We took the Carnival Dream on her eastern Caribbean route from August 13th through August 20th. For my husband and I, this was our 5th cruise together. The previous 4 had all been on Norwegian Cruise Lines. This was not only our 19 month old son's first cruise; it was his first ever vacation. (For my review on cruising with a toddler, please see the family section under special interest cruising on the message boards...post is here  http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1468964.) We also traveled with my parents, my older brother and his wife and two sons (aged 7 and 5), and my younger sister.

I'll start with the Dream herself. Overall, she had everything you want on a good cruise ship. Plenty of room for everyone, good amount of bars and lounges, lots of space for kids, a nice adult's only area, lots of fun activities, etc. We never used the pools ourselves but they did look pretty small and crowded. Also, the decks around the pools were always jam packed. And with the huge TV constantly blaring something or another, I don't understand why. However, there were plenty of deck chairs throughout the ship and always many empty ones. There were so many empty deck chairs on deck 5 on the promenade. I think they should take out a few so walking around that with a stroller would be a lot easier, but that's just me. There were lots of very large hot tubs but they always seemed packed. The water slides were awesome and lots of fun for everyone (even my mom!).

However, honestly, we were not too impressed with the flow of the Dream. We had lots of issues navigating around her. They really did all they could to jam as much as possible into her interiors. My biggest complaint was the location and the smell of the casino. The casino was right in the middle of the ship. To go from the atrium to the lounges, you had to go through it (or go outside and go around it). On all other cruises I've been on the casino has been at one end of the ship and was pretty easily avoidable (usually with a hallway that went along side it). And even when the games were closed, it reeked of smoke. I'm usually not a complainer of this but this was almost unbearable. I love a good game of blackjack but I couldn't spend more than 2 minutes in there so I never did. Moving on, the bars were one after another and again no hallway. You had to walk through them. There was a clear walkway but there were always tables on both sides so you felt like you were always interrupting something. Also, we found the dEcor to be quite gaudy. Very old-style Vegas. Every doorway had LED signs telling where it led and sometimes there would be over 10 locations listed, all in different font and sizes. Plus, the paintings in the center stairwell were...unique. I'm sure some people enjoy a good painting of rubber ducks or a cat chasing a butterfly but not me. That stairwell did lead to Camp Carnival so I guess that could be why. But still, not everyone is going to Camp Carnival. And finally, the steps on the stairways were very narrow. When I was wearing heels, I found these stairs to be almost dangerous to walk down. I had to go very slow, especially when carrying my son. Read more