Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

My "Dream" Double Birthday Cruise September 22-29, 2012

KrystalWaters

By KrystalWaters,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

Recommended Posts

RuthlessBoss

RuthlessBoss

Posted
Posted
Tonight were “Cruise Elegant Night” and my first time eating in the MDR and Lobster Night. If you happen to see this at your table when you sit down, you are in capable of hands.

DSCF1718_zpsa83b005d.jpg

They were THE BEST wait staff EVER! Would I do “Your Time Dining” again? On the Dream-yes. Now here is where I started hearing complaints about the ship. I’m the type to smile and strike up a convo, ask "you how your day is going?" and "your cruise?". Well it would seem every time I asked someone how’s their cruise I received nothing but complaints. The complaints seem to focus on the MDR service. What I did notice is that about 99% of the MDR service complaints were from cruisers that had a set dining time i.e. Early or Late Seating. It got so bad that towards the end of the cruise I was scared to ask anyone how was their day and how was their cruise. Let me tell you the lines at Guest Services was constantly loooong.

That night we went to see our only show of cruise, "Get Ready". It was good. When then followed up with some 18+ comedy in the Burgundy Lounge. Al Ernst was featuring and he was HIL-LAR-IOUS!!! I must have busted a gut or two during his show. Although it was an 18+ show he use of profanity was very very mild. It was more adult humor or jokes only an adult would understand. He was so good we saw him on Monday night..woah i'm getting ahead of myself here with Monday. Al's show was different each time. If you are lucky enough to see him in your Fun Times make sure you make a point of going.

 

We ended the night and walked in our room and saw this on our bed.

DSCF1559_zps896daa7b.jpg

 

Recap:

"Get Ready"-8/10

Al Ernst Comedy-10/10

Anytime MDR Service-10/10

 

DSCF1556_zps860ee739.jpg

 

Up Next...Sea Day,CC Formal Meet & Greet, Chef's Table, and then St. Thomas

That dress looks perfect on you. Guess I watch "Say Yes To The Dress" too much:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
teacher34

teacher34

Posted
Posted

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this review! It's great! I love the picture of you and your husband. You are a great looking couple and that dress is fabulous! We will be ssailing on the Dream Mar. 2 and I am so excited to hear what the ship is like after the dry dock. We were on her 2 years ago and Loved her. Did you did the Taste Bar? I am so happy to read a positive review since the only other from that cruise was pretty negative and I was worried that maybe the ship was as good as we remembered it. I can't wait to read more. Also, I love your pictures.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
smurfm69

smurfm69

Posted
Posted
I love your pictures and posts Krystal... So funny Can't wait to hear more ! We leave on the Dream Oct 20 .. CAN'T WAIT!!:p

 

Hey teeth, we are on the same sailing with you on Oct. 20th! Only 2 more weeks to go! Come on over and join the roll call.

Loving all the pics and review Krystal! Keep it coming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KrystalWaters

KrystalWaters

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks all for the positive remarks. I wanted to post my review to give back in a way to all those reviews i read to get ready for my cruise. I didn't know if anyone was reading since everytime i go to work on it the review is on page 4/5.:D:p

 

Hopefully i will be able to continue tonight. Hubby is on the computer right now .:cool::rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cruisingpastor

cruisingpastor

Posted
Posted

My wife and I are considering cruising on the Dream in March. The wife prefers the late seating for dinner and your comments about those who chose a set dining time has me concerned. Not to dwell on the negative, but what kind of complaints were you hearing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jules815

jules815

Posted
Posted
My wife and I are considering cruising on the Dream in March. The wife prefers the late seating for dinner and your comments about those who chose a set dining time has me concerned. Not to dwell on the negative, but what kind of complaints were you hearing?

 

I was wondering the same thing. We'll board Dream 2 weeks from today (:D) and also have late seating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KrystalWaters

KrystalWaters

Posted
  • Author
Posted
My wife and I are considering cruising on the Dream in March. The wife prefers the late seating for dinner and your comments about those who chose a set dining time has me concerned. Not to dwell on the negative, but what kind of complaints were you hearing?

 

As you can tell i'm not really a negative person. I will note at the the end of the review (if i ever get there:p) the negatives i or my family encountered. Nothing to ruin the cruise but things to improve on.

What i kept hearing over and over again was that those that had set seating felt like they were left or forgotten. That food took FOREVER..some stating they waited over an hour for food.

 

One thing i did learn was during the Chef's Table the Chef did state that the waiters on the Dream who were serving "Your Time Dining" had precedence when grabbing food from the kitchen. Something about ticket coloring and jumping in line to grab what was needed for their tables. To be honest i was fading-in-n-out at that point. I was more interested in the next course.:p:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KrystalWaters

KrystalWaters

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Okay so where was I…..hmmm…ok we were getting ready for the Chef’s Table. I booked the Chef’s Table as my birthday gift to hubby. Hubby works in the Restaurant industry so I knew he’ll love it. Also we love to eat! Hehehe I booked the Chef’s Table about 3 months before the cruise. I tried to go through John Heald’s blog but I never really got a reply for that except for the generic “we received your request” email. So I tried posting on his FB page and he did respond saying he got it setup for me. I was like, “okay great…where’s my confirmation email?” No response..but John assured me I was all set. I even tried to email the Steakhouse directly. No response! Well ladies and gents I’m the type of person who wants…no NEEDS to have physically confirmation paperwork in hand. I have been burnt too often during business and the first thing out their mouths was, “do you have a confirmation?” So being the person I am I was not satisfied with that. I didn’t want to get on the ship after hyping my booboo up about the Chef’s Table only to be told, “We don’t have you confirmed-sorry it’s sold out”. So I came on Cruise Critic and found out that if you want to reserve the Chef’s Table before the cruise and you haven’t received a confirmation from John Heald’s blog stating you were confirmed then to email Group Event Planning: groupeventplanning@carnival.com. Trust me I got a response quickly. A nice little confirmation email was sent to me after answering a few questions. I was all set to go. My need for paperwork was satisfied. Chef’s Table here we come!:D

Here’s a pic of me ready to go for the Chef’s Table.

DSCF15682_zpsd12869fb.jpg

Sorry no food pics. We were not allowed to take any. We did come away with 2 pictures of the Chef Table and the recipe to Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. We ended the evening by taking in Al Ernst at Punchliner's Comedy Club, then headed to bed. This is what we saw that night on our balcony.DSCF1569_zps055d2e68.jpg

Oh yeah he was waiting for us tonight.

DSCF1571_zpsa55b14ee.jpg

 

We were in a treat tomorrow. ..St. Thomas and some Deep Sea Fishing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KrystalWaters

KrystalWaters

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Here is a little background about my family. We are born either swimmers or fisherman. I was NOT born a fisherman. My Mom was born a fisherman. When trying to decide on what we wanted to do Mom wanted to go fishing. This whole summer she has been trying to get out on a boat in some water somewhere to go fishing. Since my father passed away she’s unable to launch the boat she has by herself and with my brother moving away it’s been hard on her. Since this was the 1st trip since my dad has passed away I thought I would humor her and was all excited about this fishing trip. How bad could this get? Do ya feel a story coming on here…So Mom told me “to make this happen” so where do I go to gather information. Why CC of course! I stumbled upon a review here (I’m sorry I totally forgot whose-sorry) who chartered a boat and went deep sea fishing. The name of the company is Fishing St.Thomas. It’s ran by Captain David (Dave) http://www.fishingstthomas.com/

Captain Dave showed my mom and hubby and good time. He was on time, courteous, included water, beer, and soda and was very personable. He responded to all my questions, emails, and phone calls. I would HIGHLY recommend him.

Now onto the rest of my story. We get off and head towards the boat based on his directions he gave me. I did ask someone at the pier because I did want to make sure I was going in the right direction. It was so hot and I wanted to make sure before I start walking what looked to be a little ways that I was not wasting my time. Did I not mention how hot and humid it was? Anyhoo, we spot this boat in the water but no captain. We told Capt. Dave that we would meet him at 11:30am. The Dream pulled in at 11am. It was only 11:25am. Captain Dave mentioned he’ll be there earlier. I saw this white boat that looked like it was the boat in the picture on his website but there was no “Peanut” painted on the side. It was actually just a plain white boat. Then as I get ready to panic here walks up this barefoot laid back smiling gentlemen asking me if I was Krystal. I was like, “yeah, are you Capt. Dave?” He smiled and was like, “yep, let’s get to fishing.” The time was 11:30am on the dot. I looked at Mom she had this huge grin on her face. I knew this would be a great day:D.

So we board the little white boat and headed on out. I sat in the front on the cooler, hubby sat waaaaaay in the front kind of catamaran style and mom was in the rear in the “hot seat” ready to go fishing. The Captain in his glee took off over the water at high speeds. The boat started bouncing up and down and up and down. Like I mentioned before we are either fisherman or swimmers in my family. I’m the swimmer. I’ve been on boats before..did I mention it was hot and humid? So anyways, the boat goes up and down and up and down…I started turning green. Yep, sure did. Hubby looks at me and was like, “Krystal, you okay?” I couldn’t say anything. I just held on for dear life and prayed the 3 hours went quickly.:eek:

Mom had fun. She caught a yellow –tailed snapper and a tuna. She had many many many bites of a barracuda that was “playing with her”. One that got to the boat and then ‘jumped’ the line. It didn’t dawn on me until 2hrs into the trip that there was some Sprite in the cooler. Once I started sipping on the Sprite my stomach settled down and I felt a twinge better. Hubby almost wheeled in something that had the Captain scared. We were talking then the line did a “wwwweeeeeeeeeee” sound and the Captain jumped up and tried to help hubby. Whatever it was I’m kind of glad we didn’t catch it. Sounded like something REAL big.

Well I’ll leave you with some pictures that were taken on the waters of St. Thomas. Don’t laugh when you see the one of me about the chunk it up. Although the background is perfect!

DSCF1585_zpscfdbec10.jpg

 

DSCF1588_zps21530e22.jpg

 

DSCF1601_zpscb02cf36.jpg

 

DSCF1602_zps477f4303.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KrystalWaters

KrystalWaters

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Here are a couple of pics we took out on the water. It sprinkled a little or as my mom calls it, "it pee'd". So the sky was constantly changing colors. It was pretty neat. I no way felt unsafe during the trip. Captain Dave paid close attention to the sky. He even went to move our stuff when it stated it was going to pour. He was right. But only for a moment.

DSCF1621_zps079b5749.jpg

 

DSCF1611_zpsc712e585.jpg

 

DSCF1632_zpsb9953a17.jpg

 

After fishing we decided to visit some local shops. I purchased an "authentic" coin purse and a cute cloth bag. Mom bought some small jewelry trinkets and then we headed back to the cruise ship.

 

DSCF1634_zpsda00e98e.jpg

 

Tonight i think i just vegged out. I was pooped.I know "Dancin' In The Streets" was showing but i ended up skipping that. We did a little gambling and then hubby and I just called it a night.;)

 

This was on our bed after dinner.

DSCF1636_zps596d58bd.jpg

 

Up Next St. Marten...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
travlngrl1996

travlngrl1996

Posted
Posted

Gorgeous pictures of St. Thomas Krystal. These would make my husband want to book this. I'm sorry, you asked us not to laugh at your picture of you sick, but I had to chuckle a little, because that probably would've happened to me. :eek:

 

I hope that you recovered quickly and was able to enjoy the rest of the excursion and the day. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...