This Ain't No Disney Cruise, part 2 - My LIVE Trip Report From the Carnival Dream, January 13-27, 2024

[Honolulu Blue]

Alternate title - "It's So Close I Can Almost See It:  The Pseudo-Panama Canal Cruise"

 

I decided to do a live report for my upcoming cruise on the Dream.  I'll have Internet access and with Starlink it will probably good enough to post most of the time.

 

Since there's a couple of weeks to go until the cruise, here's the backstory... I booked this one a very long time ago - August 2021, back in the early days of the restart.  I needed a cruise to put my FCC from the cruise I was canceling that had protocols that I didn't want to deal with.  That FCC came from a cruise that was canceled due to the ship shutdown.  I liked this one best of my options, so I booked this one and put my FCC and OBC here.  I also have $250 in OBC as a CCL shareholder.

 

I've done 6 Journeys cruises before on Carnival, and this will be #7.  I always enjoy the Journeys experience.

 

My last cruise was on the Carnival Magic in November.  I did a thread about it; I'm too modest to call it a trip report or review.  I'm too lazy to link to it, sorry.

 

I'm looking forward to checking in for this cruise tomorrow.  Have I mentioned that I'm Platinum yet?  (flashes Platinum card)

 

Most of the details for this cruise are taken care of.  I'm still undecided about the excursions.

 

This cruise has had a couple of minor itinerary modifications since I booked.  We were supposed to dock in Ocho Rios, but we're going to Falmouth instead.  Falmouth is normally Royal territory, but I have been there once on a Carnival ship.  I'm looking forward to going back.  The second change was a slight change to the hours we'll be in Panama.

 

About that Panama stop.  Despite this being listed as a "Panama Canal cruise", it really isn't.  We're docking in Colon, Panama and not going through the Canal at all.  Two respected posters here who post on other forums I frequent have warned me about the awfulness of this stop.  I'm intrigued enough to see for myself - from a safe distance.

 

I'm not sure what format these posts will take.  There will probably be multiple short posts each day as things happen and I find time to post, but I could go with a single longer post per day.  We'll see.

 

That's enough of an intro.  More posts as conditions warrant.

[staceyglow]

I thought the port stop in Colon was fine. We took a shore excursion to the canal and enjoyed it. 

[jimbo5544]

Been a long time since we were on the Dream.  Love Journeys.  I am on for the ride.

[princess76021]

Yay!! Another live!!

I vicariously live through you guys "live" cruises.

 

Thank you for taking me along!!

 

Hugs from Texas

[Honolulu Blue]

6 minutes ago, princess76021 said:

Yay!! Another live!!

I vicariously live through you guys "live" cruises.

 

Thank you for taking me along!!

 

Hugs from Texas

Thanks for coming along for the ride. 😃

 

I'm coming through Texas to get to the Dream, so I'll feel your hugs a little more. 😍

[ninjacat123]

I've never done a Journeys cruise (10 days out of Rome is the longest yet for me) so I'm looking forward to this LIVE!!😺

Edited December 27, 2023 by ninjacat123
need the "s"

[firefly333]

Guess what, I'm on this cruise too. I have the 250, stock obc plus $92.xx from another cruise. 

 

I booked during the 35 years or whatever it was birthday sale. I was between this and jubilee and clicked hold on a cabin on this one and then it wouldnt let me look at other stuff so I just said ok, I'll take it.

 

I recently docked at colon Panama on the radiance OTS. April this year, was supposed to go jan 30th but my mom passed and funeral friday and cruise was supposed to leave monday and I couldn't leave the house as my bil is a idiot and was stealing stuff from the house. So i no showed to do a similar cruise and did the march 30th and here I am. 

 

I was booked 3 excursions but cancelled the hop on hop off bus in columbia. Someone elsewhere said she was worried about the reviews which just today I read. They didnt allow any hopping on and off lol. Cancelled it. 

 

I'm still booked for the jungle train in costa rico and the ostrich farm in aruba.  Columbia has a bird sanctuary in the port area quite large I didnt really see much last time. 

 

Maybe we will meet up on the ship. 

[Honolulu Blue]

40 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Guess what, I'm on this cruise too. I have the 250, stock obc plus $92.xx from another cruise. 

 

I booked during the 35 years or whatever it was birthday sale. I was between this and jubilee and clicked hold on a cabin on this one and then it wouldnt let me look at other stuff so I just said ok, I'll take it.

 

I recently docked at colon Panama on the radiance OTS. April this year, was supposed to go jan 30th but my mom passed and funeral friday and cruise was supposed to leave monday and I couldn't leave the house as my bil is a idiot and was stealing stuff from the house. So i no showed to do a similar cruise and did the march 30th and here I am. 

 

I was booked 3 excursions but cancelled the hop on hop off bus in columbia. Someone elsewhere said she was worried about the reviews which just today I read. They didnt allow any hopping on and off lol. Cancelled it. 

 

I'm still booked for the jungle train in costa rico and the ostrich farm in aruba.  Columbia has a bird sanctuary in the port area quite large I didnt really see much last time. 

 

Maybe we will meet up on the ship. 

Thanks for sharing.  Yes, we are on the same ship.  And perhaps we'll meet up sometime, somehow.

 

I did the ostrich farm in Curacao on a past cruise (Freedom, October 2019).  I've heard the two farms here and in Aruba are owned by the same group and are similar.  I had fun there and assume you will too:

 

 

Here's part of the aviary in Cartagena's port area.  This picture is from the same cruise on the Freedom:

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Honolulu Blue

[firefly333]

11 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for sharing.  Yes, we are on the same ship.  And perhaps we'll meet up sometime, somehow.

 

I did the ostrich farm in Curacao on a past cruise (Freedom, October 2019).  I've heard the two farms here and in Aruba are owned by the same group and are similar.  I had fun there and assume you will too:

 

 

Here's part of the aviary in Cartagena's port area.  This picture is from the same cruise on the Freedom:

 

I just remember the ant eater and signs saying dont feed the ant eater. Lol I had done another excursion, something about emeralds that went into the old part of the city. Dont care about emeralds but enjoyed the journey. Had to pee so i just got back on the ship. This time I'll make sure i spend more time looking at the birds. I remember the flamingos too, lots of them.

 

Glad to hear you enjoyed the ostriches. My family is into bird watching big time so I decided on that.

 

New ports for me will be costa Rica, aruba and curacao. I did book southern on adventure april 2025 in my signature that does all 3 of the ABC as we are missing bonaire this cruise. 

 

This will be my 2nd journey cruise. My alaska was classified as a journey cruise way back when and we had a naturalist onboard. This will also be my first cruise as a diamond on carnival. So I too will hopefully be checking in tonight. Hotel booked. Adding stuff to my suitcase as I think of it. Just today added bug spray for the jungle train. Says bring raingear, but nothing about mosquito repellent but I'm bringing some if we are really riding into the jungle. It shows a regular train but description says the train is open air, so idk. I have some tiny binoculars I got from carnival as a logo gift i might bring too. Reviews seem good enough. 

 

Every cruise i seem to miss some port .. like this time I'd have expected bonaire not jamaica as our 6th port lol. After almost 20 years with carnival finally turning diamond. I'll probably stay onboard for jamaica. Just the other 5 I'm interested in seeing. 

 

When I did the emerald museum excursion we passed a big fort which I thought the hop on hop off bus did, and maybe still does, but reviews said they had to stay together as a group. Cheap kinda cute hats there vendors were selling. I kinda wanted to shop around a little more this time. Maybe buy some coffee. A vendor came onto our tour bus there selling coffee and I didnt buy then but been thinking about it. The straw hats some got as cheap as $5. We stopped at the fort but just for pictures. So i toured there recently but wanted to stop more on my own this time. The wall there was interesting. We didnt do costa Rica though so that's new to me this time. 

 

We went to some really boring city palm sunday this year. I about starved. 7 hours and only a cupcake and it was tiny and whatever I got from a snack machine at the welcome place to the locks. Worst ever excursion lol. Supposed to be 5.5 hours I think and our guide decided to show us extra. We went across some big bridge near the locks to look back at the locks and some monkeys came out but I was on the wrong side of the bus. 

 

My excursion this last april. This is the fort in columbia we saw too. In panama I might have gone to a town named portabella. It was supposed to be closer than Panama city is why I picked it. Panama city excursion was 7 hours but they at least got a sandwich. It was soooooo hot that day. The last is the santa clara welcome center for the Panama locks. 

 

 

 

[firefly333]

This cruise I plan on enjoying. It's been a very tough year. Both parents passed and everything fell to me to do. My sister is mentally and physically HC and I tell myself if her husband was normal he wouldnt have married her. I was faced with piles and piles of bills and figuring out trust documents. No one else to help with paperwork which i finally got thru end of oct.

 

So I plan this time on relaxing and enjoying myself. I'll follow along on your review. 

[Honolulu Blue]

12 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I plan this time on relaxing and enjoying myself. I'll follow along on your review. 

Thank you for the details in your posts above.  And thank you for following along.  I plan on relaxing and enjoying myself also.  I assure you that I won't stand in the way of your enjoyment, whatever you decide to do.

[Honolulu Blue]

I checked in early this morning and didn't have any issues.  Now I can relax and get ready for this cruise.  Thanks, everyone, for your kind words and support.  I'll try to have something interesting, relevant, and/or entertaining when I start posting about this cruise again.

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I checked in early this morning and didn't have any issues.  Now I can relax and get ready for this cruise.  Thanks, everyone, for your kind words and support.  I'll try to have something interesting, relevant, and/or entertaining when I start posting about this cruise again.

I got A06. 10 am. I was wondering if I could have checked in at midnight eastern time. I'm used to rcl who checks in at midnight whatever time zone the ship leaves from.

 

Seems like before I would get A02. Maybe I checked in a hour late? I dont think the A02 or A06 affects anything does it?

 

 

 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

23 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I got A06. 10 am. I was wondering if I could have checked in at midnight eastern time. I'm used to rcl who checks in at midnight whatever time zone the ship leaves from.

 

Seems like before I would get A02. Maybe I checked in a hour late? I dont think the A02 or A06 affects anything does it?

I got E01 and selected a noon arrival time. I checked in just after midnight Eastern Time. I honestly don't know how boarding groups work and paid no attention to them in the past. 

[pe4all]

Looking forward to both of your review - Honolulu Blue and Firefly.  I know (from past experience) that they will be honest and entertaining!  I like the Dream-class ships a lot- especially the smoke-free casino annex.

[ninjacat123]

Yes!! Magic’s smoke free casino was great!!

[Honolulu Blue]

4 hours ago, pe4all said:

Looking forward to both of your review - Honolulu Blue and Firefly.  I know (from past experience) that they will be honest and entertaining!  I like the Dream-class ships a lot- especially the smoke-free casino annex.

 

Thank you for your kind words! I'll do my best to live up to your expectations. 😎

 

2 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Yes!! Magic’s smoke free casino was great!!

 

I liked the smoke free casino on the Magic, though I didn't spend much time there. I hope the one on the Dream is just as good, if not better. 🙏

[ninjacat123]

10 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I got E01 and selected a noon arrival time. I checked in just after midnight Eastern Time. I honestly don't know how boarding groups work and paid no attention to them in the past. 

I’m checking in tomorrow at 12am. Hope it all goes well👍

[Honolulu Blue]

53 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

I’m checking in tomorrow at 12am. Hope it all goes well👍

I hope it goes well for you too. 🙏

[pe4all]

10 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I’m checking in tomorrow at 12am. Hope it all goes well👍

Didn't mean to leave you off my above post!  Your reviews are fantastic also!  Can't wait to hear how everyone's cruise goes down. (not literally- lol!)

[ninjacat123]

On 12/29/2023 at 6:52 AM, pe4all said:

Didn't mean to leave you off my above post!  Your reviews are fantastic also!  Can't wait to hear how everyone's cruise goes down. (not literally- lol!)

Thx @pe4all!! I was able to check in and print my boarding passes (check in time 10-10:30am, boarding group A01) but the process took twice as long as last cruise, about an hour.  Part of that I could blame being up in the Carolina mountains with weak wifi and it could also be that Carnival's site was having issues.  Oh well, I got 'em and I'm a happy camper💃doing the 14 day till cruising dance!!

[Honolulu Blue]

@firefly333 and @ninjacat123, you're obviously free to post in this thread whenever you care to.  It's always good to have a different perspective on things.  And, of course, I'll try to follow whatever you have to say about this cruise, whether it's in this thread, your own thread(s), or wherever else.

 

Anyway, there are just 11 days to go now.  I kind of wish we were leaving this weekend instead of next - it looks like a nasty storm is headed our way next week. 😵

[Honolulu Blue]

10 days to go. I neglected to take my friend on my last cruise and he almost scratched my throat. 😬 So I'll have to be extra careful to make room for him. His name is Hudson, BTW. But I'm guessing some of you knew that. 🙂

Edited January 3 by Honolulu Blue

[missholly24]

On 12/27/2023 at 8:43 AM, Honolulu Blue said:

Alternate title - "It's So Close I Can Almost See It:  The Pseudo-Panama Canal Cruise"

 

I decided to do a live report for my upcoming cruise on the Dream.  I'll have Internet access and with Starlink it will probably good enough to post most of the time.

 

Since there's a couple of weeks to go until the cruise, here's the backstory... I booked this one a very long time ago - August 2021, back in the early days of the restart.  I needed a cruise to put my FCC from the cruise I was canceling that had protocols that I didn't want to deal with.  That FCC came from a cruise that was canceled due to the ship shutdown.  I liked this one best of my options, so I booked this one and put my FCC and OBC here.  I also have $250 in OBC as a CCL shareholder.

 

I've done 6 Journeys cruises before on Carnival, and this will be #7.  I always enjoy the Journeys experience.

 

My last cruise was on the Carnival Magic in November.  I did a thread about it; I'm too modest to call it a trip report or review.  I'm too lazy to link to it, sorry.

 

I'm looking forward to checking in for this cruise tomorrow.  Have I mentioned that I'm Platinum yet?  (flashes Platinum card)

 

Most of the details for this cruise are taken care of.  I'm still undecided about the excursions.

 

This cruise has had a couple of minor itinerary modifications since I booked.  We were supposed to dock in Ocho Rios, but we're going to Falmouth instead.  Falmouth is normally Royal territory, but I have been there once on a Carnival ship.  I'm looking forward to going back.  The second change was a slight change to the hours we'll be in Panama.

 

About that Panama stop.  Despite this being listed as a "Panama Canal cruise", it really isn't.  We're docking in Colon, Panama and not going through the Canal at all.  Two respected posters here who post on other forums I frequent have warned me about the awfulness of this stop.  I'm intrigued enough to see for myself - from a safe distance.

 

I'm not sure what format these posts will take.  There will probably be multiple short posts each day as things happen and I find time to post, but I could go with a single longer post per day.  We'll see.

 

That's enough of an intro.  More posts as conditions warrant.

I'm hoping this means its awesome because a Disney cruise seems dreadful. thousand kids. one pool. BLECHHHHHHH. 

[figmentfreak]

Good morning - I’ll be on this cruise also.  Looking forward to seeing your review as we sail along. 

Edited January 3 by figmentfreak