I'm pretty discerning about cruises, and we'd been researching Royal Caribbean for our "girl's" cruise, but we decided to take the Dream since it was new. The four of us work together, and we wanted to just get away for some relaxation. Two out of the four of us are married, and all but 1 person had cruised before.

Leaving Chicago behind, with frigid weather, we landed in Orlando. We overnighted at the Radisson At The Port in Port Canaveral. I'm a travel agent, and we usually use this hotel for our groups. The rooms are nice, the pool is very well done, and the staff is very accommodating and friendly. It was very cool in Florida that first night, and our room was cold. The hotel quickly relocated us to another room that was very toasty. We rented a car from Enterprise, and they shuttled us to the port (included with the car rental). Embarkation was very well done; very smooth and quick. We got on board the ship within 15 minutes of getting in the door to the building. We found our cabin right away, and dropped our carry-ons. We had a cabin on the first deck - the lowest I've ever been on a ship. We loved our cabin! We had the larger ocean view with the regular bathroom, plus the additional 1/2 bathroom that has a junior tub with a shower and a second sink and mirror. That worked out great, since we were four women trying to get ready for dinner - 2 could shower while the other two got dressed, etc. We chose the later seating for dinner, simply because we wanted to spend as much time at each port that we could, and not have to rush back for early seating. We always ate in the Crimson Dining Room, even though we could have opted for other places around the ship. We adored our waiters; Yonel and Antonio! The made sure everything was perfect for us, and they found time to joke with us and make us feel special. Our cabin steward and his assistant were wonderful, as well! They helped us out with every request we had.

The ship left Port Canaveral and the weather was cold, 37 degrees and rainy. As the ship sailed further towards Cuba, the seas got rockier. I've sailed a lot and this seemed strange to me. I'd been on another sailing the year before, at the very same week and the sailing was a smooth as glass. This one was very choppy. For the first two and a half days, the ship rocked a lot. There was no storm or too much wind, so the passengers couldn't figure it out. The reason the sailing was so rocky was because of the earthquake in Haiti. It had so many aftershocks and it kept shaking up the Caribbean. The weather was still cool when we arrived in Cozumel - 75 degrees, but we thought it was great. We shopped in Cozumel and had a great time. We came back to the ship with a couple hours before sailing and we checked out the outdoor areas, since we'd not been out much before that. The ship is really beautiful! The decor is very well done. They use themes throughout, repeatedly. In each elevator, they have a mirrored back wall with glass colored balls sporadically placed on the glass, and this is repeated on the glass lining the handrails, in the floor, etc. The curtain in the show lounge had the same pattern as the glass in the elevators. Since we were on the first deck, we did hear sounds from down under us, but it is what it is. If your on a moving ship, you're going to hear sounds. If you don't want to hear noises, book a cabin up higher. Given the choppy seas, the ship was bound to make some noise. Read more