The ship that we would be going on for this cruise was the Carnival Dream. At the time of our sailing the Dream was Carnivals Newest and Largest ship. Yes dispite the grips we had with the layout of the Glory that we sailed 2 years prior we were willing to give the newer large ship a chance. Plus the Dream class introduced many new features that had never been done on any other Carnival ships.
The drive out to Port Canaveral was a familiar one as this was the same port we sailed out of when we went on the Glory to the Eastern Caribbean. As was before the check in process was short and not bad at all. Dispite the line being very quick though we had to go to a "special" check in counter because of Kieras Pregnancy. At this counter we had to provide the doctors release papers that allowed her to cruise as well as verify all the info I had already faxed to them. The Cruise companys take this very seriously and do not allow any one over 25 weeks pregnant cruise just in case any complications arose and they didn't have the facilities to help with them.
We soon walked on to the ship and it was evident that it was much larger then any other ship we had sailed on. We first went to speak to the Matre D' to see if we could get a table for 2 since we were on this cruise by ourselves and on our first cruise we thought it felt kinda awkward sharing a table with people we didn't know. Luckly for us we had already been asigned a table for just the 2 of us.
Our room on this cruise was on deck 7. Originally we were gonna book the cheapest (and likely the lowest in the ship) room again but in addition to the great past guest rates we found when booking we also got free room upgrades for the same price so we upgraded to the best inside cabin we could get. The room was pretty much identicle to the other Inside cabins we had on the Legend and the Glory. The only real difference was a Flat Screen TV. We've never had a problem with the Interior cabins as they are still spacious and you really don't spend a whole lot of time in the cabin anyways.
The Muster drill was done somewhat different on the Dream then it has been on other ships. gone are the days of wearing a Life Vest to the drill. Something we found on the cruise on the Legend the prior year. That seemed to go a step further on the Dream though when we didn't even go to the deck where the Life Boats are located. Instead we just went to the dinning room. Yep we just sat at a table while we could barely hear the instructions we were given in case of an emergency. Needless to say we think this has become far to easy for the guests. And given the recent tragidy with the sinking of the Costa ship in Italy I have a feeling these Muster drills will become very serious business once agian. Ironically enough during the drill we were sat at the same table with some other utahns.
The ship would soon be setting sail and we would once again pass by the beautify Coco beach on the Florida coast line. The day before our cruise sailed Nasa was suppose to Launch a Space Shuttle. However it got cancelled. From the ship we had a perfect view of the Nasa building and facilities so we were constantly trying to find where the Shuttle was at as it would still be positioned out on the Launch pad. It was hard to see but we did eventually find it but could barely make its silloette. I guess they launch the shuttles like 5 miles further away from the matenance bay. Still glad I got to see a shuttle on the launch pad. Even if you could barely see it lol.
We've raved about how wonderful the food on our cruises have been. And this one was no different. The food was incredible no matter if it was from the Lido buffet or the main dinning room. I once again found myself ordering 2 dishes each night for dinner as the food was too good to not try lol. And having a large table to just Kiera and myself provided plenty of room for the extra food. As with our previous cruise we also elected to have the Late Dinning at 8:15 again. We enjoy having the late dining as it give you more time in port as your not rushing back for dinner. As this was a 7 day cruise we once again had 2 formal nights where you have to dress nicely for dinner. Most people like to stay in there nice clothes all night. But not us. As soon as dinner was over we were back in to our normal clothes.
On our last cruise we had an Incredible wait staff. Would this cruise match up? Well it came close. The staff on the Legend were better but the Dream staff easily comes in 2nd place. Our waiter was named Juan and he was from Honduras. He was very quite and seemed very new our first couple nights at dinner. But by the 3rd he warmed up to us and was excellent. We were very happy to have him as a waiter as he did a very good job.
The Lido buffet had the standard food that we found on our past cruises. However the Dream also added many new options. Those new food options included a Mongolian Wok, Expanded Salad Bar, Indian Food, Burrito Bar, and a made to Order Pasta Bar. All of these new options were excellent and very good. These in additon to the stand things like the pool side grill and the 24 hour Pizza and Ice Cream.
As for our room stewards it seems like it is a continuation of just doing there jobs. The service has never been bad as we enjoy coming back to not only a clean room but also love the turn down service each night. And of course we absolutly love the towel animals that get left every night (although now 2 cruise in a row we havn't got one the final night). So the service isn't bad at all. But its also never real great ether. At least this time we got ice.
I've raved about how much we loved the layout of the smaller ships of the Legend but hated the layout of the Larger ships like the Glory. So how would the layout of the Dream be with it being even larger then the Glory? We loved it. It seemed like they took the best features of both ships and combined them into a perfect layout. The dream does have 2 dinning room instead of 2. On the Glory our biggest complaint was there was no way around the mid dinning room unless you went 2 floors up or 2 floors down from it. On the dream the ship is wide enough that there is a hallways that go down the side of the mid dinning room. You could also bypass them using the Lenai. Like the legend the entire rear pool deck is open to the sea instead of inclosed like the Glory. And all the major entertainment and slides are midship like the Glory instead of at the rear of the Legend.
One feature the dream introduced was the expanded Lenai. Both the Glory and Legend had a deck on the side of the ship that you could walk on. The dream expanded this by making it bigger, extending it to walk 100% percent around the entire ship (including the front bow). In addtion to being able to walk completly around the ship you could also find some chairs to quitely lay out, there were food services near by, and one of the best features were 4 hot tubs that actully hung over the edge of the ship above the ocean and they were never packed. On sea days they also did the Lenai BBQ which was a special buffet where they grilled up a few things that they don't do anywhere else.
Another thing that Carnival introduced on the Dream was there Water Works mini-waterpark. On past ships theres been just one slide. The Dream added 3 more plus a kids play area. In addition to your standard twister slide they added a bowl slide (which is way fun) and also twin racer slides. I had a blast during sea days playing on these slides. Dispite being pregnant Kiera also gave the bowl slide a try. On our last sea day the taller slides had no wait on them whatsoever as it was fairly windy. I thought with the wind and being the tallest structures on the ship that they would be closed for sure. But they were open and so I marathoned them with no waits. I must say though it did get pretty scary feeling the stair tower sway in the high winds while climbing the tower.
Probably our favorite new feature was the Adults only Serenity area. This section of the ship is reserved only for adults 21 years and older. Its very quite with some mellow music playing, has padded loungers and cabanas, and even has 2 private hot tubs so its not overtaken by kids. When we layed out each day this was where we tried to get some seats. The lounge chairs were nice but the Cabanas were even better. They were so relaxing that we even fell asleep in them more then once lol.
Also something the ship had already started being rolled out to the other ships was the Seaside Theater. This huge outdoor tv screen was outside over the main pool area. During the day they would broadcast the news, music videos, or activitys happening around the ship but at night they would play new release movies on it so you could watch Movies under the Stars. They would have blankets avalible and also popcorn to buy if you'd like. Unfortunatly the bad part of having late dining was that we missed almost all of the Movies under the stars. We did watch part of Megamind and all of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 on it though.
One of the unique nighttime entertainment offerings introduced on the Dream was the Outdoor Lazer Light show. Similar to the Lazer shows you might see at a local Planitarium this Lazer show took place under the stars above the main pool area. The first night we went to the show we thought it was ether really lame or a total bust. We couldn't see anything from where we sat right under the big screen. We didn't know if the show just sucked or if it was too windy that the fog was being blown out of the pool area or what. We gave it a second chance a few nights later during the Deck Party. This time we went up two decks and looked down on the pool area. Turns out we were just in the wrong place the first time cause from this position the Lazer show was pretty amazing. Something very cool that they added to the cruising experiance.
Speaking of Entertainment. How did was it on the Dream. Well for the most part it was the same as you'd expect on the other ships. A welcome aboard show, The Carnival Legends show where cruise guests are the performers (Not worth going to), a show put on by the band ect..... But there was one show that No other Cruise ship has. That Show is Dancing in the Streets. Not only is this hands down the best stage show i've ever seen on a cruise. But it is easily one of the best stage shows i've seen period. Its just so different and really pushed the boundries of what you can do in a show at sea. I really don't know how to discribe it other then its amazing. They brought all the entertainment together to make one incredible show. The rest of the shows were good but as I said they are basically the same no matter what ship you are on.
Like the Glory the Dream also had the Fun Force out and about entertaining. The Fun Force is a group of break dancers that put on random shows around the ship. Unlike the Glory that only had 2 of them though the Dream and 4. And these guys were good. They were always very funny and never put on a dissapointing show.
As was introduced on our past cruise on the Legend and was a trial on our cruise on the Glory the Dream also had the Carnial Comedy Club. During the course of the 7 day cruise there would be 4 different comedians that would put on multipule shows for the guest entertainment. I honestly don't recall them all but I do know that we weren't dissapointed in any of them like we were on our past cruises. They all ended up being pretty good.
If you can't tell we absolutly loved this ship. Hands down our favorite ship that we have sailed so far. Our only real complaint wasn't in the ship itself. Instead it was a time issue. This route gave us only 2 days at sea and 4 port days. We felt that we missed out on so much more that this ship had to offer because we didn't have the time to see it all. After laying out most of the day in the sun it seemed like once we were done we were prepairing for dinner and then most the rest of the night was filled with going to shows.
And so on our last day at sea it seemed like it was our crunch day to fit in as much as we possibly could. Our first time playing Bingo was on the last day of the cruise. Thats because I refuse to play any games that are 5 or less. I see your chances of being much higher paying full price for a game card and playing 6 or more games then doing half price bingo and playing only once. Of course we didn't win but we came close with only 1 number needed to win.
We also made a stop by the casino to play the quarter pushing game. We got hooked to this thing on our past cruise and won nearly 10 dollars. So with a bag of quarters we tried again. Unfortunatly this time we walked away with no winnings and an empty zip lock baggy.
Having $100 in on board credit on this cruise proved to be pretty hard to spend. We got this credit for buying a future cruise certificate on the Legend cruise. To add to it we got an additional nearly $35 due to changes in port taxes and fees. We bought many virgin drinks while at the shows in the evening. I even ordered a few sodas at dinner. We looked at photos to see if there was anything we liked but couldn't find any. So to the shops we went to see if we could find anything to use our remaining credit on (we couldn't get any of the left over $100 back in a check but we could get the credit back from the port changes). I ended up picking up a new pair of Quicksilver Flip Flops and Kiera got some additional jewelry type Items. After the cruise we still got like $25 back in a check.
Although we fit a lot in on our final day we still didn't do it all. The mini golf on the Dream looked excellent. Much more themed and larger then the ones on our past ships. But once again we didn't do it due to time.
Leaving the ship was just as easy as boarding. It was sad to see our cruise come to an end. And unlike our past 2 cruises there were no obsticles keeping us from starting the debarking process on time. The Space Shuttle was still sitting on the launch pad but the air was very hazy making it so we really couldn't see the Nasa facilities. After breakfast we were able to get off the ship quickly and to our rental car where we would start our road trip to South Carolina.
This ship was amazing. One that I would love to sail again. I know that I said before that I didn't want to sail a large ship again because of how poorly the Glory was laid out. However the Dream changed that opinion and now I only want to cruise a Dream class ship. They have the best of all the ships and features that you will only find on that class. With the addition of the Magic and soon to be Breeze those features continue to increase. Although the staff wasn't as good as they were on the legend they were still pretty dang good and not a deal breaker. If your looking for a great ship to cruise on the Dream is it. We would just make sure when we go on a ship this large again that we have at least 3 sea days to truely explore and see what all the ship has to offer.
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