Cruising Christine's Dream Review 10/25/15

[bakersdozen12]

Recently my husband and I went on our very first cruise. We booked the cruise back in March and I spent the subsequent months doing tons of research, with most being here on the Cruise Critic forum. I learned so much, and I always especially enjoyed reading people's reviews, so I guess this time it's my turn!

 

A little background about me: I have a 18-year-old son from my first marriage who did not join us on the cruise. My son does not like traveling, and prefers to stay home. He is a senior in high school and loves having the chance to have the house to himself. I guess I can't blame him, but at the same time, when I was his age all I could think about was getting as far away from home as possible. Oh well, to each his/her own. Traveling is in my blood (but apparently not his).

 

So, it would be just my husband and I. We've been married for 6 years, and never really had a honeymoon, so this trip was long overdue. We are from NH and have previously vacationed in Vegas, New Orleans, Chicago and Niagara Falls, but this trip was the first time I would really be traveling out of the country (it's hard to count Niagara Falls in Canada since it's so close to us in NH). He's been to Singapore, Amsterdam, and Israel, but for me, I haven't traveled as much. So I was very excited!

 

Ports

The cruise on the Dream was taking us from New Orleans to Montego Bay, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; and Cozumel, Mexico.

 

Day before flying to New Orleans

In my research one of the first things I learned was that you should always fly out one day before. The cruise was scheduled to sail out on Sunday, 10/25, so we flew to NOLA on Saturday the 24th. I took that Friday before off so that I could pack, clean my house, load up on groceries for my son, and of course, for the ever important pre-cruise mani/pedi:

 

 

I had my toes done to match, but I will spare you a picture of my feet. :D Anyway, after a very stressful day of packing (I was constantly worrying that I was going to forget something, but at the same time, was worrying that we were over-packing), it was time to finally fly out to New Orleans!

 

Pre-cruise day in New Orleans

We had a 10:20 flight on Southwest out of Logan (BOS) with plane change in Atlanta (ATL). The one thing that I did overlook when planning was to avoid booking a flight with a short layover. This one was only 45 minutes. I kept worrying, not so much that we would miss our connecting flight to New Orleans (MSY), but that our luggage wouldn't make it onto the second plane. Fortunately we ending up landing a half hour early (thank you Southwest and mother nature for the perfect flying weather that day). Bottom line, though, and I would recommend this to anyone planning future trips: pay close attention to short layovers. While the shortened overall travel time seems great on the surface, it's not worth the headaches involved if you or your luggage misses your connecting flight. We got lucky, but I will never take the chance again.

 

We arrived in New Orleans promptly at 5:30 pm central time. Gathering up our bags was quick, and we at the designated area for our shuttle earlier than our scheduled pick-up time. The company was called Airport Shuttle New Orleans, and the price was $48 for the two of us. Even though we were there early, we still had to wait for the next shuttle because apparently they sell spots right at the airport and do not give preference to people that pre-book. So we ended up having to wait about a half hour for the next shuttle. I was not impressed, but oh well, we were on vacation, so not the time to be stressed out about waiting, right?!

 

The shuttle finally arrived and took us to our pre-cruise hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott New Orleans Downtown/Convention Center on Julia Street. The hotel was a little pricey, but I really wanted something close to the port. It was very nice, and the room was quite comfortable.

 

 

After settling in, we decided to walk around downtown and get something to eat for dinner. We ended up at the Riverwalk shopping center. My husband ending up forgetting to pack the hat that he had purchased a couple weeks before, to use for excursions (to protect from the sun), so we figured it we might find something here.

 

 

We also were not in the mood for a long sit down dinner, so we grabbed something quick to eat from the food court. We sat by the windows, and I had a birds-eye view of the cruise ship terminal. I'm not sure what they call that thing, the covered walkway that you use to get onto the ship, but I could see it clearly, and was getting so very excited!!!

 

 

To be continued...

[Raxter54]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Thank you for doing this :D

[bakersdozen12]

Pre-cruise day in New Oreans cont'd

My husband was able to find a replacement hat at a vendor in the mall. It was one of those little carts in the middle of the mall, and they sold hats which you could get whatever you wanted embroidered on the hat. Being the geek that he is, he picked the Agents of Shield symbol. Boys will always be boys, I guess!

 

 

After dinner we made our way to watch the Krewe of Boo parade. If you have never heard of this, do a google search. The floats they have in this parade are amazing. It's pretty much like a Halloween version of Mardi Gras. When I found out that this parade was going to be held the night we arrived in New Orleans, and that the route was going to pass right by our hotel, I was so excited. I had been looking forward to it. We were waiting for the parade to start, and I took some shots.

 

 

When the parade started, there were a bunch of decorated go carts, with people tossing candy out into the audience. Now, they were all throwing the candy towards the ground, however, apparently one not-so-smart person decided to throw candy directly at the audience. I was looking down at the time, and did not see the jumbo jawbreaker coming at me. Hit my right on the forehead and hurt like a b***h, let me tell you. I was seeing stars. So we ended up going back to the hotel so I could put ice on it. Which is why, sadly, I don't have any pictures of the Krewe of Boo parade.

 

Embarkation Day!

The day I had been waiting 7 long months for finally arrived!!! We had FTTF, so I wanted to be one of those obnoxious people who arrived at the port early. After eating breakfast at the hotel (they don't have continental breakfast included, so we paid about $30 for a decent, albeit overpriced, breakfast), we were ready to grab a cab to the port at 10 am. Here is a picture of me in my sail-away outfit:

 

 

 

On the way to the port, I happened to look out the window of the cab at one point and saw for the first time, peeking out between two building and above another, the Dream's whale tale. If there is one thing that I will never, ever forget about this trip it's this: I will never, ever forget the feeling of seeing that whale tale for this first time. It's like that very first Christmas when you finally get what Santa is all about, and you see those presents on Christmas morning. I was in love; my heart was racing. It was such a beautiful sight!

Anyway, we arrived at the port, and even though I was worried we were too early, there were plenty others who had beaten us. Having FTTF meant we got to be in a line with only a couple people ahead of us rather than about 50+. My husband looked at me then and asked, "How much did you pay for FTTF?" I told him, and he responded that it was worth it. I was already thinking so as well.

 

After an easy check-in, we were seated in the reserved rows at the front for the FTTFs. (Suites, Platinums and Diamonds have a special room to wait in at the Port of New Orleans.) From my seat I could see the Dream!

 

 

The wait ended up being really, really long. We were the first cruise after the two back-to-back Journey cruises, and apparently there were issues with debarkation for the prior cruise. John Heald said on his page that it had something to do with people not abiding by their debarkation zone numbers (though obviously Carnival wasn't checking), but I also think the weather had something to do with it. It was raining thanks to storms related to Hurricane Patricia. We didn't get to board until 12:30, but I didn't mind. We were seated, and I had my phone to help me pass the time. Here's a picture of my husband and I waiting that I happened to find on our cruise's Facebook page (I cut out the people who were the subject of the pic):

 

 

To be continued...

[bakersdozen12]

Embarkation Day cont'd

After finally being called to board, I was too excited to think to take pictures, so no pictures of the walkway that leads to the boat, or the atrium when we first boarded. The atrium on the Dream is very beautiful, though! The first thing we did was to go straight to the Shore Excursions desk to book the Behind the Fun tour. I knew that it had limited availability, so I didn't want to miss out. I don't think we had to worry, though, as we were the first to book it!

 

After that, we headed to our room. Having FTTF meant that it was ready, which is the best part of FTTF, in my opinion. We had a cove balcony, #2256, which was one level down from the atrium, and right under the Shore Excursions desk. Here is a shot of the cute decor guy that greeted us every day.

 

 

If you are thinking of booking a cove balcony, I cannot recommend this particular one more. The location was fantastic. Since it's not under the galley, it's quiet. But being right next to the atrium elevators/stairs meant it was so convenient as well. We had hardly any walk at all after boarding, or when returning from the ports, and when we wanted to watch a show in the Encore theater, we just had to leave our room and go up one flight of stairs and it was right there. The room's a/c worked beautifully, too. We had it on the coldest setting which is what my husband likes. But I was cold the whole time. Had to ask for a couple extra blankets for myself. Anyway, here is a quick shot of the room, a typical cove balcony:

 

 

After dropping our stuff off (thanks, FTTF!), we headed out to find the BlueIguana Tequila bar so that I could get my DOD (drink on deck) in a souvenir parrot cup. I had read somewhere that this is the only bar that has them. I'm the biggest parrot lover (more on that later), so I had to get one. I got a virgin pina colada (my husband and I don't drink alcohol).

 

 

Next stop was Pasta Bella for lunch. I had read that this was a good place to go for lunch on embarkation day since most people don't know it's there. I can see why. It wasn't exactly the easiest place to find! You have to go way to the back of the buffet, and then up some stairs. I had bowtie pasta with alfredo sauce, chicken and broccoli. I wanted spinach, too, but they were out. Oh well. And they also only gave me one piece of broccoli, which I thought was pretty cheap, but the dish really was delicious so I didn't really mind.

 

[Raxter54]

Our group is planning on hitting Pasta Bella on our cruise. And that looks yummy :-)

[bakersdozen12]

Embarkation Day cont'd

After lunch we spent some time walking around the ship and just exploring. I have to say that my first impression of the ship was that it wasn't as big as I imagined. Not to say that it's not big (I understand that there are a lot of smaller ships), but after reading reviews from some people about how they hate larger ships like the Dream, because they hate the walk from one end to the other, I was just surprised that we were able to walk around the whole this in no time.

 

These pictures were taken from our first exploration walk. The lido pool and the dive-in theater:

 

 

The Encore theater:

 

 

The Scarlet Dining room (we had early dining here):

 

 

Atrium:

 

 

Page Turner Library (in case you want to borrow a book or a game to play):

 

 

The arcade:

 

[bakersdozen12]

Embarkation Day cont'd

After exploring for awhile, it was time for the muster drill. Now, I have to say, for first time cruisers like myself and my husband, we found this process to be a tad confusing. Mostly it was just confusing to figure out exactly where we were supposed to be. We finally found our designated station in the Crimson dining room.

 

 

We had found it, but we couldn't help but wonder if we were really in the right place because there was no one else there at 3:30, the time it was supposed to start. Eventually people started to show up, but it was already close to 4:00, the time we were supposed to sail away. I don't remember what time it started, but it was very late. And, no one actually took attendance. Which make me wonder how they know if everyone is there or not? I thought that they would page people who didn't show up and not start unless everyone was there? Anyway, Hennie, the CD had everyone cracking up laughing during the muster drill with all of the impressions that he does. Not sure if that's a good thing, but it was entertaining nonetheless. It's amazing how, at the end, he was switching back and forth between voices mid-sentence. Another highlight of the muster drill was that while waiting, we met two nice couples: and older couple from the US and a couple about our age from England.

 

After the muster drill we found out that due to the rain, they were moving the sail away party to the atrium. So we headed back to our room so that we could enjoy sail away from our balcony. I'm not sure how other balconies are when it's raining, but since we were in a cove, we were sheltered from the rain.

 

 

We waited, and waited and waited. I spent the time taking pictures of boats passing us in the Mississippi.

 

 

[Anneschmera]

Your lucky you weren't at the parade when they throw cabbages. LOL

[JoyMouse]

 

Why has no one else ever said that Carnival has parrot cups! I don't drink alcohol either, but this is definitely a major plus in the try Carnival someday column. Royal Caribbean just cannot compete when it comes to parrot cups! (I'm actually being serious).

 

I'm really enjoying your review. Keep up the great work. I feel the same way about seeing the ship on embarkation day. I also like seeing the other ships and lines in port and waving to folks having a great time, too.

[bakersdozen12]

Embarkation Day cont'd

Well, after waiting and waiting for sail away (I really wanted to see some of the sights along the Mississippi before it got dark out), we finally had to give up when dinner time came (6:00). I toyed with maybe skipping dinner in the MDR, but I'm glad we didn't because we didn't end up setting sail until after 7 when it was already pitch black dark out. So the 3+ hour late sail away was lackluster for sure for these first-time cruisers, but oh well. I already know it won't be our last!

 

Dinner in the MDR was delicious. While I definitely liked some things more than others, I was pleased overall during the whole cruise. Dream still has the old menus (not the American Table), in case anyone is wondering.

 

Warning about my review: it will be food porn-heavy. That first night I had the chicken tenders with honey mustard and the little salad on the side.

 

 

For the main course I had the tilapia with carrots and mac n cheese. Loved it.

 

 

And for dessert, since nothing else screamed out at me, I went right for the most popular dessert: the chocolate melting cake. Let's just say, it wouldn't be my last.

 

 

After dinner, we went to the Welcome Aboard show in the Encore theater. It was fun, and gave us a glimpse of the other shows.

 

 

At the end of the show, Hennie announced a "Selfie with the CD" contest. Basically you just had to get a selfie with him and then at the end of the week, you would get a prize. I got my selfie with him that night, but never got my prize because when they were giving them out, we were having our Behind the Fun tour. No biggie. I'm sure the prize wasn't that great, and I ended up with a selfie to remember him by. Hennie really is a great CD.

 

[bakersdozen12]

Your lucky you weren't at the parade when they throw cabbages. LOL

 

Oh good god, I would have been a goner for sure! Lol.

 

 

Why has no one else ever said that Carnival has parrot cups! I don't drink alcohol either, but this is definitely a major plus in the try Carnival someday column. Royal Caribbean just cannot compete when it comes to parrot cups! (I'm actually being serious).

 

I can relate, trust me! I'm the biggest parrot lover, so when I saw a picture of these, I just had to get one. It was on my list of "Things I have to do first when I get on board." ;-)

[bakersdozen12]

Embarkation Day cont'd

Well, my first day on board a cruise ship came to an end, and we got our first towel animal.

 

 

I had to laugh when I saw it because all I could think about was the thread (I believe it was on this board) where someone implied that it looks like....well, I'll let you figure that out!

 

 

 

Sea Day #1

The way our cruise was scheduled, we were to have two sea days, then three days at port, and then one more sea day. What I have learned from my first cruise is that I LOVE SEA DAYS! Don't get me wrong, I love seeing new places, but there is something very relaxing about having nothing that you have to do and nothing scheduled that day.

 

Since we sailed out of New Orleans, we had a long trip down the Mississippi to make it to the Gulf of Mexico. I heard it's about 8 hours. That sounds about right because all I know is that everything was smooth when we went to bed, but at about 3:30 in the morning (about 8 hours after we sailed away) I woke up and things were rocking! Now, having a balcony was really a good thing because I was able to step out briefly to see the ocean. There were some pretty big waves due to storms being caused by Hurricane Patricia. That whole first day things were rocking all over the ship. Fortunately, neither my husband or I are apparently prone to seasickness. I'm glad we never took the Bonine that I brought because we would never have known that we don't get seasick.

 

I went back to bed, and by the time I woke up, the sea seemed to have calmed down a bit. I remember thinking, as I looked out at the sea, I could really get used to waking up to this.

 

 

I got dressed and was ready to enjoy my first full day at sea. I had no idea what we were going to do, but I knew it was going to be amazing!

 

[bakersdozen12]

Sea Day #1 cont'd

The first on the agenda today was to have Sea Day Brunch in the MDR. I had been dying to try the Funnest French Toast, after seeing pictures of it on the web. I had it with Fruit Loops, and it was very good, but very sweet. I could only eat one piece. I think I would have gone into a sugar induced coma otherwise. My husband had the other piece. (On a side note, I don't have pics of my husband's food, so I'm only going to comment on mine during this review.)

 

 

After breakfast we did some more exploring of the ship. We ended up playing a round of mini golf, which was a lot of fun. It wasn't very crowded. In fact, I never felt like any place was really crowded on the ship the whole week, except for the place where they take the pictures (with the back drops). That was the only place that ever seemed to get crowded, which it did on elegant night. Here's a picture of my husband on the mini golf course:

 

 

After mini golf, and more walking around the ship, and more relaxing, we had lunch. Today we tried the burrito bar. While I was pleased with the food on the ship overall, this was one item that I did not like. I suppose it's because I'm such a huge Chipotle fan. If you love Chipotle burritos, no other burritos can stack up, unfortunately.

 

 

I only ended up eating half of the burrito. I don't like to waste food, but I also don't want to consume calories if the food isn't good. I decided to instead have some dessert. I don't remember if I liked the chocolate thing (can't remember if it was cake or what), but the key lime cheesecake was delicious!

 

 

After lunch we found the Serenity deck, and decided to lie out there for awhile. We were on the top deck, and were surprised to fine that we were the only ones up there. It was nice having the whole deck to ourselves. I was just about to fall asleep for a nice afternoon nap, when one of the Carnival workers came to kick us out. Apparently due to high winds, the top deck was closed. So that's why we were the only ones up there. Oops! I guess they had the stairs leading up to it roped off, but problem was that we had entered the deck by going up the elevator in the spa area, and there were no signs on those doors about it being closed. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

 

The rest of the day was much of the same. Walking around, relaxing...it was wonderful. It did rain off and on, but the nice part of that was that after the rain, there's usually a rainbow to be seen!

 

[Vigorosity]

Living this review so far! You seem super happy and I'm considering taking a cruise on the Dream! Thanks for doing this.

[bakersdozen12]

Sea Day #1 cont'd

It took us awhile, but we finally found the Dream's coin. I already knew about where it was, but for some reason, I still had a hard time finding it. But I did eventually, and got my picture. I'm pretty sure that I will make it a point to find it on every ship that I sail on in the future.

 

 

Before we knew it, it was already time for dinner. The one downside of having early dining, at least during this time of year, is that sunset always happened during dinner. Fortunately we were at a table near the window, so I did get to see some sunsets, but I would have like to have been out on one of the decks, or on our balcony, during at least one or two sunsets. Next year I have already decided we will try Your Time Dining so that we can have flexibility. Although I did quite enjoy getting to know our table mates. They were wonderful. Something can definitely be said about meeting new people on cruises. And I'm not a terribly outgoing person normally. But everyone we met was just so nice. Anyway, here's a picture of my view from our table in the Scarlet dining room:

 

 

For some reason at dinner that night, I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of my appetizer! But, it was only a salad, so nothing special anyway. For my main course, I had he spaghetti carbonara. It was one of my favorite dishes of the whole cruise.

 

 

For dessert I had ordered the low cal banana cake, but for some reason, my order got screwed up and the waiter came out with a banana split. I told him I would just take both. Good thing, because the banana split ended up being much better! I ate half of each.

 

 

 

Well, our first full day on a cruise ship came to an end, and we were quite tired from all the walking around we did, so that night we didn't go to any shows or anything, and just went to bed early. I have to say, I totally loved the turn down service and the towel animals each night. I think it's one of the things that I miss the most!

 

 

I will have to continue this review tomorrow. I thought I could get done it all tonight, but it's taking much longer than I expected!

[bakersdozen12]

Living this review so far! You seem super happy and I'm considering taking a cruise on the Dream! Thanks for doing this.

 

Oh, I highly recommend the Dream! It was an awesome ship. Nicely laid out, and so much to do. Of course, I obviously don't have anything to compare it to since this was my first cruise, but it really was wonderful and so much fun. The staff on board was great too. I don't think there was one staff member that we passed by all week that didn't say hello to us along with a nice smile. They were all very friendly and accommodating. I would book a cruise on the Dream again in a heartbeat.

Edited November 15, 2015 by bakersdozen12

[bakersdozen12]

We arrived in New Orleans promptly at 5:30 pm central time.

 

I can't edit my post, and not that this really matters, but we arrived way earlier than 5:30. It's normally a three hour flight from Boston to New Orleans, and we had a short layover so the total travel time was about 4 hours. I don't remember what time we landed but it was around 1:30 central time. Not that it really matters, but some savvy person might do the math and realize that it doesn't make sense!

 

Anyway, this is a sign that it's too late for me to be doing this! More tomorrow. :)

[jennifer1t]

We leave in less than a month! Looking forward to the rest!

[maeormaenot]

99 more days...this should keep me satisfied for 3 of them!!!

[Raxter54]

77 days, 15 hours 59 minutes...give or take a few seconds [emoji4]

[Lduane1815]

Also from Boston and we are going during April vacation. Group of 12 and all we can talk about is how we can't wait to go. Flights are ridiculous but we hope they will go down. Love reading your review and can't wait to hear more.

[lkcasey]

Following! We set sail on the dream December 13th 2015!! We are also first time cruisers.

[waywyrd]

Well shoot. I've been on the Dream twice and had no idea that there were parrot cups to be had. I'll just have to book another cruise on her. :D

 

Enjoying your review!

[NHNEV2003]

Have been waiting patiently for a review!! [emoji41][emoji41]

[parttimr]

We leave Jan 31 so keeping up with your great review