Dream Pro/Con Review

[CruiseTricia]

Carnival Dream Western Caribbean Pro/Con Review – June 9-16, 2012

Two families - Parents in 40's, Kids 19, 17, 13. This was our 5th cruise and our friends' 2nd cruise.

Pros:

Loved our Cove Balcony (2388)

Our waiter in the dining room was nice.

The comedy club had some good acts and was fun for evening entertainment.

Never had a very long line for anything!

Our weather was incredible! Very little rocking!

West Bay beach in Roatan – so beautiful!!!

Nahoch Kay in Costa Maya – food there was very good!

Lots of places on the ship where live music was being played.

Beds were comfortable.

I used Island Marketing for two of our excursions. They were great!

Cons:

Our friends’ Cove Balcony was extremely loud (2400). They got very little sleep due to the constant banging above them.

The hours at Costa Maya – too early and too short. Really not even worth docking there.

The food seemed to be of worse quality than in the past. I did this same cruise two years ago and the quality seemed to have gone downhill.

I don’t think the beach at Costa Maya is nice at all. The water is full of sea grass and just not visually appealing.

It’s really hard to find a good cup of coffee! I know, it’s a little picky – but I’m a big coffee drinker!

Half of our rum runners made it and half did not! J

What I would do differently next time:

This trip seemed exhausting. I think next time I won’t book any excursions ahead of time and just leisurely get off the ship and decide what to do at that time. With both Roatan and Costa Maya being very early back to back days, we were exhausted and regretted having booked the trips.

[vivavegas]

Welcome Back! Thanks for the quick review!:)

[wannago35]

Thanks for sharing! We're booked on the Western next year & can't wait!

[Banditswife]

Thanks for the quick review, & good to hear about the cove. We have 2256 on our nov Dream cruise. If you don't mind my asking, which excursions did you book thru Island MKting? I have used them in Bahamas & Cozumel, just wondering what you did. Thanks Love the short & to the point review.

[CruiseTricia]

Hi Bandit - In Costa Maya we booked the Nahoch Kay all inclusive. It was $40 per adult and $20 per child. The food the owner had the chef prepare was excellent, fresh, and abundant.

 

In Roatan we booked the West Bay beach break. When we first saw the beach I was disappointed. The sand is very narrow and there were MANY people selling things - they were quite pushy! But, as the sun came up, the water was beautiful! Not a wave in sight. It really felt like a swimming pool. Our driver met us at the port and stayed with us the entire day. On the way back she stopped wherever we asked her to. Carnival changed our port time by two hours and our driver was informed and there to greet us.

[Banditswife]

Thanks CruiseTricia, we've got VBodden in Roatan, nothing planned in Costa Maya yet. I have learned to do what you suggested, we book a couple must do/see things, then for the other 2 ports we wing it or just shop around. Thanks again

 

PS-- one more quick question- was the tendering process in Belize bad? We're lucky because Dream is only ship in port that day, but still wondering how long we'll have to wait to board the tender for our independent tour. Thanks

[CruiseTricia]

Tendering was not bad at all. We didn't have anything booked, so we took our time and after about an hour or so we made our way to the ticketing room and waited about 15 - 20 minutes for them to call our number.

 

Also, that is another Pro I forgot to list. In every port, we were the ONLY ship. It was amazingly uncrowded everywhere!

[Banditswife]

Cool, thanks again. We are the only ship for 3 out of 4 ports.

[swsandy]

My family was just on the same cruise. We did Amazing Cozumel Race and had a great time. Booked Voctor Bodden zip line and Monkey farm with a stop for lunch. That was lots of fun. Our driver Ronald was terrific. I would not wait to book that at all. I have been to Belize 3xs now and did not get off for 2 . Nice day to relax on the ship. But did hear that the ruins and cave tubing were amazing. So wished we had more time in Costa Maya. Nohooch Cay I have to say was the most relaxed of excursions. My family was not looking to do much of anything. Food and service was great and nice to not have the beach hawkers everywhere. Also had a certified massage therapist on hand. Could have stayed all day. I have to say that I felt the ship did more rocking than I am used to. Could be that we were on the lido deck 10 but man it was a little crazy that we were at a full 20 knots for a day in a half. All in all the Dream was a good vacation for us as we did lots of stuff as a family. Have fun with whatever you do.

[LBumb]

thanks for posting your views

[delluser]

Uh oh, I'm booked in cabin 2400~ what was the banging noise your friends were hearing?

[TriciaEMTB]

Hey we have the same name!

 

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CruiseTricia]

Delluser - I would think about changing rooms if you can. There was constant banging from above. There was also the sound of dice being thrown all night long - almost like the crew was playing a craps game.

 

It really left a sour feeling in our friends' about the cruise.