We cruised on Carnival Dream on 4/22/12. This was our 2nd Carnival cruise. The first was not a good experience, but it was a very old and small ship so we were hoping the Dream would be more modern with more to do. We are a couple in our 50's and have also cruised with Royal Caribbean on three cruises.

We arrived a day early driving down from OK, and stayed the night at the Hilton Garden Inn by the GW Bush airport. A nice hotel and not far from anything. There is not a drop off section in Galveston for rental cars as Carnival site indicates so the cost factor was too high to take a flight, then use their shuttle, ($33 pp one way) to and from the airport.

We booked Galveston Park N Cruise Inside Parking for our vehicle. We were able to view & book online. These were exactly as described. They were very organized and we felt very secure in leaving our vehicle in their building for a week. We arrived at 10:45AM and people were still coming off the ship. The parking lot attendant said we could leave our suitcases in our vehicle and just walk over to Old Town Galveston for a little while until the Ship let us board at 11:30AM. This was a very nice walk, about 2 blocks, and had quaint little shops to see and shop. This reminded me a lot of Key West. At 11:30AM we walked back to our vehicle, unloaded our bags and walked the two blocks to our ship. We were onboard and in the Lido buffet area for lunch at 12:00PM. The Lido deck is very confining, and has lots of little areas, booths to eat. It would be hard for a family of 6 or more to eat together. You cannot see the food or the lines from most of the tables. The same food on the Lido is served all week, with very little change. Read more