This was our sixth cruise on Carnival and must say we had some of the best service ever. Had my wife, 15 yr old daughter and 2 year old son. The Dream is a beautiful ship, but could really use some of the 2.0 upgrades. Overall a tremendous experience and you will not be disappointed with the big ship. Those of you considering faster to the fun...IT IS WORTH EVERY PENNY! One thing we found interesting is Carnival no longer provides envelopes to put gratuity coupons in/extra cash tips. So the staff never knows who has paid their gratuities. Apparently passengers claimed the envelopes made them uncomfortable. We have always paid our gratuities ahead of time or billed them to the room, in the future we are going to take them off our account and pay them directly to the staff.
Embarkation: We drove down the morning of the cruise (2.5 hours). Arrived at the terminal at 11 a.m. Parked in the Erato garage (112.00). Porter took the bags. Zipped through security and check in and went straight onboard. Since we had FTTF we were in our balcony room (9434) at 11:45! Muster drill was a breeze as we staged in Teen Club O2.
Cabin: Balcony 9434. Awesome location. right around the corner from the stairs/elevator. Up one deck and you are right at the aft pool, deli, tandoor and buffet. Occasional noise from above (we were right below the deli) but not very noticeable. Room steward (Putu) was awesome. Cabin always spotless, fresh towels all the time, and he always asked if there was anything we needed. Best air conditioning on a ship EVER.
Awesome location. right around the corner from the stairs/elevator. Up one deck and you are right at the aft pool, deli, tandoor and buffet. Occasional noise from above (we were right below the deli) but not very noticeable. Room steward (Putu) was awesome. Cabin always spotless, fresh towels all the time, and he always asked if there was anything we needed. Best air conditioning on a ship EVER.