Carnival Dream 2/19/11 - My 2nd trip report ever

Hi Everyone! My family and I just returned from the Carnival Dream, 2/19/11 sailing. I wasn't planning on writing a trip report AT ALL, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I DID want to do one. I have only written one trip report before, for the Norwegian Crown to Bermuda sailing on 7/15/07. (The link is in my signature, so if anyone wants to read what I think is an oldie, but a goodie, it's there.) It's really filled with details that I wouldn't even remember were it not for the trip report, so that is a plus. Without further ado, I will now begin this trip report, in similar fashion to the other one from almost four years ago. (Yes, there will be some major copying and pasting going on, especially in the introduction, with a few minor changes…….)

And on with the show:

Hello Fellow Cruisers, including Experienced Cruisers, New Cruisers, People Who Want to Cruise Someday, and Everyone Else!!! After NUMEROUS requests (Well, it was actually just one from ONE close friend of mine ….you know who you are!!) I present to you my SECOND trip report, review, etc. I have picked up so many helpful tips from so many people on this forum for our recent cruise that I felt like the least I could do to show my thanks was to share a little about our great vacation. (I totally copied that last sentence from my last trip report, but it still holds very true, several years later.)

**Disclaimer: I didn’t take any notes, since I did not know I would be doing this when I returned, so it won’t be too chock full of details, but I don’t want to put anyone to sleep anyway!!!

Background information: My family and I went on the 7 night sailing of the Carnival Dream on 2/19/11. The scheduled ports were Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and Costa Maya. We had not taken a 7 nighter since the NCL Crown mentioned above, so we were thrilled to doing so, this time with our two great girls, ages 12 and 5. We have been on several other Carnival cruises, a few on RCCL, one on NCL and one on Disney. This was NOT a last minute vacation. We planned and planned for what seemed like a long time. (Probably seemed a lot longer to my husband, with all my planning, questions, changes, ideas, etc.) Love you, Frank……that's not really his name, but more about that later…..

We were so excited to be going on a new, large ship, with a great itinerary to the Western Caribbean, and for 7 days! Our originally booked cove balcony on deck 2 would eventually change to a regular balcony on deck 8. (I jumped on that for an extra few dollars.) And yes, the Splendor incident did influence that decision for me. Call me crazy, as my husband would, many, many times! Were we sorry we didn't stay with the cove? Was our regular balcony cabin a good choice? More about that later…..

Being ever faithful to checking Early Saver rates, we ended up boarding with almost a $400 onboard credit, along with a few fare drops before final payment! I can't even begin to describe that feeling of excitement!!! Soon, despite all the snowstorms we had in January, what seemed like day after day and week after week, it was time to get ready to go. (And yes, the addition of trip insurance was inevitable with the winter we were having!!)

Anyway, back to the trip. After a full day of school and work for all of us, we began the drive to Newark Airport on Friday night. Translation: We sat in traffic for quite some time on Friday night. But we made it with some time to spare, found ourselves faced with a flight delay anyway - only an hour - and arrived in Tampa around midnight. We could not believe we would be boarding the Carnival Dream in less than twelve hours!

We made the trip to Port Canaveral without much incident, just some traffic on 1-4. We got to Port and even though we have seen the Dream docked before, we were breathtaking with her beauty. (I always have that feeling when we cruise, each and every time we see our ship. I am always impressed by the sizes of these vessels. It's the same feeling I get each and every time we walk down Main Street in Magic Kingdom and I see the castle. Priceless!)

There was a line outside the terminal, which has never happened to us, but it moved relatively quickly, and soon we were onboard. (It was mid winter recess for us, and with President's Week, the ship was packed, but we tend to travel during peak seasons, so that is what we are used to.) We were soon eating lunch and couldn't wait to check out our room and drop off our two bottles of wine and one bottle of mixer, and explore our new home for the next week.

Up next: First impressions, our first dinner at sea, and more trip reporting!!! Until then…..:)

Looking forward to the rest. Good start!

Great start! Thanks to the friend who convinced you to write the review! :D

I love long reviews. Can't wait to read more. Thank your friend for me.:)

Great start! Thanks to the friend who convinced you to write the review! :D

Thank you! This one's for her! You know her?? :D

Departure day, continued: There were a lot of people on the ship….can't remember the exact number, maybe 4000 something total. But I do remember there were 1100 kids onboard for our sailing. It is a lot of people, and aside from the few (make that more than few) rude ones who need to learn elevator manners…please let us off the elevator before you try to push your way one, the lines were not terrible for us. We really couldn't complain about that. The pools were crowded and the throw a towel on a chair people will always be a problem, so I try not to let that bother me. (And yes, I have been known to gently move a towel if someone hasn't been there in awhile.)

Burrito bar was my first meal onboard. Great as always! And on another day, we did visit the pasta restaurant upstairs. Great hidden gem on the ship. After the safety drill at our muster stations - no life jackets required seems to be the norm nowadays - we headed to the aft pool to meet some people from at the bar from our Roll Call. I'm glad we did this. I wore my rubber ducky mardi gras beads, as promised, and it was nice to put a face to the screen names we had been chatting with in the months leading up to the sailing. It was a nice feeling to bump into a friendly face thought the cruise of someone we had met on that very first day.

We had early seating for dinner. The dining room was gorgeous and we were seated in the main section, something that has never happened to us before. I loved being right in the middle of all the action. We were seating with my mom and stepdad, and another family of 5. If you are out there reading this, we are so glad to have had the chance to meet you. You are truly good people, special people, and are hoping our paths will cross again this summer!! I liked having a larger table. I've always enjoyed hearing about other people's excursions, experiences, etc. and seeing our new friends throughout the cruise. Our server was Jaco from South Africa and he was assisted by Chonthicha. He was by far the best server we have had on all our cruises combined. Our 5 year old daughter decided then and there that Jaco was her boyfriend, and one of the highlights of her trip was dancing to Low, Low, Low with him!!!! (Cruise Director Butch was seated near us with some friends of his. I quickly decided that he would be my boyfriend!)

Kidding aside, Butch Begovitch is an outstanding cruise director and an asset to the Carnival company. We had sailed with him before, on the Fantasy. The energy that this man has is contagious. He is truly a professional, and someone who enjoys his job, which is so nice to see. We had the chance to speak with him, and he is just so personable and caring. (And yes, I will admit, he smells really good!!!) Kudos to the outstanding job that Butch did. We don't always remember the name of the cruise director after the fact, or sometimes even during it. Butch's name will not be erased from our memories!

THe Welcome Aboard show was very good….lots of laughs came about with a few people in the audience on stage and the work of Butch. We were on vacation, and life was good……

Up next: Sea day, Cozumel, and trivia, oh my!

Hi Everyone,

Long day today....work, dinner with the family, and......almost caught up on the vacation laundry!

I've gotten the Capers/Dailies/Fun Times together from our trip, along with a few notes of things we did, so I'll be adding to this trip report in the next day or two.

(Yes, this might be a shameless plug and bump back up onto a more recent page of threads on the boards!)

Have a great night!!

:)

Thank you for taking the time to do this trip report. My BFF and her hubby were on your sailing (first time cruisers), and they thought the ship was beyond crowded w/ people! (Especially on Sea Days---Chair hogs in particular). My family (DH, me, our 4 kids ages 5-10, and my parents) just booked the Oct. 15th sailing on the Dream...I am like a sponge, absorbing any and all details! :-)

Looking forward to the rest. I love reading the reviews & looking at the pics posted. :)

Thank you for taking the time to do this trip report. My BFF and her hubby were on your sailing (first time cruisers), and they thought the ship was beyond crowded w/ people! (Especially on Sea Days---Chair hogs in particular). My family (DH, me, our 4 kids ages 5-10, and my parents) just booked the Oct. 15th sailing on the Dream...I am like a sponge, absorbing any and all details! :-)

You're most welcome. Yes, it was verycrowded. I agree! The chair hogs were out in full force! YOu will have a great time though. It's nice to have that to look forward to! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them!

Looking forward to the rest. I love reading the reviews & looking at the pics posted. :)

Thank you!

I am considering booking this cruise for next April. My kids are not a fan of the Kids Club activities, etc. but I was wondering what they have for them on the pool deck area besides the water slides. Do they have rock climbing?, rapelling?, etc.

Love the Dream, love your writing style...thank you for taking the time to write these details.

What a great review.....keep going asap. Sailing in on the Dream April 23.

I am considering booking this cruise for next April. My kids are not a fan of the Kids Club activities, etc. but I was wondering what they have for them on the pool deck area besides the water slides. Do they have rock climbing?, rapelling?, etc.

There wasn't any type of rock climbing structure on this ship. I'm sure there were activities by the pool deck for the kids. Maybe someone else can answer with more specifics about activities....I know there was a bean bag toss - not sure where it was held though - and I know my girls played Twister, but not by the pool.

There is the whole waterworks slide area above the pool deck. My girls had so much fun there. There is also a nice mini golf course up above.

Love the Dream' date=' love your writing style...thank you for taking the time to write these details.[/quote']

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! You're welcome! :)

 

What a great review.....keep going asap. Sailing in on the Dream April 23.

 

Thank you!!!! Will post more soon!!! :)

Looking forward to the rest. Good start!

Thank you!! :)

I love long reviews. Can't wait to read more. Thank your friend for me.:)

Thank you!! :)

Hi Everyone!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled report……

Sunday, 2/20 - SEA DAY

After a good first night's sleep, we got up, and I had that wonderful feeling I always have at the beginning of a vacation…….that we have the whole week ahead of us. This was especially exciting to me because we would be on the ship for one week, since our recent cruises have been shorter ones. (Someday I would like to take a back to back!) We went to the dining room for breakfast. We like to do that if it works out….it makes us feel more like we are on vacation than the buffet does….and I'm not sure if we had ordered our morning coffee for the room/balcony the night before, but we probably did.

I must apologize right now, because this first full cruise day, this at sea beginning to our next week on the Dream, is a bit blurry to me. (And no, it's not because of the bottle of Absolut waiting for us in our room upon arrival thanks to Bon Voyage!!!) I really don't think we did much. We probably explored the ship, which I must say, was VERY easy to navigate since its layout was so similar to the other Carnival cruises we have taken. I like things to be familiar to me, so this was right up my alley!!

Of course, the girls checked out Camp Carnival and Circle C, which I must say were on two completely opposite ends of said familiar ship….and desired activities for both girls ALWAYS seemed to start and end at the same exact time for each group, again, on different ends of the ship! Isn't that always how it is???

I do know the husband and I played in the slot tournament. No luck here. And we also played some trivia. Of course, the luck showed up for this!! Ships on a stick in hand, and a medal around the husband's neck for some other game show…life was indeed good!!

How could I forget???? We went to the food and wine pairing in the Chef's Art Steakhouse!! This was wonderful, except for the noise of the basketball court the entire time right above our Chardonnay and Reisling sipping heads!!! (For the record, we were told the basketball courts do close in time for dinner. So if you are planning a romantic dinner up there, it will not be a problem!!!) Now, back to the food and wine pairing. It was fantastic! My husband and I have done several wine "tastings" on past cruises, and we always enjoy it. There's something to be said about sipping the wine and "experiencing" it with a sommelier at hand. The standard fare has always been some cheese, fruit and crackers with the wine tasting. This however, was a food pairing, so we each received a plate of various foods to taste with the different wines to experience the different flavors that come from the wines with different foods. Amazing. Really amazing. I was impressed. And of course, the filet mignon and salmon pieces left me wanting more! Since this was a family trip and we had some spa time planned for a day during the week ahead, we did not get to the Steakhouse for dinner. But it is something I would like to experience someday. Also, I must point out, in my next life, I think I might want to be sommelier on a cruise line! (Of course, with people like my husband and myself at my wine tastings and pairings!)

Somewhere along the way, before dinner, the girls played in a Twister contest. (At least I think it was this day. It might not have been, but let's just go with it…remember the blurry and fuzzy part, and no, it didn't have to do with the wine pairing either!) We had the honor and privilege of eating dinner with no other than one of the Twister champions that evening! The little one won first place and the older one came in second. Great job, girls! You made Mom proud!!!

I'm sure dinner ended with someone having the chocolate melting cake…..I'm sure a deposit, I mean visit, to the casino was made. Even though I regretted not making it to Butch's Crazy Disco Dance class, I was looking forward to tomorrow. We would be at Cozumel and these snowy New Yorkers were looking forward to some beach time with the kids. We were also hoping to get a day pass to the spa. I had been dreaming of trying out the Thalassotherapy Pool for sometime now. Would we be one of the lucky twenty couples?????

Kidding aside, Butch Begovitch is an outstanding cruise director and an asset to the Carnival company. We had sailed with him before, on the Fantasy. The energy that this man has is contagious. He is truly a professional, and someone who enjoys his job, which is so nice to see. We had the chance to speak with him, and he is just so personable and caring. (And yes, I will admit, he smells really good!!!) Kudos to the outstanding job that Butch did. We don't always remember the name of the cruise director after the fact, or sometimes even during it. Butch's name will not be erased from our memories!

First of all I must say I love your review so far. I really enjoy reading long reviews. So many little details.

Butch is great. I've had him twice. The first time he was the Assistant Cruise Director on the Liberty in 2006 and the second was on the Glory in 2008. He was great both times. Very friendly! He was always out and about talking to the cruisers making jokes and making sure everyone was having a great time.

Thank you for your kinds words!

Yes, Butch is great! On the Roatan day, he was even out on deck moving bundles of chairs, telling people he will find them great seats, since seating was at a premium. He is truly a cruise director that is out there with the people, and who enjoys them!!!!

Monday, 2/21 - COZUMEL

Wake up coffee delivered, we called the spa, and, SUCCESS!! We were able to get a day pass for the spa for today. I must say, it was wonderful! The Thalassotherapy Pool was worth having to google it each and every time before the cruise when I wanted to say it or spell it!!! We ate a quick breakfast in the dining room, got the kids settled and squared away and off we went to check out the spa. The steam rooms, especially the aromatherapy ones, were also wonderful, as were the heated stone chairs and lounges. In fact, I loved all of it so much, right down to the showers and even the cool off room. The views from some parts of the spa were spectacular!! Coming from cold, dry and snowy NY, this was just what the doctor ordered!!! We only spent about an hour in the spa this morning, since we would be arriving in Cozumel shortly and had some beach plans to tend to! But we knew we would be headed back to the spa after dinner tonight.

We have been to Cozumel before and knew we wanted to go to Paradise Beach again. So we just took a cab there and got ready to enjoy a little beach time with the family. The new pool area is beautiful! We sat by the beach first and then relocated to the pool. We had some beers and margaritas, and some nachos by the pool. The older daughter got the wrist band again for the inflatable/jumpy things in the ocean, which for the record, was probably unnecessary. She did not get her money's worth. The little one was totally content playing in the sand, the ocean and the pool, and the older one seemed happy with those things, too. Of course, had we not have gotten it for her, I'm sure it would have been the complete opposite. Isn't it always?? The wrist bands only cost $12, but in our experiences, the last time we were there, she was a little too small to have the strength to climb up alone on some of the things out there in the ocean. My husband had also gotten a band at that time, so he helped her along. This time she did a few things on her own, but seemed less interested. (Our younger one is still too little for it.) I could see them both enjoying it A LOT in a few years when they could go do it together.

There is also a little gift shop on the property, which we visited before we were ready to leave. I think this is also a new addition since the last time we were there. I have to mention it because the shop had a variety of really nice things, and from what I could see, they were very reasonably priced. Both girls got a little hand painted clay/ceramic jewelry box. They are colorful and beautifully decorated. They were $4 each!

We have gone back and forth thinking about if we should do one of the all inclusive beach breaks each time we cruise. I would like to try it out someday. But for now, with the girls, this seems to work for us. They love to come to the beach with us. We always take them. When we figure in transportation, food and drinks, it comes out better for us to do it on our own, I think. (Price of souvenirs included!) I have read a lot about Nochi and would love to try that on a future cruise, but cost wise, this makes more sense for us right now.

Since we were early seating this cruise, I think we just got back onboard after, went over to the pools and watersides for a bit, and got ready for dinner. I am really mixed about early seating vs. late seating, and love having the same servers for the length of the cruise, so we have not tried Anytime Dining. I think that both early and late seating have their plusses and minuses. When my husband and I go on a cruise, and even when we go with our girls on a cruise together, we always request the late seating. We like the ports, we love the beach and the pool, and really love not feeling rushed to go to dinner. But I must say, we never felt rushed to get back onboard for dinner on this cruise, and a 6:00 dinner is not that early, all things considered. I did like that the dinner service seemed faster (but never rushed!), since they have to be ready for the next group to come in. We have been at late seatings many times, which was much more leisurely, and at times, a bit too long. I also must say, early seating didn't involve the "planning" of let's feed the kids before dinner because they want to go to a certain activity at the kids club that takes place during our late dinner. The girls ate with us, and when something looked exciting to them, stopped in for activities when dinner was done, or even after watching a show with us. (OK, the five year old LOVED going to Camp Carnival and most often, did not give any thought about what activities were going on!! She was sooooo there!!) Plus, we didn't have that really "full" feeling before going to bed, since we ate earlier, even though we did visit the snacks set up each night or order some room service. The little one loved the tunafish sandwiches from room service, and the chocolate cake was right up there with the warm melting cake served in the dining room.

This night, after dinner we went back to the spa for some relaxation. Then we wandered around the ship a bit, and then picked up the girls and called it a night. We wanted to get some rest, since tomorrow was Belize. We had a tour booked and had to tender. And Momma was stressing out a bit. Would we be attacked by bats when were cave tubing???????

Great review... I love your writing style..... Can"t wait for the next installment

Lovin' your review! Anxious to hear more details about the cave tubing excursion in Belize. Did you book through Carnival? Would you recommend it for a family (kids from age 5 through my parents in their 60s)? Is the bus ride too long for little kids? Can't wait to hear about your overall impressions! (I'll be checking back often! :-)

Great review... I love your writing style..... Can"t wait for the next installment

Thanks!!! :D

Lovin' your review! Anxious to hear more details about the cave tubing excursion in Belize. Did you book through Carnival? Would you recommend it for a family (kids from age 5 through my parents in their 60s)? Is the bus ride too long for little kids? Can't wait to hear about your overall impressions! (I'll be checking back often! :-)

Thank you! Yes, booked through Carnival. We did not take the 5 year old. She stayed on board, but my Mom was also on our sailing. The bus ride was over an hour. I will start working on the next day soon, and hopefully my impressions will help!

Thanks again for your kind words! :)