We recently returned from the August 20-27 Western Caribbean Sailing on the Carnival Dream. This was our 7th Carnival Cruise. Overall we had a wonderful time. Cruise Critic has been an invaluable tool for me for my past cruises and I just wanted to share a few of my observations and experiences. Myself (44) DW (43) and DS (7) left NY on Thursday Morning and Started our drive down to Florida. We stopped in South Carolina for an overnight break and arrived at Cocoa Beach Friday around 2:30PM. We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton in Cocoa Beach. The hotel was immaculate and we really enjoyed our stay here. They have an outdoor pool with a waterfall and Jacuzzi. The Lobby is quite unique. It contains a Starbucks, The Cocoa Beach Surf Company and a restaurant with a large aquarium. The restaurant was quite good and I was able to pick up some inexpensive water shoes right in the "Lobby" at the surf club store. The Hotel is 2 blocks from the beach but a ways away from the Cocoa Beach Pier. They do offer a shuttle to the port and a cruise/park package but we chose to take our car to the port.

DAY 1. Embarkation

We awoke Saturday Morning and Headed out to the port at 10:30AM. Arrived at the port 10:40AM and on the ship at 11:10AM. Port Canaveral embarkation is a breeze, The best of any port we have cruised out of. My First Impression of the ship as I entered the grand atrium was that it was beautiful but rather small for such a large ship. It felt more like something between a spirit class and Conquest Class atrium. We really enjoyed the overall dEcor of the ship. It is more toned down than past ships that Joe Farcus designed. We are probably in the minority but all of us really enjoy the Farcus themes on the ships we have sailed (Glory-colors, Victory-oceans, etc.). Even the famous grapes in the Miracle dining room did not bother us. As soon as we boarded we headed straight up to the pasta bar on deck 11 and had a great lunch all by ourselves. We followed the CC advice and enjoyed this experience before everyone found out about it. We also hit the water park and DW and DS enjoyed the slides while everyone else was busy boarding and eating. After that we went to check on our dining arrangement and got on a very long line of people waiting to see the Maitre D. We then headed to our room. I booked room 8270 which was Verandah deck forward and very close to the atrium elevators. I read on many reviews about the awful experiences with elevators so I figured why not just pick a room that has 10 elevators right around the corner (6 regular and 4 glass). This turned out to be a very smart move since I always noticed a logjam near the rear elevators around dining and showtimes. We NEVER waited more than a minute for an elevator. The room is the standard carnival room and my biggest fear when booking this room was how much the lanai below our balcony would bother me. I picked deck 8 figuring we would be 3 decks above it. Privacy was really not an issue as the lanai is quiet most of the time and people did not really look up. The biggest attraction by far is the oversized chess game they have. There were people playing this day and night! The hot tubs were fairly quiet most of the time. I did miss having nothing but the ocean right below and will probably try a cove balcony on my next Dream Class Cruise. Muster Drill for us was held in the Crimson Dining room (which was also our dining room) and is a much more pleasant experience than being lined up 6 deep outside in 90 degree weather. After muster we watched sailaway Read more