Just off Carnival Dream 12/10 - 12/17

[smc0320]

We had a FANTASTIC cruise!!

Service was pretty great all week. Pedro in the Scarlett Dining Room was AWESOME! Our cabin steward “RJ” (deck 9, aft) was awesome as well. The spa staff was great. Basically every staff member we encountered was fantastic…oh, except Gumby…I wanted to punch him in the face (more on that later).

Food all week was pretty great. We did Lido every day for breakfast & lunch. I never tried the Tandoori restaurant, room service, Burrito Bar or Mongolian Wok (because lines were HUGE all week). I also never ate at the grill in the mid-ship pool area. I tried eating in MDR for breakfast once but the line was HUGE! Never tried it for lunch. I was a bit disappointed in the lack of variety at the buffet though. There were three full buffet sections that were all the same. So instead of doing American lunch in one, Italian lunch in another and Caribbean lunch in another, all three buffets had same food options. The buffet line farther back always had the smallest lines, which was fine by me.

Embarkation & debarkation were very fast & efficient.

Ok…now to back up bit.

We flew into Orlando the day before (Fri 12/9) and used Cocoa Beach Taxi from MCO to the Residence Inn Cocoa Beach.

I would not book with Cocoa Beach Taxi again. We were initially quoted $20pp each way ($80). When our written/email confirmation came, it said $96.00 each way – so I emailed them asking why the difference and was told it included 20% tip. OK…great! No worries. When we landed and called the driver, he told us 15-20 minutes – but it was actually closer to 50 minutes before he was there to pick us up. But it was rush hour & we were patient. He was extremely friendly and very pleasant the whole trip. However, when we arrived at the Residence Inn Cocoa Beach, the driver asked us for $110.00 not including tip (and not the $96.00 we were quoted). The driver had written documentation stating he should collect $110.00 from us. So we showed him our confirmation which showed the $96.00. Instead of accepting what we showed him, he called the taxi company and it took about 20 minutes to resolve. Later that evening, we spoke to the taxi company owner to make sure we would not have this issue on the return trip. He guaranteed us there would be no issue and that we should only pay the driver $96.00 including tip. Needless to say, we got in the van this morning the driver wanted $110.00 PLUS tip. Even had a sign taped to dash board indicating drivers are not paid a salary and only earn money from tips. I absolutely HATE when I see stuff like that because I am always skeptical that I am being screwed somehow. This time, when we showed him our paper and told him what happened last week, he accepted that and said he would only collect the $96.00. We did give him an extra tip because we asked him to take us to an ATM (we had no cash).

The Residence Inn Cocoa Beach was wonderful…just perfect for us. There were 6 of us and we have a 2-bedroom suite that slept 6 people. When paying cash, as we were, they do require an extra $100.00 deposit that you get back after they inspect the room upon check-out. Their shuttle to the port was $3.00pp each way. We left hotel on their 1st shuttle – supposed to leave at 10:30 but was closer to 10:45 I’d say. There was a Publix and Publix Liquor store about 2.5 miles away. They closed at 10pm that Friday night. There were 2-3 other hotels that were right by the Publix, but I don’t remember who they were. There was a Hertz facility in the parking lot of the Residence Inn.

Port Canaveral check in was easy, but they did not have the self-service check in kiosks like they have in Miami. It didn’t take very long to check in & get settled wait for our Zone to be called -- we were Zone 8. We waited less than 30 minutes before they called our zone and in less than 15 minutes we were on the ship.

So….the ship. It was beautiful. We went right up to Lido to have lunch. It’s always amazing to me that most people get as far as the grill area by the pool and that’s it…then they get on here to complain that only burgers & fries were available. Anyhow, the Deli was all the way at the aft and was empty. The Pasta Bar was also rather empty and was very good. We had a very nice 1st lunch.

ok......have to run and pick up some pets from the vet kennel....so I'll post more later. Feel free to ask questions also. I'll try to have this completed tonight.:p

[Jessica1988]

I thought you did a great job!Good luck

[smc0320]

We toured the ship a little after lunch until our rooms were ready. We toured the spa & booked the couples weekly pass to the Thermal Suite for $249…so worth it! Each day you go & check in, exchange your S&S card for a VIP card & wristband…different color every day. We were told that only 50 passes per week are sold…so rather “exclusive” considering there are over 4,200 people onboard. But there are people who somehow find themselves in the T-pool without having paid for it, so just know that everyone should have a wristband and if you see someone without one, let someone know so they can kick them out. They will kick them out because it’s money right out of their pocket. We had issues that were not resolved until after I complained to John Heald on his blog. The thermal suite was awesome and I would pay for this access again!

The gym really could have been bigger with a ship this size, but we never had a problem getting on any machine. I did love that they had individual TV monitors in each cardio machine so I could watch TV while working out.

Cozumel: We always do Paradise Beach. The weather was not cooperating today so we stayed for less than 2 hours and headed back to the ship…SPA time!

[smc0320]

Roatan: We did an island tour with Victor Bodden. Ron was our driver. He took us all over the place…including a viewing spot above Coxen Hole which also had some people selling stuff. He took us to an orphanage where we spent some time with the kids….so sweet…then we went to the Monkey place and played with the monkeys. He would have taken us anywhere we wanted to go and stayed with us whole time. Cost for tour was $25pp because there were 6 of us. Cost for monkey plave was $5pp. This day was so much fun. I have some great pics that I’ll post when I figure out how.