Ship: Carnival Freedom
Trip Name & Dates: The Bahamas June 30 – July 4, 2022
Ports: Port Canaveral, Nassau, Princess Cays, Port Canaveral
This was our fourth cruise since the restart and by far the fullest. In fact, it was very close to sailing at capacity or it was at capacity. We kind of forgot what it was like sailing full, since our previous three cruises were only 25-30% full. As sad as I am to see those days gone, I know it is good for the cruise lines to sail full.
We have only been on one other 4-day sailing and it was part of a back-to-back sailing, so it didn’t feel like a 4-day cruise. This went by very quickly and if we didn’t mentally treat it like a weekend getaway before we set sail, it might have felt even shorter. It helped that we had been on this ship before so we didn’t waste time finding our way around.
In terms of navigating the ship, this one is pretty easy. We were forward, on Deck 10. We had the Spa above us and other cabins below us. This cruise we did an interior room because we both wanted to be able to catch up on some sleep and interior rooms stay nice and dark all day long. On the Freedom, Deck 10 is split, so you can’t walk the length of the ship. As a result, we didn’t have a lot of traffic from people not staying on our floor.
We could easily access all the events and eateries and bars on Lido by walking down a flight of stairs. While at sea, the chairs by the pools were a little bit of a challenge to come by and the pools were pretty full. While in port it wasn’t nearly as bad. Deck 5 is where we spent most of our time on the ship. Like Deck 9 it runs the full length of the ship. We never made it to the Serenity area (the adults only section of the ship), but the one on this ship is rather spacious. We were lucky that there didn’t seem to be many kids around our room, or the ones that were, were well behaved. Adults having full on conversations in the hall and banging on their friend’s doors, was a more frequent issue.
We were a little concerned with our last cruise being on Virgin Voyages, an adult only cruise line, and it being summer time, that the number of kids running around could create a negative impression on the cruise. Luckily it didn’t. The kids we did see were pretty well behaved. The lone exception was a kid (guessing 3 to 5 years old) in a cabin close by on the other side of our wall, who was having a bit of a meltdown one night. In a nice change of pace to some recent news stories happening on various ships, the adults on this cruise were well behaved too. At least we never saw any news worthy bad behavior.
Even though the ships are sailing nearly full, they are not yet fully staffed. This is noticeable in some places. There were some services and options missing compared to past Carnival cruises we have been on. Sit down meals took a bit longer, meal lines seemed to be a lot longer and slower moving. However, the staff we encountered always put on a happy face and delivered great service to us.
We had breakfast and dinner every day in the main dining room. We chose anytime dining for dinner, because we love the flexibility of going when we want. We had a different wait staff for every meal, except for two dinners, we had Danny. Danny, in the Chic dining room, was the team lead and his 17 years of experience with Carnival really made him and his team stand out. Both of our meals with Danny were the quickest and we were in and out in about an hour. Our other two dinners were more like 1.5 hours each. Each night it was just us at a table. There is an option to be seated with others, but we never selected that option. You also have that same option at breakfast. For both breakfast and Anytime Dining dinner, you need to check-in on the app. No matter when we checked in, the app said the wait would be under 10 minutes. It was never under 10 minutes. In truth, it was closer to 20-30 minutes to wait for a table after checking in. This was true for breakfast and dinner. This worked out well other than the estimated time being off and we did hit a small snag one night but it was easily remedied by speaking to a hostess.
Overall, eating dinner in the main dining room was an 8 out of 10. The only complaints were the slowness on some nights, most of the salt shakers were clogged so adding salt took some effort, and the signature chocolate melting cake was just chocolate cake on the last night. This cruise was however the first time we asked for a cup of peanut butter along with the cake. If you have never done this, please give it a try on your next cruise.
We ate breakfast in the main dining room three times and would give it a 6.5 out of 10. In the past our sit-down breakfast has always been on par with our dinner experience. This is one of the areas I believe has been greatly impacted by staffing. The first day, our meals were warm, not hot. Service was much slower than normal for breakfast. During the Sea Day Brunch. My main dish was brought out before anyone else’s or my sides. Had I waited to eat mine, it would have been very cold by the time the other food arrived.
For lunches and snacks, we try to avoid buffets. The first day lines were insanely long everywhere. However, we did find a short buffet line to get something in our system and the choices were not impressive. My wife got in line for Guy’s Burgers. Not sure if this is a cost cutting measure and/or a staffing issue, but they are no longer doing hand cut fries. It is clear these are from a bag. The seasoning is still the same, but you can taste the difference in the potato. The burgers also seemed different. Like most of the lunch time fair, it seemed free of seasoning. We felt that everything at lunch needed more, of the very hard to pour, salt. They only had one person making tacos and another making burritos at the Blue Iguana Cantina, so those lines were very slow moving since they make each order individually. Food quality was good, just way too slow. We had the BBQ, which is hard to find and get to on this ship. It is towards the back of the ship near the dessert bar and up a flight of stairs. The meat had great flavor and was nicely enhanced by the three sauce options. The sides were bland. You tell them your choices of beef, pork, and/or chicken and they put that on a plate then you can add your sides. We both felt they were a little light handed on the meat portions. The pizza place made the pizzas to order so that took a bit of time. In the past, during busier times, they would have a constant supply of cheese and pepperoni cooking. Again, not sure if this is more of a cost cutting measure or a staffing issue, but it made for much longer wait times than I remember. However, the pizza was nice and hot and tasted fresh. On the last full day of the cruise, we went to try the extra cost seafood shack for lunch. I was looking forward to either the lobster roll or the lobster BLT. They didn’t have either. That is something I have always noticed on Carnival and to a lesser extent, on other lines, is they tend to run out of things as the cruise goes on. I understand not being wasteful but I can’t help but wonder how many others they turned away and lost money on. I went to the coffee shop to get a vanilla milkshake with a shot of Patron XO, which I have done on several previous Carnival cruises and they didn’t have any at this location. I could have gone to the casino bar which was nearby, to get the shot and take it back to the coffee bar to mix it in, but I just kind of skipped shakes on this cruise. Because I didn’t feel like waiting in two lines for a shake. The one I did have, has a shot of Kalua and it was good, but not what I really wanted. I also had two sandwiches from the Deli during the cruise. Both were ok. The first was a Rueben. The biggest let down here was it was very light on the sauerkraut. The other was a late-night BLT. Luckily a BLT is pretty hard to mess up and they didn’t, but in the past, I remember a lot more bacon. The fries also needed more salt or other seasoning. The lunch time food was bland, I was beginning to wonder if I had COVID. The lunchtime food options get a 5.5 for long waits, average food quality and bland food.
There are two main reasons we sail Carnival, the cost, we tend to get pretty good offers, and the Alchemy Bar. The three primary people we had working the bar were Zora, Karen and Jea. As usual, this bar was packed most nights and seats at the actual bar, hard to come by, as people, myself included, would often spend the majority of their night here. Of course, you will have those that order a drink and go, but every cruise I have been on there is a group of people that you will find here during the hours they are open. This bar also tends to get busier as the cruise goes on and more people discover it. We were happy to see the bar snacks back. These consisted of some mixed nuts, Swiss cheese squares, and some kalamata olives. However, they ran out the last night. They also ran out of the fresh berries too, sadly a normal occurrence on every cruise. This was Karen’s first cruise as an alchemist. She was good and I think she will have a bright future as she further develops her skills. Zora was a solid Alchemist. You could see she has been doing this for a while. Jea was slinging drinks as fast and delicious as the others but I think she is kind of the “bar back” and not considered a mixologist. (She wore a vest and not a lab coat). All three of them were wonderful, kept their composure no matter how slammed the bar was, and never made what I thought was a bad drink. Because of how fast everything goes on the 4-day cruises, they don’t normally offer a mixology class. At the request of one of the regulars, (thanks Ed) Zora and Karen asked their manager if they could do one and they said yes. The class was full and a lot of fun. We had done this once before and this one was different in that we were able to design our own cocktail. I’m not sure if they wanted us to feel good or if they truly liked our drink because they did ask several of us to write down our recipes. We also shared them with each other as they were all really good.
I like my room to be chilly. When we would walk into the room after leaving the Alchemy Bar, it was. But overnight it would warm up quite a bit. So, while the room would get and stay cold when unoccupied, it couldn’t hold the temperature when we were in it. As I said before, this was an inside room, so it’s not like it had to fight sunlight or heat from any windows. Breakfast was comfortable to chilly for me, my wife was cold. During dinner, the main dining room was comfortable to warm. The airflow and temp around the Alchemy needs work. Most nights we were 3 or 4 deep and pretty solidly packed, but it got hot. I can only imagine how the three behind the bar felt with their long sleeve lab coats, masks, and all the moving around they did from open to close.
We stopped at two ports, Nassau and Princess Cays. We realized we forgot to pack something we needed, so in Nassau we got off the ship, found a small store that had what we forgot and got right back on the ship. We were told we had to show proof of vaccination to get off the ship in this port. We were not asked for it this trip. Getting back on the ship we had to show not only our sign and sail card, but also a photo ID. American dollars and credit cards are pretty much accepted everywhere.
Princess Cays is a private area on Eleuthera in the Bahamas. We were the only ship in port and it is a tender port. Meaning you have to get off the ship to a smaller boat to get to shore. These ran back and forth all day but some people, depending on when they tried to get off or on the ship, had a bit of a wait. This was the first time to this island and area, and we had high hopes. Part of the disappointment was I found outdated or incorrect information about being able to use our drink package on the island. You cannot. However, you are able to charge everything you purchase throughout the area to your sign and sail card, and cash was not accepted. So, after getting free cocktails, soda, and bottled water on the ship, having to pay for it unexpectedly off the ship was a downer. The food, like the drinks, is brought to the island from the ship. They do a “cookout” for lunch on shore that is free. They had some tables with fruit set up in different spots. Then the cookout consisted of hot dogs, hamburgers, jerk chicken, rice and beans, and a few side salads like potato and coleslaw. Needless to say, there were more food options back on the boat. There were a number of excursions here like most places and I did hear good things about the stingray swim. They have a swimming area and a snorkeling area marked off. And they also rent out floats, kayaks and sea trikes. In late June the water was a perfect temp, very refreshing. The swim area had a lot of large rocks that were smooth and easy to stand on, but they created toe and knee hazards and big drop offs if you weren’t paying attention. There was lots of seating in the sun and shade. There was a small pool and play area for kids. We did pay for wi-fi on the ship, but we were able to connect to an open wi-fi at the port, which was a nice surprise since it was a different network. Not sure if paying for access on the ship allowed this, or if it is available to all. Overall, we spent about two hours on the island. I’m glad we went so I can share my experience with others, but I’ll take Half Moon Cay any day over this. Amber Cover and Taino Bay in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, with their free pools, and no ocean access, are preferred over this.
The plus side of spending time on the ship while most people are in port is that the ship feels empty and you don’t have lines for meals or have to fight for pool space or pool chairs.
Was it a perfect cruise? No, but it was still a great cruise. The ship shows its age a bit. The crew is understaffed and overworked, but delivered a great customer service experience. The food needs some work. Again, it wasn’t bad, it was just not up to par based on our previous sailings with Carnival. As long as we can sail for a decent price point, we will continue to sail with Carnival. There are pricier cruise options that deliver a much better experience overall. However, there are also some pricier options that don’t deliver as good of experience. A fun time at a fair price, makes for a great vacation in my book.
