Carnival Dream Review -- with our 2 children

[brookeq]

I am working on getting the fun times up and camp carnival schedule also. Hopefully soon!

[brookeq]

Ok I have the camp carnival schedule. This is for the 2-5 year old room. I do not have the one for the older room. The hours should be the same though. Just different activities.

 

Here is day 1.

 

[brookeq]

Here is day 2 and day 3

 

 

 

Here is day 4 and 5

 

 

 

And day 6 and 7

 

[Gingee]

Snow storm? Where are you?

 

We are due for another one tomorrow. Errrr This winter can end any time.

[brookeq]

Snow storm? Where are you?

 

We are due for another one tomorrow. Errrr This winter can end any time.

 

We are in Pittsburgh.

 

We are supposed to get ice tonight. Ugh. I keep looking at cruises. It just makes it worse. Ha ha.

[brookeq]

I have my copies of the fun times. I will try to get then up today. I am missing one from the day we were in Belize. Sorry.

[brookeq]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kmarie10531]

I think that sunset we had the last day was so beautiful .. I was bummed bc once I realized it we were at dinner and trying to take a picture of it through the windows is always bad . You took a really nice picture of it !! Would you be able to email it to me if you don't mind ?

[brookeq]

I think that sunset we had the last day was so beautiful .. I was bummed bc once I realized it we were at dinner and trying to take a picture of it through the windows is always bad . You took a really nice picture of it !! Would you be able to email it to me if you don't mind ?

 

No Problem.

 

See if this link works first. If not I will email it you.

 

http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii608/mquertinmont/IMG_3359_zps6f4ad353.jpg

[brookeq]

Fun Times from Day 1 -- Day at Sea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tonic67]

I like what you did there with the sofa backrests piled up and pushed against the sofa bed to keep the child from falling out. I was wondering what I was going to do to keep her from fall out of the sofa.

 

Any other tips for those of us bringing a child on a cruise?

[brookeq]

I like what you did there with the sofa backrests piled up and pushed against the sofa bed to keep the child from falling out. I was wondering what I was going to do to keep her from fall out of the sofa.

 

Any other tips for those of us bringing a child on a cruise?

 

Some tips for cruising with kids:

 

We bought toys they could use at the beach from the dollar store. Then we didn't care if they got lost/ruined, etc.

 

We stopped at a grocery store before we boarded and bought some food for the kids to take to the beaches. It gets expensive to buy meals at the beach and they never eat them anyways so its a waste of money. We bought cheese sticks, greek go gurts, pretzels and small hummus packets, peanut butter crackers, and small bags of chips. This way they could snack when they wanted and were never hungry. It was just so much easier. Make sure you take Ziploc baggies.

 

You could always order room service the night before and pack the sandwich for the beach.

 

We packed the kids thermos water bottles and filled them each day in the lido buffet. We take these everywhere. They are the best water bottles. You can put ice in them and it never melts. We have used them on hot days at Disney and the water was always ice cold. Here is a link to show you what they look like. They are worth the money.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Thermos-Funtainer-Princess-Bottle-12-oz/27441184

 

Make sure they drink plenty of water. Mine would have played all day and never stopped for a drink. I think that is why my son got a little sick the one night.

 

Even though the kids are young I asked them what they wanted to do a lot. If they are happy, the vacation is more enjoyable. They decided if they would eat with us, go to kids club, etc.

 

I found that 4 days in a row of getting off the ship and being busy (lots of traveling time to beaches on this itinerary) is hard on kids. Day 4 our son was just miserable. We maybe should have stayed on ship.

 

We let our kids stay up late most nights. They are usually in bed by 8:30 at home. I think this contributed to the meltdown. We tried to make up for it with naps but they were just thrown off. If I did it again I would make them go to bed earlier some nights.

 

We packed our own life vests to take. Our kids are only 2 and 5 and can't swim on their own. It was much more enjoyable to watch them swim by themselves in pools (with us near by) then having to hold them the entire time.

 

I know I have more but I can't think of them. If I do think of more I will add them.

[brookeq]

Slowly but surely I am getting the Fun Times on here.

 

Here is our day at Cozumel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brookeq]

I mentioned that I am missing the fun times from our day at Belize. So here is Roatan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Name Of The Game]

Thanks for your great review and for posting the Fun Times. I see the nightly shows are now earlier encouraging the late dining guests to see the show first instead of the other way around. I wonder if they changed the times of the shows on all the ships.

[Salt Wind]

Such cute kids, want to hug! :D

[brookeq]

Thanks for your great review and for posting the Fun Times. I see the nightly shows are now earlier encouraging the late dining guests to see the show first instead of the other way around. I wonder if they changed the times of the shows on all the ships.

 

Thanks. I have 2 more to post. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

[brookeq]

Such cute kids, want to hug! :D

 

Thanks!

[brookeq]

Day 6 -- Fun times

 

 

 

 

 

[brookeq]

Day 7 -- Fun Times - - Sea day

 

 

 

 

[Perfect Stranger]

Thank you for posting all the Fun Times! :)

[brookeq]

I think that is it. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

 

Overall thoughts:

 

We had a great trip and would like to cruise again with the kids. I do think that 4 days In a row of getting off to see the islands (and staying up late) was probably a little too much for our kids. Hence the breakdown at costa maya.

 

I would recommend carnival to anyone. It was great for families. It was the prefect mix of family time and alone time for the adults.

 

I have always wanted to try a disney cruise but can't justify the cost-- almost double the price of this cruise if not more. My kids got a lot of special attention on this cruise since it wasn't full of kids. And they had no waits for water slides and the pools weren't too crowded. They loved camp carnival too. So we are not sure what we will do next cruise.

 

We enjoyed the islands. For what we wanted to do the expenses did at up just to go to the beach. So we will look into other islands next time. Maybe more southern since we have done eastern Caribbean before. I would love to go to carnivals private island.

 

Thanks for reading.

[UTVolsFan4Life]

I think that is it. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

 

Overall thoughts:

 

We had a great trip and would like to cruise again with the kids. I do think that 4 days In a row of getting off to see the islands (and staying up late) was probably a little too much for our kids. Hence the breakdown at costa maya.

 

I would recommend carnival to anyone. It was great for families. It was the prefect mix of family time and alone time for the adults.

 

I have always wanted to try a disney cruise but can't justify the cost-- almost double the price of this cruise if not more. My kids got a lot of special attention on this cruise since it wasn't full of kids. And they had no waits for water slides and the pools weren't too crowded. They loved camp carnival too. So we are not sure what we will do next cruise.

 

We enjoyed the islands. For what we wanted to do the expenses did at up just to go to the beach. So we will look into other islands next time. Maybe more southern since we have done eastern Caribbean before. I would love to go to carnivals private island.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Thanks so much for your review and the FunTimes. Just 8 more days until my wife and I experience the Dream. :D

[lilmizz]

I loved reading reviews before our cruise. So I am going to try and write my own review on here. This is my first so be kind :)

 

Some background info: I am a 36 year old stay at home mother of 2 and part time soccer coach from Pittsburgh, Pa. DH is 36 also and works in the computer industry. We had been on 4 cruises before this one. (Carnival, Norwegian, Costa, and Celebrity). We took our 2 kids with us. My son Hayden who is 5 and our daughter Amelia who is 2 almost 3. This was our first cruise with our children. So we were not sure what to expect.

 

Also on this cruise were our friends and there 5 year old boy.

 

We went on the Carnival Dream on January 18th. 7 days to the western Caribbean -- Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Costa Maya. We did book a little late So we didn't have much time to plan as I would have liked.

 

I chose this cruise because we had never been to the last 3 ports and I wanted to try to see some Mayan Ruins again (we have been to Chichen Itza and Tulum). It turns out our daughter was too young for the ruin excursions on the ship. I like to book ship excursions when travelling that far out of port. I will use outside tour companies, but not for ruins that are further away. It just makes me too nervous and I wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy the tour.

 

Anyways I am rambling... so onto the official review

 

 

We were on that cruise with you. Had a awesome time!:D

[rob&tam]

Thank you for fun times. It sure answered several if our questions

 

 

 

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