Windard Ha! Weathering the Dream (Verbose with Beaucoup Snaps)

[Time2CruiseAgain]

Loving your review! We will be on the Dream in May!

 

Looking forward to more! Keep it coming!

[anjoliza]

Can you tell me which pier you docked at in Cozumel?

 

Great review -I'm sailing her in April!

[Steelermoose]

Hey Stephen...it was a pleasure meeting you this past week and i am glad you had a great time. It was great meeting Gloria and james as well as tammy. We had an unbelievable time and will be back on her in may as well for the eastern itinerary

[purpleblanket]

I'm enjoying your review Crewsweeper.

What cabin number did your sis in law and bro in law have?

We were booked for 11244 and I heard from another poster that was in 11226 that the treadmills were so bad they moved - so i've changed our room to the port side 11243 so there will be a cabin above and under us.

 

did you ever use that golf simulator?

How about any golf excursions?

 

thanks again

 

 

Debbie :)

[crewsweeper]

Thank you so much for your detailed review.

Can you tell me more about Gerry and how you contacted him & cost.

 

Thanks!

Nicky

You can contact Gerry through Mike Thompson at cozumeltaxi@hotmail.com Mike handles his bookings. It's minimum 3 hours $95 then $25 per hour after. That's for the vehicle. We had the van but normally he has a sedan that'll seat 4. The van is a little more and will seat 6-8 people. I think his car was in the shop that day.

[crewsweeper]

How far is the Playa Bonita from the pier - the food looked great and i would love to try it.

From Puerto Maya, it's probably 30+ kilometers. You'll need a taxi or set up a rental car. Not hard to find, there's only one road around the island. And the food is good. I love the chips and salsa.

[crewsweeper]

I'm enjoying your review Crewsweeper.

What cabin number did your sis in law and bro in law have?

We were booked for 11244 and I heard from another poster that was in 11226 that the treadmills were so bad they moved - so i've changed our room to the port side 11243 so there will be a cabin above and under us.

 

did you ever use that golf simulator?

How about any golf excursions?

 

thanks again

 

 

Debbie :)

Debbie they were in 11230 so you were a little further back toward the door way and probably under the spa salon. But moving to the other side is good assurance, only treatment rooms or cabins above you. we did not use the golf simulator. Or even play minigolf, just too windy at sea and doing other things in port. Only golf excursion on Western is in Cozumel.

[crewsweeper]

As the week passed, I had set out a routine while on the ship that gave me a bit of perspective on the ship’s facilities. An early riser, I would hit the gym around 6 or 6:15, do a 5k on the elliptical trainer and alternate dumbbell weights and machines for major muscle groups then some ab work. The gym is scheduled to open at 6 AM but there were always a few people on the treadmills before. You can enter the big doors leading to the Cloud 9 Spa before they were pushed back. While this lets the fitness geeks start their morning workouts early, the treadmills are right over the port side spa balcony cabins on Deck 11. so at 6 AM every morning as the treadmills began to crank up, those folks sleeping on Deck 11 would get an early wakeup thump thump thump from above. This isn’t intuitively clear from the deck plans as the plans don’t account for the setback of each deck. And the dumbbell area is over some of the inside cabins. Despite a thick pad and signs saying “DO NOT DROP WEIGHTS!”, I’d often see big galoots trying to do arm curls with the 50# sets and then letting the dumbbells fall to the floor from bench height. So that too created the thump wakeup calls for passengers sleeping below. I never heard this, but my SIL and BIL and wife did. My wife and SIL made a complaint to the steward and the Spa desk on this and later hearing that someone had gotten credit for noise from one of the clubs, they went and registered a complaint at Guest Services. Guest Services just sent them a letter acknowledging they had the complaint and giving the address to get in touch with Corporate. We’re waiting to see if this gets resolved in any fashion. But it’s not a make or break on the cruise or our plans to return.

Afterward, I would shower in the spa showers, and change for the day. Because I could enter the Spa from the circular stairs, by the second day, I would get a whiff of the odor when I reached the landing. But all the doors to the Thalasso Pool and teams rooms were opened and the air was circulating. I never smelled any odor, other than sweaty towels and bodies in the gym. And by the time I finished my workout, the odor by the landing had dissipated.

I would have breakfast on the Lido deck around 7:45 or so every morning. Usually no lines or short lines. I’d eat on the aft deck outside if the weather wasn’t windy. And have my coffee and on sea days sit there and work a crossword or Sudoku puzzle.

In the afternoon, or after returning from shore on port days, We’d all visit the spa. The Thalasso Pool was an excellent place to relax after walking around all day. On our first sea day, and my first use of the pool, there was a rhythmic wave motion in the pool. It actually made it a bit of a fun thing. You could “body surf” to one end then surf back. I thought there was a button you pushed to make this happen. But my wife, just laughed and said “No, it’s the ship moving.” I saw the same thing happen in the Wave Pool on the Lido deck, which is why I thought it was called a “Wave” pool. But I never saw this effect again while I was in the Thalasso Pool.

From the Thalasso Pool, we’d do a steam for a few minutes, hose off with the cold shower water, steam again and either repeat or head for the warm benchs for a short soothing nap. Then we’d go to the tea room for a hot cup of herbal or green tea and sit and watch the ocean go by. Very relaxing. My wife, Kathryn, did a couple of spa treatments and while they were a bit hard sell, she said they treatments were very good and the staff was very friendly. So all in all, even with the early morning noise, the Cloud 9 Spa was worth the extra $ for the cabin.

After we dressed for dinner, we’d stroll along the Promenade Deck, deck 5. We never really went around the entire ship due to the excessive wind. But we’d usually wander up to the Plaza Café and see what their special drinks were. We tried the Saketinis once and they were fun but not something we’d make a habit of. I missed the Mojitos day for some reason. Then we’d swing by the Wasabi Sushi Bar for sushi. Different types of sushi rolls are prepared every evening and handed to you 3 on a small plate. You serve yourself with wasabi, ginger, soy sauce and other condiments. One evening they had mussels and other tapas type dishes. We’d usually sit in the chairs and lounges nearby and people watch a bit. Or go outside and sit on the Lanai deck for some nice sunsets. This deck is going to be fabulous to stroll and people watch in calm weather.

Then off to dinner.

Now back to the regularly scheduled port reviews.

[crewsweeper]

The weather had indeed rejoined the ship in Cozumel, and Tuesday morning broke with clouds and light intermittent showers. As I ate breakfast, we sailed past Coxen Hole and I could see 2 ships already docked there. As we reached Mahogany Bay, the ship swung around and backed into port. I caught my first glimpse of the new port, the beach cabanas and the infamous “hill” out to the independent tour operators. I’ll post more pictures on the Roatan Board for others to see.

 

But here’s the overview of the facilities

 

And you can see the steepness of the hill road by the angle of the van coming down.

 

We love Roatan and have enjoyed the zip lines and West end beaches in the past. But this time we had decided to just explore the new facilities. Given the presence of 4 ships on the island that day, and the rainy weather, this proved to be a good decision for us.

 

It was raining lightly when we first left the ship. Karen, Rich and I walked around the pier shopping area, took the path over to the beach, and looked at what was offered.

We walked along the beach in front of the cabanas which are now roped off and a security guard posted to keep non-cabana users away from the cabana beach chairs. These places looked nice for large groups but I think they’re a bit pricy for what you get. There’s a 3rd bar on the eastern end of the cabanas with some thatched covered tables. And the last building west of the cabanas is for private functions. We then came back and stepped out side the pier area.

 

Directly across from the pier area is a new zip line, Clip and Zip. You can see the big yellow sign from the ship. It’s 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of zip lines for $40 pp. They’ll have a website up soon, wwwdotclipnziproatandotcom.

 

I bought some Honduran coffee that was grown on the mainland but fresh roasted on the island. Smelled wonderful. Can’t wait to have a cup. The coffee stand is in the white building at the end of the port area that looks a bit like Los Cinco Soles in Puerto Maya, Cozumel.

 

We headed back to the ship for some lunch and to find my wife who had spent her morning in the spa somewhere. I hit the burrito bar today. Decent and the salsa wasn’t too bad. After lunch we all headed back out and showed my wife the beach area. It started to rain again

 

And we sat under the covered area next to one of the bars and had a couple of Honduran brews, Salva Vida and the Port Royal pilsner. With the rain, both bars were hopping and seating was a premium. But the showers were short lived and we went walking along the beach.

[crewsweeper]

Antsy, my BIL decided to go kayaking. It’s $20 for a half hour—whether single clear bottom, or doubles. Even though they advertised single kayaks for $15 ½ hour, they only had single clear bottom. These aren’t great kayaks. So we switched to two doubles that had an open seating area in the middle. They are pretty decent and I’d recommend asking for them. They’re the orange ones in the picture. You can only kayak from the walk bridge out the inlet to the reef and back. But it takes you almost the full ½ hour to do it. Water is very shallow. This is fun, but not very time consuming.

So we headed back to the ship and the spa for the afternoon. That evening was our first evening of late dining in the Scarlet Room.

Your Choice Dining is a whole different world from Your Time Dining. At the 8:15 seating, we had a 10 person table for the 4 of us. Our servers were Max from Peru and Alan from Honduras

These two were great. Very friendly, learned our names right off, took our orders promptly, chatted with us and managed to do the same with a table for eight next to us. That was their only 2 tables. Alan loved to dance at “Showtime” and had a great time when Kathryn and Karen both got up and danced with him each night.

Tuesday was wild Mushroom Soup night, Rich’s favorite soup. And it was excellent.

Karen had the fried shrimp, Kathryn and Rich had the filet and short ribs. I had the Spa grilled snapper with grapefruit sections that added a bit of moisture and flavor to the fish.

Dessert was old fashion apple pie. Rich was in heaven…he loves pie.

And a WCMC for the “table”.

 

After dinner Kathryn wanted to watch StarTrek on the big screen but it was a bit rainy so she and Karen just wandered about a bit then went to the cabins and had room service bring hot tea. Rich and I went to see “Dancing in the Streets” The show was excellent. The Encore Theater was packed when the show started and people were still looking for seats after the 3rd or 4th number. The Joe’s Diner number was a great piece of fooling your eyes. The finale was uproarious but the costumes will take you back to the yuppy Colors of Bentleton commercials. If you see one show, don’t miss this one!

 

[crewsweeper]

Somebody must have played a joke, but a ship's poll said 63% of the passengers on board wanted to go to Belize.

Darn. The weather caught the ship in Roatan. The day started off windy and cloudy. Our original intent was to grab a water taxi and head up to Caye Caulker, walk around get a fish kabob from Carlos and head back early. Since BIL has a tendency to get motionsickness in small crafts we cancelled the idea. Many people were canceling excursions, so Rich grabbed an empty snorkeling slot and headed out about 8:45 A. His wife and I were laughing as the snorkeling excursion tender pulled away and immediately began bobbing up and down. Kathryn decided to stay on board. So Karen and I grabbed a tender around 10:30 and set out to explore Belize City. The weather must have caught our tender because once we hit the pier, the sun came out and the wind died down.

 

Once you leave the Tourist Village, you are accosted by the hawkers for tours and carriage rides, but just say no and keep walking and they’ll leave you alone. For those looking for an internet café, there’s one on Fort Street a bit past the Wet Lizard entrance to the village. We headed across the swing bridge, taking pictures or things that interested us.

We had no safety issues walking down Regents Street except for this ferocious guard dog.

 

We went all the way down to St John’s Church, the oldest Anglican Church in Central America.

And then across the street to the Governors House which has art and historical artifacts, but is undergoing renovation.

Then we headed back up toward the swing bridge.

 

[crewsweeper]

Hey Parrot7..Albert.. We found JamBel Jerk Chicken!

 

A person told us the owner died and the restaurant couldn’t find a buyer so they were tearing it down.

There were a number of local places around that would probably have caught the interest on any Roadfooders out there.

Despite appearances, this market woman wasn’t running a strict vegan fruit stand.

 

She also had a variety of fresh meats for sale.

 

And next to the swing bridge was Carmita’s interesting menu combinations.

And it you needed something for your tummy ache, this guy had the antidote.

 

Walking back down Queen Street over to the bay and a round to the light house.

[crewsweeper]

Then back to the Tourist Village to have a Belikan beer at the Wet Lizard.

 

The WL was crowded and there was at least a 20 minute wait for a table, with people standing on the stairs in the sun.

But nobody was complaining. Funny how that long of a wait on the Lido deck would generate tons of negative comments.

We were able to grab a couple of seats at the bar and proceeded to order our Belikans , meat pies and conch fritters.

 

Grabbed a tender back to the ship. Hit the spa and then the Serenity Deck which was crowding fast. But we found my wife up there.

This was the night for the past guests party. We were disappointed not getting a past guest pin. I heard that Platinum cruisers get key chains delivered to their room. So my wife decided she wasn’t going to go. SIL and I went. Free drinks were still served. We had about 3 whiskey sours each. Plus some finger food. The salmon balls were tasty. The ship’s band played some big band jazz for a while, then Todd came out and introduced the video showing all the past Carnival ships. John Heald opened the video by telling us to clap and cheer each time we saw a picture of a Carnival ship we had sailed on. “We’ll be watch you,” he said. “And if we see you not clapping, we know you snuck in here.:) “

 

Dinner was New Zealand lamb chops and seafood newburg. Dessert was Bitter N Blanc; a bread pudding cross between WCMC and the Grand Mariner soufflé, which we hadn’t seen yet. Max and Alan repeated their good service. New comedians arrived in Belize and Rich and I headed for the Comedy club. We caught Marvin Bell’s 11:00 P show. SRO. Wow what a mouth…but he had a good routine on stupid people and other things.

[hkbragg]

You mentioned the specialty drinks in the Plaza Cafe. Are these at a special discount every night?

[crewsweeper]

Hurray! The weather didn’t come with us! It was bright and sunny and warm when we got to Costa Maya. You could see some of the damage around from Dean back in 2007.

But the port looked bright and fresh.

We had scheduled a power snorkeling excursion with the ship and headed out around 7:45 to meet up. We rode north along the highway for about 15 minutes the cut east along a grated dirt road toward the ocean. At our beach were also the beach snorkelers and snuba excursions. All in all maybe 40 people. After instructions on equipment our guides took us out for about 45 minutes of snorkeling.

There were some fish, but not nearly as many as Rich had seen on the reef in Belize. Then we relaxed on the beach for a half hour or so. There’s absolutely nothing around there. No development to the north and the 3 houses about a kilometer south looked deserted or still had hurricane damage. So this was a great excursion.

Back at the pier, the others wanted to hang out on the ship or just look at the pier shops. So I set out to see the “sleepy fishing village” know as Majahual (or Mahahual as the road signs say).

Outside the cruise pier, there is some development going on. The Hard Rock Café is no where near being completed

, but the Tequila Museum is open.

[crewsweeper]

A five minute $3 cab ride and I was in Majahual. Let me tell you…this is not my idea of a sleeping fishing village. With 3 ships in port, the malecon was hopping.

You could get a massage on the beach.

 

I opted to try to find a small place one block over and up by the soccer field called 100% Agave, ran by a guy named Fernando. It was a great little covered courtyard of a spot.

For all the business one block over, I was the only one in the place. Fernando was very cordial and treated me as an honored guest. I got to try both a Leon, cerveza obscura, something like Modelo Negra, and a Montenjo, a clara beer brewed only in Yucatan.

Chips and salsa were served in a conch shell.

The rojo salsa had a fabulously fiery kick to it that stayed with you a long time. The menu was extensive with lots of seafood. I had the tacos lechon. Lechon is a slow roasted suckling pig and this piggy was delish.

 

Then Fernando brought me a shot of tequila, telling me I didn’t need salt or lime at all. He was right. This was a good sipping tequila. When I asked him who the distillery was, he just pointed to a small wooden barrel.

And he sold me about a liter’s worth for $5. All total, 2 beers, tacos, tequila, the bill came to $12. I gave him $20 and told him to share the change with his workers. Now the alcohol was telling me I’d better scoot back to the ship, so off I went sharing a cab with a couple of others, $2 pp.

[crewsweeper]

Dinner was second elegant night, but there was a Michael Jackson movie on the big screen Kathryn wanted to see early. Rich and Karen didn’t want to dress up again. But Kathryn didn’t want to miss the chateaubriand and the baked Alaska for dessert, so she headed for early dining (they let her in on level 4 Scarlett) while BIL and SIL went for the Lido buffet. I hung around and went to our late seating. Someone had to entertain Max and Alan. Well, I had dinner partners. It seems that a couple had originally been assigned to the table but were all alone, so they moved to another table in the middle of the room. But the next 2 nights were wrap up dinners for the Marketers Gone Wild group of internet marketers having a meeting on board so they moved back to the original table.

We had a nice chat. They were RCLers, and as is typical on these boards, tooted the praises of RCL over Carnival, but avoided my questions of why choose the Carnival Dream and not the Oasis of the Seas.

 

For dinner I had escargot and eggplant appetizers. My chateaubriand was cooked a nice medium rare as requested. Very tender. For dessert I had the amaretto cake. But no WCMC for the table tonight. And I did not get up and dance with Alan.

While I ate, the others enjoyed the movie on the big screen.

After the movie and dinner, Rich and I went to the Comedy Club and saw Mike Macy. He was a riot.

And when we returned, this guy was hanging around.

[crewsweeper]

Well, overnight we caught back up with the weather. After a gorgeous day in Costa Maya, Friday dawned cloudy and windy, albeit a tad warmer than the trip down. Kathryn and I spent most of the day on the Serenity deck in one of the covered loungers pressed back against the area separators.

They put out then removed the put out loungers on the Serenity deck as the sun tried to come out several times and people wanted to get outside.

I hit the pizza station for lunch, simply because it was a fast line and Kathryn and Karen were going to the Scarlet Room for lunch so I wanted to maintain our chair. Magarehita pizza was good. As I walked through the Gathering, the lines appeared to be medium in wait with the deli the longest.

I didn’t see too many chair hogs. Just wasn’t a chair hog day.

But the covered chair next to us had one. A pair of guy’s sandals were there when we came up shortly before 9 A. He came back soon after. Then his wife/girlfriend joined him for a few minutes. Then they left. My SIL came up and sat there for a long while. Then she left. After about 15 minutes, a trio of women came along. Sat down, got comfy and were there until nearly 11 A when the guy and woman came back and rudely asked them to leave. Then went on a tirade about missing pair of shoes. The women, not wishing to make a big deal of it, moved. The couple stayed for about an hour but left for good after I got back with my pizza.

Mid afternoon, we headed for our spa routine, showers and then to pack before dinner. Dinner was lobster bisque, crab cakes, fried shrimp. I had the Salmon in dill sauce.

Dessert was…finally…the Grand Mariner soufflé . IMO one of the best dessert Carnival does. Plus a final WCMC, “for the table”.

Rich and Karen had caught the last comedy act before dinner. So we all walked around a bit and tucked in. But Karen lined up the towel zoo for a group photo

I forgot about the walrus family.

And we got a nonanimal heart from Wasun.

[crewsweeper]

Sadly it came time for us to say a long goodbye to the Dream.

It was rainy but warmer than when we left Port Canaveral.

We were Zone 10, 8-8:20. So we had a nice breakfast in the Scarlet Room and then gathered out last minute items and departed. Lines moved a bit slow as you had limited area before the customs screening. My wife had bought 6 bottles of liquor the night before and I didn’t have them on the customs list. So we got sent to the “principal’s office” and admonished, but no duty fees were assessed. Took a while for all the luggage to show up and about 15 minutes for the CI&S shuttle to arrive, after we called them. However, we were loaded and in the car heading down Rte 528. Rich and Karen had no problems with their Cocoa Beach shuttle and were sitting in the airport by 10 AM.

 

Our road trip home was uneventful until we hit I-10 then the weather found us again and it rained hard all the way home.

Overall, we had a great cruise. Making the best of the conditions beyond our control.

The Carnival Dream is a beautiful ship and we found it easy to navigate. But we weren’t able to get to everything. The weather wasn’t conducive for the water slides or minigolf, althoughboth were open in port and the slides were open on the last day at sea. We didn’t eat at the Mongolian Wok, the deli, or try the Lanai BBQ. I only visited the pasta bar on embarkation day. Just not enough time. Kathryn and Karen did tea on the first sea day. We didn’t hang out in the atrium where they were dancing in the evenings, but the singer there had a pretty voice. We missed all the deck parties, not intentionally. We didn’t go clubbing outside the comedy Club and a brief couple of visits to the Song Lounge as we left a comedy show. Nor did we get to stroll around the entire promenade deck like we tried to a couple of time. We’re not into the trivia games or the various contests. Btu cruisers who complained about nothing to do on the ship surely didn’t get out and look for anything. There was always something going on somewhere.

 

We can’t wait until May to come back and try all the things we missed and go back to the things we enjoyed as well visit the Eastern Caribbean ports.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this review. And if you're Dreaming soon, I hope you have as enjoyable a crusie as we did only with better weather.

 

Crew

 

[azkcruizers]

Crew,

Thanks so much for taking your time to post your review. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I'm only sorry you had such lousy weather, but lucky you boarding her again in such a short time :) I am glad you had a great time and made the best of it and at least "found something to do" besides the conga line and chicken dance. My fear is that I also won't have time to do everything that I would like to do. I'm sure I won't be bored.

Once again...............thanks for a terrific review! It was nice to read something positive.

[crewsweeper]

Crew,

 

Thanks so much for taking your time to post your review. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I'm only sorry you had such lousy weather, but lucky you boarding her again in such a short time :) I am glad you had a great time and made the best of it and at least "found something to do" besides the conga line and chicken dance. My fear is that I also won't have time to do everything that I would like to do. I'm sure I won't be bored.

 

Once again...............thanks for a terrific review! It was nice to read something positive.

Karen...Feel the fear and do the chicken dance anyway:D Seriously, just relax and enjoy and roll with the punches, but punch back if you have to. You're going to have a great time!!

 

Crew

[tlund]

Crew,

 

We were out by the pool to watch the Michael Jackson movie as well. I recognized your BIL in the picture. He had to ask a few unruly youngsters to smoke in the smoking area. They, then, started a little trouble after they moved and finished their smokes. My husband asked your BIL if he wanted a bit of back up. That was the only bad experience we had with other passengers. Considering we typically cruise RCI (although we've been on Princess, Holland America and Celebrity), I had expected worse as we were under the impression that Carnival cruises were for the young unruly partiers. We didn't find that at all on this cruise and only came across those three young punks. Being in our 40's, we are definitely beyond the unruly parties.

 

Thanks for the review. I'm still trying to figure out how to post my pictures. Waiting for help from my husband.

[CeleBrat]

Nice review! I love that you guys all went your separate ways, and had your own adventures. Thanks too for sharing your Mexican day-trip. We may have to do the very-same-thing next time we visit.

 

Jealous you are doing the Dream twice this year! Can I go with?

 

CeleBrat

[crewsweeper]

Crew,

 

We were out by the pool to watch the Michael Jackson movie as well. I recognized your BIL in the picture. He had to ask a few unruly youngsters to smoke in the smoking area. They, then, started a little trouble after they moved and finished their smokes. My husband asked your BIL if he wanted a bit of back up. That was the only bad experience we had with other passengers. Considering we typically cruise RCI (although we've been on Princess, Holland America and Celebrity), I had expected worse as we were under the impression that Carnival cruises were for the young unruly partiers. We didn't find that at all on this cruise and only came across those three young punks. Being in our 40's, we are definitely beyond the unruly parties.

 

Thanks for the review. I'm still trying to figure out how to post my pictures. Waiting for help from my husband.

 

That was you? Rich told me the story. He said when they looked down from Deck 11 one mouthed the f word and Rich raised up like he was going to get out of his chair and they tore off down the deck:D I'm sure there was a bit a bravado in the O2 that evening as they probably bragged about how they told off some old dude. but thank your husband for the assist. And just have him go out to photobucket or flickr ot webshots and sign in and load the pictures. It's time consuming but once in it's fairly easy to post them here.

[crewsweeper]

Nice review! I love that you guys all went your separate ways, and had your own adventures. Thanks too for sharing your Mexican day-trip. We may have to do the very-same-thing next time we visit.

 

Jealous you are doing the Dream twice this year! Can I go with?

 

CeleBrat

Hey come on...We're doing the America cups races in St Maartin and going to Fish Fry in Nassau. It'll be a blast .

 

Crew