This Ain't No Disney Cruise, part 2 - My LIVE Trip Report From the Carnival Dream, January 13-27, 2024

[sid_9169]

On 1/16/2024 at 7:21 AM, Honolulu Blue said:

Good morning! As we approach Falmouth, Jamaica, please allow me to discuss four items.

 

First, this is the map of our itinerary around the Caribbean. Please feel free to follow along:

 

 

Second, dinner was a Philly cheesesteak sandwich and my strawberry delight that came by room service. They were delivered in about 20 minutes, which I thought was rather good, since I'm in steerage far away from the galleys. They were delivered on covered trays and plates, which was different than one of my deliveries on the Magic, which used a paper box for the sandwich.

 

It looks like they've added a burger to the menu. Sadly, I don't think Mr. Fieri would approve:

 

 

The sandwich was very good, up to its usual standards. The strawberries were a suitable reward for a Platinum guest like yours truly. 

 

Third, I didn't go to any shows last night, preferring to save my energy for today. 

 

And finally, let's talk about FB. I have not been able to access that site or any attached to it (including John Heald's page) since I boarded. It doesn't react like it does when I try to access one of the sites Carnival blocks. No, it tries to go through then times out. FB isn't important enough to me to go tech support to get to the bottom of this. But maybe I'll try to access it in one of these ports to try to figure out what's up.

 

It looks like it's going to be a nice day in port, if a little warm. My excursion starts around 10 and is scheduled to last about 4 1/2 hours. Stay tuned for future reports.

 

I'm on Celebration now and haven't been able to access FB since the first time I activated my Carnival WiFi premium WiFi plan... Today in San Juan, I ended up switching over to my regular Verizon plan and it worked as usual... Not sure what's up with that...

[ZoeyVictoria]

49 minutes ago, sid_9169 said:

I'm on Celebration now and haven't been able to access FB since the first time I activated my Carnival WiFi premium WiFi plan... Today in San Juan, I ended up switching over to my regular Verizon plan and it worked as usual... Not sure what's up with that...

What about You Tube?  That is where the videos of fights show up. 

[Honolulu Blue]

7 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

@sid_9169 reported the same issue on Celebration. Interesting since Carnival seems to have fully adopted that site like they own stock in it or something. I wouldn’t care but I bet there are a lot of people in those groups that are unhappy.

Thanks for cross checking this. I still don't care much, but another group I can imagine are fuming are those who purchased the Social plan. FB is a major portion of the social media sites available on that plan. Then again, I wonder if it's available to them and not the rest of us for some weird reason.

[Honolulu Blue]

7 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

I'm on Celebration now and haven't been able to access FB since the first time I activated my Carnival WiFi premium WiFi plan... Today in San Juan, I ended up switching over to my regular Verizon plan and it worked as usual... Not sure what's up with that...

Thanks for sharing that and thanks for stopping by. I suspect it's a Miami thing rather than something either of our IT staffs can resolve onboard.

6 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

What about You Tube?  That is where the videos of fights show up. 

YouTube works great, no issues there. I'm not a let's-look-for-fights-on-cruise-ships kind of person. It's crowded here, but a bit of an older than normal Carnival crowd. I think it would take some doing to start a fight onboard.

[CoasterGuy]

21 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

As I was leaving the buffet, I saw a lady in an Iowa t shirt. Would it have been inappropriate of me to say I love her tight ends? 🤪

 

Classic. 

[Honolulu Blue]

Good morning! We're approaching Aruba. We should be docked and ready to head off in the next hour or two. 

 

Once again, I didn't do anything special last night. I let the Lido deck rock and Glow without me. I'm sure I wasn't missed.

 

Last night's ride was... punishing. It was rocky and I was pitched every which way. I figured out the worst of it was when we would go fast, then slow down, then speed up again. That wasn't much fun. 😬 But I survived with my stomach intact. I suppose it's part of the price I pay for rooming in steerage and far forward.

 

We changed our clocks a few days back. But Aruba will still be an hour ahead of us. This is a compromise Captain Francesco and Carnival have made for us.

 

I'm sure I'll have more time say later today. Bye for now.

[Honolulu Blue]

Hi everyone. Before I get into my day in Aruba, I would like to announce that I made a couple of posts in the sub forum of CC describing in more detail the mechanics of the sports betting kiosk and the video blackjack machine I had that run on. Oh, and more pretty pictures. You're welcome to look if the subject interests you, or you really want to read more of my rambles. 🤠

 

Back to the subject at hand. I went into Aruba, went to the Renaissance Mall area about a mile from the terminal, then turned back. It was a good time. It wasn't too warm or too windy or too crowded.  We did have another ship with us in port - Rhapsody of the Seas.

 

I successfully logged into FB and checked on some of my favorite pages while out on the town. It continues to not work onboard. 

 

Following are some random photos. I wasn't the only one to appreciate the fresh air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I may or may not have something to report later on today. I don't have any special plans. Have a good day everyone! I'm sure you'll be cruising sometime soon and have stories of your own to share. 

[Honolulu Blue]

Here's today's towel animal from Hery and his team:

 

 

I had a modest late lunch at the trough featuring turkey meatballs. They were better than they sounded. 👍 Actually they were quite good. I didn't want Guy's again so soon, and the MDR options didn't appeal to me either.  My belly is still full, so I must have been happy with it.

 

The Internet speed has been up and down all day, depending on where I am, time of day, and what device I'm using. This one is my most recent test done an hour ago on my phone. We're still docked in Aruba. 

 

 

Bad news and good news. The bad news is that my clothes have not yet been returned to me.  It's all right; I have enough to last another day without them.

 

The good news is that I dud receive tomorrow's newsletter in my box. Curacao tomorrow. Woo hoo!

 

 

 

That looks like the end to tonight's scheduled activities. So good night everyone,  and I'll see you tomorrow.  🥱

Edited January 19 by Honolulu Blue

[Honolulu Blue]

Good morning! We've docked in Curacao for the day and Tyler gave us the clearance to get off whenever we're ready. I'm not ready yet, so I spent the time getting ready for the day to come, eating breakfast,  and getting ready for the day to come.

 

Speaking of breakfast, it was bacon day at the trough. Because of that and our arrival time. I knew it would be rough finding seating. And it was. I had to go upstairs again, whereupon I was busted by a lady asking me about my friend. I told her he's no friend,  that's just Hudson.

 

 

I had the bacon, ham, scrambled eggs, lemon danish, OJ, and water. It was all up to the usual standards - which is to say it was pretty good. 

 

Hudson proved to be popular as I was confronted by others elsewhere about him.

 

 

 

Eventually I'll go out into town. Until then, I wish you all a great day. 😃

[Honolulu Blue]

I'm back from my walk into town. Good stuff. I was blown away... almost, by the gusts near the ships (Oceania's Sirena is also here).

 

 

It was in the low 80s and sunny when I went out, so the breeze wasn't totally a bad thing.

 

I found some free Internet access by the docks that wasn't provided by Carnival,  and wouldn't you know it - FB worked again. I did a little surfing on that site and its associated pages, then I moved on.

 

I found it hard to tell who were Oceania passengers. I assume they're upscale and very seasoned.  But we outnumber them about 5 to 1.

 

There's a lot of shopping in Curacao by the docks, some of it built around an old fort.

 

 

 

 

After some morebwalking and picture taking, I crossed the famous Queen Emma Bridge. It's a pedestrian bridge that's designed to be swung out quickly to make way for other boats.

 

 

 

 

On the other side, what did I find but more shopping?

 

 

No, I didn't go there. I didn't eben see it. I wasn't hungry or curious enough. 

 

I spent some time on this side exploring,  then I went back.

 

 

 

Sadly, the Willemstad Chamber of Commerce will consider my trip a bust since I didn't spend anything on this trip. But I might have made a new friend.  Try to understand that Hudson wanted no part of him (or her).

 

 

And with that, I finally made it back onboard. Thank you for reading and following along.

Edited January 19 by Honolulu Blue

[dmet0225]

On 1/18/2024 at 10:52 AM, Honolulu Blue said:

Hi everyone. Before I get into my day in Aruba, I would like to announce that I made a couple of posts in the sub forum of CC describing in more detail the mechanics of the sports betting kiosk and the video blackjack machine I had that run on. Oh, and more pretty pictures. You're welcome to look if the subject interests you, or you really want to read more of my rambles. 🤠

 

Back to the subject at hand. I went into Aruba, went to the Renaissance Mall area about a mile from the terminal, then turned back. It was a good time. It wasn't too warm or too windy or too crowded.  We did have another ship with us in port - Rhapsody of the Seas.

 

I successfully logged into FB and checked on some of my favorite pages while out on the town. It continues to not work onboard. 

 

Following are some random photos. I wasn't the only one to appreciate the fresh air.

 

 

 

Our first ever cruise was on that Rhapsody of the Seas out of Galveston.  We had one of those aft balconies.  Loved it.

 

Of course, I’m following this review, as I’m on the Dream in June.

Edited January 19 by dmet0225
Forgot to add comment about the Dream in order to keep this review on topic

[Honolulu Blue]

7 minutes ago, dmet0225 said:

Our first ever cruise was on that Rhapsody of the Seas out of Galveston.  We had one of those aft balconies.  Loved it.

 

Of course, I’m following this review, as I’m on the Dream in June.

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. I'm surprised I haven't seen any more of the Rhapsody. We've certainly had a lot of ships around us on this cruise so far.

 

Is there anything on the Dream you'd like to know about? I'm here all week,  and next week too! 🤣🤣🤣

[Honolulu Blue]

We'll be in Cartagena the day after tomorrow. It's forecast to be similarly toasty. 😲

 

[dmet0225]

5 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. I'm surprised I haven't seen any more of the Rhapsody. We've certainly had a lot of ships around us on this cruise so far.

 

Is there anything on the Dream you'd like to know about? I'm here all week,  and next week too! 🤣🤣🤣

Thanks, but my wife was on the Dream in September, so I got the lowdown from her.  Enjoy the rest of the trip.

[Honolulu Blue]

My afternoon and early evening in Curacao and beyond:

 

Inspired by my new best friend,  I went to BlueIguana for lunch. It wasn't too busy on Lido since I suspect most of my fellow passengers were still in port. I had two chicken tacos and added some lettuce. I thought they were quite good. I didn't have any on the Magic, so this was another nice reintroduction to a Carnival staple.

 

I went back to the cabin. It wasn't ready for me. I needed to clean my glasses badly  The spray that I had caught from being outside had seriously affected my vision.

 

I hung out on 3, near Guest Services,  until the cabin was finally ready.

 

 

The good news is my laundry was also ready and bagged. It looked and smelled good. Slightly over 24 hours for free cleaning- I'm not going to complain about that.

 

I took a power nap, then heard some things. First, someone was looking for one guest. I hope they found them, because a few minutes later, the thrusters fired up and we took off. And a bit after that, Tyler made his announcement of what's going to happen the rest of the evening. 

 

BTW, we're doing 18 knots now and it's MUCH smoother going than it has been at any other time in this journey so far.

 

I just checked in my box and what did I see? The retro Capers!

 

 

 

This is my favorite day on any Journeys cruise because of the emphasis on the 80s and how cruising used to be. 🥰 I didn't get a regular newsletter for tomorrow,  which I had on prior Journeys cruises. I'm not sure if I'll bother picking one up at Guest Services tomorrow. 

 

There are several events tomorrow that caught my eye, and I'll tell you about them then.

 

Until then, there's the evening show and perhaps some dinner. I hope everyone is having fun out there. 🥳

Edited January 19 by Honolulu Blue

[Honolulu Blue]

Dinner and a show on the Dream, day 7.

 

Dinner was a relatively simple one at the trough - a little flat iron steak, a small piece of chicken, lemonade, and water. I thought it was all good. No issues with seating this time. The buffet has been a pleasant surprise with the quality of its food. But then again, I'm not a foodie.

 

Tonight's show was 80s Pop to the Max.

 

 

I've enjoyed the Playlist shows I've seen on other Carnival ships. I admit I've only seen about a quarter if them. My general thoughts on them are if you enjoy the theme, you'll enjoy the songs, and you'll enjoy the show. And so it was with this one.

 

The theme, of course,  was 80s pop songs. And there were a lot of them. I recognized them all, though sometimes it took a minute because they weren't the original backing tracks. I didn't see a band either, just the performers singing and dancing. 

 

This was the shortest Playlist show I've seen, clocking at only 35 minutes. It was also a bit loud, because I had the bad fortune to sit right under a speaker. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TL,DR: 80s Pop to the Max is great for fans of the era, perhaps not so much people who aren't. 

 

Thank you, and good night. 

Edited January 20 by Honolulu Blue

[Honolulu Blue]

Good morning! The front half of the day is done for me. I'm just off the atrium. Today is the day for Thriller dance lessons. I'm a hopeless dancer, ☹️ so I'll just enjoy the music.

 

Breakfast was similar to past days - potatoes,  scrambled eggs, ham, raspberry pastry, chocolate muffin, apple and passion fruit juices. Still good.

 

No problem finding a seat this time around. I think the passengers are learning how to sleep in. Alas, I found trouble finding places to hang out after breakfast. I guess it's a hazard of having such a full ship.

 

Guest Services had the same custom newsletter that was handed out to us passengers, so there was no need fir me to grab another. 

 

I then went to the Wake Morning Show.  Attendance was down a bit to around 20 people. Fun Ship crew member Nikki was Tyler's guest this time around. 

 

 

They both did the random jelly bean thing and both pulled bad ones.  🤮

 

 

They also covered the events that were happening on this throwback day. 

 

This show was a little shorter than normal at around 20 minutes. Good enough fir me to talk to Tyler briefly to remind him about my medallion. He swemed glad to meet me and was surprised that I hadn't received it yet. He left the theater and came back to give it to me. He shook my hand twice and I thanked him. I wore it proudly throughout the next event in the theater...

 

 

...the horse racing. This was a high point of my previous Journeys cruises, and it remained so on this one.

 

Here's how it worked... Tyler picked out names for the 6 horses. Tickets were sold for $2 each. It was standard pari mutuel betting, but the payouts were not given before the races, only after. Tyler did the dice thing and general announcing.

 

 

Other Fun Crew collected the bets and did other administrative duties.

 

 

One of them was also disguised as horse #6.

 

 

There were two races. In the second race, jockeys were recruited from the audience. The winner was given a ship on a stick, and the others were given medallions. 

 

 

The same horse, #3 won both races.

 

 

 

A good time was had by all, including yours truly. I look forward to the rest of the day.

[Honolulu Blue]

Reporting on the past few hours...

 

I had another Guy's burger fir lunch. Is this #3 or #4 for the trip? I can't remember and I'm too lazy to look it up. Sorry. Surprisingly, it wasn't too crowded. Less surprising that the burger and its accouterments remained solid. It's managing to keep me from being too hungry so far.

 

After lunch I found the room was ready.

 

 

After a power nap, I started streaming the Texans-Ravens football game. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was able to do so on my tablet and phone (not at the same time) with only a few hiccups. 

 

 

Alas, the Ravens smothered the Texans, which will disappoint the other half of the passengers who were rooting for them and not the Cowboys. ☹️

 

While the game was going on, Hery delivered my newsletter,  which is back to normal:

 

 

 

I don't have much planned for the day in Cartagena, and the newsletter didn't give me any new ideas. Oh well, I'll figure out something. It's still forecast to be hot and humid there. 🥵

 

After, I turned off the game, I figured out a solution to the FB thing. @sid_9169, if you're still here, it might be worth taking notes. First, I found, downloaded, and installed the app from the Play shop. I didn't have any issues with any of this. I logged in and found that FB worked perfectly fine for me.

 

I didn't have the app loaded because it's a battery and resource hog that I rarely used on land when I had it. But it's handy here and now.

 

The Packers-49ers game is on soon, and I don't think I'll be able to stream it.

 

Thus ends the interesting portion of the evening, I think. Have a good evening one and all!

[TravelWith FunShips]

Don't have the regualr funtimes for January 20, I saw the capers version

[Honolulu Blue]

11 minutes ago, TravelWith FunShips said:

Don't have the regualr funtimes for January 20, I saw the capers version

That's all that was available, even at Guest Services.

[KarmaCruisers]

Question..do they only do that “throwback” day on Journey cruises? Of all the carnival cruises we’ve done (we’re platinum just now) only ONE cruise had that “throwback” day…(and we really enjoyed the horse racing game)

[Honolulu Blue]

10 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Question..do they only do that “throwback” day on Journey cruises? Of all the carnival cruises we’ve done (we’re platinum just now) only ONE cruise had that “throwback” day…(and we really enjoyed the horse racing game)

I've only seen the throwback day on Journeys cruises though it's possible that any of the elements could show up on another, regular cruise. I have only seen the horse races on my Journeys cruises and not on the non Journeys cruises I've taken.

[Honolulu Blue]

Happy Sunday! It's day 9 of our cruise. Only 5 more days to go and we'll be back in Galveston. I don't want to go! 😪🥶

 

After a smooth and mostly eventless night, I got up and made myself ready for the day to come. I should note here that SF defeated GB, so that conference is down to three teams - two of whom square off this afternoon. I don't think it will be broadcast anywhere onboard, and I don't think I can stream it.

 

Breakfast was quite busy, as expected for a port day with an 8 AM arrival time. I got my meal and headed up to my "secret" dining spot on deck 11.

 

 

Did I mention that it was BACON DAY today?

 

 

The meal was up to the usual standards. 

 

After breakfast,  I went around the outer decks to look around and take pictures. Rhapsody decided to join us again.

 

 

Here are a few other photos I got:

 

 

 

 

 

It's warm and muggy outside and projected to get worse. I made the executive decision to stay on the ship. I know this will disappoint some of you, and I'm sorry. 🤬

 

I'll do an update sometime,  maybe later today, maybe tomorrow. Until then, please do your best to make your own adventures. I like reading about them!

[Honolulu Blue]

I'll cover what happened to me today after my last post.

 

The ship did some refueling while in Cartagena. I guess it's cheap here since we're so close to Venezuela. But we also refueled while we were in Aruba the other day. Anyway,  this refueling only took about 3 hours, which I'm sure made the smokers here relatively happy. Those are the ones who were mostly affected by it.

 

Later on I went to lunch at the BlueIguana, near the trough. What can I say? I had a taste for some Mexican food. I had two more chicken tacos, and supplemented it with some desserts and lemonade. Good stuff. BTW, it was Italian day at the buffet. I'm sure there was some interesting stuff there, but what I had filled me up. I'm still full now.

 

We departed right at 4 as the game was going on. We're heading to Panama and we'll be there tomorrow morning. 

 

As a chronicler of events, I feel compelled to briefly discuss the game. Sorry Tampa fans. You had a good season, but...

 

 

I actually figured our how to stream this game. It was on Peacock and I had a subscription to it. I installed the app, logged in, and off I went. It was a good game that went the right way... except for Tampa's attempt at a 2 point conversion. I had them at +7, which would have pushed that bet instead of losing. The total went over 49, which was my other bet on this game. Overall I neither won nor lost money on thus game.

 

As I celebrated our big victory, I grabbed tomorrow's newsletter. 

 

 

 

I'll go up and cash my ticket, then maybe grab a bite. Thank you for reading,  and good night. 

Edited January 22 by Honolulu Blue

[Saint Greg]

16 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I actually figured our how to stream this game. It was on Peacock and I had a subscription to it. I installed the app, logged in, and off I went. It was a good game that went the right way... except for Tampa's attempt at a 2 point conversion. I had them at +7, which would have pushed that bet instead of losing. The total went over 49, which was my other bet on this game. Overall I neither won nor lost money on thus game.

 

 

Was it not on in the casino or you didn't check?