Just off the Dream this morning -questions welcome

[David-n-Rita]

Lunch in Main Dining Room on sea days only.

 

I just checked the FUNTIMES and I do believe you are correct. I do not see a dining time for lunch on port days. All those other things are open though. On the Dream stick to the aft area, you can see, I took pictures alot back there of the empty dining area and no lines several different meals (see pictures below)

[pjpu]

We were on this cruise too! We were on deck 9 and we did smell the smell from time to time - but it wasn't overwhelming by any means! Also, lots of boat movement. Not sure if it was just the area, the seas were rough or that we were higher up than the last time and felt it more? But even in the MDR, on the 4th deck we felt it most nights.

 

We never felt too crowded, but we usually ate a little later than most folks. Ate all our evening meals in the MDR, breakfast was buffet except for once in MDR and once room service. The bacon is in the middle, you have to ask for.

Lanai BBQ - it was sorta american/mexican food - it was ok, nothing great.

Tandori grill - dh liked it, too spicy for me.

Deli - grilled ruben was good.

Chocolate buffet - kinda dissapointed as there were lots of desserts, but not all were choc. The best thing was the choc pudding/mouse - delicious!

Mexican midnite buffet - was ok, nothing special to me.

 

Had no problems finding chairs as long as you don't want to be right in the middle of everything, the Lanai is where we usually went. We did find some on the Serenity deck the first sea day. Had 2 ladies come and put their stuff on 2 lounge chairs, then go for a walk, only to return, pick up their stuff and leave....:mad: why do people do that! There were lots of people who woulda loved to have those chairs! :(

 

Went to 2 comedy shows, both were good. Went to 2 Encore shows, one was a juggler - he was really good and funny. The other one I can't remember the name of it, it really wasn't that good, it was supposed to honor all the 'service' industry jobs - but it reminding me of a HS musical.

 

BUT we still had a great time!!! Guess I'm more about the ports and site seeing than the activities on the ship. :)

[PictureChris]

The port is 45 miles from the airport, a clear shot on the "Beach Line" Expressway.

 

I am just curious, why do you love sailing out of Port Canaveral. I am going to be booking the Dream for October 30th and the fact that the port was 60 miles away from the airport is putting a little damper on it for me. So please, make me feel better about it!

[meatloafsfan]

Wow! I followed the link to your journal and all I can say is wow! It's incredible.

 

I'm making a note for myself for next March - go aft for food, chairs and pools. Of course, I have a room all the way forward...:rolleyes:

 

Oh well - it'll let me enjoy more pasta!

 

Did you ever try to mix sauces at the pasta bar - I love a rose sauce (tomato and alfredo mixed)?

[David-n-Rita]

Wow! I followed the link to your journal and all I can say is wow! It's incredible.

 

I'm making a note for myself for next March - go aft for food, chairs and pools. Of course, I have a room all the way forward...:rolleyes:

 

Oh well - it'll let me enjoy more pasta!

 

Did you ever try to mix sauces at the pasta bar - I love a rose sauce (tomato and alfredo mixed)?

 

It will take me another day to get the rest of the pictures up. We live in upstate NY and have no Broadband. We are forced into using the only DSL available - hughes.net - the worst broadband company in the world. I want to put my foot through the TV everytime I see their commercials that promise Broadband to areas that can't get it. They charged us $7000 dollars last year for DSL and today I was forced to upload the journal pictures on AOL dial up because it was faster the the Broadband they charge me for. If only I lived in a 3rd world country where my taxes install real Broadband and not in New York where they refuse to run lines. The ship's internet was over 50 times faster than what we have at home and I was lucky to use it to upload pictures before I got off the ship. My upload speed is 16kb/s on Hughes.net and on the ship my upload speed was 900kb/s. It takes over 20 minutes to upload 1 picture right now.

 

Someone could actually get rich up here just giving Broadband to people in our town who are willing to pay ANY price to get roadrunner. Even Verizon said no, sorry not available in your area. ATT has cell service but even their laptop access that works all over the world will not work in our town. Even my poor Kindle doesn't work - no sprint up here either.

 

I'll get off the soapbox now and watch it take over 2 minutes to load the internet page that refreshes when I post.

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

Great pictures. I now have to plan a trip on the Dream!

[acecombatmom]

Your Review and pictures are terrific. I enjoyed them and you answered a very important question for me. When we were on the Legend last year we went to Isle of Roatan but my pictures have not looked like any one elses I have seen on here. I was confused until tonight when I realized we went to town center instead of Mahogany Bay. Thank you for helping me.

[Oneluckywoman]

Hi there! Thanks for the great review and wonderful pictures and tips! We have a group of 8 celebrating our 50th birthdays leaving for the May 15th cruise on the Dream. I was wondering....was the water warm in Mexico? We did a cruise the end of March and froze our buns off in the water, but the air temp was great. Hoping it's warm...especially in the beautiful pool in Costa Maya! Thanks!

[willjoe75]

Great info...thanks alot...a few questions please....

Thinking of booking a 7 day on dream leaving out 3 july this year.

What day /time should we fly in? the day before? trans to port?

What time will be off the boat on return? (we do not do self embark)

trans back to airport? Are the aft wrap around rooms worth the cost? I noticed it was over $3200.00....is it worth it? Our fav rooms so far have been the Verandah, small balcony, or mini suites I think they call them.

 

Thoughts please?

also yahoo id will.joe75

[David-n-Rita]

Great info...thanks alot...a few questions please....

Thinking of booking a 7 day on dream leaving out 3 july this year.

 

Do remember that school is out so there will be more children on the cruise than we had. That does bring up more issues than we had with so few children.

 

What day /time should we fly in? the day before? trans to port?

 

With the holiday, I would definitely fly in a few days earlier. We rented a car from Thrifty right at the airport. ALL the companies had counters right at the airport. Also there were people that flew into Melbourne, FL for this cruise so you might want to price check that airport as well. We rented for two days and ALL the rental companies have outlets right by the port and almost all had shuttles to the port after you dropped off your car. We stayed at the Radisson at the port, but there were many hotels all along that road as well as beach access, stores, liquor and many eateries. They did have a pay trolley that went around but we didn't use it so I am not sure of the cost. I really think if you are there for even a day precruise, you will be happier to have a car because, while everything is on the same road, it is spaced far apart. Don't forget - no state income tax for FL residents so room/rent-a-car/tourist taxes are high. (Our per day quoted rate for our car was $39.00/day for two days - the bottom line was $118.00 after the taxes and we don't get any "extra insurance things" as it is covered in our home policy. Keep that in mind when comparing a pricing things in FL.

 

What time will be off the boat on return? (we do not do self embark)trans back to airport?

 

Depends on what zone you are when you leave. We were zone one because of Platinum status. They do have it down to a science at this port and everything was going very smoothly when we left at about 7:30am. My guess is that even the worst case scenario, everyone is off by 10:00am. We bought a Carnival transfer for our return to Orlando airport and it runs frequently. We bought it online before the cruise but you could also buy it on the ship from the excursion desk. (It was $35.00/person) and we thought it was great for us. I would avoid any flight home prior to 12 noon, although if you have an flight prior to 1pm out of Orlando and you go down to the desk on the ship, they will give you a lower zone number to get off the ship earlier.

 

Are the aft wrap around rooms worth the cost? I noticed it was over $3200.00....is it worth it? Our fav rooms so far have been the Verandah, small balcony, or mini suites I think they call them.

 

I am not sure how you book, but we have NEVER paid that much for a cabin, even a wrap. Book direct with Carnival from their 1-800 number. We mostly book Early Saver for the best deals and price reductions as they come along. We paid $699/person for our 8M extended aft balcony as a final price (some of the reductions were after final payment and they gave us the difference in shipboard credit ($320) Even our original price was only $959/per person.They most we have paid for a wrap in the past has been $1000/person. We are booked on the Splendor in a 7th deck aft wrap and we are paying $749/person and we have early Saver so that will probably go down before we get to the Sept 26 sail date (usually the reductions are after final payment when people back out and it frees up cabins) Our European cruise on the Magic is an aft balcony on the 7th deck and it is 12 days and is currently at $2000/ person on Early saver so there is bound to be reductions. I am not sure where your figure of $3200 is for the Dream comes from but you might want to call Carnival direct and not deal with anyone in the middle (often they pocket the refunds instead of passing them on)

 

Thoughts please?

 

We love aft because we found the side balconies are unusable when out to sea because of the wind. There is none on the aft as the ship itself blocks the wind. It is quiet unless you are on the 6th deck right above the back lounges. (Also book a cabin with other cabins above and below you and not public areas)Wraps are great and we usually spring for them when we get free airfare for some reason. For a better view and usually a slightly wider balcony (without the extra cost), book the aft cabin next to the wraps because you can often see right around the side of the ship through the aft wrap balcony because of the slanting of the walls.

Hope this answers everything

[willjoe75]

WOW!...great response thank you...as far as the price, I got it right off the carnival site this morning. For that aft room balcony, 9C, sailing out 3 July, it shows a cost of ..I'll try to copy and paste it here....

Sail Date:Jul.03.2010 Fare Code:DP3

Stateroom Details

 

Stateroom:8466

Deck:VERANDAH

Category:9C

Vacation Total

 

CRUISE RATE$3,108.00 Gov't Fees & Taxes$142.14 Total Amount$3,250.14

 

 

And thats without the pre paid gratuity, that I always add in before I sail.

 

Joe

[David-n-Rita]

WOW!...great response thank you...as far as the price, I got it right off the carnival site this morning. For that aft room balcony, 9C, sailing out 3 July, it shows a cost of ..I'll try to copy and paste it here....

Sail Date:Jul.03.2010 Fare Code:DP3

Stateroom Details

 

Stateroom:8466

Deck:VERANDAH

Category:9C

Vacation Total

 

CRUISE RATE$3,108.00 Gov't Fees & Taxes$142.14 Total Amount$3,250.14

 

We have always done better calling them direct. You get a live person and they work at getting you deals. I do know that the price is probably due to being so close to the actual cruise and being a cruise that is sailing when school is out. We purposely never cruise when school is not in session and book at cheaper times. We have that flexibility so we are lucky. We also book 9-12 months in advance and like to cruise during hurricane season because it is so cheap. We always expect that the itinerary will be changed at the last minute and we don't sweat the changes. The truth is, we have been lucky with cheap prices during hurricane season and no hurricanes. The worst storm we were in was on the Carnival Legend in the month of April when we had 35 foot seas and 40 mph winds (the ceiling tiles came down in our cabin) They captain was great, kept all informed, changed our route and never did we feel we were in any danger.

 

Gotta love those macho Italian Captains - they can handle anything :rolleyes:

[PunkinsDad]

Wonderful pictures! We were on the 4/10 Eastern Carribean sailing.

 

Dream was a wonderful ship! I never encountered "the smell" and the lines at the buffet were no longer than we experienced on the Conquest, in fact, even shorter, particularly at off-peak times.

 

We loved the Comedy Club, and the shows. My only observation was that perhaps the main theater was a bit undersized for the passenger load. You had to be there pretty early to get a primo seat.

 

Our cabin was midships on deck 7. I didn't find that the deck 5 Lanai overhang was a big deal. Sometimes when there was a rowdy group in one of the whirlpool it was a bit annoying from our balcony, but that didn't happen too often.

[Nowisthetime1]

We booked one of the new cove balconies on the 2nd level of the Dream, close to the water. It was fantastic and we really enjoyed it. However, the second floor in the last 1/3 of the ship smelled of sewage everyday, especially in the morning and evening. It was terrible, but only got into our cabin once and thankfully we were able to open the balcony door. We spoke to a lady in the back portion with an inside cabin and she stated it was horrible and she could not wait to get off of the ship as there were no other available cabins and they we getting ill. Also, our lines on the Lido were terrible and you stood in line 25-30 minutes usually. What we saw was a new ship that had more passengers but less common space. They cut down the size of the lobby, theatre, and pool areas to make more room for cabins. They even had to put the piano up in the air in the lobby as the lobby was made so much smaller. We have been on alot of cruise ships. It is a beautiful ship and a nice ship. However, we would not pick the Dream to go on again. We have been on all of Carnivals new ships each year and this was the least special to us. I am glad you enjoyed your cruise, we did also, as we don't find much in life to complain about. But, depending where your cabin is their is a sewage smell and for most that have cruised on alot of ships this one is more crowded and less common space. I would not cancel a cruise I had booked, however, it is not as favorite as the other later ship we have enjoyed; such as Freedom, Splendor, etc..

[willjoe75]

I wish I could plan and book that far out.. 6-9 months..not possible in my job.

 

Can you send me the link to your pictures? I'm having a hard time fidning the link.

 

thanks

also..email if you need, will.joe75@yahoo.com

[David-n-Rita]

I wish I could plan and book that far out.. 6-9 months..not possible in my job.

 

Can you send me the link to your pictures? I'm having a hard time fidning the link.

 

thanks

also..email if you need, will.joe75@yahoo.com

 

 

http://www.susanrita-cruising.com/

[Sunnyday2010]

Thank you for taking the time to post this review !