Carnival Dream - August 31st sailing

In a word - Blah.

First to the Fun? Don't waste your money. Arrive at the port at 11 a.m.

Stateroom - 7429 8B/balcony. No noise or odor concerns at all. Tiny TV monitors. But who cruises to watch TV, right?

Buffets? Reminiscient of an Army dining facility - but not as good. Mind-dumbing in the sameness of the selections from day-to-day and meal-to-meal.

Main Dining Rooms - OK. Half empty after the first "formal" night. Formal is a stretch...unless you count T-shirts, ball caps and sandals as "formal." The meal selections are just (barely) dressed-up versions of the buffet menu.

Entertainment - The adult only comedians were hilarious.

Pools - elbow-to-elbow most of the time.

Spa - worth the 249.00 VIP pass for a couple (if you use it!).

Embark/Debark - standard, pretty well done.

The ship itself - very routine and unimaginative. Equivalent to one of the older Norweigian ships, really.

Overall - entry level. If your goal is to pound alcohol and spend your time with a feed-bag on...this is the cruise for you and yours. Want a touch of class or any semblance of elegance - step up a level or two.

Think of a floating Motel 6.

Wow, someone is not very high on Carnival...

in a word - blah.

 

First to the fun? Don't waste your money. Arrive at the port at 11 a.m.

 

Stateroom - 7429 8b/balcony. No noise or odor concerns at all. Tiny tv monitors. But who cruises to watch tv, right?

 

Buffets? Reminiscient of an army dining facility - but not as good. Mind-dumbing in the sameness of the selections from day-to-day and meal-to-meal.

 

Main dining rooms - ok. Half empty after the first "formal" night. Formal is a stretch...unless you count t-shirts, ball caps and sandals as "formal." the meal selections are just (barely) dressed-up versions of the buffet menu.

 

Entertainment - the adult only comedians were hilarious.

 

Pools - elbow-to-elbow most of the time.

 

Spa - worth the 249.00 vip pass for a couple (if you use it!).

 

Embark/debark - standard, pretty well done.

 

The ship itself - very routine and unimaginative. Equivalent to one of the older norweigian ships, really.

 

Overall - entry level. If your goal is to pound alcohol and spend your time with a feed-bag on...this is the cruise for you and yours. Want a touch of class or any semblance of elegance - step up a level or two.

 

Think of a floating motel 6.

but did you have fun ?

Overall - entry level. If your goal is to pound alcohol and spend your time with a feed-bag on...this is the cruise for you and yours. Want a touch of class or any semblance of elegance - step up a level or two.

 

I heard Royal Caribbean's new ship has Robots that will take the food out of your food bag and feed it to you.

AC issues in cabin?

Just off the dream and I agree with above poster. Food was not good and we ate in the dining room every night. Don,t bother with Belize. Do an all day pass in Cozumel. With island marketing to sabor resorts for 50 dollars. The pools were not fun, way to crowded. Hard to move around the ship too many people who do nothing but eat. Lots of noisy people. If all you want is a drunk stupor than this is the ship for you. Cabin suite was good, nice ac and our steward, dewi, and his helpers were great. We tipped them well.

1- Not high or low on CCL. It is what it is. Expectation management is key. Lovers of Carnival will stay that way - after all, I see many folks have cruised CCL for years. Those who have no other experience - may well love it. Lesson learned - if you book a cheap cruise, you will cruise cheaply.

2- Fun? Eh, it was ok. But as we all know - fun can be what you make it. I guess being nearly 60..."the Fun Ship" isn't necessarily for me/us. :^)

3. AC issues in cabin? Not really, except it seemed almost to work too well at night. Once I got the hang of the thermostat, it was fine.

Just off the dream and I agree with above poster. Food was not good and we ate in the dining room every night. Don,t bother with Belize. Do an all day pass in Cozumel. With island marketing to sabor resorts for 50 dollars. The pools were not fun, way to crowded. Hard to move around the ship too many people who do nothing but eat. Lots of noisy people. If all you want is a drunk stupor than this is the ship for you. Cabin suite was good, nice ac and our steward, dewi, and his helpers were great. We tipped them well.

Corrine Marie - ditto.

We have been on many cruises on different ships of different companies.

We have 4 previous cruises with Carnival and this was our first on DREAM.

It is an understatemet to say this was the very BEST Carnival cruise we have experienced.

Yes, we are 'oldies' so the pools and hot tubs did not get our attention - but the folks doing so seemed to be having a good time. It is of importance to note that there are several hot tubs at different locations on the ship (2-aft on deck 10 and more port & starboard on deck 5), plus a mid-ship pool AND an aft pool PLUS the slides and kids pools forward - this does spread the crowd about the ship.

I have already submitted a CC review of our cruise - and I'll do the same for our two day-tours on Roatan and Cozumel - which were excellent.

Please take the time to share your views and perspectives on the Cruise Critic Reviews thread - it's the only way others can gain knowledge to plan their future cruises.

Oh my.

Just returned from cruise on DREAM. I think the crew is great. We had such nice waitors and steward. The food, in my opinion, was fair. The entertainment was just ok. Two singers performing at the Atrium bar were close to terrible. Lots of folks talking about that. The comedians in the Burgundy made several jokes about fat a__ Americans. Since probably half of the guests on board would fall in the category of obese, I wondered how they felt about this humor. Probably won't go again but overall it was a relaxing week.

Another vote for the Dream! One of our best cruises. A friend at work just took the same cruise and loved it. He may be sailing on the Dream again soon because he loved it so much, and he's been on many cruises. We love her sister the Magic as well. I can find negatives on any cruise, but I choose not to look that hard. And most of those negatives involve the passengers - not the ship or its crew. No cruise or ship is perfect. Even on our worst cruises (one of which was on RCCL) we managed to have a good time. In regards to the buffet - we've yet to find one that was just outstanding. It's a buffet after all. Having said all of that, it seems that all cruise lines are not what they used to be. But that sure won't stop us from cruising! Hope your next cruise is more enjoyable.