Hello everyone. This is going to be my first attempt at a cruise review for our recent Carnival Dream that left on 12/14/2013. I’m going to make some comparisons to our other cruises in here as well as a comparison to RCI vs. Carnival in a few spots, and try to keep from jumping around or repeating myself to much. This trip included my wife and I, as well as my mother and one of her friends. So here goes.

We spent the night before the cruise after a long drive from east Tennessee at the Radisson at the Port. I recommend this spot to future cruisers. Although the hotel was showing its age at a few spots it had what I hold important on a one night stay over: a good value, clean, and safe. I think the room was around $150 give or take for my DW and I and that included onsite parking during the trip as well as shuttle service to and from the port. The room was clean and comfortable; the pool area was great and helped me to get out of the real world routine and into the vacation theme earlier than normal. Everything went smooth the morning of checkout and we were on the 1030 shuttle headed to the port.

This was by far the best embarkation day we have experienced in out 4 cruises thanks to the FTTF program which I felt was worth every penny. We got out of the shuttle about 10:50 and they immediately grabbed out luggage. We walked to the port, were immediately moved through security and to the desk where our sail and sign card was given, our account set up as we always set up a cash account to keep track of spending and no credit card surprises, and up the steps we went to the holding area bypassing huge lines along the way. In the holding area the diamond and platinum guest were able to board before us lowly FTTF peeps so they can rest easy, and we were on the boat in less than an hour after arriving; it felt like no time at all. Since we had a cove balcony on deck 2 we walked down one flight of stairs and sure enough our room was clean and ready to go. After stowing our drinks and what little luggage we had we went up to eat and it felt nice not to have to worry about our bags for a change and zip through the lines. Our luggage arrived quickly and we were unpacked before the muster drill. We enjoyed a good meal with YTD and went straight in, then enjoyed the welcome aboard show before calling it a night to get caught up on rest from the embarkation and the long drive down. Read more