Picture review of the Dream, June 12-19 sailing

[bluejay555]

Dessert Fruit plate

 

s'mores parfait

 

I can't remember what this was called, but it was like a sticky bun! So good!

[bluejay555]

 

Now this was interesting. Along with our towel animal, there was a card for my birthday (my birthday was a week before our cruise and I did not report it as a special celebration or anything. I made no mention of it when I booked the cruise). The card had a $50 credit to the spa and a voucher for a free photo! So weird, but nice

 

Night Swimming!

 

The pool stays open until midnight, slides stay open until sunset.

Edited June 25, 2016 by bluejay555

[KenMo]

Our cabin steward met us right away and asked if we wanted early or late room service. We chose late so he could get in there while we were at dinner.

 

Having both is supposed to be an option.

 

Was that not offered to you?

[bluejay555]

Having both is supposed to be an option.

 

Was that not offered to you?

 

Nope! I guess they figure unless someone appears to know that's an option, they won't offer? I must say though, our room was always clean.

 

Has Carnival cut back on the amount of room stewards they hire? Because in past cruises, aside from the twice-daily service, the steward would always take time to talk to us and would always call us by name when seeing us in the hallways, but this time we barely saw our guy and when we did, he would just nod and smile, and keep on working. I wonder if they have more responsibilities now?

[bluejay555]

Day 3: ROATAN!!!!!!!!! I love love love this port! We got up about 6:30am and drank coffee on the balcony and watched our arrival and docking. We were there from 8am-6pm, with boarding time at 5:30.

 

We ate breakfast at the lido buffet and there were eggs, fried potatoes, grilled tomatoes, bacon, grits, like 6 diff types of yogurt, cereal, breads and pastries, omelet station, etc. Lots of variety.

 

Mahogany Bay from the lido restaurant window

 

Now, I've been to the beach at Mahogany bay, and rode the chair lift to the beach (Scariest thing ever! My husband kept making our chair swing back and forth because he thought my reaction was hilarious :rolleyes: ). Anyway, that beach is worth visiting for sure! But our last two visits to Roatan, we have gone a little further to Little French Key. It is truly paradise. I have tons of pics and details I will be posting!

[bluejay555]

 

Now, last time we went to LFK, they sent me an email saying we would have to leave Mahogany bay and walk a short distance to meet the driver. The email said there would be many drivers, but only go with either Larry or David, and their names would be embroidered on their shirts. Well the walk was no biggie, up a hill and then back down, but the mob of drivers was a little unnerving. Everyone was trying to get us to go with them and were very pushy. The couple that ended up riding to LFK with us said that they said where they were going, and a guy actually pretended to be Larry, trying to lure them into his vehicle. Well I'm sure those guys are harmless and just want your money. I bet if you get in the wrong car, you just have to end up paying a taxi fare for a drive that should have been free, but I had visions of getting kidnapped lol so this year, we took a taxi from the exit of Mahogany bay to our actual LFK driver. It was $2 per person and worth every penny. Had I not had my kids with me, I probably would have just walked again. But anyway, we made it to our ride and were driven about 15 min to Frenchy's 44 restaurant, which is where you pay your fee (you don't pay anything when you make your online reservation), and you catch the super short boat ride to LFK.

 

We chose the full island package, which includes admission, lunch, and 2 drinks for $88 per person. Children under 11 are half price. So Sara is 11, so I took $88 for her admission, but they only charged me $44 even after I told them she was 11. Yay! Oh, and be sure to take cash for payment to avoid a 15% honduran tax if you use your credit card.

 

Frenchy's 44, waiting for our boat

 

On the boat! You can see LFK from Frenchy's so it's less than a 5 min ride

 

When you're dropped off, a guide meets you and takes you through the zoo area, through the grounds, and eventually to the main beach/hangout.

 

The zoo is really clean and nice, but last year they had some of their animals confiscated. I don't know the whole story, but they didn't get them all back.

[bluejay555]

 

 

 

This is the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life

 

 

[rs45thompson]

Following

[funat55]

Really enjoying your review and pictures. My grandson also likes to do karaoke. He is 11. Do you know if they will let you bring your own karaoke disks?

[bluejay555]

Really enjoying your review and pictures. My grandson also likes to do karaoke. He is 11. Do you know if they will let you bring your own karaoke disks?

 

Thanks! And I'm not sure about the disk. The girl in charge of karaoke was using an online database of songs, I believe, because there were songs my girls wanted to sing that weren't in the books, but she said she could probably find them once she logged in. And she did!

[bluejay555]

Back to LFK! There are so many little areas of the island to relax and swim, or snorkel.

 

 

 

[bluejay555]

There is a ledge you can jump off of and my kids got up the nerve to do it last year and all they could talk about was jumping off that ledge again. Well of course they got up there and couldn't work up the nerve. My mom and I stood there for seriously, probably 15 min, holding the damn camera while they paced around up there. Finally we hollered to them that we were moving on. We wanted to go check out other stuff. As soon as I turned my back, I heard a huge splash. Josie. Then I barely got a pic of Sara going in. The thing is, these ladies were watching the entire thing go down, and they got a kick out of Josie jumping as soon as we turned our backs. But they got an even bigger kick out of Josie screaming "That hurt my front butt!!!!!" I did NOT teach her to call her privates her "front butt". She made that up when she was a toddler and has called it that ever since. We had to have a talk about appropriate things to shout, and about closing your legs when you jump, for godssakes!

[bluejay555]

Lots of waterboards to play on.....

 

 

 

[smitty89]

We're seriously considering LFK for our Roatan excursion. Your review has helped with that!! I've got a very pick eater, can you tell me what the food was like for the kids?

[bluejay555]

The snorkeling was pretty good there. We found lots of cool stuff. My camera battery died early on and I missed some awesome things. We saw a SQUID!!! It was so little and cute (like maybe 18" long). It hung around all day and I kept hearing people shouting to look at the squid.

 

 

 

 

 

of course we had to inspect it!

 

[bluejay555]

We're seriously considering LFK for our Roatan excursion. Your review has helped with that!! I've got a very pick eater, can you tell me what the food was like for the kids?

 

I thought lunch was excellent! My somewhat picky eater barely touched it though, so yours might not like it at all. It was beans and rice, cole slaw, yucca chips (kind of like thick potato chips), grilled steak, chicken, lobster tail, and shrimp.

 

 

We read on their website that they now have brick oven pizza for sale, and we saw some people eating pizza, but I didn't even ask about price or availability or anything.

[bluejay555]

 

This guy was awesome! I can't remember his name, but I had no idea what to order, so he made me his specialty, which was vodka, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, and grenadine. It was perfect!

 

 

[bluejay555]

Finally our day came to an end. We had to be back at the ship by 5:30 and we still wanted to walk around Mahogany Bay, so we left probably 3:30 or so. We only had to wait a few minutes for a boat to take us back to Frenchy's 44, and there were drivers there waiting to take us back to Mahogany bay.

 

In my opinion, Roatan is the hottest place on earth (well, besides Tulum. My husband was quick to point out that I have said the same about Tulum lol). There is no escaping the heat unless you're in the water. And if you're in the water, you don't realize how intense it really is. We all got FRIED and we were wearing swim shirts, plus applied sunscreen multiple times through the day. The backs of my legs were my worst part because of all my snorkeling. Poor Josie was the worst overall though. She was burnt to a crisp.

 

 

 

We were exhausted, but managed to make it to dinner!

 

Braised Rabbit. It was DISGUSTING! But we all had never tried rabbit before, so we just had to order it.

 

some sort of rigatoni, cheese, and ham dish. It was OK, kind of dry and bland.

 

flat iron steak was excellent every single night (at least one kid ordered it nightly)

 

chicken parmesan. It was very good

[bluejay555]

We skipped dessert because we wanted to get up to the lido deck and find good chairs for Jurassic World, but we stopped by the room first, and Josie decided she was too tired. We ended up sitting on the balcony and enjoying the night air. Ahhhh I LOVE that cove balcony!

 

 

Tomorrow is Belize! We actually stayed on the ship, but that ended up being great! I've never stayed on the ship at a port so I was nervous we'd be full of regret, but it was so nice to enjoy the pool without the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. And we didn't have any lines at lunch time. Not to mention Josie had a touch of sun poisoning and had a very slow start to her day, so we probably would have canceled an excursion anyway. And we got to watch a man overboard drill (I will post pics!). It was interesting. 8 cruises and this was my first time seeing a drill like this! Thanks for following along!

[smitty89]

Thanks for the food update! Our picky eater will definitely want the pizza...lol!

[nickens4]

 

This guy was awesome! I can't remember his name, but I had no idea what to order, so he made me his specialty, which was vodka, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, and grenadine. It was perfect!

 

Cosmopolitan is the Cran and Vodka. The Cran Pineapple and Vodka is the Pineapple Cosmopolitan. I like without the pineapple :) too sweet

[tinker-bell]

My daughter and I were on this cruise also. It is interesting to hear someone else's point of view. We had a wonderful time (well, up until she lost her phone).

Thanks for the review.

[bluejay555]

My daughter and I were on this cruise also. It is interesting to hear someone else's point of view. We had a wonderful time (well, up until she lost her phone).

Thanks for the review.

 

Oh no! Sorry that happened.

[stormgrey11]

We stayed in the same cabin as last year. Room 2357. It's under the restaurant, and pretty much directly under the pool, so we would just jump on the elevator and be right in the middle of all the action. The only thing about that room that I would change is having to walk up 2 flights to deck 4, around the corridor, then back down 1 flight to get to the Scarlet Dining Room. We didn't realize until the last day that we could have been walking down the hall on deck 2 to the next set of stairs and only have to climb one set :cool: oops!

 

Here is a cove balcony set up for 4 people. The couch turns into a bed.

 

 

Thank you for your review ! We will be on the dream in 6 weeks and are very excited about staying in a cove cabin for the first time !

 

We have booked cabin 2353 which is next to the one you stayed in. Did you have any problems with noise being right under the dining room and close to an elevator ?

[bluejay555]

Thank you for your review ! We will be on the dream in 6 weeks and are very excited about staying in a cove cabin for the first time !

 

We have booked cabin 2353 which is next to the one you stayed in. Did you have any problems with noise being right under the dining room and close to an elevator ?

 

Yay! You will LOVE the cove! We had some noise above us a couple nights that sounded like furniture scooting around. (not sure if that's what it actually was of course) It was on and off for hours. I would say it was a fluke but we remembered hearing it last year too. No elevator noise, and most nights were quiet.