Dream Western Review with Pic June 23-30, 2012

[Maryscooking]

So I have gone back and forth about doing a review. On one hand, I just loved reading the pictorial reviews prior to our cruise, and I want to contribute the same. On the other hand, we really didn't do as much as usual on this trip and didn't take as many pics, so I'm not totally sure how useful of a review it will be. But I've finally decided to just do it.

 

Background: Cruisers are myself (33 yr old part time RN full time mom), DH (32 yr old firefighter), DD (5 yr old "adventure princess"). This cruise was planned as the 2nd - relaxing - half of our vacation. The first part was six days at Walt Disney World. Might write a trip report on that on the disboards. If I do, I'll link it here.

 

This was our 6th cruise, but only the 2nd on Carnival. The 1st Carnival cruise was a 5 day quick trip on the Destiny, which left my husband swearing he wouldn't do Carnival again. But the price of cruising the Caribbean in June (coupled with already shelling out $$$ for WDW) helped me convince him to give the Dream a try.

 

So our overall impression? Very positive! The Cloud 9 Spa and the Water Works area sold us on Dream over the Legend (similar price and itinerary) and in the end it was the right choice - neither area disapointed. In fact, they made the cruise for us in many ways.

 

I'll post some more with some pics in a bit.

[Maryscooking]

Just a test to see if I can post pics from facebook.

 

Us before vacation:

[trvlqueen]

Looking forward to review!

[Maryscooking]

This is what we did in the week before the cruise:

 

Sat June 16 - Stay up until 1am (hubby) and 3am (me) getting everything ready to go. Aside from all the packing, we were leaving behind for two weeks (in 90 degree heat) our 2 dogs, a pet rat, a tank of fish, 4 chickens, and 2 acres with various garden beds. It took so much planning to get ourselves out the door and make sure everything was attended to.

 

Sun June 17 - Woke up over an hour and a half late (!) and very nearly missed our flight to Orlando. First time I've ever had to run to the gate because I was late. I won't say who turned off the alarm clock without actually getting up but it wasn't the person who was up until 3am...

 

Even with that, we had a plan to surprise our DD with the trip to Disney, and had to carry that out before leaving the house. It really just took a few minutes, and she was thrilled. Inside I was kind of freaking out at the time.

 

We were lucky though, there were no delays at security and the plane was boarding about 10 minutes behind schedule, so we made it. Had an uneventful flight to Orlando, picked up our rental car and went straight to the Magic Kingdom.

 

DD very excited to be in Orlando:

 

(As an aside, we used a touring plan for our whole WDW trip and had very minimal waiting in line even though it was super crowded. Only way I'd do it in June. But that is why our days were scheduled the way they were.)

 

Mon June 18 - Spent the morning at Epcot, went to the resort at lunch, played in the pool, and then surprised our daughter with a new Rapunzel dress and an invitation from the Disney princesses to dinner that night:

 

 

We went back to Epcot for princess storybook dining at Akershus Castle in Norway, and then called it a night.

 

Tues June 19 - Magic Kingdom in the morning, a break at the resort from lunch through dinner, and then we had planned to go back to MK that night, but decided to head to Animal Kingdom instead.

 

Turns out my five yr old DD is a roller coaster riding daredevil! It had to be front row:

 

And hands in the air! All the time!

 

Wed June 20 - MK in the morning again for a special education program for DD that allowed us to purchase very discounted park tickets. Can give more info on that if anyone is interested. Again, we left the park from lunch to dinner, this time we went to Downtown Disney to walk around in the evening.

 

Thurs June 21 - Animal Kingdom all day (well until 4pm or so), and then we relaxed at the resort.

 

Resort time (my kid in the foreground was practicing "surfing" before getting in the water, I don't know):

 

Fri June 22 - Hollywood Studios until 3pm, a short break at the resort, and then we headed back to Downtown Disney to see the new Disney movie Brave on the first night of its release in 3D. It was very cool!

 

Cadence meeting Merida, the Brave princess (this was actually in the MK before we saw the movie):

 

Back at the resort, we packed up to head to Port Canaveral in the morning.

 

Sat June 23 - We finished packing, stopped at one of the Orlando outlet malls to get DD some new sport sandals, and then drove to Port Canaveral, where the real cruise review starts!

[vivavegas]

Loving your review and photos too! Looking forward to reading more. DD is a real cutie!:)

[Maryscooking]

Loving your review and photos too! Looking forward to reading more. DD is a real cutie!:)

 

Thank you!

 

We had such a great time on the Disney portion of our trip. I spent an inordinate amount of time researching and planning (probably more than I had to because its kind of fun), and it paid off. One of the most rewarding parts of the trip for me was our DD telling us over and over again how great we were for taking her to Disney and how lucky she was.

[Maryscooking]

Ok, back to Saturday the 23rd - Embarkation Day!

 

Our rental arrangement was to pick up the car at MCO on the 17th, and drop it off at Budget's office in Cape Canaveral on the 23rd. From there, Budget offers a free shuttle to the port.

 

When we arrived at the Budget office, there was a very long line of people waiting for the shuttle, and the one boarding passengers was just a van, not a big shuttle bus. We got in line, but I was ready just to call a cab. Chris turned in the car and said the woman at the counter was not helpful as far as shuttle info went. I went back inside and found out that Budget was running three shuttles back and forth that day, and the wait wouldn't be long at all.

 

And it wasn't - another (bigger) shuttle showed up in probably less than 10 minutes, and we were able to get on that one.

 

After we were dropped off at the port - I think about 12pm? it was around 40 minutes to get through the various lines and get on the ship - and 25 minutes of that was probably security. I was afraid because we make it a practice to arrive early enough to be the first people on board, and we were so much later this time, but we didn't find the line bad at all.

 

And a note about security - it wasn't bad. We were bringing some bottles of water left from the week, and a couple bottles of wine. They did pull DH aside to take out a half drank bottle of water that we forgot about, and they looked in my bag that had the wine to verify what it was, but there was no shaking or visible inspection of the full bottles of water. Maybe because the line was pretty long outside in the heat, I don't know.

 

There are no pics for that part of the trip (although I wish I had taken pics of the lines so you could see how long they were compared to the wait) but I have plenty to come of our first day.

 

Next - we are on the ship!

[CruzinScotty]

Great start. Looking forward to more!

[szq5231]

Keep it coming! Great so far!

 

szq

[dfmeeks]

Can't wait to read more!

[erewhon]

Thanks for taking time to write and post your reports and photos.

[meatloafsfan]

Great start! Your daughter is very lucky to get both Disney and a cruise! Can I ask where you stayed before the cruise? Looks like a decent hotel with a nice pool area - was it close to the parks?

[Maryscooking]

Great start! Your daughter is very lucky to get both Disney and a cruise! Can I ask where you stayed before the cruise? Looks like a decent hotel with a nice pool area - was it close to the parks?

 

Yes she was! We skipped vacation last year so this one was a biggie. Airfare is so expensive that it made more sense to consolidate our trips. And truthfully, after the WDW week, DH and I did not feel at all rested like you hope to after vacation. So being able to cruise for seven more days was a real blessing.

 

Anyway, we stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek resort in a two bedroom two bath, full kitchen, with washer/dryer condo. It is a timeshare property, and it is a real value if you book through one of the companies that re-books (not sure of the correct term) owner's points. We used Vacation Strategy and were very satisfied with their customer service. They have a price match policy, and did indeed make good on it for me. Our total out the door cost, taxes and everything, was $150/night. Free wi-fi and free parking. And except for two lunchs and one dinner, we ate every meal in the condo, which saved a ton of money. Only spent $150 for groceries.

 

The property is bordered by WDW property on three sides, so it is only a 5-10 minute drive to the parks. It is even closer than many of Disney's own hotels. I've stayed in Disney hotels and really dislike waiting for and riding on the busses, and I know for sure we saved a lot of time this time around by driving to the parks.

 

And really - for the price we paid, we would have had a small room in a value property on Disney. Instead we got this:

 

Main living area:

 

2nd bedroom:

 

Master bedroom:

 

Master bath with jacuzzi tub and separate shower:

 

Our balcony:

 

This is how close we were to the resorts. Our view of Epcot from our balcony (only zoomed a tiny bit):

[Tennessee Rose]

We stayed at Bonnet Creek several years, in fact, in that exact spot in the "red colored" area on the 7th floor. Fabulous condo! And loved the gradual entry pool that flows into the lazy river. Lovely place!

[Maryscooking]

Ok, back to the Dream. Not that I mind answering questions/posting Disney pics at all.

 

So we got on board about 12:45pm. I knew our rooms weren't supposed to be ready, but was hoping we could drop our carry ons in the closet. Our room hadn't been turned over yet, but we found our room steward in the hall and asked if he was ok with us sticking the bags in the closet, and he had no problem with it. Did that (was pleased with the amount of closet space) and found some lunch at the buffet.

 

In general, when going to the buffet, if you walk to the back stations, the line is shorter, and that was true today as well. We ate at the buffet for almost every meal (a big change for us, more on that later) and were never more than five people from the start of the buffet itself. Often we grabbed our plates and had no real line.

 

After eating, we popped back over to our cabin (now clean) to check it out. We had balcony cabin 11250, on the Panarama (did I spell that right?) deck. We chose a similarly located cabin on our Destiny cruise, and loved the location. We were one deck down from the buffet and pools, on the same deck as Camp Carnival, and just underneath the spa/gym and the Water Works and Serenity areas. It was right in the middle of everywhere we spent our time.

 

Some cabin shots:

 

The cabin space was pretty good for three people, although it would have been nice if the couch/bed was easily convertible back and forth, as on RCCL ships. It stays as a bed all week, so you lose that lounging space. But it was ok, it was vacation so perfectly acceptable to fling ourselves into bed in the middle of the day, right? :-D

 

Bathroom, which was adequate. The little shelves on the sides of the mirror are crucial for keeping things tidy. Destiny didn't have them and I missed them. I won't post a shower pic, but it was a standard cruise cabin shower size, and the curtain did do its job of keeping water in, if you made sure to fully open it.

 

Standard size balcony (bonus giant thumb included):

 

So my kiddo was dying to swim and try out the water slides (the same kiddo who actually requested to leave the Disney parks each day so she'd be sure to have pool time). We got suited up and went to check out Water Works. At first glance, I was impressed. I'll post more detailed pics on a sea day, but here is a shot from the back looking down into the main pool area:

 

I can't remember the exact order of events, but photographic evidence shows that we tried the sushi:

 

 

And caught a bit of Men in Black II playing on the big screen:

 

It would probably have been fun to chill in a lounger and watch a whole movie, but it seemed like we always found something a little better to do, and would instead watch 10 minutes of something before moving on. But the picture and sound quality was good. In the mornings, they played the Today show, which again would have been a cool thing to watch on the Ocean, if we were so inclined.

[Maryscooking]

We stayed at Bonnet Creek several years, in fact, in that exact spot in the "red colored" area on the 7th floor. Fabulous condo! And loved the gradual entry pool that flows into the lazy river. Lovely place!

 

I actually requested building 5 because of the zero entry pool and lazy river (both favorite things of ours). We walked around and checked out the other pools and lazy river, but because DD couldn't go on the slides, we stuck to our pool.

 

We loved the place and would recommend it in a heartbeat.

[Maryscooking]

Embarkation Day 1 Continued

 

One of the reasons we chose the Dream was for the Cloud 9 Spa and thermal suite. Knowing we'd be booking a spa pass for the two of us for the week, we went to the spa tour (and took miss cadence with us, where to her credit she was seen but not heard by the other people on the tour).

 

Honestly, we could have skipped the tour, although it was interesting to see all the treatment areas. They did little overviews of some of their treatments and talked about what they do in each area.

 

At the end of the tour, in the relaxation room, the spa attendant asked if anyone wanted to purchase passes and I raised my hand and got one right there. It was $249 for both of us for the week. We added a 10% gratuity as well. Hope they really do distribute that to the staff that cleans and re-stocks stuff, but no real way of knowing. But also no real way to find and tip everyone on your own.

 

Then they put this bright green SPA labeled wristband on our arms, which I wasn't thrilled with. Cut it right off for pictures later. They also put stickers on our sign and sail cards, which we presented each time we wanted access cards to the restricted areas. And actually, only one attendant asked to see my wristband the whole week. Don't know why they do wristbands and use stickers. Seems kind of redundant. People weren't exactly trying to sneak in behind me when I opened the doors to the restricted stuff, but maybe its happened in the past.

 

Later, leaving the tour, I heard someone say they felt trapped in the room and pressured to buy a spa pass. I don't know cause I was actually buying one, but its not like anyone was blocking the door keeping people from leaving. Maybe they just felt awkward saying thanks for the tour and stepping out.

 

In the gym portion of the tour, DH and I signed up for yoga for the next day, and for two seminars - one on losing belly fat and one on reducing lower back pain. Will tell you about those later.

 

After the spa stuff, we went back to the room to watch sail away from our balcony. I let Cadence take some pics, which I will share with you next :D

[Eissac84]

Looking forward to the review!:) Sailing on the Dream in October!

[PaCUfan]

Keep the great pics coming!

[Maryscooking]

Cadence's Sail Away Photos

 

Cadence asked to take some pics while we were in the cabin watching sail away. I gave her the camera and then left to go make a spa appt. So I didn't find these pics until we came home from the cruise.

 

When you are five, the balcony railing is a bigger deal:

 

 

Looking through the glass is a more viable option (and the bonus is you can see yourself a little bit too):

 

 

You can only take so many pictures of coastal scenery, and looking down at a chess board six decks below is a novel thing for everyone:

 

 

Even better than looking down is what you see if you look directly sideways through that awesome crack in the balcony divider:

 

 

(Passenger in cabin 11252, if you are out there, Cadence's mom apologizes first for her little spy and second for putting your picture on the internet)

 

 

So you can only take pictures of other people for so long, right?

 

[Thad409]

We are looking at the dream for May of 2013 please keep the review going great so far.Thanks

[suztocruz]

Thanks for the great review! We are booked in that same cabin coming up on July 21, along with an inside spa cabin across the hall. Love all the pictures!

[Maryscooking]

Thanks for the great review! We are booked in that same cabin coming up on July 21, along with an inside spa cabin across the hall. Love all the pictures!

 

The location of the cabin was really great, with one downfall - you could hear the elevator/stairwell noise if people were being rambuncious. One night a group (or several groups who knows) were socializing very loudly in the stairwell, and it woke me up. Other than that, it wasn't a problem.

 

But I think next time I might consider booking a cabin at least a couple of doors away from the stairwell. Who knows, there is really no totally perfect location - I read one review of someone who booked across from the room steward's utility closet, and found it to be very noisy. And people were really only noisy the one night. Other than that, you'd just hear the random shout or two.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review and the great pictues.

[Maryscooking]

Like I mentioned above, I went to the spa and left DD with DH. I wanted to be present for the raffle (of course, did not win) and then planned on getting an eyebrow wax. With all the hustle and bustle before our trip, that task eluded me and I was beginning to feel a bit like frieda kahlo.

 

That left DH to take DD to the Camp Carnival welcome show and orientation. His only comment was that the Fun Force was there (the 4 breakdancers) and they weren't as good as So You Think You Can Dance or anything. What a goof.

 

The first waxing appt was about a half hr away, so I took advantage of my VIP pass and relaxed on the heated loungers in one of the special rooms (they have funny names that have slipped my mind) until it was time for my appt.

 

This was where I sat (although this wasn't my view; this pic is actually from day 4 in port) and the heated tile lounger was heavenly really. I was already sure the $249 was money well spent:

 

 

My aesthetician was fast and competent and didn't try to sell me anything. I also had very minimal post-wax redness or bumpiness. The results of her work (this is where I am very self indulgent and post pics of my post-wax eyebrows):

 

 

Ok so that is kind of overly life-size and weird but for some reason I'm not going to delete it. People might want to know that they can get a competent eyebrow wax on board. I'm watching you...

 

So I did overtip I think. The bill was $30, and I added $6 to it without really even looking. There is a place to write in a tip. I was not in full cruise mode yet to remember that gratuity is most often automatically added. Later that night I was reviewing the list of spa services and saw that an eyebrow wax was $25. So the bill I signed already had a 20% gratuity charge. Oh well.

 

Since we were not yet roaming on our cell phones, I texted my DH and found that DD was having her 2nd ice cream cone of the day. I think she had about 40 ice cream cones this cruise. I say cone because DD learned to use the soft serve machine herself, and would fill the cone with ice cream, with only about an inch sticking up from the top. Literally more cone than ice cream. Here is a particularly large cone (sadly my only ice cream picture):

 

 

Wow another larger than life item. But I am not deleting it. People might want to know that the ice cream cone is embossed with the words "TAKE OUT."

 

I have got to stop cropping photos.

 

I met up with DD and DH and discussed our plan for the evening. I truthfully don't remember what that plan was, except that we didn't want to wait until late seating to eat dinner, and ended up in the buffet.

 

Now I will say that we have never, in six cruises and however many days at sea, eaten dinner in the buffet. So this was big for us. But back in Sept, I had weight loss surgery, so my diet and my outlook on food and meals is much different than on past cruises. I didn't have any desire to spend even an hour in the dining room for a meal. There was also no element of enjoying dinner company, as we had been sat at a table for 3/4 (we checked when we first got on board) and we were enjoying each other's company the whole day!

 

We did look at the dinner menu first, thinking that if it looked great we'd still head to the dining room. But we thought it wasn't worth waiting for late seating for - and then in the buffet we discovered that they served the same items as in the dining room! Plus you could make your salad any way you wanted, decide your own portion of each item, and not waste time sitting and waiting for the food to be served! And they served fish every single night! And to top it off, we found very minimal to no lines at dinnertime.

 

It was a magical relevation.

 

So what can I say about the dinner time buffet food? I really did have a salad and baked/steamed fish every night except once when I had a baked potato instead of the fish, and once when I had the chicken parmesan. The fish was always well prepared but I think it did kind of taste the same after a while. The salad bar was good except for two things. It was missing shredded cheese, and the the dressing selection was very blah if you wanted low-cal.

 

After wandering around the ship for a bit, we headed back to the cabin to call it a night. Beds - mattresses and linens - are really very comfortable. Oh just thinking of climbing into that bed with a view of the night time sea, knowing that we'd awake to the beautiful ocean in the morning, with nothing to do that we didn't want to - I need to go back!!!!!

 

I will write more sometime tomorrow, maybe not until late at night.