My Photo Trip Review of the 4-30-11 Sailing of the Dream and our Vacation

[TeknikDC2]

 

Before long we were passing Cocoa Beach which was very packed. There seemed to be some vendor type tents set up so there must have been something big going on this day. After passing Cocoa Beach we find ourselves finally in the open sea slowly leaving the land behind us. Kiera and I now walked up to the midship around where the main pool area is. While here I over heard a guy tell his significant other "look theres the Space Shuttle". So of course this intriged me so I asked him where it was at and he pointed it out to me. Turns out that it was nowhere near the actual NASA building. It was hard to make it out as we were so far away but in the two photos I took you can diffenitly make out the Shuttle and the Launch tower Silloets.

 

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

These are the two pictures that have the Space Shuttle in the shot. Can you spot it? Its the furthest structure near the middle of the first photo.

 

[TeknikDC2]

With us now at at sea and on our way to Mexico we grabbed another Ice Cream and went back to our room. Although we still had a couple hours until Dinner we were still tired and really needed to get our bags unpacked so that we could really enjoy our Cruise and not live out of the suitcase any longer then we already had.

 

After getting unpacked and relaxing it was finally time for our late dinner. We made our way to deck 3 where we would be seated on the lower level of the Crimson dinning room. Our Waiter was Juan from Honduras. We were really curious as to how he would turn out being by the end of the cruise. We've never had a bad wait staff before but some of have been alright where others (like the one we had on the Legend) were excellent and would be hard to beat. Juan was seemed kinda quite at first. Kinda like it was his first day being a head waiter or something he hadn't been doing for very long. So we just went with it. Over the course of the cruise he turned out to be very good but i'll talk more about him at a later time.

 

 

For our meals I started out with the Curred Salmon and a Caesar Salad. Kiera got the Fruit Cocktail and the Heart of Iceberg Lettuce. For our Main Courses I decided to get the Flat Iron Steak and also the Pork Ribs where Kiera got the Chicken Breast. Our desserts consisted of the Creme Brulee for me and the Chocolate Melting Cake for Kiera. We kinda forgot to take pictures of all of our food items so I may insert some pictures from our cruise last year for the items we got that were the same. Coming from ships where the wait staff would do a show every night we were suprised that there wasn't a show this night on the Dream.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Following Dinner we went back to our room so that Kiera could grab a jacket before the Welcome Aboard show. At the room we found it had been turned down for the night and we had a Towel Walrus or Seal or something that decided to rock Kieras Sun Glasses.

 

 

We then went to the Encore! Theater for the Welcome aboard show. Nothing really to talk about here. The Welcome aboard show is pretty much the same on every ship. And this one was no different. However one think that was different was that the Ships Captain and a couple other Senior Officers are first introduced and then they introduced our Cruise Director Butch Begovitch. He was pretty fun and energitc and always put on a good show. He wouldn't be the best we've had but thats alright.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Following almost immediatly after the conclusion of the Welcome Aboard show the Dream would be having its first out door Laser Show. This was a feature of the ship that I was excited about and something I thought would be very cool. However I didn't do much research into it. I was pretty excited to find two seats right along the pool right under the Outdoor Theater Screen. There were nemourous Technical difficulties but then they said the show was finally starting. Wow it sucked. You couldn't even see the Lazers from where we were seated. It seemed like all the fog was being pushed out because it was pretty windy this night. We thought the show was a complete flop and would have perfered a movie under the stars. (Please keep in mind that later in the review you will see that our opinion of the Lazer show will drasticly change. Where you watch the show will diffenitly make or break it. You'll be told that great spot and amazing pictures later in this review).

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

With the Lazer Show over (we think) I decided to grab some late night Pizza before retiring back to our Cabin for the night. Off in the Distance though we could see that we were passing some city. When we got to our cabin and turned on the TV the city we were passing was Palm Springs, Florida.

 

 

Once back at the room we quickly got ready for bed and crashed. We looked forward to not only being able to finally sleep in on this vacation, but to also enjoy a very relaxing day at sea.

 

 

And with that this concludes this update. Thanks to everyone following this review. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have and as always comments are always appreciated. Thanks

[tropicaledrink]

 

Following almost immediatly after the conclusion of the Welcome Aboard show the Dream would be having its first out door Laser Show. This was a feature of the ship that I was excited about and something I thought would be very cool. However I didn't do much research into it. I was pretty excited to find two seats right along the pool right under the Outdoor Theater Screen. There were nemourous Technical difficulties but then they said the show was finally starting. Wow it sucked. You couldn't even see the Lazers from where we were seated. It seemed like all the fog was being pushed out because it was pretty windy this night. We thought the show was a complete flop and would have perfered a movie under the stars. (Please keep in mind that later in the review you will see that our opinion of the Lazer show will drasticly change. Where you watch the show will diffenitly make or break it. You'll be told that great spot and amazing pictures later in this review).

 

 

We leave on Thursday for the Dream! I am assuming the best place to watch it is from a higher deck? I am hoping I will get to see that part of your review before we leave! :)

 

You and your wife are precious, and I am thoroughly enjoying your review!

[Nanatochase]

Thank you for taking the time to do this review. I am really enjoying it and the pictures. I've always wanted to do one, but not sure how to post the pics. We just booked the Dream for Oct 29th. You and your wife are just precious together. Congratulations on the new baby.

[Elmo31]

I love your review. I cant wait for the next segment. We will be on the dream in october so am soaking up everything you have to say. We will also be staying in orlando, but having our fun there after our cruise. It will be without children this time. I cant wait, seems so far away though.

[Elmo31]

I also wanted to say congrats on the new baby on the way. he or she will bring great joy in your lives.

[hilandlass]

Thank you for taking the time to do this review. I am really enjoying it and the pictures. I've always wanted to do one, but not sure how to post the pics. We just booked the Dream for Oct 29th. You and your wife are just precious together. Congratulations on the new baby.

 

 

The review is excellent as are your photos. I am trying to write a review but cannot seem to get my pics to load - please can you help???:confused:

[Catrin]

You are the cutest couple! It reminds me of when my husband and I went on our honeymoon and Disney before we had kids. Renting the Chevy .....we had a Geo Metro one year, very similar!

 

(18 years later, things are much different!)

 

Thanks for your awesome review.

We are sailing the Dream in August with two days in Disney prior as well. How long did the car ride take you from Kissimee to Port Canavaral?

 

Cannot wait to read the continuing saga!

 

Catrin

[mpcaruth]

I love detailed reviews which include photos. It's true, photos say a thousand words. Thanks for taking the time to share. I will be on the Dream in January and am already planning and researching. Congrats to you and your wife! How exciting.

[mpcaruth]

The review is excellent as are your photos. I am trying to write a review but cannot seem to get my pics to load - please can you help???:confused:

To insert photos into Cruise Critic postings, I have been successful using Photobucket. Upload and store your photos at Photobucket. Then, when posting in CC, copy the IMG code of the photo from Photobucket and post it into the posting. Voila. The image appears. Be aware, the free Photobucket account limits number/file size viewing. If a few thousand people view you photos, you may need to pay a monthly fee (something like $3).

[steelerjen]

Love your review and all of the details. Looking forward to the rest!

[AndrewD65]

Teknik,

 

Thanks for the Camera info I am going to look into it today, my cruise is soon approaching and I have yet to get anything ready. I did want to tell you I enjoyed your review when you where on the Legend last, I cruise not to far behind you on that ships and even though that was my second time on that ship it was the best time, after reading your review and reading about the the things to do and look at.

 

 

Thank you again for everything and can't wait to read the rest of your review.

 

Andrew

[DaisyGirl55]

TERRIFIC REVIEW!

 

Looking forward to the next installment. Those of you with the talent to write reviews like this are to be thanked profusely for taking the time to do such a fantastic job. I have read some great photo reviews on Cruise Critic, and yours is one of the best I have read so far.

 

One day, I will try and submit a photo review of my own. I am sailing on the dream in september, and I am just soaking in your review!

[Kidsgoneletscruise]

Great review and pics!

 

And ps...tell your wife I love her sandals at Disney! :D

[bwg03]

[Keep up the great work. Awesome review

[TeknikDC2]

We leave on Thursday for the Dream! I am assuming the best place to watch it is from a higher deck? I am hoping I will get to see that part of your review before we leave! :)

 

You and your wife are precious, and I am thoroughly enjoying your review!

 

Yes it is. The best place I found is on Deck 11 directly in front of the large outdoor screen. Unfortunatly you'll likely be back from your cruise by the time I get that portion of the review. But don't miss the Rock n' Laser show the night of the deck party. It was so awesome.

 

The review is excellent as are your photos. I am trying to write a review but cannot seem to get my pics to load - please can you help???:confused:

 

What I do was posted by another User below your post. Sign up for a photobucket.com account and upload your photos there. Then you copy and paist the IMG tag here. Although there is a free account on Photobucket I would consider paying for your account if you choose to do a large photo review here. I use to use the free account and I would meet my bandwidth limit in a matter of hours after posting the first portion of a review. It only costs $25 for the year which I don't think is too bad.

 

You are the cutest couple! It reminds me of when my husband and I went on our honeymoon and Disney before we had kids. Renting the Chevy .....we had a Geo Metro one year, very similar!

 

(18 years later, things are much different!)

 

Thanks for your awesome review.

We are sailing the Dream in August with two days in Disney prior as well. How long did the car ride take you from Kissimee to Port Canavaral?

 

Cannot wait to read the continuing saga!

 

Catrin

 

The Drive didn't seem any longer going from Kissimee to Port Canaveral then it was going from next to Universal Orlando in 2009 to Port Canaveral. The drive probably took just over an hour.

 

Teknik,

 

Thanks for the Camera info I am going to look into it today, my cruise is soon approaching and I have yet to get anything ready. I did want to tell you I enjoyed your review when you where on the Legend last, I cruise not to far behind you on that ships and even though that was my second time on that ship it was the best time, after reading your review and reading about the the things to do and look at.

 

 

Thank you again for everything and can't wait to read the rest of your review.

 

Andrew

 

No problem. I hope you find a camera you like. I'm really sold on Canons now. This camera has been great and takes excellent photos.

 

Great review and pics!

 

And ps...tell your wife I love her sandals at Disney! :D

 

Haha I will. I think she was hating them by the end of the day though. They are those Skechers Tone Ups so her thighs were hurting at 7 miles of walking. But she said they diffenitly worked as they were intended to.

 

TERRIFIC REVIEW!

 

Looking forward to the next installment. Those of you with the talent to write reviews like this are to be thanked profusely for taking the time to do such a fantastic job. I have read some great photo reviews on Cruise Critic, and yours is one of the best I have read so far.

 

One day, I will try and submit a photo review of my own. I am sailing on the dream in september, and I am just soaking in your review!

 

Thank you so much for your kind words. I honestly love writting these reviews no matter how long and time consuming that take to put together. I look forward to writting these reviews when I get home almost as much as the anticipation was for the vacation lol. I just wish I could figure out a cheap way where I could print off all my reviews (including the photos) and make a sort of book as I've wrote a review for each of our vacations since we've been married (4 cruises and 2 land vacations).

 

Thanks again to everyone else who has commented and given me there congrates. It means alot. I truely appreciate it.

[hilandlass]

Thanks for the advice, I will give that a try. Thanks also for a brillilant review! :)

[TeknikDC2]

Day 4: First Day at Sea

 

It was very nice to finally sleep without having to be woken by those dreeded alarms. With this being our first full day at sea we had no desire to wake up early. Instead we wanted to sleep in as long as our bodys would allow us to. Kiera awoke first but I wasn't too far behind her. It was nearly 11am and we had a whole day of nothing ahead of us.

 

After switching into our swimsuits and putting on sunblock and what not we made our way upstairs so that we could grab the late risers breakfast before they switched it over for lunch. We got there with plenty of time to spare and found a fairly short wait in line. Within minutes we had our food and were eating a nice breakfast as we watched the ocean below slowly pass us by.

 

With our stomachs full we headed outside to find a spot to relax in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. Of course we weren't going to find and spots around the pool and Seaside Theater at this time of day. So we went up to deck 11 and 12 to see if we could find anything. It usally on these decks on our past cruises where we would find decent loungers but to my suprise we couldn't find two together that wasn't near the smokers. Kiera then said that she wanted to head up to the Serenity area to see if we could find anything in there. I thought to myself and told her that after reading many reviews on Cruisecritic they said that the Serenity area is always packed unless you get there early. But we decided to go look anyways. Needless to say I was completly shocked when we not only found two loungers together in the Serenity area but there was another 4 empty loungers around us. I'm glad we took clam to our two when we did because the others filled up quickly as well.

 

The Serenity area is very nice and was one of our favorite things about the Dream compared to our last cruises (the Legend and Glory didn't have there Serenity areas when we sailed them). It was so nice and peaceful and quite. Quite the different atmosphere then what it is around the pool area. We did see a few kids under the age of 14 wonder into the area so often and hop in the hot tubs. Although no other guests ever said anything to them they were asked to leave when ever a Carnival Employee walked past and saw them in the Serenity area. I'm very glad they kept on top it. The only thing I didn't like about the Serenity area (and It might be this way by design) is that it was very hot. As in there was pretty much No breeze that flowed thru the area like there is on the rest of the ship. Kiera and I both decided that we like the breeze or a little bit of wind as it helps keep us cool. Not a big deal though. We would end up spending most of our day in the Serenity area relaxing, listening to music, and reading our books.

 

 

One of the othe things I liked about the Serenity area was its close proximity to the Water Works area. I love waterslides and so I was really looking forward to the slides that the Carnival Dream had to offer. After spending a couple hours in the sun we decided it was time for us to go give the slides a shot. First up would be the Drainpipe. The big funnel looking slide. It was alot of fun although I only made it around 1 1/2 times the first time I went on it. This slide would end up being the only slide Kiera did as she didn't want to try anything else with the baby. After we were both done with the slide Kiera went back to our loungers in the Serenity area while I climbed the slide tower again this time to do the twister slide. This slide as also alot of fun. Before returning to Serenity to relax I wanted to do the Drainpipe slide one more time. This time though Kiera even came and took pictures of me on it lol. I learned the trick to gain speed going down the slides. Basically you arch your back slightly so your sliding on your shoulders and butt instead of your back and you will fly down these slides. This time by doing so I made it around the Drainpipe three times. I loved the Water Works area. My only complaint was that some of the slide creases or edges (the sections that hook the slide together) kinda hurt when you go over them many times in a row. Once agian its not any sort of major complaint or deal breaker though.

 

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

 

After doing both slides I too decided to go back up and join Kiera in the Serenity area. However those of you who have read my past reviews know that i'm not one that likes to just lounge in the sun all day. So after lounging for a little bit I decided I wanted to go sit in the Hot tub. Kiera came and soaked her feet for a minute (can't get in it all the way due to being pregnant) but soon went back to sun bathe. I spent many relaxing minutes in the Hot tub watching the Ocean drift by but eventually it was time for me to get out as well.

 

 

It was now nearing 2:30. And we were starting to get a little bit hungry. With today being one of our only 2 sea days there was something I wanted to try for lunch that only takes place on sea days. The Lanai BBQ. The BBQ ends at 2:30 and we made it with about 10 minutes to spare. Which was the perfect time because there was pretty much No line for it. We quickly got our little sliders and quesadillas and found a seat outside of the Ocean Plaza to eat. The Food from the BBQ was very good. Although I wish they maybe had a couple more items you should still check it out. Also if you can wait til after 2pm to avoid the long lines this is rumored to get. My one complaint was that they don't have any water or lemonaide machines down there for it. If you want a drink you can buy it but they don't have any complimentry ones (not that I noticed anyways). So instead of eating everything down at the Ocean Plaza we went back up the Lido deck to eat so that we could get some drinks (and Ice Cream) as well.

 

 

Within the 30 minute limit we were back to our loungers in the Serenity area. However we were starting to get sick of the sun being in our face so I walked around the Serenity deck to see if I could find an empty Cabana thing. I did find a few empty ones on the other side of the ship but none of them had the shade you could pull over the top of it. However I got very lucky that as I came back around to where Kiera was at the people in the Cabana strait across from us got up and left for the day. So we quickly claimed it for the rest of the time we were there. These Cabanas got a little more air flow then the loungers did but it wasn't that much. However we loved it. It was like an outside bed. We spent the rest of the afternoon here relaxing and people watching. We even both fell asleep on it at one point.