We just spent a 7-day cruise on the Carnival Dream starting on May 18 from Port Canaveral and returned on May 25. The cruise included my wife, our two daughters 13/14, our 18 year old son and another family with children. I will admit that we were a little apprehensive about this trip from all the recent news reports over the last year, but those concerns were completely unfounded.

The check-in went smoothly and we were on the Dream within 30 minutes after entering the cruise terminal. As soon as we boarded the ship I went to the Customer Service desk (Guest Services) to make some room changes. We were traveling with another family and wanted to move the kids around so they could stay together. I was amazed that the Guest Services representative was extremely helpful. Our changes were very complicated and I was worried it would not happen, but she told me to take a deep breath and just tell her what I wanted to happen. So I told her all the changes with the rooms and account changes and she went to work on the computer. Within few minutes she had everything done and new key/account cards issued. We double checked the changes and the Key Cards to make sure they were on the correct accounts. I have to say that the staff at the Guest Services counter are incredibly professional intelligent and a joy to work with. I thought if this is how all the staff on this ship treat people, this will be a great trip.

I could give a day by day by day account of the trip but will shorten that to summarize that the staff were courteous, helpful and most called me by my first name. Our cabin was spotless, smelled nice and was lighted perfectly. I have stayed on cruise ships that made you feel depressed when you were in the cabin, but on this ship the cabins were very pleasant to be in. The bathroom in our cabin was so clean that I spent a few minutes one day actually carefully looking for any dirt or hair in the corners...and could not find any. Read more