Just returned from Norwegian Dream

[cruiser-dude]

We just got back from the 11/19/05 sailing of the Norwegian Dream to Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize.

 

The very first thing we were handed once inside and in line was a note from NCL announcing that all 4 engines were fully operational! This was also confirmed by the bridge crew and Captain Lars during several presentations aboard the ship during the course of our trip. Obviously, we made it to the three scheduled ports without a problem.

 

Here's some specifics, given on a scale of 10 (10 being best) to help:

 

Food: 10 at the MAIN "sit-down" restaurants, 25+ at Le Bistro The main restaurants were great. We ate at The Terraces, La Trattoria, and The Four Seasons. The menus were different each night at all restaurants with two of the three typically hosting the same menu each night. (example - Tex Mex at Terraces and Four Seasons, Italian at La Tratorria) We just chose the one we liked best. WE NEVER WAITED MORE THAN 3-4 MINUTES TO BE SEATED!!! And the ship was at capacity! The best place was Le Bistro, which was well worth the $15 cover charge. The Filet Mignon is awesome and the Chocolate Fondue is incredible. Our 7 year-old princess asked to order from the kids menu and we were NOT charged the $15 for her! (Chicken Nuggets everywhere...) We chose this over the traditional Thanksgiving fare on Thanksgiving Day. A wise choice, we think! All service at all restaurants was friendly and exceptional.

 

The Trattoria was our favorite regular-restaurant because we all love Italian food. We ate at Four Seasons mostly, because it was closest. Breakfast is great - many choices, awesome service, fantastic food.

 

But the buffets needed some work. The Sports Bar buffet was hit-and-miss and many times cold, unattractive.

 

The Pizzeria pizza was just yuck. Even our teenage pizza disposal said, "Wow, what happened here?"

 

For the main restaurants, the menus did change just about every day - - All of the selections are super. Interesting - some of the very best desserts are the Cooking Light creations!

 

So, we'd give Le Bistro a 10+, the Trattoria a 9.5, Terraces, Four Seasons a 9, Pizzeria a -1, and the Sports Bar buffets a 4.

 

Freestyle Dining: 10++++++. This was our first cruise that had this option -- we had been with the set-seating ones before. We chose this cruise due to the family being able eat according to our schedule and our teenager being able to consume at any time reasonably available to do so. AGAIN - WE NEVER WAITED MORE THAN 3-4 MINUTES, EVER. We wore jeans everywhere except Le Bistro, even on the "optional" formal night. However, my wife felt a little out of place amidst the many pretty dresses and tuxedos. especially since we saw a sorority sister and another friend. Suggestion - go formal when "optional".

 

Staff: 10.5. They were excellent. Always incredibly friendly and willing to help. I only had one instance of laziness and attitude from a crew member who felt that my coming back to get my unanswered question addressed 8 hours later was "too soon". There's always one... But there were hundreds more who were unbelievable, incredible, awesome, fantastic... etc., etc.

 

State Room/Stewards: 10+. Always impeccable -- and they do towel animals! (Our 7 year-old princess was always excited to see what the next one would be...) We chose two Superior Ocean View Staterooms for the four of us. Mom and princess in one, Dad and teeanage son in the other. Great choice. And we had an ample sitting area to sit and plan our days when we all met in one room. Plenty of room to pull the curtain and watch the sea, tv, whatever if you want. Showers are small but fine. (and I am 290#.) Just be sure to show your teenager how the shower works...

 

We got complimentary fruit plates throughout the week (which we loved), and a complimentary bottle of champagne one night. Thanks NCL!

 

NCL Shore Excursions:

Cozumel 7 - we did the deep sea fishing and only caught two. The wind was up too high. We were too inexperienced to know the difference and we had fun, even though we may have enjoyed something different as a family. I got a little sea sick, but held it in so that the kids could have fun. The operators were really nice and hard-working, and tried hard to get fish for the kids. I am only saying 7 here because this excursion was too rough to operate and it was obvious. Also, only because one does not yet have a lot to choose from in Cozumel. That will change back to normal, however, in only a month or two. We wanted to do the Atlantis submarine but it was not yet operational from Wilma damage. Cozumel was pretty beat up.

Roatan 9 - here we did the Dolphin Encounter / Tabyana Beach. The dolphin encounter was fantastic. All four of us had fun petting the dolphin and getting a kiss. The trainer was very informative and the kids learned a lot while we all made a life-long memory. A pelican kept swimming by us, within reach. We found a starfish under our feet and got some great pictures that we were able to take ourselves instead of paying tons to have.

At Tabyana beach the wind was up too high, but it would have been incredible water to play in - -just as clear as Ozarka. We could not snorkel, kayak, or even swim out, but the kids played on the beach and we had a great lunch. However, there was no hint of any lobster or a close resemblance to any seafood at all. Just chicken. So I am going to have to give this a 9 since we were told that seafodd was great and we would have much... Be prepared for the incredible, heart-breaking poverty you will see on your way back to the ship. On this Thanksgiving cruise, it sure sets the tone for the gratitude we all should have... The lady in front of us on the bus back to the ship was crying...

Belize 10+++- We did Shark Ray Alley. For a family trip with a group of unexperienced snorkelers, it was INCREDIBLE!!! Shawn and John from NCL shore excursions are the best! They let us take our 7 year-old with us as long as she stayed on the boat and did not get into the water. Mom and Dad took turns snorkeling. We took a large catamaran out to the site and we experienced turquoise, clear water to the HORIZON!. Wow! Stingrays and nurse sharks swimming all around you, within reach. Several reef fish and an occassional parrot fish. Than off to Fido's ("Fee-Doze") at San Pedro for an incredible lunch and some shopping. The captain let our little one drive the boat for a while on the way back and the passengers gave her kudos! We loved this so much we are definitely going back to Belize as soon as we can get there!

 

Entertainment: 9

THANK YOU SO MUCH, NCL, FOR HAVING WHOLESOME ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!!!!

Sam "Greasebomb" (comdedian)is hilarious.

Jeffery the juggler is great.

Carolyn Harding (singer) was fabulous. (Carolyn was new to NCL - just found her through the passenger talent auditions.) I saw her the next day on deck 11 and got to talk to her a little. Awesome lady.

The Jean Ann Ryan group did a fabulous "Sea Legs" performance (third of their shows), but the first two were lacking. It seemed much effort went into this last show, but the first two just were nor nearly as good. But note my overall rating. They are all still wonderful. But since I volunteer in performance media, I can see the untapped potential...

 

Be a little cautious with some of the family "game show" events though. We dropped my daughter's name in the bucket to play, after asking the crew host if she was a worthy contestant and gaining approval. She was the first name drawn for her team and was appointed team leader. The topic was items found in a man's wallet. "Condom" was not necessary to be included and this was a HUGE screw-up. So we had to work on dismissing this from her short-term memory for the next few minutes...

 

Don't participate in the "Almost Newlywed" show (or whatever it's called) unless you're cool with publicizing your wife's panty type and color, most awesome whoopie spot, and bra size. To each his own - I'm just letting you know, here. NCL definitely lts everyone know this is a PG-13 thing. We had one woman, however, that thought she needed to bark out the F-word just because her husband got one answer wrong. NCL let her know right away to keep her comments appropriate.

 

The Ship: 9. Once we got used to the up and down of where different things were located, we were okay. The entire ship was incredibly clean, well-kept, and in great shape. I had seen earlier reviews claiming age and in need of paint. Absolute baloney. This ship is great and well beyond our expectations. I am glad that she is now running with 4 engines.

 

Kid's Crew: 10+ This must be seen from the eyes of the kids. We got the princess the $39.50 "pack" which gets you a backpack, t-shirt, souvenir cup, ball cap, and unlimited soda. She does not like soda and asked her brother all throughout the cruise if she could get him a soda. NCL did not care, so much so that one night while ordering dinner, my son ordered a soda nad they did not charge us because they saw her arm band and she had not ordered any soda...

Our 7 year-old asked to go to the Kid's Crew every night and had a blast. Well-supervised, clean, with experienced girls who handled all of the children with ease. The activities were age-appropriate and really fun for them.

Our teenager (14) was reluctant until the last two nights. After he went, we never saw him again and he had a blast in a safe, supervised environment.

THESE FOLKS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE AUTOMATIC GRATUITY. TIP THEM WELL. THEY WORK HARD AND ARE EXCELLENT!

Express Disembarkation 7 Unless your wife wants to get outta there (like mine did) I won't do this again. Line is long, lugging your own bags after a week of laziness - - just go eat breakfast or hang out in your room. Let NCL take your bags for you. Walk out when they call you and go find your bags. That's the way. Tons of folks will do the express thing like we did and clear the way...

Other Notes:

 

Overall, we give the cruise a 9. We really enjoyed NCL and the Dream. We do wish we had gone to 4 ports, but we enjoyed what we did. It will be great when Cancun is ready for ships again.

 

Ask a print out of your charges and review a few days before your cruise ends. Don't wait until the last minute. Easier to clear up stuff earlier.

 

Ice cream is never a bad choice for dessert. Awesome in every flavour.

 

Take an underwater camera to the snorkeling, clear beaches, diving, etc.

 

Don't forget to close the curtains to your room if the ship is still in port. (Thanks to some of you folks, we had fun laughing...)

 

Tip well, because you can and you should.

[calmac]

Welcome back cruiser-dude, glad you had such a wonderful cruise. Like you ,we really enjoyed our trip on the Dream. We chose to go with the normal disembarkation which was no hassle at all - definitely worth choosing next time.

 

Thanks for confirming that the 4th engine is back working - we can now go ahead and book our Baltics cruise for summer 2006 (just hope DH hasn't changed his mind)!

[Zeno]

Nice review - glad to hear the engine is working.

[hotspur]

Now that the infamous engine problem has been corrected, the Dream is once again a terrific ship with a terrific crew that in every way provides fabulous cruising value. Our two Dream cruises were exactly as described by cruiser-dude. We'd cruise her again in a heartbeat.

[vette]

Cruiser-Dude,

 

We just returned also, and I agree with everything you said. The Dream is a great ship with so many wonderful crew members. They made our trip a pleasure.

 

Is your daughter a little blonde; i met a nice little blond girl in the hot tub and she told me she went on the snorkling boat, but had to stay on board while her parents went in the water. She is a nice young lady. We had some great chats.

 

In Cozumel, we went to Paradise Beach and met Tom. The beach has come a long way and they were working hard on repairs the day we were there. Tom - you have a nice place. We did some shopping and tried to help the local economy by leaving some of our cash there :-)!

 

In Roatan, we went to the Iguana farm and then went to Fantasy Island. The water was a little cool, but we went swimming anyways.

 

In Belize, we also went snorkling, but did the snorkle/booze cruise. It was fantastic. The reefs were absolutely gorgeous, the fish plentiful and colorful and the catamaran and crew were top notch. After snorkling we stopped at a beautiful little island and swam and sunned for an hour, then we boarded the boat and danced all the way back to the ship. After getting cleaned up we went to port for some shopping.

 

I am so glad we chose the Dream - she was worth the wait!

 

Vette

[Lee77]

You mentioned you wore jeans "everywhere" except Le Bistro?

 

Do you mean you wore jeans in all the other dining rooms in the evening?

 

I thought jeans weren't allowed. Are they now allowed everywhere? if so, is it all NCL ships?

 

Please clarify.

Thank you..

Lee

[shoreguy]

You mentioned you wore jeans "everywhere" except Le Bistro?

 

Do you mean you wore jeans in all the other dining rooms in the evening?

 

I thought jeans weren't allowed. Are they now allowed everywhere? if so, is it all NCL ships?

 

Please clarify.

Thank you..

Lee

 

As posted on NCL.com

 

 

Below are a few exceptions to the dining room dress code:

 

Blue Jeans will be allowed in all dining rooms on all Houston departures, due to the Texas culture.

Blue Jeans will be allowed in the Trattoria's in the evenings.

[ute_fan]

Great review! We've got friends who are sailing in January, so I've been following the threads about the Dream with interest. They will be very happy to hear that the engine problems are fixed.

[electricron]

I'm happy you had a great time on the Dream.

 

It's also good to read that the diesel engine has been repaired.

[sunshine 229]

I thought I had posted this before but it must have gone into internet space.

I'm so glad to hear that you had a great cruise, and glad to hear that the engine is fixed. I hope all the cruisers in upcoming weeks have as good a time as you did.

I was especially glad to hear about your positive experience with the freestyle dining. Some others have reported that it didn't work as well on the older ships, but it sounds as if it worked fine for you. Did you eat at any particular time, or did you eat at different times on different nights?

 

Oh, by the way, welcome back!:)

[Bev]

Thanks for posting such a positive review of the Dream. DH and I sailed on her to the Baltics a couple of years ago and will cruise on her again on the Spring Transatlantic. We were looking forward to the Spring cruise but are far more excited about it now after reading your comments!

 

Bev

[cyrilee]

Thanks for the review! We had been wondering about the engines and whether it made all 3 ports last week. We leave Saturday! :)

[newmexicoNita]

Sounds like you really enjoyed your Thanksgiving cruise: it is so nice to see some positives about the Dream. Not everything has been negative lately but certainly there hasn't been much to write home about. NMNita

[vette]

We ate at several different times at several different restaurants and the most we waited was about 10 minutes once. We also made reservations a couple of nights for 10. For large groups, reservations can only be made at 5:30 and 8:30. It worked great for us. I also want to mention the pool side BBQ's. They were every afternoon (weather permitting) and they were great, chicken, steak, hot links, hotdogs, pork chops and the best rice dishes ever made in a great big black pan. YUM-YUM.

 

Vette

[cruiser-dude]

To answer a couple of posters:

 

Yes - Jeans everywhere, all the time, every restaurant but Le Bistro AND we wore shorts and swim suits with cover-ups at breakfast and lunch with no problems, no looks, no nothing!

 

Vette - yes. You did meet my little Hannah!

[cruiser-dude]

I was especially glad to hear about your positive experience with the freestyle dining. Some others have reported that it didn't work as well on the older ships, but it sounds as if it worked fine for you. Did you eat at any particular time, or did you eat at different times on different nights?

 

 

We ate between 6:15 and 7:15 each night - pretty much. It was about 60-75 minutes before each of the shows each night. We had 4-5 courses each night, ate leisurely and still made each show with no hurry in getting there...

Since we chose Le Bistro on Thanksgiving, I know we missed a bit longer line than usual at the other sit down restaurants. And, since you must make reservations for Le Bistro, there was no wait to be seated...

The best dinner at the "regular" restaurants was a toss up between the lobster tail and the beef wellington. The best "regular" restaurant dessert was the blueberry slump. The best appetizer was the crawfish.

 

"And that's about all I know about that..." - Forrest Gump

[mbarnaby99]

I am glad you had a great cruise. Your experience sounds like mine back in May when all engines were working.

[smoothtxcouple]

Hi Dude and Vette, thanks for your reviews. We sail Dec 3. How long were ya'll in Cozumel? We are hoping since the engine prob has been fixed we will get more than 5 hours in Coz. Thanks so much :D

[MizDaisy]

Hoping you can clear something up for me....La Trattoria, that you mentioned..is that the same as the Sun Terrace Trattoria? Did they just change the name?

Also...the buffet at the Sports Bar & Grill...is that for dinner, or just lunch?

 

Thanks! We sail on Dec 24th, and can't wait!!

[cruiser-dude]

Hi Dude and Vette, thanks for your reviews. We sail Dec 3. How long were ya'll in Cozumel? We are hoping since the engine prob has been fixed we will get more than 5 hours in Coz. Thanks so much :D

 

5 hours. The ship did stay much longer after we boarded. Dunno if that was due to late shore excursions, as we saw quite a few tenders bring folks back way late, as we dined. I think I'd wanna be back on the ship before too dark, myself.

[cruiser-dude]

Hoping you can clear something up for me....La Trattoria, that you mentioned..is that the same as the Sun Terrace Trattoria? Did they just change the name?

Also...the buffet at the Sports Bar & Grill...is that for dinner, or just lunch?

 

Thanks! We sail on Dec 24th, and can't wait!!

 

Hmm - There were three Freestyle restaurants:

Four Seasons (9 mid)

The Terraces (11 aft)

La Trattoria (9 aft)

 

La Trattoria was Italian fare, for the most part.

Dunno if there was a name change - maybe more experienced folks can say...

 

Sports Bar was open breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Open way early and way late, also.

 

I agree with Vette - the better buffet choice is definitely the poolside BBQ (mid) if weather permits. Just listen for the great Calypso band and follow the great music to the mid pool. BBQ is right there. I forgot to include this with my original review, but Vette stated it exactly. As a 290# Texan, I know my BBQ and am very picky. I was loving it...

[sunshine 229]

We ate between 6:15 and 7:15 each night - pretty much. It was about 60-75 minutes before each of the shows each night. We had 4-5 courses each night, ate leisurely and still made each show with no hurry in getting there...

Since we chose Le Bistro on Thanksgiving, I know we missed a bit longer line than usual at the other sit down restaurants. And, since you must make reservations for Le Bistro, there was no wait to be seated...

The best dinner at the "regular" restaurants was a toss up between the lobster tail and the beef wellington. The best "regular" restaurant dessert was the blueberry slump. The best appetizer was the crawfish.

 

"And that's about all I know about that..." - Forrest Gump

 

Thanks for the extra details. Between 6:15 and 7:15 sounds like a good time for dinner. I've seen others post that they avoided the wait by eating early (like 5:30 pm) I personally find 5:30 way too early.

 

If you can start dinner at 6:30 or 7 and still make the show, it sounds just about perfect.

[PRNole47]

Will be going Dec 31. Other than in my room via room service, where is the earliest place to get coffee and how early in the morning could I get it? I'm an early riser (5:00 am) and used to that first jolt soon thereafter...

[hotspur]

Hoping you can clear something up for me....La Trattoria, that you mentioned..is that the same as the Sun Terrace Trattoria? Did they just change the name?

Also...the buffet at the Sports Bar & Grill...is that for dinner, or just lunch?

 

Thanks! We sail on Dec 24th, and can't wait!!

Yes, the Trattoria was originally called Sun Terrace--because it is kind of like a glassed in sunroom--before it became the Trattoria. With all the glass, it's the nicest dining room we've seen on a cruise ship.

 

The Sports Bar buffet is open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and "tea" in the late afternoon. On our Alaska cruise the Dream also offered a breakfast buffet in one of the dining rooms, as well as a sit-down breakfast in a second dining room.

[Lee77]

YES! Trattoria is very nice. We enjoyed several meals there on our Alaska cruise this summer. For clarification it is aft on deck 11. Four Seasons [fwd] and Terraces [aft] is on deck 9.

We usually dined 6-6:30 and never had a wait at any of the dining rooms.