We sailed on the Carnival Freedom on September 18th from Ft. Lauderdale. This was my 6th cruise, and my BF's 1st cruise. This was my 1st cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale (the other 5 were out of Galveston, TX.) This was also the 1st time the alcohol I packed was confiscated.

Cabin - We originally booked a balcony room, but a week prior to the cruise, Carnival called and offered an upgrade to a Grand Suite for an additional $680. There are only 9 of these rooms on the ship, and they usually go for to $2,600, so we jumped on it. The cabin was awesome! Loved the jacuzzi tub, bidet, king size bed, all the extra closet space, the extended balcony, and the VIP access we had when getting on and off the ship. No long lines for us, VIP all the way! We were in the first group to get on. The only complaint we had about the room itself was that the refrigerator was not cold. It was room temperature, and we were told by our room steward, Tracee, that it could not be adjusted. She did a great job keeping ice in our room instead. We had to waiter longer than usual for our bags, and didn't receive the last piece until we inquired about it around 5:30 pm when we were ready for dinner but didn't have our shoes. Tracee escorted my BF down to the bowels of the ship to pick it up. The other problem we had was that the phone was busy every time we tried to call to get a wake up call, so bring your own alarm.

Food - It wasn't that great, and we are really not picky eaters. We had the "Your Choice Dining", and never had to wait longer then 5 minutes for a table. We tried the dining room a few nights. The meat was tough, the food tasteless. I looked forward to the lobster bisque and the creme brulee as I had them on my other cruises and loved them. Turns out they only serve the lobster bisque in the Sun King Steakhouse, where you have to pay. I did have the creme brulee for dessert one night and it was blah, but the melting chocolate cake was good. We ate at the buffet one night and all the food was cold, including the meat they served at the carving station. We went again another night and they had prime rib at the carving station. Although it could have been warmer, it was good. The desserts they had at the buffet were scrumptious. Mongolian Wok was very good but was only open at lunch and there was always a really long line. It took over 40 minutes to get through it. Took us several tries to get the Fish and Chips, its only open from 11:00 am -3:00 pm but the hours were not posted anywhere and we kept going at the wrong times. I enjoyed the omelet station at breakfast. Apparently you can only get coffee and orange juice for free in the buffet line. We had to pay for it when we ordered it at the bar on the lobby level one morning. Read more