Dream review, tons of pics, 3 beach reviews!

[Granny1]

Hi bluejay555'

We were on this cruise also, had early dining and also had Ricardo, JoKo and Fajar for waiters and I must say out of all my cruises they were the best. In fact we might have been just across from you in the middle with a 6 table seating right beside the waiters station. It was a great cruise, in Jamaica we went to Sunset Beach Resort and it was great, all inclusive, they had slides and a lazy river and I think at least three pools a adults only pool, a regular pool and one for small kids and it wasn't very far from the pier. Enjoying your review very much.

[bluejay555]

How was the noise level from above you in the cabin

 

We had no noise from above :)

[bluejay555]

Loving your review. Heading out on the Dream on Nov 9 with my wife and 4 year old.

 

Did your kids go to Camp Carnival at all and if so, how was that?

 

 

35 miles south of St Louis? Like Fenton or High Ridge, or Festus or Arnold? I was born in St. Louis County but grew up west of there in Warren County.

 

Festus! My kids did not go to camp carnival. We attended the build a bear activity as a family, but that was it.

[bluejay555]

Hi bluejay555'

We were on this cruise also, had early dining and also had Ricardo, JoKo and Fajar for waiters and I must say out of all my cruises they were the best. In fact we might have been just across from you in the middle with a 6 table seating right beside the waiters station. It was a great cruise, in Jamaica we went to Sunset Beach Resort and it was great, all inclusive, they had slides and a lazy river and I think at least three pools a adults only pool, a regular pool and one for small kids and it wasn't very far from the pier. Enjoying your review very much.

 

Oh wow, we might have been sitting really close then! Small world!! Sunset beach resort sounds great.

[bluejay555]

OK, I'm really sorry to leave you hanging like that....

 

We made a beeline to a Carnival person and explained we forgot our tickets. He said no problem, and had us fill out a "duplicate ticket" to use, which he apologized and said he was required to tell me that if we really hadn't purchased the tickets, my sail and sign card would be charged for the duplicate tickets. Whew, that was a close one! It would have taken forever to tender back and get the original tix!

 

As we boarded our shuttle it was really looking like rain

 

 

 

 

Now, Tiki Beach was all-inclusive, and had a beautiful bar, but the only drinks that were all inclusive were rum punch or beer.

 

 

Check out that sky! It started thundering and raining on us, but we stuck it out and the rain let up after a while

 

The water here was gorgeous.

[bluejay555]

Behind us, where the waves are breaking, it was really rocky. I rented snorkel gear and Sara and I went out there to explore. There were sea urchin, and lots of brightly colored fish of all sizes. Such a neat experience! The waves made it hard to swim though. Later some people saw a stingray swimming close to the beach and we got to run over and see it. Lots of sea life there.

 

 

Lunch! It was hamburgers, hot dogs, and jerk chicken.

 

 

It wasn't bad!

 

 

This little guy was hanging out by our chairs

 

 

[Perfect Stranger]

You don't look like a grandma at all. How rude of that person.

 

Please continue the good review.

[bluejay555]

The sun's finally out! You can see the cruise ships in the distance

 

 

 

OK, so the beach was gorgeous, the rum punch was flowing freely, and we did not want to leave at 2:30, which is when we were told to catch the shuttle back to the dock. Our last tender was leaving at 4:15, so we asked if we could just catch a cab back later. We planned on staying until 3:30 since it was a short ride back. No problem!

 

Well, we went out at 3:30 to catch a cab and there were shuttles there taking carnival Glory passengers back, so I confirmed it was delivering everyone to the dock, then flagged my mom and kids over. My mom comes over and says to the shuttle person that we are from the dream and could we have a ride. I was like Shut Up mom!!! The shuttle person said what?? You were supposed to leave an hour ago! Why would you ignore your scheduled departure time?? Then she just stared at us for a very uncomfortable 20seconds or so, then said, ugh, well you better come on then. So we rode back for free with the fine people on the Glory! And they kind of freaked us out because they kept telling us it was 4:30, but they were on eastern time and we were on central.

 

 

The tender line was outrageous, but didn't end up taking that long.

 

 

 

[bluejay555]

You don't look like a grandma at all. How rude of that person.

 

Please continue the good review.

 

Well aren't you sweet! Thank you :D

[bluejay555]

Obviously the last tender did not leave at 4:15. Look at that line that was behind us!

 

 

We went back to our room to shower and relax on the balcony for a bit and discovered this

 

 

Nasty black debris that stunk like sulphur coating our entire balcony

 

 

It's not too often that I complain, but I called guest services and they sent someone with a wet vac to clean it all up. There were crews above us doing some work and whatever they were doing up there rained down on us. Blah. It happened the next day too and our poor room steward had to go out and clean it. He said they aren't allowed to use hoses out there while at sea... said he'd get sent home if he did. Weird. Didn't know that rule!

 

Camp Carnival had a build a bear event, so we did that before dinner. It's not really Build a Bear, but Carnival's version. You pick out your animal, they give you box with the carcass, stuffing, and two shirts. The animal has a hole in its back where you stuff all the stuffing into, the zip and Velcro it up. Simple!

If I remember right, most animals were $29. The St. Jude bear was $20.

 

[bluejay555]

The bears came with this little tshirt, and a blue hoodie that said Carnival Dream.

 

 

 

[Katmarha]

Great review! Enjoying all the pics.

[bluejay555]

Great review! Enjoying all the pics.

 

Thanks!

 

OK, time for dinner pics!

 

This was golden potato soup or something, and it was deeelish!

 

Shark balls! (I'm sure it had a more appetizing name, but it has escaped me) This is the dish we all had never tried before. It was actually not too bad.

 

 

Beef stroganoff

 

Bitter and blanc

 

A new washcloth animal!

 

[bluejay555]

Now, Josie had lost her top front tooth right before we left for this cruise. She was so upset, because she wanted to lose it on the cruise, so she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking her to visit and leave something under her and her sister's pillows the night of Tiki Beach. The tooth fairy managed to slip over to the gift shop and get ship keychains for both kids, and a lady at Tiki beach was kind enough to trade American money for some Cayman coins. The girls were thrilled when they woke up the next morning and saw that the tooth fairy really did read the letter, and followed through!

 

[ReggaeRoy]

Loving this report. Thanks!

[bluejay555]

Next up, COZUMEL!!! I love love love Cozumel! We were up at the crack of dawn, ready to get off the ship asap because we somehow misread the arrival time as being 7am....but it was really 9am. Waaaaa!!!

 

 

So we waited and waited and waited some more.... and we didn't even dock until 10am, which put us off the ship about 10:30. Ugh, oh well, we were in Cozumel!

 

Funny how many people it takes to prepare for our departure from the ship...(and isn't this a great view from our COVE balcony?? Love it!)

 

 

Had to walk to the taxi station because we were headed to Nachi Cocom! It was $16 for the 4 of us and there were like a bazillion mosquitos swarming inside the taxi. It was awful! We spent the whole ride swatting the air, dodging, and shrieking.

 

 

Ahhh finally in paradise... now we were here last year too, and the water was much clearer then. This time, There was this silt floating all around and I heard they had lots of storms recently, so I guess everything got churned up. When we got back to the ship and showered, we had that silt-like stuff all inside our swimsuits! oh well, it was still paradise!

 

 

[bluejay555]

Loving this report. Thanks!

 

Thank you!!!

 

A starfish! This is the first time in my entire life that I have seen a real live starfish at the beach. At first I thought it was dead, but then it moved an arm and it's little suction cups were pulsing in and out, so yeah, it was very much alive.

 

 

We checked it out and said our goodbyes and I tossed it as far back into the ocean as I could. We were afraid someone would keep it and kill it!

 

 

 

 

The pool was amazing!

 

 

[bluejay555]

Now, for those of you not familiar with Nachi Cocom, it is this fantastic little beach club that is all-inclusive and very reasonably priced, at $55 for age 16 and older, $35 for kids age 12-15, and $17 for ages 4-11. 3 and under are free. Not to mention, they only allow up to 100 visitors a day, so it's never overly crowded. We tried counting heads and thought there were approx. 50 people there with us. There was also a large party of Mexicans that came for a luncheon, but didn't swim or anything. They seemed to be having a LOT of fun!

 

 

Ahh a Miami Vice (half pina colada, half strawberry daqu.). They would make any drink you asked for and it's all included! We definitely got our money's worth with the food and drinks.

 

 

You are free to order as much as you want from the menu, so we each got an appetizer and a main dish. Everything was wonderful... probably the best food we had the entire cruise.

 

Cheese quesadilla

 

 

Chicken wings (we kinda thought they'd have hot sauce on them, like you get in the states, but these were yummy just the same)

 

 

Chicken fried tacos... probably my least favorite thing we ordered

 

 

Fried cheese sticks

 

[bluejay555]

Chicken fajitas. If you ever go to nachi cocom, you must order these! Best chicken ever. We were fighting over the last little bits of it lol

 

 

 

BBQ ribs. My mom loved these.

 

Lots of wildlife. We also saw a "red raccoon" as they called it, but didn't get a pic. It looked kind of like an anteater.

 

They have really nice grounds. Josie was hunting for coconuts.

 

[bluejay555]

Poor little baby crab was dead at the bottom of the pool. Probably fell in and couldn't get back out.

 

 

 

After lunch, they put this float thing out in the water and it was $2 per kid to get on it. We heard the kids report that it was too dry and hot and the slide was sticky, so we didn't bother with it. We were having fun anyway!

 

 

Oops! Yes, I made her get out after I snapped the pic.

 

 

Perfect day in Mexico. Perfect! ....but look at that line to get back on the ship. Eek! We waited for a good half hour. Oh well, at least it wasn't scorching hot, and none of us had to pee-hehe

 

[ryansmith18]

Until now I was on the fence about going to Nachi Cocom on my next cruise. That food looks delicious!

[bluejay555]

Until now I was on the fence about going to Nachi Cocom on my next cruise. That food looks delicious!

 

Oh it was! And I can't imagine anyone not loving Nachi Cocom, except maybe older kids who prefer more of the water inflatables to climb around on, and loud music.

[tbbtravels]

Great review and pics.

 

We always try food we haven't eaten before too.

Glad we didn't have to pay for some it. ;)

 

Edited June 18, 2014 by tbbtravels

[abisutton]

What a great review! Please keep posting, I had an amazing call yesterday that is putting me on the dream 8/3 with Cynthia! I hadn't thought I was getting another vacation, so I haven't had months to think about and plan for this trip on a new ship. You are really bringing my excitement up, and I appreciate it! I'm your age and will fall apart if asked if I'm grandma. You DONT look like grandma at all! Anyhow, looking forward to more, thank you. 😊

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[bluejay555]

Great review and pics.

 

We always try food we haven't eaten before too.

Glad we didn't have to pay for some it. ;)

 

 

Exactly! :D