Pirate's DREAMing of a cruise from NOLA! April 22-29 Review

[RS77471]

Loving the review. We sail on the Dream this August. This will help to pass the time until then. :)

 

We are going on the Dream in August!!! When are you going?

[RS77471]

Loving the review!!!! Makes me ready for our next cruise.... on the Dream!!!

[pirate4me2]

Loving the review!!!! Makes me ready for our next cruise.... on the Dream!!!

 

 

 

I hope you love it!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[ScottyZkaaayk]

Thanks for the review! I’ll be sailing on her in October and I’m so excited!

[Puzzlewoman]

Great review, thx so much! We will be aboard the Dream very soon. :hearteyes:

This will be our first time sailing out of New Orleans - do you remember what time the muster drill was?

[j603]

We are going on the Dream in August!!! When are you going?

On the August 19th sailing for my birthday. I splurged for the grand suite. I figure between myself, DH and my 18 year old son, we need all the cabin and balcony space we can get. Hahaha

[j603]

I hope you like her as much as we did! Working on the next installment now.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I can not wait to see the Dream. My son and I were on the Liberty back in 2011. This will be DH first Carnival experience.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Thanks for your work so far! We leave on the Dream this Sunday, really looking forward to it!

[pirate4me2]

Thanks for the review! I’ll be sailing on her in October and I’m so excited!

 

 

Have a great cruise!!

 

Great review, thx so much! We will be aboard the Dream very soon. :hearteyes:

 

This will be our first time sailing out of New Orleans - do you remember what time the muster drill was?

 

 

I believe it was 3:30

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

I can not wait to see the Dream. My son and I were on the Liberty back in 2011. This will be DH first Carnival experience.

 

 

Oh I love Liberty, her decor is so elegant!!

 

 

Thanks for your work so far! We leave on the Dream this Sunday, really looking forward to it!

 

 

I’ll try and be finished by the time you sail. :) have a great cruise!!

 

On the August 19th sailing for my birthday. I splurged for the grand suite. I figure between myself, DH and my 18 year old son, we need all the cabin and balcony space we can get. Hahaha

 

 

Nice!! That suite will be awesome!!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RS77471]

On the August 19th sailing for my birthday. I splurged for the grand suite. I figure between myself, DH and my 18 year old son, we need all the cabin and balcony space we can get. Hahaha

 

That sounds so fun!!! I would love to try a suite, love you are doing it for your birthday!!! We are going the next week after you!! Let me know how the ship is!!!! And happy early birthday!!!

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

pirate ~ nice job on the review! Those food pictures are making me so hungry. Dream was my 1st Carnival cruise & I really liked it. How are you finding it compared to Breeze?

Looking forward to seeing what you did in Jamaica.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[gogy]

Thanks for your review, please keep them coming, we'll be sailing in July.

[mirglip69]

Loving your review. Thanks for posting. Sailing on the Dream in 11 days. Cant wait.

[Puzzlewoman]

Have a great cruise!!

 

 

 

 

I believe it was 3:30

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Thanks!

[pirate4me2]

Thanks for your review, please keep them coming, we'll be sailing in July.

 

 

More on the way right now!

 

Hi all!

 

 

 

pirate ~ nice job on the review! Those food pictures are making me so hungry. Dream was my 1st Carnival cruise & I really liked it. How are you finding it compared to Breeze?

 

Looking forward to seeing what you did in Jamaica.

 

 

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

 

Hey Jo!!

 

I really, really, REALLY liked Dream! I would rank it right there with the Breeze to be honest! Which surprises me as I'm not a huge fan of Magic, something is just off on that ship, but they are all "sisters." I want to sail both Breeze as well as Dream again in the future.

 

Loving your review. Thanks for posting. Sailing on the Dream in 11 days. Cant wait.

 

 

I hope you have a great cruise!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

Today was our first port of call, MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA!

 

We were scheduled to dock at 8, so Chris and I got up at 7. I headed right to my favorite port-day breakfast spot, Blue Iguana. Their breakfast burritos are THE BEST, and they are filling so you do not get hungry if you have an excursion that lasts thru lunch. There was no line, so I zoomed thru and happily chowed down my chicken sausage, Mexican eggs, potato, cheese, pico, guacamole and salsa burrito. Yum! I also tried an arepas, which was ok.

 

 

 

Our excursion was the Buggy Adventure, booked thru the cruise line, and operated by Chukka. We met on the pier at 8:30, and after a short bus ride we arrived at their ranch. Chris and I love doing ATV and buggy type adventures, so we were really excited for this excursion. Unfortunately, I really cannot say many good things about it. Anyone that has read my reviews before knows that I am usually a positive person when it comes to my vacations, but this is one excursion I would NOT recommend. The guides got onto anyone who “played” at all….if you went too fast they got mad, but if you went too slow they told you to speed up. If your back end of your buggy slipped around at all they yelled at you. I understand that they are concerned for safety, but they literally made us go single file and the pace was really, really tame. Our buggy also broke down, and they acted like it was our fault. All in all we were on the buggy ride for about 45 minutes, and although the scenery was fun to see, we really didn’t enjoy the excursion much. I wish we had taken the 2 hour bus ride to do Dunn’s River Falls instead. Maybe we just went on a bad day, I don’t know. The ride was dusty and bumpy like the excursion notes warns, so do be aware of that if any of you decide to book it.

 

After the buggy ride was over we had about an hour of time before they took us back to the port. Chukka has free wifi at their facility, so I checked my email and just enjoyed the scenery. Their facility is gorgeous. I also got to watch the horseback riders do the swim portion of their excursion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

 

We were back at the ship at 12:45, and since we didn’t care to do any shopping in the port area we got back onboard. I grabbed a BLT from the deli (it was amazing) and then hit the T-pool.

 

 

I stayed there until about 3:00, then decided it was nap time. I slept for about an hour, then we got ready for dinner. We were in the MDR about 6 and requested to PRETTY PLEASE get seated in Charlie’s section. Our wish was granted! Hooray!

 

I got a Pirate Punch to start off. Yum.

 

 

I started off tonight with a brave appetizer….chilled peach soup. As Charlie said, “if you wish to start off with dinner, this is for you.” It was….interesting.

 

 

Caesar salad was good.

 

 

I LOVE THE SALMON CAKES!!! I even got Chris to try them, and he said they were good. So good, in fact, they disappeared before a picture was taken. Same with the creamed spinach, yum yum yum!

 

If you want to try a yummylicious concoction…get the Chocolate Melting Cake with butter pecan ice cream instead of vanilla. It’s awesome! For some reason they still put the vanilla on the plate, but oh well.

 

 

 

Chris and I decided to go watch Jumangi (or however you spell it!) on the Dive In movies. I am not normally a fan of those kinds of movies, but I got into it! When it finished up we had just enough time to run to the theater for the Love & Marriage show at 9:30. It was cute and funny, as always.

 

After that I went to the room and packed up our beach bag for tomorrow, and then I called it an evening. Tomorrow was Grand Cayman, home of some of the most beautiful water ever!

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

Today we are in Grand Cayman, home of some of the most beautiful water I have ever seen.

 

Our excursion today was not until 1:30, so we slept in a little bit and didn’t get up until 8:30. It was nice to not rush off the ship with the mad rush of people! We ate breakfast in the MDR, and I got the Roasted cheddar and broccoli scramble….it was delicious! I also got a side of pork sausage, which was yummy, and since I do not like the biscuits that come with the scramble, I got a side of hash browns, which were good.

 

 

We walked off the ship and onto the tender boat at 10.

 

 

 

We wandered around the town until it was time for our excursion. We ended up getting drinks and lunch at Sharkeez. My drink (sex on the beach) was delicious!

 

 

Chris got a Tika Chicken wrap, which he really liked.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

I got the conch ceviche appetizer as my lunch, and it was AMAZING!

 

 

I got a side of cassava fries, they were yummy as well.

 

 

After we finished lunch we had about a half hour before our jet ski excursion, so we wandered back to the port to wait. Our excursion met right on the pier at 1:30, and we were led to a store building to store our belongings before walking a short distance to the beach where the excursion took off from. Now here is my only complaint regarding the excursion: the beach area we took off from was NASTY. Apparently it is the fishermen’s beach where they gut all the fish they caught for the day, and there were literally fish guts and skins everywhere. Everyone in our group was commenting on the smell and the condition of the beach. The guides apologized, but it was still nasty walking through that and getting into that water to get onto the machines. As well, the guides did not do any kind of demonstration on how to run the machines, so I am not sure how you would know how to work them if you were not familiar with jet skis.

 

Some people in the group were not happy about the fact that we were told we had to ride double on the jet skis, they did not have enough machines for everyone to get their own. I am not sure if this is stated in the excursion notes on Carnival’s website, but Chris and I were lucky enough to get our own machines due to weight restrictions (yes, I am a bigger girl, but sometimes it has advantages!). Once we were on we took off, and it was fun! Until I flipped that is. I do not even know how I flipped to be honest, I think that drink I had at lunch had something to do with it. Hahahahaha. Let me just say, getting back on the jet skis when you cannot touch the bottom is HARD. One of our wonderful guides and Chris had to help me, and I was exhausted by the time I was back on.

 

The ride continued to Governor’s Beach, where we had a chance to snorkel for about 30 minutes. I had already done my (unplanned) snorkel adventure, so I stayed on my jet ski. The guides provided snorkel equipment for those who wished to do so, but nobody in our group really wanted to, so we ended up with more time riding the jet skis. The guides said that since were the last tour of the day we did not have to rush back, as long as we were back in time for the last tender to the ship, which was at 3:15. We finished up about 3:00 and collected our belongings from the store we had left them in, then caught the last tender.

 

Once on board we showered and got ready for our second elegant night of the cruise. We were assigned to Charlie’s section again, hooray! I ordered a White Sangria from Lilar, and it was very good and refreshing.

 

 

For my appetizer, I ordered the stuffed mushrooms, which were delicious. I also got a Caesar salad, which was great.

 

 

 

Chris ordered the teriyaki salmon to try, and oh my word, it is delicious!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

I ordered the mushroom pasta, and it was yummy.

 

 

To finish off my meal, I got the chocolate melting cake with butter pecan ice cream. Yum!

 

I decided to finish off my exciting day with time in the T-pool, and tonight I had the place to myself! I stayed until a little after 9, then decided to call it a day and head back to the cabin. I needed to rest up for some fun in COZUMEL tomorrow!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

Welcome to Cozumel, Mexico!

 

We were in port today from 10 to 6, so I slept in until 9. I should have went to the gym, but my upper body was pretty sore from attempting to heavy myself back onto that jet ski yesterday. I counted that as my workout and just got us packed up and ready for our day at our favorite Cozumel hangout, Mr Sanchos.

 

We knew that Mr. Sanchos was sold out due to there being a bunch of other ships in port that day, and we also knew that we were the last ship to arrive, so we made it a point to try and get off as early as possible. We ended up disembarking right at 10, and we hoofed it to the taxi station and got a cab, $17 fare to get to Mr Sanchos.

 

Sign welcoming the ships in port.

 

We were there by 10:30 and managed to grab one of the last tables in the shade, and our waiter’s name was Julio. He was AWESOME. He brought us menus and our first drinks of the day.

 

 

 

My drink, sex on the beach.

 

I also went ahead and ordered some food, shrimp tacos and guacamole. Yum!!

 

 

My view for the day

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

We stayed until 3:30, and we enjoyed both the water and the area in the shade. Julio took amazing care of us and earned himself a good tip. He never let our drinks run out, in fact, he would bring us 2 at a time! I was surprised as the last time we were there our waiter only let us have 1 drink at a time, Julio would bring us each 2 drinks as well as a bottle of water all at once! He even went so far as to bring them all the way to the edge of the water if we were out there. Good job Julio!

 

Back in the port, I took pics of the Breeze and Miracle.

 

 

 

 

We were back onboard by 4:15 and started to clean up for dinner. Because I had been let down by my lobster ravioli on our first trip to the steakhouse, we went ahead and made another reservation for 7:00 tonight. We started off with the compliments from the chef, a potato soup. It was good!

 

 

I got my Portobello mushroom again as my app. Yum! No need for another pic of it though, right? I also got the same salad, the spinach, bacon, and blue cheese one. Delicious!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pirate4me2]

For my main today I went with the filet mignon, cooked medium. It was PERFECT! Juicy, tender…..mmmmm!

 

 

I also got a side of my beloved creamed spinach (WHY DID THEY DO AWAY WITH THIS???) and the yummy mashed potatoes they have. Both were excellent.

 

For my dessert, I again had the chocolate sampler, and again I ask…WHY IS THIS GONE??? It’s so good!!!!

 

We finished in time to catch the 9:15 show of America Rocks. The cast did an excellent job, we loved it. It is one of my favorite Playlist Productions. After the show ended, the excitement of the day (or maybe the realization that my cruise was ending) caught up with me and I decided to retire back to the cabin.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums