Just off the DREAM review! June 1-8

[bankonus]

I will break this review down in sections to make it easier to follow.

There are 5 in our party. Myself and husband in 1 room and my son (23) and daughter (17) and her BFF (18) in another room. This was my daughters graduation cruise.

 

 

 

We flew down the day before and rented a car through Budget and drove from the airport to our hotel. We stayed at Country Inn & Suites by the port. Nice hotel, great breakfast and a very friendly staff. It was packed with other cruisers. We had dinner at Fishlips, and did some shopping at the Publix market right down the road for some wine and sodas to take on the ship. We turned in early while the kids stayed up watching TV. Check out was super quick, just dropped the keys off at the front desk and headed to Budget to drop off the car and grab the shuttle to the port. (1 mile down the road) We literally drove up, dropped the keys, grabbed our receipt and they were loading our luggage onto the shuttle. We arrived at the port 1020am.:D

 

 

We dropped our bags with a porter, and walked into the terminal. (NOTE: The porter noticed we were platinum and our kids were gold status so he had us tear the tags off their bags and he put a faster to the fun tag on theirs so they would arrive same time as ours. Very nice!) Check in was quick as we were platinum this cruise. Took 5 minutes and then we just hung out in the lounge until they called us about 10 minutes later to go upstairs. We were behind 2 wedding parties who got to board first. We were called after them, stopped at our rooms first to drop our bags and drinks and were at the Lido deck having lunch 11:15am. For those who were wondering about general check-in, there were a small group of people who already arrived and they were not far behind us, so it is worth coming early.

 

 

Stateroom: We had a cove balcony, Room 2381. IMPORTANT NOTE: NEVER BOOK THIS ROOM IF YOU CAN AVOID IT! Now to clarify. The cove balcony is AMAZING! I preferred this room over the regular balcony any day. I know this is a personal preference, but being so close to the water was great. We also had a few instances where we got some rain showers. The upper balcony’s were getting hammered and ours were shielded by the lifeboats 2 decks up. No rain! Now the awful part. It is literally below the loudest possible place of the galley. I think they were bowling with pots and pans. My husband and I laughed like crazy how bad it was we just couldn’t believe Carnival let that go. Some rubber mats or anything would have been a huge help. It would be hard for me to believe they haven’t gotten TONS of complaints on this room. Talked to our neighbors and pretty sure it’s like that at least 2 doors down each way in that area. Our kids were 7 rooms down in 2405 and didn't hear anything. We are not complainers, but put it on a comment card so it was documented. I mean if you don’t say anything, how can they know to fix it right? We made a point to go to bed dog tired so we could sleep through the banging and rolling and sliding noises. It woke us up a few times and it was a little difficult to get back to sleep, but eventually it would die down enough we just passed out. You have been warned. Room steward, Luis, AMAZING! He would have to be to put up with all the complaints this room must get. :eek: Note: Our platinum tumblers were in the room the day we boarded for those who were wondering.

 

 

Cheers program: My son booked this since he was the only adult in the room with 2 minors. My hubby and I would never have been able to drink 800.00 worth of liquor. It was 50.00 a day plus gratuity, and came to 402.10 for the 7 days. He got his money out of the program as he kept his receipts and the drinks he got came to approx. 813.00 for the week. His drinks averaged 8.95, and his shots averaged 6.95. He got all 15 drinks allowed everyday but 2 which were port days. I know this sounds like a lot, but spaced throughout the day and late into the night it’s not hard to do and he was never drunk. It would have to be your decision on your drink habits if it would be worth it for you to purchase for yourselves.

Food: While I would like to say we find it hard to complain about anything while on a cruise, boy did we notice Carnivals cutbacks, mostly in the Grill area. Dining room is the same as the menus posted throughout cruise critic and the food and service was as good as always. I love the Tandoor station and ate there almost every day. YUMM! While there have been a lot of complaints about the new pizza recipe Carnival uses, my son and I loved it. It was our new late night go to place in place of the grill where all the cutbacks seem to have taken the biggest hit. He ate pepperoni every night, and I had the Quattro formage. The pizza guy knew what we wanted when we came up and made it with extra fixings the way we ordered the first time every time after that. Make friends with the servers and you would be surprised how willing they are to go the extra mile for you! Quick note here: It still amazes me to listen at how rude some people are to the men and women who fix your food! Not a wise decision here, and these people are humans and don’t deserve a quarter of what they take from customers. So sad. Be nice guys!! :) The grill does not serve hamburgers or fries, or cheese sauce or chili when they open at 1130pm anymore. They serve hotdogs and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and plain LAYS chips and cookies and brownies. The grill also does not serve chicken tenders during the day. They literally took all our favorites away, but that goes with change, so we found other things to snack on. The ship ran out of strawberry’s day 5, so I missed out the last 2 days on my choco/strawberry fix. Note: If you ever want to eat at the Mongolian station without more than 15-20 people in line in front of you ordering 3 bowls a piece, be there early the first day and go straight to their station when there is no line. After that you are hosed.

 

 

Nassau: We had no excursions planned. We walked around and did some shopping as the daughters BFF had never been before. We then left them at Senor Frogs for a couple of hours and we went back to the ship to enjoy the light crowds. It was on/off overcast that day, but that made it nice and cool. We didn’t get any rain until after we set sail, so that was a win.

 

 

SEA DAYS: We just hung out around the ship enjoying the trip and some drinks. We got some rain during the day, but it was quick bursts and then it was over.

 

 

SHOWS: We have done these over and over and only went to the adult comedy shows which were all good. Sorry I can’t help out in this area. Piano bar singer was mediocre at best, so we chose not to go to his shows. Others might have loved him as he always had a small audience, he just wasn’t our taste.

 

 

ST. Thomas: We booked an independent tour with Godfrey tours. 30.00pp for shopping, sightseeing and beach break. It was overcast and foggy when we were up in the mountain for the sightseeing portion, so couldn’t see anything. We got all our shopping done during the hour we signed up to shop. Beach break was 2 hours at Coki Beach. We rented some chairs for 5.00 there and the hubby and kids snorkeled, while I layed out. It was SUPER crowded at this beach. You can ask your guide to get you a place a little farther away from others if there aren’t too many people there. We had 4 ships in port that day, so it was crazy. Godfrey did a great job and I would recommend him to anyone. Note: We brought our own snorkel gear, otherwise you will have to rent it if you choose the beach break option.

 

 

St. Maarten: We rented a private boat and drove ourselves around the Caribbean and jumped in and snorkeled when we wanted. We had the boat for 6 hours and docked and ate lunch on the French side, where we had multiple encounters with rude locals. I’m sure it’s not that way all over, just what happened to us repeatedly. Note: There were no public restrooms and they make you buy something ANYWHERE if you want to use their restrooms. Fair enough. I have excursion information for anyone who is interested.

 

 

Debark: We had a 5pm flight and were in no hurry to get off the ship. We took our suitcases to Lido at 830am when they requested you be out of your stateroom and hung out there until 10:00 just killing time and watching the girls catch up on their social networking. LOL. Everyone was off the ship by 1020 we heard as we were waiting for the Budget shuttle to pick us up so we could get our rental and head to the airport. Nice and smooth.

 

 

Overall, as usual, Carnival did not disappoint and we are set to do a back to back in October. I will try and answer any questions if anyone has any. Happy Sailing to everyone!

[johnritt]

Thanks for the review. The boat rental sounds like a good idea. If you don't mind, who did you rent from and what kind of boat was it? Costs reasonable?

 

We're visiting in January and that sounds like a possible alternative to Orient beach.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for the review.

 

Keith

[pmoniz]

Thank you for sharing your information on the Dream! Glad to hear the Cheers program is still $50/day as I've read on other posts that the price had gone up!

 

I'm looking forward to the Tandoori too!! Can't wait to try it!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info ..

[Orpheo]

Nice review. Hmmmm the Cheers program seems expensive...

[tandemcruzr]

Thank you for sharing your information on the Dream! Glad to hear the Cheers program is still $50/day as I've read on other posts that the price had gone up!

 

I'm looking forward to the Tandoori too!! Can't wait to try it!

 

With tax, it is now $57.50 pp/day.

[frayedend]

They don't serve burgers at the grill? Is that just during the day? That seems really odd. Wouldn't the deli be a better place for ham and cheese sandwiches?

[JaniceB]

Thank you for your review.

 

We are booked in 2389 on the Dream. I was worried about the noise. My PVP picked this and 2393 for us because we can open the balcony up to our friends. I am thinking we should move.

 

I would love info on your St. Maarten excursion. My email is 04july@comcast.net.

 

Thanks!

[WAHMto5]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise, we love the Dream! The last 2 times we have been on, they ran out of strawberries as well:(

Can't believe there are no burgers/chicken tenders at the grill anymore:( Just off the Fantasy a few weeks ago and they had them!

[bankonus]

Burgers are served during the day at the grill, not at the 1130 pm dining time when it opens for late night snacks.

 

Boat rental information is: BoatRentals.com They have different size boats depending on your party size. We picked a larger boat which was 500.00 for a full day, 300.00 for a half day, plus fuel. We paid 40.00 to fill up after we had it for 6 hours. The smaller boat is 150.00 full day, 100.00 half day. It is tiny though. We had 5 people and needed the 16 foot boat. They also have a little larger boat (21 feet) 700.00 full day, 400.00 half day. When you consider what you pay per person for an excursion, it wasn't that much to pool everyone together and do your own thing.

 

Another email address for them is TurtleTourssxm@gmail.com

[bankonus]

Thank you for your review.

 

We are booked in 2389 on the Dream. I was worried about the noise. My PVP picked this and 2393 for us because we can open the balcony up to our friends. I am thinking we should move.

 

I would love info on your St. Maarten excursion. My email is 04july@comcast.net.

 

Thanks!

You are close to the cut-off area. My kids had 2405 and it was fine. We talked to 2 rooms each way and got the same response as our room, but didn't go any further than that. Don't get me wrong, you can live through it, we obviously did, it was just ridiculous. Avoid it if possible, but don't let it ruin your cruise if you get stuck with it. We still had am amazing time.

 

Boat info is in previous post.

[bankonus]

With tax, it is now $57.50 pp/day.

 

 

They must have changed it the cruise after us. With tax and gratuity we paid 402.10. If you drink a lot it's still a good deal. I put the average drink costs he spent so you can see what it was costing if you paid for them separately.

[frayedend]

Burgers are served during the day at the grill, not at the 1130 pm dining time when it opens for late night snacks.

 

 

Ahh, I feel stupid that I didn't notice the "pm". That's a bummer also though. I remember watching a movie hanging out in the chairs and being almost completely fallen asleep when they fired up the grill and the smell of burgers cooking gave me a second wind.

[bankonus]

Ahh, I feel stupid that I didn't notice the "pm". That's a bummer also though. I remember watching a movie hanging out in the chairs and being almost completely fallen asleep when they fired up the grill and the smell of burgers cooking gave me a second wind.

 

Same with my son and I. He would have a burger and I would have a chili/cheese dog. No chili, no cheese, just the dog. Just isn't the same anymore. LOL

[GTO-Girl]

Agree with you about the noise level on the cove balcony. The galley noise was a little bothersome to us too, but we are not light sleepers. BUT we rode back on the tail end of Hurricane Sandy so when they came and closed off the balcony (which we expected) then began the 24/7 clanging. I'm not talking about creaking or anything like that....I'm talking about it sounding like someone had a hammer and was literally banging on our balcony door non-stop. We did not sleep for 2 days/nights.

 

We even had the head of maintenance come down because we thought something might be loose from the storm, but they said "no" it was just the way the ship was designed......:eek:

 

So......love the concept of the cove and love the closeness to the water, but after our experience with all the noise we will not book another. I think there are a few that are maybe under Guest Relations so I'm sure those are much quieter......

[tandemcruzr]

With tax, it is now $57.50 pp/day.

 

That should be with gratuity of 15% it will be $57.50 pp/day. :o:o

 

No tax if bought after you leave port.

[Elmo31]

Wow the beginning of your cruise sounded like ours......we were celebrating sons graduation....stayed at country inn and suites and went to fishlips to eat.....

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. I know we did. The only problem we had was with YTD I also wished the weather was nicer. I'm used to hot hot hot sun while cruising :D. If you saw the group running around with the DRUNK 1...2...3...4...5 and 6 shirts that was us

[JaniceB]

You are close to the cut-off area. My kids had 2405 and it was fine. We talked to 2 rooms each way and got the same response as our room, but didn't go any further than that. Don't get me wrong, you can live through it, we obviously did, it was just ridiculous. Avoid it if possible, but don't let it ruin your cruise if you get stuck with it. We still had am amazing time.

 

Boat info is in previous post.

 

 

Thank you for the boat info.

 

My PVP found us some different cabins 2353 and 2357, they look like they sleep 4, so probably only got them because I complained before I even got on the ship;)

[bankonus]

Wow the beginning of your cruise sounded like ours......we were celebrating sons graduation....stayed at country inn and suites and went to fishlips to eat.....

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. I know we did. The only problem we had was with YTD I also wished the weather was nicer. I'm used to hot hot hot sun while cruising :D. If you saw the group running around with the DRUNK 1...2...3...4...5 and 6 shirts that was us

 

 

Totally saw you guys! Great shirts!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We love that ship