Just back from the Dream 06/19/10

[acecombatmom]

Just returned from the Dream. In fact I just got home at 2:30 this morning and returned to work today. Here is my view of the Dream.

I left work on Thursday 06/17/10 at about 5:30 pm to begin my vacation. When I got home to get my children DS 19 and DS14. They were not ready. They had been watching a movie. So we had to rush and get everything in the car, get the dog settled in his pen and make sure everything was off. Got on the road about 7. Stopped in Columbus Ga for some dinner. We had reservations at the Country Inn and Suites in Valdosta Ga. We had driven about 200 miles when my ds14 realized he had left his tux at home.

I started to turn around and go get it but then realized how dangerous that would be with me and no sleep. Arrived in Valdosta about midnight and went to sleep to continue to Fla the next day. Valdosta was 1/2 way.

[acecombatmom]

Got up early on Friday because I was in a hurry to meet my cruisecritic friends at the Radisson at the Port. Ate the continental breakfast and then headed out. We stopped at an outlet mall looking for a big and tall shop but could find none all day. When we got to Lake City Fla we saw a helicopter circling and it landed on the northbound 75 to pick up crash victims. My DS said he thought he saw bodybags.

Arrived in Cape Canaveral at about 3. I lucked out and my room was the first one on the side and near the pool and lobby. I loved the sleep number bed. We went to the pool and children went swimming. I found members of our group from their facebook photos. Everyone in our group was so nice.

Later a bunch of us went to dinner at Zachery's next to the hotel. I think a few meals got mixed up but I would not let my child say anything about not getting the correct dinner. After dinner we returned to the hotel and I got the T-shirts I had had made for everyone and gave to them. We all wore them when we set sail the next day.

Went to Walmart and was able to find dress pants and a dress shirt for my DS. We went back to hotel to get some sleep before we started a new day.

[acecombatmom]

I was up on Saturday at 8 and ready to get on the boat. I had a hard time getting boys up they really enjoyed their sleep number bed. I looked out the window to see the ship but since I was on the ground floor I could not see the ship. Tried to thin down the bags. Not much luck. We left and went through the drive thru at Mcdonalds and got some breakfast and some coffee. Took a picture of ship driving down the road.

Came back to hotel and parked the car for the week. Walked back to room to await my turn with the shuttle. We were scheduled for the 11:30 shuttle but got on the 11 since so many people took cabs to the Ship. can not stay awake I will continue tommorrow about the happenings on the ship.

[mom2girls]

Great start to your review! Thanks for posting it! :)

[acecombatmom]

This whole cruise was like nothing I have ever read before. We took the shuttle to the boat when we arrived my DS decided to send the carry on through checked luggage because he stated it was too heavy to carry. (I did not get that bag until after 8 that night with a note stating they thought I had some contraband but all is well.)Nothing was missing from the bag. We had no problems with security or checking in. We were on the boat quickly. The man taking our picture was very friendly and we chatted like we had known each other for years. We went into the ship and it was big and beautiful. We were welcomed on board and told to go to the Crimson Dining room for some lunch. It was just about noon so we went in for lunch. One DS had a TexMex burger and the other and myself had porkchops that fell off the bone. That was one of the best meals I had on the ship.

When we finished it was a little after one so we waited in the lobby for our room to be ready. Had my first DOD the Funship Special. When it was time we went to find our room.

We had a beautiful balcony on the 11 floor port side Forward. We were just a couple of cabins away from the Spa but I did not have a spa cabin.

When we opened the door I saw the room was decorated with Happy Birthday Decorations for me. My DS had arranged it. We stored the passports and valuables in the safe then went out to explore the ship.

[cwscruiser]

That was so thoughtful of your DS to have arranged the decorations for you! Enjoying your review!

[reeree313]

You have such a thoughtful son. I can't believe you even contemplated going back 200 miles (400 extra miles round trip) for the tux....that thought would have NEVER crossed my mind :D

[txgolfergrl]

"Took a picture of ship driving down the road."

Would have LOVED to have seen that!!!!!

[acecombatmom]

The Dream was a beautiful boat. My youngest decided to go swimming and my oldest and I went up to the Serenity and relaxed under the canopies. Got another dod and we toured the ship. The muster drill was different from anything I have ever seen. We showed up in the 5th floor balcony of the Encore Lounge to watch a safety demonstration and a short film on safety.

When this was over we went to meet our CruiseCritic group at the Sunset bar in the back of the ship. I met a few people but my DS needed something so when I returned most people were gone.

I never met two people that I had been corresponding with here. I wish I had been able to meet them because I probably saw them all week and I did not know who they were. So I just got me another DOD and went to see if the casino had opened.

We had anytime dining on this trip and we were assigned to the 4th floor in the Crimson dining room. We had to wait about 15 minutes for a table. We were given a pager and went out into the photo area and waited.

Our waitress the first night was Christina. I saw her almost everyday in the lido at breakfast. My DS had the flat iron steak almost everynight. I had the the sweet and sour shrimp and the other DS had fall off the bone ribs that were delicious. We all had the melting cake for dessert but it was too runny that I didnot have it again until the end of the cruise. After dinner went back to the room for a while the final bag was there with the note. DS14 went to the Circle C welcome dance and other son and I went to the Welcome Aboard Show.

My DS said he did not like the Circle C on this cruise because no one wanted to do anything but make out. He wanted to play games and have adventures he did not want to spend his trip makeing out. So he did not really go after the first night. Last year he spent the whole cruise on the Legend in the Circle C room. The first day was wonderful to me. The next day was just as great....

[flgojo]

Later a bunch of us went to dinner at Zachery's next to the hotel. I think a few meals got mixed up but I would not let my child say anything about not getting the correct dinner.

 

I just have to ask...

 

Why not???? What is wrong with letting them know so the can correct the mistake?

[acecombatmom]

Later a bunch of us went to dinner at Zachery's next to the hotel. I think a few meals got mixed up but I would not let my child say anything about not getting the correct dinner.

 

I just have to ask...

 

Why not???? What is wrong with letting them know so the can correct the mistake?

The truth is we were eating with a bunch of people in our cruise critic group and my DS and I thought his steak and someone elses were switch and that person had already started eating. I wanted these people to like me. I had been talking to them on here for months and I had just met them that day. I did not want to start a problem with my new friends. Yes the restaurant was the one who made the mistake but I did not want to upset my new friends.

[Meyer2]

Great review so far, I look forward to more.

[acecombatmom]

Sunday was the Bahamas day but we did not get off the ship. I did not have an excursion set up and I had heard about the terrible crime rate if you took your own tour. I had never been to the Bahamas but I could not find anything I wanted to do in the small amount of time available. Did take a picture of the Atlantis from the ship

 

Took this as we were leaving the Bahamas

My eldest DS and I went to breakfast in the Scarlett dining room they sat us with a single lady and a family of 5. We had a good breakfast and when we went back to the room the other child was still asleep. Grabbed the FunTimes and went out to find activities. We foung trivia and such in the Ocean Plaza. We played trvia almost everyday. When we left we had 10 ship metals.

Then the childen went swimming

I relaxed on the Serenity deck and had my first long island tea of the day. I checked out the gym and then went back to the room and took a nap.

[acecombatmom]

Sunday was the first formal night on the ship. So we dressed up and went to dinner. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table and I had another long island tea while we waited. We ended up with the best waiter on the boat. After this night we requested him every night no matter how long we had to wait. His name was Jerry and his assistant waiter was his own wife Divina.

They were a super couple who called us by name and treated us like royalty. I had the prime rib and my children had steak. My handsome sons.

After dinner we went to the 10:30 show in the Lounge it was a country based show called 8 more seconds. It featured all the carnival dancers and singers. After that show my eldest and i went to the Burgandy Lounge at the other end of the ship for the midnight r rated comedy show of Mike Macy.

He was terriffic and funny and I had to buy his CD afterwards. After the comedy show we stopped in the Casino for a few minutes. DS won about 50 and quit. I lost the 20 I played. I had been drinking long island tea all evening starting before supper so when I returned to the room I was tipsy. I decided I need coffee so I headed to the lido deck for some. I was still wearing my evening gown and the ship had hit some rocky seas and I was tipsey so when I got back to the room my dress was covered in coffee. The dirty clothes smelled like coffee all week.

Tommorrow is the first sea day and we had fun.....

[acecombatmom]

Monday was the first seaday and we started the day in the Lido for breakfast. There are several omelet stations on the Lido. The Deli and all the burger grills do breakfast and cook omlets in the morning as well as the 2 main buffet Lines. We all had omlets as well as the mantatory coffee. We went to the talk being given by the Cruise director about what to do in port. He introduced all the heads of the depts and what to do on the ship. After the show we went to the ocean plaza and played trivia.

We that ended and my DS and I had each won a medal, we sat there waiting for more Trivia. My DS went outside and got some sliders from the Lanai BBQ. I got a salad from the salad bar. The sushi bar has salads at Lunch and is located just off the ocean plaza.

After lunch we played super trivia. It is a team trivia contest that lasts all week on sea days. We had a couple from Tennessee on our team the first day. There were about 15 teams. We played 3 rounds each day. Today we had a pass card and could pass on the question if we did not know it and get another one. If you get the question correct you get to roll a giant die for points. We had some poor rolls and ended up with 1 a couple of times. It was Fun and we like trivia. Both my DS's are on the academic teams at their schools.

[acecombatmom]

That evening we were having dinner with a few members of our group in the supper club tonight but first we had the Past guest party in the Encore Lounge.

They had 2 sittings because there were so many past guests on the ship. They had over 2500 return guests. The music was good and the cruise director actually sang a love song. He has a great voice. The waiters were always there with free drinks.

As soon as you finished one they put another one down in front of you. I was getting tipsy from all the free drinks. We watched a film about all the Carnival ships and you were to clap when you saw a ship you had been on. Well there was little clapping when it came to the Dream. Todd the cruise director came out and stated did everyone know where they were at the moment.

After the party was over we headed upstairs to the supper club. We had 8 people from our group having supper at the steakhouse. The food was delicious and the steaks were huge. My DS does not like much but the steak and potato so when he did not eat the appetizer of shrimp cocktail or his salad the waitress kept asking him if something was wrong. I ended up with shrimp but no one ate the salad. The only problem with dinner I saw was that they did not give you enough potato toppings for your potato like butter and sour cream. We had a lot of wonderful conversation and we got to know each other better. It was nice to make new friends on the Cruise. After dinner we went down to the Comedy club and saw the new R rated comedy show of Mike Macy. It was standing room only so I had to take off my heels and was holding them in my hand. After the show my DS and I went back through the casino I was still barefoot and played some slots then off to bed because tommorrow was a big day and we needed to rest.

[acecombatmom]

Was going to start back this afternoon but we have a big 4th celebration in my small town and I need to go. Will continue when I return have the next 2 days ready to go.

[mom2girls]

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review.

[LizaMM]

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Me too! I can't enough of these right now!

[acecombatmom]

Well Tuesday bloomed beautiful and we arrived in beautiful St Thomas. We we scheduled for a tour from Godfrey.

This day was also my birthday. First thing I did was turn on my cell phone so my mother could call me. She said she was going to call me on my birthday and since St Thomas is the United States it was not roaming. I have an iphone so I checked my email and messages. By the way we had 3 iphones and set them to no roaming and the only charges was a 50 cent text message the whole trip.

I had bought an internet plan on the ship and used my laptop to check mail, bank accounts and post some on facebook. My DS and I used it almost everyday and although I bought a small plan we did not use all the minutes. The ship kept having specials like use 10 minutes and the next 10 are free and such.

I had made some birthday items at Carnival before I left home. I had a bag , 2 coffee cups and 2 large beachtowels.

I also had this shirt made for me that I wore for my birthday.

I drank my morning coffee in the cup, carried the towel in the beach bag, and wore the shirt all on my birthday. We found our tour guy outside the security gates, he took us downtown for some shopping. One DS bought a hat and the other bought a ring. The largest size t-shirt I could find anywhere was a 2 x and neither of them could wear that. After about an hour we gather to go on our tour. Godfrey was putting everyone on the different trollys and such. He put my 2 DS and myself in the front in the cab. He said he thought we may be more comfortable there and we were. The driver was a wonderful lady. She even stopped on the side of the road when she saw an iguana had come down from the treetops and took a picture for my DS.

We stopped several places to take pictures and each time Godfrey gave us a history lesson on how most of the homes are new because of hurricane Marilyn in 1995.

[acecombatmom]

We stopped at one place called Francis Drake Seat. It is said he would sit on a rock and ponder for hours he could see most of the island from here. It was very congested with several tour groups there at the same time.

I was taking pictures when these people came up and told me to go because she had to go to the bathroom.

Here is a picture of Megans bay from the hill.

DS took this one through his monocular and the camera.

There was also a goat man whose goat did tricks and he solicited donations for his work.

[acecombatmom]

We came to the great house and we paid 2 dollars for a tour. On the observation deck Godfrey gave us a history of this area and what we could see.

We toured the house and this is where the world Famous banana daiquiri was moved to when Mountaintop burned down last year. I got one but it was not to my liking seeing how they make it with a very ripe banana. I gave to my Ds and he throughly enjoyed it.

My other DS found some new bathing shorts cheap and we bought them as well as some other souveniers. Back on the truck we decided we wanted to go to Coki beach for a couple of hours. It was very crowded. I wanted to go to Coral World but it was too expensive for just an hour or so.

I purchased a chair and an umbrella for awhile and my boys went swimming. They really enjoyed themselves.

When we finished swimming we headed back to the Ship. The driver gave us some more history of the island. We saw the world famous Mahogany Run Golf course and through the local shopping area which could be in any American city. Grocery, malls, fast food etc.

 

When we returned to the ship I took a shower and since we were no leaving until 8 I went out to shop in the mall located at the port.

There was a man on the corner with samples of Flavored Rum in front of a liquor store. I tried several and liked the banana and coconut. Bought the whole set of little bottles. The bought some souvieners for people at work in the different little shops. I came back to the ship to get ready for dinner. Both my DS were asleep.

Well i need to go to bed. will try to finish today and wednesday tommorrow.

[alreadypacked]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to write it. I love the format you use with a little bit of text then a picture, text then a picture. Some reviews are huge paragraphs that go on forever, then, finally, a picture. Great job!!!

[acecombatmom]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to write it. I love the format you use with a little bit of text then a picture, text then a picture. Some reviews are huge paragraphs that go on forever, then, finally, a picture. Great job!!!

Thanks I am just inserting pictures with what I am talking about. Want everything to match. :)

[acecombatmom]

Got the children ready and we went down to dinner. The lady at the desk knew we wanted Jerry so she said we woud have about a 10 minute wait.

We got a really good table. The food tonight was especially delicious. On the first day we had tipped the drink waiter Edy, so as soon as he saw us we had soda's. He made sure we always had something to drink.

My DS tipped him several dollars everyday. He was very nice and attentive. In the day he works in the ocean plaza and there he also made sure we had soda's when we were playing games. We had bought soda cards the first day.

These waiters and waitresses really made us feel special.

When it came to dessert I was a little disappointed though. Divina took our order for dessert and since it was my birthday I was expect a cake. I was confused and depressed so I just order plain Vanilla ice cream. She tried to talk me into something more but my heart was not in it. They brought the dessert and we were eating it when Divina came back and pulled my DS aside and had him sign something. Later he told me that she said she had just received the order for the cake from the front and for him to stall. He started taking about some obscure topic and we discussed it. I few minutes later they brought me the best tasting chocolate cake in the world. I will always remember this night. Jerry made me a happy birthday hat and put it on my head as he was singing Happy Birthday to Me.

After dinner we went to the room to leave the cake and take a break then we went to the 10:30 show in the Lounge. It was the big Dancing In The Streets show. My children had gone to the lido deck and watched some of the Laser Show of Pink Floyd and Rush. I was saving them a place with me in the lounge. There was a lady in the front who had taken a whole half a row and she was so bitter and nasty to anyone who asked if they could sit there. I saw a few empty seats a few rows back Simon one of the entertainment staff was sitting there and let me sit down. He told me it was against the rules to save seats so he did not save seats. Luckily no one sat beside me so my children had a place to sit when they came in. The lounge was never crowded as people had said on these boards. I always found a place to sit when I came in and there were always empty seats at the late shows. The show was excellent and I really enjoyed it. The dancers were so good. I was a little disappointed because one of the dancers never got mentioned as dancing the whole week. I saw him later in the week and he said that he had just joined the ship and was still learning the dances. Well he did dance some in all the shows so he should have been indroduced with the rest of the dancers. His name was Rowen. This is him on the right with Nathaniel another dancer.