7 Nights of Freedom

My husband and spent our Spring break on the Carnival Freedom and had a great time.  The cruise director Malcom is amazing and so... much fun!!  The ports of call were great, we booked out excursions independent of Carnival with Viator.com for a tour in Roatan for about 1/2 the price, we were met close to the Port and were basically given a tour of the island just the two of us.  It was great we got to stop wherever we wanted, get out and shop and just sight see. Our driver waited patiently for us and told us the day was about us so whatever and wherever we wanted to go was totally up to us.  He took us the West Bay, very cool, where we walked and saw the unique shops and visited with some of the locals, all in all it was a great day.  In Belize we booked with cavetubing.com and again were picked up at the port in an air conditioned bus (very nice) and given a brief city tour before being bused to the caves.  The caves are awesome and the guide was great (you have to have a guide to cave, no one is allowed without a guide) the caving was awesome, they provide the tubes and the helmets with headlamps.  You have to hike about 1/2 hour to get to the caves but they carried your tubes so they were waiting for us when we got there.  It is a slow tubing experience and the water was very comfortable.  The caving tour takes about an hour which can vary with water currents.  After caving we loaded the bus and were taken back to the office area where lunch was served, yummy local food, chicken, rice and beans and coleslaw along with rum punch.  After lunch we were driven back to port with about an hour to spare before the ship left.  In Cozumel since we had been before we decided to just hoof it.  We took a cab to the city area and walked around to do some shopping before heading back to the ship.  This is our 8th cruise being our 5th with Carnival and our first in a balcony cabin.  We usually get an inside just because we aren't in the cabin much, but with 3 days at sea we sprung for the balcony.  We loved it and sat out on the balcony for our early morning coffee which was delivered by room service each morning.  We also would open the door each night to hear the ocean, great sleeping.  The Freedom is a beautiful ship with tons to do, we watched a movie under the stars one night.  The shows were good, singing and dancing with very well done props and digital backgrounds, quite amazing actually.  The final night the Flying Scotsman is a must see.  This man is amazing and quite a talent we totally enjoyed his show.  We also did several comedy shows which were all very different but very entertaining.  As for the food on the ship, as usual it was very good as far as we were concerned, we ate in the buffet for breakfast each day as opposed to going to the dining room, we just like getting food and going on about our day, for lunch we did the buffet as well, also tried the Deli which was great and the pizza which was good.  The dining room meals were great a very good selection each night so trying foods you have never had is always a treat.  The staff in the dining room were fun and entertaining as they dance and sing too.  Our cabin was 6403 and was quite a lot larger than what we have had before being inside.  It had a queen size bed and a couch that would open to sleep 2 additional people. The bathroom was the same as any cabin but adequate for showering and such.  The storage was pretty large, it has 3 closet areas two for hanging clothes and a 3rd with shelves.  A mini-bar and a safe also are in the cabin which are very nice additions.  The balcony has 2 chairs and a table which is very nice for just hanging out.  All in all we would do this cruise again.  The one negative is it was Spring break and to be quite honest the Ship was filled with breakers from Arkansas.  We have done spring break cruises a number of times and didn't experience any sort of problems however this cruise the kids seemed to be out of control, the captain even announced that parents needed to know where their children were due to so many complaints.  We spoke to a couple the last day of the cruise who were attempting to go to their cabin after a show and when the elevator opened it was filled with youngsters sitting on the floor who refused to allow them to enter.  We heard kids running up and down the hallways at 2;30 AM 3 of our 7 nights.  Also talked to some friends who's daughters North Face jackets were stolen.  All in all I think it is safe to say that these kids were disrespectful and their parents did nothing to control them. Maybe children in this day and age believe they are entitled to more than they should be allowed to experience.  Working and earning a fun filled vacation might be a possible solution parents.