Carnial Dream picture review

[mpcaruth]

The beach you went to in St. Marten. Did they have jet skis for rent? My son wants to do that and so far the only beach I can see is Orient Beach. Thanks

 

Yes, there were jetskis available at Great Bay Beach. See picture in next post.

[mpcaruth]

St. Maarten Cont.

 

We really enjoyed Great Bay Beach. See the Dream in the background? The Beach was really close to the docks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SpeedsterX]

Great pictures! I had almost this itinerary on RCCL's Freedom last summer.

 

Next time in St. Marten, try Maho Beach. Your son would LOVE it I am sure! Planes almost landing on your head and a great beach and beach bar/restaurant right there! I loved it and spent half the day. Also Orient Bay is great but is semi and fully nude. Just a heads up.

 

Maho Bay Beach planes landing extremely low:

 

[mpcaruth]

St. Maarten Cont.

 

We booked an ATV tour online through Stmaartencruiseexcursions dot com. It started raining ½ hour before our ATV tour was to begin. We seriously thought about canceling our excursion, but when we saw the group before us arrive back, they convinced us otherwise. They were soaking wet, but said they had a blast and encourage us to do it. We did. Since it was just the 4 of us, we got a private ATV tour. I cannot express how much fun we had!!!!!! The tour guide stopped and got us trash bags to use as ponchos. The hilarious look just added to the fun. We road the ATVs through town and towards Orient Beach. We had stops along the way and went through a sandy, muddy, off-road area.

 

 

 

 

 

[mpcaruth]

St. Maarten again...

 

 

The final stop on the ATV excursion was the famous Orient Beach!

By the time we got to Orient Beach, the rain had stopped, and the kids enjoyed swimming and playing. Since it had previously rained, the beach had cleared out, and we were the only ones on the beach. Well, except for old-naked-guy further up the beach on the nude side. The kids never noticed, but I caught him in the background of one of the photos of the kids. Orient Beach was not an exceptional beach by Caribbean standards, I guess it must just be famous for the nudity?!?

 

 

 

 

On the other side of the rocks in this photo is the nude side:

 

 

 

 

The ride back to the ship was pleasant and the sun was peaking back out. I highly recommend this tour!!!! What a crazy, fun, wet, muddy blast!

[gelo7]

Excellent review and pictures.

[mpcaruth]

Various photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hallmarkk]

were you on the 28th of Jan???? I thought I saw your kids in the pool, also we went to Orient Beach I remember the nud guy, and it wasn't a pretty site

[mpcaruth]

Summary:

The Dream is a beautiful ship, but could feel crowded often; especially when getting an elevator, using the pools, or attending a show in the main theater. We didn’t feel that all the added fun stuff to the Dream class ship made the experience much better. The food was excellent and the options were plentiful. The Behind the Fun tour is a nice one-time experience. I loved the nightly comedy shows.

 

For those interested, here is a link to our Carnival Freedom cruise to Panama, which is my favorite cruise to date. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1347741

In fact, we are considering doing the Freedom’s southern itinerary next year.

 

I hope some of the information I have provided you will be beneficial to you in planning your next cruise. Enjoy!

Gotta love making my family dress up on formal night. My son's face sums it up pretty well for how he fills about ties. He he he.

 

[reginaphalange]

Love your review! Thanks so much for sharing!

[kadun]

Great review and pictures! We'll be in the same room and doing the same itenirary on April 21st.

 

We'll be with you on the 21st!!!:)

[reginaphalange]

LOL! This might be my favorite picture!

 

Summary:

The Dream is a beautiful ship, but could feel crowded often; especially when getting an elevator, using the pools, or attending a show in the main theater. We didn’t feel that all the added fun stuff to the Dream class ship made the experience much better. The food was excellent and the options were plentiful. The Behind the Fun tour is a nice one-time experience. I loved the nightly comedy shows.

 

For those interested, here is a link to our Carnival Freedom cruise to Panama, which is my favorite cruise to date. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1347741

In fact, we are considering doing the Freedom’s southern itinerary next year.

 

I hope some of the information I have provided you will be beneficial to you in planning your next cruise. Enjoy!

Gotta love making my family dress up on formal night. My son's face sums it up pretty well for how he fills about ties. He he he.

 

[KPGirl]

Cute kids !!!!

[jacksmom09]

Great reviews and pics!:D

[mpcaruth]

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I tried to keep the review simple and easy to read for other folks like me with short attention spans (less words and more photos).

[Berzle986]

Great review and awesome pictures. May I ask what brand and series of camera you used?

[wrigley80]

ports: Nassau, st. Thomas, and st. Maarten

as i stated earlier, this cruise was not chosen for its itinerary. I prefer adventure, history, and culture to a myriad of beach days. My kids enjoy all of the above. I tried to schedule port activities that would meet all of our desires.

 

nassau:

we had been here a couple of times. We went to the atlantis water park one year, and the kids said that was the best water park ever (imagine that). Since the ship was only in port from 8:30 to 2:00, i decided on a beach day to cable beach. I had researched it and we were going to take the jitney to the sheraton and enjoy the beach and heated pools. Well… we were about an ½ hour late getting off the ship because i could not get everyone moving that morning. Then, we had a hard time finding the jitney stop. Once we did, the jitney didn’t show up, but was pulled over by the police a few blocks up (apparently the police were cracking down on un-licensed taxi drivers in nassau). So, after waiting another ½ hour, we punted and grabbed a taxi. Whoa! The main road to cable beach was blocked do to a marathon event. We literally went up and down every side road in town only to find the road still block. So, when we finally made it to the sheraton, we determined we would only have about an hour there to allow for time to maneuver the road closing going back. So we punted. No sheraton and the kids were disappointed. We headed back downtown, and as a tradition, went to the tortuga store to get our rum cakes they had free samples of rum cake (omg good). The cakes are much fresher from here than on the ship. The lady at the store said the cakes on the ship are delivered to carnival typically at 3 months old.

 

 

 

also a tradition is to get conch fritters at the port shop area. They are wonderful!

 

 

sorry, no cool photos of nassau this year, as our day was a bust.

 

 

 

st. Thomas:

we decided to take the family to st. John to see the beautiful us national park of trunk bay. I was expecting to be wow’d and to feel like i was in heaven. It was very nice, but not quite heaven. The trip there was cumbersome: Taxi to redhook ferry, ferry to cruz bay on st. John, and then taxi to trunk bay. We got to trunk bay about an hour before all the cruise tours, which i recommend anyone going there to do. My son and i tried the snorkeling trail, but with all the wind, the water was too murky to see much. The snorkeling on sapphire beach on st. Thomas was much better. The beach at trunk bay was very narrow and became extremely crowded. I think if we ever go back, we will head to another less congested beach with better snorkeling. The vista seen from the taxi ride on st. John were amazing. I wish we had had more time on the island...maybe a land vaction someday?

 

 

 

 

view of trunk bay from the taxi:

 

trank bay before the crowds arrived:

 

 

 

 

 

 

to be continued...

 

gorgeous pics...................i am gonna have to try out trunk bay next time i am in st. Thomas

[wrigley80]

i will add another quick post before i take a break for the day. The oasis of the seas seemed to be following us wherever we went. That ship made my kids drool. They must have asked 50 times if we could cruise on that ship. I would love too try it, but at double the cost for this family, we will most likely not cruise her.

 

When i took this picture, i asked the kids which ship they wanted to be on. See the fingers? It's hard to believe how small the dream seems in comparison:

 

omg.............oasis of the seas is ginormous. I can't even imagine seeing it up close like that. It looks huge in pictures

[wrigley80]

LOL! This might be my favorite picture!

 

Love the Picture. That is exactly how I feel about dressing up as well :o

[wrigley80]

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I tried to keep the review simple and easy to read for other folks like me with short attention spans (less words and more photos).

 

Thanks for the great picture review. I am trying to decide between the Conquest and the Dream for next December

[itzgeralyn]

Great pictures and review. You have a very lovely family...and attitude! Thank you so much for sharing :)

[misand]

Great review! We leave in 2 weeks!

[vcop]

Can`t wait for April 21st!Loved your review!

[maggy387]

We are going in April also - the 21st when do you go? This will be our tenth but first on the dream. We are from Tennessee - where are you from?

[mpcaruth]

Great review and awesome pictures. May I ask what brand and series of camera you used?

 

I use two cameras: my bulky DSLR, Canon Rebel TI1 with lens' and my small super zoom Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1. Both of these cameras are about 3 years old. I have had 3 generations of the Panasonic and have loved all of them. I am thinking about upgrading my Panasonic for a newer Lumix this year.