Back from the Dream 3/17-3/24

[mgriffin3]

Thought I would post a few random thoughts about our trip on the Dream. We had only Cruised Disney up to this point, and honestly the deciding point to go with Carnival over Disney again was price.

 

Food: I'm VERY picky about eating, so I don't try alot of different foods. What I did try was good, and honestly probably as good as what I ate on Disney.

 

Entertainment: I have to be honest here, there really is NO comparison between the two. The show on Disney are SO much better and there is so much more variety in the daily planned activities. On Disney I couldn't make it to everything I wanted to do in a day, on the Dream I found myself constantly wandering around looking for something to do. I can only take so much bingo and karaoke.

 

Staff: I felt the staff was very good on both. If I had one thing to say it would be that on Disney I felt the cruise director staff was out and about alot more than on Carnival. Several of them new me by name by the end of our previous cruises.

 

Photos: This is probably one of my biggest gripes and was a big turnoff to me. At one point we saw the towell animal guy out walking. The kids wanted a picture obviously, so the Carnival photographer took a picture and then I was going to take one with my camera. The guy kind of rudely said "no personal cameras", to which I responded that even Disney lets you take pictures with your own camera. In fact they will usually even take a picture with your camera for you. To that he said "well that is the difference sir". I think there is more than just that difference to be honest. I understand they make a huge profit on the photos, but this kind of irritated me for the rest of the day.

 

Costa Maya: We missed this port. I understand why we missed it and I'm fine with that, couldn't be helped. We were told they would put out additional activities for a "fun day at sea". When I finally did see this sheet of additional activities, 90% of them seemed to be trying to sell me crap at the spa. We couldn't find a spot anywhere near the pool, so again we just roamed the ship looking for something to do.

 

Excursions: Did the Zipline and beach break in Cozumel through the ship. The ziplining was fun, but I don't know how they can sell this as a beach with a straight face. They took us to a "resort" called El Cid right by the docks. It was trucked in sand ontop of the sea wall with stairs leading down into the rocky ocean. We just bailed after the worst $40 lunch I have ever had.

 

Would I do Carnival again?? Probably. I can't say that I didn't have a good time, and I felt it was a very god value for the money.

 

mark

[crusinfamof4]

Interesting, I have sailed the Dream and one of the Disney ships and I was bored out of my ever loving mind on Disney. I found on the Dream there was plenty of things to do, plenty. I was always running from one activity to another. And I only played bingo once-the first night, and never did karoke. Our oldest son did that. I loved the Dream and cannot wait to sail her again. And there were plenty of chairs on our cruise available, of course, I had no preference on being on the Lido deck, but I could look down from my cabin and see empty chairs 2 decks below me, that was good enough for me. I would sail Carnival again, I cannot say the same for Disney.

[Athankfulheart]

I was on the same sailing. We had a great trip :) I posted a thread about it. I will say that we went on this trip mostly to relax, but we never found ourselves without something fun to do when we wanted to be busy. We were a little bummed because Costa Maya was to be our beach day, but all things considered we did make our most desired port ( roatan ) so we were happy. It was very nice to have 2 sea days before debarking though ! On the note of photos, I wonder if it depends on the staff member ? We had a person with us who did this several times and never ran into a problem.

 

I live near Branson, and with few exceptions the shows were like Branson shows - so they never really excite me anyways. Did you get to see the comedy ? We did enjoy that. We are Karaoke people because we like to sing - and people watch. Karaoke is a great place for those two things :D

 

Cant wait to take my kids on the Dream !

[KLD261]

I've been on Disney once and while it was fun, we were more bored than we ever get on Carnival, especially with no casino. There was really nothing to do at night and there were tons of kids, which is to be expected on a Disney cruise. We go to relax for the most part. However, we don't usually do many activities other than the spa and hang by the pool and then at the casino. We go to the occasional show, we are not into karaoke at all though.