I took this cruise with my wife and 12 year old daughter, this was my !4th cruise (carnival, princess, Norwegian). We drove in from Texas the day prior and stayed at the doubletree, New Orleans. We parked at the official port parking for $140 paid up front, I would recommend this (especially if you have a early flight) if you don't want to mess with shuttles or long walks with your luggage. I was able to purchase Faster to the fun (F2F), and it was definitely worth it, we were able to bypass most everyone and went almost directly to security and check in, despite being early for our check in time. Also our room was ready when we got on board, and our bags showed up within our first hour. We were able to unpack prior to the lifeboat drill. I would say embarkation was one of the best I have experienced. The next two days were sea days, more than enough to do, you just need to participate, or just relax! There are occasional lines, but the only one i was in more than 5 mins. was the line for the chocolate extravaganza. We did Carnival tours in roatan, and Cozumel, and only checked out the shops in Belize city (free WiFi in the shops) we had fun at all of them. The food was good, main dinning room better than the buffet, try the burritos! My daughter did participate in circle C, she said she had fun with the activities she took part in. The shows were good, better than many in the past, this is the only ship I've seen with a break dancing group. The comedians, four in total, were all really good. Tip: don't stand in line for comedy,wait fro them to let the line in, and the go in. As long as your there around 10 mins. prior you will find plenty of seats. The 18+ will be fuller than the PG comedy. Now the reason for my mediocre rating. Two main reasons: The Dream desperately needs to go to dry dock for refurbishment (being accomplished in January), everywhere you look there are issues, like cracked windows, broken decorations, shabby carpets, rickety chairs, malfunctioning av equipment, graffiti (in the elevator), obvious wear and tear, and no Carnival 2.0 upgrade. Secondly, Carnival has done away with a lot of the small things that were important to me. Only one room cleaning per day, no more pillow chocolates, no more past guest party, no more ability to bring bottled water on board (in !4 cruises i have never seen delayed embarkation due to security checking for alcohol in water bottles), lower quality of service in the main dinning rooms, we had "your time dinning". It seemed like the dinning room staff were rushed, under staffed, and unhappy. To be fair the ship was always kept clean, and a newer cruiser may miss a lot of these issues. I got off with the feeling that Carnival cares more about the bottom line than its passengers. It seemed as though they are no longer worried about ensuring past guests return. Disembarkation with F2F was as easy as it gets, only the diamond and platinum passengers got off first. We were driving home by 7:10am.