My Long Dream(y) Cruise Review: 11/5 – 11/12/11

[geoburm]

Sorry for the length, but here goes.....this is my first cruise review, so be gentle with me. LOL!!! Some background info, my wife and I have been on 24 cruises now, a combination of CCL, RCCL, PCL, and NCL. Most of them have been on Carnival. We had an Ocean Suite cabin and I will say that if you can get this cabin category, do it. It’s worth it in my opinion, LOTS of room. Carnival does need to do something about their balconies though, not wide enough (can’t stretch out your legs unless you sit sideways), plenty long though. Now the review, broken down by area of interest.

Embarkation: We were a little late being able to board as the Dream had a medical emergency Thursday night and had to stop off in Nassau to drop the individual off for medical attention, thus she got in late on Saturday. But, once we were able to board, we were on the ship in less than 5 minutes (VIP/Platinum is GREAT!!). Went right to the Shore Excursion desk to sign up for the “Behind the Fun” Tour (more on this later). Also, changed out my canapés for Chocolate Covered Strawberries, they were pretty good. There were hardly any kids on this cruise. I would say no more than 20-30 max, however, it had to be the Geriatric cruise (not saying that is a bad thing, just an observation!!), cuz there were a lot of seniors on board, more that I would have expected on a Carnival cruise. Again, not a bad thing.

Cabin: As I mentioned above, we were in an Ocean Suite on Deck 7 (Empress, Port side). Very roomy and lots of closet space, actually more than we needed. We were a little aft of the forward Hot Tub, but, did not bother us at all. Actually, the hot tubs was pretty underutilized the whole cruise. Still not sure I like the whole Promenade Deck/Lanai thing they have on the Dream (I like looking directly down and seeing the ocean), not a deck. I will tell you that if you have a balcony cabin on Deck 6 they can look right into your balcony....not cool in my mind, not much privacy. Our room steward, Gusti, was AWESOME!! He filled my cooler up with ice at least twice/day and kept the cabin immaculate and we very rarely saw him, but, was always there if we needed something. I tipped him extra for the great job he did. We did room service almost every morning and it was very good...a little slow on port days, but, that is to be expected, not bad though. You just need to plan for it. We did order bacon (not on room service menu) one morning and got a bunch of it.

Food: We had Late Seating in the Scarlett Dining Room. We originally had the Crimson Late Seating, but, we had a table for 2, and we like to visit and meet other people, so we requested a table with 6-8 (as I originally did when I booked) and were accommodated with a table of 10 in the Scarlett. Glad we changed cuz the tablemates we had were very fun and our age. In my opinion, and I am not a food critic/foodie, whatever, but, I thought the food was very good. We had lobster tails that were done very well, not mushy, chewy, etc., but done just right (I had 3 tails, yummers!!). Steaks were done to our liking and very tasty. Also, my wife and I LOVE escargots and we each had 2 servings of them each….yum yum!! I tried some the items on the “Didja ever” menu (i.e, frog legs, alligator tail, etc.) and they turned out to be pretty good. The Bacon Mac’n’Cheese was fantastic; I just wish they offered it as an appetizer. I asked and our waiter said they couldn’t so he just brought me a whole plate, which I then shared with the table and they all loved it. Pretty surprised it was that good, lots of cheesy flavor, etc. We ate in the MDR most meals. Did manage to make it to the Chef’s Art Steakhouse once and I will say that you have to try this at least once. I tried to do the “Man vs. Food” thing by ordering the 24oz. Porterhouse steak, could not finish it with all that you get (appetizer, salad, side dish, dessert). My wife asked and was able to get 2 appetizers (escargot and lobster bisque) at no additional charge and was still able to get a salad and side dish, no problem. She had the 9oz. Filet Mignon and could not finish that either. Both steaks were done to perfection and service was impeccable. For dessert we split the Chocolate Sampler, this was excellent, very tasty. I ate at the Pasta Bar and Burrito Bar once each and it was pretty good. My wife did the Mongolian Wok and it was good also. As people have mentioned before, the lines were long, but, when you go during peak times, it is going to be crowded, and there were no exceptions here either. We found that if you go around 1:30-2:00PM it has slowed down a little (they close at 2:30PM on Sea days). We did the Lanai BBQ once (on Sea Days), it was okay. The Steak Sliders were pretty good and they had other stuff also, hot dogs, chicken/steak enchiladas, etc. Pizza and hamburgers would good, as usual. Overall, I would say the food was pretty good on the cruise. I had no problems with the new menus. The food items were pretty good and a good variety. You will certainly not starve and will definitely gain some weight if you are not careful...LOL!!!

Entertainment: Overall, the entertainment was pretty good. I would say that the dance shows they put on were probably the best I have seen in quite awhile on a Carnival cruise. We made just about all the shows; however, I was tending to get “burnt out” on the dance shows every night. I think Carnival needs to “spice it up a bit” with more variety, i.e., maybe add magicians, hypnotists, jugglers, etc. Something to break up the dance shows every night. They did have the male Lead Singer, Jason Dowty (a former Boy Band member) do his own “show” because when we skipped Nassau, they were not able to pick up the entertainment for that night. He was okay, but, I can see why he is no longer in a Boy Bad. Hahaha. The “Carnival Legends” show on the last night was probably the best... some very good acts from the passengers. We did see a comedian one night (Tony Esposito) and it was the “Uncensored” show which was definitely R-Rated, not for the kiddies. They had two sets of different comedians and they do both a “Censored” and “Uncensored” show. We did see the “Fun Force Guys” one night on the opening show and they were great. You don’t want to miss these guys. I think they are resident on the ship as they did other shows throughout the cruise, mostly in the Atrium.

Excursions: We were supposed to go to Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten, but had to skip Nassau due to TS Sean. Glad we did cuz the Oasis of the Seas went there and they suffered after they left Nassau. Lots of sick people, damage to the ship, they cancelled dinner and the shows that night cuz the seas were so rough, at least that is what we were told. As I mentioned above, we signed up right away for the “Behind the Fun” tour. It was okay, in my opinion, and I am comparing it to the “Ultimate Ship Tour” we did on the Crown Princess a couple of years ago (the prices are comparable to each other). I think on the UTS they provided a lot more detail during the tour and we got to go more places (ie., up in the funnel area). And, the “trinkets” we got on the UTS were much better than on the BTF Tour. But, it’s good to do at least once (check it off your Bucket List). I don’t think we will be doing it again, though. Cost was $95/person. We booked our excursions through Carnival and I don’t mind paying a little extra for peace of mind knowing the ship won’t leave without us. So, that’s why I book with them.

In St. Thomas we did the Parasailing excursion and I must say that if you have never done this before you have to try it. It was AWESOME!! We were up about 400-500 ft just sailing along like birds. It was very peaceful. Now I know how birds feel when they fly. Up in the air time was about 5-6 minutes. Highly recommend this for an excursion.

In St. Maarten, we did the Power Rafting excursion and that was a blast, zooming along at around 50km/hr. Pretty cool!! We were able to get in a little snorkeling and time at a beach. Total excursion length was about 3 ½ hours. As an added bonus they took us to the landing area for when the airplanes land in St. Maarten. The planes have to come in very low (we’re talking around 50-75ft above the ground) so they can land on the runway that is only 3000ft long. They anchored the power raft right below the planes coming in, it was very cool to have these jet airliners zoom right over your head just 75ft above, no lie!!!

Debarkation: Two words...”a snap”!! We had Zone 1 tags so we could have gotten off at 7:30, but we like to sleep in, so we did, caught some breakfast and were off the ship NLT 9:30AM (basically just walked off and got our bags). Very easy process, and again, it’s nice to be “VIP/Platinum”. Yeah, baby!!! We had parked our car at Park N’ Cruise. That was a little messy trying to catch the van to get back. Very disorganized at the far end of the cruise terminal. I eventually flagged down a taxi van and he took us back and got reimbursed by Park N’ Cruise. Probably won’t be using them again. It’s cheap and not bad, I just won’t be using them again. Seemed too much of a hassle for me, handled my bags too many times.

Overall: Would we do the Carnival Dream again, and the answer is a resounding Yes. Nice cruise, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We go to relax and just kick back and that’s exactly what we did. That’s all folks!! I will now open the floor to any questions.

Ahh yes, I almost forgot about the “infamous smell”. I must say, I only caught a whiff of it at, of all places, the Photo Gallery on Deck 4. Go figure!! Again, it was just a whiff and it could have been someone passing gas. Did not smell it any other time. I did a couple of YouTube videos that I will have the links to soon.

[tuscandream]

What a great review thank you for taking the time to write it. We leave for the dream 11-19-11 I can't wait.

[theneals4]

OH thats awesome you got Gusti!! we had him when we were on the dream in Sept. And i thought he was wonderful! He would talk to us everyday and had no problem getting anything we needed. I hope we get him again in May, think i could request him? LoL! We gave him a extra tip at the end i thought he was gonna faint. He said thank you a million times. He was even nice enough to let us see a cove balcony room before we were getting of the ship.

 

Thanks for a great review ;)

[additivecruiser]

Sounds like I may just enjoy my cruise on the Dream 11-19.......All the neg..reviews had me questioning myself about doing another long cruise..... I always cruise the smaller and older ships.....better everything usually....

 

So Geoburm what age range are you ??? Im early 40s and sometimes age makes a difference in what people expect......

[rtw68]

Thanks for the informative review! We are counting down the days until we get to FINALLY go! :D

[geoburm]

Sounds like I may just enjoy my cruise on the Dream 11-19.......All the neg..reviews had me questioning myself about doing another long cruise..... I always cruise the smaller and older ships.....better everything usually....

 

So Geoburm what age range are you ??? Im early 40s and sometimes age makes a difference in what people expect......

 

My DW and I are both in our very early 50's....hahaha!!

[abitaturbodog]

Did you notice if there were ribs on the Lanai BBQ? I've heard that they've cut these out, but am curious if they are still gone.

Glad you had a great time! Can't wait to get to see the Dream in person in about a month!

[geoburm]

Did you notice if there were ribs on the Lanai BBQ? I've heard that they've cut these out, but am curious if they are still gone.

Glad you had a great time! Can't wait to get to see the Dream in person in about a month!

 

Sorry, did not see any ribs being offered....mostly hot dogs, steak sliders, "topless hamburgers" (not sure what that was), and chicken/steak enchiladas/tacos, and various other side items.

[Purplesaurus]

Thanks for the informative review. Looking forward to my Dream coming true.

[cruiserfirsttimmer]

This review has gotten me excited. We leave on the Dream Dec.3. We are also going to the same islands.

[geoburm]

Sorry for the length, but here goes.....this is my first cruise review, so be gentle with me. LOL!!! Some background info, my wife and I have been on 24 cruises now, a combination of CCL, RCCL, PCL, and NCL. Most of them have been on Carnival. We had an Ocean Suite cabin and I will say that if you can get this cabin category, do it. It’s worth it in my opinion, LOTS of room. Carnival does need to do something about their balconies though, not wide enough (can’t stretch out your legs unless you sit sideways), plenty long though. Now the review, broken down by area of interest.

Embarkation: We were a little late being able to board as the Dream had a medical emergency Thursday night and had to stop off in Nassau to drop the individual off for medical attention, thus she got in late on Saturday. But, once we were able to board, we were on the ship in less than 5 minutes (VIP/Platinum is GREAT!!). Went right to the Shore Excursion desk to sign up for the “Behind the Fun” Tour (more on this later). Also, changed out my canapés for Chocolate Covered Strawberries, they were pretty good. There were hardly any kids on this cruise. I would say no more than 20-30 max, however, it had to be the Geriatric cruise (not saying that is a bad thing, just an observation!!), cuz there were a lot of seniors on board, more that I would have expected on a Carnival cruise. Again, not a bad thing.

Cabin: As I mentioned above, we were in an Ocean Suite on Deck 7 (Empress, Port side). Very roomy and lots of closet space, actually more than we needed. We were a little aft of the forward Hot Tub, but, did not bother us at all. Actually, the hot tubs was pretty underutilized the whole cruise. Still not sure I like the whole Promenade Deck/Lanai thing they have on the Dream (I like looking directly down and seeing the ocean), not a deck. I will tell you that if you have a balcony cabin on Deck 6 they can look right into your balcony....not cool in my mind, not much privacy. Our room steward, Gusti, was AWESOME!! He filled my cooler up with ice at least twice/day and kept the cabin immaculate and we very rarely saw him, but, was always there if we needed something. I tipped him extra for the great job he did. We did room service almost every morning and it was very good...a little slow on port days, but, that is to be expected, not bad though. You just need to plan for it. We did order bacon (not on room service menu) one morning and got a bunch of it.

Food: We had Late Seating in the Scarlett Dining Room. We originally had the Crimson Late Seating, but, we had a table for 2, and we like to visit and meet other people, so we requested a table with 6-8 (as I originally did when I booked) and were accommodated with a table of 10 in the Scarlett. Glad we changed cuz the tablemates we had were very fun and our age. In my opinion, and I am not a food critic/foodie, whatever, but, I thought the food was very good. We had lobster tails that were done very well, not mushy, chewy, etc., but done just right (I had 3 tails, yummers!!). Steaks were done to our liking and very tasty. Also, my wife and I LOVE escargots and we each had 2 servings of them each….yum yum!! I tried some the items on the “Didja ever” menu (i.e, frog legs, alligator tail, etc.) and they turned out to be pretty good. The Bacon Mac’n’Cheese was fantastic; I just wish they offered it as an appetizer. I asked and our waiter said they couldn’t so he just brought me a whole plate, which I then shared with the table and they all loved it. Pretty surprised it was that good, lots of cheesy flavor, etc. We ate in the MDR most meals. Did manage to make it to the Chef’s Art Steakhouse once and I will say that you have to try this at least once. I tried to do the “Man vs. Food” thing by ordering the 24oz. Porterhouse steak, could not finish it with all that you get (appetizer, salad, side dish, dessert). My wife asked and was able to get 2 appetizers (escargot and lobster bisque) at no additional charge and was still able to get a salad and side dish, no problem. She had the 9oz. Filet Mignon and could not finish that either. Both steaks were done to perfection and service was impeccable. For dessert we split the Chocolate Sampler, this was excellent, very tasty. I ate at the Pasta Bar and Burrito Bar once each and it was pretty good. My wife did the Mongolian Wok and it was good also. As people have mentioned before, the lines were long, but, when you go during peak times, it is going to be crowded, and there were no exceptions here either. We found that if you go around 1:30-2:00PM it has slowed down a little (they close at 2:30PM on Sea days). We did the Lanai BBQ once (on Sea Days), it was okay. The Steak Sliders were pretty good and they had other stuff also, hot dogs, chicken/steak enchiladas, etc. Pizza and hamburgers would good, as usual. Overall, I would say the food was pretty good on the cruise. I had no problems with the new menus. The food items were pretty good and a good variety. You will certainly not starve and will definitely gain some weight if you are not careful...LOL!!!

Entertainment: Overall, the entertainment was pretty good. I would say that the dance shows they put on were probably the best I have seen in quite awhile on a Carnival cruise. We made just about all the shows; however, I was tending to get “burnt out” on the dance shows every night. I think Carnival needs to “spice it up a bit” with more variety, i.e., maybe add magicians, hypnotists, jugglers, etc. Something to break up the dance shows every night. They did have the male Lead Singer, Jason Dowty (a former Boy Band member) do his own “show” because when we skipped Nassau, they were not able to pick up the entertainment for that night. He was okay, but, I can see why he is no longer in a Boy Bad. Hahaha. The “Carnival Legends” show on the last night was probably the best... some very good acts from the passengers. We did see a comedian one night (Tony Esposito) and it was the “Uncensored” show which was definitely R-Rated, not for the kiddies. They had two sets of different comedians and they do both a “Censored” and “Uncensored” show. We did see the “Fun Force Guys” one night on the opening show and they were great. You don’t want to miss these guys. I think they are resident on the ship as they did other shows throughout the cruise, mostly in the Atrium.

Excursions: We were supposed to go to Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten, but had to skip Nassau due to TS Sean. Glad we did cuz the Oasis of the Seas went there and they suffered after they left Nassau. Lots of sick people, damage to the ship, they cancelled dinner and the shows that night cuz the seas were so rough, at least that is what we were told. As I mentioned above, we signed up right away for the “Behind the Fun” tour. It was okay, in my opinion, and I am comparing it to the “Ultimate Ship Tour” we did on the Crown Princess a couple of years ago (the prices are comparable to each other). I think on the UTS they provided a lot more detail during the tour and we got to go more places (ie., up in the funnel area). And, the “trinkets” we got on the UTS were much better than on the BTF Tour. But, it’s good to do at least once (check it off your Bucket List). I don’t think we will be doing it again, though. Cost was $95/person. We booked our excursions through Carnival and I don’t mind paying a little extra for peace of mind knowing the ship won’t leave without us. So, that’s why I book with them.

In St. Thomas we did the Parasailing excursion and I must say that if you have never done this before you have to try it. It was AWESOME!! We were up about 400-500 ft just sailing along like birds. It was very peaceful. Now I know how birds feel when they fly. Up in the air time was about 5-6 minutes. Highly recommend this for an excursion.

In St. Maarten, we did the Power Rafting excursion and that was a blast, zooming along at around 50km/hr. Pretty cool!! We were able to get in a little snorkeling and time at a beach. Total excursion length was about 3 ½ hours. As an added bonus they took us to the landing area for when the airplanes land in St. Maarten. The planes have to come in very low (we’re talking around 50-75ft above the ground) so they can land on the runway that is only 3000ft long. They anchored the power raft right below the planes coming in, it was very cool to have these jet airliners zoom right over your head just 75ft above, no lie!!!

Debarkation: Two words...”a snap”!! We had Zone 1 tags so we could have gotten off at 7:30, but we like to sleep in, so we did, caught some breakfast and were off the ship NLT 9:30AM (basically just walked off and got our bags). Very easy process, and again, it’s nice to be “VIP/Platinum”. Yeah, baby!!! We had parked our car at Park N’ Cruise. That was a little messy trying to catch the van to get back. Very disorganized at the far end of the cruise terminal. I eventually flagged down a taxi van and he took us back and got reimbursed by Park N’ Cruise. Probably won’t be using them again. It’s cheap and not bad, I just won’t be using them again. Seemed too much of a hassle for me, handled my bags too many times.

Overall: Would we do the Carnival Dream again, and the answer is a resounding Yes. Nice cruise, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We go to relax and just kick back and that’s exactly what we did. That’s all folks!! I will now open the floor to any questions.

Ahh yes, I almost forgot about the “infamous smell”. I must say, I only caught a whiff of it at, of all places, the Photo Gallery on Deck 4. Go figure!! Again, it was just a whiff and it could have been someone passing gas. Did not smell it any other time. I did a couple of YouTube videos that I will have the links to soon.

 

As I mentioned at the end of my review, here are some videos. First is our excursions, parasailing and power rafting, and the second is our cabin and shots around the Dream. Enjoy!!

 

 

[CapsR1]

Thanks for the great review; hopefully the Dream is in our future . . .

[gelo7]

Looks like your room attendant wanted no parts of being on video.

[vermonter16]

I second the Bacon Mac n Cheese and Escargot!

[crusinpsychRN]

I'm sorry I can't read it without paragraphs.