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Dream Eastern Aug 11-18th

Branman

By Branman,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Branman

Branman

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I don't post much on here, but this forum has been very helpful in my vacation planning. My girlfriend (23) and I (29) really wanted to go to St. Martin, and this was the most economical way of doing it. I had previously sailed on the Conquest in 2004 while she sailed on the Triumph in 1999.

 

Embarkation Day.

 

We started off by flying on the 8:55 am flight out of Atlanta to Orlando. The flight was delayed for about a half hour due to an equipment change. I wasn't worried as it was a direct flight and we had plenty of time. Upon arrival in Orlando we used Carnival's airport transfer (run by Mears Transportation) to reach Port Canaveral. We only had to wait about 15 minutes between checking in with Mears and boarding the bus.

 

We reached the terminal at 12:30 and were greeted by a very long line to go inside of the terminal. We sat outside for 45 minutes as they only had two people checking boarding passes and IDs at the door used by bus drop offs. Once inside, there were no lines and we were able to board the ship immediately. This was really bad, and I hope that this was due to the port staff realizing that this was the last time that the Dream would depart from Terminal 10. It would have been much better to have the long wait inside in the air-conditioning instead of under the overhang as more buses unloaded.

 

Once we boarded the ship, we were able to drop off our bags in our room (Interior 8418). We ate lunch in the pasta bar on deck 11. The pasta bar was pretty amazing. I would recommended it to just about everyone. Also, a big thanks to previous reviews which recommended to go upon embarkation as the pasta bar was not crowded at all.

 

After lunch we decided to explore the ship. At this point we only had about a half hour to 45 minutes before the safety briefing. At 3:30 the safety briefing was held. After the briefing, we went up to the aft lido deck to watch sail-away. One of the best features of the Dream compared to the Conquest was the exposed aft lido deck. The pool deck open to the sea is much better than the enclosed deck of the Conquest class.

 

After sail-away, we went back to our room to unpack our bags, and after unpacking we changed into our swimsuits and went to the deck 5 whirlpools. This is another great feature of the ship. It was very relaxing to just hang out in there. We really liked the fact that the whirlpools were cantilevered over the side of the ship; it made for some really great views of the sea.

 

After whirlpooling, we made our way up to change for dinner. We had late seating in the Crimson Dining Room. We were seated with a couple from Toronto who was also in their 20s. Service was pretty good and our waiters were very friendly; our tablemates always ordered both a soup and another appetizer making it a four-course meal. We were usually done with dinner around 9:45.

 

On the first night we were very tired since we stayed up late the previous night working and woke up very early to make our flight. We missed the welcome aboard show and opening night laser show in favor of watching the Olympics. While not a cruise activity, it was really fun to watch an American diver (who went to my girlfriend's university) win the gold in the 10m platform.

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Branman

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Day 2: Nassau.

 

We woke up around 8:30 when Steve the cruise director was making the announcement that passengers could disembark. We got up and ate breakfast next to the Tandoor station on the aft Lido deck. While there was a line inside of The Gathering, there was no line for the buffet at the Tandoor station. We ended up eating breakfast in this location just about all week. It was a cool location-- outside but still in the shade.

 

We did not have an excursion booked in Nassau. Most of the excursions in Nassau seemed to focus on going to Atlantis; while this would be cool, we didn't want to shell out money for such a short stay (guests had to be back on board by 1:30). We opted to just walk around the city on our own. We walked through the Straw Market, but we didn't really come to shop. As we walked through the city, we noticed that only the high end stores were open; most stores were closed on a Sunday morning. We made our way on foot to the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle; those were really interesting, and we got to take great pictures of the 4 ships in port that day.

 

After seeing the historical sites, we made our way back to the ship. We immediately headed up to the waterworks to try out the slides. Since we were in port, there wasn't much of a line for the slides. All three slides (racers, twister, and drainpipe) were a lot of fun, but my favorite was probably the drainpipe with the twister a close second. We ended up watching the U.S. win the gold medal match of basketball on the Seaside Theatre from the top of the waterslides.

 

After getting our fill of waterslides, we went to the aft pool to cool off-- walking around Nassau was very hot. This was pretty fun as the pool was not crowded. After some pool time we headed to the buffet for lunch. It was American food day so we got some fried chicken. After lunch we went up to deck 11 to watch sail-away. The Oasis left right before us, and we followed soon after. Underway, we ordered some drinks and hung out on deck 11 to watch the mixology competition. That was pretty entertaining.

 

After the activities on the lido deck were over, it was turning into the mid-afternoon. We went back down to the Lanai to hang out in those whirlpools. We ended up talking with some people in the overlooking deck 6 balcony since they noticed that I was wearing a New Orleans Saints hat. I wouldn't want to book the balcony right by the whirlpool; that would make for a really awkward week.

 

After whirlpool time, we were still pretty tired from a late Friday night and early Saturday, so we had a nap. We woke up with just enough time to get ready for formal night dinner. After dinner we skipped the production show to listen to the Piano Bar and get ready to get good seats for the 11:00 pm comedy show. We were in the 2nd row for it, and the comedy did not disappoint. The comedy club was a true highlight of the cruise. Jeff the Fun Dude does a great job running the club and making sure that as many people get to see the shows as possible. After the 11:00 show, we hopped back in line to see the midnight show-- also hilarious. After the midnight show we went back to our room and watched part of a replay of the closing ceremonies.

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Branman

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Can you please tell me if you were on a 7 day cruise and if so, what time were you off the ship on the last day. I booked my flight a little to early and am worried about getting to the airport in time.

 

We got off of the ship at about 9:30 to 9:45. We made it to the airport by 11:00 or so. They also call for anyone with earlier flights to be put in an early zone number. We were in zone 25 so we were in the last 1/3rd of people to disembark. They started disembarking around 7:30.

 

Also, they might go faster in the future as this was the first time they disembarked the Dream in the new terminal 6.

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Day 3: Sea Day

 

We got up kinda early this morning because my girlfriend wanted to play speed Sudoku at 10:00 am. Once again we ended up getting breakfast and sitting by the Tandoor station on Lido. After breakfast we headed down to the Ocean Plaza where my girlfriend won a silver medal in speed Sudoku.

 

Unfortunately I couldn't concentrate at all on Sudoku because I was exhausted. I went back to the room to sleep a bit more while my girlfriend used the internet to register for graduate school classes.

 

After nap time, it was time for lunch. We went to the Lanai BBQ, and that was pretty amazing. I was surprised at the fact that they actually added a spicy sauce to just about everything-- I figured it would be a bit more bland for American's tastes. We loved the BBQ and definitely recommend it to anyone going on the Dream; I hope that the Magic and Breeze have a similar flavor to their Lanai BBQs.

 

After lunch we went to deck 11 overlooking the main pool to watch the hairy chest contest. That was pretty hilarious. We grabbed a few drinks and hung out there for an hour or so. We really liked that spot on the ship.

 

At 3:00 we went to play the great dream hunt. We found some of the items, but we were disappointed when the team in line ahead of us was just showing pictures of things on the list (meanwhile we carried a towel animal and asked a bar tender for one of those tiny drink umbrellas). That was pretty discouraging. I wonder how much of the entertainment staff rotated on the ship that week with the CD...

 

After returning the scavenger hunt stuff to our cabin, we went down for science trivia. We'd been looking forward to this trivia game since we both know stuff about science. We didn't end up winning, but it was a pretty fun game.

 

After trivia we headed up to the lido deck to hang out in the pools and hot tubs. We first spent some time in the aft pool, but we the headed down to the main pool. Since it was the afternoon, the pool areas were just about deserted. We could get two chairs next to the main pool. It's also worth noting that today was the only day that we had choppy seas so the waves pool was an actual wave pool today. That was pretty fun.

 

After some time in the pool, we split a hamburger right before the grill closed. The hamburger was pretty good. They also had homemade tortilla chips and cheese dip. The dip was pretty good, but the chips weren't. Store bought chips would have been much better.

 

We then went down and changed out of our swimsuits and got ready to go to the Fun Force atrium show. That was pretty awesome. Big ups given to Zeus who is really proud to be from Louisiana-- I'm from Louisiana so I appreciated this. This is definitely a do-no-miss event.

 

After dinner we got front row seats for the fly-in magician/variety act. The show was pretty good. In the middle of the show the entire lounge shuddered and the headliner made a comment "what, did we just hit a deer?" This day was the only day where the Dream was in not-so-great seas.

 

After that show we caught the late comedy show. That show was amazing because the comedian just spent most of the show making fun of a former NFL linebacker and his female "buddy" sitting in the front row. He thought it was hilarious, but she was super-embarrassed at how he characterized their relationship...

 

My one comment on the entertainment for the night... I really wanted to do the 80s music trivia because I love 80s music, but it conflicted with the headlining act of the night. I wish they could have had a 10:15 fun force late show and a 9:45 80s music trivia instead of the 9:30 fun force show and the 10:15 80s music trivia.

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Branman

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One more question. I can not take the carnival shuttle because they don;t leave that early, who did you use? And were they easy to find etc. I am meeting friends that are driving to Orlando so I am going it alone and nervous!

 

Thanks.

 

We ended up taking the Carnival Shuttle which is actually contracted to Mears transportation. The shuttle we were on left at about noon. It was really easy to find as they have a representative waiting at the baggage claim with Carnival logo on a clipboard.

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Branman

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Fellow "Who Dat" here enjoying your review. We will be on the Dream Eastern cruise on Oct. 20th and can't wait! Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Solid! Steve the cruise director is also a Saints fan. He had a Saints' baseball cap on one morning during the morning show, and he wore a Drew Brees jersey when he was introducing the late showing of Dancin' in the Streets.

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Day 4: St. Thomas USVI.

 

We slept in a bit since the ship wasn't set to arrive in St. Thomas until 11:00. We got breakfast around 10:30 and watched the arrival in port. This was really cool since it was an amazing day. The Miracle and Freedom were already in port ahead of us, and the Oasis was in a separate berth on the other side of the city.

 

Immediately after we docked, we ate some lunch. We had an excursion booked from 12:30 until 5ish, so we wanted to be sure we had enough food. We stopped by the Deli. I got the turkey sandwich which was pretty good. My girlfriend got the smoked salmon on a bagel-- she thought it was delicious but didn't have enough room to finish it. After a small lunch we went to disembark the ship.

 

We purchased the St. John Champagne Catamaran Sailaway excursion. We met at the pier and took a taxi across the island. The taxi ride was interesting since it was an open-air taxi built on a Ford truck. I thought it was strange that the island was driving on the left side of the road while most cars were left hand drive.

 

After a 20 minute or so drive, we reached the other side of the island. The morning excursion from the Miracle was disembarking, and we made our way onto the cat. We then motored over to Honeymoon Bay in St. John. During the cruise over the crew distributed snorkeling gear, gave the safety talk, and told us a bit about the island.

 

We anchored in the bay, and it was snorkeling time. Due to their insurance policy, we all had to wear inflatable life jackets (though they didn't have to be inflated). The place was amazingly beautiful. We were right by a coral reef full of interesting fish. Some people on the trip were able to see sea turtles. If you didn't like the swim, they had a guy who would take you to the beach in a dinghy.

 

Snorkeling time lasted for about an hour or so, but it seemed very short-- we were having way too much fun. No matter, on the way back to the dock the crew broke out the rum punch and champagne. They walked through the boat making sure everyone was topped off. Overall, this was a great excursion.

 

When we got back to the pier, the Miracle had already departed. Since we were already in our swimsuits, we made a b-line for the upper decks. The waterworks was open for a little while longer, so we hit the waterslides again; since we were in port, there weren't many people in line. We started getting hungry so we hit up the pizza place. While we were eating, the Freedom backed its way past the Dream. It was cool watching it depart right next to us.

 

After the pizza, we went down to deck 5 to hang out in the Lanai whirlpools. We stayed in one of the port side whirlpools. While we were hanging out, a ping-pong ball which escaped deck 11 managed to land in our whirlpool. We thought this was pretty amazing; a few minutes later a little girl came down to claim the ping pong ball. Eventually it was time for the Dream to depart St. Thomas. We choose wisely in our selection of whirlpool as the Dream backed out and rotated leaving us with a view of St. Thomas as we left. Really cool way to watch sailaway.

 

After we were underway, we got ready for dinner. After dinner was Dancin' in the Street. It's been said on this board a million times before, but I'll say it again: don't miss this show. It was pretty amazing. This show is unique to the Dream. I don't think any other ship has the breakdance team or the acrobats.

 

Anyway, we called it a night after the show. We had an early morning in St. Martin.

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Day 5: St. Martin

 

This was a pretty big day for us. We woke up early and got some breakfast. I think this was the day when we discovered the strawberry and blueberry topping for pancakes in the buffet-- pretty awesome. We got off the ship at around 8:15 because we had an 8:30 excursion booked.

 

We booked the America's Cup Regatta-- absolutely epic excursion. They took us over to the water taxi jetty where their tender met us. At the jetty we broke into two teams where the host picked two women to pick teams and choose their respective boats. Today they brought out the two Canadian boats: True North and Canada II. We ended up on the team set to crew True North.

 

Aboard the tender, the skippers of the respective boats went to everyone and asked them their desired level of activity (active, medium, or light) and assigned them a position on the boat. My girlfriend and I were assigned to man the port-side aft winch which held lines to support the main mast. The skipper taught her how to set-up, ease, and release the line from the winch; I was just expected to grind the winch until the line was tight. Other active positions on the boat included grinders for the mainsail and jib lines; easier positions included cheerleader and bartender. It's worth noting that there were only 2 or 3 people on board who actually knew how to sail the boat properly, the boat was primarily crewed by people on the excursion.

 

We ended up boarding our boat first and setting sail first. We were able to sail around for about a half hour before the race actually started. This was great as we got to practice a few tacks and jibes before the start of the race. In our position, we had to loosen the line each time we were on a starboard tack while we had to tighten the lines once we tacked to port. The skipper was only 3 ft away from us and would give step-by-step commands to the 4 of us crewing the aft winches. He also gave commands to the main grinders. For the people more forward, there was another member of the staff giving commands to the grinders controlling the jib.

 

The race was pretty fun. It was set up to be an authentic match race. They had a committee boat set to wave a flag starting a one minute countdown; this one-minute countdown led to another flag which started a 6 minute countdown. This is one of the most important aspects of a match race as each boat uses these 6 minutes to jockey for position and be in the lead. After the 6 minutes are up, the race officially begins. This was a 5 leg race: upwind, downwind, upwind, downwind, and back upwind. They placed 3 makers out in the water to make the race course.

 

During the race the skipper talked about the general strategy he was trying to employ. During the last leg of the race, he made a point to get between the other team and the finish line to block their wind. We ended up winning the race. I ended up purchasing the photo they took of us during the race since we were up front and center in the picture. After the excursion, we made our way back to the ship to drop off stuff and change into beach clothes.

 

We got back off of the ship and took a cab to Maho beach to watch some airplanes land. We timed the day perfectly as we arrived at the beach at 12:50-- the big planes started landing at 1:20. This was absolutely epic and amazing. We ended up having an Air France A340 land right over our heads. After taking amazing videos and photos, we ended up catching a cab at 2:30, but it took about 40 or 50 minutes or so to get back to port because of the traffic.

 

Back on board the Dream we headed to the lido deck to grab some food. We really just wanted to chill out after our busy day. We hung out in the aft pool and aft whirlpools and watched the Oasis depart. Soon we were also leaving St. Martin to return to Florida.

 

After dinner we headed to the gender showdown. It was ok. Tonight was the big lido deck party. We really weren't that interested in it, and we were disappointed that the piano player was sick and couldn't perform this night. We ended up going out to the Lanai and playing giant chess. This was really fun, and we could hear the music from the lido deck.

 

After an epic game of chess, we ordered some desert from room service and called it a night after an exciting day.

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Day 6: Sea Day

 

We slept in a bit this morning after the long day in St. Martin. This was followed by a quick breakfast in The Gathering. At 11:30 we went down to the Ocean plaza to play "Who wants to be a Carnivalaire." This was a pretty fun elimination trivia played by a bunch of people.

 

After this, we hit the Scarlet dining room for lunch to redeem our free drink ticket. Lunch was pretty good, but it took longer than we expected-- we wanted to watch something called "Rubber Chicken Olympics" at 12:45. Oh well. After lunch we went to chill out on the outside part of the ocean plaza sipping on our free drinks (which came at the end of lunch because the bar service was so delayed from everyone using VIFP tickets).

 

At 2:00 we went to watch the Love and Marriage show. It started off hilariously by having all of the newlyweds on the cruise have a make-out-off to see who got to be in the show. As always, this was a hilarious show and one of the highlights of this day.

 

After the show, we went up to the 11th deck to chill out in our usual spot. We were able to grab a drink special and watch the limbo contest.

 

After some time on deck I wanted to go down to the Ocean Plaza to play Olympic trivia. This ended up being one of the hardest trivias of the cruise with such questions as:

"how many gold medals did Carl Lewis win in the long jump?"

"What were the three finalist cities for the 2012 Olympics?"

"In what city were the 2012 Olympics awarded?"

"Who won the first medal in the Barcelona Olympics?"

"Who won the gold medal in women's field hockey in the 1992 Olympics?"

"In what discipline is Wind Surfing competed?"

 

I figured that I'd post some of the questions since I don't think they will have Olympic trivia for another few years. Anyway... it was really difficult. Most trivia games started with the host asking who had 5... 10.. 12... 15 questions correct. This one started by asking who had 3 ... 5, and the host wanted to award it at 5, but I had 8 correct! The host did a double take (and I also have no idea how I got that many), and I took down the ship on a stick!

 

So I was super pumped after winning trivia, and it was time to change into swimsuits and head to the lido deck. Once again, it wasn't crowded, and we got some time in the aft pool and hot tubs. At around 5:20 or so we headed to the waterworks for some waterslide time. Eventually we ended up in the serenity hot tub which wasn't crowded at all.

 

After an afternoon on the deck, we headed down to get ready for elegant night number 2. Unfortunately, as our 4th comic missed the ship in St. Martin, we only had 2 comedy shows tonight, but Lenny Schmidt (the only comic) planned to do 2 unique shows. In order to see both the 9:45 and midnight shows, we had to rush dinner a bit. Our waitstaff was accommodating and made sure we got through all of our courses in time to make the show. We ended up getting a spot to stand as it seemed that everyone on the ship wanted to make this show.

 

After the first comedy show we gave the production show a try, but it wasn't for us. We left and hung out in the piano bar. We had a drink waiting for the midnight line to start to form. Once the line started to form, we managed to get a good seat for the new show. Finally, after the show we headed back to go to sleep.

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Day 7: Final Day at Sea

 

Once again, we started the day with breakfast by the Tandoor station. After breakfast, we watched a 60 second challenge by the main pool-- how many spoons could you flip into a bucket in 60 seconds.

 

After hanging out by the pool for awhile, we went down to see the Ship's Life Q&A with Steve. That was pretty interesting. While a lot of people asked more mundane questions, some people asked questions which led to funny stories. One was about a woman on the Elation who thought there was a ghost in her room: housekeeping printed out a ghostbusters logo, put it on a vacuum, and made a bunch of noise in the cabin for 15 minutes or so to allay her fears. We also found out that Steve had worked as a DJ at an adult entertainment establishment-- apparently one of the entertainment hosts asks that question every week.

 

After this, we ate lunch at the Tandoor station. This was pretty good. My girlfriend (who is of Indian descent) approved, and she really doesn't like Americanized Indian food. For her this was a big improvement over her 1999 sailing on the Triumph where she eventually got tired of cruise food and just wanted some Indian food.

 

We wanted to watch the ship building finals, but only one person built a boat which didn't really float. After some more hanging out on deck 11, we went down to play the kryptic challenge. This was a fun puzzle game, but it only lasted 5 minutes or so. We hung out on some loungers on the Lanai after this then decided to try the movie trivia in the theatre. This was just a DVD party game on the screen moderated by one of the entertainment hosts. This wasn't super interesting, so we left to change into swimsuits to make the most of our last day.

 

We started by making sure we got to hang out one last time in the Deck 5 whirpools. We made sure to hit all of the usual places: aft pool, waterworks, and main pool. The notable thing about today was that unlike previous days, the line for the waterslides was mostly filled with adults. They should have been there the whole week as it was a blast!

 

Finally, we headed back to the room to pack up our stuff and change for dinner. Before dinner we went to the battle of the sexes. This was a pretty fun event. They split the theatre by sex, and had a round of trivia followed by a round of who could find something first. The men were asked "questions women should known" and vice-versa. The questions men should know were mostly about sports, technology, and cars while the questions women should know were about fashion and beauty. If once side couldn't answer, the other side could steal. I kinda shocked the host as I was the first person ever who could answer the question "what does DVD stand for." The women were in the lead after the trivia round, but that round is stacked in their favor-- sports, cars, and technology are more general knowledge subjects than beauty products and female-specific fashion. There's plenty of reason for the average woman to know something about those subjects, but I can't think of a reason for an average guy to know anything about beauty products. However, the guys ended up winning the contest in the 2nd act!!! The 2nd act was far more hilarious than the trivia part.

 

After the show we went to dinner. As we didn't really want to watch the legends show, we hung out more in the piano bar. This was really fun as there were only a few of us and we could make random requests. After the piano bar, we caught the last Lenny Schmidt show. The final show of the cruise was a headliner act by Jeff the Fun Dude himself-- he stepped up and did a show because the other comic couldn't make it. It was nice to see the guy who works hard running the comedy club get a change to get a bigger stage than 5 minutes of opening remarks before a headliner.

 

Finally we headed to sleep and got up early for debarkation. We were off the ship around 9:30-10:00 and took the airport transfer back to MCO for our flight back to Atlanta. Worst part of the trip: my girlfriend found out that all of the Cinnabons in Hartsfield have been closed and are being replaced by other things...

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