Sunday, February 9, 2014

Carnival Freedom, profile, photos, review, interviews



Carnival Freedom was the last of Carnival's Conquest ships to be built. The basic design began with Carnival Destiny and evolved through Carnival Victory and Carnival Triumph. With Carnival Conquest, the design reached a plateau and the line built four more essentially identical ships - - Carnival Glory, Carnival Liberty, Carnival Valor and Carnival Freedom. Subsequently, the design morphed again into the somewhat larger Carnival Splendor and then into the substantially larger Carnival Dream class.
Because there are five ships in the class, the Conquest class ships can be considered the mainstay of the Carnival fleet. There are more Fantasy class ships but they were developed in an earlier era and are used for shorter cruises or for cruises from ports that are away from the more competitive cruise ports.

When I say the five ships are essentially identical, I am speaking in terms of their technical qualities and their layout. The décor in each ship is quite different. Each was designed by Joe Farcus and he followed a different theme in each. On Carnival Freedom, the theme was time and as usual Mr. Farcus' work is imaginative and often flamboyant.

Carnival Freedom attracts an above-average percentage of repeat Carnival cruisers. She is currently the only Carnival ship cruising regularly out of Fort Lauderdale. However, there are several other Carnival ships based in Miami just down the highway a few miles. Thus, her homeport does not explain why Carnival cruisers keep coming back to this ship.

Part of the answer may be the ship's itinerary. She does not do the same circuit each week. Instead, a given month may take the ship all over the Caribbean. This is appealing because guests can put two or more cruises together and visit several different ports.

However, I was also impressed by the efficiency of the ship's officers and crew. They have been together for some time and know how the operation works. Of course, this makes for a better cvruise experience for the guests.

We have added quite a lot of new material to our coverage of Carnival Freedom. To begin the profile and the multi-page photo tour of the ship have been updated.

We have also added a menus page with copies of the menus from the different dining venues on Carnival Freedom http://www.beyondships2.com/carnival-freedom-menus.html and a page with a collection of daily programs from cruises on Carnival Freedom, which lets you see the type of thing that they do aboard her. http://www.beyondships2.com/carnival-freedom-daily-programs.html

There is also a new interview with Captain Rosario Arena http://www.beyondships2.com/carnival-freedom-captain.html and an interview with Stewart Howard, the Hotel Director, in which he talks about the importance of having an experienced team running the cruise ship. http://www.beyondships2.com/carnival-freedom-hotel-director.html

We have a photo feature http://www.beyondships2.com/carnival-freedom-photos.html and a video http://www.beyondships2.com/carnival-freedom-video.html of Carnival Freedom in various ports.

Finally, we have something we have not done before - - a video tour of the interior and open decks of Carnival Freedom. http://www.beyondships2.com/carnival-freedom-scenes.html


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