Our amazing Dream cruise--photo and trivia review!

[mitchpam]

Had to chime in on the LOVE IT posts! great info, photos, and easy to read... and probably re-read. :) Fun photo guessing game too!

[EMc&DrS]

Hello...where did you go? More, please!! I am loving this.

 

We'll be on Dream in April 2012. We are bringing our "boys" with us. (They will be 24 and 21.5 at cruise time. How much longer can I call them boys? :confused:) It will be our first family vacation in four years and we can't wait.

 

Sorry--we had a really busy weekend! I'll get back to the review in the morning--tomorrow we're on to Roatan.

 

Still haven't seen a correct guess for today's trivia photo at post #66.

 

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments!!

[sail-a-bration]

I'm trying to decide on the Chef's Table or Steakhouse. I really do not care for fish. Does the Chef's Table menu have a lot of sea food based appitizers and dishes?

[Froufie]

The Chef will visit you the night before to discuss your 'preferences' - my cruise mate also did not like fish/seafood so alternate 'courses' were prepared....

[EMc&DrS]

TUESDAY, ROATAN: While we slept off our huge dinner, the ship made its way from Cozumel to Roatan. This was one of the only times that we felt significant movement in our aft cabin. Being in the back of the ship, we expected to feel more motion. I’m happy to say that this was the smoothest cruise we’ve ever taken. (Nothing like our “rockin’-n- rollin’” cruise on the Crown in November ’08). I talked to someone who was staying mid-ship and she commented that the movement on the ship between Cozumel and Roatan kept her awake all night. To me it really felt more like we were in a jet experiencing periods of heavy turbulence rather than on a cruise ship. The movement seemed more like side-to-side jolts rather than constant up and down motion. Honestly, I don’t think it was a coincidence that this was the one night with rough sailing. A month or two before our cruise, we received a letter stating that beginning with the western cruise two weeks before ours and continuing through the summer, Carnival was reversing the order of the 2nd and 3rd ports to be visited. Because of this, the Captain now had a much longer distance to cover in one night to make it to Roatan from Cozumel. (Belize used to be the second port). All night it felt like we were really moving faster than at any other point in the cruise—thus the increased feeling of motion. Despite this, we never felt ill because it wasn’t a constant motion--just those pockets of turbulence that would shake us awake from time to time. On the flip side, the result of the switch in itinerary put us in Roatan with no other ships in port that day.

 

As we approached the island, I turned on the TV to the channel that constantly maps the ship’s progress along with speed, winds, etc., and noticed that the winds were considerably higher than any we had experienced thus far. This concerned me because the Dream has had to abort its visit to Roatan on several occasions because of high winds. Mahogany Bay is on the “bottom” side of Roatan facing the mainland of Honduras, and when the Dream steered around the western tip of the island to approach the port, the winds subsided. When the ship arrived outside Mahogany Bay and began to approach the pier, I finally understood why this port has been such a problem. We had a perfect view from our aft deck as the Captain had to put the ship in reverse and back up into the port. There were signs in the water on either side of the “path” that the ships was to take, and the distance between them was so narrow as we passed through that they completely went out of sight because they were so close to the sides of the ship.

 

 

 

(This picture was actually taken as we were leaving, but you can see the signs--and how far the ship has to go in reverse. One of the two ship wrecks in Mahogany Bay is just to the left--to remind everyone what happens if things go wrong! If you look closely, you can see the pier--it's extending from the land just to the right of the post in the water with the red sign).

 

 

As the Captain steered the ship through the signs like threading a needle, it became quite apparent why it would be nearly impossible to steer a ship as big as Dream backwards for such a long distance in high winds—it would be too easy to crash into the signs in the water. Most passengers, however, would not be able to see the signs from their decks, and would probably wonder why the approach to the pier was being aborted. Luckily for all of us onboard, the Captain glided the ship right between the signs and we made it safely to the pier. So why skip this stop occasionally instead of just steering the ship straight into the port? Why go in reverse? The bay itself is too small for the ship to turn around in once inside the bay. My guess would be that Carnival doesn’t want to risk getting the Dream docked in Roatan and then the winds pick up while the ship is docked. This would force the Captain to either have to exit the bay in reverse during high winds, keep the ship docked in Roatan indefinitely until the winds subside, or risk the fate of the Caribbean Titanic that’s been sitting in the bay since the 1970’s:

 

 

(You can see the ship wreck in the distance just to the right of the ship)

 

 

Here's a closer shot taken from our deck:

 

r

 

 

The sun was shining brightly when we arrived in Roatan, and my wife was ready for her first surprise excursion. After doing my research on CC, I had booked a private excursion through Victor Bodden tours. Anytime you book a private tour in Roatan, Carnival requires that you walk off of the property to meet your tour. This is an infamous walk because it is up hill all the way from the ship—

 

 

 

with one even bigger hill at the end of the walk just before you leave the property. (Through the trees in the distance beyond the duty free shops). Victor Bodden had warned us about this in a pre-cruise e-mail, so we were ready for the walk. As soon as you walk out of the gate, you are greeted by throngs of locals hoping to snag your business. We quickly found the Bodden rep and were led to a holding area. Once there, we were quickly matched up with our driver for the day and were off in his “cab”… his personal Toyota Corolla with a giant crack across the windshield.

[2Zornot2Z]

where are we today???

 

west bay beach,honduras

[mitchpam]

Where are we today???

 

 

Is it the waiting room for heaven? I think I could wait a L-O-N-G time there... 40+ years if I had to... ;)

[EMc&DrS]

The nice thing about this tour was that we were in charge. Our driver had a basic idea of what he had booked, but we could have changed the plans at any point. He started by taking us on a scenic drive of a few local sights. We are not big on shopping while on a cruise, but when the topic came up, I mentioned that we were hoping to find an authentic Honduras license plate for our son who collects them from around the world. Our guide immediately knew where to go, and we left the main road to go up a huge hill that overlooks the tiny international airport. Straight past the air traffic control tower and up to the top of the hill, we arrived at a small make-shift shopping area:

 

 

 

The view was amazing:

 

 

 

 

Our driver knew everyone (of course!), and he told them what we were looking for (no wasting time!) They had 2 plates—one in bad shape. The lady wanted $25 for the good one, I offered $10. After a few minutes of haggling, I ended up with the plate for $15. (She had to bring in her male “manager” before we could agree). Quickly back into the car, we were off again. Based on how many “cabs” passed us going up the hill as we were going back down, I got the idea that every Bodden tour stops at the top of this hill to “see the view.”

 

We made a quick stop at the Bodden headquarters to actually pay for our day, and we were back in the car heading for West Bay Beach. This was when I got my surprise of the day. We were taken to a private resort at the beach, the Mayan Princess, which is really a condominium complex on the beach that allows cruise passengers to use its pool, facilities, and restaurant/bar.

 

 

 

It was a beautifully place, but there was a $10 per person charge to get in that wasn’t included in the $80 I had just paid for the excursion. I don’t like to carry excess money with me when we get off the ship, so after the $15 license plate, the $20 beach fee, and the excursion actually costing $10 more than I had been told it would cost when I booked it months earlier, most of our extra money was gone before we had even started.

 

The whole purpose of our excursion was to go snorkeling, so we were immediately led to the beach by our driver who then introduced us to the man who would be taking us on our private snorkel-for-two. (This was an additional $20 per person, but I knew about this fee in advance). Within 2 minutes of stepping onto the beach, we were already in this man’s boat and heading to a reef just offshore. We bring all of our own snorkel equipment with us (except fins), so we were ready to jump in the minute the boat stopped. Our guide snorkeled with us and led us to different areas of interest while a young boy of about 13 stayed with the boat. The guide eventually left us in the water to explore on our own while he returned to the boat. We saw a good number of fish, but nothing exceptional. As a matter of fact, we saw many more fish in Grand Turk on our last cruise when we snorkeled at the beach inside the cruise port area.

 

At the end of our 45 minutes we were back in the boat and headed back to West Bay Beach. Our driver greeted us as we stepped off the boat, and he led us to two chairs (included in the price of admission to the resort) that he had secured for us in the shade. Our seats were tucked up under the palms between the stack of chairs on the beach and the lady standing up:

 

 

 

We are definitely beach people, so this was our kind of place. The beach is beautiful, the water is beautiful, and it’s definitely hot.

 

The view from our area of the beach:

 

 

 

And the other direction:

 

 

 

We were glad to be tucked away in the shade because of the heat, and because it gave us a little shelter from the endless stream of local merchants walking up and down the beach trying to sell everything from mahogany wood to sun dresses. Our favorites were the man selling fake sunglasses—he was wearing 20 or 30 pairs on his head, around his neck on a chain, etc. and the poor guy selling hammocks—he was actually walking the beach all day holding up hammocks from both ends with his arms in the air to keep the hammocks from dragging in the sand. The little children selling homemade jewelry, however, were a little harder to take. Most vendors would pass by and keep moving if you didn’t show interest, but the little children would come right up to your chair: “Lady, don’t you want to buy necklace?” I think we might have been the first visitors on the beach that day at the Mayan Princess, so at first it was like we had a giant, blinking neon arrow over our seats, but as the afternoon progressed and more people arrived, we were eventually left alone to enjoy the beach.

 

We had told our driver that we wanted to stay until 3 PM, so he retreated to somewhere in the resort to hang out with his friends, but he returned exactly at 3:00. I had wandered down the beach to take some photos, so he told my wife where he would be sitting and told her that we could meet him there as soon as we were ready.

 

In the end, being at the Mayan Princess was worth the $10 per person—even if it was just for the shade. The facilities were nice—and as weird as it sounds, you really do appreciate a clean bathroom! We ended up skipping lunch so we could save the rest of our money to use as a tip for our driver, but the food we saw being delivered to others looked good.

 

After about a 30-minute drive back to the port, we were heading back to the Dream. I had hoped that we would have time to get over to the beach at Mahogany Bay just to compare, but after we stopped to look in a few shops, my wife had had enough and was ready for air-conditioning.

 

FOLLOW-UP: Victor Bodden sent me an e-mail after our trip asking how we liked our day in Roatan. I told him we really enjoyed our tour, but also mentioned that we were a little caught off guard by the extra expenses. He actually offered to mail me $10 to make up for the difference of what we were charged for our tour and what I had been quoted. He really does care about his customers and wants them to be happy!

 

We had read that the children of Roatan need school supplies, and both of us are involved in education, so we brought a bunch of art supplies to donate. You can give them directly to your Bodden tour guide, and he or she will make sure they get delivered.

 

Finally, this is kind of random, but I'm very cautious when I travel. I was concerned about leaving our IDs, money,camera, etc. on a random boat while we snorkeled. So, I packed our important stuff into a small carry-on bag with our snorkel equipment and locked it with a coded lock from our suitcase while we were in the water. I was glad I did because I would have been very nervous while we were in the water for 45 minutes and our important stuff was on the boat with a 13 year-old boy. I was able to enjoy my time in the water more knowing that I didn't have to worry about the safety of our IDs and money.

 

Would I go to Roatan again? Yes, but I think next time we might just stay at Mahogany Bay. The beach was spectacular. The pesky vendors were annoying at times, but now a deal breaker. It is expensive to get from Mahogany Bay to West Bay beach--no matter how you do it. I'm not sure if I'd need to spend that much money again just to go back to West Bay beach. I certainly wouldn't need to do snorkeling there again. Roatan is very different than the other stops on the Western itinerary. Looks more like an island on the Eastern itinerary. It is a beautiful island and I'm glad we got to visit.

[EMc&DrS]

Is it the waiting room for heaven? I think I could wait a L-O-N-G time there... 40+ years if I had to... ;)

 

I like this answer! But none of the guesses have been correct yet.

[mitchpam]

I was really hoping I had gotten it right, oh well!

 

We are doing a Voctor Bodden private tour too, and I am glad to read your review about it. We plan to do a zip line tour, and then a beach... I guess I should specify the beach we want to go to?

[ninneman]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if the had an adult scavenger hunt during your cruise? Someone else was on the "Dream" (different days) and said they either missed it or they didn't have one.

[EMc&DrS]

I was really hoping I had gotten it right, oh well!

 

We are doing a Voctor Bodden private tour too, and I am glad to read your review about it. We plan to do a zip line tour, and then a beach... I guess I should specify the beach we want to go to?

 

I think there is only the one beach. Most of the island has no beach at all. I believe there are free places to go, but I just didn't know or had forgotten about the charge to get into Mayan Princess. If I were to do it again, I would pay the $10 per person. The place was beautiful, and next time I might sit by the pool for a while and try some lunch. It is situated in the middle of West Bay beach, so you can see everything and walk anywhere in a short amount of time.

 

We saw the Bodden zip lines while paying for our excursion. Looked like fun. Our guide told us it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to go through the course, but that it usually takes longer because you have a short wait at each platform as you wait to move on to the next platform.

[EMc&DrS]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if the had an adult scavenger hunt during your cruise? Someone else was on the "Dream" (different days) and said they either missed it or they didn't have one.

 

Not sure--we were really bad about ignoring the Fun Times. Sorry!

[EMc&DrS]

Still waiting for a correct answer from yesterday, but here's an easier one for today.

 

Where are we now???

[KrusII]

Loving your review. You planned very well.

[newcrew42]

Still waiting for a correct answer from yesterday, but here's an easier one for today.

 

Where are we now???

 

 

Gilligan's Island

 

:D

[EMc&DrS]

Gilligan's Island

 

:D

 

HA! Funny you should say that. Our guide said we would be going on a "three hour tour" and the entire boat laughed out loud. Even funnier when you see the place.

[NEREVS]

Is it Goffs cay - Belize

[navybaby1113]

Still waiting for a correct answer from yesterday, but here's an easier one for today.

 

Where are we now???

 

Looks like your boat is sailing away from Goff's Cay

[EMc&DrS]

Is it Goffs cay - Belize

 

Looks like your boat is sailing away from Goff's Cay

 

Both are correct.:)

[EMc&DrS]

Where are we today???

 

 

Last chance--any more guesses?

[EMc&DrS]

Wednesday, Belize: I booked most of our excursions in advance, but I waited until much closer to the trip to decide about Belize. The cave tubing excursion being planned by our CC GROUP intrigued me, but I just wasn’t sure if my wife would enjoy it. So, I asked her. Good thing I did because she didn’t seem interested at all. When Carnival switched the 2nd and 3rd stops on our itinerary, all the Carnival excursions disappeared for a week or two from their website, so I waited.

 

After reading many posts about Belize itself, I decided on a Carnival sponsored excursion to Goff’s Caye. As I mentioned before, we love to snorkel. I also liked this particular excursion because the snorkeling boat comes right to the Dream, picks you up, and goes directly to Goff’s Caye, which is 12 miles off shore. This meant that we didn’t have to catch a tender into Belize City only to turn around and go right back out to sea.

 

Another perk was that this excursion didn’t start until 12:45, which meant we could enjoy the morning on the ship before leaving for the afternoon. With time to relax, we drank our coffee on the deck and watched the first few tenders board and depart. Here's a photo of the first tender of the day heading out:

 

 

 

Since we knew we were probably going to skip lunch, we decided to visit the Gathering area and the breakfast buffet for the first time. One of the biggest complaints I had read about the Dream was about the crowds in the Gathering. We got there about 10 AM, and there were some lines, but there were only 2 people in line for omelets, so we jumped into that line. We picked a quiet table near the window and enjoyed the view. The omelets were good!

 

If I hadn’t read all the complaints about the lines at the buffet, I’m not sure whether I would have noticed a problem. We’ve dealt with lines on all ships at the buffet, and these didn’t seem any worse than any others. Only a few times did I notice what looked to be long lines at the buffet, but those were at peak times, as you would expect. The thing that did bother me at the Gathering area was the smell. We couldn’t really put our finger on it, but we definitely noticed it every time we entered the Gathering area. Don't get me wrong, the place was clean—they were always cleaning everywhere on this ship! The odor sort of reminded us of the smell of a used sponge or wet towel that was being used over and over to clean tables (weird, I know), but then we wondered if it might be coming from the cloth upholstery on the chairs. A lot of people eat in the buffet area while wearing their bathing suits, and I’m sure a lot of those suits are wet. The more we noticed the smell, the more we thought it might be musty furniture. I hate to say it, but sometimes I didn’t want to even pass through there because I hated the smell. Kind of lost your appetite. After being in there for a few minutes, you didn’t notice it anymore. I don’t think it had anything to do with “the smell” that has gotten so much attention on CC concerning the Dream. This did not smell like the sewerage odor described in so many other posts.

 

After breakfast we walked around the ship and visited the “secret deck” which really isn’t much of a secret since you can access it using a staircase from the promenade deck:

 

 

Today was Flag Day, so a giant American flag had appeared in the atrium overnight:

 

 

 

Stopped by the big screen to see what was playing, only to find the Casey Anthony trial was on live:

 

 

Love this view from the back looking forward (the hot tubs always seemed to be empty until we wanted to get into one):

 

 

 

We laughed about the people back home stuck in Atlanta traffic! This is our kind of bumper-to-bumper traffic!:

 

[EMc&DrS]

The tickets for our excursion said to meet in the Encore Lounge. Apparently, we were not the only ones confused by this. We thought we were looking for a bar outside the main theatre, but in fact, they refer to the downstairs area of the theatre as the lounge since that is where they have the tables set up and bar service during shows.

 

There were three different excursion groups meeting at the same time, but the lady in charge had things well under control and organized. We left right on time, and the whole group walked three flights down to deck zero to meet the excursion boat. I would not recommend this excursion for elderly people or anyone who has trouble walking!!

 

The boat ride to Goff’s Caye took about 20-25 minutes, and most people were seated inside the boat. The boat was crowded and stuffy, but once we were moving the air began moving and the ride was comfortable. Because of the angle of the boat in the water, the only view was out the back, so we watched the Dream get smaller and smaller until it was out of sight. The guides distributed equipment while we were en route so that everyone would be ready to go once we arrived at the island. The seating in the boat is 4 rows from front to back, and we made the mistake of sitting in the middle. This meant we had nowhere to rest our backs unless we wanted to lean on someone sitting behind us. We didn’t notice this until the way back when we were more tired. Grab a seat against the side of the boat if you can!

 

Just like in Roatan, we brought our own snorkel equipment in the locking carry-on with our money and S&S cards. Again, I was glad I did this because we were once again separated from our important things for about an hour. The snorkel equipment being distributed to everyone else looked well used, so I was glad we had our own and I wasn’t having to put something in my mouth that had been shared by who knows how many. Another good plus was that our snorkel vests were orange and the ones that everyone else was required to wear were more like a tennis ball yellow. My wife and I could always find each other easily in the water because we were the only ones wearing orange.

 

When the boat arrived at Goff’s Caye, we stopped at a small dock and all children and weaker swimmers were encouraged to get off there to snorkel from the beach.

 

 

(Our boat was the one on the right in the back)

 

 

I’d say at least half the passengers left at this point if not more. The rest of us continued on to the other side of the island. When the boat stopped, we were probably in 10-12 feet of water. We all jumped into the ocean one at a time to follow two or three guides as they led us around the island and back to the beach—about a 45-minute swim. They had warned us several times in advance that you had to be a strong swimmer to handle this portion of the excursion. We are both strong swimmers, so it wasn’t a problem, but I would NOT snorkel from the boat unless you have experience and you can swim well. The water was very choppy, and it was a bit of a surprise when you first jumped in that the water was far from calm. I was glad we had a guide because we didn’t have to worry about which route to take to get back to the beach. There is some coral around the back of the island, and it would be very painful if you ended up swimming into that area by mistake—too shallow to make it over the coral. The guides did a great job of keeping us together without making us feel like we were being herded like cattle. Everyone had plenty of room to spread out, but the main leader of the excursion stayed in the back of the group to make sure no one fell behind.

 

45 minutes in that choppy water was enough. I have to say that the snorkeling was pretty poor. There was even less to see here than the day before in Roatan. Still, it was fun to do and I’m glad we chose to snorkel off the boat in the deeper water. It would have been more enjoyable if the water hadn’t been so choppy.

 

When we returned to the beach, we were told we had an hour and 45 minutes to enjoy the beach. What a beautiful beach!! It looks like something out of a Caribbean calendar. We’ve been to a lot of Caribbean destinations, but this might have been the most beautiful beach we’ve ever enjoyed while on a cruise. As choppy as the water was out from shore, the water was waveless at the shore.

 

 

 

You could rent a chair, but we just put our stuff on the sand.

 

 

(A repeat picture from an earlier post, but this peninsula of sand was a beautiful spot)

 

You could walk out into the water for about 30 yards and it never got deeper than your knees—and crystal clear.

 

 

 

They had a pavilion on the beach where some locals were grilling what smelled to be hot dogs, but like I said earlier, we are beach people—and this trip wasn’t about food—so we spent almost the entire time in the water.

 

 

 

 

Unlike Roatan, there was only one guy walking around the beach trying to sell jewelry, but he only spoke to us once.

 

When it came time to leave, we were content and ready to go, but we’d go back there again if we had the opportunity.

 

 

(Same tune--different words: Sitting on the dock of Goff's Caye, watchin' the tide roll away..)

 

 

 

We highly recommend this excursion as long as you don't have mobility problems. Next time we’d opt for snorkeling from the beach just because it would have made for a more relaxing afternoon.

 

Our guide kept calling this experience “unBELIZEable,” but we called it a perfect afternoon!

[EMc&DrS]

Back on the Dream, we were pretty hungry, so we visited the pizzeria on Lido deck. (Pizza always tastes great after a day in the ocean, and this was no exception). Two slices of pepperoni and some free lemonade and soft-serve ice cream later, we were ready to head to the Serenity deck again for some rest time and then a visit with our new friend, Alena.

 

When we finally got back to our room, we just didn’t feel like getting dressed for dinner. So, instead we opted to stay in our bathing suits, enjoy the views of sail-away from Belize as you pass homes out at sea on small islands:

 

 

Sail right past Goff's Caye--the last island you pass before hitting the open water:

 

 

 

watch the sunset:

 

 

 

order sandwiches (BLT and Roast beef with brie) and chocolate chip cookies!! from room service, sip some wine on our deck:

 

 

 

and watch the moon rise:

 

 

 

One of the best meals of the cruise!

 

 

Following suggestions from CC, I brought a short bungee cord from home, hooked one end to the deck door handle, and then wrapped the other end around one of the metal posts under the railing and hooked it to itself to keep the door open so we could stay on the deck while we waited for room service to arrive.

 

Tuesday had been good, but Wednesday had been great!

 

Next up---THE BEST DAY OF ALL: Costa Maya.

[EMc&DrS]

Where are we today???

 

 

Okay, I finally stumped everyone with this photo. This is actually a pier at a private residence on the beach at Costa Maya.

 

Here are two more views. First, the Dream in the distance:

 

 

 

And a view of the private dock from the destination I'll write about tomorrow, Maya Chan Beach: