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It started to rain again, so once again we headed inside for food. We went to the buffet this time, I got cheese pizza, Caribbean sweet potatoes, and dessert items.

The Caribbean sweet potatoes were really good, but a little spicy. I would definitely recommend getting those if you are ever there. My mom also got some sort of soup that was really good. I got a ginger ale and used it to dilute my drink a little.

We went back out to our chairs, but it wasn’t long before it started raining again. We packed up our stuff and sat under the covered area. We got on their Wi-Fi for a little while, but it was really slow. I went to look at the picture they had taken earlier. You have to get the worker to pull up the files of pictures and look through them with her to find yours. It was a pretty awkward system, made even more so when I saw how embarrassing the pictures were. I had to politely decline buying those. I went up to their gift shop next. I knew I wanted to get my dad some coffee. It was pretty expensive: $20 for 4 oz.

I’ve tried it now, and it is seriously good! I didn’t look at any of the shops back at the pier, because I didn’t want to know if I could have gotten it cheaper if I had waited. The van picked us up at 4:15 to take us back to the ship.

Once we were back on the ship, we rushed to shower and get ready for dinner. We still used the spa showers though. At dinner, we heard about everyone’s day. C1 and C2 were missing from dinner. Apparently, they had indulged a little too much while in port. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I am a little disappointed that we didn’t really experience Jamaica, but we were a little nervous about this port. Maybe next time, we’ll be a little more adventurous.

For an appetizer, I ordered the beefsteak tomatoes with mozzarella and the Caesar salad. The beefsteak tomatoes were pretty simple, but they were delicious. This was the first time I had had the Caesar salad from the MDR, and I was impressed. It does taste a little fishier than most Caesars I’ve had in the past, so you may want to keep that in mind if you’re not a fish person. For my main course I had the cinnamon pumpkin, squash, yam and cheddar cheese pie. This is absolutely my favorite dish that Carnival offers, and I look forward to it every cruise; it didn’t disappoint either.

After dinner, we went to the theater for Dancing in the Streets. It was a really well done show. I had read a lot of reviews on here that said not to miss this show, and they were right! We were pretty tired after the show and had a really early start the next day, so we headed to bed.

We went under the pavilion, which had a snack stand and a bar. We decided to get snacks, since it was raining. We couldn’t decide between cheese nachos and a veggie burger, so we got one of each and spit them. While waiting for the food, I went up to the bar and got a dirty banana for me and a Bloody Mary for my mom. By the time we got our food and drinks, the rain had stopped.

We wanted to take our food back to our chairs, but there were signs asking people to keep food in the pavilion. So we sat at a table and ate our food. The nachos were pretty standard concession nachos, but the veggie burger was pretty good. My mom wasn’t crazy about her bloody mary, so I tried it; I had to agree that it wasn’t nearly as good as the one I had earlier. I went back up to the bar and got another dirty banana for me and a red stripe for my mom.

We took our drinks and sat them by our chairs by the pool, and went to try out the water slides. We tried out each slide once, and they were both really fun!

I went down them each another time while my mom went around the lazy river. I joined her for another time around the river. The resort had photographers taking pictures, so we posed for a couple in our inner tubes.

When we got back to our chairs, our drinks were gone. We decided to move back to the pool with a swim up bar. I got a Miami Vice and a beer for mom. A Miami Vice has always been my go to drink on a cruise, but surprisingly enough, this would be the only one I ordered the whole cruise. While I was at the bar, another girl had ordered a pretty neon green drink. I knew I had to have one. My mom got the next round, and she found out what the drink was for me. It was an island breeze, and it was delicious, but pretty strong. We got another round, and this time it tasted even stronger!

I just doing some procrastinating today and spending some time on Cruise Critic and found your review! :) I am really enjoying it and your pictures. We've never been to Jamaica while on a cruise but were there for a week's vacation several years ago. The pink colored drink in the picture in your last post that you didn't know the name of...did it kind of have a banana flavor to it? If so, it might be a Hummingbird. We had those while we were in Jamaica and they are a favorite of mine. I'd never heard of a Hummingbird before that. Our bartender there told us what was in them so now we can make them at home.

 

Thank you for taking the time to do a review and I'll be following along and looking forward to the rest.

It might have been a Hummingbird! If that's what it was, it was really good.

Once we were at the resort, we were directed to a building that was setup to check in everyone with a day pass. This is where everything slowed down drastically. There was two lines once we entered the building: one was for cash and one was for credit. We were prepared for either option, so we just picked the line that was shorter, which was credit. This ended up being a big mistake. There credit machine kept breaking, so they had to walk several people, one at a time, up to the front desk to process their payments. The cash line moved through significantly faster.

We finally finished checking in at 10:15.

We headed straight to the pool with a swim up bar and found chairs. There are two pools in this area, separated by the swim up bar: one side is adults only and the other side is for everyone. We started out on the adults only side. I decided to check out the beach.

It was very pretty, but the crystal clear water that I’m used to in the Caribbean was noticeably absent. The water was still a little cold, so I decided I would just come back later. I went back and joined my mom by the pool. Unfortunately, I would never make it back to the beach here.

Since this was an all-inclusive, I decided to start drinking. I walked to the bar and got a Bloody Mary.

It was pretty good. After I finished it, I wanted to get my next drink by swimming up to the bar. The water was so cold! It took me awhile to get in. I finally just went for it. I swam up to the bar, but couldn’t decide what to get next. The bartender offered to just give me what she had made the previous lady, since she had enough for another one in her blender. I said sure.

I have no idea what it was, but it was good. I convinced my mom to walk around the resort with me and see if we could find a spot near the pool with the water slides and the lazy river.

We found a spot, put our stuff down, and got in the lazy river. We weren’t in there too long before it started to rain. We made sure our stuff was under an umbrella, and then ran for cover.

Today was finally our first port day! I woke up around 5:30 in the morning (damn that internal alarm lol!). I went out to the open deck, but it was really too cloudy to see the sunrise. Since I was up, I decided to hit the gym. I figured I could get a treadmill in front of the windows and watch us get close to Jamaica as I got in a workout. I didn’t realize until I actually got on the treadmill that they are on the side of the ship instead of the front, and the windows are too short to really look out. I moved to the elliptical, which is actually facing front, and in front of bigger windows. I was pleasantly surprised to see how busy the gym was, especially that early in the morning.

After my workout, I went down for breakfast. I had my normal veggie omelet and decided to get some chocolate milk too. After breakfast, my mom and I went back to the open deck and watched us dock in Montego Bay.

The two yellowish buildings in the distance is the Sunset Beach Resort, where we would be going.

We went back to the room to get ready, so we could be off the ship as soon as possible.

We cleared customs a little after 9, and we headed down to get off the boat. The line was crazy and was backed up several flights of stairs. They made an announcement about an exit at midship as well, so we decided to see if that was any better. To our surprise there was absolutely no line there!

The pier was a little hectic, but we were easily able to locate the person waiting to take us to the Sunset Beach Resort. It was just my mom and I going on this excursion. Everyone else was just planning on going out and shopping. We piled in the van and soon realized that everyone else in the van was from our roll call. My mom briefly chatted with everyone while I kept my head down and tried my best to not get carsick. Luckily, it was a really quick drive and we were at the resort by 9:40.

Very nice start to your review. I love your photo of the Hand Grenade. That is my favorite drink in New Orleans. I will be back in New Orleans in 20 days and I will definitely be having a few hand grenades

Thank you so much! I enjoyed reading your reviews when preparing for this trip. The hand grenades were really good! They just snuck up on me ;)

Anxiously waiting for your next installment!

Thanks so much for following! I'm hoping to post very soon. I'm just having some photo bucket issues right now, but hopefully it won't be too much longer. So sorry for the delay!

Thanks, Ashley. Your review is extremely helpful to us.

We are wondering if you are planning to include photos of your seven "Fun Times" issues. It would mean a lot to us if you could, but we realize that it may not be possible.

 

Also, please tell us what your grandmother said about cabin 1341 -- especially whether it was quiet or noisy. Did it have a normal "mini-bar" (small refrigerator)?

Thanks again.

Thank you so much! I tried to save the Fun Times, but I'm not sure if I made it back with all of them. I'll try to upload what I have soon. My grandmother seemed to like her cabin, and never complained about it being too noisy. It did have the normal mini-bar. In fact, their room was the only one that had one already unlocked when we arrived.

I woke up a little before 8 to meet for breakfast. I had an omelet again. We thought we would lie out on Serenity this morning, but we couldn’t find any chairs. I was a little disappointed by the Serenity area on this ship. For it to be such a big ship, Serenity didn’t seem to be any bigger. This was the first ship I have struggled to find a place on Serenity. We found four chairs together on the side of deck 11. We laid there for about all of 5 minutes before deciding it was way too windy. I had read that Lanai always had plenty of spots, so we decided to try there. What I had read was right; there were plenty of spots! We got in the hot tubs first. They were really nice, especially since it was still a little chilly outside. We had to run back to our towels for warmth.

Once I had dried off, I went inside to the specialty coffee bar. I wanted to try the Chocolate Lover’s Coffee, which is alcoholic. It was really good, but it tasted like it was strong.

My aunt really wanted for everyone to have brunch, so we met for that at 11. It was a lot better than I expected. We didn’t have any wait for a table. My mom bought a round of mimosas for her, me, C1, and C2. I ordered the bagel breakfast and cheddar grits, both of which were really good. After brunch, we went to the casino for a bit. I started the day up $20 but left down $45, so not a great day but still fun.

My mom, C2, and I decided to go upstairs and try to find a spot again. As we were looking for spots, I noticed there was a short line for the waterslides. I really wanted to try both slides, so I left my stuff with my mom and got in line. I’m a little bit claustrophobic and have had issues with enclosed slides in the past. I decided to try the Drainpipe first, since the enclosed part was significantly shorter. It was a lot of fun! I really liked spinning around at the end. After I got out of the slide, I found my mom, and she said that C2 had found us 3 chairs right above the main pool. C2 and I ordered Blue Long Islands from the Red Frog waiter and my mom ordered another Mojito. They had a synchronized swimming contest in the pool that we watched. They had two groups compete: a group of girls and a group of guys. The guys were hilarious and did a really good job. Next up was the ice carving demonstration. This is really neat, but after 6 cruises, it kind of loses its appeal; especially since they tend to do the same couple of sculptures over and over again.

We went back to our room to get ready. We had the VIFP party to go to this night. We got down to the auditorium and took our seats.

The waitress came around with a tray of drinks. I decided to try the white wine, which ended up being a chardonnay, which I hate. My mom asked for a mojito. The waitress came back and said she could only give what was on the trays. My mom really didn’t want anything with rum or tequila, because those tend to make her sick. She decided just to take my wine for then, and I broke down and got one of the rum drinks. We still asked every waiter that came by if they could get something else. Finally, a waiter came by that was able to get us something. He said he couldn’t do the mojito, but he could do a screwdriver. Worked for her. He brought it out and we slipped him a couple of bucks. He wanted to get me something and offered a pina colada: sure! They asked people to come up on stage, and it filled up quickly. They ended up doing the Cupid Shuffle. A girl sitting in front of us started doing the dance in the aisle, so my mom and I decided to do it with her. We had so much fun, and pretty soon a couple of others were up there joining us.

After the party, we killed time in the casino. I worked my way back up $20…. only to fall back down $80. We went to dinner. I was still working on my pina colada, so we decided to skip the wine this night. I had the vegetable rolls for an appetizer, and the fried eggplant with mushrooms on top of polenta.

This was much better than I remembered it being! I split the strawberry cheesecake with my mom for dessert. I thought it was pretty good, but C2 said the one from room service was better. We went back to the room for a little bit, and then I met up with my cousins.

We went to karaoke, but it was terrible again, so we caught the last half of the PG comedy show instead. In the past I haven’t enjoyed the PG shows as much, but this was pretty funny. We hung out in the piano bar in between shows. There is really no reason to wait in that long line for the comedy shows. We never did, and we always got seats. We went back in for the R comedy show and sat front row again. It was Manny Oliveira again, and once again hilarious!

My uncle wanted to go to this 80’s dance party they were having, so we met up for that. It was a live band playing 80’s music and no one was dancing. Lame! We decided just to go on to bed.

We all decided to go back to our rooms to change and then meet back up. A lot of the people in our group wanted to go see the comedy shows, but C1, C2, and I only wanted to go to the adult shows, so we decided to check out Adult Pub Trivia in the piano bar. It was pretty fun, even though none of us are good at trivia. We ended up getting 8 questions right, and the winning team only got 10, so not terrible. There was a big group of middle-aged guys in there playing too, and they were going back and forth about college football. The guys were Alabama fans and the host was a fan of Ole Miss. Now we’re from the south, so college football is a really big deal to us. As all of this was going on, the piano bar singer was setting up his stuff. We got to talking to him and found out he was from Tennessee too. He asked us what song he should sing first. You know we had to say Rocky Top! He played it for us, and we got a bunch of people to sing along while the Alabama boys booed on the other side. Unfortunately, they were able to retaliate and get him to play Sweet Home Alabama next.

Now it’s time to talk about a fairly controversial subject: sneaking alcohol. I never have, and possibly never will, attempted to sneak alcohol on board. However, my aunt and uncle did, so if you are against this practice, just skip ahead to the next paragraph. For those curious, they basically just filled up bladder bags and wrapped clothes around them. My aunt, uncle, C1, and C2 all snuck stuff on. My aunt had one of her bags confiscated, but they left her other bag. I believe everybody else made it on with everything. C1, C2, and I ran down to their room to get some drinks. We dumped out water bottles and filled them up with our drinks. I had vodka and sprite, so mine somewhat blended, but C2 had whiskey and sprite, so hers stuck out a little more. Nobody said anything though.

Anyways, back to the legal stuff. We met up with my mom to see the 9:45 adult comedy show with Russ Nagle. She was sitting towards the back, but C2 saw a line of seats right up front. Mom sat off to the side, because she didn’t want to be front row. The show was really funny, and we didn’t get picked on at all.

After the show, my mom decided to head to bed, and C1, C2, and I decided to check out the karaoke lounge. It was standing room only and didn’t seem very entertaining, so we decided to go to the 1100 comedy show with Manny Oliveira. We got our front row seats back (nobody wants to sit up there). This time we got pulled into the show a lot more. Manny spent a good percentage of show trying to set up C2 with somebody. He was hilarious though for sure. If you have the chance to catch his show, do it!

We decided to hit up the dance club next. There was a good crowd this night. We had a lot of fun dancing for a little bit. Around midnight, we decided to head up to lido for pizza. They just happened to take a Quattro Formaggi out right when I got up there. Score! After we ate, we decided to go back to our respective rooms for bed. C1 and C2 were talking about ordering room service, which sounded amazing to me. I ordered a grilled cheese when I got back to my room, and then I crashed.

After the contests, we decided we had had enough sun for our first day. I was hungry again, so I went to the burrito bar and got a shrimp burrito. It was so good! I can’t believe I never got a chance to get another one the whole cruise. Next, my mom and I went up to the spa for a little while, and then ended our time there in the nice showers. The use of these showers was another great perk of the spa room. They are so much more spacious than the showers in the rooms, and they have extra jets that come out of the side of the walls. There are two showers: one handicap accessible and one not. Even though the handicap shower is bigger, we preferred the smaller one because it is set up better. The handicap one doesn’t have a good place to put your stuff and keep it from getting wet.

After our showers, we went down to get ready for formal night. Our group had decided to meet at 5 in the lobby for pictures.

I guess this was a great time to start, because there was basically no line. Longer lines started forming around 5:45, so I’m glad we got there so early.

After we were finished taking pictures, I waited at the bar and ordered a Tiramisu martini. Doesn’t it look delicious?

It was pretty good, but I thought it tasted pretty strong.

At dinner, mom ordered another bottle of wine for her, C1, C2, and me to split. I had the stuffed mushrooms and strawberry bisque for appetizers. This is always the night that I can’t help but order two appetizers. I just love both of those so much. I used to feel like a pig for doing this, but now I say whatever, I’m on a cruise! I had chile relleno for my main course.

It was delicious as always. I was stuffed after that, so I only had coffee for dessert.

We ended up waking up really early again; around 5:30 AM. I decided that since I was up, I might as well make the most of it, so we went up to the jogging track for me to run and mom to walk. I’m so glad that we did this, because we ended up seeing the most beautiful sunrise!

After my run we still had a little while before 7 AM, which was the time we were all meeting for breakfast. I went back up to the room to change into my swimsuit and get towel. I got us a couple of lounge chairs on lido near the pool since this was the sea day that had the most activities I wanted to see. I relaxed on the chair with my first cup of coffee while I waited for some of the others. I’m not a fan of carnival’s coffee at all, but I need my morning fix. I tried mixing it with hot chocolate this time, a tip I read on these boards, and that seemed to help some.

I didn’t really discover how much I enjoyed the omelet bar until towards the end of my last cruise. This cruise I started early on them. I had an omelet with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, and cheese and a side of cantaloupe. It was really good, as expected. After breakfast, C2, my mom, and I laid out by the pool.

Unfortunately, the sun hadn’t quite made it to our loungers yet. While we waited for our loungers, I decided that mimosas would make the waiting better. We had brought a bottle of champagne as one of our allotted bottles of wine, plus I had ordered us a bottle through the fun shops. I convinced my mom to go to the room and fill up three glasses with champagne (I’m a little scared of opening those bottles) while I went and got a glass of OJ. We mixed the drinks poolside and enjoyed our morning. The next trip, I decided to poor a bottle into the Tervis cup that I brought. This made for an easier experience. After lying out for a little while, C2 decided to buy us a round of drinks from Red Frog.

She brought back a mojito for my mom and Blue Long Islands for us. This drink was really good, and it had a pretty good kick to it.

I decided to get some pizza around 11. I hate that they only ever have the pepperoni and the margherita made. They have so many better pizzas, but if you want to try one, you have to wait for them to make it after you’ve already waited in a long line. I decided to wait on the Quattro Formaggi. I love this pizza! It’s basically just cheese without the sauce, but it’s really good.

It wasn’t too long before C1 joined us at the pool. She has spent a lot of the morning in the casino with her dad. It was around this time that the activities really started. The first one we really watched was some contest where guests went up with something they thought they could do better than the hosts. They were basically declaring everyone that went up there a winner, so C2 decided to go up there and roll her belly, which none of the hosts could do. It was pretty fun watching the hosts attempt to do things.

Next up was the Red Frog v. Blue Iguana, which is what used to be the mixology contest. I think this contest is always a lot of fun. I normally try the winning drink, but none of them this year sounded too great. It was around this time that I decided to go to the Blue Iguana bar. They’re drink of the day was the Bite of the Iguana. It was a $1 off, so I decided to try it. It was good, but also really strong. The hairy chest contest was next. This has always been a favorite of mine, and this year was no exception.

The Thalassotherapy pool and the heated loungers look great. Do you have any idea what a day pass or a week pass costs? Can't seem to find that information on the Carnival website.

 

Really appreciate you doing this review. We are learning alot about the Dream. Thanks!

I'm not 100% sure on the cost. We had a spa room, so it would included for us. I want to say a day pass is $40 per person, but I might be wrong.

We started out the night in the Thalassotherapy pool. This pool is basically a huge hot tub. This night it felt only slightly warmer than bath water, but every other night it felt like a hot tub. There was a long grate looking thing to use as a seat, but you have to hold on to use it or the jets will blow you away. I didn’t get a picture of the pool, because there was always at least one other person there, and I didn’t want to look like a creeper, but there’s a great video tour of the whole Cloud 9 Spa out there if you look for it.

We tried out the aromatherapy steam room next. It was really nice in there, but very hot! Whenever little water droplets would fall on me, it really hurt. We always sprayed the benches and ourselves with cold water when we first got in the room so that it was bearable.

There are two rooms in the spa with heated loungers. The bigger of the two rooms has several loungers, arranged in a circle. The smaller room only has two loungers, but several upright seats. We tried the bigger of the two rooms first. It was so relaxing that I noticed my mom starting to fall asleep. I knew we needed to move on. We went to the smaller room and grabbed the two loungers. This immediately became my favorite room. The loungers are significantly hotter in this room, which I really liked. The view was also amazing in this room.

Obviously these pictures were taken on a different day, since it was dark on this visit, but you can see why I loved this room. We both fell asleep in the loungers this time.

We got up and decided we should probably head to our beds. First, we stopped by the relaxation room to grab some fruit infused water. You can choose between orange and lemon. I’m not a big fan of lemon, so I always went with the orange. It was so refreshing, especially after being in some of those hot rooms. We headed to bed looking forward to our first sea day.

Sorry for the brief delay; it was a crazy week at work.

Before long, it was time to head down for dinner. Mom and decided to stop by the room first, and thankfully, her luggage had finally arrived. Apparently, when I printed off her luggage tag, the room number didn’t print on either side. It was really weird, because I printed off all four luggage tags at the same time. The same thing happened to one of my grandmother’s luggage tags, and they were printed off separately. Lesson learned: always carefully check your luggage tags. We were just grateful that they still made it to the room. We slid the suitcase in the room and headed to dinner.

We had a big table at dinner that sat all 12 of us. It was a treat getting to all have dinner together each night. I ordered the vegetable spring rolls for my appetizer.

I really love those things! After this night, the whole table was hooked on them, and I think at least one person ordered them every night. I had the Indian vegetarian for my entrée.

Look at all of that food! It is always so good. My mom, C1, C2, and I shared a bottle of wine. For desert, I had warm chocolate melting cake with butter pecan ice cream. I asked for it instead of the vanilla, but they brought out both. It was a really good combination!

After dinner, everyone wanted to go back to their rooms, but we decided to meet up at the burgundy lounge for karaoke. Mom and I decided to hit up the casino.

We’re not big gamblers, but we have fun playing the slots. We left the casino with my mom up $45 and me up $18; not bad for the first night. We headed to the back of the boat to the Burgundy Lounge. We didn’t see any of group, so we went to the bathroom. We sill couldn’t find them after that, so we decided to try out the spa. We found out later that we had just gotten to the lounge a little early.

I was wondering how you booked the Holiday Inn in Metairie Park & Cruise package? Did you just call them directly or go through a travel website such as hotels.com or expedia? Thanks :) Loving your review!!

I went through the hotel's website. There's an option for various packages on there. I looked at travel websites first, but the Holiday Inn website was the only place I found the package.

Sorry you didn't have a good experience at the port of New Orleans. We cruised out of there in January and it was smooth as silk! We are cruising out of there again next week and hope it is just as smooth. We never purchase Faster to the Fun and have always had easy embarkations in New Orleans and New York, but we do get there fairly early.

It wasn't a terrible experience necessarily. I just thought it could have been organized a lot better. I wouldn't hesitate to cruise out of there again though. I loved the city, and I definitely want to go back! Have fun on your cruise next week!

I went back to the room to drop a few things off (still no luggage for mom) and then found the “secret deck” on 11.

I watched for a little bit out there, but the wind was pretty chilly. I found the private spa staircase next.

I took it all of the way up to serenity. I knew right then that I was going to love the location of our room! I decided to lay in one of the clamshells and enjoy the view.

We went back to the room to unpack. All of my luggage was there, but my mom was still missing one piece of luggage. She went back up to lido while I finished unpacking. I met up with her when we were done to go to muster. We were in a different station than my grandmother, so we took her to her spot first. Then we headed to the theater where our place was. This was so much nicer than standing on the hot decks outside.

After muster, we headed back up to the room briefly. My mom’s bag still wasn’t there, so we were really starting to get worried. We decided to enjoy sail away and not let it bother us. We had a fairly active roll call on a certain social media site, and the group was supposed to have a meet and greet on the aft at sail away. We made our way to the aft bar. I ordered a Twilight Zone and my mom got a Funship Special. We walked around for a little while, but never saw anyone.

We decided to head back to the main area for some dancing. After we had participated in all of the line dances, we went to the table my grandmother was sitting at. She had a seat with a view and was enjoying watching the sail away. My mom decided to watch it with her, but I still wanted to explore and walk around for a little bit.

Sorry you had a bad experience sailing out of NO. We didn't have FTTF but it went fairly smoothly I thought. We are sailing the Dream next March. Now I'm questioning if I should bother attempting to get a FTTF. Outside of seating did it speed things up?

Our lines were a lot shorter with FTTF. I think having your room ready right when you get on makes it worth it. I love being able to drop off my bags and enjoy the ship without without carrying around my bags.

One of my suitcases had arrived at this point, but that was it. I really wanted to try the pasta bar out first, so we headed up that way. The pasta bar is up the stairs that are at the very back of the ship. When you go up the stairs, there is like a hostess stand. You get your menus from her. You give her your cabin number as well. She told us it was to help keep track of who was utilizing the pasta bar.

I ordered linguini with pomodoro and alfredo, zucchini, spinach, and mushrooms, and then a side of bread and a Caesar salad. I think my mom ordered something similar but no alfredo and no Caesar salad. You take your orders up to where they cook the food, and then they give you numbers to put on your table.

The food was really good! I loved my combination. I meant to go back to the pasta bar at some point on our trip, but sadly, I never got around to it.

We ordered pasta to go for my grandmother, and then headed on our way. I stopped at the Red Frog Rum Bar on our way back down. I knew I wanted to get a drink in a Tervis cup, and I heard that they tend to sell out over the cruise. My normal first drink of the cruise (and second, and third, etc….) is a Miami Vice, but I’ve been trying to branch out a little more the last couple of cruises. I tried a Caribbean Colada. It was really good! It’s a twist on the classic pina colada.

We then went back down to my grandmother’s room to take her her food. Then, we were off to explore the ship a little.

We ran into my uncle, C1, and C2 in the lobby, and found out that aunt #2 and her friend had arrived. They had flown in the day of the cruise, which really worried me. I have done that once, and I was stressed out until we got to the terminal. We had suggested to aunt #2 that she fly in the day before, but she said she got the insurance, so they would refund her money. I would be more concerned about missing the trip! We went up to lido and found her. We visited with her for a little bit, and then we decided to go to the spa to take a tour.

The tour was very interesting, and I highly recommend you take it the first day if you have a spa room. They started off the tour by giving us a sample of the various massages they offer. I wish every tour started that way! They also had us enter our names into a raffle. Sadly, we didn’t win. They then took us around to different rooms and explained different services that they offered. We ended the tour with the suites available if you have a spa pass or the spa rooms. We went ahead and picked up our spa bracelets while we were there. You need those to access the VIP rooms of the spa.

Thanks everyone for all of the nice comments!

We were on board by 11:30, and all of my disappointments were forgotten. The Dream really is a beautiful ship! Our rooms were ready, so we helped my grandmother to her room first. She was exhausted. There really is a lot of walking involved to get on the ship. We should have gotten her a wheelchair, but we would have had to wait because they were all still being used for debarkation. She was in room 1341 with LC, which is 1A room I believe.

When we got to the room his luggage was there, but hers was not. We got her settled, and she asked if we could just bring her something down to eat.

We went up to our room, 11228.

I woke up really early again this day. New Orleans is an hour behind where I live at home, plus I never sleep well when I’ve had a lot to drink. I was really excited anyways, because cruising day was finally here! My grandmother and mom were awake too, so we watched some T.V. while we waited on breakfast. Breakfast started at 6 AM, and that’s pretty much the time we got down there. My grandmother had been kind of sick the past few days, so she just asked us to bring her something back up. Now breakfast is not included normally at this hotel, but several of their packages include it, including the park and cruise package. When we booked the hotel, my mom decided to go ahead and purchase two breakfast tickets (she knows I have to eat in the mornings…I get hangry).

When we got down there, the buffet wasn’t ready. They had menus to order off too. We decided to just do that since the waitress couldn’t tell us when the buffet would be ready. I ordered coffee and an egg and cheese biscuit, and my mom ordered coffee and oatmeal. The food seemed to take a while, and I was starting to feel pretty bad. I decided a sprite might be just what I needed, but the waitress wasn’t coming back. They just stood near the kitchen and talked to each other. My mom finally just got up and went over to them to ask for the sprite. It was just what I needed! Finally, our food came out. It was a lot of food too. Mine came with two egg and cheese biscuits and a large portion of home fries. Perfect hangover food lol. When they brought our food, my mom went ahead and put in the to go order for my grandmother. They didn’t charge us for the extra order even though we only had two food vouchers. That more than made up for the lack of service (not that we were expecting too much from a hotel restaurant). We left our tip and headed back up to the room.

The shuttle was scheduled to pick us at 10 AM. It ended up only being $10 per person, since we only needed it one way. We all took showers, got ready, and repacked our luggage. I started feeling pretty weak again, so my uncle got me a Powerade from his car. We all met downstairs in the lobby. When the shuttle came, a large group jumped in front of us. We were pretty upset at first, but then we learned that next shuttle was just a couple of minutes away.

When we arrived to the port, everything seemed very unorganized. The first thing that I didn’t like was that the welcome aboard pictures are taken before you even go through security. I didn’t like this placement. We ended up not even going over to take a picture. When we got into the room where you check-in and wait, I was even less impressed. Faster to the fun no longer gets to wait in the VIP lounge like we did in San Juan in 2013. I understand that platinum and above feel like they have earned that privilege, and I get that. They have been very loyal customers, but the port was already packed, and a lot of seats had been roped off for wedding parties. There was nowhere to sit. We had to convince them to open up a couple of spots in the roped off area so that we would have a place for my 80-year-old grandmother. They had way too many seats roped off anyways. The final thing I was disappointed in was that I felt like way too many FTTF spots were sold. There were A LOT of us. Every one in our group that had cruised before agreed that it was the most unorganized port we had ever been to.

Looking forward to the rest of your review!! We leave in a little over 7 days!!

 

 

 

Which Spa inside did you have?? How did you like it? We are booked in 11208.

 

 

 

Thanks!!

You'll have a blast! We were in 11228. We really enjoyed it. The spa amenities are great, and you're really close to lido.

I was originally planning on just taking it easy this night and saving the French Quarter for the day we returned from the cruise. I’m so glad they convinced me to go out this night! New Orleans is like a whole other world. The driver dropped us off and pointed out a couple of areas of interest. He also explained to us that there is no open container law in New Orleans. Drinks to go? Now that’s my kind of city. The cousin close to my age that had already made it (for simplicity we’ll call her C1) and I were ready to start drinking. We hadn’t been walking long when I spotted Tropical Isle. I remembered seeing this place from a couple of reviews, plus New Orlean’s most powerful drink was on their sign. I drug C1 and my mom on in. The 3 of us got Hand Grenades, while some others in our group got beers. I still have no idea what is in this drink, and I probably don’t want to know. What I do know is that it is strong! It is also good, so it kind of sneaks up on you.

We continued walking and exploring. Everyone else had already eaten, by my mom and I still needed food. We saw a small shop that had cheese pizza. Good enough for us! For future reference, I’m a pescetarian (vegetarian who occasionally eats seafood), and my mom is normally vegan, but decided to just do vegetarian for this trip. Anyways, on with our adventure!

My aunt really wanted to try some beignets first. We found Café Beignet, but they were unfortunately closed. We decided to check out how bad the wait was at Café Du Monde. It was pretty bad, so she decided to just wait until we got back. We did find a CVS and decided to go ahead and pick up our bottles of wine. After walking around for a little bit longer, some of our group, including my mom, decided it was time to head back to the hotel. My mom convinced the bartender at one of the bars to fill up C1’s and my grenade cups with a hurricane. And then it was C1, her dad, and her mom’s cousin and her husband (We’ll call them D&S). We began checking out the various bars with live music. The group seemed to want to keep moving. Every time C1 and I would go into a bar and start dancing, we would get through half a song before getting pulled out.

As we were walking, we spotted a guy holding a sign that said $3 Fireball shots. Sold! We went around to a few bars taking these, before it was decided that it was time to head back to the hotel. My uncle called the shuttle, and they agreed on a place to meet. There was a bar next to the meeting place, so C1 and I decided to check it out while we waited. We opened the door and saw a line of almost naked men dancing on the bar. Where had this place been all night!? We were so shocked that we turned around and walked out. After a minute, we walked back in, but were told you had to have a male sponsor per female they allowed in. Oh well, no more fun for us this night.

Once we were back on the shuttle, I started talking to all of the other people on the shuttle, and discovered that they too were going to be on the Carnival Dream the next day. Now, as you can probably gather, I had had way too much to drink at this point, but at that point I thought this was the coolest thing in the world. If those people are reading this, I’m sorry, because I am sure that I was super annoying. I got back to hotel, and crashed into bed. My mom, grandmother, and younger cousin (LC) were staying in the same room. They all got a big kick out of the condition I was in. I fell into bed in a fit of giggles, and I think I laughed until I fell asleep. What a fun night!