Detailed Photo Review of Carnival Dream 7 Night Western Caribbean Cruise 3/10/19

[deladane]

32 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

Wow! is the right word for a table with a view like that! Well deserved. You guys make a very happy-looking couple.

Norris, window table seeker.

 

Aww, thanks Norris!  We really couldn't have asked for a better table, so we were very lucky with our assignment!

[Quilcruisers]

Wow you hit the jackpot with the window seat!  That shows how Carnival really tries to underpromise and over deliver.  I love your attitude about everything though, that’s the best way is to put your wishes out there and just be pleasantly surprised when they happen. I always try to do that too, especially when I see how demanding some people are and when on vacation, sometimes they go overboard. I ask politely and really show my appreciation for whatever they can do for me. We do YTD and have gotten great tables for 2. Other times we get the tables that are thisclose....I still enjoy it.  

[Backyardbum]

Great review. I had the same experience with the production shows on the Valor in November.  I was really excited about them but was underwhelmed with each one.  Oh well, the music around the ship made up for the poor theater shows.

[deladane]

2 hours ago, Quilcruisers said:

Wow you hit the jackpot with the window seat!  That shows how Carnival really tries to underpromise and over deliver.  I love your attitude about everything though, that’s the best way is to put your wishes out there and just be pleasantly surprised when they happen. I always try to do that too, especially when I see how demanding some people are and when on vacation, sometimes they go overboard. I ask politely and really show my appreciation for whatever they can do for me. We do YTD and have gotten great tables for 2. Other times we get the tables that are thisclose....I still enjoy it.  

 

I honestly had no idea if my email request would be granted, but what did I have to lose?  The worst that would happen was we would get one of those tables for 2 with our neighbors sitting on top of us, or maybe even a big group table... either would have been fine and we have enjoyed getting to know others at dinner on prior cruisers, but we were thrilled with this table and even more so that we had that incredible view!

[deladane]

1 hour ago, Backyardbum said:

Great review. I had the same experience with the production shows on the Valor in November.  I was really excited about them but was underwhelmed with each one.  Oh well, the music around the ship made up for the poor theater shows.

 

Thanks for reading! It's great to know that we were not alone in our feelings about the production shows... not that I want people to dislike them, but at least we know we're not the only ones! 🙂

[Mistyness]

23 hours ago, deladane said:

 

I totally understand not wanting to take the time to write a review if you don’t think anyone is reading it. Cruise Critic now allows people to follow your review such that you can know how many followers you have (as opposed to the old version where people could get alerts of new posts on your thread but you never knew how many people did that). I have nearly 90 followers on this review but most of them have not made any comments. It’s great to know people are reading though!

 

And yes, it’s great to ace that detailed journal to look back on later (I re-read my French Polynesia review all the time lol)

I'm enjoying your review. It's my reading before bed. We leave soon to sail on the dream. But my energy is low as work is insanely busy

[JaniceB]

Great dining table and awesome pictures of the ship.

[hockeyguru32]

On 4/5/2019 at 2:22 PM, pghsteelerfan said:

My DH is also usually still sleeping so I usually go to the balcony or leave the cabin so he can sleep.  We don't ave a cruise booked as of yet, but we're looking at possibly 2020.  We've haven't been to the ABC's yet, so that's what we may do and there are more than one possibility.  A friend of mine just did one, a 7 day on RCI out of San Juan to Labadee, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, back to San Juan.  If the price is right, that would work better with DH's work schedule and flying down a day prior.  Carnival also has two, both 8 days, from Miami or Port Everglades.  That would be a toss up and may come down to dates/price.  One is on the Magic (HMC, GT, sea day, Aruba, Curacao, 2 sea days at the end) and another on Horizon (Amber Cove, DR; La Romana, DR; Curacao; Aruba).  That's going to be a tough decision, but both ships would be new to us.  We've never been to the DR, so both stops would also be "new", but I also just love HMC and GT!  We have friends going on the Conquest at the end of the month and they will give us their feedback.  I'd also love to do a Mexican Riviera (Cabo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta).  We did one on RCI in Jan. 2000 with DH's family and I really liked it.  I did not have a digital camera then, so a redo at some point is a must. 

I see you've updated some more today, so getting ready to catch up.  🙂

I'll be doing that itinerary end of April on the Conquest perhaps your friends and I are on the same sailing out of Port Everglades?  Unfortunately Princess Cay is there instead of HMC then GT sea day Curacao, Aruba 2 sea days at end.

[deladane]

5 hours ago, JaniceB said:

Great dining table and awesome pictures of the ship.

 

Thank you!

[travelplus]

On 3/23/2019 at 10:36 AM, deladane said:

Friday, March 8, 2019 ~ Flying to New Orleans and Exploring Bourbon Street

 

 

The week leading up to this vacation turned out to be really hectic for both of us.  My schedule at work was packed, and DH had a work trip to North Carolina, leaving very early on Monday morning and not returning home until 10pm on Thursday night.  My heart was racing and I was seriously freaking out that he might have a flight delay and couldn't get home that night, so as soon as I knew his plane took off from the east coast, I breathed a huge sigh of relief that we could officially go on vacation on Friday.  We packed our big checked suitcase last weekend, but DH needed to unpack from North Carolina and repack his carry on rolling bag and backpack.  We did this as fast as possible so we could get to sleep because our alarm clock was set to go off at 5:30am on Friday morning! 

 

Since DH was out of town for 4 days, we made sure to finish off our countdown candies before bedtime…

 

 

I don’t think it is possible for Friday morning to have gone any smoother than it went.  Maybe it was the excitement for the trip, or the nervousness about oversleeping, but I woke up at 5:24am, six minutes before my alarm went off.  We ate a quick breakfast, reset all the clocks in the house because daylight savings time would happen while we were away, loaded all our bags in the car, and pulled out of the driveway at exactly 6:30am to drive up to Oakland.  We were super lucky as there was no traffic on our 45 mile drive, despite driving during rush hour.  I prebooked an off-site parking lot near the Oakland airport, and the whole process was seamless when we arrived.  There were lots of spots to pick from, and the shuttle van was ready and waiting for us.  When we got to the airport, there were no lines to check our big suitcase, no lines at security, and we didn’t even need to take off our shoes!  We were sitting at our gate by 7:45am for our 10:20am flight… I’m not sure if I should consider that a win or a fail?  DH grumbled at me for making us wake up so early haha  How could I know that everything would work out that perfectly?! 

We live 20 minutes from SJC, 45 to SFO and 55 to OAK. So we are bessed with many options when flying though Delta is my preferred carrier. 

[deladane]

1 minute ago, travelplus said:

We live 20 minutes from SJC, 45 to SFO and 55 to OAK. So we are bessed with many options when flying though Delta is my preferred carrier. 

 

We fly Southwest a lot because they have direct flights several times a day from SJC to LAX (to see DH's brother) and PHX (to see DH's parents).  It's nice to have SFO and OAK as back up options though, especially for international flights.  We had to go up to OAK in December for a direct flight to Puerto Vallarta, and we'll be back up there again in June for a direct flight to Paris.  Luckily OAK is even smaller than SJC (they only have 1 terminal!!) so while it's a far drive, at least it's an easy airport to navigate 🙂

[deladane]

Tuesday, March 12, 2019 ~ Costa Maya, Mexico

 

 

Today was the first of four consecutive port days, but we weren’t scheduled to arrive at Costa Maya until 12 noon.  In general, I prefer when my port days start first thing in the morning so I can make the most of my time there.  By arriving at noon, it gave us a mini-sea day in the morning, and then we scheduled a tour for the afternoon.  There are lots of cruises that do our last 3 ports but do not go to Costa Maya, so this was kind of a bonus port day (and was one of the reasons I picked this specific cruise!).  After I booked the cruise, I started researching a bit more details about each port.  What I noticed about Costa Maya was that the pier was only big enough for 3 cruise ships to dock there.  Some people reported that they were doing construction on the pier, but that it was a slow process and unlikely to be finished by the time of our cruise.  The problem was, there were 4 ships scheduled to dock in Costa Maya on this day, and we were the last to arrive.  I called Carnival to inquire about it and they said that we should be fine and that we never use tenders in Costa Maya so there will definitely be dock space for us.  Honestly, I was still skeptical because everyone kept saying that they’d never seen more than 3 ships dock at one time at this port, but I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. 

 

With us being in port from noon until 8pm, I did not know what to do here.  Many people like to use of the free pool in the port area, but I really prefer to get out and explore the ports, especially when I have never been there before.  There are several beaches and all inclusive places that get good reviews, but with sunset at around 6pm, and considering that we probably wouldn’t get to the beach until around 1pm, it felt like we would only make use of half our time in port.  Plus, we had 3 beach/water sport days for our other 3 ports, so this was a good day to do something different.  Neither of us had ever been to any Mayan ruins before, and there are 2 or 3 places to see that within an hour drive from the Costa Maya port, so that seemed like a good idea for today.  I looked into all of my options and decided that Chacchoben was our best bet.  While none of the options are as big as Tulum or Chichen Itza near Cozumel, Chacchoben was said to be well excavated, they allowed you to climb up on the ruins, and it was only a 45 minute drive away (as opposed to 2+ hours to reach ruins in some other ports).  I found a tour through Island Marketing which included around 2 hours at the ruins, plus a stop at a butterfly farm for $1 less than a tour of just the ruins with another popular tour company (Native Choice).  The butterfly farm seemed like a good way to break up the drive in 1 direction, so why not, especially since it was basically free! Haha  Best of all, while Island Marketing required a small deposit to hold our space on the tour, the deposit was fully refundable if our ship did not dock for any reason (so that eased my concerns about overcrowding at the dock making us miss this port altogether!).  Here is the description of our tour from the Island Marketing website…

 

Join us on an exploration of the Costa Maya Mayan Ruins site of Chacchoben, one of the more recently discovered Mayan sites in Costa Maya.  Learn about the advanced culture of the Mayans and see the Temples built hundreds of years ago including a delightful visit to the Costa Maya Butterfly Farm!  Chacchoben offers manicured paths and an easy walk suitable for all ages and group needs.  This is the most accessible Mayan Ruin site in the area due to its proximity to the port and layout of the site.  Located a short 40 minute drive from the port, the Chacchoben Temples are a beautiful example of the intricate Maya construction during the Maya Classic period.  The excavation of Chacchoben began in 1994 and a great deal has been discovered about the importance of this site and its people.  There are still many secrets waiting to be unearthed!  Chacchoben, which means place of the red corn, is believed to have been inhabited around 200bc.  However, the structures now visible at the site have been constructed around 300-500ad.  Journey into the Mystical realm of the Maya, walk through the ceremonial grounds and temples that have been traversed by Mayans over 1000 years ago!  Keep your eyes open for the other residents of the jungle surrounding Chacchoben.  Spider Monkeys, Peccary, deer, and armadillos inhabit this area so keep a look out!  On the way to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins you will visit the butterfly farm.  The butterfly farm breeds the most exotic species of butterflies, like the astounding “blue morph” and the mysterious “owl butterfly”.  Discover NATIVE butterflies and their amazing pupae hanging on the plants like precious jewelry crafted by nature.  The butterfly farm also breeds the endangered Maya “Pygmy” Deer which was once plentiful in the Land of the Maya.  Make sure to have your camera ready to capture these amazing moments with nature.  Learn from our expert butterfly farmers about the life cycles of butterflies and the role they played in the ancient mayan vision of the universe.

 

I filled out the booking form on the Island Marketing website, and they replied with details on where to meet the guide on the day of the tour.  Now all that was left to do was to wait until March 12 rolled around, and hope for the best with the docking issues!

 

Today’s Fun Times

 

 

 

[deladane]

Since I am incapable of sleeping late, even on vacation, I was awake around 7am today.  I didn’t want to wake DH (especially since I did promise him that he could sleep late today given our late arrival into port), so I got dressed as quietly as possible and left the cabin in search of a light breakfast to hold me over until DH could join me for a full breakfast.  I ended up trying a chocolate muffin and I was not disappointed.  It was warm and had just the right amount of sweetness for a breakfast pastry. 

 

It was shaping up to be a beautiful day in the Caribbean today! 

 

 

It was only 8:20am at this point, so the decks were still pretty empty, but I imagine the aft pool became much more crowded as the morning went on.  I just noticed the guy in the pool seems to have spotted me taking this photo haha

 

 

A rare site… tons of open deck chairs and not a towel in sight!

 

 

Even Serenity Deck was empty at this early hour!!

 

 

I couldn’t resist so I snagged an empty clamshell and spent some time scrolling through the Thumbs Up site and using iMessage to text my close friend because today is her birthday.  That social media package was definitely fun to have, as much as I knew I should be enjoying my vacation and not reading up on what everyone was doing back at home haha

 

 

I stayed out there until around 9:15am, and then headed back to the cabin to see if DH was awake yet.  On the way, I passed by the Cherry on Top candy store.  It was still closed, but here are some photos in case anyone is curious.

 

 

 

The map showing the ship info looks like we are mighty close to Costa Maya!

 

[deladane]

When I got back to the cabin, DH was already awake and ready to go, so we went back upstairs to the Blue Iguana Cantina to try some breakfast burritos.  I ate these nearly every day for breakfast when I cruised on the Carnival Sunshine in 2013, but they didn’t have a Blue Iguana when we were on the Valor in 2015 so DH has never tried it.  Spoiler alert:  all it took was one bite and DH was hooked!  He ate here at least once a day for the rest of the cruise! Haha 

 

The menu has not changed since I last ate here 5.5 years ago…

 

 

I ordered a burrito with a wheat tortilla, regular scrambled eggs, ham, hash browns, Monterey jack cheese, and grilled onions.

 

 

Back in 2013, I did not know about the arepas, so I have been looking forward to trying one for a very long time!  I’m actually not surprised that I missed it on the Sunshine because I never saw anyone else eating arepas on the Dream this week.  They do list it on one of the menu boards (I think with the taco options?), but it’s not obvious and I have a feeling new cruisers just don’t know about them.  Unfortunately, that means there is not much turnover and the arepas were sitting out under the heat lamps for quite a while before we got them.  I ordered one for each of us and the server had to kind of man-handle them to get them to un-stick from the pan.

 

 

They were a little greasy, but I enjoyed the slightly sweet corn and gooey cheese, and I ordered one each day to supplement my breakfast burrito.  As for the burrito itself, it was just as delicious as I remembered from the Sunshine, with the crunchy hash browns and grilled onions being the true highlight!

 

I liked how they wrapped the burritos up like this.  If we had a balcony, I could definitely see getting it to-go and eating it on the balcony as we pulled into port each morning.

 

 

 

DH also tried one of the tacos and he loved it so much that he got two of them as part of his breakfast every day, and he tried to get them as a snack in the afternoons too.

 

 

The timing for our meals was totally thrown off today because we docked at noon and that is when all of the lunch venues opened, so if we wanted lunch before getting off the ship, our only options were the deli or pizza.  Not that we couldn’t find a good option at those two places, but everyone else on the ship would need to eat there too and I didn’t want to deal with the huge line that was likely to form.  Instead, we ate a big breakfast and planned to skip lunch.  If we got hungry on the tour, we always pack Clif Bars in our bags so we could snack on that.  Gary made some announcements about not being allowed to bring food off the ship in Mexico, but I have always found pre-packaged food to be the exception to the rule as there is no risk of bringing in bugs or contaminants to their country. 

 

[deladane]

After breakfast, we went back to the cabin to wait for the ship to arrive in Costa Maya, and we were greeted by this little guy…

 

 

We turned on the TV to see what options they had for TV stations and found CBS News.  The lead story on the news was about the Boeing 737 Max plane crash in Ethiopia.  We continued to follow this story all week because our flight home is on Southwest and they are one of the 3 airlines in America to use that model of aircraft.  A day or two later, President Trump grounded all 737 Max planes, so we kept trying to figure out if that would affect us and if that was the model of our plane.  Ultimately, we just had to wait until we got back to New Orleans on Sunday because there was no way to know which specific plane would be used for our flight several days in advance.  I’m sure all of those people waiting in line to park their cars at the cruise terminal parking garage were happy that they drove and did not need to worry about their flight home!  We kept flipping back and forth between CBS News and the forward deck camera station to monitor our progress with docking.  We could see there were several ships already docked, so I kept my fingers crossed that there was space left for us!

 

 

Looking out the window, we started to see land and knew we were getting closer to the port.

 

 

At some point while we were in the cabin watching TV, our cabin phone rang.  It was a manager calling from Guest Services to tell us that he was sorry we did not receive all of the services we paid for with FTTF on embarkation day.  He said he refunded the money we paid for FTTF in the form of onboard credit to our account, but that we could keep all of the perks for the remainder of the cruise.  We were very impressed by this resolution as it was far more generous than we expected.  If we counted up all of the various perks included with FTTF, the 2 things we missed out on account for maybe 25% of the value, so the fact that he refunded 100% of the cost was very kind and very much appreciated.  For what it’s worth, we had no further issues or complaints about FTTF for the remainder of the cruise and had that snafu not occurred on embarkation day, we would have found the program to be well worth the $90 fee.

[grandmarnnurse]

26 minutes ago, deladane said:

When I got back to the cabin, DH was already awake and ready to go, so we went back upstairs to the Blue Iguana Cantina to try some breakfast burritos.  I ate these nearly every day for breakfast when I cruised on the Carnival Sunshine in 2013, but they didn’t have a Blue Iguana when we were on the Valor in 2015 so DH has never tried it.  Spoiler alert:  all it took was one bite and DH was hooked!  He ate here at least once a day for the rest of the cruise! Haha 

 

The menu has not changed since I last ate here 5.5 years ago…

 

 

I ordered a burrito with a wheat tortilla, regular scrambled eggs, ham, hash browns, Monterey jack cheese, and grilled onions.

 

 

Back in 2013, I did not know about the arepas, so I have been looking forward to trying one for a very long time!  I’m actually not surprised that I missed it on the Sunshine because I never saw anyone else eating arepas on the Dream this week.  They do list it on one of the menu boards (I think with the taco options?), but it’s not obvious and I have a feeling new cruisers just don’t know about them.  Unfortunately, that means there is not much turnover and the arepas were sitting out under the heat lamps for quite a while before we got them.  I ordered one for each of us and the server had to kind of man-handle them to get them to un-stick from the pan.

 

 

They were a little greasy, but I enjoyed the slightly sweet corn and gooey cheese, and I ordered one each day to supplement my breakfast burrito.  As for the burrito itself, it was just as delicious as I remembered from the Sunshine, with the crunchy hash browns and grilled onions being the true highlight!

 

I liked how they wrapped the burritos up like this.  If we had a balcony, I could definitely see getting it to-go and eating it on the balcony as we pulled into port each morning.

 

 

 

DH also tried one of the tacos and he loved it so much that he got two of them as part of his breakfast every day, and he tried to get them as a snack in the afternoons too.

 

 

The timing for our meals was totally thrown off today because we docked at noon and that is when all of the lunch venues opened, so if we wanted lunch before getting off the ship, our only options were the deli or pizza.  Not that we couldn’t find a good option at those two places, but everyone else on the ship would need to eat there too and I didn’t want to deal with the huge line that was likely to form.  Instead, we ate a big breakfast and planned to skip lunch.  If we got hungry on the tour, we always pack Clif Bars in our bags so we could snack on that.  Gary made some announcements about not being allowed to bring food off the ship in Mexico, but I have always found pre-packaged food to be the exception to the rule as there is no risk of bringing in bugs or contaminants to their country. 

 

Boy, those look so good! I can’t wait to try these for breakfast there!

[pghsteelerfan]

23 hours ago, hockeyguru32 said:

I'll be doing that itinerary end of April on the Conquest perhaps your friends and I are on the same sailing out of Port Everglades?  Unfortunately Princess Cay is there instead of HMC then GT sea day Curacao, Aruba 2 sea days at end.

Our friends will be on the April 26th sailing out of Port Everglades, is that the same one you're on?  I'd actually like to see Princess Cay, I have heard nice things about it.  It's the itinerary of the Magic cruise that I like, the two stops, sea day, then Curacao and Aruba and the other two sea days on the end (one for fun, and one for fun and leisurely packing).  Our friends actually mentioned us joining them on this one but we had to pass since our "vacation" this year will be new windows.  I hope you have great weather and a great time.

 

Dana, just got caught up on your latest section.  You mentioned the Arepas...I wish I'd known about those on our 2014 and 2015 Liberty cruises.  The first time I'd heard of them were in Nicole's reviews and now yours, so can't wait to try them out sometime.  The breakfast burritos are the bomb!!!  Looking forward to reading about the rest of your day in Costa Maya and your beautiful pictures.  We were there but only once in March 2006.  That was before Hurricane Dean destroyed the port in August 2007, so it would probably be like a new port for us.

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by pghsteelerfan

[hockeyguru32]

38 minutes ago, pghsteelerfan said:

Our friends will be on the April 26th sailing out of Port Everglades, is that the same one you're on?  I'd actually like to see Princess Cay, I have heard nice things about it.  It's the itinerary of the Magic cruise that I like, the two stops, sea day, then Curacao and Aruba and the other two sea days on the end (one for fun, and one for fun and leisurely packing).  Our friends actually mentioned us joining them on this one but we had to pass since our "vacation" this year will be new windows.  I hope you have great weather and a great time.

 

Dana, just got caught up on your latest section.  You mentioned the Arepas...I wish I'd known about those on our 2014 and 2015 Liberty cruises.  The first time I'd heard of them were in Nicole's reviews and now yours, so can't wait to try them out sometime.  The breakfast burritos are the bomb!!!  Looking forward to reading about the rest of your day in Costa Maya and your beautiful pictures.  We were there but only once in March 2006.  That was before Hurricane Dean destroyed the port in August 2007, so it would probably be like a new port for us.

 

I will be in FLL on the 26th but the cruise leaves on the 27th out of Port Everglades so yes it is probably the same 🙂 and Thank you for the wishes much appreciated 😄

 

[pghsteelerfan]

1 hour ago, hockeyguru32 said:

I will be in FLL on the 26th but the cruise leaves on the 27th out of Port Everglades so yes it is probably the same 🙂 and Thank you for the wishes much appreciated 😄

 

It IS the same one, their cruise is Saturday - Sunday and the 26th is on a Friday (just looked at my calendar).  😊

[TXBBQDUDE]

5 more days and I am on this ship.  I am ready for some Vitamin V....acation 

[deladane]

11 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

Boy, those look so good! I can’t wait to try these for breakfast there!

 

Blue Iguana is a great feature on Carnival ships! Yummm!

[deladane]

8 hours ago, pghsteelerfan said:

Dana, just got caught up on your latest section.  You mentioned the Arepas...I wish I'd known about those on our 2014 and 2015 Liberty cruises.  The first time I'd heard of them were in Nicole's reviews and now yours, so can't wait to try them out sometime.  The breakfast burritos are the bomb!!!  Looking forward to reading about the rest of your day in Costa Maya and your beautiful pictures.  We were there but only once in March 2006.  That was before Hurricane Dean destroyed the port in August 2007, so it would probably be like a new port for us.

 

 

haha I also learned about the arepas from Nicole's reviews!!  The port area in Costa Maya looked brand new, so I guess it makes sense as to why!  I'll post a bunch of photos from the port as soon as I can, but I'm having a busy week this week.  I had some family visiting the Bay Area from out of town so I went to dinner with them tonight, and tomorrow night, we have tickets to the traveling Broadway show Aladdin, so I won't get to work on my review.  More coming soon though, I promise! 🙂

[deladane]

6 hours ago, TXBBQDUDE said:

5 more days and I am on this ship.  I am ready for some Vitamin V....acation 

 

So soon!!!  Safe travels and have a wonderful cruise!

[hockeyguru32]

15 hours ago, pghsteelerfan said:

It IS the same one, their cruise is Saturday - Sunday and the 26th is on a Friday (just looked at my calendar).  😊

Then I'll be there lol

[JaniceB]

Looking forward to the rest of your review and I was hoping your FTTF would be refunded.  Didn't make sense to charge your for something you didn't receive.