Fun vacation

Item: Carnival Freedom
Rating: 4.4
Author: oscaranaya19

Carnival Freedom Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

oscaranaya19

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 12

Overall rating:

4.4 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 12, 2017

Ship: Carnival Freedom

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 6335

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Had a lot of fun and great memories for my family but did not expect to he charge too much for gratuity at the end of my trip on my final bill we had a party of four and they charge for my kids the same amount of an adult which i tought was ridicuolus $460 for tipps and i tipp everyday to my servers

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Easy and fast

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Excellent food and the variery was great and our waiters for dinner time were excellent

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Went to the nightly shows and did golf and use the gym

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Excellent shows and musicians and the cruise director was amasing

Children's Programs

4 out of 5

Went to the library and play some games

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Amazing service

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Very well layout

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Allot of space for my family

Ship tip

Find out all the extras the ship charges especially the gratuity that is charge at the end of you trip it was too much per person and i was tipping my service staff everyday so i oaid alllot

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Galveston, Texas

4 out of 5

I had a blast on roatan and cozumel very well designed ports

Thumbs Up 3

Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

4 out of 5

Had a blast on the westbay beach beatiful

Thumbs Up 0

Belize City, Belize

4 out of 5

Nice port

Thumbs Up 0

Cozumel, Mexico

4 out of 5

A lot of shops availabe to go and see local items

Thumbs Up 3

Disembarkation

4 out of 5

Had to wait to disembark but the proccess was fast

10 Comments

zhdunham 7 years ago

I remember being shocked when I first found out I was being charged gratuities for my kids.....then after the cruise and experiencing how they treated ALL of us, especially our children I could not imagine paying a penny less. For the reasons stated approve and so many more the suggested preset gratuity amounts are VERY reasonable.

Thumbs Up 1

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sfcvan 7 years ago

katej513, I agree with far as the work the crew do and the money isn't close to the amount they deserve for putting up with some of the abuse passengers give them. Far as being away from their families, that's the choice they made. Carnival pays for that the passengers should have to, but there is a difference for smaller kids. I went on a cruise and 5 years and under didn't pay what my wife and I paid for 7 day cruise.

Thumbs Up 0

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katiej512 7 years ago

I agree 100% with jbbinder. The 460.00 for the week ends up being 115.00 per person. That is for All the employees that have done their best to take care of you. I don't know how long your cruise was but if it was 6 days that comes out to 19.00 per person per day. I can't think of any vacation that I didn't spend at least that much on tips. So we always pre-pay plus we give many pf them extra. I think they all deserve it. They work their butts off and are gone from their families for about 9 months at a time.

Thumbs Up 6

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GIL155 7 years ago

When you signed up for the cruise, didn't you read about gratuities? I could understand an adult rate and a child rate, but there is not.

Thumbs Up 1

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batch123 7 years ago

Either call the toll free Carnival number or log in online. you'll see where to click to add them and prepay.

Thumbs Up 1

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EC2017 7 years ago

How does the prepay work??

Thumbs Up 0

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batch123 7 years ago

How were you surprised about tips? It's all over the website and paperwork what exactly they are. We always prepay too.

Thumbs Up 3

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jbbinder 7 years ago

Those tips are distributed to people you deal with personally as well as those behind the scenes: the people washing your linens, cooking your good, polishing the rails, cleaning the public restrooms, etc. Also, the info about being charged gratuities at the end if your cruise was all in the info with your booking. You also had the option to have done if those removed by guest services, but unless you just got really terrible good, dirty linens, the ship was filthy, etc, that wound really be in poor taste. When you booked you also had the option to prepay gratuities; if you had looked at that information you would have known exactly how much to expect.

Thumbs Up 6

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lmajel 7 years ago

You could have prepaid your gratuity or If you wanted to tip on your own you could have gone to guest services and had the gratuity removed.

Thumbs Up 2

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Brenni 7 years ago

Why would a gratuity be any less for a smaller version of an adult??? Same sheets/towels used, same amount of room to clean, same food service. Why would you expect to pay less for the same hard work?? SMH

Thumbs Up 2

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