Dream Dec 2-9 2018 mini review.

[wms99]

While this is fresh on my mind, I will type up some thoughts on our recently completed cruise aboard the Dream. This is our second cruise on the Dream. Also, this won't be a long complex deal with pages of pictures. Just words.

Saturday morning, we packed and left the house for Slidell. Why stay in NOLA when Slidell is right there and the prices are better. We stayed the night at Country Inn and Suites, as everyone has their own favorite motel chain. that's mine.

Dinner was at Peck's Seafood. I ordered the fish platter, and the wife had a shrimp platter. This is more food than can be eaten. Love the seafood in Slidell.

 

Sunday we attended church in Slidell, then drove to the port. Arrived at 12:15. We are FTTF so we did cut a few corners on boarding, but it was going very fast for everyone. I would imagine we were on the ship by 12:30. Went by our room and dropped the backpack, then straight to the pasta place for lunch. I like to eat there on day one before everyone discovers it. Plus watching the cake line below is a hoot!  Back to the room to unpack and wait for the muster drill. People that show up on time are punished by standing and waiting for the late comers. They just don't seem to care. They even had to page people to get them to show. And there we stood waiting. Grrrrr.

Departure was delayed for what they said was our "slot" on the river. I guess something bigger than us was moving. Didn't much matter to me. On the ship is on the ship, moving or not. We left after dark and the lit up sky line of NOLA was great to see from that perspective.

 

Room: This trip we tried a cove balcony. Our other Dream cruise was a balcony on the Empress deck. Love the cove. Love love love. Close to the water. Shade most of the day except early morning or later afternoon, depending on direction. Noise: the first night we could hear some galley noise. Around 4:00am the noise woke me up. I never sleep good the first night in a new bed anyway so I just got up for the day. Normally I don't get up until 5:00 am but oh well. By the second or third day, my brain called the noise ambient and filtered it for me. No more galley noise. On the Dream, the 2nd floor is the way to get  from one end of the ship to the other.

 

Food: By day 6 I was sick of eating. Please, no more. Just let me starve. We tried Pasta Bella, A+. Guy's Burgers, A+, Deli, A. Seafood Shack, A. MDR. Seaday Brunch. Taco place. We only ate at the Lido buffet for breakfast. Never lunch or dinner. We also didn't have Guy's BBQ this trip, but it is the best BBQ on the sea. One thought about the MDR, the late seating was half empty every night. I guess YTD is taking over. Next to us was a group that covered about 5 or 6 tables. They were never on time. Seating is at 8:15, but they would come in at 8:30, 8:45, even 9:00. I think the doors should be shut 10 minutes after seating time. It's not fair to the serving and kitchen staff to have a large group so out of sync with everyone else. Our head waiter was great. He kept things moving and we were out of the MDR every night by 9:15 to 9:30. It was the quickest we have ever had.

 

Roatan: This port went from never been there to my favorite in one day. Love Mahogony Bay. The jungle comes right down to the ship. We purchased the deluxe beach day that included ski lift rides, clamshell over the loungers, floaty, shorkles, and fins. The ski lift is a hoot. Walking might be faster, but flying over the trees and water is great. After swimming we rode several laps on the lift. Just never got off and went back and forth. Very enjoyable. At the beach we were met and given a choice of where to sit. We didn't care for the front row so asked for second row down the beach in the shade. Perfect. We brought snorkle masks but were provided a floaty mat and fins. This was perfect. Once you get out beyond the crowd and splashing out to the deeper water the snorkling is great. Lots of fish to follow and watch. Here is a technical list of the scientific names of all we saw: little blue and yellow fish, pretty black and yellow striped fish, silver fish with a big spot near their tail, micro tuna, ray, squid, ugly fish, and the big forehead fish. There might have been more but I didn't know their names.

My one complaint about Mahogony Bay: come on Carnival! Fat Tuesday? That's my only lunch option. This is high school football stadium concession stand food at best. Why not give me some options. Something local or regional. Please.

We were docked beside the Breeze. Port didn't feel crowded. We felt safe. all in all I love Roatan and would go back tomorrow if I could.

 

Belize. After a day of swimming we chose to stay covered. Went on the Taste of Belize Tour. What fun. First you walk to a coffee shop where they feed you a bunch of little local treats. All very good, all flavored in one way on another with coconut oil, water, or flesh. Everything has coconut in Belize. Then we got on a bus and went all over the city getting a cultural tour and learning quite a bit about the city and country. I love learning things about a culture and this was great. Stopped at a fruit stand. About normal for fresh fruit, but again it was a cultural eye opener to how people eat and live. Then off to a nice little restaurant located out on a dock. We made fresh shrimp ceviche, and ate a few other treats. Then the rum samples started flowing. Coconut rum, vanilla rum, rum aged in Kentucky whiskey barrels, strong rum, and rum punch. Wow. We then rode and staggered over to the Belize sign for pictures and back to port. All in all I love Belize and would go back tomorrow if I could.

 

Cozumel. Every cruise we have been on has been to Cozumel. This time we tried the all inclusive Passion Island. Fun boat ride over. Beautiful sand beach. Unfortunately the wind was blowing and stirring up the water so it wasn't a good day to swim. But the facility is so well maintained and kept up. Just beautiful. Trees, sand. Unlimited food and drink. I think I have now had the best guacamole of my life. I am both happy and sad about this. All others will have a new standard. I love Cozumel, but would like to go on a cruise somewhere else one time in my life.

 

Shows: same as last year on the Dream. Different actors, same productions. Still good and we went to every one. Movies: we did a couple of the dive in movies. This is great, but I am not the type to stay up so late.

 

FTTF: Is it worth it? For embarkation we did cut a few lines and corners, but NOLA has it's stuff worked out so it wasn't that big of a deal. At Roatan they didn't even announce to leave the ship. Just pulled up and people started spilling out so  FTTF didn't help us there. At Belize we were on a Carnival excursion so we left with the group, not first so it didn't help us there. Cozumel, again just pile off the ship so FTTF doesn't help there. Debarkation it helps. We were on the 2nd floor, walk up to the 3rd floor and into a line straight off the ship at exactly 7:00am. We were in the car and pulling onto I-10 by 7:30. It helped. I don't know if I will buy it again. But had to once.

 

If I think of more, I will add. If you have a question I'll do my best to spill out something useful. No worries.

 

 

 

 

[wms99]

I must add one thing: 3 hot Russian chicks with fiddles. That right there is some straight up good musical entertainment!

[Saint Greg]

Hey you were on my cruise! Did you go down by the beach in Mohogany Bay? Couple of places to eat there. 

[JaniceB]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.  The Dream is such a nice ship, I had a cove on it too and loved it.  It is nice being close to the water.

[pyropoodle]

my favorite things in this review are you seeing the ugly fish and eating the flesh flavored treats in Belize!   :)

 

sounds like you had a great trip, thanks for sharing it with us.

[Tssweety]

Could you walk to the beach and things to do in Roaton? 

[wms99]

3 hours ago, Tssweety said:

Could you walk to the beach and things to do in Roaton? 

As stated, Roatan went from never been there to My most favorite port of call.

You can walk to the Carnival beach, it is faster than taking the ski lift, but the really nice beaches are to be had on excursions to places like Little French Key.  We stayed in the Carnival area all day.

This port had a huge port shopping area, plus a short taxi ride to the real town, but we didn't go out to that.