Carnival Dream Review
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We were cruising for our son's 'senior trip', and there were 4 other families from our area on board. This was the 3rd time we had done this itinerary so were not thrilled about that part but the trip was chosen before we become involved. We had previously sailed on the Dream in 2011 and it was the favorite of our 5 cruises so were happy to get back on board. We had a bumpy ride all week which really put a damper on things.
Our pre-cruise experience was not the best. We had booked 6 months before the cruise and had a 'deal' with $100 OBC, and as it was Jazzfest weekend there were no reasonably priced rooms available in town and air was crazy from our home airport. So we booked air through Carnival and because of that, we were unable to get any relief from price drops until I finally wrote an e-mail to Carnival directly when miraculously we could upgrade without having to re-book our airfare. For a price, of course. Anyway, we booked air and transfers from the airport, but had to fly from Milwaukee which is 6 hours from our home. We made it, and since we upgraded to a suite were on board about 15 minutes after arriving in the port. We had decided before the cruise that because of how we were treated by Carnival we will try another line next time we sail, and the cruise itself while not awful did not sway us differently.
The Dream is a very nice, big ship. It appears to be well maintained and was very clean during our experience. There are some examples of wear and tear on deck, mostly wood related, but otherwise it was still looking good. Our room, a Spa Suite, was huge compared to our other balcony state rooms. We spent good time on the extended balcony and really enjoyed the extra space with the 3 of us in the room. The bathroom, with a full tub and dual sinks was also great. Being a spa room, we had access to the spa amenities all week and used the Thelossal Pool, steam room and heated loungers almost daily. The condition in the spa was a little disappointing as many of the controllers for things were not working. Also, the pool was down for maintenance on the first day which was annoying. The spa staff were also not great as the same people didn't seem to recognize us even though we were there frequently.