Carnival Dream Dec 3-12

[Ms Belvedere]

Here is a quick review of my experience on the Dream Inaugural Cruise from Port Canaveral, Dec 3-12, 09. Keep in mind that this cruise had a couple of big groups on it and that most of the pax were prior cruisers who read the cruise boards and are aware of the aspects of cruising, good and bad.

 

Embarkation was a breeze despite the number of Platinum Cruisers; everyone was pleasant and polite. :) We had an aft balcony 8470 and I felt a lot of motion when we sailed, it was nice to feel the rocking but I don't know if this was just due to our room location or if the seas were unsettled. Our room steward and his two assistants (one is getting off the ship this week in Belize) were excellent, kept our room clean and our ice supply filled. There was an issue with soot on our balcony and our neighbors also commented on it, you had to make sure you had foot wear on or you'd get it on your feet. We also had to clean the furniture off with a towel before sitting down or it got on our clothes.

 

Because our room was on the back of the ship that's where I went to get sun on our sea days, two decks up to 10 (Lido). I never had a problem finding a chair but did see that some seats were saved with towels. It wasn't a long stream of chairs, usually two which would seem like a couple who are together. There were kids in the hot tubs with their parents. They weren't out of control maybe because of the experienced parents or because of the low total number of children on board.

 

I'm an early riser and wandered the ship each morning, the Serenity-Adult area consistently had chairs or sections of chairs saved with the tan Spa towels, beach bags, or reg blue Carnival towels. One morning I was up before 6 and there were seats saved, the round ones with the shade you can pull over the top and the grouped seating in the shaded area. I wondered if someone "reserved" them before going to bed the night before.

 

The canned music on the ship was the New Age spacey type of music not the Caribbean songs I expected to hear on a Caribbean cruise, the 2 person band that played reggae was good, very enthusiastic. The piano bar music was okay. The atrium singer was nice to hear on formal night, she had a lot of couples up dancing to the classic songs and Latin music. The guitar player had a group applauding him but I didn't care for his music at all, he played in the casino one night. Ken Byrnes, the Maitre'D in the Scarlett Dining Room, sang every night and it was a pleasure to hear him! :D

 

Speaking of the casino, the slots were mostly 1 and 2 cents with 25 cents, 50 cents and dollar machines thrown in. Some of the machines had the option of playing different games with different denominations from 1 cent to a dollar. They were located to the left of the bar as you face it; I don't know what you call those type of slots but I played them. When playing the lower amounts of money, 1 and 2 cents, it takes longer to reach the 1000 on your Sail and Sign where you get the free $10 bonus. We missed the slot tournament, just didn't have the get up and go this time but I regret not going on Friday.

 

Food in the dining room was good, a little redundant with the 2nd courses and salads, but the main courses were delish and there was plenty to eat. We ate in the Chef's Art Steakhouse one night and everyone loved the choices. Like Tom said in one of his posts on the roll call, they had some options that aren't on the printed menu. They'll tell you about them when they describe what's available. The Steakhouse is nicely laid out and bigger than it first appears. We went up a couple of nights just to sit and have drinks. We had the Mongolian Grill once, the line was very long, Tandoori is on the back of the Lido deck and was good. Never made it to the Pasta Bar, but you order what you want on a paper order form and they make it fresh. We had the hamburgers after coming back in from port and they really hit the spot after a long day of trekking around on the island. On the Lido Deck:

carved meats were excellent, the southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy were like Auntie's Sunday dinner, overall there was a selection for everyone and we didn't have problems with lines or finding seats. I had read that the servers in Lido were slow to clear tables and that they liked to stand around and talk. We did see that to some extent, along with pax clearing their own tables. But the workers seemed to pick it up as the 9 days went on and they were all friendly to us.

 

The cold drinks available at lunch were water, lemonade and sweet iced tea (free). At breakfast they had OJ and the Guava Cocktail. Ice cream was good and was not ice milk. I tried to get a different kind of pizza once, but when I asked for the Feta cheese the server said all they had was regular cheese and pepperoni, no offer to heat up any of the others. I took the regular cheese and let it go considering it was a slow time and maybe they can't let the whole pie go to waste for one piece that a pax requests. We had sushi at Wasabi a couple of nights and one evening noticed that they had Tapas (small plates) instead of Sushi. That was a nice change: Little dishes of olives, roasted peppers, humus, breads, spreads to choose from.

 

We went to one evening show, the Motown Show and saw 3 Comedy Shows. The Motown Show had fantastic singing and dancing. Two of the comedy shows were excellent the third was a handicapped guy from DC. I just can't laugh at a handicapped person telling jokes at his own expense. A heavy set man with a straw hat was at all the comedy shows heckling Jeff the Funny Guy and the Comedians. He would stage-voice the punch lines before the comedian finished and make comments. :rolleyes: Jeff and one of the comedians commented back at him and you could tell they were annoyed.

 

My overall assessment is that the crowd we sailed with on the Dream was a great group. The ship was new, fresh and clean. Service was fine, crew is friendly, food was what we expected - a wide variety and very tasty. We'd like to sail the Dream again soon and would recommend it to anyone. If you're booked on this ship, don't take the bad reviews as gospel, this ship has a lot to offer and the good far outweighs the bad. ;)

 

Ms B

[jimbo5544]

nice review thanks

[Ms Belvedere]

nice review thanks

Thanks for reading it. I wasn't going to write a review but wanted to let future Dream cruisers read the good and bad from our trip. :)

[jimbo5544]

Thanks for reading it. I wasn't going to write a review but wanted to let future Dream cruisers read the good and bad from our trip. :)

How many Platinum members were on her?

[LHP]

How many Platinum members were on her?

 

over 600.....we were on with Mrs. B and had a BLAST.

 

Carnival broke a record of Platinum AND past guests on this cruise....

 

(mainly because of Mrs. B and her husband....I have never laughed so hard as I did in Grand Turk.)

[jimbo5544]

over 600.....we were on with Mrs. B and had a BLAST.

 

Carnival broke a record of Platinum AND past guests on this cruise....

 

(mainly because of Mrs. B and her husband....I have never laughed so hard as I did in Grand Turk.)

WOW this must have been a bloggers cruise....

[Ms Belvedere]

over 600.....we were on with Mrs. B and had a BLAST.

Carnival broke a record of Platinum AND past guests on this cruise....

(mainly because of Mrs. B and her husband....I have never laughed so hard as I did in Grand Turk.)

 

THank you Linda, we really had fun with you and Dave, too! :D

[leadout_kv]

Thanks for the nice review Ms B. We sail on the Dream in a couple weeks (12/26) so its nice to read someone's recent experiences.

 

Any lessons learned or things we should be sure to do?

 

Thanks

[gands4fun]

My husband and I Cruise a lot and had a GREAT time on the Carnival Dream and a Great time in all the ports.

[LHP]

WOW this must have been a bloggers cruise....

 

It was a Blogger's Cruise...but there were only 183 Bloggers and while I don't know what percentage of them are Platinum....it isn't all of us.

 

I would guess that most of the Platinum guests were retired individuals who live in Florida...... from the average age of the crowd I saw.

[jimbo5544]

It was a Blogger's Cruise...but there were only 183 Bloggers and while I don't know what percentage of them are Platinum....it isn't all of us.

 

I would guess that most of the Platinum guests were retired individuals who live in Florida...... from the average age of the crowd I saw.

Thanks....that number of Platinum cruisers just blows me away. I think the most I ever saw was 73 (on a cruise I was on). Over 600 is a huge jump. Not quite sure what that means. There are probably some (potential) negative types of things that could be instituted if that kind of numbers keep happening, such as limiting some of perks (only one laundry per cruise) like they did on the 1st NY Dream cruise.

[PROCRUISE]

Here is a quick review of my experience on the Dream Inaugural Cruise from Port Canaveral, Dec 3-12, 09. Keep in mind that this cruise had a couple of big groups on it and that most of the pax were prior cruisers who read the cruise boards and are aware of the aspects of cruising, good and bad.

 

Embarkation was a breeze despite the number of Platinum Cruisers; everyone was pleasant and polite. :) We had an aft balcony 8470 and I felt a lot of motion when we sailed, it was nice to feel the rocking but I don't know if this was just due to our room location or if the seas were unsettled. Our room steward and his two assistants (one is getting off the ship this week in Belize) were excellent, kept our room clean and our ice supply filled. There was an issue with soot on our balcony and our neighbors also commented on it, you had to make sure you had foot wear on or you'd get it on your feet. We also had to clean the furniture off with a towel before sitting down or it got on our clothes.

 

Because our room was on the back of the ship that's where I went to get sun on our sea days, two decks up to 10 (Lido). I never had a problem finding a chair but did see that some seats were saved with towels. It wasn't a long stream of chairs, usually two which would seem like a couple who are together. There were kids in the hot tubs with their parents. They weren't out of control maybe because of the experienced parents or because of the low total number of children on board.

 

I'm an early riser and wandered the ship each morning, the Serenity-Adult area consistently had chairs or sections of chairs saved with the tan Spa towels, beach bags, or reg blue Carnival towels. One morning I was up before 6 and there were seats saved, the round ones with the shade you can pull over the top and the grouped seating in the shaded area. I wondered if someone "reserved" them before going to bed the night before.

 

The canned music on the ship was the New Age spacey type of music not the Caribbean songs I expected to hear on a Caribbean cruise, the 2 person band that played reggae was good, very enthusiastic. The piano bar music was okay. The atrium singer was nice to hear on formal night, she had a lot of couples up dancing to the classic songs and Latin music. The guitar player had a group applauding him but I didn't care for his music at all, he played in the casino one night. Ken Byrnes, the Maitre'D in the Scarlett Dining Room, sang every night and it was a pleasure to hear him! :D

 

Speaking of the casino, the slots were mostly 1 and 2 cents with 25 cents, 50 cents and dollar machines thrown in. Some of the machines had the option of playing different games with different denominations from 1 cent to a dollar. They were located to the left of the bar as you face it; I don't know what you call those type of slots but I played them. When playing the lower amounts of money, 1 and 2 cents, it takes longer to reach the 1000 on your Sail and Sign where you get the free $10 bonus. We missed the slot tournament, just didn't have the get up and go this time but I regret not going on Friday.

 

Food in the dining room was good, a little redundant with the 2nd courses and salads, but the main courses were delish and there was plenty to eat. We ate in the Chef's Art Steakhouse one night and everyone loved the choices. Like Tom said in one of his posts on the roll call, they had some options that aren't on the printed menu. They'll tell you about them when they describe what's available. The Steakhouse is nicely laid out and bigger than it first appears. We went up a couple of nights just to sit and have drinks. We had the Mongolian Grill once, the line was very long, Tandoori is on the back of the Lido deck and was good. Never made it to the Pasta Bar, but you order what you want on a paper order form and they make it fresh. We had the hamburgers after coming back in from port and they really hit the spot after a long day of trekking around on the island. On the Lido Deck:

carved meats were excellent, the southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy were like Auntie's Sunday dinner, overall there was a selection for everyone and we didn't have problems with lines or finding seats. I had read that the servers in Lido were slow to clear tables and that they liked to stand around and talk. We did see that to some extent, along with pax clearing their own tables. But the workers seemed to pick it up as the 9 days went on and they were all friendly to us.

 

The cold drinks available at lunch were water, lemonade and sweet iced tea (free). At breakfast they had OJ and the Guava Cocktail. Ice cream was good and was not ice milk. I tried to get a different kind of pizza once, but when I asked for the Feta cheese the server said all they had was regular cheese and pepperoni, no offer to heat up any of the others. I took the regular cheese and let it go considering it was a slow time and maybe they can't let the whole pie go to waste for one piece that a pax requests. We had sushi at Wasabi a couple of nights and one evening noticed that they had Tapas (small plates) instead of Sushi. That was a nice change: Little dishes of olives, roasted peppers, humus, breads, spreads to choose from.

 

We went to one evening show, the Motown Show and saw 3 Comedy Shows. The Motown Show had fantastic singing and dancing. Two of the comedy shows were excellent the third was a handicapped guy from DC. I just can't laugh at a handicapped person telling jokes at his own expense. A heavy set man with a straw hat was at all the comedy shows heckling Jeff the Funny Guy and the Comedians. He would stage-voice the punch lines before the comedian finished and make comments. :rolleyes: Jeff and one of the comedians commented back at him and you could tell they were annoyed.

 

My overall assessment is that the crowd we sailed with on the Dream was a great group. The ship was new, fresh and clean. Service was fine, crew is friendly, food was what we expected - a wide variety and very tasty. We'd like to sail the Dream again soon and would recommend it to anyone. If you're booked on this ship, don't take the bad reviews as gospel, this ship has a lot to offer and the good far outweighs the bad. ;)

 

Ms B

 

The great thing about taking a cruise is the different impressions everyone takes away from the experience. We were part of the Platinum card group and we found the Dream much less than our expectations. However, your comments about the nice group of fellow passengers and very friendly staff is correct. Unfortunately we were stunned by: sewage smell on deck 2, not a single Christmas decoration anywhere on the ship, no string trio for classical music lovers, the simply unbelievable fact that Carnival was not prepared to dock at San Juan even though we've been there 3 times previously, the smaller atrium, pool areas, theater, casino, shopping areas so more cabins could be added to the ship.

We're still loyal to Carnival, just not The Dream, and we're guessing that The Magic will simply be a carbon copy.

Merry Christmas to all....

[CorvetteLady]

We're still loyal to Carnival, just not The Dream, and we're guessing that The Magic will simply be a carbon copy.

Merry Christmas to all....

 

According to John Heald the Magic will not be an exact copy. He said they were looking at some changes for the Lido buffet. I was surprised that the Lido was not really any different than the Conquest class, the Fantasy class has a better flow. Someone asked about the number of pools and he said that would not change.

 

I think my expectations were too high and I can't really put my finger on what it was about the Dream that didn't make me love it. We had a good cruise and I think the problems we encountered were ones that may not happen on the regular 7 day cruise. I did notice an older crowd which I think accounted for the crowds at the shows. I think they need more crew, and I don't think the crew has come together yet. Hopefully that will happen soon.

[katiel53]

Thanks for the review. We are so looking forward to sailing Jan 2. I'm sure we will have a great time.

[jimbo5544]

The great thing about taking a cruise is the different impressions everyone takes away from the experience. We were part of the Platinum card group and we found the Dream much less than our expectations. However, your comments about the nice group of fellow passengers and very friendly staff is correct. Unfortunately we were stunned by: sewage smell on deck 2, not a single Christmas decoration anywhere on the ship, no string trio for classical music lovers, the simply unbelievable fact that Carnival was not prepared to dock at San Juan even though we've been there 3 times previously, the smaller atrium, pool areas, theater, casino, shopping areas so more cabins could be added to the ship.

We're still loyal to Carnival, just not The Dream, and we're guessing that The Magic will simply be a carbon copy.

Merry Christmas to all....

Other than that, did you like the ship?:D

[jimbo5544]

I guess on a more serious note in regards to your San Juan comments, other than getting there and trying (on a new and much larger ship) how would they know whether they could dock there? Are they going to stop there on a regular basis?...no. You mention that you were there 3 times before, were they not on a different ship? I cant argue with your more cabins less general room comments, but I guess in Carnival's case that is what you get with a ship this size.:)

[gaylensgigi]

We had a great time on this cruise, but I agree,this is not my favorite ship.The Glory will probably keep that place.

I did not like the flow through crowd in the piano bar after the shows let out,but I think that is what designers wanted.I also didnt care for the very bright neon lights that border the rails and are on at night.

Other than that,I have no complaints,I actually lost weight on this cruise,probably due to all the walking.Here are a few of my favorite things about this cruise:

Waterslides..you know you want to:D

The lanai area just outside the Casino..a great place at night for a quiet drink and conversation,I dont think anyone knew it was there

Serenity.....I took a nice nap in the hammock

Laser show was good,if you can, get a lounger seat towards the back for full effect

Scarlett DR and Ken..wonderful dining experience,we had the best server ever

Aft Sunset pool at night..very relaxing

The Village People slot machine was hilarious

High Tea on sea days, I had never done this before and am glad my friends made me do it

List goes on, but I will say it was a great cruise despite the glitches, in fact San Juan day was my favorite day:D

[babies12]

Other than that, did you like the ship?:D

 

Now that's just a plain stupid question!

[jimbo5544]

Now that's just a plain stupid question!

Hence the joke icon.......

[PROCRUISE]

Other than that, did you like the ship?:D

 

 

LOL !! I really did like the slightly toned down decor and Antonio our room steward and Ollie, our dinning room waiter, were simply phenomenal.

 

Favorite ships remain: The Legend, The Spirit, and The Splendor.

 

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

[jimbo5544]

LOL !! I really did like the slightly toned down decor and Antonio our room steward and Ollie, our dinning room waiter, were simply phenomenal.

 

Favorite ships remain: The Legend, The Spirit, and The Splendor.

 

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

I agree about the toned down decor. Whatever they gave Joe Farcus this time, they should double it for the Magic... Can't argue with the Spirit class as well. They are my favs. We really enjoyed the Splendor also. I had hoped that after they Magic that Carnival would return to a smaller class (they have one similar to the Spirit class that they have brought out some new ships for HAL and Costa) but at least one more Dream Class before that can happen.

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours as well!

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I'll throw in a few more observations regarding the 12/3 sailing, and the Dream in general. Some of them build upon comments by others, a few - as you will see - are "new".

 

We had an aft cabin on deck 7 and were lucky enough to be in the aft dining room with Ken. We had dinner in there on 5 of the 9 evenings, and were at the (very popular) 6 PM seating. I understand that there was something like 400 people who wanted the early seating and couldn't be accommodated. The reason for the high demand for this time must have been due to the high average age (of passengers) on this sailing as LHP pointed out. Given that there were 600+ Platinum cruisers, I wonder if anyone holding a Platinum card was not able to have their desired ("Guaranteed") dining time... ?

 

While still on the subject of the dining room (back to our 5 nights in there) -- EACH time we left our deck 7 cabin and proceeded to the aft elevators on our way to deck 3 for dinner we discovered a large number of people waiting on elevators. Cheryl loves her shoes, so was always in high heels for dinner. ONE of those 5 evenings we managed to get on an elevator (after 5+ minutes of waiting) only to have it open up into a HUGE crowd which had amassed in the limited area outside the restaurant. There was almost not enough space out there to allow us to exit the elevator. The other 4 evenings we TOOK THE STAIRS down FOUR FLIGHTS IN HEELS (Cheryl, not me :D) thanks to a demand for elevators which I have never witnessed on such a regular basis previously. I suppose since SO many older individuals had early dining, and a % of them are not able to easily navigate the stairs, it overloaded the ability to handle the crowds. I can only hope that the regular 7 night east/west sailings will be of a more standard demographic - thus having a better split between early/late seatings and a more typical percentage of people requiring elevators (speaking as one who does -- again, thanks to shoes)!

 

We tried the Pasta bar once and did enjoy it. I still prefer the Fish&Chips option on the Conquest class ships. One thing which slowed me down for just a moment upon entering the Pasta area was "how to order". I made my way over to where the food was being cooked (what one would do for Fish&Chips) and noticed people handing the cooks slips of paper. It then became apparent that we needed to go to another spot to grab said order form. I am apparently not sufficiently fluent in the names of the various options (sauces and such) - so I headed back to the cooking area to ask them to point out which was which before I ordered. I opted to go for something which I normally enjoy: Lasagna. While what I received was "OK", it was odd finding sweet potatoes layered in there. Not something I would try again!

 

Our cabin - #7454 (aft corner) was the smallest corner we have ever encountered on Carnival. I understand that the corners on deck 8 are smaller still, and on debarkation morning I checked out the deck 6 corners (where we will be next Thanksgiving) - they are the largest of the 3 decks, complete with a slightly larger balcony. We would NOT stay in a deck 7 (needless to say 8) corner again. We were booked in one of the deck 8 corners until people started reporting back on those, and quickly switched to a suite for our 2/27/10 sailing.

 

Carnival had corner cabins down "pretty well" with the Spirit class ships. With the advent of the Conquest class ships they reduced the size (cabin and balcony) and switched them from suites to Cat 9A. With the Dream, they have become smaller still. It is my opinion that they are heading in the wrong direction -- perhaps that is a change they can make in the Magic, though I am holding out ZERO hope. :rolleyes:

 

We noticed a fair bit more soot on our balcony than on many previous (aft) sailings on Spirit and Conquest class ships. Just something to look out for.

 

> We thought the overall decor of the ship was very nice - the atrium, with its glass, wood and chrome was a welcome change.

> Our cabin steward was very good.

> We had the best waiter in the dining room (thanks Ken)!

> Fortunately we encountered no foul odors, as others have in some locations on the ship.

 

Back to food again (obviously a favorite topic of mine)... I had a superb double cut rare/med-rare Prime Rib on the first "Elegant" evening in the dining room. Two negative (lol) points in that regard: 1. Their horseradish had NO kick, and 2. They also brought back the Long Island Roast Duckling entree on the same night (it's been AWOL for years) - the downside to that is I had to also order it, thus I was STUFFED. Upon taking the BEHIND THE FUN tour I studied the 9 nights of menus in the kitchen which were clearly lined up. I saw that I would have a shot again at the Prime Rib later in the cruise - but without good horseradish it would be missing something. Enter St. Thomas, where we sought out a grocery store and found some horseradish for that repeat event. Later I was sad to see that they switched menus and I was not able to enjoy it on Prime Rib, though I did bring it with me to the main dining room on the second "Elegant" evening. I enjoyed slathering it over my braised short ribs, as did Cheryl with her Chateaubriand... :D

 

We had a GREAT time, and met lots of great CC'ers and Bloggers. Looking forward to heading back in a couple of months. And YES, I have added horseradish to our (ever growing) packing list! ;)

 

Tom

[Smoofdaddy]

We had a great time on this cruise, but I agree,this is not my favorite ship.The Glory will probably keep that place.

I did not like the flow through crowd in the piano bar after the shows let out,but I think that is what designers wanted.I also didnt care for the very bright neon lights that border the rails and are on at night.

Other than that,I have no complaints,I actually lost weight on this cruise,probably due to all the walking.Here are a few of my favorite things about this cruise:

Waterslides..you know you want to:D

The lanai area just outside the Casino..a great place at night for a quiet drink and conversation,I dont think anyone knew it was there

Serenity.....I took a nice nap in the hammock

Laser show was good,if you can, get a lounger seat towards the back for full effect

Scarlett DR and Ken..wonderful dining experience,we had the best server ever

Aft Sunset pool at night..very relaxing

The Village People slot machine was hilarious

High Tea on sea days, I had never done this before and am glad my friends made me do it

List goes on, but I will say it was a great cruise despite the glitches, in fact San Juan day was my favorite day:D

 

I'll second everything she said and I'll definatly say SAN JUAN DAY WAS THE BEST DAY!!! From chillin' on the aft deck, to the CASINO, to celebrating Christmas in the piano bar with great friends, I wouldn't change one thing! :)

[crewsweeper]

Ms Belevedre, Tom-n-Cheryl, smoofdaddy,gaylen, and others,

 

Thanks for the excellent review thread here. You folks obviously had a grand time and yet were able to take the unexpected and small disappoints and turn them around while offering tips and advice to those of us yet to sail. (Went out and bought the horseradish last night:).)

[purpleblanket]

Thanks for the reviews.

Good tip about the horseradish Tom.

 

Debbie