Wednesday's Review of the Carnival Dream 6/12/10 Western Caribbean

[wednesday]

A little bit about us, there were 4 adults in our upper 20's and early 30's and one 2 year old in our group. I have a lot of photos so I will post this in parts. Also if anyone wants to see anything in particular, let me know and if I have a photo of it I will post it.

 

Embarkation

 

We arrived at the port around 10am and had no line to check in. We sat and waited for about a half hour after check in. We were allowed to board early because my nephew was in a stroller. Embarkation was a very smooth and easy process.

 

 

[wednesday]

Our cabin Spa balcony 11245

 

The room was nice, clean and well maintained. Our room steward Antonius was great and always greeted us by first name and asked how we were doing.

 

There are a couple of issues with this particular cabin that I want to address. 1) The proximity to the stairs and elevator meant some noise from people loitering and talking or kids running wild late at night, we had a similar location on RCI’s Navigator of the seas and didn’t have this much trouble with noise. There is not a lot of ambient noise in the cabin and you hear balcony doors slamming and people talking pretty well when you are trying to sleep, we ran into another couple that said the same thing. A suggestion from me for anyone traveling on this ship is to take a white noise machine or load white noise on your laptop. I was thankful I had some white noise on my laptop, after the first restless night I used it and had no more problems. 2) If you are booking a spa cabin to get away from the smoke, this is the last spa cabin on deck 11 so the people next to you can smoke and they did …frequently :( I thought being upwind would prevent me from smelling it but no such luck, it smelled very strongly on my balcony. I wish they could come up with some way for us non-smokers to be able to enjoy our balconies without being subjected to others smoke. This was my second Carnival cruise and on both I felt like I could rarely enjoy the balcony because of smoke.

[jimbo5544]

Nice start

[wednesday]

The Spa

 

We only used the thallasso pool and it was great to relax in after a long day in port! It was rarely busy when we went (usually between 9 and 10pm.) To access the spa from deck 11 you just head forward and turn left (or right) and go through a couple doors and you have access to the spa stairs and elevator, go up one flight and the check-in desk and thallasso pool are on that floor. You turn in your room key and are given a wrist bracelet and access card. I would book a spa cabin again in a heartbeat.

[reeree313]

The spa pool looks amazing. We sail a week from tomorrow in a spa cabin and i cannot WAIT. I don't remember if I read it or not, but is the spa pool salt water or fresh?

 

Thanks

[crewsweeper]

Great start...we had Antonious in May...very nice, hard working guy. I can see you cabin being a bit more closer to the general ship noise as you're right at then end of the spa cabin row. We were farther up toward the bow. But everyone has noise from balconies, jus tthe way they are.

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[wednesday]

The MDR

 

We had a great table (621) in the upper Scarlet dining room, it was a 4 person by the window and in a back corner, we loved it! Our wait staff Junaedi and Adidarma were amazing, they took awesome care of us. The bar waitress Pornpun was excellent as well and made fast friends with our 2 year old nephew, lucky for her she was disembarking at the end of our cruise for her vacation time off. :) The food was pretty good. The beef was better than I remember it from our 2007 Legend cruise and the jumbo shrimp were excellent in every dish they were served. There were only a few things that we didn’t care for. I will post the food pics by the day so stay tuned.

 

[wednesday]

The spa pool looks amazing. We sail a week from tomorrow in a spa cabin and i cannot WAIT. I don't remember if I read it or not, but is the spa pool salt water or fresh?

 

Thanks

 

I don't really know, I know there are added minerals so it is probably more like salt water. One night there was a really strong chlorine smell in the water. Hope this helps

[manonreal]

Can't wait to hear more!!!!!

[topspin1267]

The spa pool looks amazing. We sail a week from tomorrow in a spa cabin and i cannot WAIT. I don't remember if I read it or not, but is the spa pool salt water or fresh?

 

Thanks

 

Do you have a spa balcony, ov, or interior? We sail in October and booked interior. I'd love to see some pics. We usually do a balcony but decided since we're almost never in the cabin and we no longer smoke, the $$ was better spent on excursions and other "stuff"

[wednesday]

The Lido area dining and lanai bbq

 

We tried the buffet, which was pretty good. The lines were not that long but the place did feel very crowded and I think it is because of the location of the drink stations on the main walkway through the buffet area, they create a jam with people lining up for drinks, lining up for the buffet and the ones just trying to walk through the area. I think if they could just find a better place for the drink station it would help.

 

The burrito bar was awesome; I highly recommend a shrimp and lemon rice burrito! The deli was good. The Mongolian wok was great; I liked being able to add as many veggies as I wanted. The pasta bar was good but I found the Alfredo sauce a bit bland, nothing some salt didn’t correct. My husband liked the tandoori; I never had a chance to try it. We also had the lanai bbq and I must say the pork soft tacos are yummmmmy.

Lanai BBQ

Pork tacos, chicken quesadillas and nachos from the lanai bbq

chocolate buffet:D

[wednesday]

Entertainment and activities

 

We never managed to see any of the shows or comedians, so can’t comment on those.

 

We wanted to try the putt putt golf but when we went up there it was so crowded with people we didn’t bother going back for equipment to play. It would have been nice if it stayed open later than 6 so people could play when it is cooler and maybe less busy.

 

My husband liked the big water slides and my nephew could have spent all day on the children’s slides.

[wednesday]

Do you have a spa balcony, ov, or interior? We sail in October and booked interior. I'd love to see some pics. We usually do a balcony but decided since we're almost never in the cabin and we no longer smoke, the $$ was better spent on excursions and other "stuff"

 

It was a spa balcony and there are a few pics posted above. :) It is easy to walk out to the front public walkway from the spa rooms so if you don't have a balcony and want fresh air you can alway take a very short walk out to that area.

[jimbo5544]

The spa pool looks amazing. We sail a week from tomorrow in a spa cabin and i cannot WAIT. I don't remember if I read it or not, but is the spa pool salt water or fresh?

 

Thanks

They are fresh water and very nice. Keep in mind these are only available to SPA cabins, unless you purchase a SPA pass which are limited in number.

[wednesday]

Fellow Passengers

 

Saw some inconsiderate behavior from fellow passengers. We watched from our balcony as one guy tried to toss a cigarette overboard (I am pretty sure he had to have heard the pleas not to do this at the muster drill or even read one of the multiple signs :mad:) of course it blew back in and landed on the deck where he left it without putting it out. This is after he lit a cigarette for a young boy who could not have been older than 13!?! Mind you this is all happening on the non-smoking side of the ship. These were just a few people and most of the smokers, especially by the pool were on the side that allowed smoking. Someone scratched graffiti into the inside of one of the elevator doors and in another someone stuck the chocolate mints they put in the rooms on the control panel. There was an issue with unsupervised kids as well.

 

We met a lot of really nice people and didn’t let the few rude people ruin our vacation but I just wonder why it is so hard for some people to follow the rules and to just be considerate to the people around them? :confused:

[wednesday]

We had perfect weather all week and enjoyed every one of our ports!:D

 

Cozumel

 

We used one of the taxi services at the port to do an Island tour, I had never been to the other side and it was beautiful! We enjoyed getting to see the sites. After the tour we had lunch at Camilo’s, a small restaurant one street back from the main drag. It was a little pricy but the food was absolutely fantastic! My husband had coconut shrimp and said they were the best he had ever had. I had shrimp in poblano cream sauce and WOW they were great! We also had flan, which was good. We had a great day!

 

Going to add more Cozumel pics in the next post. What a beautiful place I have too many good photos! I didn't realize how pretty it was on our first visit when all we saw was the downtown area.

[wednesday]

Shrimp in poblano cream

Flan

Camilo's

VIew from the ship

[wednesday]

Due to high winds we could not dock at Mahogany Bay in roatan so we docked at the other port.

 

We booked with Victor Bodden and Larson was our driver. We really enjoyed our time in Roatan, it is a beautiful island. We went to the Iguana farm, Victor’s monkey business and the west end. We enjoyed everything! At Victor Boddens there is a small food counter, try their meat pies! They were especially good with the peach drinks they sell in the gift shop. West end beach had warm clear water with very little current; I wish we would have had more time there.

iguana farm

Iguana Farm

Victor Bodden's Monkey business

[dreamlooker]

Our cabin Spa balcony 11245

 

The room was nice, clean and well maintained. Our room steward Antonius was great and always greeted us by first name and asked how we were doing.

 

There are a couple of issues with this particular cabin that I want to address. 1) The proximity to the stairs and elevator meant some noise from people loitering and talking or kids running wild late at night, we had a similar location on RCI’s Navigator of the seas and didn’t have this much trouble with noise. There is not a lot of ambient noise in the cabin and you hear balcony doors slamming and people talking pretty well when you are trying to sleep, we ran into another couple that said the same thing. A suggestion from me for anyone traveling on this ship is to take a white noise machine or load white noise on your laptop. I was thankful I had some white noise on my laptop, after the first restless night I used it and had no more problems. 2) If you are booking a spa cabin to get away from the smoke, this is the last spa cabin on deck 11 so the people next to you can smoke and they did …frequently :( I thought being upwind would prevent me from smelling it but no such luck, it smelled very strongly on my balcony. I wish they could come up with some way for us non-smokers to be able to enjoy our balconies without being subjected to others smoke. This was my second Carnival cruise and on both I felt like I could rarely enjoy the balcony because of smoke.

thanks for the pic my queation to u is did the cabin feel small right now im bookin 11209 but the suite look so much bigger was the noise just confined to the stair area or all the way down the hall way

please help with my concerns thank u

[wednesday]

Victor's monkey business

Victor's monkey business

Meat pies from Victor's monkey business (Yum)

West Bay

Snorkeling in West Bay (Only had about 10 minutes before my husbands mask broke:()

[dreamlooker]

The spa pool looks amazing. We sail a week from tomorrow in a spa cabin and i cannot WAIT. I don't remember if I read it or not, but is the spa pool salt water or fresh?

 

Thanks

may i ask what cabin r u in thanks

[reeree313]

Do you have a spa balcony, ov, or interior? We sail in October and booked interior. I'd love to see some pics. We usually do a balcony but decided since we're almost never in the cabin and we no longer smoke, the $$ was better spent on excursions and other "stuff"

 

We are on an interior. I will make sure to take pictures. I'm planning to attempt a review when I get back. Every one I have read on here has added so much to the excitement of our upcoming trip...I want to pay it forward :)

[wednesday]

thanks for the pic my queation to u is did the cabin feel small right now im bookin 11209 but the suite look so much bigger was the noise just confined to the stair area or all the way down the hall way

please help with my concerns thank u

 

I would think it would be quieter up the hall because of less traffic but if anyone is talking outside your room you can hear it. TV or whit noise on eliminates most of that problem.

 

It was just me and my husband in the cabin and we felt that we had enough room. The suite would be nice to get the bigger bathroom, the tiny showers are the only thing I am not crazy about but that is all cruise ship showers.

[reeree313]

may i ask what cabin r u in thanks

 

We are in 11207. An interior spa

[crewsweeper]

thanks for the pic my queation to u is did the cabin feel small right now im bookin 11209 but the suite look so much bigger was the noise just confined to the stair area or all the way down the hall way

please help with my concerns thank u

Dreamlooker...we were in 11209 in May ( and will be again next June). It is exactly the same size as Wednesday's 11245. Plenty of room for two. The couch can double out as a bed if there are 3 people. But we've been in balcony cabins of similar sq ft size/layout on other Carnival ships with 3 people and still had plenty of room. The suite in 11205 is very nice and the longer balcony is enticing. Of course it's more $$$. Noise isn't a real issue down at that end of the passageway as only traffic is 3 other cabins near you and nothing to attract other pax down that way. Wednesday's cabin was right by the stairs and elevators, so closer to general traffic.