chrislo

We would have drank the same amount even if we had cheers. I never talked myself out of a drink and we actual talked each other into trying some new drinks, my favorite was the Green Iguana.

At the steakhouse my husband had the crab cake starter the first night and the lobster bisque the 2nd night with the filet mignon as his entree both nights. I had the lobster bisque surf and turf the first night and the french onion lobster tail the 2nd night. The onion soup was just ok I should have gotten the escargot the looked great.

For desset I had the chocolate sampler and my husband had the cheese plate.

A couple of quick questions if you don't mind:

 

1. Whenever I watch cruise videos of the Dream everything always looks so RED. I mean they even have the Crimson and Scarlet dining rooms. :) Does it really "feel" that RED everywhere or is that maybe just a product of digital video making it feel that way?

 

The dining rooms are definitely red but I didn’t really notice it everywhere else.

 

2. We have FTTF too and we chose the earliest time for check-in but realize that they don't start letting people on until a certain time. We chose 10:30 (I believe) and you mentioned you got there at 11:30. Is it a waste of time to get there an hour earlier? When did they actually start letting any FTTF people on the ship?

 

 

I wouldn't get there that early. it only took 30 minutes from curbside to cards in hand and then we only waited about 10 minuted before they boarded FTTF.

 

Finally

 

3. Did they ever fix/replace the toilet seat and give you more hangers? :)

I didn't ask for more hangers because there was enough for the few things I needed to hang and they did come fix the seat but I needed to call twice before someone came. Then it was a quick 5 min job. :D

We just returned from a great trip on the Dream I will keep this review short as others have done some great pictorial reviews and focus on some of the questions I read before we left. We stayed at the Marriott on Canal our room had a river view and we were able to see the ship in the distance when we woke. We arrived at the port around 11:30 and with FTTF we were on board by 12:15. I found the staggered boarding made things smoother and the waiting area didn’t feel as crowded. Once on board our room was ready and as we made our way back we found our bags in the hallway unattended on a luggage cart so we grabbed them and went back to the room. While I unpacked my husband and son went exploring and to grab lunch. Sail away was delayed due to some maintenance issue so we didn’t leave the port until around 6:00.

We stayed in Cabin 9477 which was an aft facing balcony cabin. This balcony (and 9474) was 1/3 larger than the others and there were 2 lounge chairs, 2 regular chairs and a small table. Since we were on deck 9 our cabin was below the aft pool deck. During the afternoon we could hear the occasional chair being moved but for us it was never an inconvenience and we never heard anything at night. The air-conditioning kept the room comfortable (I didn’t need my fan) every day except for a few hours one day when it was turned off to change the filters. There has been some discussion recently regarding propulsion problems causing delays into ports however we didn’t experience any of this and we were on the Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Cozumel itinerary. We were on time for every port and never had to leave a port early. The Dream is due for dry dock soon and you could tell it needed it, the curtains in our cabin and a tear, hangers were missing and our toilet seat was broken (one of the hinges was snapped off) however we didn’t experience anything that negatively impacted our trip. Our Cabin Steward was Ivan and he did a great job keeping our room clean. On the first day he stopped by and asked us when we would like the room cleaned. We were offered, Morning, Evening or Both as well as a choice of extra towels, blankets and pillows. We opted to have our room cleaned in the morning with turndown service at night.

We had Our Time Dinning since we prefer the flexibility this provides for us. We ate in the Steakhouse on both the 1st and last nights of the trip and both times our food was incredible and well worth the $35pp charge. Our son had the chicken fingers and the fish and chips from the kids menu and they were awful, I tried them thinking he was just being picky and agreed they were pretty bad. The only night we had to wait to get into the main dining room was the first elegant night and the wait was less than 15 minutes. We did not miss the tablecloths and liked having the pitcher of water on the table. The food in the main dining room ranged from ok (lamb) to great (all the pasta dishes) and I felt there was something for everyone. With the exception of 2 days we ate breakfast in the dining room. We enjoyed the food and the atmosphere over the crowds at the buffet.

On sea days we had no trouble finding seats in the sun or the shade since we weren’t trying to sit by the pool although we did see two family’s arguing when one family came to “their” chairs at noon to find another family had moved their things over a few seats. As others have said the pool is small for the number of people on board and on sea days you could barely move in the water. We did not take advantage of Cheers and when I looked at my bill it reinforced for me that Cheers doesn’t pay for our family as we only spent $400 in drinks which included $150 for the 5 bottle Cruising the Vineyard package.

Our overall impression was the Dream is a great ship and we would sail her again in the future.

I always get these to help manage my spending.

I can't speak to the smoke but I always travel with a small fan. Cabin temperature is subjective even among cabin mates.

We will be docking on August 25th and have arranged to rent a jeep for the day. Does anyone have a link to a printable map showing attractions that we can use as reference while driving? Some of the places we plan to stop at are:

- Blowhole

- Hell

- Starfish Beach

- Rum Point

- Turtle Farm

Thank you

Definitely if you purchase it on board. I'm not sure abut on line.

Just got the call from the upgrade fairy for my August 21st Dream cruise. $290 total (for 3 of us) to move to an Ocean Suite. Even though the price was great we decided to keep our aft facing balcony.

Hi, we are booked in Escape cabin 13728. Can anyone tell me if the bed is by the closet or the balcony.

Thanks

Thank you, I assumed I could you both for all types of purchases. What I was wondering was if they were both refundable for example if I put a $500 gift card on my account but only spend $400 would I lose the other $100?

In the past we have always cruised with Carnival and as a way to budget our spending I would purchase gift cards (a couple each month). This November we will be on the NCL Escape and I see we can order gift cards or OBC Certificates. Is their a benefit to one vs. the other? If not I will just do the OBC so that it goes directly to my on board account.

Thank you

We have always traveled on Carnival and my son would get chocolate covered strawberries and a milkshake. For our November trip on the Escape is there someplace on baord to get this?

Thank you

It happened to me on our Nov cruise but not to my husband or son.

This happened to us. Select the dining time you want and then check back as often as you can. (I did it a couple times a day) By checking everyday we were able to grab YTD as soon as a slot opened up. I guess someone switched to a fix time after thinking about it.

Grand Cayman is one of our stops this August and while I wanted to go to Stingray City my husband and son are worried about being stung so instead we are going to rent a jeep and drive around the island sightseeing and visiting different beachs.

My question is what happens if weather prevents us from tendering, do we get charged for the car anyway? I know I need to ask the rental company (and I have e-mailed Avis) but I was wondering what others real experience has been?

Thank you

I am torn between a couple of hotels. These are the only hotel choices as we are using hotel points for our stay.

Hyatt Regency Miami

Hyatt Regency Coral Gables

Hyatt Place Miami Airport East

Hyatt Place Miami Airport West

We will be there November 18th arriving late afternoon so we don't need anyplace to fancy but we would want to walk someplace for dinner and grap some water to bring on board with us.

It will be myself, DH and 10yo Son.

Any help narrowing down the list will be great.

Thanks

We were on the Splendor in November as well on deck 8 all the way forward and the cabin was warm for me. My suggestion is to bring a small battery operated fan just in case the cabin is warm for you. Temperature is so so subjective.

So excited, we just booked our annual Thanksgiving cruise on the Escape. We have alwtays gone with Carnival but we just couldnt resist trying NCL this time. I was wondering if we could make dinner reservations in advance or do we need to wait until we are on board?

I am looking to book our first NCL cruise on the Escape for November 19th. When I look at the NCL site I can get a Balcony Guarentee Cabin for $800pp. If I use one of those Big on line companies I can pick my own Balcony room for $850pp plus some on board credit. So, if I use the on line company can I still see my reservation on the NCL site to book excursions, restaurants etc?

I am pretty sure it is not on your cruise documents but you should have received an email when you ordered it.

Thanks, they werent there this morning when I checked. I would have missed them if I waited until tomorrow.

Thanks I just grabbed some

We always book YTD because we like the flexibility, that is our number one reason for selecting YTD. Out of 3 cruises we only had 1 long wait and that was the 1st formal night on the Valor (40 min). Other times we have opted to wait in order to sit by the window or with certain waitstaff.

We have had YTD on our last 3 trips. For us the biggest pro is the flexibility. Some nights we eat early and others we eat late depending on our days activities. The con's for us is never really getting to know your waitstaff.

I just tried and it worked for me.