Let me begin by saying, my family LOVES cruising. My DH and I have taken over 20, and our kids - ages 21, 18 and 12, have taken 10-14 depending on their age (the youngest started at 6 months). We have also cruised with 5 different lines. I'm not stating this to brag; but rather, to say we know what to expect and what we like in a cruise line or more specifically, a ship. I try to do my research before we book. This time I didn't get a chance before we booked. And honestly, the price was great and we went with it. NEVER again.
This was our third cruise with Carnival. We had done Glory back when she was new and my DH and I did Magic in '12 for our anniversary. Dream being her sister ship we figured we'd be ok. We did all the Voyager Class on RCCL and never had a problem. So what could go wrong?
I watched the CC Boards before we left. Read every Dream review that came out and well, I was worried. I warned the family and we boarded with the idea that we would have a great time because we were together and wouldn't dwell on the little things.
Always a fun shopping day.
We took a taxi and did some shopping. Do NOT prepay for return trip. Driver will try to get you to prepay for return trip and then give you a card to call for pick up. We opted out. Glad we did. Spoke to several people later on board who did prepay. And no one ever came back when they called. They ended up paying another driver to bring them back to the ship.
We flew in the night before and stayed an extra day after the cruise. Had a nice time just walking around the French Quarter.