We booked this cruise for our 36th wedding anniversary and my 65 th birthday both writhing a month or so of each other. We flew from Manchester in the snow which delayed us for an hour. The fight itself was ok apart from a very rude couple sat in front of us who both insisted on reclining their seats. Myself being 6'2 and no extra legroom seats available when we booked found it very uncomfortable. Not of to a good start. The transfer was quick and the luggage arrived at our cabin quite promptly. On first impression the ship looked nice dressed for Christmas, however as the days passed there was no atmosphere on board, no christmas music which left a lot to be desired. The food was good but has been reduced to three courses only. The captain's dinner again only three courses but nothing special just the normal menu, very disappointing. The saving grace was the weather, we had checked prior to leaving the UK and expected overcast days and tain. We actually had 7 days of sunshine 21 -25 degrees which meant we were able to spend a lot of time outsude as the daytime activities were extremely poor and boring. The usual ice carving,napkin folding and best of all vegetable sculpture. My wife and I had been taking dance lessons especially for the cruise as normally there is dancing before evening meal. Not on the Dream, we found nowhere you could go for a dance. As for the on deck entertainment and in the bars the standard was animal. Performers who were unable to sing in tune and had a repertoire dating back to the 50s and earlier. If I heard tie a yellow ribbon and itsy bitsy tiny bikini more than once and nothing after the millenium. As for the show team ,well all i can say is sack the lot and start again. We thought from the standard of the performers that they had just got together and were still getting used to one another. Imagine our surprise when the cruise director told us they had auditioned last year and had been together all season. Overall impression will not sail with marella cruises again this is our 15 th thomson/tui/marella cruise and cermainly our last.