anyone want to see pictures of the Carnival Dream?

[Sue L]

I was on the inaugural last night, here are some pictures.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/575520202edFGFO

[PhoenixCruiser]

Great pictures Sue! The pool chairs and loungers look really comfy!

 

Agree with you that the colors are a bit bold, that's Carnival and it seems to be working for them :)

 

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[tiyana4]

Thanks for sharing. In true Carnival style, much of the public areas are bold. However, I do like the color scheme in the cabins. Fun Hub is also a nice concept, and the rates seem reasonable compared to most onboard packages.

[luckyprincess]

Oh wow it's pretty! I really liked the piano 'bar' and the sushi station! Too cute! Also I LOVE the color scheme in the cabin - coppers and bronzes are so beautiful - one of my favorites!

So, can you tell us what you thought? It looked nice but I've never been on a Carnival ship yet...

[Cruiserccl]

I was on the inaugural last night, here are some pictures.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/575520202edFGFO

 

I do! I do! Thanks for sharing! :D

[Conanc]

Thanks Sue. Great pics!

[Sue L]

Oh wow it's pretty! I really liked the piano 'bar' and the sushi station! Too cute! Also I LOVE the color scheme in the cabin - coppers and bronzes are so beautiful - one of my favorites!

So, can you tell us what you thought? It looked nice but I've never been on a Carnival ship yet...

 

Here is the little review I wrote,

 

 

For a disclaimer I am mainly a RCCL cruiser and a travel agent. I have been on 3 Carnival cruises and just finished my 14 cruise overall , my last Carnival cruise was on the Destiny a couple of years ago and was so awful that I said I would never go on Carnival again unless it was free. Well, last night I got my chance.

 

 

I was invited to go the Inaugural of the Carnival Dream and I must say I was very impressed.

First the ship was huge, a bit gaudy for my taste but definitely an improvement over some of the other ships.

 

 

The rooms were small. I was in an 8E and it was smaller then the E's on any of the RCCL's ships I have been on in Radiance and Voyager class. They still need to take care of some things at least in the cabin we were in. The light on the vanity was not working properly only half of it lit and then was blinking. The biggest issue we saw was it didn't look like they measured the curtains right and the curtain was too narrow and even completely closed left a gap of about a foot. The inner sheer curtain was correct but the heavier black out one was not. Thank goodness we had to get up early this morning and it was gloomy to boot or we would have had light streaming into the cabin as soon as the sun rose.

 

 

We were able to tour several rooms and the penthouse suite and the regular suites are tiny and they wasted way too much room on the dressing area in my opinion which takes away from the main room . They do have a great quint room for a family of 5 that has two bathrooms. There are only two of these on the whole ship on deck 1.

 

 

The ship is again quite confusing to get around since only decks 5 and 9 go straight through, had to backtrack several times to get where we wanted to.

 

 

The buffet for lunch was just ok and I have food allergies and was very hard to find anything to eat for lunch as everything was mixed with something else or had sauces and stuff on it and I was scared to try it. . Hubby found plenty to eat though and said it was pretty good. We had dinner in the main dining room and I had lobster tail (small,but cooked perfectly, it came with a couple of shrimp) and shared a prime rib so we had surf and turf. Both were excellent. The service was on the slow side but ok.

 

 

The Serenity adults only area was very nice but I was disappointed as there was no pool there, though the hammocks for 2 looked cozy.

 

This was the first inaugural I have gone to and we got to see the god mother Marcia Gay Harden as she was walking through the ship. The ceremony was very nice also and something I had never witnessed first hand.

 

 

We went to the show kind of by accident and it was FANTASTIC, I would say probably the best show I have ever seen at sea.

 

 

It is hard to make a complete judgement on a one night pier side event but all in all I was very impressed with the ship and staff. I am not sure if I would sail on it as it's itinerary does not excite me at all but I would definitely recommend it to clients.

[BroncosFan2010]

Is it just me or is the Carnival decor just way too much??? It looks gody. I don't know, I guess I prefer RCCL so much more in this department. I feel classy on a RCCL ship! LOL

[Sue L]

Is it just me or is the Carnival decor just way too much??? It looks gody. I don't know, I guess I prefer RCCL so much more in this department. I feel classy on a RCCL ship! LOL

 

 

The neon and glitz are Carnivals trademark, it was pretty loud but much more subdued then some of their other ships.

[invisible777]

Like the rest of the Carnival fleet it looks like a floating daycare center....

[mdd3145]

Wow thanks for the pictures of the Dream. I am a teacher and my school system just passed the calendar for next year and we now have a Feb. vacation. I am so excited since I can now travel when the prices aren't outrageous. I am ready to book for Feb. 2011. The last 2 cruises we went on were on the Mariner out of Port Canaveral. We love Royal and said we wouldn't go back to Carnival. We can drive down to the port in morning and not have the expense of flying. I love RC but am torn between the ship now there or go back to Carnival since the Dream is leaving out of Florida. Any suggestions? My son is away at college so it would just be my husband and I so I really don't care about any of the kids activities. What do you think about going back to Carnival?

[MrPete]

Two "berths" in one week!

 

Great time for cruisers. Both families should be VERY happy!

[mdd3145]

I agree that the decor on Carnival ships is terrible. I have said that the dining rooms give me sensory overload, especially on the Miracle. It is a more pleasant dining experience on RC.

[clochette]

Thanks for the picture Sue, it is great to see what the dream look like, we started cruising on DCL and thought that we would never change, we now have cruised twice on RCCL and loved it, my kids are very intrigued by the slide on the dream, the decor does not work for me, but who knows...

[MrPete]

Re: the Carnival decor....

 

WE have found the decor in real life is never as bad as the pictures, and I realize everyone won't agree. Even the Miracle DR wasn't as bad as we expected, but it WAS an eyefull! :eek:

 

But it was bad enough that they changed it a bit.

[crusinmama06]

Thanks Sue! I wouldn't have seen this on the CCL board so I appreciate you posting it here.

 

Yeah, it's not for me. Thanks Sue!

[crusinmama06]

Re: the Carnival decor....

 

WE have found the decor in real life is never as bad as the pictures, and I realize everyone won't agree. Even the Miracle DR wasn't as bad as we expected, but it WAS an eyefull! :eek:

 

But it was bad enough that they changed it a bit.

 

Pete, it's just so dark. And I can't figure out why. And I am not trying to be argumentative, I guess I am just wondering out loud. Every picture is dark. The lounges are dark. The atrium is dark. The cabins, dark.

 

I was hoping they would make some changes on Dream and actually change the style (like RCCL had done with some of its classes, like making the Radiance class more glass). But it seems like CCL has a style and they like it, their passengers like it and they aren't going to change it.

 

I guess I was expecting more this time.

[luckyprincess]

I agree that the rooms are dark but it looked like it was just the camera and at night? That's what I assumed. Some of the carpets are really loud (but more quiet than the carpets in AC!) but I think the molded soft chairs at the one lounge are really, really cute and modern. Also, the little piano scheme on the bar is adorable. The deck chairs also seem far, far above what I saw on the Radiance, but maybe I just had some bad luck there - they were all those plastic strip type lounge chairs that you have to put a towel on to be comfy and not have weird marks on you!:p

I love the bronzes and coppers in the cabin. Can't imagine how that would look 'dark' but that may just be my personal taste. I like Oriental style colors and design - burgundy, copper, bronze and whatnot.... What I can't stand is a dark color on the walls - pretty much anywhere - I have friends that just painted one of their rooms a dark green and another a dark red and I just lied and said it was nice! lol - but it felt way too confined!:D I actually find a lot of RCCL glitzy, too but it never turned me off. I have seen some of the pics of some older Carnival ships and that's a bit much for me. And coral/pink cabins are not my style either, but hey - I'd still try it out!:)

[Sue L]

In the interior lobby areas and such there is no natural light so everything is lit up with neon. The area inside by the fun hub and such were very dark and then gets darker and darker (ambience I guess) as you get to Sam's piano bar. We spent about 2 minutes in there but so smoky couldn't stand it (this from an 2 year quitter).

[Sue L]

Pete, it's just so dark. And I can't figure out why. And I am not trying to be argumentative, I guess I am just wondering out loud. Every picture is dark. The lounges are dark. The atrium is dark. The cabins, dark.

 

I was hoping they would make some changes on Dream and actually change the style (like RCCL had done with some of its classes, like making the Radiance class more glass). But it seems like CCL has a style and they like it, their passengers like it and they aren't going to change it.

 

I guess I was expecting more this time.

 

 

Those pictures are pretty representative of the lighting. It was at night but all those public areas were very dark, I guess so the neon stands out, which is all over the places.

[luckyprincess]

Those pictures are pretty representative of the lighting. It was at night but all those public areas were very dark, I guess so the neon stands out, which is all over the places.

Well if it's like NYC it's dark so everyone looks better! lol jk:p

[Sue L]

Well if it's like NYC it's dark so everyone looks better! lol jk:p

 

 

 

Who knows, also you the chairs you mentioned were very nice but they were only in the adults only section, the ones by the pool were the slatty torture kind.

[luckyprincess]

Who knows, also you the chairs you mentioned were very nice but they were only in the adults only section, the ones by the pool were the slatty torture kind.

Oh that's interesting! We aren't 'kid people' (no, doesn't mean I hate them:rolleyes:) so that's actually a nice thing for us!:) I love the term 'slatty torture', lol - very precise! Are those neat hammock chairs in the adults only section, too? Thanks for posting your review for me above!!

[Sue L]

Oh that's interesting! We aren't 'kid people' (no, doesn't mean I hate them:rolleyes:) so that's actually a nice thing for us!:) I love the term 'slatty torture', lol - very precise! Are those neat hammock chairs in the adults only section, too? Thanks for posting your review for me above!!

 

 

Yes the hammocks were there also, but I was disappointed there was no pool in the adults section like on RCCL. The solarium pool on the Radiance class is my perfect spot. The adults area was up high in front of the ship where it will likely be brutally hot and a small overhang and the covers on the nest chairs were the only shade that I could see. It would likely be way to windy up there for any kind of umbrellas.

[Cruising89143]

Pete, it's just so dark. And I can't figure out why. And I am not trying to be argumentative, I guess I am just wondering out loud. Every picture is dark. The lounges are dark. The atrium is dark. The cabins, dark.

 

I was hoping they would make some changes on Dream and actually change the style (like RCCL had done with some of its classes, like making the Radiance class more glass). But it seems like CCL has a style and they like it, their passengers like it and they aren't going to change it.

 

I guess I was expecting more this time.

 

First of all, thanks to Sue for posting over here. Nothing wrong with that.

 

Second, I agree with Michele. The ship seems dark. Reminds me of the Spirit class ships. As I posted in a different thread, I would like to see a Carnival ship without a Joe Farcus design. IMO he is starting to repeat himeself and the decor is tiring. Many like it. I grew tired of it.