Just off the Dream 4/6/13 review

[ehge80]

Traveling home from my fabulous trip on the Dream. Our family had a wonderful time and the crew was superb. Will give more details later after I return home, but I will be glad to answer any questions you may have, plus I will try to address some of the other questions posed on these boards. We did anytime dining, had a birthday celebration,taste bar, and did the kayak, snorkel excursion in St. Thomas to start. Also, I did save the Funtimes from each day plus the Club O2 and Circle C info as well. Perhaps someone can tell me how to post them and I will upload them after I get settled... Hopefully by Tuesday. I know many people have been looking for the recent Eastern fun times. Fire away with any questions and I will post a full review real soon. :)

Glad to hear your family had a wonderful cruise. Was the anytime dining in a specific dining room?

[jmunson]

It didn't seem more crowded than other ships. Embarkation day and certain peak lunch times had crowds at the buffet, but other than that, things were fine.

Deck chairs were scarce around the pool, both main pool and aft, but there were plenty of available up on deck 12 and the chairs on deck 5 outside the Ocean Plaza were empty most of the time.

The bathrooms have a pullout makeup mirror. I didn't use it so I do not know if it has a magnifier. The bathroom fogged up pretty easily so I usually did my makeup outside by the beds.

 

Thank you so much for the response. This is comforting information :D Looking forward to your full review. Again, thanks.

[getmeonthatboat]

We are sailing in April 2014! I am so excited!

[bankonus]

We are sailing in April 2014! I am so excited!

 

I remember having a countdown clock as far out as you.....I stayed on cruise critic to make me THINK I was sailing soon. LOL Happy sailing!

[amyh13]

Absolutely a fabulous vacation. On by 12pm. Off by 8am. Perfect in between. Will post review later!

[workingmom67]

Traveling home from my fabulous trip on the Dream. Our family had a wonderful time and the crew was superb. Will give more details later after I return home, but I will be glad to answer any questions you may have, plus I will try to address some of the other questions posed on these boards. We did anytime dining, had a birthday celebration,taste bar, and did the kayak, snorkel excursion in St. Thomas to start. Also, I did save the Funtimes from each day plus the Club O2 and Circle C info as well. Perhaps someone can tell me how to post them and I will upload them after I get settled... Hopefully by Tuesday. I know many people have been looking for the recent Eastern fun times. Fire away with any questions and I will post a full review real soon. :)

 

I am so glad you have the Funtimes as well as the Circle C info. I'm on the Dream May 4 and am VERY interested in seeing these.

[cruisemom101]

Thanks! Looking forward to see the O2 schedule. Did u save or take pics of the.menus?

I did not take any pics of the menus, but the were exactly the same as found on zydocruiser.

[cruisemom101]

What cabin and deck were you on? Do you have any pics?

We were in 9244, but no pics. This was our second time on the Dream, so our ship pictures were limited. I believe you can find pics on another site. Just search cruise cabin pictures and the site will pop up.

We were very happy with our cabin. It was in a great location, just below the lido deck and not too much noise.

[cruisemom101]

We are doing the same ship & itinerary next January. I'm trying to find out if there's enough time in Nassau to do the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter excursion. Due to the ship leaving at 2pm, is it even offered to Dream passengers? We would use the ship's tour due to time crunch, if it's offered.

Thanks![/quot

Sorry, I missed this one... I'm not sure about the Blue Lagoon excursion. We simply walked to Junkanoo beach, about a 20 min. walk through town. We stayed for a couple of hours and then did some shopping. We were only in port a few hours and had to be back on the ship by 1:30.

[cruisemom101]

Finally, some free time to write a review. Thanks for your patience. Laundry done, kids at school, now for some mom time. :) Working on getting Funtimes scanned to Flickr so I can get a link going.

Anyway, our spring break vacation began with our 8 hour drive to Port Canaveral. We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites and they were fantastic. You can book their park and cruise package and leave your car parked the entire cruise. The earliest available shuttle to the port was at 12:30, so we asked about taking a cab. We were FTTF and wanted to get to the port early to hopefully be on board by noon. When we asked about the cab, the desk clerk told us that their earliest shuttle was at 10:30, but if we wanted to be downstairs between 9:30 and 10 and catch the shuttle guy returning dropping off passengers, he would be able to take us back with him as he picked up the remaining passengers. Sweet!!!! We did this and were at the port by 10:00. We went through security and checked in with Carnival, got our sign and sail passes and went to the VIP area to wait. We were initially told they would not be boarding until 1, rumors were an inspection, but I don't know; however, we were on the ship by 11:45

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Embarkation and debarkation: Port Canaveral always does a great job with these. Everything runs smoothly and efficiently and we are shuttled quickly on and off the ship.

 

FTTF: At Port Canaveral, zones 1 and 2 boarded right after us, so if you want to get to the port early and save $50, you will still be on the ship quickly. What I did like about FTTF was priority at guest services. There was sometimes a line and as FTTF, we got serviced right away. We also liked the immediate access to our room as soon as we got on board. Plus, our luggage was delivered by 2 and we were able to unpack before the muster drill. We also like the option of disembarking early or staying on the ship until our designated time. We chose to get off early and we were off the ship and through customs by 8.

 

Smell: We did smell the "smell" occasionally when up on deck 12, near the slides, and on deck 10, but it was not constant. However, when it was present, it was pretty putrid. Smelled like sewage. Not as prominent as our previous Dream cruise, but yes folks, it is still there.

 

YTD: We did YTD every night except one and that night we went to the steakhouse. I highly recommend the steakhouse! The food was fantastic and our service was extraordinary. I had read reports of long waits for YTD on the Dream, but we did not experience this at all. We went at various times between 6:30 and 7:45 and only had to wait once for about 10 min. We had a table of 5, so that was the issue the one night as they did not have as many 6 tops as 4 tops available. A couple of nights, they did seat us in rooms just of the MDR. My guess is that when it is too crowded, these two rooms are used to accommodate the overflow of guests. It didn't affect our service at all. The only thing was that we couldn't see any of the entertainment that was going on in the MDR, but no big deal. We did have a line upon approaching the MDR for seating, but the line moved quickly as they were seating people upon arrival.

YTD is in the Crimson Dining room on Deck 3 forward.

 

Nassau: In Nassau, we went to Junkanoo Beach. It is about a 20 minute walk through town. The beach was fairly clean and a bit crowded as there were a number of ships in port that day. The water was clear and warm, but not much to see snorkeling wise, so if you are a big snorkeler, this perhaps is not the beach for you. However, if you are looking for a beach with calm, warm water that is a quick trip from the ship, this is the beach. We then walked back through town and did some shopping on our way back to the ship. A pretty relaxing day.

 

Punchliner brunch: We enjoyed the brunch in the MDR. It is in the Crimson dining room between the hours of 9:30 and 1:30 on sea days. The food was good and there was a nice selection. The food came promptly and was hot and our service was great. The comedians appear on the hour, every hour, and do a 5 minute routine promoting their shows on board the ship. I wasn't blown away by them, but the food was good, so I didn't mind too much.

 

MDR: I have heard reports that the food in the MDR is sub par. We did not experience that. Our food was delicious, well cooked and warm most nights.... will explain in a minute. Our wait staff, although it varied most nights, was spectacular and very attentive to our needs. Our son was celebrating a birthday one night and the staff was fabulous about getting his cake to him and making it a big deal for him. We asked to be seated in a specific area for this birthday, not in one of the side rooms, and the made arrangements for this to happen. We ordered him a cake through Cherries on Top for $10 and it was delicious. They decorated it with his name and everything. The only time we had a problem in the MDR was the first night and once with the brunch. We had the same waiter both times. His name was Boyko and he was awful! He spent more time socializing with other Carnival employees than he did doing his job. The food would come out to be served to the tables and it would just sit there for 5,10,15 before he would come serve it. We knew it was our food and we were so tempted to just go and serve ourselves. Both times, we left without eating our dessert because it took over 30 minutes to get served by him. We should have complained to the Maitre d about him, but we simply avoided him the remainder of the time. We did not have this happen with any other server. So...if you see Boyko...RUN!!!!! :rolleyes:

I will say, though, we saw the same employees performing multiple duties. We saw our wait staff also as room service people and up on deck helping with the Lido deck buffets. These employees work hard and do multiple things. I can't even imagine the hours they put in. We did not encounter anyone else who gave us poor service. Everyone was was polite and most accommodating to anything we asked. We are pretty laid back and not very demanding, though, but we still appreciated the hard work these people put in every day.

 

Room Service: We asked for room service each morning and sometime at night. They were always prompt with delivery and very courteous. The food was good and exactly what we ordered. We tipped each time, but they didn't expect it. We felt that the service warranted it.

 

Lido Buffet: The food on the buffet was ok. Everything was warm and the area was clean, but it was just buffet food. Nothing special. We didn't have any problems eating it though. ;) The lines were not long for the buffet except on embarkation day and as people were eating before going into port. Other than that, the lines were manageable. The Mongolian Grill usually had a long line, but the others were fine. The pasta bar was amazing and my kids ate there everyday. There were no lines the first 5 days, the on the last day, the wait was quite extensive. The grill, the pizza bar, the deli, and burrito bar did not have too big of lines the whole time.

 

:(One strange thing did happen two days in a row. We lost all water to our cabin. The first day, a hot water pipe burst and we had no hot water. When it did come back on, it was a bit brown. This lasted for maybe an hour or so before it got fixed. The next day, during my shower, the water just stopped completely! No water at all in the cabin. We called guest services and the told us they had reports of no hot water in some cabins and no water at all in others. It came back on after about an hour and I finished my shower. No explanation as to what happened, it just came back on. We didn't have anymore problems, just thought it was weird. Kinda wished it didn't happen in the middle of my shower, but it was fixed pretty quickly, so no harm done.

 

St. Thomas: We did the Kayak, snorkel, and hike tour through Carnival and had a blast! I have two teenage boys and this was a lot of fun for them. The kayaking was fairly strenuous though. It was a mile kayak over to the snorkel and hike site and a mile back. The water was calm, but the wind and the currents made it a bit more difficult that I had anticipated. We managed, even as out of shape 40-somethings, and the excursion was amazing!

 

St. Marteen: We simply took a water taxi over to the boardwalk and spent a day at the beach. It was very crowded as there were four ships in port that day, but the water is calm and our boys did the water trampoline. $5 for unlimited access. They had a blast! Not a beach for snorkeling, just one for a relaxing day with calm seas.

 

Well,Gotta run for now...More later. Duty calls.

I'll also try to answer more questions when I get back.

Still uploading funtimes and will try to get the link ready next time.

Enjoy your day everyone!:)

[cruisemom101]

Taste Bar: This was available 4 nights and featured items from Chef's Art, Cupicina, Blue Iguana, and Red Frog. The "tastes" were indeed tasty, but not well attended. Maybe people didn't know about it or weren't interested because it was during dinner hours. I'm not sure why Carnival put this in and took out the sushi bar. It seems to me that the sushi bar would have served the customers better, but maybe not. While we did enjoy our tastes, it didn't seem like a good use of space. Plus 3 of the 4 items featured were on different Carnival ships. Just a strange concept to me.

 

Deck Parties: The deck parties were two evenings of the cruise. One celebrates the Red Frog Bar and the other the Blue Iguana Bar. Not too well attended, but we danced and got our bead and shakers. The blue iguana one was better attended as it was before the Mexican buffet. The Mexican buffet had plenty of Mexican goodies, aka sweets, as well as Mexican food and a taco station.

 

Shows: The shows were pretty decent. Dancing in the Streets was very good and my kids liked the Fun Force show. Other than that, they were nothing spectacular.

 

Ships movement: Many people have written or asked about the movement of the Dream. Overall, the movement wasn't worse that other ships. We had a couple of nights when the winds was very strong and on those nights, the ship was quite rocky and even noisy. I am sensitive to motion sickness and I did not get sick from this. I took my Ginger tablets and a Dramamine and was fine. After those nights, my Dramamine was not needed.

Party for Gold, Platinum, and Diamond Cruisers: This party was on Thursday afternoon in the Encore Theatre. And yes folks, it does include free drinks and as many as you can down in 45 minutes. They also provide some finger food too. It's your basic past guest party, but the drinks may make it worth your while. There was no Fun Farewell Party as has been mentioned here before, so this may be your only chance for some free drinks.

 

Club O2 and Circle C: My two kids enjoyed these programs and they made some great friends. These programs do have supervision while the kids are doing the documented activities on board. However, they are free to come and go as they please and once they leave the activity, the become unsupervised. My kids did just fine with this, however, some parents may be uneasy with this. We use sticky notes to communicate while on the ship so my kids could find us or we could find them if needed.

 

Activities on board: The activities on board were a bit limited to trivia games and a few games of Bingo. There didn't seem to be as much going on as past cruises. Even the bingo games were lessened. A lot of trivia games down in the Ocean Plaza, so if you like that kind of stuff, you're in luck. There wasn't as much going on up by the pool either. A few pool games and of course the famous " Hairy Chest contest" and Mixologist contest, but other than that, not too much.

 

Oceanside BBQ: This was offered every sea day from 12-2:30 and also on our stop at Nassau. This wasn't too well attended, but we found the burgers to be better than the ones up at the grill and the tacos and quesadillas were good also. They had different salsa variations that we thought were very yummy. It was only closed one day due to very windy conditions.

 

Steward: Our room steward was Warren and he was fantastic. We always had a clean room, plenty of towels, and ice in our bucket twice a day. He did anything we asked of him. For those of you who were asking....we did have turn-down service every night and little chocolates on our pillows. :)

 

Music: The music was ok. There was a DJ by the pool the majority of the time, but there were time where the Red Frog and Blue Iguana bars had their own live musician going. They were nice and a refreshing change from the DJ. There was also live music in the atrium, but not too good. Maybe it was the acoustics from the large atrium....

 

Chocolate Extravaganza: This was on the last sea day and had a lot of yummy goodies. I recommend!!!!:D

 

I think I have covered everything. We all had a wonderful time and again the Carnival staff was amazing.

[cruisemom101]

Dream Eastern Fun Times, Club O2 and Circle C

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[cruisemom101]

More Eastern Fun times, Club O2 and Circle C.

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[cruisemom101]

Easter Fun Times

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[cruisemom101]

Fun times

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[cruisemom101]

and there's more...

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[cruisemom101]

I'm sure there is a better way to do this, but I am new at this..so sorry. I'm just trying to help people get information. :)

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[cruisemom101]

Eastern Fun Times

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[cruisemom101]

Eastern Funtimes

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[cruisemom101]

Dream Eastern Fun Times

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[cruisemom101]

Last set of Eastern Fun Times. :)

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[Anxious2cruise55]

Thank you so much for posting the Funtimes!

[cruisemom101]

You're welcome! Hope it helps! :)

[cruisemom101]

One more thing that happened on our cruise. None of the bars had any of the specialty cups that were refillable. They were listed on the menu, but when we asked for them, we were told they were out. After the 2.0 upgrades, I saw pictures of the new cups and was looking forward to purchasing a few. The only ones they had in stock were the 32oz ones. I found that to be strange since these were part of the new 2.0 upgrade.

Also, just an FYI, guest services did not have any cards this time. I don't know if Carnival is doing away with them or they were simply out of stock, but i know people like to get some of the Carnival cards.

The casino did have lanyards and were giving them out to anyone 18 and older after we set sail.

Has anyone else experienced the lack of refillable cups?

[jongun]

Thanks for these, it is helping us choose when to go to the Steakhouse- We are cruising on May 4th