Kind of a let down 😩

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 5

Helpful Votes: 145

Review summary

My wife and I are fairly seasoned cruisers- we’ve been on many carnival cruises and I’ve never given below a score of 10, unfortunately we were expecting more from the newly released from refurb, Freedom. 1st let me start with the smells. Like I mentioned we are seasoned cruisers and we know the smell of sewage exists here and there on every ship once in a while, however on the freedom it was constant. We smelled it in our room, in our friends room, when the doors opened on the Lido to go inside that big waft of wind you usually get came along with the pungent odor and several times in the dining room. 2nd was the 3rd floor Lobby. The smell of smoke was overwhelming, I was confused by how the smell could be so overwhelming for the first 2 days until we were waiting in line for dinner one evening and I noticed people and employees leaving out of the side door which is a smoking area, every time the door opened, the 25 people who were smoking, their smoke blew straight in and literally filled the lobby with every person opening the door over and over to enter and leave. I am by no means hating on smokers seeing how I used to myself for many years, however after open heart surgery last year I am extremely cautious and unfortunately this must not be a big concern for carnival. Also the shows never change - love and marriage show - same show, every ship and the same goes for all the shows, once you’ve seen them, you’ve seen them and we’ve been cruising carnival for years and still the same shows. I hate to say this but we usually plan our next cruise on our trip back home after we get off the ship. We usually take 2-3 cruises per year. After this cruise we literally did something we thought we’d never do. We made the decision to try Royal Caribbean. I hate to say it but carnival needs to change it up. We are avid Disney fans because they are consistently changing things up - I mean ice carving and hairy chest and mixology contest are fun we’ve enjoyed them but we’re on our 10th round of the same tired things. Sail away party... almost identical down to the songs played every single time. You never know we may try royal Caribbean and hate it and be back but unfortunately due to what I would consider “the beards” keeping the ships on cruise control and not changing it up, you may have lost a family. I mean change it up carnival for goodness sake - think of new shows and new games to be played or your younger crowd like us will lose interest! Also do your homework and look at my past reviews- literally every single one are 10’s this is the first time we were smacked in the face with the sheer lack of change.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Galveston, Texas

Key West, Florida

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)

Disembarkation

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