Just returned from Carnival Dream cruise with husband and 2 girls, 6 and 8 years old. Because of the hurricanes, itinerary was changed to Western Caribbean instead of Eastern side. No big deal for us because ports really are not important. My girls are really interested in the beaches and Camp Carnival. Camp Carnival is excellent - my girls didn't want to leave it most days.
This is our third time with Carnival, having previously sailed with Glory and Liberty. We wanted to try a bigger ship, thinking it might be more impressive. Service and standard were great like the previous ships but my only and biggest complaint, as I have read with other passengers on this website, is the lack of public spaces for a ship of this size with the number of passengers. Huge line ups for everything, especially at meal times.
For example, on the Liberty there were 6 frying pans going at the Mongolian Wok at lunch time. On the Dream, with 4500 passengers, they had only 6 frying pans going too! There wasn't a proportionate increase in amenities or services given the extra thousand or more passengers on Dream compared to the smaller ships. The Encore theatre looked like it seated the same number of people as the Glory or Liberty which meant that if you wanted to get a good seat you had to come 30-45 minutes before the shows to save seats.