A Winter Escape: Dream 2.0

[kbh2]

What makes the Alchemy Bar your favorite? We'll be on the Dream in July:)

 

The alchemy bar mixes up drinks according to your likes/dislikes, it is like a pharmacy of drinks. We would go every night and have the same alchemist and he would experiment with what we liked and make some pretty awesome drinks. It is also just a neat place to hang out.

[Indytraveler83]

Pre-Trip/ 48 hours in New Orleans:

 

First of all an apology: When I got back home, I found out that I was the only person at my job that didn't have the flu of death, and we provide emergency services to the county, so I've been on shift every day and on call every night since we got home. I also hope I didn't miss any questions, the forum got weird and didn't update for me. If I did miss any, please repost. I'm going to do a single post abbreviated recap of our time in New Orleans. While some of it is interesting, I don't have any pics of the city, and most of you aren't particularly interested in this part anyways:

 

We all arrived in New Orleans and met at our home for the next 2 nights, Hotel St. Pierre in the French quarter. As a historic French Quarter location, it is very cool. You stay in some of the oldest buildings in the city, which are certified to be haunted, and you stay right in the middle of one of the coolest parts of the city.

 

As a Hotel... well it's ok. The staff is friendly and helpful, but you are more likely to see the ghosts than housekeeping. And some of the things that makes it so classical to stay at, also makes it tiring. The rooms are obviously modified from the building's original purpose making them odd shaped and some (like mine) appeared to be a converted hallway. Jake's parents got lucky and had one with a massive decorative fireplace! And all the convenience of staying in the French Quarter is sometimes overshadowed by the noise of staying there. Earplugs are an absolute must!

 

We spent a lot of time visiting the artists in Jackson Square and purchased art and watched several street performers there. If you only get a little time in New Orleans, Jackson Square is the perfect place to visit. The character, people and flavor of the city just ooze from this place!

 

We visited Cafe DuMonde for the obligatory beignets and they were as good as ever. One of our meals was at Remoulade on Bourbon Street where we had their always fantastic Cajun inspired seafood (and a hotdog for Jacob). I cannot more highly recommend this place, and even though it is right in the middle of the action, I've never had to wait for a table.

 

Our last meal was at "Eat New Orleans" which I understood to be a small family owned business. For all of the great food we've had in New Orleans, we've never had better than here. The portion sizes are a bit small, but it seems that everything is seasoned and cared for so very carefully. Fully felt like a 5 star meal in a quiet little hidden restaurant.

 

Our only mistake was signing up for a ghost tour. We had a ton of fun a few years ago in one of these, but this year totally forgot about the Mardi Gras celebrations in the French Quarter, which shortened our tour and irritated our guide. Ended up being a complete waste of time and money.

 

We all had a lot of fun in New Orleans, both of our parents having experienced it for the first time, we realized that after 3 years of dodging Mardi Gras, we need to start visiting this city a little earlier or later. The local flavor and local people are amazing, but the sheer number of idiots pouring into the city to party is getting worse each year. We found our pictures, conversations and overall environment to be often ruined by unruly frat boys too drunk to have any clue what they were doing.

 

If we depart out of New Orleans next year, Jake and I decided we will stay at a nicer hotel in the business district, and go in early/mid January to avoid some of the craziness.

 

Our best preview for the trip came during our terrible ghost tour though:

 

While walking near the riverfront, we stopped for a second to peer between two buildings, and a massive object that was lit up like a Christmas tree could be seen gliding through the water. Jake's mom gasped when she recognized what passed. Almost 12 hours early, the Carnival Dream had arrived in the city for it's first passengers since its 2.0 conversion. We couldn't wait for the next morning!

 

Up Next: Day 1 - First impressions of the Dream 2.0

[WillWorkForCruz]

We set sail on March 5th, and we are also arriving 3 days early for a post Mardi Gras visit. We changed our sail date after we realized we would be in the middle of the celebration, been there, done that, and once is enough.Love the city, hate the crowds.

 

Enjoying your review......

[nikki8]

Great Review! Looking forward to the rest!

[FlamingJune1967]

Pre-Trip/ 48 hours in New Orleans:

 

First of all an apology: When I got back home, I found out that I was the only person at my job that didn't have the flu of death, and we provide emergency services to the county, so I've been on shift every day and on call every night since we got home. I also hope I didn't miss any questions, the forum got weird and didn't update for me. If I did miss any, please repost. I'm going to do a single post abbreviated recap of our time in New Orleans. While some of it is interesting, I don't have any pics of the city, and most of you aren't particularly interested in this part anyways:

 

.....

 

Up Next: Day 1 - First impressions of the Dream 2.0

 

 

I thought something like this must have happened! So happy that you are back - I've been checking like 3 times a day!

Looking forward to the rest of your recap

so good, so far!

[HLNFan]

Following, love your review so far!

[easyboy]

First of all an apology: When I got back home, I found out that I was the only person at my job that didn't have the flu of death, and we provide emergency services to the county, so I've been on shift every day and on call every night since we got home. I also hope I didn't miss any questions, the forum got weird and didn't update for me. If I did miss any, please repost. I'm going to do a single post abbreviated recap of our time in New Orleans. While some of it is interesting, I don't have any pics of the city, and most of you aren't particularly interested in this part anyways:

No worries. We are still following you. Hope everything is okay at your end.

[Indytraveler83]

Sorry guys, I wrote out a whole post, then this new and improved website decided I was a robot and deleted it. Lesson learned, I'll just have to copy and past from MS Word, since our forum is now as clunky and broken as my last car. I'll try again tomorrow.

[FlamingJune1967]

Sorry guys, I wrote out a whole post, then this new and improved website decided I was a robot and deleted it. Lesson learned, I'll just have to copy and past from MS Word, since our forum is now as clunky and broken as my last car. I'll try again tomorrow.

 

 

Oh! I know how frustrating that is!! Thanks for sticking with it!

[Indytraveler83]

For those of you following I plan on doing a lot of writing here today. Photos are uploaded and ready to go. Sorry for all the delays, but I plan on getting at least 2 or 3 entries done, if not more, today. Stay tuned.

[carol TC]

Can't wait if possible pictures of menus

[smartpeach]

Where do you recommend to have lunch on the first day after boarding? Does the Dream still have Pasta Bella?

[Mzsnap]

Anticipation!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[bobbismith]

I can't wait to hear all about it. Thanks, Bobbi

[Indytraveler83]

Day 1: Embarkation day

 

We awoke that morning in our hotel excited to embark on our adventure. I awoke nervous and anxious. New Orleans can be a bit unpredictable for embarkation and last year's experience was not very good. We had FTTF which helps, but towing 4 family members behind us (2 of them newbies) was adding to the anxiety. I decided we should check out of the hotel at 10 am in order to make our 11 am check in time. Everyone arrived at the front desk on time and we checked out without any problems. I asked the clerk for a cab recommendation and he said they would be happy to call one for me. As soon as he got off the phone he said "The cab is already here" with a big smile. Sure enough, a cab had been in the area and was already parked in front of the hotel.

 

We rushed outside, and as soon as the driver saw we would not all fit in his cab, he called for a second. For the record, they charge a flat rate of $8 per person for any travel to/from the port within the city. They assured us they would keep the cabs together (so we could arrive in port together) and the trip to the port was quite smooth and uneventful. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived in the port as the usual line of cabs and crazy crowds simply wasn't there. (One of the benefits of being the first group on after a drydock: no debarking passengers to clog the terminal.)

 

We got out of our taxis only to be immediately greeted by porters who insisted upon unloading our luggage from the cab. They quickly placed the orange FTTF stickers on our luggage tags and guided us to the terminal entrance. From there security check in went very quickly and there was no line at just about any point. We were seated in the FTTF section waiting for the ship to start loading passengers at around 10:30 am. This was by far the fastest and smoothest embarkation process I'd ever been through. At around 11:15 they started letting diamond/platinum on the ship, and by 11:30 we were walking up the gangway onto the Dream!

 

Getting into the atrium garnered quite different reactions from each of us. Jacob and I greeted the Dream as an old friend, but immediately noticed the new carpet and overall cleaner and crisper appearance of the ship. My parents were a bit... um... overwhelmed by the Vegas interior of the Dream and it took them much of the day to adjust to the Carnival decor vs the Princess decor they were used to. Jacob's family was by far the most interesting though. His stepdad (aka "The Coach") was visibly nervous about getting on the ship and we could see him trembling, eyeing the gangway as if he could make a run for it off the ship. His mother was overwhelmed by the fact that she was finally on the cruise ship and burst out crying. At first she tried to hide it, but then she just buried her head in Jacob's shoulder and thanked him repeatedly for letting them come along.

 

Once everyone had regained their composure we started showing them around the ship. It was absolutely apparent that the ship had been gone over quite thoroughly in drydock as carpet, paint and surfaces all appeared new. The ship had very few changes (except places to eat, which I will better describe in posts where I visit them) but appeared very new, not letting on that you had just boarded a ship with almost a decade of service. We arrived to our rooms to find our luggage already starting to show up (as I had mentioned pre-trip it seems they are taking FTTF services more seriously). We spent quite a lot of time unpacking and then went on a spa tour, since we had spa rooms and wanted to learn the layout of the spa.

 

When we returned from the spa tour we were greeted in the hallway by our room steward who took pains to be sure he learned all of our names on the spot. He asked for any special requests and then gave that well rehearsed question that asked if we wanted morning or evening service without telling us clearly whether or not we could have both. While many of you severely dislike this, we actually find twice a day service to be quite intrusive so we happily selected morning service and made our requests for extra towels, blankets and whatever else was needed.

 

From there we made our way to lido for a light lunch. We had steakhouse reservations for the evening, so we simply got some salad and a little fish and made our way back to to the aft to sit and eat. I'm not sure if its new or not, but we noticed that the lido buffet is not as slippery as it used to be. I am pretty sure I remember the tiles being standard ceramic tiles that are extremely slippery when wet, but we noticed that the flooring seemed to have some sort of coating on it now that felt kind of tactile (Maybe someone else knows what they've done?)

 

We made our way to the far upper decks to show everyone the waterpark and serenity areas, only to be stopped as we passed lido. An energetic man in a kilt was dancing and partying like crazy on a small stage on lido and had seemed to catch the attention of everyone else. The entire ship seemed stopped and engaged in the display, and pretty soon Jake and his mom both made a beeline downstairs to join the party. I stayed upstairs with my parents and his stepdad and watched them go nuts. In the middle of the party, the man finally stopped and in heavy accent the man announced he was "Chris The Flying Scottsman" and that he was our cruise director.

 

Now let me take a moment and say we've never cared much about CD's before. We still have no idea who our CD was on our first trip on the Elation, and Jase Apps was our last cruise director on the Dream and his only memorable moment was when he said goodbye (bye, I said BYE). We've never even seen a CD so much as walk at a fast pace, let alone dance, party, or attempt to have fun. Up to this point we just assumed everyone got a little too worried about CD's, and they'd never really affected our experience on the ship at all. Its hard to describe exactly how Chris was, sitting behind a keyboard, but the best way to put it was that he was like a live wire that ran along the ship. Everywhere he went, there seemed to be an electric buzz of energy, and throughout the cruise we found that no one was immune.

 

The party continued until it was time for muster. We went to the muster drill on time and did the normal scowling at people who decided to arrive 30 minutes later. As usual, the muster drill took maybe 15 minutes, but we spent much more than that waiting for everyone to stop hiding on balconies and drinking to get to the stupid thing. I did laugh quite a bit though when a few people who arrived as the muster drill was starting were turned away, and instead invited to attend a mandatory "extended presentation" immediately afterward.

 

Once muster was finished we went to our room to change and prepare for dinner. We were pulling away from the dock a little late, but it allowed me to catch an amazing sunset picture on the river before we left:

 

We headed to dinner and were invited to our waiting table at the steakhouse. The service was prompt and well timed, but my only complaint was how heavily they pushed the 50% off part of the wine menu, while I had to actually inquire about the complimentary house wine (yes I know its not great, but its free and I'm too cheap to pay 50% of prices that are inflated 400% already).

 

After we had ordered our food I proposed a toast to the beginning of our trip. Then I threw in a little bit of a spare announcement: Jake and I were getting engaged. Now we'd planned this moment for over a month, but our families had been curious and we'd shot down numerous questions about marriage within the past few weeks, so everyone just sat in stunned silence for 5-10 seconds.

 

After the shock wore off, they all hurried to tell us how happy they were and we spent much of dinner talking about wedding plans and what our future held. The food was absolutely fantastic as always, but it seems that the servers had been paying special attention to us. Before dessert arrived, the staff walked to our table and offered their own gift:

 

This was an absolutely amazing surprise, as no one had told the staff, they had just figured it out on their own based on pieces of conversation they had heard. We were again very pleased with the steakhouse and tipped them accordingly.

 

After dinner we were all worn out and with a heavy meal sitting in our stomachs, we headed back to our rooms to watch the river turn to ocean. I don't think any of us made it, as the last thing I remember sitting on the balcony was nodding off as the flames of the oil platforms came into view. We headed to bed having had a very satisfying and encouraging first day on the Dream.

 

Up Next: New places to eat, spa experiences and one major dissapointment

[Indytraveler83]

Where do you recommend to have lunch on the first day after boarding? Does the Dream still have Pasta Bella?

 

 

They do, although Pasta has never sound great on a cruise to me, so I've never gone. I had heard that this is actually one of the best places to eat on embarkation day though, as no one knows where it is (little know level 2 of the lido buffet).

 

Aside from that, all that's open is the lido buffet area, so I'd just say pick a short line and go with that. Guy's burgers are always insane at peak times, but the buffet lines, Tandoor, tacos and Pasta Bella tend to all be light on day 1.

[HLNFan]

Everywhere he went, there seemed to be an electric buzz of energy, and throughout the cruise we found that no one was immune.

 

 

I had to go check and unfortunately he leaves a couple of weeks before our cruise :loudcry:

 

Congratulations on the engagment!

[bobbismith]

Love the disclaimer! in other words, you're both reasonable human beings! Some things tick you off, some things you let slide! Like I said, I love the attitude!

 

Dito! Thank you for sharing!

[mellyrene]

Congrats on your engagement and thank you for taking the time to write these reviews! I know I really enjoy reading them and appreciate the fact you take time to write them!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[bobbismith]

What makes the Alchemy Bar your favorite? We'll be on the Dream in July:)

 

 

I will not be on the Dream until Nov 2017 but I have sailed on other ships with the Alchemy and I agree that it is also my favorite. The drinks are an experience. Not just drinking to get happy. Here is the link to the menu:

 

 

https://www.carnival.com/~/media/Images/explore/onboard/bars/menus/alchemy-bar-menu.pdf

 

My favorite is the:

 

CUCUMBER SUNRISE

Belvedere Vodka, watermelon nectar, muddled cucumber, fresh squeezed lime juice and a splash of orange juice. Light and delicious.

 

Bobbi

[bobbismith]

For those of you following I plan on doing a lot of writing here today. Photos are uploaded and ready to go. Sorry for all the delays, but I plan on getting at least 2 or 3 entries done, if not more, today. Stay tuned.

 

 

Thank you for all your hard work for us, your faithful followers :)

[beckatron]

I had to go check and unfortunately he leaves a couple of weeks before our cruise :loudcry:

 

Congratulations on the engagment!

 

 

Where do you check that at?

[Indytraveler83]

Day 2: First Sea day

 

Let me start this post by saying we hate Lido. Especially on the Dream, we really really hate Lido. The busy buffet, the crowds of people surrounding a pool the size of a bath tub, the sheer loudness of children and tipsy folks yelling... all of it is terrible. I'm sure this view is in the minority, and on the Fantasy class ships it seems Lido is a little more tame. But last year's Lido experience on the Dream was terrible. I won't say it ruined that trip, because its hard to ruin a cruise, but we started this trip with the idea that we would avoid Lido at every opportunity, especially the crowded and busy breakfast buffet.

 

We started our morning with room service breakfast of cereal, pastries, coffee and fresh fruit. Room service was just a little late, but no worries. We took our breakfast onto the balcony and watched the sea go by while waking up to fresh coffee. Jake's parents did the same, but my parents did not heed our warning about Lido. Dad wanted sausage for breakfast so they waded into the sea of humanity around 9, and my Mom came back looking like she'd been to a Black Friday shopping event. She said after that she'd order room service and Dad could chance the Lido buffet himself if he wanted sausage.

 

Shortly after breakfast I knocked on both of our parent's doors to be sure they had something to do for the day. Both knocks went unanswered, so Jake and I headed to the spa assuming they had found something to do. The process at the spa is simple: you hand them your room key, with its spa sticker on the back, and they hand you an access key that goes to the pool and the thermal suites.

 

We started in the thermal suites and laid on heated loungers for about a half an hour before going to our massage appointment. I very politely asked that they not give us a sales pitch, and she told us she'd just write her recommendations down and include them with the receipt. We then spent 55 minutes as two women worked out every knot and kink in our bodies. Relaxed and satisfied, we returned to the thermal suites and walked through each and every one before ending up in the pool.

 

While in the incredibly hot aroma therapy room, we encountered Jake's parents who told us about the busy day they had planned. Apparently they'd ordered room service the previous night and went through the Fun Times together over milk and cookies and planned out the entire day! Not bad for newbies!

 

After leaving the spa, hunger overtook us and we decided to head to the new Blue Iguana Taco bar. We stood in line for a moment before realizing the man in front of us was my Dad. Tapping his shoulder, we remarked how unusual it was to see him, and he said that Mom and Jake's family were in the Lido Buffet as well. The taco bar is located on the port side of Lido where Pizza Pirate used to be. We were quite impressed to see them making the tortillas on site. I ordered both chicken and fish tacos, while Jake and Dad ordered chicken and pork. After making our way through the masses, we finally found where everyone was sitting and talked and ate. Only the pork tacos were a bit disappointing, while the chicken and fish was fantastic. Jake's stepdad had ordered a Guy's burger which he recommended, and his nerves seemed to be much better after a day of food and spa. Most of the Lido food was somewhere between decent and good. The only exception being a strange cornbread muffin with what looked like creamed corn in the middle that Mom had gotten, which just tasted plain strange.

 

After lunch we all split up again agreeing to meet for dinner at 6:30. Jake's parents were off to trivia, as Mom and Dad were off to their own spa appointments. Wising to get away from Lido, we used knowledge from our previous cruise and headed down to deck 5. There we got a milkshake and headed to the lanai to soak up some sun in peace and quiet.

 

 

One thing about the Dream class ships that I don't understand is why people don't use the Lanai. On lido you see nothing but other people. On the lanai you see the ocean. And yet, walking the lanai you see rows upon rows of unused lounge chairs sitting in the sun ready to let you relax. We were happy to sit down in quiet, drink milkshakes and nap.

 

Up next: Part 2 of Sea Day 1

[Indytraveler83]

Sea Day 1 Part 2

 

After our napping on the lanai we headed up to the Serenity deck to see if anything comfortable was open. It appears they've added a substantial amount of furniture on Serenity, and we were able to find one of those large private clam shell loungers (not on the ship the last time we were on board) that was open. We resumed our napping in partial shade through the afternoon. At one point bar service was offered, but the drinks were very weak so we didn't order a second round. In the end we only intended on napping for a few hours, but before we knew it, it was after 5:30 and time to get ready for dinner!

 

It was the first formal night, so we showered and sipped on wine in our room till 6:30 when we met the others for our first dinner in the dining room. We had Your Time Dining and this is the very first time we've done this. We arrived at the dining room and saw them handing out pagers to several couples. I cringed at the prospect of waiting even longer, but when we announced our party of 6, they immediately seated us. One thing we noticed this night and every night after, was that parties of 2-4 seemed to often need pagers to be seated. But we never waited, and often saw empty tables set up for 6 or more.

 

Our waiters were speedy and fantastic, and Jake's mom got far too excited when they did their first song performance of the trip. We all talked about the day, and then Jake's parents told us how excited they were for MoTown night. There was a show they were excited to see and quite a few MoTown themed performances on the ship. We decided we wanted to revisit our old haunt: the piano bar. Before leaving we ordered our favorite dessert, chocolate melting cake!

 

 

We headed to the piano bar only to find it was standing room only. We stood for a while, but eventually decided to dip into the comedy club when a show opened, as we were getting tired of standing. We met my parents in there who had broken off from the MoTown show, far less interested in it then Jake's parents were. The comedian was decent (can't remember his name), but my Dad was getting tired and cranky so I don't remember the performance very well. After the show my parents headed to their room and we headed back to the piano bar where we found a seat.

 

Patrick was the performer in the piano bar, and he seemed to have developed quite the rapport with several of the patrons. As we sat there for a while, we realized that Patrick was no longer finishing songs, just starting them, then taking a drink or bantering with others at the bar. People were buying him shots, which he had no problem throwing back, and he was as drunk, or more drunk than anyone else there. At one point a girl was on her cell phone, and he took it from her, starting a very strange and unprofessional argument about when she could get it back, ending with Patrick throwing it on the floor where she couldn't get it. We sat there for about 45 minutes in the hopes of hearing music, but instead all we got was a drunken fool that tried to act like he was the popular kid, and a handful of drunks who thought he was hilarious.

 

Last year we were very impressed by a different piano bar performer, who seemed capable of playing just about any song request. On the other hand, if Patrick didn't know a song (which there appeared to be many) he would crumple up the request and throw it at the requester. We would walk by or attempt to revisit the piano bar another couple of days and would hear him trying to sing and play the same handful of songs. I can't even understand how this drunken fool was allowed to be on the ship as a performer, and his lack of professionalism as well as musical ability was astounding. Carnival needs to keep better track of people like this.

 

Once we realized that Patrick was not going to be very entertaining, we decided to head back to the open decks and try the new pizza restaurant, now located on the aft of the ship where the deli used to be (and the deli is now moved inside the buffet). The pizza place was doing quite a bit of business, and they did something I've not seen before as they had opened up the Tandoor restaurant area, but called it "Midnight Snack" and offered a small selection of sandwiches, desserts and snacks. We were quite impressed, as it seemed they had transformed the aft pool deck into a late night food/drink station. The bar on the aft of the ship was also doing good business, and it was quite the improvement from the abandon decks of previous cruises.

 

The whole environment felt a little more welcoming at this point than we've seen before. We are used to being looked at strangely when we go for late night food, as if we aren't supposed to be on deck. But this little area was functioning as it was during the day, with staff cleaning up food trays and going about their business as if it wasn't 12:30 AM. Nice touch.

 

Upon heading to bed, we decided the next day would be another day of spa relaxation and fun, as well as trying out the water slides. It didn't take long to drift off to dreaming about another day in the Caribbean sun...

[Sitzmark]

Sea Day 1 Part 2

It was the first formal night, so we showered and sipped on wine in our room till 6:30 when we met the others for our first dinner in the dining room. We had Your Time Dining and this is the very first time we've done this. We arrived at the dining room and saw them handing out pagers to several couples. I cringed at the prospect of waiting even longer, but when we announced our party of 6, they immediately seated us. One thing we noticed this night and every night after, was that parties of 2-4 seemed to often need pagers to be seated. But we never waited, and often saw empty tables set up for 6 or more.

 

 

I'm curious, with your time dining, can you go to either of the MDRs or are you assigned one or the other?