This was our 8th cruise and 1st one in Europe. We stayed at the Rome Airport Hilton before and after the cruise for our convenience. A new Airport Hilton Garden Inn has just opened, also has the free downtown Rome shuttle and rooms are less expensive.

Carnival Freedom is new, but the crew seemed to be some of Carnival's best. We pre-booked some private tours as well as some provided by Carnival. In the future we will stick with Carnival's official tours. While our private tours went off perfectly, the money we thought we would save was spent on expensive meals selected by our tour guide and the food was not as nice as dinners we had on Carnival's tours. Carnival was also very accommodating when one of our carnival tours was cancelled. This occurred when the local bus drivers went on strike in France. Carnival bought us train tickets, sent the tour guide with us to Monaco gave us a complete refund for the price of the tour. Of all of the Carnival tours "Traditional Konavle & Wine Tasting" was our favorite as it really gave us a chance to see the countryside, enjoy an excellent meal, sample the wines, and see how the locals lived. We toured all of the Italian ports it seemed plus Croatia, France and Spain. Many cruisers added the extra 12 days before or after our cruise to also enjoy the 2nd destinations this ship makes with ports of calls including Rhodes, Izmir, Istanbul, Athens and Katakolon; one air fair and 24 days of fabulous cruising.

Our stateroom steward came by and introduced herself the first night and remembered our names from then on. She seemed to appear in the hallway just to say hello and the room was always perfectly clean. Read more