Review of the Dream, Eastern itinerary

We (mid 60s) decidedto take our daughter(30) and son-in-law (40) on a cruise. We have been onseveral cruises, first time for them. The main reason we picked the Dream outof New Orleans was because we wanted a long day in Key West (8-5). Ourson-in-law is an avid fisherman and we wanted to fish in Key west. We flew downon Saturday January 27th. We took a cab from the Airport to Maison Dupuy Hotelin the French Quarter. We selected this hotel as it is close to French QuarterPhantoms and we had two walking tours booked through them. It was pouring rainwhen we got to the hotel. We planned on going to Jackson Square to spend theafternoon, but because of the rain we ended up at Audubon Butterfly Garden andInsectarium. We thoroughly enjoyed the insectarium, not impressed with theButterfly Garden, have seen better. It had stopped raining when we got out sowe walked down Bourbon Street to get back to the hotel. The kids went to theMuseum of Death, which they seemed to enjoy. We had a 6:00 ghost tour with FrenchQuarter Phantoms, excellent tour and guide, we had a great time. The kids werehungry afterwards, so we missed the parade. We walked to the Bayou Burger andSports Company and had great burgers (our daughter does not eat seafood orspicy creole). Sunday we had a 10:00 Cemetery Tour with French QuarterPhantoms, again, an excellent tour and guide.

We then picked up our bags fromthe hotel and took a cab to the ship. Probably took about 45 minutes to get onthe ship, we never sat down, just wound around in various lines. We all ate atPasta Bella, great food and no crowd. Then we all went to our cabins to dropoff our carry ons. Part of our luggage was there. We split up to do our ownexploring.

This is the first time I have had a cove balcony. I loved beingclose to the water, but the balcony was always covered in salt and wet. I won'tdo that again. First time doing anytime dining, won't do that again either. Weselected anytime as we like to eat early and they like to eat late. We ended upeating together about 3 times. We always had to wait to get a table, even if wewent at 6:00. We also could not ever get the same wait staff. I would muchprefer a set time with no wait and the same wait staff. Food in the dining roomwas excellent, service was great (3 times), average (3 times) and terrible (1time).

My husband and I loved the stage shows, the singers and dancers werevery talented. The kids did not care for the stage shows (what was the point?is what she said about Flick). We all loved the comedy club, though two showswe never found a seat. They enjoyed the live music. Brandon (cruise director),Legs 11, and Sunny (entertainment) were great. I had not been to Quest for manyyears, has become much more risque, if you are easily offended DO NOT GO. Luckilyour daughter elected not to go as she would have been mortified.

Unfortunately,the weather was cool, so you could find a seat at the pool anytime and evenclamshells at Serenity. Lunches and breakfasts were good at Lido, but lineswere too long at Mongolian Wok and Guy's BBQ, never wanted to wait that long.We were asked whether we wanted morning or evening service by the steward, Iselected morning, the kids selected evening (so they could sleep in). I don'thave a problem with having one service a day, but when I select morning Iexpect the room to be cleaned in the morning. Several times it was after noon,I am not happy with that. One day we came back to no towels, another day wecame back to two bath towels (I told steward I always wanted 3, an extra towash my hair). There was dust on the top shelves in the bathroom. Definitelycorners have been cut there. We also had the Hub, loved that for the menus anddays events. Chat did not work well, my husband and I got about 80% of themessages, my daughter got about 10%, our son-in-law 5%.

Key West, the main reason for taking this trip was thefishing. called our captain as we were approaching the dock and he canceled thetrip due to high winds. Based on the forecast we had seen, I was not surprised,but everyone was disappointed. We ended up doing the shops, kids did theRipley's museum. Key Lime pie on a stickat Kermits is a must!

In Freeport we booked the kayak and nature tour throughCarnival, this was the best excursion. We had a great guide, super fun kayakingand about 90 minutes at a beautiful beach. Lunch was very poor, but based on the reviews I expected that.

In Nassau, the kids wanted to ride on the beach, I bookedthis as an independent tour. Our daughter really enjoyed it (experiencedhorsewoman) our son-in-law not so much. The guide harassed him abouthorsemanship (heels down, sit up). Again we were warned on trip advisor thatthis could happen. We took the walking food and culture tour, it was fantastic.Great guide, great food, lots of interesting information. Again it was bookedindependently and I would highly recommend it.

Disembarkation was fine, just walked through customs.

This was the first time for us on Dream class, we reallyliked it. In fact we have a December cruise booked on Magic for our son,daughter in law, and two grand kids.

I would be happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for the review.

Thanks. Which cove balcony were you in?

I didn't care for the two lead singers(Jess and the guy that wore his cap backwards). I think she oversang the high notes. It hurt my ears most of the time listening to her sing, although her low notes didn't bother me. I think the two number two singers(Ashley and ?) should have been the leads. My biggest disappointment was that they didn't do Thriller during the Michael Jackson set in the 80s show.

That was the raunchiest Quest show I have ever been to. The last one was on the Fantasy. The bingo lady ran that one. It was in the main lounge, and the raunchiest it got was one bra not being worn. It was very tame in comparison.

I waited in the bbq line for maybe 15 minutes on the first seaday. The wait could have been worse.

Who was your steward?

Thanks for the feedback.

Our cove balcony was 2250, so we were second cove from the front. And there were a lot of waves in the beginning. But on the way back to New Orleans we were doing only about 13 knots and I still had to be careful of leaning on the edge. Our steward was Sedana? Not sure of the spelling.

Our cove balcony was 2250, so we were second cove from the front. And there were a lot of waves in the beginning. But on the way back to New Orleans we were doing only about 13 knots and I still had to be careful of leaning on the edge. Our steward was Sedana? Not sure of the spelling.

My mom and I were in 2314. Our steward was Lawrence. We chose twice a day cleaning. I think our morning cleaning usually happened by noon.

I noticed that he waited for both of us to leave for supper before doing the evening cleaning. My mom leaves way to early for supper. She is willing to stand there waiting for an hour. I'm not. Only once was our room not cleaned before we got back. Supper went quickly that night. With the exception of the first night, the doors to the Scarlet dining room were opened at 5:45pm(15 early). We had early assigned dining.

We always had at least four bath towels, sometimes five. I didn't notice any dust anywhere. I wasn't looking for it though.

I brought a towel out on the balcony and draped it over the railing so I wouldn't have to lean directly on the salt. I didn't notice the salt until the last day or two of the cruise. I'm sure it was there before that.