Good Cruise, but Cold!

Item: Carnival Freedom
Rating: 4.5
Author: AmandaTudor

Carnival Freedom Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

AmandaTudor

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 38

Overall rating:

4.5 out of 5

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 27, 2018

Ship: Carnival Freedom

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9288

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

This was the third cruise we have been on in January and it was the coldest! I think we will stick with southern Caribbean during winter months from now on!

Embarkation

5 out of 5

The new process for embarkation made everything flow smoother. You don’t get your sail and sign card until you get on the ship and the lines were minimal in the port.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

I like these smaller ships because they have just as much eating venues but less people so you don’t wait in line as long.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

We got a massage, swam in the covered pool (they can pull the roof over or leave it open, both), played in the casino, got in the hot tub, watched the hairy chest contest, went to the comedy club a couple times and built a Build A Bear. It was all great!

Babylon Casino

3 out of 5

The casino needs better ventilation. This was the smokiest casino in all the ships we have been on. It was hard to breathe.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

The punchliner comedians were ok. It seemed like the late night ones just added the f word a bunch to try to make it for the adults.

Children's Programs

We did not bring our little guy with us this time.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Our servers were awesome! Some of our favorites! Our room steward didn’t talk to us much and our room wasn’t definitely not the cleanest room we have ever had. There was dust and sticky spots on surfaces from the last guests and cigarette butts on our balcony.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

The ship design was the same as many of the others. The cleanliness was fine but the entire ship smelled like smoke.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Size was the same as interior rooms but we loved having the balcony!

Ports of call

Galveston, Texas

4 out of 5

Port was rainy and cold and they were celebrating Mardi Gras so the sea wall road was closed and made it hard to get in and out.

Thumbs Up 0

Key West, Florida

5 out of 5

No excursion but the port was clean and nice. Good shopping.

Thumbs Up 3

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island

5 out of 5

This port was so much better than the last time we were here. The added shopping at the port kept us from having to go in to town. We really enjoyed this port even though it was cool outside.

Thumbs Up 1

Nassau, Bahamas

2 out of 5

This was our second time here. We went to paradise island and got haggled the entire time about buying tickets to walk through Atlantis (its $42 per person for the aquarium and $129 per person for all of Atlantis, ridiculous!). Then we went back to straw market. It used to have knock off bags and other stuff but now every booth has the same touristy crap and they are pushy and it isn’t even fun. This port was a huge bust from what it used to be and you can tell that they only care about money and are greedy. They don’t care about the tourists at all. We were trying to get off the beach so we went up a staircase. Even though there was a direct path to the road, they would not let us through because they wanted us to pay for the resort day pass. They made us walk the mile back down to the only street access available just so we could turn around and walk back up to that spot because it was near the water taxi to get back to boat. And they were super rude and got in our faces about it when we didn’t want to pay for the day pass. Super disappointed with this port and don’t want to come here again.

Thumbs Up 5

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

It went very smoothly. We waited for our one to be called and proceeded down. Found our bags easy.

Traveler Photos

4 Comments

IkeDeb 6 years ago

We just got back from the southern Carribeans. The weather was nice and warm there😋

Thumbs Up 0

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funboomer47 6 years ago

It's been a wierd winter. I've been those places in January and it was very warm those years.

Thumbs Up 0

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AmandaTudor 6 years ago

Galveston, Key West, Freeport Grand Bahama, Nassau Bahamas. Galveston was in the 50’s and 60’s while we were there. The destination ports were in the 60’s and low 70’s and windy. All the people that paid for excursions on the beach ended up buying towels and blankets to cover up with and the water was too rough and cold to get in to.

Thumbs Up 0

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PattyinVa 6 years ago

Where were your ports that it was cold?

Thumbs Up 0

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