First, the Dream is an outstanding ship. Their crew and staff are equally high quality. If you select the Carnival Dream you need to be aware the passenger load is around 4,500! On our cruise at the end of August had 1400 kids. Be aware of the school schedules if you don't want to wait in line at the ice cream machine :). Our cruise seemed to lack common courtesy from other passengers, I.e., cutting through lines, reaching around you in the buffet lines, saying excuse me, etc. Thought some were quite rude, but with 4,500 people on board, you sort of expect a little of that.

My two biggest issues concern crowd planning. The first was the disembarkation at Grand Turk was a disaster. 4,500 people trying to use elevators and stairs took 30 min for us to get out and we were compressed like sardines. Seems to me we didn't have this problem on the first two stops, but Grand Turk was different. Also, the final disembarkation was even worse. We finally got off about 3 hours after the disembarkation started. Lesson learned is to carry your own bags off instead of letting the crew take your bags the night before. If you carry. Your own bags off you can leave immediately. Pack light.

Our cruise was also rerouted because of hurricane Isaac. No problem however as the staff redirected to our other two ports, cancelled the original first port, then added Grad Turk. The seas were moderately rough the first day out of Port Canaveral. Amazingly my wife did well. Te ship didn't roll too much but it was the roughest my four-time cruise friends said they had ever experienced. Read more