My Dream Review 1/23 - 1/30

Just home from the Dream - I traveled with 8 others (friends & family, aged 32-64). This was my 6th cruise and 2nd with Carnival.

This will probably be too much information, but I want to relive this week one more time!!

Pre-cruise - We left a day early and arrived in MCO at 9:45am, had Cocoa Beach Shuttle reserved to take us to the Radisson Resort. The hotel gave us rooms right away - a huge plus because I was worried our group would have to hang out in the lobby with our things until the 3pm check-in time. Since we were there so early and the weather was so nice, a few of us decided to get a taxi and go to the beach and explore the area. We had lunch at the Sand Bar based on a recommendation from a Ron Jon employee. It was a nice place, good food and service. We went back to the hotel and went in the pool for a swim. The grounds are very nice here and it has an excellent atmosphere for starting your vacation. The hotel offers a free shuttle in the evening, so we took advantage of this and went to Fishlips for dinner. We all enjoyed it very much. A few of us went back into town after dinner to do a little shopping. Our shuttle driver, Mark was great and such a cutie!! I think us ladies wanted to go places just to hang out with him. Haha!!

At the Radisson Resort

Pool area

Cocoa Beach

Surfers

Embarkation Day - Woke up way too early, went outside and saw the ship waiting for us. I was so excited and no one else was awake. O-well.

We were able to get on the 11am shuttle from the hotel and were in line within minutes.

We had Zone 12 and maybe waited 10 minutes to get onboard.

Our 1st stop was the Atrium Bar to have a DOD. By the count of those umbrellas, I think we had more than 1. Let the vacation begin!!

We headed up to Lido to meet the rest of our group and have lunch. This was the 1st of the 2 times I ate at the buffet the whole cruise. It was good and we were hungry. We dropped by the Meet & Greet and met some fellow CC members. We had a great bunch on our roll call. We had organized activities and excursions planned - fun!

Cabin - Around 1pm we went to our room and it was ready, we met our room steward, Mohammed. He was wonderful - our room was cleaned twice a day, we were always greeted by name and the ice bucket was always full. We booked a 6A ocean view cabin 2497 aft. This was the 1st time I have sailed in a room that was not midship. Wow - what a difference. We had tons of movement (I think the rough seas contributed to this also) and it was very loud. The bedding was very nice and the freebies in the bathroom were a nice touch. The room layout was weird too. The room was also smaller than others I have been in. I think if it were configured differently, we would have had more room. Not a big deal - didn't spend much time in the room anyway. Sadly, I did not take any pictures of the cabin.

We explored the ship and then went to Lido for sailaway. During sailaway we tried the deli - we tried corned beef, reuben and turkey - everyone said they were good.

We chose Your Time Dining and ate in the Crimson Dining Room. On the 1st night we went at 7:30pm, received a pager and waited about 30 minutes to be seated. Not a biggie - we were able to check out the photos from the day that were posted right outside the dining room. We had Wichit and his crew for dinner. We requested them for the rest of the cruise. We were unable to get him 1 night - not bad. He was funny and very pleasant. Our group loved him!

Starter of pasta and sausage

Entree of sweet & sour shrimp

Dessert of fruit and cheese

Of course I went to the casino to lose some money - liked the layout and staff was nice. I love the cashless system they have in place. Makes it much easier to deal with. The casino was almost always packed - they could have made it larger. There was a guy sining with his guitar in the casino that was good - it was nice background music. I can't remember his name.

Great review so far, I can't wait to read more :)

Sounds like the start of a great vacation. Thanks for the pictures and would love to see more.

Nice start on the review FrogFritter. Hope that wasn't someone from your roll call in the catfight over show seats. Looking forward to the rest. Can't wait to hear the luggage story. And a picture of the monkeyheads:D

Crew

1st Day at Sea - Woke up very early on our 1st sea day - 4:30am so I went to lido and sat to enjoy the quiet. It had rained and it was pretty windy. I met a few other early risers and we had a nice chat. Around 6am I went back to the cabin and took a 2hr. nap. At 8am my friend and I went to breakfast in the Scarlett Dining Room. I had Eggs Benedict. It was very good but they give you 2 and that was too much food for me so I didn't order them again. We then headed to Aft Lido to get some sun. There literally were about 5 people up there. I thought something must have been going on because of all the chair hogging stories I have read on here. We found a nice spot to park ourselves for the day right in front of the railing. We had some great neighbors that we enjoyed talking with for the rest of the cruise and also enjoyed 1 of the 2 hot tubs available in this area. We never went in the pool and it was almost always empty.

We had brunch in the Scarlett Dining Room - this was on my must do list and I was surprised that John said on his blog that not many people are taking advantage of this option.

Mozzarella and tomato

Pappardelle pasta with mushrooms, cream sauce and poached egg

-this was hands down the best entree I ate all week-

apple cake

Great review so far. Can't wait to hear more. The food pics are making me anticipate our Dream cruise even more (we sail on 2/20).

Nice start on the review FrogFritter. Hope that wasn't someone from your roll call in the catfight over show seats. Looking forward to the rest. Can't wait to hear the luggage story. And a picture of the monkeyheads:D

 

Crew

Not that I am aware of - lol - I heard there were many fights during the week but I missed them all. The security guard told us a few people had to be placed on the jail onboard. So glad I will never have to see that! Can you imagine getting arrested from hitting someone over a seat to a show? Crazy!!!!

Beware - this is long.

The luggage story - haha - I can laugh now because it was resolved in my favor but I was so stressed over this. My friend and I were in line waiting to clear customs, we of course were in the slow line. We were #28 and there were people from #33 ahead of us due to the way they were dividing the lines. So - by the time we reached the baggage claim area, my family already had their lugagge and stated they had not seen mine yet. So I decided I would look for it again in our area. No luck - I went to the other side hoping they passed it through the wrong side but no luck there eiher. I approached a Carnival employee and they helped me look also. By this time, the place was cleared out and there were about 4 bags that were not claimed - none of them mine but 1 that looked similar. We then decided the owners must have my bag with them. I looked at the tag and called the phone number listed - it was their home number in Indiana - not too much help to me.

They had me fill out a lost luggage paper and I proceeded to wait for our Avis shuttle. By this time we had lost almost 2 hrs. of our free time before our flight. This is when I started to get a little ticked. We were picked up by Avis, given our rental cars and headed to Orlando. We did some sight seeing and went to lunch.

I then received a call from a man that worked at Mears Transportation. Apparently the couple realized they had the wrong suitcase when they arrived at the airport. YAY for me. I told him I would be at the airport around 4:30pm to claim it. He said no problem, it will be in the office. I can pick it up on level 1 terminal B.

Around 4:30pm I drop my family off in terminal A to check in for our flight and proceeded to terminal B to get my bag. I found Mears and the girl behind the desk basically told me I was nuts, no one from Mears called me and handed me two 800 numbers to reach Carnival. She said they would never hold a bag for a passenger and sorry the Carnival desk closed at noon. I told her the man I spoke to knew I would be here this late and it was not a problem. She finally offered to call the other Mears stand and guess what? They had my suitcase in their office!! I had to walk to the other end of the airport to get it but was relieved when it was finally in my hands. Luckily I was able to do curb side check in and security was quick because I was close to missing the flight.

Sure, I could have arrived much earlier to the airport, but we paid for the rental cars and I was not about to make everyone sit at the airport for hours because someone didn't check the luggage tag before walking away with a suitecase.

I am luck to have gotten my suitecase back and this little error did not ruin my vacation 1 bit.

Great review so far. Can't wait to hear more. The food pics are making me anticipate our Dream cruise even more (we sail on 2/20).

Thank you!

I think I took more photos of the food than anything else. My group of 9 ate dinner together each night and I also took photos of their meals. Haha - by the 3rd night everyone was snapping pictures of the food.

I will post more tomorrow.

1st Elegant Night - We chose to try dinner at 8pm tonight due to waiting the night before. It worked because we didn't have to wait at all. Had a great meal tonight and great talks about our upcoming days in port.

Part of my group and our waiter

More of my group

Stuffed mushrooms

Lobster & shrimp

Apple thing with caramel sauce - the sauce was awesome!!

After dinner a few of us went to Sam's Piano Bar. Barry was more of an entertainer, which I loved. He had people doing the craziest stuff and was very funny. We had many laughs and it is also a great place to people watch.

Thanks for the review! So far so good...especially the food pics:rolleyes:

loving this review! the food pics are making me hungry! haha

Great review so far, looking forward to hearing the rest.. By any chance do you have photos of the menus from the dinning room, and to confirm the formal nights are Sunday and Thursday? Trying to figure out what night to do the supperclub, i.e. the night that the dining room is having my least favorite meals. :)

Thanks

Great review so far, looking forward to hearing the rest.. By any chance do you have photos of the menus from the dinning room, and to confirm the formal nights are Sunday and Thursday? Trying to figure out what night to do the supperclub, i.e. the night that the dining room is having my least favorite meals. :)

 

Thanks

I attempted to take photos of the menus, but they didn't turn out well. Elegant nights were Sunday and Thursday. I do have a ton of food pictures and I will post them in a different thread - might help figure out what was for dinner. Some nights I wanted all the selections and some I had to struggle to find something I would like. The 1st Elegant Night was the lobster/shrimp and the 2nd was escargot and prime rib, I believe.

Your experience w/ the luggage is not all that unusual - someone picking up luggage they THINK is theirs. The outcomes vary, of course. It serves as a reminder or further confirmation that decorating one's bag has more than one purpose - not only does it make it easier for YOU to find your bag, it makes is easier for someone else to realize it does NOT belong to them!

Thanks for review - my count down clock is ticking!!!!!!!:eek:

Hi! Loved your reivew (and food pictures LOL).

Can you please tell me when you made your shuttle ressies for the port.

We are also staying at Raddison and want to be on one of the first shuttles to the port the day we leave.

We will not have a car, since flying in.

Did you eat on site or did you venture out for food?

Would like a nice place to go with my dh, and three kids, 2 16 year old girls and one 12 year old boy.

Thanks.

Loving the review. Makes me excited and hungry!:D

Great review so far. Seems like a great trip.

I'm so excited to hear about this ship as I'm hoping to sail on it next year.

Thanks for the review.

I would be curious about your shuttle reservations as well.

I booked a room at the Radisson for September & they told me they don't start the shuttle until 11:30 & since that time is booked up, I couldn't get on a shuttle until 12:00.

We may switch hotels due to this as I want to be on the ship early. What time did they tell you is the first shuttle?

Don't go to the trouble in switching hotels, just call for a taxi.... We had the same experience in Miami, it was much easier and we actually arrived at the port by 10:30 and was able to go ahead an get on the ship.... I like making my own reservation so we get the time we want.....

With all the to-do with the "new" luggage policies, did you have any issues with your checked luggage, i.e. locked vs. unlocked, "smuggled" items (sorry, I have to ask), or delays because of others luggage, etc.

Thanks!

I'm enjoying reading your review - sort of re-living our week too. Sorry to hear about your luggage - glad you didn't let it spoil the vacation, even if it's toward the end. Glad we met and went on the ATV/cave-tubing in Belize. The ATV part was soooo much fun and it was a pleasant ride on the river - I liked it better when we were out of the cave and lazy-ing down the river and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Enjoyed the brief visit with you, Cindy & Steve on the last night. :)

Hi! Loved your reivew (and food pictures LOL).

 

Can you please tell me when you made your shuttle ressies for the port.

We are also staying at Raddison and want to be on one of the first shuttles to the port the day we leave.

We will not have a car, since flying in.

Did you eat on site or did you venture out for food?

Would like a nice place to go with my dh, and three kids, 2 16 year old girls and one 12 year old boy.

Thanks.

Thanks!! I made shuttle reservations a month in advance and was given a time of 12:30pm - when I got to the resort I asked the shuttle driver about changing times and I was told to have my group ready to go at 11am and wait out front. All of us were able to get on the shuttle at 11am.

We went to Fishlips, which is at the port along with a few other restaurants. The Radisson's free (after 3pm) shuttle took us and picked us up. It was a nice place and you can check out the menu on their website - just google fishlips.

Thanks for the review.

 

I would be curious about your shuttle reservations as well.

I booked a room at the Radisson for September & they told me they don't start the shuttle until 11:30 & since that time is booked up, I couldn't get on a shuttle until 12:00.

We may switch hotels due to this as I want to be on the ship early. What time did they tell you is the first shuttle?

I would not switch hotels - ask at the desk or the shuttle driver. The front desk was not very nice but the Mark, the shuttle driver made arrangements for us. People cancel or don't show up for the shuttle all the time. You could always call a taxi or a private shuttle if you need to.

Hi! Loved your reivew (and food pictures LOL).

 

Can you please tell me when you made your shuttle ressies for the port.

We are also staying at Raddison and want to be on one of the first shuttles to the port the day we leave.

We will not have a car, since flying in.

Did you eat on site or did you venture out for food?

Would like a nice place to go with my dh, and three kids, 2 16 year old girls and one 12 year old boy.

Thanks.

Call the raddison now and ask to be put on the list for the earliest

shuttle to the port.. its usually 11am..hope this helps if not a a cab to the port is reasonable 5.00 or so