REVIEW - a family trip on Carnival Dream in February 2018

Hi everyone!

I'm just back from a 7 day trip on the Dream, Feb. 11-18, with our family. I love reading reviews so I'll share my thoughts for those considering the Dream for an upcoming vacation. We had a wonderful trip and I'd definitely recommend the Dream, with a few minor caveats. I'll try to separate the review into categories and include some tips and tricks we picked up this time. (y)

For background, I was traveling with my husband and our two boys, 9 and 3, as well as my mom and aunt. We had two spa balcony staterooms on Deck 11, Panorama. We've been on two other Carnival cruises and one Norwegian so we consider ourselves fairly experienced cruisers.

If you have specific questions, just let me know and I'll do my best to answer!

Embarkation-

Carnival’s embarkation process in New Orleans is always a smooth experience - especially when compared to Norwegian's mess at the same port.

Our check-in time was at 11am and we arrived at the garage about 11:20 because there was a little more traffic than usual being Mardi Gras weekend. It is $140 to park in the port garage for the week but worth it IMO for the covered parking and the ease of dropping your bags with the porters inside the garage.

A little tip - take the elevator down to the 2nd floor rather than the 1st like the sign says and you can get right off and in the line for screening. Another advantage of the garage as you avoid the escalator bottleneck of those who parked elsewhere. Thank goodness for some helpful folks in the elevator who told us and saved us a lot of time. The lines move quickly from there and we had our cards in hand walking on the boat less than an hour after arriving.

When we got our cards, she said our room was ready so we headed there first. I guess it wasn't actually ready though because we had just enough time to drop our carry-ons before the steward shooed us out. I guess the posted ready time is 1pm. *♀️ But we were rid of our bags so we set out to explore the ship.

Following your review.

Keith

Following! Going on the Dream this summer.

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We sail in a week in a spa cabin so I will follow closely for any tips!!

Following. Sailing on Dream in 34 days

Also following. I'll be on the Dream this Sunday, also on Deck 11, with my 10-year-old son. We are SO EXCITED!!

Our room -

We were in adjacent spa cabins, 11235 and 11237. This was our first cruise with a balcony; I had always been nervous about it because we have small children. Once I saw it for myself though, I had no worries. The railings are solid glass so no way to climb and there is a high door lock on the inside so kids can't get out there by themselves. We had the room steward open the partition between rooms' balconies and it was great to have the big deck between us. We spent a lot of time there and can't imagine crusing without one now!

The extra interior space also made more of a difference than I expected. It was really nice to have the couch and table, especially when we ordered continental breakfast in the room. The bathroom and shower were also significantly bigger than I remembered our inside cabin being, with lots of counter space. There is no outlet in the bathroom though, probably for safety, but I found that annoying.

In fact, there is only one outlet in the entire cabin so I regretted not bringing a small power strip.

Also of note, our cabin had a pull down bunk over the couch that had to be operated by the steward only. On Norwegian, we were able to pull the bunks up and down ourselves. So we asked for service twice per day, otherwise our couch couldn't be used comfortably. Also, we originally had him make up the couch as a bed for our 3 year old but he didn't remove the bedding during the day. We preferred to have the couch to sit on and not made up as the bed so we just had our little guy sleep with us for the rest of the trip. Something to be aware of if you book this room with two adults and two children.

This cabin is in a great location, just one deck above the lido, the same deck as two little used hot tubs and one below the kids waterslide area and the spa. Very quiet. And there is access to a "secret" forward deck at the end of the hall with two benches and beautiful views.

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Sailing on Dream Deck 12 Spa Cabin on March 11th. Where was your muster station drill. I had heard that they are now done inside on dream?

Two chairs and table on each balcony - one chair reclines

View of the balcony with the partition open

Sailing on Dream Deck 12 Spa Cabin on March 11th. Where was your muster station drill. I had heard that they are now done inside on dream?

Yes, our muster station was inside the theater, Encore Lounge. You could enter from deck 3, 4 or 5.

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We will be in 11237 on the 2/25 sailing! Thank you for confirming there is only 1 outlet. We have a non-surge protected strip that we are bringing to allow us to charge the camera's and other electronics.

Following. Going on the Dream in April. Balcony Room 8th Deck

Following. Nice start.

Dining -

The food was good everywhere we went but the real standouts IMO are Guy's Burgers, Pizza del Capitano, Carnival Deli and Pasta Bella. The downside is that 2 out of 4 of those aren't open for dinner (Pasta Bella until 2:30pm and Guy's Burgers until 6pm). My mom also really enjoyed the Blue Iguana Cantina for their breakfast burritos and tostadas but it also closes at 2:30 and was always so crowded for lunch that we never tried it. The one thing I miss from Norwegian is having the separate complimentary sit-down, order off the menu restaurants; everything on the Dream (aside from the formal dining rooms) was more buffet or order at the counter style.

We had anytime dining which is in the Crimson dining room, deck 3 only. The food was good, but the service was SLOW. The first formal evening we went to dinner and it took more than two hours. They got a little better on subsequent trips but it was still well over an hour each time. If you want to make the early show, get to dinner right when they open or just skip the dining room altogether.

The burgers were fantastic and stay open later than just lunch; so good that we ate dinner early before they closed just to get one more on the last day of the cruise. Pig & Anchor BBQ was pretty good, the beef was a little tough but everyone else raved about the chicken and pork.

The best tip for dining is that many places have two lines coming from different directions, so pay attention to that - one was almost always way shorter. Also, the lido buffet in the back was generally less busy than the front closer to the pool. The lobster in the dining room is offered complimentary on one of the formal nights and it was delicious; every other night it was $20 extra. Same for the filet mignon. We used the Carnival Hub app to check the menus each day and decide where we would eat.

Spa and spa perks -

Overall the spa was nice but it was pretty apparent here more than anywhere else that the Dream is an aging ship and is in need of maintenance. It was functional enough to enjoy it as a perk of our cabin but I don't think I would have been happy if I had paid for the spa pass.

A couple minor things I found annoying - each time you wanted to use the spa you had to check in with the front desk, hand over your card for them to keep and get a "VIP Access" card to unlock the various rooms and a white rubber bracelet. She told us that was because they had a problem with people sneaking in. Sometimes the desk was busy so it would have been more convenient if they could have made our spa deck key cards work in those locks as well. You get one loofah and one body scrub per room so if you are sharing the cabin with a friend, I guess they expect you to share. :o It was listed that you'd get a choice of 8 scrubs, but you just get what's handed to you.

You also get a complimentary body composition test for two guests, and one complimentary yoga or pilates class. They don't tell you when these are unless you ask; yoga is at 8am and pilates at 4:30pm on sea days only. Also the body composition tests book up so if you are interested in that, book early. We figured that was just a way for them to try and sell us products so we skipped it.

You get a nice heavy robe (although one of ours had a hole in the shoulder), one-size-fits-all slippers and travel size bottles of Elemis shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and lotion.

I did enjoy the semi-private entrance staircase from deck 11 up to the spa. The private shower/dressing area was really nice with two big showers so I got ready there once. I appreciated being able to wear my robe to the showers without having to go through the main entrance. The hair dryers in the dressing room are also worlds better than the ones in the cabin.

The thalassotherapy pool was nice, warmer than other hot tubs we used on the main decks, but the metal lounger in there wasn't very comfortable. There were some kind of fountains that weren't working and the plastic filter covers going around the edge were broken or missing - minor details that didn't interfere with our enjoyment of it, but did show the need for maintenance.

The aromatherapy steam room was really nice and hot - about 5 minutes is all I could last in there. The other steam room is on the other end of the spectrum, barely hot and steamy. And the buttons to create more steam didn't work anywhere. The heated loungers in the Laconium and Tepidarium were a nice place to relax and cool down. There was a nice selection of fruit infused waters and coffee/tea in the relaxation area as well.

There are also two open air showers to rinse off and cool down, though neither had all its features working. The rain shower didn't work at all in either and in one, the side sprays weren't working. There are towels provided in the spa so you don't have to tote one from your cabin.

So not a perfect spa experience but we did make time to use it several times during our week.

Loungers in the Laconium

Spa Robes and Ladies Dressing Room

Entertainment -

We thought the shows were very good and our favorites were the 80s music show, Flick (a tribute to movie music) and America Rocks. The singers in the shows were the same every night, except for America Rocks, where two new ones showed up and we thought they were the best of the bunch! I wish we had seen them more throughout the week. We also really enjoyed the Punchliner Comedy Club and went there several times for both the family friendly and adults only shows. The funniest comedian by far was John Wessling, and he came on board at the end of the week.

This was the first ship we'd been on with the big movie screen over the pool and we enjoyed that with our kids. The popcorn available at the Red Frog bar during movies is a nice touch as well.

The Cruise Director Chris Williams did a great job. We loved the Mardi Gras parade and party that he hosted and the Michael Jackson showdown on the last night of the cruise. We also had fun stopping by the piano bar a few nights to listen to Ben sing and tell a few jokes.

Complaints/negatives -

I'm going to do just one post with the negative/nitpicky/complaints that we had - quirky things that aren't a huge deal but did make this cruise a less than stellar experience. Most of it has to do with the maintenance of the ship so could be remedied; hopefully they have a dry dock for the Dream scheduled soon! The ship overall looks pretty dated and is in need of an overhaul.

Random things throughout the ship didn't work. Sometimes the automatic doors wouldn't open or only opened a foot or so. The rinse off showers near the pools or hot tubs didn't work. The locks in the spa area only worked sometimes, so no wonder they had trouble with people sneaking in.

The booths in the lido are so low compared to the heights of the tables. It was an uncomfortable difference so we avoided them. The traffic flow pattern is a little difficult getting in and out of the lido because on one side is the topping bar for Guy's Burgers and on the other the Salsa Bar for Blue Iguana Cantina. Those areas were mobbed with people carrying plates of food so it was tricky to get around and into the lido without getting a plate of food jammed into you.

The sushi bar takes up a ton of space with the counter and lots of tables and I never saw more than four people there. Would have been a great place for a sports bar/restaurant! There isn't a drink station near Pig & Anchor BBQ.

The lights in the staterooms were the old fluorescent type that flicker, and take a while to come on. The finishes there are pretty worn as well. One switch in the room we never could figure out what it did.

The only place we encountered any rude staffers was in the spa. They seemed annoyed by us getting cards to use the facilities while booking customers were there or wanting to do the complimentary yoga class. Then when we got to the class, the instructor cancelled because of a back issue.

There was at least one elevator that wasn't working at any given time. You have to walk through the smoky casino to get to the things behind it, like Punchliner, the Piano Bar, etc. I had to take my kids through there a couple times also.

Disembarkation was a total nightmare but I'll go over that in a separate post.

It was odd to me that half the time my older son's Camp Ocean group, 9-11 year olds, was down on Deck 4 in either the Club 02 room or an empty conference room with chairs stacked in the back and half the time they were up in the Camp Ocean area with the other kids. Also, IMO, 9-11 is too young to let kids check themselves in and out of camp. They let you opt out of that though thankfully. I'll talk more about the kids club in another post coming up....

Thanks for the intel! Just booked the Dream for the December 2nd sailing!!

Thanks for the intel! Just booked the Dream for the December 2nd sailing!!

We’re on the week before you. I’ll try to leave you some fun!

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Following. Going on the Dream in April. Balcony Room 8th Deck

So are we. Which week?