As first time cruisers, my husband and I had no idea what to expect on the Carnival Freedom. Actually, that’s not entirely true – we expected crowds, and lots of ‘em. Also average food and cattle call service. Boy, were we wrong!
The first night at dinner, I couldn’t believe the menu: six appetizers to choose from, two salads and probably a dozen entrees from steaks to BBQ ribs, fish and chicken to vegetarian Indian cuisine. And we could order whatever we wanted – two appetizers, no entrée, just dessert (although that would have wreaked havoc on my plan of not gaining any weight on the cruise!). As we would discover on our 12-day voyage, there was always more than one item on the menu that sounded scrumptious, and, in fact, the food quality and presentation was very good!
As for the service, we were more than pleasantly surprised. Our main waiter, Vilson, and his assistant, Peter, 
were more than attentive, not to mention highly entertaining. As busy as they were, they never made us feel rushed. We came to rely on Vilson’s recommendations, as well as his sense of humor and his undaunted bubbling personality. During the day, we frequented the buffet (loved the salad bar and the Mongolian barbecue!). The 24-hour pizzeria became a late afternoon favorite. For breakfast, we often took advantage of room service and enjoyed our repast on the verandah, watching the ship pull into port, or the ocean stretch to the horizon. Oh, and about those dreaded crowds? Well, the longest line I waited in (by choice) was about 35 minutes for Mongolian barbecue. This was by far the outlier, though. We never felt like we were on a ship with 4,000 passengers and crew (not even close to it). We had no problems getting a seat on the deck, or working out in the well-equipped fitness center. Even the process of going ashore on days in port was well-organized and painless. Really, it’s an impressive feat how well the ship was run considering the immensity of making each and every passenger feel at home, which the crew certainly did!
I’m also happy to report that I didn’t get seasick. :-) In the end, we realized we should have listened to our friends long ago – cruising is a wonderful way to see the world and feel like royalty at the same time. We loved it so much, in fact, that we took a Caribbean cruise this past April on the Carnival Triumph and had another fabulous vacation. Let it be known, we are converted!
