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Just returned:Dream:Eastern

ChosenOne

By ChosenOne,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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ChosenOne

ChosenOne

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This is a short review: and I can only comment on things I experienced. BF & I did not attend any shows or eat in the MDR except for one brunch so I will not comment on those things.

The ship is very nice. I was worried about having a balcony on 7 with the lanai that runs completely around deck 5...but aside from not being able to look directly down to see the ocean it was not noisy for us. The C-side BBQ was directly below our cabin on sea days & we did not hear it or even smell it from our balcony.

Best of our trip: The Tandoor grill...aft of the ship. Never busy but wonderful food. The person there every day was personable, helpful & you could tell he cared about the food. Ask him to make you garlic naan and he will do it for you so it is hot & fresh! In the morning the TANDOOR is also a breakfast station minus the omelet station...so if you don't care about eggs, the line is much shorter back there.

I love playing trivia and there are many opportunities to do so. The staff conducting all the events were all very nice.

I also enjoyed the Cloud 9 spa. However, the Cloud 9 spa on the Splendor had (or had in 2008) a much nicer & bigger relaxation area. this ship has 4 uncomfortable chairs in a hard to find room with water but no fruits or anything else available.

the islands: I have been to Nassau, St Thomas & St. Maarten numerous times. I will warn you that being in St Maarten with 5 other ships including the behemoth Oasis of the Seas puts quite a strain on being able to get around. We rented a jeep & the traffic was so horrible between the amount of tourists and the road construction we basically spent the entire time in the vehicle unable to find a place to park in Marigot or Phillipsburg or at Maho beach taking us almost 3 hours to circle the island (which should take about 90 mins to do) Next time we would book with Capt Bob again!! It was so much easier when we did that in 2013. Just walking to & from the ship was wall to wall people.

Any questions? I will answer whatever I can.

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jamesr3939

jamesr3939

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We were on the same cruise.

 

Embarkation

 

If you arrive by any type of commercial vehicle other than taxi they make you go to an outlying parking lot and sit in line behind shuttle buses. We hired a driver and town car to get us from Disney World to cruise port and even with only two in the car we had to go to the outlying parking lot, off load, and then walk to the terminal. We sat behind car rental and hotel shuttle buses with 20-30 people pulling trailers full of luggage. It took us a good 30 minutes to get to the off load spot. Cars and taxies can drop right at the terminal. I assume the cruise lines buses drop off at the terminal, also. It was not very efficient.

Check in was fairly fast we were at the counter and walked on the ship in about 20 minutes. We got to check in about 1:00 PM and when we got onboard our cabin was ready. Luggage showed up about two hours later, but was there prior to sailing.

 

Cabin

 

We had 12211 a spa balcony and it was great. We used the spa amenities frequently and got our monies worth for the extra cost. Cabin was normal size for what you expect of a balcony. We had plenty of storage space with three closets. One had shelves and the other two hanging. There was also drawer storage in the dressing table and night stands. There were three electrical plugs in the cabin. Two were along the top of the dressing table, one was US and one was European. If you take an adapter you could use both for US plugs. There was one in the bathroom, which took me a day or two to notice. It was above the mirror and had a cover over it. It was marked US for shavers, but could work to charge your cel or tablets. It was a pain swapping out all the E-readers, phones, and tablets to keep with charged using one plug. I would take some type of splitter next time.

The second night out I was a little concerned when the hot water just stopped flowing. I got just enough to wash and rinse my hair then it was a cold shower after. We called and they said our plumber would be notified. Never heard back or saw anybody show up. I assume it wasn’t just us. When we returned from dinner it was working and never an issue after. They could have at least followed up with a call or “sorry”, but there was nothing. Well, except very welcomed hot water.

 

Deck

 

We spent most of our time on Serenity deck and were luckily enough to snag one of the two hammocks five of seven days. We never go off the ship so port days were really easy to pick any spot you wanted. Sea days a little harder, but we never went up before 9:00 AM and still had no issues finding a good spot. I did see people showing up around noon and not being able to find a place. Those round (clam shell) looking chairs look comfortable, but aren’t. The way they are designed it forces two people to the center so you’re shoulder to shoulder (not good when you are all hot and grease. We tried them twice for a few minutes and went back to the nice padded loungers or the hammock. Serenity deck is nice and quite as it’s far enough forward you don’t hear all the banter around the pool. There is a small outside bar on Serenity deck. Deck service was spotty, but maybe that’s by design to keep the Serenity deck serene.

 

Spa

 

My DW used the shower in the women’s locker room several times rather than the cabin. It was much larger and had body sprays she really liked. We did a couples bamboo massage, which was killer. I had done the hot rock before and it wasn’t “deep” enough. If you are looking for a deep tissue the bamboo gives new meaning to deep. We used the steam and relaxation rooms several times.

 

Food

 

I can’t say enough about the food every place we ate was excellent to fantastic. We did the Chef’s Table one night and it rates up there with my best dining experiences. We did Art’s Steak House and it too was fantastic. We didn’t have any issues getting reservations for Chef’s Table as we made them the night we ate at Steak House as they take them for Chef’s Table. We got the Chef’s Table reservations only two days in advance. We did book the Steak House prior to sailing, but from what I saw that’s not necessary. We had your time dining and usually got there around 7:00 PM. We had a great wait staff the first night so we requested their area every night. There was never an issue waiting more than 10 minutes to get in their area. You can line up early and request a certain table setting, but if it’s not available they will give you a pager for when it is. The very first night we requested a table for four at the window. We had to wait about 20 minutes with the pager in the lobby bar (oh darn).

 

Ate most lunches of hot dogs and/or hamburgers, which were excellent. Our friends did the Mongolian BBQ and loved it. I finally found the burrito bar the last day as it’s small and sort of hidden in between two large buffet lines in the Gathering. Make sure you look for it as the burritos were excellent. I saw a couple of people show up with a bowl and have the server make a burrito bowl.

 

Cheers

 

We didn’t do it, but our two friends did. They paid $800 for both of them and bought it the first day on the ship. It was being advertised for sale on day two also (not sure how they prorate). I kept track of our bar tab and we would have probably broke even. Our friends felt it was a pretty good deal and would do it again. They both drink very premium liquors. They did not get close to the 15 limit so don’t know how that works out. They make you wait five minutes between buying drinks. Nobody seemed to care if you were buying for somebody else. I guess because it all counts toward your 15 limit. But we didn’t do it right at the bar in front of staff. Average price of normal drinks were around $9.00 and I was getting premium vodka most of the time. Bud light was $6.61 including tip.

 

Debarkation

 

We did the luggage express for the first time and it is well worth the $20 per person. We got the form (I will try to scan an upload) on Monday and it was to be turned in by Friday morning. I turned mine in Wednesday. We got regular zone tags along with everybody else early on Friday. Then later that night we got boarding passes and airlines luggage tags. Good thing I read the fine print, because if you do luggage express you don’t put zone tags on your bags; only the airlines tags. When you fill out the form they ask if you are exempt from airline luggage fees and you have to show the reason and sign specifically.

 

They started calling self assist around 7:00 AM, by deck. That took about 45 minutes then they started calling by zone. If you do luggage express you can also get off the ship at anytime. They want you out of the cabin by 8:30 AM. We walked out at 8:10 and were boarding the bus to Orlando airport by 8:30 AM. We got to the airport at 10:40 AM. We had TSA pre check and were through security in ten minutes.

CCF02042014_0000.pdf

CCF02042014_0001.pdf

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ChosenOne

ChosenOne

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Let me add that we rented a vehicle from Avis from Orlando (MCO) to drive to Cocoa Beach as we stayed at the Radisson overnight and the car rental was actually cheaper then taking the shuttle. Plus we got to go to Publix & buy water & Coke to bring on board & also drove to Fishlips for dinner. We returned our vehicle to Avis in the morning. They had told us not to come before 10:30 but we got there at 10. They have a free shuttle to the ship but it only holds about 10 people. They load it according to the return time stamped on your Avis reciept. So the earlier you get there, the earlier you can get on a shuttle. We managed to get on the 2nd shuttle & were dropped off right in front of the terminal. Being platinum, we were on board & dropping our stuff off in our cabin by 11:10AM.

 

Since our cabin was closer to the aft we discovered that the elevator banks at that end (directly below The Gathering on the Lido deck) were being used for luggage, as well as the next bank of elevators. We had to walk all the way back to the forward elevators to go up to get something to eat on the lido.

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chicago or bust

chicago or bust

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"I will warn you that being in St Maarten with 5 other ships including the behemoth Oasis of the Seas puts quite a strain on being able to get around. We rented a jeep & the traffic was so horrible between the amount of tourists and the road construction we basically spent the entire time in the vehicle unable to find a place to park in Marigot or Phillipsburg or at Maho beach taking us almost 3 hours to circle the island (which should take about 90 mins to do)"

 

same thing happened to my family and i. we were on a 7 day eastern aboard the ncl epic last month, 4 ships at shore. St. martin was are first port and we decided to rent a jeep and tour the island. to be truthful no amount of preparation could of prevented the mess that awaited us. immediately leaving the port we pulled into traffic at 9am. a crane truck was stuck perpendicular on the ONLY road that leads to phillipsburg(dont believe me look at google maps). after waiting 30 minutes traffic eventually learned to move around him...crazy! what awaited me was even better lack of road signs, street signs, town or area display boards; closed off MAIN avenues, numerous unposted one way roads unseen on gps or rental maps. the bonus to all this is the mentality of the drivers here. no one will yield to your signal, parking lots and corner gas stations are treated like 2nd rate roads when traffic starts. Parking is a joke... this was the first time i've ever seen a tow truck on an island so close to port.

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ChosenOne

ChosenOne

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or as I still refer to them, the Carnival Capers. I saved all of mine. I will email them to all of you who requested them tomorrow. Have to finish scanning them. Sorry but all the trivia stuff is highlighted as those are my favorite things to attend!

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jamesr3939

jamesr3939

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You can either book a spa cabin or pay the up charge to use the spa amenities. Since we had booked a spa cabin, we went to the spa reception desk and asked. They also do a tour during embarkation, which tells you how to book/use the spa area.

 

We missed the tour so went day two and asked. They took us on a personal tour and showed us the "spa" guest only areas. They gave us an elastic white "cloud 9" wrist band that you are to wear when in the restrict spa areas. You check in at reception and they swap out you room key for a white spa key card. You need the white key card to get into the spa only areas. Make sure you don't leave it in the pocket of your robe while roaming and get locked out of the "spa" only area; like I did.

 

The spa and gym are basically the same location. Anybody can use the gym you just have to walk past the spa reception desk like you know what you are doing and it's on the left. There was a locker room on the right that I think anybody can use.

 

There was also a small sauna hidden at the end of our hallway that you didn't need a special card key to get to. I found it by accident just opening doors.

 

With the white key card you can use the large Thalassotherapy pool (to hot for me), two steam rooms (one aroma), thermal relaxation room with tiled loungers, and a small "quite" room with flavored water and hot tea; and great view. I can't say for sure, but I think the only thing you can get to without being a "spa" member is the gym and maybe a locker room and shower off the main hallway.

 

It's sort of a maze so I can't recall for sure where I had to use my white card.

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dnj1

dnj1

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It has the Red Frog Rum bar on one side with Blue Iguana Tequila bar on the other side on the Lido deck by the pool but not the full pub.

 

I have sailed on the Magic so I am familar with the layout. What is in that (pub) area on the Dream. Thanks

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L&J

L&J

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I have sailed on the Magic so I am familar with the layout. What is in that (pub) area on the Dream. Thanks

 

 

Just the bar and a few tall tables/ stools

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

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