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Carnival Dream Picture Review, December 10th-17th, 2011

italianfemmy

By italianfemmy,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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Even more photos... :-D

 

Down the hallway is another room with stone chairs that are heated. Most of these are a bit milder in temperature. This room has different decor with only 2 loungers and several chairs. We didn't spend much time in this room because I liked the more intense heat of the chairs in the bamboo round room.

 

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The spa staff were very informative and friendly. They always waved, with a smile and said hello when they walked past you. Luke was the one who most often checked us in every time we visited and he is pictured here in the right.

 

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We probably spent about 2 hours in the spa using the facilities on this morning (again, Sunday, Dec. 11th, Sea Day). Then we headed back to our room to shower off.

 

We then headed up to the Lido deck to have lunch. The Mongolian grill line was long and I was starving since I had not had any breakfast so I just did the regular buffet line this time. Latanya went Aft to the Tandoor Indian food station and got Indian food. I really don't remember what I ate but I am thinking a lot of salad stuff, if I recall correctly.

 

The food was yummy, no complaints. We had a frozen yogurt after. If I have any complaint, it is that the tap water tastes like chemicals and the lemonade on this cruise was always too pungent for me which was dissapointing since I normally enjoy it.

 

I did bring a 12 pack of Cherry Dr. Pepper (the small bottles) on board with me in a carry on so that I could have 1 soda a day with dinner and occasionally have one during a show.

 

After lunch, we headed back to our room so I could get the camera to take ship photos. Again, remember the spa photos were all actually taken on the last sea day. I just put them in the above posts so you could see it. :-)

 

We had some time to kill and I wanted to grab a few ship photos.

 

We headed to the Crimson restaurant first.

 

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More in next post...

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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Another shot in the Crimson..

 

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I mentioned this early on about the Atrium but in general, I wasn't as impressed with the decor on the Dream. I do believe this is a personal taste thing coupled with how many cruises I have been on. I've enjoyed other ships better. I really loved the decor on the Miracle which we sailed on in 2010.

 

I did like the hallways on Deck 4 and Deck 5 Aft on the Dream. I also really thought the decor in the Club 02 teenagers lounge was neat. So, even though I don't have any kids of my own, I ventured in there to take some fun photos to show off to the parents out there. If I was a teen, I'd want to hang out here! Heck, I am an adult and I wanted to hang out in there!

 

Hallway leading to Club 02:

 

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Sitting area in Club 02

 

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They even have a "bar" with snacks, sodas, etc.

 

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They have televisions and chairs which I didn't photograph also.

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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My favorite area of club 02 was the bubble lights area where the lights change colors. This reminds me of a lava lamp - old school with a modern twist.

 

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I took a few more ship photos which I'll mix in on another day and then we headed back to our room to get ready for our first elegant night.

 

The power in the room worked just fine for my hair dryer and flat iron that I'd brought from home. (It always does but I know this is a frequently asked question.) Many people complain that the power outlets aren't in a convenient location. There is one right where the vanity mirror is in the room which is plenty convenient for me. You can sit down on the cushioned stool and do your hair and make up which I'd much rather do that go into the closet... errr bathroom. The fact that there's not an outlet in the bathroom doesn't bother me in the least.

 

Okay, all glammed up and in a dress (rare occasion.) Latanya and I head down to deck 3 to meet up with Steven and Kim. I forgot to mention that they went to visit the Maitre'D and convinced him to let Latanya and I change to the anytime dining option so we could eat with them. This was great news because we were not comfortable at our original dining assignments and because we would get to spend more time with Steven and Kim.

 

We sat with them and chit chatted for a while and then we all headed up to Deck 5 to have some photos taken. I didn't bring my camera this night (like a dummy) because I figured I'd buy one of the ship photos from this night and that it would be my only purchase. To say that the photos were unflattering and not at all edited would be an understatement. I was very unhappy with them (not really the photographers fault but more the fault of the photo mill type situation). So, we didn't purchase one and I unfortunately don't have any photos of us from this evening.

 

After taking photos, we started heading towards the Crimson dining room to eat dinner together as a group and Gumby (he's an awesome guy on the entertainment staff) stopped us, microphone in hand and asked if he could interview us for the cruise video. We said sure so he interviewed myself, Latanya, Steven and Kim. Luckily, we have this video where we all looked beautiful. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to get a still image from the video. :-)

 

Then we headed to the Crimson where we had a short wait and then were seated. I want to pause for a moment to say that during our entire cruise, we had different servers because we did the anytime dining. When we sailed on the Miracle in 2010, we also did anytime dining and we loved it for the convenience but hated it because of the lack of personal attention from the wait staff. This WAS NOT the case on the Dream. I read SO MANY bad reviews about the service of the wait staff on the Dream so I went into my cruise expecting the service in the dining room to not be stellar. Even with anytime dining and with us getting new servers every night, I felt that the service was STELLAR!

 

We had great conversations with many of our waitstaff, some of whom I'll give honorable mentions to later on. They were always very pleasant and always treated us well. I felt catered to and never felt like I was sitting around waiting for them. Awesome!

 

The food this night was delicious. Again, no food photos because I left the camera. I had the Lobster and Shrimp. 2 lobsters actually :p Yumtastical!!

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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After dinner, we headed directly to the Encore Theatre where we were able to still get really good seats on the left side, 2nd or 3rd row. We were directly next to the aisle. The show this night was called "Get Ready" and again, the entertainment staff, singers and dancers on the Dream are all fantastic, well trained and full of energy.

 

During this routine, several of the singers and dancers came into the aisle and were standing right next to us. The male singer even sang to me. We felt like we were a part of the show in a sense and that was nice.

 

I must also give credit to Carnival for having better lighting effects, spotlighting, backlighting and various color gels to really set the mood for their shows than they used to. *claps*

 

After the main show which was Deck 4, forward, we hustled with Steven and Kim all the way to Aft 5 to the Burgundy Theatre which is where they have the Punchliner Comedy Club shows. Tonight, we'd be watching the midnight show for Jason Blanchard. We had a small snafu with a woman who got rather onry thinking people were trying to cut in front of her and it turned into an uncomfortable situation. I must say though that this one woman was the only one that I felt acted like she didn't have any class during the cruise. I felt that overall, the passengers on this sailing were respectful and easy to be around.

 

Oh yeah.. comedy... :-) Jason was very funny. He told some great jokes, material I hadn't heard before and was worth staying awake for.

 

After the comedy show, we left Steve and Kim and went back to our room to get some sleep, although we weren't really that tired. :-)

 

Hope you're all still with me and enjoying the review up to this point.

 

Still to come:

-Day 3 - Cozumel with loads of photos! :-)

 

Night night CC! zzzzzzzzzz

Edited by italianfemmy
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steven93921

steven93921

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Cloud 9 Spa

The Cloud 9 spa, currently only on the Carnival Dream and Splendor has several rooms that you can enjoy as either a Spa Cabin passenger or a VIP Spa pass holder. If you're interested in using the spa facilities, I suggest you start checking early for a spa cabin and compare the prices to see how much the difference is between a regular cabin and a spa cabin.

[/Quote]

 

The Dream Class ships all have the VIP spa area. That includes the Magic and the soon to be launched Breeze.

 

 

Another room which became one of Latanya's favorite rooms was the very wet sauna room. The steam was so thick in this room that you could barely see. There are these mist sprayers that lightly mist you with warm water and the room is super hot. I found this room to be great for the muscle relaxation and for making me sweat. However, it was too intense for my face and for me to breathe well. I am asthmatic. So, while I used it on this Sea Day, I didn't return to it. Latanya used it every day and loved it and so did some of our other friends from our roll call.

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This was the Aromatherapy room. This was actually a favorite of ours. I had to set a 10 minute time limit in here for us but it was a great weat to start "Spa Time"

 

 

May daughter is already going crazy to go on a cruise, the O2 pictures will surely driver her over the edge!

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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The Dream Class ships all have the VIP spa area. That includes the Magic and the soon to be launched Breeze.

 

 

!

 

Steven, go to bed! Leave it to you to come and critique me. lol. According to the Cloud 9 spa page on the Carnival page, it said the Splendor and the Dream. I know it's coming to the Breeze but I haven't gotten there yet and planned to mention it later for another reason :-) But you're correct that it will also be on the Breeze. Don't spoil my review just cause you were there and know everything or I'm gonna have to call Latanya on ya! :p

 

Club 02 is definitely an awesome hang out spot!!

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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Great review with awesome pics. After your fantastics shots from the spa, I just know we are going to have to spend some time there! Looking forward to the food porn!

 

Cheers,

Jeff

 

See Steven, I knew my photos would sell stuff for Carnival. I am telling you I'd happily take stock photos for them in exchange for wonderful free cruises for 2. :) Jeff, the food porn will be on day 4. :-)

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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Okay, I'm hooked! Great Pictures (but would we expect less from a pro? And then we see why yo're a pro:)) nice comments! I'm looking forward to cruising with the tow of you on the Breeze! Hope you convince Steven and Kim to come along.

 

Crew

 

You'll be on the Nov. 24th sailing on the Breeze with us? Due to personal reasons, Steven and Kim cannot do the Nov. 24th sailing so they'll be sailing on her 2 weeks later on the December 8th sailing. My heart weeps knowing we'll be so close to them in dates but not able to see them. Gosh that sounded cheesy. I think I may be recovering already.... :cool:

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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Hello readers! Day 3 of our itinerary puts us in Cozumel, Mexico. A couple of cruises ago, we visited Cozumel and something rather traumatic happened to me within the first 30 minutes of getting off of the ship. So, we went back to the ship and didn't experience Cozumel at all. I won't go into details but I'll say that going back to Cozumel was one part of this itinerary that I wasn't looking forward to. So, I booked a Carnival excursion to go to Dolphinaris and swim with the dolphins. I'll get into this more soon.

 

The night before, we chose room service items to be delivered to us for breakfast since we knew we'd have to get up early to be ready and off of the ship for our excursion. I've never looked at the room service menu for breakfast on previous cruises but was annoyed that there weren't any protein options on the menu. They basically had cereal, bagels, yogurt, milk, etc.

 

Our breakfast arrived about 20 minutes late which had me in panic mode but no biggie - we wolfed it down. Then we headed off of the ship. Getting off of the ship was really easy on this day as it wasn't a tender port and we probably only had about 10 people in front of us to get off.

 

We're running a little late because of the breakfast but I want to take a few photos. Latanya is yelling at me.. okay not yelling.. just insisting we need to go. I can see how short the walk is so I am insisting I need to take a few photos real quick. :-) I won so here they are:

 

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Another view showing the Dream all tied up very well. (mad at myself for being in a rush and not noticing I cut off the "M". )

 

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The Voyager of the Seas and the Jewel of the Seas were also in port:

 

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Tried to crop out as many people as I could:

 

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We had to walk inside this short shopping plaza in order to get back outside to the hub of where all the tours met up. There was this man wearing a gold pirate suit. There are people in every port that dress up like something and want tips for you to take photos of them or with them. But they're all normally very nice about it and will pose for you first and then hint at their tip jar. This man, however was grouchy and wouldn't pose for anyone. In fact, when someone pointed their camera at him, he'd point at his tip bucket and block his face or turn around really fast to make sure they missed the shot. He might have better luck if he was nice to people. I had a fast enough camera that I got one anyway and while I would have tipped him like I later on tipped several others, I chose not to because of how grumpy he was.

 

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As we walked out of the shopping hallway, there was one of those cut out things that you put your head in. I had Latanya pose in it for me so I could get the lighting and settings right on the camera and then asked someone else to just press the button once I hopped into the photo.

 

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Don't we look... happy? Haha!

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italianfemmy

italianfemmy

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Within a couple of minutes, we met up with our group and were waiting to leave for Dolphinaris.

 

Through knowing each other on cruise critic, we'd already pre-arranged to go with 8 other people so that we could basically be one group comprised of CC members.

 

While we were waiting in line to start the walk to our vans/taxis that would take us to Dolphinaris, I saw this statue and decided I had to have my photo taken on it. I am definitely not a skinny girl but I sometimes pose like I am a model. lol. I say "own the body you have". Normally I wouldn't post them online though but what the heck! In position for my photo and Latanya takes the shot:

 

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(Unless otherwise noted, all photos that have both Latanya and myself in them are from us handing the camera to someone else with the settings already figured out and hoping they focus well.) :-)

 

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Then we offered to take photos for the others from CC who were part of our group.

 

First up, Roy and his daughter, Patty.

 

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And then, Naomi with her husband Ben and their friends, Julie and Dan and Josh and I am horrible.. I forget the name of the other girl.

 

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And since it didn't need any people in it to look fabulous, a photo of the statue by itself.

 

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Okay, line moving and we're all following our guide who takes us down to where the taxi's are. These adorable little buggy cars were all lined up on the other side of the street.

 

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We're in our taxi and on the way to Dolphinaris. About 5 minutes later, we pull up and the 4 year old inner child starts to go bananas as we all realize that we're about to touch, play with and swim with these beautiful creatures.

 

Photos and review coming up!

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steven93921

steven93921

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Lol!! Until you see how SILLY you look in the video I took of you dancing with her :p

 

She surely made me look better than I truly am (which is to say that White Men Can't Dance)! It was probably more embarrassing for you ladies being associated with me than it was for myself. Ignorance is bliss!! :cool:

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smurfm69

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I'm really enjoying your review and amazing pictures. We are trying out the Dream next year and can't wait! It looks like y'all had a great turn out from your roll call. That adds to the fun of cruising getting to make new friends. The roll call for our Dream cruise is pretty dead but it's still a long ways off so maybe it will pick up. Ok, quit wasting time reading my post and continue with the great review. lol

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