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Carnival Dream (9/14/14)- With Pictures

malmo288

By malmo288,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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malmo288

malmo288

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I enjoyed the food from the first formal night better then this dinner, but of course it was still good. When we saw Luis, he asked us where we were the night before because he missed us. Late seating dining wasn't that full in Crimson upper anyway, so you can definitely tell when someone doesn't show up to dinner. We told him thanks for recommending the Huevos Rancheros for breakfast because they were delicious and he laughed and said thats why he recommended them. So of course we asked what he recommended for dinner tonight. (and again if your following along with the menu on zydecocruiser's website this formal dinner's menu is what he has on day 5 of the 7 day menu, since they are out of order on this ship) My BF ordered the seafood platter and the cream of garden fresh broccoli for his app and I ordered the penne siciliana as my appetizer. We both ordered what Luis recommended for dinner, the Chateaubriand with sauce bearnaise. And it was delicious! My bf also ordered the martini braised basa fillet and he said it was pretty good.

 

After dinner we all went to the casino to gamble a bit. We didn't do any slots or card games. Me and the wife played this game where you put quarters in a the slot and they get pushed forward until some fall down. This was fun for awhile because the quarters kept falling and I was trying to get this $50 dollar bundle to fall. I failed unfortunately although I did notice the next morning someone won the $50 that I had been working on for a little while, so it is possible to get it down. I probably just would have spent $50 or more to get it down so it wouldn't have been worth it. And my BF played his favorite Casino Vault. On our last cruise, the same person won 2 of the best prize which back then was an Ipad and $500 or a higher dollar amount(I don't remember exactly) so he would spend $10 a night on this machine or others like it trying to win. This was also a just for fun kind of thing, since we didn't win. But its still his favorite.

 

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Before we called in a night, my boyfriend and I roamed around the ship on a mission to find the famous coin that everyone talks about. Supposedly, the coin goes on the ship to bring good luck and safe travels and gets put on every ship when it gets built before it sets sail. On Carnival ships, I heard they were welded on the ship in a glass box and I wanted to find it. I talked about it enough it fascinated my BF so we went on this treasure hunt together. And we found it.

 

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IF you want to see it too, you can find it by the entrance to the water slides. In this picture you can see a white box above the stacked loungers on the right side of this picture. I wasn't sure what to expect when we found it, but it was definitely a fun adventure and a cool historic story.

 

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Finally it was time for bed. Tonight, we had this.

 

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malmo288

malmo288

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I have to be honest. I didn't take a lot of pictures or spend a lot of time walking around the boat for the majority of this day. We woke up to some severe swaying back and forth. I thought it was bad on the first day of the ship, I didn't know what bad was. I don't usually get motion sickness but I got motion sickness today. I tried to tough it out because my BF's brother wanted to eat at the italian restaurant one last time. We didn't get out of bed til just just before our lunch for breakfast because I think we all wanted to stay in bed during the rocking. Walking down the halls to get to the italian restaurant you could not walk a straight line. Like literally, you would fail if they asked you to walk a straight line to prove that you were sober. We were able to walk up to the italian spot even though they weren't open yet. You could find a table and fix a drink but you weren't able to order until they actually opened. Then a line formed and I got up to get our tickets to order from. In line so many people kept commenting on how they felt sick from the movement and that the wind must be insane today. We all agreed this was one of the worse we had felt. but while we were waiting for our food the captain came over the intercom and announced that we were going at full speed and had been because of a medical emergency that had happened on board. The person needed some medical attention and we had to get them to where they could get it as soon as possible. I've heard stories about what could have happened but nothing was ever confirmed. They did tell us that they had a successful evacuation and that the person should be ok. They also announce to us that because we were going at full speed we would get back to New Orleans by midnight instead of 8am the following morning. But they assured us that we could continue to enjoy our last night just like we would if the schedule didn't change. And we would be starting our debarkation would start at 7. They had to close the duty free shops at 1 that day and casino would close around midnight I think, but everything else was going as scheduled.

 

After lunch we went back to the room. By BF was experiencing a pretty intense sunburn along with the speed of the boat made him not feel very well, and I of course was feeling so sick from the movement of the boat. All I wanted to do was lay down. We hung out there trying to rest until we realized we were already heading up the Mississippi River. So we decided to venture around to find his brother and wife. I can't remember exactly when but the boat eventually slowed down so you didn't feel as sick from the movement. It was when we got to where the coast guard could meet us to pick up the sick passenger and they announced they made it off the boat safely that I think we returned to normal speed and then all of us passengers returned to normal too. I captured this of the whale tale sailing up the Mississippi River.

 

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and these were the views you would get if you looked out a window in a buffet or anywhere else on the boat.

 

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I don't really remember what all we did this day because it was such an unusual day. I do remember that because we were sailing up the Mississippi already people started turning on their cell phones, which takes away from one of my favorite parts of vacation. I love being out of service where the only thing you can focus on was each other but that wasn't the case anymore. I guess it did allow us to get in contact with each other when we weren't around each other. We had brought walkie talkies but depending on how far we were from each other they didn't always work. So I guess that was one good thing. Eventually we got ready and went to dinner and finally took a family shot on the beautiful staircase.

 

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My BF was still not feeling well, so he didn't eat much for dinner. But I had the grilled chicken breast served over fettucini in a mushroom cream sauce as my starter and the mac n cheese for dinner. I loved the mushroom cream sauce. It was delicious and then when the mac and cheese came, this was what I had been wanting when I ordered mac n cheese at brunch. This mac n cheese was definitely well worth it to me. And then finally, I had my last melting chocolate cake of the cruise.

 

After dinner our original plan was to go to a comedy show and then start packing but because my bf wasn't feeling well and his brother and wife said they had a lot of packing to do, we decided to call it a night and go pack. After we were done, my bf and I made it over to the Cafe one last time because we had to try the carrot cake. Carrot cake is my favorite and I remember reading that it was highly recommended from here.

 

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I didn't much care for this carrot cake though to be honest. It was too much icing and not enough cake. And then what cake I did get wasn't very moist anymore. It was only $2.25 for the cake so if you like carrot cake, you might want to try it. It just wasn't my favorite.

 

After cake we took a walk around outside and realized that it was just about time that we were pulling into port. So we actually got to watch as they did that. It was kind of a cool watching. You could feel the boat trying to stop and see the bridge that we were facing when we left getting closer and closer cause it doesn't feel like the boat is stopping. It was really a neat thing to see. And then before you knew it they were throwing ropes over board to tie us up.

 

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Then we headed to bed where we had our last towel animal waiting for us.

 

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malmo288

malmo288

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When do they start the water slides on the Dream out of NOLA?

 

Funtimes show that the slides open at 9am and close at sunset. They seemed to always be open even when it felt really windy outside.

 

I love this review! So much info and you seem like such a happy person. You are giving so much information. You and your boyfriend look adorable! Thanks so much!

 

Thank you so much for the compliments!! :D I hope the information helped you! Feel free to ask any questions!

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malmo288

malmo288

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And was there a sushi place anywhere?

 

There was not a sushi place anywhere. I read in reviews before I went that they would occasionally have it in the buffet for dinner, but we at dinner in the MDR all but 1 night on the cruise so I can't confirm that or what kind they had either. They had sushi on the menu one night, but it wasn't your traditional sushi roll. I posted a picture of it in post number 82. My family really love it and kept ordering it. They got 2nds and 3rds and 4ths.....

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malmo288

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We chose to do self debarkation, where you carry your own luggage off the ship. Self debarkation gets off first, but you do have to carry your luggage all the way off the ship, jam it in the elevators and down escalators and what not. I don't think I'd do it any other way though, especially with how quickly you get off the ship and on the road. On this cruise and our last one we had a long road trip home, so the earlier we get on the road, the earlier we get home. But I imagine doing the relaxed debarkation would get you more time to enjoy one last breakfast and just walk off the ship without having to lug anything with you.

 

With that said, we had planned to wake up earlier and go to the buffet one last time before they started to call for debarkation. I was the only one who woke up to the alarm I heard, my BF was exhausted from his sunburn and from seasickness the day before. Since we hadn't heard from his brother, I just let him sleep. They mad an announcement at 6:45am, that they would start the debarkation process soon. The announced Self Debark would get off first and they would be calling people by floors,first off was the first floor and then they call in order all the way up. It was about 7:15 when our floor(7) was called to get off the ship and we made our way to the elevators. It actually didn't take long to get one because people were actually following the rules and waiting for their floor to get called or they had gone to wait somewhere earlier so that they didn't have to deal with all the congestion of people getting off the ship. I have to say, we have left out of Galveston on our first cruise and now New Orleans and I am a huge fan of NOLA's debarkation and customs process. They had more then 1 officer checking passports and it made the whole line go so quickly. We had to take the shuttle to Fulton Place where we parked and we were in our car and on the road by 8am it was that quick.

 

OVERALL

We enjoyed our time on the Dream. It was similar in a lot of ways to the first ship we cruised on which was the Magic. But different in enough ways that it didn't feel like the exact same ship. The food was excellent, the service was excellent and The boat was always clean. The enterainment was really good, with the exception of a show that we didn't much care for. The crew aimed to please, so don't hesitate to ask for something because they would be happy to either show you were to go or what to try or get you whatever you asked for. All of the ports were everything we wanted them to be and more. I would Highly recommend Little French Key if you haven't been the next time you go to Roatan. We didn't have any of the famous hot room issues, although some people said that they did. But we did experience the drain issues with the shower that some people have complained about. We only noticed it after leaving Belize. It almost felt like the boat was leaning on a weird angle because there was no problem with the water draining once it got to the drain, but it was hanging out on the opposite side of the shower that the drain was on. I noticed a little late, so the water was actually outside of the shower when I noticed, but that was the only night we saw it. We also noticed a sewage smell in the hallways on our floor towards the front of the ship. I don't know my sides, so y'all will have to help me. but it was the front of the ship if you were walking towards the back on the left side. We didn't walk much down the right side, so I don't remember if we smelt it over there. But we didn't smell anything in our rooms. We really liked they way they handled the comedy shows by making people empty the room and come back if they wanted to see the next show that way it gives everyone an opportunity to watch shows. We watched 3 comedy shows and they were all adult and all funny. I would sail on this ship again. Maybe not for my next cruise because I want to try something different but we all had an amazing time. If I thought I was addicted to cruising after the first cruise, I am definitley addicted after this one. I don't know what I will do now that my review over and I don't have another cruise to plan. My boyfriend and his family enjoyed themselves. This boat was the first cruise for his brother and his brother's wife and they both were in love with cruising too. I'm not sure how often they usually do big vacations like this, but I guarantee they will go on another cruise.

 

I also have something random I wanted to share about the sign and sail account. My boyfriend and I were on the same account. We used a credit card for the s&s because in my opinion its easier then having to go and add money or settle your balance at the end of the cruise. When I was looking into this cruise I read a lot of people having questions about deposit holds and I think this is how Carnival does it or at least how they did it on my credit card. Initially, they did a $200 authorization on the card. I didn't get to check the card while we were on the ship but when we got back in service I logged on to check my card and the $200 authorization had disappeared and now I was just getting authorizations for each individual purchase that we made. Those authorizations can stay on your account (depending on your bank I'm sure) for up to 5 days. And then I noticed our account charges were posted to my credit card on tuesday so it takes them maybe a day to charge you officially if you wanted to know how quick like I did so I could pay it off. But on a different note with the sign & sail, my bf's brother and wife created 2 separate s&s accounts for them. Originally they were going to do cash for their cruise but quickly changed it to a cc because of the pain in the butt it was to them to go add money. You can do all of this at those s&s kiosks that they have around the ship. One day brother told us that he thought it was weird his s&s wasn't working for him to buy anything. I told him, from what I read there had to be something wrong with his card that was attached to the account. Like maybe the authorizations got him to his max credit limit or something along those lines. He logged on to a fun hub to check his balance and that was sure enough the issue. So he made a payment to the card thinking all would be resolved the next day when the payment posted. Next day, he still couldn't buy anything. And then we learned that once Carnival gets a decline authorization your s&s shuts down until you can resolve, but they won't run another authorization unless you activate that cc again to your s&s account. So once he re-added that card he no longer had any problems. Both cruises me and my BF have been on we share the account and use my cc so we have never had this problem but I wanted to let you know the fix to save you from waiting in line at guest services if this happens to you. All you need to do is make sure you have available balance on the cc you are going to use and add it back to your account on the s&s kiosks.

 

If you choose to do any of the spa packages, wait til the later days because they do some really good deals. We didn't go any of the packages although I highly considered one that they put out on friday. I have all of the prices if any of you are wanting to do anything spa related.

 

As far as shopping, if you like to shop on the cruise ship, they have something from the shops on sale like every day. So unless you will die without that watch or those sunglasses wait til they knock some more off of the price. I bought my Michael Kors sunglasses when they had them up to 60% off. They were regularly $116 and I got them for $62.

 

There might be more random things that I remember but for now, I will call this the end of my review. Although, it makes me sad because now I know vacation is over. :(

 

Those of you traveling on the Dream soon, I hope this helped. And make sure and enjoy everything but don't fee like you have to do everything. Relax and have fun. Your vacation is only as good as you decide it will be. After all, you are the only one who can control how you react to situations. Nothing that happened to us held us back from having a good time. I can't remember much of the bad because it was just all good for me! You will love her! and everyone on the Dream Team will make sure that you do! Please feel free to ask anything I haven't answered yet because I'd love to help you and you'd be helping me stretch out my vacation even longer!

 

Thanks for reading my review and all of your compliments!

 

--Until the next cruise!! :D

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happy40

happy40

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I don't wanna hijack malmo28's great review, but wanted to respond to this. I was also on this sailing, and I was (un)lucky enough to get one of the infamous warm cabins on the Dream. I was on the Lido deck (#10276), and the room was just never cool enough. I wouldn't say it was hot, but it definitely was warm. Luckily, I had brought a fan, so that made it tolerable. Friends that also went were in the cabin next door, and they also complained all week about their room being hot.

 

So, the rumors we've heard about some cabins being warm/hot are, sadly, true.

 

malmo288, sorry for the brief interuption. Enjoying your review so far!!

 

 

 

Thanks for the info Bigman01...always good to know

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malmo288

malmo288

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I have been following since the beginning as well. Thanks for doing it. I definitely learned some new things that were not covered in other similar reviews of this itinerary.

 

I'm glad I could help. :) I tried to include things I couldn't find anywhere either.

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NOLABEAUTY

NOLABEAUTY

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Haha I do like to tell a story, I'm glad you enjoyed my review. Have fun on the Dream!

 

 

Thanks for sharing. You and your bf are super cute.

I have a question about dining in the mdr for dinner, how long did it take from start to finish?

Thanks

 

 

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malmo288

malmo288

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Thanks for sharing. You and your bf are super cute.

I have a question about dining in the mdr for dinner, how long did it take from start to finish?

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Thank you for the compliment! :D MdR for us usually took anywhere from 1hr 15 minutes to 1hr and a half, dining was a little on the slow side though. I'm sure you could get out quicker but my group would keep ordering more food. If you do assigned dining I'd try to get their early since they usually will let you in earlier and then you can get your order in before anyone else.

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