Quick Dream review Nov. 2 from NOLA

We took the 7 night western Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Dream, out of New Orleans. Our group included my family (myself, husband, daughter 12 and son 9. We also traveled with two other families who had children-ages 11, 13, 14, and 15.

We drove to New Orleans and parked at the cruise terminal at 11:30am. You can pay with a card or cash. We purchased the Faster to the Fun (FTTF) priority for the cruise, when you hand your luggage over to the porter, make sure to show them your boarding pass and mention that you are FTTF (if you purchase). They put a special orange FTTF sticker on your luggage tags, which helps them to be delivered to your cabin more quickly.

The boarding process went smoothly with the expedited FTTF line. From start to finish, we were on the board within 15 minutes. The purchase of FTTF is totally worth the extra $50 and I highly recommend this.

Once boarded, we were about to go directly to our room to drop off our carry-ons. While there, our checked luggaged arrived. We were able to unpack everything and head up to the lido deck by 1pm. We were in cabin 8367, a balcony cabin. A note on the air conditioning: (which has been a concern in previous CC posts) It was fine in our cabin every night (I did bring a small battery operated fan to circulate air but did not need it.) We keep our house at 68-73 degrees and I was comfortable in the cabin which I think was in that temperature range. I don't like to be hot.

This ship is huge and we ended up walking more stairs than I would have liked on this trip. I have bad knees, so it was an issue for me. We had 6pm dining in the lower Scarlet, and if you were lucky to catch an aft elevator, this was the way to go. Otherwise you had to go to deck 4 and walk down to aft and then down one floor to the dining room. You can not walk all the way across deck 3. So if you have trouble doing stairs, be aware that you'll probably encounter quite a few or have long wait times for the elevator at certain times of day.

Also, I don't know if we had unusually choppy seas, but we could really feel this boat wobble. (I've been on the Triumph and the Sensation and never felt this constant wobble of a ship). I was surprised by this on the Dream, but it didn't slow down our fun, and none of my family got sea sick.

The spa was marvelous. My husband and I purchased the week long spa pass for $299. We took advantage of this 5 of the 7 days, missing two because of busy port days. The spa on the Dream is fantastic. We really enjoyed the sauna rooms and the Tepidarium. I would really consider doing a spa cabin next time we take a Dream class cruise. We liked to go to the spa in the evening. And rarely were there other people there. At most, we saw 2 or 3 other people in the entire area. The sauna rooms was my husband's favorite part of the cruise. My daughter and I had a mother-daughter massage on our last day, which is a good day for discounts. It was a special treat for my daughter and one of the best massages I ever had. The do try to upsell you on products at the end of the massage, but they aren't pushy about it. I politely declined.This boat does have a teen menu of spa services which I've never seen before, so something to think about if you have teen and want to treat them to a special experience.

My son spent a lot of time in the arcade and could blow through his money rather quickly. You can go to guest services and set a daily limit on your kids' spending, so we did this (another bonus of the FTTF is the short line at guest services). He also really enjoy the mini-golf course. He and his friend played there many times during the week.

The kids clubs:

My son was in Camp Carnival with his friend. He had a pretty good time there and would go for maybe an hour or two each day. He preferred going around the boat with his friend, to the hot tubs, arcade, mini-golf and the dive-in movies (on the lido deck).

My daughter had an ok time with her 2 friends in Circle C. The room was always open whether there was an adult present or not and sometimes the kids got out of hand. My daughter didn't like this, so she only went when there was organized events, maybe a few hours each day. O2 the teen club was right next door and there were some rowdy teens in there who kept coming into Circle C to stir up the group. I would suggest that Carnival revamp some of the programming here, there was too much "chill time". Or at the least, they should lock the doors when there are no adult supervision. Still, my daughter had a good time on the boat.

Dining: the wait staff was great, the food was delivered quickly. The food was tasty. I wish sodas were included in the price of the cruise-they do try to upsell you on drinks every night. We did not purchase the Bubbles or Cheers program, but did buy a few drinks or sodas mainly at dinner. The rest of the time, we drank water and it tasted fine. We preferred to eat in the main dining rather than on the Lido. The Lido food was just ok.

Entertainment: We attended the Dancing in the Streets which was very entertaining, especially if you like music from the 80's and 90's. We went to one comedy club family friendly show-which was a hoot. We attened one family friendly karaoke party-my daughter loved this and we had a good time. My son loved the movies on the jumbo screen on the lido deck. We also attended a Harry Potter trivia game-which was amusing. Mostly, we enjoy gathering with friends and talking, soaking up rays on the various decks, napping, hitting the spa, and letting the wind move us when we felt like it.

Ports:

Roatan: We did Little French Key on our own (not through Carnival) and this was our favorite experience. In planning, my friend and I really enjoyed reading Mtsugirly's reviews here on CC, so that influenced our decision to do LFK. Read her reviews if you can. LFK is awesome. It wasn't crowded, there was lots to do. We paid extra for the kids to ride horses along the water, we took a boat out to snorkel for an extra $10, but there were too many jelly fish out in the deep to enjoy. We were able to snorkel right around the island and saw amazing fish, so you could totally save the extra $10. Snorkel was our favorite part. The do have a jaguar and many other animals on the island. So much to see and do. We were able to order food there, which was seriously one of the best meals I've ever had. You can roll the meal into the cost of the entry fee, but we did a la cart-since my kids don't like seafood. We had chicken and beef. I highly recommend visiting here and do it on your own.

Belize: We went cave tubing with Vitalino's company cavetubing dot bz on our own-rather than through the Carnival excursion. This company is great. They pick you up right at the port, give everyone a free bottle of water. There's a driver and a tour guide that tell you all kinds of interesting things on your hour drive to the tubing site. The roads have a bunch of potholes, so its a little bumpy of a ride. You make a pitstop at Vitalino's base camp to pay for the excursion. A note on footwear- I recommend something with a good thick sole. I was wearing water shoes and they had a flimsy sole-the hike to the river is very rocky and I felt every stone I stepped on. The tour guide recommended Crocs or something a bit sturdier. The only thing you can not wear is flip flops. Along the hike, they stop to point out interesting flora and fauna. The tour company carries your tubes for you the entire way to the entrance of the river. And their tubes have bottoms and back rests, unlike other tour groups-another bonus for going with .bz (Vitalino). The hike was a bit much for me-as out of shape as I am, but it was totally worth it. The river was beautiful and enchanting. The caves are great. The water wasn't too chilly, just refreshing and crisp. We really didn't get that wet, mostly our feet up to shins. After the ride down the river, we did have to carry our tubes a short way back to the entrance-not bad at all. And they will help you if you can't do it.Then, we load up and go back to base camp and they serve you a meal-which was excellent and they offer you seconds and rum punch and bottled sodas. An excellent excursion and value.

Cozumel: We did the Amazing Race Cozumel, as a Carnival Excursion. This was our least favorite unfortunately. It was just too much walking (4 miles!) and it was the most expensive thing we did-since it was through the ship. We did get to see the real cozumel. And some of the clues were fun. But there was too many solve the puzzle, decode the words kind of thing. I was hoping for more variety in the challenges. The best one was riding out on a boat and then jumping in the water to find a clue on a sunken ship. The rest of the time, we were just walking around from clue to clue. We were the last team to arrive at the finish line-but we had a large group of 8 people. The host, Eduardo and crew were extremely nice and we really enjoyed them. You end up at a restaurant with 2 free drinks and if you order food, you pay on your own. This took most of our port day, with about an hour left over. Next time, we're going to do a more relaxing excursion or more snorkeling.

Disembarkation was swift and easy, especially with FTTF-so worth that extra $50! We were off the boat by 9am, in the 1st group after self-disembarkation. I recommend that you tie something on your luggage that makes it easy to find, in the room with all the luggage in the port. I forgot to plan for this before the cruise. But the night we were to set out our luggage we saw lots of other people's luggage with little ribbons and other brightly colored tags. I had a bright yellow plastic bag from a shop in Cozumel that I cut up and tied on each piece of our luggage and this made it so easy to find. Don't forget to do this, unless you have some crazy colored luggage.

We enjoyed a few hours in New Orleans after disembarkation and then we drove home.

Overall, we had a really good time. It was made ever better because we had friends with us. I felt exhausted after the cruise-I need a vacation from my vacation. We spent more money than I thought we would on the boat, but we had a good time nonetheless. We plan to cruise again in the near future. Next time I want a spa cabin.

Thank you so much. Well done!

Great review, we will be on the Dream in April, who did you book with for LFK?

Thanks for the excellent review! We are going on the Dream for the Christmas cruise. Taking our two kids, one 8 and the other 16. We're SO excited!!

Great review, we will be on the Dream in April, who did you book with for LFK?

We booked with LFK directly. You pay when you get there. Have fun!! :)

Thanks for the review! Sailed on the Dream earlier this year and became my favorite.

We were on the same cruise and also had a wonderful time. I was going to write a quick review but yours covers it so well that I'll just add a few notes.

We had a spa cabin and we loved it. You're right - the areas were never crowded. My favorite was the T-pool but the other areas were winners too. I had read on the boards to bring a water bottle up to the spa and fill it with the fruit-infused water. That was a great idea and I did it daily.

We were travelling with my brother and sil in the cabin next door so we were able to have the divider between out balconies open for a great, large balcony.

Before the cruise, i emailed the Maitre'd and requested a 4 top table by the windows. He accommodated my request and we had a lovely table with great servers. (Another great tip I found on these boards!)

I agree that FTTF was well worth the cost. Everything from the priority boarding to tender priority to priority debarkation was great.

Can you tell that we had a great time?

Thank you for your review. I have one question though...you said the spa pass cost you $299. Was that for both of you or per person?

We're sailing her on December 28th!

$299 would be for 2 people. I believe if is $159 for one.

Thanks for the review, scheduled to sail Dec 7th.

What is included in the Spa Pass?