Christmas on the Dream (Dec 24-31, 7-night Western Caribbean) trip report

Hi all. We've been off the Dream for a week but only home for a few days but I'm ready to get started with our trip report.

Cast: Cindy (me - 47), DH (55), N (age 15 boy) and Z (age 14 boy)

Cruise Experience: 8th family cruise, first family cruise on Carnival. I sailed with Carnival about 5 years ago on the Fantasy.

We chose this cruise for our family Christmas gift (nothing else!) because it was over Christmas, it fit into our budget, and it had two ports that were new to us (Belize and Roatan).

Friday, December 23rd, pre-cruise... We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites in Cape Canaveral where we've stayed pre-cruises before. When we arrived around 6 p.m., the earliest available shuttle time for the next day was 12:30 - later than I wanted to board but I had failed to call earlier in the day to schedule our shuttle time. No worries, though - we'd still get there in plenty of time before sail away! We like staying at this hotel and find it to be comfortable for us - we were able to upgrade to a suite so we had two beds plus a pull-out couch which meant our teen boys didn't have to share a bed. And with the later shuttle time, we didn't feel like we would have to jump up and rush in the morning to be ready to head over to the port!

Saturday, December 24th: Sailaway day! I woke up around 8 a.m. and looked out the window to see the Carnival Dream! What a beauty she is! So big and RIGHT THERE! It's cruise day and I tried really hard to not wake everyone else up because there was no need for them to get up yet just to sit around the hotel until noon. The breakfast area was really busy so we each went down to get what we wanted and bring it back to the room to eat as we were ready. After breakfast, we just hung out in the room - nice thing about CI/S is that they have a noon check-out time, so we didn't feel like we had to get out of the room and wait in the lobby.

We went to the lobby around 11:45 with our bags and waited until it was our turn to go on the shuttle. We met another CC family while waiting so that was nice to talk with them. They were originally scheduled for a 1:30 shuttle but were able to be on the 12:30 one, too. Off to the port we went.

When we arrived at the port, we unloaded our bags from the shuttle trailer and made sure the porters got them to load onto the crates where all the luggage was going. We had pre-tagged ours that morning, using tips I had read on CC - we had clear packing tape that I used to "laminate" the paper tags to strengthen them and then taped the ends together instead of stapling. We brought a pair of scissors with us that were helpful in removing the tags after we got them all in our cabin. There were several passengers from our shuttle that had not pre-tagged their bags so they had to do it there. I was glad we had it already done!

It was about 1:00 at this point and there was a pretty good line outside the terminal, so we queued up where they told us to go and had our boarding pass and passports ready. We noticed several people being told to sign their passports at the prescreening area before entering the terminal, so be sure you've taken care of that before you travel - one less thing to do!

We went through the screening with only one slight delay - the $23 of quarters I had in one bag had to be removed for them to be sure that's really what it was! I had brought them for that quarter game they have onboard where it "sweeps" and quarters drop out from time to time. I love that game for some reason so I'd been saving up my quarters for it. Rather than checking them in my bag, I had put them in a carry on. No worries, though - just a quick check and we were on our way up the escalator to check-in.

We were on Deck 2, so we went to the right where we had about a 5 minute wait before it was our turn to get our Sail and Sign cards. Everything was ready for us just as we had asked - no charging privileges for the teens :) Then instead of sending us through the main queue area that was backing up, our counter person had us go to a different entrance at the back side of the terminal which put us a little bit ahead of other guests coming through and no wait to get our pictures made for identification and then for facial recognition. We by-passed the welcome aboard photos and suddenly we were on the Dream in the Atrium.

It was loud, bright, and a bit over-stimulating when boarding, but you could feel the energy. By this time it was 1:30 and we were ready to find out if our cabin was available. We entered on Deck 3, so we found the elevators and stairs just to our left and a Carnival TEAM MEMBER with a JUST ASK t-shirt on (I loved this, by the way... it made it so easy to find help and directions when we needed it that first day!) who said yep, cabins were ready!

We had a cove balcony cabin - 2254 - which is just behind the forward elevators (between the two ways into the hall) on the port side. When we entered, it felt small but as always, there is cruise ship magic that makes cabins "expand" once you've been there for a bit :) We like sailing with a balcony, so we chose the cove balcony because it kept this cruise within our budget, and it sounded neat. The cabin had the "king size" bed that we had requested online, and then the sofa and a drop-down upper berth much like we have when we sail on Disney, so we knew that arrangement would work. What we liked was that the bed was by the balcony whereas on Disney the sofa is - I think it made the cabin feel bigger and more efficient for us the way it is on the Dream vs. the DCL Magic/Wonder.

Some pictures:

Cabin location - we were in the 4th Cove Balcony from the left as you look at this picture of the port side of the ship while we were in Roatan. Just between the two forward gangways.

The bed set-up - DH liked having the window-ledge available to store some of his stuff on - like Kindle, eyeglasses, sunglasses, etc., like a shelf!

Here's the sofa. It was made up as a bed when we arrived, but the next day we asked if they would put it back like a sofa during the day - they ended up not flipping it each day but they did put the back back on and they folded the upper berth back up each day (they had left it down the first full day but it's so in the way if it's down all day).

Closets: there was plenty of room in the three closets for us to hang our clothes and stack our clothes. Getting fully unpacked made things easier for the week and we stored the suitcases under the bed. We had pop-up hampers we were able to also put in the two closets next to the door so we could manage our dirty laundry better. Don't worry though - i won't post a picture of that.

And since I think I have room for one more photo in this post, here's the balcony:

We had read on CC that it was a good idea to head to the Pasta Bar for lunch on the first day for several reasons, one being that there was usually plenty of room to sit and be "out of the fray" while you caught your breath. I was glad to have read that because i'm not sure we'd have ever even noticed the Pasta Bar if I hadn't read it here! We weren't really sure how to navigate the ship at that point but knew we needed to get to the Lido deck (10) in the Aft portion of the ship and we knew we'd never catch an elevator, so we walked up from Deck 2 to Deck 5 and then went out on the Lanaii starboard side to walk down a bit before heading back in to go up the stairs to deck 10. Only we couldn't figure out where the best place to re-enter the ship was - the Ocean Plaza entry wasn't clearly marked and appeared blocked off anyway, so we ended up going in a door to the back of the Burgandy lounge where we made our way in and found the aft elevators were available! So up to deck 10 to the Gathering, a quick glance around found both the Burrito bar and the Pasta Bar, so we went up. We found the same CC family there that we had met at the hotel!

We placed our orders - here's a hint - DO NOT get the Meat Lasagna expecting it to be what is typically thought of as meat lasagna - it had meat in it, and spinach and sweet potato - but the meat was like roast beef kind of meat, not ground beef. DH doesn't like "hunks" of meat so he was seriously turned off by it but it managed to eat the noodle part. I told him to just order something else but he didn't want to. The penne pasta that the boys ordered was al-dente which is not done enough for them. My linguine, however, was delicious - and I liked the bolognese sauce and mushrooms I added to mine. DH ate my salad. The bread was cold (as it was every time we ate there). I told the boys to order the linguine next time with the pomodora sauce on the side (they did and loved it!). DH also had linguine later in the week and enjoyed it! But I think that first lunch made DH a bit concerned that it was setting the tone for the week. Thankfully it did not - we found the food to be yummy!

After lunch we found the ice cream machine (yum - loved that they had both cones and bowls - and that it was inside, not outside so the ice cream was never melty from the heat and there was nearly always a crew member tending to the area to keep it clean).

We got our bottomless bubbles stickers ($177+ for the week for two teens and two adults) which allowed us to have soda and juice all week from any of the bars and restaurants. Then the guys got clubs and golf balls and headed up to deck 12 for their first round of mini-golf for the week. NOTE: this is a great time to play mini-golf - sea days were nearly impossible to get clubs/balls without a wait. While they played mini-golf, I went back to the cabin to see if the luggage was arriving so I could start unpacking while they were otherwise occupied! Three of our bags had arrived by then (it was about 2:45 then) and I made short work of getting things squared away before time for sail away.

Cindy,

Looking forward to hearing about your adventure. Our family was on the Dream 10/15 Western Caribbean sailing (in 2 connecting coves), and I still love to hear about others' experiences. We had such a fabulous time, that we are considering another cruise on the Dream. Have also checked into Disney (would love to do at least one before the kids get older), but the price is almost always at least double---especially for a verandah which I could not do w/out! :-) Curious to hear what your thoughts are between Disney, Carnival, and RCI (I've sailed Carnival and RCI)...

This is a great review so far, Cindy. Thanks for writing it. We will be on the dream in a cove balcony in March.

What did you think of the cove? Did any water get onto your balcony? Did it feel too claustrophobic as other suggested?

Cindy,

 

Looking forward to hearing about your adventure. Our family was on the Dream 10/15 Western Caribbean sailing (in 2 connecting coves), and I still love to hear about others' experiences. We had such a fabulous time, that we are considering another cruise on the Dream. Have also checked into Disney (would love to do at least one before the kids get older), but the price is almost always at least double---especially for a verandah which I could not do w/out! :-) Curious to hear what your thoughts are between Disney, Carnival, and RCI (I've sailed Carnival and RCI)...

Thanks! We tried very hard to not "compare" during the week but after our trip, we talked about things we liked and didn't like about each of the ships we've sailed with. We like all three companies as cruiselines - no complaints about any of them. The service has been impeccable for us with all three. We would consider the Carnival Dream and the RCI Freedom similar in nature and the Disney Magic/Wonder obviously are smaller and older ships - most of the things we noted were things that we considered improvement based on the Dream being 10 years newer :)

We liked having the flexibility of Your Time Dining on Carnival. We liked the availability of a buffet for dinner on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean where Disney, while offering alternative table dining, doesn't have the buffet type dining that the other two do for evening meals (we've not sailed on the Disney Dream so I cannot speak about what they might have different). We only ate in the Freedom dining room once - hated our table location and didn't really want to bother with 'dinner' on that trip. I like the dining room experiences generally so YTD on the Dream was a perfect solution for our family - we dined three times in the dining room, twice at the buffet and twice at the grill (before it closed at 6 p.m.).

We liked that the ice cream machine on the Dream was inside and they had both cones and bowls available. The Freedom and Disney ships have it outside and it gets messier and meltier as the trip goes on.

We like that Disney doesn't have an add-on charge for soda - of course we know we pay for that in the price of the DCL cruise - but it's nice to have the soda machine available. However, with the stickers on both Carnival and RCI, we didn't have to go to the top deck every time we wanted a soda - we could get it from the nearest bar. I like, too, that there isn't the paper-cup waste that Disney creates while the other lines use glasses. Our location on the Dream was perfect for getting drinks from the Lobby bar (big shout out to Michele, Neli, and Dirk - our bartenders who kept us supplied with soda and juice all week!).

Hands down, Disney does a better job with youth activities for the teens. Their space and supervision is top-notch. The boys like Carnival better than RCI but still had gaps in their day where Disney would have a counselor supervising from noon til late with no "closed" hours between - while the youth programs on both Carnival and RCI had non-supervised hours with nothing really available to do.

We also liked that Disney has a movie theater - there were times we had gaps in our afternoons that we might've gone to see a movie if one had been available. Sure they show something on the tv but never could find a "when does this start" schedule so I never got to watch anything all the way through.

As for shore excursions, we found all three lines to be about equal in their management of shore excursions and getting guests off the ship in an organized fashion. Also the variety and availability of shore excursions seemed about the same. We do most of our shore excursions through the cruiseline so we've had a lot of experience :)

Cabins - well, I won't compare RCI's Freedom cabin because the one we had didn't have an upper berth which meant DH and I slept on the pull-out sofa all week while the boys had the comfortable twin beds - never again! We make sure our cabin has an upper berth and the sofa flips to a single bed so we have room for the four of us to continue to sail in one cabin (meaning we can sail more frequently than if we had to get two cabins). The set-up of the Dream compared to the DCL rooms was more efficient - i liked having the bed further into the room so there was walking / standing around space when you come in and you weren't tripping over the bed. The counter was more spacious, too, and having three closet spaces compared to one large one (about equal to two) gave us more storage - the steamer trunk they offer on Disney is smaller than the space of the third closet on the Dream.

i missed having a metal door on the Dream to put my magnets on that I like to use, but I liked that the bathroom doors weren't metal and always slamming and pinching someone's fingers like we've had happen on DCL. I liked having just one bathroom instead of a split bathroom although there were times it would've been nice to have a split. However, it was rare that we needed two sinks - and we always locate the nearest public restroom onboard so when someone has an emergency (or needs to leave an unpleasant odor), they can just go out to take care of it :)

I did sail on an older Carnival ship (Fantasy) several years ago and said then that I would not take my family on that ship - I still hold to that after several years of sailing - we are more suited to the newer ships that are laid out better.

Entertainment-wise, we loved the comedy shows on the Dream and felt there was enough alternatives to have something to see/do each evening if you wanted to do. We've always had enough entertainment on Disney - their stage shows are top-notch - we enjoyed the ones we saw on the Dream as well. We didn't attend the "cruise shows" like the marriage game, etc. on either Carnival or RCI. My boys adored Richard the CD on Freedom and went to the main theater every night to see him. I don't think I saw a single show with Gary the CD on the Dream.

Anyway, probably more than you wanted to know :)

This is a great review so far' date=' Cindy. Thanks for writing it. We will be on the dream in a cove balcony in March.

 

What did you think of the cove? Did any water get onto your balcony? Did it feel too claustrophobic as other suggested?[/quote']

 

 

Never felt it to be claustrophobic. The only "complaint" I would have is that I could never get my pictures to not have a little bit of the lifeboat above in it - but that's more my lack of photography skills than anything else.

 

We were 4th cabin back of the Coves and only had a little bit of water on the balcony, and one morning the railing was wet so we dried it off, but never the chairs or table. We just wore flipflops out on the deck so as not to get our feet wet / dirty.

 

One thing I forgot to mention in my post above is that we liked having the door / window for entry onto the balcony versus the sliding doors like they have on the DCL Magic/Wonder. We noticed that the balcony cabins on the Dream are all like that and we definitely prefer it - for one thing, it's less noisy opening them in the morning when i want to see where we are and everyone else was still asleep. We also liked that the window ledge afforded additional shelf space for DH to store his stuff.

 

What we mostly enjoyed about the Cove balcony was people watching while in port - we were usually later getting off and earlier getting on than other guests so we would watch for new friends and just people-watch. We were privy to discussions among crew and port officials when people were late and got to hear the radio discussions of the crew getting a late couple's passports, money, and medicine into a bag to leave with the port official - they were well over an hour late and the only reason they didn't get left behind was someone on board was in need of an ambulance that took over an hour and a half to arrive from the time it was called. When they arrived and were given their things, the lady said "are we late?" as they rushed her and her companion up the gangway, sealed the door and sailed away.

 

Our cabin was behind the elevators so we had less pass-by traffic of other guests because they would enter the hallway on either side of our cabin and not have to pass directly by. We were not under the galley or dining room - we were under Shore Excursions. Occassionally we would hear music from the main theater but not often and never late.

Before we could sail away, we had to go to our Muster station - which happened to be Crimson dining room, Deck 4 - which was also our Your Time Dining location. Conveniently located just two decks up from our stateroom. We called it the Mustard Station all week, so if we were going to eat at the dining room, we agreed to meet at the Mustard Station. I liked that we didn't have to wear our life jackets and that our location was inside, unlike on the Disney ships we've sailed where we stand outdoors for 20 minutes. We found four seats near the entrance and waited for everyone to arrive and get through the process. I have absolutely no idea how they know who was there and who wasn't as no one asked us our cabin or names when we arrived... maybe they just swept the cabins and public spaces to make sure no one was hiding out? Anyone know?

After mustering, Z and I went to "secret deck 7" forward for sailaway - we had been told that if you go all the way forward on Deck 7, you can go out onto the front of the ship and it would not be as occupied as the similar space on Deck 5 - that was correct! Deck 6 is also the same way. We eventually went to Deck 5 and watched the dolphin playing as we pulled through the channel.

Up next was the Youth Program orientation in the Encore Lounge / theater - again, great location as it was Deck 5 forward. We had filled out the registration paperwork online and brought it with us so we wouldn't have to do it once onboard. The boys are 14 and 15 and the groupings are Circle C for 12-14 and O2 for 15-17. We had checked out their spaces earlier in the afternoon and were concerned that N wouldn't find much to do nor enjoy with the O2 group - having looked at activity information from previous sailings, we thought the Circle C activities were more suited for him. So no harm in asking about having the boys be allowed to stay together, knowing it would probably not happen. We talked to the counselor in charge of O2 who gave us a copy of both the O2 and Circle C program guides / activities and we talked to him about N's interests, etc., and he thought Circle C might be a better fit for him, but we needed to talk with the Circle C counselors (there are two counselors for each group). So we waited and talked to her and she said N could participate in Circle C on a trial basis, no problem. She took his form and marked it that he would be moving down. We stayed for the orientation where they explain Camp Carnival, Circle C, and O2 and the rules and expectations. I loved how they did this. They also required the Circle C and O2 teens to go to a registration in their designated spaces later in the evening to get their "sticker" that shows they are registered. If you don't register, you can't participate.

Just a few words about the Circle C youth program - both of my boys thoroughly enjoyed it and participated in many of the activities, but they didn't "live there" every moment that it was open. On Disney, we hardly see them during the times the youth programs are open. On Carnival, they close for the dinner hours (about 5:30 - 8:30) and don't open on port days until just before all-aboard time. At least that's how it was on our voyage. So there were times when the boys felt like they had "nothing to do" - this is when it would've been nice to have a movie to send them to. But I will say that I didn't hear any complaints about the program and they said it was definitely better than Royal Caribbean's youth program. They still prefer Disney but were not disappointed with Carnival. FWIW, we hardly ever saw any younger kids and I know there were a bunch on board because they told us there were over 1,400 kids (300 in the 15-17 range, and 400 in the 12-14s so that leaves at laest 700 in the 2-11s) so either their parents had good control over them or they were seriously occupied in Camp Carnival!

Time for dinner. Or was it? We had Your Time Dining so we could go any time between 5:45 and 9:00. We like to eat dinner early so we have time for activities and shows later in the evening (or late night snacks and not be all stuffed from dinner still), so we went to the Crimson dining room around 6 p.m. or so. We didn't have to wait for a seat and were put at a 4-top table next to another 4-top table. Close enough to chat but not feel obligated. We liked that they have the "every day menu" that has enough variety on it of "regular" food that we knew we'd find something in there to eat each night. N ordered linguine with butter for his entree - they had linguine as an ingredient in one of the dishes - no problem - it came out to his liking. And the BREAD - oh my, it was so good - we loved the bread they serve in the dining room. Warm and delicious! And warm chocolate melting cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert (our second night in the dining room, our server suggested two scoops of ice cream - he was right - it made it perfect!).

After dinner, I'm not clear on the order in which we did things but I know it doesn't really matter. We took the kids to the registration for the Circle C and left them with instructions as to what time to come back to the cabin, and then we walked about the ship. I wanted to check out the Casino as I had both my $23 of quarters (LOL) and we had a $50 OBC from MasterCard that we had designated as our "slot machine" money. I'm an arcade girl from days gone by and have always been good about when my stack of quarters run out, I'm done for the day, so I enjoy playing the slot machines. I won't bore you with the details of the week but suffice it to say that when the trip was over, I still had the $50 OBC and another $170. DH didn't play - he's unlucky when it comes to that and the one time he came in with me, I started losing so I asked him to leave (LOL).

We found the library and DH borrowed two brand new books that he read during the week. He was surprised to find new releases - we had expected it to be mostly books that others had read and left behind, but no, it was up to date with a lot of new material.

The kids came back on time from Circle C and we ordered milk and cookies from room service - after all, Santa might still make a stop although neither one of them emailed him this year.

Speaking of Santa, the ship was decorated for the holidays, mostly in the Dream Atrium area, but not "over the top" decorated - nice and subdued with a Christmas Tree and a Menorah they continued lighting throughout the week.

And with that, the first day is done. I kept a copy of the Fun Times from each day so I need to see if there was anything I left out that is important - probably not.

Great review so far. Can't wait to hear more.

Loving your review!

Great review! We are sailing the Dream in April and have sailed the Disney Dream and Disney Wonder so I love seeing the comparisons! :)

Great review so far! Love the Dream

Really interesting what you say about the muster drill.

We have done 2 cruises with Princess and on both occasions we know people who did not attend the drill.

How do Carnival know if all passengers have attended ?

regards

AL

Sorry,

I forgot to say " NICE REVIEW"

AL

Really interesting what you say about the muster drill.

We have done 2 cruises with Princess and on both occasions we know people who did not attend the drill.

How do Carnival know if all passengers have attended ?

 

regards

 

AL

I wondered the same thing and asked one of the crew members - she just made some vague thing about they knew. Weird. I know on DCL they check off the staterooms when you arrive to your muster station.

Thanks for all the nice comments - continuing on!

Thanks so much for all the nice comments and reads our trip report is getting. I know that I can be very detailed in parts - don't worry, the whole report won't be that way, but when we were preparing for this trip, I had a lot of questions and didn't always find an answer (and for those I did, I often found them in the details of someone else's trip report) so that's why I'm posting some of them.

I have the Fun Times from Saturday, December 24th in front of me to see what else someone might want to know about what was going on.

There was only one show in the Encore Lounge - it was at 10:15 and was the Welcome Aboard show. They showed parts of it on the cabin tv throughout the week. There was a laser light show on the Lido deck, but throughout the week they were at 11:30 which was past my bedtime most nights so none of us saw it. However, one of the channels on the cabin tv is the Lido deck channel and it might be that you could see it there - they don't have the sound from the Lido deck but they do have video. We found ourselves watching the Lido deck channel from time-to-time to see what was going on upstairs!

Lunch was 11:00 - 3:30 is the Gathering venues (Mongolian stopped serving at 3 p.m.). The Sushi bar on Deck 5 promenade (starboard side) was open 5 - 8:15 - later in the week we saw it get a bit busier there.

Great review so far Cindy! Don't worry about the report being long. The longer it is, the more detailed it is. Some people like more details.

Sunday - December 25th - Christmas Day

Ah, the whole reason we made this trip - Christmas at Sea! As usual, I woke before the rest of my crew to find that Santa had made a delivery for the boys. I love Christmas morning, so I didn't want to miss them waking up but I didn't want to wake them. Z stirred, got up (from top berth) and when he focused his eyes, he noticed two boxes on the table that had not been there the night before. Turns out that Santa delivered a Kindle Fire for each of the boys! Santa was smart and had pre-loaded books and apps that (s)he thought they might enjoy so they could use them right away - no paying for internet connectivity to download apps, etc., at the Fun Hub prices. N woke up next and was about to be cross for being woken up before 9:30 until Z pointed out that Santa had left something for him. All was right with the world again!

Z and I went to breakfast in the Scarlett Dining Room where we were seated at a table for 10. I don't mind sitting with others but sometimes I want to be just us - I should've asked for a table for just the two of us as they were not yet busy (it was about 8:15 a.m.) but we did enjoy talking with the other guests. One lady next to us has sailed several times with Carnival and at least one other time on the Dream (and she's a CC member I found out) so I asked her for recommendations of things to be sure to try to see / do while onboard.

I had read that the BBQ on the Lanaii was on the sea days so we had checked the time for it. We spent the morning walking about the ship to give our cabin steward time to make up our room with us out of the way, plus there was still so much of the ship to see. Around 11:30 we found where the BBQ was being set up so we just grabbed a table and enjoyed the beautiful day while they finished getting ready. There was a small table set up to get drinks from, so we flashed our bottomless bubbles stickers to get our soda for lunch. They did not start serving early as we had read reports that sometimes they do - they adhered to a strict noon start time. There were not yet a lot of people gathering for it, so no worries. It smelled delicious, too. Location-wise, it was on the starboard side of Deck 5 just outside the Ocean Plaza exit. They had chicken and BBQ steak fajitas, steak-burgers (with and without buns), and hot dogs. They had chips and salsa and a variety of slaw and other fixings for the entrees. It was delicious.

N didn't join us for the BBQ as he wanted to try the Pasta Bar again. DH and I ran into him as we were going to get ice cream so we took our ice cream up to the Pasta Bar with him so he didn't have to eat Christmas lunch by himself. He enjoyed the pasta much more than the previous day's choice.

In the afternoon, we stopped at the Page Turner Library where DH found two books to read and then I went to take a nap before the CC Meet and Greet scheduled for 3:30 at the Sunset Pool Bar. John Heald had arranged for the meet to be in the Fun Times for us. Z went to the Holiday Celebration show in the Encore Lounge which he said was entertaining. They showed parts of it on the cabin tv throughout the rest of the week. I went to the Meet and Greet which was fun to meet folks we've been chatting with online for several months preparing for this trip.

Speaking of the Meet and Greet - a couple of thoughts for Roll Calls for other groups - we thought later in the week that we should've had folks use the Fun Hub (free) to connect while onboard - there were folks that didn't get to make the M/G because it conflicted with other activities that were going on - so it would've been nice to identify a time / place for a M/G later in the week and let everyone know. The Fun Hub seems like a good way to do that. Also, I wish we'd scheduled a "cabin crawl" so we could check out different cabin categories. We did this with a RCI CC group before and it was so fun to see the different cabin sizes, set-ups, locations. Definitely helpful when planning another sailing on the same (or sister) ship. As I mentioned, we were in a Cove Balcony cabin, and at the M/G, one of the other CC members asked me about it and I said instead of trying to describe it, I would just show her, so we did.

I remember as a kid on the Fascination trying to skip out on Muster with my brothers and sisters, a steward somehow knew and came into our cabin and made us go. I didn't think about it at the time but I wonder if they check every cabin or just knew lol.

Being the first At Sea day, this was also the first of the two elegant nights for dinner. We planned to skip it, so no worries about getting dressed up and to dinner at any specific time. We ended up going to the Gathering for our Christmas dinner. The food was pretty good there and I loved being able to build a good salad. No warm chocolate melting cake for dessert, though.

This night was the first of four nights of comedy shows in the Burgandy Lounge. My boys and I enjoy comedians so we planned to go see the All Ages comedy shows at 7:30 and 8:30. Jeff the Fun Dude hosts these, and there were two comedians on board for the first two nights: JR McCollom and Tommy Drake. The way it works is that each does one All Ages show and then they do three Adults Only shows (one does two one night and the other does two the next night). So they have comedy shows at 7:30 and 8:30 and whoever does the 7:30 one night does the 8:30 the next. Whoever does the 7:30 does two Adult shows - one at 9:45 and one at midnight while the other does the 8:30 all ages and the 11:00 adult show. They do it this way so if your dinner time runs through, you can see each comedian at least once. And as an added bonus, these two comedians had two different all-ages shows so you could see them both nights for a total of four different performances.

Anyway, we went to the comedy shows in the Burgandy Lounge and loved them. Go early to get a good seat for the 7:30, or line up early for the 8:30. They do clear the lounge after each performance and make you get in line for the next one - this is good because it lets everyone have a chance at a good seat rather than whoever can go to the early show getting the good / comfortable seats. I stayed for the 9:45 adult show three of the nights - DH joined me for two of them. The comedians at the end of the week were Thomas Brown and William Troxler. Thomas Brown only had one all-ages show so we only went one night to see him (but he was hilarious! - we actually enjoyed all four of them).

The boys spent some time in Circle C during the day and also went to Gender Wars later in the evening. We ordered milk and cookies from room service again, and thus ends our second day.

Welcome to Cozumel! Monday, December 26th.

I woke up early as usual and went out on the balcony for my first glimpse of Cozumel. We were already in port and there was another ship berthed next to us (Costa Atlantica). The port entertainers were getting ready for the morning.

We had planned to just go into the port area for shopping today as we had spent our shore excursion money for Belize and Roatan. We had been to Cozumel once before, so we were looking forward to just poking around right there. We were docked at a different place than when we had visited Cozumel before. I got ready for the day and waited for the guys to get ready. Well, turns out that the teens really really really didn't want to even get off the ship, so during the time I spent waiting for them to get up and get ready, I could've been off the ship and back! Instead, I had done a lot of people-watching!

So anyway, DH and I got off and went into the port area to do a little bit of shopping. Same ole shops as all the other ports, but we enjoyed the shops with the local flavor. It wasn't too busy yet, but I could see how the shops would become almost unmanueverable when the crowds returned from their excursions. While we were there, the electricity was out for some of the shops which meant they were hand-writing purchases / receipts so lines were backing up while they waited for their computers / registers to come back online.

Here's the ship in port:

We went back onboard around noon and decided to eat at the Burrito bar which ended up being really funny when the comedian that night talked about how good the food must be on the Dream because while we were in a port in Mexico where you could get a hand-rolled burrito with authentic mexican food made by a Mexican, he noticed the mad dash back on board and the long line at the Burrito bar! A word about the Burrito bar - if you have a Moe's or similar "make your own burrito" fast-food restaurant, this is what the Burrito bar reminded me of. A choice of two types of tortillas, your meat, beans, rice, toppings - and they roll it up and it's as big as your head! You can ask for chips and they'll give you a basket of tortilla chips (which are not the same type they had at the Lanaii BBQ nor what they have at the Grill - these are more "restaurant style" tostito type). The salsa is good.

While everyone else is off the ship doing their thing, this is a great time to use the pool, do the waterslide, or play mini-golf. We chose mini-golf! The mini-golf course on the Dream is pretty good - 18 holes. You get your clubs and balls on Deck 10 by the pool bar at the towel stand. You give them your cabin number and they check out however much equipment you need. On sea days, there is a line, and later in the day when everyone is back on board, it can get to be a wait, too. They check out equipment until 6 p.m. and you have to return it by 8 p.m. The 18th hole doesn't take your ball from you so you can play as many rounds as you want. When no one is there, it takes about 1/2 hour unless you're really good!

The course is up on Deck 12 so you get a great view from up there. It can also be breezy which can make the mini-golf a bit challenging at time, but this day was perfect. Here are some pictures:

and ok, here's my funnel pictures since I'm posting pictures in this entry:

Great review so far! Hubby and I are just sitting here, reading and thinking back to our cruise, almost 1 year ago. We did the Eastern though. What great memories!! And reading your review is bringing back so much. :)

Don't worry about details... the more the better! Even for us that have sailed. I love to read about others' experiences.

Enjoy writing the rest. :)