Carnival Dream Picture Review, December 10th-17th, 2011

[fellowfloater]

This is a wonderful Review. I believe this is one of the best I have ever seen. Thank you for posting it.

[italianfemmy]

Happy birthday to Latanya. I hope you guys love Universal. My husband and I did it last winter during the unseasonably cold temperatures. We were freezing but Harry Potter made everything all right. If you take any pictures there I'd love to see a mini trip report within your report. quote]

 

I haven't had a chance to really edit any of the photos I took at Harry Potter yet. I really didn't get to take many because it was the 3rd busiest day of the year and you couldn't really even see in front of yourself.

 

I just edited one to enter it into photobucket's winter competition since the buildings are all snow capped and it's the best "winter" photo I could come up with in Florida! lol. Check it out if you like!

 

http://photobucket.com/ibeatyou?entry=1911324

[Ladybug75]

I prefer to cruise when there is less risk of bad storms. So we normally don't go until November or December and I already have the Breeze booked for November.

 

In truth, I want my next cruise (before or after) the Breeze to most likely be on RCCL's Oasis of the Seas. (In fact, I'd still like to go on the Freedom of the Seas too).

 

I would go on the Dream again for her other itinerary though and have been reading reviews on the Magic (don't know enough about her yet to decide if I'd want to sail on her.) :-)

 

Call me a stalker, but I'm trying to get on the Breeze with you and LaTanya! Lol!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[italianfemmy]

Call me a stalker, but I'm trying to get on the Breeze with you and LaTanya! Lol!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

We'll be on the Nov. 24th sailing. Feel free to join us!

[beachgirl75]

The monkey pics are my favorite, as I am an animal lover...the dolphins are close second place....I am soooo super excited to cruise even more now on Aprill 22! Thanks Alicia for gettin me pumped up...u rock!!! And we live soooooo close to each other....small world!!!!!

[Cruisecrzy3]

I have three words...awesome! awesome! awesome! Love your review, the photos are ok....yeah, I'm teasing. I'll just say ditto to what everyone has said! We're leaving on the Dream 2/4 and your review has me even more excited.

 

On a personal note I'll say that this is the second time I've been on the Dream. The first was with my mom in 2010 and how she loved this ship! I lost my mom last July to cancer so stepping onto the ship will be emotional. My DH is now my "crusing buddy" and I'm looking forward to sharing this beautiful ship with him. I completely understand your inspiration and the depth of your emotions. Thank you for sharing.

 

Your journey has touched my heart. Continued success to you & Latanya wherever your travels may take you.

[kittycrusin08]

You are a very special person with many talents. Your pictures of the Dream and excursions are the absolute best I have seen and I have read many reviews. Your writing skills cause your readers to feel they are on the cruise with you. I loved your description of swimming with the dolphins and feel I would like to do it! You can really tell when someone loves their work and we are all fortunate you chose to share this with us. We were thinking about booking a cruise on the Dream and we are no longer thinking, we will be booking this week. I wish you all the best in the future and look forward to your next cruise and the review. Thank you so much for sharing your adventure. ;)

[crewsweeper]

 

The Magic has been delayed getting into Galveston the last two sailings now. I considered the Magic instead of the Dream but felt that the transfer to the port would not be as smooth as Orlando to Canaveral. The Breeze will have everything the Magic does and then some so I'm not sure I see much benefit to sailing the Magic unless you can drive to the port.

Steven, the Magic delays have been due to fog. Fog is common on Galveston Bay this time of year, as air temps are lower than water temps. Of course this type of fog arising in all southern ports. Tampa, with it's long intercoastal trek is also notorious for fog delays on returning ships. But if you're traveling at warmer times of the year, you'll have less fog delays. 'course it is a bit harder for you to drive from PA to any port other than perhaps Baltimore. But if air fares are reasonable, and itinerary acceptable, the Magic would be a good ship to try.

[CharlesKru]

We'll be on the Nov. 24th sailing. Feel free to join us!

 

 

I absolutely love your review, and am debating writing you a PM to talk about buying some of your photos to have framed for my house...

 

Are you sure you do not want to do a back to back on the Breeze? :D My fiance and I will be doing the transatlantic as our Honeymoon, and like lots of other people on this board, after reading and experiencing your review I would also love to sail with you some day. Just think how relaxed you could be with 22 days of straight Breeze time, 15 on the TA and your current booked 7 day! :D Since I doubt I can talk you into it, we will wave on our way off!

 

Thank you for such a good review, I look forward to seeing the rest.

[Ladybug75]

We'll be on the Nov. 24th sailing. Feel free to join us!

 

Yeah! I am talking my family into it right now. We were thinking about the Fascination a week earlier and the Breeze in 2013...but I think I can talk them into it. I have it in my signature so that means it must come true!

[suzypayne]

WOW that story is amazing and worth the price of the cruise itself to find a local true factual story like that is just amazing!

 

I love the fact that you took the time to look up and share a link as well.

 

Many people do not realize that actual humans like you and me live in those homes in Belize and other countries that are not as fortunate as us here in the US - and they don't complain, they are grateful.

 

Take all the time you need to work on this review, it is great having something to look forward to, and well worth the wait.

 

Love your talents!

Susan

 

What beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing them with us through CC. I <3 <3 Trunk Bay Beach. And we are looking forward to going there on our upcoming cruise on Dream in September 22.:)

[italianfemmy]

I absolutely love your review, and am debating writing you a PM to talk about buying some of your photos to have framed for my house...

 

Are you sure you do not want to do a back to back on the Breeze? :D My fiance and I will be doing the transatlantic as our Honeymoon, and like lots of other people on this board, after reading and experiencing your review I would also love to sail with you some day. Just think how relaxed you could be with 22 days of straight Breeze time, 15 on the TA and your current booked 7 day! :D Since I doubt I can talk you into it, we will wave on our way off!

 

Thank you for such a good review, I look forward to seeing the rest.

 

Hey Charles! A TA would be lovely! I swear I need to change my business to allow people to hire me to go on vacation with them and document their trip. Cruise fare is way less (in most cases) than what I charge clients for 1 day of shooting so it would be a win for the consumer and a win for me for travel expenses but I'd go broke if I did it often! lol.

 

You can just email me if you like.. (no spaces) P u r e E m o t i o n s P h o t o g r a p h y @ g m a i l. c o m (Sorry ... I hate being spammed!)

 

 

Thanks for the wonderful comments! And congrats on your upcoming wedding AND honeymoon!

[steven93921]

Steven, the Magic delays have been due to fog. Fog is common on Galveston Bay this time of year, as air temps are lower than water temps. Of course this type of fog arising in all southern ports. Tampa, with it's long intercoastal trek is also notorious for fog delays on returning ships. But if you're traveling at warmer times of the year, you'll have less fog delays. 'course it is a bit harder for you to drive from PA to any port other than perhaps Baltimore. But if air fares are reasonable, and itinerary acceptable, the Magic would be a good ship to try.

 

That is true... I cruised in Feb and now Dec and remember both times that there were fog issues at Galveston. For now, we're fairly limited to planning cruises in the winter months so it might be a while before we get a chance to sail the Magic, but her having the Cloud 9 Spa makes her more appealing than the rest of the fleet IMO.

[italianfemmy]

Day 6, we arrive in Costa Maya. Pretty sure we ate breakfast on the Lido deck this morning and took our time with getting off of the ship.

 

We had reserved a lounge chair at Tropicante Resort and Steven and Kim decided to join us and booked chairs for there too. You can reserve chairs in advance of your cruise at no cost. We reserved these seats so we could hang out there all day, get some cheap beach massages and eat some amazing food (per the reviews we'd heard about.)

 

By day 6, my leg and ankles and feet which had been having issues all week were so bad, I could barely walk. But I was determined to get off of the ship anyway.

 

We got off and went straight for the taxis. I remember the guy at Tropicante telling us we should choose a yellow taxi but no yellow taxis were there. So, we got in an open air safari type taxi vehicle for $3pp. They assured us that we'd get dropped off at Tropicante, knowing I was injured and could barely walk.

 

So, we get off and the driver says to us to just go through the small alley in front of us and it would be right there on our right. So, that's what we did. But, we didn't see it. So we asked locals standing in front of where we were how to get there. They said, it's just one more block up on the right. All the way, everyone was standing in front of their businesses trying to get us to stop and eat their food/ use their loungers/ get their massages/ shop at their shops, etc. It was the worst of all the ports for this.

 

I kept telling Latanya I was certain we'd walked more than a block but she insisted it just felt that way because I was hurting. So we kept walking. We'd occasionally ask someone and they just kept pointing us in the direction we were headed in. After about a half an hour of walking on limbs that were swollen twice their normal size, I had to stop.. I felt like I was going to cry (and I have a HIGH pain tolerance.). Latanya told me to sit at this place and she would run and ask around more and try to find it.

 

While she was gone, some of our CC friends that had done the dolphin swim with us in Cozumel happened to be sitting a mere few feet away eating food and drinking at Pez Quadro Beach Club. Ben came up to me and asked me what was wrong (he could tell I didn't look good) and I told him what was going on. He suggested Latanya and I just stay there and hang out with him, Naomi, Julie, Dan and their 2 other friends whose names I cannot recall.

 

When Latanya returned, she had confirmed from reliable sources that everyone had sent us in the wrong direction and we were now more than a mile away from where we were supposed to be. As slow as I was walking, it would have taken us 45 minutes to go back and we'd already been looking for the place for nearly an hour. I just couldn't do it so we decided to stay and hang out with our CC friends.

 

Pez Quadro has this special for like 35 bucks that includes all you can drink alcohol and one order of fries and one order of nachos per person. Ben was already pretty tipsy by the time we got there and was being absolutely silly which really helped me to start to forget how dreadful the first part of the day had been.

 

Latanya and I were starving so we ordered food. I had shrimp tacos and I don't recall what she had but we both felt our food was delicious.

 

After we ate lunch, we got massages right in front of the beach club on the beach under nice shaded palapa's.

 

 

I just got a 1/2 hour massage and Latanya opted for the full hour. So while she was finishing her massage, I took a couple photos. (Nothing speciall, just some snapshots)..

 

One of the beach beds..

 

 

The bar area with swings..

 

 

 

[italianfemmy]

After taking a couple photos, I headed into the water which was slightly chilly at first but warmed right up.

 

I used my craptastic waterproof camera to take a few photos (it didn't use to be craptastic but it's many years old now)

 

 

Naomi and Ben

 

 

 

There was this super high sand bar in the middle of the water so I had everyone climb up on it so I could take a couple shots..

 

 

 

After about an hour of playing and relaxing in the water.... it was already time to start heading out. Boooooo! Costa Maya was a 7am-3pm port of call for us which is crazy early. The ship had activities that kept us up all night the night before and then 7am? Bah! So we didn't even get off the ship until around 10:45am and it was nearly 12:30pm by the time we made it to Pez Quadro.

 

I pulled the professional camera back out and dialed in the correct settings and asked someone to take a group photo of us all.

 

 

The guys working at Pez Quadro pointed us to a spot that was less than a block away where YELLOW Taxis were waiting and we took one of those back to the ship for $2 pp.

[italianfemmy]

On our way back to the ship, I took a couple more photos out of the window (I did this a lot on this trip...lol)..

 

 

 

When we got back to the little port area with all of the shops and stuff, we still had some time to kill so Latanya and I decided to lay on some loungers at this place in the main hub.... I don't know what it was called. Maybe it was a Senor Frogs? I don't know.. but they had a huge swimming pool and you could just hop right in... no fees or anything... wish we'd known about this way in advance!

 

 

It was nearing time for us to be back on board, so we started walking back...

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[italianfemmy]

And on our walk back to the ship was this adorable baby tiger! Of course, it was an "attraction" and you had to pay $25 to get your photo taken with her and they would take a photo and print it on the spot (a 5x7).

 

They also said you could use your own camera (selling point for me). So Latanya finally agreed to let me spend the money to do it. I waited in line and the baby tiger started screaming at all of the people holding her so I was worried that it would be wasted money.

 

But the moment she touched my arms, she looked into my eyes and felt comforted and got all sleepy eyed. She even fell asleep in my arms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHE WAS SOOOOOO SOFT!!!!!!! And she was so sweet to me. The moment she left my arms, she began screaming again. Poor thing was so sleepy and I guess she liked me! It was definitely worth the cost since I have several photos that I love and plan to print them to add them to my animal collection.

 

So, on this trip, I've swam with dolphins, held and played with monkeys, held a bird and cuddled with a sleepy baby tiger! I love animals!!

 

Holy crap! We are running late and people are running towards the ship. The walk to get into Costa Maya from the ship isn't a short one either. There's a very long pier/bridge and the ships anchor all the way down at the end of it. There's a big open air shuttle bus thingy that was leaving and we ran and were able to get on it. Whew! Back to the ship we go...

[lynninsc]

LOVE this review!! Thank you so much for taking the time to write it. You and Latanya make a beautiful couple, and I am so glad you had such a good time on your vacation. I sympathize with the ankle/feet swelling because I always have that on cruises also. This past September we cruised on Freedom of the Seas and by day 3 I could barely wear flip-flops my feet were so swollen! Glad you didn't let it ruin your time because it really does become uncomfortable.

[Pinque]

I don't know about anyone else but I am getting that same feeling I get when I know my cruise is coming to an end and is about to be over soon...:o...great review...it's nice to be cruising through the Caribbean while sitting at my desk at work...:p....once again, GREAT REVIEW, GREAT PICS...

By the way, you were a real trooper to continue on with all that swelling...how well do I remember the feeling but I was dang near 9 months pregant, felt like my feet were going to bust each and every step...

[SenatorsFan]

So first I thought nothing could be more fabulous than your dolphin shots, and then you posted the monkey shots.:) And now those baby tiger photos? OMG they are just too adorable! My 14-year-old son would have loved that experience. All we saw at Costa Maya was a skinny monkey on a chain.:rolleyes: (I also love your scenery photos, too). I've been lurking and agree with everyone else that this is just a phenomenal review. Your writing style and photos are so wonderful. Thanks for taking the time to do all this for us.

Heather

[italianfemmy]

So first I thought nothing could be more fabulous than your dolphin shots, and then you posted the monkey shots.:) And now those baby tiger photos? OMG they are just too adorable! My 14-year-old son would have loved that experience. All we saw at Costa Maya was a skinny monkey on a chain.:rolleyes: (I also love your scenery photos, too). I've been lurking and agree with everyone else that this is just a phenomenal review. Your writing style and photos are so wonderful. Thanks for taking the time to do all this for us.

Heather

 

Awww @ a skinny monkey on a chain - how depressing!!! I think I would have cried. I am such an animal lover. People should stop paying to play with that monkey on a chain so they stop doing that! Gosh that angers me!

 

Moving along, thank you so much for the kind words about my review! I think I am going to have some post partum depression when I have nothing left to write and a whole extra year before the next cruise! Doing this slow photo review helps me to relive my own experience too. :-)

[SenatorsFan]

Awww @ a skinny monkey on a chain - how depressing!!! I think I would have cried. I am such an animal lover. People should stop paying to play with that monkey on a chain so they stop doing that! Gosh that angers me!

 

Moving along, thank you so much for the kind words about my review! I think I am going to have some post partum depression when I have nothing left to write and a whole extra year before the next cruise! Doing this slow photo review helps me to relive my own experience too. :-)

 

Yes, it was pretty depressing. We just shook our heads and moved along.

Feel free to take all the time you need, I'm sure you have lots more nice pictures for us to look at.:D

Heather

[italianfemmy]

Yes, it was pretty depressing. We just shook our heads and moved along.

Feel free to take all the time you need, I'm sure you have lots more nice pictures for us to look at.:D

Heather

 

I'm starting to run low on photos to share too! :-( Only the rest of day 6 (back on the ship) and a sea day (day 7) left.

[smurfm69]

I'm starting to run low on photos to share too! :-( Only the rest of day 6 (back on the ship) and a sea day (day 7) left.

 

I was just thinking to myself that I hate to see your review come to an end. The tiger pictures are so great. My high school mascot was a tiger and I would have probably spent the money to take those pics too.

[CruisingSoon88]

Add me to your list of groupies. When I first started reading your review I was disappointed only because we did the western on the Dream last year and are going on the eastern this year. I am looking for eastern reviews mostly just to see what people did at the ports. I thought I don't need to read about the ship again. Oh well, you got me hooked with your fantastic pictures! I have done a review myself and I know it is very time consuming. As you already know by the gushing of all of us, we really appreciate your time and your talent! I have been able to waiver between nostalgia of our last Dream cruise and anticipation for our next one in May!:D