Dream Cruise Line

Auckland

Sydney (Australia)

Shanghai

Singapore

Brisbane

Wellington

Darwin

Australia & New Zealand

Asia

South Pacific

Trans-Ocean

Pacific Coastal

Average

Poor

Terrible

Very Good

Excellent

Explorer Dream

World Dream

Genting Dream

We got a twin ocean view cabin for about $98/nite pp which was cheap for a 7 night Tasmania cruise from Sydney. Embarkation was relatively smooth - much better than P&O's amateurish efforts.  Dream Cruises come from Asia and are basically geared to cater for the Asian market. This could explain some of the issues we encountered. About half of the passengers were asian. The ship was a bit "quirky" but quite OK. I'm not sure what the Ancient Greek theme on the pool deck & the main restaurant was about, but was no big deal. The big cathedral rear windows in the main restaurant were great, and the theatre was nice, but a bit small for the size of the ship & number of passengers, and was located at the stern rather than up the bow like all other ships. The cabin was OK size-wise, not as tiny as Sun class ships (Sun Princess, Sea Princess & Pacific Explorer) but not as roomy as Voyager of the Seas or Pacific Jewel/Dawn. Not much hanging space and no drawers in the bed-side units made things a little difficult. The en suite was small as per most cabins. The sliding door on the toilet didn't - it was jammed open but would have been fairly non-functional if it was closed so we left it as it was. Shower was OK, vanity basin about normal. The bed was some cobbled-together-thing that was probably smaller than a double (yes smaller!) that was very high and hard. It also had a bow in the middle that felt like you were going to slide or roll off it either side if you let go of your death grip on the sheets. It was uncomfortable and the sole cause of poor sleep for the trip. A queen size probably wouldn't have fit very well in the cabin but I would have thought a queen was a basic minimum for a cruise? Dining! This is where we take a bit of a slide down hill. If you didn't get yourself there at their specified narrow times you literally missed out - not joking. Breakfast finished at 9.30 but they started pushing you out at 9.00 am by cutting off things like the "juices". Lunch finished at 1.30. Bad luck if you are a late luncher, they weren't interested. Dinner finished at 9.30 but they made no secret of being annoyed if you turned up around 9.00 pm. You should have seen them starting to take away the trays in the buffet, and shoveling the plates in front of you in the restaurant to get you to eat quicker. A really poor show I thought - eating to the cruiseline's imposed timetable? There were "snacks" provided at other times during the day but for the "whole ship" there were 4 small trays of ... uhm ... crap. Tasteless squares of pizza, tasteless oily triangles of something, and rum balls that were tasteless, oily and warm cake that were covered by half melted chocolate substitute. Yuk. The quality of the food in the main restaurant was OK. We had some nice meals there. Nothing special and the quantity was meagre but OK (so long as you didn't turn up late that is!). The buffet was, well, a bit of a joke most of the cruise. One side of the buffet was never opened for the whole cruise. The other side was generally half opened (that's 1/4 of capacity) except for a couple of big nights when almost all of the one side was opened. It was broken up into different sections that didn't seem to have any particular theme or food type. You just lined up and took your chances. For the first few times we went in the wrong way (each section seemed to have a different direction of entry & exit. Never mind, it wasn't a hanging offence but some of the asian passengers seemed to be annoyed by these non-compliant Aussies going in & out in the wrong directions. The food in the buffet was average to poor and the choice was limited to say the least. Enough said there. There were plenty of "pay" restaurants all over the ship where there seemed to be much more attention to detail, quality & choice. Fancy that! The entertainment was largely of world class standard. They really did put time & resources into the shows & music, but many missed out on the shows in the theatre because it was too small for the ship numbers and they didn't have a second session. Also, if you did go to the show, you missed out on dinner unless you ate around 5.00 pm. Amazing. The casino reminded me of an old country RSL in the 80's, but you could smoke at the pokies or the tables if you wanted if that's your thing (to cater for the asian customers basically). The tender service to Port Arthur was OK, not the amateur show that P&O often is. All of the scheduled ports were visited. Would we go with Dream Cruises again? It would have to be bloody cheap to get us back on board, all things considered, unless they get their service principles reset to serving their cruisers, not their ordered routines (and better food too!) (and a better bed too!).

Not as good as expected

Our trip to Tasmaina and Eden through Explorer Dream was amazing, would definitely do another trip with them again! From the moment we step onboard with complementary  drinks and friendly faces, we felt welcomed.

Checked into our cabins, very well presented, we were delighted to find out that we had an upgrade to level 11, mid ship. Every thing was accessible and convenient. Housekeeping had every minor detail down to a tee, with top ups of bottle water and complementary tea and coffee.

With choices of 3 complementary dinning options as well as 11 paid eateries, we were spoiled for choice.  We both enjoyed Dream dinning the best as the food and services was top notch, would have happily dinned there every day on this cruise breakfast , lunch and dinner.

We both agree that the entertainment provided was enjoyable a mix for all ages, from the magic show with Vince Vignaud through to the staged productions like Rhythm Divine and Love Around the world they were all enthralling. Bands and music by Pianist Raz , Gold Dream duo, Major Impact Band and the Crossover Band were super entertaining.

 Must check October itinerary as  Explorer Dream is coming back to Sydney then!

Highly recommended to all friends and family.

first time cruise - last time now this company. 

Welcome aboard - had to argue that we had pre-purchased a drinks package! 

Food was only ok - most days stale bread was delivered to the table. albeit the waiting staff were very pleasant and attentive.  

Spirits (drinks) watered down. Which i proved to the staff. 

The surcharges and additional fees are a total rip!  

Whilst I embrace a multicultural world and appreciate that English is not the native language of the Nightly MC - it would have been to understand what he was saying not having to second guess every other word. 

The evening activities are extremely limited and only one entertainment bar open - which (my opinion) allows children to run around the dance floor till the early hours - why? 

The casino, both time i visited - closed???? 

The cruise director - i really didn't need to hear ''i love you all'' every-time you spoke.   

When departing the ship we got hit with unexpected charge of nz$480.00 fees and charges we couldn't understand....  

leaving the ship was similar to boarding, we felt ripped. Congrats Carnival you sure understand customer service - not!

Very disappointing - never again 

I chose this cruise, number 4 cruise for us, as we had never been with Dream Cruises. I read the reviews and thought they were a mixed bag, so I booked this cruise for my husbands 60th b/day. Embarkation was very quick and disembarkation (although there was no time for breakfast) went very smooth and quickly. The ship itself was beautiful. Most of the staff spoke very little English so it was hard to have a conversation. The entertainment and activities were very limited and undesirable. On our other 3 cruises, there weren’t enough hours in the day for us to do all the activities and go to all the theatre shows. They had so many more choices of activities. The food was very Asian inspired, very ordinary compared to P&O & Royal Caribbean, no variety of fruit, just the basic. Dining experience again was very Asian, not enough choices for Aussie cuisine. 2 family members are vegans, poor food choices, they ate hash browns and bread for 3 days until we complained, then an alternate menu was given, again, extremely poor food choices eg..fruit for dessert for 3 days straight. We paid extra to eat different food restaurants and we ate offshore at every opportunity. Only one option per port for off shore tours, a bus drive city highlight tour.  Nothing else was available. There were 6 of us, and it was my son in laws first ever cruise. After telling him all the wonderful things on our past 3 cruises, he was very excited to go but we were all very disappointed and unfortunately would not travel with Dream Cruises again. Dream cruise staff should experience a P&O or Royal Caribbean cruise to see the difference between them. I usually never write reviews about trips and we are a family that loves cruising. We are very casual and enjoy most things, but this cruise was very disappointing, I’m sorry to say.

Unfortunately this wasn’t our Dream Cruise

Where should I Start? This was THE worst experience ever.

The entertainment was excellent and thoroughly enjoyed, that is all that is good on this ship.

The food throughout only catered for asian customers.  Even the Western Restaurant was western food with asian flavours? asian spices, weird food pairing? we were served steak on a bed of noodles? unbelievable, plating combinations never before seen not to mention we were served stale bread every single evening.

Drink orders took in excess of 30 mins every single time in every single venue, most drink orders would come back wrong.  The staff are not across the english language therefore the entire cruise was very frustrating.  We tried the coffee in every single cafe/restaurant/eatery, no-body on board could make a proper cup of coffee.  We were in a group of 7 and we all purchased drinks and coffee vouchers on arrival to find we cannot have a cup of tea instead of a coffee as it was terrible.  The staff refused us tea which is cheaper than a cup of coffee, therefore we did not use our vouchers.  No customer service and no effort to make customers happy in any way.  Staff smiled and greeted us constantly all through the ship but could not show any compassion or accommodate any reasonable request.  We collectively will never recommend this cruise to anyone.

SHOCKING

Choose this cruise line as first time down to Australia and needed to explore. We have been on many cruises in the mid range but this one was well below our expectations.

Chinese line. Need a lot to learn about what Western passengers expect.

Apparently this is normally a gambling ship out of Singapore and HongKong. 

Rooms were clean. Single beds which we did not expect. Staff were very polite. Wines were fine and well priced.

Food up in the LIdo was mostly cold to warm. Food in main restaurant was just OK. Bread always stale. Set menu in Chinese restaurant no choices.

Cordial as juice for breakfast. Last day was for excited as on the menu was eggs with smoked salmon. When it arrived asked where was the smoked salmon.Answer it was minced into the scramble eggs. Not what was expected. Could only have Lipton tea. Any other types like decaf or peppermint etc needed to pay for. Free coffee was terrible. Coffee from cafe bar was Ok but you needed to buy it.

Port days times of arrival and departure very poor. For example arrived Melbourne 3pm left 12 midnight. So by the time disembarked which was very very slow all attractions closed.

Captains communication was none existent. Only heard from him once and that was when we couldn’t leave Sydney because of bad weather. No communication when we could disembark just had to watch other people making moves.

Never again. Not cheap compared to say mid priced R.C. Or H.A. Or Celebrity. Stay with them.

Never again

We had never been on a cruise and it came up on email and the travel agent highly recommended it even though I subsequently discovered she had never been on the ship.

Amenities and cabin were good.

Staff good but difficult to communicate with .

Mostly Filipinos and Indonesians .

Got hassled as soon as I boarded to purchase vouchers for alcohol- “today only very cheap price - bought the 5 bottles of wine package and 2 of the $70,00 individual drink packages.

Drink packages are okay but the wine is almost undrinkable.

Had to have a few spirits each day before attempting to tackle the horrible wine.

On the last day we asked to settle the bill and we were each charged AUD140.00 for gratuity.

I said but I have paid already 18% gratuity tax on everything I purchased and was told it was for cleaning the room.i refused to pay it and they immediately removed the $280.00 from the invoice .

It was a try one and how many of the few thousand on board didn’t query it.

The other complaint was the lack of entertainment.

Their is virtually nothing to do except read and drink or play bingo if u are into that.

Their was a handful of bored children on the cruise but most of the movies were children’s movies - mostly cartoons.

Relaxing and Boring 

We chose this company solely on the price & sailed with them last November from Sydney to Gladstone, Mooloolaba, Brisbane back to Sydney. This time we sailed Sydney, Port Arthur, Hobart, Melbourne, Burnie back to Sydney. (Sydney Port Authority did not allow us to leave the harbour till the following evening due to VERY rough seas & bad storms, some passengers complained but I didn't, as a seasoned cruiser I appreciated it! We had smooth sailing from then on, the shows exceptional, it was our birthdays & they went above & beyond making us feel special! The staff remembered us from previous cruise & continued to give excellent service! We definitely will be back cruising with this company. We get to one port so they reimbursed us a considerable sum!! Never had this previously with ANYONE! Their cruise ship is amazing & staff fantastic, food was excellent too! We were inside cabin & found the room very clean, bathroom excellent, shower had A LOT of room.

Dream Cruises

We chose this cruise as it was a new company to New Zealand. What made our trip was the entertainment, which was world class.

Also the piano player Ronaldo Raz, just made our days as we listened to him playing and singing, just fabulous. We got to as many of his gigs as we could as It was so enjoyable, also it was world class.

Food mediocre, beds very hard, which made them uncomfortable., we all had painful backs each night to contend with.

Why put folk that ask for a wheelchair to come onto the ship and disembark in the cabin we got, we had to walk to the lift to deck seven, then walk the length of the ship to go down to deck 6 for our meals. This does not show on the deck plan at all,we were the last cabin on deck 6 which showed that we could walk straight into the restaurant , or so we thought.

We did go to the quiz days, which we have loved on other ships, but sorry to say could not understand what they were saying to join in, a language problem.

 Cruising

St. Thomas

As promised, here I come with my detailed review of the Explorer Dream. On 2 Feb, we boarded the cruise at Auckland. We thoroughly enjoyed right from the time we checked in our luggage. Contrary to my doubts that there would be a long queue waiting for baggage drop, I was pleasantly surprised that there was hardly any que and the helpers were too quick to take my luggage from me. Then came the boarding part and what a smooth boarding was it. Once again, due to concerns of Corona virus, I was thinking about long wait. Dream cruises had devised plans not to cause inconvenience to low risk passengers. We were already on deck 7 Grand Piaza within a few minutes. Welcome soft drink was offered but I am not a fan so let that go. I was approached for a drink’s package and found $75 package for 10 drinks irresistible. Why wouldn’t I when premium beer was on offer.

We then made our way to the Lido for afternoon tea. We were impressed with all the precautions and cleanliness. As I am not a big eater, I enjoyed small portions, but could see several people digging on hard on the delicious food. I was impressed.

As were several friends with partners, we headed to our cabins. What a treat? I was impressed with my Ocean View State Room on Deck 9. Several power socket options, USB charging options, fridge, cleanliness of the bed and bath room and the views from our balcony. I thoroughly enjoyed the sunrise from balcony every morning with a hot cup of tea.

We had our first dinner at the Lido. With good spread of food, I could not complain as I am not a big eater. Some people did find the spread a bit too limited as compared to some cruises.

Our second dinner was at the Dream Dinning Restaurant (inclusive with the cruise fare). The staff that greeted us at the entrance of the restaurant and those who served food were all very pleasant. I was highly impressed the way they tried very hard to ensure that we were treated well. There was no need for advance booking. Just queue up. Although, it was a very popular dinner venue so sometimes we had to postpone our meal until the time there was space for our whole gang.

We enjoyed the shows every night. The quality was amazing. We visited, Gisborn, Wellington, and Dunedin and enjoyed the outing including arrangements for shuttle and sightseeing. I can provide more info if required. Here I will not elaborate that as the review is for the cruise not for sightseeing.

There were several on board activities and I personally loved the trivia, Pingpong and dancing. It was an amazing bonus when lovely Russian dance instructor picked me to be her partner in demonstrating the dance moves. She is beautiful, graceful and of course skilful.

Every morning I enjoyed the gym and burnt few calories as lovely food and drinks would have otherwise added extra kilos around my waist.

There was lots of food, programs, activities and not enough time at hand. I would love to take Explorer Dream again and enjoy the lovely cruise and company of amazing staff and activities. I hope I can get my old cabin every time I cruise in future. All the best all cruisers and enjoy cruising.

Filters

1-10 of 63