Cruisin' with THE YAKS - 9/29/12 Carnival DREAM Photo Review - Spa OV Cabin 11202

[dshefter]

Good stuff in your review. Would be interested in hearing what you did at the ports. We are on the same itinerary in early December and have booked our excursions, none of them through Carnival.

 

We also bring our own drinks. On our Coral Princess cruise in 2010, we had a wonderful steward who removed all the drinks out of the refigerator to accomodate our own beverages.

 

He was a tremendous steward and my wife and I added a tip for him at the end of the cruise.

 

Hoping we get the same service on Carnival.

[britwelshflorida]

Don't feel bad about the brandy, it was for my DH who puts it in hot milk at night to help him sleep but he also does very well with Rum! He wasn't even expecting it.

 

BTW your review is absoloutely outstanding, don't think I am going to write mine as it will not be one iota as good as yours (in the written verse), you said it all!

[JaniceB]

Can you tell me what the blue (looks like hard) plastic chairs are like at the end of the pool? Never seen anything quite like them on a ship. I agree not much of a change, jsut a little more sedate.

[boaterette]

Still loving the review and some people are just idiots. Just ignore them it is probably for the best. Looking forward to more.

[rockbock]

Can you tell me what the blue (looks like hard) plastic chairs are like at the end of the pool? Never seen anything quite like them on a ship. I agree not much of a change, jsut a little more sedate.

 

 

They are actually quite comfortable and they are scattered throughout the ship in different places. I wish there were more of them overlooking the ocean on some of the decks, because they are nice to sit in for a few minutes here and there when we're not looking to lay out on a lounger.

[Crusin Karen]

They are actually quite comfortable and they are scattered throughout the ship in different places. I wish there were more of them overlooking the ocean on some of the decks, because they are nice to sit in for a few minutes here and there when we're not looking to lay out on a lounger.

Are those the "marshmallow chairs?"

[rockbock]

CHOGS? OVERCROWDED SERENITY? HECK NO!!!

 

I can't believe I'm actually able to make this post, but there was NEVER any problem finding a lounge chair on this ship! I took the photo below because I was so amazed by it. The photo was taken at approximately 3:00pm on the first sea day. The photo was taken on the 5th deck, about halfway between two hot tubs. Notice how many empty loungers there are?

 

 

 

This was the norm and not the exception on the Dream. My previous Carnival experience has been on Fantasy class ships, and it's never easy to find a place to sit on a sea day, no matter what deck you go to. On the Dream, it's quite the opposite. You might have trouble finding a lounger near the main Lido pool, but there were always places available to relax by the aft pool. Although we don't tend to be "pool dwellers" when cruising, I actually preferred the aft pool, because it was more quiet, right next to the food, and had a variety of different types of places to sit (tables with chairs, loungers, and the blue plastic chairs). Another nice feature of the aft pool area is that the area surrounding the pool is intentionally flooded with about 6 inches of water, making it a nice place to lounge IN the water.

 

 

 

The Serenity Deck(s) on this ship were amazing. The Serenity area is HUGE (wraps around the entire 14th deck, plus some additional space on the 15th deck). Although Serenity became more crowded than most other parts of the ship, it was always easy to find two loungers next to each other, no matter what time of day you looked. Not only that, but we even had no problem finding the special double-chairs with pillows every time we went to the Serenity Deck. Admittedly, we might have just been lucky, but this is the type of chair my husband and I used each time we went to Serenity:

 

 

 

The only types of seats that are hard to find empty during the busy hours of the day are the hammocks. There are only four of them. Based on their popularity, it seems like Carnival should have added a few more of them during dry dock.

 

 

[rockbock]

Are those the "marshmallow chairs?"

 

 

Not sure...I'm never heard the term "marshmallow chair" lol

[rockbock]

"HOT" TUBS

 

When my husband and I used the hot tubs on the first sea day, we went to the ones on the 5th deck. The hot tubs on the Lanai (there are four of them) are very large (double the size of the hot tubs on the Fantasy Class ships) and they hang over the side of the ship, providing a great ocean view. I really enjoyed the placement of these hot tubs...they had lounge chairs along the sides of them and tables/chairs in a covered deck area directly in front of them. The deck was never crowded and the hot tubs were generally not as crowded as I've seen on other ships. Although the Dream has double the passengers of the Fantasy class ships, there is MUCH more than double the hot tub space available. The biggest problem with the "hot" tubs on the 5th deck when we used them (approx. 2pm on first sea day) is that they weren't hot! The tub was maintained at body temperature...at most, the water might have been 98 to 99 degrees. It was refreshing to sit it, but it wasn't a "hot tub" experience. For that reason, we didn't test the hot tubs for the rest of the trip and we stuck to the Thalasso Pool. If we didn't have the spa access, however, we would have checked out some of the other hot tubs. My dad is a smoker, so he used the hot tub on the smoker's side of the 11th deck every day. He said the water in that one was generally warm.

 

So in all, there were 4 GIANT hot tubs on the Lanai (5th) deck, 2 large hot tubs on the 11th deck, and 2 large hot tubs at the aft pool, and 2 large hot tubs on the Serenity deck. The Lido pool did not have any hot tubs, but it had two walk-in showers.

 

I didn't get very good photos showing the hot tubs, so I'll post the only ones I have...

 

 

 

EXAMPLE OF 11th DECK HOT TUB:

 

 

 

 

BOTH AFT POOL HOT TUBS:

 

 

 

 

THIS IS THE ONLY PHOTO I HAVE SHOWING A SERENITY HOT TUB:

 

 

 

AND I HAVE NO PHOTOS OF THE BEAUTIFUL LANAI HOT TUBS, OTHER THAN THESE UP-CLOSE PHOTOS WHICH SHOW THE OCEAN VIEW:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rockbock]

LIDO DECK FOOD OPTIONS

 

"So many options, so little time!" That's my biggest complaint about the Lido foods! I literally didn't have enough time on the ship to try all of the things that I wanted to try. We ate in the Pasta Bar on embarkation day. On the first sea day, I ate from the regular Lido buffet, because it was Caribbean day and I just loooooooooove the buffet on that day each cruise (jerk chicken, Jamaican curry, plantains...the list goes on). I missed lunch on the first three port days. On the Costa Maya day, I tried the Tandoor Grill, which was very good. On the last sea day, we did the Comedy Brunch and then ate dessert on Lido during the Chocolate Extravaganza. That didn't leave me an opportunity to try out the Burrito Bar (which I heard was amazing), or the Lanai BBQ (which I also heard is amazing).

 

I loved the Lido options and food. I truly think that anybody who can't find something they like on Lido is just too picky. The quality of the food is very good overall, in my opinion and the options I'd give a 10/10.

 

The Lido desserts were exceptionally good this cruise...better than my previous cruises and, at least in my opinion, better than the MDR desserts. On two occasions, the Lido served mousse desserts which were TO DIE FOR! The first time it was half coffee mousse and half chocolate mousse. The second time, it was half mocha mousse and half white chocolate mousse. I liked the first one better, but both were heavenly. I brought three extra servings back to the cabin to store in our refrigerator. They did NOT go to waste. My other favorite dessert of the week was the Citrus Napoleon - crisp, flaky, and the cream filling was amazing. Four of those napoleons found a home in our cabin refrigerator. They did not go to waste either lol.

 

One thing that I liked better on the Fantasy class ships was the selection of salad bar items. The smaller ships have a giant island which is always filled with tons of salad fixins' and pre-made salads. I never found a large selection of salad items on the Dream. Perhaps I just overlooked them because there were so many places to eat?

 

Lido breakfast was the standard fare. Nothing special, but not bad either. The bacon police were there about half of the time. I just kept telling her to add more and more until I had the amount I wanted lol. The bacon was inconsistent. Some mornings it was too flubbery, some it was too crisp, and some it was just right.

 

There were some problems with coffee on two of the mornings. On one morning, there was NO coffee for approximately 20 minutes! On another morning, one of the coffee stations was broken for the entire morning...not a big deal, but it resulted in short lines at the other stations waiting to get coffee.

 

The lines at the Lido venues were exactly as would be expected on any cruise. If you try to eat breakfast between 8am - 9am, you will wait on a line and have a hard time finding a table. The same goes if you try to eat lunch between 12pm and 1pm. However, if you eat early or late, the lines were very short and there were always tables available.

 

We ate dinner on Lido twice (something new for us...in the past we've always used MDR every night). Dinner on the Lido was ok, but I wasn't overly impressed. The options were very limited. All of the specialty venues are closed (except pizza and deli) and the buffet offerings were suprisingly limited. I had heard that MOST of the MDR options would be available on the Lido buffet at dinner. This was not the case. The food that the offered was good...there just weren't as many choices as I was hoping for.

 

The ice cream was a hit with my kids, as always. My daughter kept track of her ice-cream consumption...she had 51 cones over the duration of the cruise (and one of the days, she only had two lol) That's a lot of ice cream!

 

Overall, I was very impressed with the Lido on the Dream. Like I said when I started this post, my biggest complaint is the fact that there were too many things I wanted to try and I didn't have enough time!

[meatloafsfan]

Thank you for the info on the hot tubs. I usually avoid them because I don't like to boil (I am very, very pale and sitting in really hot water makes my skin red and irritated - very lobster-esque).

 

I'm glad to hear that the ones on the Lanai are warm tubs. I think that I heard the ones in Serenity are hotter.

 

Still loving the review! (and don't let any negative nelly get you down on this thread - it happened on my Dream review thread from March 2011 too - just ignore them, they'll go away).

[rockbock]

We had Your Time Dining and we generally arrived between 5:45pm and 6:30pm. There was never a wait. The service was acceptable (except for the last sea day, which was slow), but it was not outstanding or memorable in any way. The quality of the food was generally very good, but it was not outstanding or memorable in any way. We did NOT receive the same waiter each night. On my previous cruises, we had the same wait staff, and generally the same table, each night.

 

The first night of the cruise was my mom's birthday. Her dessert was delivered with a candle and some waiters singing to her. This was very nice and I was happy to see it done, since they didn't do anything special for my husband when he celebrated his 50th birthday on our March 2012 Sensation cruise.

 

 

 

 

I've never been a big fan of the "entertainment" in the MDR, and this cruise was just like all of the others. It's not that the entertainment bothers me in any way, but I just think it's kind of goofy for the wait staff to have to dance around the room twirling napkins over their heads lol. Anyway, you can expect the normal "entertainment" on this ship, including the singing of "That's Amore" and the napkin twirling.

 

My mom wanted a photo taken of all of us during this cruise, so we did it on the first formal night, right before we went into the MDR for dinner. Two photos were taken. In one of them, everybody looked great, except one of the boys had his eyes closed. In the other photo (posted below), all three women looked terrible. I wish my mom had purchased the one with the closed eyes instead! (and I apologize for the quality of this photo...I just took a picture of the original using my iPhone lol)

 

[rockbock]

CHOCOLATE EXTRAVAGANZA

 

It didn't overwhelm me like it did on the Fantasy Class ships. Don't get me wrong...most of the offerings were the same and they were tasty, but the Lido configuration on this ship doesn't really lend itself to looking "Extravagant" like it did on the other ships.

 

On the Fantasy Class ships, the "buffet islands" were made to look fancy and were filled with all of the dessert offerings. A station was set up next to each island, where a staff member was constructing swans out of pastry and ice cream. A self-serve chocolate fountain was available with many items on skewers to dip in the fountain.

 

On the Dream, the food was set up in one of the long buffet lines, so it looked like nothing more than cafeteria-style desserts. There were no ice cream swans. The chocolate fountain was hidden behind the counter, with the morning bacon-police serving as the chocolate fountain-police.

 

So overall, the Chocolate Extravaganza was tasty and not to be missed, but it certainly wasn't the "experience" that I was looking forward to after attending it on the Fantasy Class ships.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rockbock]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rockbock]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rockbock]

OTHER FOOD COMMENTS:

 

We did not dine in Steakhouse, nor did we do the Chef's Table. We did not purchase any items from the Coffee/Bakery place or from the Cherry On Top Candy Store.

 

The midnight Mexican buffet, according to my teenagers, was exceptionally good. I forgot to check it out, but I tasted some "leftovers" from my son's plate in our cabin and the quality was good. The spicy corn salsa was excellent. Apparently the desserts served during the midnight buffet were phenomenal...both beautiful and delicious. I'm sorry that I missed it. :(

 

We didn't make it to afternoon tea during this cruise. I enjoyed it on the Inspiration, so I wanted to go, but it just didn't work into our schedule...not sure what we were doing at the time.

[rockbock]

ENTERTAINMENT

 

We skipped the Welcome Aboard show...I figured if you've seen it once, it'll be about the same on every other ship.

 

On Monday, the evening show was a juggler. I was exceptionally tired from getting too much sun in Cozumel, so I fell asleep. My husband and son attended the show and both thought it was very good. I think my son enjoyed it more than my husband, but the feedback was positive enough that I was sorry to have missed it.

 

The great reviews about Dancin' In The Streets are correct. This show is not overrated and is not to be missed! The show provides the standard singing and dancing that you expect to see in most shows, but what makes it stand out from the others are the acrobatic elements, the "strength" elements (photos below), and the special effects (shadows, video illusions, etc.).

 

The Legends show featured passengers from the ship who were selected via tryouts. They dressed up in costumes to look like famous entertainers and sang some of their most popular songs. It was entertaining...kind of like a "glammed up" karaoke.

 

Here are a few photos of some of the strength elements from Dancin' In The Streets:

 

 

 

 

[rockbock]

PUNCHLINER COMEDY CLUB:

 

I attended several of the family-friendly shows and several of the adult shows. As with any cruise, the quality of the comedy club comes down to which comedians happen to be there for that particular cruise. On the Dream, there are four comedians. Two of them handle the shows during the first half of the week and the other two take over for the second half of the week.

 

None of the comedians I saw were especially bad. Three of them were funny and entertaining (Mark Simmons, Jorge Solano, and Don Barnhart). The fourth one ("Big" Tony Esposito) was HILARIOUS. None of these comedians did as much improv as I'm used to seeing (and I loooooooove improv), but they were still very good. And what I loved most about "Big Tony" was that he was so funny that he was able to keep his adult-only shows fairly "clean" and he still had the entire place roaring with laughter. At midnight, they had some improv shows which I reeeeeally wanted to see, but I was two tired both times they had it, so I ended up going back to the cabin. My husband stayed for the improv on one of the nights and said it was pretty good.

 

As stated in my previous post about the Punchliner Comedy Brunch, I was not happy with the "Comedy" that was provided, even though it was the same comedians that I enjoyed during the evening shows.

[rockbock]

KARAOKE

 

I love to watch Karaoke and Superstar Live when I'm on cruises; however, it was a bit disappointing on this ship. On the Fantasy Class ships, the Karaoke is always held in the large lounge and it draws quite a crowd.

 

On the Dream, the Karaoke is held in a small bar area (The Song Lounge). The room really isn't large enough for a big crowd. The seats fill up quickly (there is seating for about 60-75 people) and there really isn't much standing room.

 

On the last Karaoke night, the lounge filled up with spectators like myself, but there was nobody in the room who wanted to sing. Rather than try to encourage somebody to get up and sing, the host simply played background music for the first 30+ minutes and remained silent. Just when I was about to leave, he finally got up himself a sang a song. Then requests started coming in. I stayed for about 30 more minutes, then I needed to leave because I didn't want to miss "Big Tony's" comedy show at the Punchliner next door.

[jules815]

I'm really enjoying your review and pictures.

 

Do you remember what day the Chocolate extravaganza is, and also the midnight buffet. (Is this held out on the Lido or in the MDR? Is it themed?)

[rockbock]

PIANO BAR

 

I enjoyed the location of the piano bar, since it was central to other entertainment venues and an easy place to just stop for a few minutes in passing. However, it was way too small. There was very little seating and not much standing room. The piano player, Imani, wasn't especially impressive, but a lot of the fun comes from the crowd and not the host, so it was still ok.

[rockbock]

I'm really enjoying your review and pictures.

 

Do you remember what day the Chocolate extravaganza is, and also the midnight buffet. (Is this held out on the Lido or in the MDR? Is it themed?)

 

 

The Chocolate Extravaganza is held on the last sea day (Friday) from 12pm until 2:30pm. It is in the Lido area.

 

The Mexican Buffet was Wednesday night from 11:30pm until 1:00am. I'm not sure if there was themed entertainment.

[rockbock]

OTHER SHIP ENTERTAINMENT

 

I participated in very few of the ship activities on this cruise. It was a port-heavy itinerary and I seemed to keep busy on the sea days without going to as many organized activities as I normally would. It's probably because the Cloud 9 Spa access ate up so much of my time that I would normally be doing other things.

 

This cruise offered a LOT of trivia and the topics were more varied and interesting than I've seen on other cruises. There are several of them that I could have done very well with, but I seemed to miss most of them. A large group of people from our roll call formed two trivia teams ("The BrainyYAKS") and they were very successful.

 

My 15-year old son announced a week before the cruise that he wanted to enter the Hairy Chest Contest. Since he hasn't a single hair on his chest, he asked me to draw it in for him using mascara. I had something better in mind...real hair clippings. Yes, I know it's disgusting. Judge us if you must, but he looked amazingly realistic with his glued-on chest hair, and it washed off very quickly and easily in the shower (come on, trolls...I double dog dare ya to make a comment about how I should be ashamed of myself for doing this and putting the ship's plumbing system at risk of a getting a clogged drain :p)

 

So after close to 15 minutes of prep work, my son made his appearance on Lido for the Hairy Chest Contest. It was only then that we learned that you need to be 21 to participate. The good news is that even though he wasn't able to be a contestant in the actual show, the host thought it was so hilarious that he introduced him to the spectators as the "Teen Winner" and had him dance around a bit. He was given a medal at the end, which was the entire reason that he wanted to do it.

 

My son had decided that he wanted to win as many prizes as possible during this cruise. By the end of the cruise, he had a lot of "Bling" around his neck. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo with all of the bling, but I have one from a little more than halfway through the cruise. I think he added two or three more medals before the cruise was over (from Cornhole tournaments and Club O2 contests).

 

 

[eyesofbrown]

Wonderful review! Thank you so much for sharing. We will be on the Dream in a week and a half and I really appreciate the time you put into this and the Spa review. Thanks once again!:)

[rockbock]

CASINO

 

The casino was my friend when we first met, but then we had a falling out and parted ways on bad terms.

 

I managed to stay out of the casino for the first two days of the cruise. On Monday, I went into the casino as soon as it opened at 7am. I found a penny machine that I liked. I set up my account and added $10 to it. On my fourth pull (60 cent bet, which was the second lowest option), I won 10 free spins. By the end of those 10 free spins, I had won $111.84 and had a balance of $121.84.

 

 

 

I never gamble more than about $20 total over the course of the cruise, but since this was "free" money, I played with it...and lost it all.

 

But at least I didn't leave the ship a loser overall. I basically broke even for the cruise.