My husband, kids, and I just returned from the from a great vacation on the Carnival Dream. This was one of the best vacations we have ever had. We traveled from Feb 19-26, 2011. This week was winter break for our kids as well as many other schools across the country. There were many families with kids on the ship. For us that wasn't an issue, but if you want peace and quiet it could be. Remember, it was winter break. I don't know if the ship would have had as many kids otherwise. I will try to address items in the order we did them.

Embarkation: Piece of cake. I went online and fill out the fun pass. This made getting on the ship much easier. We arrived to the port around 12:30. We drove from Michigan. Parking at the port was not a problem, but it is paid parking. Very fast and convenient. The porters took our luggage and my husband parked the car. It maybe took us 30 minutes to get on the ship.

Cabins: We had 2 adjoining balcony cabins on deck 7. The kids had their own room and my husband and I had our own (nice if you want some alone time). I had no concerns regarding the balcony and the kids. The lock is located high on the door where the kids can't reach it. Odor: I had read reviews that said people had smelled an odor on the ship. I did smell a mildew like odor occasionally, nothing that was really significant. It was only in the hallway on our floor. Read more