Carnival Freedom Review
Fun ship, we had a blast and a detailed comparison to Royal.
Rating by category
Additional details
This was my wife and I's 3rd cruise and the first on Carnival. We heard a lot of bad things about Carnival compared to Royal Caribbean and people told us the service, food entertainment etc would be a huge letdown. We wanted to go to the Bahamas and wanted to go out of Galveston since we live in Dallas so Carnival was our only option (Disney was double the price and Royal doesnt go to Bahamas from Galveston). We were real impressed with Carnival. First, we are both in our mid/upper 30's and we traveled with my mother in law, sister in law and 13 year old nephew. With the cruise being in April, kids were almost non existent on the ship so the Circle C had 0 kids in it. Here is my break down of everything and how it compares to my previous cruises with Royal.
Food...A. The Main Dining Room-- food was incredible 5 stars. The menu had 5 or so appetizers ever night changing each night, main courses, grill menu if you dont like the main, and port of call menu (nassau had Conch fritters, Key West had jerk chicken rice and beans etc etc etc) and a Dessert. Formal night had lobster and prime rib. The quality of the food was impressive and a step above Royal. The service was excellent with the same wait staff serving you all week and they gave the type of service I would expect from a Four Seasons. Im very picky about that.
B. Lido Buffett--I would give this 3 stars. The food was ok and not much of a selection. They do have a sandwhich station where they cook hot subs like reubens, ham a cheese that was very good. The Mongolian Wok was a part of this but it was a 30 minute line to get food at all times. The Mongolian was good and worth the wait but there should have been more stations. The rest of the buffet was mostly comfort food. The Windjamer in Royal was much better with much better variety.
Cabin Review
Grand Suite
The cabin was clean and very spacious. My wife loved the double sink and vanity and the balcony was huge. It was a great room and well worth the money.
Port Reviews
Key West
We took the old town hop on hop off tour. It was wll worth the money. Our rate through Carnival was cheaper than if we purchased it off the boat. I went to several ticket counters when we got their just to see. I HIGHLY recommend going to DJ's restaurant on Duval street. It's right in front of one of the trolley stops. Excellent seafood.
Freeport
The house is not connected to the beach. The beach is across the street but it was relaxing. The food was good but VERY small portions and if you go at Noon know that lunch is not served until around 2:30 so eat a late breakfast. The beach across the street has a little beach bar called bernies that serves some of the best fresh lobster we have every eaten. Next time, Ill skip the tours and go to Bernies and eat lobster and hang out on the nice secluded beach.
Nassau
We paid a cab driver $20 per person (negotiated from $35) to give us a tour of the city. They took us around everywhere for 3 hours and then dropped us at the beach on cabbage beach. WE loved this stop.