Carnival Dream Review

Fun time on the Dream

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Dream
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fresh_air
First Time Cruiser • Age 30s

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Sail Date: Jun 2014

This is my second cruise, first one was with Royal Caribbean. Overall, the Dream was a fun cruising experience. I spent the past few months leading up to the cruise researching and read some horrible reviews about the ship but it really wasn’t that bad. The most common thing I read was a disgusting sewer smell which I never experienced. The New Orleans port wasn’t too bad. We arrived at about 1 and were on the ship by 2. I was on the cruise with my boyfriend, his parents, his grandmother, and his brother & they all wanted to stay on one of the decks that came with unlimited Cloud 9 Spa access. We stayed on the Panorama deck with 3 inside rooms. This was my first time in an inside room and although it was nice, I don’t like how dark it is. I like to be awaken by the sunlight. Being in that room made me want to sleep a lot longer. I didn’t really care about having spa access, I’ve never really been interested in trying a spa but my goodness was it worth it! The majority of the ship is so noisy with the loud music and children running around so this spa was a piece of heaven. We had access to the steam rooms, tubs, etc. and they were very peaceful. My boyfriend and his brother enjoyed going up to the spa to take a private shower in the huge shower rooms. Since there were no public areas directly above or below our cabin, nights were very quiet.

The food overall was just okay. We ate in the main dining room every night and the food for the most part didn’t have enough flavor. However the escargot and mushroom appetizers they had were drowning in oil, it was pretty disgusting. At one point I swallowed a mouthful of oil. Two times I found hair in my food and one time I found a sticker. The sea day brunch however was pretty good! The pork chops oh my goodness.. I don’t even like pork chops but the ones at brunch were so juicy, tender, and delicious! Definitely make it a point to go to brunch every sea day. I only ate in the gathering on Lido deck one time the whole cruise & that was just because I wanted to try the Mongolian wok. I was in line for an hour so that part was unfortunate but the food was pretty good! Walking around looking at the buffet, I didn’t see anything that looked appetizing so that is why I only ate there once for the Wok. The last night of the cruise, we all ate at the steakhouse which is an additional $35 a person but listen to me… EAT AT THE STEAKHOUSE!! The food is so so SO much better than what they give you anywhere else. I promise you. If we would have realized how great it was earlier, we would have cut out the money we spent on liquor and spent it there instead.

There were a variety of activities on the ship that were so entertaining. I often had a hard time deciding which one to go to. The hairy chest competition was a must see and the adult comedians in the Punchliner club were hilarious! A little tip for Punchliner- people start lining up about 40 minutes to an hour before the show starts so get there early! At 9 AM on sea days the cruise director has a morning show on TV, I called in and later that day the cruise director dropped off a signed picture of the ship as a thank you for calling in. That was a nice souvenir. The fun force breakdancers were great. There were numerous events where you could try free food and drinks.

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