray proliferates -- looking like the result of a tiger and a zebra falling into a plywood-manufacturing machine. The ceilings and walls in both main restaurants are done in a black and deep red metallic snakeskin pattern.
Secondly, we expected to mainly find typical Carnival loyalists, more into merrymaking than museums and mosques. On this count we were both right and wrong. We found a high percentage of repeaters, but almost entirely at the upper end of the age spectrum. And while we anticipated that they would by and large be Mediterranean newbies -- present only because it was a) Carnival, b) a new ship, and c) a brand-new itinerary -- we were wrong again. On our voyage we found ourselves among a group of savvy, experienced travelers, who either had visited Europe in the past, or were perfectly comfortable exploring on their own.
Freedom's basic architecture is a conventional sandwich with most public rooms on Decks 3 through 5; most fitness, spa and casual dining on Deck 9 and above; and most passenger cabins in between or below the public room decks. This basic design has been a template for Carnival new-build construction since the introduction of Destiny in 1996. There have been some changes and improvements in attributes and amenities since the class was launched in 2002, most notably the addition of the Seaside Theater, a giant outdoor screen poolside on the Lido Deck, but Freedom suffers from the same passenger-flow bugaboos as do the others in the class. For example, it is impossible to get from the Posh Dining Room at the aft end of the ship to the Victoriana Lounge (main showroom) all the way forward without having to climb or descend one or two decks, and even then one has to pass either through the other dining room or the cigar bar.
 Read Complete Carnival Freedom Review
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Carnival Ships: Carnival Conquest • Carnival Destiny • Carnival Dream • Carnival Ecstasy • Carnival Elation • Carnival Fantasy • Carnival Fascination • Carnival Freedom • Carnival Glory • Carnival Imagination • Carnival Inspiration • Carnival Legend • Carnival Liberty • Carnival Magic • Carnival Miracle • Carnival Paradise • Carnival Pride • Carnival Sensation • Carnival Spirit • Carnival Splendor • Carnival Triumph • Carnival Valor • Carnival Victory • Holiday
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