Dream Eastern 9/24/11-10/1/11- LONG REPORT w/ PICS and MICKEY'S HALLOWEEN PARTY

[jaybird77]

We then drove over to Maho beach.

This is the beach that is right at the end of the airport runway and you can see the planes land and take off. It was super crowded here. This is a really popular place. There was a little bar here that served drinks and food called the Sunset Beach Bar. We didn’t eat again, apparently determined to keep making the same mistakes. We were told that a jumbo Air France jet was to be landing around 2:30. The beach in this area was really small, but Junior said the tide was in so that’s why it looked so small. We were able to see some cool planes land, but 2:30 came and went and then word started to spread that the Air France jet was delayed until 4:30 or something, so we knew we couldn’t stay for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed out now toward Philipsburg. Junior had already told us about a major traffic jam through the main road because of some roadwork that was being done. He said he might just back track and take the long way back around the island to the port. For some reason though, he did not and we sat in the traffic jam… and sat… and sat. It took about one hour to go just a few miles. We ended up doing some illegal moves, driving on the wrong side of the road and up on the sidewalk… Finally we passed the construction and ended up in Philipsburg. Now we should have gotten off here to do some shopping, but we were tired and hungry so we just stayed on and let them take us to the port.

[jaybird77]

I grabbed one last Carib Beer before saying goodbye to Junior.

Bryon was starving, so first order was to get him some food. We found this little pavilion that had ‘Hamburger’ written on it, so we sat down and

Bryon ordered a hamburger and big water. The lady here was very nice. The hamburger was nothing to write home about Bryon said, but at this point, he would have eaten just about anything, so he was thankful for it.

 

 

 

Afterward, we did some shopping in the little shops around the pier. I really wanted a Christmas ornament. Well I never found one that suited me, so unfortunately I left St. Maarten with only memories. Bryon did find some car tags that he liked better than the one he bought in St. Thomas, but didn’t buy one.

 

We also ran into a fellow passenger in one of the shops, a guy we called ‘Steelers’. He had these awesome arm tattoos, and the Pittsburgh Steelers logo was in one of his tattoos, so we called him Steelers. Anyway, he and his wife and another couple were on our Sunny Liston tour and these were another of those people, we just kept running into everywhere. Anyway, turns out, he had been at Maho beach the same time we were and got some really good video footage of the American Airlines plane landing. He showed it to us and he said even watching it back gave him chills. Ha! I love it when people are big nerds about stuff!

 

We headed back to the ship and we were able to hear a steel drum band, as well as take in just how crazy big the Oasis of the Seas is. Now when we were in other ports, the Dream dwarfed some of the other ships. And the Oasis of the Seas dwarfed the Dream. It is massive! I’d love to take a cruise on this thing one day just to see what it’s like.

 

 

This one was taken earlier in the day- you know when my whole lens had fogged from the humidity difference between the ship and the tropical air of St. Maarten- but it gives a better idea of the scale!

 

 

 

Once we were back on the ship, it was official. Bryon was sick. He had a lot of congestion and he was all stuffed up. He thinks it might have been a sinus infection because he gets those all the time. All he wanted to do was go back to the room and take a nap. We both got in a little nap. We woke up just in time for Bryon to change into his dinner clothes and get some pics leaving St. Maarten. I pretty much missed the whole thing because I was still in the room getting ready.

Bye St. Maarten!

 

[jaybird77]

For dinner tonight, I started with the didja selection- Alligator Bites.

They were pretty good. Tasted kind of like a seafood fritter or something. I also got a mushroom salad. It was also very good. Bryon got the bow tie pasta dish to start. He said it was good.

 

 

 

 

For my main course, I chose the pot roast. It was really very good.

 

 

I'm not sure what Bryon had for his main course because I didnt take a picture of it. For desert- Bitter and Blanc. This is so good. It is very rich, but I did my best to finish. I sometimes wish I could take my dessert back to my cabin in a doggie bag for when I was hungry later in the night! I didn't get a pic of this either. I'm falling down on my job!

 

This was the night that they did the conga line in the dining room.

 

 

Once again, the Fun Bunch takes center stage! There's Nebraska again!

 

 

 

This was the night of the Mega Deck party. We headed down to the room after dinner to rest some before the party. We were really interested in attending, because we missed the last deck party when we sailed the Freedom. It looked really fun, so we didn’t want to miss this one.

Basically you have a team color based on your cabin deck number. We were the Red Team. You were supposed to meet in various places, and participate in different games and dances, then all the teams would meet up on the Lido deck for a big deck party at 11:30. There is also a Mexican Buffet on this night. Well Bryon fell asleep, so I figured we’d miss the team stuff, but I’d wake him up for the big deck party at 11:30…..the next thing I knew I opened my eyes and it was 3:00 am… I turned off the light and went back to sleep. Oh well, maybe next time, deck party!

 

Next Up: Sea Day and Lost Camera- Take 1!

[teacher34]

I can't begin to tell you how much I am enjoying your review. I know it is a lot of work, but it really is wonderful! We were on the same Dream cruise last Mar. and reading your review brings back all those happy memories. You have a great sense of humor and include so much information. It is terrific. Also, you and Byron seem like such a great couple . I wish we were at your table for dinner every night. Have you ever thought of sailing to Alaska? We are going to do that in May of 2012. I can't wait to read more. Thanks so much for taking the time to write all this and for posting the pics. I love it all. Thank you.

[Mama Lapin]

You can count me among your many fans! Your review was just fabulous! We are booked on the Dream in March with this same itinerary, so the helpful hints and gorgeous pictures have just added to our anticipation. Thanks for doing this; I know how time consuming it can be, but you gave us all lots of laughs, along with the valuable info. ;)

 

Paula

[jmwg49]

I am also loving this review! You have done a fantastic job! We are sailing on the Miracle in February /2012 with the same itinerary. We love the pictures! It is a great way to get our kids excited!!! Keep up the great work!:)

[lifeisgoodPat]

I agree with you, Nebraska does look like Ben Affleck! Thanks so much for the great review. You have done an excellent job…...

[tweety33]

When I am in port and can't find an ornament, I grab a key chain, put a hook on it & voila an ornament. I also read punching a hole in your key card and having that become an ornament to remember each ship.

Still enjoying your review.

[iggy's mom]

Loving your review! Your writing style is fantastic.

[emmysmommy]

Thanks for sharing your review and the awesome photos! I will be on the Dream next summer with the same initerary. I have been to St. Maarten before but from your excursion review I realized how little we really got to see. You have shared great information for those of us in the planning stages! :D

[MileHiCrzr]

Not to worry about being smashed in the carry on - I've checked out all the lists of don't on Carnival - no where do they prohibit a walking garmet bag.

[Halftocruz]

OMG I LOOOOOOOVED Sunny! I took his tour last month on the Valor. I remember that I love you baby Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday..... song you're talking about. It is catchy, and thanks to you, it's stuck in my head right now! LOL Did you get a cd of all the music? I did and played it for days when I got home, especially on my way to work. Nothing like a little Bob Marley when you're facing a 12 hour work day right after vacation. How about this one- follow the leader, leader, leader, follow the leader..... :p

 

OMG!!! I didn't know you could buy the music!! I LOVE Sunny Liston! Was one of the best excursions we ever took!! Now I have to go back to St Thomas and see Sunny again!!:)

[sachmo9085]

I have loved reading your review! My husband is trying to do homework, but I keep reading bits to him or I start laughing and he looks at me like I am crazy for getting such a kick out of reading a stranger's review. Couple things:

Nebraska totally looks like Affleck. Your picture of warm chocolate melting cake made me drool. It's all I order for dessert =) But you have to get it with two sides of ice cream. On a totally weird side note, does Bryon have allergies? As I just finally found out after years of buying massive quantities of sudafed, the reason I get 6 sinus infections a year is no thanks to my allergies. They apparently also cause asthma for me too. Just a possibility.

Please keep posting and write another review the next time you two cruise!

[ourfamilylovescruising]

great review

[jaybird77]

Loving your review. Thanks for sharing your vacation with us. :D

 

Thanks for reading! This has been a lot of work, but it's been a great way of extending my cruise 'vibe'!

 

I can't begin to tell you how much I am enjoying your review. I know it is a lot of work, but it really is wonderful! We were on the same Dream cruise last Mar. and reading your review brings back all those happy memories. You have a great sense of humor and include so much information. It is terrific. Also, you and Byron seem like such a great couple . I wish we were at your table for dinner every night. Have you ever thought of sailing to Alaska? We are going to do that in May of 2012. I can't wait to read more. Thanks so much for taking the time to write all this and for posting the pics. I love it all. Thank you.

 

Thanks so much for reading! I think it would be awesome to cruise to Alaska, but I do know I would kind of miss the tropical weather. I can't imagine what sail away and sea days would be like in a parka! But I've seen some pics and the views look incredible! I hope you post a review when you go :D

 

You can count me among your many fans! Your review was just fabulous! We are booked on the Dream in March with this same itinerary, so the helpful hints and gorgeous pictures have just added to our anticipation. Thanks for doing this; I know how time consuming it can be, but you gave us all lots of laughs, along with the valuable info. ;)

 

Paula

 

I'm glad you are enjoying it. Have fun in March- of course I know you will, this is a fabulous ship and itinerary!

[jaybird77]

I am also loving this review! You have done a fantastic job! We are sailing on the Miracle in February /2012 with the same itinerary. We love the pictures! It is a great way to get our kids excited!!! Keep up the great work!:)

 

Thanks for reading! We really love St. Thomas and St. Maarten, you will have so much fun! I bet if you can make it to see those planes in St. maarten your kids would really get a kick out of that ;)

 

I agree with you, Nebraska does look like Ben Affleck! Thanks so much for the great review. You have done an excellent job…...

 

Thank you for seeing it! I'm not crazy then :)

 

When I am in port and can't find an ornament, I grab a key chain, put a hook on it & voila an ornament. I also read punching a hole in your key card and having that become an ornament to remember each ship.

Still enjoying your review.

 

Those are all good ideas! I'll have to keep that in mind. Thanks!!

[KrystalWaters]

Yeaaaaaaaah Jay is back! Good grief i was going through withdrawals hun. Glad to see you are posting again :p

 

Kristy

[jaybird77]

Loving your review! Your writing style is fantastic.

 

Thanks so much! Glad you have enjoyed it!

 

Thanks for sharing your review and the awesome photos! I will be on the Dream next summer with the same initerary. I have been to St. Maarten before but from your excursion review I realized how little we really got to see. You have shared great information for those of us in the planning stages! :D

 

Thanks! We have been to St. Maarten before and never got to see this much of the island either. It is really beautiful! Hope you have fun on your trip :)

 

Not to worry about being smashed in the carry on - I've checked out all the lists of don't on Carnival - no where do they prohibit a walking garmet bag.

 

Ha! Yeah that might a little more comfy ;)

[jaybird77]

I have loved reading your review! My husband is trying to do homework, but I keep reading bits to him or I start laughing and he looks at me like I am crazy for getting such a kick out of reading a stranger's review. Couple things:

Nebraska totally looks like Affleck. Your picture of warm chocolate melting cake made me drool. It's all I order for dessert =) But you have to get it with two sides of ice cream. On a totally weird side note, does Bryon have allergies? As I just finally found out after years of buying massive quantities of sudafed, the reason I get 6 sinus infections a year is no thanks to my allergies. They apparently also cause asthma for me too. Just a possibility.

Please keep posting and write another review the next time you two cruise!

 

Thank you- hope I can continue to entertain you and annoy your husband! ha :) Thanks for seeing the Affleck resemblance. It's nice to get some support on this board because everyone else who I showed my pics to is like 'umm no I don't see it'

You know Bryon does have some allergy issues. He has been to the doc several times trying to figure out what is going on with his sinuses, and they have yet to really find anything specific. They did test his allergies, but that didnt seem to contribute much.. who knows.. the older I get the more I figure out that for as far as we have come lately, there are so many things that our medical system still can't fix! He trudged through like a trooper anyway though, because as he said- a sick day on a cruise still beats a well day at work!

 

great review

 

Thanks- stick around, I still have a few more days to go! :D

[terri-eddie]

Pecos Bills is in Frontierland. It is a quick service restaurant. Needless to say, we love it! Thanks for reading:)

 

We always eat at Pecos Bill's....the best value we've found so far at Disney parks for lunch.

[jenninlaca]

REALLY enjoying this review - thank you! Great humor. We are sailing on the Dream on December 31st. Can't wait. It will be our first cruise so I am trying to do as much research as possible.

[jaybird77]

Day 7- Sea Day- Past Guest Party. (light on pics today)

Ok, so the last two days of our cruise were to be sea days and it’s all sort of a blur. I mean, I love sea days, because I really like just relaxing and enjoying the ship, but it is a little hard to recall the order and the specifics of all you do. Anyway, we started with our normal Lido breakfast. By the way- the little tater tot looking things are actually some sort of sausage concoction- this was really good. I don't remember exactly what it was called..

 

 

It looked to be a gorgeous day, so we found some chairs on the upper deck behind the Sea Side Theater and camped. One word of caution. We decided to head down and swim, and left our flip-flops by the chair. Ummm- the decks are HOT. I actually think we burned out feet. We were basically running to find a shaded spot after a few steps. So during the middle of the day, if you set out to walk around the ship- take your shoes!

 

After running back to the chairs to grab our flip-flops, we headed down to the pools. This is where the space issue in the pools became a nuisance. The main pool was full of children, so we settled on the aft pool, which was full of adults. We were literally able to get in the water and make our way through the crowd and find a spot on the side and just sort of stand there in the water. Swimming or playing around was not an option.

 

 

After a while it was time for lunch. We got burgers- available at mid ship on the Lido deck beside the pool- and they were really good. This was also Italian day on the buffet, and I really wanted to try some stuff, but once again, just too full to really eat much. I always have guilt about wasting food, and I am trying to get over it. Of course, I did not waste any of the cheese I put on my plate!

 

 

 

After a while we decided to go up to the sauna. I thought this might do Bryon’s cold some good. The sauna on the dream is a coed sauna. I really like the feeling of getting so hot in the sauna that you think you might pass out, then walking out and the colder air feels so good! Bryon didn’t think it helped his cold very much. The sauna is nice, but I have to say, it is kind of confusing to find. There is this sort of labyrinth you have to walk through to get to it and I found myself trying to walk into utility closets along the way.

[jaybird77]

Afterwards we changed into some nicer clothing and headed out to the past guest party.

The past guest party was held in the Encore theatre. I really appreciate that they do something for previous guests and the fact that it involves free drinks makes my heart happy! Now I was drinking champagne, and I did notice that they only fill the glasses half full. Well, no problem, just stop them twice as much.

They also were passing around trays of hors d’oeuvres with things like cheeses and toasts. There was a live band with a singer, who actually sounded pretty good. They also gave away a dinner for two in Chef’s Art Steakhouse. We didn’t win.

 

People actually got up on stage and danced with the band!

 

 

 

After the party, we headed to the casino so Bryon could play. Somehow, during this time, I left my camera somewhere in the casino. Once I finally realized it, I tried to retrace my steps, but it was nowhere to be found. We headed down to the guest services desk and guess what? There was my camera! We had to show her a picture on the camera with us in it and then sign a piece of paper. Shew! I was sweatin it for a minute there. This was another formal night, so we dressed up and took a few more silly pics. (hoping to get these posted later, Bryon is scanning them)

We settled down in the atrium for more champagne and people watching. There was a whole group of guys in kilts. I mean they were all dressed up with armor on their legs and everything! This was Bryon's reaction to the whole scene. The poor thing was still feeling crappy, but was hanging in there as long as he could. ( if you look closely behind him there is one of the kilt guys!)

 

 

[jaybird77]

For dinner tonight I started with the corn chowder which was really good.

 

 

I also had the Escargots which are rich, but good.

 

 

Bryon had the chips and salsa. He only eats the chips.. I tried them and they were just... chips.

 

 

Bryon and I both had the Chateaubriand. Although it was a little tough, the flavor was good. The mashed potatoes under there were good too!

 

 

For desert- strawberry ice cream. It's really good! (Bryon had WCMC)

 

 

 

Ok also something funny happened during this dinner. Let me explain. Now apparently our table mate Darin, had booked this cruise and as it turned out, his wife had emergency work stuff to do and was not going to be able to make it, so instead, Raymond, who works with Darin, came on the trip.

Now they work together at Intel and, I guess, you might call them tech geeks, or computer geeks, or something with geeks in it. Anyway, they seem like very smart guys that probably make more money than I'll ever see.

Well they had been taking some kidding from Victoria and Tiffany all week because Darin had been spending time in the fun hub (that's Carnival's area where you can play on a computer and access the web, FYI) on the computer and had signed up for that Carnival thing that is like Facebook. It’s called Funville or something like that. Anyway, they were also participating in this murder mystery thing that happens during the week on the ship. It involves going to find clues on Funville, and interviewing cruise team members, etc. So they seemed to be really into it and were enduring a little teasing from the dinner table.

 

Well this night at dinner, Tiffany comes with a piece of paper with letters scribbled all over it. (if you look behind Bryon in his picture with his totilla chips, you can see Tiffany holding the paper in question) Turns out, some guy she had met and found herself becoming quite fond of, was also participating in this murder mystery thing. Well there were these letter puzzles that he needed to solve in order to get the final clues for the murder mystery.

Victoria tells us all that Tiffany has been obsessed with trying to solve these puzzles all day. So of course Darin and Raymond had already seen these puzzles and solved them! So the whole table tries to help Tiffany in figuring out the clues, but Bryon and I really were not that much of a help. So she had to swallow her pride and ask Darin and Raymond for help! Darin was kind enough to give her a few hints, but only after he forced her to admit that he and Raymond were in fact ‘fun’! I thought that was so awesome! By the end of the meal, the clues were solved.

[jaybird77]

After dinner, we headed out to the disco where there was to be a Michael Jackson tribute.

I thought there would be some program or organized dances or something, but really it was just the DJ playing MJ songs. This was the pretty empty disco during the MJ tribute.

 

 

We decided to head out to the comedy club to see Tommy Drake's X rated show. I thought it was pretty funny, but other people said they thought the first guy was funnier. Now I had been drinking champagne since mid day at the past guest party, so maybe that was it.

 

 

After the comedy show Tiffany hooked up with her friend and gave him her puzzle answers…

 

 

Sidebar- wouldn’t they make nice looking children?

 

 

After this Bryon was feeling pretty bad, so he headed back to the room. I went with Tiffany and Victoria back into the disco and partied for a while until it was time for me to stumble back to the room!

 

Up Next: Our Last Full Day at Sea and Lost Camera- Take 2!

(I will probably not be able to get an update in tomorrow as I have work, dentist, and family Halloween commitments, but I'll try to get it done Tuesday and this will likely be my last update :()