Just off the Dream 4/6/13 review

[cruisemom101]

Traveling home from my fabulous trip on the Dream. Our family had a wonderful time and the crew was superb. Will give more details later after I return home, but I will be glad to answer any questions you may have, plus I will try to address some of the other questions posed on these boards. We did anytime dining, had a birthday celebration,taste bar, and did the kayak, snorkel excursion in St. Thomas to start. Also, I did save the Funtimes from each day plus the Club O2 and Circle C info as well. Perhaps someone can tell me how to post them and I will upload them after I get settled... Hopefully by Tuesday. I know many people have been looking for the recent Eastern fun times. Fire away with any questions and I will post a full review real soon. :)

[idkanything]

So glad you had a wonderful time! We are leaving for this same trip on 4/20. Can you tell me which nights were elegant nights?

 

Thanks!!

[cruisemom101]

Elegant nights were Sunday and Thursday.

[Lynno222]

Looking forward to the full review and Fun times! We are leaving 5/4 on the Eastern Caribbean.

[gene g]

Glad you had a good tme, will be looking forward for your review, will be on the Dream 4/20/2013

[Tutankhamen]

Hope you arrive safe, Did wonder if you know what time they started the boarding and what time did your cruise get cleared on the return. Been stories that the there have been some delays. Thanks

[L&J]

We are doing the same ship & itinerary next January. I'm trying to find out if there's enough time in Nassau to do the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter excursion. Due to the ship leaving at 2pm, is it even offered to Dream passengers? We would use the ship's tour due to time crunch, if it's offered.

Thanks!

[Anxious2cruise55]

Glad you had a good time! I'm taking my niece on the same cruise for her 16th birthday. Can't wait for your review.

[Anxious2cruise55]

Oh yeah...do they still have the 80's night and dance class that teaches the Thriller dance? Thanks!

[OurFam]

Hope you arrive safe, Did wonder if you know what time they started the boarding and what time did your cruise get cleared on the return. Been stories that the there have been some delays. Thanks

 

We were on this same cruise (4/6) and were on board by 12/12:30 - this morning we were off the ship and waiting for a shuttle by 8:00 am (we chose the self assist debarkation since we needed to get on the road early).

[mike brosky]

i will also be on the 4/20 cruise how was the food in the buffet compared to that of the mdr's was the comedy show any good was it an older crowd or younger crowd or mixed passengers did they have a lazer show every night how where the reguler shows

[ItsFoxy]

Was on the same 4/6 cruise. It was great. I arrived at 12:00. On by 12:30. Went to the lido, then to see if my room was ready. Ready by 1. Luggage arrived at 2. Disembarking announcement for self disembarking came at 6:30 am. We were off by 7:15 a.m. Back to the Raddison at about 7:50 am. On the road back to Atlanta by 8. Easy peasy.

[cruisemom101]

We arrived at the port about 10:30 as we were faster to the fun and were hoping to board early. We were told by the Carnival employees at the port that boarding would not begin until 1. However, about 11:45 we began to board and we were on the lido deck by noon. Disembark, we were zone 2 due to FTTF and were through customs by 8. With FTTF we had the choice to get off early or wait to our designated time of about 10:00. We chose to get off as we had a long drive back. The whole process was pretty seamless.

[emelvee]

Would love to see the latest Fun Times. Daughter will be in Circle C for the first time when we cruise on Dream (Eastern) in July. Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

[jmunson]

So glad you had a blast. Can't wait to see your review. I cruise the Dream on 4/20. I'm interested in knowing a few things:

 

• Did you feel it seemed more crowded than other ships? I hear the lines are long and common areas are crowded.
  
• Is it easy to get a chair on a deck? I don't need to be around the pool. Willing to lay out on another deck, just would like a chair :D
  
• Do the bathrooms have a magnifying mirror?
  

Love to hear any suggestions in making this a better cruise :p

 

Thanks.

[cruisinp]

Can't wait to read your full review. I just booked the Dream for the end of the month. It will be our 4th Carnival cruise (the last Carnival was a couple year's ago).

[cruisemom101]

i will also be on the 4/20 cruise how was the food in the buffet compared to that of the mdr's was the comedy show any good was it an older crowd or younger crowd or mixed passengers did they have a lazer show every night how where the reguler shows

 

The buffet food was ok. I would say typical buffet food, but the selection was good. The Mongolian grill was great, but the lines were pretty long...especially the first day. The pasta bar, as always, was delicious. My kids ate there every day without too much wait until the final day. The grill was good and the lines weren't too long there either. Pizza line wasn't bad and the pizza was yummy. You could choose from about 5 different pizzas. Personally, I liked the chips and salsa from the grill. The MDR's food was much better than the buffets, we all thought. We did the comedy brunch twice and the food was good and there was a nice selection of choices to eat. The comedy, however, wasn't a show, but simply a preview of the upcoming comedian's shows. They were ok. There was a mix of both younger and older, however, it was spring break and there were quite a few kids. The kids seemed well behaved though. Not too many running around the ship. There was no laser show only deck parties on two of the nights. The nightly shows weren't too bad. Both my teenagers liked dancing in the street and the fun force show.

[cruisemom101]

Oh yeah...do they still have the 80's night and dance class that teaches the Thriller dance? Thanks!

They do not. I was looking for the Thriller dance class too, but they did not have it on our sailing.

[Tutankhamen]

We arrived at the port about 10:30 as we were faster to the fun and were hoping to board early. We were told by the Carnival employees at the port that boarding would not begin until 1. However, about 11:45 we began to board and we were on the lido deck by noon. Disembark, we were zone 2 due to FTTF and were through customs by 8. With FTTF we had the choice to get off early or wait to our designated time of about 10:00. We chose to get off as we had a long drive back. The whole process was pretty seamless.

h

 

Thanks. I wonder what the reason is for the recent delays? I guess they really aren't delays, but certainly a later boarding time then in the past.

[cruisemom101]

So glad you had a blast. Can't wait to see your review. I cruise the Dream on 4/20. I'm interested in knowing a few things:

 

• Did you feel it seemed more crowded than other ships? I hear the lines are long and common areas are crowded.
  
• Is it easy to get a chair on a deck? I don't need to be around the pool. Willing to lay out on another deck, just would like a chair :D
  
• Do the bathrooms have a magnifying mirror?
  

Love to hear any suggestions in making this a better cruise :p

 

Thanks.

It didn't seem more crowded than other ships. Embarkation day and certain peak lunch times had crowds at the buffet, but other than that, things were fine.

Deck chairs were scarce around the pool, both main pool and aft, but there were plenty of available up on deck 12 and the chairs on deck 5 outside the Ocean Plaza were empty most of the time.

The bathrooms have a pullout makeup mirror. I didn't use it so I do not know if it has a magnifier. The bathroom fogged up pretty easily so I usually did my makeup outside by the beds.

[Swayde]

h

 

Thanks. I wonder what the reason is for the recent delays? I guess they really aren't delays, but certainly a later boarding time then in the past.

 

From what I have read, it's cutbacks for port security so it's taking longer to get the ship cleared with debarking passengers so it's making embarkations start late.

[cruisemom101]

h

 

Thanks. I wonder what the reason is for the recent delays? I guess they really aren't delays, but certainly a later boarding time then in the past.

The Carnival employees didn't say why, but we "heard" there was some sort of inspection.

[Anxious2cruise55]

They do not. I was looking for the Thriller dance class too, but they did not have it on our sailing.

 

Darn :( Thanks for the reply!

[arpie05]

Thanks! Looking forward to see the O2 schedule. Did u save or take pics of the.menus?

[nxtdoor]

What cabin and deck were you on? Do you have any pics?