Dream notes 6-25-17 sailing

Enjoyed our 7 day voyage on the Dream visiting ports of New Orleans-Roatan- Belize-Cozumel.Parked at Erato Terminal $140/7 days.

Embarkation-Smooth on ship 30 minutes after parking. Room was available at 130pm . I like to avoid the embarkation Lido lunch crowd did so by choosing Pasta Bella.

Staff: Excellent Cruise director Mat .Of my 12 cruises he certainly ranks at the top of the list.Very energetic,funny,talented and personable...related well with all ages. The rest of the staff was good also, there were some issues of them missing or showing up late for some programs.

Show: Watched 2 high energy shows 80's pop & america rocks .Very good. Comedy shows were very funny.

Food: Always good.This was my 1st cruise since some of the cutbacks .MDR was extremely slow on some nights the 1st formal night was a 2 hour meal lots of downtime. The waitstaff looked busy they must have been understaffed.

MDR did a good job keeping the t-shirts & hats off diners as posted in the dress code.

Carnival scored hits with Pig& Anchor , Guys Burgers.,Blue Iguana (breakfast burrito great). The Lido was good for breakfast did not try Sea brunch due to time constraints.

Hub Ap ; Very convenient though spotty message transmissions.Menus were posted but inconsistent-some days only entrees were posted other days only desserts. Suggestions: Post messages from Captain,GPS amp of ship location on phone.

Sea days: Serenity was nice and quiet with lots of shade.

Roatan Daniel Johnson Monkey & Sloth city tour with beach. Excellent value Our driver picked us up outside of terminal & drove us around island & stayed with us all day. The sloth hangout was super busy and they apologized because of the # of ships in port.We had to wait a while but did not feel rushed as we interacted with the parrots,sloths and monkees.l We then went to Parrot Tree Resort for a couple of hours nice lunch,beer and shade on man made lagoon.

Belize : Carnival excursion AlTun Ha Ruins . Tender port which is always a train wreck .Waited 45 minutes for our tender to be called .The guides were very informative and pointed our features on our 90 min bus ride. The ruins grounds were well kept though the ruins were not as impressive as the ones I've been to in Mexico.I usually book non -Carnival tours but due to tender issues we are given piece of mind returning to the ship on time.

Cozumel :Hired a driver Antonio with Tours plaza for 6 hours. Snorkeled with the boat tour at Playa Palancar. My 3 rd trip with them very good operation-saw lots of fish,turtles,stingrays and coral. Toured the rest of the beautiful undeveloped east side and ate at coconuts -amazing views & food.

On last sea day there was an undisclosed medical emergency with had the ship race back home. The ship transferred a guest to the coast guard when we reached the mouth of the Mississippi river .

Debarkation: fast out of room 8am ate breakfast off boat at 930.

Thanks for taking the time to review your cruise. Glad you enjoyed both the ship and the ports.

You're welcome. I get a lot of info from Cruise Critic which has served me well in the past. Hopefully my review will help cruisers plan also.

Nice, sounds like a pretty smooth trip.

Thanks for the report.

Did you use FTTF?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for your review!

Thanks for your review! Just curious about what time slot did you have for embarkation? Mine is early (10:30-11), hoping I haven't picked one too early!

Thanks for the notes.

Did you use FTTF?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

No did regular boarding. Bags made it to room around 6 pm

Thanks for your review! Just curious about what time slot did you have for embarkation? Mine is early (10:30-11), hoping I haven't picked one too early!

our time slot was 1230-1 . No FTTF .on ship 30 min after parking

Thanks for your report!

Good feedback, thanks.

Thanks for sharing. We are headed out on 7/30 and this is our first time on the Dream.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Very good choice. Did same ship & itinerary twice..New BBQ venue is a treat. Have a good trip

Was on the same trip. Agree with all that the OP said. Matt was a great cruise director and some of the other musical groups around the ship put on a great show!

Really enjoyed the Alchemy Bar!

Good review, thanks!

Does the NOLA cruiseport have a designated line for Global Entry? I've used this line in both MIA and FLL to breeze through Customs.

Thanks for your review.

Where is Pasta Bella located?

Where is Pasta Bella located?

Go to the buffet area at the back of the ship on the Lido deck. There are stairs by the deserts going up. From the bottom it just looks like an overflow seating area so many people never know it's there.

Thanks for the notes.

We're going late August. Been to Belize three times with princess, first time with carnival. We are Elite on Princess so we get priority tender, not on carnival. Getting a bit concerned about the tender process at Belize. You mentioned "train wreck". What's the tender process? We have an independent excursion planned.

Does the NOLA cruiseport have a designated line for Global Entry? I've used this line in both MIA and FLL to breeze through Customs.

 

Thanks for your review.

Sorry I don't know

In 2014 a we had an cave tubing excursion booked. Non carnival excursions are not given tender priority,if I remember it correctly just general boarding. Our 8 am tender was delayed until 10 am due to thruster & wave issues. Met up with cavetubing.bz .Enjoyed the tubing,but we were rushed with lunch as the bus sped to arrive 15 minutes before last tender.

I learned to use a carnival excursion on tender ports because of priority boarding and their guarantee to get you back on ship.

2017 tender Carnival experience arrived at 8 in Theater with all the other Carnival excursions. waited til 9:15 to be called. 20 Minute tender ride to Belize. Back in port 2 hours before last tender.

Tender ports always seem chaotic. On a previous trip our Grand Caymen port was scratched due to high waves.

How crowded was the serenity deck? Was it hard to get loungers in the sun if you were camped out all day?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for the notes.

 

We're going late August. Been to Belize three times with princess, first time with carnival. We are Elite on Princess so we get priority tender, not on carnival. Getting a bit concerned about the tender process at Belize. You mentioned "train wreck". What's the tender process? We have an independent excursion planned.

Carnival tenders work on a priority system.

Platinum, Diamond, and FTTF have top priority, and are provided a location to check into. As they arrive they are shuttled to the next tender leaving.

Next is Carnival Purchased shore excursions. They tell you to meet in a different location than above. They will shuttle you out based on the time of the excursions.

Finally is general people. They will provide a location to go get a tender number. You need to bring everyone in your group to get a number. Once they start to have gaps in the Shore Excursion groups they will start calling tender numbers over the PA. When your number is called you can then go down and get on a tender.

It is a pain if you dont have priority tenders... but if they ran it correctly ( which is hit or miss ) it is not usually a train wreck.

1.) We have a group of 24 people. We were able to get FTTF for all but 2. We have an independent excursion. We are hoping that they will let all of us have priority boarding since we are all on same excursion. Are we going to have issue with the 2 people who were unable to purchase fttf.

2) Do you happen to have any Fun Times schedules you could post.