Carnival Dream Review
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The ship itself was beautiful. The decor was unusual but not unattractive. I think it was supposed to be strange as in "Dream." They didn't quite drive the point home, instead leaving us scratching our heads and wondering why there was artwork of polar bears dancing in a ballroom, or mice riding flying books, or sea turtles throwing a beach ball. Our balcony room was very comfortable, although the bed was not a king as stated. Although the ship was considered "full," it didn't seem so at all. There were plenty of deck chairs available, and many niches where one could find peace and quiet or have some privacy for a conversation or to read a book, etc. That's all the good I have to say about our time spent on the ship.
There is no "fun" on this "fun ship." The "Fun Times" were full of things like Spa tour, Guess the price of the painting, Free footprint analysis, Medispa physician consultations, How to look 10 years younger, and one type of Trivia after another. Their attempts at throwing deck parties or dance parties were cheesy and didn't last long (perhaps an hour). They simply made no attempts at getting people mingling. Even the layout of the ship didn't encourage people to gravitate to "common areas" where they might make friends or get caught up in the "fun." I personally don't find the huge tv on the Lido deck over the pool to be "fun," either. What's fun about laying on a lounge chair and watching sitcom reruns day after day?
The food was downright disgusting except for the pizza, the Taste Bar, and Chef's Table. We didn't eat in the dining room, so I can't comment on that. The Tandoor Station had very dry Indian food that all tasted pretty much the same (same flavor profile). The chicken was dry and there wasn't much variety. The Grill had huge hot dogs that were WAY too big for their buns, and burgers that were over-cooked (gray center). The Deli didn't offer much variety and the ham and turkey were very sweet, which is off-putting, and they only offered American cheese. The pizza was good, but was not available 24-hours as promised. I tried to get pizza at noon one day, the whole station was broken down and covered up and no one was there. Another day I tried around 5pm, same thing. Other times, there were people there, but it didn't matter what you asked for, there was a wait and you had to come back later to get it.
Cabin Review
The room was spacious and appeared clean at first. Within a few minutes, I began to suspect it hadn't been vacuumed because I found things like those plastic barbs that attach price tags to clothing on the floor, a part of a candy wrapper, etc on the floor. There was hair on the floor in the bathroom. (Though later on day one, and throughout the rest of the cruise, they kept our room immaculate.) The pillows are very soft, which is great for me as I have a bad neck, but the two decorative pillows propped on the bed were old, flat, and disgusting. I took them off the bed and put them on the couch, but the steward put them back on the bed on his next visit... so I hid them from him for the rest of the cruise. The first closet didn't have much room in it because it had the life vests and two big robes. The second closet is where we had to hang all of our clothes because the third closet, the shelves wouldn't fold back up so we could hang more clothes. The tv is very small. The balcony was nice because it made the room feel very spacious having all that natural light, but it wasn't really practical to sit out there. The smell of people smoking cigarettes and cigars, which they allow on balconies, was very strong and continued non-stop. The big gaps around the doors on each side separating our balcony from our neighbors' made it feel more public than private. The noise from everyone scraping their chairs around was also non-stop. The views were nice enough, though we were on the starboard side, which meant that in port we were facing the ocean instead of the port. We were fine with that, but others might prefer to face the ports.