Sailing on Carnival Dream in May

My DH and I have been on several cruises. We've always had a balcony or ocean view on upper decks. We are planning on taking our 1st one ever with our kids. They will be 6 years 3 months and 4 years 11 months at the time of sailing. I'd like to know if anyone has sailed on the Dream with their kids and the experience, what's the best stateroom category and deck level to book, and tips or tricks while on the boat. I know Carnival has the deluxe ocean view staterooms for families now, but they are all on deck 1 and 2. Any comments from those who have sailed on upper decks and lower decks. I'm kind of nervous about the lower decks. Any info is appreciated.

Background: First cruise ever, Carnival Paradise in Feb 2013. We took our 2 children ages 4 & 7. They loved it. We had a Grand Suite on the Upper Deck (deck 7 i think?). Lots of walking up and down flights of stairs to get back and forth to camp and the Lido deck. Loved the ship. Small, clean, everyone was fabulous.

We are sailing the Dream in Feb 2014 with the kids. I'll come back and post another reply after we return. We have booked an inside cabin on the Lido. It is close to the food and camp!!! Hopefully this will be a good thing.

My son always wants to be close to the buffet and the youth center!

I sailed on the Dream twice with my then 2 year-old...once in a deluxe ocean view on deck 2 and once in a balcony on deck 8. I liked having the 2 bathrooms and bathtub in the ocean view room, but the balcony on deck 8 was a far better position on the ship (plus I had a balcony)!. It was only 2 flights up to the Lido deck and the kids club/waterpark is on deck 11. With 4 people I would book a balcony on a higher deck. Be careful of booking deck 6-the balconies are not private as people on the Lanai can look right in your balcony, not to mention deck 6 is above the main entertainment deck, theater, etc.

I sailed on the Dream twice with my then 2 year-old...once in a deluxe ocean view on deck 2 and once in a balcony on deck 8. I liked having the 2 bathrooms and bathtub in the ocean view room, but the balcony on deck 8 was a far better position on the ship (plus I had a balcony)!. It was only 2 flights up to the Lido deck and the kids club/waterpark is on deck 11. With 4 people I would book a balcony on a higher deck. Be careful of booking deck 6-the balconies are not private as people on the Lanai can look right in your balcony, not to mention deck 6 is above the main entertainment deck, theater, etc.

Thanks so much! I heard that about deck 6 and wouldn't book there. I'm thinking of Empress and up. Possibly a spa balcony.

Background: First cruise ever, Carnival Paradise in Feb 2013. We took our 2 children ages 4 & 7. They loved it. We had a Grand Suite on the Upper Deck (deck 7 i think?). Lots of walking up and down flights of stairs to get back and forth to camp and the Lido deck. Loved the ship. Small, clean, everyone was fabulous.

 

We are sailing the Dream in Feb 2014 with the kids. I'll come back and post another reply after we return. We have booked an inside cabin on the Lido. It is close to the food and camp!!! Hopefully this will be a good thing.

I'll be looking forward to your review!!

When it's just DH and I we usually book empress balcony. This past November, we took the kids (6 &3) on Magic and did a lido balcony instead. I don't think we'll go back down to Empress again. Lido is where its AT! It was so convenient to everything (plus it's much easier to go down to eat with the kids.) I know you eventually DO have to come back up... but it's not at super busy times so there is the elevator option. I usually took the stairs and kids and DH would take the elevator.

When it's just DH and I we usually book empress balcony. This past November, we took the kids (6 &3) on Magic and did a lido balcony instead. I don't think we'll go back down to Empress again. Lido is where its AT! It was so convenient to everything (plus it's much easier to go down to eat with the kids.) I know you eventually DO have to come back up... but it's not at super busy times so there is the elevator option. I usually took the stairs and kids and DH would take the elevator.

Thanks for your response! How did your kids attend and like Camp Carnival. If so, what did your days look like? Did you have them eat with you in the dining room or at Camp Carnival?

We ate in the MDR every night. The kids went to camp carnival twice (both after dinner for about 1.5 hrs.) Our days involved a LOT of time in the waterpark, pool, or exploring the ship. Younger DS wasn't big enough for the big slides and older DD wasn't tall enough for the ropes course. Maybe next time. :)

We ate in the MDR every night. The kids went to camp carnival twice (both after dinner for about 1.5 hrs.) Our days involved a LOT of time in the waterpark, pool, or exploring the ship. Younger DS wasn't big enough for the big slides and older DD wasn't tall enough for the ropes course. Maybe next time. :)

How did your kids do in the MDR and did you do the traditional time or your time dining? Did they give you a table of 4 or a bigger table.

How did your kids do in the MDR and did you do the traditional time or your time dining? Did they give you a table of 4 or a bigger table.

The kids did fantastic in the MDR. We had early dining and requested to be seated with a family that had children (prior to sailing.) We were seated with another family with a son that was my daughters age. They got along well and were able to converse and have a good time. We were at a table for 8 and there were 3 middle aged women seated with us as well and we all had a fantastic time.

I'm back to give you my experience from the Dream. Long story but we ended up with an inside cabin on deck 9...9385. Loved it. Perfect for the 4 of us. We really loved the location. It was one deck up to the Lido and two decks up to Camp Carnival. We really couldn't have picked a better location. We had no noise issues from being directly below the Lido. We figured we were somewhere below the mid ship buffet. Camp was awesome! Really couldn't have been happier with it. Everyone was great and the boys loved it. I really liked being up on a higher deck, especially with kids. I probably will opt to stay higher from here on. I enjoyed being close to everything and we still got plenty of walking and stair climbing in!!!!

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We would highly recommend a deck 11 spa balcony. We were so close to everything, yet it was always so quiet around that area. It was nice to have use of the spa while the kids were at camp, which was also crazy close ! We are a family of 10 so we had a balcony and 2 insides up there. Friends were down on deck 1 and 2 and it sure was a long way to anything. We have also been on a deck 6 aft wrap on the Dream. We loved it, but not ideal with the kids. Next time we take them (only 7 of us) on the Dream we plan on an deluxe OV and an inside because we want to go cheap cheap on that trip. I am not looking fwd to tons of walking. The other thing that I loved about being on deck 11 was that my kids were almost always in public areas while traveling back and forth. That will change if we move to the lower decks. The rules will have to change a bit as well.

We have been on the Dream many times, GREAT ship you will love! We have had a Cove Balcony, Deluxe Ocean View, Regular Balcony and this past one a Spa Balcony. We actually liked all of them though I do have to say the Spa Balcony on Deck 11 was by far our best! Great location, very quiet and extra perks of the use of the Spa. The Deluxe Ocean View is also nice since it does have the 2 bathrooms. In the Spa Balcony we used the large Spa showers at night for dinner, very nice!

We sailed the Dream last year with my 5 year old daughter and 5 year old grandson. While we LOVED the Dream, we HATED the kids club. There were 2 employees that were really rude and the program itself was not what we were use to. I did a complete review from our cruise with TONS of pictures (if you are interested in reading it). :)

We took ds on the dream. We booked a spa balcony, great location. Really close to the pool. The kids club wasn't far from what I remember... I'm pretty sure it was on the other side of the pool. I would def recommend a balcony, we were able to sit on the balcony while ds was sleeping and read.