Carnival Freedom Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The overall experience was a great on indeed, everything about it was well, the food, the drinks, the people, the ship, the entertainment, the crew, the excursions, all... It was so good we are planning to go on a cruise every year from now on!

We had a great experience. We were never hungry and the rooms were comfortable. The staff provided remarkable service. We would definitely go again. The weather and water were beautiful.

Long time cruiser, had to pick this time since there were many other family members going together, all adults.  There were many families with lots of children and during the at sea days & at nights; there were many groups of youth unsupervised.

Crew very focused on knowing us by name and was very friendly.  Noticed many things that Carnival has cut or now you have to pay for it. 

Good for first or second time cruisers!

Carnival is as advertised. It is a  ship designed to have "fun".  Lots of drinking. Malcom, the cruise director, was a lot of fun. Very engaging and seemed like he was having a good time. 

There were lots of activities. Guys Burger Bar was one of the best burgers I have ever had. The buffet was really good. 

Dining room didn't enforce dress code. Elegant night wasn't very elegant. Lots of cutoff sleeves and hats on most nights. 

He dining room had booths. That's the worst thing on a ship. It was hot and no air could circulate. Plus, people watching was out of the question. 

So much to do one the ship! It was an awesome experience as usual with Carnival. The Steak House is a must at least once. The cruise director Malcolm was great as well. The only thing I would change would be making the cabin a little cooler, we brought a fan and that helped a bunch.   

there is a playlist performer named timothy that is on the freedom boat.  he has very very good voice and dance moves.  he is very very personable and loves meeting new people. Alex  the entertainment director fixed a major issue i had with the carnival live performance.  he took time out of his very busy schedule and had a nice conversation with me and took care of issue.  he is an asset to carnival.   ELLEN HARDMAN.  the travel agent who i worked with at took care of every question, comment, concern that i had.  she goes so far out of her way to make her customers happy and satisfied with the cruises that we book me on.  this is my second cruise with carnival and she booked both of them for me and i will not go to another agent to help me with carnival cruises.  

This was our 13th family cruise but our 1st time with Carnival. We had heard so many negative stories about Carnival, most notably the Triumph incidents, and had been told that Carnival was just a party cruise. However we are closest to the Galveston, TX port and the other cruise lines seem to have abandoned using Texas as their port so we booked on Carnival this time. So much for our Gold status on Norwegian :( Anyway my entire family was overall impressed by this trip and will not hesitate to choose Carnival again in the future.

Main positives; 1) Very friendly and caring staff at every position. We have had other cruise line trips were it seemed the staff was not happy and you could tell. So this was a very pleasant surprise and helped make this trip very enjoyable. 2) Food quality was above average and in the top three experiences we have had on a cruise line. Lately on different trips we have had to upgrade to the specialty restaurants in order to get the quality and service you desire while on vacation. On the Carnival Freedom we received excellent service and top quality food in the main dining room using general seating.

So main negatives: 1) Unfortunately for half of my family we were on the floor above the dance club. So from 11 PM until 2 AM sleeping was almost impossible with the steady thump, thump, thump of the deep base from the music. They did a great job of stopping the mid to high frequencies but that deep base just pounded for three to four hours every night. ARRggghhh we would get up more and more tired every morning. 2) The only other complaint I heard from the group was how crowded most events were, meaning either they would not have enough seating for the events and/or the lines and waiting time were long at most events and areas. This being said the crew did a great job with getting everyone on and off the ship at ports in a timely manner. Happy sailing!

Good relaxing cruise. Stops were good, some were better than others but I also find it interesting seeing the different countries and cultures as they are. Some improvements could be made but that is the case with everything.  I would recommend.

Loved the food, Key West, and Nassau. All ship employee were outstanding and so very friendly and helpful. Our servers were the very best: Josito, Dexter, and John Michael. And Komang brought our drinks from the bar every  night. They were excedllent and so friendly.

The Freedom had many issues such as AC not working on several floors and hallways. Several of us had toilet issues. It seemed as if the ship was understaffed. In fact, many veteran cruisers we met told us this was the worst cruise they'd been on. As this was our first cruise, it put a very bad taste in my mouth. I don't believe I will EVER cruise again. 

Great family cruise! Steward service was subpar in our room but everything else was great. Liked the relaxed dining. Big ship with lots of people. If you do not like crowds, this is not the cruise for you.

We booked this cruise for our honeymoon and there wasn't much romantic about it at all. Timing may have been an issue because there were a lot of kids in all of the pools and even in the adult area. We couldn't find a good time of the day to get in at all. My husband asked if there was anything special they had that we could do for our honeymoon, they didnt have a complimentary anything for us. We were over charged on several things that had to be removed from our bill but it was like we didn't have an issue removing them because they were not supposed to be there at all. We did not attend the captains dinner not even once because my husbands pants were considered jeans so we couldn't go. Most of the food on the buffet was cold so you couldn't enjoy that, children were running through the lines and tables where you eat. We couldn't even get flamless candles for our room to make it more romantic. There was a guy urinating on the hammock in the adult area because he was so drunk. There should be staff around to remove the people that drink to much because there were so many that could barley walk and bumped into you as they walked by. There was a group of guys that were on the 2nd floor and they kept up commotion every single night and they were drunk beyond limits most of the time. It just is not a cruise for newly weds, the night time movies were accommodating to some but not most. It was horrible and the only thing I enjoyed was going to the islands because it was a break away from the ship and what was going on on it. 

Seriously, one of the best vacations I have ever taken! It took absolutely no effort on my part - the staff, crew and excursion companies took care of everything. The crew of the Freedom is extremely friendly and excited to be there. They love to stop and chat and will tell you anything you want to know about life on a boat! Special shoutout to Keishia at the Millennium Bar and Kerch at the Redfrog Pub - y'all seriously helped make our trip! I was also extremely impressed with the entertainment staff - Sabrina, Michelle and Malcolm. I have never seen a team that can orchestrate such large groups of people so well, all while keeping the experience fun! Only part we didn't like about the entire experience was the experience at the port. The staff there wasn't very helpful and never gave clear instructions. But once we got on the boat, everything was perfect!

Our stateroom (balcony) on level 7 - the bathroom had a constant pee smell (must be a leak somewhere) - doesn't matter how often they clean it.

The balcony walls cannot be opened when you book 3 rooms together - this would have earned more starts.

The favorite parts are the 3 ports that it stopped at - that's where you want to swim, not on the ship - pools are small and always overcrowded. The serenity area for 21 and over had a handful of POD stations and people just outright take them early morning so everyone else miss out. They *SHOULD* enforce a rule of a max 30 minutes per use to give other people a chance to use. Should enforce with a check-in/check-out pass or similar.

Food is average - filet mignon are not even near comparison with TX Roadhouse; breakfast is all the same for all 7 days. Desserts at the main dining halls are probably the best. The 2 hours per night in the main dining room is a torture when you have young kids traveling, and especially for late dining. They fall asleep sometimes before the main entree comes out - this alone should lose a star.

Shows are okay but since we had to wait so long for our dinner, we usually miss part of the start of the shows, and most of the time we just give up and not go to the shows.

This was our family's first cruise....best vacation ever!! We really loved how the staff always made it a point to make us feel part of the Carnival Family. With fabulous food and entertainment as well!

Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel are all awesome, but when combined together on a cruise it was fantastic. The staff and entertainers were awesome! Our cruise director Malcolm couldn't be any funnier, entertaining, or make us feel like we were part of the carnival family. The only thing I didn't like was the buffet food was tired and repetitive after 7 days. It didn't change hardly between each day and the nicer restaurants were booked. Please change out the dated Motel 6 and 1970s Las Vegas look for something resembling the 21st century.

the housekeeping and cleanliness was unacceptable to me. This was my first cruise and I don't know if I'd do another carnival freedom again or recommend it either.

This cruise exceeded our expectations as well as every employee we encountered. You can be sure that if you need anything any one of the employees will help you out or find someone who will all with a smile on their faces. The amazing thing is that if you encounter these wonderful people more than once not only will they remember you but address you by your name as well. With so many people on the ships this is very impressive. These ships have EVERYTHING! There is always something to do for everyone. Also the food is amazing whether your eating in the main dinning room or the cafeteria style dinning room which is more casual. My son, who is a very picky eater, loved it so much he actually ate 3 meals a day and always cleaned his plate. This was our first cruise and we can't wait to book our next one. Would definitely recommend carnival cruise lines to anyone looking to book a cruise. 

Very disapointed in the entertainment and the director.  I have seen many shows through the years and all of theirs were BAD   Wait staff in Restaurant all GREAT!! 

I'm an Okie I like having my feet on dry land and my one experience with the ocean was while in high school and I spend the whole fishing trip running to and from the bathroom sea sick. With that said I promised my wife at around our 8th anniversary if she put up with me for 20yrs I would consider going on a cruise. So the date came and I planned this trip without her knowing dreading it a bit in the back of my mind. Now for my experience paying for this trip the excursions and the automatic gratuity added up pretty quick but it was worth it in the end. Once we boarded I was still apprehensive and they put you though the worst part of the cruise right off the bat the safety portion where you line up in the head 4 rows deep and go over the life jackets and boats etc. Once that bit of hell was over the vacation started. I don't relax easily so it took me a good 2 days to really get into the groove but once it started it was heaven. I didn't have to worry about anything. I had payed for the excursions and gratuity so we just went through the process we ate when we wanted as much as we wanted, we watched at least 3 comedy shows a night, I learned about a few new artists and purchased a few pieces for the house as memory triggers. I'm not a gambler but I entered every free raffles I came across and won a bottle of win and one piece of art a relaxing scene of a beach chair a glass of wine and the ocean that will remind me of this trip til my dying day. The crew is AMAZING the cleaning staff are some of the hardest workers I've ever seen in action. You finish your "free" meal get up to go do you next "free" event and they're already cleaning up your table for the next couple. I actually find myself grading this crew on extra effort because I cant name a shortcoming. Baby B (Bianca), Samantha (Art Gallery Employees), and Wayan (Steward) new me by name after the first day. If you go to the Chic the waiters call you by name and they make even a blue collar normal joe shmo like myself feel important. I purchased the facebook internet package to keep track with my family at home and I'll note it wasn't to great.  After 2 days I mentioned it to guest services and they reimbursed me the cost and upgraded the package with no argument (not sure the guys name but he was the only guy in guest services on my cruise). The excursions are a blast we did the catamaran/snorkel (Jamaica), Dolphin/Stingray (Cayman), and Mexican Fiesta/Tequila/Shopping (Cozumel). My seasickness snuck up on me with the snorkeling but once I got back onto the boat I was good. After the excursion we diverged from Mararitavile and walked the shops which was a "fun" experience but I would not advise it for those with children. The Stingrays were AWESOME and the water was crystal clear. The dolphin encounter was fun although the water was a bit stinky. The fiesta was a good deal and a nice calm final excursion by then my wife and I were roasted like a couple of lobsters so a day without water wasn't horrible, lol. Looking at it as a whole this trip was expensive it adds up but your treated like a king/queen on the ship and it was one of the most relaxing experiences of my life. I stepped on this cruise apprehensive but by the end of it I was already looking to plan another one.