Thanksgiving Dream Review

[LHARTWICK]

This was our 2nd time on the Dream. She has definitely aged in the two years since we last sailed on her, but still a good ship. Had a good time, but overall wasn't our best cruise.

 

PRE-CRUISE: Stayed at the Comfort Suites at the NOLA Airport. Highly recommend – we plan to use them again. Great room: clean, large and comfortable. Bed was great! Great breakfast and staff. 20 minutes from port.

 

PARKING: Used Fulton Parking Garage. We finally found the entrance after circling the block since our GPS led us to an ally next to the garage. When we arrived it was complete and utter chaos! Since we only had 2 pieces of luggage, we chose to not drop it off for the workers to carry it down for us. However, our other family members did so. When we all arrived in the lobby, no one was giving any kind of instruction as to what to do or where to go. There were shuttles outside, but the guys were unloading/loading and weren’t telling anyone what to do. My husband finally had enough of it and stopped one of them to find out what we were supposed to do. One of them finally stopped long enough to tell those of us who were trying to get to the cruise terminal what to do. Just madness. Once everyone finally had their luggage and was finally on a shuttle, we were off to the terminal. Return shuttle after the cruise went perfectly – shuttle back to Fulton was right outside of the terminal.

 

EMBARKATION: Arrived at terminal around 11:00 AM – we were on board around noon. Very smooth and organized.

 

PROS: Chef’s Art Steakhouse: We’ve eaten here several times, and have always been very pleased. (Only problem this time was the couple at the table next to us who insisted on verbally abusing their son during the entire dinner to the point that he began crying. Our heart was breaking for him! Not CCL’s fault at all – I think their waiter was so glad when they left!) Blackjack Band: This was our 3rd sailing with them – just wonderful! Honestly, if it weren’t for them, we would have been bored during the evenings since we had already seen the production shows on previous cruises. I plan to keep in touch with them via e-mail to see which ship they will be on next year. They don’t know at this time. Crew was very friendly! Cabin steward was great! Love the wider hallways on these newer ships. Buffet food was okay, not great. Dining room food was good – best meal was the chateaubriand: outstanding! Melting Cake and Soufflé were wonderful as always. Dining room service was hit or miss, depending on which waiter we had. We had Anytime Dining. Randy and Nuntha were both very good. CCL bed was comfy as always. We enjoyed having a room with 2 porthole windows – never had those before. Made for a unique cabin. Muster drill station was inside and passengers did NOT have to tote their life vests with them. Yay! Ice cream station – yay! Spent a lot of time here. I wonder how many thousands of cones they went through during this cruise?? :)

 

CONS: Sewage smell throughout the ship. This was not a problem on the Dream 2 years ago. CCL really needs to fix this. It was everywhere. 1,438 kids on board, most of whom seem to have never been taught manners or discipline: Breaking in lines (of which there were many), running up and down the halls and public areas, and basically taking over the ship, including the adults only areas. Forget finding a hot tub - they were all full of kids day and night. We rarely had pizza because the line was so long, regardless of the time of day. I felt for the crew members trying to keep up with the demand. Cutbacks are becoming more obvious on CCL. Ice is no longer provided in the cabins. No welcome back reception for previous passengers. However, we were provided 2 drink coupons to be used only on the last evening of the cruise. No more sliders at the Ocean Side BBQ – we were VERY disappointed about this since the sliders were always very good. But they did have very good BBQ chicken and grilled sweet potatoes – OMG!

 

Cozumel: Went to the KaoKao Chocolate Factory – absolutely wonderful! It’s a shame so few people know about this. It’s a small shop where chocolate is made from scratch. The staff is just so friendly and genuine! After a brief background about chocolate and the process, you’re taken into a kitchen area where you grind chocolate fresh from the beans. You end up with 2 discs of chocolate to take home that each make 2 cups of hot chocolate. Can’t wait to make mine! This was the highlight of our cruise. Also bought several bottles of Vanilla at Los Cinco Soles before returning to the ship. Do NOT do what my MIL did and buy the first vanilla you see in the cruise terminal. It is NOT the same.

 

Grand Cayman: As usual, the tendering process took a while. Unless you have to be off the ship for an excursion at a specific time, it’s best to wait until about noon when the lines have been drastically reduced. Otherwise you’ll wait a very long time in line for a tender ticket and then a while longer for your group to be called. All of the stingray excursions had been cancelled for the day due to the weather – I felt sorry for passengers who were going to do those for the first time, like my in-laws. It really is a fun activity. We’ve visited GC several times, so we opted to walk around town and shop. We ate at the Paradise Grill which was wonderful. This restaurant is just a short walk from the ship and sits right on the beach. You can also snorkel right there as well. The snorkeling must be pretty good – lots of people in the water there.

 

Jamaica: Since we had been here before, we opted to stay on board for the day. Ship was pretty quiet, so it was a good day for us.

 

DEBARKATION: We used self-assist option and were called around 7:30 AM to leave. However, from the time we got in line to leave the ship until the time we were outside of the terminal it was about 30 minutes. Lines moved slowly, probably because there were only a couple of Customs agents processing people. We will be using self-assist from now on. So much easier. We never had to go to a lounge and wait for our number to be called, and now that we have packing down to a science and only have 2 bags total, so easy!

 

BOTTOM LINE: This was a family Thanksgiving cruise, and we all had a blast, regardless of my “cons” listed above. After all, we are all BLESSED AND THANKFUL to even be on a cruise! We were also able to spend time with family that we don’t see often. However, the odds of us sailing on another holiday cruise is pretty low. Just way too many kids. We heard a lot of other passengers make the same comment. We will, however, sail out of NOLA again. Not too bad of a drive to port for us, and driving really cuts out the stress of packing vs that of packing to fly. The Dream really is a good ship – just needs a little TLC to give her the new sparkle back. I still have a bad case of sea legs today - I swear my office is listing from side to side!!

[nchikk]

We were on the Dream in September. Just a couple of things regarding your cons.

 

We did not notice any sewage smell at any time, not even a little bit. I wonder if it has to do with the location of the cabin...we were all the way forward on deck 6.

 

We asked our cabin steward for ice on embark day and ice for the rest of the cruise. Did you ask and were denied or did you not ask? Just curious.

 

And about the past guest party, that change was advertised a while ago. Now we get a bottle of water and a drink coupon for the last day. Apparently the number of Gold members was such that it affected service. Frankly I'm ok with that. It had gotten to where we couldn't get a drink or hors d'oeuvres at all. Anyway, if you've been to one of those, it's the same every time.

 

Anyway, glad to read you had a good time.

[silvercrikhix]

Thank you for sharing your experience, OP.

Did you have any issue with bring back BOTTLES of Vanilla on the ship?

[LHARTWICK]

nchikk: Our cabin was on deck 1 all the way forward. The sewage smell wasn't in our cabin but it was down most of that hallway and in almost all of the public areas. We had to walk most of our hallway to get to the Lido, and it was everywhere. We noticed it in several lounges as well. A lot of passengers were commenting about it. I knew that we could ask for ice if we wanted it, but it used to be in there w/o asking. Not a problem for us either way - just pointing it out. Also, we are okay with no guest party and getting the water and drink coupons instead.

 

silvercrikhix: No problems at all getting vanilla back on the ship. The guy at the x-ray machine just looked in the bag to make sure it wasn't liquor. I bought one large bottle for myself and several smaller bottles for Christmas gifts.

[LaCal]

Thx for your review and glad u had fun

 

I also hate to see parents treating their children bad or berating them till crying for no reason and have actually stepped in a few times to tell them how I felt and that they were being way out of line etc

 

In doing this I've had the Mothers a few times look shocked and tell me it's none of my buisness which I said Hey if your doing it in public and where I am I'm making it my business . I'm a pretty big guy with lotta tattoos so normally they mumble but stop their bad behavior quick

 

Also I'm not shy to let those parents who let their children scream or run around with no discipline that they should control the kid......Works most times

[LHARTWICK]

I also hate to see parents treating their children bad or berating them till crying for no reason and have actually stepped in a few times to tell them how I felt and that they were being way out of line etc

 

IMO, if it's to the point of abuse, be it physical or verbally, others should step in - I agree. We tried not to let it ruin our dinner, but it was hard. They were at the table next to us, and we could hear everything. The boy (about 9 or 10) was being very well behaved, but they just continued to pick on him, and eventually started cussing at him. Alcohol was only making it worse. Heartbreaking really. He'll probably grow up to do the same thing to his children because it's all he'll know.

[JGlennCruiser]

We drove from South Carolina for this cruise and enjoyed the Dream. I also noticed the sewage smell (quite strong) in the hallways mid-ship deck 7 but it faded by the time we reached our room in the aft. 4 out of 5 nights we chose the ATD dining room were great, Thanksgiving Night was horrible with our order lost and our waiter simply disappeared for some unknown reason. There was a LOT of ship movement, according to other passengers it was due to a heavy cross wind. The highlight of this cruise was the Casino for me, unlike other cruises there were far fewer smokers in the casino and very little problem with smoke which was a pleasant surprise.

[LHARTWICK]

I also noticed the sewage smell (quite strong) in the hallways mid-ship deck 7 but it faded by the time we reached our room in the aft. QUOTE]

 

Same for deck 1 - very strong in the mid section but faded by the time we reached our very far forward cabin. Even the members of the Blackjack Band commented on the sewage smell several times while they were playing.