Dream review # 2: November 5-12, 2011. 2nd Dream cruise!

[k2excursion]

This was my 2nd time to cruise the Dream, the first being in April 2010. I loved it so much then, that I booked it again less than 2 months later, 17 months in advance. The first time, we did the Western, this time the Eastern. I did the Eastern itinerary on the Valor, and it was my favorite itinerary. And the Dream has been my favorite ship, so it seemed appropriate to do St Thomas/St Martin on the Dream.

 

This is my 10th cruise, all with Carnival. None have been perfect, and there probably never will be a perfect one. But my 2 Dream cruises have both been awesome! They have been my best 2 cruises out of the 10. I have thought that there was no way anything could ever top my first Dream cruise. This one didn't, but it's still #2.

 

There is so much talk on these boards, saying that the Dream is overly crowded, and that the lines are horribly long. But that has not been my experience at all. (Many of the negative comments come from people who have never sailed the Dream.) In fact, the lines on both Dream cruises have been among the shortest and quickest of any of my cruises. The Miracle and my 2 Dream cruises have been the least crowded, and have had the shortest lines. Even the tiny Holiday and tiny Celebration were more crowded, and had much longer lines than the Dream. One glaring exception to this was Day 1 of this cruise: the buffet lines were long, mainly because we were late boarding. I'll explain about that later. But after that first day, lines were always short. I seemed to have all my food within minutes, even when eating at peak times. Eating lunch at 12:00-12:30, the end of the buffet line was at the start of the food. You start filling your plate instantly. The lanai BBQ had a little bit longer wait the one time I ate there, but it was still less than 15 minutes. We ate at the pasta bar on Day 1, and there was hardly anyone up there. There were 4200 on board this week. Last year, we had 4100. It can go as high as 4630, so people who have sailed with 4600 (usually summer & holidays) probably experienced more crowded-ness than us.

 

The shows were amazing, as usual. BlackJack Band was on board, playing in the ocean plaza on deck 5. I've had them on 5 of my 10 cruises. They are very friendly and play great music. Jimmy performs in one of the big shows, the country show, and always does a great job. There is no show on one night, the night of the deck party. I think it's really cheap of Carnival to have a dark night in the theater. This cannot be blamed on the Dream crew. This is Carnival's doing. At least we had the deck party, so that something was going on. On the Miracle, on the dark night in the theater, nothing was going on on the entire ship. Basically, the ship shut down after dinner. The Dream crew made sure that this didn't happen on their required dark night. Carnival has shrunk down aspects of their entertainment staff, and they have plans to shrink them more. Bands like BlackJack Band will eventually vanish from Carnival ships, unless we let our voices be heard. This whole Fun Ship 2.0 thing that they're starting is all a part of Carnival's plan to shrink the entertainment. Don't be fooled by it.

 

We were in room 2217, a 1A porthole room near the front of the ship. It has one bed and a sofa bed. For a mother & son, it works well. There was one day that we were hearing the waves crashing into the ship. Overall, it didn't seem noisy at all to me. I didn't feel too much in the way of extra motion up there. It's a great location, so close to the bottom level of the theater. All the evening activities on deck 5 felt so close. Lido deck was a ways up, so I'd use the elevators. But it's nice to be forward, with the extra glass elevators (2 of which were broke the whole week:rolleyes:).

 

I rode the waterslides a zillion times. Those are so much fun! The Dream (and the Magic) have the biggest and best waterslides on any ship in the world. I still am amazed that waterslides that huge can be on a ship! It did get windy up there at times. The Drainpipe is one of the most unique waterslides I've ever been on. I haven't seen anything like it anywhere. These are body slides, not tube slides. The bad thing about tube slides is that you have no control of how fast or slow you can go. With body slides, if you ride them correctly, you can fly down them lightning fast or take it slow and easy. Sometimes, I felt like I was going too fast.

 

The ports were great. We skipped Nassau because of very rough waters around there. Great call by the captain. We had smooth sailing on the route we took. We also got 3 extra hours in St. Thomas because of it. That allowed us plenty of time to check out both Magens Bay and Sapphire Beach there. In St. Maarten, we did a Bernards tour, which was great. It rained at our beaches, but nobody can control that. We did get to see the planes landing at Maho.

 

If anyone has any questions, ask away. I will go into more detail on things as time permits. I need to get some pics uploaded to photobucket, then I will be able to post the pics here.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review, glad you had a good time.

 

Kirk

[k2excursion]

We stayed at the Radisson, just like last time. It’s a great hotel. It’s not on the beach, but the pool is great, and I love their hot tub. It’s decorated so nice. I had this hotel reserved since December, well before their policy change regarding the parking/shuttle, so we got free parking & shuttle. They don’t do that anymore, unless you book their cruise package. We had requested building 1, which is one of the renovated buildings, and our room was very nice. From what we’ve heard, the non-renovated buildings aren’t nearly as nice, and have brought about some negative reviews of the hotel. It was a chilly day when we checked in. The only people swimming in the pool were a couple crazy kids and me. Many people enjoyed the hot tub. We ate at Kelseys pizza next door. We talked with several people who were going on the Disney Magic the next day.

Getting online at the hotel, we heard that the Dream made a stop at Nassau for a medical emergency. We knew that this could cause the Dream to be late getting into port the next day. All we could do is hope for the best. Sure enough, in the morning, we found out that the ship was a couple hours late getting in, which we figured would delay us getting on.

In the morning, we were able to see the Dream from the hotel, which is always exciting. We had been signed up for an early shuttle, but the hotel was able to fit us onto an even earlier shuttle, which got us to the port early. Not that we needed to be there that early. People were still getting off the ship for awhile after we got there. We sat in the terminal for quite awhile, and it was filling up with people. Our last Dream cruise, we were not platinum, but we still got onto the ship very fast. We spent very little time in the terminal. This time, we were platinum, so we were among the first ones onto the ship, at about 12:30. This experience soured some people right off the bat, about the Dream and/or Port Canaveral. But this is not how embarkation normally goes. This was unique, and it could've been worse. I've boarded at 11:30pm, on my first cruise, after a longer wait in a more packed and uncomfortable terminal.

Before boarding, we were informed that Nassau had been cancelled. That didn’t bother us, since it’s not that great of a port (to us). We would be sailing through the Old Bahamas channel instead, which consisted of much calmer waters than what was around Nassau. That was a great call by the captain. Later, we would talk with people on board the Oasis of the Seas, which did go to Nassau. They said it was very rough waters, people were sick and uncomfortable, and the ship had to cancel shows. Meanwhile, we had very calm and gentle seas as we headed south. The Oasis people wound up wishing that they did what the Dream did. It also brought us into St. Thomas at 7am as opposed to 10am, giving us 13 hours in St. Thomas. We were liking this change. Plus, it saved us some money that we would’ve spent in Nassau, and we got almost $20pp in OBC. What was probably a miserable first morning/early afternoon for some people was no big deal at all for us. The waiting in the terminal wasn't fun, but it was a very minor thing.

 

Here are some pics of the Radisson:

 

 

 

half-moon over a sunset-highlighted palm tree:

 

 

The Dream from the hotel:

[pe4all]

Enjoying your review and pictures very much. We also loved the Dream - and sailed when it was full capacity. Didn't find it much more crowded than any other ship we have been on. Can't wait to read more....:)

[rtw68]

Looking forward to more! We leave soon for our first time on the Dream. :D

[hallmarkk]

can't wait for more review and pics my dd and sil was on the same sailing as you were, my dh and I will be on it Jan 28 I always read the reviews from the dream, so mixed but with such a big boat and so many people you cannot please everyone, I always feel if I am on vacation and on a ccl it can't be bad:):):)

[CasinoQueen]

Thank you for your review

[Purplesaurus]

Thank you for the positive review. Looking forward to the rest!

[Matt93]

My wife and I are on the Dream on Dec 3rd so I am enjoying the review so far!

[GTO-Girl]

We enjoyed our trip last month on the Dream so much that we have already booked her again for April.....it really is our favorite ship!!

[All4fun&fun4all]

 

half-moon over a sunset-highlighted palm tree:

 

 

That is so cool. I like it especially because that is pretty much what our state flag looks like! :p

[k2excursion]

As usual, we headed straight up to lunch after getting on the ship. Just passing by the pool and looking behind me to see those huge waterslides, I knew I was home. This type of ship is truly my style. It's not just the slides; it's the whole design of this ship. I was so disappointed with the Spirit class style of ship. I know that Spirit is very popular among these boards, but it's certainly not for everyone. Hey, we're all different. Carnival uses 3 different types of platforms: Spirit style, Conquest/Dream/Triumph style, and Holiday/Fantasy style. The Conquest is my favorite, and the Dream class has some major improvements to the Conquest platform.

 

We decided to eat at the pasta bar, since it'll just get busier there as the week goes on and more people find out about it. We were the 2nd ones, and not many people came up there while we were there. Rooms were ready at 1:30, so we got to get rid of our carry-ons shortly after eating. It was a chilly, cloudy day, not the best for swimming or waterslide-ing. The waterslides never opened.

 

My checked bag had it's tag ripped off. I don't know how that was possible, since we go to extreme measures with our tags to make them almost impossible to come off without tools. I was lucky to stumble upon the suitcase on my way to the life boat drill. I thought it looked like mine, and sure enough, it was, just without the tag. Be sure to put an extra copy of your luggage tag (in the form of a full piece of paper) in the front pocket of your checked luggage. They hadn't checked there yet, but they probably would have had I not stumbled upon it so soon.

 

Sailaway was on time at 4:00. I was around poolside, where they led us in a few dances like the Electric Slide & the Cupid Shuffle. Those are always fun. The show band was up there, singing and playing those songs live, which was a cool twist. It's always great to kick off a cruise during sailaway with those dances.

 

For dinner, we had early seating in the aft dining room (even though our room is almost all the way forward), in the upper level. It wasn't a good location. On my 2 platinum cruises, we've gotten really bad table assignment locations. We've felt disconnected with the entire dining room with where we are. I guess that's just what they do to the platinum people, tuck us away in the corners. Fortunately, though, we had some nice people at our table, who were great to talk with all week.

 

 

 

Our first pets of the cruise:

[k2excursion]

I did the dancing class in the main theater at 8:00. I think this was the country one. It's fun to get up on stage and do those. I try to hide in the back. The Welcome Aboard Show was about the same as it is on other cruises, with the singers & dancers doing a few songs, highlighted by "Uptight (Out of Sight)". I still always enjoy it. The cruise director talks with us and interacts with us. And one of the comedians does a short set, which was good.

To our surprise, our cruise director for the week was a lady named Jaime. I haven't heard of her. Originally, our CD was supposed to be Butch, who sounds like one of their best, if not their best. When they did this crazy Fun Ship 2.0 thing on Liberty, they decided to move Butch to the Liberty with very little warning. That brought Kirk Benning from Liberty to Dream. From what I heard from some workers on board, losing Butch like that was a crushing blow to the Dream crew. Plus, all the entertainers know that this whole Fun Ship 2.0 thing is part of Carnival's plan to shrink the entertainment staff on all Carnival ships, so they know that this thing will cost them or some of their friends their jobs. That's why I say to not be fooled by it. They hope that these new things can eventually replace some of the entertainment in the minds of the guests, allowing them to lay off some entertainers. I'm sorry, but I'd rather have a band playing music nightly in a venue (such as the ocean plaza) and live music for the main shows as opposed to burgers and karaoke. It's being referred to as the dumbing down of cruise passengers. Sorry to throw some negative stuff in here, but I've got to be honest. It would seem that now is the time to get your cruising in, before they dumb things down too much. It won't be nearly as fun 5 years from now as it is now. The negative is certainly not in reference to the Dream, the Dream crew, or my cruise. It's in reference to the direction that the Carnival powers-that-be are taking. They just don't get it.

Getting back to the cruise director situation, Kirk Benning was the CD for Liberty. That should've been his gig to kick that thing off. But the rug was pulled out from under him. He was apparently so upset about it, that he left 2 weeks early. He was supposed to remain on the Dream through 11/19, when he would go on vacation, but he left this day. We know that Kirk was the CD for the previous cruise, but for us, it's Jaime. She kind of got thrown into this position out of the blue. I'm not sure how much warning she had.

But I've got to say that Jaime did a great job, all thing considered. Personality-wise, she did an excellent job! She's got the right personality to handle this job. I thought she was great! The assistant CD is a man that goes by Gumbi. I don't know his real name. I don't know if he had been thrown into that position also or not, but he was also great! They really made a great team, and we enjoyed them all week! I'll certainly never forget Jaime & Gumbi! There are a few things that Jaime might have not been ready to handle as well as it could've been, but you've got to give some grace to someone who is just thrown into that position. Very little grace was needed, as she did great!

We went down to the ocean plaza to say hi to BlackJack Band. Since they've been on 5 of my 10 cruises, they did recognize us. They were playing a song at the time, but when Jimmy & Melanie saw us, they waved and said hi in the middle of the song, then talked with us between songs. I was wearing my Celebration shirt, which was my 1st 2 cruises and my 1st 2 with them. They loved those small ships, and Melanie definitely recognized the shirt. I'm happy that they had their vacation a couple months ago instead of now. They are always very friendly and do a great job with the music. These types of bands are on every Carnival ship, except the Spirit class ships. That's one of the things that I didn't even realize that I had missed so much on the Miracle, until Jimmy pointed it out to me. Spirit class ships don't have a band like this, so there's one less entertainment option at night. But if Carnival's 2.0 plans play out, there won't be any bands like this on any of their ships in a few years.:( Hopefully, they won't go through with that. Just to point out, it's certainly not lost on me that other cruiselines are also making similar cutbacks. I'm just hoping that Carnival rises above this, even if it means raising their prices. I'll pay more to have the same level of experience that I've had on both my Dream cruises!

[k2excursion]

This was supposed to be our Nassau day. Waves were a little choppy our first evening, but things had really calmed down. In fact, this day was very smooth. It would've been horrible had we taken the route to and passed Nassau. We were sailing along the coast of Cuba almost the entire day. We could see the coast of Cuba along the horizon. The previous night, I was able to see the lights of Ft. Lauderdale in the distance.

 

Also, this was daylight savings "Fall Back" morning. I had wondered, and sure enough, we did turn ship time back one hour overnight, giving us one extra hour to our cruise. I guess that kind of makes up for getting on the ship about an hour late.

 

The waterslides were open, so I took full advantage of them. They will feel bumpy the first few times you ride them, but if you just keep riding, you'll get used to it. The Drainpipe can throw your head back when you come out into the bowl. If you're worried about that, put your hands behind your neck. That'll keep your head from getting slammed into the bowl.

 

Tonight was the first elegant night. The bars are pretty crowded during the $1 off happy hours. I got the lobster for dinner. Who knows how much longer before they remove lobster from the dining room. There have been a few cutbacks on menu choices. I didn't notice any, but a couple people I talked to did. I did enjoy the additions to the menu. There are some new things that they have now, including alligator and shark. Plus, we've heard of the mac & cheese with bacon. I just don't want to see some of the better things that we're used to disappear.

 

Tonight's show was "Get Ready", a tribute to motown. It's a production show with the singers & dancers. This is definitely an awesome show!!! Well worth going to. I went to both shows, because it's that good! There's a lot of hype around the "Dancing in the Streets" show, as there should be. But the other 2 production shows are also amazing!!! These 3 shows alone would be worth a trip on the Dream! They are probably my 3 favorite shows of all that I've seen on all my cruises. Side note for this show: If you're a man who wants the female singer to get right up in your face during "Rescue Me", sit in the front row, center section (right in front of the band's pit).

 

After the show, I spent some time in the dance club as well as listening to BlackJack Band. I got to talk with Melanie and Jimmy more after they were done.

 

Now, for more waterslide pics:

 

 

 

The aft pool:

 

 

[jolyroger]

Glad you had a great time and to cruise the Dream again...Yes one day we have to do that ship again it was one of our favs!!! But As a side note I thought I had read your cruise report from your last cruise on the Dream, not only did your name ring a bell but Because my husband had spotted my mother in law and myself in a couple of your pics by the pool!

[sunsailsand]

great review,i can't wait for mine

[k2excursion]

Glad you had a great time and to cruise the Dream again...Yes one day we have to do that ship again it was one of our favs!!! But As a side note I thought I had read your cruise report from your last cruise on the Dream, not only did your name ring a bell but Because my husband had spotted my mother in law and myself in a couple of your pics by the pool!

 

Yes, I remember you commenting about that on my other Dream review. I don't know if I ever got to meet you on that cruise or not, but I definitely remember your screen name.

[k2excursion]

I woke up sore from all the watersliding I did the previous day. But I started riding again later on. It was a beautiful, spectacular day. Sunny & warm, very gentle seas = perfect! Today, we were sailing along Haiti/Dominican Republic. We could see the mountains of the Dominican Republic along the horizon most of the day. Yesterday was Cuba, today the Dominican Republic. It was really cool to sail this route that cruise ships usually don't sail.

 

I tried the lanai BBQ for the first time in my 2 Dream cruises. It was pretty good. It had a longer line than the lido buffet. I was still through it in about 10 minutes, my longest wait of the cruise. I still don't see how a ship with this many guests can have such short lines compared to ships carrying far fewer passengers. It was such a nice surprise.

 

I did the disco dance class in the afternoon in the main theater. Those are always fun. We had more people participate in this one than the first one.

 

With the time change & our movement Eastward, sunset was around 5:00. The sunset itself today wasn't great (cloudy on the horizon), but the colors around the ship were beautiful. I'll post some pics. We also were having a full moon or near full moon.

 

The guy who was supposed to do tonight's headline show was going to board the ship in Nassau, but since we never went there, he wasn't on board. I would later find out that it was the comedy juggler. He's really good, but at least I've seen his show on the Dream before, plus I've also seen it on another ship. Jimmy Hodge from BlackJack was asked to fill in and do a show, but he realized that he left his material back in Port Canaveral. I've seen his show before on the Conquest, when he was asked to fill in. But, our male singer has his own show, and he jumped at the opportunity to do it. The showband did a few songs, then he did his show. And he did a great job. He interacted with the crowd and made it fun. I loved his classical music montage!

 

After he was done, several of the Dream crew came up and did a skit called "Upon the Sea". It is such a hilarious skit!!! I've only seen it one other time in my 9 other cruises. It was performed on one of those cruises that I missed, but it's obviously not done often. And there's no telling when they'll do it, if they do it. I was so happy to see it again. If you sit off to the sides (like I was on the Elation), you'll miss alot of the humor, because most of the humor has to do with their positioning as they're doing what they're doing.

 

more pics: Here's the Dominican Republic along the horizon:

 

 

The lanai BBQ:

 

 

more waterslide pics, of course:

 

[k2excursion]

 

from the top of the waterslides:

 

[k2excursion]

Instead of 10am-8pm, we were in port from 7am-8pm, thanks to skipping Nassau. Since we had planned to visit 2 beaches here, we liked the extra hours. Plus, with the Monstrosity of the Seas and others in port with us, it's nice to get there well before them. Last time in St. Thomas, we took the ferry over to St. John and went to Trunk Bay. We loved it there, but decided to check out what St. Thomas has this time. We decided to go to Magens Bay first, then Sapphire Beach later. We know that Magens Bay is extremely popular, so we figured that it would get very busy later on. It's considered one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. But I don't see it outranking Trunk Bay.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

From the ship in port:

 

[tweety33]

Hi, Remember me. We sailed with you this year on the Miracle. That was a great time, and a nice roll call. I am really enjoying your review and all the details. We are sailing on the dream in March, with the western itinerary.

My first time daring to try a water slide was on the Miracle. Your pictures look like the slide on the dream is all enclosed. I don't think I'm up for that, to claustrophobic. I couldn't tell what happens after you go into the round circular thing, is there then a pool below that to land in?

I look forward to the rest of your review. Thanks.

[jimbo5544]

To our surprise, our cruise director for the week was a lady named Jaime. I haven't heard of her. Originally, our CD was supposed to be Butch, who sounds like one of their best, if not their best. When they did this crazy Fun Ship 2.0 thing on Liberty, they decided to move Butch to the Liberty with very little warning. That brought Kirk Benning from Liberty to Dream. From what I heard from some workers on board, losing Butch like that was a crushing blow to the Dream crew. Plus, all the entertainers know that this whole Fun Ship 2.0 thing is part of Carnival's plan to shrink the entertainment staff on all Carnival ships, so they know that this thing will cost them or some of their friends their jobs. That's why I say to not be fooled by it. They hope that these new things can eventually replace some of the entertainment in the minds of the guests, allowing them to lay off some entertainers. I'm sorry, but I'd rather have a band playing music nightly in a venue (such as the ocean plaza) and live music for the main shows as opposed to burgers and karaoke. It's being referred to as the dumbing down of cruise passengers. Sorry to throw some negative stuff in here, but I've got to be honest. It would seem that now is the time to get your cruising in, before they dumb things down too much. It won't be nearly as fun 5 years from now as it is now. The negative is certainly not in reference to the Dream, the Dream crew, or my cruise. It's in reference to the direction that the Carnival powers-that-be are taking. They just don't get it.

 

Getting back to the cruise director situation, Kirk Benning was the CD for Liberty. That should've been his gig to kick that thing off. But the rug was pulled out from under him. He was apparently so upset about it, that he left 2 weeks early. He was supposed to remain on the Dream through 11/19, when he would go on vacation, but he left this day. We know that Kirk was the CD for the previous cruise, but for us, it's Jaime. She kind of got thrown into this position out of the blue. I'm not sure how much warning she had.

 

But I've got to say that Jaime did a great job, all thing considered. Personality-wise, she did an excellent job! She's got the right personality to handle this job. I thought she was great! The assistant CD is a man that goes by Gumbi. I don't know his real name. I don't know if he had been thrown into that position also or not, but he was also great! They really made a great team, and we enjoyed them all week! I'll certainly never forget Jaime & Gumbi! There are a few things that Jaime might have not been ready to handle as well as it could've been, but you've got to give some grace to someone who is just thrown into that position. Very little grace was needed, as she did great!

 

there won't be any bands like this on any of their ships in a few years.:(

That is Jaime Deitch. She is a real gem.

[jimbo5544]

Nice review so far and love your pics. Brings back our cruise on the Dream a year ago this past August.

[Cold Beach]

Great pictures!

[nessz79]

Following along :). Great pictures!