Dream Review: 04/17/2010 Western Caribbean

[navybaby1113]

Let me preface this by saying that we just got back from our honeymoon on the Carnival Dream and had a fantastic time. Yes, there were a few things here and there that bugged me, but nothing that would completely ruin my cruise.

 

The ports of call we stopped at were Cozumel, Roatan, Belize, and Costa Maya. In Cozumel, we took a ferry over to the mainland (Playa del Carmen) and went to Xcaret. In Roatan, we just stayed at Mahogany Bay and spent a little time on the beach and ship. In Belize, we did the Goff's Cay Snorkeling tour. And in Costa Maya we went to the Chacchoben ruins.

 

I left my journal at home, so let me start you off with the albums of all the pictures we took. I'll be including a lot of pictures in the review, so you don't have to look through all of them if you don't want.

 

Ship

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2840451&id=5230340&l=14e4cf8e6c

 

Cozumel/Playa del Carmen

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2840487&id=5230340&l=6a816930f3

 

Roatan

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2840496&id=5230340&l=8e9c55e021

 

Belize

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2840499&id=5230340&l=04321c0185

 

Costa Maya

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2840507&id=5230340&l=37fcdc7d79

 

Food

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2840578&id=5230340&l=78b296d682

[jules815]

Congrats on your marriage. :)

 

Thanks for the review and pictures. Looking at your food pictures has made me very hungry, and I'm trying to drop a few lbs before our cruise on Dream in June!!

 

I have a question about the deck party with the laser show. We have late seating (8:15). Are we going to miss these, or are they a little later in the evening??

[2nd time Cruisers]

What cabin were you in? We are sailing in January on the Dream in cabin 8469.

[TakeMeAway1001]

Congratulations on your marriage and thanks for sharing your cruise with us :)

[BaconIsGood]

good stuff, thanks for sharing!

[navybaby1113]

Congrats on your marriage. :)

 

Thanks for the review and pictures. Looking at your food pictures has made me very hungry, and I'm trying to drop a few lbs before our cruise on Dream in June!!

 

I have a question about the deck party with the laser show. We have late seating (8:15). Are we going to miss these, or are they a little later in the evening??

 

They are later in the evening. We had late seating as well. I'm at work now, but when I get home and have my journal and capers in front of me, I'll let you know what times they were.

[navybaby1113]

What cabin were you in? We are sailing in January on the Dream in cabin 8469.

 

We were in 7448. It's an L-shaped cabin.

[bcs819]

please tell me about the Steakhouse Cooking Demo.

[markstudy]

Let me preface this by saying that we just got back from our honeymoon on the Carnival

 

In Belize, we did the Goff's Cay Snorkeling tour.

 

Thanks for the great photos! We plan on doing this trip next. And I love looking at your underwater photos to help pick our snorkel spots when we go.

 

Congratulations on your great honeymoon trip :)

[navybaby1113]

please tell me about the Steakhouse Cooking Demo.

 

Oh I definitely will. Don't worry. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. It took place on the first sea day around 11am.

[navybaby1113]

Since I don't have my capers or anything in front of me, let me go ahead and tell you about our cabin.

 

We stayed in 7448 which is in category 8B. It's a L-shaped cabin and it's all the way at the aft of the port side of the ship. The room is configured differently, so the balcony is double the size of a normal balcony.

 

We absolutely loved the room and didn't feel it was too small. This was our first balcony and we definitely used it. Not sure we could sail without a balcony anymore.

 

When you first walk into the door, there is a long hallway with the closets in it. There is also a chair right behind the door, which is a very odd place for a chair.

 

 

When you walk down the hallway, the desk is situated to your right and the bed to your left. The is a nice window right at the end of the hallway so you can see the ocean if you're sitting at the desk.

 

 

The bathroom is off to the side of the room, near the balcony door.

 

 

There isn't much walking room, so it does get kind of tight with both people walking around at the same time. It wasn't a terribly big problem for us though.

 

There is no sofa in the room because of the way it is configured.

 

The bathroom was a nice size and had tons of room for all your toiletries. You would not need an over the door shoe hanger with this bathroom. Shelving is kind of limited in the shower though. Really nice pressure on the showers as well.

 

 

 

The balcony was huge! We had two chairs and a table as well as a lounger.

 

[sailingawaysoon]

We are leaving this weekend for the Dream and I can't wait to read your review and see all the photos. I did look thru your pics of the ship and of course the food porn. Did you guys try the ribs? I didn't see any pics of that, but I'm forever reading about how wonderful they are. Also, I would like to hear about the steakhouse demonstration. If there was a fee, how much was it? I can't wait to read more. Congrats on your marriage as well!

[navybaby1113]

We did not try the ribs. I'm not a ribs fan and my DH always saw something else he'd rather have.

 

There was no fee for the Steakhouse Demonstration. There is limited seating though, so I highly recommend getting there early.

[navybaby1113]

Embarkation Day

We took the Radisson shuttle over to the ship around 11am. Took about 30 minutes to get through the embarkation process and onto the ship.

 

We went straight to the Lido deck to get lunch. I wanted to try the pasta bar before everyone else realized that it was available, so that's where we decided to go on the first day. When you walk up, they give you little forms where you can fill out what you want. We checked multiple mix-ins on our form, but when we received the food, it only had the first mix-in included in our dish. Not sure how that's supposed to be or whethr they just didn't notice the other ones. My DH got chicken alfredo and I got penne with clam sauce. We each ordered bread as well, thinking it would be garlic bread. Nope. Just a roll with some garlic and italian seasoning sprinkled on it. Wasn't even warm.

 

 

 

After we finished lunch, we wandered around the ship for a while until our room was available.

 

 

 

 

We went to our room and unpacked until it was time for muster drill. Our muster station was located in the lower Scarlett restaurant. Muster drill seemed to go by really slowly. I'm assuming because people wouldn't stop talking. It was a lot more relaxing than old muster drills. You just need to go to your muster station and listen to some announcements on the intercom. Then the crew in your muster station give you some directions and you get to leave.

 

[navybaby1113]

Embarkation Day Continued

We went straight to our balcony to watch sailaway, which happened about 4:30pm. It took us a while to get out of Port Canaveral.

 

After sailaway, we went down to the dining room to check out our seating assignment. We were scheduled in the Scarlett Restaurant for late seating. We were supposed to share a table with 8 other people, so we went down to talk to the maitre de to see if we could get that changed. Since it was our honeymoon, we really wanted a table for 2. He told us that he couldn't do anything for that night, but that he would notify us by 3:30pm the next day whether we got the table change or not.

 

We decided to skip dinner in the dining room that night and go eat at the lido deck instead. I was kind of shocked by the lack of options on the dinner buffet. I feel there were more when we sailed on the Celebration. They did have some delicious panko shrimp on the buffet though and I ate tons of that.

 

After dinner, we went to the Welcome Aboard show which took place in the Encore! Lounge at 8:30pm. That was the only time for the show, so if you have late seating, you will have to miss it. I found this was common with some of the shows on board.

 

For the Welcome Aboard show, Todd came out and talked for a while and then introduced the rest of the entertainment staff. Then the dancers did some stuff and the two comedians for the start of the cruise came out and told a few jokes.

 

 

After the Welcome Aboard show was done, they started a deck party on the lido deck at 9:30pm. The entertainment staff taught some line dances for the first 30 minutes and then they had two different laser shows. We stood on deck 12 for these and I think it was a lot better view than those that were standing on the Lido.

 

 

 

 

They reopened the grill from 11pm to 1am for late night snacks. They had hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and desserts out there for you.

 

Next Up: Sea Day

[mom2girls]

Thanks for posting your review. I'm enjoying it.

[Lady_Jag]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. I am sailing on the Dream next month and can't wait! :D

[navybaby1113]

Sea Day

We woke up on the first sea day to dreary weather and choppy seas. It was kind of chilly too. Not what you want to see in the Caribbean. It cleared up after breakfast though and we ended up having an absolutely gorgeous day.

 

We went to breakfast in the Scarlett Restaurant. They sat us with 7 other people. 2 couples and 3 singles who were sailing together. I had the pancakes with strawberry syrup and DH had the omelette. Both were delicious. The 3 singles that were sitting with us ended up being from the same town as a lot of my family. One of them actually used to work with my grandmother. Such a small world!

 

We went up to the Lido deck to watch the Good Morning. I have to say that this is one thing that I never was interested in on the cruise. Todd and James seemed really bored doing it.

 

Chair hogs seemed to be out.

 

 

At 11am, they had a cooking demonstration in the Steakhouse, which I definitely had to be at. There was no charge for this. They handed you a recipe booklet as you walked in so that you could follow along with the chefs. They showed you how to cook and display each meal. Then, they brought out samples for everyone to try. They cooked a Mushroom Cappuccino, Baby Leaf Spinach & Fresh Mushrooms, Broiled Supreme of Free Range Chicken, and Tiramisu. They were all delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to participate in Super Trivia. There was only two of us and the host of the show mentioned that it was better the more people you had in the team. So we teamed up with the couple next to us. You pick a color out of a box and then they give you the question from the category. If you get it right, you roll the dice to see how many points you got for that question. It's 3 rounds total and your team has to be there for every round or you're disqualified. At the end of Round 1, our team had zero points.

 

We went to Tea Time later in the day. They had about 6 different teas you could choose from. They brought around a little card with some snacks on them. They had a bunch of desserts and about 2 or 3 savory snacks you could have. The desserts we tried weren't the best.

[navybaby1113]

We went to the PG-rated comedy show at 7:30pm. These shows do get over in time for the late seating dinner. The comedian was pretty funny. Just a warning. These shows do not have children related content. They are just PG-rated because they don't have curse words or too many sexual undertones. Todd compared these shows to what you would see on TV shows like South Park or Family Guy. So, don't get too offended if they say some things you don't want your child to hear.

 

The maitre de sent a letter to our cabin saying that our dining request had been approved, so we decided to go to the MDR for dinner that night. This was our first formal night.

 

For appetizers, we had the Farmer's Salad and Shrimp Cocktail.

 

 

 

For dinner, my DH had the pasta carbonara while I had lobster and prime rib. We were the exact way at our wedding. He ordered pasta while I got roast beef. The lobster was okay. Nothing to write home about. The prime rib had A LOT of fat on it. I would have still been hungry if I would have only ordered one without the other.

 

 

 

 

The maitre de came around to all the tables while we were eating our entrees. He recommended we try the Carmelized Apples, so we did. It was absolutely disgusting. Definitely would not eat it again. The caramel sauce on the side was what made it bad. It might be okay without it.

 

 

After dinner we went to the R-rated comedy show. The comedian was Lewis Nixon. We had actually seen him on the Celebration, but he was still funny as heck. The layout of the Burgundy Lounge (Comedy Club) is kind of weird. They have poles set throughout which block the view of the stage from a lot of seats. I'll post pictures in the next post. Make sure you get to the R-rated show early (like 30 minutes) because seats are hard to come by. The PG-rated shows aren't nearly as bad.

[crewsweeper]

Wow!! the cooking demo looks great. Will tell DW and SIL and watch for it. They do tea already and love it. Sorry your first quest for a ship on a stick didn't pan out. Looking forward tot he rest of your review.

[navybaby1113]

Sadly it doesn't look like I got any pictures of the horribly placed poles.

 

 

 

 

Actually, here's a picture from the Farewell Party that shows them.

 

[jules815]

Wow! That's exactly how my prime rib looked when we sailed on Destiny in March. It was the first time I've ever sent anything back. They were really nice about it and brought me a perfect piece.

 

I'm enjoying your food photos! Can't wait to sail on Dream!

[shamda]

Looks like Times Square on New Years Eve with those crowds. How can you move around? I wouldn't be able to breath being stuffed in like that. What is fun about that? Note to self,,,skip deck party.,.....

 

 

Embarkation Day Continued

We went straight to our balcony to watch sailaway, which happened about 4:30pm. It took us a while to get out of Port Canaveral.

 

After sailaway, we went down to the dining room to check out our seating assignment. We were scheduled in the Scarlett Restaurant for late seating. We were supposed to share a table with 8 other people, so we went down to talk to the maitre de to see if we could get that changed. Since it was our honeymoon, we really wanted a table for 2. He told us that he couldn't do anything for that night, but that he would notify us by 3:30pm the next day whether we got the table change or not.

 

We decided to skip dinner in the dining room that night and go eat at the lido deck instead. I was kind of shocked by the lack of options on the dinner buffet. I feel there were more when we sailed on the Celebration. They did have some delicious panko shrimp on the buffet though and I ate tons of that.

 

After dinner, we went to the Welcome Aboard show which took place in the Encore! Lounge at 8:30pm. That was the only time for the show, so if you have late seating, you will have to miss it. I found this was common with some of the shows on board.

 

For the Welcome Aboard show, Todd came out and talked for a while and then introduced the rest of the entertainment staff. Then the dancers did some stuff and the two comedians for the start of the cruise came out and told a few jokes.

 

 

After the Welcome Aboard show was done, they started a deck party on the lido deck at 9:30pm. The entertainment staff taught some line dances for the first 30 minutes and then they had two different laser shows. We stood on deck 12 for these and I think it was a lot better view than those that were standing on the Lido.

 

 

 

 

They reopened the grill from 11pm to 1am for late night snacks. They had hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and desserts out there for you.

 

Next Up: Sea Day

[navybaby1113]

Looks like Times Square on New Years Eve with those crowds. How can you move around? I wouldn't be able to breath being stuffed in like that. What is fun about that? Note to self,,,skip deck party.,.....

 

That's why we were up on the balcony at deck 12. So much easier to see and less crowds.

[momjen]

Loving your review! My DH and DS (7) are going to the cooking demonstration. My son wants to be a chef and wants to meet one on board. Can't wait to show him the photos you took.