Meredisney

I didn't realize that I would have so much to say LOL! Ok, let’s see if I can get things moving...

Water works

After the spa, we hit the pools and relaxed a little up on the Serenity Deck. My Dad, DH, and I actually went down the water slides! It was fun. I liked the corkscrew water slide and twin dual-lane racing slides. I wasn't brave enough to do the Drain Pipe, but my DH and Dad said it was great! The line wasn't too long. I'm guessing that a lot of Guests were still out in Nassau.

Dinner

We had John Wayne and Devinia as our servers. We loved them and stuck with them for the rest of the cruise.

DH had the Strawberry Bisque and the Greek Farmer Salad as a starters. I had the West Indian Pumpkin Soup and the Baked Stuffed Wild Mushrooms. I've read mixed reviews of the Pumpkin Soup, but I really enjoyed the flavors. I'd order it again. Unfortunately, I remembered about the pictures half way through my starters, so please excuse the half eaten food photographs. For his main course, DH had the Spaghetti Carbonara. He said it wasn't very good. It was dry and didn't look very appetizing. I had the Duet of Broiled Main Lobster Tail and Grilled Jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp, which was amazing.

8 Seconds

After dinner, we headed to the Encore theatre for the 8 Seconds Show. Again, it featured the same two vocalists. The best part of this show was the fiddle playing, Jimmy Hodge! He was outstanding. A word of warning, this show does feature one song that surprised me. There is a portion of the show where the boys are pretending to take a shower (fully covered of course) and they sing a song about they are going to have that night with the girls. At first I thought I was hearing the lyrics incorrectly, but I checked with my husband and he verified what I heard. There are some sexual innuendos that I hope I don't get in trouble for mentioning on this board, but let’s just say that the lyrics play around with the word "come" and leave it at that....Oh My!!

Moving on to the Adult Comedy show…

We left the 8 Seconds show a little early because we read on cruise critic that the adult comedy show in the Burgundy Lounge fills up pretty quickly. Well, you guys were right. It was standing room only, so we opted to wait until the 11pm show. The 11pm comic was Lewis Nixon. He was very funny.

After the comedy show, we headed back to our stateroom to go to bed.

Thanks for your write up on the Cloud 9 spa.

 

You mentioned that it cost $149 for a singles pass. Was there a couple's pass and if so how much?

Yes, a couples pass was $249, so basically you get a $49 break when you purchase the couples pass.

I have a quick question about your day in Nassau.... were the stores open that morning, since it was a Sunday?

 

I had read somewhere that the stores may not open till noon on Sundays in Nassau. We have been there before, as well, and wanted to just hang around & shop then head back to the ship.

 

Thanks!

Hello TEXAZJEWL! Yes, the stores were open in Nassau.

??? I hear there is a mud bath or pool? Was that included in your pass?

Do you remember the Spa hours, I plan on getting up before my family and getting a little alone time in at the spa.:D

Thank you so much, I have been waiting for someone to give the inside scoop on the Spa.

Hello Cina409. Yes, there there is a mud room that you can use. It is not included in the VIP pass but for an additional fee you can "upgrade your pass to include a one time 60min use of the mud room. It's not unlimited. I didn't choose the upgrade so I'm not sure of the price. I want to say it was somewhere around $60??

The pool that's included in the VIP pass is the Thalassotherapy pool. It's pretty much an oversized salt water hot tub.

Were you able to try 'these' out? Are they warm? How hard was it to find an empty one? Also, were there better 'times' to visit the spa (esp the thermal suite/Thalassotherapy pool? Day or evening better?? Thank you for your help...

Hi Grammy3grks! Yes, I tried them out and they are warm. Like crewsweeper, I found that if you lay a towel on top of the lounge chair and then lay ontop of that, it was perfect. Laying directly on top of the tiles was a little too intense for me.

The Spa hours are from 8am - 10pm. I have all the Fun Times. I'm going to include them in my signature once I get them all scanned.

Thermal suite

Oriental Steam Room

Mild Steam Room

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of the Aromatherapy steam room. The stream was too intense and the pictures just came out with a bunch of clouds. LOL

Now to the Thermal Suites and the VIP pass…

I paid $149 for a single pass that was good for the entire length of the cruise. Whenever I wanted to use the spa amenities, I had to check in at the desk located at the spa entrance on deck 12. The therapist at the desk would then take my sail & sign card in exchange for a VIP Spa access card. I also received a plastic colored wrist band, which was fastened around my wrist and then cut off when I checked out at the spa desk and turned in the VIP card. The wrist band was a different color every day.

The VIP amenities are located further down the main spa hallway. There is a gym to the left and then, behind a locked glass door only acceable by the VIP card, is the Thalassotherapy pool. I was never able to get a photo of the pool because it was always full of guests and I wanted to respect their privacy. I went in the Thalassotherapy pool a few times. It was pretty much like a largewarm, salt-water hot tub and I found it very relaxing.

At the end of the hall is a spiral staircase and elevator. Both lead to the 14th deck where you will find the aerobics room and all of the spa treatment rooms. The elevator and stairs will also take you up to the 15th deck (the sun deck) which leads to the top portion of the serenity deck. The Spa class staterooms are also accessable by the spiral stairs and elevator.

To the right of the elevator/spiral stairs, are two more glass doors. Again these doors are secured by the VIP access card. The door on the right will take you to another set of male and female locker rooms, each with their very own showers, restrooms, and lockers. The door on the left will take you to three steam rooms, two rain showers, and an elaborate thermal suite. There is also a relaxation room with cushy chairs, hot tea, ice water and fresh fruit.

I forgot to mention that there is also a gym and aerobics room located in the spa.

I enjoyed my time in the Thermal Suite and would pay to for the VIP access card again. There was only one thing about the spa that I was disappointed in, they didn’t provide any toiletries other then the same body wash and shampoo dispensers that are the stateroom showers. I used the spa shower a few times and each time I had to pack a bag with my conditioner, razor, comb, etc. I only found this annoying because I had to tote my "stuff" back and forth to the spa.

Ladies VIP Locker Room

Ladies VIP Locker Room. The 2 wooden doors lead to the showers

Shower in Ladies VIP Locker Room

VIP Co-Ed relaxation room with cushy chairs, hot tea, ice water and fresh fruit

One of the VIP Thermal Suite Rain Showers

Many of you have been asking, so here it is…

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Cloud 9 Spa

One of my absolute favorite things to do on vacation is go to the spa and read. I hardly ever get to read at home, so lounging on a heated mosaic tile chase lounge while reading a good book is something I really look forward to. Prior to cruising, I posted a few questions about the thermal suite. Even after many helpful cruise critic folks answered my questions, I was STILL confused about what was included in thermal suites VIP pass verses the free spa amenities. Well, needless to say, I have a very clear understanding now.

I’ll talk about the FREE stuff first…

The entrance to the spa is located on the 12th deck, rightfully named the spa deck. As you enter the spa, there is a check in desk to the left and three doors to the right, one to the ladies locker room, one to the mens locker room, and a third located between the two that leads to the FREE sauna. The free sauna is the only traditional dry wood sauna (cedar smell and all) on the ship, so if this is your ideal sauna, verses the steam rooms, then there is no need to pay for the VIP pass.

Also inside the ladies free locker room is a steam sauna, lockers, restrooms, and two showers. I’m assuming the mens locker room has the same amenities.

Ladies Free Locker Room

Ladies Free Locker Room. The glass door on the right is the free steam sauna.

Shower in the Ladies Free Locker Room

Free Dry Wood Sauna (Co-ed). Sorry, It's not the greatest picture. There were Guests inside, so I didn't want to disturb them.

HI,

 

Is the Pasta Bar is open for the dinner (like 8:00PM) ?

The pasta bar is only open from 11am to 3:30pm

Day 2 – Sunday Nassau, Bahamas

We woke up rested and ready to go Sunday morning. All of us had been to Nassau before so rather than booking an excursion or tour, we went our separate ways to do things on our own. My parents were disappointed that we wouldn’t be stopping at a Private Island, they really enjoy the beach, so they got off the ship as soon as they could and headed over to the British Colonial Hilton. My DH and I took our time getting off the ship and strolled the streets of Nassau. We didn’t make any huge purchases. I got a cute set of color changing hair clips from Del Sol and my husband picked up a bottle of Bahamian Rum for a co-worker. We ran into my parents and they told us that they weren’t happy with the beach at the Hilton so they decided not to stay. They were happy that they didn’t purchase the beach pass. They headed back to the ship and my DH and I, being the curious people that we are, decided to check out the Hilton for ourselves.

British Colonial Hilton

The British Colonial Hilton is located on the other side of Senior Frogs. As soon as you get off the ship, go through the welcome center, make an immediate right and go as far as you can until hit Senior Frogs. You will then need to make a left and follow the main road straight and to the left. The British Colonial is located on the right. There is a gate for cars that says exit only with a sidewalk that takes you right up to the hotel entrance.

Upon entering the hotel, I had to question if my parents had visited the same place! It was absolutely beautiful with marble tiles and a grand staircase leading up to the second level. We crossed through the lobby and walked outside where we found the wedding lawn. A husband and wife were there with their teenage daughter and they offered to take our picture under the arch. The mom told us that if you say “I Do” under the arch, you will be married forever. We thought it was cute and said our “I Do’s”. There was a rectangular pool, cabana type bar, and a white sandy beach with a view of the cruise ships. My parents complained about the view of a barge to the left of the resort, but we really didn’t find it so unsightly that it would hinder our experience. We took some photos and even a brochure on the way out of the hotel. We never saw anyone monitoring the Guests at the beach and don’t really see why anyone wouldn’t be able to just go there on their own. Perhaps someone would’ve eventually come outside to check for wristbands or something of that nature, but we didn’t see it happen while we were there.

After our touring the hotel we headed back to the Dream for lunch and I finally had a chance to utizile my VIP Spa Pass!

poohbear, my parents were in 9209 which was pretty much as far Forward as you can get. Obviously the Lanai didn't interfere with their view. IMHO I don't think the lanai would be an issue. It doesn't stick out any further than the Jacuzzis.

CruiserCindy, As loisann said, you can take an elevator to the pasta bar. It is located on deck 11.

Our suitcases arrived pretty quickly. We unpacked, organized our cabin, and made our way to the Cloud 9 spa for a tour of facilities. I ended up purchasing a Spa VIP pass to use the thermal suites for the length of the cruise, but I will get into the Spa amenities in day two.

Safety Drill

Our Muster station was in the Encore Theatre. It consisted of the typical life vest demonstration and a short film. This was the first time that we attended a safety drill that didn’t require us to put on those stinky life vests. We were so pleased!

Sail Away Party

After the safety drill, we headed up to the lido deck for the Sail Away Party. We wore our swimsuits and cover-ups to the party and were surprised to find one of the spas on the Serenity Deck free of other guests. We got in the spa and enjoyed the view of Cape Canaveral restaurants, Jetty Park and even two manatees as we sailed out of the channel and into the open water. After the sail away, we headed back to our cabins to shower and change for dinner.

Anytime Dining

Guests that have selected Anytime Dining are assigned to the 2nd floor of the Crimson Dining Room. With Anytime Dining, you are automatically seated at the next available table for your party size; however, on the following nights of the cruise you are able to request your server. If that server has a table available the hostess will accommodate your request or give you a pager, if you choose to wait for that particular server. The Assistant Matr’ d was named Alton. He stopped by our table on the first night to introduce himself. Alton told us that the busiest dining times were between 6:30 – 7:45 and if we chose to dine during that time, we may encounter a wait. I was a little in awe during dinner and totally forgot to photograph my meal. As an appetizer, I had the Fried Chicken Tenders with Zesty Honey Mustard sauce and the Sweet & Sour Shrimp as my entrée. Both were superb. After hearing so much about it, I had to try the Chocolate Melting Cake for dessert. It was good, but not great. My Dh had the creme brulee and said it was phenomenal.

Shows

Okay, I have to preface this by stating that I am a dance teacher and choreographer, so naturally, I am more critical then the average audience member. I tried to watch most of the shows. On some nights, my DH wanted to go to see the adult comedy shows, so it wasn't possible to do both. When I did get to see a show, my assessment was always the same. The two singers are very talented performers. They were the only two singers every single night so it would have been nice to change it up a little bit. The dancers have tons of potential, but they lacked basic technique. Again the majority of the audience wouldn't have caught the flexed feet and bent legs, but I did. I also caught it when they fell out of turns and were off count. Also, the choreography was outdated. I anticipated more up-to-date choreography with the growing number of dance shows like So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With the Stars, America's Best Dance Crew, etc. All of that aside, the shows were entertaining.

The Welcome Aboard Show was good, but Todd, the cruise director came out on stage halfway through the show to do a 30minute infomercial about the Carnival Dream. No offence, Todd, but I'm already on the ship. No need to sell me on it. We would have much rather seen more singing and dancing.

After the show we headed upstairs to the Lido to see the Laser Show. Unfortunatly it was a little disappointing. Again, it consisted of another Carnival Dream informercial on the big screen. This time set to music and lasers. I didn't quite understand why they kept hyping up the ship. We had already paid and we on it, no need to see us on it any further.

After the lasers, we headed down stairs to our cabin. We had a great night's sleep. No noises or rocking kept us awake.

This is by far the best review I've seen and I've seen some great ones. Thank you a ton, my parents will be in the cabin next to yours I think and we are going to be right above that on the Lido deck. I'm glad you cleared up a lot of the rumors I'm hearing about those forward cabins. I can't wait to read more. Your doing a great job.:)

Awe...thanks! That's very sweet of you.

I've tried right clicking and double clicking on them and I cannot get them to enlarge.

Hmmmm....did you try just a single left click? That's what has been working for me. Sorry you are having difficulty seeing the pictures.

Sorry about all the separate posts. I can only include 6 photos per post so I had to break up the room descriptions.

I was also able to sneak (shhhh...don't tell LOL) into cabin #9205. It's a Suite Stateroom. It had a king sized bed, shower and jet tub, double bowl sink with granite counter tops, separate dressing table, huge closet, balcony and a wet bar. It was a gorgeous room!

My parents were in cabin #9209, right down the hall from us. Although they were in a Balcony Stateroom, it was considerably smaller than ours. The only thing that they had that we did not was a couch.

Stateroom

Finally, 1:30pm came and we were allowed to go to our staterooms. We booked Stateroom #9201. It is considered an “Inside Cabin” by price, but it has a window with an obstructed view. The obstruction is actually the "secret" balcony that you read about on these boards. The balcony is located above the Bridge all the way forward on the ninth deck (Vista). I was worried because I couldn't find any photos or reviews of this exact cabin anywhere online. We absolutley LOVED our room! It was HUGE!!!

This last photo is of the actual view out of our window. It's technically considered an obstruction, but as you can see from the photo, there is a perfect view of the horizon. We didn't mind the balcony "obstruction" one bit. I've already submitted these photos to cruise deck plans, so that other will be able to use them when determining their stateroom. I would definitely recommend this room! There have been a few posts regarding a banging sound when staying in forward staterooms. I wanted to address this and let you know that we did hear the banging however it was only on the first 2 nights as we made our way out of the Atlantic Ocean. The banging is actually the ship hitting the waves. It wasn't anything that kept us awake at night and I barely noticed it. Once we were in the Caribbean Sea, there sound subsided.

lovin the dream review, like your style.

I hope you can play with photobucket and get photos a bit bigger -should be something like tab that says edit and preview the new size, cut and paste the new URL OR try right clicking on photo if you like what you see and paste into Cruise Critic post. Try it and then just hit preview post before hitting submit button.

Thanks. I posted the photos as thumbnails so that they weren't huge. If you click on them, they get larger. I just didn't want to take up a lot of space.:D

Piano Bar

Sushi Bar (also the location of the salad bar on sea days)

Casino

Fun Shops

Ship Tour

After lunch, we walked around the ship so that we could get acclimated with our home for the next seven days. I took lots of photos…

Library

Theatre

Fun Hub (few of these areas located throughout the ship)

Day 1 – Saturday, Port Canaveral

The morning of the cruise had finally arrived! We are all early risers, so it seemed like we waited around the house forever until we finally left. I read on these boards that you can start boarding the Dream at 11:00 am. So, I planned to leave the house at 9:30am giving us plenty of time to get there, check in, and wait for boarding to begin.

Embarkation

We arrived to the port around 10:30am, unloaded our luggage, parked the car and headed to the check-in area. We were handed "zone 8" cards and made our way to the check in counter. The check-in process was quick and easy. We received our GOLD (whoo Hoo) Sign & Sail cards and made our way down the gangway. The line for the S&S pics to be taken was short and we were able to take an embarkation photo, but it didn’t turn out so hot, so I didn’t purchase it. :o

Like many of the other member's reviews have stated, the Dream is huge and breathtaking!

After a quick look around the Grand Atrium, we proceeded to the elevators and up to the Lido deck.

Pasta Bar

After reading so many of the rave reviews of the Pasta Bar, I wanted to try it first. The Pasta Bar is located on the deck above the rear buffet. You have to first check in with the hostess at the top of the stairs. She hands you a pasta order form, pencil, and a number on a stand. I was going to include the menu options, but I actually found it here: http://www.zydecocruiser.com/CarnivalDream/pastaBar.htm

The Pasta Bar became one of my favorite places to eat. I really enjoyed mixing the Alfredo & Bolognese sauce together to make a “pink” sauce with penne, broccoli, chicken and spinach!

This is my first attempt at writing a review. I’ve sailed on quite a few cruises, as represented in my signature, but I always seem to let the post-cruise depression prevent me from visiting the cruise boards and following up on my vacation. I vowed not to let that happen this time, so here goes nothing…

A little about us…

Cruisers were myself (30) and DH (30) and my parents both 62, so my review won’t have any insight on kids club or teen activities

How we came to sail on Dream…

We booked the Carnival Dream on a whim in March of this year. My husband and I had our heart set on the Oasis of the Seas, but the price was crazy for the weeks we wanted to sail. We decided on the Dream after visiting these boards and reading several reviews. Our only other experience with Carnival was on the Fascination in 2004; it was not fascinating and we swore off Carnival at that time. Needless to say booking the Dream was a big deal. We took a chance on a newer ship hoping it would provide for a better experience and we were right…but more on that later.

Getting there…

Now for the specifics on how we got there. Initially we were going to ask my parents to doggie sit for us while we were on vacation, but upon finding out we were sailing on the Dream, my parents decided to crash our trip! My DH and I are lucky enough to live in Central Florida. Port Canaveral is only about a 45minute drive from our house, but my parents live in South Florida. For my husband and me, our dog is like our child. We recently lost one of our dogs, so this would be the first time our Basset Hound would be left alone. My parents have a fabulous pet sitter so after much thought; I opted to drive my pup to Fort Myers so that she could have my parent’s dog as company.

My DH had to work, so my pup and I left Thursday morning for the 3 hour drive to Ft. Myers. I spent the rest of Thursday visiting with family. We had a great dinner at a little place called the Riviera Oyster Bar Restaurant in Punta Gorda. I spend Thursday night at my parent’s house and on Friday morning I hopped in their car for the 3hr ride back to my house. Before we left Fort Myers, I begged my parents to stop at one of my favorite places, Norman Love chocolates. My DH and I took a box of Norman Love chocolates on our last cruise and enjoyed them on the balcony with our Champaign, so we wanted to have them again on this cruise. I picked out enough chocolates to fill a 12 piece box (more fun and slightly cheaper than picking up a pre-packaged box).

We made it to Orlando about 2pm. We went through our packing checklists making sure we had everything ready for our cruise. We printed out our FunPasses and attached our luggage tags. Like many others, I cut them to size and laminated them to prevent water damage.

My mom and I had pedicure appointments in the evening at my favorite nail spa in Orlando, Image Nails. If anyone is planning to spend some time in Orlando before their cruise, I highly recommend getting your pedicure at Image Nails. I love it there. The staff is warm, friendly and professional and the cleanliness is impeccable! Not to mention they do a fabulous job!

After our pedicures, we returned to my house to have dinner, do a little swimming, and turn in for the night.

Cute shirts MamaParrotHead!

This isn't a great picture of our shirts, but this is the image on the back...

We're the Fish-Lips crew because it's a combination of our two last names.

Thanks for the compliments jstcruizin, hon2u, & ErinPhae! I'm really excited about wearing it. I posted a picture of my other formal dress in the "post a picture of your formal dress" thread. Erin, I saw the one you were going to wear, too. Such a lovely gown! Boy, that is one LOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGG thread. I think it's up to about 225+ pages...:eek:

ErinPhae, I asked my DH to take a picture of me in the dress that you sent me. Thanks Again!