Carnival Dream Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,963 reviews

Carnival [not quite a] Dream

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Dream
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house_elf
2-5 Cruises • Age 30s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Apr 2016
Cabin: Balcony
Traveled with children

Just returned from a 7-day Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Dream, sailed out of New Orleans. Our party included myself and my husband (both 28), our 2-year-old daughter, and my parents (my mom just retired and this was our celebration for her).

We arrived in New Orleans a day prior to the cruise and stayed at the Homewood Suites (on Poydras St), which was a fine place to stay for a night prior to the cruise – it’s located about a mile away from the Erato St Cruise Terminal. If you stay in a two-bedroom suite here like we did, do NOT stay on the 3rd floor (those rooms have partially open windows to accommodate the air conditioning units and the street noise at all hours was astounding!); during our stay the night after the cruise, we stayed on the fifth floor in a 2 bedroom suite without window air conditioning units and there was virtually no outside noise in the room! This hotel includes a hot breakfast with every stay.

The following morning, we departed for the Erato St Cruise Terminal to board the Carnival Dream – we are adventurers, so we walked. I won’t say walking was a mistake, per se, but do not follow Google Maps! When we got down to the River Walk, we quickly realized that we would not be able to walk straight through to the pier…so we had to walk with all our luggage through the shopping mall located on the River Walk (I’m sure we were a sight to behold, but there were others doing the exact same thing and there were signs in the mall guiding walkers toward the cruise terminals!). So, walk straight through the mall until the mall ends, take the doors to the left out of the mall and continue walking outside alongside the mall…eventually you come to some outside stairs (which descend about two stories – there is NO elevator! You have now arrived at the Erato St Cruise Terminal.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin 8A

Cabin. We booked a balcony cabin on Deck 6 (6465), starboard/aft. My parents booked an inside cabin directly across the hall (6467). Our cabin was nice – awful color combinations and décor like the other Carnival cruise we were on several years ago…but we did not book this trip for the décor. Our cabin steward was nice and helpful, however this is the first cruise I have been on where we have been asked what time of day we would like our cabin serviced. On all previous cruises (a Carnival, Norwegian, and Disney), we have received cabin service twice a day (usually a main cleaning time and then turn down in the evening). We picked a morning time as our daughter naps in the afternoon and we didn’t want to disturbed during that time, but that left us needing to go find our room steward in the evening if we needed new towels or anything else before bedtime (this was mostly an issue on port days when we would want to shower in the evening after being in port all day and wanted some fresh towels for the morning). Nonetheless, our cabin was kept clean and we appreciate our room steward’s hard work! One thing I do wish Carnival would jump on (and I think they have on the Vista) is bathtubs in at least some of the non-suite cabins for families with small children! The shower was not ideal for a wet, screaming 2-year-old.

*For those reading this who are traveling with 2-year-olds that are too large for a pack-n-play and who have transitioned to toddler bed: Our cabin had enough open floor space for an air mattress that we brought for our daughter to sleep on (I bought The Shrunks toddler travel air bed on Amazon – comes with an electric pump, a patch kit, and a two part air mattress – the inside portion is the size of a crib mattress and the outer portion had bumpers to keep the toddler from rolling off the bed) – this was a better option to us as we were concerned she would roll off the pull out couch bed in the room. This option will NOT work in an inside cabin or an ocean-view cabin as there is virtually no open floor space. The air mattress was just the right size to slide under the king-size bed for storage during the day.

Port Reviews

New Orleans

None of us had been to NOLA before and we were quite looking forward to it...I didn't realize how dirty the city was (Bourbon Street, for example, yuck!). We had a good time walking through the French Market and visiting Café Du Monde for beignets.

Roatan

We had a very enjoyable day in Mahogany Bay - we were disappointed that all the "clam shell" tents for the lounge chair were sold out, but if you walk further along the beach, there are tons of beach chairs under the shade of trees! The beach area is nice and there are huts with additional rentals for water activities. There is a playground for children (our daughter's favorite part) and life-size chess/checker boards as well as basketball hoops and a volleyball net. We didn't eat lunch in the port, but the food for purchase did look tasty. The walk from the dock to the beach area only takes about 5 minutes, however, many were paying to ride the "Magical Flying Beach Chair" (a ski lift), but the ride seemed like it took a long time as they had to stop the lift each time a group got on or off. There are several bars and shops in the this port.

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