B2B Carnival Dream March 12-26 Review

[miss munchs mom]

Wow! What a fantastic read! We were on the Dream during your first week and LOVED it! We are headed on the Triumph next week and I can't wait. In March we brought our 9 and 6 year olds and they had a blast. They loved the MDR (both very adventurous eaters) and chose to ignore the children's menu and order off the adult menu every evening. We chose to do Chef's Art on the last night and it was a highlight of our trip. We also had sushi every night at the sushi bar and it was very good.

 

Thank you for taking so much time to provide us with a very enjoyable read.

[meatloafsfan]

Our last sea day or Is there such a thing as too much vacation?

 

This last section will be a little briefer than the previous ones cause truthfully, I want to wrap things up. I've dragged this review out long enough.

 

So I woke up around noon on our last sea day - it had been a very late night so I wasn't really surprised. I ate a couple of pieces of fruit from the fruit basket we'd gotten last Saturday (and it was still good) and decided how best to tackle our last day.

 

There were two things I knew I needed to do:

 

1. Shop. I had purchased hardly anything for the folks back home so I needed to remedy that.

 

2. Pack.

 

Neither of these two options were very tempting.

 

Since Jenna was still sleeping I thought it would be better to go do some shopping since it would get me out of the cabin. I went up to the, I don't know what to call it "regular store"? on board - it has Carnival and Caribbean souvenir stuff in it.

 

I picked up some tshirts, baseball caps, magnets, pins, key lime coconut squares and mango coconut squares (both made in Florida), and a singing pirate teddy bear with a singing parrot on it's shoulder for my mother who collects bears. Not only was their "Carnival" stuff but I was also able to pick up magnets for Belize, Costa Maya, & St. Thomas (for a friend of mine who collects magnets).

 

I took my loot back to the cabin. Jenna had woken up and I showed her what I bought.

 

Once up, I made her start packing her stuff. I knew if I didn't insist, we'd end up carrying off her luggage because it wouldn't get done until the next morning.

 

We packed our clothes and whatnots and both of our carry on bags were saved for our purchases (I like to pack that way because I can replace my clothes but I can't replace souvenirs from my vacation). Packing seemed to take FOREVER - I know that's an overstatement but that's what it felt like. Everytime I'd think everything was done, I'd see something I'd missed.

 

After most everything was packed (making sure to keep out appropriate clothes for today and disembarkation tomorrow), I reviewed with Jenna what she had bought and for whom.

 

She felt like she should get something more for her Popa and uncle and hadn't gotten something for her great aunt and uncle (whom she would see for dinner the night she got home) or her one set of grandparents (long story on that one but she was fed up with them because they had broken too many promises recently). I suggested she go to the store and buy them at least a little something. She asked me to go with her. :rolleyes:

 

I agreed - if - she agreed to go to tea with me.

 

So we went back to the store and Jenna picked up some ornaments and tshirts and whatnot. I got a beach backpack with a towel inside it (it was $10 if you bought $50 worth of stuff - Jenna only bought $30 worth of stuff but the cashier recognized me from earlier and said I'd spent enough then to qualify).

 

After shopping we headed to the Crimson dining room. We got to the desk and it was 3:20 - tea was from 3-4pm. I guess it's one of those things that if you're not there at 3pm, too bad. We waited for 15 mins at the desk and no one came by to seat us. There was nothing there that indicated it was seat yourself. After the 15 mins I gave up and asked Jenna if she'd mind if we just grabbed burgers from the Lido deck.

 

She went to put the bag of purchases back into the room and I headed up to the Lido deck. There was a bit of a line for the burgers but it moved quickly. I grabbed food and a table and waited for Jenna.

 

After our late lunch I went back to the room to pack my purchases while Jenna went to some activity at Club O2 for a little while. She was back at the room by 5:30pm. She packed her purchases and we put all of the checked luggage outside the room.

 

We settled onto our beds and watched a movie - I gave her the choice and she picked some horror movie - I think it was called, "Let me In"? Anyways afterwards we both agreed that it was a pretty stupid (but somewhat scary) movie.

 

Around 8pm we went and enjoyed our last meal in the dining room. Last week I didn't notice the sadness and tearful good-byes to the servers but I certainly did tonight.

 

All vacation I'd promised Jenna that I wouldn't mention her birthday but I figured I only had another 24 hours with her so I told our server Alex that tomorrow (26th) was Jenna's 17th birthday and she'd made me keep it secret for the two weeks. Of course Alex brought out her WCMC with a candle and got all of the servers in the area to sing to her - AND he made her bunny ears out of the napkins. It was adorable. I only wish I'd had my camera with me cause then I'd have great blackmail photos! :p

 

At dinner Jenna said she didn't want to go to Club O2 tonight or really do anything at all and she asked if it would be okay if WE could go back to the cabin and watch another movie.

 

I said sure but I had to go to the casino first because I was pretty sure I'd left $40 on my card and I needed to cash it in tonight. She gave me a look and I assured her I'd be 15 minutes - 30 minutes tops. I told her to go ahead and pick out whatever movie from pay per view she wanted and I'd be back to the cabin shortly.

 

I bet you're thinking "Yeah, right. You were probably at the casino FOR HOURS! You're such a liar, Trisha."

 

You'd be...........................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WRONG. I went to the casino and played for 10 minutes - I had started with $44 dollars on my card and had intended to get it down to an even $40 but instead hit a couple of small wins, got it up to $100 and then cashed it in. The longest wait was at the cashiers.

 

Funny but the running joke tonight with the server in the lounge where we waited before dinner, with our dinner servers, the hostesses, and the bar servers in the casino was "Aren't you going to stay for another week? Just ONE more!" It was cute the first 3 times I heard it but then I just started to smile and nod. Maybe it was time to go home...........

 

 

I went back to the cabin and Jenna had selected "How to train your dragon". She'd also ordered cheesecake and chocolate for us to enjoy later. We settled in and watched the movie. I do like the pay per view because you can pause it (which we did a couple of times to stretch, go to the bathroom, and get our cake) and rewind if you miss something.

 

After the movie we both agreed to make it an early night. I requested a wake up call for 7:30 the next morning.

 

Saturday morning we got up, packed our night clothes, ate a bit of fruit and headed up to the theatre on deck 3 to wait for our number to be called. We were number 20 and were off the ship, had our luggage and through customs by 8:45am. Our driver called and told us where to meet her. She was much better than our driver on the way to the ship. She met us, took our luggage, loaded everything and made certain we were comfortable. She asked if we wanted the radio on and gave us some time estimates for when we'd arrive at the airport.

 

Once we got to the airport, we did curbside check in at Southwest and went into the terminal to wait for our afternoon flight. I did some shopping at the Disney store (my dad wanted an antenna topper and I found a few more things for my niece and nephew and people at work).

 

Eventually we decided to go through the security checkpoint and grab an early lunch. We ate a Au Bon Pain (very good - Jenna had a sandwich and I had a salad and macaroni and cheese). We grabbed some drinks and snacks for the plane and found our gate.

 

It was an easy wait because we were both tired. I think we both nodded off at different points in the early afternoon. We boarded our plane and headed home. My parents were waiting for us at the Buffalo airport. We disembarked the plane and thankfully all of our luggage arrived safely and we were out of the airport quickly.

 

We stopped at Bob Evans for a quick dinner and then did the 2 hour drive across the border and back home.

 

 

 

I'll be back later tonight (hopefully) to give some final thoughts.

[steelerjen]

I don't want it to END! What a fantastic review, thanks again!

[ToesntheSand]

Great review! Thank you for taking the time to tell it to us!

[APDMOM]

"Trisha.....Trisha....This is the casino calling. Come again!"

 

In all seriousness, you will have to go on another cruise soon so that we can read another review :D

[pcrum]

Loved the review. I'd love to do a back to back one day. It must be so nice not to have to exit the ship after the first week.

 

Love your writing style and hope you will be back with another review after your Disney cruise!!

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

Lovers this review! I've been reading & following it from the beginning, so sad to see it come to an end! But I really hope you write some overall thoughts & opinions. Your review is making me seriously consider either doing a B2B or a cruise that is longer than 7 days next summer. Loved the Dream myself though & can't wait to be on her again in 52 days!! Chocolate cake & cheesecake are on my to-do lists! ;-)

[meatloafsfan]

Final Thoughts

 

First I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who posted and commented on my review. I'd also like to thank everyone who read but didn't post. I really appreciate all of the nice things you guys have said about my writing and posts. You kept me motivated and kept me returning here to Cruise Critic even though my Carnival Cruises are over.

 

Would I do it again?

 

17 days is a long vacation. Maybe a little too long. I think a 10 day cruise would be about perfect - 7 days is a little short and 14 days maybe a little long.

 

I'll admit that I choose Carnival Cruises because of the price. Previously I'd done a 7 night Disney Cruise and really enjoyed it. But for Jenna's birthday present Disney just didn't seem to give a big enough bang for my buck. Was I happy with my choice of cruise line? A resounding YES!

 

The cabin was great. Loved the portholes, the beds, the location and the set up. Lots of space for two people. Lots of closet and drawer space. Bathroom was bigger than I thought it would be and the corner shower was very good and I never flooded the bathroom floor. Cabin service was very good. I loved having the blue towels to use on excursions or on the Lido deck. They were big and fluffy and convenient.

 

Food was good. I'll admit to liking Disney's dining room food a little more but there was nothing wrong with the Carnival food. I found the more "different" the food, the better it was. Steak is steak, chicken is chicken, and fish is fish - but the veal, lamb, and shrimp dishes were excellent. I'm not a big fan of traditional buffets so I loved the station concept on the Dream - the burrito bar, the Indian Tandori, the deli, the pasta bar, etc. The room service menu was good - there was enough selection of different sandwiches and salads (and I tried most of them) and there was a variety of desserts (oh, I did NOT like the creme caramel thing - it was kind of gross). On port days when we returned to the ship between 3-5pm, there was a wait (45 min to an hour) mostly because there wasn't much else available food wise. We learned that when returning to the cabin, order room service FIRST, then shower or unpack your bag or whatever you want to do. My only big criticism of the food on the Dream is the very limited hours of the Lido buffet stuff. I wasn't the only person looking for hot food (other than deli, burgers and pizza) at 3pm on a sea day.

 

Activities. There were lots of activities on board. I'll admit I chose not to participate in many but when I was looking for something to do, (unless it was between 9-11am), there was generally some kind of social event I could participate in. I'm just not much of a joiner and I liked that there was no pressure to do so - I could sit on the outside of things like Trivia or kareoke and listen but not really participate.

 

Casino. It was small but didn't feel like there was a lack of variety of slot machines because they were smart when setting it up. There is generally one or two of each kind of machine but there are also a large number of multi game machines - where you select not only only your game (from a choice of 4 or 5) but also your gaming denomination (1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 25 cent). The casino provided a nice diversion for me and a great amount of evening entertainment. Having a casino on board made this a multi-facet vacation - the ship, the ports, the food and gambling. 4 things I really enjoy.

 

Travelling with a teenager (especially one that isn't my kid). I'll admit, my main concern before the trip was that Jenna would be surly the entire time (what I consider typical teen behaviour) and she'd tick me off and I'd be the one to toss her overboard. I know how she is with her mom (they argue constantly) and I didn't want that on my vacation. I decided to treat her like an adult and for the most part, that's exactly how she acted.

 

So - would I do it again?

 

In a heartbeat.:D

[anamanxs]

Loved your review, and a big "Thanks for doing it" Sometimes this board can be bit harsh and you were a real trooper!

 

My Dream is to go on a Disney cruise with my D, SIL, and GS (soon to be another: Oct 2011) in 2013! Will be looking soon, so I may see you over on that board, are you going to do your future Dream review on CC or Dis?

[Howard-Moore]

Your review was by far the best review I have ever read! It was amazing! You have a talent for writing and you have a talent for being real and doing what you wanted to do on vacation. I will for sure be waiting for your next review! Thank you for taking the time out to share with us. :-)

[chechas]

Love, love, love your review. I am going on the Dream (Eastern Carib route) in July with my 16 yr old daughter and reading this has me sooo excited! Loved the pictured also!

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this!

[Catrin]

Once again, thank you so much for sharing your amazing two weeks with us.

 

I agree with you, that two weeks just seems TOO MUCH. I would LOVE a 10 day however!

 

You seemed to take advantage of many offerings that others ignore, (ie: room service many days, free casino drinks, tea time etc). And in doing that, you have taught many rookie cruisers (and even an experienced cruiser like me!) many things....

 

Thank you so much for your terrific review!

Catrin

[raylene5]

Thanks again for the great review! I'm curious though...in your final thoughts you say that you won't be sailing Carnival again...just curious, why? I mean, heck, if I could sail Disney every time, I know I would! But as a family of 6, that won't be happening. It sounds like you enjoyed Carnival but maybe you're willing to pay more $$$ for a slightly better experience on Disney? Again, just curious :)

 

Again, great review...maybe you should look into a different profession...ahem, writing perhaps? :)

[cruisegirl91]

AWESOME review!! It was SUCH a pleasure to read! Thanks so much for taking the time to write such an entertaining story!! I'm sad that it's finally done :(

 

Do you have a link(s) to any of your other reviews? Maybe you've already posted them and I missed them. I'd love to read some more!! :D

[meatloafsfan]

Thanks again for the great review! I'm curious though...in your final thoughts you say that you won't be sailing Carnival again...just curious, why? I mean, heck, if I could sail Disney every time, I know I would! But as a family of 6, that won't be happening. It sounds like you enjoyed Carnival but maybe you're willing to pay more $$$ for a slightly better experience on Disney? Again, just curious :)

 

Again, great review...maybe you should look into a different profession...ahem, writing perhaps? :)

 

I'll sail Carnival again.

 

With my parents Disney is my first (and truthfully only) choice. My mother is in a wheelchair and their ships are very accessible - as is their private Island Castaway Cay. Excursions at other ports are always iffy as to whether or not she'd be able to participate but I know that at least once each cruise she can "get her beach on".

 

On my own (or if for some crazy reason I took Jenna on another cruise) I would seriously think about Carnival. It has a good product and a great price.

 

I'm not going to limit myself to Carnival though - I have my eye on the Carnival Pride for December (before Christmas) but I also have been checking out a Princess Cruise for next April out of Fort Lauderdale (10 day cruise).

[meatloafsfan]

AWESOME review!! It was SUCH a pleasure to read! Thanks so much for taking the time to write such an entertaining story!! I'm sad that it's finally done :(

 

Do you have a link(s) to any of your other reviews? Maybe you've already posted them and I missed them. I'd love to read some more!! :D

 

For my DCL cruise I did a Dining Only review and it was not on cruise critic but on another "DIS"ney board.

[brazilgirl]

A really wonderful review...thanks for taking the time to relive your vacation and let us live it through you.

 

Looking forward to being on the Dream in January!

 

Kim

[CruzzBee]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review. Love your writing style.

 

I booked Carnival Dream for next August. I was thinking about Disney Dream, but the price tag was just too steep. I was a bit freak out with those not-so-great reviews on Carnival Dream, but you reassured me. I had a great time on all my Carnival cruises before (4-5) but the last one was 5 years ago. After reading your review, I know it will be fine. Just go with the flow. Relax and enjoy the great food on board.

 

Thanks again. Can't wait to read about your next B2B on Disney Dream.

[lowroller]

Bravo!!!!!

Thanks for taking the time to post a rip report.

[SenatorsFan]

So I admit I've been a lurker but I do want to tell you how much I enjoyed your review. Thanks for all the wonderful pictures and your very descriptive narrative.:) Enjoy your Disney cruise and please let us know when you've done your review. Our first cruise was on Disney. We had a great time and we definitely have the cruising bug as a result.

Heather

[DeMom]

Wonderful review, I felt like I could picture myself there with you at times! ;)

Thank you very much for taking the time to share. :D

[gapearl]

BEST REVIEW EVER!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to post! :)

[loltastic]

Excellent review! Thanks for your effort you put into this.

[Elmo31]

wow what a great review. I feel as though I have already sailed on the Dream but still have a long long long wait until it is my turn. I too love to be in the casino. I have read that the casino is split into smoking and non smoking sections. That is a great idea. Did they split it evenly or is one side larger than the other? Thanks

[meatloafsfan]

wow what a great review. I feel as though I have already sailed on the Dream but still have a long long long wait until it is my turn. I too love to be in the casino. I have read that the casino is split into smoking and non smoking sections. That is a great idea. Did they split it evenly or is one side larger than the other? Thanks

 

For the slots I found there to be more non smoking slots as the smoking area is behind the tables. I only found myself in that area once. The machines were more spread out in the smoking area it seemed.