BACKGROUND

I must start off by saying thanks to Cruise Critic Member Reviews for all the information about the ship, beaches and tours. We made contact with the Carnival Dream Roll Call on the Cruise Critic site. We made friends with a great group of fellow cruisers. Using the Cruise Critic message boards was very helpful as we were planning activities and preparing for the cruise. If you have not, get involved in a cruise roll call. It is a great way to find information about your cruise and make new cruising friends. Thanks to the members who planned our meet and greet. It was awesome to put faces with cruise names. Last year I wrote that I wasn't going to go on another Carnival ship, however here I am! The Dream was different. She is a big girl! Even though she is a big girl; she is very easy to maneuver. I am still not a true Carnival fan but I must admit this ship wasn't too bad. This is my BFF and I fifth Carnival cruise. We take our G-Sons aged 11 and 12 every year on an educational trip. We are both teachers with my BFF being retired.

EMBARKATION We drove down from Missouri to Cape Canaveral. We took a rest stop in Atlanta. We used Hot Wire to book our hotels. We had a four star hotel at motel prices. In Cape Canaveral we stayed at Comfort Inn, 3901 North Atlantic Ave. The hotel was one block from the public beach. Wonderful!! There were plenty of places to eat. We left the car there in their secured parking lot. We took a shuttle and arrived at the port at 11:30. We went through the process and were on the ship by 12:00. 30 minutes tops! We went directly to the room and dropped our luggage very quickly, so we would not disturb the room steward. We went up to the Lido deck for lunch. The pool was open so the G-sons got in the pool immediately. BFF and I went to meet and greet with our roll call. Read more