Carnival Inauagural Nov 12th. Very Impressed

[Sue L]

For a disclaimer I am mainly a RCCL cruiser and a travel agent. I have been on 3 Carnival cruises and just finished my 14 cruise overall , my last Carnival cruise was on the Destiny a couple of years ago and was so awful that I said I would never go on Carnival again unless it was free. Well, last night I got my chance.

 

 

I was invited to go the Inaugural of the Carnival Dream and I must say I was very impressed.

First the ship was huge, a bit gaudy for my taste but definitely an improvement over some of the other ships.

 

 

The rooms were small. I was in an 8E and it was smaller then the E's on any of the RCCL's ships I have been on in Radiance and Voyager class. They still need to take care of some things at least in the cabin we were in. The light on the vanity was not working properly only half of it lit and then was blinking. The biggest issue we saw was it didn't look like they measured the curtains right and the curtain was too narrow and even completely closed left a gap of about a foot. The inner sheer curtain was correct but the heavier black out one was not. Thank goodness we had to get up early this morning and it was gloomy to boot or we would have had light streaming into the cabin as soon as the sun rose.

 

 

We were able to tour several rooms and the penthouse suite and the regular suites are tiny and they wasted way too much room on the dressing area in my opinion which takes away from the main room . They do have a great quint room for a family of 5 that has two bathrooms. There are only two of these on the whole ship on deck 1.

 

 

The ship is again quite confusing to get around since only decks 5 and 9 go straight through, had to backtrack several times to get where we wanted to.

 

 

The buffet for lunch was just ok and I have food allergies and was very hard to find anything to eat for lunch as everything was mixed with something else or had sauces and stuff on it and I was scared to try it. . Hubby found plenty to eat though and said it was pretty good. We had dinner in the main dining room and I had lobster tail (small,but cooked perfectly, it came with a couple of shrimp) and shared a prime rib so we had surf and turf. Both were excellent. The service was on the slow side but ok.

 

 

The Serenity adults only area was very nice but I was disappointed as there was no pool there, though the hammocks for 2 looked cozy.

 

This was the first inaugural I have gone to and we got to see the god mother Marcia Gay Harden as she was walking through the ship. The ceremony was very nice also and something I had never witnessed first hand.

 

 

We went to the show kind of by accident and it was FANTASTIC, I would say probably the best show I have ever seen at sea.

 

 

It is hard to make a complete judgement on a one night pier side event but all in all I was very impressed with the ship and staff. I am not sure if I would sail on it as it's itinerary does not excite me at all but I would definitely recommend it to clients.

[amybeth4]

Sue, as always, your comments are appreciated!

[Cruising89143]

Thanks Sue for posting your thoughts on the Dream. Also just looked at the photos that you posted. Have to say that nothing has changed with the Farcus design. The ship looks dark and outdated for a new ship. I would like to see what another designer could do with a Carnival ship. We all know that Farcus is Carnival but IMHO it is just more of the same.

[minnie00]

Thanks for the mini review....I had been considering the Dream and again realize that Carnival is just not for us. ;)

[MrPete]

Thanks Sue for your first hand account! Those are the ones that count!

 

Did you experience that NEW SHIP SMELL?

[madforcruising]

Thanks Sue for posting your thoughts on the Dream. Also just looked at the photos that you posted. Have to say that nothing has changed with the Farcus design. The ship looks dark and outdated for a new ship. I would like to see what another designer could do with a Carnival ship. We all know that Farcus is Carnival but IMHO it is just more of the same.

 

I have to agree:)