Our party of five, ranging in age from 10 to 72, had a wonderful Christmas Cruise on the Carnival Dream.

From the time we pulled into the parking garage at the NOLA port until we boarded was under an hour and we felt it was well organized. We choose Balcony cabins forward on deck 7 because we like a quiet location. It was perfect and the rooms were ready at 1:30. Our luggage was delivered within a couple hours and our steward met us and had us fill out a form with our preferences for things like extra towels, robes, turn down service etc. The first couple nights their was an issue with several young men being very noisy in the cabin next to my parents. This was a cabin that had an adjoining door and we will be sure never to book a cabin like that again. My parents complained to them directly and also to guest services. Guest services notified the parents of the complaint and that was the end of that. We were very pleased that the issue was addressed and resolved.

The ship sailed at capacity and we heard that their were 1300 children on board. We didn't really experience any issues with it being crowded. We did see some lines for certain food venues but it didn't really effect us much. We only ate in the dining room 3 nights. We booked the cruise late and all that was available was the late seating. Starting a 90+ minute meal at 8:15 in the evening was just to late for us. The food on Carnival is good but not great. That certainly did not stop us all from gaining a few pounds. Read more