DREAMing of my Honeymoon - review and pictures!

[teknoge3k]

While I live in Virginia, I live at the state line (literally less than 15 minutes) so I spend most of my time in North Carolina. You know what they say about Carolina bbq. It's hard for me not to compare other bbq to ours.

[Missusdubbya]

really enjoying your review - thanks!

[scuba_ninja]

I am positive that the BBQ is something we will skip when we are on the Dream in a few weeks. We live in Texas so I am sure we would not like it at all.

 

Yeah, head to the tandoor instead. Way more flavor. Texas sure knows its 'que.

[scuba_ninja]

While I live in Virginia, I live at the state line (literally less than 15 minutes) so I spend most of my time in North Carolina. You know what they say about Carolina bbq. It's hard for me not to compare other bbq to ours.

 

Funny, I'm a fan of the Carolina style of making the meat (vinegar mops), but not as big a fan of the carolina sauces usually, Heretic, I know! Ain't nothin' wrong with Carolina style though.

[scuba_ninja]

really enjoying your review - thanks!

 

Thanks for taking the time to read it!

[BranDivah]

Agree with you on Roatan! We loved it. We just rented snorkel gear on the beach and just enjoyed the scenery before grabbing a few drinks and picking up a few souvenirs but of all 3 ports we loved Roatan the most.

 

Enjoyed your review! We are hopping on the Dream in less than a month. WOO HOO!

[cruisewithwife]

 

I had the Oysters Rockefeller to start and the Duck pot stickers. Oysters were OK, but the wontons (they were really more wontons than pot stickers) were top notch. If there hadn't been lobster on the menu that night, I would have asked for about a dozen of those wontons for dinner. The oysters were fresh, but lacked flavor to me.

 

 

 

I have to admit, I was actually surprised by just how good the lobster was. It tasted very fresh and it wasn't overcooked at all. I will neither confirm nor deny rumors that I had 2 orders. I will only say I regret not ordering 3. Even the risoto they were served over was very good. I heard the ham was also very good and tasted as though it were made completely on board.

 

 

Those duck wontons do look delicious. The lobster is always good and I may sometimes order the 3rd after getting 2 with my initial order if they are super good

[scuba_ninja]

Agree with you on Roatan! We loved it. We just rented snorkel gear on the beach and just enjoyed the scenery before grabbing a few drinks and picking up a few souvenirs but of all 3 ports we loved Roatan the most.

 

Enjoyed your review! We are hopping on the Dream in less than a month. WOO HOO!

 

Glad you are enjoying the review. Almost as much as Roatan, right? :p

[scuba_ninja]

Those duck wontons do look delicious. The lobster is always good and I may sometimes order the 3rd after getting 2 with my initial order if they are super good

 

I would have ordered 15 of the duck wontons. Seriously. They were far better than they had any right to be.

 

I was really surprised how good the lobster was. I always expect a little overcooked-ness, but nope, not here.

[scuba_ninja]

Sorry again friends for taking a break for a few days. Like I explained before... work is.... not nice right now.

 

Here's a good example from just this morning!

 

Caller: I need my pay stubs and W2

me: Ok, give me your name and info

::checks system::

me: I'm sorry, I can't find you in the system

caller: I HATE YOU AND THIS STUPID COMPANY (insert 3 full minutes of expletive filled rant here)

Me: I'm very sorry, and you are sure you work at (insert company name here)

caller: NO, YOU IDIOT, I WORK FOR (other company)

Me: Well, I really can't help you then, you've called the wrong company

caller: But you work with computer, I know you can just find out my info

me: uhhhhh..... no

 

Anyway, yeah, you get the idea.

 

Moving along.

 

Sea Day Part Deux was actually a lovely day. I really enjoyed being able to do... nothing

 

Other than maybe enjoy a sunet.

 

 

Or take pictures of the "pianno" bar.

 

 

If the sun it setting, it must be time to eat again, right?

 

I thought about Sushi, but the MDR food was so good, I decided we'd stick with it.

 

 

 

 

 

[scuba_ninja]

OMG, sorry, In the middle of writing that last post I got another phone call from a glorious employee. They wanted to fight me because I was insisting that Social Security NUMBERS don't have letters. I "let her win" and told her to fax me over a copy of her SS card with proof. I'm sure I'll never hear from her again.

 

OK, back to fun.

 

MDR dinner tonight was excellent.

 

 

The beef carpaccio was wonderful. There were a lot of tantalizing choices on the menu, but frog's legs are one of my favorite foods. You better believe i ordered two!!! They were wonderfully tender and well prepared. I was pretty surprised actually by how good they actually were. The bread... thingy... they came with was.. meh, but the frog's legs were great. For all of you turning green (ha ha, get it) at the thought if it, If I told you it was skinless chicken wing in garlic sauce, you'd never know the difference. Except that it was a lot more tender than chicken.

 

The detectives amongst you might notice at the top of the picture that there was more escargot. Serious Kudos to MDR staff for this one. One of our table mates missed that night's dinner. He asked if we could get some for the last night, and they delivered!!!! Very cool! I ate like 12.

 

I did end up also ordering a prime rib. It was decent. The frog's legs were better.

 

After dinner there was a really nice goodbye song they MDR staff all sang while parading around with the flaming baked Alaskas. It was actually really nice. Their singing voices.... not so much, but I think that's part of the fun of fun.

[scuba_ninja]

I should mention that earlier in the day there were several announcements for the medical team, that's never a good thing. During dinner we did have a helicopter evacuation of said patient. One one hand, I'm glad the cruise director told everyone very sternly to make sure to avoid the back deck, and not use their camera flashes, on the other the announcement came AFTER THE HELICOPTER HAD ALREADY DEPARTED. At least, they came through in the MDR way after the fact.

 

I did not get any pictures of the event. Part of me wishes I'd have seen it, part of me is glad to have not had to. I've seen enough sad stuff.

 

I have heard conflicting reports of woman have a miscarriage, old man falling down stairs, and a few others. If anyone knows what ACTUALLY happened, I am curious. Apparently said patient was breathing when the helicopter came, so that's good.

 

By the time dinner was over we were actually well into the gulf and I could take some blurry pictures of things.

 

 

 

[scuba_ninja]

NOLA! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

We docked pretty early in the morning, pretty much in the exact same spot as where we left from. :)

 

Nola was cold and rainy that morning.

 

 

I was in no rush to get off the boat, so we decided to to breakfast in the MDR. They were certainly in a rush to get us off the ship though. I don't blame them. We cleared out of our cabins by 8 or so, but we took our time getting to breakfast.

 

My wife had the avocado toast which was pretty good.

 

 

I had the broken egg plate which was excellent.

 

 

Debarkation wasn't very smooth. The printed sheet under our door and the announcements that morning conflicted completely. We were also told the wrong thing by two staffers. Honestly, I was in no rush, so it wasn't a big deal. We had left our large bags out the night before, so I wasn't carrying stuff and we didn't have a flight to catch. I was eager to see NOLA, but I wasn't in a rush. We ended up just following a crowd that looked like it was getting off the ship and eventually we found an exit.

 

The lines to walk the plank were pretty long, so I had time to catch this picture.

 

[Keith1010]

Terrific thread.

 

Keith

[scuba_ninja]

I honestly can't remember if anyone even looked at our passports. Just a lot of shouting for us to keep moving, grab our bags and go home. Instead of going home we caught an uber to the Air BnB my wife reserved.

 

Nola is a funny place. It's still recovering from Katrina, and even before that it had its troubles. But I guess that's part of the charm too in a way.

 

 

It's that unique mix of class and trash.

 

Street cars though are pretty cool! I'm a fan. It's not really an above ground subway. It's more of a bus on rails. Loud, old, totes fun for tourists. Convenient, but not if you are in any kind of hurry. Just about as fast as walking. Especially when the driver gets out, goes into subway (I assume for the restroom) and comes back a few minutes later without saying a word.

 

 

 

Fun fact, the sand in the green barrels is used for traction to help them stop on wet days

 

 

Over all, I found the drivers (conductors? operators? ) to be very helpful. They are seem to know regular riders well.

 

[scuba_ninja]

Street cars can be slow, but hey, it could be worse! I could have had to drive this thing around!

 

[scuba_ninja]

Terrific thread.

 

Keith

 

 

Thanks! I've been having fun writing it up! A few more cruises and maybe I'll get to your post numbers on here! :D

[zanydoc]

Thanks for your trip report Scuba-you have a really fun writing style! Were there any pool deck dance or late night theme parties that you went to? If you already talked about this-sorry :)

[scuba_ninja]

Thanks for your trip report Scuba-you have a really fun writing style! Were there any pool deck dance or late night theme parties that you went to? If you already talked about this-sorry :)

 

Thank you! No, it was our Honeymoon, so we didn't really do any partying outside of our room... wink wink, nudge nudge. HA! That's a lie! We've already been married 2.5 years, the most exciting thing that happened in our room was that I let my wife eat french fries on the bed. Not my sheets, not my problem.

 

I did pass by a few deck parties, and most sadly looked empty when I walked by. One thing we really wanted to do but never quite got to because of dinner (we had late dining) and comedy shows was a dive in movie. Those too though were very sparsely attended. Even the "big deck party" at the end of the cruise didn't look all that crowded. It wasn't very warm on deck, that might have been part of the reason.

[scuba_ninja]

SORRY FOLKS! I FORGOT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PICTURES FROM DINNER LAST NIGHT!

 

 

Best baked Alaska I'd ever had, bar none. IT was light, delicious, not too sweet, just right. And it was on fire. I've decided that all of my food needs to be on fire from now on.

 

New Orleans really is a beautiful city. If you've been lucky enough to spend time in Paris, it will feel very familiar to you in the French Quarter.

 

 

Could that be why the call it the French Quarter? ha ha ha... oh, I make terrible jokes.

 

 

After spending, oh, 3 hours in NOLA I turned to my wife and said "OK, we can move here"

 

 

There is a lot of detail in the city. Even street lights are decorated. You really owe it to yourself to slow down and take a look.

 

 

[scuba_ninja]

One of my very favorite details is that so many homes have gas lamps on the porches. I'll post some of those pics when I talk about uptown.

 

Downtown though really is beautiful.

 

 

I also found that the city has good sense of humor.

 

[zanydoc]

Thank you for your response-maybe attendance for the deck parties and movies will be better on our spring break cruise! Hopefully it will be warm :D

[willdra]

Loved your review, it was very entertaining! [emoji16] Your pictures are wonderful too!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Biris]

Throughly enjoyed your review. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[stephanie13rown]

 

I'm glad cloud cat had butterflies for lunch, but I was more in the mood for a seaday brunch

 

 

SCUBA diver, IT professional, certified supertaster, expert cruise reviewer, and poet laureate. Color me impressed. 😂

 

Thanks for the stellar review! It was hilarious and super helpful.