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DREAM on, Dream until your Dreams come true! Well they did! Dream Review!

theneals4

By theneals4,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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theneals4

theneals4

Posted
Posted

This is my cruise review for the Carnival Dream sailing on 9/3/11-9/10/11 On this is cruise is Me-Ashley (26) and DH-John(27) this is gonna be a very LONG detailed Review if it takes to much of your time then please X out if not then,[ Thank you very much for reading ;) …..Hope everyone enjoys! ( I have plenty of pix in this review just click the words that are underlined)

 

 

Sept. 1st~ We are finally on the road to Florida (GOODBYE VIRGINIA!) Usually when we take this trip it is such a LONG trip (usually 12 hours) But I guess this time because my youngest was already in FL with my In-laws, there was less whining I guess. We had to pick my 2 year old ( we will call him little man) up from my grandmothers house. We were lucky she lives near the highway, we take to go to FL. I said my goodbyes to my mom, grandma and grandpa. I thought my mom and grandma would cry (they always do this when we leave) and we were officially on the road. The trip went by pretty fast, there were states I don’t even remember going through LOL! We stopped at the Famous JR World….I love that they now have a Christmas section ALL year long. And my 2 year old loved it as well!

 

 

After spending little more than an hour there (mostly looking for a perfume my grandmother in law wanted. That they were sold out of, but she swears its GOTTA be there and it wasn’t!) we finally left and back on the road. Finally Little Man went to sleep and I think I dozed off as well. We finally made it to FL and me and my husband chit chatted for two hours about anything and everything. Next thing I know we were in Melbourne. We got in about 2am (we got on the road at 1:30pm) We said Hi to his mom, grandma and aunt. Talked for a couple minutes and crashed! ( We were very tired folks!)

 

Sept. 2nd~ I had to get up early, there is a lady down in FL who does my Nails and Feet when I go down there (Gotta look good for the cruise!) Got done there and picked up a few things for the cruise. When we left my 1 ½ year old ( we will call him monkey butt…lol!) Hadnt seen us yet. So when we pulled up, him and Little Man were out on the screened in porch playing. He walked up to the screen door, with a smile ear to ear! And held his hands up, I don’t think anybody could have taken that moment from me (he had been gone a whole month!) He was stuck to my side the whole day. And I had no problems with that. We just kinda chilled out with the kids and my husbands family for the rest of the day. We went to Ci Ci’s pizza for dinner, stuffed our face and went back home. And got everything together for the next day. We said good night to the boys and gave them lots of hugs and kisses, because we knew they would be asleep when we left. And it was hard enough to say good bye then, I couldn’t imagine what it would have felt like to say goodbye, walking out the door. We finally got to bed ourselves but I was to excited to sleep lol! It took me forever to go to sleep.

 

Sept 3rd CRUISE DAY! I got up about 7 and got around and woke my husband up about 8, we wanted to get here as early as we could. I guess we were that excited! He got around and put everything in the car his aunt rode with us and would drive our car back after dropping us off. It took 35-40 minutes to get there. But it went by fast, its always fun talking to my hubbies Aunt. She a trip that’s for sure! As we came up the highway we could see the top of the ship. Now this sounds kind of dumb. But oh well, you remember your first date with somebody you REALLY liked? You got the butterflies in your stomach and such? That’s how I felt when I saw the ship. I had been waiting to go on a cruise for a long time. And to finally be going on a cruise I never thought I would get to take. It was very exciting for me! So my husband is a geocacher (if anybody knows what this is then, you know what im talking about) He said there was a web came cache at one of the eateries over on the water. So we went and found it and took a picture. Buy this time I was ready to get on the ship lol! Enough lolly gagging around I said! So we finally pulled up and got our luggage out, tipped the guy who took our luggage a couple of bucks. He was kinda shocked when my husband gave him the cash. And did a double take and said thank you. (this wouldn’t be the only time we got a deer in the headlights type look when we gave tips) We said goodbye to Aunt Janet and walked over to cruise terminal Security was easy to get through (and it does pay off to be Active Military and Military Spouse!) We had no problems and were up the escalator and given a zone number, I believe we were Zone 6… we were told to wait in line to be given our sign and sail cards. We were through security, had our sign and sail cards and sitting down waiting for our zone to be called within in 15 minutes. We only waited MAYBE another 30 minutes before our zone was called to board. As we gave our zone cards up we passed through to have our pictures taken at a green screen. Im not sure if they are starting to do this fleet wide or just on the Dream class ships, but they are doing the face recognition thing now. Because on the ship they have new computer kiosk to see the pictures that have, been take of you on the ship( like elegant night or when you get off the ship at each port) Its their new “green” way of doing things now. But we had our picture taken and then it was across the plank or gangway (whichever lol!) we went. And the first thing we saw was the Atrium, VERY pretty. Now, I don’t have anything to compare it too, as this was my first cruise ship ever being on. As excited as I was, I had to find a bathroom ASAP! LOL! So that was my first stop, so I went came back and it was the Hubby’s turn to go as I turned around to look there was the Encore Theater and I went in and snapped a few pictures. It was very pretty inside and I fell in love with curtain. So then we decided to go and figure out where our room was. We were on the Riviera Deck almost at the back of the ship in room 1445 to exact I figured either the engines would bother us or put me to sleep. So either way I was just happy to be on the ship. So we got on the elevator which everybody in their mother was getting on too, so we had to wait a couple minutes. But it didn’t take to long, we got down to Riviera deck to find that all the hallway doors were closed and said to check back at 1:30. Soooo back on the elevator we went to toodle around we decided we were getting hungry so we decided to hit the pasta bar. Of course not many people were there yet and we got our order pretty fast. It wasvery good, the only complaint about the pasta bar was the bread, I thought it would be warm And it was kinda sweet. BUT oh well the pasta made up for it. So after we got down, full bellies and all we decided to check the rest of the boat out. Took a couple pix of the main pool. And then we decided we wanted to take the spa tour, and I feel really dumb because the WHOLE time I had the camera in my hand and only took a couple pictures of the gym and the cool lit stairs in the spa. I guess, I just was trying to listen to everything the girl was saying. It didn’t hit me till almost the end that I didn’t take any. But the tour was awesome! She showed all the different rooms they had and told us the prices for things. We were kinda ticked at ourselves we didn’t bring more money to do these things. But there is next time hopefully. After that we went to check our room and it was open. Like I said we have never been on a cruise ship. My husband was on a Navy ship for 3 years, but had never been on a cruise ship either. I really didn’t know what to expect from our room. But I was very happy with it, even though it was a interior I had no complaints at all. When we walked in it was very nice and clean and I noticed on the vanity there was a gift, I had ordered it through Bon Voyage to surprise my hubby it was a box to put all our trinkets and things from our trip. It was meant for like people on a honeymoon, but to us this was our honeymoon we never had. So it fit. And he really liked it! So we decided to put our stuff up that we had in our carry ons, we sat down for a few minutes and then there was a knock at the door, the steward brought in a “Happy Anniversary “ cake in. That I had also ordered. Hubby was very surprised by this and thanked me a bunch of times for the nice gifts. I continued to look around our room, as he indulged in the cake. And discovered there was a fridge! I have read a few reviews on the dream and never saw anybody say there was a fridge in every room! So I was very happy I had somewhere to chill my wine and drinks! It was already full when I opened it, but after I saw the prices of the stuff. I was like YEAH, that’s getting cleaned out fast! LOL! By this time it was time to muster. It only lasted a few minutes and it was in the scarlet dining room I believe. After that we had a few minutes so we walked around and ended up at the Casino the hubby wanted to stop and see the scores for the Ohio State, fine be me I say that’s time for me to get my first drink! And the first thing I had was a drink called “A kiss on the lips” and MAN was it good. That drink was gone in 5 minutes! After that we went to the Aft pool to meet up with some fellow cruise critic cruisers. As we waited I decided to sit in the awesome blue rocking chairs by the pool and when we started seeing Mardi Gras beads we knew they were there! We met a few of them and stayed a few minutes, then as I sat there I noticed we were moving. So we decided to go and watch us pull away, got a few pictures of us leaving Cape Canaveral. After that we decided to go back to our room and see if our luggage was there. And to our surprise it was! Just one bag though! LOL! So I started taking stuff out of it and putting it away, I got the suit case unpacked and put under the bed and I heard somebody sit something down outside our door. And I asked the hubby if he would check and see if it was our bag and sure enough it was. Perfect timing! So I put all the clothes away (while the love of my life watched TV. Typical!) I decided to rinse off and change clothes and so did he. We didn’t like anything on the MDR menu so we went to the Gathering with a glass of wine in hand. Now I have to say the Gathering was not my cup of tea, the food was good don’t get me wrong. The lines were sometimes long, but its like going to any other buffet I just like the atmosphere better in the MDR I like sitting at a nice dinner table and having a nice home cooked meal brought to me. But that’s how I feel. Was the Gathering sucky? No! Not at all! We went a few times. But the MDR was my favorite. Dinner was pretty good I had some shrimp,ham,rice,ect ect. I tried the Lemonade out it was actually pretty good and I did have the ships water its pretty decent as well. I had no complaints with it. We sat and watched out the window ( yes we ACTUALLY got a table by the window at dinner time in the Gathering!) we kinda talked for a little while, we passed by a sailboat that was a little further out. So we decided to go walk around again. This time we made it up to the Serenity deck, I don’t know how anybody else feels about this place but when you sit in those big loungers and the wind is blowing up there and the world just passes you by with the one person you love the most. There is nothing like it! I don’t know if it’s the “damn its good to be on vacation finally coming out” But whatever it was I liked it and I could tell the hubby did too! We sat there for a little more than a hour and watched the clouds roll by and picked out clouds that looked like shapes, found one that look JUST like a dolphin jumping into the water! So we sat there for awhile longer and just chilled out and thanked the lucky stars we were FINALLY able to be on this vacation. So we decided to go to the Burgundy Lounge for the Superstar Karaoke. My husband LOVES Karaoke and always wants me to sing he swears I can sing, but I just cant bring myself to do it. So he signed himself up and bought bucket of beer. Which is a sign he is nervous, so after a couple of beers they called his name. He decided to sing “ White Wedding” by Billy Idol and he did a DAMN good job! There was some really good singers that night. There was one girl, who sang “baby got back” and she was awesome! Very funny chick and I believe it was the last guy (for the life of me I cant remember his name!) But he decided to sing “Don’t stop believing” by Journey and he did an AWESOME job. That song could bring anybody together let me tell ya. It was a great evening. So we decided to walk around the outside of the ship and made it to the front of the ship. I believe this was on the 5th deck. And this end up being “our” spot we came here a couple times a day. But most of the time it was at night. Because they turned the lights in the front of the ship off. Guess so its easier to see up on the bridge. It’s a very romantic spot. A lot of people don’t really come up there. But it was just a nice place to go and look at the stars or a thunderstorm out in the distance. So we decided to go back to the room and get some shut eye. When we got back to the room we had a Seal I guess is what it was waiting for us. We all know what this, thing REALLY looks like! So of course I got a chuckle out of the hubby! So we were pretty tired from getting on the ship process and all the walking around and yeah and the food and drinking. Lets not forget that!

 

This is all for tonight…..later on I will continue on to the first day at Sea / Elegant night and Cozumel.

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tandemcruzr

tandemcruzr

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Thanks everybody, i will adding more hopefully tonight. It gets a little tough when i have two little Monkeys running around LOL! I will have more later. Thanks again guys!

 

waiting, waiting. :D

 

We will be on the Dream in Nov in a Cove. Looking forward to the rest of your report and photos.

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