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We also opted to enjoy the Seaday Brunch during one of the first two sea days. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea:

 

 

The line to get into brunch was LONG. It was probably the longest line I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship for anything (except maybe a tender line/line to re-board while in port). And just to warn you, the line on the last sea day was even longer. Everyone in our group was ready to give up, but I insisted we stay. I heard great things about the brunch and I had been dying to try it. For full disclosure -- I was initially a little disappointed when I heard that Carnival was starting the new brunch venture, because I loved eating lunch in the MDR. In fact, I would eat every meal there if I could.

 

But, let me tell you, it was totally worth giving up the MDR lunch for the new brunch!! We enjoyed so many good things during the Sea Day brunch, and honestly some of the best food served in the MDR is served at the brunch. The steak and eggs were to die for. The filet is very small, but tender and very well seasoned. We also tried the pancakes and the huevos rancheros. The cheesy grits are not to be missed. I’m from the south and Carnival doesn’t ever get the grits quite right. But, in the MDR they are excellent! However – don’t order to the mac n’ cheese!! It was absolutely flavorless and terrible. Walking out we saw more than one plate of the mac n' cheese sent back that was missing only a single bite. I thought this would be a good dish, since we actually like the bacon mac and cheese on the MDR dinner menu. No such luck at the brunch!

 

Speaking of food, we were lucky that the brunch filled us up and we didn’t need to eat lunch at the lido buffet. I’m not talking about the other food stations (Pizza, Wok, Burritto, Indian, or Pasta). For whatever reason, the buffet on the Dream is terrible. I tried the buffet a couple times throughout the week, but it was really disappointing. First, there is a very limited selection of food choices. It feels like the actual buffet is an afterthought. Plus, even when I found something I might be interested in… upon trying any of the food, it tasted terrible! There is not a single thing I tried from the buffet that I could recommend to you. :mad:

 

Another disappointing food option was the Burrito Bar. I was thrilled that the Dream had a burrito bar, since I knew it didn’t have the 2.0 upgrades. I, mistakenly, assumed that the burrito bar would be the same ingredients as the Blue Iguana Cantina. IT IS NOT THE SAME. Not the same ingredients, not the same taste, and definitely not the same caliber! I know that Guys burgers get a lot of love on the boards, but I thought the Blue Iguana was the best food option on the Conquest. The buritto bar on the Dream is just terrible. The flavoring was terrible, the tortillas were of poor quality, the meat just felt like leftover meat that was being re-purposed. And the worst part – the chips were very stale. It was just bad all around. I did not try a hamburger on this cruise, because they looked pretty bad too. We frequently ate hamburgers on the Conquest. My husband tried a hot dog and hated it. This is someone who is VERY easy to please… So, I wouldn’t recommend the hot dog at the grill or the burrito bar.

 

It annoys me that the Dream won’t have the 2.0 upgrades, possibly ever. The excuse is that the toppings bar won’t fit on the deck. While I think this may be true, the fact that I can add toppings to my sandwich and pick different salsas to try was such a small part of the Blue Iguana Cantina and Guy’s Burgers. The quality of the food prepared is so much higher. There is no excuse for not using the same quality ingredients on what is virtually the same offerings.

Rant over. lol

Looks like the picture didn't work! I usually try to preview all posts, but forgot... so here's the picture of the line for brunch:

Up next... PORT DAYS! Prepare for LOTS of pictures.

On Monday night, we enjoyed Elegant Night. I finally have some pictures to post of that night! We enjoyed all our meals in the Crimson Dining Room, which can be seen in the background:

Our waiter was awesome and he made sure every lady at the table enjoyed a dance.

On Tuesday night, we enjoyed a night at the Chef's Art Steakhouse.

We all ordered the ribeye. The steakhouse is something that I would definitely recommend to anyone. We've always had a great time at the steakhouses and the steakhouse on the Carnival Dream was the best yet. We all had the ribeye, which was huge and delicious!

We tried the chocolate sampler and the apple pastry for dessert:

We all made a mental observation that the week was almost halfway over. We knew that the next three port days would fly by and then we would only have on sea day left to soak up the sun! It was so true. The first three days always feel heavenly to me. They’re honestly my favorite part of the cruise. It always feels like as soon as we hit the port days, the vacation just goes so much faster! Then, the last sea day it hangs over your head that you have to pack everything up.

In the evenings, there is plenty of entertainment to enjoy! Between the shows in the main dining room, the comedy club, the piano bar, the nightclub, and the casino – we were always entertained. I thought that the Carnival Dream had a great variety of things to do. They also the Seaside Theater which showed new releases.

The first night we enjoyed karaoke and then the comedy club. I felt like we had a ton of quality singers on this cruise! Karaoke is not always my thing… I think it can be pretty boring if people just stand there and sing off pitch. However, there were excellent singers that really made it fun. Even the people that didn’t particularly sing well were fun, danced, and got the crowd involved. It was the first time I saw people out on the dance floor during karaoke.

The first night, the production show was Get Ready. We didn’t attend the show, so I can’t tell you how it was. The next night, there was a magician show with Bobby Borgia. I thought this show was just average. It was very much an interactive show with the audience. The whole show was done with his walking around the audience. This made it difficult to see, as we were basically forced to just watch it on the larger TVs on the side of the stage. One camera guy was recording, so if he was in the wrong spot you couldn’t see. It also had logistical problems, because the guests he was interacting with did not have microphones. Some of the guests also couldn’t understand what he was saying.

One of the cruises on the Conquest had a magician, but she was spectacular. She didn’t use crowd interaction and it was much more of a show! She also did some aerial acrobatics and used fire and other cool elements. It was much more interesting and more visually stimulating. In between audience member’s participation, they showed the cheesiest montages ever. I basically feel like I just watched an hour long advertisement for Bobby Borgia. I didn’t feel like I was ever entertained... it was more of a hook to get you to watch his other things.

We also enjoyed the comedy club! The dream has a very efficient means of organizing the exiting and entering of the comedy club. It does require a line to form through the piano bar, but it prevented people who were forced to exit after enjoying a show from cutting in line. Both times, we stood in line all the way back near the nightclub. We made it in both times and had really great seats. The Burgundy lounge where the comedy shows take place is HUGE! There is more than enough room for anyone who wants to see, as long as you don’t walk in after the show has started. I really appreciated that they made this lounge much larger than on the Conquest.

We also opted to enjoy the Seaday Brunch during one of the first two sea days. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea:

The line to get into brunch was LONG. It was probably the longest line I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship for anything (except maybe a tender line/line to re-board while in port). And just to warn you, the line on the last sea day was even longer. Everyone in our group was ready to give up, but I insisted we stay. I heard great things about the brunch and I had been dying to try it. For full disclosure -- I was initially a little disappointed when I heard that Carnival was starting the new brunch venture, because I loved eating lunch in the MDR. In fact, I would eat every meal there if I could.

But, let me tell you, it was totally worth giving up the MDR lunch for the new brunch!! We enjoyed so many good things during the Sea Day brunch, and honestly some of the best food served in the MDR is served at the brunch. The steak and eggs were to die for. The filet is very small, but tender and very well seasoned. We also tried the pancakes and the huevos rancheros. The cheesy grits are not to be missed. I’m from the south and Carnival doesn’t ever get the grits quite right. But, in the MDR they are excellent! However – don’t order to the mac n’ cheese!! It was absolutely flavorless and terrible. Walking out we saw more than one plate of the mac n' cheese sent back that was missing only a single bite. I thought this would be a good dish, since we actually like the bacon mac and cheese on the MDR dinner menu. No such luck at the brunch!

Speaking of food, we were lucky that the brunch filled us up and we didn’t need to eat lunch at the lido buffet. I’m not talking about the other food stations (Pizza, Wok, Burritto, Indian, or Pasta). For whatever reason, the buffet on the Dream is terrible. I tried the buffet a couple times throughout the week, but it was really disappointing. First, there is a very limited selection of food choices. It feels like the actual buffet is an afterthought. Plus, even when I found something I might be interested in… upon trying any of the food, it tasted terrible! There is not a single thing I tried from the buffet that I could recommend to you. :mad:

Another disappointing food option was the Burrito Bar. I was thrilled that the Dream had a burrito bar, since I knew it didn’t have the 2.0 upgrades. I, mistakenly, assumed that the burrito bar would be the same ingredients as the Blue Iguana Cantina. IT IS NOT THE SAME. Not the same ingredients, not the same taste, and definitely not the same caliber! I know that Guys burgers get a lot of love on the boards, but I thought the Blue Iguana was the best food option on the Conquest. The buritto bar on the Dream is just terrible. The flavoring was terrible, the tortillas were of poor quality, the meat just felt like leftover meat that was being re-purposed. And the worst part – the chips were very stale. It was just bad all around. I did not try a hamburger on this cruise, because they looked pretty bad too. We frequently ate hamburgers on the Conquest. My husband tried a hot dog and hated it. This is someone who is VERY easy to please… So, I wouldn’t recommend the hot dog at the grill or the burrito bar.

It annoys me that the Dream won’t have the 2.0 upgrades, possibly ever. The excuse is that the toppings bar won’t fit on the deck. While I think this may be true, the fact that I can add toppings to my sandwich and pick different salsas to try was such a small part of the Blue Iguana Cantina and Guy’s Burgers. The quality of the food prepared is so much higher. There is no excuse for not using the same quality ingredients on what is virtually the same offerings.

Rant over. lol

NOLABEAUTY -- I'm back! I was trying to finish writing the rest of my review before I posted any more. I should have written it all out before I started posting anything... but I was excited! Then, I got busy with work and the review took a back seat. Hopefully, the rest will go up quickly! :o:o

While I can't comment on the porthole room, I know that you can remove the drinks that are in the refrigerator and replace them with your own beverages. We have had cabin stewards remove them for us, but lately we've encountered them requiring passengers to remove the drinks. It's easy to do, so we don't mind and now just empty it without asking the steward.

We've done this itinerary two years in a row. The port side is the best side if you care about looking at the islands. Obviously, there is a chance this could change, but based on the responses I think it's pretty typical that's how the ships going to dock in Roatan and Cozumel. As mentioned earlier, it won't matter in Belize since you don't dock at a pier. Hope this helps! :o

I won’t do an in depth review of the first two sea days. Mostly because they look a lot like this:

We spent a lot of time laying out in the sun & enjoying the PERFECT weather. I have to disclose that I was terrified for the month leading up to our cruise about the weather. In fact, I will probably not ever book again during hurricane season for this reason. A couple days out from our cruise, all the weather reports were very doom and gloom for every day of our cruise. By some miracle, we ended up having the most beautiful weather of all our cruises. I only encountered rain twice and both were for a short period of time.

We have previously sailed in May and early June. I didn’t think it would be that much warmer in August/September. But… it was HOT. I distinctly remember having to cover up with my towel in May if we got out to our chairs early, but I never had to worry about that on this cruise. It was hot from the first time we stepped out on deck. We couldn’t even enjoy some parts of serenity, because there was zero breeze from the protective glass at the front of the ship.

Another note about the Dream versus the Conquest is that there were a lot more available chairs. I’m not sure if this is just based on the time of the year, but it seemed like there were always plenty of chairs available. On the last sea day, we didn’t get out to the pool area until like 11:00 and we found two loungers next to each other right by lido. That never happened on our previous cruises! There also seemed to be a lot more open decks. I was kind of expecting it to feel cramped, since the Dream has so many more people. However, they were really smart with designing the open deck spaces. Almost every inch is useful space.

ryansmith18 -- No worries! Glad to help. Thanks for your kind words.

BigEasyCC -- It was delicious. I'm sad to say I got that combination every time, so I can't give you any other recommendations. It was that good. I can't wait until my next bowl.

Macklovin38 -- Exactly ONE MONTH away!! That is super exciting. :D

JennN -- I can't imagine not loving this itinerary! In my opinion, there is no such thing a bad itinerary. I'd rather be on a cruise than anywhere else. I notice you said it wasn't your favorite, not that you didn't like it at all. ;)

smitty1952 -- Yes we purchased it literally the minute we walked onto the ship. It was for two people and included gratuity. on the receipts, it doesn't show anything for gratuity. Since I didn't understand the gratuity thing, we left an additional tips for most of our drinks.

white93mr2 -- Thank you!

JamesEM -- More information is coming today. I probably won't be able to start the review of the ports until Monday and that's where most of the pictures will come from!

WECRUISE4US -- Thanks! I wish I was thirty days out from my next cruise. A teeny tiny bit jealous, not going to lie! :o

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2100015

 

There's the post I did with my review from the same cruise. The 3 picture per post thing was a little annoying, so I merged mine into some larger pictures instead.

Lakelodge -- Check out this review for the Fun Times. They're all uploaded for your review. :D

"Since we had FTTF, our luggage had a special orange sticker added to the luggage tags. Be sure you mention that you have FTTF so that they mark your bags. Our porter already knew, but it is better to be safe than sorry!"

 

Curious, how did the porter know ahead of time that you had FTTF?

When we exited our vehicle, the porters unloaded all our luggage and checked all our boarding passes and passports. The boarding pass has a little FTTF graphic on it. It's small though, that's why I'd always point it out to make sure that they put the appropriate orange sticker on your luggage tags. I'm pretty sure that's the only way they know to deliver your bags early.

I should also mention that our luggage was delivered very quickly. We had all of our luggage delivered and unpacked before muster!

lakelodge -- I'll do my very best to get those uploaded. I'm having trouble scanning them. Some may be color and some may be black and white. Some just don't want to be scanned. lol

momof6crazykids -- Another November cruiser... Again, hope this helps pass the time until your trip! Hope your cruise is wonderful! :D

uapyro -- I'll be sure to check it out. Hope you enjoyed yourself!

Cruiserfam1031 -- I will be sure to provide as much detail as I can! I really love these ports. They are all pretty and have unique things to do.

KY_Bride09 -- You're going to LOVE it! I'm counting down the days until we go back. It can't come soon enough. Let me know if you have any questions that I don't answer. What ports are you going to?

teacher32 -- I hope you enjoy it! Do you frequently sail out of New Orleans? Let me know if you have any questions about restaurants or things to do!

ccxnola -- I checked our your review out. I feel like we agree on a ton of things. I hope you enjoyed your trip as much as we did!

megamoo -- Hope you enjoy this review! We've done this itinerary and the one to Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Cozumel. I liked Grand Cayman and Isla Roatan the most, so that's a toss up. But, I liked Belize infinitely more than I liked Jamaica. So, I'd give the edge to that itinerary.

sassykitten74 -- So many people going in November! I hope this helps a little bit. I always appreciated a new review, so trying to pay it over. It made the time go by a little faster every time for me! ;)

ch27088 -- I hope you have the BEST time!! I can't imagine not enjoying yourself on the Dream, but then again, to each their own! :o

After we dropped our carry-ons off at our rooms, we went straight to Pasta Bella. This is a made to order pasta station on Deck 11 Aft. It is directly above the Lido buffets. Y’ALL. Let me just tell you. This made my cruise. I seriously loved this option for lunch. I wish it was open later. I’m still not really sure why all of the Dream’s specialty dining options are only available for lunch. I liked Pasta Bella so much that I ate there three times!

When you walk up the stairs from the lido, a hostess stand is the first thing you’ll see. You walk over and get the order sheets for each person ordering and she will assign you a table number. You fill out the order sheet and return it to the area where they are preparing the food. After the food is prepared, a waiter will bring the food to the table.

This is the lasagna. It was only available at the beginning of the cruise, so I would try it as soon as you can if you are interested. It was filled with roast and vegetables. Got great reviews from our group!

Sorry this one is blurry, but it was my favorite! I mixed tomato basil and alfredo -- so delicious!

For the rest of the day, we just explored the ship, dined in the dining room, and caught the end of the Welcome Aboard show. It was a pretty early night for us!

We went to our rooms to check them out and drop off our carry-ons first thing! Our room was 10216 a balcony room on the port side and my mom and her best friend were in room 10233 a balcony room on the starboard side. This was our first time trying a room on the Lido! We were previously dedicated Empress Balcony cruisers.

We absolutely LOVED this location. It was so easy to get to the Lido and Aft pool areas. We probably snacked way more than we should have. Late night pizza was only steps away! If we needed a late afternoon snack, we just popped right on over. It also was nice to be able to run back to the room if we forgot something or needed to use the restroom.

My only regret is that both of our rooms weren’t on the same side. We had to go all the way back to the elevator area to get back around to their room. However, we had the ability to see the view from both sides of the ship, which was nice!

View from port side (left):

View from starboard (right):

We immediately went to the Atrium Bar to purchase the Cheers Beverage Program. It was $603.76 for two people, including gratuity. Last year, it Cheers program was still at the higher pricing. My husband could have easily made it worth it, but I’m not a huge drinker. We didn’t purchase it and the whole cruise I regretted it. I wanted to be sure this cruise that we at least tried it, especially since the price was substantially lower. We had no line at the Atrium Bar and we quickly had a drink in our hands! It was time for vacation to start!

We walked into the terminal area at approximately 9:45 a.m. The terminal was completely renovated from the last time we were there in May 2013. It seemed to have a much better flow. As soon as you walk into the terminal, you will go up a set of escalators. It is pretty funny, because all the people going up are so happy to be boarding and all the people going down look so depressed because they are departing the ship.

When you first enter, you will go through the security area and they will scan all your carry-on luggage. There was no one in line when we got there, but there is a priority line for Platinum and FTTF should there have been a line. If you are carrying on wine or sodas, you will be sent to a table where security officers will inspect all of your liquids very carefully. My mom carried on a 12 pack of Cokes and they literally cut open the 12 pack and took out cokes to be sure there was nothing else in the 12 pack.

Since it was still fairly early, they had not started check in yet. We took a seat and waited a few minutes. I believe FTTF was the first group to be called for check in. Platinum have their own lounge, so I believe their check in took place there. After we checked in, we were directed to a specific area of the seating for FTTF.

This was a HUGE improvement from the May 2013. Last time, there was very limited seating so we could not sit with the other priority boarding. When they start boarding, wedding guest and diamond/platinum cruisers went first. Everyone’s instinct is to stand at that point, so it felt like we had to fight our way through when they finally called to FTTF. This year, they had everyone grouped together and it was a much more pleasant experience!

Another pleasant surprise is that boarding started really early. I was so surprised that boarding was starting so early, I totally forgot to look at my clock. I’m pretty sure that wedding guests and platinum/diamond started at 10:45!

I had to get a picture of my mom walking onto a cruise ship for the first time!:D

We live in New Orleans, so Sunday was the first day of vacation. This is our first year living here, so it meant that we didn’t feel like our vacation started on Saturday like it usually does. I kind of missed staying in a hotel the Saturday night before the cruise! :(

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early. We already had our vehicle packed, with the exception of one small bag for each of us. This would be our first time parking in the Erato Street Parking Garage, as we had always been shuttled to the New Orleans Port by our hotel.

My mother is an over packer, so we barely had enough room in our large SUV for the four of us. She would regret over packing again and again and again. First, when she tried to unpack. Second, when she realized she had no room to bring any purchases home. Finally, and most importantly, when she wasted so much time the last day packing everything up. BEST TIP: If you are a first time cruiser, plan very carefully what you are going to pack. There are limited storage areas and you will spend a majority of your time in bathing suits and cover ups.

We made it to the port for approximately 9:30 a.m. I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult to find a parking spot and unload our car. We breezed right in and got PRIME parking! The porters will stop you upon entering the garage and help unload your suitcases that you will be checking. The porter who helped us unload was very helpful and was tipped very well for helping with all our luggage! :p

Since we had FTTF, our luggage had a special orange sticker added to the luggage tags. Be sure you mention that you have FTTF so that they mark your bags. Our porter already knew, but it is better to be safe than sorry! The porter also checked our boarding passes and our passports to make sure we had all of the necessary items to board the ship.

Hi all! :D

Our group sailed on the Dream August 31, 2014 – September 7, 2014. Our group consisted of myself, my husband (this was our fourth cruise), my mom (her first cruise!), and my mom’s best friend (she’s been on many). This is my second attempt at a review. Unfortunately, this review will not be as picture intense as the first review, at least of the ship. While I have a few pictures, it will be mostly commentary on my impressions of the ship.

This was the first time sailing on the Dream for all of us. I’ve previously sailed on the Elation (1x) and the Conquest (2x). I figured I would do a comparison of the two ships, as many people that sail frequently out of New Orleans may be interested in that comparison. We also purchased Faster to the Fun (FTTF) and the Cheers Beverage Program, so I will also discuss how we felt about those programs. I also saved all of our Fun Times and will try to scan those in.

As a little overview of our trip, our ports included Isla Roatan, Hondruas, Belize City, Belize, and Cozumel, Mexico. While I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the ship, I took a lot of pictures in the ports! This was our second year on this itinerary, so to say we really enjoy this itinerary is probably an understatement. We went on a Carnival excursion is all three ports, so I’ll definitely review those in depth.

We had a wonderful trip and we are already booked on our next cruise on the Dream for May 2015, so spoiler alert – this review will probably be full of warm and fuzzy experiences. However, we did have a few areas we really thought were lacking and I will touch on those as well!

This is truly a pay it forward experience for me, as I feel like I’ve read every review ever done on the Carnival Dream. So, a special thanks to every reviewer of the Carnival Dream as you made my experience on the Dream exponentially better!

Can’t wait to get started! Please be patient, as I work full time. I’m hoping I’ll get the last of my pictures uploaded tonight and can really get into it! I promise not to leave y’all hanging… even if it does take me a little while to get it finished.

I applied for a price drop online yesterday and was immediately denied via e-mail. I knew I had the accurate information (I even took screen shots in case my claim was rejected).

I immediately e-mailed the contact on the rejection and attached the screen shots to my e-mail. It was approved within two hours.

I just wouldn't stop if they reject you at first. It seemed to me that the default is now to reject everything and only approve if you follow up. :mad:

I am so excited for this review! I've also checked out your blog. I really appreciate you scanning the Fun Times. We'll be on the Dream for the end of August.

My plan is to hit the pasta bar for lunch first as well! What did you order, so I can avoid making the same mistakes? Also, what did you think was the best that your family ordered?

Can't wait for more on this review and your blog! :D

We did the Isla Passion by Twister excursion last summer and absolutely loved it. It is one of the most exciting rides and our driver was so much fun! You will have a blast. :D

Our last two cruises on the Conquest were midship, empress balconies! We loved that location. You can't go wrong there! :D

Thanks for all these great reviews! We're not big snorkelers, so that's not something we'd do but we were interested in doing zip lining. Anyone have experience with that?

Last year, we did the zip lining, repelling, and cave tubing in Belize through the Carnival excursion. I am not afraid of many things, but I chickened out of the repelling! I thought the zip lines were fun, but the cave tubing was the best part of the excursion!

You should feel free to be as dressy as you would like! I find most people are more formal on the first elegant night than the second. For the first, I wear a more formal dress (more formal than something I would wear at home to a nice dinner, but not exactly a prom dress either) and my husband wears a suit. On the second elegant night, I usually wear a short cocktail dress and my husband wears slacks and a button down with tie (no jacket).

You can't go wrong, unless you wear jeans/shorts. Dress as formal as you like, because the degree of formality will change every cruise. Good luck!