We sailed the huge Carnival Dream on its 7/31/10 sailing. I am in my late 30's and I went with my 2 older sisters, my parents, and my 2 children ages 10 and 3.

We normally fly in the day of the cruise but this time decided to fly in the night before and spend the night at one of the hotels on the pier so we would not be so worn out the day of the cruise. We flew in American Airlines to Orlando International Airport and was transported from the airport to our hotel by Travelynx. The pier is about an hour from the airport and Travelynx was wonderful. We enjoyed our ride. The driver was friendly, engaging, and on time. He assisted us with our luggage and even helped us on and off of the van. No problems there!!

We arrived at our hotel, which was wonderful. We chose the Residence Inn at Port Canaveral. The hotel was nice and clean ( and I am a stickler for clean rooms). The rooms are very nice sized. We were tired once we got there so we didn't want to leave to get any food. There are two local restaurants that will deliver to the hotel. A chinese place and a pizza joint. We chose both. You have to get the wings from the pizza place(they're like baked, delicious) and even the fried wing from the chinese joint were delicious. The next morning we did the free breakfast at the hotel. Pretty standard food for a hotel but very good, (Oatmeal, pancakes, waffle maker, potatoes, cereals, muffins, etc) You can definitely find something to snack on before the cruise. Read more