Wonderful Cruise Experience Overall - Carnival Dream

Carnival Dream Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 0
Helpful Votes: 54

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Dream

7 Night Western Caribbean (New Orleans Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 20, 2015

Ship: Carnival Dream

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 8473

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

This was our first experience with Carnival, but not our first experience cruising. Overall, we were very happy with our experience. The facilities, staff, itinerary, shows, activities, etc., were quite good. We loved our stateroom (which had an over-sized balcony). We were very impressed with how well the staff managed moving large numbers of people on and off the ship, and the only lines we had to wait in for more than a few minutes were during embarkation--but we expected to have to wait in lines during embarkation because of all of the things that had to be covered during this process (baggage handling, documentation, security, etc.), However, the process went very smoothly and there were many Carnival staff members available to answer questions at every stage of the process. The shows were amazing, and we had a wonderful experience from start to finish. The overall quality of the food and service was acceptable, but not memorable--however, it was what we expected (or maybe a little better than we expected), and food and service were not a priority for us in selecting our cruise. Overall, the cruise met (and in some cases exceeded) our expectations.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
Acceptable, but not memorable, in general.

Entertainment

5 out of 5
The "big" shows were amazing and very professional.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Acceptable, but not memorable, in general. The Cruise Director (Brandon) was excellent, and our waiter (Ida) was lovely, fun and quite attentive.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Loved our cabin--it was well worth the extra money to have such a lovely and spacious balcony.

Ship tip

Bring a wrist or neck lanyard for your key card. You ALWAYS need to have your key card with you and having a lanyard makes this so much easier (especially for women, as women's clothes are less likely to have pockets). I ended up buying a lanyard from Carnival for about $6.

Ports of call

New Orleans, Louisiana

5 out of 5

Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

5 out of 5

Belize City, Belize

5 out of 5

Cozumel, Mexico

5 out of 5
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2 Comments

goobmiser    8 years ago

may I ask the name of the other cruise line you used?

gellmore    8 years ago

What a great and honest review. Never let one little thing ruin an otherwise wonderful 7-day cruise.

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