A Dream Review Jan 31 Western Caribbean

This will be my first attempt at reviewing a cruise, so please be kind in your responses. We'll see how detailed my review is after I get going. I'm sure it will not be as detailed as the one Wrigley80 will be doing, but it will be from a different point of view.

Some background on us : This was our 2nd cruise, first on Carnival. We are from East Central Illinois, and are both in our early 60's, married for 41 years. We cruised with my wife's sister and her hubby, and their daughter and her hubby. First cruise ever for them. We sail out of NOLA since it is a drive-able distance - we can't afford cruising AND air fare.

We left at 7 AM on Saturday and headed south. After stopping overnight in Mississippi, and having breakfast at Waffle House (Mmmmm), we headed out to NOLA, arriving at the Fulton garage at 10 AM. After parking on the roof and getting out of the car, we were greeted by this view:

Glad to see it had made it to port. After unloading and taking the luggage down, we loaded onto a shuttle bus to take us to the port. Small problem - there were some Mardi Gras parades forming up, which caused some road closures. Our bus had to take some detours, with us actually having to go to the other side of the bridge and crossing under the bridge. We did pass some of the floats lining up for the parade:

We did have FTTF, so when we got to the port, we carted our luggage toward the terminal. We found a porter to tag our luggage and headed in. Check in went fairly easily, although some of the TSA people seemed a little surly. There were several signs directing us towards the fTTF check-in line, and several helpful Carnival employees made sure we were headed in the right direction. There was a counter with 4-5 Carnival personnel that did our check-in and gave us our Sign and Sail cards. FYI - all of our cards came pre-punched for a lanyard. We were directed toward the gangway to enter the ship, and boarded. Once our group got together, we headed up to deck 8 to our rooms. After finding a fire door that we could open, we dropped our carry-on luggage in the rooms. Despite guarantees about FTTF, our luggage was not there when we got to the rooms.

Taking the suggestions of several CC members, we took the elevator up to deck 11, and walked to the back of the ship and entered Pasta Bella for lunch :

After lunch, we toured the ship for a while, trying to get our bearings. Went to the Serenity area to check things out, and DW and i tried out one of the hammocks:

Went back to the rooms and our luggage was there for unpacking. We had balcony room 8260, port side just opposite the atrium elevators. Attended the emergency drill meeting, ours being held in the Crimson dining room on deck 4. After the lecture, we went back to the balcony to see the ship departing. We must have been late leaving, since the Norwegian Dawn was already down around the bend heading down river:

We had to wait for some river traffic before we got to depart. At least it was still light as we passed the French Quarter:

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow I'll talk about our first night in the MDR and our fist two sea days. Any questions, please ask and I'll answer as well as I can.

Thanks for sharing! Cant wait for the rest!

FTTF does not promise your luggage will be at your room when you get on the ship. You just get your luggage before they start delivering everyone elses. That could be an hour or three after boarding but it will be before the other guests.

Enjoying your photos and narrative.

Keith

Enjoying your review, thanks for posting!

As posted above, this was our first Carnival cruise, our only other cruise being on the Serenade of the Seas last March, to celebrate our 40th. We had an aft corner balcony on the Serenade, and enjoyed it alot. DW suffers from a small bit of claustrophobia, so an interior room was out of the question. This cruise we booked balcony 8260, which was port side opposite the atrium elevators. Here are two shots of the interior :

Size-wise, it was very similar to the Serenade balcony. But, being on the side of the ship, it seemed to be alot more windy, and due to the Lanai, we could not look down to the sea. We could watch someone playing chess, though :

Next cruise, we will pony up a little more money and go for the aft balcony. Guess you could call us Forever Afters...

Ok, time for dinner!. A little background : DW and I booked our room back in April. Our niece and her hubby heard us talking about it, and decided a month later to join us. Our TA booked them and linked our bookings so we would get a table for 4. And the Carnival site did show us as confirmed early dining. Round about September, SIL and her hubby (niece's Mom and Dad) decided they wanted to go too. The best our TA could do was to get them waitlisted for early dining. The week leading up to our cruise still showed them as waitlisted. So, about 4 days prior to leaving, I posted on John Heald's FB page, asking him if he could contact the maitre d' to get us all at a table for 6. After boarding, we checked our S&S cards and saw that we were all at table 304, Crimson dining room deck 4. Thanks, John!

As we entered the dining room that first evening, the maitre d' Davor greeted us and took us to our table, a nice table near the stairs. One thing I noticed about the Crimson dining room was that almost all tables, whatever the size, were separated by a few feet from each other. On the Serenade, we requested a table for two in the MDR. We did in fact get a table for two - that was about 8 inches away from a table for 6. We only ate in the MDR once, and did the buffet for the rest of the cruise. Having 2 dining rooms on the Dream must allow Carnival to space the tables out a little more, which we liked.

Our head waiter was Imade, and his assistant was Piotr. They were both very attentive and accommodating, and made our dining experience great. Here is our group at our table:

As for the food, we really did enjoy what was offered. If you go to Zydeco Cruiser's page and look up the Carnival menu pictures, that is the menu we had, standard Carnival. Not sure when the Dream is scheduled for the American Table, but we would look forward to that. Just so you understand where I am coming from, we all hail from the small town of Paris IL. We have the standard fast food places (McDonalds, BK, Wendy's, Hardees), 4 pizza parlors, 3 Italian restaurants, 2 Mexican restaurants, and 1 Chinese buffet. Nary a fancy dining establishment to be found. We think going to Terre Haute and eating at Texas Roadhouse to be fancy eatin'. So consider that when I say we enjoyed the food. Didn't take any food pron pictures, Zydeco has that covered. The nephew took it upon himself to try all the "Did'ja Ever" items on the menus. The only one he wouldn't order again was the Ox tongue. Much braver than me...

I'll try to post again this afternoon and summarize our 2 sea days before getting into our ports. Later....

After leaving NOLA, we had two sea days to spend around the ship. I took this opportunity to finally get in on some trivia. The first sea day DW and I went down to participate in the 60's music trivia. It was hosted by Charlie, the self-described mental blonde midget from London. She was quite the little dynamo and kept things moving along. Definitely a CD in training. Turns out I wasn't as good at this as I thought, only got 9 out 16 right. We came back later and participated in the 70's music trivia - same result.

We visited the Lido buffet for breakfast the morning of the fist sea day. After scouting the area, I decided to get an omelet, since there were only 3 people in line. Ordered up a ham and cheese omelet. After getting some milk, i joined our group that had found seating. I must say, I was pretty disappointed in the omelet. Not sure if it was the egg mixture, the ham, or the cheese, but it did not taste quite right. The ham had a funny texture, and the cheese didn't have much taste. Putting some salt and pepper on it improved it some, but I didn't bother going back for more omelets after that.

If there is one thing that I think Royal Caribbean does better than Carnival is the buffet. For those that haven't been on RCI, their buffet, called the Windjammer Cafe, is broken up into islands. The first two islands you come to, one to the left and one to the right, have your plates, silverware, and fruits, salad items, bread, and butter. Going left or right from there, you come to the islands containing entrees, soups, and usually a carving station. The next stations contain the desert items. In the center of the Windjammer are two grill stations, were you can have eggs for breakfast, hamburgers for lunch, steaks/pork chops/etc for dinner. There are several drink stations located around the buffet. This flows much easier and alot quicker than the Carnival buffet lines. It got tiresome rather quickly to stand in line at breakfast, get you plate and silverware, and then s l o w l y make your way past the fruit, cereal, the yogurt, the toast, the bagels, to finally get to the sausage, potatoes and bacon. It was better at lunch with the different lunch options, but still rather congested.

We returned to our room to get ready for Elegant Night in the MDR. DW and I got several photos taken at the different backdrops set up around the photo shop on deck 4. It was an enjoyable night, and the prime rib was very good. This was the first time we experienced the dancing waiters, and our waiter Piotr really seemed to enjoy it:

After dinner, we went to the show in the Encore theater. It was called "Get Ready" and was based on Motown music. Very enjoyable, really liked the singing and the band.

After the show, we returned to our room to find this:

There was no note with it, so we weren't sure if it was delivered to us by mistake, or we were being charged for it by mistake. After calling around, and then visiting Guest Services, it turns out it was a gift from John Heald. Nice of him to do that. The chocolate covered strawberries went over well, and I got my Ship On A Stick :) As an aside, no one in our group drinks, so we had our first opportunity to taste champagne. We were not overly impressed. Of course, this probably wasn't a really good champagne.

When I woke up the morning of the 2nd sea day, I heard some announcement in the hallway. Not sure what was happening, I went out on our balcony and saw this :

Turns out we had a medical emergency, and had to make a quick stop in Cozumel to drop the passenger off. When we sailed on the Serenade last year, I woke up on the 2nd sea day to announcement from the captain about having to stop and rescue some Cuban refugees. If I wake up on the 2nd sea day of my next cruise to an announcement about an unusual event, I will think I'm cursed....

The remainder of the 2nd sea day was more of the same, breakfast, trivia, lunch, trivia, dinner. The other 4 members of our group did get some mini-golf in during the afternoon. We attended the evening show in the theater, called "Dancin' In The Streets". Excellent show. If you go to any of the shows, this is the one to see:

Tomorrow I'll post about my favorite day of the cruise, our excursion to Tabyana Beach on Isla Roatan.

Enjoying your review DH and I take our first cruise on the Dream in January 2017. We just cruised on the Elation in December 2015 and had great weather. Interested in knowing how the weather was on in January? Thank You!

Thank you for taking the time to post your review. Looking forward to the rest.

Enjoying your review DH and I take our first cruise on the Dream in January 2017. We just cruised on the Elation in December 2015 and had great weather. Interested in knowing how the weather was on in January? Thank You!

When we left NOLA, it was actually in the low 70s. It was mid 70s in Roatan, upper 70s in Belize, and low 70s with clouds and light showers in Cozumel.

Speaking of the Elation - when we were sailing down the Mississippi, I woke up around 11:30 to some noise outside the boat. Went to the balcony and saw this :

A little blurry, but that was the Elation sailing UP the Mississippi while we were sailing DOWN the river. People on both ships were yelling and waving at each other.....

Really enjoying your review. Even after 17 cruises (#18 in 3 weeks on the Dream,) I still love to hear about other experiences. Thanks for doing this!

Thanks for the report.

Love your review, can't wait to read more! So far the Dream is the only ship that I have sailed on, and reading your review is bringing back wonderful memories. :)

Thanks for your review.

When we got up this morning we didn't have any thoughts of booking another cruise anytime soon, but by this evening we had put a courtesy hold on a January 2017 Carnival Dream cruise! We went with other family members on our Paradise cruise last year, and they have asked us to go again so we spent the evening checking out different cruises and ships and decided on the Dream and probably will go ahead and book it tomorrow. :)

We've cruised out of New Orleans before and loved it. We had an aft stateroom with balcony for that one, it was wonderful being able to see side-to-side for the trip down the river leaving New Orleans. Won't have that this time, but I understand how you feel about the aft staterooms! They are wonderful!!

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review, and seeing your photos! So come back soon and tell us more! :)

Now we come to my favorite day on the cruise - our first port day at Roatan. I'd been looking forward to this day for months, ever since I researched the excursions available and found Tabyana Beach. After seeing pictures and videos of the great snorkeling available there, I knew that I HAD TO GO THERE!!!!

It was a little disheartening when I checked the forecast for Mahogany Bay while eating breakfast at Waffle House on Sunday morning. It showed strong winds of 18-20 mph, which means that the Dream probably would not be able to dock. NNNOOOOOO!!!!! We went ahead and decided to be be positive and plan for the best. Since the excursion was to leave at 6:45, after docking at 6:30, we ordered room service for 5:45. We ordered extra cereal to take with us, to possibly use to feed the fish. After room service arrived, I stepped out on the balcony to catch the sunrise. With the sun rising from the East I could see the island of Roatan looming in the West. A member of Cruise Critic said that if the wind turbines on the hills were spinning fast, it was probably too windy to dock. I looked up on the hills, and the turbines were barely turning. YES!!!! As the Dream turned to back into Mahogany Bay, I could see the buoys that the ship had to back between, only a couple hundred yards apart. Here are the buoys on the port side, with the dock in the background:

My hat is off to the pilot of this large vessel who threaded this needle. Well, after docking, we departed the ship on the way to the shuttle bus. And of course we took the obligatory arrival photo:

After loading onto the bus, we took a thrilling ride through the Roatan country side and small towns. White knuckle would not be an exaggeration. I saw this place on the way. Don't ask me what the sign means:

After about 35-40 minutes, we arrived at Tabyana Beach and went past the restrooms, showers, gift shops, and showers to the beach chairs. we had gotten there early enough that we had our choice of seats. We got front row seats, to the far left of the beach area. After setting down our stuff on the chairs, we lathered up with suntan lotion for our day in the sun:

Turns out that our choice of seating probably wasn't the best. If you look behind our niece and her hubby you can see some booths and tables. Beyond those are some private resorts that don't allow beach vendors. So the vendors would come down that far, and stand around in front of us trying to sell to us. There was security at the beach that would not allow the vendors to approach the chairs. So our view of the water was blocked alot. Would have been better to get seats farther to the right, and back a few rows. Despite the problems, we all made it into the crystal clear blue waters for some great swimming:

After our initial foray into the water, I got my gear out for what I came to do - snorkel! My next post will be about the excellent snorkeling available at Tabyana Beach...

I got my gear on and swam out a little. And I do mean a little. The reef was only about 25-30 yards off the shore, and only about 5-10 feet below the surface. I went out a total of 3 times, probably about 30 minutes at a time. I had snorkeled at Cozumel the year before and this was by far superior to that. Here's some of my better photos I took.

I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC TS-6, which is water proof down to 43 feet. I put in a new 8gig memory card, a brand new battery, set the camera to 16 megapixels and went to town!

The light green leaf in the middle is actually a needlefish:

For Christmas, my daughter got me two Audubon identification guides, one for Tropical Fish and one for Coral. I'll have to get them out to identify the different types of coral I saw, like this:

While I was swimming along, I saw a flash of blue to my left, and turned to see this school of fish passing by:

Made friends with this little cuttle fish. Think I'll cal him Curtis...

Couldn't leave out Polly the Parrot fish:

Just a final shot, showing how clear the water was and how extensive the coral reef is:

Needless to say, the snorkeling exceeded my expectations. If you like snorkeling, you need to go here and enjoy!

Lovely underwater pictures!

Awesome! Sailing March 20, so loving your review!

Great review so far and awesome pics!!

This will be my first attempt at reviewing a cruise, so please be kind in your responses. We'll see how detailed my review is after I get going. I'm sure it will not be as detailed as the one Wrigley80 will be doing, but it will be from a different point of view.

/subscribe

I've been looking forward to reading your review. :)

I'm really enjoying your review--thanks for taking the time!

Well, after some snorkeling, I decided to rest a little and took a photo for my friends back home: my sandy feet with the Caribbean Sea in the background:

The Tabyana Beach Break excursion thru Carnival does not include food. We decided to walk up to the grill area to get some lunch. I purchased a hamburger ($5) and the wife got a hot dog ($3) and a plate of fresh fruit ($3). The hamburger seemed to be 1/4 pound and nothing special. DW gave me half her hot dog (also nothing special) because the fruit plate contained several larger pieces of different melons and several large pieces of pineapple. She said they seemed fresh and good tasting. We were entertained by a band playing island music while we ate. Afterwards, we walked to the gift shop to see about souvenirs. I purchased some coffee for my daughter and our pastor. It was Honduran coffee, brand name Cafe Coban. A 1 lb bag cost $9, and my daughter has told me that it is very good. Much cheaper than the Jamaican Blue Mountain we bought last year at Falmouth, which was about $20 for 8 oz. We then wandered back to our chairs for some more sun and snorkeling.

We all decided to catch the shuttle bus back to the ship at 3 PM. Our security guard did a good job, so I tipped him before we left and thanked him. After boarding the shuttle bus, we were subjected to more white knuckle driving, even worse now since there was more traffic. We were a little surprised when the bus driver slowed down and turned into the port at Coxen Hole, where there were 2 Norwegian ships docked. After informing the driver we were all Carnival passengers, he did a quick u-turn and left the port. We arrived back at Mahogany bay with plenty of time to do some shopping. After getting back on the Dream, I took a couple photos of the Mahogany Bay beach area, mostly empty by now:

Carnival has a ski-lift kind of people movers to take people from the dock to the beach:

Just behind the chair lift you can see some silver wires. Those are for a zipline that starts out near the center of the island and ends up down by the beach. Nice not having to take a shuttle bus back...

After a nice dinner served by our excellent wait staff, we all basically turned in early for our next port. Coming up tomorrow - Belize...

Enjoyed your review.

Keith

I'm enjoying your review. Thanks for posting. Those were some great snorkeling pics in Roatan. Off the west end of the island, which is where you were, they have perhaps the best snorkeling in all the Caribbean, definitely the best of all the places I've been. It's just too bad that so many people miss out on that & everything else this island has to offer, and instead just go to that plain beach next to the ship. Smart move on your part to get out and explore.