B2B Carnival Dream March 12-26 Review

[meatloafsfan]

Before dinner or Waiting for Godot....

 

I'm going to admit something right now. I only have a few nights of dinner photos. I'm usually so good about taking food photos but after a few nights, I just stopped. I have no good excuse I was just lazy and relaxed.

 

 

Anyways.

 

 

We checked in for your first night of Anytime dining at 7:45pm - and were handed a buzzer.

 

It didn't really bother me. Well, tonight it kind of did because the orientation and meet and greet at Club O2 for Jenna was at 9pm. I knew we were cutting it close to begin with but that clinched the deal.

 

We waited in the Rendezvous Lounge off to the side. It was pretty cool. It has a horse theme (I think it's the one space aboard the Dream that does not have a single shred of "Red" anywhere). The chairs and couches were very comfortable and we waited here just about every single night - anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

For the two weeks we were on the ship, Svetlana was the server every night in that lounge. She was very nice and remembered our names after the first evening. She always had a smile.

 

Just after 8pm our buzzer went off and we were seated for our first dinner on the ship.

[brazilgirl]

Your review is wonderful....making me wish January was here NOW!

 

Kim

[meatloafsfan]

Dinner.

 

Okay, so we knew we were short on time if Jenna was to make it to the Club O2 for 9pm.

 

We skipped appetizers and went straight to the entree phase of dinner.

 

Jenna was not really impressed with the menu for the first night and decided to order something plain. She ordered the flat iron steak well done and a baked potato. To me it looked hard and unappetizing but she ate every bite.

 

 

I ordered the fish which was served with carrots and mac n cheese:

 

 

It was.......okay. The fish didn't have much flavour and the mac n cheese was kind of gummy. The carrots were good (a little crunchy which I liked).

 

Our server tonight was "John Wayne" - that's how he introduced himself and that's what the card on the table said. He was efficient but we just didn't have enough time to really sit down and enjoy dinner.

 

At this point it was 5 mins to 9pm and I gave Jenna a choice - dessert or ice breakers at club O2.

 

She chose Club O2 over chocolate melting cake. What was she thinking! Just kidding.

 

Anyways.

 

This gusty teen whom has never shown fear in my presence suddenly asked me to walk her to the teen club. Umm, okay.

 

Let me say this - I'm not cool. I've never been cool. I am incapable of even slight "coolness".

 

When we got to the club she hesitated to walk in. At that exact moment a bunch of guys walked by the club O2 entrance. I stopped them and asked if they were going into Club O2. They said they were probably going to go later. I introduced them to Jenna. The conversation went something like this:

 

"Later? Wouldn't it be nice when you walk in to already know someone? Have you met Jenna? This is her. Now when you guys come back you can walk up to her and say, 'Hi Jenna, how's it going?".

 

At that point Jenna wanted the floor to open up and swallow me (and or her) whole.

 

My little conversation broke the ice and she (and the guys) went into the club. This was at 9pm.

 

The next time I saw her was when she came back to the room around 5am. I guess it worked. She made a number of friends (funny enough - not with the guys I introduced to her) and it was the first of several very, very, late nights for her.

 

Now here it was 9pm and I was at a loss. Didn't have a clue what to do with myself. I hadn't brought the Fun times with me so I didn't know what was going on or when it was happening. What to do, what to do......

 

Umm, there's a casino around here somewhere isn't there?

 

1 floor up from Club O2 actually.

 

There was a few interesting slot machines (Survivor, Luck of the Irish, Lucky Meerkats to name a few) so I sat down and played a little. Well, actually, I guess it was more than a little.

 

Around 2am I started feeling tired and a little "off" so I decided to go back to the cabin. Actually, my throat was hurting and my I needed to blow my nose. Uh oh, first night on the ship and I had already caught a cold!

 

Lucky thing that I travel with a pharmacy (as my mother so lovingly calls it) so I took a couple of nyquil caplets hoping that I could head the worst of it off.

 

This guy was waiting on Jenna's bed:

 

 

I popped myself into bed and watched a bit of "Date Night" with Tina Fey. I left a lamp on for Jenna and drifted off to sleep.

[ssatterly]

more more more

[jjtimes6]

Great start! Can't wait to see the rest! I'm looking at a B2B on the Dream for next year.

[amethyst08]

You are making me wish that November were here right now. I need a vacation in a really bad way.

 

Keep the pictures and review coming...this is good.

[raylene5]

Awesome review! You're a great storyteller! :)

[mountainbreeze]

I am also REALLY enjoying your review and your pictures!

Thanks for taking the time to write this!:)

[loltastic]

Excellent review so far!

[seashell36]

Love the review so far! Can't wait to read more.

[meatloafsfan]

Spring Forward - all clocks ahead one hour or Sunday - Nassau and Elegant Night

 

 

So I had taken Nyquil and Jenna came back to the cabin at about 5am. We docked in Nassau pretty early on Sunday morning.

 

Somehow, we didn't make it off the ship.

 

Actually, we didn't make it out of the cabin.

 

Truthfully, we didn't make it out of bed.

 

I got up around 11am, took some dayquil and thought about going up on deck, grabbing some lunch, maybe doing a little reading.....

 

Instead I ended up back in bed. That super comfy wonderful bed. Sigh, I wish I was back in that bed right now.

 

I felt the ship start to move so I knew we had left Nassau and so I knew it was the middle of the afternoon. I looked at my watch and thought "why are we leaving so early?". Then I remembered that I hadn't changed my watch like we had been reminded 4 hundred times the day before. Sunday was the change to daylight savings time. Uggh.

 

By the time we got up and got dressed, I realized that the buffet on the Lido deck would be closed so I decided on room service. We hadn't eaten all that much the day before and I wasn't in the mood for pizza or a burger - I wanted something tasty, something more like I would have for lunch on a typical day.

 

I wanted Tuna. Creamy Tuna on an English Muffin. With potato salad. Mmmmm, potato salad.

 

Front view:

 

 

Back view:

 

 

This was so good. When they say "creamy tuna", they mean CREAMY TUNA. And the English muffin was so soft and fresh (and somehow they stayed that way all week - I thought maybe it was because it was only day two of the cruise but the ones I ordered at the end of the week were just as soft).

 

One tip: Make sure to ask for whatever side you want or you will get potato chips. Even sometimes when you ask for a specific side, you'll still get potato chips. Or nothing.

 

Jenna ordered a BLT. This also became her "go to" sandwich for the week.

 

 

She ordered potato chips as well and they sent a plate of them but gave her potato salad on the side.

 

I have to say that many of the sandwiches I tried through room service were very good. Except the Grilled Rueben. It was awful. There was hardly any meat, what was there was fatty and tasted off. I couldn't taste the sauerkraut and the swiss cheese was just a sloppy mess.

 

With lunch in our tummies, we had to find something to do.

 

Jenna went off to meet her friends on the Lido deck.....

 

Hmm, what to do, what to do?

 

I went up to the Ocean plaza to see what was going on but the trivia had already started.

 

Art auction? Meh.

 

Sit in the sun on a lounger - oops, didn't bring up the sunscreen. Darn.

 

What to do, what to do......

 

Well, I already had 900 points in the casino. Only 100 more until I earned $10 in cash. Only 600 more until I earned my free drink card.

 

At it's only 1 deck up.

 

Sounds like a plan.

 

Hit 1500 points by 7pm.

 

Jenna and I had agreed that we'd be ready for dinner at 8pm so I headed back to the cabin to start getting ready. I took a shower and curled my hair and put on one of my two formal dresses. I was just putting on my makeup when Jenna came in at 7:45pm. Still in her shorts and tshirt.

 

Sigh.

 

So around 8:30pm we went for dinner. Later in the week I remarked to Jenna, "We could have had the late dining because we never made it to the dining room before 8pm".

[Cruisin'Lovebirds]

Don't hesitate to nap if that's what you feel like doing! That's one of the definitions of "fun" on the FunShip: do exactly what you want. Love your review.

[Georgie562]

Please give us more!! This review is hot!

 

Makes me want to follow my plans for next year and book a B2B on the Dream!

[Sunnyday2010]

You are too funny !! Also I wish I read your review before I went on my Dream cruise !! Lunch in the MDR on sailing day... Creamy Tuna on an English Muffin... I never had that ! LOL After B2B cruises & how resourceful you are.... you are a Dream-PRO now ! You also got me booking a Port hold cabin rather than a regular interior on my next cruise. You are a very detailed Person witha good memory ! How do you remember all the details ?!

 

Thank you :o

[CruiseLiz]

Just read through your entire review - so far so good! We're headed out on the Carnival Magic in about a month so I'm soaking up all the reviews I can about the sister ship Dream.

 

Your vacation sounds so relaxing! What a wonderful godmother you are to treat Jenna :)

 

can't wait to read more!

[nytraveller53]

Great review so far! Sounds like the food hasn't been fantastic yet (at least in the MDR). Hopefully it will improve!!

[rksmom]

Great review so far :D Keep it coming, you have quite a sense of humour.

 

Sandi

[meatloafsfan]

Din-Din time! Or - I love me some Lobster!

 

When I planned this trip I told Jenna she needed to get a formal dress cause I was NOT missing out on my lobster tail.

 

I love lobster but will rarely pay for it in a restaurant. Most places charge outrageous prices and don't prepare it properly. At least on a cruise, I'm not as fussy if the lobster tail is a little mushy or rubbery cause I'd still rather have that lobster tail than say, chicken.

 

Anyways, we again had a little bit of a wait this evening so in the lounge I had a vodka and cranberry juice:

 

 

Jenna discovered they had Nestea in a can. For most iced tea drinkers, Nestea is a pour substitute for real tea or sweet tea - for Jenna - well, she described it that it "tasted like home". So she started ordering one of these each evening. Eventually she started ordering two each evening at dinner because the canned tea was difficult to find anywhere else on the ship.

 

Brruuuu, Brrruuu, Brrruuu. (that's the beeper thing going off :p)

 

Choices, choices, choices.....

 

For appetizer Jenna decided on fruit. I'm sorry FRUIT? Thank god she's not my kid.

 

 

Just kidding. I wanted to try an appetizer so I kind of suggested that she order SOMETHING and that's what she came up with. She's just not that adventurous when it comes to food. She also stays away from cheese (the lactose intolerance) even though she had the lactaid pills with her (to counter act the negative effects of lactose for her).

 

Me, I ordered the mushrooms. I had seen pictures of them online before the cruise and thought they looked really good.

 

 

Truthfully it was just okay. I love mushrooms, it was the cheese sauce. It didn't have a flavour impact, and the texture was runny and a little gloppy. I would have preferred the mushrooms in a butter garlic sauce.

 

For entrees we both ordered the lobster tail with shrimp. The lobster was a bit chewy (and I had maybe a touch of mush on the bottom) but hey - it's lobster and the tails were actually a pretty fair size. The shrimp were tasty as well. I don't understand the breadcrumbs on the brocoli (?) but the mashed potatoes were very smooth and creamy.

 

 

Both of us cleaned our plates and even Jenna agreed that it was worth getting dressed up for.

 

I won't be able to get both of my desert pictures in so dinner is continued in the next post.

[meatloafsfan]

Mmmm, Dessert

 

One of the best things about Carnival is the cappucino in the dining room after dinner. Mmmm, foamy goodness.

 

 

Jenna decided that she wanted to go change before heading to whatever Club O2 activity was that night so she left dinner before dessert and headed out. Tonight, this was not going to stop me and I ordered the first of many chocolate melting cakes:

 

 

These lived up to the hype. It was so good. Warm, chocolately, sweet, bitter, cooked, not cooked, firm, gooey, and heavenly. It became difficult to even look at any other dessert after trying this.

 

It was be like dating Nicholas Cage and then trying to date Jay Baruchel.

After eating most of the bowl of heavenly desire and finishing my cappucino, I was once again lost on what to do with myself......

 

So I went to the casino (you so did not see that coming right? I mean that was a total blindside, completely unexpected!)

 

I got my "free drink card" and started ordering drinks. Now, here is where I start to soak Carnival cruises. When I had to pay for my drinks (or used my prepurchased drink coupons) I ordered simple things like vodka and cranberry, jack daniels and gingerale or malibu rum and pineapple juice. When Carnival was picking up the tab? Well, it became Long Island Iced teas, Blue Martinis, Cosmos, and Mocha chocolate getaways (oh, they are so good).

 

So I sat down in the casino and proceeded to drink myself silly. Note: silly not stupid. Once I had that free drink card, it was like the bar servers in the casino were tripping over themselves to serve me. Every 15 mins I had a new drink. It was pretty cool.

 

Most of the time I sat in the non smoking part of the casino but tonight I got a "feeling" about a machine in the smoking section so I was there just long enough to build up my players bank but I had to take my money and run because my throat started getting irritated because of the smoke.

 

I called it a night around 2am and headed back to the cabin.

 

Where this little guy was waiting for me:

 

 

 

And our beds were nicely turned down.

 

 

I ordered a peanut butter and jam sandwich on rye bread (toasted) and a piece of cheesecake. (sorry no pictures) Enjoyed a bottle of coke zero and watched the news about what was going on in Japan.

 

I again took some nyquil before going to bed so it was a late morning again the next day (but that's okay cause it was a sea day).

[rae.holmes]

love the pics

[geezersgirl]

Your review just makes me smile. I really appreciate you taking the time to share with us. Keep it coming!

[Smuckyjo]

We have never cruised and are going on the Dream April 16th!!!! I have enjoyed your review. This is probably a dumb question but what is up with the free drink card? Is it something they give you while you are gambling or did you earn it some other way that I missed?

 

My DH loves to play BlackJack so I want to make sure he doesn't miss out:)

[riclop]

waiting for more...

[Haylersmom]

waiting for more...[/quote

 

 

ME TOO!!! This is such a fun thread to read! Love the pics!

[cruisinJenF]

Anxiously waiting for more! :D