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Carnival Dream January 2-9 2010 Review with Pics!

CCLgoddess

By CCLgoddess,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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CCLgoddess

CCLgoddess

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Background info: I traveled with my family, aunt, uncle and cousins, which was a total of 10 people. The kid’s age ranges were 15-26.

 

Embarkation: My family left a snowy Philadelphia around 2 hours late due to a long line of planes waiting to get deiced. We were scheduled to arrive in Orlando around 10ish but didn’t get there until noon. We got a cab to travel to Cape Canaveral and stayed at the Radisson. The weather was nice with partly cloudy skies and the temperature around 70. We all were beat from the early travel day that we just stayed in for new years. Friday we woke up to rainy skies and my aunt, uncle and cousins arrived. The hotel offers free transportation to the Publix on Friday. It rained pretty much the whole day and was chilly. It cleared up around 5pm. Saturday arrived and the weather was sunny but cold. I think it was in the upper 30’s/40’s. We left the hotel by getting our own cab and arrived to the port after 10. We were seated and shortly after they called the VIP platinum boarding zone. Of course we headed right to lunch. My sister and I were the first ones in line for the Pasta Bar. It was delicious! Since it was chilly outside we went to our cabin on the empress deck, even side, to check out our balconies. We did a little unpacking and then headed to the lifeboat drill. Our muster station was in the Scarlet Dining room and it was painless. The only complaint was that the ship pulled away while we were doing the drill so we had to rush up to lido to get a spot. We had late seating dinner in the Scarlet dining room at a table of 10 in the lower center of the room. Dinner was good.

 

Day 1 Nassau: My family has been to Nassau a couple times before and decided that we weren’t getting off the ship. My uncle and 3 cousins decided to go to the beach. My family decided to spend the time in the serenity deck. The chairs were so comfy! The weather was partly cloudy and warmer but it was chilly when the sun went behind the clouds. Around noon it started to get hot. The Dream left around 2pm and we were on our way to St. Thomas. We decided to go and steam in the spa. The free steam room in the locker room was noticeably smaller, as was the locker room, and does not have a view of the ocean. You no longer need to have a key for the locker, as it is a code system. Tonight was formal night and the waiters sang That’s Amore. Dinner was fabulous again. There was the captain’s cocktail reception but there are no longer free drinks. It is just $1 off. There would be a free drink party for everyone on Friday from 5-6pm.

 

Day 2 Fun Day at Sea: We woke up to ugly grey skies and rain at times. We wanted to play mini golf but it was raining. Everyone was pretty much inside around the ship. Some of my family checked out the trivia challenge and they said it was a record of 22 teams haha. Trivia lasted long due to all the people. During dinner, the song was Jai Ho. Dinner was great.

 

Day 3 St. Thomas: We woke up to sunny skies and hot weather! We arrived early before 10am. St. Thomas was an hour ahead of us but we had to stay on ship time. We also did not have to get checked by customs, which was a plus. We got breakfast and headed out. My family did some shopping in town and the rest went to the beach. The beach was crowded due to the Oasis docking in Crown Bay. There were a total of 5 ships in port that day. We got there later in the afternoon so most people cleared the beach by then. We had a great cab driver that bypassed the in town traffic and got us to the ship by 5pm. We had a late lunch then got ready for dinner. We had an awesome view of the Freedom leaving from our balcony. The waiters did not sing/dance that night. The food was once again yummy.

 

Day 4 St. Maarten: Once again 6 ships, including the Oasis, crowded the island. We quickly ate breakfast and got off the ship. There was a huge line for taxi’s going to Orient Bay. We decided to stick it out b/c that is our favorite beach. We arrived there and were able to snag chairs in the last row on Kakao Beach. The weather was sunny skies, few clouds and hot. We got back to the ship around 5 again and had a late lunch. Tonight was the past guest party. They changed it back to what it used to be. 7pm for late seating and maybe 5 for early seating. Drinks were free. Dinner was good again and the waiters danced to shake shake shake.

 

Day 5 Fun Day at Sea: We awoke to sunny skies and warm weather. Before breakfast we got our chairs on the side of the ship on deck 11. It was windy so the sides were better to sit on. The BBQ and waterslides were closed due to the wind. We ate lunch after 1pm to let the lines go down. Tonight was the last formal night. We got ready early to get our pictures done. We didn’t have to wait too long to get our pictures. Then we went to dinner. Once again the food was good. The wait staff danced to low by flo rida.

 

Day 6 Fun Day at Sea: We awoke to sunny skies and warm weather. We did the same thing as the day before, got our chairs then went to breakfast. It was a little less windy so the waterslides were open. It got chilly and the winds picked up later on in the afternoon. We went down early to get our packing down and then got ready for dinner. The food was great and the waiters sang that depressing leaving the funship song. Afterwards we finished the packing and toured the ship one last time. Not too many people were out and about.

 

Debarkation: We got up and had our last breakfast in the dining room. The weather was ugly, cold and raining. We took advantage of the platinum benefit of being in group 1 to disembark from the ship. We were off the ship and through customs by 9:10. Then we took a cab back to Orlando to catch our flight back to Philly.

 

Miscellaneous: The food-absolutely no problems! From breakfast to lunch to dinner I had no complaints and thought it was delicious. There were lots of options for lunch. The Wok did have long lines everyday with about a ½ hr wait. The entertainment-The deck “band” was just 2 people. They were ok from what I heard. There was a great band on deck VooDoo that played at the ocean plaza and the deck party. The show Dancin' in the Street is not to be missed! It was really awesome. Service-The staff was always smiling and greeted everyone with a hello. Our room steward Serin was so personable and nice. He always chatted with us everyday and was great! The best we have had yet. Our waiter was Desi and we had her before on a previous cruise. She was a good waitress but wasn’t fun like waiters in the past. Her assistant was Peter and he didn’t really talk much. We saw our waiter from 2 yrs ago George and he was awesome! The ship-Beautiful. I really liked the layout and all the areas are great. It didn’t feel cramped or crowded at all to me. The balcony was great on the empress deck and caught some great sunsets. Outside movies on the lido included mall cop, star trek and UP from what I can remember. In cabin movies included, mall cop, confessions of a shopaholic, he’s just not that into you, Marley and me, Australia, Alvin and the chipmunks, land of the lost, and Horton hears a who from what I can remember. Laser tag was offered at a $5 charge. We tried to go the day it rained but it was only limited to 40 people. We asked how it works and you get 5 minutes on the stage to play. The mango colada’s are fantastic!

 

Overall- Prior to the cruise everyone was complaining about long lines during lunch and the sewage smell on deck. I did witness longer lines around peak lunch times. My family always went to lunch between 1-2pm and there was not a long wait. During the days we were in St. Thomas and St. Maarten, there were longer lines for the deli and grill as these were the only options since the restaurant was closed. I did smell the sewage smell a couple times out on deck and sometimes down the hall where our cabin was. I didn’t get to try the BBQ out on the lanai due to wind conditions while we were at sea. I was also bummed that we didn’t get to try the mini golf or the waterslides. Also I didn’t try the brunch as well. The weather for the most part was good but chilly at times. You have no control over the weather but we made the best of it! If you have any questions feel free and I’ll do my best to answer them. Overall this was a great vacation and cruising on the Dream is not to be missed! It is such a beautiful ship!

 

I took some videos if you care to check them out visit http://www.youtube.com/user/TLC262 THANKS!

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CCLgoddess

CCLgoddess

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kkorman - thanks! he actually wasn't our waiter but the dining room loved him! our waiter said that this was the first time he danced on the lower level as he was previously upstairs and man did he put on a show! haha people were taking pics of him after he danced.....it was funny! as for the laser show, it was cool, nothing special. the one i taped was after the deck party and it was windy outside so the smoke didn't really stay but you could still see the lasers. they had multiple days where they had them and i think each one was different.

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lovepuzzles

lovepuzzles

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Thanks for your review! I have a quick question. Do you remember what time you were able to get off the ship in Nassau, and what time you had to be back on? I'm having a real problem with the time crunch there. We really want to go to the Blue Lagoon to do the Sea Lion Encounter, but the water taxi won't get us back to Atlantis until 1:30.

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purpleblanket

purpleblanket

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I'm glad you had a great time. Thanks for the photos.

I'm just wondering: you said that you put your towels down to save chairs before breakfast a couple of times - How long did you save for? Is this one of those things that "if you can't beat em - Join em?"

I'm worried about not being able to get a lounger on the serenity area and if everyone's saving - then I suppose you have to "get in the game"! I don't know! - Any suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

Debbie :)

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CCLgoddess

CCLgoddess

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lovepuzzles - we arrived shortly before 8:30am in nassau so sometime after that you would be able to get off the ship. everyone needed to get back on board by 1:30pm due to the ship leaving at 2pm.

 

purpleblanket - we mostly put down our bags and some towels around 9:30am then went to get breakfast which took between 20-25 minutes. then we went back up and our belongings were still there. we were able to get 10 chairs all in a row. by that time there were still some chairs in the area open. we mostly did this because we had 10 in our group and all wanted to sit by each other. for the serenity deck, we got chairs there in nassau when everyone went off the ship so we were able to just walk up and get chairs. i'd say to definitely snag them early because they do go fast and are a hot commodity!

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CCLgoddess

CCLgoddess

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i also forgot to mention that they only give the pins out to platinum guests and the platinum gift was a silver picture frame and a big leather frame that opens to put 2 pictures in. they sell it in the photo area for $7.99. oh and the serenity towels are a camel color with a brown strip as opposed to the blue towels. you get them on deck and have to sign for them. my aunt had noticed that in the store if you needed personal products or tylenol that they weren't full products. they were more like travel sizes that you would see in the supermarket. the t-shirt selection in the store also kind of blah. a lot of people were buying sweatshirts this cruise....lol. oh and another thing, at dinner you can order banana splits. it's not on the menu but you can ask for it. and ken the maitre d was supposed to be on our cruise but he went home early due to his daughter having a baby. he was surely missed in the dining room.

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jolyroger

jolyroger

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Pic 1-Oasis in St. Maarten

Pic 2-Dream in St. Maarten

Pic 3-Watching the Oasis leave from our balcony in the sunset

Pic 4-The sunset

Pic 5-Fun day sunset

 

 

Holy Moly Oasis is A freakin Monster!!!!! Oh great report and great pics!!!!

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CCLgoddess

CCLgoddess

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Thanks for the review....I'm 18 days and counting 'til my Dream Cruise!!!!

Last time I was in Nassau on a Sunday, (June 09, RCCL) the stores and shops didn't open umtil noon. :confused: Did you run into this?

 

 

ahh your lucky haha. did you mean the stores on the ship or in nassau?

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