Gon2hwe

Really? I was actually thrilled with Royal's change. I became Platinum on them with the equivalent of 5 cruises, and with better benefits! :D

 

Now when Carnival changed their loyalty program, THAT made a lot of people angry. I was expecting a mob of people with pitchforks and torches to show up at headquarters any minute when the change was announced!

 

 

 

 

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Didn't bother me either, only had a couple of cruises at the time. It was all the loyal royals getting the same benefits for a 3 day as 7 day that were upset. My point was that the cruise lines are evolving their loyalty programs to attract new cruisers not the loyals. Most of them are already hooked with the little perks they already get with a promise of more. There's nothing wrong with looking around for the best deals on any line.

We did 4 cruises on RC. Allure was amazing but then going back to Freedom was boring. Because of the price we decided to go with Carnival and loved it. RC made a lot of people mad with their loyalty points changes awhile back and recent policy changes. So don't expect them or any other cruise line to reward loyalty with extreme perks. They will do only what they say they will and you can't expect any more than that. My next cruise is Carnival and the next may be NCL. I go for the savings up front. As for Labadee, been there twice and it's probably one of my least favorite ports. Cloudy water full of rocks. The zip line is cool though. I find it really hard to eat in front of starving people playing music. But to each his own. Most of RC's itineraries are pretty much the same. Carnival has the best variety of ports. There's nothing wrong with trying different lines. Any line will get boring after a while.

I want to do the Allure but it's hard to justify the cost. And Disney is just ridiculous with their pricing.

The only way to justify the cost of Allure or Oasis is that you know the entertainment and novelty of these ships is worth the extra cost. If you book Disney in the off season the prices aren't terribly bad. Keep in mind you can bring your own bottles (including Liquor). Soda is also free. The food is also better. Crab legs and shrimp on the buffet. Ribeye steaks on the beach. So no need for upscale for fee resturants. We got a military discount on Disney and our cruise was the cheapest per day we've done. They tend to discount 60 days or less out. Just no casino if our into that.

Even if you've done 100 cruises on Carnival or any other line, you should go on Oasis or Allure at least once. Just for the entertainment. Otherwise I prefer Carnival. Better food and more of a fun atmosphere. For the money, you can't beat Carnival. If you have small children you should dig deep and go for Disney at least once. You will never regret doing that for your kids.

I've been on the Freedom of the Seas and Dream. Freedom by far has the best kids wter park area. Dream has the slides but not much in the way of a water park area. We don't have kids but the Dream was a lot better for us. Better price, better food, ect.

We were on the Dream and opened the divider. It wasn't a connecting room. On deck 11. Keep in mind that the divider folds back against the window and partially covers the window on one cabin.

We've been on 4 RCCL cruises and just did our first cruise on Carnival Dream. The only thing I really missed was the promenade. The food was better and so many more options. The steakhouse was the best of all. The decore on the Dream was pretty dull but have heard it's better on the Breeze. We actually booked another cruise on the Breeze in August if that tells you anything.

Well you convinced me. I'm booked in August. I've been on the Dream, so can't wait to see the differences.

Disney Cruises give the best military deals out there for their parks and Cruise line. They offer cruises usually within a month or so of the cruise and their rates are 1/3 or less of the going rate. Our cheapest cruise so far was on the Disney Dream. These are usually on cruises that are not sold out. On that same cruise they had really good Fl resident deal too. There are also cruise lines that give public service discounts. Police, Firefighter, and teachers, but can't remember which ones do. I won't argue the merits of this just that Disney usually sails full.

That was my thought. But they really should consider adding more purell stations.

 

 

 

Thank you.

After a few days I finally found some at the beginning of the buffet on the wall I think. Od place, your hand doesn't get dry before you pick up your plate. I know for sure you don't go in the buffet on RC without the guy standing there guiding you to them , I just used my own most of the time.

Loving your review. Considering the Breeze after our first Carnival cruise on the Dream. It's nice to see a review from someone who hasn't sailed the same cruise line a hundred times and cheerleads for that line. Sailed 4 different lines so far and as different as they are, they are very much the same. I have my favorites but Carnival's newer ships are a very good buy for the money. Now on to your Beakaway review because I'm considering Getaway too.

Hmmmm, never thought of it that way... You have a good point there. But that technique only works when you have enough people serving costumers. During breakfast it was not an issue. But you will see later on in the review that long lines are formed if there is just one person serving. The wait for the chocolate buffet was pretty long.

 

And now that you mention that, I also want to note that to this day the breeze was the ship that I saw with the least amount of purell stations.

They only served the bacon on the Dream. Trying to cut down on the wasters out there I guess. Also had a hard time finding purell stations on Dream too.

FOTS had worse entertainment ever the last time we cruised on it. Carnival Dream wasn't much better but the food was a lot better on Carnival. The only RC ship we've been on worth the extra money was Allure. It's a whole other different experience! Prices keep getting higher on RC making Carnival a much better deal for your money. You just have to make yourself not compare it to RC's bigger ships.

On the Dream those balconies on Deck 6 are easily seen from those walking on the Lanai below them on Deck 5. Look at the photo here that shows the Hot Tub, you can see all of those Deck 6 balconies.

 

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I was on the Dream repositioning cruise a month or so ago. I spent 9 days on it and walked on the Lanai quite a few times and I don't remember once looking up at the balconies above. It doesn't matter what deck your on. you will look down and see the walkway. We were on 11. If your sitting on the balcony you don't see it at all. You might from 6 but no higher unless you lean over the rail to look down.

We were off the ship by 1:05 pm and headed through the cruise terminal. The bus was to be parked just outside the cruise terminal.....oh yeah there's our ride

 

 

Me and Tammy (Tammy and her friend Joy were the other two ladies kicked off the original tour for voicing their opinion)

 

That is Joy (right behind Tammy). Joy made us the three of us t-shirts that said "Aruba" on the front and "Follow Me To The Fun Bus" on the Back. Those shirts were a big hit :D

 

That's the Kukuu Kanuku bus. It is an excursion through Carnival.

I can see me on the kuku bus. We had a great time on it. Wasn't too thrilled with Aruba but we did have fun.

I heard a lot of people say that they couldn't do their snorkeling excursion in Grand Cayman. We went to Stingray City and didn't have any problems.

 

I believe the Dream is smaller than the Freedom/Adventure of the Seas but not by much. We found the layout to be a little confusing too but we are so used to the layout of Carnival ships that we are used to it by now.

 

Will you guys do another Carnival ship???

 

We really enjoyed the Sunset Bar area and the Aft Pool. It was nice and relaxing back there. We spent a lot of time out there as well

They just cancelled snorkeling one one side of GC. The other side was okay but the water was more cloudy than I remembered from before. I think that happen a lot in GC.

Haven't decided what our next cruise will be. Maybe on the Dream since it's so close now. We really want to do a Med cruise but have to save for that for a while.

I really liked the Sunset area the most. The view from deck 11 was great. Not into the loud music at the main pool. Just never made it to serenity area.

Thanks Evelyn. If they were deep cleaning the ship that's fine with me but they weren't telling us anything and he people working at the port were rude.

 

I just kept telling myself....."Just get me on the ship....Just get me on the ship."

 

Btw how did you guys like the Steakhouse??? We were at a table close-by when you were in there.

 

 

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We enjoyed it. I got the steak and lobster so the steak was smaller than theirs. Kinda like the ones in the brunch. They said there's was great but mine just didn't seem worth the extra money. But to each his own.

Wow....I'm surprised y'all thought it was rough. The Dream was our biggest ship so far. I agree it was windy pretty much the whole way down to Aruba. Maybe it's because we had a mid-ship cabin on deck 6

 

 

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Seemed like it got better once we got to Jamaica but our excursion got canceled in GC because of weather.but we were able to do a different one.

Not quite sure how the size of Dream fits between Adventure an Freedom of the seas. But dream seemed smaller. I think it's the layout. Didn't find Sunset pool until later and turned out to be my place to go.

So we dropped off our rental car at Budget and jumped in the shuttle to head to the cruise port.

 

First sight of the Dream on the shuttle

 

I think I timed that picture pretty good

 

OK so once we gathered up our bags after we got off the shuttle we gave our 2 big bags to the porters at the terminal. This is where the total cluster fudge started :eek: Now we are Platinum but we were told to go stand in a line with other people who were first-time cruisers, past guests (but not platinum), and more Platinum guests. We stood outside for over an hour and a half. It was absolutely awful :mad: My dad asked to speak with one of the Carnival employees who work at the Port. She was walking around with a clipboard but she was a total "not a nice lady"

After an hour and a half we finally went through security and received our Platinum cards and Priority Boarding cards.....except they were already calling zones and were up to Zone 5. There were 6 lines coming out of the terminal and we all had to merge into one line to get on the ship. I have NEVER experienced such a horrible embarkation. This was due in part because we were at a different terminal due to the repositioning cruise. After about 2 hours we finally made it on the ship.....it was now almost 1:00 pm. I needed a STIFF drink :p

We were put in the short line but only because my BIL was handicapped but still stood in line almost an hour. We heard rumors of a fueling problem but after the cruise heard it was a scrubbing down or FDA inspection, because of the noro on other ships the week before. There were some on our cruise that got it but must not have been terribly bad because they let us off. Guess we'll never know. Enjoying the review!

Really??? I was on this same cruise with you, and we commented many times during the first few days how rough the seas were, huge swells, made sitting on our cove balcony not enjoyable at all. Maybe all in perspective, with being down low to the water (when in a cove). We also thought it was very windy for most of the time. However, there was not much movement on the ship, which is always a contributing factor to how people pay attention to the seas! yes..it was a great cruise and would do it all again in a heartbeat!

We thought it was by far the roughest cruise we've been on in the Caribbean too. I just thought it's because Dream is one of the smaller ships we've been on.

I just got off of my first Carnival cruise (Dream) after 4 on Royal. Royal looks better inside. Better colors, more formal. Depending what ship your going on. most of the bigger ships have the promenade inside, which we really missed on Carnival . Carnival ships are harder to navigate. The food seemed a lot better on Carnival with a lot more choices available. The Allure had a lot of choices but still Carnival's food is better. Carnival has more of a fun vibe than Royal. Hope that helps.

My husband is retired Navy too. He is my navigator on the ship. I can never tell which way is forward or aft. He says the food is a lot better on a cruise too. LOL! Welcome to cruisin' without having to work!

To sum up this trip is not easy because it was our first repositioning cruise. We were involved in the pre cruise Cruise Critic roll call and social groups and enjoyed getting to know a lot of our cruise mates. It was a great roll call.

I know that some things in this review may seem negative but I believe that in order for Cruise Lines to fix what's wrong they have to hear it first. I actually very much enjoyed this cruise, a lot more than my last Royal Caribbean cruise on the Freedom of the Seas. Because I'm not particularly loyal to any one brand it gives me more Freedom to explore the differences that cruise lines and even different ships offer.

The Carnival Dream is in fact a fun ship. The passengers seemed to agree and the crew seemed happier than any ship I've been on so far, even surpassing Disney in this respect. Overall the food was the best so far. The entertainment was average for this size ship. Shore excursions were also about the same. It took a bit longer to navigate the Dream than most ships but eventually even that was not difficult.

I can't say what my next cruise will be but I truly wouldn't mind sailing the Dream again.

PORT OF NEW ORLEANS: All I can say is the port just was not ready for this many people at once. Long wait to get off. Long line getting off the ship. Then long wait to get a cab. Hopefully that will get better.

We stayed the night in New Orleans so that we could ride the train home. This was something we had never done before so it added to the adventure. We stayed at the Wyndam Riveride and it was a smaller but comfortable hotel. We could see the ships right from the front of the hotel. The staff was excellent and the rooms were nice and comfortable. For the price you couldn't beat it. It was about a three block walk to the streetcar station in front of the Hilton. We rode the streetcar down to the French Quarter.

We had dinner at Drago's at the Hilton and it was fantastic. Some of the best gumbo I've had and the charbroiled oysters were to die for. This was true Louisiana cooking at it's best!

The next morning we took the train home to Tuscaloosa. My husband loved it but I think I'd rather drive since we encountered several delays on the way home.

SHORE EXCURSIONS: All of our excursions were booked through Carnival. My husband booked golf in Aruba and Cozumel and enjoyed the courses. In Aruba I did the Kukoo Kanuba Bus tour and had a great time singing along with the music. The Beach we went to was not the greatest but not a bad tour. In Cozumel I did the Passion Island tour. The beach was very nice but the chairs they had to sit ni on the beach were not made for older people to get in and out of. Loungers would have been nice. The Food was okay but nothing special. It was open bar but the lines were long at times. They did have a nice area for kids to play in. We enjoyed the Skylift that went up to Mystic Mountain in Jamaica. The views from up there were beautiful. Our snorkeling trip in Grand Cayman got cancelled and they put us on another tour to the Kittywake and reef. I had already done this tour on a prior cruise and loved it but this time the water was pretty cloudy so didn't see as much. Carnival does a good job of managing their shore excursions. The only cancellation was weather related.