Let's hear from those that were on the Dream

[Rockee4055]

Originally Posted by Bashlin

My toilet was down for 2 hours once.. Never knew I should have been ecstatic about it..

Down here in Ga we just piss off the side of the boat when we have to go.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

LMAO....as a Georgian myself, I can't understand this.

[tinyrose]

We were on the Dream. And we had a blast.

My experience = the elevators were out 3 times for about 15 minutes while they were testing the back-up generators. Our bathroom on deck 6 was out 3 times, twice for about 15 minutes and once for about 1 hour; each time while they were testing the back-up generators.

Other than that, everything was FUNCTIONAL.

I personally saw one public restroom being used by PASSENGERS after being told over the the public announcement system AND after signs were POSTED on EVERY public restroom that they were NOT to be used. So, if there was a problem with an over-flowing toilet (and I did not witness that myself), it was because PASSENGERS did not follow what they were verbally and writtenly TOLD.

We were flown to Orlando by a Delta charter flight. Then bussed to Port Canaveral to retrieve our car.

Carnival staff provided excellent service while we were on board. We had an extra day in St. Maarten---YEA!!!!--- with free water taxi wrist bands. I was FREELY allowed to use the internet and phone lines to communicate with our families in Wisconsin and Ohio to let them know that we were ok and having a BLAST.

My only MINOR MINOR MINOR complaint was slow information in alerting us to our charter flight departure time. BUT the logistics of getting over 4000 passengers (both with and WITHOUT passports) back to the United States must have been a nightmare for Carnival.

So, I was on the Dream, had a blast, and will sail with Carnival again. My PERSONAL experience with Carnival and the Dream was GREAT!

Life is NOT perfect. This was ONLY a MINOR bump in the road just like all the other minor bumps in my life.

[Rockee4055]

tinyrose......thanks for that info. I'm glad you had a great time and were treated the way you should have been.

I think CCL did the right thing and made the right decisions. I'm sure there are bumps on these ships all the time that we never hear about. Unfortunately they are in the spotlight right now.

[Sparky2]

Originally Posted by tinyrose

We were on the Dream. And we had a blast.

My experience = the elevators were out 3 times for about 15 minutes while they were testing the back-up generators. Our bathroom on deck 6 was out 3 times, twice for about 15 minutes and once for about 1 hour; each time while they were testing the back-up generators.

Other than that, everything was FUNCTIONAL.

I personally saw one public restroom being used by PASSENGERS after being told over the the public announcement system AND after signs were POSTED on EVERY public restroom that they were NOT to be used. So, if there was a problem with an over-flowing toilet (and I did not witness that myself), it was because PASSENGERS did not follow what they were verbally and writtenly TOLD.

We were flown to Orlando by a Delta charter flight. Then bussed to Port Canaveral to retrieve our car.

Carnival staff provided excellent service while we were on board. We had an extra day in St. Maarten---YEA!!!!--- with free water taxi wrist bands. I was FREELY allowed to use the internet and phone lines to communicate with our families in Wisconsin and Ohio to let them know that we were ok and having a BLAST.

My only MINOR MINOR MINOR complaint was slow information in alerting us to our charter flight departure time. BUT the logistics of getting over 4000 passengers (both with and WITHOUT passports) back to the United States must have been a nightmare for Carnival.

So, I was on the Dream, had a blast, and will sail with Carnival again. My PERSONAL experience with Carnival and the Dream was GREAT!

Life is NOT perfect. This was ONLY a MINOR bump in the road just like all the other minor bumps in my life.

Very nice post.

[leaderdogmom]

Originally Posted by tinyrose

We were on the Dream. And we had a blast.

My experience = the elevators were out 3 times for about 15 minutes while they were testing the back-up generators. Our bathroom on deck 6 was out 3 times, twice for about 15 minutes and once for about 1 hour; each time while they were testing the back-up generators.

Other than that, everything was FUNCTIONAL.

I personally saw one public restroom being used by PASSENGERS after being told over the the public announcement system AND after signs were POSTED on EVERY public restroom that they were NOT to be used. So, if there was a problem with an over-flowing toilet (and I did not witness that myself), it was because PASSENGERS did not follow what they were verbally and writtenly TOLD.

We were flown to Orlando by a Delta charter flight. Then bussed to Port Canaveral to retrieve our car.

Carnival staff provided excellent service while we were on board. We had an extra day in St. Maarten---YEA!!!!--- with free water taxi wrist bands. I was FREELY allowed to use the internet and phone lines to communicate with our families in Wisconsin and Ohio to let them know that we were ok and having a BLAST.

My only MINOR MINOR MINOR complaint was slow information in alerting us to our charter flight departure time. BUT the logistics of getting over 4000 passengers (both with and WITHOUT passports) back to the United States must have been a nightmare for Carnival.

So, I was on the Dream, had a blast, and will sail with Carnival again. My PERSONAL experience with Carnival and the Dream was GREAT!

Life is NOT perfect. This was ONLY a MINOR bump in the road just like all the other minor bumps in my life.

Thank you for your honest report. I only wish the media would talk to people like you who were there! I am sick and tired of all the media hype and false reports such as passengers not being allowed off the ship in St Maartin.

[MrPete]

Originally Posted by tinyrose

We were on the Dream. And we had a blast.

My experience = the elevators were out 3 times for about 15 minutes while they were testing the back-up generators. Our bathroom on deck 6 was out 3 times, twice for about 15 minutes and once for about 1 hour; each time while they were testing the back-up generators.

Other than that, everything was FUNCTIONAL.

I personally saw one public restroom being used by PASSENGERS after being told over the the public announcement system AND after signs were POSTED on EVERY public restroom that they were NOT to be used. So, if there was a problem with an over-flowing toilet (and I did not witness that myself), it was because PASSENGERS did not follow what they were verbally and writtenly TOLD.

We were flown to Orlando by a Delta charter flight. Then bussed to Port Canaveral to retrieve our car.

Carnival staff provided excellent service while we were on board. We had an extra day in St. Maarten---YEA!!!!--- with free water taxi wrist bands. I was FREELY allowed to use the internet and phone lines to communicate with our families in Wisconsin and Ohio to let them know that we were ok and having a BLAST.

My only MINOR MINOR MINOR complaint was slow information in alerting us to our charter flight departure time. BUT the logistics of getting over 4000 passengers (both with and WITHOUT passports) back to the United States must have been a nightmare for Carnival.

So, I was on the Dream, had a blast, and will sail with Carnival again. My PERSONAL experience with Carnival and the Dream was GREAT!

Life is NOT perfect. This was ONLY a MINOR bump in the road just like all the other minor bumps in my life.

How long did they keep you on the ship before allowing you to once again get off? From when to when?

[browneyedwoman]

Did you have the opportunity to get off the ship and get a hotel room on the island on your own dime if you wanted? If my vacation was cut short I'd want to spend a few days on the island before I had to fly home. Are you serious about flying in John Secada?

[lhuggi1]

Originally Posted by tinyrose

We were on the Dream. And we had a blast.

My experience = the elevators were out 3 times for about 15 minutes while they were testing the back-up generators. Our bathroom on deck 6 was out 3 times, twice for about 15 minutes and once for about 1 hour; each time while they were testing the back-up generators.

Other than that, everything was FUNCTIONAL.

I personally saw one public restroom being used by PASSENGERS after being told over the the public announcement system AND after signs were POSTED on EVERY public restroom that they were NOT to be used. So, if there was a problem with an over-flowing toilet (and I did not witness that myself), it was because PASSENGERS did not follow what they were verbally and writtenly TOLD.

We were flown to Orlando by a Delta charter flight. Then bussed to Port Canaveral to retrieve our car.

Carnival staff provided excellent service while we were on board. We had an extra day in St. Maarten---YEA!!!!--- with free water taxi wrist bands. I was FREELY allowed to use the internet and phone lines to communicate with our families in Wisconsin and Ohio to let them know that we were ok and having a BLAST.

My only MINOR MINOR MINOR complaint was slow information in alerting us to our charter flight departure time. BUT the logistics of getting over 4000 passengers (both with and WITHOUT passports) back to the United States must have been a nightmare for Carnival.

So, I was on the Dream, had a blast, and will sail with Carnival again. My PERSONAL experience with Carnival and the Dream was GREAT!

Life is NOT perfect. This was ONLY a MINOR bump in the road just like all the other minor bumps in my life.

Thanks for posting. I am glad you had a great vacation.

[Talex831]

Originally Posted by Warm Breezes

Neither are lying...you guys are just talking circles around each other regarding 2 different issues....overflowing toilets and power outages which would cause the toilets to not function (but not overflow). Per both Carnival and Passengers there were intermittent poweroutages until 11:30 that first night as they tried working on the backup generator. This caused elevators and toilets not to work intermitantly. Per Carnival there was only one reported private room that had overflowing toilets and one public restroom. Many passengers have agreed that this was true and reports of overflowing toilets were exaggerated.

This....thank you! Some of you people seem to be struggling with reading comprehension.

[tinyrose]

Originally Posted by MrPete

How long did they keep you on the ship before allowing you to once again get off? From when to when?

We were allowed off the ship on Thursday; not really sure what time they started allowing people to leave as we are late risers. We had late breakfast and then got off after that. I think it was about noon when we headed to the water taxi but I am not sure. We were told that we could come and go from the ship as we pleased. But to be back onboard no later than 6 a.m. Friday.

[tinyrose]

Originally Posted by browneyedwoman

Did you have the opportunity to get off the ship and get a hotel room on the island on your own dime if you wanted? If my vacation was cut short I'd want to spend a few days on the island before I had to fly home. Are you serious about flying in John Secada?

I do not know if we could have stayed in St. Maarten "on your own dime". Never even asked as we had/have a family emergency that we needed to deal with at home. So getting back to the USA was our priority.

And yes, they flew John Secada to the ship. He did two shows. We saw the second one and he was very, very good. I am sitting here looking at the glossy photo of him that was left in our room advertising the two shows.

[stormynow]

Originally Posted by tinyrose

We were on the Dream. And we had a blast.

My experience = the elevators were out 3 times for about 15 minutes while they were testing the back-up generators. Our bathroom on deck 6 was out 3 times, twice for about 15 minutes and once for about 1 hour; each time while they were testing the back-up generators.

Other than that, everything was FUNCTIONAL.

I personally saw one public restroom being used by PASSENGERS after being told over the the public announcement system AND after signs were POSTED on EVERY public restroom that they were NOT to be used. So, if there was a problem with an over-flowing toilet (and I did not witness that myself), it was because PASSENGERS did not follow what they were verbally and writtenly TOLD.

We were flown to Orlando by a Delta charter flight. Then bussed to Port Canaveral to retrieve our car.

Carnival staff provided excellent service while we were on board. We had an extra day in St. Maarten---YEA!!!!--- with free water taxi wrist bands. I was FREELY allowed to use the internet and phone lines to communicate with our families in Wisconsin and Ohio to let them know that we were ok and having a BLAST.

My only MINOR MINOR MINOR complaint was slow information in alerting us to our charter flight departure time. BUT the logistics of getting over 4000 passengers (both with and WITHOUT passports) back to the United States must have been a nightmare for Carnival.

So, I was on the Dream, had a blast, and will sail with Carnival again. My PERSONAL experience with Carnival and the Dream was GREAT!

Life is NOT perfect. This was ONLY a MINOR bump in the road just like all the other minor bumps in my life.

Going to copy and show some of my CCL bashing "friends". Thanks Stormy

[Gdawgs]

We were there too, and like tinyrose, we had a great time. The incident did not take away from our experience, it added to it to make it better.

Here's the deal on the toilets. Not sure why this is so confusing to so many people. If you've ever been on a cruise, you know that the toilets do not work like the toilets in your house. In your house, if you dump water into your toilet(or gallons of pee) it will continue to drain even without flushing, as long as the toilet isn't plugged. Cruise ship and airplane toilets use a vacuum system. When you flush, a valve opens up to the drain which is under vacuum, and your waste gets sucked down. If there is no vacuum, the toilet doesn't/can't flush, and unlike your home toilet, the pee won't drain down unless it is flushed. So during our trip, they turned off the vacuum system to the toilets for a while, therefore the toilets could not be flushed.

So the public bathroom that "overflowed" was right by the main dining room. My son went in there and saw that the toilets were full of pee because people went anyway and couldn't flush down the pee. They quickly put signs up on the doors stating that they were closed. Hope that makes sense. Again, the elevators and toilet vacuum system were down for about 2.5 - 3 hours during dinner time, but they announced in advance that it was going to happen, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

I stated this in another thread, but I'll say it again. If I had to choose between the experience we had, or having the cruise go the way it was scheduled, I would choose what we got. It was awesome!

[pjinaz]

I havent seen any passengers on here say anything too bad about our experiences. It is very possible some of us experienced different things like how quickly we were given information on flights, toilets working, etc. I know my and my kids cabins toilets were out twice Wednesday night like I reported earlier but it's possible some areas of the ship didn't have the same outages or because the second outage was late at night people may not have noticed.

They also flew in Marcus Anthony and he was awesome as well. We were allowed to come and go in st. Martin as we pleased and the water taxis were free for us so that was very nice. I don't think anybody who has reported their experience on this board with this sailing has said anything that wasn't truthful.

I was very grateful that when they discovered the problem that we just stayed in st Martin and they didn't try to get back to port canaveral. I'm sure it cost them huge bucks to make that decision.

[OCruisers]

Thanks to all of you who were on Dream for replying!

LuLu
~~~~

[Rockee4055]

Originally Posted by browneyedwoman

Did you have the opportunity to get off the ship and get a hotel room on the island on your own dime if you wanted? If my vacation was cut short I'd want to spend a few days on the island before I had to fly home. Are you serious about flying in John Secada?

Yes, that was a definite. They did fly in John Secada to do a show or two. I did read that and they showed pictures of him being there. That was pretty cool to do to try and ease the pain, if any.

[Rockee4055]

Originally Posted by leaderdogmom

Thank you for your honest report. I only wish the media would talk to people like you who were there! I am sick and tired of all the media hype and false reports such as passengers not being allowed off the ship in St Maartin.

Thank you Lori - I too am fuming about how the media is handling this. I have said it may time on CC and I will say it again. The media is selling airtime and print. They sensationalize everything. Good stories don't sell, bad ones do. They are not going to seek out, or air the good scenarios they interview.

I actually sent an email to GMA/ABC about them reporting that the Elation had to be towed back to port. The "real" story was that they had one of the two Azipods that wasn't working properly. They were leaving New Orleans and they wanted a tug to follow them down the Mississippi just in case. The Elation continued on their itinerary as scheduled and docked in Mexico under their own steering power. I told GMA to get their facts straight before starting an uproar by reporting things that were not true. I also told them to FIRE whoever did the reporting on that story. It makes me sick.

[demos]

Originally Posted by Gdawgs

We were there too, and like tinyrose, we had a great time. The incident did not take away from our experience, it added to it to make it better.

Here's the deal on the toilets. Not sure why this is so confusing to so many people. If you've ever been on a cruise, you know that the toilets do not work like the toilets in your house. In your house, if you dump water into your toilet(or gallons of pee) it will continue to drain even without flushing, as long as the toilet isn't plugged. Cruise ship and airplane toilets use a vacuum system. When you flush, a valve opens up to the drain which is under vacuum, and your waste gets sucked down. If there is no vacuum, the toilet doesn't/can't flush, and unlike your home toilet, the pee won't drain down unless it is flushed. So during our trip, they turned off the vacuum system to the toilets for a while, therefore the toilets could not be flushed.

So the public bathroom that "overflowed" was right by the main dining room. My son went in there and saw that the toilets were full of pee because people went anyway and couldn't flush down the pee. They quickly put signs up on the doors stating that they were closed. Hope that makes sense. Again, the elevators and toilet vacuum system were down for about 2.5 - 3 hours during dinner time, but they announced in advance that it was going to happen, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

I stated this in another thread, but I'll say it again. If I had to choose between the experience we had, or having the cruise go the way it was scheduled, I would choose what we got. It was awesome!

Thank you for taking the time to post. Carnival was really drug thru the mud this week. Personally I feel even better about the company after seeing how Carnival handles situations like this and the Triumph. Glad you had a great cruise!

Wondering about your username does that stand for UGA dawgs?