Our Christmas Cruise aboard the Carnival Dream was great compared to some of the other recent reviews on the Dream. No, I am not a first time cruiser either. This is my 14th cruise, the 7th Christmas Cruise and the 4th cruise on Carnival. The ship was beautiful and reminded me of other Carnival ships, most similarly the Glory. The decor was muted for Carnival, which was a sensory respite from the "whimsical" decor on other Carnival ships. Yes, there were long lines; yes there were too many people. Yes, you can figure out ways to avoid the lines and even get a deck chair too!

Embarkation at Port Canaveral is usually pain free for our family as we have a wheelchair user and get special assistance from the embarkation staff. Honestly, the special assistance that we receive at Port Canaveral from Carnival is better than any other cruise line we have used.

The basic design of the ship forces one to utilize the elevators more than other ships. This can become a problem if you or someone in your party is using a wheelchair. We had two wheelchair users in our family, so we had to be a bit assertive to get the elevator space that we needed. Our cabins were traditional sized outside cabins on deck two aft. One good thing about the cabin location was that they were off of the main path and tended to be fairly quiet. Being on a lower level and in the aft can also bring excessive engine noise and vibration, but we were not surprised by this. Read more