Another 2 cents on the Dream

[Mom3Boys]

Just returned from a cruise aboard the Carnival Dream (October 15th). Before leaving I read and poured over these boards! I read good things and bad things about the Dream so I thought having sailed on this ship I would throw my 2 cents in for anyone interested. The Dream is a huge ship. With that being said, I wasn't sure how crowded the Dream would be on those sea days. I can tell you we never had a problem finding a lounge chair up on deck or a place to sit in The Gathering to eat. Now we didn't sit close to the pool but we did find a place to set up on Deck 11 on the side of the ship. We even found a place to set in the Serenity area during a sea day, no it was not one of those fantastic loungers but we were there! My husband and I enjoyed walking around of the mornings and I was always amazed that many areas of the ship were almost deserted. We enjoyed eating breakfast in the Scarlet Dining room and a couple of mornings we did room service. The food I thought was good. I know you hear many comments about the food but I didn't have to cook nor wash dishes so I enjoyed every meal. Our waiter was Rui from India and he was wonderful. He made a point the first night to learn our names and he did not forget them the whole week! Our two sons were with us (11 and 14) and they managed to find something to eat from every menu. My youngest son enjoyed the pizza, hamburgers and ice cream! I don't know how many ice creams he put away that week but if you owned stock in ice cream you may have noticed a spike in those stocks. I know that there has been a lot of comments about some of the menu changes but it looked great to me. I even liked the "flat iron" steak. It was prepared exactly like I requested and was always tender. My favorite things that could be found almost any time of day was the fresh fruit, yum! My youngest son did go to Camp Carnivals a few times the last two days (these were sea days) and enjoyed the activities. My oldest the 14 year old would not go. This in part to him not being able to attend the first night meet and greet. I think he was reluctant to go since he didn't get to meet the other teens the first night. We just didn't push the issue and just let him enjoy his self. We had a cove balcony room. YES, they are wonderful. We loved it. It is close to the water and I loved the way the balcony is private and is shielded from the sun. Would definitely pick another cove balcony when sailing. Loved sitting outside in the morning with my coffee and danish... We had adjoining cabins with my sister and her husband so one of our boys slept in their cabin so we had a little more room. If anyone has any questions I would be glad to answer. Overall I rate the Dream a wonderful ship. Now a couple of things that I questioned before I left...I did not smell any odor and I have the nose of a bloodhound. Also, the safes in the cabins do not need a card to open you set a pin number. They use face recognition software to keep up with your photos. You simply go to a kiosk and swipe your sign and sail card and it will bring up your photos. You can order those and not have to look through the photos that were snapped by the cruise's photographers. We did take some sodas on board and this saved us some money. We simply asked our room attendant to remove the contents of the refrigerator when we arrived and used it for our own drinks. We did use lanyards for our sign and sail cards. My husband and I had plastic cases that held ours and we had the boys hole punched at guest service for their lanyards. Do make sure you put your cell phones on "airplane mode" because you don't want to accidentally get a call or text while you are cruising.

Now for the not positive things about the cruise,,,We arrived in Titusville on Friday and found out that their was a tropical system forming over that area. It was suppose to be rainy and windy on Saturday. What a time for them to get the weather-correct! Our plan was to get over to the Park n Cruise lot around 10 and be on the ship as early as possible. Ha Ha...We arrived at Park n Cruise around 10:30 and we were told to come back around 12 because they were still trying to get people shuttled back. I know the people on the ship were waiting until the weather broke but it poured the rain (when we got back one of the custom officials told me he had 10 inches in a pond at this house). We finally got unloaded and on the way to the ship around 12:30. All of this rain just made a huge mess especially when you have like 6 pieces of luggage...There was a line at the terminal and we had to wait about an hour to get on board. Again, this was all because of the rain I don't think this would have been the case if it had not been torrential rains. Once we boarded it was hard to find a seat at the buffet simply because everyone was waiting there with their luggage. However, we did find a space to eat and then went on down to our cabin which was ready. That night sailing down to Nassau was rough. My husband who cannot take sea sick medicine slept with his arm around the trash can. The wind was at 60 knots and I could see those waves "really well" from my window! My oldest son and I took Bonine (we had no motion sickness). I gave the youngest Dramamine and he was a little queasy. Even some of the servers said they had been sick because of the rough seas. Make sure you take that sea sick medicine early!!! The only other thing that I would comment on was the Park n Cruise. I had read on this board about the good value $6.99 a day (there billboard now says $7.99 a day). I had pre registered on line and was charged $6.99. I cannot fault them for the Saturday we left because even despite the rain and wind it went fairly smooth. However when we returned there has to be a better way to leave the terminal. Since we had so much luggage we had a porter gather our luggage and we told him that we were going to area C and were with Park n Cruise. So when he headed out he took us to C and to an area where a Park n Cruise vehicle was loading. We got in line to wait. Now about 20 minutes later another Park n Cruise vehicle came and parked about 6 parking spaces below us. There was a line of people there too. This was all very disorganized. Of course, that vehicle was full and our line of about 30 people just missed this vehicle. My sister went down and asked the driver and he promised that he would be back and look for our line. It took approx. 20-30 minutes for the driver to come back. None of the vehicle spaces in C are designated so when the pick up vans come in they park where ever. This cause problems when you have people with lots of luggage in more than one line. If Park n Cruise could simply have a representative at C and direct people to one line this would help immensely. We had a wonderful week. I only hope I can sail on the Dream again.

Linda

[bwg03]

Thanks for the review! I'll be on her next week!

[vermonter16]

I'll be on her in a few weeks! You have gotten me super excited!!!!

[jenninlaca]

Thank you for posting! It is great to hear good reviews of the Dream. I cannot wait to sail (12/31). I am nervous about the seasick thing, thanks for the remedy reminder

[bo didy]

Good job loved the post. :)

[rtw68]

Thanks for the review! We are getting excited and are under 50 days before we leave. :D

[Tapi]

We got off the Dream on the day you boarded. Yes! That weather was treacherous!

 

We also parked at Park N' Cruise but I guess we lucked out. We walked off the ship at 7:20am and we were in our car and on the expressway within 20 minutes. We were the only ones waiting for their shuttle when we got off the ship. I guess it got crazy a few hours later!

 

I agree with your reviews and about crowding (plenty of empty loungers all over the ship), but we did find The Gathering to be a bit too crowded. Tables are too close to each other so when it was busy it felt hectic and uncomfortable IMHO.

 

We'd truly love to sail on the Dream again.

[Nik]

Thanks for the great review. I was happy to hear that you didn't have a problem finding a place to sit on deck or in the restaurants. I don't want to have to get up a 6m to get a chair or to eat breakfast

 

We are cruising Dec. 31/11 and am wondering about security at the parking lot. What did you think of the security here. Also, I am concerned about the return shuttles to the parking lot. Did you speak with the manager or email him about the lack of organization? We have a long drive home after our cruise and don't necessarily want to wait for an hour plus to get to the car.

[GTO-Girl]

Thanks for the great review!!!

 

We are boarding THIS SATURDAY......YIPPEE!!!!!

[rtw68]

Thanks for the great review!!!

 

We are boarding THIS SATURDAY......YIPPEE!!!!!

 

Seven more Saturdays until we go. :D

 

We will be watching the Port Canaveral web cam and wishing we were there. :(

[kymmc3]

Great Review! We too, got off the Dream, the day you got on. The weather was HORRIBLE. that last night for us, the waves were actually hitting our 1st floor window. Needless to say, hubby and daughter didn't handle it too well. The weather did hold getting off the ship quite a bit. We were in the last group to get called (#34) we should have been off the ship by 8:45, instead it was closer to 10:45.

 

We loved the dream and I'd really like to sail her again, I didn't get to see everything! We always found chairs on deck as well, but I did too think the gathering was very crowded. Hard to walk between tables. Other then that, we had no problems!

[Trish12345]

We boarded the Dream on Oct 1st. We also had Rui as our waiter in the Crimson Dining Room, table #233. I loved every part of the cruise especially since I did not have to cook or clean. I did notice that people are wearing their bathing suit to the MDR with a cover-up. Sadly, I saw this on more than one occasion. We always drive to Tampa/Canaveral & have had no security problems at the dock but radar/gps/sunglasses, everything is put in the trunk.

[Mom3Boys]

Thanks for the great review. I was happy to hear that you didn't have a problem finding a place to sit on deck or in the restaurants. I don't want to have to get up a 6m to get a chair or to eat breakfast

 

We are cruising Dec. 31/11 and am wondering about security at the parking lot. What did you think of the security here. Also, I am concerned about the return shuttles to the parking lot. Did you speak with the manager or email him about the lack of organization? We have a long drive home after our cruise and don't necessarily want to wait for an hour plus to get to the car.

 

The parking was in a fenced in lot. There was razor wire around some of the fence. We had no problems and our cars were fine when we returned. I didn't talk to the manager about the organization problem we were just happy to finally reach our car and leave! Maybe you could get more information about where to meet for pick up. It was so hectic when we were leaving to go to the cruise terminal that the person just wrote go to area C on the little receipt card. So, since you have a little warning ask them exactly in area C can you be picked up-like the very end or at the beginning. Sometimes just knowing the right questions to ask can make a difference! Hope you have a great cruise.

[Bonneville02]

Thank you for posting! It is great to hear good reviews of the Dream. I cannot wait to sail (12/31). I am nervous about the seasick thing, thanks for the remedy reminder

 

I would not worry about getting seasick. In my very limited experiences with cruises, I had to sit still and concentrate to detect motion most of the time. Unless you are very sensitive to motion, you will forget that you are on a moving vehicle. On the other hand, I was on the Celebration (ex-Carnival ship) a few years ago, and on the last sea day, we had 14' waves. That day was the only day I really felt the motion.

[leite]

Thanks for the review.

We are 1st time cruisers going on the Dream on Nov 12th.

We also plan to use Park n Cruise as they are 1/2 the price of the port.

Camilo

[my3boys4]

Thanks for the review. We board the Dream on the 5th and I am really excited.

[gelo7]

Great post.