I embarked on the Carnival dream out of Rome to New York City. I left Oct 26 arrived Nov. 12th. This is my ninth cruise with four previous lines. Carnival was the fifth. For the cost of the cruise, my expectations met the mark. I will explain the flaws which many posters are 100% correct. As for embarkation, easy download fun pass your on. Let me start with the pools. (1) Very small I mean small. Max capacity,15 in each one.(2) Atrium seemed to be the size of smaller conquest class ships in order to accomadate the large casino. (3) co-ed sauna recieved complaints from females about males in sauna. The steamroom in mens lockeroom although free, witha slippary floor since wall tiles used as flooring in wet areas. The costly thermal suite the so called cash cow took space from the free locker rooms and gym areas. The lido food lines atrocious. Very long lines on sea days. Food quality average. Dining room open seating average. As far as service goes, I found the crew overall polite but after being in NYC dealing with the surly passengers, they probably turned rude after I left. Many employees live in the Euro zone so with American dollars in pay, A disincentive to go the extra mile.(4) Internet service, avoid at all costs. You will hear the mumbo jumbo about why its slow. Who cares.? It can go as high as a dollar a minute with a slow connection. Port stops offer it for under 5 an hour! One poster is right like a super WAl-mart. Carnival did all their traffic flow analyzing. Maximize revenue! Compromise the free things. Charge them to use a decent sauna. Give them bare bones gym steam room. Put men and women ina sauna!.Keep the pool small they will buy more beverages. Make the casino big shrink the atrium, they do not pay for that! We as Carnival charge less give them less! All this ship is compromising the free things,make sure they spend while they are on here. Add more cabins, without increasing the public areas. Cruising has evolved and the Carnival Dream wants to be as close as a land hotel rather than a cruise ship. I sailed the ship with 3500 not with the over 4000 which can happen on peak times. If you are to go on Carnival I recommend the conquest class, Valor, freedom, liberty, glory. This ship is not for me. The good thing self assist helped me get off the ship. One good note the promenade had a good flow. In summary, the public areas too small,Carnival seemed to use data to track people. In other words if its for free you pay the price ina bad way!