Christmas on the Dream (Dec 24-31, 7-night Western Caribbean) trip report

[gelo7]

Very good trip report.

[nzdisneymom]

Great Review!!! Kind of disappointed to see that Maya Key (Previously known as Fins n Flippers) is now 100% cruise excursion customers. I was there 2.5 years ago under the Fins n Flippers name and they only allowed 50 people in per day. What a relaxing day this was. Now that you say more people are definitely there, I think it takes away from the "hidden gem" that it was. I am assuming the new owners are generating a lot more profit nowadays so good for them.

 

Glad you had a great time.

 

 

Yeah, they had at least 4 groups from three ships there the day we were there. We did enjoy our day, though, and it looks like they are definitely working to keep the place somewhere enjoyable.

[Rita/KY]

Thank you so much for a great review. We are going on the Dream in June and I can't wait!

[nzdisneymom]

One thing I forgot to write about that I was reminded of with the tragedy of the Costa Concordia was on Friday of our trip, we were out on Deck 5 when we spied a boat off the starboard side. DH and I watched it for a few minutes, wondering why someone would be out there, and then we noticed that someone in the Navigation area was also watching with binoculars. We watched them watching the boat for a bit and noticed that the Dream started slowing and turning - seems we were going to check it out. As we turned and others started noticing, too, we moved up to the front of the ship to watch the approach. About that time, the Cruise Director came on the speaker and made an announcement that we were going to be checking out the boat to see if there was anyone onboard who needed assistance. It didn't look like there was anyone on and it looked like it was sinking - it was listing pretty much - and while there was no one on top, there could've been someone beneath who had had a heart attack or something - anyway, a lot of passengers rushed to the front to see what was going on. We pulled along side so that the boat was on our port side (at this time, we'd pretty much made a U-turn) and they opened the side door to take a better look at it. They determined it was an abandoned fishing ship and no one was on board, so we left. The CD made a follow-up announcement - I'm glad he did because that let us know what was happening.

 

DH had seen something on the news on Thursday night about two men who had been rescued at sea on Wednesday but we didn't think it was the same - but turns out, it was the same boat, the Lucky Dog.

 

Here's an article about it:

http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2011-12-28/Boat-sinks-off-Key-West-2-people-rescued-return-to-Ft-Myers

 

Anyway, after the ambulance on Thursday and the sinking fishing boat on Friday, we were glad to be done with the excitement.

 

My thoughts and prayers have been with those involved in the Concordia tragedy - I'm glad most everyone made it off safely - wish there had been no loss of life. And the one thing we'll do differently is make sure our passports / wallets / money / medicine are kept in a "go pack" in our cabin - we keep everything pretty much together anyway, but once we start going on excursions, I don't always put things back together when we get back onboard since I have to get it together again the next morning anyway.

[purple16]

Thank you for a great review..we just booked your cabin in November and wanted to ask if the noise was bad on the port days being above the gangway???

[seamour]

I wondered the same thing and asked one of the crew members - she just made some vague thing about they knew. Weird. I know on DCL they check off the staterooms when you arrive to your muster station.

 

Thanks for all the nice comments - continuing on!

 

I found this interesting as well, as I know exactly what you mean on the Magic and the Wonder (DCL) about muster stations. However when we were on the Dream Feb 2011 our muster station was in one of the restaurants and I remember commenting to DH how do they know we are all here.

 

Of course after the Concordia tragedy I wonder if there will be some changes in alot of the muster drills.

[seamour]

So anyway, DH and I got off and went into the port area to do a little bit of shopping. Same ole shops as all the other ports, but we enjoyed the shops with the local flavor. It wasn't too busy yet, but I could see how the shops would become almost unmanueverable when the crowds returned from their excursions. While we were there, the electricity was out for some of the shops which meant they were hand-writing purchases / receipts so lines were backing up while they waited for their computers / registers to come back online.

 

I am assuming you were in the port north of town? Smaller and not as central? We visited there on Freedom of the Seas and the same thing happened with the electricity and this was 2007, so several years ago!

 

And that's that - the end!

Sniff, I hate the last day and packing, sniff

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for posting your cruise review.

[nzdisneymom]

Thank you for a great review..we just booked your cabin in November and wanted to ask if the noise was bad on the port days being above the gangway???

 

 

Hi - sorry for the delay in responding. The noise from the gangway was loud if you have the balcony door open; when the door is closed, it's amazing how much you cannot hear!

[nzdisneymom]

I am assuming you were in the port north of town? Smaller and not as central? We visited there on Freedom of the Seas and the same thing happened with the electricity and this was 2007, so several years ago!

 

Mic, yes, we were at the samller port. We had been at the larger one on the Disney Magic in 2008 and had hoped that's where we'd be with Carnival Dream but it wasn't.

[CruzerDeb]

Thanks for writing such a great review!

[nzdisneymom]

We loved this cruise so much, we're doing it again! And the price keeps dropping, so hooray!

[beachbratt]

We loved this cruise so much, we're doing it again! And the price keeps dropping, so hooray!

 

great review...we are doing it again as well is yours a Christmas cruise again? and your right about the prices we are paying a lot less this time then the first did you get a cove again? we did it will be our first so looking forward to it :)

[nzdisneymom]

great review...we are doing it again as well is yours a Christmas cruise again? and your right about the prices we are paying a lot less this time then the first did you get a cove again? we did it will be our first so looking forward to it :)

 

Hi, yes we are doing another Christmas cruise. We actually have the very same cabin as before.