Carnival Dream - Eastern Caribbean - 4/10 to 4/17

[crewsweeper]

iggy's mom, thanks for your review. So how was the shopping in Marigot on St. Maarten? DW wants to go to the market and look for spices. Was it crowded? Sounds like you did a lot in an hour. We'll be with the Oasis as well. How close were you to that ship when you docked?

 

I'm trying to talk DW out of Atlantis...or just doing the puiblic areas without the excursion expense. I'd rather go to Fish Fry and have cracke dconch and a cold Kalik:).

[gill_boo]

Do you have to buy some sort of Spa Package to use the Thalassotherapy pool, or can anyone use it?

 

You have to be booked in a spa cabin or purchase a pass to the spa area (limited availability).

[iggy's mom]

Hi, I'll be doing this cruise back to back in Sept. If I could ask as few questions for ya since you just got back.

Carnival transportation at the airport to the port, is that only avail on the day of the sailing. I fly in the day before. And at what cost ?

When you arrived at the port, did you already notice people getting let on the ship ? If so, i'd want to arrive about an hour earlier. Being a VIP guest, the sooner the better to get let on.

Is it true there is no sports bar on the ship ?

The smell - I have never smelled anything like what you and alot of others on here are talking about, guess something wrong with my nose. But I can smell those great tasting burgers on the grill - Go figure:confused:

Did you buy foo foo drinks ? On Splendor in Nov/09 they did not serve them in the larger tall plastic glass, only the short fatter ones.. They say thats the only size they have now, some say not true, what's it like on Dream with that ?

Do you know if the Cruise Director will be onboard for the rest of the year. Is he Todd Whitmar or something like that ?

thanks!

 

 

We too flew in the day before and booked the Carnival transfer to and from the ship. Yes, it is only available on the day the ship departs, so if you choose to go this route you'd have to get back to the airport to pick up the shuttle bus. Like crewsweeper stated, if you choose not to go this route, there are others to book with. We went this way since we were staying at the hotel at the airport.

 

There isn't a dedicated sports bar, however the bar near the casino before the Fun Hub stations did occasionally have sports on. They were playing golf on Saturday and Sunday and later in the week they had on tennis.

 

DH usually had one foo foo drink a day. His never came in tall glasses but I did see people ordering drinks with them.

 

Not sure who the CD will be when you sail. Todd returned from vacation a cruise or two before ours, and they usually go on vacation about every 6 months or so. Moving around of the CDs can happen at anytime.

[iggy's mom]

iggy's mom, thanks for your review. So how was the shopping in Marigot on St. Maarten? DW wants to go to the market and look for spices. Was it crowded? Sounds like you did a lot in an hour. We'll be with the Oasis as well. How close were you to that ship when you docked?

 

I'm trying to talk DW out of Atlantis...or just doing the puiblic areas without the excursion expense. I'd rather go to Fish Fry and have cracke dconch and a cold Kalik:).

 

 

The shopping in Marigot was okay. The mall was kind-a "fancy pants." DH collects lapel pins from the places we go, and he was able to find it there. However, we wouldn't have purchased anything else from the mall as it was all high end, very pricey stuff.

 

At the flea market, it was a lot of vendors with all of the same items. T-shirts, etc. I defintely saw spices there as I made the comment that my dad would have had a field day there. When we arrived, we were the first bus there. By the time we left there were 6 buses. It never felt crowded. I heard some people on the bus stating that they were able to barter with some of the vendors.

 

The Oasis was directly across from us. In the little shopping area by the ships we noticed how crowded it seemed with 5 ships in that day. However, out on our excursion, we didn't notice a bit.

 

Looking back on the cruise, the only thing I would change would not to have done Atlantis. It just wasn't what we thought. The day would have been better kicking back somewhere eating and drinking. :)

[iggy's mom]

Friday, April 16 (Sea Day)

 

Our last day on the ship. :( This morning we changed it up and had breakfast in the dinning room. It was pretty good, and nice not to have to wait in the lines at the Lido buffet. Next we did the Spa, and some packing.

 

Skipping ahead a bit, later in the day we received our zone tags, however since earlier in the cruise we had signed up for the luggage express option, we need to wait until turned down to receive our airline tags. I've done luggage express before on other cruise lines and think the programs is worth the cost. It cost $20 per person, plus any fees that the airlines you are on charges for luggage. So, for us, it was $45 per person.

 

So after some doing some packing, DH went to find a sport to read, and I did some trivia contest and went to a talk at the gym/spa. I also went to the debark talk. When we cruised on the Splendor, we did self assist. I wanted to see what, if anything different, Carnival does at debark. Turns out not much is different. I did learn though that with luggage express we could get off the ship when the self assist'ers do or wait for our zone to be called.

 

We then had some lunch, went to the gym. DH went off to have a massage while I went to the spa. It was crowded on this day.

 

After dinner we did the remainder of our packing and then went to the see the Gender Showdown show. We were going to stick around for the Carnival Legends show, but we both decided we were tired so we skipped it this cruise. We kind-a wished it was a bit earlier in the evening.

[iggy's mom]

Saturday, April 17 (Get off the ship day)

 

We were up early as neither of us seem to be able to sleep on travel days. We stood out on the balcony and watched the ship come into port and dock.

 

I decided the day before that we would get off the ship with those doing self assist. I think DH would have preferred to have waited for our zone to be called, but when they are kicking me off the ship, I prefer just to get it over with. :(

 

Self assist was unorganized chaos with lines everywhere. Customs inspection was painless. Then we were on the bus to the airport. On our bus there was a family from England how knew they'd not be able to make it home due to the airports in Europe being closed. As luck would have it, there was a United Airlines pilot (that's the airline they were to be on) sitting across from them. He heard them talking, made a few calls for them and told them what should happen over the next few days (they be re-booked on a flight sometime this week).

 

Sitting across from me where two ladies are were very unhappy that they were not going to make their flight. I heard them say that they had booked an 8:15am flight. I managed to keep my thoughts to myself, but why would they have booked such an early flight???

 

So that's my review. Thanks again for taking the time to read it. While my scanner is broken, I do have copies of the Fun Times, so if you need any information from them, I can take a look and let you know.

 

Would we sail on the Carnival Dream again? YES!!:)

[southbayer]

Which port o call was most busiest, meaning other ships parked as well ? And does it matter at all crowds wise ?

[iggy's mom]

Which port o call was most busiest, meaning other ships parked as well ? And does it matter at all crowds wise ?

 

The most crowded was the day we were in St. Maarten as there were 5 ships docked there. It only mattered, for us, for the crowds at the little shopping place by the ships. Other than that did not notice any crowds that day.

[jamo951]

Thank you for taking your time to post your positive review! I don't sail until January, but we started making plans on what we want to do as a group, and it helps when some of the plans that you have made are coming back with positive reviews. Hope you get your pictures up at somepoint, I'd be interested in seeing them.

 

One quick question: The Behind the Fun tour, are you not allowed to have any electronics on you? Ex. Cell phone (most have cameras) or two-way radios!

 

Thanks again,

Jim

[familycruzer]

Fun Force is the break dancing team that is on the Carnival Dream.

 

Were they the group from Americas Got Talent? The name sounds familiar.

[kcjbo3535]

thanks for the review it was great

[Ricks]

Spa pass $250 for both or each??

[iggy's mom]

Thank you for taking your time to post your positive review! I don't sail until January, but we started making plans on what we want to do as a group, and it helps when some of the plans that you have made are coming back with positive reviews. Hope you get your pictures up at somepoint, I'd be interested in seeing them.

 

One quick question: The Behind the Fun tour, are you not allowed to have any electronics on you? Ex. Cell phone (most have cameras) or two-way radios!

 

Thanks again,

Jim

 

Correct, no electronics that can take pictures or video. I'm not sure about the two-way radios as I don't remember it from the leaders spiel.

 

I'm trying with the pictures, but keep failing. :) But I haven't given up yet!

[iggy's mom]

Were they the group from Americas Got Talent? The name sounds familiar.

 

 

 

Ummmm, I'm not sure as I don't remember if they ever said how they got together. But they made it seem like when they got hired, they were hired together as a group, not as individuals who were put together to form the group. I could be wrong about this though.

[iggy's mom]

Spa pass $250 for both or each??

 

The $250 was for both of us.

[dainew]

Spa pass $250 for both or each??

 

the spa pass was 150.00 p/p or 250.00 for 2

[chuckyb]

I was on this cruise too. I have a few questions and comments. I'll have a review up soon.

 

In my family's room, we have very few ammenties in the bathroom

There was no luggage mat on the bed during embarkation/debarkation.

Did you feel the ship rocking/shaking as much as we did?

[iggy's mom]

I was on this cruise too. I have a few questions and comments. I'll have a review up soon.

 

In my family's room, we have very few ammenties in the bathroom

There was no luggage mat on the bed during embarkation/debarkation.

Did you feel the ship rocking/shaking as much as we did?

 

 

We had the luggage mat on the bed at both embark day and Friday night.

 

For us, I'm pretty sure we had the standard amenities in our bathroom. In the little amenities bowl we had two razors (1 male/1 female), crest toothpast samples, and two packets of Tyneol PM.

 

I felt the ship rocking a lot on Thursday and a bit more than usual on Friday morning. I thought it was because of the 40 miles an hour winds. On the other days, I didn't notice it.

[chuckyb]

I guess carnival cut down on the ammenities because on the other cruises there used to be more.

 

I guess the room steward I had wasn't quite up to par with the others.

[LindaJSteele]

Quote: "Were they the group from Americas Got Talent? The name sounds familiar."

 

No, they weren't. I thought that, too, so I asked them the evening they performed in the Dream Atrium, and they said, "no." They were good, though, weren't they? We went to the hip hop dance class they taught along with the Thriller dance class. Talk about tough!

[xxjulzxx]

You have to be booked in a spa cabin or purchase a pass to the spa area (limited availability).

And what all is included in the spa pass??

[iggy's mom]

And what all is included in the spa pass??

 

You have access to the Thalassotherapy pool. In addition there are 4 rooms in the spa area that one has access to. Two of the rooms have heated chairs. One room is the steam room, while the other is wet steam room. (Sorry, I don't know the exact name of the types of steam rooms these are.)

[robvan]

thanks for writing a review - can't wait to read more

 

my two interests are the spa experiences and the new photo program that is being tried out on the Dream - any info would be greatly appreciated as we are doing a b2b in two weeks

 

thanks again

 

I was on this sailing too. I did not do the spa The new photo experience was not all that great. We had many photos taken and only a few select ones appeared on the screen and the ones that did were not easy to view. You could not rotate any nor view them very clear. We still ended up searching for the printed photos.

[mississauga]

Were they the group from Americas Got Talent? The name sounds familiar.

 

Fun Force is the name that Carnival calls their Break Dancers. They have more than one team on their ships each week, Not sure if there is a Fun Force on each ship. We had a Fun Force on the Liberty in Oct. with 2 guys who performed in the Atrium. On the Dream in Dec., the Fun Force was a team of 4 who also performed in the Atrium. Although the moves were different, their audience interaction was scripted...word for word the same on each ship. The team of 4 on the Dream were however part of Dancin' in the Street, the fabulous production show with all the dancers and singers. They were great and very talented.

 

When they introduce each other, it seems like that come from different parts of the USA so maybe they are hired individually like the other dancers and the singers and then follow a routine or perform using their signature moves. The 2 on the Liberty seemed to know each other but then it could be that they've worked together for a while. The 4 on the Dream definitely all had their own area of expertise and incorporated their individual talents into Dancin' in the Streets. IMHO, they were a higher caliber Fun Force team. Each one of the 4 were extremely talented in their specialty.

[robvan]

Sunday, April 11 (Nassau & first elegant evening)

 

DH and I got up early, got some breakfast from the Lido buffet and then headed back to the cabin to watch our arrival in Nassau. When we arrived Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas was already docked. Just about the time that docked a Carnival ship was leaving. I'm not sure which one it was.

 

I got a picture of the Carnival ship that was leaving after we docked. It was the Imagination.