Carnival Freedom Review
First Carnival Cruise - Pleasantly Surprised
Rating by category
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This was my fourth cruise and my first time on Carnival. I previously have cruised Royal Caribbean and Norwegian but always heard horror stories about Carnival so I avoided it. A friend convinced me to go on one, and it was definitely a good time.
Ship: The ship itself is nice enough. I know it recently underwent a dry dock, but could probably use some renovations. Parts of it just felt old and dirty. You could smell the cigarette smoke from the casino across the entire deck 5. I really liked how they had a pool at the back of the ship that was 18+ that could have a roof or not over it, depending on the weather. I thought that was a super neat idea. I also thought the layout of the ship was very well done. Minimized the wind in many sunbathing areas and lots of pools and whirlpools to enjoy around the entire ship. The gym/spa was kind of weird. To get into the fitness center, you have to go through the locker room. The fitness center reminded me of an 80's night club. Lots of mirrors, pretty low ceilings, giant random whirlpool in the middle. Still was nice to have available though.
Dining: I must say, the food on the Freedom was phenomenal! Once in awhile we'd get a bad dish or something, but man I'd say 80% of what we were eating was delicious! We did the Sun King Steakhouse on the first night, and it was amazing, but I thought the dining room food was just as good if not better at times. We did Your Time Dining and did have a wait a couple of times, but we would hang out at the Atrium Bar and grab a drink, no big deal. The Sea Day tea was a nice little known treat; lots of dessert type foods. My only complaint about the food was the buffet had weird times. We didn't do the buffet much outside of lunch, but they wouldn't open til noon (we'd be starving by 11:30) and then they'd close by ~2. Made super long lines and became kind of a pain. Luckily the pizza place is always open and had really good pizza. Went to Guy's Burgers ~28 times (so delicious), the BBQ place was another amazing go-to for us, was just meh on the Asian food. Didn't try the Mexican but heard it was delicious.
Cabin Review
Balcony
We were in 7337 which is a balcony room. I loved the location - really close to the elevators but still far enough away from the main elevators so it wasn't too loud. It was the first time I've done a balcony, and while it was incredibly nice to just walk outside and have the sea whenever you wanted, it was still just ok. The cabinets are starting to get old and we hit rough seas a couple days which caused everything to squeak and make sounds when we were trying to sleep. That was pretty frustrating. The AC also didn't work properly. We'd have it cranked up as high as it would go and still wake up in the middle of the night sweating. I did not complain about this but feel like I should have. A few nights, we'd prop the balcony door open to get some fresh air. That was nice and helped cool it down a bit. We never met our steward, and he seemed to do the bare minimum in our room. I normally have a ton of respect for my stewards because I know they work long and hard days and try to tip them accordingly, but it was hard to justify a hardy tip for someone we never met, didn't make the bed all that well and only replaced towels in the bathroom (never wiped it down or anything it seemed). As we cruised, we noticed a bad smell develop in the cabin bathroom.
Port Reviews
Falmouth
Nothing to do if you don't do an excursion. Port isn't very fun - lots of shops but very pushy people and tons of Bob Marley and weed paraphernalia. We got back on the ship within an hour.
Galveston
It was just meh.