My review of the Dream...

[aidansaunt2004]

After months of planning we boarded the Dream for our 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on September 10th! Unfortunately, the weather didn't agree. There were many storms brewing in the Caribbean at this time.

 

Real quickly on how we got to Port Canaveral. We decided to fly in from Ohio. It was my first flight EVER! We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Cocoa Beach. It was recently renovated and was a decent hotel. We opted for the "fly, snooze and cruise" package so our transportation was provided.

 

When we arrived at the port everyone was amazed. It is a pretty large ship! As we exited the vehicle a lady handed us a paper and told us our itinerary was changed from Nassau, St. Thomas & St. Maarten to Cozumel, Costa Maya and Honduras. I must admit, I was severely disappointed. (I know you can't help the weather!) We've been to the western ports previously.

 

My overall impression of the ship? It was beautiful! It was very different than the other Carnival ships I've been on. You didn't really see neon colors everywhere. The main decorations are gold with color outlines. It was very pretty. Nothing was really hard to find or confusing compared to past ships. You will have to wait if you want to take the elevator though.

 

We opted for a spa inside cabin. It looked very much like all of the other inside cabins except the walls were a slightly different color with a painting on each side. As part of the package we received robes and slippers to use during the cruise, elemis products in the cabin and access to the spa which included the thalasso pool, 3 different steam rooms, a walk through shower (which had cold water), a "break" type of room with water and the locker rooms (which had showers, nice hair dryers etc.).

 

We requested a table for 4 and late seating. Instead we were at a table for 10! Luckily for us, the other tablemates never showed up. Our servers were Pedro (from the Philippines) and Santa. They were fantastic. It was great getting to know them during the week. Pedro definitely liked to joke around! We found out about his family (his daughter is a nurse and his son is an engineer) and he even has a wife "back home". He has been with Carnival for 18 years! The odd thing we noticed is that about 20% of people didn't show up to dinner the first night and by the third that had increased to about 50%. He said that's normal and it tends to happen every week for whatever reason. In regards to previous reviews saying you are waiting forever on your food, close to 2 hours. We were in and out in 45 minutes with all 3 courses. The line to get into the restaurant seems a bit overwhelming because there are so many people, but don't let that discourage you.

 

On to the food. When we first got on the Dream we decided to try the pasta bar. I wasn't overly thrilled with it, but my husband ended up eating there twice.

 

We tried breakfast twice. Both times were poor. The eggs are instant and have a weird consistency and taste. They were very runny as well.

 

We never had lunch at the actual buffet.

 

I had turkey on a country bun from the deli. It was great!

 

My husband enjoyed the sushi.

 

The bbq on the lanai was fantastic. They had the best chicken tacos I've ever eaten! They were spicy!

 

We ordered room service one day. It was hot and arrived in 30 minutes. The food was great.

 

The pizza was pizza. There was nothing outstanding about it.

 

I was so excited to try the burrito bar because I love Chipotle. I was beyond disappointed. The rice was dry and yellow and the meat was so full of fat I literally couldn't chew it. I took one bite and didn't even swallow it.

 

We had dinner every night in the main dining room. The first night I ordered the chicken breast with veggies. It was great and the veggies were thoroughly cooked. The pasta dishes were good and I enjoyed the fresh fruit. The macaroni was delicious! During the end of the week I ordered the chicken again and this time it was horrible. I'm not sure what happened. I ordered veggies every night and sometimes they were cooked and other times they were hard and you couldn't eat them. Overall, the dining room experience was great. The bar server, Jason from South Africa is very nice as well :D

 

As far as the smell... we never experienced it.

 

Around 3:30 pm as the ship was about to leave an announcement was made... we were going back to our original itinerary! Everyone was cheering and it really uplifted everyone's spirits. I mean really, you should have seen how sad everyone looked! I know this is not Carnival's fault...

 

The kid issue that there is always a debate over...we didn't see a lot of kids but there were a few issues that needed to be addressed. The day we decided to get pizza we were in line with about 5 people behind us. A kid who was about 8 or 9 walked up and said "excuse me" and we assumed he needed silverware (we were standing next to it). Instead, this kid cut us in line! He proceeded to order 2 whole pizzas! We saw him nearly every day after this. We figured out where his bad behavior came from...the parents. They were in their early 30s and had 2 other kids. He was the "go to" kid. We saw them sending him to get food for the entire family and no, I'm not kidding. Another time we were in the elevator and we got down one floor to the 11th when a lady and 2 kids hopped in. The kids started pushing the door open and close buttons repeatedly. She just stood there. After about 3 minutes of us staring at her she told them "Okay, just one more time!" Are you kidding me? What adult would let kids do this, especially with other adults who obviously are trying to go somewhere!?! Our last issue was a large one. The way we went to the dining room had us passing one of the children's areas for kids 12-14 (I think). One night we are walking and a group of 4 kids are walking toward us from the opposite direction. They are lined up left to right and forming a line so my husband and I decided to walk single file and he walked behind me. One of the boys "body checked" me on purpose and I ended up being shoved back. After we passed I heard him loudly say, "They shouldn't be in this area. This is our area. They can't be here." I didn't report it to security, but I guess I should have. There were kids in the Serenity area as well.

 

Two people were left behind in Nassau. I have pictures of them running up to the ship but it was too late. They showed up 45 minutes after the "last call" to get on the ship. They had blown the horn 3 times and everything at this point. I saw them boarding at the next stop.

 

We enjoyed the spa access. It was very relaxing and it was rarely crowded. Toward the end of the cruise we decided to get our first massages. I get the feeling they aren't supposed to be painful. I was cringing the entire time because it was hurting pretty badly. My husband was extremely sore for days after. The worst part is they told us to get dressed and came back in with a postcard full of products we need to buy. Not trying to be rude we told them we would think about it (even though we knew we wouldn't). No joke, there were at least 8 products listed. I think we learned our lesson there.

 

Our room steward was Reno and he was very nice and helpful.

 

The shows were all nice. We saw the singers and dancers all around the ship. We constantly saw Butch (the cruise director). We went to one of the shopping talks and it was a waste of time. They only wanted to talk about Diamonds International (which I feel is a rip off). This went on for OVER an hour.

 

THE PORTS

Nassau: We didn't get off of the ship. We've been there before and we weren't impressed. There was a bit too much criminal and drug activity for us.

 

St. Thomas: We got off of the ship and for some reason we thought the "city" was within walking distance. After walking quite a distance we realized we were wrong. People need to be cautious. There were men in vans (not commercial vans) who were telling you to "get in" and they'll take you wherever you want...Luckily for us, an open air truck approached us and told us to hop in. We walked throughout the downtown area. I didn't think it was anything great. It seemed quite rundown. We had previously read not to walk down alleys etc. so we avoided those areas. As we were leaving a store a man started screaming at my husband asking "Who is that lady?" (referring to me). He was with another man and he started saying "She's pretty" etc. and we decided to pick up the pace and walk faster. He started to follow us. When we were approached by a lady telling us she would take us back to the ship, we quickly said yes. Her name was America. She was one of the scariest drivers we have endured. She didn't take us back to the ship. She kept circling the block trying to get more people on the truck. She would stomp on the gas, go five feet, see people and slam on the brakes. This happened about every 5 feet. About 30 minutes later when we were about a mile from the ship, one of the men sitting behind us was trying to tell her he was on the Carnival ship docked next to ours. She wasn't listening so someone tapped her window. She got on the loud speaker and started screaming. She was screaming so loudly you couldn't make out what she was saying. All we heard was "ticket" and "no". She tried to drop all of us off at a shopping area near the ship. When everyone said they were confused and just wanted to go to the ship she became enraged and started screaming again. A couple got off and decided to walk. She took the rest of us over to the ship at that point but was driving at an excessive speed. Lesson learned.

 

St. Maarten: It was fun to watch St. Maarten slowly appearing in the morning. It's set up so you have to walk down a long pier and board a water taxi to go to the actual city. Originally we wanted to go to Marigot. When we got off of the water taxi we saw an information desk and decided to ask her the best way to get there. She told us it will take 30-60 minutes to get there one way and it will be $20 per way per person. We decided against it. We took off on foot walking to the shops. We ended up going left first and found out there aren't really any decent shops so we turned around and went the other way. If you're getting off of the water taxi, you want to go to the right for shopping. It was extremely hot that day. I'm obsessed with beauty products so there were a few shops for me to go in. Unfortunately, we didn't find any "deals" that people speak of. An eyeshadow I can buy in the USA for $33 was $45 there! My husband LOVED the Yoda store. He left with a picture and we walked through the little museum area and took some photos. The Yoda creator was in the store and signed the photo we purchased. The water in St. Maarten was gorgeous. It was crystal clear! After 2 or 3 hours, we decided to head back. I would go back to St. Maarten again! We saw some children in their school uniforms and they looked adorable!

 

It was a pretty rough cruise for us. We came within the hurricane by about 80 miles. The waves I could say were probably 8+ feet for the majority of our cruise. I wasn't feeling too great the first day but over the next few days it wore off. During the nights the waves became quite large. I would leave the bathroom door cracked and the door would swing back and forth and if you were in the bathroom the towels were swaying. One night, it actually woke my husband up and I slid across the bed.

 

Overall, our cruise was fun! We had a great time relaxing and making memories and that's what counts. Some things such as weather can't really be avoided completely so you make the best of the situation. We came home with some beautiful photos and a lot of memories. :o

[crewsweeper]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. Dispite the weather, the kids, and the spa torture dominatrixes, looks like you kept a postive attitude and had a nice cruise and a good flying experience. So you hooked now?:)

[aidansaunt2004]

We are hooked. I've been planning our cruise to Alaska for about 6 months now. It will be our 4th cruise. We're ready to take a vacation where it isn't 100 degrees outside :D

[manmtnmike]

Nice review!!!

We were on the same cruise and I could swear we had the same Taxi driver in St Thomas. LOL...White knuckle experience!:p

 

We noticed she was drinking out of a paper bag she had under the seat...I joked with my wife, wondering what brand of rum she preferred while driving. DW said it was probably a power drink...hmmm.

 

So as we left a store downtown, the checkout person happen to reply to another customer-that in St Thomas ...it's OK to drink while you drive, but only a little:eek::eek:

 

Evidently, that was no power drink!:D

 

It was a great cruise, really enjoyed the piano bar and and the duet playing in the Atrium ...Imprompt2, I think they were called.

 

Mike

[LBumb]

good job

[tweety33]

We are also staying at the courtyard. Can you please tell me more about the transportation shuttles. When you arrived at the airport- to the hotel. Was it easy to find, did they drive around for a long time picking up others & dropping them off?

How early you could go to the port.

How the shuttles worked when you got off the ship to go back to the airport? Did you have to wait for a full one. We are doing early self disembark & was wondering if they would be there & off to the airport quick. Thanks

Thank you for the review.