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

[jacksmom09]

Really enjoying your review! Your pics are awesome! Can't wait for food porn!:D

[otowncruisr]

Hi,

 

Great review and even better pics! I'd love to be able to get my pics to come out 1/10th this good. Obviously you've got a great eye for composition and the technical skills to capture it.

 

We live in Orlando, and my SIL got married in Tampa a couple of years ago. I wish she would have known about you...she would love your portfolio on your blog.

 

Keep it coming. We're on the Dream next November, and you're review is making me an addict, and I need a fix!

[redpelican]

I am absolutely loving your review! The pictures are just beautiful! Can't wait for more.

I agree with you about the any-time dining on the Miracle...it was so bad we left twice with out being served. I hate to say it, but since then we have gone back to early dining..we are too old to eat late...just does not agree with us.

We are sailing on the Dream in 57 days, but we are not counting..and was happy to hear about the door on deck 7.....we look for those secret doors on every ship. Did you find the ships coin or did I miss that? We always look for that too!

Can't wait for more!!

[barefoot cruiser]

If there was an Academy Awards category for cruise reviews, you would win an Oscar! Your photos are absolutely amazing, but the personal commentary makes reading this a pleasure. We will be on The Dream in a few months, along with some friends who are new to crusing. I am sending them the link to your thread so that they can share in the fun of reading along. Thank you SO MUCH for giving us such a beautiful gift.

 

Paula

 

Paula, we are on the same Dream cruise...is this review making you more excited for March to come along?

[tazco]

[quote name='italianfemmy']Awwwww! You went to my website? How sweet! I truly do love what I do as a wedding photographer. I am not a conventional wedding photographer.. a bit outside of the box. I don't know if you read my story on my website or not but I think that it really plays into my ability to see the world differently through my lens.

I guess it actually would be fine to share here since this is also partially about getting to know me.

I was on a successful career path as a writer with a major publishing deal when my mother got sick with cancer and rather abruptly passed away. She was my rock, my entire life and she was the only family member that truly supported me, despite my sexual orientation.

When she passed away, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't finish my novel because I felt trapped creatively and uninspired. To make matters worse, I didn't have any recent photos of my mother because we'd moved around so much and left stuff here and there. We'd also had a bad house fire which wiped out most of the photos from when I was younger with her. Not being able to see those photos of her to help me through the grieving process somehow made it difficult for me to remember her healthy. Instead, I just flashed back to the memory of her open casket funeral. I would lie awake at night for months on end, crying myself to sleep and being awoken by the nightmare of that image of her.

I called everyone I knew that was friends with her as well as family members and nobody had any recent photos of her to help my healing process. For the next 2 years after she passed away, I'd barely cope although I was good at faking it. But, I spent those years unable to write, unable to release the creative beast within me. I had always taken pictures of places I visited throughout the years but never really taken any of people. My basic love and good eye for taking photos for fun coupled with not having the images of my mother inspired me to open my photography company. Not just to make a living but to put a mark in history by leaving pieces of my hard work hanging on hundreds, perhaps thousands of walls, telling the stories of others lives and helping their families to heal when they pass on.

I have never felt this fulfilled doing anything else with my life. My mother may no longer be living but she is embedded in the stories I tell through my lens and will forever be etched in my heart. The loss of her inspired greatness from within me and for that, I will forever be thankful. It's still very hard not having her here and I miss her like crazy, especially on holidays. But, I know she would be proud of me and as children, isn't that the one thing we most want and need? For our parents to be proud of us? I know deep down I've accomplished this but my journey has only just begun. I hope to take my skills and do something truly great with them one day that perhaps will exceed even the wildest ideas I've already had on my own. :)[/quote]
When I went to your site and watched the slide show it literally made me cry, they are so beautiful. I came back here and read this post and now I see why my spirit was so touched by your talent. Thanks

[italianfemmy]

Typing this from my laptop - the defrag is still running extremely slowly. Sigh.

 

When I started this review, it was just to share my experiences on the Dream because I felt she wasn't given a fair shake in other reviews I'd read.

 

My intent was never to touch people with my story, my website or my images. I really feel so touched that so many people have taken the time to express such amazing words in my favor as a person, not just as a virtual computer screen name.

 

I genuinely feel humbled by this entire experience. Being able to see how many people outside of my own clients love what I do and how it impacts people just makes me want to work that much harder to always do the best job I can do because I know my work makes a difference. I know that I am not a firefighter or a doctor but I do feel that what I do is important.

 

Thank you all so much for making me grin from ear to ear and for touching me with your kind words. I really feel speechless as this was something I never in a million years expected to happen!

[smc0320]

I didn't mind Gumby, but that just made my day!

 

So, we had a beach day (booked thru Carnival) planned for Belize. I was excited about this because last time we did Cave Tubing and although it was awesome I just wanted to relax on a beach. I was very uneasy when it rained all morning approaching Belize, but we went down anyway. How bad could it be, there is "cover" at the beach....and drinks!!

 

Our tickets said 8:45 and were told to be there by 8:30. By 9:30'ish, I don't think we had been called yet......but we soon were. We were led downstairs....YAY.....beeped our way out past the machines...YAY.......and waited and waited and waited. Lots of confusion. THEN, we were told the wrong tender boat had been brought up (for a different excursion) and we would have to go back up to the Encore theatre and wait to be called again...instead of having that tender boat move and let ours come up, they expected us to wait even more...bull$h!t we all said! We asked if we could cancel & get a refund (we were beyond frustrated) and were told yes.

 

SO up we went. Got into elevator with Gumby...I knew this would not be an easy job for him this morning. But the an older man was asking where to go for the regular tenders to shore.....Gumby wasn't understanding him though....the man was trying to tell him "I'm getting a refund but I still want to go ashore" and all Gumby said to him was "Fine, get a refund then, I don't care" to which I had to say "he's asking WHERE the F to go to get the regular tenders to shore....wihtout excursion" then he tried telling us that the tender had mechanical issues and we shouldn't blame Carnival for those issues.....when moments before the Shore Excursion manager told us very directly that they had brought the wrong tender boat up...he said "well, thats not what they told me"

 

So, from that moment, I wanted to punch him every time I saw him. I know that elevator ride all morning was his worst shift all week, I know that, I was sympathetic....but he had not a care in the world for any of us who just waited down there for the wrong tender for over 30 minutes...yes, standing down in the deck 0 area for over 30 minutes after waiting upstairs for more than 45 minutes past our ticketed call time.

 

Now I'm mad and in need of another beer..........but even this, alll that frustration, did NOT ruin my cruise. We had a FANTASTIC time......

[TriciaEMTB]

I think I have a girl crush on you :p. Your pictures are amazing, your "voice" keeps it fun.

 

Your attitude is so upbeat and positive it is very refreshing! I read a lot of reviews but rarely comment, they seem to focus on the bad. I love how you mention both good and the bad without being negative and at the same time you are definitely not a "carnival cheerleader".

 

I am so excited because this seems to be the exact itinerary I'm doing on the glory in November. It's great to see the ports and to know what to expect.

 

Thank you so much for your review. I wish i had booked the dream instead.

 

I hope to run into you on a cruise some day!

Edited December 30, 2011 by TriciaEMTB

[italianfemmy]

So, we had a beach day (booked thru Carnival) planned for Belize. I was excited about this because last time we did Cave Tubing and although it was awesome I just wanted to relax on a beach. I was very uneasy when it rained all morning approaching Belize, but we went down anyway. How bad could it be, there is "cover" at the beach....and drinks!!

 

Our tickets said 8:45 and were told to be there by 8:30. By 9:30'ish, I don't think we had been called yet......but we soon were. We were led downstairs....YAY.....beeped our way out past the machines...YAY.......and waited and waited and waited. Lots of confusion. THEN, we were told the wrong tender boat had been brought up (for a different excursion) and we would have to go back up to the Encore theatre and wait to be called again...instead of having that tender boat move and let ours come up, they expected us to wait even more...bull$h!t we all said! We asked if we could cancel & get a refund (we were beyond frustrated) and were told yes.

 

SO up we went. Got into elevator with Gumby...I knew this would not be an easy job for him this morning. But the an older man was asking where to go for the regular tenders to shore.....Gumby wasn't understanding him though....the man was trying to tell him "I'm getting a refund but I still want to go ashore" and all Gumby said to him was "Fine, get a refund then, I don't care" to which I had to say "he's asking WHERE the F to go to get the regular tenders to shore....wihtout excursion" then he tried telling us that the tender had mechanical issues and we shouldn't blame Carnival for those issues.....when moments before the Shore Excursion manager told us very directly that they had brought the wrong tender boat up...he said "well, thats not what they told me"

 

So, from that moment, I wanted to punch him every time I saw him. I know that elevator ride all morning was his worst shift all week, I know that, I was sympathetic....but he had not a care in the world for any of us who just waited down there for the wrong tender for over 30 minutes...yes, standing down in the deck 0 area for over 30 minutes after waiting upstairs for more than 45 minutes past our ticketed call time.

 

Now I'm mad and in need of another beer..........but even this, alll that frustration, did NOT ruin my cruise. We had a FANTASTIC time......

 

Wow, I almost cannot even believe this is the same person we're talking about. But, there are two sides to all of us depending on what is going on in life. Who knows.. he could have gotten news that a family member passed on or something that morning. We never know what's going on in someone elses life that makes them act a certain way. He was always happy and friendly and super nice to us, even on the stressful disembarkation day. Sorry he wasn't as sweet to you guys!

[KrystalWaters]

Great job! Keep it coming! Hope your computer gets back on the mend.:)

[JL&Fam]

Sorry guys, looks like food porn and the rest of Roatan are going to have to wait until tomorrow. My computer has decided to go on the fritz today while editing my client images and it's giving me all kinds of memory errors even though I am only using 12%. I am about to do a disk cleanup/ defrag which will take hours since I have 1TB of data on this computer and then will run a full scan just to make sure nothing is hidden in a file and causing everything to lag!

 

If anything changes, I'll be back but most likely not tonight!

 

So no food porn because your PC got a headache? I guess I can wait another day

 

Cheers,

Jeff

[crusinpsychRN]

I have never seen such beautiful photos! Your sense of capturing a scene is beyond belief. Thank you so much!

 

What is your web site address?

Edited December 30, 2011 by crusinpsychRN

[SerenityDream]

I went to your website! BEAUTIFUL and Intriguing photography!!! I sent the link to my niece she is getting married on Bradenton beach Anna Maria Island this November!

[slybear]

Thanks for the great review & pics. We cruised with you too & made the M&G for a very short time. It was a wonderful cruise & we had a great time too. I am so glad we stayed on ship on Belize day as our family had an over 1 hour wait for the tender. Queenie cruises with us & she had a great time too!

[SoundDawg]

Thank you all so much for making me grin from ear to ear and for touching me with your kind words. I really feel speechless as this was something I never in a million years expected to happen!

 

I don't have my next cruised booked yet but have gotten sucked in to this wonderful review that for me is a wonderful story. You are a great photographer and writer. I work for a wedding band that does a lot of high end weddings and get to work with a lot of good photogs. Often they will send along pictures of the event to us and I must say your work blows most of them out of the water!!

 

Thanks for sharing your story with us!

[italianfemmy]

Hi everyone. My computer seems to be feeling better today so I will be able to continue my review! Yay!

 

I've had my website linked in my signature since 2 cruises ago because so many of the people in my roll call wanted to go to my website and I got tired of having to type it out. Apparently, some of you love me too much and I got flagged for having my website in my signature and got into trouble and it was removed.

 

If you happen to find my website on your own and want to gush about the photos on it, please just email me through there from now on as I really love this community and do not wish to risk being banned from it. I sincerely appreciate all of the kind words from everyone though!

 

Okay, continuing on with the review in the next post!

[dotheyes]

found your website and they are truly great pics

[italianfemmy]

Okay, the last thing I posted was some photos of the island in Roatan where our wonderful tour guide, Kailor from Victor Bodden Tours had stopped to let us take photos.

 

Victor Bodden has a lot of things you can "add on" for your tour day at an extra fee like ziplining, an iguana farm, museums, etc. The only one we decided to add on was the "Interaction with the Monkeys" at Victor's place. Latanya and I went to the Monkey Jungle in Miami last year and we were blown away by our time there. For this reason, we were hesitant to book the Monkey Interaction with Victor. But, at only $5 per person, we figured it was worth that price even if we only got to hold a monkey for 2 seconds and get one photo.

 

Kailor dropped us off at Victors and we paid Victor for our tour for the day. He was a sweet man who genuinely seems to care about all of the people that book through them. He linked us up with a gentleman that would take us to visit the monkeys. I unfortunately cannot remember this guys name. But he was rather young and had a warm smile.

 

The first enclosure we were led into had 2 older monkeys, Lolito and another one whose name neither Latanya or I can recall. Promise I'll take notes next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could not believe... how friendly these monkeys were! They didn't need us to hold our hands out with food in order for them to come close to us or play with us. They spent the majority of the time on us. They simply love human contact and affection. The place we went to in Miami, we kinda had to bribe them with food. But not these ones. They just jumped on us out of the blue from spot to spot. Really awesome!

[italianfemmy]

Our guide then led us into another enclosure with two more monkeys, Chico and Jerry. Chico and Jerry immediately started jumping on us and trying to steal our sunglasses and hats. So, I took my hat off and put it outside but Latanya kept hers on.. for a few moments anyway... lol.

 

 

You'll notice that they are grooming her. They absolutely were fascinated with Latanya's hair and one liked to chew on it while the other one liked to get in close to her scalp and groom her. It was seriously one of the most adorable things on the planet!

 

 

 

Then Chico and Jerry .... jumped back over to me and utter madness ensued! lol.

 

As one monkey fell off and "bumped his head.." (Sorry couldn't resist)..

 

 

Time to groom me now as well..

 

 

Awwww so peaceful for a moment!

 

 

Be right back with more!

 

.

 

.

 

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[italianfemmy]

That sweetness only lasted a mere moment before my head was jumped onto. This next photo made Latanya and I laugh so hard that we cried. I apologize that this photo isn't in focus but I simply had to share it anyway.

 

Say cheese :-P

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention that... I absolutely love animals! I have been a monkey fanatic for as long as I can remember. It's always been a dream of mine to have my own little spider monkey. But I wouldn't ever own one just because I could only handle one and that wouldn't be fair to the little guy not to be in his true environment OR to have another monkey companion.

[italianfemmy]

Our guide then took us into another enclosure where we got to hold this beautiful bird. She was really sweet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[italianfemmy]

 

By now.. we were absolutely STARVING!!! So, we met back up with Kailor and asked him to take us to a good local place with seafood. Kailor took us about 15-20 minutes away to this place called Half Moon Bay (I think?). We had to go down some dirt roads and through some really thick wet mud to get to it. I thought for sure we were going to get stuck! But, we made it through it and to the restaurant.

 

Latanya ordered a fish dish and I ordered the lobster because I'd read that Roatan is famous for it's Lobster. I am a Lobster snob, I confess. I've eat thousands of lobster tails in my life. Okay, maybe not thousands but I'd wager about 500-1,000 for sure. My mom and I used to go lobstering and crabbing when I was younger and I go out numerous times a year in search of Lobster.

 

While we were waiting for our food to come, I took a photo of a man out on the water..

 

 

THIS IS NOT THE FOOD PORN I PROMISED.... but our lunch finally arrived...

 

 

 

Like I said.. we were starving so I didn't take any more photos after these.

 

My lobster was good but didn't blow my socks off. I thought it was actually a little too tough. The flavors were really good in it though. One of the vegetables (which I thought was a potato) was actually green squash. OMG, I must find a farmers market that sells them. I don't think I'll ever eat a yellow squash again! They were fantastic!

 

Latanya loved her food and I sampled it. I am not a fish fan for the most part but I loved hers. The seasonings were spot on, the fish was perfectly cooked and it made me wish I'd ordered her dish instead! Yum!!

[italianfemmy]

After lunch, we told Kailor that we wanted to start heading back to the ship. We had some time to spare still but we truly were dying to get back to that marvelous Cloud 9 spa, knowing this would be the only window in the day for us to go.

 

Back out the long dirt road we went. An incoming truck was stuck in the mud, blocking us from being able to get out. So, we sat and sat and sat and waited IN THE MUD. Sure enough, we got stuck too! Luckily, Kailor was experienced enough to get us out of it by some careful manuevering! This made me ask him what would happen if we actually couldn't get out of the mud. He replied that they'd have to dispatch another driver to come and get us to take us back to the ship. At least they have a plan in place! We were back on our way in no time!

 

Kailor took us back on a different road so we could see more scenery. On the side of the road, there was this beautiful Mangrove with tons of character and I had to stop for a photo.

 

 

Looking the other direction from the same spot... I got this image..

 

 

.

 

As we got closer to the ship, I noticed these kids playing down this little pier and held my camera out the window, waiting for the moment that I could shoot perfectly down the middle and frame a child in the structure.

 

 

Locals waved and screamed goodbye at us as we drove past them..

 

 

A couple of photos of a shipwreck right by our ship

 

 

 

The day with Kailor had come to an end and we were back at the Mahogany Bay Port. We hugged him goodbye and gave him a nice tip for his agile stopping abilities when I needed... errr.. wanted to take photos during the course of the day.

 

We absolutely 110% recommend Victor Bodden Tours if you want to have a relaxing day seeing this beautiful place and want to be able to do your own thing!

 

Once we got back on the ship, we threw on our bathing suits and robes and went back to the spa. We did the same routine as always. Ahhh! Relaxation!

 

We spent about 2 hours in the spa and went down to our room to get dolled up for dinner. FOOD PORN in the next series of posts!

Edited December 30, 2011 by italianfemmy

[txstarla]

If that is not food porn, I will not survive the real thing. I want lobster NOW.

[TriciaEMTB]

Do you sell your prints of the pictures you take?

 

They're gorgeous. Absolutely breath takingly gorgeous.