Dream, Jan. 19

[bills blasters]

Just got off the Carnival Dream yesterday. Went from Jan. 19, to Jan 26.

 

This was our 9th Cruise, all with Carnival. Traveled with a group off 11. Ranging in Age from early 60s to 3 -11 year olds.

 

We chose to do the FTTF this time. I really liked it. Was nice to get on the ship and be able to go right to our room and drop off bags. Our suitcases were in our room when we returned from lunch. I also liked that we could use the shorter line at guest services. There was always a long line there, and was nice to walk right up and be helped. We did not get off the ship in Belize, so can’t comment on the priority boarding.

 

We were on the ship a few minutes after 11:00. Things went very smoothly boarding the ship in Cape Canaveral.

 

We had an aft balcony room on level 6. Loved the room and the balcony. We have had the aft wraps on 2 other ships, and it was pretty similar. The part I didn’t like was that you looked down on deck 5 instead of looking at the ocean. I don’t like the set up with deck 5 on this class of ship. I noticed that if you are sitting on deck 5 on the sides of the ship, you can look right up into the balconies. Really have no privacy at all. Plus, there were many night where we had a pretty loud group sitting below us, and it was really noisy out on our balcony.

 

Cannot complain at all about the crew on the ship. We were treated nice by everyone. The ship was always nice and clean. We have had friendlier wait staff and stewards on other ships, but everyone did their job above and beyond. I think they were just really busy and didn’t have the time to visit.

 

I had emailed the Maitre D and asked for a table big enough for all of us, and also one that had a good location where we could see all the entertainment. Our group has cruised together 4 times, and we have always been at tables close to each other, but never one big table. We have also been so far in the corner that we could never see any of the entertainment. The Maitre D came through for us wonderfully. We had a large round table, right in the center on the bottom level. Perfect. I had received an email back from him the day before we cruised telling us that he would take good care of us. I was very impressed with him. I had hoped he would stop by the table so we could thank him. On the last night we found him as we were leaving and Thanked him and gave him a tip. First time I have ever tipped the Maitre D, but it is also the first time that I have ever asked a favor from one.

 

The food was good, but it seems like it was the same thing we have had on the last few cruises. Wish they would switch the menu around a little. We didn’t eat much in the buffet except for breakfast, which was good. We liked the Pasta bar upstairs. We ate there three days for lunch. Some days it was very crowded and a long wait to even get a table. We all liked the Pizza. Much more than in the past. They seemed to have changed the crust, and it is now real thin and crispy. The kids in our group made many trips to the Pizza Station. We did order room service one evening, and that was OK. I also wish they would add something different on to that also, but what we got was fine.

 

We didn’t have the best of weather. Very little sun and on and off showers all week. Everytime we tried to sit out and enjoy our big balcony it seemed to start sprinkling. Both of the sea days were cloudy, so we didn’t get to spend much time outside. Because people were not able to sit outside much, it made it seemed crowded in the public areas. I personally think we will go back to the next smaller class of ships for our next cruise. We did a B2B last Jan. on the liberty, and it never seemed to be as crowded. It was very windy on the last sea day so they were not able to open the BBQ on deck 5 for lunch, so it was really busy in the lido area. Almost impossible to find a table.

 

We had been to all of the stops before, but still enjoyed Roatan and Costa Maya a lot. My only complaint about Costa Maya was the hours we were there. We docked at 7 and had to be back on the ship by 1:30. Way to short a day. It was pitch dark at 7, and raining, so we didn’t want to do anything until at least 8 or even later when it was light. Seemed like just when it was getting sunny and we were having a great time at the beach that it was time to head back to the ship. We rented 4 golf carts at Costa Maya and just rode around and visited a couple bars on the beach. 5 of our group went Snorkeling. They loved it. A boat picked them up right by the bar we were at, and took them out. It was over an hour, and cost $20 per person. They supplied all the equipment if needed. The vendors along the beach are a little pushy, but no worse than any other stop. We ended up buying 4 hammocks between all of us. Who knows if we will ever get any of them hung up, but the poor guy had to pay his rent, and we just couldn’t say no. Didn’t hurt that we had had a few beers before noon, and the guys keep bring shots of tequila around. The hammocks looked a lot better on the beach than they did when we got home and unpacked them.

 

In Roatan we did a private tour with Victor Boddin. We had Big Al as our driver and he did a great job. He took us all over the island and told us all about it. We had brought a lot of donations for a school there, but the school was on break when we got there. He took us to an Orphanage and we were able to give all the school supplies and toys to the kids in the orphanage. That was the best part of the entire cruise for me. They were great kids. Very polite and grateful. We got to spend a lot of time with the kids. We plan to book a cruise that stops there next year and go visit them again. We also ate at a nice Cantina high on the hill. Wonderful views. I recommend Victor Boddin Tours to everyone. The only down side was the traffic getting to where they load the vans. There were 3 ships there that day, and it was wall to wall cars. Still surprised that no one was ran over that day.

 

In Cozumel we only walked around the pier for a short time and got on the ship. Some of our group went and swam with the Dolphins, and they loved it.

 

That seems to cover most of the highlights of the ship. If anyone has any other questions, just ask.

Claudia

[C&THollings]

We are considering this same cruise in November. How is transportation to and from Orlando Airport? It seem like a distance. Did you rent a car or take a shuttle?

[LAD080110]

Thanks for taking time to post your review. We'll be on the same itinerary as you. We're looking forward to Belize as we have never been there before.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cruisefriends]

Thanks for your review. We will be sailing on the Dream with the same itinerary at the end of March. If you have any pics you can post that would be great. We are sailing with a group of 24. Our largest group! I do keep hearing that the ship is BIG and that alot of people will go back to the smaller classes. I am hoping the ship lay out is easy to get around...as we have a few newbies to cruising. Thanks again.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Suntanz]

Thanks for the review. We are sailing the Dream with the same itinerary at the end of March with 6 kids age 10-12. How did the 11 year olds like the trip? Any feedback on things they liked/disliked you could share?

[bills blasters]

Thanks for the review. We are sailing the Dream with the same itinerary at the end of March with 6 kids age 10-12. How did the 11 year olds like the trip? Any feedback on things they liked/disliked you could share?

 

I think the kids all had a good time. They did not go to Camp Carnival like other years. They stayed together and just roamed the ship a lot. I think they were at the top of their age group and maybe things seemed a little babyish for them. They loved the arcade, but that gets a little expensive. None of them had any money on their accounts, so they had to keep finding the adults and asking for them to take them to the arcade. They like the water slide. The only problem was that it was closed at times on sea days because of the wind, and also we never had much fun. They had fun one evening watching a movie outside and eating pizza.

Claudia

[bills blasters]

We are considering this same cruise in November. How is transportation to and from Orlando Airport? It seem like a distance. Did you rent a car or take a shuttle?

We went down a couple days early, so we rented a car in Orlando. Coming home we got a private shuttle. The total for 11 of us was $170. Worked out really good. We could have had up to 14 in our van for the same price.

Claudia

[bills blasters]

The ship is not any harder to get around than the Conquest class ships. Just remember to go to level 5 and that will get you to all the floors you need to go.

Claudia

[johnstoc13]

Great review, sounds like it was a fun cruise! We're going on Dream in less than 2 weeks with 8 of us. I was wanting to know how to get the email address for the maitre'd. I would love to send a quick email asking for a table for all 8 of us to sit together. Any help you can provide here would be great, thanks!

[bills blasters]

Great review, sounds like it was a fun cruise! We're going on Dream in less than 2 weeks with 8 of us. I was wanting to know how to get the email address for the maitre'd. I would love to send a quick email asking for a table for all 8 of us to sit together. Any help you can provide here would be great, thanks!

 

I got the address off of CC. It was drmaitred@carnival.com

The DR at the start is for Dream.

I waited until less than a week before we were going to leave to send the request. I figured I would not confuse him by sending it too early. Be sure and put your name and I put my room number and how many people would be together.

Claudia

[captainmayi]

We were also on this cruise... I will try to get around to my review this week. There were 19 of us :)

14 of us needed transportation from the airport to the Cocoa Beach Holiday Inn Express, we used Cocoa Beach Shuttle. They picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel in Cocoa Beach. Then the next morning they picked all 19 of us up at the hotel and took us to the ship. Then after the cruise they took us back to the airport. They were fantastic! Always on time, friendly, and there prices were quite good. I would use them again!

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for the review of your cruise.

[johnstoc13]

I got the address off of CC. It was drmaitred@carnival.com

The DR at the start is for Dream.

I waited until less than a week before we were going to leave to send the request. I figured I would not confuse him by sending it too early. Be sure and put your name and I put my room number and how many people would be together.

Claudia

 

Thank you so much!