This was our Honeymoon Back to Back cruises on the Carnival Freedom. They were my 7th and 8th cruise all with Carnival and my wife's 11th and 12th (9th and 10th with Carnival - so she is now Platinum). We are avid cruisers and love to spend our time relaxing and enjoying the peace of the ocean. When we cruise we do not bring our laptops nor do we use our cell phones, it is our escape from all the hustle and bustle of the world. The Carnival Freedom is an excellent ship and has a great crew! Our Cruise Director, Wee Jimmy, is hilarious and we feel that his happy go lucky attitude transcends down to his staff as every member of the crew that we encountered during our two weeks aboard was exceedingly pleasant. I would highly recommend taking a cruise on this wonderful ship! The decor has a patriotic feel too it which is consistent with the ship name. We ate in the Chic (pronounced Shick) Dinning room on both cruises one time at a table by ourselves and the other with a fun loving group of 3 other couples. In both cases the service and food was good, but after two weeks some of the meals began to be repetitive, can't get enough of the chocolate melting cake! Once again the photography staff was excellent, we posed for several pictures and purchased our fair share of final product, including several debarkation and dinner pictures which were unusually good on this trip. The Pursers desk was extremely helpful as we primarily used a cash account vs. a credit card account. When we re-boarded for our second cruise, my wife was initially issued the gold sign and sail card that a repeat cruiser receives. We went to the Pursers desk and they quickly changed it out for her new Platinum sign and sail card and received all the benefits of her new status. Lido deck staff was very good the burgers and fries were always fresh and plenty of servers to take our drink orders. One down fall was the pizza, although good service the taste of the pizza was less than desirable which is unusual so not sure what the issue was. The Casino staff was very good with both hosts greeting us by name when they saw us, we actually did reasonably well in the Casino on this trip too. Bar service throughout the ship was excellent, we are not big drinkers, in fact all of our drinks were of the non alcoholic type. The coffee/cake bar was very good, the cookies were always fresh and delicious as was the carrot cake. Josh in the Piano Bar was very good and a pleasure to listen too, unfortunately I believe his contract is up so not sure who the new piano player will be. Overall this was our best cruise ever and best crew, he had a fantastic trip and can not recommend the Freedom and Wee Jimmy highly enough! On this ship we had a unique opportunity to take a behind the scenes look excursion. This excursion is only being offered on the Freedom at this time and will soon be offered I believe on 6 more ships in the near future. The cost is $95 per person and is worth every dime! The group size is limited to 16 people and you literally go all over the ship. We were taken into the engine control room, crew rest areas and lounges, crew galley as well as passenger galley, laundry room, supper club and best of all the bridge. While on the bridge we were greeted by the Captain and everyone had their picture taken with him either as an individual or couple as well as a group shot. At the conclusion of the tour we were all given lanyards, hats, wrist bands, a book about the ship, a carry bag and the recipe for chocolate melting cake (this makes it worth the cost alone). When at dinner that evening we each had 3 8 x 10 pictures delivered to us, one of us with the captain on the bridge, a group photo on the bridge and a group photo on the bow of the ship. Anyone who has ever purchased pictures onboard the ship before knows that these 3 pictures in the photo gallery would cost you $22 a piece or $66 for the set. Additionally later that afternoon we had a plate of yummy desert items delivered to our cabin. We also received numerous snack breaks during the tour consisting of cookies, coffee and juices (including fruit punch). The only downside of this tour was that we wished that we could have also met our cruise director Wee Jimmy along the tour as well, but otherwise this tour is one not to miss if you have the opportunity!