Carnival Dream 10/22-29/17 Mahogany Bay Cozumel Progreso Review

This is only my second cruise ever, so I apologize if I add too much info or omit important info.

 

We booked the Dream from NOLA, scheduled to stop at Mahogany Bay, Cozumel, and Belize. They skipped Belize and stopped at Progreso due to weather. This trip was planned with my elderly (mid 80s) mother-in-law in mind, as she was determined to come along. Our excursions were all pretty much sedentary in order to accommodate her mobility issues. We were concerned about embarkation because MIL will not use a walker or cane, but is very unsteady on her feet, plus she experiences back and foot pain after walking short distances. I looked for advice on here, and got some great tips.

 

Embarkation: We could not purchase FTTF, as it was sold out nonstop since we booked in June. I checked several times every day, but never saw it open up. But it worked out well anyway. When MIL got tired, there always seemed to be somewhere for her to sit for a few minutes, until we got to the ramps. She made it up there without falling. I noticed many people with wheelchairs, and wished I could have rented one for her. We had stayed the night at the Downtown Courtyard Marriott on Juliette Street and getting to the port was as easy as getting a quick taxi. Others without mobility considerations could easily walk. We loved the Riverwalk mall, which we hung out at for an hour or so before our scheduled time.

 

Rooms: We had a window room on the Main deck, and we got MIL a Spa balcony room; one room at the bottom aft of the ship and one near the top forward! They were a long ways from each other, which required that we did much more walking than what would have been necessary, had we been able to pick our rooms. Being cruising novices, we didn't know beforehand that we would have no say over where our room was because we booked online and got some sort of deal we still don't quite understand. When booking online, it's hard to know what "deal" we are getting, we just purchased what we wanted and paid what it told us to... but we hope that by using a travel agent next time we can avoid these problems.. MIL is also mostly blind, so everywhere she went with the exception of her spa appointments, we came to get her. We chose the spa room for her because of its proximity to the Lido deck and of course the spa.... little did we know that we would all be assigned to the Scarlet (aft, 7 decks down) dining room! Sorry MIL! Anyway, we loved our window room and she loved her Spa room. The stewards were all helpful and efficient. They had us complete cards, checking off what services or amenities we required.

 

Breakfast and Lunch: My spouse and I woke up early every day to exercise and enjoy the sunrise. We would head to the Lido deck to get breakfast. MIL opted to order room service breakfast, but since they do not offer eggs, we brought eggs to her every morning. The room service was punctual and the orders were always correct. For lunch, usually my spouse grabbed burgers from Guys and I went up to Pasta Bella since I'm vegetarian. Pasta Bella has a unique system in which everything is ordered via a checkoff card, and the food will be brought to the table. As a result, my food was just getting delivered when everyone else was finished, but it wasn't a big deal since nobody was in a hurry. I loved Pasta Bella! I didn't find much at the buffets that appealed to me beyond salads. Sorry to say that the pizza was disappointing. Our last Carnival cruise had different pizza with thicker crust. Also, my spouse was annoyed when he asked for a slice of cheese pizza once, and so did the customer behind him in line. When they were served, the customer behind him was served first. She was given cheese pizza with some red sauce, as is pretty typical. But his pizza was just crust and cheese, no sauce. He brought it back to the table, and of course nobody wanted to even try it. I decided to just try getting in line again, and I was given the regular cheese pizza slice. No idea why this happened, but it was honestly the only time we were disappointed in service, the entire time!

 

Dinner: We dined in the dining room every night, and loved it. Originally on the late dinner, we got on the waiting list for the early dinner and lucked out! On the first night, there was a huge line. We stood in the line for 15 minutes before being told it was the line formed by people who wanted to switch dining times! :eek: Oops! We almost missed our first dinner because we just didn't know any better. The wait staff was simply amazing, and the food was almost always good. It's one of my favorite aspects of the cruise! I am also a lover of elegant night, and we dressed up for both nights. We were assigned to a table with a nice family, who we very much enjoyed.

 

Entertainment: I wish I could say more about the entertainment, but we did not partake of much since MIL was pretty much tired out after dinner. We did sit in the Dream Lobby area after dinner a couple nights, and we loved the music. The Spiccato Trio, Acoustic Jams with Unity, and Guitar Sounds with Lawrence were all wonderful! The other passengers who danced were also fun to watch. For the kids, they had Dr. Seuss characters out dancing on at least one of the nights, which was super cute. After getting MIL back to her room and to bed, I began to notice my fitness tracker had counted my steps for the day sometimes over 20,000! Needless to say, I didn't need to use the elliptical as much as I'd planned. Next time, I'll be participating more in some of the activities that seem like such fun, like the comedy shows and games.

 

The Spa: We purchased the couple's pass in order to have access to the spa along with MIL. It was awesome! We hung out there most of the time, between waiting for MIL to get finished with appointments, exercising, or utilizing the Thermo Suites. The Thalassotherapy pool was my absolute favorite part of the ship. Unfortunately, while we were rained out in Hondouras, they closed the pool! There were many disappointed passengers that day. Still, we used every room that our pass allowed access, and not just a few times.

 

Shore Excursions: Roatan- We'd booked the Jolly Roger catamaran. It was pouring that morning, and the tour operators gave us the option of continuing with the excursion or cancelling. My spouse is a scuba enthusiast, and he wanted to at least do some snorkeling, but another passenger who had been on that excursion five times before said it would be a waste of time and money since the water would be muddy and the rain would sting. So we went back to the ship after checking out the little tourist shopping area. Cozumel - My MIL could only withstand one of the excursions we had looked at on Carnival's site, and that was the Salsa and Salsa and Margarita. She loved it! And that made it worth it to us. The food and drinks were great. Belize- nope, no Belize! They brought us to Progreso, which seems to be more of a shipping port than tourism port. Someone suggested we try the Mi Casa Es Su Casa excursion because everything else was more active, so we booked it. That also was a wonderful choice for MIL. Nonstop margaritas, food, beach and pool time. I walked up and down the deserted beach, and although there was garbage all over the place, there were also some beautiful shells. The guide gave us bags to carry our shells in! We loved the guide, Mario, who kept everyone entertained and happy. He reminded us that if we expect an Americanized tourist spot, we are in the wrong place. Progreso is what he called and "authentic" Mexican community, and he proudly pointed out some of the differences.

 

Pools/Serenity Area: This cruise was full, so the common areas were ALWAYS packed. There was not one time that we walked into the Serenity area or any of the decks with lounge chairs to find three loungers available together. They were either occupied with bodies or belongings. As a result, we were not able to enjoy these areas at all. One time, I looked down from MIL's balcony, and spotted a few unoccupied lounge chairs. I told my husband to get down there and reserve them for us and I'd bring MIL down at her pace. But drat, as soon as he walked out of the room, somebody snatched the chairs!

 

Hub App and Internet: I enjoyed the hub app for the "what's happening now" feature, but unfortunately the chat was not operational for most of the trip. We got exactly one message through. Also, we purchased two Internet plans, the expensive one for my spouse, who needed to maintain contact with work, and me for the social media so I could maintain contact with my dog sitter. But the Internet was slow and sometimes didn't work at all. We were not impressed and wished we hadn't even bothered with the Internet packages at all.

 

I decided to post a link to a youtube video of the "what's happening" section of our Fun Times for all of the days. Feel free to ask if you would like information from the other side of any of the days. Thanks for reading my review!

 

Embarkation: We could not purchase FTTF, as it was sold out nonstop since we booked in June. I checked several times every day, but never saw it open up. But it worked out well anyway. When MIL got tired, there always seemed to be somewhere for her to sit for a few minutes, until we got to the ramps. She made it up there without falling. I noticed many people with wheelchairs, and wished I could have rented one for her.

Just a note for next time (I don't know why no one told you), they offer wheelchair service for embarkation and debarkation. A Carnival employee will take your MIL in a wheelchair up to a public area, eliminating the need for her to struggle with the long embarkation/debarkation walk.

 

Rooms: We had a window room on the Main deck, and we got MIL a Spa balcony room; one room at the bottom aft of the ship and one near the top forward! They were a long ways from each other, which required that we did much more walking than what would have been necessary, had we been able to pick our rooms. Being cruising novices, we didn't know beforehand that we would have no say over where our room was because we booked online and got some sort of deal we still don't quite understand.

It sounds as though you booked "guarantee" cabins in which Carnival assigns you a cabin in the class that you booked. It's too bad that you weren't aware of that ahead of time.

 

Entertainment: I wish I could say more about the entertainment, but we did not partake of much since MIL was pretty much tired out after dinner. We did sit in the Dream Lobby area after dinner a couple nights, and we loved the music. The Spiccato Trio, Acoustic Jams with Unity, and Guitar Sounds with Lawrence were all wonderful! The other passengers who danced were also fun to watch. For the kids, they had Dr. Seuss characters out dancing on at least one of the nights, which was super cute. After getting MIL back to her room and to bed, I began to notice my fitness tracker had counted my steps for the day sometimes over 20,000! Needless to say, I didn't need to use the elliptical as much as I'd planned. Next time, I'll be participating more in some of the activities that seem like such fun, like the comedy shows and games.

I hope that you at least made it to the Cruise Director's show. He was absolutely fantastic!!

 

The Spa: We purchased the couple's pass in order to have access to the spa along with MIL. It was awesome! We hung out there most of the time, between waiting for MIL to get finished with appointments, exercising, or utilizing the Thermo Suites. The Thalassotherapy pool was my absolute favorite part of the ship. Unfortunately, while we were rained out in Hondouras, they closed the pool! There were many disappointed passengers that day. Still, we used every room that our pass allowed access, and not just a few times.

We loved the spa. It's unfortunate that they chose Roatan day for the monthly cleaning, we were disappointed as well, but enjoyed the rest of the spa anyway that day.

 

Pools/Serenity Area: This cruise was full, so the common areas were ALWAYS packed. There was not one time that we walked into the Serenity area or any of the decks with lounge chairs to find three loungers available together. They were either occupied with bodies or belongings. As a result, we were not able to enjoy these areas at all. One time, I looked down from MIL's balcony, and spotted a few unoccupied lounge chairs. I told my husband to get down there and reserve them for us and I'd bring MIL down at her pace. But drat, as soon as he walked out of the room, somebody snatched the chairs!

We had a completely different experience. We never had trouble finding two loungers together on the Serenity deck or on deck 5 whenever we wanted to. We must have just had a different schedule :)

 

Hub App and Internet: I enjoyed the hub app for the "what's happening now" feature, but unfortunately the chat was not operational for most of the trip. We got exactly one message through. Also, we purchased two Internet plans, the expensive one for my spouse, who needed to maintain contact with work, and me for the social media so I could maintain contact with my dog sitter. But the Internet was slow and sometimes didn't work at all. We were not impressed and wished we hadn't even bothered with the Internet packages at all.

DH didn't complain about the internet (I don't use it on a cruise), but typically you get the best service in public areas rather than the staterooms. The HUB app's chat feature doesn't provide notifications or receive messages unless the app is left on, so if you closed the app when you weren't actively using it, you wouldn't have received any messages. We didn't have any issues with it.

 

In case you can't tell, we were on the same cruise. The loss of Belize was disappointing, but that's the risk that you take when you cruise during hurricane season. Progreso is not my favorite port by far, but we still had a great cruise.

Excellent report, thanks for taking the time to post.

I enjoyed your review and loved reading about the care you gave your MIL. It is a long trek from fore to aft!

Your MIL must be proud of you. Sounds like she enjoyed your trip. Thanks for the detailed review.

 

 

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Thank you for your review.

Keith

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review!

I am glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your review. :) That is so gracious and kind of both of you to cruise with MIL like that. I’m sure she truly appreciated it and it’s some wonderful memories you all will have.

Echoing what others are saying...

 

To be able to experience some time with your Mother/MIL at her age is precious! I think many of us wish we could once again have an opportunity like that.

 

There's a special place in heaven for Sons/DIL's like you!

 

Next time, arrive a few days early and enjoy our wonderful city a bit more! Every weekend is a holiday in NOLA!

 

Laissez les bon Temps Rouler

Just a note for next time (I don't know why no one told you), they offer wheelchair service for embarkation and debarkation. A Carnival employee will take your MIL in a wheelchair up to a public area, eliminating the need for her to struggle with the long embarkation/debarkation walk.

We arrange this for my DH every cruise. Once he's aboard he can get around (if sometimes slower than he'd like) but getting up and down the ramps would be impossible. Having the assistance getting on and off for my DH is the difference between sailing and not.