My Repeat Dream - Review 1/29-2/5

[FrogFritter]

Intro - I just returned from my 2nd cruise on the Dream. My friend, Stephanie and I are both in our 30's and live in freezing Syracuse, NY. We are both nurses and have been cruising together for the last 3 years. This is the first cruise we have been on without a group of friends and family. (They all went on the Victory instead). I made an effort to experience some things on this trip that I didn't do the last time I sailed the Dream. We sailed the Eastern itinerary - Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

Unfortunately my camera broke on the 2nd day, so I don't have any pictures.

 

Flight - After sleeping 2 hours, my husband dropped us off at the airport at 5:30am to catch our 7am flight. We flew from Syracuse to Orlando on JetBlue the morning before the cruise. Great non-stop flight. We arrived at 10am and our vacation began!

 

Rental Car - We arrived at 10am and rented a car from Budget. We got a great deal ($30) by prepaying for a mid sized car. Only negative is that it has now been over a week since returning the car and they still have a hold on my credit card. UGH! Returning the car the next day was a long

process because they do not offer the express drop off at this location. I think we waited about 45 minutes to get the shuttle to the port.

 

Hotel - We stayed at the Country Inn & Suites. ($70) Very nice hotel - our room had 2 Queen beds, fridge and microwave. We booked with the friends & family code someone posted on our role call. They included a hot continental breakfast in the morning and shuttle to the port. I believe you could also park your car there for 14 days. The pool area was very nice but we did not get a chance to use

it. Last year we stayed at the Radisson but were not impressed, so we tried this hotel instead - I would definitely recommend the Country Inn & Suites over the Radisson. Also, Hertz is practically on the property so keep that in mind if you are renting a car - you could drop the car off and walk over to the hotel to catch the shuttle they offer.

 

Pre-cruise fun - We went to Fishlips around 4pm and sat upstairs on the deck so we could watch the Monarch of the Seas sail out of port. We met some people from CruiseCritic there and had a few

drinks. It was Happy Hour and we spent $12 for 2 beers, 1 Malibu & Coke and an order of Won Ton Chicken Nachos. Great deal, great view and great company. On a prior trip, we had dinner with a

group at Fishlips - they were very accommodating, food was great and we had a good time. I would recommend. We did some shopping and stopped at the liquor store for 2 bottles of wine. We called

it a night and were both asleep by 10pm. We woke up early and saw the ship from our room - excitement mode kicked in!

 

Embarkation - We were dropped off by the shuttle, gave the porters our bags and went right in. This was a quick process and we were onboard in about 30 minutes. It seems corny but I love the energy

and enthusiasm the people working at the port have - makes you even more excited to be going on your cruise. Since I had already sailed on the Dream, I didn't do a ship tour or anything - we went right to the Lido deck and had our 1st DOD and lunch. After that, we went to the Ocean Plaza on Deck 5 and sat outside enjoying the sun and looking over the Fun

Times.

 

Stateroom - At 1:30pm they made an announcement that our cabins were ready. We had cabin 1427 - it is an oceanview room in the aft. Nice room, tons of storage space and a couch. The cabin had 1

full bathroom and then another with a bathtub/shower and sink. This worked out very well for us all week. It was awesome to have 2 showers so we didn't have to take turns getting ready. Our room steward was Estoban and he was wonderful! Ice bucket was always full, towel animal every night and he always greeted us by name. One night we had a soda explode and it soaked both of our beds - he had it cleaned up and new linens on the beds in no time. Definitely one of the best room stewards I

have ever had.

 

Dining - We went with late seating and were in the Scarlet Dining Room at table 410. It is a rectangular 10 top. This is also the first time I had been seated with people I didn't know at dinner. The 1st night was a little weird because only 8 people showed up and we ended up were sitting in groups of 4. We hit it off right away with the 2 women we sat next to, June & Teri. We assumed the other 4 were together because they didn't even look at us - LOL On the second night, 2 of the 4 did not come to dinner - they switched to Anytime Dining. Come to find out, they did not know each other and the remaining 6 of us had an excellent time the rest of the week. We laughed and talked so much that I'm not sure how we had time to eat. Our waitstaff was amazing - Pani (this is a short version of her long name) and I forgot her assistant's name. Pani is

from Thailand and was so sweet and patient with us all week. The bar person knew our order by the 2nd night so we never had to wait for a drink.

 

Chef Art's Steakhouse - I decided I wanted to try this because we didn't do it last year. We went with our new friends, June & Teri. I made reservations months ago via email and easily added people the day before we went there. I had New England crab cake, lobster bisque, broiled lobster tail, sauteed mushrooms, Yukon Gold mash, and cheesecake. They had yummy brioche rolls that I could have eaten every day for a meal. The Chef sent out a mushroom soup and shrimp dish to try - YUM!!! It

was amazing and I was full before the main course came. I forced myself to eat as much of my lobster as I could but I was unable to eat the dessert. Not to worry, they gave it to me to bring to room. We were there a full 2 hours and no one had dessert in the restaurant. Definitely worth the $30 charge.

 

Food - Pasta Bar - great food, minimal wait time. Burrito Bar - good burrito, no wait time. Mongolian - waited 40 minutes, took 1 bite and didn't eat anymore. Deli, Grill & Pizza - good food, sometimes there were lines but it moved fast. Buffet - only ate breakfast here twice, short wait for an omelet. Room Service - ordered once and it took 45 minutes, food was ok. MDR - food always hot and tasted good.

 

Shows - We only went to the Carnival Legend's Show - and left 1/2 way into it. They must not have had too many people try out because most of these people didn't even know the words of the song they were singing. It was horrible, but I give them credit for getting up on stage and attempting it. We saw Dancing in the Streets last time and loved it, just decided to do something else this time instead of seeing it again.

 

Piano Bar - Ok, I don't know if I have the wrong idea about what a piano bar is supposed to be, but the guy, Tom, was horrible. He didn't have the best voice and he sang very monotone. If he ever spoke, which was rare, he sounded like he was mumbling into the microphone. It was such a downer to be in there. We went once to check it out and then stopped by again to give it a second chance and it was the same. I felt like I was at someone's funeral. Carnival needs to rethink that contract.

 

Entertainment - We went to the Superstar Live Karaoke and enjoyed it. The passengers were very entertaining. The band that played on the Ocean Plaza was good and there were always a ton of people dancing. We went to the Caliente Dance Club one night and it was packed, which was different from last time - no one was ever in there.

 

Casino - spent a ton of time here. Carnival Player's Club had something different from the last time I sailed. Once you reach 1500 points, you get free drinks while playing in the casino. The casino was almost always packed and sometimes hard to find an open machine. I did not win but I saw alot of people winning jackpots.

 

Deck chairs - Hard to find unless you went super early or waited until late. When we could not get a seat by the pool areas, we went to Deck 5 and found some available. On the last sea day, we went up at 7am so we could get chairs by the aft pool.

 

Pool & Waterslides - Went into the aft pool because it was empty, the water was cold but after a few minutes your body got used to it. We had forgotten about the waterslides and decided on the last sea day to try them. OMG - it was the most fun I had all week. My favorite was the Drainpipe. If there weren't so many stairs to climb, I would have went down them all day. Definitely a must do.

 

Kids - I think the CD said there were about 450 kids on the ship. The only time I ever came into contact with children was on the elevator and they were pleasant. Never any trouble with the children.

 

Elevators - There was 1 out of service all week, not sure if it's normally like that because it is being used by the staff or what but we could have used it. This is the only place I ever encountered rude

passengers. People are in such a hurry that they would walk right past a person in a wheelchair that had been sitting there waiting for a while to snag the elevator first. You would think adults could be courteous and be able to have a system but they can't. They almost need to hand out tickets like at the deli to ride in the darn things. So embarrassing to see people act this way.

 

CD and staff - Butch was the CD on this trip and I thought he was great. He was always pleasant and seems to genuinely enjoy his job. I didn't have much interaction with the rest of the staff but I would see them frequently doing trivia and stuff around the ship and they were always energetic and people seemed to love them.

 

Cruise Critic M&G - I organized a 2 hour cocktail party through my TA for 30 interested people on the roll call. They had us meet in the Song Bar and it was a great time. Open bar and lots of fun! I had everyone send me money via PayPal and then it was charged to my S&S account once the party was over and they were able to do a final count. I would do this again in the future.

 

Nassau - First time I had been here and we did not plan an excursion. We went to the straw market, walked around going into shops and ended up at Senor Frogs. We stayed there until we needed to be back onboard. We had a ton of fun (and drinks) there!

 

St. Thomas - I had been here before and we decided to just wing it. We went downtown to shop, had lunch at Gladys' and then went on the Skyride. I didn't realize how afraid of heights I was until I got into the car and we started to go up. I thought I was going to have a heart attack right there. LOL When we got to the top, I asked the guy if he knew someone I could hire to drive me back down - I was totally freaked out. BUT - we sat down, had a few drinks, enjoyed the view for a few hours and I was willing to go back down on the Skyride thing. The ride down was great and I actually kept my eyes open the whole time. Must have been the Red Stripes I drank - hahaha! After that, we shopped our way back to the ship. All of the locals we encountered were super nice

and never once had anyone hassle us to buy anything. It was a great day.

 

St. Maarten - We didn't have anything planned here either. At the last minute, we decided to go to Pinel Island. Due to bad timing, what should have been a 45 - 60 minute journey, took us almost 3 hours. We waited for almost an hour to get a cab because there were only 2 of us and they took every group within a 10 mile radius before us. When we finally were able to get a ride, we were with a group of 11 that not pleasant. We had a 25 minute drive to get to the ferry dock that was nice and the driver was very informative. ($20) When we arrived at the ferry dock, the driver informed us that we had to give him a time to pick us up because there were no taxis out there. Now we were at the mercy of the group and had to go with whatever they decided to do. Holy panic time! Luckily they

wanted to leave around the time we did - YAY! We bought our ticket for the ferry and waited in line. ($14) Because I always have the best of luck, we were the cut off and had to wait for the next ferry. Not too bad, I thought - the sign said ferry every 30 minutes. An hour later we got on a ferry - we took the short ride over and were finally on the beach. We found 2 chairs ($20) and decided to settle in. It started raining - LOL - I felt like I was in a bad movie. It only rained for a short time and the

sun came back out. We soaked it up and began getting nervous about taking the ferry back to meet our taxi. After having a small fight with the ferry guy, we got on and gor back to the mainland. We were able to get a different taxi back to the shopping area ($25) and had a better day. I would just like to add that most of the local people we encountered were not nice at all. This is a change from the last time I was here. Next time I will book an excursion to avoid the whole taxi thing.

 

Debarkation - We were #33 and waited on the Lido for them to call our number. When they did, we got right in the elevator, out the door and in line for customs. This went quick - we got our luggage, waited for the Hertz shuttle and were on our way.

 

Overall - This was a great cruise. The weather was excellent and there was never a lack of things to do. I met some great people that I hope to stay in contact with and made some nice memories. I love the Dream and think I will be sailing her again next year.

[balcony bound]

Glad to hear you liked the Dream the second time! We're doing our second cruise on her this year, too.

 

Like you, seems like many things I didn't get around to the first time!

 

Did you find the eastern itinerary felt more crowded on ship?

 

Welcome back!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Great review - thanks! We are leaving in 8 weeks and I can't wait! Do you happen to know the code you used at Country Inn and Suites - that is where we are going to stay?

 

Thanks!

[demos]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. I enjoyed reading it and had hoped someone from your group would write one. We are also going on the Dream for the second time. We cannot wait to go back!

[jamo951]

Great review Amy, we had a great time on board! Thanks for setting up the Meet & Greet!

[debt]

Thanks for posting. Was your previous Dream cruise eastern as well?

[SweetpeaOne]

Very nice review. Thanks for sharing.

[FrogFritter]

Great review - thanks! We are leaving in 8 weeks and I can't wait! Do you happen to know the code you used at Country Inn and Suites - that is where we are going to stay?

 

Thanks!

countryinnandsuites.com/friendsandfamily

[FrogFritter]

Thanks for posting. Was your previous Dream cruise eastern as well?

 

It was the western route on the 1st trip.

[FrogFritter]

Great review Amy, we had a great time on board! Thanks for setting up the Meet & Greet!

 

You are very welcome!!! I had a great time and it was so nice to meet you guys!

[FrogFritter]

Glad to hear you liked the Dream the second time! We're doing our second cruise on her this year, too.

 

Like you, seems like many things I didn't get around to the first time!

 

Did you find the eastern itinerary felt more crowded on ship?

 

Welcome back!

 

I didn't feel like the ship was crowded so much but the ports were crazy! We were docked with Oasis of the Seas, Ruby Princess and a few others.

[RVman]

Hey Amy, thanks again for the M & G. It was nice to meet everyone. You're right the Piano Bar sucked, the guy just can not sing! :)

[JKJG3]

To the OP: My wife and I just got our room assignment for Dream 1427 in May! We are excited to have been upgraded to the deluxe ocean view.

 

We were just wondering if you felt a lot of movement in this room, or any loud noises (near an engine, anchor, etc etc.) We have always had great luck with rooms, so just curious.

 

Thanks!

[shaharis1701]

Great review!! Do you remember which night was the lobster night?