DREAMing of my Honeymoon - review and pictures!

[heffy2]

Wonderful start to your review! I absolutely agree with you about Tandor, that was my first meal on the Dream in October. It'll be a huge loss if they get rid of it.

[scuba_ninja]

Sorry for being slow to post. I came back, and as is often the case walked into a flaming poop storm at work. But not just your average run of the mill poop on fire. This bag of poop was thrown at an industrial sized fan. Sadly, cruisecritic doesn't pay me for reviews, so if I ever want to cruise again, I have to make sure I'm doing the actual paid work stuffs. Also, post-cruise depression is real. I asked my wife last night "hey, remember like a week ago when you still liked me". Yeah, she didn't.

 

Also, update on the refund. Carnival basically laughed in my gifter's face, so now it's on to calling the credit card company. Glad the gifter isn't letting this one die.

 

Now, going back to the embarkation questions and comments. Since we had FTTF, our boarding pass said to arrive between 10 and 10:30. We arrived almost an hour early, and we were not the first ones there by any means. If I had to do it again, I'd get there at 11. They'll still put you in the FTTF section, and you'll have way less time just sitting around staring at boot prints on the ceiling. Also, I double checked my time stamp on the very first photo I took of the Lobby. It was taken at precisely 11:32, so yes, I was off by an hour in one of my earlier posts. So we ended up waiting for 2 hours in the embarkation pen. I'm glad it wasn't any longer. So to sum all that up, don't arrive too early. It's not worth it. Sure we had no food lines, but I don't know that was really crucial. We could have arrived at 11 and had the same small lines.

 

The glorious mustard and ketchup drill started somewhere around 4 if memory serves me correctly. This is only my second muster, but really, they're pretty easy. The most annoying part was that many of the elevators were still reserved for staff/luggage. Since we could, we walked down a few flights of stairs until we got to our station, which was in the theater. There were plenty of folks available to help guide us to the right place. Once we got to the theater entrance we were scanned in and pushed (yes, pushed "FILL EVERY SEAT") in to our seats. The most uncomfortable seats on the ship btw. Many of the balcony seats in the encore lounge are as uncomfortable and cramped as spirit airlines super basic economy seats. There is zero leg room. It is impossible to stretch out your legs even 2 inches. You'll have them at a 90 angle the entire time. Some seast on aisles looked a little better, but mine was not. The seat cushions are a joke. They feel like they needed to be replaced a decade ago. I have some back issues, and by the time we were done with the muster, I was ready for some advil. I've sat on more comfortable picnic benches. And rocks.

 

The drill itself really didn't take long. Thankfully we didn't have a lot of missing people, and they just kinda moved it along anyhow. I will say that they did announce that an alternative muster was availible for anyone with disabilities, etc.

 

The normal questions you see on the board:

 

1) No, we were not standing

2) We were indoors

3) We were told specifically NOT to take our life jackets

4) It was short

5) It was still boring

6) It was about at helpful as the safety demo is on an airplane.

7) Leave your kids at camp if the ship is sinking.

For those of you asking about #7, this is actually a good thing. Instead ofhaving people running around the ship looking for their kids, causing more chaos, etc, the kids all MUST wear wrist bands that have their muster stations on them (wrist bands were given out at this drill, and were re-issued when needed, I watched it happen often). It's a great idea. The camp staff will get your kids to you. Your job is to be there for them when they arrive. As someone who's been involved in disaster prep for large groups, I concur that this is a solid plan.

 

Now, as I've done before, let's compare to Celebrity. Celebrity also had us inside in the theater, but we waited MUCH longer. Also, the staff was MUCH MUCH stricter about having phones out, even when we were just waiting for things to start. They threatened to take phones on Celebrity. Carnival did not give a flying hoot. Celebrity had a long video we had to watch that made announcements in several languages. It also focused considerably more on hygiene and hand washing. Carnival didn't even mention that stuff once.

 

Once the mayo drill was over, we were free to move about the ship. And sail away had already begun I believe.

If you sail out of NOLA and you don't spend as much time as possible outside or near a window while you transit down the river, you're a very silly person.

Whe hit the oil rigs well after dark, and it's actually beautiful sight. The pic above is of cargo ships, I'll get some rig pics up later today.

[dreadpirate3]

I am loving your review! Your pictures of sailaway are fantastic.

[Working 2 cruise again]

Following your review.

 

Have you used your go-proish camera for diving? I am looking for something I can take with me next month when we dive. My husband has the whole camera set-up. I would just like an action camera that can record while I absorb whats around me.

[scuba_ninja]

Thanks for the compliments folks! I appreciate the encouragement!

 

I did in fact use the action cam for diving. No issues. Video/picture quality ain't half bad, especially considering I paid $75! I bought the DBPOWER N6 on Amazon. No complaints for the price. I need to learn to use the action cams a little better (be steadier, focusing distance, etc) but they sure are fun! Here's a sneak preview of our dive:

 

[scuba_ninja]

Sail away pics anyone? Wish I could link more than 6 pics per post, but I think the servers used to run CC are just as old and cranky as the mods. Kidding! Don't ban me! (sorta not kidding)

 

 

 

 

Oh! Secret tip! Dream, deck 11, go ALL the way forward, you'll find one of those secret doors that leads to this awesome balcony thingy. It's a neat blue color at night! Our cabin was just a few feet from this door (it's right by the secret elevator to the spa/serenity area)

 

 

[dporter]

We chose the Dream specifically because it goes down the Mississippi, we are very excited

[Wheels87]

One point regarding the "Pee smell" in the bathroom. I have noticed the same thing off and on on many of my Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruises and often times it is eminating from the toilet brush in the room. I have asked several stewards to replace them with new ones and it works like a charm.

 

Cheers!

[scuba_ninja]

One point regarding the "Pee smell" in the bathroom. I have noticed the same thing off and on on many of my Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruises and often times it is eminating from the toilet brush in the room. I have asked several stewards to replace them with new ones and it works like a charm.

 

Cheers!

 

Oh! Interesting! I didn't even think of that! If it happens again I'll keep that in mind! Still, weird that they wouldn't clean the brushes.... no? Once I clorox wiped it all down, the smell did pretty much go away.

[scuba_ninja]

Since we had latedinner, it was now time to get changed and ready. Quick question, for those ofyou that do not download and use the Carnival App on your smartphones, why areyou broken? The Carnival app was GREAT. It listed dress codes, schedules,menus, etc every day. It’s like having a fun times in your pocket. Theschedule in the app is more accurate than the printed fun times. The menus onthe app though could be a little funny. For example, sometimes if I clicked onthe menu for my dining time/room it would not list all of the entrée choices,but if I clicked a different time, they would appear. Weird. Either way, stillsuper useful.

 

 

 

 

Before dinner my wife wanted to check out the "Clue" show. I came in a few minutes late, and after about 10 minutes we both decided we has spent valuable time there that could have been spent doing literally ANYTHING else.

 

 

 

 

I would not say the ship is hard to get around, but because of the size it takes a day or so to figure it all out. Signage isn't great. The maps by the elevators are your best best when you're turned around.

 

 

 

 

So, the casino tends to be popular on cruises I gather. We passed by/through it a few times on our way to better adventures and it never seemed crowded. It did smell very badly of smoke, as did all the areas around it. Sorry Carnival, Celebrity has you beat here. I don't know what they do differently ventilation wise, but the smoke smell never oozed out as badly as it did on this ship. Hey, if you're a smoker, it's your right. I'm not knocking you, I don't smoke though and I don't like the smell.

 

 

I don't gamble at all. I like my money too much to give it away that easily. The Casino was a decent size though. I imagine if you're the type to have a favorite machine/table it wouldn't be hard to get a seat at it.

 

 

 

 

OH! Before I forget, sadly, this might be the best picture I got of the oil rigs. :( Next time I might have to take my DSLR and a tripod, just for these pictures.

 

 

[scuba_ninja]

First night the main pool area was pretty quiet, but it lent itself to a great photo opp!

 

 

Also, on Deck 10 right outside the entrance that led to the pool area they had a neat gingerbread house diorama set up.

 

 

 

 

 

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4735/38872099824_1f85e57f2a_b.jpg[/img

[scuba_ninja]

So, dinner is where we found out first super annoying line. Making our way past the kid's camp area, toward the dinning rooms we noticed that the halls gets narrow and very very crowded. There's no other way really go get into the deck 3 Scarlet, and the line to get in was up the staircase, and all the way back by the kid's camp. This was at 8:15. They were clearly not prepared for the crowds. By 8:20 the line finally started to move.

 

People were VERY festively dressed. I was trying not to be "that guy" so I only managed to really snap one picture of this dude. Yes, everything blinked. I wasn't brave enough to take pics of the rest yet, like I said, trying not to be too obnoxious.

 

 

Later in the week I spotted a woman dressed in a poop Emoji onesie. She got really angry when I asked if I could take a picture. Hey, at least I asked!

 

MENU! Sorry, the glass made picture taking difficult. Also, since I didn't know my table mates yet I didn't want to be rude and snap too many pics first night at the table. Our table mates were lovely BTW, and I hope I hear from them again. I did give them all my business card.

 

 

 

 

Between my wife and I we tried the cured salmon with candied tomato (outstanding, especially the candied tomato), Blackened catfish (not good, a little fishy, not even close to blackened), flat iron steak (very good), Fried Calamari (decent), and Shrimp coctail (good).

[scuba_ninja]

After dinner we decided to catch a comedy show. Over all, we really liked the shows and we saw a number of them. The comedians changed about half way through the voyage. I can only assume the old ones were thrown overboard (or ground into patties for Guy's Burgers) and the new ones were delivered via cryogenic stasis torpedo.

 

I thought that the Punchliner's decor was over the top, but not in a bad way. Does that make any sense? For a space like this, it worked. It made for pretty pictures. Tip- lots of seats in here actually have terrible views. It's oddly laid out. But, it's more of an audio experience, so while seeing the person is nice, I didn't feel like it was required. The couches are comfy, the chairs not so much. If you have back issues, go early and make sure you get a couch.

 

That brings up another point. Someone posted earlier that they were surprised by the lack of lines in most places. Maybe it's because people were already in their seats for shows half an hour or more before start time? We got on board with that early on, and glad we did. Sometimes we missed out on "standing room only" by just a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

[scuba_ninja]

I'll admit, I wasn't very hungry at dinner, so I didn't eat a ton. After the club though we wanted a snack so we decided to try the Pizza. Look, I grew up in NY, so I understand that there's 2 kinds of pizza. The good kind that comes from NY, and the horrible inedible poor excuses for pizza that comes from everywhere else. It's OK, we just have better Pizza and Bagels than anyone else in the country. It's just... fact. ;p

 

My wife likes to remind me how insufferable I am about this. I can't help it. She grew up in St. Louis. What passed for pizza there is a sheet of printer paper with EZ cheese and ketchup. It's an abomination. I won't even taste a bagel outside of NY usually.

 

Now that we've established that I understand what superior pizza is... lemme tell ya. This stuff's good. Like, no joke good. I regret not eating it more often good. Seriously. It wasn't NY style, but it had a good, flavorful crust, fresh toppings and it was cooked well. I really am blown away by just how good it was. This was one line I didn't mind standing on.

 

 

 

One thing about ship's food is that it is hard to get consistency. You have crew changes during the day. You have crew changes between sailings sometimes. You have different suppliers to different ports a lot of the time too. All of these factors can add up. It means that American Table Night 1 menu on the Dream is the same on paper as on, say, Magic, but could be completely different in taste and presentation in actuality. I will say that over all, on our ship, on our sailing the food was good. After the Indian food, the pizza might have been a close second! No foolin'!

[dporter]

Since we had latedinner, it was now time to get changed and ready. Quick question, for those ofyou that do not download and use the Carnival App on your smartphones, why areyou broken? The Carnival app was GREAT. It listed dress codes, schedules,menus, etc every day. It’s like having a fun times in your pocket. Theschedule in the app is more accurate than the printed fun times. The menus onthe app though could be a little funny. For example, sometimes if I clicked onthe menu for my dining time/room it would not list all of the entrée choices,but if I clicked a different time, they would appear. Weird. Either way, stillsuper useful.

 

 

Why don't I use the Carnival App for my Smartphone - I choose to unplug during vacation so I don't want to have to carry my phone around just to see what is going. I try to be present int he moment and not head buried in technology.

[steveha0801]

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 have a 10:00-10:30 appointment

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[dporter]

I have a 10:00-10:30 appointment

 

awesome thank you

[Alaskan Joe]

After reading this review I want to sail the Carnival Dream:(. However, I do get to sail on the Carnival Splendor (Love Pink) in August for two weeks:D. Great review so far, love the pics.

[scuba_ninja]

I do absolutely understand the need and desire to unplug. Don't be surprised though if printed fun times go away in the near future. Printed stuff on the ship is a decent cost to Carnival, and I'm sure they'd love to cut that one out of the budget.

 

My favorite part of the app was actually the messaging. For $5 each for the week my wife and I could communicate on opposite sides of the ship. I did see a lot of people trying to use walkie-talkies, but I found them to be kind of obnoxious, and they didn't seem to be useful. It's too big a ship with too much metal. It reminded me of people trying to have conversations on their cell phones, on speaker while riding the train to work in the morning. The process of commuting is already loud and annoying, it doesn't need any help.

 

Walking back to our cabin for the night, I started to notice the decor in the hallways a little better. My wife was very upset that I spent so much time staring at this particular panel. I told her that the cabin stewards were experts at cleaning up drool. She wasn't as amused at my joke as I was. Good thing our room had no couch! Otherwise, I'd probably have been sleeping on it.

 

 

I'm a big fan of the pulp art/old school comic strip style of art, so it was neat to see it in the halls but I'm not sure why it was there. The ship doesn't have anything elsewhere that ties into that style. The ship isn't ugly by any means, but I feel like it has a lot of different decorating styles kind of thrown together.

 

I have to say, Carnival's beds have got to be made of adamantium. They feel like the mattress is made of it too. I'm a restless sleeper, and I'll give the bed credit. Not a single squeak or wiggle. And if it can hold me up after a week of eating all the food I did on the ship, it deserves an award. Also, very much appreciate that my luggage fit under the bed and out of the way. Comfort wise..... nah. The "king" bed is just 2 twins pushed together, and our mattresses kept seperating. They also felt like they were made of recycled seat cushions from the encore theater. It was fine for the week I guess, but we're not talking luxury comforts.

[scuba_ninja]

Enough sleeping..... CHRISTMAS MORNING!

 

As I've mentioned before, Christmas isn't my holiday. Bah humbug! My wife decided we needed to go see the Christmas show on the ship. I decided I needed to jump off the back of the ship. Somehow she won. She enjoyed the show. Happy wife happy life?

 

 

The show was fine for kids. It was mercifully short for adults.

 

We did sea day brunch and it was pretty good. I had the huevos rancheros with a side of grits. not bad. My wife's eggs benedict I thought was better.

 

At one point I walked through the lido buffet and noticed two things. One, they had mortadella with pistachios, two, some sort of festive decorations. Carnival gets serious bonus points for having the mortadella WITH pistachio!!!! I mean, they are Italian, so it would have been a sin to not have the good stuff, but it was a welcome sight. I only ate like 12 slices.

 

 

 

Now, let's take a look at the following picture.

 

 

So, in the lower left hand corner you can see the deli meats I mentioned before. BUT WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING IN THE CENTER????????????? I have a few very NSFW (and somewhat scifi-based) ideas, but ummmmm WHAT? A buddy of mine had a safe work work idea (also scifi though) that it was the Sarlaac pit from Star Wars. Yeah. We'll go with that.

 

Moving on.

 

 

[scuba_ninja]

The lido was full of these. I can only imagine how long it took to make them.

 

 

OK, let's again pause for a moment an consider the following.

 

 

I imagine the conversation went something like this:

 

"DAVE, WHERE IS YOUR WATERMELON CARVING"

"AH, CRAP, I got caught up making fruit plates"

"DAVE, GET YOUR **** TOGETHER!"

"DON'T WORRY~! I've got an idea"

 

Yeah, great idea Dave. This is what you were SUPPOSED to do:

 

 

The ice sculpture was pretty

 

[scuba_ninja]

 

One more for good measure. I actually really like this shot. I think the expression on her face makes it.

 

 

Now with a full belly, it was time to lay out in the sun a bit. Obligatory sexy legs shot:

 

[scuba_ninja]

One thing that's cool about the Carnival app is that you can favorite events. It will send you a notification right before they start so you don't miss them too. It also will show you who else in your party want to go to an event.

 

Scrolling down through the events I saw my wife was interested in the following and it sent my heart a flutter.

 

 

Spoiler alert - she never went. She ended up going to some craft time thing and taking a nap instead. Sigh.

 

After being on serenity deck for a while I realized I hadn't eaten in about 10 minutes, so I decided to check out tea time. I'm glad that I did. It was actually very pleasant. I also got a few nice shots of the dining room looking all clean and empty.

 

 

 

The little snacks they offered were actually pretty good.

 

 

 

And the string quartet was lovely.

 

[scuba_ninja]

It also gave me a good chance to get a sneak peak at today's dinner menu!

 

 

 

 

 

The app even had a festive notice about dinner

 

 

[dporter]

I do absolutely understand the need and desire to unplug. Don't be surprised though if printed fun times go away in the near future. Printed stuff on the ship is a decent cost to Carnival, and I'm sure they'd love to cut that one out of the budget.

 

My favorite part of the app was actually the messaging. For $5 each for the week my wife and I could communicate on opposite sides of the ship. I did see a lot of people trying to use walkie-talkies, but I found them to be kind of obnoxious, and they didn't seem to be useful. It's too big a ship with too much metal. It reminded me of people trying to have conversations on their cell phones, on speaker while riding the train to work in the morning. The process of commuting is already loud and annoying, it doesn't need any help.

 

I am sure that the paper is probably close to going away, or at least some of it. I am going to hold onto being unplugged as long as possible.