How to make a Carnival Dream Cruise an awesome experience!

[zagguy]

My DW and I just returned from a back to back cruise on the Carnival Dream. Thanks to lessons learned from these boards we had a wonderful experience. We are experienced cruisers and were skeptical about the "Dream" We have cruised with Celebrity, RCL, Norweigan and Carnival. Here are 10 tips that made our cruise one of our best.

 

1. Our room number was 1418. Bottom of the ship in the aft. We tried to upgrade but it was cost prohibitive.(So happy we didn't) We found being in that spot had many advantages. Close to the rear elevators, where we had no wait time to get on. (Other elevators often had long lines of people.) No noise above us,(do not book a room below the Lido Deck or Encore theater, very noisy) Less rocking than other decks. Easy access for disembarking at ports. (Rooms in this location will be our priority from now on)

 

2. Tip your room stewards! They took such great care of us, provided exrtra padding for DW's bed, always had fresh pool towels before used ones were turned in, our room was always the first made up, and provided many other ammenitites. (Money well spent!)

 

3. Do the any time dining in the upper part of the crimson dining room! We ate every night for two weeks @ 6:00pm. There were only two nights we had to wait in line.(There were only two to three couples ahead of us) We had 6 in our party, had Conrad, Carnivals best waiter and team, as well as the same table every night. (The Scarlet Dining Room, early and late dinning times had some of the longest lines I have ever seen, so happy to avoid them!)

 

4. Go to the early show, again we went some nights fifteen minutes before the show started and always had great seats on the floor level. If you have long legs avoid the upper level or you will be in pain!

 

5. Go to the AFT pool in the morning and get a chair. You will be next to "The Gathering buffet, sandwich grill and Indian food grill. Also, there is a drink station, tables and lounge chars with great views of the Aft. Pick and choose when you want to go to the main pool.

 

If any one has questions about doing a back to back cruise or anything else on the Dream, I'll be happy to answer...:)

[LHP]

So glad you had a great time...

thanks for the tips!!!!

[theflyscotsman]

How was the buffet and other lunch areas? Dinner quality? Was the aft pool pretty accessible, not too crowded? Get to try out the spa by chance?

[zagguy]

The buffet was similar to most buffets I have experienced on cruises. The ruben sandwich was one of the best I've had. The burrito bar made and awesome grilled shrimp burrito and I enjoyed the pasta bar selection. The burger stand was good but I didn't really like the pizza. Loved having all the options for lunch.

 

Dinner, loved the creme brulee' and told the waiter so I had two at the table every night for two weeks.Yikes! The selection in the dinning room varied in quality. The lobsters were good but very small. Seafood was excellant otherwise. They had some weird selections for entrees like beef strongonoff? I felt the food quality was slightly worse then Celebrity but better than RCL.

 

The Aft pool is small and we only used it to cool off. It was less crowded on the Western Carr. leg but always had some people in it. On days in Port the Camp Carnival Kids come for a dip around 11:00 so we found other things to do.

 

We didn't do the spa but one of our friends did and she said it was awesome, we toured it and it looked very nice. However, in Costa Maya we did the Pez Quadro beach break. The locals were giving massages for $20 and our friend said it was without a doubt the best she'd ever had.

[FrogFritter]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise. I chose the Dream (again) for my upcoming cruise because of the Aft pool area. I have never been one to lay out, use the hot tub or pool on sea days until I sailed the Dream. It was convenient from our aft room and it was never crowded. We would spend hours there because it was convenient to get a snack or jump on the elevator to get to the cabin if we needed something.

 

Thanks for the review!