This was our 18th cruise. My wife and I are both retired and in our early 60s.

This is a new ship that was clean and well-kept. The decor was strange and depressing. As a guy, I usually don't pay attention to things like this, but the dark colored plastic wood and the dark reddish snake skin walls were not conducive to a happy feeling. One couple thought it reminded them of Dracula's Castle while someone else said it was like a New Orleans whorehouse. That's when it hit me! The interior decor of the Freedom was like Dracula's New Orleans whorehouse!

Enough of that. The crew was attentative and helpful as always, and the food was above average to very good. The entertainment was fair to superior depending on the show. I personally didn't like the "bowl" on Lido deck where there is a 20-foot TV. I didn't go on a cruise to be forced to watch TV when I would like to enjoy the outdoors, but that's just me. The bad part for us was this is the centerpiece of activity on the "Lido" deck and is normally where we spend our time, but not on this cruise!

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Of course we still encountered the same problem of "you can't get there from here" that seems to plague several cruise ship designs. The public restrooms were sometimes hard to find and have a flaw in that when using the hand dryer you block the sink and one of the stalls -- bad when there are only two of each.

We wouldn't go on Carnival Freedom again, but we would sail other ships in the fleet.