Carnival Dream (9/14/14)- With Pictures

Loving your review! Already excited for our turn on Dream in April!

Thanks for the review. I'll be on there Nov 9th.

I love to dress up for dinner every night too and I DON'T change my clothes after either! :rolleyes: There is just something special about walking around the ship wearing pretty clothes and sparklys on your ears, throat and wrist! ;) You looked so pretty in your dress AND your smile! :) Can't wait to read more.

I love to dress up for dinner every night too and I DON'T change my clothes after either! :rolleyes: There is just something special about walking around the ship wearing pretty clothes and sparklys on your ears, throat and wrist! ;) You looked so pretty in your dress AND your smile! :) Can't wait to read more.

I'm glad you feel the same way!! I was always WAYY over dressed compared to the group I was with. And I never wanted to change. I'd parade around the boat in my heels til bedtime and everyone else would change to tshirts and shorts!!

I had a busy day today, So I'll start some of the next day. Luckily tomorrow is a short day for me at work so I should get a lot more published! Thank you for the compliments. :)

We woke up fairly early on the second day because we wanted to go to sea day brunch. Somehow, I completely missed this on my first cruise. No one recommended it and I never knew to look for it so we only ever ate the food at the breakfast buffet. I have to say, I was glad to discover the Sea Day Brunch.

Before I talk about that, I want to talk about our experience in these "king" beds that are simply just two twin beds pushed together. Yes, the bed was comfortable and the pillows were heavenly and I could cuddle in that comforter all day long. But these beds need to be fashioned together in a more sturdy way so they won't come apart. I don't move much in my sleep but my BF on the other hand moves a lot! I am not sure there was a single night we didn't wake up with a couple of inches between us. Our family said they didn't have this issue, so maybe we move around more then the average person. And by we... I mean my BF. But every night, no matter how little sleep we got, I always felt well rested and woke up every morning, no matter how early, ready to start the day.

So, we quickly got ready and made our way to brunch. I'll be honest. We kinda had a hard time finding how to get to the place. It was on the 3rd deck, all the way in the back of the ship but you couldn't walk all the way across the 3rd deck so you had to go up to go back down or whatever. We later learned it would be easier to walk straight down the hallways on our floor and then take the elevators at the front of the ship down to the 3rd floor.

When we got to the brunch there wasn't a wait. It was probably around 9:30 by the time we got there and we were able to go in and request a seat by the window with no problems. This was our view.

My BF and I had heard that the Bloody Mary's at sea day brunch were some of the best on the ship. This was my BF's fav drink so he had to get one. We forgot our drink coupon at the room so he decided to wait til later to get one. The brunch place was open til 1pm anyway so he had plenty of time to come back and get one.

They brought us the menu for us to have a look. I wanted to try the huevos rancheros that Luis, our head waiter, had recommended butttttt.... another one of my weird obsessions is Mac n Cheese. So I couldn't resist it from the menu. Being that it was so early, I felt I had to order some sort of a breakfast dish too so I asked for my Mac n Cheese for my starter and my omlet for my main course. My BF ordered the Eggs Benedict. Keeping this review as honest as possible, I'd like to point out that we did not have the best experience on the first day and in a later day when we went back it was worse. However they say your vacation is as good as you choose for it to be, so I didn't let it get to me. I just wanted to point out what happened for you all. It was nothing major the first day and didn't stop us from going back but it was the only part of the ship that we ever had issues with. The little thing that happened this day was that my appetizer came out with my main course. Not a big deal, just wasn't how I asked for it. And the food on the first day wasn't our favorite. My BF said one of his eggs was alright, the second was a little fishy. He said he wouldn't order it again. My mac n Cheese was VERY bland, not creamy at all and the extent of the bacon in the "bacon mac n cheese" I ordered was a small clump of bacon on top of the dish. I wouldn't order this again either. The omlet I ordered was alright, but I am not a huge veggie person and the veggies I ordered for my omlet were all cut very thickly. So, I ate around my veggies.

Enjoying your review and wonderful photo's. How come the love of your life never smiles?

This sea day was little bit choppy, in my opinion, and Wife was someone who got motion sickness. She had taken Dramamine just before breakfast so by the time breakfast was up she was getting a little sleepy. We made our way back to the room so that she could nap and my BF could get his Very Important Free Drink coupon we received. Since Wife was taking a nap, I decided to hang back in the room to let the brothers have some time together. I cuddled up in those heavenly comforters and watched The Blind Side since it was playing on tv. I started to doze off about the time that the boys had come back to get us ladies. My BF loved his bloody mary. And it must have been a good one because I could smell the vodka from his glass from where I layed in the bed. They loved the set up that they had for the bloody mary bar out in front of the brunch restaurant. Apparently, the bar tender had every hot sauce you can think about. And these guys like things SPICY! They had already made plans to go back and get another bloody mary the next chance they got.

Before we left to roam, I snapped some shots of the Funtimes for you guys.

Enjoying your review and wonderful photo's. How come the love of your life never smiles?

This is definitely the question of my life!! My favorite pictures are always the one where he smiles! I swear he really was having a good time! ;)

So I have to apologize. I'm not sure why this day I didn't take as many people pictures. But I'm sure your all more interested in the boat anyway! So that, I can share with you! I was all about ship pictures this day for whatever reason.

We roamed some more after the boys got their drinks and the Wife took her nap. It was always so nice to be on deck roaming around, soaking the sun and feeling the sea breeze as the boat sails on.

Looking off the back of the ship

My love enjoying the view

The Slides. I never did get a chance to do them and I always heard mixed reviews. Some people loved it and wanted to go over and over again, while others got hurt in some way. I love a good water slide but I wasn't so sure about these once. I do have to say that when we were on the Magic 2 years ago they would close the slides if there was too much wind. They never closed the slides that I noticed even when it was so windy you couldn't walk a straight line sober in the boat! Maybe thats why people would get little aches and pains from the slides? I don't know.

The beautiful pool on the Lido deck

The adults only area. This place was usually very congested. There weren't a lot of kids on our cruise though I would say, so you could pretty much find a comfortable seat/lounge on any place on the boat. The people that were hanging out here were always passed out asleep and I hoped they had enough sun screen on. Sure the seats are more comfortable and some were attached so you could cuddle with your loved one. However, I'm not sure about you... I love my BF and all but it was much to hot to cuddle on lounge chairs. We liked other loungers that were in the shade better.

And the gym. As much as I would have liked to, I never used this room. I loved how all the treadmills were facing out into the ocean though. Next time I might bring some tennis shoes and actually utilize them and the beautiful view so that I could eat more.

I love your review! Thank-you so much.

1. Did you go to the piano bar? If so how was it?

Was there the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar and Red Frog Rum Bar? I've seen conflicting reports and deck plans.

Was there the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar and Red Frog Rum Bar? I've seen conflicting reports and deck plans.

Yes-they are on the lido deck. There is no Guy's burgers.

The music duo you liked was called Me and My Cousin but I agree - the live music on the Dream was great. We sailed the week after you.

AAAaaaahhhhh LOVE that BLUE Water!! I can't wait till I get to see it!! 3 weeks till my cruise to HAWAII!!! :D Your review is great and so much fun!! Who is "the Wife"...just sounds funny...I'm sure it's not like it "sounds";)

..HA! LOL

I love your review! Thank-you so much.

 

1. Did you go to the piano bar? If so how was it?

We didn't go to the piano bar because I didn't care for the sound of the guy that was singing in it. His voice was alright, but there was something weird about it to me. I did take a picture of the awesome counter because that to me was a must see! Sorry I can't share much else.

Was there the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar and Red Frog Rum Bar? I've seen conflicting reports and deck plans.

There was both of the bars. These were JUST the bar part of these two places. They didn't offer any snacks or anything which bummed me out because I LOVE the conch fritters from Red Frog Rum Bar on the Magic. These 2 bars were located on the lido deck(10) where the pool with the big screen was located. Here is a pic of the Red Frog. They do still carry all of the signature drinks. You can find the menus on carnivals website. Just make sure you are looking at the bar menu, not the full menu from ships that have the full restaurant.

The music duo you liked was called Me and My Cousin but I agree - the live music on the Dream was great. We sailed the week after you.

I loved them so much! What was the name of the girl that would sing too? She was great also but I never paid attention to catch her name!

AAAaaaahhhhh LOVE that BLUE Water!! I can't wait till I get to see it!! 3 weeks till my cruise to HAWAII!!! :D Your review is great and so much fun!! Who is "the Wife"...just sounds funny...I'm sure it's not like it "sounds";)

..HA! LOL

Haha! I didn't even think about how it sounds! I was traveling with My boyfriend, my boyfriend's brother and my boyfriend's brother's wife. I don't know any of the cool short hands other people use like DH or DW or what not so they are known in my story as BF(my boyfriend) Brother(boyfriend's brother) and Wife(boyfriend's brother's wife) haha! I'm glad you caught that! :D

I wish I had more pictures of this day to help document. After all it was the first nice night so I'm shocked at my picture taking this day. But oh well, I can talk you through it! This elegant night was interesting for the family that I went with because like I have pointed out, I dress up a lot compared to the people we came with. So of course I made my BF wear a button up and slacks, but brother and wife's idea of nice night wasn't quite matching with the dress code. For example, The fun times specifically said that you can't wear jeans to formal night and that is all brother had packed. Luckily my BF had an extra pair of slacks that his brother could wear and we were able to get our formal night on. I remember how much I loved this night on my first cruise because its so funny to see everyones variety of formal night. I dressed pretty simialar to the first night but It was a nice black outfit with heels and fancy jewelry. But even I was under dressed compared to a lot of people on this night. I love seeing everyone in their prom style dresses and men in their handsome tuxedos but you don't have to feel like you have to dress like that too. I promise there are all kinds of a variety of of outfits to see on this night. We all cheers-ed to a glass of wine before we made it out to dinner. Dinner this night was all of my groups favorite dinner in the main dining rooms.

Which speaking of dining rooms, I wanted to mention something that I didn't know when I booked what time dining we wanted. On our first cruise we did anytime dining but I heard you get nicer views if you get assigned dining. So in this ship, I thought we would get to eat in the Scarlet restaurant that has a complete view of the back of the ship but we were assigned to Crimson restaurant. I'm not sure if that was because our room was at the very front of the ship and crimson was closer, so if anyone can shed some light on this for me I would appreciate it. We ended up liking upper Crimson a lot(especially the name. Me and my BF live in Norman, OK which is where University of Oklahoma is located. And OU's colors are Crimson and Cream.... Boomer Sooner!) ;) But I digressed from my story, the point I was making was don't expect to get one dining because I'm not sure how they assign you dining halls.

This night everyone in my group, but me, took advantage of getting to order however much they want of whatever they want. I had the alligator fritters(which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had them before on the Magic and was looking forward to them here) and Spaghetti Carbonara(for those of you who haven't figured it out pasta is my favorite). I don't like sea food, so I didn't get to enjoy the lobster like my family did, but boy did they enjoy it. They ordered 3rds and 4ths probably of the lobster. My BF also ate the alligator fritters and baked stuffed white mushrooms for his appetizer. And of course the lobster with the jumbo shrimp & the tender roasted prime rib of american beef au ju for dinner. (I told you they took advantage of ordering whatever they wanted) he enjoyed every bite of his food! My only comment is-don't expect the "jumbo" shrimp because those shrimps were miniature versions of jumbo unless I just don't know what jumbo is. But as far as flavor, my whole family was in love with what they ordered and ordered more to prove it to you.

After dinner this night my BF and I went to the casino to watch some football because it was my Indianapolis Colts that were playing(although they lost. :( ) And then we headed to bed because we wanted to wake up early for the next day! It was our first port day! We would be in Cozumel and we couldn't wait!

We returned to our room to find this little guy and then we went to sleep.

P.S. I'm pretty sure he was my favorite towel animal.

I loved them so much! What was the name of the girl that would sing too? She was great also but I never paid attention to catch her name!

Her name was TJ. And yes, she was great too.

Still enjoying your great review!!

And finally!!! Cozumel! We didn't actually have anything planned on this day. I really wanted to go to Nachi Cocom but my group was so undecided that by the time they agreed on it, the place was already booked up. But we learned this day, Cozumel is an amazing place just to roam around. We got off the ship and decided that we would make our way to a beach and then stop and get some local lunch and roam around downtown for a bit.

We found the taxi pricing and my group was convinced to go to Mr. Sanchos although my BF and I had been there before and didn't really want to go again especially because we didn't want to pay for the all inclusive when we wanted to eat local food later in the day. I had done some research before the cruise and found a good beach that you can still order drinks and snack and other extras if we wanted them called Playa Palancar. When we got in the taxi our driver actually recommended Playa Palancar over Mr. Sanchos for what we were wanting to do and I'm glad he did. This place was beautiful. The one thing I would say is be careful with the taxi drivers. Our taxi ripped us off on price. I KNEW it was only $20 for 4 people from Puerta Maya to Playa Palancar but the driver said that it was $30. And because I didn't take a picture, I couldn't prove it. So I found the picture online for you guys so that you won't get lied to like we did.

Here is a few shots of Playa Palancar. We thought this place was beautiful, the water temperature was perfect! And not too wavy. Only bummer was that there was a lot of sea weed, and all the locals said it was because they had just gotten a lot of rain.

Loving your review!!

Question about ordering in the MDR for dinner .. When you plan on ordering more then 1 plate of the same- do you order it all up front so it's easier & faster?

Thanks

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This water was so pretty, we even saw a school of fish swim around us for a good little while. They were a pretty good size fish too, probably about the size of my hand(not that you have any idea the size of my hands and they are kind of small now that I think about it). My Bf caught them on his go pro camera, but he isn't uploading pictures/videos fast enough for my review but I can add them later. They were cute. But besides the beautiful water there is also a famous reef you could snorkel at, you would just have to pay $15 and a boat would take you out there. My group opted out of the snorkel but we did enjoy some drinks. Before our trip I couldn't find Playa Palancar's menu anywhere! So I took pictures for you.

I ordered a Miami Vice which was different from any other Miami Vice I had ever had because it tasted like they used real fruit to make it. Miami Vice is strawberry daiquiri and pina colada together. It was still pretty tasty though, I have to admit.

If you do go here, be on the look out for the peacocks that roam around too. They were so beautiful and were a nice random surprise when walking to the bathrooms.

Loving your review!!

 

Question about ordering in the MDR for dinner .. When you plan on ordering more then 1 plate of the same- do you order it all up front so it's easier & faster?

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I'm sure you could say that you wanted two of something. My group didn't order like that, they would just finish the plate and then ask for seconds. But they did order several dishes off the menu at the same time. Like instead of 1 app and 1 entree they did 2 apps and 2 entrees and then ordered 2nds too. But I bet you could say I would like 2 lobsters or whatever and they would do it. In the dining room they aim to please for sure. So order how you want! :)

Great review so far! Thank you!

After we left the beach we took a taxi downtown to go eat at La Choza. I can't remember the exact cost of the taxi but I want to say we got one of the drivers to take us there for something like $26 for the 4 of us. This taxi experience unfortunately was just as bad as the first taxi that took us to Playa Palancar and charged us $10 more then he should have. This guy drove us all the way to La Choza, dropped us off and as he is driving away yells to us, "La Choza is closed right now, but there is a restaurant next door you could try." and then he was gone. He didn't check that we wanted that restaurant(which we didn't because it literally had like 4 or 5 tables with a tarp draped over them for a table cloth. I'm sure it was good authentic food, but we knew nothing about the place and first impressions weren't promising. Since our taxi left us we just started walking back in the direction that we came in. We enjoyed the ride to La Choza and all of the sights along the way so we figured we could go towards those shops and ask a local to recommend a place. We walked and looked in a couple shops and then asked someone where to it. He at first recommended this place called Fogo Do Brasil that was in the direction we were walking and then next recommended a place called La Mission that was a couple of blocks in the opposite direction. Since I had remembered reading about La Mission, we started walking that way. On the way, a lady asked if she could help us and we said we were going to La Mission. And then she told us not to go there to go to this Fogo Do Brasil place. We had never heard of it but it was the second person to recommend it and she insisted we'd like it so much she walked us there. You had to go up some stairs to get to it, but once inside there were some beautiful views of the ocean while you were eating.

We didn't quite know what to expect because the name of the restaurant made us think it would be brazilian food, but when we told them we wanted mexican they gave us a menu and promised us we would enjoy.

We really enjoyed this place. We asked for a spicy salsa and they brought us something that looked like a sliced up green habanero in some juice. That was the best thing in the whole world! Their salsa was deliciously fresh chopped veggies and you could taste every flavor and the guacamole was so good we ordered 2 plates of it. My family ordered tacos, shrimp, chicken and steak, and I ordered a chicken quesadilla. When you add that fresh salsa with the quesadilla and eat it, it was delicious! and My family all enjoyed their tacos very much as well. My BF's brother said that it was some of the best tacos he had ever had. Here is my quesadilla.

We definitely think this will be on our list of places to come back to when we return to Cozumel.

We left the restaurant and went into a few more shops and bought some local souvenirs and tried to walk back to port but then we realized it was a lot longer of a walk then we thought. We paid a taxi $8 and went back to the port to do some shopping there.

There were 3 ships in port the day we were there. You can see both of the Carnival whale tales behind the massive Royal Caribbean ship.

And now I will be posting the ONLY picture my boyfriend is smiling in and it was literally a laugh caught at the perfect time. We had asked his brother to take a picture of us with The Dream in the background and he was take a picture that pretty much had the whole ship in it and all you can see is the tiny heads and shoulders of ours at the bottom of the picture withe the whole ship in the background. My BF laughed and said to his brother, "dude, we are down here" because brother was literally holding the camera way above his own head trying to take the shot. So he pulled the camera down and took a picture of us and then.....Tada! You get to see my boyfriend smile.

Something I have to give Carnival kudos for was the entertainment and water they provided for us when we got back to the boat. It was a HOT day and the water they were giving us was such a delightful treat. They also had some fun music playing so it felt like a little Carnival party while you waited to get back on the boat.

We boarded pretty close to the ALL ABOARD time so we quickly went up to our deck and looked over to see if we could catch the people who would run to the boat cause they almost missed it. But we weren't able to catch them because at all aboard the line was still long, so all the late stragglers still took their time walking back to the boat because they could see the line from where they were. This was the line probably 3-5 minutes after we were all supposed to be back on board.

We started to get ready early after we got back on the boat because a show that was highly recommended to us was supposed to be on tonight, called Dancing in the Streets. So we watched the boat leave from our window.

Cozumel was such a good time, even though we didn't originally have anything planned.

Great review and Awesome pictures Malmo288 !! DW and I are going on the Dream January 11 with the same ports. Thank you so much for posting this! :)