1st time Carnival cruiser (DREAM) complete review & pictorial (from a NCL cruiser)

Such a great review! Thanks for taking all this time to post it. We aer thinking of the Dream (with different ports) for next year so this is helpful!

I feel so bad for your grandson. I can not even imagine being as burnt as he was and trying to go go go in all these ports lol. I would probably have a meltdown and I am way older then he was. Poor kiddo.... I got a pretty good burn in Aruba a few weeks ago on our cruise and I was miserable. I didn't even have blisters. My Husband got sun poisoning as well. So I feel his pain.... I hope he's better now.

"Remember the spiney bamboo? Well, this is the older, wiser version...the knobby bamboo (just kidding, I can't remember what he called these, but it was something like cow horns or something)."

This looks like a tree we have, the toothache tree. If you break off one of those spines and chew on it, you feel an anesthetizing sensation. It is because of the essential oil that has antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and tissue-building properties. 'The main constituents responsible for the actions of toothache tree are the alkaloi chelerythrine, herclavin, the lignans asarinin, neoherculin, as well as tannins, resins and several volatile oils.' (I looked that up) It grows out by our creek.

Brayden makes me think: Pain R/T sunburn AEB crying, grimacing! (Only another nurse would understand!)

NOW, I'll just look at me pics of LFK and not have to wait! Looking forward to your take on it.

I admire all you do. I worked 17 hours yesterday and got off at 6 am today and only slept 4 hours. Feeling a bit like you must every day!

Well I hate to leave everyone hanging...but the wait will be well worth it. It's time for me to leave for an appointment with Kendra and then on straight to work. I will try to maybe get a bit more of the review in tonight when I return home. Trust me, the best is yet to come. The water only gets better. :D

 

One last picture to show you as we are coming around the corner. You'll have to wait to see what's actually around there. :p

 

Hi! I have to chime in again...

I remember going through nursing school and clinicals and working and taking care of children at the same time. I was exhausted! I don't know how you find the additional time and energy to keep posting on this fab review as you are doing everything else! Whew!

But I so appreciate it! Thanks!

Your pics/review of Maya Key in Roatan helped me to decide to go there this past March. Loved it!!!

I am EAGERLY awaiting your pics/review of LFK! I was debating HARD back and forth between Maya Key and LFK for our March cruise. Like I say, I chose Maya Key based in no small part upon your detailed review. Can't wait to see your impression of Little French Key. I hope I am lucky enough to get back to Roatan and see it for myself.

Thanks again for taking so much time to post detailed, balanced, picture-heavy, amusing reviews.

We are debating on LFK for our Dream cruise in October. We were thinking we'd just go to West Bay, get a day pass at Infinity Bay, and head out through the "kidney" to snorkle.

Dying to hear if you did the snorkling at LFK and liked it better...Just not sure paying $98/person is what we want to do.

Thank you for posting such a thorough and entertaining review! Great pictures, just fabulous. Can't wait to continue reading....

Best wishes with your nursing program from a fellow nurse.

Enjoying your review. Concerning your numerous runny egg comments, has anyone mentioned that you could have breakfast in MDR? It has been our breakfast choice for many years. The food is fresher and yes, the eggs are made to order.

Fast forward some to food talk. It was time to get all dressed up AGAIN and head to dinner. It was finally lobster night and I was excited. We get down to the MDR and it wasn't open yet. The time on the display outside the MDR said it opened at 5:45, but they didn't actually let anyone in until a little bit after 6pm. A line formed, people were blocking others that were trying to walk by while shopping. It was a weird location I guess to have the entrance. But we were some of the first in line and I was anticipating my lobster and wasn't leaving. (I was in the doorway area, not out in the hall being a "blocker").

 

We were seated and time to order. I went straight for the kill and ask for the lobster dinner. I ask if I how many came with it and they told me only 1. (NCL gave you 2). So, I ask if I could have 2 lobster tails. The waiter replied, well you can only order 1 at a time. So once you are finished with your first plate, we will bring you another. Um ok. Wouldn't it just be easier to slap 2 lobsters on there and be done with it and move on instead of running back and forth? Ok, well whatever. So they brought out the bread and it was good. They ask if I wanted something else to start with. At this point it had been a busy day at the pools and I was starving so I order something called Octopus something or other and some kind of fritters. I was a little leery but I'm game for trying anything. It was pretty good.

 

 

We sat around again waiting on our food. They give the kids a menu that you can color on. I found it weird that they sometimes gave you a crayon and other times a pencil??? Really, you are suppose to color with a pencil?

 

 

 

My lobster came. It wasn't as long of a wait as it was the night before. I think probably because we were one of the first in the MDR. The lobster was not the best and definitely not as big or as good as what we have had on NCL. But it was ok and it did the job.

 

 

The shrimp was suppose to be "blackened shrimp". It was just plain shrimp and didn't have much of a taste to them. The waiter came out and ask if I was ready for my next lobster and I told him sure. So instead of bringing me out another lobster, they brought me an entire second plate. Yikes! I can't eat all of that. All I wanted was a lobster.

 

I also tried the stuffed mushrooms. They were actually very yummy. See I told you I was hungry.

 

 

 

 

Now I have to mention, today was Mothers Day. It was also our anniversary. They were coming to the tables and passing out pink carnations to all of the ladies. It was a very nice touch. A+ Carnival.

 

 

We were on the deck later for our late night snack and another lady was passing out more carnations. That's how I ended up with 2 of them.

Interesting - I found the food on the Epic not to be very good even in the Epic club. However, the breakfast in the Epic Club beats any breakfast we ever had on any cruise. The rest of the food on NCL was blah even in the upsell restaurants. Very disappointed for the money we paid for the room in the Haven. The room was nice but the we decided not to sail NCL after the one cruise. Now looking at sailing Celebrity, Princess or HAL.

Very Nice Review....and Welcome to the Dark Side :D :p :)

Mitsugirlys- I am enjoying your review. We will be on the Dream for our second time in 16 days !!!

Our first time in 2010 was the cruise you took, we loved it. I will do the cave tube if we take that trip again.

Our next cruise is the other 7 day, going to Virgin Islands. I have never been there. I read your review of Sapphire Beach, this is where I think I want to go. My DS is a snorkle fanatic. He is a water baby much like your little one.

I don't see a Carnival excursion to Sapphire, so we would have to get a taxi. That isn't a problem from the port, but what about leaving, did you have any trouble getting a ride back the port?

Have you been to St Thomas? any reviews for it?

Thanks for your attention to detail ! Love the review.

BTW I purchased the Olympus Tough for my DS for Christmas, can't wait to see what he gets underwater on our trip.

No, there aren't any cruise ships that have an excursion to Sapphire. That's why you usually don't find it too crowded there. It's a secret...shhhh

Just grab a cab from the port and do it on your own. As for coming back, a taxi pulls up every 15 minutes out in front of the condo's (where they drop you off). No problems at all.

Yes, I do have a review for it, you can find the listing in my signautre line.

Make sure you play around with your Olympus before going. There are a lot of settings on it that make awesome pictures. When I first got mine, I didn't realize all of the settings that it had and wished I had played around with it a little more. But, I purchased mine while on the cruise, so the last thing on my mind was playing with the camera. I just wanted shots and good shots. If yours is anything like mine, don't forget to use the tilt shift for those really neat photos that cover a wide area with smaller things in it.

"Remember the spiney bamboo? Well' date=' this is the older, wiser version...the knobby bamboo (just kidding, I can't remember what he called these, but it was something like cow horns or something)."

 

This looks like a tree we have, the toothache tree. If you break off one of those spines and chew on it, you feel an anesthetizing sensation. It is because of the essential oil that has antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and tissue-building properties. 'The main constituents responsible for the actions of toothache tree are the alkaloi chelerythrine, herclavin, the lignans asarinin, neoherculin, as well as tannins, resins and several volatile oils.' (I looked that up) It grows out by our creek.

 

Brayden makes me think: Pain R/T sunburn AEB crying, grimacing! (Only another nurse would understand!)

 

NOW, I'll just look at me pics of LFK and not have to wait! Looking forward to your take on it.

 

I admire all you do. I worked 17 hours yesterday and got off at 6 am today and only slept 4 hours. Feeling a bit like you must every day!

 

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You could have totally told me about that tree and not added the (I looked it up) part and I would have totally wrote it off as a "Nurse" thing. LOL

Loved your Pain r/t comment. I was laughing out loud. Now we need a care plan because we all love them so much. :D It's a little after midnight and I'm just getting home. The ED was dead tonight...but we still managed to get a Lifeflight and 3 traumas (with 2 of them being a level 1)...whoop whoop. :) Gonna try to do a little more here and get a few hours of sleep and do it all again tomorrow. This semester is A LOT better than last semester. My first class doesn't start until noon each day, which means I don't have to leave the house until 11am and really don't have to get up until 10am. I'm in heaven this semester. :p

Very Nice Review....and Welcome to the Dark Side :D :p :)

That made me laugh. I've always been a little "dark" and I'm loving the dark side. :eek: :p

So I last left you with a beautiful scene of what was coming up around the corner.

The water was the most gorgeous color I have ever seen.

I felt as though I was looking at a postcard. It's sure to be the best day ever. I think I had found paradise. There was the famous 2nd story deck that I watched videos of people jumping off of over and over. Yes, it was becoming a reality. I was actually here. I was actually going to be able to experience this place AND jump off that 2 story deck that I have seen so much of.

Could this water be any more perfect? I mean really?

There was the little "island" on the island that I had seen in the pictures. Even though I had seen pictures and people told me there was a deck to get over there, I still couldn't quite picture me being there and now I was.

I think I have only seen 1 person post the picture of the mermaid with the fountain dolphin. I had always wondered why this was never really including in most pictures regarding LFK. I thought maybe it was because it was off the beaten path or something. But no, it's as soon as you get off the boat.

We decided to walk down the deck toward the bigger part of the island first. We wanted to take a look around the grounds and check out the animals prior to settling in at the beach. I knew once we made it back to the beach, there was no dragging me away from that paradise.

I was just snapping pictures as I walked along, trying to take in all of the beauty.

This place had several boat docks all around it. I'm not sure what they were all used for. This was looking from the back of the 2 story deck that people jump off of.

This was the "yard". They actually had grass growing there on the island, which kind of shocked me. I guess I expected all sand for such a tiny island.

More statues around the place. I definitely do not recall seeing any other statues in any reviews other than the mermaid one.

Wait, what is this? A pony? Just running free around the island? Wow, that was really neat. He was not fenced in or tied up or anything. He had free range of the entire island. Of course my husband and daughter had to go check it out.

Beautiful lush scenery. The grounds were landscaped to a tee and you could tell they took great pride in everything there by all of the little details.

Statues were just everywhere.

More of the pony. He wasn't too friendly. Well, I guess you could say he was more scared than anything. He was a rescue pony and even though you could get fairly close to him, once you got within a good 5 feet of him he was turn around or back up and try to get away from you. There was just no petting him. Poor thing.

Then we got to the birds. There were huge cages up and down one end of the island. They had tons of birds and every one of them talked.

It's funny because at first we had no idea that the birds talked. I don't remember anyone every saying this either. We were going by and I hear "Hello" and did a double take. I was like "you talking to me?" and it continued to tell me hello.

Then I heard "Hola". LOL This is the first time I had ever heard a bird say Hola instead of Hello. But hey, then again I have never been around a talking bird in another country that speaks Spanish either. (Well, I take that back, some of the birds at Maya Key talked and said Hello).

The pony (well actually I think it was a miniature horse, came closer to us as we were looking at the other animals.

These birds loved attention and would come over to the edge of the cage and my husband would pet them and stroke their beak. They seem to love it.

This was Sakari's favorite bird. I'm not sure why. She said "I like green birds. I wish I had a green bird." Any time she wants something, whether it be an animal, a toy, some candy or anything in life...you get the "I wish I had..." She never comes right out and ask "can I have". I don't know where she picked this up at but the tone in her voice when she says it is completely adorable.

I kept telling my husband he was going to come back with less fingers if he kept putting them in the cages. He wouldn't listen. Sakari was watching his every move. She's a typical 5 year old. They watch you like a hawk and take in every little thing you do. They are a mini-me.

What happens when you have a mini-me you ask? Well, monkey see, monkey do and she did exactly what her daddy did...stick her fingers in the cage. I don't even have to tell you what happened after that because I'm sure you all guessed it by now. One less finger! Well not really, but you get the picture. She got what she calls a "my bleed is coming out" boo-boo.

So it was on to the monkeys. This little guy put his back up against the cage for my husband to rub him. Still.sticking.his.fingers.in.the.cage=bad! Just stop it, just stop it now. You are a bad influence on our daughter.

There was a lot of noise going on. I kept hearing some banging sounds. I was off to explore the noise. There were a bunch of men working on a HUGE cage. Of course I had to be nosy and see what was up, what they were doing and what was it for?

Well, I guess they have some baby jaguars. They were getting a little bit bigger and they needed to build them a bigger cage and that's what they were doing. Where were they at? Some place safe until next week when they would be bringing them back to the island when their new cage was finished. AWWW MANNNN! REALLY? We were going to miss out on the baby jaguars. Darnit. Yes, you are able to hold them too!!!! We were just a week too early. I'm pouting now.

The man I was talking to continued to tell me that all of the animals here are rescue animals (just like Maya Key). He said when you have rescue animals, they are very strict with you. Everything has to be perfect and the rules have to be followed. They have to have permits and be inspected. They have to have a certain amount of space and requirements. That is why they were building a bigger cage. I guess I didn't realize there were so many rules in a third world country. There sure doesn't seem to be rules anywhere else. It kind of brought a warm fuzzy feeling to me to know that they were taking such good care of those animals.

The hubby STILL petting more animals

They also had several deers. They were a little too quick for me to catch. They were always in motion.

There is was. The monkey cage we were about to enter. Anyone who read my Victor Bodden review with the zip lining and monkey adventure will know that Sakari (being the dare devil she is) zip lined all by herself there and then went in to see the monkeys and was attacked by one and bitten. It was a very bad experience for her and a little traumatizing. She hasn't viewed monkeys the same since then. I wasn't sure if she was going to step foot in the monkey cage at all. Everything was all up in the air at that moment.

We stood outside the cage for a LONG time...it seemed like eternity, but I'm sure it wasn't since our day was much too short there. We begged, we pleaded with her and she put her foot down and said "no". So we did the only thing we could do when she refused something...."ok, bye and started walking without her". That gets her every time. For the smart little 5 year old that she is, you would think she would have picked up on this yet...but it still remains "our little secret" for the moment and still works.

So in the cage we all went. We reassured her over and over that it would be ok. They were not going to bite her. They were nice monkeys. At this point I was praying it wasn't a repeat because if she was bitten again, that would be the end of any future monkey business. She would loose all trust in us.

They had several monkeys in that cage. They did let me know that there was one called "nippy". He was called nippy for a reason. We made sure we stayed away from that one and didn't let Sakari anywhere near it.

They had a baby one. It was the absolute cutest thing ever. Sakari wanted to hold that one and when she did, she didn't want to let go. It just attached itself to her like a baby and oh my gosh adorable.

Inside the monkey cage was a RABBIT. Um ok, I have never seen a "rabbit" that looked like this but that's what they said their rabbits looked like. I was just wondering why it was in the monkey cage??

This just melted my heart.

This was one hilarious. It attached itself to Sam and didn't want to let go. It would throw it's head back and it was so cute.

The huge monkey cage beside the one you go in.

So I guess my question is...why are there so many animal rescue places in Roatan? It seems to be the big thing. Where do they get these animals from? Are there just monkeys, jaguars, big cats and such just running all over Roatan? It just makes me wonder.

We decided to keep walking on. We were at the end of the animals and I wanted to continue to go full circle around the island.

Another boat dock area? There was the boat that brought us over and it had huge barrels of food or cookers. I couldn't tell what. But that's what they did was bring the food over from Frencys.

It can't be a beach area without a hammock of course.

Of course, everyone has to have a "posed" picture in the hammock as always....to make it look like you spent the day there basking in the beauty of the Caribbean of course.

About this time Sakari is saying "Are you done yet? I'm falling out"

Anyone for some volleyball? Nah, I didn't think so either. It was too hot and I had to get to the water. Let's keep going.

My resting spot.

What appears to be another docking area maybe?

More statues.

So we come across a beach area. Hmm, I was unaware of this area.

I knew this wasn't going to be prime Real Estate and we wouldn't want to stay here very long, but hey I was willing to do a short term sale for awhile and explore the place.

They had some really weird looking wired chairs. Don't worry, they had regular chairs too.

Guess who was the first out to the water this time??? Yep, it wasn't Sakari this time around. For once moma was first!!! I mean how else did I obtain a picture of her entering the water from the water right? One might ask how did I manage that? (You did ask that right?) Well, she was busy getting her goggles out of my bag. hehe That took her awhile to find. I dug mine out as we were walking up to the beach. Yep, check one off for the smart mommy today. I'm in the lead!

So it is late and I'm going to leave you hanging with my snorkeling adventure coming up tomorrow and more views of this side of the island and then on to the paradise side. :p

I am loving your review! The photos are phenomenal. We are condidering this cruise and I think you have just sold me on it. :)

Your daughter is so dear. She seems like an old soul for such a young girl. With her love and compassion for animals (not to mention her bravery for giving the monkeys another chance) maybe she will be a veterinarian or marine biologist some day.

Great review! First time hearing about LFK, think it is a must do for my Dream cruise in August. Did you reserve directly through their website? And what was the cost/what did it include might I ask?

Cannot wait to hear about the snorkeling!

UGH!! I'm kind of wishing I knew about LFK before we booked with Victor Bodden for the Zip & Dip Tour!! This place looks amazing!!! Oh well, I guess that means we have to book another cruise to Roatan!!

Can't wait to read more!!

When we were there in March, they had just rescued the Jaguars. They told us there was a circus in town and that is where they got them. They had only had them a couple days at that point. I sure wish I knew how to post a picture...they were adorable!