My family and I traveled on the Carnival Dream for a 7 day cruise from August 18 to the 25, 2012. I wanted to share the good and the bad with you so that you can make an informed decision about your future cruises. Our party consisted of my husband, 11 year old son, 19 year old son, and me. This was our 3rd cruise (our others were on Disney). We were booked into a deck 8 balcony stateroom.
Our stateroom stewards were great, they knew our names and faces by the second day. Their towel animals were so fun to come back to each night. Our room was spotless.
The ship was massive. There were places that we didn't discover or find even by the end of the week. I think that the sheer number of people on the ship (4500) was a problem in that there were often extensive lines at the buffet areas. Sometimes the dirty dishes piled up on the tables and did not get cleaned up quickly enough. There were no places to put your used dishware, so you had to drop it on a table when you passed by it.
Our stewards were fabulous. They took excellent care of us and our room was always very tidy.
Loved the balcony (the vulgar neighbors, not so much).
The beds were very comfortable.
The room did not have enough storage - one full closet was filled with bedding materials, 3 very tiny drawers in the vanity.
Bathrooms had plenty of shelf space for toiletries.