DREAMing of my Honeymoon - review and pictures!

[scuba_ninja]

After finally having a good meal, we decided to explore a bit before heading up to the room. It really was a good thing we got on so early. The lines for food by this point were obnoxious. We could tell this was going to be a VERY full boat. Before we get into pictures, let's talk a little bit about those lines. They were managed poorly. Period. There was no attempt at crowd control. There was no attempt to help expedite or manage the crowds. Carnival does not do a good job with people control, and I think a big part of that is lack of staff. For a ship this size, there just isn't enough staff. We'll keep coming back to this. This isn't a knock on the staff, it's a knock on the "decision makers" in corporate who would happily fuel every ship with whale oil and wayward guests if they could get away with it and make a dollar doing it.

 

 

 

 

Panorama while in port:

 

It's impossible to see in this shot, but they actually had the football game on the screen. Sadly, yes, other than the sports bar area in the casino, this is now the only place to see a game. Dream has fully transitioned over it seems to the new channel lineup. Honestly, I can say that we had the TV on for maybe 30 minutes the entire cruise. I'd flip CNN on every few days to see if aliens had finally come to take over. Sadly, they had not.

 

 

Finally, our room! Around 1:30 ish we decided to head up to find our room. We had FTTF, so the room was supposed to be ready. heading up to deck 11, it was a ghost town. Not even a room steward in sight. The "please don't come in yet" doors in the hallway were partially closed, but screw it, at the very least I was gonna peak. Our budget for the cabin was basically steerage, but we consider our cabin a sleeping space. We did manage to snag a spa room, and that ended up being a game changer.

 

The room itself was... ugly. Sorry. This just isn't my taste. It's like a cheap motel. The carpet was sorta clean, but clearly hadn't been steamed or deep cleaned in a VERY long time. Most of the lights in the cabin worked, but when you turned them on they flickered and flashed light a haunted house for about 30 seconds before they stabilized. With all the lights on I do admit it was pretty bright in there though.

 

 

This is what Cabin 11228 looks like before we put all our crap everywhere.

[scuba_ninja]

There were only two hooks in the room. Note - As many had suggested I did purchase magnetic hooks... and promptly forgot them. :( They very much would have come in handy.

 

 

 

Again, the decor certainly isn't my taste, but that doesn't really matter to me all that much. It's a sleeping chamber, that's about it.

 

Here though is where we should pause of a moment and do a "tale of the tape".

 

In this corner, we have the Carnival Dream. Born October 24th 2008 and weighing in at 130,000 tons. Length of 1,004 ft and a beam of 122ft. Carrying 3,652 passengers and 1,369 crew. Plying the waters at a brisk 22.5 knots while her 15 decks bask in the sun.

 

In the other corner, my previous ship the Celebrity Solstice was born in November of 2008. Weighing in at 121,878 tons and with a length of 1,022 ft and a beam of 121 feet this ship is similar in age and dimensions. The Solstice is considerably lighter though and slightly faster at 24 knots. She also holds 2,852 passengers and 1,250 crew over 19 decks. That's a very significant difference when it comes to crowds, space and service. Before everyone get a bee in their bonnets, I'm not knocking the ship yet, I'm just making a comparison!

 

OK, back to the fun stuff. Everyone loves menus, so here's the room service breakfast menu. Note that times listed are merely suggestions apparently. As we found out they can come an hour early or 30 minutes late. ordered every morning on port days and I'm glad we did. Eating light in the morning on port days was a good idea and avoiding any lines, crowds or waits was helpful.

 

 

I'll say that the croissants were always fantastic. The room service fruit was fine. The rest of the baked goods were.. OK. In general I wasn't a huge fan of most baked goods on the ship. OK, first critical comparison. On the Solstice all of the baked goods were outstanding and made from scratch daily. I did a grand ship's tour thingy (which unlike Carnival was free) and learned that the bakery staff works 24 hours a day on the ship. And it showed. The breads and cakes were top notch. On the Dream, I can belive that the dinner rolls and french breads on the ship were made regularly, they were always fresh but certian cookies and muffins were usually stale tasting to me.

 

A lot of people ask about the room fridges. Being that we were certainly not in a luxury room I found the fridge location and size to be fine. It held the case of water I ordered from the fun shop. That's really all it needed to do. I was very very glad it came completely empty.

 

 

Also, this was interesting. A common complaint around here is that the fridge never gets cold enough and that the "life hack" is to put a little washcloth in the cabinet door (not the fridge door) so that the cubby it is in gets better air circulation. This cubby had circulation built in! It was never loud, and it didn't put out any heat into the room really, but the fridge was decently cold for a bottle of water.

 

[scuba_ninja]

One thing I'd trying to do with my pics is post ones of things I have not seen around here. I searched high and low for an outlet shot and never found one, so here is one:

 

 

I was curious if it was recessed or not and what kind of plug adapter would fit. Happy to say that in this room at least just about any power tap/splitter would fit. The euro plug on the oposite side of the mirror was in the same kind of recepticle.

 

 

The head (bathroom in sea speak) was functional. The shelves along the mirror helped us have room for our stuff and the clothes line thingy in the shower was very handy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, here's my first big knock on the ship's service. The bathroom was never cleaned well. I'm glad I listed to people here and brought a little pack of clorox wipes with me. First day the toilet smelled a little bit of pee. Yup. Pee. OK, maybe they just didn't get to clean it properly when we got there? I'll forgive the first day.... by day three I was clorox wiping all the surfaces in there. And before anyone asks why we didn't complain, the answer is pretty simple. Our cabin steward was as happy as a snowman in the desert sun and I was 100% sure that a complaint would have been met with poop on our pillow. I was NOT going to mess with his gratuities or anything of the sort. I actually don't blame him personaly. It was abundandly clear to me that he was simply VERY over worked. After talking to several people on the ship, I found out that it's not uncommon these days for the steward to have 2 floors to do entirely alone. Also, I have to say, sorry, customer serivce on Carninval is abysmal. Period. I had to call customer service several times before the cruise with little questions and I was surprised each time by how rude and uninterested they were in answering questions. My experience on the ship wasn't much better. If it wasn't for FTTF and having a dedicated customer service line, it's possible I might have had a very different cruise. I can't say we had all our issues resolved perfectly, but thank goodness we didn't have the lines the rest of the peons did. FTTF paid for itself in line waits BIG TIME! I'm not a high maintenance person. I rarely complain about anything. I've never in my life sent a meal back at a restaurant for being too cold or hot or anything like that. The issues we had, which I'll explain in a bit, I think were legitimate. Also, if I'm asking for a printout of the S&S account, do you really have to ask my why and tell me I don't need it? Yes, I specifically want a printed copy. Anyway, I digress.

 

 

Back to the room. Someone had paid for a Honeymoon decoration package for us. Our room clearly was not decorated the first day, even though it was supposed to have been done on embarkation day.

 

 

We left our carry on backpacks in the room and decided to wander a little more. Note, United's supe economy fares could easily end up costing you more than regular! They allow you a personal item but no carry-on bags! Having that extra roll-abord space would have made a BIG difference!

 

 

The Encore theater is actually a neat space.

 

 

 

 

[scuba_ninja]

OK, so as spa room elites, we had access to certain spa rooms for free. I actually only ever used this place. AND LOVED IT!

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure that my wife is proof that lizard people exist. She's always freezing cold (and always in control of everything). She loved the Thalasso pool and asks me about six times a day if we can get one in our apartment.

 

 

So this I found interesting. I'm glad they had these in the bathrooms, but ther was no trash bin to throw the paper into. So a lot of it wound up on the floor.

 

 

 

 

This leads me to my next big gripe. Would it kill them to have put trash cans out on the ship? They were very few and far between.

 

 

Also, the public bathrooms were not terribly clean. I blame that on the sheer number of people/animals sailing. The bathrooms were also weirdly designed. The toilets had zero clearance between the stall door and the bowl. Like, I found myself standing to the side of the toilet, trying very hard not to touch the toilet in order to open or close the door. Very much not ADA friendly. Very weird.

 

 

Also, OK, please tell me I'm not the only one with this complaint. The urinals in the men's rooom sit very high. I get it, I'm not the tallest dude, but something was off. I can make a few bawdy jokes here I'm sure, but I'll leave it to your imaginations.

 

 

The ship in general I think was designed by someone just a little stoned. Most things are fine, but there were some super odd quirks. The lines to get in to the MDR snaked all the way into the hallways and stair cases most nights and it made travel around that area super annoying. Also, that same stoner is clearly in charge of the elevators. Sometimes the work, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they stop, sometimes they don't. It's a crapshoot.

 

 

 

 

BTW, those clamshell thingies are one of my favorite things on the ship. They need way more of those.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2018 by scuba_ninja
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[reerun25]

Really enjoying the review so far!

[lohgan]

Following along! Great review!

[lovin_retirement]

quick question, which nights were formal nights? I figure first full day at sea would be the first

[tropicaledrink]

It's interesting how much perspectives can vary!

 

We were on your sailing - also on Deck 11 (but Starboard) and we actually commented several times that we were surprised how little we stood in line. The two exceptions to long wait times for us were for our Shore Excursion in Belize (which is a story in itself) and we did wait about 30 minutes for the Pasta Bar on the last day. Other than though? Almost no lines. I don't know if it was because we did things at off times or what - but we were very surprised.

 

I agree the Dream is a little odd. They fixed the layout somewhat on the Magic in my opinion. Including the room furnishings in spa cabins :D

 

Also - our room steward was also not the greatest. Ours did not appear to have two floors, but she just wasn't fantastic. Lots of missed items. She was very kind. Just not the best we have had. Looking forward to the rest of your review!

[tropicaledrink]

quick question, which nights were formal nights? I figure first full day at sea would be the first

 

Sea Days 1 and 2 on this sailing :)

[scuba_ninja]

It's interesting how much perspectives can vary!

 

We were on your sailing - also on Deck 11 (but Starboard) and we actually commented several times that we were surprised how little we stood in line. The two exceptions to long wait times for us were for our Shore Excursion in Belize (which is a story in itself) and we did wait about 30 minutes for the Pasta Bar on the last day. Other than though? Almost no lines. I don't know if it was because we did things at off times or what - but we were very surprised.

 

I agree the Dream is a little odd. They fixed the layout somewhat on the Magic in my opinion. Including the room furnishings in spa cabins :D

 

Also - our room steward was also not the greatest. Ours did not appear to have two floors, but she just wasn't fantastic. Lots of missed items. She was very kind. Just not the best we have had. Looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

Tropical - DECK 11 IN THE HOUSE! REPRESENT!!! lol

 

Yes, that's something I do plan to touch on at some point. Sometimes we had crazy lines, other times it was like easy as pie. I have a few theories on that. Doing things at off times helps for sure. After the first day we went to guest services when needed during early dinner (we had late) and we had zero lines. But, lines would oddly starts in weird places depending on your timing. Lines formed, then disappeared. It's all about timing.

 

Yes, I like how you describe the cabin steward. Forgetting things. Like ours forgot to clean the toilet :) or refill our soap, or give us a towel animal, etc. I'm leaning more and more towards them being just too overworked.

 

We never had the pasta, how was it? Kept meaning to try it, just never got around to it.

[scuba_ninja]

Moving on with this adventure, we go back to the cabin. I forget why we went back, but we had a cake waiting for us!!!

 

 

Cake is great, BUT, this cake not only tasted kinda stale, it was supposed to come with room decorations, a towel and a picture frame. After 4 days of begging guest services for those items we finally gave up. First they said they'd give us cruise cash credit, then some mystery email came from corporate saying they could only refund the money to the person who purchased it. That person btw is yet to get a refund. Throughout this process we spoke to guest services at least 6 times. I am pretty sure each time was a different person. First person we spoke to just told us to be patient, but did give us a coupon for a free drink. Pro tip - if you get a free drink coupon, HOLD ON TO IT!!! By chance I did, only to find out that the free drinks are not in fact added to your S&S, you need that little receipt to get the drink! Super important!

 

I am really disappointed with how Carnival handled this. Sure, room decorations are minor, but it's a service that was paid for. I feel like if you've paid for something, you either get said item, or a refund. The last person we talked to was actually someone wearing a white uniform with bars on his arms. He must have been some kind of guest services officer? The Retail manager (I forget her name) flat out refused to ever speak to us. This guy was as interested in helping us as I was in eating healthy on the cruise. He tried brushing me off three times before I convinced him to actually read the account notes and emails. He finally sent me away saying he'd call when he figured it out. Well, 24 hours later, all he could do was give us a courtesy phone call home to the person who bought us the gift, to tell them to expect a credit card refund (that never came). I'm considering writing/calling carnival about this, but I doubt anyone actually cares.

 

Anyway, enought about that mess. Here's some fun times!

 

 

[ScottyZkaaayk]

Thanks for this detailed review! I'm enjoying your writing style and finding it very entertaining.

[Mimi2Say]

Following. We leave out on the Dream in 15 days!!

Edited January 6, 2018 by Mimi2Say
spelling error

[Captain-John]

Great review, thanks. Get whoever purchased the package that wasn't received to dispute the charge with their CC provider. Carnival will be pretty quick to look at it then. Customer service across the entire cruise industry, in my experience across a number of lines, is an absolute disgrace.

[jmcsnowball]

Super funny, really enlightening review, loving your style!

I'm cruising Carnival for the first time in February so I'm hoovering up anything I can to give me a head start on the fun. Thanks!

[bobjer17]

Thanks for your review so far. Sorry for some of your service issues. That stinks..literally!

[sjn911]

The service and freshness of food at times is an issue. Glad you had fun anyway, I know I would have loved the tandoori too, would have been great...thanks!!

[cruisewithwife]

Great review so far....sucks you had not as great of service as you'd like but at least you didn't let it ruin your cruise

[chasinraynbowz]

 

Yeah, I'm kinda glad I passed on eating anything there. Like, VERY glad.

 

Also, glad to see folks following along already! Woohoo!

 

OK, so Uber to the port was quick. We had FTTF (more on that in a bit) and our arrival time was 10am. We actually got there more like 9:30. The hotel staff told us to leave tons of time to get to the port because of "shopping traffic" that never actually happened. Oh well,it actually worked out OK in the end. We were NOT the first ones at the port either!

 

The moment we pulled up a porter grabbed our bags and whisked them away (yes, I gave a tip). Being early I'm sure helped with that process. I was nervous that he wasn’t actually a porter, but he had stickers for the luggage, so I assumed he was legit (he was). He didn’t directly ask for a tip, but he did say “this was the last time you’ll see me”. It could be worse.

 

Entering the terminal I was yelled at to stop taking pictures, but I did get this blurry one:

 

 

Now,here’s where I started to be glad I had FTTF. We walked right up to a desk, got our sail and sign cards (I was told I needed to take a new pic, because the passport photo I used didn’t have enough current facial hair) and were directed to sit in a special part of the terminal. We were also FIRST in line in the FTTF area! Good thing too, cause here was the crowd already at 10ish:

 

 

Excuse the bad pics in the terminal. They really didn’t like me taking pics in there so I was being sneaky. Or trying to be. Also, excuse weird formatting errors. I'm typing this is word and transferring it over, but sometimes it forgets to copy over spaces between words apparently.

 

At least we had a Christmas tree to look at:

 

 

OK, so my wife is kind of fascinated with Christmas. Growing up she had no Christian friends and never celebrated it before. Which is weird, it's not like she grew up in the middle of the rain forest or something, she's from St. Louis! Her school and especially her friend circle though apparently wasn't as diverse as mine growing up to say the least. She was pretty excited to do Christmas stuff on the ship. I had a few friends growing up who celebrated, but I was always getting in trouble for being the kid to tell everyone santa wasn't real. So my memories of the holiday are not the greatest. I'm learning to tolerate her infatuation. Still can't stand country music though (I'm hard rock and metal all the way)

 

I asked permission to get up and take this pic, which they said was fine, as long as I promised not to take any video.

 

 

My first look at the dream! WOOHOO!

 

Around 11:30 I started to get hungry, so I asked the gate agents (who were actually very friendly and easy to talk to, even when telling me to put my camera away) about boarding. Apparently, in NOLA, they don’t usually start boarding until about 1pm. Something something control the crowds blah blah blah. I get it, but still annoying. I can't stand hurry up and wait.

 

We were both so bored by this point that my wife noticed boot prints on the ceiling. A little hard to see in the pics. I guess they poured the beams, then lifted them in to place when building the terminal.

 

 

At about noon, a gate agent came over and said “good thing you have FTTF! We might actually be able to get your group in a little early” The plan was that as soonas all the last passengers were officially off, first the B2B cruisers wouldget back on (lucky devils), then the platinum, suites, etc., then us FTTF.

 

Turnsout by 12:30 we were actually on the ship. THANK YOU FTTF~! The rest of the peons had to wait a lot longer apparently. Glad we did get on when we did, because I was about to start gnawing on that Christas tree.

 

How very strange. I have sailed the Dream twice and many other ships out of NOLA. NEVER did we have to wait until 1pm to embark. I am wondering if the ship was late getting in maybe?

 

Loving your review though!!!

[Jules74]

How very strange. I have sailed the Dream twice and many other ships out of NOLA. NEVER did we have to wait until 1pm to embark. I am wondering if the ship was late getting in maybe?

 

Loving your review though!!!

 

I think he may have the time incorrect. We were on this sailing and we did not have FTTF. My husband and kids were in the hot tub on the ship by 12:03 per the time on a picture on my phone. His pictures looked like he got on earlier than us.

I’m loving this review and look forward to more. I really like the pictures. He took more than I did. :D

Our family had a great time on the Dream over Christmas!!!

[dporter]

Does anyone know what the first check in time is in NOLA? We figured we would get up and out of our hotel around 10am so we are there before 11am but we don't want to be stuck outside. We do have FTTF but I can't see the earliest time to check in.

[Jules74]

Does anyone know what the first check in time is in NOLA? We figured we would get up and out of our hotel around 10am so we are there before 11am but we don't want to be stuck outside. We do have FTTF but I can't see the earliest time to check in.

I’m not sure when the 1st one is but you should be fine arriving at 11. Our arrival time on the boarding pass was 11:30-12. We got there a few minutes before 11 and when right in and started the process. We were sitting and waiting by 11:15. We were in section 13 and was on the ship by 11:40. NOLA was a very quick and easy boarding experience.

[dporter]

I’m not sure when the 1st one is but you should be fine arriving at 11. Our arrival time on the boarding pass was 11:30-12. We got there a few minutes before 11 and when right in and started the process. We were sitting and waiting by 11:15. We were in section 13 and was on the ship by 11:40. NOLA was a very quick and easy boarding experience.

 

Thanks

[wingnt68]

Does anyone know what the first check in time is in NOLA? We figured we would get up and out of our hotel around 10am so we are there before 11am but we don't want to be stuck outside. We do have FTTF but I can't see the earliest time to check in.

 

 

 

10:30 is the first time slot.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[dporter]

10:30 is the first time slot.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Thanks