Carnival Freedom Cruise Reviews - Reviews

so so food. I'd rather butter than spread and a better cooking oil so it enhances the flavor rather than coat the roof of my mouth. Oh and what about some deserts with sugar instead of sweetner. Only two good shows. Who wants to see people on the cruise entertain by doing magic tricks or tell jokes. Selling shows during the day but no entertainment. Poolside games for the very very young crowd. Lots of dirty dishes of uneaten food and drink glasses all over the decks especially near the pool and chaise lounges, if you could find an empty one. I think Carnival has gone downhill and is trying to save money by lower standards and embracing the young who love to get wasted. I believe you get what you pay for so in the future, i'll just have to pay more.............

The destinations were good; however, I would not recommend Carnival to anyone. would pick another cruise line to go to the same destinations but Carnival was so poor. This was probably my 20th cruise and the worst. The food was HORRIBLE. At breakfast, crousants were old and dry for three days. Carnival is so cheap, they are waiting for the bread to dry out completely before they bring fresh ones. Terrible cheap ham and turkey and one one kind of some fatty salami. THAT'S IT!!! The so-called fresh fruit was so sour, they bring same cutted mixed fruit every day until it's completely sour and you can't even touch it. Bananas were old and already black so you can't eat it. My kids love fresh tomatoes. At lunch, they would cut roma (the cheapest) tomatoes but even the tomatoes were sour and terrible. I am telling you people, Carnival is so cheap, they are trying to save money on everything. The buffet was terrible. The first part of the buffet is just a salad bar and then you only have 4 choices of food which nothing taste great. Fish was cheap and dry, chicket was always horrible and I am not even gonna go into describing their meat. It felt that meat was 100 years old. You could not even bite into it. I have never seen a cruise buffet with only 4 choices of main food. They did not even have a pasta station. My kids were not able to get plain pasta with souce at the buffet. Very limited choice of desserts. And that's it. There were a huge line to grill stations for burgers, hot dogs and french fries b/c it was the only thing that tasted OK. But I am sorry, I can eat burgers anywhere and I took a cruise to enjoy good food which was not available. The restaurant was so so. My kids order some pasta and it was cold, no butter, no salt. They could not eat it. Any time we ordered steaks, we could not even swallow one time, it was like a 100 years old. If you go to the restaurant for breakfast and lunch, you need to allow a min. 1 hour b/c service was extremely slow. Kis club have tons of restriction and the worst schedule I have ever seen. They created a family time with kids from 2 to 7, meaning that one of the parents needs to be present. I understand if some parents want to spend time with their kids and play but Carnival needed to give different options: to have one room for kids with parents and one room for kids without the parents. We typically like to spend time with kids in the morning: to have breakfast, then enjoy the pool and water slides, then have lunch and for us, 2pm was perfect time to drop off the kids at kids club so my husband and I can have some time alone. We were just shocked to find out that for 5 hours a day (2 to 7pm) we cannot do that. Then typically people have dinner. We had dinner from 6 to 8:00pm and we had to pick up kids by 9:30 b/c after that we had to pay extra. As such, Carnival knows for good kids entertainment, was able to provide care for our kids only for 1.5 hour. Ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shows were terrible. One of the evenings the shows was to show the talent of crew members. None of them were talented. I don't want to seat and watch someone who can't sing - singing. This is not a cruise quality entertainment. The bottom line, I don't know if all Carvival cruises like that, may be we were "lucky" with the shef, may be some other ships have better shefs and food is better but our experience on Carnival Freedom was simply POOR!!!!!!

All in all, the cruise was great for a New Year's activity. The entertainment was much better than on the Valor last year, and we had plenty to do and very good food. The only problems we had were the dining room service and the mattresses. In the Chic Dining Room (Your time dining) service took forever and we had several meals that lasted more than 2 hours (not by our choice). Our mattresses were one step down from a board, and I couldn't get a decent night's sleep all week. The only other issue we had was that upon arrival, our bathroom smelled like someone urinated on the floor, but I am convinced that one of the floor drains may have dried out, and after we added some water and the room steward "snuggle'd" our bathroom, it was fine the rest of the cruise.

On Sunday, December 9th, 2012 I boarded the Carnival Freedom ship in Fort Lauderdale, FL for a 6 night Western Caribbean cruise. I had been researching cruises and cruise lines for months in preparation because I eventually wanted to take a cruise for my 30th birthday. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that planning your first anything is extremely exciting and the anticipation itself is a lot of the fun. Most of my friends and family told me that I should take Royal Caribbean and that Carnival was the lower end cruise line. When I stumbled upon an amazing deal to take the above mentioned cruise, I just couldn't pass it up and figured it would be a good chance to try out Carnival since I was planning on becoming an avid cruiser now that I lived in Florida. The cruise was going to the Cayman Islands as one of its ports and since my boyfriend and I are scuba certified, that alone was reason enough to jump on this deal and take this cruise. Sadly, what happened once we boarded this cruise ship was something I could never have imagined let alone pondered as an actual possibility. Our room was horrid. The room was located directly above the engines and shook as though an earthquake was constantly occurring throughout the entire day and night. We complained for 3 days before we actually got moved. The funny part is come our second complaint when a crew member actually came to our room and agreed to our legitimate claim to be moved but then handed us earplugs instead of actually moving us. Earplugs. Now this alone could ruin someone's cruise but our debacle is far from over. When I say that I thought I was going to die on this cruise I do not exaggerate. We were on the ship 2 days when I started feeling ill. It was about mid day on Tuesday and the hot flashes and cold sweats started. Then what followed is something I can only explain because I lived through it (thankfully). My entire body started shaking and convulsing as I puked and messed myself over and over. (The embarrassment has come and gone as you will learn further on so I do not mind now admitting that yes I messed myself, several times.) My boyfriend not knowing what to do, called the medical emergency number and they told him to bring me down. He did exactly that and upon arrival the nurse immediately tells him it must be the norovirus. I have since looked this up and as I expected, I did not have what she claimed. I was laid out, given a shot of phenergan and told that I was extremely contagious but at the exact same time, also told that I did not have a fever. My boyfriend kept trying to explain that I had food poisoning and it must have been the honey mustard sauce because it was the only thing he did not eat that I did. She would not listen and kept instructing me to make sure I wash my hands. Two things: I am completely delirious at this point in the night so telling me anything was pointless. She kept my boyfriend out in the waiting area instead of talking to him and continued to talk to me when I couldn't keep down my own saliva. (I know this because I left a lot of it in the medical center). Secondly, I am a germaphobe and wash my hands about fifty times a day as is and was on high alert upon boarding a cruise ship of thousands of people. Nothing I touched came in contact with my face and was quickly killed with soap and antibac. Either way, I was given more phenergan and loperamide to take throughout the next day and was told to report back in 24 hours. Until then, I was placed on quarantine. Here is where my complaint peaks. I was placed on quarantine for a virus I didn't have, in a room that shook like an earthquake, for 24 hours which was through the exact day we were supposed to be scuba diving in the Cayman Islands. Let me also add that when I left the medical center it was by wheelchair because I had no strength to lift my own legs. The wheelchair had a bum wheel which forced us to go so slow that by the time we made it back to my room I puked on the floor at least three times and messed myself in public. This is where I experienced the most mortified moment of my life. Have you ever messed yourself in public? I cannot even begin to explain what that feels like. And the food poisoning didn't give for another 6 hours so that I had been puking with diarrhea for 12 straight hours. Finally my body gave way to sleep and that is all I did for an entire day. I was eventually let off quarantine but at that point it didn't matter because I didn't have any strength to do anything anyway. My entire body is still sore from the quake it went through. It took 4 days before my chest wasn't bruised any longer. It took every bit of nerve I had to trust anything to eat on that ship again and everything I ate I checked thoroughly. I also made sure to only eat room service or at a sit down. If I hadn't been stuck on your ship I wouldn't have eaten anything you had to offer but I knew to get my strength back I had to eat. I am home now and I couldn't be more thankful. I believe that it is extremely sad that my very first cruise turned out to be the absolute worst time in my entire life. The sickness my body was put through would have easily killed any of the older cruisers. When I say I feel lucky I am home, I mean it.

Very Clean and all the workers were nice as can be.

Nothing really stood out. This is my 5th Carnival cruise and pretty much all of the ships I've been on have been the same or similar in one aspect or another. Overall, there wasn't anything about the ship that impressed me the most.

Beautiful clean ship. Pools are too small

Loved the cruise and the poeple who work on the ship. Thanks Cruises Only!

I was not impress with the decor. I took time to rest and have a little fun. But over all I did not like the Carnival Freedom and I am not going to recomend it to my friends.

It was a great size ship. Lots to do.

very good ship

Great ship, friendly staff, great entertainment, good activities, food, hm not so good!

This was out first cruise so we didn't know what to expect. The ship is huge and took us a few days to learn our was around. Overall we had a good time and will probably cruise again in the future.

The ship was great. The staff do such a great job at keeping it clean and looking nice.

The food was not as good as previous cruises. There was not a show every night after dinner, everything else was great especily the staff.

The ship was very easy to get around, and become familiar with. The movies at sea where wonderful; we even got to see the Tigers beat the Yankees on the BIG SCREEN; priceless! The food was MUCH better than we had remembered, very very good, and appropriate portions, not too much, nor too little. The entertainment was good, but now that we've seen the same shows twice, time to change up? The ship decor was quite '70's and that could be redone, but otherwise don't change a thing !!!

nothing special. just like other cruise

beutiful decor clean room and ship

Over the ship was real fun to be on. Food this time was just ok , not bad but not great . The show where great and fun to go to. But most of all the boat was keep very clean at all time's and i thank you for that.

This was my first cruise and I really enjoyed the experience. The staterooms and the rest of the ship were kept clean and tidy. I am glad I spent the extra money to get a suite stateroom with a private balcony. It was nice to sit out on the balcony for sunrise and sunsets.