Carnival Cruise Lines has done it again – it has launched yet another splendid “fun” ship called Carnival Freedom, which offers fun-filled activities for adults and children of all ages, making it truly a family holiday of a lifetime.

I was fortunate enough to be invited by Arrigo Group, general sales agents for Carnival Cruise Lines, to join the ship at the Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera and sail on her to Venice, from where she would depart on her maiden voyage with a nine-day Mediterranean cruise followed by seven 12-day Mediterranean and Greek Islands cruises through to 16 October.

The trip for the media was well-organised by Christine Bugeja and Kurt Cachia of Arrigo Group. The plan was to fly to Milan from where we had to take a connecting flight to Venice, where we would spend the night and return to the airport in the morning to meet a Cemar representative for transfer to Carnival Freedom.

Chris and Kurt of Arrigo Group took care of any last-minute reschedulings and also kept in touch to make sure we got to the hotel in Venice. Thank you, guys.

The snug Kette Hotel in Venice where we spent the night is just a two-minute walk away from St Mark’s Square and the Fenici Theatre. In fact, we had time to visit Piazza San Marco before returning to Venice airport for Marghera. But what should have been a 20-minute journey took two hours because a car had caught fire and the road was closed, causing the mother of all traffic jams.

When the distinctive funnel of Carnival Freedom finally hovered into view we all breathed a sigh of relief and from then on it really was plain sailing, for us at any rate, as the Freedom was a veritable hive of activity with dozens of workers buzzing all over the ship on last-minute jobs, and various vans making deliveries.

On boarding Freedom, we took the lift to the lobby atrium where I was assigned a comfortable and spacious cabin, or stateroom, with a balcony, on Deck 6, from where I could see all that was going on on the quay. My initial thoughts were whether the ship would be ready, followed immediately by a more optimistic “yes, of course it will”… and it was!

After unpacking it was off to the Chic Restaurant for a delicious lunch, after which I explored the ship.

Carnival Freedom has more or less the same deck plan as the Carnival Liberty, which I had the pleasure of joining on her unofficial maiden voyage in July 2005, so I didn’t get hopelessly lost, but the décor was so different.

The following day, Carnival Freedom’s interior architect Joe Farcus took us on a virtual tour of the ship with a very interesting powerpoint presentation entitled “Decades through the centuries”. Mr Farcus said he was proud to have worked for the company for three decades, and this had inspired him to celebrate the fact by creating architectural designs ranging from prehistory to the 20th and 21st century. His undoubted talent is evident and he let his imagination truly run riot – from ancient Babylon in 1000 BC to the Millennium Atrium. He started off by describing the Atrium as an adventurous trip into the near future, with rounded forms of steel painted in different colours with a computer-controlled LED lighting system giving the nine-deck lobby a continuous light show.

The Victoriana, Carnival Freedom’s theatre, was inspired by London’s West End theatres of the 1880s. The Posh and Chic dining rooms are reminiscent of the 1990s, with their elegant dining table lamps and walls of marble and antique gold grillwork. The ship’s name is celebrated in the Freedom Restaurant, which has the typical post-modern décor of the 1980s used in different ways, and replicas of the Statue of Liberty incorporated into the furnishings. The upmarket, opulent Sun King Supper Club, named after the French king Louis XIV, symbolises the halcyon days of the 18th century, and is a reservations-only supper club.

The other periods represented are the 900s of ancient China, the 1770s, the 1890s, 1910s, the 1930s, the 1940s, the 1950s and the 1970s. Truly a trip through the ages.

But we were about to start on a new trip just as Mr Farcus was concluding his presentation – Carnival Freedom weighed anchor and set sail for Venice, and we bade farewell to Marghera.

After lunch, we attended a media briefing with Carnival Corporation, Carnival Cruise Lines and Fincantieri senior management.

Bob Dickinson, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, said the American market has changed and families these days want something more than the annual summer road trip. The company wants to dispel the idea that going on a cruise is a holiday for the older generation and is targeting the younger generation. In fact, more area has been dedicated to children, with a 4,200 sq ft play area, and teens now have their own 1,800 sq ft “Club 02”.

It’s fun for all ages, whether you’re eight or 80.

There are no present plans to build larger ships as this would affect the infrastructure and be too big for visiting cultural spots; smaller luxury ships should visit smaller ports. Mediterranean cruises are on the cards for 2010 and 2011 but itineraries have yet to be drawn up.

Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation also addressed the media after which everyone went up on deck as Carnival Freedom approached Venice. And what a marvellous, unforgettable experience it was, sailing through the islands and on to the Grand Canal past St Mark’s Square to the cruise terminal. Venice has such a dreamlike quality about it.

We had a sumptuous dinner in the Sun King supper club followed by cocktails in the Havana Cigar Bar.

The following day I took the private water taxi to San Marco and spent the morning reviving fond memories. Then it was back to Carnival Freedom to meet Kathy Ireland, the ship’s godmother. Ms Ireland, a former model and is a highly successful businesswoman who supports a wide variety of charitable causes and philanthropic organisations.

Early in the evening, we all gathered in the Victoriana Theatre for the naming ceremony. A screen on either side of the stage showed the bow of Carnival Freedom waiting to be christened, which Ms Ireland did by remote control. This was followed by a fabulous show “Ticket to Ride” with fantastic sets and scenes that celebrated the Beatles and their music.

We finally met up with Kurt, Chris and the travel agents who had joined the ship the previous day, in the Chic restaurant after the show.

The following day it was back to the airport, where we got the connecting flight back to Malta.