This was the second time sailing on the Carnival Dream in 2011, lucky me. This time I was cruising with a good friend who has never cruised before. She is a great sailor as it turns out, loving the ship rocking as much as I do. This sailing was during the Canadian March break as my friend works for a school. The ship was full but this was not a problem for us. We had a great time. We got the spa for the week and escaped there whenever we needed some quiet time. I love this ship. We were constantly amazed at how clean the ship is kept and how hard everyone works. All of the people we passed were friendly and service was outstanding. Food was great. I have to eat gluten free. This time I tried something different - in January the gf bread, pancakes and chocolate melting cake were not edible. As I got tired of eggs by the end of the week - my only gf option left, I tried bringing my own purchased gf pancake mix. I was told it needed to be in original packaging, not opened and I should have a note from my doctor in case I had trouble getting it on the ship. On the first night when the amazing Natasha Majic, the worlds best hostess, came to my table I gave her the pancake mix and voila I had pancakes every morning. This cruise I also was served gf bread every night with dinner and it was actually really good. The chocolate melting cake was also great. Turns out they have a new gf chef and he is really great. One night he made me a special rice pudding(I was complaining about the only gf options in the chocolate buffet - rice pudding and fudge both had tree nuts my other allergy). This rice pudding had grated vanilla bean and was so good I still think about it. They should add this to the menu it is that good. The rice pudding in the buffet is yellow instead of creamy white and looked gross compared to my special rice pudding. I was very happy. I still wish they were able to give some help on the lido deck for food allergy choices. The male singer at the shows was new and not as good as the last one. We still enjoyed the shows, the blackjack band and the comedy club. We avoided the piano bar because of the smoke. The legends show on the last night was really painful. I think carnival should re think this and go out with a bang instead so that people wish they were coming back soon instead of leaving with the memory of this bad show. We didn't do excursions - really took it easy. We wandered and shopped in Nassau, wandered, shopped and then went back to the ship in St. Thomas. We got to enjoy the serenity deck, try out the cool chairs and hammocks and even when it the hot tubs. Usually these are all full. In St. Martin we took the water taxi over to the beach, rented chairs, swam and then had lunch. Great fun.