Dream Review From A New Carnival Cruiser

My husband and I had grown tired of Royal Caribbean cruises. Once you've been on Allure the rest seemed pretty much the same. We like the bigger ships and since Dream was moving to New Orleans, I began to look into a cruise from there. I found the 4/5/14 repositioning cruise to be priced at a very reasonable rate so we decided to give it a try. We were somewhat worried about going on Carnival because of the bad press in the last few years but this cruise offered a little more adventure than average.

In the past we have sailed on NCL, Disney, and Royal Caribbean. I'm not loyal to any brand and generally choose a cruise based on ports, ship size, and ratings. This cruise was booked basically because it was a repositioning cruise which we have not done in the past.

I won't be doing a photo review because there has already been at least one done, very well I might add, and I'm sure more will come from some very experienced reviewers. I won't be going into Port Canaveral simply because the Dream is no longer there. So on to my review. I may have to do this in segments. My daughters wedding is in less than two weeks and she too will be sailing on the Dream for her honeymoon.

STATEROOM: I first booked a Cove balcony because it was something different. As you can see I like differences in my cruises and this was something very different. My sister in law and her husband decided to join us on this cruise and he has a prosthetic leg so I decided to move up to deck 11, cabin 11257 so that he could use the gym showers if needed. He never used them though and said the shower in the cabin was fine with him.

We really liked the cabin. The layout seemed to give you more room. There didn't seem to be quite as much storage area in the bathroom but it was adequate. I did miss the sliding doors going out to the balcony because it takes away some of your view just having the window and door. The balcony seemed to be about average. We did have the door opened between our two balconies and this took even more of our view because the door doesn't slide but folds back and takes up part of your window view. The only other negative was the table lamps are not high enough and make it hard to read by. They would be better used if they had been on the wall and freed up the precious table space. The shower wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I do much prefer the doors they have on RC but even that doesn't compare to the double bath on Disney. I know the Dream has double baths but I don't think they do in a balcony. Maybe someone can answer that question. All in all the cabin was fine except for the colors. More on that when I address décor.

I know the Dream has double baths but I don't think they do in a balcony. Maybe someone can answer that question. All in all the cabin was fine except for the colors. More on that when I address décor.

The dual baths are only available in a oceanview category

DECOR: This is a hard one to describe. I'll just say that Carnival missed the boat on this one. Brown! Everything is brown. Every shade of brown. The only thing that wasn't brown was the formal dining rooms. And there you have red. The names Scarlet and Crimson describe them well. The elegance of the dining rooms were dumbed down by adding light fixtures that looked like red Dixie cups on the ceiling. I wouldn't say that décor would make or break a cruise for me but there just didn't seem to be any life in the colors. I've always enjoyed artwork on ships. Even Disney art is interesting even if your not a child, but on the Dream it seemed almost non existent. I've heard that the Breeze has better colors in their décor. This didn't dictate my enjoyment of the cruise in any way but I do hope they consider it when they do a drydock on the Dream.

FOOD: Here is where Carnival shines at least on the Dream. There is so much food, even in 9 days I never got to try it all. It seemed to be everywhere. The only minus here is the breakfast buffet. It's very limited. They served the same thing every day it seemed. They did have servers giving you bacon but after a few days I gave up on it because it was so undercooked and greasy. My husband always went to the grill to get an omelet. He said they were very good and was able to get better and crispier bacon.

We didn't eat lunch very often because on port days we were usually off the ship. On sea days we went to the brunch in the main dining room and it was always very good. We usually had the steak and eggs. The steak was on the small side but was always plenty with all the other sides that came with it.

We never got a chance to try the deli or Indian food although their burgers and shish kabab looked good. We never did the Mongolian wok either because the lines were so long. We did go to the pasta bar though and the Lasagna was probably one of my favorite meals on the ship. Tried the Taste bar once night and it was just okay. For an appetizer it was pretty good.

We went to the Steak House one night. The steak was very good but I did send it back to be cooked more. I always order steaks med. but it did have blood and had to be cooked more. I don't really think it was worth the extra but others may think differently on that.

The food in the main dining room was good to very good almost every night. We had my time dining and the only nights we had to wait were the formal nights. The waiter we preferred was Samson. He was very entertaining and very efficient as a waiter. I highly recommend that you ask for him. You won't be disappointed.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review. I know what you mean about the bedside lamps. I also hate that the lamps are attached to the tables because it means you can't put anything else on the table. My husband and I both use CPAPs and it would be nice to have them on the tables. I'm sure the reason they are on the nightstands is because they change the configuration between 2 twins with one of the tables between the beds or putting the beds together for a couple and then having the night stand on either side of the bed. If they had the lights affixed to the wall, they might not be directly over the beds when the room configuration is changed. But I agree that wall sconces would provide better reading light. I also wish they had an electrical outlet near the head of the bed for our CPAPs. We have to stretch an extension cord across the room to be able to plug our CPAPs in at bedtime.

The décor is hit or miss. I think the lighting in the dining rooms is bizarre and does cheapen the overall effect. You should see the Miracle. It has the gaudiest dining room I've seen on a cruise ship. There are neon clusters of grapes hanging from the ceiling. Many of the ships have ugly pink or orange tones in the cabins. My husband read once that many fast food restaurants would use orange for their fixtures because it makes many people uncomfortable and then they won't linger. We figured Carnival used it in the cabins so that cruisers would want to get out of their cabins and go spend money elsewhere on the ship. ;) But the décor never kept me from enjoying a cruise. And some areas, especially on the Spirit class ships, are really cute and comfortable for hanging out. If and when I choose another line to sail on, it will be because of the itinerary and not the layout or décor of a ship.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review. I know what you mean about the bedside lamps. I also hate that the lamps are attached to the tables because it means you can't put anything else on the table. My husband and I both use CPAPs and it would be nice to have them on the tables. I'm sure the reason they are on the nightstands is because they change the configuration between 2 twins with one of the tables between the beds or putting the beds together for a couple and then having the night stand on either side of the bed. If they had the lights affixed to the wall, they might not be directly over the beds when the room configuration is changed. But I agree that wall sconces would provide better reading light. I also wish they had an electrical outlet near the head of the bed for our CPAPs. We have to stretch an extension cord across the room to be able to plug our CPAPs in at bedtime.

 

The décor is hit or miss. I think the lighting in the dining rooms is bizarre and does cheapen the overall effect. You should see the Miracle. It has the gaudiest dining room I've seen on a cruise ship. There are neon clusters of grapes hanging from the ceiling. Many of the ships have ugly pink or orange tones in the cabins. My husband read once that many fast food restaurants would use orange for their fixtures because it makes many people uncomfortable and then they won't linger. We figured Carnival used it in the cabins so that cruisers would want to get out of their cabins and go spend money elsewhere on the ship. ;) But the décor never kept me from enjoying a cruise. And some areas, especially on the Spirit class ships, are really cute and comfortable for hanging out. If and when I choose another line to sail on, it will be because of the itinerary and not the layout or décor of a ship.

I know what you mean about the CPAP. Because the lamp is in the way he had to put his on the couch. The extension cord was across the floor too. I've only been on 2 ships that had the plugs near the beds. That was nice.

ENTERTAINMENT: We missed a few of the production shows. We didn't see the country and western show and missed one of the production shows. The one production show we saw was just okay. The singer who performed all the oldies was very go od and we enjoyed it a lot. The hypnotist show was pretty lame. The singers and guitarist in the lobby were very good but didn't get to hear them much. The DJ out by the pool was excellent but have to admit it wasn't my kind of music. We didn't participate in bingo or trivia. All in all the entertainment was just average. What I saw of the break dancers was very good but we missed most of it.

SHORE EXCURSIONS: All of our excursions were booked through Carnival. My husband booked golf in Aruba and Cozumel and enjoyed the courses. In Aruba I did the Kukoo Kanuba Bus tour and had a great time singing along with the music. The Beach we went to was not the greatest but not a bad tour. In Cozumel I did the Passion Island tour. The beach was very nice but the chairs they had to sit ni on the beach were not made for older people to get in and out of. Loungers would have been nice. The Food was okay but nothing special. It was open bar but the lines were long at times. They did have a nice area for kids to play in. We enjoyed the Skylift that went up to Mystic Mountain in Jamaica. The views from up there were beautiful. Our snorkeling trip in Grand Cayman got cancelled and they put us on another tour to the Kittywake and reef. I had already done this tour on a prior cruise and loved it but this time the water was pretty cloudy so didn't see as much. Carnival does a good job of managing their shore excursions. The only cancellation was weather related.

We were on the first sailing out of New Orleans last week and had Samson every night for YTD and he was amazing!!!!! Glad to hear were not the only ones who liked him. We even saw him leaving the port to go into town in Nola when we were leaving. He waved frantically and gave us both hugs. Such a nice guy.

PORT OF NEW ORLEANS: All I can say is the port just was not ready for this many people at once. Long wait to get off. Long line getting off the ship. Then long wait to get a cab. Hopefully that will get better.

We stayed the night in New Orleans so that we could ride the train home. This was something we had never done before so it added to the adventure. We stayed at the Wyndam Riveride and it was a smaller but comfortable hotel. We could see the ships right from the front of the hotel. The staff was excellent and the rooms were nice and comfortable. For the price you couldn't beat it. It was about a three block walk to the streetcar station in front of the Hilton. We rode the streetcar down to the French Quarter.

We had dinner at Drago's at the Hilton and it was fantastic. Some of the best gumbo I've had and the charbroiled oysters were to die for. This was true Louisiana cooking at it's best!

The next morning we took the train home to Tuscaloosa. My husband loved it but I think I'd rather drive since we encountered several delays on the way home.

To sum up this trip is not easy because it was our first repositioning cruise. We were involved in the pre cruise Cruise Critic roll call and social groups and enjoyed getting to know a lot of our cruise mates. It was a great roll call.

I know that some things in this review may seem negative but I believe that in order for Cruise Lines to fix what's wrong they have to hear it first. I actually very much enjoyed this cruise, a lot more than my last Royal Caribbean cruise on the Freedom of the Seas. Because I'm not particularly loyal to any one brand it gives me more Freedom to explore the differences that cruise lines and even different ships offer.

The Carnival Dream is in fact a fun ship. The passengers seemed to agree and the crew seemed happier than any ship I've been on so far, even surpassing Disney in this respect. Overall the food was the best so far. The entertainment was average for this size ship. Shore excursions were also about the same. It took a bit longer to navigate the Dream than most ships but eventually even that was not difficult.

I can't say what my next cruise will be but I truly wouldn't mind sailing the Dream again.