Honest Cruise Line Experience by Cruiser60883415
Sail date: / Traveled as: Large GroupShip: Carnival Freedom
Once we boarded Carnival Cruise Line Freedom there was no direction as far as being expected to go to a "Muster Point" (This was our first cruise with Carnival). When we finally figured out why people were all over the place we attended our muster assuming further instructions. We only found out about rooms being ready a few hours later from random conversations. We followed people to the main deck, some went to have lunch and others went to the bar. We were not advised that we could use our boarding passes for drinks until we got to our rooms. Assuming our boarding passes would work we tried to get a bottle of champagne per our purchased bottle package. None of the barkeep or deck managers knew what we were talking about. It took 4hours to make contact with a gentleman who was willing to assist in finding out what package we were talking about to then getting a bottle as purchased.5 hours later he came back with drink coupons as purchased, and we still spent a good 40minutes trying to prove we purchased it and that it was a packed offered by carnival. Just before dinner we finally were given our purchased "coupons". We took a coupon to the bar to redeem only to be stared at as if we were crazy. Long story short we got a bottle and we just let that be that not to start our cruise off with any more aggravation. We were able to access our room on time, welcomed by the strong scent of cigarettes. The smell came from the dresser, where we found pajamas and underwear from another guest who was a smoker. It took a lot at this point not to completely lose our cool. Thanks to our travel agents and her kind gesture with the in-room dessert, wine, and bubbly. We opened the fridge to cool our wine to find, 3 cartons of expired milk (may/2024) 3 cans of soda, rotten cheese, and a bottle of Sangria. The rest of our trip we spent every single day, multiple times a day, arguing and debating and convincing employees at the bar and restaurants to redeem our purchased bottles of bubbly. Each experience took anywhere from standing in line to get service to service rendered an hour to multiple hours. It was a mess, the staff had no clue about our purchased package and would not serve us. After the second day, the staff would lie and say they didn't have any on hand and direct us to the casino bar. We would lose our seats constantly, people started getting annoyed when we would come to the bar and treat us poorly. We traveled with a large group of people (Over 300) These acquaintances started getting frustrated on our behalf to see the constant struggle. It even became a joke. If it wasn't for the cruise to catch up with members of our club we would have stayed in the Bahamas and flown home. The dining at night was awful, the food would be cold, overcooked, and underwhelming. We would have to educate the staff on the "New Cruise Package" we would have to wait and wait just to have a nice glass of champagne with a "nice" dinner. It was frustrating, exhausting, and infuriating. The entertainment was a nice distraction. The staff that helped us were super apologetic, The breakfast spread with good as far as continental options. We are only cruising with carnival again because of our yearly club cruise, we would not ever recommend carnival freedom to anyone. We truly have low expectations for the Carnival Horizon, We won't be cruising in 2025 with the expectation of anything grand. We look forward to seeing our club members and getting off at the different ports.