My wife and I have been sailing since our marriage. We have been on about 20 Carnival cruises and almost all of their ships. Our honeymoon was on the Carnivale. The Dream is a beauty, but there was nothing special about this ship, except perhaps the numerous water slides. Sailing out of New York in the middle of November required no swimsuit, however out of Florida you may have your suit but wonder where all the pools are at. Don't look too hard as the center of ship only has one small pool and one aft. This is it! For over 4,000 passengers?
Yes this is largest ship Carnival has ever launched, but the ship was very crowded likely because the extra tonnage went to personal cabins. Don't get me wrong, it is nice and new, but nothing special. In other words, if you can't book this ship in Carnival's fleet don't worry about it. The cabins are identical to any other cabin in Carnival's fleet and they use essentially the same color scheme. We had a cove balcony, but it was not big deal. I would rather have booked a regular balcony. Because of the number of passengers all of the shops were loaded to capacity and all public areas were so busy it was difficult to walk around.
Carvival introduced a Comedy Club on this ship and having been to many in NYC, this is the real deal and the comedians were simply some of the best I have seen anywhere. Additionally, the Dream had the best production show I have seen on any ship and on any cruise line! I was really surprised. Believe me my daughter lives in NYC and has danced on Broadway and these dancers were simply that good!