#Dream'18 (8/12/18-8/19/18) Review

[Heyitsege]

Hi Everyone! For the past couple of years, I have loved reading everyone's reviews to get tips and further my excitement of upcoming cruises. I thought it would be fun to review my last cruise and hopefully it will be helpful to others. I will break up each day in separate posts. This is my first review. so please bear with me. Also, if you have any questions, I would love to answer them.

Some background: I went on my first cruise in 2005 (Carnival Paradise) when one of my bestfriends from high school planned a "Friends Cruise". Between marriage, moving 2 states away and having kids, we always wanted to go on another cruise together. My family had a European cruise on Royal Caribbean booked, but when this bestfriend started actually planning another "Friends Cruise", we cancelled that one for this one. This was my 11th cruise and my kids' 3rd and 5th.

 

Our cruise: Carnival Dream 8/12/18-8/19/18 out of New Orleans with the ports of Cozumel, Belize City and Roatan.

 

People: There were 12 of us.

My family: Me, DH, DS1 (6), DS2 (3),

BFFs family: BFF1, BFF2, their girls 5, 2, 7 months, BFF2's mom.

And 2 other good friends: GF1, GF2.

 

Overall, we had a great time. It was so much fun to travel with these great friends again! We hadn't been on Carnival for 7 years and first time for the kids, so there were many new experiences for my family. Next up will be our day of travel..

[SonoranDevil]

Looking forward to hearing all about it!

[isladonna]

Looking forward to it! We are going Oct. 7th, same itin, except add Costa Maya!

[airlink diva]

looking forward sailing on her in December

[Heyitsege]

Day 1: Travel Day 8/11

 

We took a late morning flight from the west coast. We had a little issue with checking in our baggage. We usually just do everything at the airport, but this time I checked in from an e-mail the day before. It had asked about bags and since we were getting our 2 bags free because I have the credit card, I put 2 and thought we could just print these at the kiosks. When we got there, there wasn't an option to reprint them, only an option to pay for additional bags. So instead of saving time by printing tags at the kiosks and bringing them to the bag drop, I ended up standing in 3 different lines. So, I would suggest to not put baggage information before getting to airport. Since we left our house early, we still had plenty of time for security.

On a side note, we brought a car seat and booster. DH2 sat in his on the plane. I like to have him in it on long plane rides so he can sleep, to prevent wanting to walk around and it's more secure. We also wanted to bring the car seats since you have to travel on the freeway between the airport and cruise terminal.

 

We landed in MSY at 6:30pm. Everyone else in our group, except GF1 was in NOLA since Friday morning and were staying close to the French Quarter. Since we got in at night, we decided to just stay at the La Quinta near the airport. They have a free shuttle. The hotel shuttle pick up is in the "Transportation Center" across the street from baggage claim. Uber is also in this area. There are little airconditioned rooms you can stand in while you wait for the shuttles.

A short shuttle ride later, we arrived at the hotel. Check in was easy and we were soon in our room. The room was fine and we had no complaints. In the hotel lobby, there is a restaurant called "Messina's Late Night Bar & Grill". I previously consulted Yelp and with the location convenience, I decided we should have dinner there. I ordered the Catfish Tina which I REALLY enjoyed! It was catfish with crawfish etouffee. My kids shared the chicken tender appetizer that came with fries. It was quite good and a large portion. After dinner, we went back to our room to get a good night sleep for our cruise in the morning.

 

Next is Embarkation Day...

[Heyitsege]

Looking forward to hearing all about it!

 

Thank you. I hope you enjoy it! :)

[Heyitsege]

Looking forward to it! We are going Oct. 7th, same itin, except add Costa Maya!

 

Thank you. I hope you enjoy the review! Ooh I would've liked to have that added port. I'm sure you will have a great cruise. :)

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Heyitsege]

Day 2: Embarkation Day 8/12

We had the free breakfast at the hotel and the front desk called a taxi for us. The flat rate was $15/person, so it was $60. Our assigned arrival time was 11:30-12 and we arrived about 11:20. The lines moved quickly and when we entered the seating zones, they were already calling Zone 1-2. We ended up sitting in Zone 19. We could've been in a lower zone, but we stopped for the picture and bathroom. BFF1 had generously bought us FTTF, but I had canceled it. We didn't mind getting on the ship a little after them and on our only tender port we planned on taking a carnival excursion. We were called to board about 12:10 (but I did notice someone in our zone had an arrival time of 12:30-1).

Once onboard, we dropped off our bags at BFFs room and we all went to eat at Guy's BBQ. There was no wait. I also saw for the first time the automatic hand washing machines. I really like that they have these around. The food was just ok/good. While we finished eating, DH was brave enough to bring 4 of the kids by himself to the lido for the first of many ice creams for the kids. He said the lido was crazy crowded, so Guy's BBQ was a great plan.

The rooms were ready at 1:30. We all had balconies on the 8th floor starboard between mid and aft elevators. We had 8387, BFF was 8405 and GF was 8431. We received all our bags before the muster drill. Our muster station was D4, which was in Club O2. It took at least 45 minutes. If you have kids, they will get wristbands to wear the whole cruise with their muster stations. If they are separated from you in the event of an emergency, staff will bring them to the appropriate station. After muster, I went up with the rest of the group to the sunset pool area for sail away. I think New Orleans is such a neat port to sail from since you go down the Mississippi. At 5pm we went to the spa for the raffle, but sadly did not win.

We had early (6pm) dining in the upper Scarlet Dining Room. When I originally booked the cruise, I asked what's the largest table and the representative said 10. I assumed since our group was bigger, we wouldn't sit together. I was pleasantly surprised to find we would all be at the same table. They have the large table sizes in the aft area near the windows. It's a very nice area. Overall our dining service wasn't that great. There was a lot of miscommunication and missed or wrong orders with our server. We are all pretty easy going so we didn't make it a big deal. Our dinners were pretty long lasting until almost 8pm. I'm surprised 5 kids 6 years and under survived 2 hour dinners every night. This night I had the calamari, Caesar salad, blackened catfish and melting chocolate cake. I enjoyed everything.

After dinner, my family and BFFs family went to the kids club open house. We received the schedule for the week and we also received a cell phone. We were instructed to bring the cell phone each time we dropped off (our 3 year old). If we lost the phone, it would cost $150. One thing we learned was that Camp Ocean has certain family times where the whole family can come to play. I think that's great that they do this. After we completed registration, we joined in on the family dance party. They were doing dances and giving prizes of camp ocean light bracelets which DH2 won. We stayed until the open house ended at 10pm. We then did a quick round of late night mini golf. Others were playing as well.

Next up is Sea Day #1...

[cruiserll]

Thanks for the review!

[MzShae]

Following

[JaniceB]

Nice start to your review, looking forward to the rest.

[djmcwilliams106]

Loving your review. On the dream 10/7. Also would like to hear more about camp ocean as nephew/godson will be with us. He’s 5 (turning 6 a few days after we leave the dream)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Heyitsege]

Day 3: Sea Day #1 8/13

So the previous night we learned: DO NOT book room 8387. I originally wanted a room further towards the midship elevators, but the Carnival representative suggested this room. He said, there's no one across from you and you will be closer to your friends.The non-guestroom across is a steward work room. We heard doors closing, phones ringing and talking until 11pm and then again early in the morning everyday. I can easily fall back asleep, but DH has trouble. He ended up sleeping with a pillow over his ear the whole trip, but he didn't mind it otherwise. It wasn't a huge deal, so we didn't complain. Other notes on the room: I did enjoy being between mid and aft. It is very convenient to lido food places, dining room and kids club. I was surprised that you don't get lotion and there is also no conditioner. The handheld shower is useful and makes the small shower space more maneuverable. At first I was concerned with the amount of shelves and drawers in the room. I feel other cruise lines have more storage, but everything fit. We didn't even use the last closet besides storing the car seats. All suitcases went under the bed.

We grabbed breakfast in the lido and then the kids wanted to go to the kids club. DS2 isn't in daycare and this was the first camp/with strangers experience. I was a little hesitant, but knew everything would be fine which it was. It would've been nice if our boys were in the same club, but I know DS1 had more fun in the 6-8 club. BFFs 2 girls were with DS2, so that helped. DH and I went to the casino where he played a little on the slots. We then went to get a Guy's Burger. There were only a few people in line and there are two lines. I added chipotle mayo on mine and we both really enjoyed them. I like how the patty is kind of crispy. Our friends did the "Big Bang Theory Trivia" during this time.

We thought we should pick up the kids for lunch since we wanted them to go back again later. We picked up the kids and DS1 had made a craft which was a little glass star jar filled with colored sand. We thought we'd try Pasta Bella since it is so close to Camp Ocean. The wait was a little longer than I would have liked. We got spaghetti with meat sauce and penne with shrimp. The kids enjoyed their pasta. However, I would put it lower on my things to try list. I tried to drop off the kids before 2pm so I could do a group "slot pull", but the line was so long, I missed it :(. We heard they won money (not huge, but still a win!)

I ended up meeting DH and GFs at the art auction. On cruise critic so many people seem to despise the art auctions, but I enjoy them. I have attended them on my past 3 cruises that had them (not Disney). I bought a piece on my last cruise which I love. I enjoy learning about the style the artist is known for and seeing what pieces people like so much that they bid. I will say that I enjoyed this art auction the least. Maybe after awhile, it's all the same stuff/artists and it didn't help that this one ran super long. The start time was suppose to be 1:30. They didn't start the introduction on bidding til 2:15 and it ended at 4. I think an hour would be a good time. I did enjoy my 2 glasses of champagne, though.

Tonight was formal night and we all got dressed up. For dinner, I had 2 orders of the fried oysters, lobster w/ jumbo shrimp and mushroom risotto and another chocolate melting cake. DH had the prime rib. Everything I had was really good! (I forgot to mention that the first night was my first time trying the melting chocolate cake.) After dinner, we all went to the atrium to take a big group picture. The string trio was playing, which I really enjoyed and they became my favorite on the cruise. After our picture, I took DS1 and BFFs 5 yr old DN1 (niece) up and down the glass elevators. It's pretty neat because you go really high up. While DH put the kids to bed, I was able to hang out with all my friends at the Piano bar and we later played a board game BFF1 brought in the library.

Next up Cozumel...

[Quilcruisers]

Thanks for the review. We did this cruise on the breeze on August 5 but I have yet to write a review. Interested in seeing your thoughts on the ports. Don’t you just love the flexibility of being able to cruise and do adult things while the kids are having fun too ? I love camp, although my son is 14 now and does not go anymore , when he was younger, we had to beg him to leave.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Heyitsege]

looking forward sailing on her in December

 

Thanks for reading. She's a great ship! :)

[Heyitsege]

Thanks for the review.

 

You're welcome! Hope you enjoy it. :)

[Heyitsege]

I didn't know how to attach pictures because the files were too big. I saved these as jpegs from my fb posts and I was able to upload. They seem kind of big. If anyone has any suggestions to better post pictures, please let me know.

 

Here are some pictures before sail away in New Orleans.

 

 

 

 

Here's our room 8387.

 

 

Taken on Sea Day #1

 

[Heyitsege]

Day 4: Cozumel 8/14

We started the day by having breakfast in the lido with everyone (except GF1 woke up early for his scuba diving excursion through Carnival). I didn't really find anything I wanted, so I went to Blue Iguana for a breakfast burrito. Mine had hash browns, sausage, cheese, eggs and pico de gallo. From the salsa bar, I added crème fraiche and habanero salsa. I really enjoyed it!

On our last visit to Cozumel, we took an excursion that visited the San Gervasio ruins, had a chocolate demonstration and went to Playa Mia. This time, our plan was to enjoy the waterpark with most people off the ship and to just walk around the port. Waterworks was empty! We were going to do port then swim, but I was glad we did it in this order. Our kids slid and sat in the little race slides. I went down the Drainpipe and DH went down the Drainpipe and Twister. DH really liked the twister, but suggested to plug your nose before you get to the bottom. DH and the kids then swam in the (saltwater) lido pool while I had ice cream. After getting ready, we went to the port and just walked around and shopped. We listened to a mariachi band playing for a little bit. Everyone else had taken a taxi to Paradise beach earlier that morning.

Once back onboard, the kids went to the kids club for a little bit before dinner. I went to the excursion desk to get tickets for the next day (Belize). The excursion we wanted to do was Altun Ha. For some reason, I couldn't buy our 3 year old ticket's online prior. I called Carnival and they said we can buy the rest of ours and they can hold one for DS2 to buy onboard. I decided to wait and just get everyone's on the ship. The week before, BFF1 said they were looking into an outside company for Altun Ha since they have kids below 3 (the minimum age for Carnival's). The prices were WAY cheaper. It was also too late for us to go with the outside company since I cancelled our FTTF and wouldn't be on the early tenders. I remembered reading about the "Best Price Guarantee", so I looked into the fine print. It says you have to submit it within 48 hrs of purchase and 7 days prior to sailing and by this time it was past that, so I gave up on it. As I stood in line, I kept seeing "Best Price Guarantee" on all the papers. I asked about it and the lady said after purchasing, I can submit a paper form and it will be reviewed within 24 hours. Luckily, since I didn't have the internet plan, I had taken a screenshot of the website and prices. The fine print on the paper form says you have to submit it before the end of the excursion's port day and within 24 hrs of purchase. It ended up being approved and we saved $120. :D

For dinner that night, I had the seared tuna appetizer and braised rabbit in puff pastry appetizer (really good), the seared tilapia entrée (enjoyed it) and apple pie with vanilla ice cream (not great). After dinner, I hung out in BFFs room with the kids, while DH caught the end of the stage show and comedy show. Before bed, we checked out the 80s rock and glow party and I enjoyed the live band's rendition of "Lose your love" by the Outfield.

Next up Belize..

[bbtbear]

Thanks so much for sharing! Will be on the Dream in February with the same itinerary, so I'm loving reading along. :)

[Heyitsege]

Thanks for the review!

 

You're welcome! Hope you are enjoying it :)

[Heyitsege]

Following

 

Thanks for following :)

[Heyitsege]

Nice start to your review, looking forward to the rest.

 

Thanks so much! :) Sorry it's taking me awhile to get it done.

[jerseyridgearts]

Enjoying your review - we'll be on the Dream in December

[Heyitsege]

Day 5: Belize 8/15

 

 

Since we had to meet in the theater at 9am for our 9:45 excursion, we ordered room service. I also had DH grab me another breakfast burrito from Blue Iguana. Our group of friends had 3 different plans, but we were all seeing Altun Ha at different times. GF1 and GF2 went with an outside company and did Cave Tubing first then Altun Ha. BFF and family went with an outside company in a van to Altun Ha and stopped for lunch. On the tenders, the workers said it would be a 15-20 minute tender ride, but it felt like 10. Once at the port, we had the option to use the bathroom. With a 3 year old, we used all the opportunities we could get. After using the bathroom, we went to the end of the line, so we ended up waiting for the 2nd bus. Our bus only had about 18 people. This was nice because we could spread out on the bus and put the stroller in a row in front of us. Also, it was nice to have a smaller group at the ruins. The 45 min(?) ride was very informative. I enjoyed seeing and learning more about Belize. The tour guide told us about the different neighborhoods, history and general info.

Once we got to Altun Ha, we were given bottles of water and were able to use the bathrooms if needed. We brought OFF, but didn't end up putting it on. We did not get any bites. Some of our friends got bites there, though. We had another guide from the site join our group. He was also very informative. After we got to the center courtyard area, a short rain shower began and we waited for a few minutes under some trees. Later, we learned that BFF and family were on the 2nd ruin at this time. I was a little worried that with the rain we wouldn't be able to climb the ruins, but we still did. We got to go up two ruins. For both of the structures, we went up steps on the side. It's a good leg workout. DS1 got up there fine and DS2 got carried by DH. I think DS2 could've done it himself, it just would've taken a really long time. Going down is a little steep, you just have to be careful and stepping sideways helps. I had planned to bring sneakers for this excursion and to possibly work out at the gym. When I went to take them out the night before, I couldn't find them. So, climbing the steps in flipflops is doable. I find ancient civilization history like the Mayans so fascinating. I love that we got to see these ruins. At the end of this tour, we could shop in the craft market or buy food at the restaurant before heading back to the bus. We drank samples of cashew wine (which is popular in Belize. The wine is from the cashew fruit.) and ended up buying a bottle. Someone on the bus bought some food from the restaurant and it smelled good! My staying up late the past few nights caught up to me and I fell asleep on the bus ride back to port. We got back to Terminal 4 (the tenders were at Terminal 2). We went shopping for souvenirs then headed back to the ship.

For dinner, I had the cream of broccoli soup (really good), from the local cuisine section: fry jacks and chili rellano (chicken stuffed in a pepper and fried.really good) and bitter and blanc (first time I had it. Yummy! It may have been my favorite dessert.) After dinner, my family and GF1 &2 went to play bingo. It was the $10 off night. Dobbers cost $2 and a 6 card pack was $20 (don't remember if that was before or after $10 off). It was 3 games and the same lady won game 1 and game 3. After that, the kids and I called it a night.

Next up is Roatan..