Carnival Dream, in Review 8/27-9/3

[melli_fera]

Back home after a fantastic week aboard Carnival Dream. I’m long winded, so I’m going to post this in stages, so as not to bore you. Enjoy, and feel free to ask any questions along the way! Most of my pics are from the cruise, so they’ll show up later.

 

Departed Boston on AirTran Thursday evening. AirTran gets a big thumbs up for working to get me to my connecting flight among many delays due to Irene heading up the coast and some local thunderstorms preceding her. Arrived in Orlando at about 12:40AM, met my friend who was flying in from CA (who was also delayed until 1:20AM), and we got a shuttle to Comfort Suites Orlando Intl Airport on McCoy. Really nice room. Clean and spacious. We were only there for a night and didn’t get to check any amenities, but they did allow us a late check-out, without fee or penalty, because of our very late arrival. Big thumbs up to Comfort Suites.

 

SO glad that we decided to travel 2 days early in hurricane season!

 

After check out, we took a shuttle back to the airport to get our rental car for the day to head to cocoa beach. We used Dollar because we got a low rate. HOWEVER, the guy totally upsold us with insurance that it doubled our price. We had minor issue with the credit card which was a pain to resolve, but resolved it was. Being jet-lagged, generally sleep deprived, and stressed out over just getting to FL, we didn’t push back. Dollar gets a “meh” for taking advantage of the craziness. Someone tell me how a $17 rental ended up costing us $100. Eh, whatever, at this point.

 

We made our way to Cocoa Beach, with a stop at super walmart in Merrit Island along the way for snacks and drinks to take onboard. We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton on Astronaut Blvd (A1A). This was a great property. Seems like one of the newer ones on the strip. We got a good rate for booking and paying in advance. Their pool is smaller than what I expected, and it’s not directly attached to the hotel. You have to go out through the lobby and across the driveway to access the pool with your room key. When you check in, they give you a 15% off coupon for the onsite restaurant (Sharks’ Den) and 15% off the cocoa beach surf company – the 24 hour surf/gift shop on site. Four Points is on a corner, and is across the street from Ron Jon, 24 hour Walgreens, 24 hour CVS, and I think, Winn Dixie. Great location for those who don’t have a car. If I were to travel down to Cocoa Beach, I’d stay here.

 

We dropped off our car at Dollar in Cocoa Beach around 11:30. They only had one shuttle running to the cruise terminal, which was crazy, to say the least. It’s this little tiny building, and if you want to get on a shuttle, you have to wait outside. There was no rhyme or reason to how people lined up. It was hot, and the prime spot to wait was in the direct sun. There should have been more shuttles running on a debark/embarkation day. Dollar gets a thumbs down for lack of common sense. Up Next… EMBARKATION!

[Arizona cruisers]

Thanks for taking the time for your review...I will look forward to the rest. Great start! We will be on her in a few weeks! :p

[Prettygirl]

We just got off the same cruise. What a horrible experience! There was nothing fun with gangs of unruly kids running every where. The only people I could think of who could have enjoyed this cruise were the parents who turned their little monsters lose on everyone else!:mad:

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

We just got off the same cruise. What a horrible experience! There was nothing fun with gangs of unruly kids running every where. The only people I could think of who could have enjoyed this cruise were the parents who turned their little monsters lose on everyone else!:mad:

 

Nope, I am not a parent and I had a great time.

[JackABee]

Nope, I am not a parent and I had a great time.

 

Our family was on this cruise as well and my husband and I are the responsible parents of 3, ages 15, 13 and 4. Yup, there were there lots of kids but the teenagers I encountered and conversed with were fun and polite even when in their large groups. I will say that I was slightly disappointed with some housekeeping issues, but I sure as heck didn't let that stop me from having one of the best family vacations we ever had.

[pozz]

looking forward to the rest, want to know how your cruise compares to the other cruise critics that found it crazy with the teens and tweens on board.

[RRLLAL]

We just got off the same cruise. What a horrible experience! There was nothing fun with gangs of unruly kids running every where. The only people I could think of who could have enjoyed this cruise were the parents who turned their little monsters lose on everyone else!:mad:

 

 

Not cool to hijack someonelses review.

[kmilanes]

Not cool to hijack someonelses review.

 

#cosign

[cruisenanny]

We just got off the same cruise. What a horrible experience! There was nothing fun with gangs of unruly kids running every where. The only people I could think of who could have enjoyed this cruise were the parents who turned their little monsters lose on everyone else!:mad:

 

Not quite sure why you would post this on someone elses review:confused: Have you thought of writing your own maybe?

 

Melli thanks for starting the review, looking forward to it!:p

[JackABee]

Melli, can't wait for you to continue your review. Hurry back :D

[PHILHOWER005]

going on the dream....do they have that fish n chips place?

[mrpayroll]

going on the dream....do they have that fish n chips place?

 

No fish and chips place... They have a PASTA place....

[paper1122]

DW and I drove down to PC for the afternoon to watch the ship leave last weekend. I have a few pictures that I might post should laziness not continue to win.

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

DW and I drove down to PC for the afternoon to watch the ship leave last weekend. I have a few pictures that I might post should laziness not continue to win.

 

Please post. We were on the cruise also.

[Rhitson88]

We just got off the same cruise. What a horrible experience! There was nothing fun with gangs of unruly kids running every where. The only people I could think of who could have enjoyed this cruise were the parents who turned their little monsters lose on everyone else!:mad:

 

 

I would have had fun regardless. And I would be damned if my kids got to run wild. But still.

[paper1122]

A few pictures of the Dream leaving PC

 

[melli_fera]

Nope, I am not a parent and I had a great time.

 

Ditto... i hardly saw any of the 1100 kids on board.

[Melb1127]

DW and I drove down to PC for the afternoon to watch the ship leave last weekend. I have a few pictures that I might post should laziness not continue to win.

 

 

We were also on this cruise and would love to see your pictures! Where were you watching from? I have pictures of people at a bar that was maybe named Rusty's (?) and pictures of people waving to us at the pier next to the beach.

[KrystalWaters]

Great Start, can't wait for more :-):)

[paper1122]

We were also on this cruise and would love to see your pictures! Where were you watching from? I have pictures of people at a bar that was maybe named Rusty's (?) and pictures of people waving to us at the pier next to the beach.

 

The pictures are a couple posts up. We were watching from the boat launch just next to the bar, post your pictures, maybe I'm in one of them!

[melli_fera]

It took us about ½ hour from stepping off the shuttle, taking a few pics, checking in, setting up cash accounts, photo ID, and facial recognition pics to board the ship. Big thumbs up for Port Canaveral. The process went very smoothly, and any questions we had were answered quickly.

 

 

 

Once on the ship is where the mayhem begins, but it wasn’t like I wasn’t expecting it. We took an embarkation photo, and headed up to the Gathering, Deck 10 (vista?) and found a seat pretty easily. It was difficult, to say the least, to deal with carryon luggage up there with everyone else doing the same. We took turns to go to the Tandoori station, which was my favorite lunch stop. Ate here 3 times during the week. Lots of spicy stuff, and I wish they’d put little chili peppers next to the names so you know just HOW hot each thing is. But, it was fresh and very tasty.

 

This was greek salad, tandoori butter chicken, rice and pickled vegetables.

 

 

I'll post a food porn post later this week.

 

Now of course, I had no idea what time it was, and we ran to our cabin to drop off our stuff, and we took some pics in there, here is one (my friend took more, so I’m waiting to get them from her),

 

 

 

By the time we got up to lido for sail away, we had already missed the turn around AND the webcam at fish lips bar & grill. I had my whole family watching that web cam and we missed it! I *thought* we were moving, but I wasn’t quite sure.

 

So, I made the most of it and ordered the drink of the day *wink* and waved at the people who came out to the point to watch sail away.

 

 

 

We had late seating for dinner, my preference, and our luggage showed up at 7:30. We decided to just go as we were because we wouldn’t have enough time. I prefer assigned seating when I’m traveling with only one friend. It’s fun to meet new people and, I don’t recall ever getting any bad tablemates, not that I’ve cruised very often though. We were seated in the Crimson Dining Room.

 

 

 

Our head waiter was Zubin from India

 

 

Our bar waiter was Jason from South Africa, who was very fun, outgoing and a little player flirt. Melted this girl’s heart I tell you. LOL.

 

 

I don't have a picture of our assitant waiter, Mayang from Phillipines, but he was great too. They each provided excellent service.

 

We went to the Welcome Aboard Show, which started out very hokey (think, girls in sailor costumes singing anchors aweigh). But then Butch (cruise director) brought up some guys from the audience and started having fun with them making them dance and answer questions about their relationships. Don’t let the hokey scare you away. My friend, Dawn, took off during the dancing and she missed some good laughs.

I’d really like to see more “advanced” dancing in the shows. With the popularity of Dancing with the Stars, and So You Think You Can Dance, I would hope they start moving more in that direction.

 

 

Up next...NASSAU

[jdawsonrn]

Loving your TR. Thanks so much for posting!! Can't wait for more :)

[Rhitson88]

Ditto... i hardly saw any of the 1100 kids on board.

 

Yeah, usually the case. Unless of course your 60 or older in most cases or are anti kids. Then you ruin it for yourself and look for the negative things to come back and negatively report.

[BigRed93]

Looks like you had a spa cabin-did you like it and did you use the t-pool and the thermal suites?

[melli_fera]

Looks like you had a spa cabin-did you like it and did you use the t-pool and the thermal suites?

 

Hi Red! Yes we did (we got a killer upsell for $15 pp to go from a midship inside to a spa inside on panorama deck 11!)

 

I really wish I took more time to spend in the spa. I did sit in each of the thermal suites for a few minutes, and the T pool. They were all wonderful. The aromatherapy steam room was awesome, but insanely hot!! My favorite was the dry heat room where the chairs have the legs elevated. I took advantage of the shower up there too, which was very spacious.

 

Another bonus of the spa rooms was that they are central to pretty much everything on board. I loved the accessibility to Serenity and Lido.

 

Not sure I'd pay full price for a spa cabin again, only because there is so much other stuff going on, that I didn't make full use of it. I would, however, consider a day pass for the suites in the future.