I was asked to accompany my sister on this cruise to split the cost of a balcony stateroom with her. We were also traveling with six other people, who have all cruised with Carnival previously. I had not and was a bit concerned because The Dream is such a large ship carrying so many people. My concerns proved valid.

Embarkation: Carnival made this quite easy and since my sister is a Platinum card holder with Carnival, it was even easier than I had expected. But as we preceded to board ship we were accosted by at least six different photographers on each side of us wanting to take our photos, which we fended off politely until the very last one who told us "it's mandatory". I said to her "oh really? Mandatory, eh? I don't want a photo, now go away". Finally, we managed to make it through the arsenal of photographers onto the actual ship (yay!) and what's there to greet us?....grr another picture taker with a man in a costume to pose with us. That one nearly got a push from me.

Cabin: We finally got to our cabin and our bags were there already. Good job crew! There was only one electrical outlet on the dresser area, that was alright, my sister was prepared with an adapter to plug in with 3 receptacles. The balcony was my salvation. I was able to rest and put my feet up from walking what seemed like a kabillion miles to my sore knees on that humungo ship. It gave me sanctuary at times from the throngs of people crowding every corridor, elevator, lounge, deck and dining area. The ship had a constant lurch from side to side that I've read others remark on. For suck a large ship, I didn't expect such instability. I lay in bed on my side at night and the lurching kept turning me on my back. Our cabin Steward took great care in cleaning our room and making sure that the squeak the bathroom door developed was repaired with WD40 even though we had not reported it to him. We ordered coffee and pastries every morning very early by 6:30 usually and it always arrived precisely on time. Kudos to the room service people for that. The decor was pretty bland to my eyes, except for the nerve rattling orange and red picture on the all. Oh I guess this is where I should mention the aroma of raw sewage that seemed to be evident each day during the early evening hours. That has also been reported by other passengers in other reviews of The Dream. We had sent out several pair of slacks each for wash and fold service. We left them in the morning on Wed. about 9 a.m. It said on our form that laundry would be returned by 6 p.m. that same day. Two days later and several calls to housekeeping, we finally got them back. Read more