Recent Carnival Dream cruisers, we go in August!

[Gumbo4Life]

Just wanted to get some input from recent guests on the Dream.  We are scheduled for an 8 day out of Galveston in late August for our 40th anniversary, looking for some tips, recommendations, observations if you have sailed recently.  How is the temperature? (Boss wants to know if she needs a fan); Steakhouse; MDR observations; etc.  We have sailed on the Breeze several times and love the ship and I believe the Dream is similar, any differences to note?  Thanks all and happy cruising!  😀

[Joe817]

1 hour ago, Gumbo4Life said:

Just wanted to get some input from recent guests on the Dream.  We are scheduled for an 8 day out of Galveston in late August for our 40th anniversary, looking for some tips, recommendations, observations if you have sailed recently.  How is the temperature? (Boss wants to know if she needs a fan); Steakhouse; MDR observations; etc.  We have sailed on the Breeze several times and love the ship and I believe the Dream is similar, aghny differences to note?  Thanks all and happy cruising!  😀

We are all set up to go on an 8 day on the Dream on Sept.22, 2022. The Dream is our favorite choice so far, from sailing out of Galveston. IMO, you will not need fans. I was continually turning down the cabin temperature at night. The Dream is a great ship.

[lubedobedo]

Just did this Dream trip in May. Lido balcony. We are doing it again in April. I plan on bringing a small fan, to me it got warm sometimes. We only ate in the dining room for seaday brunch twice, not once for dinner. !st time it was real busy, had to share table with 6 others. 2nd time we had our own table. We really enjoyed seaday brunch. We ate at steakhouse 1st night. Great food, took desert to go, got free bottle of wine. Took left over wine back to room. Also bought spa passes, wasn't ever busy. Did really good in the smoke free casino on deck 4! Thought we would try it again next year!

[aggie182]

We went on the 8 day last week and had a blast.

 

To answer your questions -

-We had a Spa Balcony and it was nice and cold.  The wife and kids both complained it was cold.  I enjoyed it.

-The steakhouse was great.  It took about an hour and 10 minutes from start to finish so it was on par time-wise with the MDR.  Appetizers were great and the filet was awesome.  Dessert was a bit meh to me, but despite being a big dude, I am not much of a dessert guy for what it's worth.  We got the deconstruction chocolate dessert and it was too rich for me.  I went with it because the other selections did not seem appealing.

-MDR was great.  We did Your Time Dining and always checked in around 5:20-5:25 and the table was always ready between 5:25 and 5:35.  We were seated in the same section every night (except for the steakhouse night) and we got to know our wait staff and more importantly they got to know us!  They'd have a beer waiting for me and Dr. Pepper waiting for the wife.  Food ranged from decent to awesome.  We didn't have anything we disliked.

-We haven't been on the Breeze so no comment there.

[silvercrikhix]

We were on the Dream in November.  The temperatures indoors were fine. Also turned down our AC, as it was running too cold!  We liked the Dream so much, we booked her again for this November. And are adding 2 adult kids and a Granddaughter (5) for her 1st cruise.  She’s a great ship. 

[SmoothFlying]

37 minutes ago, silvercrikhix said:

 We liked the Dream so much, we booked her again for this November.

Oh yes !!! We (my wife and I) Especially my wife, It's her favorite, tied with the Mardi Gras.!! LOVE the Dream so much we've sailed her four out of our 20+ Carnival ships with the Valor, coming in second with 2 cruises. We'd love to do the MG a second time but with our age and her health situation, time may not allow it.  That's a shame, because we loved the MG and the Excel class.

 

Mac 

[notscb]

3 hours ago, silvercrikhix said:

We liked the Dream so much, we booked her again for this November.

 

That's really good to hear- we're sailing on the Dream in December and I've been looking for more recent information on the overall condition of the Dream and staffing levels.

 

Is there something in particular you enjoyed about the Dream, or was it just the overall experience?

[silvercrikhix]

On 7/26/2022 at 5:15 PM, notscb said:

 

That's really good to hear- we're sailing on the Dream in December and I've been looking for more recent information on the overall condition of the Dream and staffing levels.

 

Is there something in particular you enjoyed about the Dream, or was it just the overall experience?

‘The staff were excellent from Bartenders to Waiters. Professional & frimdly. The layout of the Dream is also nice and easy to remember. The fellow passengers were all fine. Saw no instances of troublemakers. 
‘Nice Serenity area. Now, I will say, the food needs help. A buffet with 4 choices is not good. Always rice, baked potatoes, a veggie, a casserole and a meat. Just awful. Hoping it’s improved. If the new CEO is saying he wants “happy” customers, he best up the food choices and address the lines people are facing. We did not have lines on the Dream. But wasn’t sailing full either. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by silvercrikhix

[SCBarker]

We did the 8-day 2 weeks ago. No complaints about the service. We really enjoyed the cruise. Our room was cold, but our role-call had several people complaining about their stateroom temperature being too hot. Being summer, it was sailing over 100%. The main problem that caused was you needed to be in the Lounge 40-45 minutes before comedian showtime, or you flat-out weren't getting a seat. I did see about 20 people sitting on the floor one evening for a PG show at that. Also you will be getting a temporary CD I believe. MarQ is on week 2 of a 6-week vacation. The fill-in was on our cruise getting the lay of the land. He's hired on from NCL.

 

We've sailed the Breeze within the year too. 4 differences come to mind.

1. There's an art gallery instead of the Red Frog Brew Pub. Not a fan of that difference.

2. Dream is a Farcus designed ship. I personally prefer his decor. Especially the lounge on this ship.

3. The longer Dream itineraries seem to attract a much less raucous crowd than the 4&5 night Breeze itineraries. Not once did I see someone with a 10" Bluetooth speaker wedged slot machines jamming their music for everyone to hear.

4. Dream only has a steakhouse and sushi for optional dinner. Where as Breeze also has the Italian restaurant.

Edited August 1, 2022 by SCBarker

[TravelGirlinDallas]

We were on the Dream last September, on her first sailing after the shutdown. I thought the ship was in good condition. The main maintenance issue I noticed was that a lot of lightbulbs were burned out in the Atrium and in the MDR chandeliers. I guess that's a pretty small thing. We ate at the steakhouse one night and thought it was fantastic. It was really great to cruise again after having several canceled during the pandemic.

 

There's a review with pics linked in my signature.

[SCBarker]

1 hour ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

The main maintenance issue I noticed was that a lot of lightbulbs were burned out in the Atrium and in the MDR chandeliers. I guess that's a pretty small thing.

A year later and it's still like that. I came to the conclusion that the lights aren't really out. I think as time went on they replaced the bulbs with ones that aren't compatible with the dimmer. I've seen it at my house. Some of the LED bulbs I have gotten just shut completely off at some point in the dimming.

[Jtislandgirl]

On 7/15/2022 at 10:53 PM, Joe817 said:

We are all set up to go on an 8 day on the Dream on Sept.22, 2022. The Dream is our favorite choice so far, from sailing out of Galveston. IMO, you will not need fans. I was continually turning down the cabin temperature at night. The Dream is a great ship.

You better verify your date, we are booked on the Dream for Sept 24th for 8 day. 

[Joe817]

1 hour ago, Jtislandgirl said:

You better verify your date, we are booked on the Dream for Sept 24th for 8 day. 

I've already been called out on that. It is indeed Sept. 24 on the 8 day Eastern Caribbean. Thanks.

[Miss Picante]

We had a great cruise on the Dream in May, but our cabin was hot! In all our years of cruising with Carnival, this has never been a problem, but it was this time.

 

We had maintenance come up to check it out; they said it was fine.  The fact that they left a preprinted card with this info makes me think it has been a common complaint.

 

Our cabin steward ( been working for Carnival for many years) told us that the ship had indeed set the allowed cooling temperature several degrees warmer than previous years.

 

He was able to get us the last fan available from customer service, which made such a difference when it was time to sleep.

 

I went on Amazon and bought a fan to take on our next Dream cruises; didn’t want to risk having customer service be out of fans. Perhaps this issue has been fixed since our May cruise, but in light of other Carnival cutbacks recently, I wouldn’t bet on it.

 

 

[Gumbo4Life]

Just wanted to follow up and share that we had a great cruise.  We did bring two small fans but ended up not needing them, our room temp was fine throughout the cruise.  We did hear of other passengers complaining that their room was warm so like anything there is variability and it just depends, so being prepared is probably the best plan.  Looking forward to our next cruise in March '23.  Happy Cruising!