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Carnival’s 50th

Carnival Freedom Cruise Review

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 24
Helpful Votes: 1081

Overall rating:

4.7 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Freedom

6 Night Eastern Caribbean Carnival Sailabration (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 06, 2022

Ship: Carnival Freedom

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 7414

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

It was a wonderful adventure. Not quite what Carnival had originally planned, but still fun. A little too busy for a 6 day cruise. I prefer the last day to be a sea day.

Embarkation

5 out of 5
The mask mandate was lifted which made for a happier crowd. Something happening at all times.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
Diner in the MDR was good. Desserts had cookies with “50th” on them. Guy’s Burgers had “50th” branded on the buns. Birthday cake was available (as were many others delicious offerings). The special “birthday-tini” looked good (I was told it tasted good). Buffet had a good variety of food options.

Deli

5 out of 5

My favorite lunch stop. Frequently had the tuna “sandwich” without the bread. Yes that’s just tuna salad and they will add the lettuce and tomato if you choose. Also ask for half a sandwich (they are large sandwiches). I like the fries here better than Guy’s).

The Chic Restaurant

5 out of 5

Fantastic wait staff and out front hostesses. The pasta dishes are large, so ask for half portion if you want room for dessert. Remember you can have an appetizer for main course (maybe double it for this).

Blue Iguana Cantina

5 out of 5

Taco line separate from burrito line, but equally delicious. The meat, cheese beans, etc. are added by your choices to your choice of “wrap” as you watch. Everything I had was delicious.

Guy's Burger Joint

5 out of 5

As good as usual. Always busy.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5
Mini golf was a disaster. The golf balls are so light the wind will blow them back. This course was unusual because each hole was surrounded by “turf” not self contained. Easy to hit your ball onto different hole. Area closed often during port days for maintenance on the deck. Enjoy trivia! With help from a teammate, I won a ship on a stick.

The Fun Shops

4 out of 5

Didn’t have the 50th souvenir items until Nassau and no 50th t-shirts. Still had reasonable selection of regular items.

Entertainment

4 out of 5
Special for this sailing! The meet up at sea! Enjoyed watching the ships approach the gathering spot. Didn’t form a circle, but 6 ships side by side. We were so close you could watch the movie screen on the ships next to you. The tik-tok dance was not coordinated to happen at the same time on all ships so you could enjoy your neighbors after yours (we started first). My complaint was that the music was too loud (over 90DB measured). All in all a lot of fun.

Victoriana Main Lounge

5 out of 5

Good shows. Singer/dancers gave great performances. Shows we’ve seen before with a different feel because of different entertainers.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
The crew was outstanding. Those cleaning the public areas would say hello and wish you a good day. They were willing to chat if you stopped. Our waitstaff was amazing and recognized us when elsewhere on the ship. The fun squad needs a little seasoning, but was energetic. Can’t say enough about our room steward. He filled the ice bucket twice a day. Left ALL of the towel animals for the whole B2B and asked daily if we needed anything. When we asked it was there promptly.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
This is our favorite class of ship for size and passenger capacity. We only had 2100 on this leg of the cruise (capacity is 3750). Housekeeping was always cleaning but not obtrusive. Some fellow passengers were slobs and left food or drinks in odd places. I wish they were not painting the whale tail while we were in port, limited our time on the sports deck.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Outside of normal wear and tear in good condition. Sadly, the mattresses kept sliding apart (doesn’t always happen). Edi kept in clean and we had fresh towels often.

Ship tip

Explore the ship the first day. It’s easy to navigate. The piano bar and punchliner can be the best places to meet people

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Grand Turk Island

5 out of 5
One of our favorite places. We enjoy the NASA exhibit. It had improved over the years. We like a walk down the beach. It’s nice to sit with friends and have a drink.
Thumbs Up

Nassau, Bahamas

5 out of 5
We enjoyed a walk into town. We didn’t go on a shore tour but highly recommend doing so as this is a fascinating island. The pier is under construction and it’s a long walk into town. They were ready to celebrate!
Thumbs Up

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island

4 out of 5
It has been a long time since we’ve been here. I had forgotten about how industrial this port is. We shopped the local market.
Thumbs Up

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
We were cleared late and a backup of those with early debarkation was inevitable. We were scheduled to meet on deck 3 at 7:45, but by 7:30 there was no room. Everyone was told to wait on deck 5 or 9. Of course some people are “special” and ignored this, causing more problems. We were misdirected to our shuttle bus, again causing back up and frustration. While waiting for our shuttle bus we were notified that our flight was canceled (weather related) almost all flights got canceled.
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13 Comments

MargieRita    2 years ago

Happy to read the 2nd leg went well and you were able to experience the meeting of the ships. That’s one for the memory books. Disappointed to see Carnival hasn’t organized a better disembarkation. We really appreciated how smoothly RC ran theirs. People were respectful of their times and we strolled off the ship so easily.
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BeachDiva    2 years ago

Glad your B2B went well. Thanks for the review!!
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OldGreyWolf    2 years ago

Thanks for the excellent reviews of all aspects of the cruise. Glas you enjoyed it.
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johnny059qn    2 years ago

Sounds like fun. We bring proper golf balls with us every time. The play is much better.
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sycamoregrill    2 years ago

We’re happy you had a great time despite a few wrinkles… can’t account for weather and airplanes :) Nice to hear the ship is in good order as we’ll be there next weekend. As always, thanks for the detailed review and info!
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bienfang10    2 years ago

Thanks for your reviews. Great as always. We love the Freedom. Nice ship....
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Cruisiegal    2 years ago

Welcome back!! It sounds like you had a fabulous time like always!! I loved all your photos!!
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Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Glad you enjoyed yourselves. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. Glad to have you back.
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windy2day    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise experiences. Glad you enjoyed your BTB cruises.
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Islandtime32    2 years ago

Sounds great! That would of been fun to see. 🛳🛳🛳🛳 🛳🛳
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walkingdeadcrz    2 years ago

Great review. So Glas you enjoyed your milestone Anniversary!
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CurlyCruiserYAY    2 years ago

Yay Carnival
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picalo    2 years ago

so glad you got to go on sailabration! ...in December you'll "sailabrate" YOUR 50th cruise!
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