Carnival Dream Picture Review, December 10th-17th, 2011

Your pics are great! I know we didn't get to spend much time together but it was fun meeting you and I just wanted to thank you for putting this great review together!

 

Nice review of the ship! I agree with pretty much everything you had to say here. I love the Dream and think it is a fine ship staffed with some of the best people from around the world. I have no major complaints about the ship or any of the staff--and yes of course that can certainly make or break any cruise--and for us it certainly helped make it.:)

Hey you! Yeah, I saw you around here and there on the ship but we never really got to talk. I was always on my way to the spa or surrounded by people from the roll call. The review isn't over yet :-) Glad you shared my sentiments about the ship and staff!

I was looking at the photos on your website and was just blown away! You have a great way of taking traditional pictures and capturing special moments that tell a story. But your true gift is how much fun you make the event look. One can't help looking at the pictures and saying, " Wow, that looks like a memorable and fun time! I wish I had been there!" You obviously have a passion for what you do.

Awwwww! You went to my website? How sweet! I truly do love what I do as a wedding photographer. I am not a conventional wedding photographer.. a bit outside of the box. I don't know if you read my story on my website or not but I think that it really plays into my ability to see the world differently through my lens.

I guess it actually would be fine to share here since this is also partially about getting to know me.

I was on a successful career path as a writer with a major publishing deal when my mother got sick with cancer and rather abruptly passed away. She was my rock, my entire life and she was the only family member that truly supported me, despite my sexual orientation.

When she passed away, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't finish my novel because I felt trapped creatively and uninspired. To make matters worse, I didn't have any recent photos of my mother because we'd moved around so much and left stuff here and there. We'd also had a bad house fire which wiped out most of the photos from when I was younger with her. Not being able to see those photos of her to help me through the grieving process somehow made it difficult for me to remember her healthy. Instead, I just flashed back to the memory of her open casket funeral. I would lie awake at night for months on end, crying myself to sleep and being awoken by the nightmare of that image of her.

I called everyone I knew that was friends with her as well as family members and nobody had any recent photos of her to help my healing process. For the next 2 years after she passed away, I'd barely cope although I was good at faking it. But, I spent those years unable to write, unable to release the creative beast within me. I had always taken pictures of places I visited throughout the years but never really taken any of people. My basic love and good eye for taking photos for fun coupled with not having the images of my mother inspired me to open my photography company. Not just to make a living but to put a mark in history by leaving pieces of my hard work hanging on hundreds, perhaps thousands of walls, telling the stories of others lives and helping their families to heal when they pass on.

I have never felt this fulfilled doing anything else with my life. My mother may no longer be living but she is embedded in the stories I tell through my lens and will forever be etched in my heart. The loss of her inspired greatness from within me and for that, I will forever be thankful. It's still very hard not having her here and I miss her like crazy, especially on holidays. But, I know she would be proud of me and as children, isn't that the one thing we most want and need? For our parents to be proud of us? I know deep down I've accomplished this but my journey has only just begun. I hope to take my skills and do something truly great with them one day that perhaps will exceed even the wildest ideas I've already had on my own. :)

Who wants to see some food porn for the end of day 4? And do you want a lot of food porn or just a little bit? :-)

Who wants to see some food porn for the end of day 4? And do you want a lot of food porn or just a little bit? :-)

FOOD PRON! Yes!

Chef's Table? Yes!

(BTW, this is the BEST review I have had the privilege of reading on CC... I want to cruise with you two!)

Food porn rocks! I bet your pics are even better too.

BTW, I had already went to your website as well and read your story. It's very moving as my husband lost his mother to cancer right after we started dating and he's in the same boat as far as pictures and not having many. So I can somewhat relate through him and seeing what he went through to your story. You are doing a wonderful thing through your photos, and know that you are touching many more people than you will ever know.

I'm not even scheduled to sail on the Dream, no do I know if I ever will. We are scheduled on the Magic in February, but I enjoy reading well written reviews of any ship. :)

Who wants to see some food porn for the end of day 4? And do you want a lot of food porn or just a little bit? :-)

Um, 30 whole minutes has passed since your food pron tease.

I am on my pre-cruise shape-up diet and I NEED FOOD PRON. :P

Um, 30 whole minutes has passed since your food pron tease.

 

I am on my pre-cruise shape-up diet and I NEED FOOD PRON. :P

Lol! I wanted to get everyone excited for it. I still have another part of my day in Roatan to edit and post before I get to the food porn part of the day. I have a couple hours left of work before I'll be able to get to any of it but I "SHOULD" be able to post them tonight, pending no hiccups with work. :-)

This review is great. I was on the Dream in November and many of the things that you mentioned in Ship Talk are my sentiments too. The crew was very good and friendly. I didn't smell any sewage and thought the ship was pretty clean. Crowds were never an issue except after the muster drill and being held up at the elevator. We made sure to get to the shows early, so finding a seat was never an issue.

The pictures are fabulous.

My only complaint about the food is about the grits at breakfast. I am from Alabama and we don't play when it comes to grits. The grits were waaaaaay to watery. The Dream is not the only ship that is guilty of drowning grits. The grits were the same way on the Triumph.

...oh, and I want to see some food porn too. :p

My only complaint about the food is about the grits at breakfast. I am from Alabama and we don't play when it comes to grits. The grits were waaaaaay to watery. The Dream is not the only ship that is guilty of drowning grits. The grits were the same way on the Triumph.

I looked at the grits and didn't try them. I am a huge grit fanatic. If you ever make it to New York and go to Bryant Park, there is a stand there that all they do is grits all kinds of ways. I tried them when we were there in November and they are so yummy and have that southern comfort to them!

I am from North Carolina so I know all about good grits and good sweet ice tea! Thanks for reading my review!

I looked at the grits and didn't try them. I am a huge grit fanatic. If you ever make it to New York and go to Bryant Park, there is a stand there that all they do is grits all kinds of ways. I tried them when we were there in November and they are so yummy and have that southern comfort to them!

 

I am from North Carolina so I know all about good grits and good sweet ice tea! Thanks for reading my review!

NEW YORK...grits? Say it ain't so.:eek: lol! :p Northerners don't know anything about good grits!! :rolleyes: I'm just kidding...kinda. lol

Like they said in Steel Magnolias...Sweet Tea is the house wine of the south. LOL!!

I do have one question about the Punchliner. Is Jeff The Fun Dude still the MC? He was prety funny.

NEW YORK...grits? Say it ain't so.:eek: lol! :p Northerners don't know anything about good grits!! :rolleyes: I'm just kidding...kinda. lol

 

Like they said in Steel Magnolias...Sweet Tea is the house wine of the south. LOL!!

 

I do have one question about the Punchliner. Is Jeff The Fun Dude still the MC? He was prety funny.

I was apprehensive to try their grits but they were actually really good!

Yes, Jeff The Fun Dude was still the MC. Planned to mention him when I talk more about the Punchliner which will happen when I post photos from that room. :)

I am now going to have my dinky salad for lunch and dream about your food porn. ;)

Really enjoying your great review! :)

We were on the same sailing and really enjoyed the Dream.

Looking forward to more! :D

Wow I just visited your website and all I can say is I wish I could get married again (to the same hubby:rolleyes: lol) so that you could be my photographer. We got married in St Thomas via the Carnival Freedom and we weren't very excited about the photographs. They weren't bad it just felt like he was very rushed and didn't do anything interesting or out of the box.... But the pics we are are beautiful,, just not exciting like the ones on your site.

Ok I am eagerly awaiting the rest of your review. Quick question what was the weather like for you? I am not a cold weather kinda person and I see that it's in the 70s in most of the ports this week. I wish it would be in the 80s.... Were you guys ever cold?

Wow I just visited your website and all I can say is I wish I could get married again (to the same hubby:rolleyes: lol) so that you could be my photographer. We got married in St Thomas via the Carnival Freedom and we weren't very excited about the photographs. They weren't bad it just felt like he was very rushed and didn't do anything interesting or out of the box.... But the pics we are are beautiful,, just not exciting like the ones on your site.

 

Ok I am eagerly awaiting the rest of your review. Quick question what was the weather like for you? I am not a cold weather kinda person and I see that it's in the 70s in most of the ports this week. I wish it would be in the 80s.... Were you guys ever cold?

Thank you very much for the kind words! As for the weather, I can't say yet.. sorry. But, I promise to get into it as the review continues on :-) I kind of have a projected path and I am horrible at spoling things. lol.

Sorry guys, looks like food porn and the rest of Roatan are going to have to wait until tomorrow. My computer has decided to go on the fritz today while editing my client images and it's giving me all kinds of memory errors even though I am only using 12%. I am about to do a disk cleanup/ defrag which will take hours since I have 1TB of data on this computer and then will run a full scan just to make sure nothing is hidden in a file and causing everything to lag!

If anything changes, I'll be back but most likely not tonight!

Sending you good vibes on a sucessful defrag... we recently had a computer die and it was painful, even though we backup. She was a good trooper and we will miss her...

BTW we recently had a virus that caused a weird memory issue - we had to download a fix, but it worked.

I will eat my Special K and think of your food porn...

And by far the most awesome pictures. (I'm posting to subscribe to this thread as I only have a few minutes. More later.)

Awwwww! You went to my website? How sweet! I truly do love what I do as a wedding photographer. I am not a conventional wedding photographer.. a bit outside of the box. I don't know if you read my story on my website or not but I think that it really plays into my ability to see the world differently through my lens.

 

I guess it actually would be fine to share here since this is also partially about getting to know me.

 

I was on a successful career path as a writer with a major publishing deal when my mother got sick with cancer and rather abruptly passed away. She was my rock, my entire life and she was the only family member that truly supported me, despite my sexual orientation.

 

When she passed away, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't finish my novel because I felt trapped creatively and uninspired. To make matters worse, I didn't have any recent photos of my mother because we'd moved around so much and left stuff here and there. We'd also had a bad house fire which wiped out most of the photos from when I was younger with her. Not being able to see those photos of her to help me through the grieving process somehow made it difficult for me to remember her healthy. Instead, I just flashed back to the memory of her open casket funeral. I would lie awake at night for months on end, crying myself to sleep and being awoken by the nightmare of that image of her.

 

I called everyone I knew that was friends with her as well as family members and nobody had any recent photos of her to help my healing process. For the next 2 years after she passed away, I'd barely cope although I was good at faking it. But, I spent those years unable to write, unable to release the creative beast within me. I had always taken pictures of places I visited throughout the years but never really taken any of people. My basic love and good eye for taking photos for fun coupled with not having the images of my mother inspired me to open my photography company. Not just to make a living but to put a mark in history by leaving pieces of my hard work hanging on hundreds, perhaps thousands of walls, telling the stories of others lives and helping their families to heal when they pass on.

 

I have never felt this fulfilled doing anything else with my life. My mother may no longer be living but she is embedded in the stories I tell through my lens and will forever be etched in my heart. The loss of her inspired greatness from within me and for that, I will forever be thankful. It's still very hard not having her here and I miss her like crazy, especially on holidays. But, I know she would be proud of me and as children, isn't that the one thing we most want and need? For our parents to be proud of us? I know deep down I've accomplished this but my journey has only just begun. I hope to take my skills and do something truly great with them one day that perhaps will exceed even the wildest ideas I've already had on my own. :)

Sorry for your loss and can sympathize a little on the loss of pictures. My mother-in-law passed away in 2000 and thanks to that bitch, Katrina, we don't really have any pictures of her. We also lost our wedding pics, tons of baby pics of our daughter, and about 50 VHS tapes of home movies. But you have to pick yourself up and soldier on. You obviously have done that. I hope the rest of your relatives can now see how brightly your talent shines through.

Looking forward to more great pics from the cruise!

I am absolutely loving your review! We will be on the Dream in 78 days, so your review was right on time to get me in "cruise mode". Cant say enough about your photos. Carnival and the excursion companies owe you a bundle! Thanks alot for all your hard work on this! It is very much appreciated.

Alicia,

I am totally enjoying your review. I believe it is the best review I have ever read and your pictures are wonderful. I was going to say they are amazing, but that word is sooooooo over-used, but it does apply to your pictures.

You have definitely found your calling in life. My dad was a wonderful amateur photographer and he took pictures whenever, whenever he traveled. I think some of his should have been in magazines as well as yours.

We have sailed on Dream three times so far, and are going again in February, but your review is making me see things through new eyes. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this for all of us. I'd love to cruise with you some day as you are so positive and we all need that. Thanks again.

If there was an Academy Awards category for cruise reviews, you would win an Oscar! Your photos are absolutely amazing, but the personal commentary makes reading this a pleasure. We will be on The Dream in a few months, along with some friends who are new to crusing. I am sending them the link to your thread so that they can share in the fun of reading along. Thank you SO MUCH for giving us such a beautiful gift.

Paula

I just visited your website and that initial picture literally took my breath away. What a GORGEOUS photo.

Oh yea, I'm enjoying the review also... ;)

Hi, me again! Still thoroughly enjoying this brilliant review. I'm also sitting with Kleenex now after your story about your mom. My mom was my best friend, too! She died way too soon but managed to turn me into a cruise addict. We cruised everywhere for 13 years. On our last cruise on the Grand Princess we all splurged for a suite with a butler and she had a blast. Just two weeks later we found she had cancer everywhere and passed away just a month later. It was several years before I could cruise again. I know your mom is looking down on you everyday, smiling at all of the joy you bring to others, not only with your beautiful and inspired photographs, but your obvious love of life. The thought had occurred to me that you should be a writer and now that I know your are, I see a book in your future. You have given all of us on CC a lovely gift!

On a lighter note.....bring on the soft core food porn! We had some amazing meals on the Dream!