Dream March 19-26. A few thoughts...

[Luvsparties]

Got off the Dream on Sunday, March 26. This was our first time on the Dream, 3rd (or4th?) time out of NOLA. After readingsome spotty reviews and taking both first time cruisers and new to Carnival cruisers, I was a little worried. It was completely uncalled for. Not in any order and probably not laid out very well, but here are my thoughts.

 

We drove down on Friday. We use Macchu Picchu for parking. We drop the car off to him and he takes us back to the hotel and picks us up the morning of the cruise. Good rates, accommodating and he is the nicest guy. (Before we could get in our car to go home, we had to look at hisgardens lol.) We stayed at theIntercontinental on St. Charles (got a great rate at $149 a night) and we were able to walk to everything.

Embarkation was a breeze. We had FTTF and we got to the port about 10ish (maybe 9:45, I can’tremember). Walked right up and checked in and were right up front for the FTTFs. I wanted to get our friends on as early as possible and it worked. We were on, luggage dropped off and eating by11:30.

 

 

The Dream had the HUB app for this cruise. We used it all the time.

 

 

Overall ship appearance -- it looked great to us. Nice and fresh.

 

 

I will say the crew on this ship as a whole, seemed to be the happiest crew I've ever dealt with. Every single person we dealt with was happy and smiling.

 

 

We never had to wait for bar service. If it wasn't our dinner bar waiter who saw us during the day it was one of the others we made friends with. No matter where we went we saw one of them and had awesome service. We hung out mostly on Lido buy the Blue Iguana Bar or on Deck 5 by the Alchemy Bar. But even in the shows/comedy club we served immediately.

 

 

We were on Deck 2 in 2464. It was a great cabin, oversized with the bathroom in the back across from the bed. Loved the layout and would bookit again in a heartbeat.

 

 

Cabins -- Saw the cabin steward when we first got to thecabin, and he showed us the comfort card. I asked for both if he wasn’t too slammed. He said no problem and we had excellentservice, even though we never saw him again. Always had plenty of fresh towels, a spotless room, and towel animals every night.

 

 

Chris Matthews, the Flying Scotsman, was the CD. I’m not one that pays very much attention tothe CD, but we really liked him. He is very high energy, seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and boy can he sing.

 

 

Evening shows….Could be that we grew up on 70/80s music,so it was targeted at us, but we enjoyed the shows. I know, I know, it’s a Playlist, but we still thought it was very good for what it was.

 

 

The comedy shows for the most part were good. I think its Thomas Hardy? We've seen him before and enjoyed all of his shows this trip. Just June was good as well. We've seen Caroline Pickard(?) before and don't really care for her.

 

Dining…We ate most of our breakfasts and dinners in theMDR, with the exception of one night at the Steakhouse. Our wait staff in the MDR was better than any we’ve ever had--fun, engaging and attentive. Food in the Steakhouse was excellent. Food in the MDR was good. I hadno complaints. I never had anything I didn’t care for. Lunch we ate at the pasta bar, Guys or Blue Iguana. I loved the pasta bar. Guys and Blue Iguana were good as well. My son waiting in the line for Pigand Anchor and he loved it.

We were a group of 8 that all had Cheers. I did tip the bar waiter the very first night and asked that he check on us during dinner…and he did. He had our preferences waiting for us when we got there and kept us filled. Even when I saw him on deck during the day, if I didn’t want anything he would still bring me a bottle of water. And, yes, hegot another tip at the end.

 

 

Crowds/lines…It was a full Spring Break cruise, and there were a lot of people. But we really didn’tencounter any really long lines. My son had trouble finding a deck chair anywhere on the first sea day -- but he waited until 1:00 to start looking. No problems after that. Trivia was sometimes hard toget a seat…not that it mattered, it was too hard lol. We liked the couches on deck 11 across from the dj. Out of the sun, but we could still see what was going on.

 

Ports…we had no problem getting off the ship at any of theports. We did not have excursions,though, so we waited just a little bit and walked right off or hopped right on a tender. We had a cabana at Mahogany Bay. Best money ever spent. We loved it. I cannot be in the sun, so it was nice to have a place to hang out.

 

 

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of fun times (weused the app) or the menus, sorry!

Overall it was one of our best cruises and our friends arenow hooked on cruising, and the couple who never cruised Carnival before thoroughlyenjoyed it.

[glorog]

We had this cabin for two weeks before your cruise. One of our favorite locations. The crew is "absolutely", as Drazen would say, fantastic.

[JaniceB]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the Dream. The ship is one of my favorites.

[smitty89]

We're leaving for a B2B on the Dream in a couple of weeks, so I really appreciate your thoughts! Thanks so much!

[BMETFerg]

Reviews like this give such a relief for a first time cruise goer like myself. We sail on the Dream 9.3.17 for 7, what we hope to be, fabulous nights!

[dsotm73]

How could you not love our Cajun Queen, Caroline Picard? Maybe a little too raunchy for your tastes?

 

Thanks for the review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[beckatron]

Thanks - I appreciate the review. Our first cruise on Carnival is on the Dream in June.

[OklaGirl32]

Thanks for sharing! I'll be on the Dream April 16th, can't wait!

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Forums mobile app

[MrOrangePants]

I was on the same cruise as OP. I would agree with most of what he/she said. This was our first non Disney cruise and we weren't too sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed this cruise. Our kids(6 and 10) enjoyed the waterworks area much more than the water areas on the Disney cruises. They only went to the kids area twice, but really enjoyed the short time spent there. The MDR food and staff were great. The ship was clean and our room steward was on top of everything. We usually do balconies but went with an interior because our kids wake up at the first hint of sunlight no matter what time they go to bed. The smaller rooms didn't really bother us since we were rarely in there. We have already booked two more carnival cruises on different ships and hope they go just as smooth.

[momof4girls]

Thank you for your thoughts:) Our Dream cruise last year was the best one yet. I'm jealous you had Chris for your CD. He is my absolute favorite. Never really paid much attention to the CD before that cruise but wow did he ever make an impression! He even stopped at our table during dinner because my girls wanted to meet him.

 

It seems that the Dream class ships, while being large, have a great layout for keeping lines and crowds at a minimum. I'm glad it made a good impression on your friends. I wish Carnival didn't get such a bad rep, but maybe that means less people will want to book it!;)

[CimW]

We are cruising in May on the Dream so enjoyed your thoughts. We did a b2b in 2014 on her. I really liked the ship. We rented a cabana at Mahogany Bay also, it is such a nice area.

 

I think we will have the same cruise director as you so looking forward to seeing him.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[bobbismith]

Follow

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Forums mobile app

[Clarea]

Appreciate the review.

[tandemcruzr]

Nice review. Glad your friends enjoyed it and glad the Carnival 1st timer stayed for the whole week. :)

[jingels]

Thanks for all of the Dream reviews and comments! We are going at the end of July and it is making it all that more exciting! We can hardly wait - we too reserved a cabana and from what we have read, it sounds like it might be one of the highlights of this cruise!

Working to cruise is our motto!