cruiser0216

Finally found the time to write a review! We had an incredible time! Let me know if you have any questions. We are a couple in our 30s that left our kids are home. We have most recently cruised Carnival with children the past few years and hadn't cruised just us since before kids on an older RCCL ship at the time. Overall review: FANTASTIC trip. Everything was wonderful, ship incredible, talent Amazing, excursions amazing! We drove down from North Dallas the night before and stayed at Staybridge Suites in Clear Lake. We loved that they provided a bag of microwave popcorn! :) Breakfast was ok, met our expectations. Boarding/Embarking: We boarded with our boarding group at 11:30 and it was seamless and quick - probably 20 minutes from start to finish. We then ate at Park Cafe for lunch and toured the ship. It started raining on us in Galveston, but was short lived and did not affect our sail away time. We watched sail away from the cantilevered hot tub near the Solarium. Entertainment: TOP NOTCH. The talent on this ship is incredible. Wonderful singers, dancers, actors, musicians; and then Jaw-dropping other talents like aerialist, tight rope stunt men, etc. Don't miss the headliner shows like Columbus (Incredible!!), the Fine Line Aqua Show, the "Hideaway Heist" aqua show, and the ice show 1886 (or some other year)! While the talent was incredible in Grease, it was too crude for us. :/ The production value is excellent. They weave current and older songs into each production and the special effects are so cool. My favorite being the Ice Rink's "screen" capability. While we had reservations for each, it was possible to get in on standby and still get good seats for all but the Aqua Show. We had reservations for the Fine Line Aqua Show for the 2nd night, but it was cancelled due to wind/waves. Our reservations were automatically switched to the new night of Roatan. A friend had reservations for the 3rd night and they were able to do the show with some modifications - No high dives or tight rope walking - but then went back to watch from the back on another night and was glad they did. That venue at night is so cool! Food: We ate exclusively at "included" restaurants. We most enjoyed the MDR and the pizza place. The food quality at MDR wasn't fantastic, but it was good enough. We also found something we enjoyed each time in the Windjammer, however, seats were MUCH harder to find. Also, the location of the windjammer is hard to access. Ship amenities: The Ultimate Abyss was fun and we never waited more than 10-15 minutes for it. Flowrider was great also. They were very helpful at teaching me how to do it and each turn was generous. I only did 1 of the water slides and it was fun, but the lines were long. Pools were full. Service: Excellent! One of my favorite aspects of this is the bar service cart at the pool. Genius!!! They mostly had beers over ice, but it was nice and cold with no wait. Thumbs up! Excursions: We did excursions exclusively outside of RCCL. Roatan - 3 stop snorkel boat tour with Roatan Getaway Tours. Highly recommend! Costa Maya - Native Choice's "Blue Lagoon Tour" to Bacalar 7 color lagoon. Incredible! That lagoon is like something out of Heaven. They were insistent on getting us back in time. It was about a 50 minute ride in a very nice shuttle. Cozumel - private jeep tour with Cozumel Cruise Tours. We had Uncle Ramon and his old burnt orange jeep. He was great to us and we loved exploring the island and Punta Sur. He took us to Virgin Beach Club there and it was beautiful! They had wifi and while the drinks and food were a little expensive, we really enjoyed our time there. He also took us to a souvenir shop that was fairly priced. Any questions? I'd love to answer them.

Thanks for the review! We're trying to convince some cruise-averse friends to join us vets on the harmony this spring. So far, no such luck. 🤷‍♀️ Curious, where did you eat for embarkation lunch? We're looking for a less crowded option.

Hi there! We were on the same itinerary as you - July 31st out of Galveston. I'm sorry you were disappointed in your cruise! 😞 To offer a different perspective, we LOVED our cruise! No, we didn't stay up late and do any bars, casinos or the late night comedy show, so it sounds like we did different parts of the ship. But, we LOVED the sports square (we have young children), the pools, the CD was AWESOME, the Atrium events with the CD, the MDR (we loved almost everything we ordered) and thought the shows and comedy we did see were just average. We loved Alchemy, the Ocean Plaza bands, the Lanai seating with hot tubs, the Pub and the coffee shop. We also agree that the staff wasn't very friendly as compared to past ships. We had a different server each night due to My Time Dining, but service seemed more prompt than our last summer Carnival cruise. Our cabin steward was very friendly and attentive. Lines were LONG - it was a full capacity ship. But there was always room at the shows and we never waited long for any MDR meal (breakfast or dinner). I think most people were at the buffet, which does serve some of the MDR dinner food. Pizza was open starting at 9am (and of course we were up then :)) I saw on the schedule the late night buffet was happening, but we were of course asleep by then. 🙂 I bought the CHEERS package. I think I about broke even with alcoholic drinks, but ordered many non-alcoholic drinks as well. It allowed me to try lots of different things and not drink what I didn't like. Some members of our party did notice aging on the ship, but that didn't affect our enjoyment. Excursions - in Cozumel we did the Zipline, snorkel and beach excursion through Carnival to Island Beach Club. We loved it (mostly) and would recommend that beach club again!! Other family members did the Secret River cenote swim excursion and LOVED it. They had older kiddos than ours. Again, I'm sorry you were disappointed in your cruise but I hope the additional review added on here helps others reading to know you can be on the same ship and have 2 very different experiences and desire very different things. Happy cruising!

We also LOVED the hot tubs on deck 5 (on the Dream, but they are sister ships and it appears this part is the same). We'd pick the side that was in the shade and some would be in the hot tubs, the others would be lounging in deck chairs. We usually did this 4-6pm, after sunny pool time but before dinner cleanup. Or for some, after cleanup but the shade meant they didn't get sweaty again.

We were on the Dream last summer for an 8 day cruise. The lines for the washer/dryers were constant. My sister finally offered to do all our laundry when she (naturally) got up at 4am. I would suggest choosing non-peak times, or maybe even doing 1 load early, then one load late during a longer cruise. Or just pack more. 🙂 Or hand wash a few items in your sink when you can commit a day or two to them drying in your cabin.

I have an apostrophe in my name but there is often a discrepancy between no apostrophe, a space, or even a dash. My SS card shows the apostrophe, but my license and Passport shows none. I've never had an issue anywhere when they don't match. You should be good to go!

Saint Greg has a 5 day posted from mid March. Also a 4 day. https://www.saintgregtravel.com/carnival-breeze-march-13-2023/

@MeganGC1983 Wondering if the Dream had the 6pm camp ocean mealtime service offered prior to 7pm Camp Ocean start? Also, do you happen to know the policy for leaving a child in camp ocean while you're in port? We have family that will stay on ship for an emergency, but not sure if that's required or not. Do the camp ocean phones they provide (for 3 yo kiddo) work in port? If it matters, we are taking a Carnival excursion.

I'm looking through recent fun times for our ship/sailing and see nothing about camp ocean advertised. I plan to register kids when we check-in 2 weeks prior, but how do we get information once we're on ship?

How do you know what is the drink of the day? Is it listed in fun times or just advertised at the bar? Thanks!

By chance did you ever see oysters at the lido? Or any other seafood?

Was this menu for a specific event, or the pool area while in Port?

Working now! Must have been the logged in thing. Thanks!

Anybody else having trouble with the attachments? They say unavailable. I was able to see the first few when they were posted last week, but now those are now unavailable. Just me? Any other way you can upload them?