Let me kick this off by pointing out that I've only ever been on Carnival cruises, so I don't have the perspective of comparing this cruise line to any experiences on Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Disney, etc. When it comes to my vacations, I like to balance quality with affordability, because my number one priority is relaxation. I work hard all year and my wife works the opposite shift (evenings), so our favorite part of cruising is getting away from it all and spending time together, so everything else is secondary. I've just had too good of a time on my Carnival cruises to worry too much about paying more to cruise on a different line. Just a personal preference - to each their own.

My wife and I were married aboard the Carnival Paradise last year and decided that it would be fun to celebrate our 1-year anniversary aboard the much larger Carnival Dream. This was my third cruise (second with my wife), and each time the ship has been about twice the size as the one before it, so I thought I'd keep that tradition going as long as I could (my first trip was aboard the Tropicale).

Here are my favorite things about my experience last week aboard the Dream: Read more