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

[2mygirl2]

Thanks so much for your awesome review! We are sailing on March 17th and it is so refreshing to read a review that is detailed and positive! :)

[navybaby1113]

Loving your review. We adored the Dream and it's awesome to see such great pictures of her.

[travlngrl1996]

I am in the planning stages for booking the DREAM next year. I am really enjoying your review and pictures. There were some shots that you took that could really be used as advertising for some of the places you visited. Simply awesome. :)

[SuntanaGirl]

What an energy you radiate! Your verbal skills just add to the enjoyment of your excellent photography. Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed honest account of your experience. 2+ months can't go by quick enough...

 

Can I just ask one question - noob to pro: Your photographs have such great contrast, and I know good glass makes all the difference (Along with the obvious natural talent and dedication you have). I only have a Rebel with kit lens (except for the 50mm/1.8), do you use or recommend any filters or do you use a photoshop software to post produce?

 

I was wondering the same thing about filters. I have UV and am getting a Polarizer before we leave. I want the water shots to look the best they can since it's so pretty. :D I also have Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 I just downloaded and am trying to figure out. :eek:

[italianfemmy]

The quiet sounds of the ship as we awoke let us know we were in Roatan. We used the Carnival phone system every day as our wake up call and it always worked perfectly.

 

We got ourselves ready and I packed a camera bag up and then we headed down to breakfast on the Lido deck. Latanya thought the breakfast was ok. I didn't like it. The eggs were runny (not my thing).. I like them DEAD! lol. I was able to eat a banana and some yogurt though and wasn't going to let breakfast get me down!

 

We headed off of the ship nice and early. As soon as we got off, the Carnival photographers were standing there with the towel animal mascot and Latanya and I misbehaved and took photos of each other. Even the photos we took, I wouldn't have purchased. Why? Because I am a snob when it comes to lighting. This is why I've never purchased any of the photos as I get off of a ship. If I have to wear sunglasses in a photo to avoid from squinting, it's not a photo I am going to want to print. But, it's still fun to show off on Facebook or whatever! :-)

 

Latanya:

 

 

Myself

 

 

Okay... I am not even kidding you when I say that the walk from the ship into town where you can catch a taxi or meet up with your shore excursion group is LONG! In fact, we were told that it's about 3-5 football fields long and a huge part of it is a big hill.

 

We had been told by our tour company ahead of time to look for the people in green shirts at the bottom of the first haul before going over the hill because they could get us a taxi that the government allows to take passengers across the hill for $2 per person.

 

On our way to that spot, we fell into the Mahogany Bay sign trap despite the blazing sun and took a photo of each other. It actually is a pretty great sign because it's surrounded by all of the lush foilage that makes you feel like you're about to see more gorgeous-ness beyond. (I tend to make up words sometimes)

 

Latanya

 

 

Me

 

 

We took the taxi... over the hill and met up with our tour guide. We booked an independent tour for this day because we didn't want to do any of the cookie cutter excursions like we'd already done in Cozumel. My design for the ports of call days was to experience something new and different each day.

 

For Roatan (Mahagony Bay), my plan was to take in everything from Poverty to Paradise. So, we booked Victor Bodden Tours. For only $45 per person, you can book them to take you wherever you want all day long. The best part is that it's your own tour. You don't have to share it with other families that have different interests than you. I booked this tour so that I could take photos and see unique things. I didn't want to pout that I couldn't stop and take photos of something I saw on the side of the road just because it wasn't in our itinerary of planned stops for the day.

 

Kailor, a wonderful but shy and quiet man was our tour guide for the day. We loaded up into his air conditioned van and he started talking to us and asking us what we wanted to see. We told him we wanted to see a little bit of everything and would let him know if we were wanting something different at some point in time.

 

In no time, we were on the roads and headed through some not so pretty areas. Some people don't want to see this when they're on vacation. I love getting these experiences and seeing the true reality of a place and humbling myself to the possibilities in this world. It never ceases to amaze me that the people in these poverty stricken places pick up their heads every day and put a smile on their faces and they are happy. Perhaps it's because they've never known anything else. Or maybe it's because as a society, they aren't as selfish as we are. Not trying to bash our country or anything but perspective is always the key, for me anyway.

 

Everywhere we went in these areas, there were children and grown men that were running towards vehicles to hop on and catch a ride. They don't have to stick their thumbs out like we do. They just hop on. It's customary here for them to do this as most families don't have vehicles of their own.

 

I got a couple of photos through the windshield of our van (sorry for the reflection but I wanted to capture this story.)

 

 

 

Be right back!

Edited December 29, 2011 by italianfemmy

[italianfemmy]

Kailor then took us up to a small bridge and pulled the van over to tell us about the destruction that had happened to many of the homes along this little river from the storms. Some of the roofs were missing on some of these homes. Some families boats were under the water. A childs motorized car laid upside down on the rooftop of a small shed. A man paddled in his small boat to go to the store and back to his home, partially submerged in water.

The sides of peoples homes were covered in clothes hanging out to dry.

 

 

 

These are the things that make me feel alive and fortunate. A lot of amazing things were to come for us during our 4th day of our cruise but seeing that man paddle himself home in the heat of the day through a valley of tattered homes really tore at my heart. It made me want to plan another trip to volunteer for these people, to take their photos and offer them free prints that they can share with their loved ones.

[barefoot cruiser]

We visited Roatan a few years back on a "Swine Flu altered itinerary". It was the port I remember the most fondly. We, too, booked a private guide, I can't recall the name, but it wasn't Victor. The private guide thing was wonderful and we felt that we had a mix of different experiences and views of the culture of the people of Roatan. We did a dory tour, ziplining, visited an iguana farm, and at the end or guide took us to a little resort where we could put our feet in the water and just enjoy the beautiful scenery. I am so looking forward to your continued review featuring this wonderful little paradise (and am wishing my itinerary included it, alas we are doing St Thomas, St Martin and Nassau).

[italianfemmy]

Okay, I am done pulling at the heart strings now! Kailor then took us to the West End of the island. I saw an overlook spot and noticed the ocean was layered in different shades of blue. I asked Kailor to stop so we could get out for a few minutes to take some photos. He pulled over for us and I got out, camera in hand but still had to stop for a moment to just take it all in. What a beautiful sight!

 

 

Latanya took a couple of photos too with my camera:

 

 

 

..... Then I took it back and walked down the hill a little ways to use a driveway as leading lines into the scene.

 

 

 

Kailor then showed up... and asked if we'd like him to take a photo of the two of us so we handed the camera off to him for a shot.

 

 

Some neat little shops were nestled all around this area. Latanya got a soccer themed shirt and a carved necklace. I also got a couple of little jewelry items and a hand carved, Mahogany jewelry box that is super pretty! Sorry, no photos. :-(

[italianfemmy]

We then got back into the van and he drove us around some more to look at things. We passed this sign that said something about fishing and it made me double take. Through the trees, I caught a glimpse of water and a little fishing pier leading out into the water and I could see a photo in my head so I asked Kailor to take us back there. He'd never been down there before so I think he was a little apprehensive but he agreed. He couldn't drive us all the way down so we had to get out and walk through trees and debris and finally, we came out to this little private paradise.

 

 

If I could choose only one photo from this trip... that I felt was worthy of being published in a magazine somewhere or printing really huge to hang in my home, it would be this one (taken at the little private paradise I stumbled across.) But before I show it.. I just have to

 

point out...

 

that...

 

I would have never been able to stop here....

 

if I'd been on a regular tour. :D

 

 

Like this one too....

 

 

Kailor had told us... that they have 3 different colors of coconuts there. Yellow, Orange and Green. We spotted some of the orange ones in a tree at this private little paradise that we found.

 

 

I almost forgot... I took a photo of the Mayors Mansion in the beginning of our day.. he told us a lot about the Mayors but I'd need to rely on Latanya to fill in those gaps. I was too busy getting out of the car to take a photo. Shame on me.

 

 

 

Okay folks..... That is all I have for now. I need to get back to editing photos for my clients. I'll hopefully be able to post more later today!

[crewsweeper]

Gorgeous! Gorgeous! Photos of Roatan. Thanks for capturing the poverty and the paradise! I'm waiting on the lunch photos:D as I'm sure Kailor took you to a great little divy hole in the wall (like in Flowers Bay?) that most cruisers would never ever venture into (or maybe he just dropped you off at Ms.Jenny's Lusty Lizard for her "******" soup:rolleyes:).

 

BTW, Mahogany Bay isn't a town, it's a shopping center with a beach attached. And as you now know there isn't a town for miles either side of MBCC. The cove you pull into is Dixon's Cove and while the buildings in the shopping area are all relatively new, the building and the beach used to be an eco-friendly youth/college student camp destination. And hoping you found the swings along the path from the shopping to the beach for some great scenic shots of MBCC.

[italianfemmy]

Gorgeous! Gorgeous! Photos of Roatan. Thanks for capturing the poverty and the paradise! I'm waiting on the lunch photos:D as I'm sure Kailor took you to a great little divy hole in the wall (like in Flowers Bay?) that most cruisers would never ever venture into (or maybe he just dropped you off at Ms.Jenny's Lusty Lizard for her "******" soup:rolleyes:).

 

BTW, Mahogany Bay isn't a town, it's a shopping center with a beach attached. And as you now know there isn't a town for miles either side of MBCC. The cove you pull into is Dixon's Cove and while the buildings in the shopping area are all relatively new, the building and the beach used to be an eco-friendly youth/college student camp destination. And hoping you found the swings along the path from the shopping to the beach for some great scenic shots of MBCC.

 

Have you spent a fair amount of time in Roatan? Seems like you know a lot about the place! I don't know how "hole in the wall" our restaurant was but I have a funny story about it later. lol. Swings? I didn't see any swings :-( So, I guess not. The rest of the photos with the exception of a couple of shots of our lunch are all going to be of what we did next. I don't think I have any more of the island itself, sorry :-( I would love to travel here again and spend a few days taking photos. There simply weren't enough hours in the day. Driving from the West End to the East End while stopping for a couple photos here and there took a lot of time. Plus, we had a leisurely lunch too.

[Cricket63]

Alicia,

 

1. You and your partner Latanya make a beautiful couple. Wishing you both many years of happiness together.

 

2. Your photographs are absolutely stunning; I truly have never been "touched" by photos before as I have with yours. The photos capture not only the subject matter but also for me, evoke emotions and feelings based on each individual photo. You have a gift for making photos come to life. I understand why your clients pay for you to fly to their events to take pictures; you are amazing.

 

3. To me, a good photographer is like a good cook or chef as both involve tasks which are labors of love . . . time consuming but pleasurable for the person doing it.

 

6. It would be a blast to sail with the two of you someday; hope our paths meet in the future!

 

7. The dolphin encounter you went on is exactly the type I would like to experience someday. I'm not interested in an encounter where you get to pet and kiss the animals only. The interaction, especially the individual swim makes me want to jump through the screen to get the experience.

 

8. Carnival is crazy not to hire you to do some of their commercial shots - maybe someone on this board will be able to hook you up with the right people to make this happen.

 

THANK YOU so very much for taking the time to post this wonderful review.

 

YES, Thank You for sharing!! Your review and photos are wonderful!! Love dolphins...could have looked at 100 more photos :D Looking forward to reading the rest of your review! We were on the Dream in March for 12th Anniversary and loved the ship!

[steven93921]

Ship Talk

 

I'll jump in here and offer some Ship Talk and observations I had on the same cruise...

 

First off... when you first board The Dream, don't blow by the green-screen photos they stop each individual to take. This is separate from the picture they take for your Sail & Sign account (which you can NOT skip) and evidently was NOT another one of those shots they get of you just before you board and try to gouge you for later. This photo will be used for the on board facial recognition software which allows you to use the kiosk in the Photo Gallery to find all the pictures that Carnival has taken of you on the Cruise. Alicia can attest to how well this works, I can only tell you that when you slide your room key in the kiosk, nothing will come up if you didn't stop for that picture on the way in. *shruggs*

 

We over spent in the Photo Gallery on our first cruise and really did not want to do so. We did find one great shot of ourselves in the gallery that we bought but it was totally by chance. There are so many photos taken of you on The Dream, who wants to stand looking through ALL of them to find the ones that you are in.

 

Odors

Casino odor - did it exist from the smoke? Yes. However, I am severely asthmatic and the Casino on the Miracle last year would make me choke and feel like I needed 5 showers just to walk through it. When I walked through the Casino on the Dream, it was a stale kind of smoke odor but not a very strong one. I didn't smell like the Casino when I left it and it never set off my asthma. If you don't want to play in the Casino, the great news is that Deck 4 on the Dream allows you to go from one end of the ship all the way to the other so you never have to walk through the Casino and smell this odor if it offends you badly enough to let it ruin your vacation.

 

Kim and I are both ex-smokers... I can deal with smoke (well enough to play in the casino), Kim does not deal with smoke. She either avoided the casino or held her breath if she didn't want to down to Deck 4.

 

Staff onboard the Dream

I just kept waiting for bad service, for rude crew members and it never happened.

 

I couldn't agree more here!

 

Our friends Steve and Kim became fast friends with their bartender at the aft pool. I wish I could remember his name but this gentleman would become one of their favorite part of their cruise.

 

His name is Marhadi, but call him Marty or D.D. (Dede Hansom on facebook... he's not too full of himself:p). He worked the Aft pool area after 3pm and then in the Punchliner until 11. If you enjoy sitting around the pool with a drink, he will take good care of you. Whenever I scanned to pool area for him, he spotted me and knew with a thumbs up or thumbs down if we needed a refill. He made a special request drink for Kim and it was spot on. Tell him Kim and Steven sent you and that we said HI!

 

There were numeous waitstaff people that catered to us during our anytime dining. Not only were they all fast, responsive, eager to please and accomodate our needs but they were friendly, talkative, told us about their home lives, showed us photos of their families and always smiled. When we had to hug a couple of them goodbye at the end of the week, I nearly cried.

 

They were fantastic!!

 

If you treat these people with respect, if you smile at them and say good morning, if you try to get to know them... they will open their hearts and share themselves with you. And, you'll leave feeling humbled by the experience.

 

AMEN!! I never encountered a crew member that didn't make me feel like he or she genuinely wanted us to have a great time and wanted to do all that they could to that end.

 

But Lucian, a bar waiter was AMAZING to us. He always would see us and stop us to chit chat.

 

YUUUUUUP!!!

 

 

I wanted to feel relaxed when I came back so I decided to take things slower. Once you've been on as many cruises as I have, things that have happened on every cruise start not to become as important to attend. So, I bought the Spa VIP passes, planned something for every port of call and decided to spend my time on the ship relaxing while taking in the occasional show here and there.

 

Take more time to relax kiddo... don't give yourself a heart attack before you're 40 ;)

 

Again, cruising is what you make of it.

 

Well said!

[steven93921]

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:

 

We are STILL trying to decide what to do next December. I think we are leaning toward the Victory out of San Juan....I know it's older, but I've never been to any of those ports.

 

I have to echo your comments about service on this ship.....we were NEVER disappointed. Food was great and HOT every meal. I hated Gumby though, wanted to punch him in the face, spa was AWESOME, etc.

 

 

I didn't mind Gumby, but that just made my day!

[steven93921]

I got a couple of photos through the windshield of our van (sorry for the reflection but I wanted to capture this story.)

 

 

WOW!!!

 

There is SOMETHING about this picture. The scene looks like one of those that you would see in a magazine advertisement for some seemingly unrelated product. The kind of advertising that makes you look at it and think, "what does this image try to say about the product?"

 

VERY COOL!!

[vaca_queen]

All I can say is WOW!!! The pics are amazing. You are a wonderful photographer. Great review too.

[thesawch]

Alls i can say is your style of photography is the kind I like. Thank you for making this great pictorial for us all. This is probably the best advertising you could do for yourself.

[SuntanaGirl]

All I can say is WOW!!! The pics are amazing. You are a wonderful photographer. Great review too.

 

I totally agree. I feel you tell the story in those pictures and as though I'm right there on the island. There is definately something about your photography skills I've never seen before. Your company name is perfect, because I do feel the Pure Emotion of each photo.

 

I can't wait to read more. Any links to other cruises in the pastJ?

[italianfemmy]

Alls i can say is your style of photography is the kind I like. Thank you for making this great pictorial for us all. This is probably the best advertising you could do for yourself.

 

I'm not helping myself with advertising at all. I am a wedding photographer, not a travel photographer. lol. I am definitely helping Carnival make money though and probably helping the tour companies and dolphin place make money too. I am just posting this and sharing because of my love of photography. :-)

 

I wouldn't mind doing some commercial work one day though but that's not the point of this post.

[italianfemmy]

I totally agree. I feel you tell the story in those pictures and as though I'm right there on the island. There is definately something about your photography skills I've never seen before. Your company name is perfect, because I do feel the Pure Emotion of each photo.

 

I can't wait to read more. Any links to other cruises in the pastJ?

 

Suntana, this is my first review out of all of my cruises. I've never really thought about doing one before. It was a review someone else did on here about the Dream that inspired me to do one. I'll probably always do one from this point on although this is quite time consuming. :-)

[italianfemmy]

WOW!!!

 

There is SOMETHING about this picture. The scene looks like one of those that you would see in a magazine advertisement for some seemingly unrelated product. The kind of advertising that makes you look at it and think, "what does this image try to say about the product?"

 

VERY COOL!!

 

Aww thanks Steven! You actually love one of my photos! haha. I love this photo too. It really evokes a scene and a story for me. I just wish it wasn't shot through a blasted windshield. I had mere moments to capture it though so there wasn't time to do anything about it. :-)

[radrayjax]

I VERY seldom comment on reviews, but your insight into the ship & crew (Ship Talk), superb photography, and willingness to go beyond "touristy" areas (which I share) made me want to say BRAVO!

You put so much into proper perspective....

I'm sailing on the Dream in 23 days and have read scads of reviews and write-up. As you noted too many people have given this short shrift. CC just reported that this is still one of the top ten ships in the industry this year.

I plan on taking and posting tons of photos in my post-cruise write up and I'd like to know how do you control the apparent screen size of your photos?

Thanks for everything!

[italianfemmy]

I VERY seldom comment on reviews, but your insight into the ship & crew (Ship Talk), superb photography, and willingness to go beyond "touristy" areas (which I share) made me want to say BRAVO!

 

You put so much into proper perspective....

 

I'm sailing on the Dream in 23 days and have read scads of reviews and write-up. As you noted too many people have given this short shrift. CC just reported that this is still one of the top ten ships in the industry this year.

 

I plan on taking and posting tons of photos in my post-cruise write up and I'd like to know how do you control the apparent screen size of your photos?

 

Thanks for everything!

 

Hi RadRay, You're most welcome! I am a fair but opinionated individual. I am so happy that everyone is loving the review. I thought I'd be boring the crap out of people! lol.

 

To answer your question, I size each vertical photo to be 400x600 pixels using photoshop. I then put a white stroke of 2 pixels on each photo and then extend the canvas size by .3 in order to get the black border. For the horizontals, I limit them to 800 on the width and photoshop imputs the height number for me. I repeat the other steps. I then save all of these images for web, allowing me to keep great detail in the sharpness, etc.

 

Then, I put them in my Photobucket account (the resized ones) and use the IMG Source Code to cut and paste each link here individually as I tell the story. It's very time consuming but I cannot imagine displaying my images any other way for the internet.

 

The black borders are to draw the eye into the photo. Since the web browser is white, it makes it more difficult for the eye to focus on the image. The borders are helpful for that and help the eye to see the true brilliance in the color detail as well. :-) Cheers!

[spiritfox]

Your pics are great! I know we didn't get to spend much time together but it was fun meeting you and I just wanted to thank you for putting this great review together!

 

Ship Talk

 

Nice review of the ship! I agree with pretty much everything you had to say here. I love the Dream and think it is a fine ship staffed with some of the best people from around the world. I have no major complaints about the ship or any of the staff--and yes of course that can certainly make or break any cruise--and for us it certainly helped make it.:)

[smurfm69]

I was looking at the photos on your website and was just blown away! You have a great way of taking traditional pictures and capturing special moments that tell a story. But your true gift is how much fun you make the event look. One can't help looking at the pictures and saying, " Wow, that looks like a memorable and fun time! I wish I had been there!" You obviously have a passion for what you do.