We had last cruised Carnival on the Dream in November 2013. It was so bad that we hadn't cruised Carnival since. We decided to give them another try and were pleasantly surprised.

We had the early seating in the Renoir dinning room - table 630. Our waiter (Jose) and the rest of the dinning room staff were very good and took prompt attention to our requests and needs. The food ran the gamut from awful (lobster bisque that was nothing more than colored, tasteless water & tasteless veal parm) to prime rib and Fillet Mignon that was very good and the fish dishes were also very good. We generally order an appetizer and soup or salad in addition to the main course. Guy's burgers were very good and the line moved quickly. The burrito's were also good but the pizza was so-so. Deli sandwiches were very good as was the buffet in general.

Ports - We don't do those overpriced excursions. In St. Martin, we grabbed a van to Club Orient ($7 pp each way). Club Orient is a private clothing optional club ($20 for two chaises & umbrella). $48 plus the cost of lunch for the day. Because it is private there are no vendors on the beach. In St. Kitts we just walked around the port - we've been there before and didn't like the beach that the van driver took us to. We stayed on the boat in San Juan as we've spent a week there and seen all the sites. Also been there on a couple of other cruises. We had been to Grand Turk about 10 years ago and were pleasantly surprised by the way its been developed. Just went to the beach and grabbed a couple of chaises. Now if they could do something about those annoying vendors. Read more