Carnival Dream Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,963 reviews

Carnival Dream-Wonderful cruise

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Dream
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David-n-Rita
First Time Cruiser • Age 80s

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Sail Date: May 2010
Cabin: Aft-View Extended Balcony

Review of the Carnival Dream sailing on 5-1-10 (It is a long review and we specifically addressed previous negatives in the section at the end.)

We are a couple in our 50's and 60's who cruise 3-4 times a year, always on Carnival. This was our 12th cruise with Carnival. We picked the Dream because we like the big ships and this was the biggest and newest so we booked it. We were a little discouraged after reading the bad reviews, but overall the negative comments seemed petty so we were sure we would have a great cruise. We cruise to be together, rarely go to games or shows, preferring instead to just spend time together for the most part. We do not lie out in the sun so chair hogs are not a problem for us. This was the Western itinerary going to Cozumel, Isla Roatan, Costa Maya and Belize. We had previously been to all the ports except Isla Roatan. We started our trip on Wednesday driving down to Syracuse NY to stay overnight for our early morning flight on DELTA. Flight was uneventful and we landed in Orlando on schedule with all our luggage. We rented a car from Thrifty to drive to Canaveral, use until cruise day and drop off and catch their shuttle to the port. ($118.00 for 2 days unlimited mileage - booked direct on their website, we had a Dodge Grand Caravan) We arrived in Canaveral (about 35 minute drive) and went to our hotel Radisson at the port. Great hotel, we booked a 2 room Jacuzzi suite for the two nights ($143.00/night for two nights booked directly with the hotel) Great location, close to all the rental car places, stores and liquor stores nearby for last minute purchases. Plenty of places to eat as well.. Thursday night we ate at Fishlips, a sports bar/resturant/outdoor eatery. We got the fish fry which was $12.50 each and huge portions. The other menu items (fish) were all in the $25-$35 price range with nothing in between. On Friday we went to the Kennedy Space center but didn't go in - they wanted $100 for both of us to get in and included, rides and special tours we didn't want. We just wanted a museum. We were told, it was all or nothing - pay the price and spend the entire day there or don't go. (The Space center is outsourced to a tour company we were told) We ended up at the Astronaut Hall of Fame which was great, just what we were looking for.; ($18.00/person) Friday evening we met our Cruise critic group at the Radisson for a meet and greet (we had several things planned with the roll call members)

SAT - EMBARKATION DAY - Dropped our rental car off and they took us to the port free. Radisson has a shuttle but they don't run it until 11:30am and that is too late for us. We ignored the call we got from Carnival telling us to get there between 1:30pm-3:00pm - done that before, it's a nightmare, we like early. Incidentally, everyone got the call to be there at that time like it was a special time for them, wrong. Luckily we went between 10:45am and 11:00am. We have priority boarding as we are Platinum, and that went fine. The ship is big and beautiful. Very clean, no smells that we noticed. We had an aft balcony 7467. Very nice with a nice size balcony. The aft cabins seem bigger on the Dream than previous ships we have had aft cabins on.. Our ship stewards were Jose & Koko and they introduced themselves that first day, learned our routine and everything was to perfection in our cabin all week. Had lunch on the Lido - hubby went to the Deli and had a sandwich (no wait at 12:30pm) I had the buffet and waited on no real line either. It was a little close with everyone walking around carrying luggage, but this improved after the rooms were ready. We are not Spa people per se, but we decided to try the spa package to use the steam rooms and thallo pool at $249.00/couple for the week. While the facilities were very nice, there was so much else going on throughout the ship that we managed to get up to the Spa once in the 7 days. (Certainly not very cost effective for us --$124 each for one visit- therefore we would not buy into the spa again, although if you use it a lot, it would be very nice.) Safety drill was painless - no more dragging and donning germ infested life jackets and standing like sardines in the hot muster stations. Went to the dining room where an employee demonstrated the life jackets and told us where to go. The only down side was the fact that even though we cruised 12 times, this is the first time we left the drill, not really sure where to go and since we didn't actually go to the station itself, we didn't really know where it was. We had early dining 6pm and we requested a table for two that we had. Our waiter were Punta and Julie at table 461 in the Lower Scarlett Dining room. All the food we had in the dining room for the entire cruise was great. (for that matter everything we ate on the ship was great)

Cabin Review

Aft-View Extended Balcony

Cabin 8M

7467 - Aft extended balcony - great cabin - has a couch and bed, small refrigerator, safe. One outlet very far from the bed (would need at least a 15 foot cord to use a cPAP machine in bed.

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