Carnival Dream B2B Holiday 2015 Spa-Aaah Cruise Review

[erewhon]

Enjoying your review.

Thanks for sharing your photos.

[MooseyMoo]

Day 4: Finally onboard the Dream

 

Woke up, got ready, packed and didn’t rush out the door, which was really nice. We walked down to the Café Beignet again on Royal Street and loaded up on beignets.

 

We stopped in maybe one or two more shops and then meandered back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage and had them grab us a taxi.

 

Everything from here was super smooth, taxi right outside the door of the Sheraton. Drove with no traffic or issues to the port. Easy port! Security, luggage drop off, everything was easy.

 

And yay! We had FTTF! This was partially why I wasn’t in a hurry to get to the port.

 

In August, we traveled with my husband’s family of 15 on a cruise to Alaska with NCL. We had just done Alaska the year before so knew Port of Seattle and what we were getting in to. We arrived early to get the early boarding number and sat around a long time. Great, we were one of the first groups on the ship, but we did quite a bit of sitting. Although I don’t really mind that.

 

So I think we arrived about 10:45am and it took us awhile to get ourselves into the main terminal but once there we found the FTTF line, had very little wait and were getting our key cards in no time. The rest is a blur, we just followed the FTTF signs and soon enough we were on the gangway heading to the ship. There was no sitting down and waiting and I loved that. Yep, worth it for me.

 

Our first cruise was the Disney Fantasy, there is the cute fanfare with welcoming you into the ship over the loudspeaker and you are greeted like celebrities by cruise staff and it really starts your vacation off with something special.

 

The next two cruises were the NCL Jewel and the Pearl. Both ships you enter to, “ok, you are on a ship”. Not exciting, but you are on.a.ship so not really a big deal.

 

But the Dream…that atrium is really something. It makes a statement!

 

 

This picture does NOT do the atrium justice. I love me some glitter, sparkle and glitz!

 

 

We headed to our room first and used our FTTF perk to drop off our carry on stuff. I do remember signs about rooms not being ready but I think it said something about FTTF on it or something. I remember because my DH was nervous to open the doors and break rules, but I was feeling confident that my FTTF perk included getting into the room early. In either case, I opened the door and confidently walked myself to my room. Exchanged welcomes with housekeeping staff and then quickly left just in case we were being a bother by being in there too early. Haha.

 

Our room was ready to go, so I felt fine about it. We knew we were having lunch in Pasta Bella from CC and other Dream reviewers (Mitsugirly is one of favorites, I just followed her suggestions for my entire trip, haha, actually you can stop reading now and just go read hers, she has better pictures!).

 

Pasta Bella was good. DH and the kids really enjoyed it.

 

Next we needed to explore and get to know our surroundings a bit better.

 

 

 

It's December...I live in Washington, Yes, THIS! All of this!

 

 

Waterslides! Yay! I didn't touch them once in 2 weeks, but just the fact that they were there, and I COULD use them if I wanted to. haha.

 

 

Once we got acquainted with the ship a bit, we headed to our room to unpack. Yay, everything was there and we spent a bit of time getting organized for the next two weeks!

 

Ok, now I think I am going to go rogue and not review things necessarily in order. I’ll stop the play by play of the daily events and instead give you my thoughts on different aspects of the ship, the staff, the Spa and of course I will do each of our 6 excursions and the B2B process.

[MooseyMoo]

fun review! When we cruised from NO, we stayed at the Lamothe House. It had a courthouse and living quarters. We stayed in the main house. And I thing a ghost was holding my bathroom door shut. I was in the shower, when i got out, I couldn't get that door open. Then it suddenly went click click and opened. My bf was across the room sitting in a chair when a bed between us. He didn't do it :rolleyes: Would this be the place where you stopped?

 

I seriously would have wet my pants!

 

I don't mind being scared, I get the nervous giggles, but something about New Orleans was a little too real, haha.

 

We didn't stop at the Lamothe House. One of the places we stopped by and heard stories about was the Hotel Monteleone.

 

The little courtyard place looked like the Lamothe, but no cute little pool, instead it was a little overgrown, leaves on the ground, super dark and a huge tall brick wall in the back. Everyone on the tour kept competitively stepping forward to avoid being the one closest to the wall (with our backs to it I might add). haha.

[MooseyMoo]

Really enjoying your review so far and your sense of humor. I am anxiously awaiting more. I also like your writing style. I'm going with my family next year. We did a cruise out of NOLO a year or so before hurricane Katrina. I am curious to see if it has changed at all.

 

Thank you!

On the ride out to the swamp tour it was heartbreaking to see some of the areas that are still absolutely devastated. Eye opening for sure.

 

Enjoying your review.

Thanks for sharing your photos.

 

Thanks! There are a zillion things I now wish I had taken a picture of to help illustrate the stories! Sigh, I guess I need to go back. ;)

[erewhon]

Thank you for continuing your review.

[rzyjzq]

Enjoying your review and anxiously awaiting for more!

Susan

[MooseyMoo]

Let’s start with the room.

 

We were booked in an inside spa cabin for 4, 11223.

 

 

Basically, this room with the two upper pull down beds on either side of the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used every inch of space in our room. haha.

 

 

Was it tight? Absolutely!

 

Did we know it going in? Yep!

 

Have it done it before? Of course!

 

Not a big deal…yet, I think we are due for another balcony on the next cruise…haha.

 

I was surprised when greeted by our stateroom host and asked if we wanted morning servicing or nighttime servicing. Bummer! I loved both! But we decided on morning and this worked out just fine. Our stateroom host was amazing and very hard working.

 

But in a little tiny room, it makes a difference to get the two ceiling beds put away during the day. Knowing this ahead of time, I would have really thought hard about upgrading to a balcony.

 

Storage space worked fine for us. We put our dirty laundry bags next to the king bed, under the “come out of the ceiling” beds.

 

I love the spa robes and did use mine quite a few times. They are super big but I didn’t mind wrapping up in it.

 

I loved the yellow beach towels, I actually bought some to bring home.

 

The bathroom is small, we knew that, but only the kids showered in there so no problem!

 

 

 

Being so close to the spa and using the back entrance, it was super easy to just pop up into the spa area to use their shower. (I’ll talk about the spa in a different post).

 

I brought a little mini backpack for my shower bag usually, that worked well for me.

 

I never had to wait for a shower, no one was ever showering in the second shower stall the same time as me, and no one was ever waiting when I got out. So I never had a problem getting into the shower when I wanted to. AND it was so much roomier!!!

 

 

Overall: I liked the room. We weren’t in there very much and if we were, we were getting ready for something, sleeping or a couple times we rested for a bit so even the small space was fine for us. We made it work! Location was perfect, I loved the close proximity to Serenity and the Cloud 9 Spa.

[MooseyMoo]

Thank you for continuing your review.

 

Of course! I will just keep plugging away!

 

Enjoying your review and anxiously awaiting for more!

Susan

 

Thanks for joining me! I slowed down a bit but hope to get moving a little faster again. :)

[MooseyMoo]

I get seriously annoyed when I see teens running amok in the buffet area, making a crazy mess out of the food. This makes me eye roll all over the place.

 

So imagine the look of horror on my face when my DS tells us one night about the milkshakes he and a few other kids had been making in the buffet!

 

They would fill a mug with hot chocolate and fill a regular cup with the soft serve ice cream. Once at their table, they would pour the hot chocolate over the soft serve and eat this cute little creation of theirs.

 

Sigh. He promised they didn't make a mess at either station.

 

My DD had the puppy dog eyes going so DH and I decided one night that she could try it.

 

 

She skipped, she literally skipped.

 

So my heart is singing with happiness, and I'm trying really hard not to be obnoxious and messy, but soft serve and hot chocolate is GOOD...real good!

 

Dang teenagers...

Edited July 10, 2016 by MooseyMoo
Spacing...I'm a dork.

[sarahbeth476]

Enjoying the review. I hope you'll come back and write more!

[teacherme]

Enjoying your review. I would love to hear more.

[BamaCruisers2011]

Great review can't wait to read more - excited to hear about the excursions on the second leg of your trip. We will be on the Dream this coming January and we love spending time in NOLA as well - have not tried the Old Coffee Pot but is on our list now!

Edited August 28, 2016 by BamaCruisers2011

[tnebell]

So sad! That's the end!?? I was so looking forward to reading more! Well I hope you all had a great time! It looked like fun!

[easyboy]

Thanks for the review.

[ruthie0704]

Please come back and write more! Love your review. We've never been to NOLA and I'm thinking we could combine cruise with a new port/city to visit too.