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Carnival DREAM 2014 Cruise Review With Pictures!

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thecruiserofships

thecruiserofships

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Information About This Cruise and About Me: This was my 9th cruise and 1st cruise on the Carnival Dream. This cruise was the June 15th - 22nd 7-day cruise to the Key West, Freeport, and Nassau. The cruise departed from New Orleans, LA.

 

My Review: I am going to post all of my written review here as I write it. I try to do the review in parts, by day. However, I will be posting all of my photos, Funtimes (activity newsletters), and paper handouts on my blog because I don't know how to upload them to Cruise Critic.

 

Here Are The Photos and Funtimes:

http://www.embarkandaway.com/carnival-dream-7day-bahamas-cruise-review-2014.html

Note: I will be sharing the same written information from my blog here too, but I will share some extra information that I didn't written in my blog here! It is also easier to view everything on a desktop or tablet computer, not a mobile device.

 

And Now It is Time For Me To Start Sharing The First Parts of This Review

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thecruiserofships

thecruiserofships

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And Here I Will Start Sharing The Review:

 

Arriving at the Cruise Terminal and Parking:

I arrived at the Erato Street Cruise Terminal around 9:30am. The cruise terminal's parking garage was already allowing embarking passengers to park their cars. Parking rates may vary slightly, but at the time of my cruise parking was about $16 per car per day. The parking attendants were very friendly & efficient. After paying and getting a tag to put in the car's windshield we were directed to go up a spiral ramp to enter the terminal's parking garage. The cruise terminal's parking garage area is located on top of the areas where cruise embarkation & disembarkation takes place. After entering the parking garage we were stopped by a porter that took our luggage from the trunk of our car. After getting our bags the porter told us we could continue and park our car.

 

Check-In and Embarkation:

After parking we were directed to the ground floor of the terminal to start the check in process. The check in process was different this time because the terminal has been renovated. First, our boarding passes and passports were checked and then we were directed to the next floor to go through security. We then checked in, got our Sail & Sign cards, and got our photo taken for security purposes.

Between 11:00am and 11:15am the boarding process started. Platinum & Diamond guests were allowed to board first and then Faster to the Fun guests. After those groups got to board the ship assigned zone numbers were called. Guests that had Faster to the Fun paid extra money for priority boarding and luggage delivery.

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thecruiserofships

thecruiserofships

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Finally Onboard The Ship!

The gangway led guests to enter the ship on Deck 3 (Lobby Deck) at the bottom of the Carnival Dream's atrium. There were two open lines for getting Sail & Sign cards scanned for security purposes. These lines moved fast because security was taking the cards from guests, scanning them, and then giving them back.

The bottom floor of the atrium was setup with youth counselors giving information about the various kid's clubs and SPA workers trying to advertise their SPA packages. One of the first things I did on the Carnival Dream was I rode in the atrium's glass elevator to the Lido Deck. The ride up was very nice and the elevator only had me and four other people.

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thecruiserofships

thecruiserofships

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Lunch: The crew members in the lido buffet were extremely friendly. I was one of the first guests to enter the buffet and every crew member greeted me. I had to walk to the back part of the buffet because I was going to eat the Pasta Bar for lunch. Before I cruised, I read that this area of the ship gets crowded once people know it exists. I will share my lunch photos and review of the lunch further down in this review.

 

THANK YOU to all on Cruise Critic that helped me learn about the Pasta Bar!

 

Carnival Dream's Pasta Bar: The Carnival Dream's Pasta Bar is located on the upper floor of The Gathering on Deck 11. There is a one way stairwell by the mid-ship dessert station that is only for guests wanting to go from Deck 11 to Deck 10. To go up to the Pasta Bar go to the Deck 10 aft stairwell/elevator area and go up one deck to Deck 11. The entrance is on the port side of the ship. There is a hostess deck that guests can grab an order form. The order forms have little boxes that can be checked if you want a particular item in your pasta bowl. Caesar salad and garlic bread is also available on the order form.

 

The order process was very easy for the Pasta Bar and when I was done making my selection a hostess brought it to the kitchen. The food took no longer than 10 minutes to prepare. Each person is given a number to display on their table. When the food is ready a hostess brings the food to the person with that number. My pasta bar dish was not good, but only because I didn't make a good selection. I had samples of other family member's pastas and they had really good dishes prepared for them. The garlic bread was very good and the Caesar Salad was good, but could have used more dressing. Each table on the upper floor with the Pasta bar has a small bowl of grated Parmesan cheese.

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wbc12345

wbc12345

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I am so excited for this review! I've also checked out your blog. I really appreciate you scanning the Fun Times. We'll be on the Dream for the end of August.

 

My plan is to hit the pasta bar for lunch first as well! What did you order, so I can avoid making the same mistakes? Also, what did you think was the best that your family ordered?

 

Can't wait for more on this review and your blog! :D

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thecruiserofships

thecruiserofships

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I am so excited for this review! I've also checked out your blog. I really appreciate you scanning the Fun Times. We'll be on the Dream for the end of August.

 

My plan is to hit the pasta bar for lunch first as well! What did you order, so I can avoid making the same mistakes? Also, what did you think was the best that your family ordered?

 

Can't wait for more on this review and your blog! :D

 

I ordered linguini with Bolognese sauce. Also in the pasta was peppers, sausage, and variety of vegetables. It was the sauce that made my pasta not so good. I also advise against putting sausage in your pasta because it is very greasy (probably got soaked in grease).

 

One of my other family members ordered pomodoro and this sauce was very good (I had a taste of their pasta).

 

Just order things that you would typically eat in your pasta and most likely you will have a good dish. Don't try something exotic in your pasta if you are worried that you won't like it in it.

 

The servings from the Pasta Bar are very generous and this could make a whole meal in itself. The garlic bread from the Pasta Bar was very good.

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thecruiserofships

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Thank you to all for the kind words! I really appreciate them and they make writing this review a lot more fun!

 

I have posted pictures for Day 2 after having some tech problems today. They are fixed after I dealt with my provider's customer service for a long time.

 

I will also continue sharing writing from Day 1 tomorrow.

 

PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS! I am more than happy to respond!

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thecruiserofships

thecruiserofships

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The mini golf course on the Carnival Dream was the nicest mini golf course that I have seen on a cruise ship. Since this golf course is located in the middle of the ship there is less wind to interfere with a game. However, the best time to play is when the ship is docked in a port. The clubs and golf balls are self serve and located at the mini golf course. The mini golf course had 18 holes, instead of 9 (like most ships).

Right by the mini golf course is the jogging track. 7 laps around the jogging track equaled one mile. The jogging track has guiding arrows that indicate it is a one way track, but most people never paid attention and went wherever they wanted to go.

 

Stateroom:

My stateroom was a Deluxe Ocean View. A Deluxe Ocean View is a standard Ocean View stateroom, but it has two bathrooms. One of the bathrooms has a shower and toilet, while the other has a bathtub that can be also used as a shower. Both bathrooms had a sink.

Staterooms for Diamond, Platinum, and Faster to the Fun guests were ready when boarding began, but for everyone else staterooms were not ready until 1:30PM. The firewalls were closed to all of the hallways, but for those that have the perk of being able to access their room early, they are allowed to open the firewall to get into their room.

My stateroom was very clean and well kept. However, my stateroom steward made no attempt to introduce himself and I never saw him until the middle of the cruise when he was in my room cleaning. After that I did see him a few times and he attempted to call us by name, but he never got our names right.

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thecruiserofships

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The Lanai is an area that extends around the perimeter of Deck 5. This is an outside area. The Lanai has many hot tubs and deck chairs. According to on board signage, 2.5 times around the Lanai is equal to a mile. The Lanai primarily has tall window like rails that are taller than most people. The very front and back areas of the Lanai have normal deck rails. The people with balcony staterooms can look down at the Lanai and the people on the Lanai can look up at the people on their balconies. There are many doors from the insides of Deck 5 to go out to the Lanai.

 

Muster Station Drill:

The Muster Station drill is always a required event for every passenger on the cruise ship. My muster station was A3 which was the Deck 3 level of the Encore Theatre. The cruise terminal told everyone the muster station drill would be at 3:15pm, but the daily newsletter said 3:30pm. The muster station drill officially started around 3:40pm.

I arrived at my muster station around 3:10pm and got a good seat in the very back of the lounge. There were some other passengers already in the lounge and more came in after me. Around 3:30pm the crew members were instructed to proceed to their stations and soon after the guests were told to go to their stations. The muster station drill went by quickly and the crew working my station did a good job to make the drill go by faster. The drill consisted of safety announcements, what to do in an emergency, and some general information about environmental policies & hand washing.

Everyone was dismissed from the drill depending on their locations. Mine was released first along with one other. The back row was dismissed first and the crew made sure that everyone remained seated until the row behind them had completely left.

 

Since I was one of the first people out of the Muster Station drill I was able to quickly get to the spot I wanted to be on to see New Orleans as we sailed away. I choose the Lanai on Deck 5 at the very back. This area had lower railings and I wanted to be at the back to see New Orleans as the ship gets further away. It is a good thing that I was able to quickly get to this spot because many others had this area in mind too.

 

Sail-A-Way: The ship was scheduled to leave around 4:00pm, but it did not actually leave until around 4:40pm. One of the reasons why this may have been delayed was not all supplies were loaded and the muster station drill did not start on-time.

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thecruiserofships

thecruiserofships

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Day 3 Part 1 photos are now online!

 

This part includes Key West arrival, breakfast, walking around Key West, and lunch.

 

I will keep posting some written parts of the review as soon as possible. I am pretty tired right now and need a short rest.

 

Please feel free to ask some questions!

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