dream vs other carnival ships

[sbyczko]

just back from Dream this week...

 

food in dining room was really good exept the caesar salad was really bad and the mac/cheese was much better on Freedom.. one of the reasons we have like Carnival is that i think the food is better than RCL.

 

ate in steak house 2 nights the filet and lamb were great... one bad thing was the porterhouse the 2nd night.. really was a bad cut. on the Freedom it was one the best steaks i have had.

 

shows were really good and the comedy club was outstanding... Fun Dude for CD.

 

pizza was the best of any ship we have been on

 

the late night "snack" was hamburger/hot dogs and fries... from i think 11pm to 1am.. dont hold me on the times.. i really miss my mid-night chesseburger/fries...

 

ice cream machines worked all week - one think i cant figure out is how Carnival can ge them to work and RCL cant - think because RCL has them outside in the heat..

 

staff was general friendly and helpful.. to us and to the other passengers.

 

serenity area was nice but crowded - chairs were not very comfy

 

deck 8 balcony ha dno issue w/ people able to see us from lanai.

 

lania barbaque was ok - we got there close to open and the food was very dry - think they prepare alot for the inital wave and its not the best - the ribs and sliders were dried out.

 

love the big screen and watching playoffs - but the temp was little cold - need better movies at night and get rid of that stupid Lennon/Yoko documentary they show every day!

 

the pasta bar was good but needs little tweaking - they do some custom orders not on the menu - ask for extra everything execpt pasta - first day they gave 2 stips of chicken and very little "mixins".

 

borito bar and mongolian wok need some work - lack flavor - good options that could be alot better

 

never got to the Tandori grill area - looked good - was good on Freedom

 

also 4200 people and no real issues w/ crowds..

 

but we had couple of issues....

 

one was the water - had a real bad taste, in the dining room we switched to bottled water but when we ordered a soda the ice just over powered the taste. we were on Freedom last year and didnt notice this.. has anyone else had issue w/ the water on the Dream?

 

smoking in the piano bar - we are both non-smokers who really dont like the smell but feel it should be allowed in well ventilated areas. this is my issue.. if carnival is going to allow and planned to allow smoking in the piano bar why not have some "super" affective ventilation system so both smokers and non-smokers can enjoy the area. we love the piano bars and have spent alot of time in them on our previous crusises. but this cruise it was hard to just walk by the piano bar let alone try and sit in it.

 

pools really needed to be bigger.

 

turkey in the deli - what is that? we walked by the first day and looked in the little display and they had slices of the turkey on a dish - was disgusting..

 

bad smell - got the wiff when we frist go on when we went to the back pool area and seemed to get it on the rear decks w/ rooms but wasn't over powering

 

need a bar area out of the way - like the wine bar on Freedom

 

we really liked the Dream and have been looking hard at the Magic and the changes they have made over the Dream and we would really like to tyr her but i dont think the home ports work for us right now.. so looks like the Dream again in Sept.. maybe!!

[firefly333]

Yep Magic is coming to Galveston .. not a good port to fly into. Great to drive to though for us Texans.