Dream - never again!

[CruisingWalter]

17 hours ago, tigereye said:

What nationality were the crew? Who knows how the crew members were recalled following the "shutdown". Maybe The Dream was one of the last to recall crew members and had to take new or inexperienced. I'm disappointed to hear this as I have enjoyed 2 cruises on the Dream

We had a good sailing on the Mardi Gras in March, but F&B was obviously understaffed. They were all incredibly friendly, well skilled and while we didn't like all the food onboard, we had a great experience with the Your Time dining via the app and our restaurant experiences.

 

I'm sure Carnival is pushing their "A Staff" to the newer, larger ships with the older, smaller ships getting either less experienced or not as high caliber staff. It's probably going to take some time for the smaller ships to be fully well staffed again as crews seem to be in short supply across the entire industry. 

[ProgRockCruiser]

15 hours ago, starstruck05 said:

However, while yes we had an entirely full ship, and they were short staffed for what was ideal for the amount of people, it was actually the PASSENGERS faults. Tons of people were treating the Dining rooms like land based restaurants, so holding up tables and turning brunch and dinner that would be maybe and hour or less into 2 or 3 hours.

I say this from seeing it several times so do not flame me. There were people who would sit at the table, around the same time as us, order a round of drinks from the server. Sit and talk, tell the staff they aren't ready to order and as we are leaving the Dining room for our dinner are FINALLY actually placing an order for food. 

What amuses me in reading this is that so many people complain on FB (especially to John Heald) about how dinner takes sooooooo long and they just want to get in and get out, and they know everyone agrees with them, especially everyone in their rollcall, and they are Diamond, so what I say must be true.

 

People are strange.

[1kaper]

10 hours ago, icft said:

I would find it hard to believe also if I had not had a similarly unlikely experience myself a few months back. I like Gentleman Jack and Coke (but have to settle for Pepsi on Carnival) and one night in the casino they told me they were out of Gentleman Jack! I asked what bourbon they had and they only had one and I had never heard of it. So I ended up drinking what I could get. The next day they had Gentleman Jack in the casino, but were out of it at Alchemy. I guess they had a bit and moved it to where folks were asking for it. It was the first time I have ever come across a booze shortage on a cruise.

 

We have sailed the Glory five times since reopening and got to know some of the crew. Apparently almost all the crew was the same from reopening until our last cruise at the beginning of April. And the contracts of all those folks were ending in late April/early May. I suspect what the OP encountered was an entirely new crew trying to figure up from down. 

 

I didn't ask a lot of the crew but I know our room Steward was on a new contract on the Dream.  We sailed the end of March and I believe it was October he said he was going home.  I'm guessing an 8 month contract. 

[Indytraveler83]

We've sailed the Dream twice and the Magic once- all before COVID.  

 

I know the space calculations don't agree, but to me, the Dream class is the most crowded feeling class of ships in the fleet.  Many of the venues are smaller compared to the previous ships.  The Vista class is heavily based off the Dream class (and on paper more crowded), but does a better job of adding alternative dining and other scattered venues and activities to get passengers spaced out.  The Lido buffet on the Dream class is also designed particularly poorly.

 

To address the OP's issue with the Hub app notifications at weird times: I truly don't think Carnival sent out the notification at the time they received them.  But the app isn't high end and can be buggy.  We found that all the "push" notifications on our phones would come up hours later than intended (and this includes "your table is ready") and found ourselves having to manually check it.  There's certainly kinks on the software side that still can be worked out.

 

Overall when we sail on the Dream class, we use the word "pivot" a lot.  When the MDR is too crowded, we may pivot and try the buffet or treat ourselves to the steakhouse.  We know many of the lesser used deck spaces so we can relax in the sun when the decks fill up. If the piano bar is full, we may see a show we've never checked out. We have a fun time, but it is our least favorite class of ship so far. 

 

I'm excited to try some of the newer ships, and will be happy to sail on the Spirit class whenever possible, but likely won't book the Dream class unless there's an itinerary we just can't pass up.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Indytraveler83
Autocorrect fixes

[nlktx49]

14 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Uh, everyone deciding to dine at the same time and you were last in line? Did you pick the same time every night to try to be seated? I don't care for anytime dining, but did try last cruise again and never over a 5 minute wait. Of course, it was later in the evening and I was almost always the last one in the dining room, but they never turned on the lights or tried to rush me out. My main objection is not getting the same table and staff every night.

We did not check in at the same time every night. On four previous cruises on other ships, when we signed in for dinner, we immediately got a message we were checked in, our wait would be 10 minutes or less. We were also able to request the same table and waiters for every night, just go to front desk and make your request. However this was on Vista in October and January and Breeze in January. I doubt this could be done on Dream. I just don't understand why Dream has these issues and other ships don't.

[nlktx49]

12 hours ago, Colorado Cruzer said:

They had Dr Pepper? Is this port specific because I have neer been able to get a Dr Pepper on a carnival ship?

 

I didn't really enjoy our last cruise in March on Panorama due to staffing issues I think. The wait for a bar drink was at least 20 minutes or more whethere at the bar or ordering through a server on lido. Service was very slow in the dining room for brunch so we didnt even attempt it for dinner - had specialty dining for 3 nights and just did buffet or pizzza/deli the other nights.  The tepanyaki was the most disappointing because I expected for it to be very flavorful but it was just soy sauce and garlic...lol, not doing that every again!  Anyways, it just wasn't all that great on the Panorama. We have he Miracle booked for DEC so if its still short staffed and not very good food, we will go to resorts instead.  

I believe all ships out of Galveston have Dr Pepper - and I've never known of a ship other than Dream to run out of it. I think all the problems on the Dream are the result of poor management.  How basic it is to know how much food or drink to order for each sailing? Carnival needs to either get an experienced person to run the Dream or just take it out of its lineup. It gives Carnival a bad reputation.

[Oldsweets]

We have sailed since the restart at least twice each month and have clearly seen the increase of capacity numbers.  We thoroughly enjoyed the reduced capacity sailings we expected this change of full capacity.  We sailed the Mardi Gras (first sailing) to conquest and while we fully enjoyed the Mardi Gras we have sailed conquest 4 times now and it currently our ship of choice. The crew and service has been amazing while admittedly it has a number of area’s needing rust/paint attention everything was clean and working order.  Every trip for us is a pleasure and we will just roll with the challenges.  

[RMcoolX]

We did the Dream last Dec, which was our 4th time on the ship. Loved it. No issues to report. 

Edited May 3, 2022 by RMcoolX

[Matco]

20 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I just read another never do carnival again out of NOLA. They claim people were arrested and someone died in a cabin. Idk. They are debarking late due to all the excitement. 

 

Sometimes you do have a bad cruise. I had one when Ike hit Galveston and swore off carnival..I have dream booked for 14 days Jan  2024. Hope it's a one off. 

I saw a post on FB about this saying it was the Valor, 21 arrested, 1 dead, 1 unaccounted for and 2 escaped but were later caught. I tried looking thru the comments for more info but didn't find much else  

[ledges1]

Pre covid, I was on the Glory. When we docked in New Orleans, I went down to the lobby real early. The N.O. police and a drug dog were bring a guy off the elevator in cuffs. I have found that ports such as New Orleans are more rowdy on the shorter cruises. The drive up to the port cruises have a different clientele than those ports in which arrival is more by air 

[CM1984]

20 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

My experience is the oldest ship in the fleet, and being scrapped later this year, Ecstasy, had more than sufficient crew, and many smiling faces. Absolutely no service complaints from me.

 

Ditto on the Elation - 

[Matco]

1 hour ago, Matco said:

I saw a post on FB about this saying it was the Valor, 21 arrested, 1 dead, 1 unaccounted for and 2 escaped but were later caught. I tried looking thru the comments for more info but didn't find much else  

Some clarification, I was able to find the post on FB and read that the one dead was unrelated to the ones arrested, it was natural causes. apparently the ones arrested had warrants, there were Drug K9's aboard, and the reason they were so late debarking was they were trying to find a missing passenger   

[scoobysnacks70]

17 hours ago, nlktx49 said:

Be sure to sign up for Assigned Dining, that will help. Good luck on the rest of the cruise. After the third night of 1 hour plus waiting for a table, and a trip to Guest Services after each, we finally had a person who apologized for the long waits and offered to change us to assigned time dining. Done and no more issues, so why such long waits for Anytime dining?

 

Because anytime diners are having to wait for tables to become available--Assigned dining you have a seat waiting for you.  Also early assigned dining is the most popular.  

[BlerkOne]

2 hours ago, nlktx49 said:

We did not check in at the same time every night. On four previous cruises on other ships, when we signed in for dinner, we immediately got a message we were checked in, our wait would be 10 minutes or less. We were also able to request the same table and waiters for every night, just go to front desk and make your request. However this was on Vista in October and January and Breeze in January. I doubt this could be done on Dream. I just don't understand why Dream has these issues and other ships don't.

Different capacity cruises is certainly one possible explanation.

 

There are still many supply chain issues and it isn't easy to guess demand on a cruise by cruise basis.

 

If I can tear myself away from the fun maybe I'll ask the hotel director, or did you already?

[ledges1]

I have not had any problem getting a table promptly on my 3 cruises. However, I have been on the Valor, Freedom and Ecstacy. The highest capacity on any of the 3 was 77%. It appears the newer ships have been sailing at a higher capacity per the reports on this board and that seems to be the problem. Higher capacity vs staffing issues? I will continue to sail the nice but older ships for now. I am on the Horizon in late October and Magic in January. It is interesting how people want an unrushed elegant dinner at a Ruth Chris but want a speedy elegant dinner on a cruise ship. I thought that was the purpose of the Lido buffet. Just curious.

[cheer25mom]

18 hours ago, brownc424 said:

Seriously? You're complaining that people sat and enjoyed their meals? Can you imagine the audacity of someone spending a week on vacation and wanting to enjoy it? Are you the reason that we felt so rushed at every meal? Did you ever think that maybe other people prefer to sit around the table and talk about their day? Catch up with friends and family that were doing other activities? Will you forgive me for waiting to order dessert, until after dinner? Is it a horrible sin that I *gasp* ordered tea with my dessert? Was the five minutes that it took to steep the reason that your cruise was horrible?

I agree with both of you to an extent. Everyone should be able to take time to enjoy their meal, but should also operate within the bounds of common courtesy to staff and other diners. Occupying a table for 2-3 hours in a busy main dining room is pretty inconsiderate. No one should need an hour to chat over cocktails in the dining room before they are willing to place their order. There are other more appropriate places for that, particularly when you know there are others waiting to eat. 

[2wheelin]

14 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

There's always Lido for those who want to eat and run. YTD is about eating when you want for as long as you want. The table is yours for as long as you want it, or the lights come in 

I wasn't talking rights. I was talking about common courtesy. But again, people jump right to defending their "rights". And I never mentioned eat and run. Just a reasonably paced dinner without unnecessarily holding up others. 

[BlerkOne]

13 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

I wasn't talking rights. I was talking about common courtesy. But again, people jump right to defending their "rights". And I never mentioned eat and run. Just a reasonably paced dinner without unnecessarily holding up others. 

There always seems to be a rush to get to dining venues as soon as they open and from there it is a domino effect. The later folks could easily be mostly eating at a reasonable pace and being wrongly blamed. Before last call for chow is given, there isn't a wait at all and a number of the waitstaff literally have no one to wait on. Some people are luckier than others.

 

Of course, with assigned dining, you have a guaranteed table waiting for you, no waiting.

 

On a mass market cruise ship you can't have everything your way.

[LHARTWICK]

We sailed the Dream in April and while we did notice the staffing shortage, it did not keep us from enjoying a wonderful cruise!  The crew members are doing the best they can IMO.  We had a fabulous steward.  Our MDR staff members were stretched VERY thin, but they worked so very hard to get everyone taken care of.  Was the service slow?  Most of the time, yes, but it was not for lack of trying.  FWIW, the restaurants where we live are experiencing the same issues, so it's not just the cruise ships with the problems.  We are paying customers there just as we are on the ships - we just try to be patient.  I think we all need to remember to be thankful that cruising is back - and be thankful for it!

[Eli_6]

18 hours ago, Colorado Cruzer said:

They had Dr Pepper? Is this port specific because I have neer been able to get a Dr Pepper on a carnival ship?

 

I didn't really enjoy our last cruise in March on Panorama due to staffing issues I think. The wait for a bar drink was at least 20 minutes or more whethere at the bar or ordering through a server on lido. Service was very slow in the dining room for brunch so we didnt even attempt it for dinner - had specialty dining for 3 nights and just did buffet or pizzza/deli the other nights.  The tepanyaki was the most disappointing because I expected for it to be very flavorful but it was just soy sauce and garlic...lol, not doing that every again!  Anyways, it just wasn't all that great on the Panorama. We have he Miracle booked for DEC so if its still short staffed and not very good food, we will go to resorts instead.  

CCL *normally* offers Dr. Pepper on sailings out of NOLA and Galveston. (I know this because I looked it up, lol! Many places even in the US do not have DP and I am a DDP addict. I think they put crack in it.)  

[Eli_6]

On one of the Facebook pages, there was apparently some big issue with debarking in NOLA yesterday or the day before. 12 people were arrested either on warrants or for something that happened in Mexico or on the ship.  Someone else posted there was a fight on board and weed could be spelled everywhere.  A man passed, but no one knows why/how.  (I actually don't think that someone passing away is that abnormal as I have been on a cruise before where someone passed from natural causes.) My understanding is that the arrests (and the fact that two of the people they were trying to arrest could not initially be found) apparently caused debark to be delayed.  The woman who jumped overboard was also on a NOLA cruise.  Being from Texas, a lot of people go to NOLA to party and I think this may bleed over into an extra rowdy cruise.

[BlerkOne]

6 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

On one of the Facebook pages, there was apparently some big issue with debarking in NOLA yesterday or the day before. 12 people were arrested either on warrants or for something that happened in Mexico or on the ship.  Someone else posted there was a fight on board and weed could be spelled everywhere.  A man passed, but no one knows why/how.  (I actually don't think that someone passing away is that abnormal as I have been on a cruise before where someone passed from natural causes.) My understanding is that the arrests (and the fact that two of the people they were trying to arrest could not initially be found) apparently caused debark to be delayed.  The woman who jumped overboard was also on a NOLA cruise.  Being from Texas, a lot of people go to NOLA to party and I think this may bleed over into an extra rowdy cruise.

Maybe try a Spring Break cruise from Florida sometime? But yes, perhaps Texans go to New Orleans party even more.

[pc_load_letter]

5 hours ago, Matco said:

I saw a post on FB about this saying it was the Valor, 21 arrested, 1 dead, 1 unaccounted for and 2 escaped but were later caught. I tried looking thru the comments for more info but didn't find much else  

 

The "Shiplife" vlogger did a video on it. Meh, no surprise really. I've seen bad cruisers from the US, Mexico (they often come up from Mexico and board in Long Beach), Brits and Italians.

 

I also seen older folks make more noise then others when problems arise. Roll of the dice I guess.

 

Sadly, he indicated the death was a young child.

Edited May 3, 2022 by pc_load_letter

[EngIceDave]

You have to work around this stuff. I am the most high-strung-hate-to-wait-why-is-everyone-in-my-way person there is, but one I have learned over the last two years....

 

You can't control it, roll with it.

You have to adapt and overcome. What time was it jammed up? Do not go at that time again. Go earlier or later. Go to the buffet instead. Have a back up plan. 

 

Things are get messy on cruise ships at least once it seems, and now with less staff and less face it, general cut backs, it's not what it was and likely won't be for a long time.

 

It is what it is, so make the best of it

 

 

[BlerkOne]

Carnival Dream hasn't been in New Orleans in years, so not sure why New Orleans keeps coming up in this thread? A rhetorical question.