Carnival Cruise Lines - Freedom Review

My husband, myself and 3 other couples went on a cruise on the Carnival Freedom from Oct 10 -18, 2009.  We had a fantastic time!  The ship is beautiful, our room steward, Skinner, was the best!  We ate in the Lido Restaurant and had fantastic waiters, head waiter, Jonathan, was the also the best!  If you wanted seconds on anything, just ask and they will deliver, even the lobster!  We enjoyed the shows that were offered, but did notice they weren't as good or as many as shows we have seen on previous cruises, maybe the cruiselines have had to cut back like the rest of us.  We also ran into some uncomfortable situations during the cruise with the large group of gay men that were on this ship (175+).  They made it uncomfortable for many of the cruisers, in the pools and hot tubs, and also on certain decks after dark.  We experienced and heard a lot of negative talk from many others about their experiences with this group.  I feel that the cruiseline should have told us beforehand about them so we could have decided then whether we wanted to take this cruise or not.  As far as the excursions: the best one we took was in St. Martin's, the catamaran / snorkeling trip.  They took us out to a beautiful reef and we saw beautiful fish.  We were able to enjoy rum punch and sandwiches on the trip back to the ship.  We paid $15.00 each before the trip for the Carnival transfer to the ship, only to find out they were offering those who didn't have transfer the same bus transport for $10.00 each at the airport.  We decided to just take a cab (which was available) back to the airport, the total cost for that was $8.00 for both of us.  Also, we decided not to book an excursion in Tortolla or Bahamas before the trip, and found that there were ample tours being offered for $18.00 to $20.00 each as soon as you stepped off the ship, for sightseeing tours around both islands which included stops at a beach for a swim, these excursions were so much cheaper than if you had booked them before the cruise.