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Nice try, Igor! Dream Eastern Review: 9/11-9/18/2010

mferris77

By mferris77,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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mferris77

mferris77

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Hi all - just now getting back into the swing of things and have time to post my review. I had originally considered posting live from the ship but the cost of internet time and the unpredictable timing of computer time had me just logging what we did every day or two while waiting for people to get ready.

 

We did buy the smallest package of internet time available - 45 minutes for $30, and if I had to do it again I would have gone with the $60 package which gave you 120 minutes. The time goes quite fast and I used the bulk of our time in checking emails due to schedule rearrangements.

 

A bit of background, this was a group of 5 people cruising, all in our early-mid 30's, no kids - 3 in an OS (previous cruisers) with 2 staying in a 4E across the hall, both completely new to cruising and not knowing what to expect. This was the cruise that had the ports swapped due to the approaching Hurricane Igor... up until the day of the cruise I was very nervous that we would be looking at a western switch. It wouldn't have been the end of the world but our last cruise was the western itinerary and we were really looking forward to these ports.

 

So without further ado I present the review/journal as it was written while on the ship. As I mentioned this was done when time allowed on the ship, so some of it may switch from past tense to present or future tense (ie things we're planning on doing).

 

I'll follow up with some pictures in a bit...

 

Saturday 9/11:

  • Got to the port around 11. Long lines but had VIP and made it through in about 30 minutes. Long lines at the buffet but that was expected. Headed up stairs to the Pasta Bar. Food was very good - got an order form and a number sign for the table so they know where to deliver the food to. Food took about 10 minutes or so to arrive.
  • We were staying in room 7256 (OS) and 7252 (4E). Around 1:20 we headed to the room and the halls were already open and our room was ready. We hung out in our room until the ship left at around 4:30 or so. Waited for luggage, some of which didn't come until around 6pm due to some contraband that was being dealt with. :o So on that note, security is doing a very good job. However one small bottle of rum did make it through.
  • Our room steward Mike made the rounds and was very easy going. As we had three people in our room (with a convertible couch) he asked if we preferred to keep the couch made into a bed all the time or if we wanted it back into a sofa during the daytime. We noticed there was no ice bucket in the room and were told that we needed to order from room service, which we did, only to be told later by mike that he was disenfecting our ice bucket and would have it returned to the room shortly.
  • Walked around the ship to get our bearings - overall very nicely laid out and decorated, checked out the shops, lobby had a large american flag suspended across the atrium, we suspected due to the fact that it was 9/11 and I had not seen pictures of the flag being there from recent cruisers. Layout is strikingly similar to the Conquest class ships, but that is no surprise. Stopped in the ocean plaza to order a funship special, not sure if that is how they always are but it seemed like it was concentrated - very hard to drink.
  • We had anytime dining, headed to dinner. Food was excellent but it did seem like it took a little longer than usual to get through the meal - about two hours - and we didn't even order multiple plates. 4 of us had the flatiron steak with three peppercorn sauce, 1 person had the ribs - all were delicious. The table also had creme brulee and warm melting chocolate cake - all were fabulous.
  • After dinner we visited the other areas of the ship we had not yet seen, watched a bit of Karaoke in the rear lounge and then spent some time in Club Caliente.
  • In general we have spent a good deal of time in the ocean suite. It's a big enough room for 5 people to hang out in comfortably and we want to get our money's worth. :-) We like hanging out on the balcony and we're 5 friends traveling together so we are content enjoying each other's company in a nice relaxing environment.

 

Sunday 9/12 - Nassau, Bahamas

  • Woke around 7am to catch sunrise and the docking at Nassau. Saw Oasis of the Seas already docked. Majesty of the Seas was there as well. We had nothing planned for this port other than to get off the ship and walk around a bit. Took our time getting ready, had breakfast at the buffet, which offered the standard fare - eggs, hash browns, sausauge, bacon (the bacon police were in effect). Off the ship and through the security gates, past the many offers for a taxi and hair braids, and into the straw market. didn't find much there and found the prices people were wanting were all quite high for some reason, nor were they willing to haggle.. maybe it was just the people we stopped at. Walked around Nassau proper for a short bit, stopped at the Tortuga store to buy some rum cakes, then it was back to the boat. Lines getting on the ship were very long but they opened up the second gangway at midship to move people through faster.
  • Headed up to the lido for lunch - again it was busy.. lots of people coming and going.. all the tables were full but I also did not see people having a hard time finding a table. We all love Indian food and were looking forward to trying the Tandoor and it did not disappoint. Everything was excellent - had some kind of beef dish (odd for Indian cuisine, but I wasn't complaining).. Also Tandoor fish and Tandoor Chicken was great.
  • Our ship set sail and we were full of food so we headed back to our rooms for an afternoon nap to be fresh and rested for elegant night. Slept in a little too long and took a while to get ready so we didn't make it to dinner until 9pm, which is when YTD ends - actually had to wait about 5 minutes for a table, which was surprising but not a problem as we chatted with the bartender in the small lounge right off the dining room while we waited. Dinner was great - main offerings were lobster and prime rib - everyone opted for the lobster with tiger shrimp.
  • After dinner we walked the ocean plaza for a bit. Encountered a crowd of people stretching from the rear elevators all the way to the front windows of Club Caliente - turns out it was a line for the next showing of the comedy club. We definitely want to catch some comedy shows but not waiting in that line! We ended up in the night club which, at around 10:30pm only had a few couples on the dance floor and lots of people sitting around. As the night went on more and more people came in and by midnight the place was pretty hopping - a healthy mix of both young and old and lots of ship's officers in their best dress mingling about. One thing that I noticed was that for the second night the lights under the dancefloor were not lit nor was the wall of flatscreen TVs behind the dancefloor .. I don't know if this was intentional or if something was broken due to the fight that broke out a few weeks ago. I did see more security milling about - more than the two officers that were reportedly in the club when the fight broke out. Everyone was on their best behavior tonight and having a great time. Music earlier in the evening was a little bit of 70s and 80s but later, as the dance floor got busier (and the clientele younger) the music switched to a mix of hip hop hits spanning the 90's to now.
  • Left the club around 1:30am or so, a little tipsy and deeper in debt. Stopped by the pizza station which had about 20 people hanging out there. Ordered a whole pizza and brought it back to our room. We ordered room service on our TV as well and knew that sometimes it took a long time to make its way to your room. After about 45 minutes (getting quite sleepy at this point) we called to check on the status. It turns out they never received the order through the TV! I'm wondering if this is a known issue as the woman said it is always best to call in the order or at least call to confirm the order after placing it through the TV. Passed out finally around 3am and slept in until 9:30am.
  • On a side note, as we were getting ready for dinner the lights in our room starting turning on and off by themselves. As I was trying to turn them off at the light switch, I heard some movement in the next room. I caught the couple as they were leaving their room and asked if by chance they were just using their light switch and they said that yes, they were trying to get the lights dimmed in their room properly. Just a funny incident and I guess the wiring between our rooms might not have been hooked up properly.

 

Monday - Fun day at sea

  • Our first day at sea! Slept in late and headed to the buffet for lunch. As has been suggested on the boards we head to the rear area of the buffet where there is less crowding. The buffet in general did not seem crowded nor were there lines any longer than we've seen on other cruises. Certainly busy but not the long lines everywhere reported by others. I decided to try the burrito bar and had 5 people in front of me. It takes a minute or two for each person to have their burrito made - you just tell them what you want from the ingredients in front of you and they put it together for you right there. It may have been the ingredients I chose but the burrito was just so-so. It was no Moe's or Chipotle, for sure. I again hit up the Tandoor grill and there were some new items available, most of the things were the same as yesterday (fine by me because it was delicious!) Some friends realized there was a mediterranean food section in the forward part of the buffet (across from the Mongolian grill) so I guess this is the 'taste of nations'. I thought they had stopped doing that.
  • Spent some more time walking around the ship, finally checked out the Serenity area and then the Spa area and gym. I had read reports that the gym was smaller than the Conquest ships and that may be the case but it was still a pretty good sized room. The equipment might be a little closer together. At the time we went (early afternoon) it was not busy at all - maybe 5-10 people in there. I had also read reports that the Serenity area was very busy, but that didn't seem to be the case. All of the chaise lounges were taken but there were quite a few empty chairs.
  • So far we are experiencing nice weather. Hurricane Igor is now a Category 4 but looks like it's going to take a northward track as it approaches the eastern caribbean islands. Today the water is a little choppy and it is very windy, though. Heavy scattering of clouds but no rain. Wind is hitting us almost head-on and the TV says that wind speed is neary 80km/h. Some areas like the upper open decks are like a wind tunnel - a little too windy for just standing around. In situations like this the lanai may be a good place to lay out as it is lined with full-height window which help block some of the wind.
  • The rest of the day was spent walking around, checking out merchandise in the shops, hitting up some of the trivia games around the ship, and generally being lazy from having been up late the night before.
  • We had reservations for the steakhouse at 7pm. Arrived a little under 10 minutes early but were still seated. It was not too busy - I'd say only half the dining room had people seated. I wasn't sure what to expect as we're not typically 'fine dining' folks but we are 'foodies' so were interested in trying it out. I can say it was well worth it and is a nice change of pace from the other dining options on the ship. Service was excellent and our glasses were never left empty. Someone was always coming to the table to make sure drinks were topped off, or that we had bread if we wanted it (Rosemary Foccacio and Brioche were offered). By chance (and hunger) all 5 of us ended up ordering the 24oz Porterhouse. I had the Yukon Gold Mash with Horseradish and Creamed spinach. The potatoes had just a hint of horseradish, it was not overwhelming and at times you had to know it was in there to even taste it. The steak was fantasic. Other items ordered at the table were the escargot, beef carpaccio, and new england crab cake. We all tasted a bit of each and everything was fantastic.
  • Tonight was the Dancin' in the Street show.. Some of us went to that and it was excellent just as previous reviews have said.
  • Regarding weather - I had been somewhat concerned about the tropical weather developing both in the south caribbean off the coast of Brazil and what would become Igor. Weather has actually been fantastic and so far I've been worrying for nothing. However, late this evening an announcement was made by the captain saying that due Igor's approach, we would be switching ports on our itinerary. Instead of St. Thomas followed by St. Maarten, we would hit St. Maarten first, in an attempt to visit the island before the storm potentially hits it. We had excursions planned in both ports, neither were arranged through the cruiselines, so we sent an email to Godfrey in St. Thomas to let him know we would be a day late, and were able to contact the person on our ship who was arranging the excursion for St. Maarten and make sure everything was still on plan.

 

Tuesday - St. Maarten

  • As we pulled into port, the Oasis of the Seas was already docked (she was also switching itineraries due to the storm). I was also surprised to see the Norwegian Epic parked beside her - normally the Oasis/Dream visit ports on opposite days from the Epic, but now we are all in port together. Once the excitement of seeing these two ships in port together wore off, I quickly realized there were going to be a LOT of people in port today.
  • Two people in our party went on an excursion with the Random Wind - this was a boating/snorkeling excursion coordinated by hogladyrider from the CC forums. They had a blast and had a good time getting to know others from the CC boards. Lunch was provided on board and drinks were free. The remaining three of us planned to take a taxi to Marigot, then to Orient Beach, and then back to Philipsburg. When we got to the taxi stand, there was a huge disorganized mob, unfortunately the process of putting people in taxis going to the various locations around the island was overwhelmed by the number of people. People had to wait in the intense heat and there was only a couple of officials who were coordinating passengers and taxis which had specific routes. A few people were awfully rude and I felt bad for the guy.. understandable that they were upset but one has to realize the port is nearly over capacity and they were doing the best they can - and everyone else is on vacation just like them.
  • Finally got a taxi and headed for Marigot. Did a bit of shopping, walking around and while we thought we'd grab some food while we were there we weren't really that hungry. Did a little bit of shopping with the vendors at the waterfront but quickly realized Marigot is not really targeted to the tourist but boutique shoppers. Still a very pretty area. Fort St. Louis was also something we wanted to climb up to but the 'hill' it sits on is pretty high up. The heat, our wearing of flip flops, and the height of the mountain combined to deter us from heading up there. All in all Marigot is a very pretty town but we didn't really find much to do there once we got there since we weren't hungry (plus food was kind of expensive) and weren't shopping for expensive clothing or jewelry.
  • From here we grabbed a taxi that was heading to Orient Beach. One of the people in our group wanted to see the 'nude section' of the beach, so from my previous research I knew we wanted to be dropped off at Pedro's. Someone on CC also recommended Le String at Orient Beach. When we were dropped off at Pedros (which seems to be the big taxi drop off and pickup station at this end of the beach) things were pretty busy. We quickly fulfilled the need to see some naked people as there was a man at the line of rocks which marks the beginning of the nude beach area. It's kind of funny - he was standing there baring all to the world - I dare say 'exhibitionist' as he was standing at the water line, hands on hips and facing the entrance to the beach, seeming very proud to be the welcoming committee. Pedro's was very busy with no place to sit, so knowing that Le String was recommended I suggested we walk up the beach a short clip to find Le String. Just a quick description for those who have not been to Orient Beach: the beach is lined (almost wall-to-wall) with small bar/food stand type locations, many of which also rent out chaise lounges on the beach in front of it. So we quickly found Le String but found a fairly uninterested bartender who actually walked away when I took a second to look at their menu. We had some beer while doing some people watching. I can say the beach is absolutely beautiful and while we weren't prepared to go swimming, if I was going to go swimming it would be an awesome beach to swim at. The water was very clear and blue, the sand very soft and lots going on without feeling too crowded.
  • After we had our fill we grabbed a taxi back to Philipsburg. Did a bit of shopping, stopped for a Bushwacker (a local drink) on the beach, and headed back to the ship to meet up with the two who went on the snorkeling excursion. The rest of the evening was low key as we were all pretty tired and would be in St. Thomas early the next day.

 

Wednesday - St. Thomas

  • By the time we woke up the ship was already docked. Today we had a tour booked with Godfrey. We weren't exactly sure where we should be picked up, we found the sunny liston bus and asked a taxi director where Godfey usually is and we were in the right place. (The tour groups are picked up at a divided row that directly faces the first cruise ship position closest to the island.) We expected to be picked up at 10:30am but Godfrey didn't show up until about 10:45 - not a problem at all, we were more concerned that we were waiting in the right place. Godfrey picked up our group of 5 with another group and told us we would have an hour in Charlotte Amalie to shop before we were picked up for the next leg of the tour. I should say here that the tour bus that they use, which is the same as all tour buses we saw, even the taxi services, are a bit difficult to get into if you are disabled in any way or even a large person. These vehicles are modified trucks with open air seating in the rear - almost like a tram at Disney World, where there are rows of benches and you enter each row from the side of the bus/truck. The stairway is a bit steep and there is not a lot of wiggle room getting on and off, but once seated there is sufficient room. We did our shopping for an hour and then moved on to the island tour which was fantastic and full of information. St. Thomas is *very* hilly, that is for sure. No segment of the tour went too long as we stopped frequently to see various sights like the Charlotte Amalie overlook with the ships at the dock and Magen's Bay, along with stops at both Magen's Bay and Coki Beach to let off people who may have wanted to go swimming. I know there was concern about Coki Beach recently with the shooting death of a passenger but I can say that I saw nothing untoward while we were stopped there. Now, on the way there you pass through an area which isn't exactly resort territory and i can see how that may have bled over into the Coki Beach area, but Coki Beach proper seemed very safe and clean, and I wouldn't have any problem spending time there if i was looking to do any beach time. And just a note for those interested in time at Magen's Bay Beach on this tour- it is a $4 a person charge to access Magen's Bay Beach. Godfrey also charges an extra $5 for letting you off for 2 hours at the beach (and picking you back up), so keep it in mind that it will run a good $10 extra if you want to spend time at Magen's Bay after the tour. I don't think this is out of line by any means - the beach is very beautiful and you're basically paying for them to come and get you and bring you back to the ship - better than a taxi, for sure.
  • No one in our bus's group wanted to spend time at either of the beaches so everyone headed back to the ports. Mostly everyone on our bus was with the dream, two others were from the Oasis. It took a good 20 minutes to get through stop-and-go traffic which let us off at the havensight mall, which is the shopping area in front of the port that the Dream stops at. Did a little bit of last minute shopping. There is a grocery store there where you can re-stock on 12 packs of soda, but be warned that a 12 pack of soda cost nearly 7 dollars a piece. I chock this up to the fact that things in St. Thomas are expensive to begin with since they must be shipped in, and also that this is a grocery store in the tourist shopping mall, so you're facing double markup. Still cheaper than buying soda on the ship though, and it will last us for the rest of the week.
  • We're not in the mood to sit through the dining room experience tonight and the menu isn't particularly exciting, so we're hitting up the buffet. Items on menu are turkey and beef stroganoff, along with a variety of smaller side dishes... I grabbed a few sides off the buffet and then grabbed a pastrami on rye from the deli.
  • Tonight was the 'color party' (confirming that they DO still have the silly 'color wars' that people were talking about recently on the boards). This started out as a 'color crawl', with the white, red and blue teams doing a pub crawl around the ship and ending up on the lido pool for a mardi gras party. After this was a midnight mexican buffet which we don't recall being advertised in the day's Fun Times. Stuff on this buffet included nachos with cheese sauce and a variety of salsas, chimichangas, quesadillas, tacos - typical fare - all was pretty good. There was a small dessert bar too which had a few different cakes and churros.

 

Thursday - Fun day at sea

  • Weather is beautiful yet again today - we're really lucking out. Got up around 8:30 and spent some time by the lido pool having mimosas and bloody maries. It seems like it will be a lazy day - by 9:30 half the chaise lounges around the center pool had yet to be claimed. Our party broke up to do things solo for the first part of the day - some people did some sunbathing while others found things to do around the ship. I took the opportunity to walk around the ship and take some video and pics of places that are typically full of people.
  • We met up for lunch around 12:30 and wanted to try the lanai bbq which is only available on sea days.. we had heard a few people mention the ribs and then encountered someone with a plate of them in the elevators and they smelled awesome. We headed back to the aft starboard (rear right) lanai area and there was a pretty good line - we were about to turn around but someone who had just gotten their plate said the line moved fast. I wouldn't say it was fast, it took us about 10 minutes to get through it.. they served chicken quesadillas, steak tacos, sliders (mini hamburgers), "Carnival Dogs" and the ribs. We got our plates and headed up to lido deck to grab some french fries. Everything was good. The ribs were great and they alone are worth standing in line for. I saw lots of people with nothing but ribs piled on their plates - some people in front of us got two plates of ribs, and all they did in line was talk about how good the ribs were. A little excessive taking that much if you ask me but then again, why not, and who cares? As for the other food - everything had some sort of spicyness added to it. The quesadillas were very spicy - it may have been jalepeno. The other things like the sliders, steak tacos and hot dog all had what seemed like onions coated in hotsauce on them. It wasn't bad, assuming you like onions and hot sauce, just seemed a bit strange (especially on the hotdogs). As for the lanai barbecue area.. I know this was set up to help alleviate some congestion in the buffet, but if you chose to eat your food on the lanai (they did have some tables set up for people to eat at) the only drinks available to you were for purchase like bottled water and cans of soda. Other dining options for lunch were 'light lunch' available at the Wasabi station (turkey wraps and the like) and on the main buffet on lido they had "American" food as the taste of nations, which included fried chicken,clam chowder, and other 'home' foods.
  • At 2:30 was the "Love Show" which I think was previously called the newlywed game. 3 couples are invited on stage and attempt to answer trivia questions the same way. This show is always entertaining as it's a fresh set of faces, but now that I've seen this show a handful of times it's sort of a let down that some of the answers are 'fixed' and in fact haven't even been changed in (at least) 5 years. Specifically the 'if your love life in the bedroom were a movie, what would it be'. Not really a big deal but you'd think they could insert new material every once in a while.
  • The rest of the day was spent lounging, doing various trivia, a little time in the casino, dinner and then to the adult comedy show, starring Wil Marfori. On a previous evening we saw Al Ernst who I've heard of quite frequently on the forums. Perhaps we were tired but we did not find him very funny... his brand of humor is the southern/redneck variety (ie Jeff Foxworthy) which we don't particularly care for. He got plenty of laughs from a good part of the crowd though so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Back to Wil Marfori - we found him hilarious, as did most of the crowd there, and it was standing room only. I have to say I really like the Burgundy Lounge. It takes up the whole rear end of the ship and is well laid out and nicely decorated.
  • After the comedy club we headed to Club Caliente again is it would be our last night to be up late. It seems everyone else had the same idea as the club was very busy at that point. We saw lots of staff member about and ran into both Butch and 'Baby Butch' (aka George, his assistant CD). I guess George is quite the partier as each morning on the morning show Butch would give him a hard time about how late he was at the club (on two days at least he said he was there until they closed the club at 4am - and the morning show was on at 9am or 9:30am). He definitely seemed a bit rough around the edges on the morning show that's for sure. So we were at the club until 2:30 or 3 I'd say, then off to our rooms, got some late night room service delivery and hit the sack.

 

Friday - Fun day at sea

  • Woke up late since we were up late.. missed breakfast but decided we would use the day to knock out all the different thing we wanted to accomplish on the trip - mostly revolving around food! Mongolian Buffet, Sushi, and the Grill. Mongolian was fantastic, and I wish I had eaten it sooner as I would have liked to have had it again. There was a line (I think there's always a line for it) but it does move quickly. Lots of ingredients to choose from - you put everything (except meat and sauce) in bowl, and then tell them what meat/sauce you want and it's prepared right in front of you. Just a word of warning.. there are three sauces to choose from. Black Bean, Thai Barbecue, and Szechuan. Thai BBQ had one 'pepper' next to it on the sign, and Szechuan had two. I like spicy and chose Szechuan. Let me tell you it is SPICY.. very hot. We normally order our chinese takeout 'extra spicy' and this was still hotter than that. Still very good though. A friend grabbed both a burger and hotdog from the grill. He said the burger was fantastic but the hotdog was so bad he had to stop eating it. I know there was recent discussion about hotdogs and how much people liked them but they were recently changed or something. Just putting it out there that the hotdogs aren't so good anymore (on the Dream, at least). The sushi was also very good. I had previously heard it compared to grocery store sushi and I'd have to disagree.. while it's no "Japanese Steakhouse" quality of sushi it is a bit better. You are given a plate with three or four different pieces on it, and some of it includes raw or partially cooked fish. I had also been eyeballing the white chocolate cake at the Cafe all week long and was determined to try it. A pretty substantial piece of cake for only $2.25. For those who are curious about that cake which is shaped like a can of soup, the outside is made of hard chocolate. The inside is a layering of some kind of cream or custard, cake and cherries. The insides are actually fairly light - it's the massive amount of chocolate encasing it that really gets to you. Definitely worth the price but if you intend to finish it you may want to split it between two (maybe three) people or you're looking at sugar overload.
  • The rest of the day was spent laying out, hitting up more trivia games and just generally enjoying the ship while we slowly prepared for returning home. I've read it before and it's certainly true - you can definitely sense a change in the atmosphere on the last day... a sort of muted malaise as everyone knows that very soon their vacations will be over.
  • Went to our last dinner and then the Legends show, which was great, even though that too hasn't changed since my first cruise on the Glory in 2006.

 

Saturday - Port Canaveral

  • Up at 5:50am thanks to room service who showed up 10 minutes early... that's the one thing I don't like is being woken up by a knock at the door because they came before the time we specified on the order form. (Oh, to have such problems!) You're half asleep, scrambling to get your act together, get clothed, find money for tip and let the guy in. Since we were up early enough we got to see the docking at the port. We also took the opportunity to knock one last thing off our 'list' - breakfast in the dining room. We headed to the rear dining room and were seated right at the back window which faced the sunrise. Coffee, OJ, a croissant and eggs benedict while watching the sun rise was a perfect end to a great cruise.
  • Disembarkation was a breeze and the easiest I've seen it yet. They called our zone (3) while we were still eating so we left a little after our group. We received a letter the night before telling us to meet in the main theater at 7:30 and we would be escorted to the lobby to leave, however that wasn't necessary. We returned to our room after breakfast to grab our things, walked down to the lobby (all elevators were full so we took the stairs), did our final sign & sail swipe, through customs and down to baggage claim. From the time we left our room we didn't stop walking until we hit baggage claim - very efficient. The guy at customs just waved us through without even asking to see ID or anything, although two others in our party did take a little longer to get through. We are lucky to live about 30 minutes from the port so getting home didn't take too long. All said and done we walked off the ship at 8am and were home by 9:30am.
  • The Dream gets a lot of flack for various reasons and I just didn't see where all the bad press comes from. The only thing I can kind of see is the crowds, but honestly I don't think the crowds were any more dense than they are on the conquest class of ships. We were cruising during 'off season' though and I don't know what the passenger load was on this cruise, so if there are considerably more people on the ship due to filling all berths I could see how that might aggravate the crowding issue. And even with all of that being said, the crowding was only ever an issue during lunch time in the buffet. We often found ourselves in the buffet around 12:30 for whatever reason, which is probably prime time for lunch - but even then we never had a problem finding a seat.
  • All in all I think this cruise exceeded our expectations, and I think that can be a pretty difficult thing to do if it's not your first cruise. The couple we were traveling with were first timers and I think they are definitely sold on cruising and certainly see the value in it.. in fact they were already thinking about doing a shorter 'mini vacation' cruise at some time in the future, and wanted to get some of their family members to cruise as well.. There was never a dull moment, always had something to do, traveling in the company of good friends, weather was fantastic, smooth sailing, great excursions, fantastic food and quick getting on and off the ship at all times.

 

A few other random thoughts

  • It might seem from the review that we missed a lot of various shows.. and I suppose we did.. but we were also primarily looking for a relaxing cruise experience and didn't want to feel like we had to hurry and finish one thing so we could make it to the next thing. If we could make it to a show, great! If not, no problem either!
  • Fantastic weather from start to finish. The only rain we ever saw was one small pocket that we passed under while at sea - only lasted a couple of minutes.
  • Some have complained about the ship rocking - I didn't experience this, in fact I think it was the smoothest sailing I've had so far. Seas were fairly calm but we did have strong winds during the first few days, still no problems.
  • Never smelled 'the smell' and on many occasions we passed through the public areas where people reported smelling it.
  • At one point we couldn't get into our safe, so we called housekeeping. This was a housekeeping supervisor who had a special key card (I thought it took more than just one person to open a safe and that a member of the security team had to be present but I guess that's not the case... not sure that that's a good thing). The person from housekeeping couldn't get the safe open either so they called maintenance - turns out that the safes are battery operated and the batteries needed to be replaced.

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StevieG

StevieG

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We were staying in room 7256 (OS) and 7252 (4E). Around 1:20 we headed to the room and the halls were already open and our room was ready. We hung out in our room until the ship left at around 4:30 or so. Waited for luggage, some of which didn't come until around 6pm due to some contraband that was being dealt with. :o So on that note, security is doing a very good job. However one small bottle of rum did make it through.

 

I'm on the Dream 11/6 and we have room 7222 which was just a few doors down from where you were. How was that area of the ship. I have never been this close to the front of the ship and wondered if you felt greater movement there. Great review.

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