My husband and I are veteran cruisers, having sailed about 20 times with Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and NCL. We took our grandsons with us on this cruise. They are 5 and 8 and had never cruised before. I read many reviews about the Dream before we sailed, and I have to say that I can't imagine anyone finding fault with this ship other than possibly the cumbersome block method of embarkation.We had excellent service from our cabin steward Rolland and our waiters, Andrea and Leonado. I can't say enough about them all. The children's programs were amazing. The kids were having such a good time when we took our grandsons the first evening that we never left. We just enjoyed watching all the fun! Our grandsons used the pool several times; at no time was it crowded. We never waited longer than 25 minutes to ride the Aquaduck. I loved that the kids' pool was shallow and yet offered the chance to "dive" in the ears.We had splendid access to the characters, and what was nice was that at no time did we feel hustled away. Each character spent a few fun moments with our grandchildren and time was made for me to photograph them. The assistants regularly told our kids to wait until we took a picture to leave.Pirate night was great fun. Watching everyone, I wondered why no other cruise line had ever thought of having such an evening.The food was much better than we had in November when we sailed Royal Caribbean. On that trip, after the first few days, we quit eating in the dining room entirely, as the food was pathetic. That's the only time we have not eaten in the dining room!As far as the shows went, they were simply wonderful, mini-Broadway shows with fantastic costumes and scenery and clever special effects.If you can find something wrong with this ship, you need some Pixie Dust thrown over you, as you are seeing the world through some strange, strange eyes.