My Western Caribbean Carnival Dream Review. 04/14-04/21. Lots of photos!

[cruzlovr75]

hello! i'm looking forward to reading you review as I and my family will be cruising the Dream in August. The rocking is really getting me concerned. This will be a first for my kids and I'm worried that this rocking will get them seasick to the point that it turns them off of cruising. Did the weather play a part or was it just because of some quirk in the ship's design (as others have speculated before)?

 

Please don't be overly concerned about the rocking. I think it was because it was so windy and rough seas. I did notice it, but we still had a fantastic time on this ship and we want to take our kids on it maybe next year and try Eastern Caribbean. You will be so busy having lots of fun on-board!

[cruzlovr75]

Sorry I just realized my title numbering is wrong. I am not counting in the sea days, just ignore the day numbers! So today we arrive in Belize. We booked an excursion through Carnival to Bannister Island. Can you see a theme happening here? We love beaches! I would recommend the all-inclusive beach break it includes a drink and different choices of food for lunch. Again the weather was not in our favour today as you will see in my pictures. It was very windy and cloudy. The island is beautiful. It only took about a 15 minute tender ride to the island. There is lots of lounge chairs, a playground, a gift shop, kayaks. Here is some photos. The 2nd last picture is my new screensaver! It turned out awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruzlovr75]

We sailed past this small island heading away from Belize. I am not sure what it is. It almost looks like someone's home?

[cruzlovr75]

Wow what a beautiful place this was. We had a great day there. We booked an excursion through the ship to Tabyana Beach. We went in a small bus which seemed newer and was very clean, the ride was about 30 minutes to the beach and it was interesting to see the island. The staff was very friendly. There is lots of lounge chairs. It did get crowded with other cruisers throughout the day, thankfully we were the first ones there! The beach was amazing, the water so clear and lots of fish swam around us. They had inflatable water toys which cost money to play on. You could rent snorkel gear for 10 bucks, there was a restaurant, lockers, gift shops, washrooms. I honestly found the food overpriced and not good at all. I ordered a burger for $5.00, I took 1 bite and threw it away it was gross. The beach vendors were very annoying. I had said no several times to the same woman. Anyways, we had a great day at the beach. Here is some photos.

[cruzlovr75]

 

 

 

 

 

[cruzlovr75]

More amazing beaches! I had read good reviews about a restaurant called Tropicante. So I e-mailed the owner and made reservations to spend our day there. We walked outside the cruise port and got a taxi at Hard Rock Cafe for $2.00 per person. It was about a 5-10 minute taxi ride to get there. It was very simple and easy to find. The food and service was good. The beachfront was beautiful. The water was calm and crystal clear. There were lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas. My hubby got a massage on the beach for only $25 for 1 hour. We saw different types of fish in the water. Our ship set sail at 3pm that day, I wished we had more time at that beach! Here is some pictures.

[Ilive2cruise]

Awesome pictures! I esecially love the one with the kayaks! Keep 'em coming!

[cruzlovr75]

My final thoughts about our cruise on the Carnival Dream.

We had a wonderful vacation, we would sail on this ship again. We ended up buying a future cruise coupon!

Things I didn't like: No more food trays to carry your plates and drinks on strange. No more crispy chicken nuggets in the grill food section. The "pay to use" internet was awful, it took my money per minute and it never even connected with the internet I won't use it again. I found the gift shops lacking in clothing throughout the week. Then they brought them all out on the last sea day and there were tons of people fighting over it. Not the ships fault, but I can't believe the parents who are no where to be found while there kids under the age of 9 run all over the ship freely wow! Have they ever heard of stranger danger? Rude and gross people, 1 man budded in front of me in the buffet line and grabbed toast with his hands yuck! Then people saw me coming towards the elevator and they don't hold the door open they stand there watching it close almost on me! Dumb people trying to stuff as many people in 1 elevator as possible while standing there listening to the alarm go off indicating too much weight and it will not move! Almost got run over by an old lady on her scooter! Awe the many joys of cruising LOL! :rolleyes:

Things I Did Like And You Must Try! (if you want)

- Mongolian Wok (line up early)

- Pasta Bar (delish)

- Steakhouse was delish

- Lanai BBQ on sea days (line up early)

- Punchliner comedy club (adults only great line up early)

- Gender showdown (entertaining)

- Marriage show (entertaining)

- Fun Force Dancers Break Dance Show (great get a seat early)

- Dancin' In The Streets Theatre Show (terrific get there early for good seats)

- The staff was very friendly and always cleaning something. They were cleaning decks at 6am! Getting them ready for the day.

- We loved deck 5, it was never too crowded you could always find a lounger there. We used the hot tubs there several times, no one in them! We went to the front of the ship on deck 5 for sail away and port arrivals.

I hope you enjoyed my review, bye for now.

[XJflyer]

Thanks for the pictures and review! We will be on the Dream in just 5 days! I am determined to pack as lightly as possible and I was wondering if you could tell me if they supply shampoo and conditioner, or just shampoo? I see the photo of two dispensers, and I'm guessing one is shampoo and one is shower gel? Thanks! Such a little detail I know, but it matters when I pack!!

[LMKakaThing2]

Thanks for the pictures and review! We will be on the Dream in just 5 days! I am determined to pack as lightly as possible and I was wondering if you could tell me if they supply shampoo and conditioner, or just shampoo? I see the photo of two dispensers, and I'm guessing one is shampoo and one is shower gel? Thanks! Such a little detail I know, but it matters when I pack!!

 

One is shampoo and the other is shower gel.

[cruzlovr75]

Thanks for the pictures and review! We will be on the Dream in just 5 days! I am determined to pack as lightly as possible and I was wondering if you could tell me if they supply shampoo and conditioner, or just shampoo? I see the photo of two dispensers, and I'm guessing one is shampoo and one is shower gel? Thanks! Such a little detail I know, but it matters when I pack!!

 

I bet you're so excited about your cruise it's coming up fast! Yes I would suggest to pack lightly. I forgot to mention that we didn't use 1/2 of the clothes we brought! We were wearing our swim suits during the day and dressier clothes at night. I only wore a couple of the tops and shorts that I packed for 8 days, next time I won't pack so much clothes. You are correct about the dispensers. One is shampoo and one is shower gel. We bought a few small travel sized shampoo bottles they were handy and cheap. Have a nice trip.

[Julienatul]

Thanks for your review. We are sailing the Dream in July for our 10th Anniversary cruise!!

[theavonb]

Thankyou for your wonderful review and hello fellow canuck. Hubby and I will be doing our 1st cruise on the Dream and are pretty excited about it. It gave us a real feel for what it would be like to be actually on it.

[osubuckeye5]

We were also on this sailing, and on the 2nd floor. We notcied the smell often near our room (aft end). I used the internet in our room with no issues besides it's slower than what I'm used to :) So it was probably hit or miss. We had a good time overall. I'm going to try to get a review up this week with pictures. I guess we should have went to deck 5 for chairs on sea days! :)

[bills blasters]

Great review. We will be sailing on her in Jan. Can't wait. Did I hear something about a laser show on the Dream? If so, did you see it?

What were some of the choices at the Pasta Bar. Can't wait to eat there.

Claudia

[cruzlovr75]

Thanks for your review. We are sailing the Dream in July for our 10th Anniversary cruise!!

 

 

Oh that is exciting! Happy 10th Anniversary! I saw you've sailed on the Epic, that must have been a beauty! How did you like it?

[cruzlovr75]

Thankyou for your wonderful review and hello fellow canuck. Hubby and I will be doing our 1st cruise on the Dream and are pretty excited about it. It gave us a real feel for what it would be like to be actually on it.

 

Hey you're not to far from us! We're in Niagara Falls. I am glad you liked my review, I find them helpful for people who have never been on that ship. I know I enjoyed reading other members reviews and I learned from them. Have a great cruise.

[cruzlovr75]

We were also on this sailing, and on the 2nd floor. We notcied the smell often near our room (aft end). I used the internet in our room with no issues besides it's slower than what I'm used to :) So it was probably hit or miss. We had a good time overall. I'm going to try to get a review up this week with pictures. I guess we should have went to deck 5 for chairs on sea days! :)

 

 

I used the internet at the Fun Hub and it was so slow, and it wouldn't connect all the while it was charging me per minute I was not happy. So I didn't go back. I ended up just phoning back home to talk with our kids which was an okay price and it was great to hear their voices. :) I'm glad you had a good time as well, I'd love to read your review and see your pics. Yeah deck 5 was not very busy at all. I walked around the entire Lido deck and Aft deck on sea days I swear there was not 1 free chair I was amazed! We walked around for like 10 minutes until we said this is nuts and went down to deck 5.

[cruzlovr75]

Great review. We will be sailing on her in Jan. Can't wait. Did I hear something about a laser show on the Dream? If so, did you see it?

What were some of the choices at the Pasta Bar. Can't wait to eat there.

Claudia

 

 

Yes there is a laser show. I forgot to mention it, because we didn't end up going. It was a really late start time, like 11:45 pm and we were exhausted by then. There is also a Lido deck party which is supposed to be really fun? Didn't go to that either. Oh I am trying to remember the pasta bar choices, I know there was a lot. You get a pencil and a paper with food items you check off which ones you want, then hand it in to the chef. There were a lot of choices, you choose your type of pasta, choose which meat in it, salad, garlic bread, what type of sauce you want. Hope this helps?

[sunrise2]

We were also on this sailing, and on the 2nd floor. We notcied the smell often near our room (aft end). I used the internet in our room with no issues besides it's slower than what I'm used to :) So it was probably hit or miss. We had a good time overall. I'm going to try to get a review up this week with pictures. I guess we should have went to deck 5 for chairs on sea days! :)

I am concerned about the smell. We are booked to go in Oct and we have a cabin on deck 2 aft end. Was it bad in the cabin? Did you have alot of noise back there?

[cruzlovr75]

Awesome pictures! I esecially love the one with the kayaks! Keep 'em coming!

 

 

Thank You. :) I love taking pictures, I actually took around 500 pictures on this cruise, I had 2 cameras going! Sorry I didn't post more pics but it just takes too long to upload them to photobucket then post them all on here. If there is something you wanted to see more of I can look and see if I have that and post it?

[gelo7]

Nice review.

[osubuckeye5]

I am concerned about the smell. We are booked to go in Oct and we have a cabin on deck 2 aft end. Was it bad in the cabin? Did you have alot of noise back there?

 

Don't be overly concerned about it. You couldn't smell it in the cabin itself. We smelled it in the hallway, but only in our area (I assume since it was near the back of the boat). We were in 2440 and I would book it again. We didn't really have any noise issues that I remember. :)

[newcruisers04]

Could you let me know if you can, at the aft of the ship or close to it, on deck 7, the deck plans on the website show a "greyed out" open area....are you familiar with that are and can tell me what it actually is...I am guessing only that it might be the steam stack? We are going on the Dream in April 2013 are are curious as to what is opposite balcony cabin 7376 at the "almost to the aft" on the port side.

 

thanks so much...lvoed your review

 

Thank You. :) I love taking pictures, I actually took around 500 pictures on this cruise, I had 2 cameras going! Sorry I didn't post more pics but it just takes too long to upload them to photobucket then post them all on here. If there is something you wanted to see more of I can look and see if I have that and post it?

[crewsweeper]

We sailed past this small island heading away from Belize. I am not sure what it is. It almost looks like someone's home?

 

 

I might be wrong, but this looks like Lighthouse Caye out near the Great Blue Hole.