My hubby and I just returned from a 7-night cruise to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel aboard the Carnival Dream. This was our 3rd Carnival cruise, and the second out of New Orleans. We had originally booked a balcony cabin, but the week before the cruise, Carnival contacted me and offered a nice deal on an upgrade to an Ocean Suite. Since it was hubby's 65th birthday, I decided to splurge, and was glad we did.
With the Ocean Suite comes priority boarding, and hubby was more excited about that than anything. We drove 5-1/2 hours to NOLA on embarkation morning, and had no problems at all getting into the parking garage around 11:45AM. The priority boarding was a breeze, and we were on the ship and in our suite in less than 20 minutes from the time we parked the car.
We stayed on the Empress Deck (7), between aft and midship. The location was great because there were cabins above and below us, rather than a lounge like last time. Nice and quiet at night!
So glad we upgraded to this room! It was very spacious with more than enough storage space for the two of us. There was a whirlpool tub and a double sink in the bathroom, and a separate vanity area with lighted mirror and stool. We had a king-sized bed, a sofa, coffee-table, two extra chairs and plenty of counter space. The balcony was large with two chairs, one lounger and a small table. This room is about halfway between the aft and the middeck elevators. It was very quiet at night since there are cabins above and below.