My picture laden, long review of the Carnival Dream 2/20/2010

[denisey]

The bad news is that it is long, with pictures! The good news is that it is already all written, so the suspence should be too bad.....or should that be the other way around?

 

As I always enjoy other people’s reviews of their trips, I thought I would write my own!

 

A little background…I met a great group of folks here on Cruise Critic and we formed one of the first group cruises. A whole bunch of years later, we are still friends and look forward to getting together every now and again on a ship. I almost didn’t go because we have other vacation plans for the year, but I couldn’t resist.

 

Since we live on the West Coast, we decided to fly into Orlando a couple of days early. There are 2 flights a day direct, nonstop from Seattle to Orlando, so we were lucky enough to have a companion ticket for that flight. It brought the total airfare down to something reasonable and made the flight time 5 hours, rather than the 8 or more it would have taken with a connection.

 

We got into Orlando at 10 PM, grabbed our bag (we took 2 carryon sized bags, but checked one, for convenience). We then caught the hotel shuttle and stayed the night at the Orlando Airport Courtyard Marriot. It was a nice place and fairly reasonable for one night. We had dinner at the TGI Fridays that was right next door, and then got some sleep.

Friday morning, we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport to pick up our minivan. I didn’t think it made sense to pay for an extra day car rental, just to have it sit in the hotel parking lot. Once we got the van, we ran some errands, picked up some stuff at Walgreens and found a nail salon to fix the nail I broke at the airport. Tiger Woods was apologizing all over the TV the whole time I was in the nail salon. Then back to the airport to pick up our friends who flew in from New York that morning. We were able to cram all the luggage in the car and off to Port Canaveral. It is an easy drive, about 45 minutes, made quicker by traveling with good friends!

 

We had booked rooms at the Radisson. We’ve stayed there in the past, and really like the hotel. We met up with some other friends there. We had dinner at Fish Lips that evening, which was great. The food was good and reasonable. I had tried to make reservation at The Grills and the woman who answered the phone was extremely unpleasant. They couldn’t have been nicer at Fish Lips, so we were thrilled. After dinner, we visited Ron Jon’s.

[denisey]

Here is "all" of our luggage!

 

[denisey]

We got up early Saturday morning, all excited for our cruise. We had a very nice breakfast at Zachary’s, right next door to the hotel. Just a tip, the hotel dining room was packed. We got the Zachary’s by 8 and got right in, but there was a line by 8:30.

 

We could see the Carnival Dream from the hotel. Those blue and yellow slides and the whale tail really stand out!

 

We did get the famous call before we left Seattle to come to the port between 1:30 and 3:30 for better customer service. Yeah, right!

 

We then packed the car up for the trip return the rental car. Avis was just a mile or so down the road. We got the van dropped off by 10 am and waited a short while for the bus to the ship. We were at the port by 10:30, gave the porter our one suitcase, and went to find the VIP line. We were some of the first people at the port, so we breezed through security and check in and sat in the VIP chairs. They let us get on board at 11:15! Woo Hoo! Some of our friends were not Platinum, but since there weren’t many people in the building at the time, they let our friends sit with us after they checked in.

 

The photographers weren’t ready for us, so we did not get an embarkation photo. It was done on a ‘green screen’ so they added a picture of the ship later. (Hint, don’t wear blue for embarkation, the picture they import will show up on your blue clothing)

 

The atrium lobby struck us as really small. It does go up quite a few floors, but is much smaller than the Conquest class. We immediately got in line at the Shore excursion desk to sign up for the Behind the Fun line. They didn’t open until 11:30, so we had to wait a few minutes, but were the first to get our tickets. We were helped by Elena, who was a bartender on the Carnival Freedom in 2008 when we did our transatlantic. It was great to see her again!

 

We then ran up to the Lido deck for our first Drink of the Day and lunch. All the buffet lines were fairly long, so we had a nice sandwich from the Deli. My first impression of the Lido seating area was how tightly they squeezed the tables in. It was difficult to walk between them when no one was there, it was almost impossible once you had people and luggage in the area.

[denisey]

We then went down to our cabin, 7460, which was a coveted aft cabin. We wanted a wrap, but they were all sold out. This is the first time we’ve been in a regular cabin for quite a while, but it was nice and spacious. The closets were a little odd, one had shelves, one had a regular rod, but the third one had a rod that went from front to back. It made it hard to see what clothing I had in there. Our room steward was Ben, and he was fabulous. We’ve always had great stewards but Ben really excelled!

 

As any experienced Carnival cruiser knows, you never know what you are going to get in the shower lottery…Will it be a good shower…will it be an evil one? Well, we got a good one. The curtain did not attack us, the water did not slop over the edge, and there was plenty of hot water for me. Yeah!

[denisey]

We unpacked and then went to the Scarlet dining room for our muster drill. Piece of cake, nice to not have to drag the life vests around. We then went to the Sunset bar to meet up for sail away. We did see the dolphins (or were they porpoises?) dancing around in the water. Since the ship was facing the right direction, it was smooth sailing right out to the Atlantic Ocean. It was fun when the Disney ship blasted their horn. It plays “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

 

It was not very warm in Florida, so rather than hanging out on the open decks, we went back to our cabin to change for dinner. We had late seating in the Scarlet on the upper floor. We were in the front of the dining room, right by the rail, so got to see the happenings on the lower floor. We had Elbert and Norman as our fabulous waiters. The food was good all week, with a few exceptions. My Chateaubriand was overcooked and tough, but hubby’s was nice. We all enjoyed the flat iron steak.

 

We did not attend a single show all week, so no review there (no production shows, no comedy shows, no movies under the stars, no laser shows, no port talks, no shopping talks, no debarkation talk.) The first time we even saw the show lounge was on Wednesday, when we met there for an excursion.

[denisey]

When we got back to our room we had our biggest disappointment of the week. I really like the idea of the promenade that goes all the way around the ship, but I really didn’t like the way it stuck out from the side of the ship. It was bad enough during the day, when we couldn’t look straight down at the water, but at night it was awful. The deck is very well lit up, so that when we stood at the rail of our balcony, we couldn’t see the ocean or the stars because it was too bright. Since this is the main reason we get an aft cabin, it really diminished our pleasure of being on the ocean. I would probably not book an aft cabin on this class of ship again, and would most likely go for a Cove Balcony (which I disliked the idea of before getting on the ship)

 

While we are on the subject of balconies, I will mention that you can see right in the balconies on deck 6 from the Promenade. You can see a little of deck 7 and none of deck 8 or 9. You can see even more clearly into the deck 6 balconies from the stairs to the hot tubs. Some of our friends had balconies on deck 6 and mentioned that there wasn’t a noise problem most the time. They were on the Port side, which is the smoking side of the ship. They did get some cigar and cigarette smoke on their balcony every now and again. I am not complaining about the smokers, that is the side of the ship they are allowed to smoke on. I am just letting nonsmokers know that they should try to get balconies on the Starboard side, if smoking is going to bother them.

 

 

Sunday was a sea day, so we relaxed, sat on the balcony, read and did little else. It was rather cool temperature wise all day. We did have breakfast in the dining room, which was the standard breakfast fare. We also had “brunch” in the dining room. I’m not so sure I like this. There were a lot of egg dishes on the menu and they had the same menu all week. I did find a couple of things I really liked, but I think I like the old revolving lunch menus better.

[denisey]

We got gussied up for dinner and tried to meet some friend for drinks at the Casino bar. This is the bar that does martinis. I tried the famous Kiss on the Lips, but didn’t like it so much, it was too sweet for me (and that is a statement I don’t often make!). When we got our bill it was hand written and we got a little note to go to the Guest Services desk as soon as possible. Well, from my reading here on CC, I realized that meant a problem with our credit card. I sent hubby back to the cabin to bring back a fine selection of credit cards, and then off to the Guest Services desk. There was quite a lovely line, but we just breezed up to the Platinum line (this is my favorite perk!) Apparently our card didn’t swipe properly at the pier, so they had to reswipe it. I will admit I had thoughts of our number being stolen and someone out there shopping on my AMEX, but no problem. There were several other people who mentioned the same problem during the week.

 

I did put some money in a slot machine, but really don’t like the cashless system. I usually gamble $100 or so on a cruise, but only did $40 on this trip. Since I won $100 on the pull tabs, I left the ship ahead of the game! Woo Hoo!

 

The lobster on formal night in the dining room was really nice. It wasn’t huge, but a nice size and cooked perfectly.

[denisey]

Monday was Cozumel. This has always been one of our favorite ports. They had been predicting thunderstorms, so we were anxious about the weather. It was overcast in the morning, but turned out to be a great day. We did watch a big thunderstorm roll in after the ship was leaving port. We heard from some folks that did a land vacation in Cancun that it was quite an incredible storm. We wondered off the ship and caught a taxi to Paradise Beach. There was only one ship in town that day, so good for us, but bad for the taxi drivers and the shop keepers. We sat on the lounge chairs and drank beers and ate nachos and just enjoyed life. DH and I left the beach at 2ish and caught a taxi to the down town shopping area. It was dead! We saw almost no other tourists. We were looking for a particular jewelry shop to get a stone replaced in a ring, but they had gone out of business (Rachet and Romero). We did find a beautiful necklace for my mother in law, looked in a couple of other shops and then went back to the pier.

 

 

 

 

I learned later that the CD recommended not going into town during his port talk. This really upset me. His reason was that any of the recommended shops are on the pier. Well, in my opinion, that is like going to Epcot Center rather than Europe ‘cause it has the same things. There is nothing wrong with Epcot Center, but it doesn’t replace the real thing. Several of the shops downtown mentioned their concern that the area will start to become unsafe, since the tourists are not coming to the area any more. That is pretty sad.

[denisey]

Tuesday was Roatan. This was a new port for us, so we were pretty excited. I booked a Victor Bodden tour for 6 of us. We got off the ship and looked around at the shopping village as we walked through. We walked up the path to meet our tour. It is not too bad of a climb, but anyone in a wheelchair or who has walking difficulties might have a problem. My understanding is that if you send part of your party up the hill, they can then drive the van down to pick up the rest of the passengers.

 

Victor was waiting for us at the top of the hill with a sign. He put us on a shuttle bus that took us to our driver, Ismael. We really enjoyed our tour with Ismael, he took good care of us. As we drove around the island from place to place, Ismael told us about the area and history. We first did the zip line tour. Half of our group zipped and the rest of us watched. It looked like great fun.

 

We then went to a beach to relax. The first beach we went to was full, so we wound up at Fosters Beach. It was small but very pleasant. We had a nice picnic table with an awning to sit at. The water was as still as glass and as warm as bath water. There were

no jellyfish at this beach, I heard a few of the other beaches had a lot of them.

 

 

We then went to West End for lunch. We went to a great open air restaurant that faced the beach. The prices were in Lempira (Honduras currency) but the waiter helped us convert it to dollars. The restaurant was on basically a one lane dirt road. The entertainment at lunch was watching the cars and trucks try to go two ways on the road, around other vehicles that were parked there. A couple of times, we thought we would never be able to get out, but after some horn tooting, everything worked out.

 

View from the restaurant

 

Coming out of the restaurant

 

After lunch we went to the Cameo factory. There were a couple of artist working on cameos and a couple of signed on how they came to be making Italian cameos in Honduras. They had some pretty pieces in their cases, but not a very large selection. We also did some souvenir shopping. The store had beautiful carved mahogany chests, but I didn’t know how I would get that home. We bought a cute little box.

 

That was all we had time for, so Ismael dropped us off at the ship. We did a little shopping on the pier, then back on board for a nice refreshing shower.

[denisey]

Wednesday was Belize. We had missed this port the one other time we tried to go there, so we were excited to finally see Belize. I grumbled a little bit about the early port time, but once I was up and moving, I was excited. The day started overcast, but was beautiful later in the day. We decided to go the the ruins at Xunantunich (Zoo-Nan-Too-Neech). We met at the Encore lounge and were escorted to deck 0 for our tender. A couple of passengers without tender tickets tried to get off and were sent back. We had to wait a short time for us bus, and then it was off to the ruins. Our guides Jose and Jorge gave us information on Belize and the Maya people. It is normally a 2 hour drive to the ruins, but about an hour into the drive the bus lost its air-conditioning. Since it was a coach, we couldn’t open the windows. The guides called for another bus, and we kept traveling until the second bus could catch up. The second bus was more of a school bus, much less comfortable and did not have a rest room. And shortly after we got going, it lost its air conditioning! At least we could open the windows on this one. It took us close to 3 hours to reach the ruins. The guides did a great job of keeping us informed, but we weren’t very happy campers when we got there.

 

The bus dropped us off at a little hand cranked ferry that took us to the other side of a river. We then got in mini buses to go up the hill to the site. There was a parking lot with some shops and a rest room (yeah!) We then strolled up the hill to the ruins themselves. We have been to Uxmal and Tulum prior to this trip. These ruins weren’t as large as Uxmal or as pretty as Tulum, but still very impressive. Our guides took us around the site and explained the different buildings. They then gave us time to climb the main temple. We chose to just climb about 1/3 of the way. We went back down the hill and had a little time for shopping at the parking lot, and then back on the mini buses and had a little time to shop at the ferry stop. We then went to a restaurant for a yummy lunch. There was chicken, rice and beans, a fried plantain and coleslaw. It was delicious and we all bought a bottle of Sweet Pepper Sauce. We mostly dozed on the way back to the ship. I figured with the bus problems we would be rushed back to the ship, but we did have a little time to look at the shops on the pier. Even with the bus problem, we all decided this was a fabulous tour and were glad we did not miss it. It did bring home the reason we didn’t book a private tour in this port!

 

Ruins

 

Ferry to ruins

 

We then hopped on a tender and headed back to the ship. We walked around the open decks and watched the four ships in port that day leave. It was fascinating to watch these four huge ships doing a conga line through the reef to get back to open ocean.

[denisey]

More pictures of the ruins:

 

Rest room at parking lot

 

Main Temple

 

Us:

 

View from the temple

[denisey]

Thursday was Costa Maya. We were with a group of about 25 people on the ship, so we arranged to have a private beach to ourselves. We went to Maya Chan, and I highly recommend them. We paid $45 a person (the two little ones, 1 and 3, were free). That included transportation to and from, open bar with loads of yummy drinks and a fabulous lunch. It also included snorkel equipment, bikes, kayaks, fresh water showers and the greatest staff imaginable. Massages were available for a small fee.

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to all meet on the ship and get off together. We strolled to the pickup place. It took about ½ hour in a cab on a bumpy road to get there. The beach had seaweed on the shore, but a Mexican gentleman spent the day raking it up. We had a ball drinking, relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. The cabs to take us back to the pier came much too soon (okay, they were right on time, but we didn’t want to leave!). We had a little time for shopping on the pier and them back to our ship.

 

 

 

We decided it was time to try one of the slides when we got back to the ship. The big twister slide was closed, so we went on the drainpipe. Let’s just say it wasn’t my cup of tea. It goes really fast and you get too much water in the eyes to enjoy the ride.

 

[denisey]

More pix of Maya Chan

 

Beach puppy

 

Beach Kitty

 

Dancers at the Costa Maya pier

[denisey]

Friday was our last Sea Day, and we had the 9 o’clock Behind the Fun tour scheduled. We meet our group of 16 people in the song lounge. I know this tour is expensive ($95) but it was the highlight of our trip. You have to wear closed toed shoes and they wand you to make sure you do not have a camera or cell phone. The training manager (I think her name was Alicia) spent the next 4 hours taking us all over the ship. There is a lot of walking and stair taking, but it was paced nicely. Our first stop was the galley, where we saw how to make pretty decorations for parties and yummy treats. We went to the big corridor that goes from the aft to the front of the ship on Deck 0, we saw the beverage storage room full of soda pop and beer and hard liquor. We went to the engine control room, where the absolutely gorgeous Senior Engineer told us about the systems and how the work. We went down to deck B and saw the laundry, which was incredible. They have a machine that two men feed sheets into. The machine then dries, irons and folds them. Somewhere in there we saw where the Brig and Morgue are. We sat in the crew lounge (small room for 1,400 crew) We saw the Crew, Staff and officers dining rooms. We spent a little time in the training room and heard all the programs they have for the crew. We then went to behind the stage in the Encore lounge. I suspect that would have been more interesting if we had actually seen any of the shows. We went to the front of the ship and saw the crew deck and hot tubs. We went to the Bridge next and spent quite a bit of time talking to the 2nd officer and the captain. The Bridge is huge and has (along with all the equipment) a lounge and plants. Since the Officers have to spend so much time there, they might as well have some comforts. There are a lot of monitors on the Bridge. Since the Promenade deck sticks out so far, they have cameras that show the captain where the ship is in relation to the docks. After that, we finished up at the Steak house, where we got to see the galley and talk to 2 of the chefs. As gifts we received a backpack, hat, bracelet, lanyard, a carved bar of soap (like a swan). When we got back to our cabin there were treats from the chef (cookies and chocolate dipped strawberries) and pictures of us in a couple of places on the tour and with the captain. We loved the tour and would recommend it! One of the nicest things was to see and talk to some of the crew that usually doesn’t interact with the passengers. They were all so happy to talk to us and proud to show us what they do on the ship. Even just the crew on the lower decks who we went pass would say “Good Morning” and “Have a nice tour!” It was great.

 

Sorry no pix!

[denisey]

We then went back to our cabin, only to find neither of our keys worked. Hmmm, maybe we ran out of credit and they wanted us to pay up. So we decided to go to lunch in the MDR first, then went down to the Guest Services deck. Keep in mind, our cabin and the dining room were aft, the Guest Services are forward. There was a line, but we went right up to the Platinum desk. We exchanged our keys, and the purser mentioned sometimes the locks have problems, we should call if these don’t work. So all the way back to the back of the ship, and guess what? Yup, those keys didn’t work either! So we went to the elevator lobby on deck 5 and tried to call Guest Services, but no answer. So all the way back to the front of the ship and back to the Platinum line. The Purser called maintenance and walked with us to our cabin. The maintenance guy was there. They tried the master key, which worked, and 5 or 6 room keys, which did not. The maintenance guy went to go check something and the purser stayed with us the whole time. A few minutes later, Mr Maintenance came back and we were good to go!

 

We had a group cocktail party later in the afternoon, and then spent a little time cramming our stuff back in the suitcases. Then it was one last dinner! Sigh!

 

We did have a little bit of mutiny on the last night at dinner! I’m fairly sure this was an alcohol related incident! A large table on the main floor of the dining rooms started singing “Heeeey, Hey Baby (ooh – ahhh!) I wanna know-oh-oh, if you’ll be my girl.” Well the table next to me was having none of that and sang back “Heeeey, Hey Baby (ooh – ahhh!)….So the original table got all the tables around them to sing. Then the table next to us got all the tables on the top floor to sing. The Maitre’D knew when he was beat, and dug up the music for the song, and the whole dining room sang the song, with the Maitre’d standing on one of the serving stations with the mike. It was great fun. The wait staff then did their usual “Leaving on a Fun Ship…”

 

Bad pix, but here is the maitre'd singing:

 

[denisey]

Since we had a 6 o’clock flight on Saturday, we decided to take the Kennedy Space Center tour. We meet up in the Encore lounge, and once all the participants were there, we were escorted off the ship. Our new room keys let off a horrible buzzing sound when we put them in the scanner, so we thought “WooHoo, we get to stay on the ship!” But no, they looked us up and let us go. The space center was very interesting, and I recommend it, if you ever get the chance to go.

 

 

 

 

Then it was back to the Orlando airport and an uneventful flight home.

[denisey]

Over all, it was a great cruise, made better by great friends. The Dream class will never be my favorite class of ship, and I don’t see myself rushing out to book another cruise on this class. They eliminated some of our favorite spaces to make more room for the extra passengers, and cause quite a few choke points in the floor plan. That was made even worse in the evenings, with the photographers taking up space in an already tight area. The smaller atrium and pool deck made those spaces less useful, we really didn’t go to either, except to pass through. The tables in the dining room, lido deck and steak house were very close together, and it made it hard to get through those areas.

 

We did smell the sewer smell a couple of time in the aft stairwell at deck 6. It didn’t bother us, as we just keep going to our destination. One time, in that area, a gentleman loudly expressed his opinion that someone had a gas problem (phrased a little differently). We also smelled cooking smells in our cabin several mornings. If It were bacon, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but it was a greasy frying smell. Neither of these were going to ruin our cruise, but I had been hearing a lot of press on this topic and wanted to share my experience.

 

Also, in our Platinum letter that was in our room, it implied that each Platinum passenger only received one bag of laundry free. Our room steward told us not to worry about it, he would take care of as much laundry as we needed. On two occasions we gave him a bag at night, he sent it out first thing in the morning and we got it back in the evening. One pair of my underwear came back an interesting shade of green (!?!?!?!?) but not a big deal. I sent the same pair out the next time, and they came back normal. As stated before on this board, I wouldn’t send out delicate stuff, but it is great to send t-shirts and undies out.

 

There were about 400 children on this cruise, but they weren’t a problem. I think there were around 150 Platinum guests, so we had great service there. Over all the staff was the best I’ve had on board any ship. They were all smiling and helpful and glad to see us.

 

I might get flamed here, but also wanted to give my opinion on the famous John Heald as a cruise director. As I stated earlier, we just don’t do any of the activities on the ship, so the cruise director hasn’t made a bit of difference to us since the first cruise. I couldn’t even tell you who the CD was on most of my cruises. We did make an effort to watch some of John’s shows on the TV, and he was funny, but for us, it really didn’t matter.

 

Any questions?

[denisey]

A couple of pix i missed:

 

 

Our balcony, it was a nice size:

 

 

Here is something you don't see on many reviews, a sunRISE!

 

 

Waterworks

 

 

I loved the hall art:

 

[KJPG]

Denise - thanks for the review. We're doing the Eastern version in 2 weeks. We're another carry on only family and we don't do shows either. I think I've seen one production number in our 8 cruises so far. We'll be 1 deck up and a couple of cabins over, port side (first aft on deck 8).

 

The ship looks great. Based on your hallway art, I think I'll be the woman trolling the halls, taking pics of the walls.... :D

[denisey]

Denise - thanks for the review. We're doing the Eastern version in 2 weeks. We're another carry on only family and we don't do shows either. I think I've seen one production number in our 8 cruises so far. We'll be 1 deck up and a couple of cabins over, port side (first aft on deck 8).

 

The ship looks great. Based on your hallway art, I think I'll be the woman trolling the halls, taking pics of the walls.... :D

 

The hallway art was great! Much more colorful than the monochrome in most of the ships. It made the halls seem brighter. It was pretty repetitive, but still fun. One of the stair wells (the middle one, I think) had big panels of the pictures.

 

Have a great cruise!

[Oakman]

Here is "all" of our luggage!

 

Congratulations on the excellent packing. I also saw you have Rick Steves luggage. Isn't it GREAT!!!! we always pack the same way (Even to Europe) and have found carry-on is the only way to travel. Really enjoyed the review.

[denisey]

Congratulations on the excellent packing. I also saw you have Rick Steves luggage. Isn't it GREAT!!!! we always pack the same way (Even to Europe) and have found carry-on is the only way to travel. Really enjoyed the review.

 

Thanks! Isn't amazing that once you figure it out, it makes your life so much easier!

 

We live in Rick Steves Land (about 1/2 hour from his travel center) and have been lucky enough to go to his free lectures on travel and packing. If you are ever in the Seattle area (Alaska cruise?) make plans to run by, it's a great place and Rick himself is often there.

[Fungusgnat]

I very much enjoyed your review!!! I was on the same cruise - down in the cove balcony section!!! Each person who does a review presents things in a different manner and with a different perspective. I am NOT a seasoned cruiser - a LONG time between journeys - and I have no SOLID memories of my first cruise, which was also on a Carnival ship during its first year. I know, however, that the atrium on the Dream was ....what?......confusing and cluttered? Yes, I guess that is how I would say it. Not a bad thing, but just a judgment call on that.

 

Thanks for your photos - the ones of your cabin could have been from mine - amazing how absolutely similar those cabins can be.

 

Thanks again

 

:)

[mrpayroll]

Enjoyed your review...We did same ports in January but we missed Costa Maya due to high winds. Sounds like it was a nice port...:rolleyes:

[sailingawaysoon]

Thanks for the awesome review. We will be sailing the Dream in May and we are reading everything we can get our hands on. I loved your sunrise picture...that was incredible! Sounds like you had a great time too.

 

Do you happen to have a website link you can send for the beach you visited in Costa Maya? We are going to Nachi in Cozumel and I was looking for another all inclusive beach. Thank you in advance.