Dream Review - 11/7/2004 sailing - LONG!

[cliffd64]

Here's a review of our trip to the Western Caribbean on the Dream as of 11/7/2004 - 11/14/2004 :)

 

Introduction: This was my seventh cruise, and third to the Western Caribbean. The itinerary from New Orleans was as follows:

 

Day 1 - Departing New Orleans at 4:00 PM

Day 2 - Day At Sea

Day 3 - Cozumel, Mexico

Day 4 - Roatan, Honduras

Day 5 - Belize

Day 6 - Cancun, Mexico

Day 7 - Day at Sea

Day 8 - Arrival back at New Orleans

 

Getting to the ship: The Norwegian Dream sails from New Orleans for this itinerary, at least in 2004. Next year, the Dream will be relocated to Houston for it's fall/winter itinerary. The Norwegian Sun will be sailing from New Orleans next fall, and this same itnerary will be made even better by the presence of this ship. The Sun is far more suited to freestyle cruising than the Dream. When arriving in New Orleans, if you have booked your air flight with NCL, then you have no real issues and the ship will await your arrival. However, if you plan to book your own airfare, the best piece of advice I can give is for you to plan on arriving on the day before your cruise departs. We arrived the night before, and stayed on the west bank at the Best Western and had arranged for a rental car, which we used to drop off ourselves at the cruise pier (my wife then returned to the airport and took the $13 dollar shuttle back to the pier). Arriving a day early also ensures that if you are traveling from a colder climate, you won't get sidetracked by any storms. New Orleans has no shortage of things to see and do, so if you are there a day early like we were, you can take in some good food and great sights. We managed to take a "Haunted History" tour in the French Quarter the night before. It was very informative and educational. We had an excellent lunch at the Orleans Cafe as well. The ship is located at the Cruise Ship Terminal, which is directly behind the Riverwalk Complex, and the Convention Center. There is lots of long-term parking nearby if you are traveling via car. The Norwegian Dream supposedly begins boarding at 11:30 AM or so, but for some reason, they seem to have some difficulty earlier in the process rather than later. My suggestion is to arrive a little bit after boarding begins, and by then the line will have subsided. For latitude members, there was virtually no line, but if you get there right at the beginning, you will most likely still have a bit of a wait. Our embarkation process was slowed very slightly by a reported problem with their computers at the time. After a ten minute delay, the process ramped up again and we were quickly passed through the lattitudes line and on the ship.

 

The cabins: We had booked an outside cabin on Deck 4, at midship. This cabin was very convenient for getting on and off the ship in the various ports. The cabins on the Norwegian Dream seemed pretty typical, and their was plenty of closet and drawer space. The shower and bathroom are adequately sized. Water temperature and pressure was fine. A hairdryer is provided, but you might want to bring your own. No irons are allowed (but if you have one, bring a travel iron). Unlike alot of ships, there is no self-service laundry area. There were three of us (all considered adults, although the third was my 13 year old daughter) in the cabin, and there was plenty of space. My daughter slept on a sofa that converted into a full size bed. My wife and I shared the double-bed.

 

The Ship: The ship is a mid size for Norwegian, not one of the largest by far, so at times you can definitely feel a bit crowded. The thing to remember and consider with the Dream (and it's sister the Wind) is that it PRE-DATES the "freestyle concept", unlike the ships Norwegian has since built. The newer ships are designed with freestyle in mind, but here on the Dream, it is obvious that this was not a consideration. For example, there are only two alternative dining establishments (Le Bistro and LaTrattoria) and only one of them charges the cover charge (Le Bistro), unlike the numerous specialty restaurants on the Sun, Dawn, Star and Spirit and Sky (now Pride of Aloha). Deck 4 was the lowest deck, and was the entrance and exit point for tenders and shore piers. Decks 5 and 6 (entrance when in New Orleans) contained only staterooms. Deck 7 contained the lobby area and the running deck. Deck 8 was devoted to staterooms. Deck 9 was where most of the dining was, containing several bars, Le Bistro, the Terraces dining room and the Four Seasons dining room. Deck 10 contains all the shops, the casino, Dazzles disco, and the Stardust lounge, where all the shows are held. Deck 11 was the pool deck, also where the pizzeria/buffet was located, as well as the youth center, and the so-called Sports Bar and Grill. Deck 12 contained the sports deck, and spa, and Observatory lounge.

 

The Restaurants: The Norwegian Dream has two main restaurants for the nightly menu: Four Seasons, and Terraces. There is also a buffet in the Sports Bar and Grill at various times, and sometimes there are barbeques out by the pool area on deck 11. The pizzeria also has a buffet for breakfast and lunch and sometimes dinner as well. This is also where the omelet station (poolside) is if you like made to order omelets. There is also a italian specialty restaurant called Trattoria. Le Bistro is the only cover charge specialty restaurant. It costs $15 additional per person to dine there. The following is a breakdown of the various restaurants:

 

CONTINUES BELOW

[cliffd64]

Sports Bar and Grill: This is the main buffet of the Norwegian Dream. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is also advertised as a "Sports Bar" but there was no evidence of that, being that there was a small bar with about 4 stools in front of it. In fact it was so small, it was virtually impossible to get food or eat in there during peak times. Forget about having breakfast there, as there is very little seating and long lines. If you have a shore excursion planned, you are far better off with ordering room service to your cabin for breakfast than to attempt to join the masses in this tiny cramped

space. However, unlike the Wind, they actually also have a small breakfast buffet in the Pizzeria on Deck 11 near the pool. Here at the Pizzeria the lines were much shorter, and you could get a made-to-order omelet as well by the pool area.

 

The Four Seasons Restaurant (Deck 9): This is the main restaurant (along with the Terraces) and offers the same menu as the Terraces. Service is good, but plan on requiring at least two hours for your full dinner here. This facility always seemed to have people waiting to get in. It almost seemed like people didn't know there was another dining facilty aft, and preferred to wait for the Four Seasons.

 

The Terraces: Located on decks 10 and 11, this is the other main dining area. Great views off the back of the ship, and basically the same menu as the Four Seasons. On all nights that we ate at the main restaurants, we ate at Terraces for the nice views off the back of the ship. There was never a wait at Terraces all week at all different times that we chose to eat, except for the last night for some reason. In that case, we only had to wait 5 minutes for a table of three. Service was excellent here, and we recognized several familiar faces from the waitstaff from previous cruises on the Sky, and other ships.

 

Le Bistro (Deck 9): Le Bistro is the french alternative restaurant that serves mediterranean style cuisine. The restaurant is a wonderful experience and offers a complete menu in a beautiful setting. The $15.00 cover charge is well worth it. We had a wonderful dinner here. The chocolate fondue dessert is to die for, and there are other great choices as well. We make sure we have one night at Le Bistro on every Norwegian ship. The service here was good, but not quite as "entertaining" as we have become accustomed to from other NCL ships.

 

Trattoria(Deck 12): This is the Italian restaurant. This restaurant seems to specialize in Northern Italian specialities, and there is no extra charge to eat there. we didn't get a chance to sample the menu there this time around.

 

Pizzeria (Deck 11, midship): The Pizzeria is open 24-hours a day and offers decent and varied pizza. The pizzeria also had a smaller buffet for breakfast and lunch as was a convenient place to get a quick bite at those times. The omelet station was located next to this buffet in the mornings and they made great omelets there.

 

Midnight Buffets: The Norwegian Dream offered only one midnight buffet on this cruise. The signature “chocoholic” chocolate buffet where everything is made from chocolate was held on the last day at sea, but at 11 PM rather than at midnite. Cakes, pies, fruit dipped in chocolate, moose, cheesecake, fudge, you name it and if it was made with chocolate they offered it. I only managed to make it partially through the line before my plate was overflowing. One nice touch is that they will offer to transfer your chocolate to a "to go' plate so you may take it back to your cabin. Interestingly, there was no picture time scheduled... so if you were not first in line, it was pretty much disheveled if you wanted to take pictures. The contents were fabulous however, and very delicious.

 

Entertainment: Entertainment on the ship is scattered throughout. Of course, there is a casino. Every night there is a sail-away party on the pool deck. The band there was a reggae style band, and was pretty good. There was karaoke music in the Observation Lounge every night, and many many people participated and attended. In some of the bars, there was a piano player who also sang. The main shows were entertaining and were located in the Stardust lounge. They ranged from comedy acts, to little broadway ensemble shows, to singers. The comedian was Bud Andersen from Nebraska, who was very very good and very clean as well. He can definitely be classified as family-friendly. All in all, most of the entertainment was enough to keep you busy, but nothing to write home about. I think NCL could take a lesson from Carnival and improve the talent of the entertainment, especially the Jean Ann Ryan group. Their dancing/singing shows are getting a little ho-hum.

 

Shore excursions: There were two types of shore excursions. One were the ones categorized as "Dive-In" and the regular shore excursions. There were excellent choices among each. The Dive-In excursions involved snorkeling or diving with NCL's own instructors as well as the tour operators. NCL is the only line that actually hires it's own diving and snorkeling instructors. These guys were fun to be with and made the excursions safe and fun. We did both types of excursions (shore and dive-in) and for the most part we were very satisfied. Here's the tours we took:

 

Cozumel: Diving - Cozumel has some of the best diving in the world. We took out a charter with Aqua Safari outside of the ships tours, since this was our third time to Cozumel, and we were very comfortable with the operators. It was arranged in advance, and others from the ship joined us as well. We had a great time diving and saw lots of great corals and sea-life. You are docked at Cozumel (rather than tendered) and there is also plenty of shopping and entertainment to see in town there as well.

 

Roatan: Jungle Canopy Tour and Tabayana Beach Party - My wife and daughter took the Jungle Canopy tour with the Tabayana Beach Party. Basically they were able to zip across these steel cables that go from tree platform to tree platform in the jungle high above the canopy of the jungle. They had a blast going from tree to tree. Your last zip line drops you down onto Tabayana Beach, once of roatan's nicest beaches for a nice barbeque lunch and snorkeling if you desire. (I dove here in Roatan (ship's excursion) as well - more great diving).

 

Belize: Cave Tubing and Jungle Trek - another highly recommended tour. After about a 1 mile trek through a jungle path, you get to your drop off point in a river, where you have a relaxing tube ride on a river that enters and exits caves. The caves are fantastic and the tour was very relaxing and fun!

 

Cancun: Tulum Mayan Ruins Tour: This tour was also very good. After about a 1 1/2 hour bus ride from the pier in Cancun (you are tendered to the pier, not docked) you arrive at the Tulum Mayan site, which is the only set of Mayan ruins ever found near the sea. The site is excellent, and very picturesque.

 

Freestyle Cruising: We were both veterans to the concept of Freestyle Cruising. Basically, what this allows you to do is to have the freedom of choosing who, and when, and where you want to eat every night. Basically, we choose what time we wanted to go to dinner and showed up when we felt like it. Except for the specialty restaurants, reservations are not required. You can sit with as few or as many people you like to. I would recommend that if you have a party larger than 8, make arrangements with the maitre'd of whichever main dining room you wish to be in ahead of time, as it may be hard for them to set up the proper table for you. The tipping is also automatically added in to your final bill. At a rate of $10.00 per day per person, we found this to be a bargain. It had no appreciable impact on level of service that we could decipher.

 

Summary: All three of us enjoyed this week. It was my oldest daughter's first time, and she had a blast with us cruising veterans. Having been on the Wind, we were prepared for the smaller size of the ship and the troubles they have accomodating the freestyle concept, and as such we knew what to avoid. The Dream, however, actually accomplished the task better than the Wind. We actually could not have been more pleasantly surprised. The ship was clean throughout, and the service was friendly and excellent for most of the week! I would recommend this trip to anyone who is familiar with the freestyle concept and can realize that this ship is NOT designed to accomodate it. This would not be the best cruise to

experience Freestyle on for the first time. If you wish to have the true feeling for freestyle cruising for the first time, plan your trip aboard the Dawn, Star, Spirit or Sun.

[Zeno]

Very good review. I liked the fact that you gave advice about the Freestyle dining experience and I agree that it is probably better on the newer ships which have been designed with Freestyle in mind.

[cliffd64]

Very good review. I liked the fact that you gave advice about the Freestyle dining experience and I agree that it is probably better on the newer ships which have been designed with Freestyle in mind.

 

 

Thanks :)

[Al_Frescoe]

I would recommend this trip to anyone who is familiar with the freestyle concept and can realize that this ship is NOT designed to accomodate it. This would not be the best cruise to

experience Freestyle on for the first time. If you wish to have the true feeling for freestyle cruising for the first time, plan your trip aboard the Dawn, Star, Spirit or Sun.

First of all, thank you very much for the detailed review of your trip on the Dream. Our upcoming trip in April will be our first on the Dream, and our first "Freestyle" experience, so I am just a "teeny tiny" bit dismayed by the above comments. What is it that the Dream is not prepared for as far as Freestyle? And if there is an "insiders" trick to making the Dream work for Freestyle, could you please share it? :)

 

Once again thanks very much for taking the time to post that detailed account.

[cliffd64]

OK... here's the rub:

 

This ship, was not designed with freestyle in mind. It is more set up for "traditional style cruising". That means that you do not have 10 or 11 restaurants like on the Dawn, Sun, Star, Spirit etc to choose from. Basically, for main meals, you have the two main dining rooms, Le Bistro, and the buffet in the Sports Bar and Grill. The area where they put the buffet (Sports Bar and Grill) is TINY, and therefore causes alot of lines. On a ship designed for freestyle, the buffet areas are wide and expansive, and you never see lines.

 

My comment is directed at people who travel on the Dream as their first Norwegian experience. If this is your first experience with "freestyle", then you will not truly get a good feeling for what it is all about unless you are on one of the newer ships designed from the bottom up for freestyle cruising. However, if you read my review, I give you several tips on breakfast and dinner and such that should help you avoid any lines or complications. Have no fear, your cruise will be great... just go armed with the knowledge you read here and consider yourself better informed than most of the other guests :)

[jellens]

www.ontheseas.com