We just returned from an amazing 8 day cruise aboard the Carnival Freedom, sailing to Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize.Embarkation - No problems at all. We live in S. Florida so a 20 minute ride to the port, arrived at 11am, and we are on the Lido at 12 noon.Cabin - We had our second category 9A, and we are now officially a 9A snob. Cabin 8448 is a wrap balcony, and the best one of them all(imo). It has a much larger side balcony than the others. The room was great, and our cabin steward kept up with our many requests.Itinerary- We booked this cruise because of the ports, but also because of the sea days. 8 day cruise and only three ports = lots of R&R. We started out with 2 sea days which was a great time relax. The weather was perfect and seas calm.Panama was our first stop. We booked a private tour with Myfriendmario. They took us to a boat ride to the Indian village, waterfall, and then the Panama canal. It was a long day but worth it. The village was nice and they provided lunch and a show. Costa Rica was next. We used OkeyDokey tours to zip line/canopy tour, the most fun we had all cruise, and river boat tour, and banana plantation. We were unable to visit the banana plantation due to protesters blocking a bridge. The President of Costa Rica was in town the day we were there. Not a big deal the zip line made up for it.After another day at sea, we arrived in Belize. This port substituted for Cozumel. We used MajorTom and went cave tubing. What a great experience. Their guides were awesome, and nobody knows more about the history of Belize than Major Tom.The Ship - Todd Witmer was our Cruise Director. We had sailed with him in the past, and he does a good job. Their were almost 2,500 past guest out of 3,400 total on board, so Carnival must be doing something right. Lots of teenagers since school just let out. Never a problem, just some loitering around the teen disco, and arcade. The food in the main dining room, we were in the Chic(mid) dining room, was good but not great. About what you would expect, and consistent. Our waiter was great, and even the cocktail services seemed to be better this cruise.We ate twice in the Sun King supper club. It was obviously worth the $30.00 per person charge.We didn't make it to the production shows, but heard mixed reviews from fellow cruisers about them.We usually made out to the Lido deck by 10am, and could always find a chair. By 10:30myou were out of luck. It was nice to have live music on the Lido, after sailing the Splendor last December with none. The would alternate between a Latin group, and reggae duet.Donated some money in the casino, Piano bar was good most nights, Nothing beats pizza at 3am, and we can't wait till we sail on the Dream in March of next year.