Any current Dream reviews (12/19-1/8 or so)?

[Dirtyoldad]

Is anyone back from the Dream within the past month os so?? After reading the reviews from early December I'm getting a little bit nervous...

[TheDivineMsM]

I see you're an 'experienced cruiser.' Don't expect too much from The Dream..not much to recommend it.:(

[redworm1]

im going next week a cruise is what you make of it.

[larryo]

There were 9 of us on the trip ranging in age from 4 to 48. Everyone has been on at least one other cruise and some of been on 4 or more on different lines.

Don't worry. We all had a great time. The staff were great, the ship was clean and the food was okay.

 

If you have any specific questions let me know.

[mswolffan]

We sailed on the Dream on January 2 - I agree witht the other poster - a cruise is what you make of it. I was pleased with the ship and the itinitary - the weather was great once we got into the Gulf. The first day and night the water was pretty choppy (8 to 10 ft swells) but I was secure with my Transderm patch and let it rock me to sleep. On the trip home it was foggy, foggy, foggy going up the river, so the fog horn was going all night -- or so they told me, I didn't hear a thing! As far as the Dream went, I thought the staff was excellent for the most part -- we had several different wait staff - I thought they were all good but several were excellent and we requested to be seated at their table and got our request most times. Only one night did we have to wait (about 15 minutes) when our whole group of 6 were together. Our cabin steward and maid were excellent and seemed to be on duty from early morning to late at night. Kept our room neat and clean every day, returned in the evening to turn down our beds.

 

Just as a reference, I have been in the restuarant business for 26 years, so I would not call the food outstanding, but I didn't have a problem with it. The entree selections were limited to 3 choices, but there were several hot or cold appetizers, a couple of soups (the soups generally were excellent), several salad choices, a vegaterian and a pasta selection, and always had the chicken breast on the menu. Appetizer portions were small (the only guy in our group usually ordered two appetizers, and sometimes two entrees).

We usually rotated between the Four Seasons and the Terrace for dinner. I would see the staff from lunch in one dining room waiting tables in the other dining room for dinner, so I guess they swap around, or work where needed.

 

Every food service place has the sanitation stands before you go into the dining room or the buffet. You hold your hand under it and it squirts a little squirt of antibacterial sanitizer on your hand. Some people gripped about it but I thought it was a good idea (except it discolored my acrylic nails!) They also make you sanitize everytime you come back on the ship -- after seeing some of the places we were in on shore, VERY good idea!

 

I wasn't too impressed with the Pizzeria - but then again I'm not crazy about hamburgers and hot dogs -- they did have a selection of salads, pasta, fruit, various kinds of pizza and cookies, and we would eat there if the main dining rooms had closed.

 

Only made it to the Sports bar once -- the crew wanted ice cream and pie so got some to take back to the room.

 

The Chocolate Buffet -- it was like calling the pigs to the feeder -- I have never seen people take so much food and waste it - piles and piles of stuff --took a couple of bites out of it and then left the rest -- that was the longest line we stood in and when we got to it everything was empty.

 

The only time I saw someone (staff) being unpleasant was when we went down on the last night to pick up the liquor we had purchased. We were supposed to pick it up between 7pm and 9pm -- we were down in the gift shop and at about 6:50pm we got in line where they were going to be handing it out. Whoever was in charge of that was very surly (like we were in his way, which we weren't) and was really short and snappy to one of his fellow employees. But we got our booze and left them to it.

 

I honestly did not take advantage of any of the entertainment. I've had a long rough year and I wanted to relax. Normally at home I'm up until midnight or later -- on the boat, after dinner by 9:30 I was in bed asleep.

 

All in all, it was a nice, relaxing cruise -- we got to do several things at the ports, got to buy the medicine I wanted and swam with the dolphins.

 

However, I think next time we plan vacation, we're going to fly to Cozumel and stay the week there. We spent most of our time waiting to get off the ship and waiting to get back on, so didn't get to do a lot of the things we wanted to. But, all in all, it was a good cruise.

[broncofan]

MSWOLFFAN summed it up pretty good I thought. We were on the same cruise.

I would add that the entertainment was fair to good save for the comedian/juggler. I know that sounds like an odd combination but do not miss his show.

[japit]

Just returned from Dream 1/16 - 1/23. 9 of us ages 3 - 65. All had a great time. Ship was nice, (not glitzy) cabins roomy, bathroom small, and the food was good. Kids thought room service was the best. Kids enjoyed kids crew. Husband enjoyed sitting at bar in heated pool and the Texas Hold -em. A great time was had by all. For what we paid we got one heck of a bargain, and would do it again in a heart beat. Enjoy your trip!!

[Dirtyoldad]

Thanks all. I feel better about it now

[Lisa&Neb]

anyone else have anything to say?:confused:

[MobileMystic]

I am new to the boards (also pretty new to cruising.) I was very encouraged by the review above. My family is cruising the Dream in March for my 21 year old daughter's spring break. We have only cruised once before and that was on the Carnival. We don't expect glitz, and I'm sure we'll have a great time!

[alwysonvctn]

This was our 3rd cruise all on smaller older ships. We had a great time. We are not big drinker or dancers, just like to relax. We encountered very friendly staff and very good food. The ship was clean, though a bit hard to navigate. We would take this cruise again anytime.

[dianelevene]

I am glad to see a few nice things said about this ship. We have booked a trip on the Dream for Alaska this summer. It had the itinerary we wanted and it a bit longer than the usual Alaska cruise. I am going into this with open eyes though. I expect decent food, a clean bathroom and a comfortable bed. I know this ship is not new or glitzy. I am not going to book any excursions through the cruise line so we won't have to deal with that part of the staff. My biggest fear is the children's staff. We are bringing our two daughters who have really enjoyed going to the kids' program on Costa and RCI. I hope they will enjoy NCL's program too. It makes the cruise a much happier experience. Has anybody been on the Dream recently and used the children's program? If so, how was it?

[japit]

I don't have any other cruise line to compare to because NCL is the only one my kids have been on. We had a 3yr old with us who had a blast. He didn't want to leave and couldn't wait to get back. Our 11 yr old wasn't interested in the program for 6 - 12 yr olds, but our 12 yr old was there as much as the 3 yr old and he loved it. Our 14 yr old was disappointed. He kept going to the things scheduled for the teen club but only 1 or 2 other kids would show up. Part of this problem may be the time of year we cruised (Mid Jan) We pulled our kids out of school for the cruise. Enjoy!

[dianelevene]

Thanks for the information about the kids program. My girls will be happy if there are things to color with and a few other kids to play with. The Costa kids program was not fancy or anything but my girls loved it because the staff was very sweet to them. I am pretty sure that there are not going to be a huge number of kids on this cruise because it is so long. It always seems like longer cruises attract fewer families with young kids. We are making plans to keep busy in the ports with lots of excursions. I have recorded a couple of shows from the travel channel so that I can show my daughters what to expect in Alaska. Hopefully they will be really excited by the time we get on the ship!

[karifromla19]

We just sailed on the dream 1/23-1/30. Let me first by saying because of these message boards we were prepared for the worst. One other note we were on this cruise with 22 other family members, which was the only reason we went on ncl, not our choice. We have been on 2 other cruises through RCL which were the Rhapsody of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas. In my opinion NCL is almost 180 degrees different than RCL. I do understand the dream is an older ship but everything from the staff to the food is not as good as RCL. The stabilization system on NCL ships is absolutly horrible. The dream swayed back and forth on both sea days in the gulf. Me being in a wheelchair had to stay in bed all day saturday because I couldnt stop from falling over. In comparison both of our RCL cruises were in the gulf with big seas but we never knew we were on a ship.

 

Good points about the Dream I thought the entertainment was a little better than what I saw on RCL. I love the fact the virgin drinks were only 2.00 instead of 6.00.

 

Back to the bad points The staff is very good at what they do but because of the automatic tipping policy I believe they are less friendly and dont go out of their way because of the automatic tips. On RCL I was sad when we had to leave the cruise knowing we were leaving friends when we left the wait staff and room staff which we over tipped because of this. In my opinion the food was good but not better than RCL. The Dreams buffett was nothing compared to RCL. I hate to sound like a big complainer but thats not what I'm trying to get across I'm just making sure people see both sides of the Dream.

 

I'll put it this way if this would of been my first cruise I would have had fun but I'm not sure if I would be very excited to go on another NCL cruise. In comparison when I got off the Voyager of the Seas I had already booked another cruise on Jewel of the Seas.

 

Another thing I think the main problem in my experience was I just came from Voyager of the Seas which is 1100 feet long compared to the Dream at just 750 feet long which is a huge differance and might have been the problem with the boat shaking.

 

All you first time cruisers I suggest you take RCL instead or you might be disappointed and the cost is exactly the same.

 

Please don't start yelling at me for this post. It's just I was letting you know my experience. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

[mbisson]

Hi Kari

Sorry your cruise wasn't all you hoped. I can agree with some of what you said, but my experience isn't quite the same as your's on the pricing issue. The cruises I've looked at NCL actually normally has lower pricing than RCI, if you are comparing comparable weeks, cabins, and itineries. I do like the way RCI treats their Crown & Anchor members and have used several of the discount coupons that come in the C&A Magazine. Also, being Platinum C&A members I like having the coupon book they distribute in the cabins and the free use of a bathrobe. Not a whole lot of benefit being an NCL Latitudes member.

 

I do think that the buffets on the newer RCI ships are great compared to the ones I've seen on the NCL ships. But I love the waffle stations on the NCL ships for breakfast. Other than that, at least to me, food on the two lines is pretty comparable (I'll get killed for this but RCI has much better lobster-if that's an important thing to you). I haven't had any problems with the staff being less than great on either line. And while some might love getting to know your waiter and tablemates, to us, we enjoy the freedom of eating when we want, rather than eating when we're assigned.

 

I don't know that it's fair to judge any cruise line from one cruise on one ship. Things change week by week and ship by ship on all lines. Some day you might want to consider giving one of the newer NCL ships a try, but hey, if you're happy with RCI and can't see any reason to change, that's great also. Cruising is seldom a "one size fits all" thing so whatever you do---Enjoy

 

-Monte

[Host CMLA]

Back to the bad points The staff is very good at what they do but because of the automatic tipping policy I believe they are less friendly and dont go out of their way because of the automatic tips.

Did you know that you could adjust that amount and if you knew you could do this, did you do it? Hopefully your TA let you know that it is adjustable. If the service wasn't up to par for you, you should only have to tip what you feel appropriate. On the NCL cruises I've taken since the auto tip I haven't really noticed bad service across the board. Sometimes here...sometimes there...I'd have bad service but I really think that those people that take pride in their job do a good job even if they get no tip. In any case...sorry it wasn't the best cruise for you and the 22 others.

[lm48]

My family and I (8 of us all together) were on the Dream 1/2-9/05. It was a first cruise for all of us. We had an absolutely wonderful time - of course we had nothing to compare it to! We did enjoy the freedom of the ship and especially liked the "free-style". Will we sail on the Dream again? I don't know but I do know that we will stay with Norwegian simply because of the free-style cruising!!!

 

It was a wonderful week of absolutely gorgeous weather - perhaps only 30 minutes of rain the entire week. Food was good but nothing out of this world. Entertainment left a little to be desired (could that be because practically all of my family is musicians?!!). There was plenty to do on the ship and if not - you could always relax!!

 

All in all on a scale of 1-10 I would rate it about an 8!

[Host CMLA]

It was a wonderful week of absolutely gorgeous weather - perhaps only 30 minutes of rain the entire week. Food was good but nothing out of this world. Entertainment left a little to be desired (could that be because practically all of my family is musicians?!!). There was plenty to do on the ship and if not - you could always relax!!

 

All in all on a scale of 1-10 I would rate it about an 8!

Thank you for sharing your opinion. It's always great to hear from first time cruisers that share their experience without having any preconceived notions of what it should be, etc. You'll find that now that you've cruised once you'll compare your next cruise to this one. We all do it. ;)

 

As for the Dream, it's not the grandest ship with the best food. But it's a nice ship with good food. I've cruised the Dream four times and while I loved all my cruises on her, I prefer some of NCL's other bigger and newer ships because they were built for Freestyle. The Dream wasn't built for it and sometimes it doesn't go as smoothly. It's fantastic that you didn't have any snags. If you're hooked on cruising now, I'd suggest the Dawn or the Star next time so you can see how the "new" fleet compares to the "older" fleet. Also, have you considered trying Princess Cruise Lines? I haven't tried them but they have something called Personal Choice Dining. It's similar to NCL's Freestlye.

 

Thanks again for sharing your opinion and welcome to the board. :D

[canadagal]

I copied this from a buried post 3 pages back if you want to find it. We had a terrific time on the Dream.

 

 

Back from Dream Jan 30 to Feb.06/05

 

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I must say I was apprehensive about this ship and crew before we embarked after reading some of the negative comments on CC. I am pleased to report that we experienced none of the problems that the others did previously. There is a new cruise director, named Simon Murray and he did an outstanding job in my opinion and is a real upbeat people type of person. He had been on the ship 3 weeks and hails from Australia. Noticed one of the hair stylists had only been onboard for a week too so the crew has had some changeovers. The captain was also set to leave. Our cabin steward, Roberto, was a gem, friendly and personable and much to my surprise always addressed us by our names. Our cabins were always kept in a clean manner and he left us towel animals 6 nights out of 7. He always made a point of asking us if we were enjoying our day etc. In fact every crew member we met in the hallways always said good morning, or good afternoon or welcome back onboard and with a smile. Their service was very good. Food was good also........not fine dining but then again this is not SilverSea so I was not expecting that. None the less it was good and enjoyable. Unfortunately we missed Cancun but the Captain made the right call as a storm was approaching and he thought it would be unsafe. Many people complained about this but it was quite obvious that bad weather was coming in quickly and within 20 minutes of cancelling the port there were swells and whitecaps on the ocean and the winds picked up and it started to rain. I was within 10 feet of the tender waiting to board for a shore excursion when they decided to nix the port. That tender boat was bouncing all over the place then and that was before the weather came in so there was no way we could have safely boarded. I'm sure the crew were not too happy either that they now had a full ship of people as I know several of them told me that they were sleeping in on a day off when they got the call to get up and get dressed as the port was now cancelled. They took it all in stride and even though their day off was cancelled they did their utmost to service us in a pleasant manner and try to keep us all entertained at a short notice. I was quite impressed. In summation both my husband and I had a wonderful cruise and it was good value for the money. Would I cruise the Dream again........without hesitation. So the rest of you that are booked for a future cruise on the Dream, stop your worrying and start dreaming and planning on a wonderful cruise as things have changed and the change is for the good. Happy Cruising!

Pat