Carnival Dream Nov. 30 - Short review

[cruisetobeaches]

I'm not going to post pictures or make this long and drawn out. Plenty of that already here... Just the highlights. Good and bad.

 

This was our 21st cruise with Carnival and first time on the Dream. Liked the ship layout, especially the layout of deck 5 (Lanai) that allows you to walk all the way around the outside of the ship and still have ready access to the interior.

 

Embarkation was smooth and seemed to be well organized. Since we are platinum, our cabin was ready as soon as we boarded (about 11:30), so we dropped off our carry-on and headed up to Lido for lunch. I did miss them not having Guy's Burgers on this ship, but the conventional Lido burger and fries were good, fresh made, and hot. Overall, Lido food was pretty good.

 

Debarkation was the fastest and smoothest we had ever experienced. This seemed to be well organized by both Carnival and the Port Authority.

 

Points worth noting (good):

 

Room steward was excellent!

 

The Blackjack Band is great and not to be missed! An excellent fiddle player as well covering several music genres. The Ocean Plaza was packed whenever they were playing. Glad to see some actual bands coming back......

 

Weather was pretty much perfect. Had some rain one day in St Thomas late in the day, but otherwise lots of nice, warm sun.

 

Shows- I did go to one of the late night comedy shows. Comedian was OK, but I had seen the same routine on the Conquest last year. As usual, packed lounge without enough seating. We did not go to any of the production shows.

 

Bar service and waiters- Excellent, including good service on the Serenity deck without being "bothered". Also, "chair hogging" was not permitted in the Serenity area. Crew kept on top of it.

 

Sea-day brunches- Great with excellent MDR service. Not at all like our evening MDR wait staff, but more on that later.

 

Not-so-good-points:

 

Lido deck chair hogs- Did not affect us as we don't usually sit there, but some was funny to watch. On the first sea day, we watched a woman take the ketchup and mustard bottles off tables and spread them across several lounge chairs. It wasn't long before Lido staff was out returning the bottles to the tables.

 

Comedy show lounge- Carnival really needs to have a larger venue for this (at least when the comedian is good) as they are always too small, short on seating, and have long lines.

 

MDR service was terrible. So bad, in fact, that we skipped a few nights. Courses were slow to get there (if you got it at all) and hot food was tepid, at best. Staff seemed very disorganized. There were eight at our table and from the time the first 'starter" was served, it may take 20-30 minutes before everyone has theirs. Food quality was hit or miss. This was the first time that we did not tip above the norm to the MDR waiters.

 

 

The above is from MY experience last week. Yours may have been different. It was by no means a bad cruise and we will sail the Dream again in January of 2015.

Edited December 8, 2013 by cruisetobeaches
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[golfadj]

Thanks for the review. Going on the Dream next week.

 

Think you had a lousy DR bunch. Most are better than that.

 

We saw Blackjack last year and were not that thrilled with them. Most people like them though.

 

What did you think of the guy in the piano bar?

[kcwingwalker]

Thanks for sharing your fair and balanced review:)

[cruisetobeaches]

 

What did you think of the guy in the piano bar?

 

He was pretty good. We didn't hang out there much as there were no seats available when he was playing.

 

They also had a guitar soloist in there from time to time. Plenty of seats available then. Not my thing, though.

[fireman935]

good review. we sailed her this past april and same good points and my only complaint same as yours MDR after day 2 we quit going... Horrible dinners... But loved the brunch.....

[golfadj]

He was pretty good. We didn't hang out there much as there were no seats available when he was playing.

 

They also had a guitar soloist in there from time to time. Plenty of seats available then. Not my thing, though.

 

Will be going there next week. Thanks

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Dream has the worst MDR staff I've ever personally encountered and also read about on here. (Like the CC user that had the waiter do double birds at them when they asked to take a picture.) To be fair, a friend of ours had a two table top for second seating and were over the moon for their waiter. It does appear that there are a few good ones. However in 7 days of various buffet, MDR breakfast, and dinner attempts, I didn't get that experience. It was the first time I had poured my own beverages in the MDR...

 

Just saying. Dream needs some help in the service department.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Forums mobile app

Edited December 8, 2013 by TwinPrincessMermaids

[cruisetobeaches]

Dream has the worst MDR staff I've ever personally encountered and also read about on here. (Like the CC user that had the waiter do double birds at them when they asked to take a picture.) To be fair, a friend of ours had a two table top for second seating and were over the moon for their waiter. It does appear that there are a few good ones. However in 7 days of various buffet, MDR breakfast, and dinner attempts, I didn't get that experience. It was the first time I had poured my own beverages in the MDR...

 

Just saying. Dream needs some help in the service department.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Forums mobile app

 

I think a lot of it is luck-of-the-draw in the MDR. While our dinner wait staff was terrible, the waiter we had at brunch was so good (and funny) that we requested one of his tables for the next brunch. I wish we would have had him and his team at dinner............

[AAAAmerican]

Dear cruisetobeaches,

 

Thank you for your review. Being on her I agree and concur.

 

 

It is the Hotel Manager ( Hotman is the 2nd on any cruise ship) responsibility to TRAIN all the staff and crew. When shoddy service shows up it is important we paying cruisers speak up and comment on what shoddy service we had.

 

How else will Miami know? These people are paid well from what we pay for cruises and are supposed to be the best at what they do.. if not they should not hold the position.. :eek:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think a lot of it is luck-of-the-draw in the MDR. While our dinner wait staff was terrible, the waiter we had at brunch was so good (and funny) that we requested one of his tables for the next brunch. I wish we would have had him and his team at dinner............